Day 16- Mollies Ridge Shelter to Derrick Knob Shelter

Total Miles: 189.3
Miles Hiked Today: 12.0
Weather: Well timed rain

   We got on the trail around 845 this morning. The trail was smooth, and one hour in, we had covered 2.7 miles.

The first shelter on our path had this lovely sign:

By 1145 we had arrived at Spence Field Shelter, the sight of a recent Bear attack. 

A fellow in a tent was bit on the leg by a bear. He managed to scare it away, but later it came back and trashed the inside of his tent. I don't know the details, but theses sort of attacks are usually attributed to food left in the tent. 

The attack just happened a couple days ago, and there was an empty tent with holes in the side, apparently the one in the incident. They still have not found the bear, so the shelter is mostly closed. It is only available for use by AT thru hikers, and is surrounded by an electric fence to keep the bears away.

We ate lunch in the shelter and then hunkered down as some rain blew in. Most of the Northbound group from Mollies Knob arrived after we did. 

Some of the hikers in the shelter decided to go out in the rain, and some decided to call it a day after 6 miles. Sage and I chose a third option. We waited from 1145 till 1500, when it appeared the rain was letting up. If we hiked fast, we could make it to the next shelter before dark. It was not easy persuading Sage to get out of her warm sleeping bag and to walk into a light drizzle. But she did it, and we banged out the next 6 miles in virtually no rain.

Trail? More like a rock climb.

I was quite pleased to put in a 12 mile day on a rainy day...and to skip the hiking in the rain part. There's 14 hours of daylight, enough time to get in a full day of hiking, and to skip any passing storms.

   We are hoping for better weather in the next couple days, otherwise our time in the Smokies will not have provided many good views. When you can only see a few hundred feet through the mist, the mountaintops are not very interesting.

The sun even briefly came out during our late day hike.
 

When we arrived at the shelter, there was a nice fire going in the fireplace.

   Once we were settled into the shelter, the wind and rain returned. As the night progressed,  the weather got really nasty,  cold, wind and heavy rain. We were warm and dry in our bags and slept well.