Date: 2017-04-22
From: Icewater Spring Shelter

To: Tri-corner Knob Shelter
Miles today: 12.1
Weather: scattered clouds

The next morning rolled around and we, as usual, got up and got ready for today's hike. After taking some time to tape my foot to prevent my blister from getting worse (and taping the other foot to prevent a blister where I'm compensating the weight from the blistered foot) I went about my normal routine of packing up.As we left, the campsite was still cloaked in fog and it was only a mile until we reached Charlies Bunion, one of the better views along our route through the Smokies. We headed out to the bunion to find it completely surrounded by clouds, but a couple minutes of waiting rewarded us with a break in the clouds that were swirling over the ridges on both sides of the peak that the bunion jutted out from. We quickly snapped some pictures of the great view of the valley below as the clouds closed back in and we waited for our next opportunity, taking some timelapses of the chaotic clouds while we waited. The ridge we were traversing was acting as a wall, doing it's best to hold the mists at bay and directing their flow. Repeating the wait and scramble cycle a couple more times we got all of our pictures.Throughout the morning I noticed a cycle in our hiking... we'd traverse a narrow ridge, usually not more than ~30ft wide, walk around either the east or west side of a mountain, traverse another narrow ridge, walk up a mountain, walk another ridge, repeat. We walked along what seemed to be a dividing line between the dark clouds in the east and the light and sunny clouds in the west.Side note: When I use the directions "east" and "west" I'm referring to "trail east" and "trail west". As an AT hiker, all you really need to know is what side of the trail to expect things to be on, left or right. As a NOBO, everything marked "east" in the guide is to the right, everything marked "west" is to the left, everything "north" is father up trail, everything "south" is back along the trail. The AT in the Smokies is generally NorthEastern, so if you actually care what compass direction I'm talking about you'd have up figure it out.Anyways, along the way we ran into Bugeye and the 2 other members of his trail maintenance crew who had cleared the next 5mi of trail of trees with the chainsaw and tools they were hiking with. Props for carrying all that gear out with them. We let them know about a couple of trees we had climbed over in the past couple miles that we had hiked, thanked them for taking care of the trail, and continued on our way.We stopped at Bradley's View (Lookout's favorite in the park) for lunch and watched as darker clouds boiled over the mountain walls to our south and headed our way, a sure sign of rain this afternoon. We also noted how the terrain tended to direct wind upwards along these steep ridges, resulting in howling updrafts but relatively calm winds on the ridges themselves. We didn't daudle long and were soon back on the trail where we passed and chatted briefly with a Ridgerunner. For the next couple miles the signs of Bugeye's handiwork were obvious, with new chainsaw marks visible on the edges of several large trees which up until recently required climbing over. We got sprinkled on a couple times during the afternoon but the dense canopy diverted most of the rain and we reached the shelter by 2pm and took advantage of the transient sunshine to lay our hiking clothes out to dry. A number of other people trickled into camp, undecided as to if they'd stay for the night or take a short rest and move on, but none ended up electing to hike the 8mi to the next shelter.We hung out for the afternoon, ate 2 dinners (since we had gotten in so early), watched with some amusement as Fireproof hung his hammock from the rafters of the shelter, and eventually settled down to bed in the shelter as torrential rain fell onto the metal roof. Hopefully the people who decided to pitch a tent tonight stay dry... there are limits to what tents can protect from and this storm and it's waves of precipitation seems determined to test them. We discovered a leak in the shelter roof and we had to adjust a bit to make sure Liz didn't get dripped on, but all in all we're dry.