April 22, 2013

This was the sunrise scene from the office porch Saturday morning at 17 degrees. We didn't get any snow, but the moisture from the preceding rain created a beautiful scene in the frigid morning.

Hello, this is Nathan from atop LeConte.  It's good to be able to say hello to you all again from LeConte Lodge.  We've had some technical challenges the last few days with our internet connection.  You can thank general manager Tim Line for his detective work and the daily return of High on LeConte.

We pride ourselves on ingenuity up on LeConte.  In the past, I've seen us pull 200 pounds of flour, sugar and concrete in the rescue litter sled dog-style from the helicopter blowdown over two feet of snow to the lodge.  We generally find a way to make things work up here.  However, there's no way I could figure to conjure an internet connection out of thin air.

I'll update the weekend's weather and some other events.  Thursday night and Friday were not exactly chamber of commerce weather days.  Thursday night the winds picked up and blew prodigiously.  Friday's high was 50 with a low of 47.  We picked up 1.45 inches of rain before the front rolled past.  Saturday's low bottomed out at a frigid 17 degrees.  However, the colder weather issued forth beautiful skies--a condition we're still enjoying.  Sunday's high and low registered 43 and 17.  Currently, it's been a nice morning on the mountain with a temperature in the mid 40s, the warmest we've seen since the rain turned the trails to rivers to begin our weekend.

I've heard of small amounts of ice on the trail, but nothing that really hindered any hikers.  I will pass along a bit of advice for approaching Alum Cave Bluff following rain and cold weather.  Anytime you hike Alum Cave Bluff Trail in chilly weather it's wise to look up well before you're under the bluff overhang and scope out the presence of any crashing icicles.  The splintered shards of ice will ruin your day.  Don't become a reverse unicorn.

Llama wrangler Chrissy reported that she saw a mother bear and two cubs near Grotto Falls on the Trillium Gap Trail today.  The llamas didn't have any difficulty with the bears, but their ears perked up quite a bit.  Our llamas know where they live on the food chain.  We haven't seen any bears in camp yet, but they'll be working their way up the mountain in due time.

Sorry again for not being able to provide daily updates this weekend.  We'll hope our technical issues remain solved.  Have a fine Monday.  Happy trails.