After our day at Antietam we jumped on the Mid-Atlantic Backcountry Discovery Route as it crossed the Pennsylvania state line. Our trip south a few weeks earlier through Pennsylvania was one filled with traffic, congestion, and cities, but the BDR took us well off the beaten path and showed us a more rural, relaxed and beautiful side of the state that we enjoyed immensely.
After our surprise call (described in the last post) what was going to be a week long ramble along back roads up to Great Smokey Mountains National Park was done in an afternoon. We found a relatively empty Deep Creek campground to use as a base camp while we explored the park. As most of the other campgrounds seemed to be full we were happy to find Deep Creek even if it is a bit out of the way of the main part of the park. Since we only really had one day set aside to see the park at this point we did get an early start and headed for Clingmans Dome.
