The Smokies, for the purposes of this book, encompass an area that runs from the Virginia state line, straddling the Tennessee/ North Carolina border, all the way down into northern Georgia. Along the way they embrace the great Nantahala, Pisgah, Cherokee
and Chattahoochee national forests – four vast outdoor tracts of wilderness.The Smoky Mountains represent one of the last real opportunities for great adventure in the southeastern United States.