It was a beautiful day for a stroll down Bullhead trail. I went on a wildflower hunt. I was super excited to see this lone trillium toward the top of the mountain. That means I should start seeing them in camp soon. It was a nice day for a hike. Not too much sun but enough to warm things up a bit. Chris and I could see the burnt area on Rainbow Falls trail. It is still closed due to downed trees and possible fire.
Yesterday was another day in the sixties. 62 degrees was our high with 50º as the low. We had a busy mountain for Mother's Day. I guess a lot of mothers wanted this as their special outing. Can't say I blame them. The colors were vivid this morning. The rain has stopped and the skies are clearing. We did see a bit of a reprieve yesterday afternoon. The sun came out and warmed the hikers for a little while. Another front moved in around sunset. As of this morning, Rainbow Falls trail is still closed. We will let you all know as soon as we know of any changes. The temperatures were still rather pleasant, even with the rain. The high was 54º with a low of 45º. I think today is going to be a good day for checking out the wildflowers around the mountain. I hope all of you mothers out there have a wonderful day. We appreciate you. Happy Mother's Day from the LeConte Crew.
Chris took this photograph around noon yesterday. This is a picture of the 10 acre brush fire that was burning around Rainbow Falls trail. Soon after they took this shot, the rain started falling. We received a little over half an inch of rain for the day. I am sure that went a long way to helping put this fire out. The Park Service said Rainbow Falls trail is still closed until further notice. I will let you know as soon as they open it. The park's wildland firefighters did an amazing job at getting the fire under control. As of this morning, we have not heard an update.
The guests were able to enjoy some good ole' bluegrass music last night. There was some singing and foot stompin' taking over the mountain top. It was a great evening to sit inside and listen to some great tunes. It was a chilly day yesterday. The high was 58º with a low of 47º. The winds were ripping around camp and the rain came down in sheets. For the first time in a long time, I was happy to feel the rain on my face. Attention!! We have reports of a small brush fire at the base of Mt. LeConte in the Cherokee Orchard Area. We have been informed that Rainbow Falls trail is CLOSED. Bullhead trail and Trillium trail are still OPEN. We will keep you posted on any upcoming changes. Please, if you have questions, call our office at 865-429-5704. I will not be on the computer to answer any questions.
It is a windy morning at the lodge. Chris snapped this beautiful photo in-between making coffee and biscuits. The clouds add such a dramatic feel to sunrise and sunsets. It feels as thought there is a system moving in. Between the clouds and the wind, I would say we are in for some rain. I can not complain. We have a had a perfect week. The high yesterday was 68º with a low of 50º. We are expecting a big crowd tonight. The guests coming up tonight will be in for a treat. There are a few guys hiking up who belong to a bluegrass band. They usually treat us to a little concert. It is always fun mix things up a bit. Gotta love it when the music comes to you.
The LeConte Lodge 2015 Calendars are in. You can order your calendar at our online store, http://www.lecontelodge.com/store/ , or you can purchase one at the top of the mountain. They are sealed in plastic for weather protection. You can enjoy a different photo each month.
We have been blessed with amazing weather this week. The high was 68º again with a low of 48º. I feel as though we have had more sunny days in the past two months than we did all last year. I am so grateful to have this weather my last season on the mountain. We had a fun day yesterday. We celebrated two crew birthdays. Chris and Brad had a great mountain birthday. They both went for a hike and enjoyed a beautiful day outside. What an amazing few days we have had on the mountain. The high yesterday was 68º with a low of 48º. The sand myrtle is starting to pop out. It won't be long before the sides of the cliffs are full of color. I saw a few trillium while hiking up on Monday. I am sure the trillium on the mountain will be out soon. The deer are starting to make an appearance. Our favorite doe is back and keeping our grass short around the llama troughs. I can't wait to see the fawns that are usually born around this time. It really livens up the mountain to have all of the babies playing around the lodge. It is hard to believe it is already May. The season is flying by. Don't forget to check our twitter page for cancellations. https://twitter.com/LeConteLodge
Good morning from our favorite mountain top. The sun is rising and the sky is clear. I believe we are going to get a repeat of yesterday. It was an amazing day for a hike back to work. I found the carpet of bluets along Alum Cave trail. The flowers are beautiful. It was interesting coming back from a week off, the mountain is greener then when we left. I see buds on the bushes and there are flowers starting to pop up around the kitchen. The temperatures on the mountain are starting to feel like summer. The high yesterday was 66º with a low of 46º.
