I apologize for the late post. We have been socked in and getting rained on all day. My internet access as been temperamental. Such is life when you live at a rustic back country lodge. The temperatures are cooling off. I believe the cold front is moving in. Just another rainy day on the mountain.

A dear friend to the lodge, David Scanlon, hiked up to celebrate his 900th trip up the mountain. He was full of enthusiasm as he shared some of the stories of his past trips. The ones that stood out the most were of winter hikes he had done. We asked him about his first trip to this magical mountain. He said he remembered it as if it were yesterday. He hiked up, for the first time ,when he was 30 years old, 1966. He remembers it well because he got to meet Harvey Broome at the lodge. He listened to stories told by Mr. Broome and the then lodge operator Herrick Brown. Dave has no plans of slowing down. He tries to hike up every Monday and bring us a newspaper. Congratulations Dave. I hope you have many more years of climbing Mt. LeConte.

What a difference a few hours can make. The awe-inspiring sunrise we were treated to yesterday morning was soon invaded by these ominous looking clouds. The thunder surrounded us all afternoon, fortunately, the rain held off until the later part of the evening. We measured a little over half an inch for last nights rainfall.

Chris and I took a quick stroll out to Myrtle Point to check on the sand myrtle. It is starting to bloom. Another week or so and it will be in full glory.

I love waking up to a painted sky. The crevices of the valley below has caught the morning fog. It is a start to a glorious day on my favorite mountain. The high yesterday was 62. It morning air is already warming up nicely. I  believe we will be treated to a repeat performance of yesterdays temperatures.

When you work with someone for eight and a half months, you become like family. We love having the crews from past years come back to visit. We especially love it when they bring the next generation LeConte employee to check out the mountain. Gabe worked for us in 2004. We were still new at our job and Gabe helped to get us broken in. He was 18 at the time and excited to be living in the Smokies. He has since gone off  to explore the country and have many adventures, including having a child. We were lucky to get to meet his son, Cash, a animated 2 year old who loves to ask "Why?".  They have a wet day for a hike down. It is drizzling out side, a repeat of yesterday. The high was 58.

This morning is a two cupper. It is going to take me two cups of coffee to wake up and get this day started. The rain is pounding on the sky light and making it awfully hard to want to get out of bed. Yesterday was completely opposite. It was a great day to hike up to Cliff Tops and check on the sand myrtle. I predict another week and it will be in full glory. The temperature rose to 68 degrees again. I bet it has been hot down in the valley. Our low last night was 47. We had a few thunder showers roll through. That always makes for a great light show. If you are hiking up today, stay dry and be safe.

Yesterday was another beautiful day up top. This billowy cumulonimbus cloud arose from behind high top to check on the mountain. Yesterday's high was 68 with a low of 50. It feels as though summer is fast approaching. I am afraid it is going to be a hot one in the low lands. That makes for a great reason to put your hiking boots on and head for the higher elevations.

 Yesterday was a beautiful day for a commute to work. The rain held off long enough for Chris and I to make back up the mountain. I will admit, it was pretty warm, a few sprinkles would have felt nice. The high for yesterday was 68 with a low of 51. Hard to believe a week ago it was in the teens.

  It was a pretty quiet day up top. We did get a report from one of the park's bear guys that there is a rather large bear towards the top of Bullhead. If you see this bear on your way up, please report it to the office staff. You will know if it is the same bear by the large yellow paint on his rear end. The park tagged him with the paint so we will know if he continues to hang around. The park employee said the bears are coming around earlier this year. They are in search of food. It was a lean year last year so the bear population is waking up from their winter naps a little on the hungry side.


 The sky is clearing off this morning. It is looking like another fine day to be hiking in the Smokies. Come on up and see us.

This will be my last update to High on LeConte for a few weeks as Chris and Allyson are returning to the mountain this afternoon after some downtime.  There's been much news during my stint managing, and I appreciate all of you reading and the kind comments many of you have written.  That being said, Tuesday is no slow news day either, so onward.

The weather has been just plain hot for this time of year.  We reached 69 degrees Tuesday, which places us within 10 degrees of the all-time high temperature on LeConte.  The overnight low was 52 degrees.  The clouds seem thicker and darker this afternoon, but I wouldn't yet call them ominous.

I was pleased to meet Jerry Luth of Ohio this morning while working office duty after breakfast.  Jerry has climbed LeConte nine times in the last 19 days.  His routes included five trips using the Alum Cave Bluff Trail, twice up Bullhead and once using Rainbow Falls and Trillium.  Jerry counts 78 trips to LeConte under his belt and didn't start hiking our fine mountain until his 60s.

