Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Day 2 [Hazel Creek Trail, Bone Valley Trail, Proctor]
We awoke to find a dampness permeating the air, our gear, and well...basically everything. We were fairly certain in hadn't rained the prior evening, but it felt as though it had. The famed humidity of the Smokies was living up to its reputation. We made some coffee and began to break down our camp. After a brief chat with our only neighbors from the previous evening, a couple of fisherman, we set out to make the required mileage for the day. We started out along the creek and continued a little over a mile, until we reached Campsite 83 (Bone Valley). We conversed with a couple more fisherman, who would be spending the night there. Leaving our packs on the bear cables, we side-tripped down the Bone Valley Trail (a 3.6-mile round trip). There were several water crossings, with a couple of them being pretty deep. It being May, the water was moving pretty quickly, but after our initial stint on the Hazel Creek Trail, we were already somewhat acclimated to it. At the end of the Bone ...