Day 34

Day 34: I am OFFICIALLY out of the Smoky Mountain National Park. So glad! While it was absolutely beautiful in the park, I just don’t like having to set my days by the distances of the shelter as you MUST stay at the shelters. They are allowing thru-hikers to set up a tent for social distancing and no longer requiring you to stay inside the shelter, you still can only set up your tent next to the shelters, and most have very bad areas for tenting. I was slanted almost every night. It was still a very cold day (used hand warmers again) but it’s warming up a tad. The day started with a gradual climb up and then was mostly all down hill where I reached the thru-hiker permit box on the Northern end signaling I was out of the Smokies! Woohoo! I continued on the path until reaching the Pigeon River Bridge right before I-40. Thanks to my hubby for reserving me a room at the Hampton Inn in Newport, TN, I called a shuttle driver and got into town. I’ve already showered (but going to do it again… LOL), walked to Walmart Supercenter for a resupply (bought WAY too much food for the next section) and finishing laundry. Then I’m going to eat dinner in my room and call it a night. I have the shuttle driver coming back to get me tomorrow morning at 8am and I’ll be back on trail heading for my next stop: Hot Springs, NC. Hope to be there in about 3-4 days. See ya!