Good afternoon. We are still in the embrace of lovely weather atop Mt. LeConte. David Scanlon, with 963 LeConte hikes to his name, told me today: "I don't remember the last time we had this many consecutive pretty spring days up top." He's seen his share of weather up here.
If the forecast holds, the trend is for good weather through most of the week. Sunday's high temperature reached 60 degrees with a low of 41 (which occurred Sunday morning about 7 a.m.). The low for Monday morning was a mild 48 degrees. I'll be beginning my series of LeConte Lodge crew member profiles today with Rachel Weiderman's bio. Rachel, beginning her first year on the LeConte crew, also celebrates her birthday today. But first a flower update. I've been told that there's a nice carpet of bluets and spring beauties about a mile down the Alum Cave Bluff Trail. In other news, we were pleased to welcome back Jeff Wadley for his 88th trip to LeConte. Jeff is the author of Mayday! Mayday!, a book about aviation crashes in the Great Smoky Mountains. He is also one of the most respected search and rescue experts in the southern Appalachian Mountains. I first met Jeff when he led an excellent search and rescue segment during Wilderness First Responder training I took. I'm glad he was on a pleasure trip to LeConte Lodge and not business. Now, I'll turn the update over to Rachel, who penned the following profile. ---------- Hey, ya'll! Happy Cinco de Mayo! First things first...before reading this blog entry, go celebrate this holiday with a chimichanga at your favorite Mexican restaurant. Now...ready? OK. How did I get to be on crew at LeConte Lodge? This is the question Nathan has asked me to answer for today's post. Well...hmm. I guess for starters, it is safe to say that I have had a bit of the travel bug for the past few years. I knew that I wanted to travel, pay off student loans and experience work in different non-profits after finishing school. This led me to a national government service program called AmeriCorps. I started my service years in Eastern Kentucky, and later worked in California, Oregon, Wyoming and south central Colorado. Once I finally had my loans paid off, I took my first overseas trip to Chile and Argentina. I worked in hostels to cover my room and board, practiced Spanish (which is unfortunately not the greatest) and backpacked in the northern part of Patagonia for six months. I loved my life in these years. I was constantly being physically and mentally pushed, meeting new people and seeing areas of the world I had always dreamed of. The funny thing about traveling though is that it always makes you crave what you miss about where you grew up. Before my wander years, I had spent most of my life in Tennessee and Kentucky, and knew it was time to come home for a while. I had never been to Mt. LeConte before, but knew that my aunt hiked the mountain every year for her birthday. I had also visited the Smokies many times as a kid with my family, and definitely wanted to go back and see them again. Now I live at the top of this mountain for the next seven months. It is a good and simple life. I have no phone, no internet, a small amount of personal items and a tiny cabin to rest in on my time off. I'm even writing this post with an old writing tablet and pen, a headlamp and a kerosene lantern. Before writing this, I stayed up laughing in the kitchen with our amazing crew, and plan to go to bed with enough energy to serve hot coffee and homemade biscuits to our overnight guests. It is not always an easy job. The days can be long and the staff can be limited, but I know I am one lucky cat. Sorry Rockies and Andes, but the Smokies will always be my home. Here is to the next few months to come! Keep safe everyone! We hope to see ya at the top of the mountain soon. -- Rachel ---------- Thanks to Rachel for providing her story. Chris and Allyson have returned from days off, so I'll be hanging up the laptop for a while. Thanks to all of you who read, posted comments and came up to say hello. Happy trails. A good Sunday to all of you from the top of Tennessee. If you can find four more perfect days strung together on Mt. LeConte than the present string, feel free to sign me up. We're perched above the valley with blue skies, good visibility and plenty of sun perched above us.
