Happy Easter from the top of Mt. LeConte. It is starting out to be a beautiful day. The rain yesterday did not keep the hikers away. The mountain was super busy with hikers. They were hanging out around the heaters and enjoying a hot cup of cocoa. We heard accents from all over the world. That is one of the coolest aspects to this job. You get to meet people from so many countries. Yesterday we had Germany, Canada, and South Korea represented. Mt. Leconte brings so many people together. You never know who you are going to meet on the top.
Yesterday's wet weather brought .42" of rain with a high of 44º and a low of 32º. I believe we are going to see warmer weather today along with a visit from our star in the sky, the sun. I am looking forward to soaking up some vitamin D and recharging for the next week. What a nice surprise. The guests were treated to a glowing sunset at the last moment. We were cloud covered all day and, just in time for sunset, we witnessed a glorious display of pinks and reds. It was a fairly warm day. The high was 55º with a low of 30º. From what I hear, the trails are fine. They may be a bit muddy since we are currently getting rain.
We had a guest tell us they saw a cub on Trillium. They were not sure where the mother was. Just be careful if you are hiking up that trail. Make a lot of noise and be aware of your surroundings. We have not had a issues with bears in camp. If you are hiking up today, we will have the heaters on and plenty of hot cocoa on the stove. Hope to see you on the top. Happy Hiking I know the picture above may not seem like much, but for those of us who are living on this mountain, it means spring is here. These little buds are bluets. They will start popping up around camp and that is how I know spring has arrived. I look for these every year about this time. I had to look hard today. They were hiding under a tree. After the bluets show up, I will start looking for trillium. We do have a couple around the kitchen that I love to see every spring.
Yesterday was a beautiful spring like day. The high was 51º. There were hikers roaming all over the mountain. It was a great day to sit on our back porch, enjoy the view, and the soak up some vitamin D. We are currently looking at clouds today. It is not looking promising for a repeat of yesterday. We were greeted this morning by a fabulous sunrise. It is the mountain's way of reminding us the many reasons why this place is so special. It is looking like it going to be a repeat of yesterday. Chris and I had beautiful hike up. The weather was perfect and the snow was melting. We hiked up Alum Cave trail and the conditions were fine. There were a few patches of black ice, but we were able to work our way around them with no problems. The high yesterday was 44º with a low last night of 18º. As you can tell, we are experiencing pretty wide ranges of temperatures. Make sure you bring clothing to layer with. We want you to be comfortable while enjoying this stunning local.
As Nathan said in his post yesterday, the llamas will be making a trip up today. Today is grocery day for the crew. It is always an exciting day, we get mail and fresh food for the week. It goes a long way when you are up for a few weeks. You learn to look forward to a fresh piece of fruit. I Good afternoon. We've been graced with a splendid day on top of LeConte. When I woke up at 4:45 a.m. the clouds had already broken and yielded to a brilliant full moon, which made the lodge glow with the blanket of white on the ground. However, it was plenty cold--the type of cold where you can see your breath inside the kitchen for the first 30 minutes of breakfast preparation.
Reintroducing itself via an impressive sunrise, the sun has been our companion all day, resulting in some good melting weather. As I type, there's an 18-inch icicle swaying back and forth as it clings to the wood-shingled roof by a prayer--a real LeConte cliffhanger. The icicle has been sweating out its precarious situation one drip at a time. I predict it will be beginning its journey to the Tennessee River soon. Tuesday's high was 42, but that came early in the morning before the temperature plummeted during the day to an overnight low of 12 degrees. We received 0.36 inches of rain Tuesday morning before the switch to snow. We totaled about two inches of snow Tuesday. We've already climbed to 40 degrees as of 2 p.m. Wednesday. I've talked to hikers this morning who've arrived via the Alum Cave Bluff and Trillium Gap Trails. Both said there were some tough, slippery sections as you neared the lodge. I imagine there might be some stubborn icy spots hanging around for a couple of days, especially in shaded areas. As a precautionary measure, we delayed Wednesday's llama resupply trip to Thursday. Trail conditions and temperatures should be more pleasant then, especially considering the LeConte llama string received summer buzzcuts late last week. A shivering llama is a pitiful sight. It's a long season, and we couldn't operate without them or our llama wranglers, Alan and Chrissy. No sense putting them in needless hazard when Thursday sounds more favorable. Thank you for your reading and your nice comments. I turn over the updates to Allyson tomorrow, who returns from a short set of off days. Hope to see you all at LeConte Lodge soon. Happy trails. Hello to all of you. The rapid change in weather ranks as the day's top news on LeConte. On Monday, the temperature hovered in a four-degree range--from a high of 45 to a low of 41. We measured 0.61 inches of rain.
