Date: 2017-04-21
From: Clingman's Done

To: Icewater Spring Shelter
Miles today: 10.5
Weather: scattered clouds

The morning started early for us because we had a 90min drive back to the trail. We were on the road by 7, navigating the labyrinth of foggy Asheville highways.As soon as we got out of the city the fog cleared and we rolled back towards the mountains... It was looking like a great day! As we approached, the day turned cloudy again (boooo) and we crossed over the location where the AT crossed I-40, where we'd be in only a couple days.We rolled back into town, returned the Jeep, and started walking towards the center of town, hoping for either the Gatlinburg trolley to come along or for someone to give us a ride. The trolley never came, but after about a mile of walking a woman, Alissa, picked us up and gave us a ride back to the NOC on her way to work. We got a great breakfast at Crockets Breakfast Camp, where we got the latest cinnamon bun we've ever seen (the size of a large cantalope) with super vanella-y frosting, in addition to our omelets. Perfect pre-trail meal!We caught the shuttle back to trail and saw our first bear!!! We were driving up the road to the gap and hit traffic about halfway up... the bear was chilling far up in a tree, oblivious to the fact that he was holding up traffic and of all the people who had pulled over to take pictures of him. We snapped a quick picture as we drove by but continued on our way to Clingman's Dome. Passing Newfound Gap we saw a couple groups doing trail magic, a good motivator for afternoon hiking!When we arrived back at the visitors center it was still sunny, but a menacing line of dark clouds was rolling in from the east so we hustled up the paved path to the top, blowing by the day hikers. The plan worked! We got our view! The cloud deck was only a couple hundred feet above the summit and a couple of low hanging patches of clouds were blowing past the tower, but we admired the mountains spread out below us.We snapped our pictures and then headed back onto the trail. Most of the afternoon was spent playing a long game of The Floor is Lava, avoiding the numerous patches of muddy trail while practicing our trail ninja skills. We moved quickly, trying to cover the 6.5mi to the gap in time to get the trail magic, however as we hiked a light rain started and then not long after thunder rumbled in the not-so-distance.We passed through a section of trail fenced off to protect it from boars that contained an endless meadow of small white flowers roofed with a canopy of beech trees and so after started the descent into the gap, Liz bolting ahead to try to get away from the thunder. I passed Christi who has the same gaiters as I do... great trail fashion sense!We reached the gap to find the trail magic packed up and gone... understandable given the weather, but still a bit disappointing. We snapped a picture with the sign for the TN/NC state line (which were still following) and then carried on climbing out of the gap. We passed a bunch of day hikers heading back to the gap, some had been more prepared for the rain than others and so were varying degrees of wet.Before starting today I had noticed that I had a small poison ivy blister on the bottom of my foot (no idea how that happened) which I had taped up before starting to try to prevent it from becoming an athletic blister, but it was still a bit of a bother throughout the afternoon. Side note: I'm a little bit pissed that I've been taking good enough care of my feet to not get a blister for 200 miles and then I end up getting one from poison ivy. I washed all my gear yesterday, so hopefully whatever transferred it there is now clean.We arrived at Icewater Spring Shelter and claimed our spot. This shelter was the aptly named, the spring indeed produced very cold water and also had a view! We watched throughout the evening as clouds rolled by and through the mountains below us until they eventually enveloped the camp for the rest of the evening. I made tacaroni for dinner... Mac'n'cheese with freeze dried chicken, crushed Ritz, and bits in a tortilla. We settled into the shelter for the night just as the rain started pounding down which providing pleasant noise to nod off to... rain is pretty nice when you're not in it. Liz, curious about the description of Gatlinburg, caught up with me in A Walk in the Woods. Based on the description in the book, the shelters in the Smokies have improved significantly in the past 20 years. Spoiler alert: Bryson and Katz yellow blaze to Virginia after Gatlinburg, so I won't have much to read for a while.