I woke to the sound of rain on the shelter roof. I had slept poorly on the wood bunk of the shelter and with the rain coming down, I was in no rush to get out there. But there’s only so much dawdling you can do out here so I soon found myself back walking. Following the white blazes in the rain. 

I tried to set up the umbrella I found the other day, clipping it to my pack as I had seen others do, but it just flopped around, getting caught in the wind as the rain beat down on me. My legs were tight and the climb seemed tougher than it should. I told McKay to go on ahead because I was struggling.

But once he sped off, I took a second and readjusted the umbrella, finally figuring out how to get the thing to stay in place and chowed down on a power bar. Within a few minutes I was feeling fresh again. My mini meltdown was over and I found myself actually enjoying the slog through the rain. 

I caught McKay as we got to a shelter 6 miles down the trail. Mamas Boy was sitting out front smoking his post lunch cigarette (it’s crazy how many people out here smoke cigarettes and then walk up steep hills all day). He told us the radar showed the storm was veering off to the west and he was headed for a shelter in 7.5 miles. “There’s one in 6 miles,” he told us. “But it’s pretty shit.”

McKay and I looked at the map and agreed, 7.5 miles was the way to go. We ate a quick lunch (buffalo chicken packet, block of cheese and 2 tortillas for me) and got back out into the wet. 

The first 4 miles were tough and wet but not bad. The umbrella, now properly in place, was working wonders. I was pretty dry and not sweating like I would in a rain coat. I was thrilled. 

Then I saw the first flash of lightning. That’s when I realized I was essentially walking with a lightning rod protruding over my head and strapped to my chest. That seemed like an excessively bad idea to do while going over mountain peaks. I took it down and immediately started to get soaked. 

We half walked, half sprinted our way to the “shitty shelter.” When we got there (stepping over the lake of a puddle which had accumulated out front) we heard Mama’s Boy call from inside “you made it! I’m thinking about trying to make it to the next one when everything dries out but we’ll see” (spoiler alert, he’s sleeping here tonight) 

The pouring rain continued all afternoon leaving the only options in the small shelter as snacking, napping and talking about nothing. So all 12 of us in the shelter did them all. A lot. 

They say not to cook in shelters but given the intense downpours outside, we had no other choice. We all cooked our dinners in front of our sleeping bags and climbed into an early bed.

Mama’s boy was halfway through dinner (which was apparently just a large block of cheese) when he looked up. “Does anyone know how lightning works?” We all froze trying to remember our elementary school science classes. What causes clouds to make light and go boom? But evidently none of us are scientists because we had no answers.

There’s apparently a free shuttle to gatlinburg in 12 or so miles tomorrow. I hadn’t been planning on going, but if the rain stays like this, I may find myself hopping on and checking out gatlinburg tomorrow night. 

Key stats:

Miles: 12

Elevation gained: 4,000

Rain drops falling on my head: so many