I had received a late call last night from Ken who said they were looking for a church to attend the Sunday service. I didn't find just one church in Bryson City, but rather 17 churches in the area! Yes, definitely the Bible Belt. Considering the population of Bryson City is only 1,424, I think it safe to say that most of the folks living in the area attend church.
They took welcome showers and got cleaned up and hitched to church.
They picked the First Baptist Church and met many nice people. One of the folks took them back to the motel after church service and another volunteered to take them back to the trail in the morning.
They had a late lunch/early dinner at Pizza Hut and found a place to replenish their supplies for 4 days.
While in Franklin, NC, an outdoor group makes 'hiker licenses' for the hikers. While these are not formal licenses, all the hikers like the 'unofficial' badges of honor and gives them something to show that they once were at Mile 110 on the AT.
Also in Bryson City is the headquarters for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They stopped in and looked around and found information about the AT in the park. The AT is the largest
trail in the Smoky's and many come to just hike that section of the trail.
They knew they had some big days ahead of them and were looking forward to crossing the Fontana Dam into the park tomorrow, one of the best scenes in the movie "A Walk in the Woods".
The three called it an early night and got rested up for the next section of the trail.
Good night, sweet hikers.
Mile 137.1
Elevation 1,723
Nice lost!
ReplyDelete