Backcountry Camp 10

Great place to hike to after work so you can get an early start heading up to a shelter on the AT in the morning. It's not great. It's not terrible. It's a place to sleep, that's it. Great water access. It's right on the trail. Not many flat spots to tent.

Not amazing. You have to park at the cade's code store and bike rental parking lot then walk to the back of the picnic area to the trailhead. It's a short ~2.5 mile uphill hike with a few stream crossings along the way. Water supply was very close, maybe 50 yard walk. You could barely hear the stream from the site. It's directly on the trail and there are two fire rings but not many flat spaces for a tent. In my opinion, its too small for two different parties seeking solitude. It's capacity is 8 but I can't see room there for more than 3 or 4 tents.

May 24, 2020: just camped here for 3 nights. It’s fine. Totally surrounded by thick trees and undergrowth. Very close to the trail, but we didn’t see many other hikers passing by. There must be a honeybee hive very close by because we had bees around us constantly in the mornings. 100s of honey bees. They weren’t aggressive and no one got stung, but if you’re not super chill with bees, I wouldn’t stay here for long. From this campsite it is a 2.6 mile steep uphill hike to the Russell field shelter.

Night of 11/12/1998, writing this review to leave my last journal entry from a week-long AT hike. We left the AT headed to Cades Cove where our truck was parked: "...shortly Anthony Creek with its cacophony of tumbling water accompanied the trail, until Russell Field trail became Anthony Creek Trail. It was wide, loud, with many deep, large pools, tumbling thru the dense arboreal wonderland. Even the fallen trees were larger than most living trees I'd ever seen. A few trunks had been planed down and a handrail added and turned into a narrow footbridges across the creek. Beautiful. I look forward to returning to this trail. It was deceptive that we had it all to ourselves (we were hiking at night), I'm certain that on a weekend most any day of the year it would be overtaken with day hikers

Food hanging station provided, lots of good flat ground for camping, and rivers rushing on both sides. A bit close to the trail.