I love paddling the north shore of Fontana Lake, on the south side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There are a number of campsites along the north shore, but the Hazel Creek and Eagle Creek sites get the most traffic by far. Incidently, the meadow in this photo is under water when Fontana Lake is at full pond.

That's Hik'n Ron in the green bivy. This was the trip on which Paul and I first met Ron. My equipment list has changed considerably over the past few years as a result of that meeting. I've probably cut my pack weight in half since then, thanks to Ron's passion for light packing.

Below, Paul and Ron chat over breakfast. The main campsite, #90, is in the trees in the background. It's a large site, with room for at least 10 tents. At times though, large groups of horseback riders take over the site, and often render it unusable for weeks afterward by tying their stock directly on top of the tent sites. That's unusual though, and out of maybe 25 trips to the site over the past 10 years, I may have ran into large horsepacking groups on maybe 3 or 4 occasions. My favorite time to go to Eagle Creek is in mid-week, when crowds are rare or non-existent.