Before setting out for good from Cullowhee, NC, we did a three-night round trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park to test our setups and to tag the Appalachian Trail, connecting the bike tour to our previous travels.

We biked from Cullowhee past Bryson City and up Lake View Drive, a.k.a. the "Road to Nowhere", to a tunnel where the Interior Department abruptly gave up on building the long-promised road in the 1970s. There we parked our bikes, turned our panniers into backpacks, and spent two nights backpacking. We returned to our bikes midday on day three, pigged out on pizza in Bryson City, and took it easy on the way back, stopping halfway at Paige's family's old cabin.