June 14th: 1st full day in Tennessee!

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First full day in TN. with a 30% chance of rain.

Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled through most of the night, quitting
about 3AM. Morning was cool and damp with gray skies. We pulled out of camp about
8AM with an 11 or so mile day planned. We ran into a slew of NoBos all headed
for Damascus. They warned of few water sources to the south. We made good time
to Double Springs Shelter. Abingdon Gap was at 3,785', and after dropping into
McQueen's Gap (3,653') it was a reasonable climb up to McQueen's Knob 3,840'. We
crossed US421 in Low Gap (3,350') stopping at a picnic table for a brief rest
and a snack. Then it was over Locust Knob 4,020', then to the shelter for
lunch(4,060') and top off our water from the spring there.
After lunch we had about an hour in the forest then we came into some large
pastures. We had dropped off the ridge to cross to a new ridge. TN91 highway was
on the far side of the fields, after crossing it, we were back into the forest. One
nice thing about the fields was we could get a good look at the cloud situation.
There was bright sunshine that warmed our bones and it looked like the clouds
were moving away from us.
It took about three hours to reach Iron Mtn Shelter after crossing the last
pavement. We first entered a Rhodie thicket with raised board walks through a
wet area. Then there was thick grass on both sides of the trail. With most
folks walking north, even the grass fights us on the way south. Thunder was hot
on our tail by 5PM, at 5:30PM we found a nice primitive camp and were thinking
of setting up. A NoBo couple came by saying the shelter was only about 30
minutes further, we opted to head there.
We rolled in to the shelter at 6:15PM (never believe a hikers time estimate)
again just minutes ahead of the 30% chance of rain. There were a number of folks
there already so we pitched the tent. We got it up and all the gear stashed just
before the heavens opened and the rain started. After supper CC went to the tent
to warm up (no fire here tonight) and I stayed at the shelter (picnic table was
under the shelter roof) and told a few yarns about Alaska. In bed by 8PM, we did
15.9 miles today.

Patrick, Deborah Mooney aka OD & CC
All Who Wander Are Not Lost

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