I enjoy reading stories written by people who have through-hiked the Appalachian Trail. In several books the hikers write about becoming disoriented when crossing the top of Unaka Mountain near Erwin TN. ..My favorite AT hiking book, Becoming Odessa, was written by Jennifer Pharr Davis of Asheville NC. Jennifer crossed the top of Unaka during a thunder storm and wrote "The entire mountaintop was in covered in pine trees, and the ground was blanketed with pine straw. I couldn't see a definitive dirt path anywhere and the lightning had me panicked. Everything looked the same, and I felt like I was stuck in a maze or an amusement park funhouse". . .So I decided I had to check it out. I hiked to the top of Unaka and discovered a very unique place, and without the threat of lightening quite enchanting. In late September there is little pine straw on the ground so following the trail isn't as hard as in spring. Even so I did wander off the trail and it took me a few minutes to find a tree marked with a white AT blaze. ..This image was made on the Appalachian Trail where it crosses the summit of Unaka Mountain near Erwin TN. The trail runs along the border of North Carolina and Tennessee..