Day 17 Fontana Dam Hilton to Spencer Field Gap Shelter

A mile after The Hilton I entered the Great Smoky Mountain National park southern boundary!!! It starts at 1884 feet and gradually goes up and up and up. I stopped at 16.7 miles around 8 pm. I got a little nervous towards the end of that hike. The sun was going down and I was seeing bear shit ALL day on the trail. A couple guys said they saw some bears too. It was a packed shelter too. We filled that shelter that night. The rangers don't want people tenting unless the shelter is full. When I got up sometime around three to whizz I saw the reflection of my headlamp in two sets of eyes about four feet off the ground. They didn't blink once. I didn't investigate. I crawled back into my bed and slept restlessly. Not because of the eyes but the three dudes snoring so damn loudly the stone shelter was shaking!