However, things changed rapidly this morning as the temperature dropped about 15 degrees in three hours. After lunch the thermometer reads 25 degrees. We've seen sporadic snow showers and ice pellets since about 10 a.m. with a light snow accumulation of less than an inch. It's still lightly snowing as of this afternoon, but the forecast calls for the fairly quick-moving system to exit the Smokies by Wednesday. I do expect it will be a cold Tuesday night atop LeConte. Hikers should be prepared for slick conditions on all the trails leading to the summit for the next couple of days. In other trail news, llama wrangler Chrissy saw a yearling bear about two miles up the Trillium Gap Trail on Monday. The bear caused no difficulty and ran away as a wild critter should. Perhaps he was afraid that Chrissy would also strap a pack of clean linens to his back and put him to work. That does serve as a reminder that regardless of the time of year all hikers should be careful not to leave any food behind (even apple cores and banana peels). As I was doing my morning chores I saw an unhappy junco and robin hopping around all stiff-legged. They were puffed up to ward off the dropping temperatures and the ice pellets bouncing off their wings. Having gotten used to some recent warm days on the mountain, those fluffy birds seemed to be fussing at the weather: "I didn't sign up for this." In some other park news, crew members Pat and Jeanie told me they saw some impressive wildflowers around the Porter's Creek area in Greenbrier. On Highway 441, I saw a nice stand of white trillium between the hairpin curve just above the Chimneys Picnic Area on my way up to work last week. As of right now, the predominant color on top of LeConte is also white, albeit a thin coat I hope melts Wednesday. April 15 is also Tax Day (hope all of you have that squared away), which is the cause of much consternation for many. Just to add some perspective and reduce blood pressure, I'm typing in a federally protected area accessed by some of the prettiest trails in one of the prettiest states in one of the prettiest nations in the world. Also, while I was in Uganda this winter (more stories about that in days to come), I received two marriage proposals--one of them from a family of a woman I never met. The reason: not that I'm a likely candidate to model for a cologne advertisement, but solely because I am American. And people across the world know that in America you have a chance--even on Tax Day. That's just a little perspective on what can be a frustrating day. Finally, yesterday some of you asked about this perhaps being my last season on LeConte. There's no great drama or conspiracy there. I've been saving for seven years to take a trip around the world (I hope to finish all the continents I've missed and see some of them on the back of a horse), and I'm about 80 percent toward my saving goal. If I can meet my target this year, I'll try to take that trip in 2015 because sometimes life doesn't afford you a second chance to do something like that. In 2010, I gave my word I would work one season on LeConte. I don't often repeat adventure jobs (except for wrangling in Colorado and wrangling/guiding in Yellowstone--two years each). This is my fourth year on LeConte, which should tell you plenty about what a special place this is and what fine people I've met. Happy trails. Good afternoon to all of you High on LeConte readers. This is Nathan, assistant manager of LeConte Lodge. I'll try to fill in on High on LeConte updates while Allyson is down on off days, hoping to keep you up to date on news, weather, trail conditions and stories from our favorite mountain.