The temperature range yesterday was 51-29. However, the official overnight low of 29 came Saturday morning about 7 a.m. The actual low Sunday morning was about 40 degrees, as the temperature only fell about one degree from midnight to 4:45 a.m. It's every bit as pretty and even a bit warmer today. We were lucky to have former crew members from nearly 40 years apart stop by on day hikes to the mountain today. Dick Ketelle and Ann Farrar (from the 1970s LeConte Lodge crews) and John and Bonnie Northrup (from the 2010-12 LeConte crews) stopped by to say hello. It's a treat to share stories about living and working on the mountain with people who still care deeply about it. Speaking of former crew members, Dick's and Ann's contemporary, Al Bedinger, reminded me of a fine story about the genesis of LeConte Lodge syrup making. I know that sounds like a stretch, but Al tells the story in a delightful way. If not for the monumental (fake) news that occurred yesterday I would share Al's tale. Alas, I'll try to pass it along another day, as it's a good story. Now for the fake news, Orson Welles style. Yesterday very nearly marked a devastating turning point in our very way of life up on top of the mountain at LeConte Lodge. The afternoon started peacefully enough as crowds of people surged up Alum Cave Bluff Trail, enjoying a beautiful May Saturday. However, events were about to take a dramatic turn for the worse as our very liberty hung in the balance. I was typing up yesterday's High on LeConte update, sequestered in an office atop the Smokies, unaware that invaders in hiking clothes had skillfully blended in with our normal dayhikers. When I signed off and walked into camp to begin my next chores, I was stunned to see what had befallen our beloved mountain. Hordes of mercenaries had taken over our mountain without so much as firing a single shot. I was unaware that wily invaders disguised in hiking clothes had skillfully blended in with our normal dayhikers. However, these battle-hardened soldiers were picketed throughout the lodge grounds, and I hate to tell you things looked bad for the LeConte Lodge crew. I looked center, left and right and the army had driven three foreign flags into the soil of the people's national park--a not-so-subtle reminder that life would be different from now on. I'm a student of geography and current events, but I had never heard of this fearsome foe besieging our mountain. They came from a land called "ROTC" or at least that's what was written on their flags. They were ferocious--eating MREs to prepare for the upcoming clash and walking barefoot across a landscape imbedded with 89 years of broken kerosene lamp globes and rusty nails just to display their bravery. As acting manager it was all my fault. Like Gen. Robert E. Lee prior to Gettysburg, I made the critical mistake of not knowing the true position and strength of my enemy. Like JEB Stuart, my cavalry was being occupied with the routine--happily checking in guests and selling sack lunches. Now, these Vandals march up in plain daylight and are about to sack LeConte on my watch. Maybe they had plans for an eight-lane road to be built up the mountain, or, even worse, a roller coaster from top to bottom. Surely, they would offer some quarter, and I began to contemplate surrender. They would probably take as loot the ancient spoon we use to stir the LeConte hot chocolate, the oldest and most revered utensil on the mountain. A whole way of life fertilized 89 years by the sweat of LeConte patriots Adams, Huffs, Browns and Lines was about to be torn asunder. But that's when the winds of fate shifted. Perhaps, the soldiers from the land of ROTC (wherever it may be) didn't want to fight in the thin air. Perhaps, they didn't like the look of the billy-goat terrain the LeConte crew would defend to the last thin breath. Perhaps, they knew that although the LeConte crew was outnumbered, they were in Tennessee and we don't even bat an eye at being outmanned 10-1. Or, unlikely but possible, the soldiers from ROTC finished their MREs and couldn't find good cell phone reception. Whatever the reason, the siege ended as quickly as it began and the mercenaries slipped down into the valley without the forces of LeConte and ROTC clashing in epic fashion above the clouds. Pax LeConte returned to full bloom. Back to reality, I think bringing a group of young ROTC members up LeConte as a team-building adventure is a fine idea. I hope all the group had a safe hike down LeConte and good trip home. Happy trails. |
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
April 2024
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