I introduced you to Smokies backcountry ranger Dave Worth a few days ago.  The National Park Service does fine work, but there are plenty of other folks who work hard to take care of all of us while we're experiencing the beauty of our national parks.  As the thermometer and calendar remind us, summer is gaining on us, which means peak visitation season in most of our national parks.  All of us on LeConte want to wish everyone working hard to support our enjoyment of the national parks -- America's best idea -- a wonderful, fulfilling and safe summer.

In that vein, I was honored last week to welcome two of my fellow horse wranglers from the 2011 Canyon Corral in Yellowstone on their first visit to LeConte.  Maegan (from Texas) and Josh (from Georgia) came up to soak up the best of the Smokies.  Both are professionals, who leave their jobs each summer to work hard days taking care of guests from all over the world on horseback in the tough country of Yellowstone (we had two grizzly fatalities within six miles of our corral last year).  I rode with them all last summer, entrusting my life to their judgment daily and they never let me down.  I wish them and all my fellow wranglers a summer full of uninterested grizzlies, pacifist bison and horses you're proud to call a friend.

Speaking of other people I'm proud to call friends, I'm incredibly proud of my 2012 LeConte Lodge crew and want to use my last post for a while to brag on them.  Yesterday (as I had just finished the web update) I was called out on a solo trail rescue.  I left immediately and spent until past supper helping a guest get to the lodge with help from her good friends.  I ended up carrying the guest on my back the last 3/4 of a mile up the Trillium Gap Trail, but we got to the lodge and the outlook happily improved.  The guest seems to be a fine person, and I hope she had a good trip down.  Even though I missed most of supper service, I had complete faith that the LeConte crew was more than up to the task, even though we were short on help.  Our crew, though shorthanded, took excellent care of our guests and sent many people home happy.  I'm proud of them.

Finally, I was glad to hear Willie Nelson celebrated his 79th birthday Monday.  He's a great American who's helped plenty of people others have forgotten.  I've met Willie three times and found him most gracious (especially to my little brother who was celebrating his birthday).  I celebrated Willie's birthday listening to the Redheaded Stranger sing "I'll Fly Away" while fixing breakfast and sneaking a peak at a sunrise full of promise--a highly recommended way to start the day.

Come on up and see us Willie (that would be an after supper guitar picking for the ages), anytime from March through November.  That goes for the rest of you, too.  All the best and happy trails.

I pass along warmest regards from LeConte Lodge on a sunny Monday.  Today is a news rich day from the top of Tennessee, so I'll plow ahead.

We had two separate black bear sightings on Sunday.  Crew member Austin gets credit for the first bear sighting at the lodge in 2012.  While enjoying a beautiful LeConte Sunday night from his porch, Austin saw two black bears walking through camp about 10:30 p.m.  They ambled through the lower part of camp near the staff housing and left via the Trillium Gap Trail.  I think all the snoring scared them off.

In addition, Tom, our backup llama wrangler, reported seeing a black bear sow and two cubs about two miles down the Trillium Gap Trail late Sunday morning.  Given Austin's and Tom's descriptions, the two sightings aren't the same bears.  Neither bear sighting caused any hardship for either party. 

At any rate, because we share the same mountain, we need to be good neighbors to the bears -- for their safety and ours.  You should never leave any human food out -- either on the trail or your cabin porch -- not even an empty lemonade cup or banana peel.  Bears are wild animals and need to find their own food.  If you assist in causing a bear to become habituated to human food, you've signed its death warrant.  They're perfectly capable of foraging on their own and have been perfecting it for a long time (that's why you don't see fast food restaurants up here).  As long as people act responsibly, we don't really have much bear trouble on LeConte.  Share the mountain and give the bears their space.

For the weather report, Monday looks a lot like Saturday and Sunday, except hotter.  Sunday's high reached 66, while the overnight low stood at 48.  As of Monday midafternoon, it's currently 68, which is plenty warm for April.  Keep in mind that it's never hit 80 degrees on the summit of LeConte since temperatures have been recorded and that gives you some perspective on how warm a 68-degree day feels to bookend April.

We were pleased to welcome a day hiker named Phil Large on Monday.  Phil accomplished something admirable on his first day of retirement; he climbed LeConte via the Alum Cave Bluff Trail.  "You have to do something memorable," Large said.  "You don't want to just clean out your closet."  Wise words.