on my last night on earth, i want to look to the sky. just breathe in the air, blink in the light.3/7/2015
To my surprise, I felt a certain springy keenness. I was ready to hike. I had waited months for this day, after all, even if it had been mostly with foreboding. I wanted to see what was out there. All over America today people would be dragging themselves to work, stuck in traffic jams, wreathed in exhaust smoke. I was going for a walk in the woods. I was more than ready for this. Bill Bryson Morning y'all, It's a beautiful, clear morning up top. The high yesterday reached 27 degrees. The overnight low was12 degrees. It was 21 degrees and clear at 7am observation. The mountain received no new precipitation and there is still patchy snow and ice on the trails. I would definitely recommend Microspikes if you intend to reach the summit. It's far more fun to hike with assurance than with fear of slipping and seriously injuring yourself in the backcountry. Get out and enjoy the quiet, cold woods! What is there to say? Howso? Why? What a strange and beautiful life this is... as weird and lovely as the very sea. It is hard to say goodbye. There are many things I could say now, but I shall not say them, for, if I ever could never return, I should not be grieved for. That is why I go, quietly, with my plans, and commit nothing and expect nothing, but love everything. Kerouac Morning y'all, It's a beautiful, clear morning up top. The high yesterday was 41 degrees and the overnight low dipped down to 5 degrees. It was 13 degrees and clear at 7am observation. The mountain received .49 inches of rain yesterday and there is still patchy snow in ice up top. The trails are close to melted, but I'd still recommend spikes if you intend to reach the summit. It's hard to know just what exactly the seeps froze into overnight. It's a beautiful day above the clouds up top, get out and enjoy it! Yesterday was my last 'vacation day' up here. I knew there were chores to button this place up for the transition to the season, an empty duffel bag in the corner that needed to be packed, posters and poems to unpin from the walls, and a long hiking itinerary that had to have the finishing touches put upon it... but I just wanted one last day of leisure with my old friend. I always feel like I procrastinate, then pack in a haze and never allow myself a quiet moment to mark the finality of the season. I knew this would be my last chance to say goodbye in a slow, proper manner, a daylong one man festival of appreciation, and spent it wandering around, reading on the porch, savoring the mountain air, knowing it'd be the last time I'd let it (this particular brand of high southern appalachian spruce-fir forest) linger in my lungs for too long. I am thrilled for the year to come and know that as long as I keep staying true to myself, good things will keep coming. This place molds me in a different way every season and I'm grateful to Tim for providing me with the opportunity. I view it as a gift and I am looking forward to returning to my Smoky Mountain home in November... There are some good things to be said about walking. Not many, but some. Walking takes longer, for example, than any other known form of locomotion except crawling. Thus it stretches time and prolongs life. Life is already too short to waste on speed. I have a friend who's always in a hurry; he never gets anywhere. Walking makes the world much bigger and thus more interesting. You have time to observe the details. The utopian technologists foresee a future for us in which distance is annihilated. … To be everywhere at once is to be nowhere forever, if you ask me. Edward Abbey Morning y'all, It's another blustery, grey day up top. The high yesterday reached 47 degrees. The overnight low was 39 degrees. It was 40 degrees and clear at 7am observation. The mountain received another .76 inches of rain and there is still patchy snow and ice remaining up top. Alum is pretty much clear, but there are a few sections that I'd suggest using Microspikes for. I'd imagine it'll be even less treacherous today, so get out and enjoy it! I had a fantastic hike up Alum yesterday afternoon. The temperatures were unbelievable to me - I'd forgotten what consistent warmth felt like. I found myself bracing to go outside, only to be surprised by how incredible 70 degrees felt. It felt like a foreign concept to be in a t-shirt and shorts without feeling like a fool. It was a fantastic afternoon to hike up, with patches of ice strewn across the waterlogged ground and warm, heavy spring scented air - characteristic of the shift between the two seasons. I passed my last set of folks near Gracie's Pulpit (they caught me singing 'I Shall Be Released' as I hiked up, alone, I thought) and enjoyed the solitude of one of my final hikes up the mountain for the season. The winds really picked up on some of the ledges and the squally weather was on the horizon. It almost looked like a thunderstorm. Even if I refuse to believe what the calendar says, it now seems apparent that winter is winding down on the mountain. The real world doesn't lie. Morning y'all, It's another grey, blustery morning up top. The high yesterday reached 46 degrees. The overnight low was 41 degrees. It was 44 degrees and mostly cloudy at 7am observation. The mountain received .42 inches of rain yesterday and there was plenty of melt. We are down to patchy snow up top. There is considerable water melting off the mountain, so be prepared for a sloppy hike if you intend to reach the summit. Get out and enjoy the quiet majesty! I went out for a nice rainy wander yesterday afternoon. I went out to Myrtle Point and the trails were a slushy nightmare. It was pretty uncomfortable hiking and it was impressive how much water was coming down the trails. It is pretty wild to think that as of Sunday night we still had a foot of snow up here and all that water is trying to get off the mountain right now... We watched a few ravens riding thermals for half an hour, as we were soaking in the stillness of a quiet, warm day on the mountain. Visibility was limited to 30 feet, but every other sense was fully alive. The ever active gusts of wind, the rich smell of spring on the horizon, the hard, real rock under our bodies... Another year, and I get that familiar feeling. I miss this place even though I haven't left yet. i sing it over and over til she comes back to me. i make a sad, make a sad, make a sad, sad song.3/3/2015
Morning y'all, It's a dreary, grey day up top. The high yesterday reached 42 degrees. The overnight low was 33 degrees. It was 42 degrees and mostly cloudy at 7am observation. The mountain received .02 inches of rain yesterday and the snow keeps on melting. We're down to about 2 inches remaining up top. The trails are still very sloppy, so be prepared for a wet day if you intend to reach the summit. Get out and enjoy the quietude! I spent a nice chunk of yesterday afternoon relaxing on the porch of cabin 6. It cleared out around noon yesterday, leaving us above the clouds for the remainder of the evening. The still blue sky coupled with some patches of bare ground (the first I've seen since January!) made for some wonderful porch sitting conditions. You could hear the entire world melting, drips in all directions, a small rivulet of water making it's way down the main staircase, it all ends and ends well... Morning y'all, It's a grey blustery morning up top. The high yesterday reached 42 degrees. The overnight low was 28 degrees. It was 34 degrees and mostly cloudy at 7am observation. The mountain received .26" of rain yesterday and there's been quite a bit of melt. There is still about 4 inches of snow remaining up top. The trails are pretty packed down and very slushy. I would definitely recommend Microspikes and some sort of waterproof footwear. Enjoy the day! I had a really nice hike down Alum yesterday. The trails are in very sloppy shape, but it was great nonetheless. The air was refreshingly crisp rather than purely frigid and it was comfortable shorts weather. I could hardly believe it, but I smelled spring on the horizon as the warm rain was falling yesterday afternoon. There is still snow on the ground, but it is trending towards more spring like conditions on the mountain. The seasonal change always seems to catch me off guard... I miss the winter gone by, think of all the good times in deep snow, have a short period of mourning and then, all of a sudden, I am ready to welcome spring, in all it's generosity. Morning y'all, It's a beautiful, blustery morning up top. The high yesterday reached 36 degrees. The overnight low was 18 degrees. It was 34 degrees and mostly cloudy at 7am observation. There is about 8 inches of snow remaining. There has been plenty of melt on the mountain and the trails are sure to be sloppy. Get out and enjoy the day! |
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April 2024
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