After 200+ miles of going in and out of TN and NC, you leave NC for good (NoBo) and travel about 70-80 miles all in Tennessee. The higher mountains are on the TN-NC border, so these mountains are a little lower. My biggest memories of this section involve water. Rivers, one of the most beautiful big waterfalls on the AT (Laurel Falls), Wautaga Lake, and several smaller waterfalls. I spent the night at the Vandeventer Shelter that sits at about 3600 feet and has a beautiful view of Wautaga Lake in the valley below. This shelter has a dark history as Janice Balza, a 22-year-old thru-hiker from Madison, Wisconsin was murdered there in April of 1975. My sense is that you are safer on the trail than you are in most US cities....but just like in the cities, the most dangerous animals on the trail walk on 2 legs.

flic.kr/s/aHBqjBZBzr

AT in Tennessee from Roan Mnt to VA

^{Michael Simpson (Flickr)}