After soaking up a beautiful four previous days (which, regardless of the season, means you're living on borrowed time on LeConte), we've seen quite a change in the weather overnight. Sunday's high was 63 degrees and sunny with an overnight low of 43. We registered no precipitation yesterday, but that changed today around lunch as the rains began falling up top. It's a wonderful day to pull our fine Hudson's Bay wool blankets up around your neck and catch up on some afternoon dreaming. Overnight the winds began to howl. The nearly full moon was filtered by thin clouds racing away from the strong winds to follow over the top of LeConte. Before the thicker clouds moved in, the effect caused the moon to look like a flashlight dropped in a shallow stream as the clouds tempered and dappled its talents. Afterward, the wind picked up in intensity. The branches of the majestic spruce tree outside my cabin scrape against my walls on windy nights. It sounded like someone chalking up a pool cue outside; Minnesota Fats beckoning me for a friendly nocturnal game of Smoky Mountain snooker. With a long workday ahead, I opted for my pillow instead. When I take over High on LeConte updates for Allyson, my work schedule usually demands that I post sometime in the afternoon. When site managers Chris and Allyson are off the mountain, I combine most of their duties. Thus, the times when I can update the website are dictated by taking care of LeConte Lodge guests first and foremost. Similarly, I will probably only be able to approve comments late at night when my workday ends about 10:30-11 p.m. So don't assume your comment has been blocked, it's just really busy up here trying to take care of our guests like they deserve. As with Chris and Allyson, this will likely be my last season manning (nearly) the top of Tennessee at LeConte Lodge. It's been a wonderful run, and I hope this is the best season yet. Although it's early in the season, I've already been glad to see so many familiar faces of friendly guests and day hikers I've met over these four years. I also look forward to meeting plenty of nice, new folks on LeConte, always one of the highlights of my job (though for the record I really enjoy the scenery, good food and paycheck, too). Happy trails. It is going to be a great day for a hike. I am finally going down to the land below after a month of mountain life. It will be nice to see what spring looks like. I hear there are some amazing wild flowers below. I am looking forward to seeing them. I just found out we are expecting more snow on Tuesday. Sounds like winter is hanging on by a thread. Of course, as we all know, weather forecasts can change over the next two days. It is best to be prepared. The high yesterday was 62º with a low of 35º. It was a pleasant day around the lodge.
I get people asking me all the time about cancellations. I will share the secret to catching a cancellation. We have a Twitter account, https://twitter.com/LeConteLodge. If you follow us on Twitter, we post dates that are open. They go pretty fast which is why they don't make it on this site. So, if you are interested, check out our page and "follow" us and you will find out about cancellations. Good luck and hope to see you on the mountain. I know you all will enjoy Nathan's musings. He is a man of many talents and story telling is one of them. We will be back on Wednesday, rested and relaxed. We had a bonus llama trip today. Our farm girls, Bonnie and Chrissy, were excited to do a girl's llama trip up the mountain. The only problem is that the llamas are all males. We can't use female and male llamas in the same train because it causes to much "llama drama". So, the Leconte Llamas are all males. I am sure this post is going to provoke all sorts of great comments. Anyway, Chrissy and Bonnie had a great trip up. They are starting to get caught up after our bad weather days. Who wouldn't want to be out there hiking today? It is a gorgeous day up top. It was 58º yesterday was a low of 39º. People are soaking up the rays all over the mountain.
Chris and I are getting packed up for our days off. I will post tomorrow morning and then pass it on to Nathan. I am sure you are all excited to hear his wild tales. He has some good ones this season. A winter in Uganda will make for some interesting material. Yesterday turned out to be a breathtakingly beautiful day on the mountain. We got to wish Pat a happy 61st birthday and enjoy what this mountain has to offer. The high for yesterday as 34º with a low of 27º. It is shaping up to be another spectacular day above 6000 ft.
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LeConte LodgeWelcome to the official blog of LeConte Lodge. We hope you find the information provided here both helpful and enjoyable. Thank you for visiting the site, and we hope to see you on the mountain! Archives
March 2024
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