Good afternoon to all of you. We've enjoyed a mostly pretty day up on top of LeConte today, with the sun at least battling the clouds to a draw. The high Monday reached 66 with an overnight low of 50. We received a heavy rain about 4 a.m., which accounted for 0.37 inches of precipitation in a hurry.
I'd like to wish Allyson a happy birthday. She'll be headed up the mountain later tonight. The remainder of this High on LeConte update will be devoted to introducing Lesley Nash of Paducah, Ky., the latest addition to the crew. I'll turn Lesley's story over to her. ---------- So this is my chance to introduce myself, before Brad tries to tell everyone my name is "New Girl," I guess. So let's go! Hello and charmed, I'm sure, from me, Lesley. And, as I am still reminded from time to time, I am the newcomer to the LeConte Lodge crew, having only come at the beginning of May (poor me, missing all the early spring snow and ice. How ... unfortunate). But, in my defense, I have a very good excuse: until May 1, I was still an undergraduate. Just had to get those degrees, don't you know. But I'm here now, and couldn't be happier. The Smoky Mountains have always been close to my heart, even after all the other places I've seen, and I've seen my fair share. You see, I love to explore. Through books, when I was a kid (I still love to read, by the way--anything and everything. One of the hardest things about living on a mountain is the lack of a convenient library!) but later, well... I studied International Relations at university, and that took me all over the world -- Europe, Turkey, Morocco, the Caribbean. There's nothing I love more than to set off and explore new places, cultures, languages. And while I haven't loved every thing in every place I've been, I have found something to love everywhere. So while it was no jet-setting, cross-world travel to come to LeConte, it was a chance to really explore one of the places I love the most. Besides, I've seen some beautiful things, but it's hard to beat the views I get from the kitchen here. So, now you know me, the latecomer! Don't be a stranger--tell me about your explorations, because I always love a good story! ---------- Thanks to Lesley for sharing her story. Thanks to you all for reading. As I mentioned, the birthday woman Allyson is returning to work Wednesday, so I'll sign off High on LeConte until early July. Happy trails. Good afternoon. We've enjoyed a similar weather pattern as the last few days, though without showers or prolonged thick cloud cover today. We're sitting under partly cloudy skies this afternoon and seeing the sun pop out periodically. We had another really pretty morning. The high temperature was 63 with an overnight low of 46.
It's been a blessedly uneventful day. In this job, there's nothing wrong with uneventful. The llamas have come and gone, delivering fresh linens and eggs to LeConte Lodge. Crew members Pat and Jeanie reported something interesting they saw a few days ago when they had an afternoon off. Near Cliff Tops, they saw a doe and likely just-born fawn. The fawn was wobbly, moving in fits and starts as four-legged newcomers do a few minutes after arrival. The mother was licking it clean. Most years, we usually have some fawns roaming around the lodge. Most of our LeConte wild critters are good neighbors, especially the deer and salamanders. I like the bears (that humans haven't ruined) and ravens a lot, too. The deer are great to have next door. They always keep their grass cut, their parties are quiet and they never drop in unexpectedly for coffee. They will use the bathroom in your yard, but that's a small price to pay for a good neighbor. I can't say that I've developed a great affinity for the squirrels, however. The boomers tend to get even more manic this time of year, so please don't feed them or encourage close encounters. We had a guest bitten by a squirrel last month at Alum Cave Bluff. I can think of 6,457 other things I'd rather spend money on than rabies shots. On another note, I learned that Dollywood will offer a nightly fireworks show again this year from June 14-Aug. 3. I think the show begins at 9:30 p.m., and lasts for about five-seven minutes. I saw last year's show occasionally, and it was an enjoyable diversion every now and again. On a quiet night, it's also fascinating to me to hear how long it takes for the sound to reach the lodge. The LeConte Lodge dining room and porch close at 9 p.m., but there are other places to watch the show from up top if you choose. My favorite nightly light show is underway at Elkmont campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The synchronous lightning bugs put on an unearthly display for about two weeks during late May moving toward mid June. I grew up camping often at Elkmont and my Papaw used to attend dances in the 1930s at the old Wonderland Hotel, but I never heard about the fireflies until the late 1990s. Mike Blackerby wrote a nice article about the phenomenon in the Saturday, June 7 Knoxville News Sentinel. It's absolutely amazing to see thousands of lightning bugs (my favorite insect anyway) flash and rest in synchronization. These waves of lightning bug flashes rise up the ridges in incredible fashion on a good night. The first time I saw the firefly display it seemed like I was walking on a blinking carpet. It's the closest thing to living in a Led Zeppelin song I can imagine. Of course, like all things, there were a rare few people there who said, "I thought the fireflies would be brighter." These are the same people who complain that Yellowstone's Old Faithful didn't last long enough or that the Grand Canyon is just a big hole in the ground or that Volcanoes National Park on Hawaii's Big Island is just a bunch of black rocks. My mom says those type people, "wouldn't be happy if you hanged them with a gold rope." Don't be one of those people. Happy trails. Hello from LeConte Lodge. I hope your weekend has been pleasant and restful. For the LeConte crew, our weekend has been pleasant, but restful may be one bridge too far. We've been busy, but busy is good for business. Today's High on LeConte entry is like the Powder River--a mile wide and an inch deep.
Since yesterday we've been seeing a mixture of clouds and sun. The high-low was 65-51. The rain gauge contained 0.24 inches of precipitation and a drowned mosquito. The rain came in a heavy shower from about 4:30-4:40 a.m., which sounded great on my roof and nearly conspired to keep me in bed instead of rolling out to make breakfast. However, my paycheck proved the greater conspirator so we had breakfast on time after all. The sunrise didn't look too promising at first, but really came on strong in the end to put on a good show. We had a couple of guests who made the decision to get up early and hike out to Myrtle Point to try their luck. They ended up seeing a rainbow accompanying LeConte's sunrise spectacular. Speaking of luck, I was running around camp doing chores yesterday when a four-leaf clover seized my gaze (above photo). If anyone visiting LeConte Lodge can find it and point it out to me (please don't pick it), I'll give them a free glass of lemonade. The rules on LeConte are that the cook and, upon completion of cooking, the dishwasher get to choose the tunes for that breakfast or supper shift. During sunrise, I chose Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring" and wasn't the least bit disappointed as the colors chased each other over the spine of the Smokies. We kept it Sunday classy throughout breakfast service and sampled Handel, Mozart, Smetana and Chopin in the kitchen. I don't advocate getting up at 4:40 a.m. unless you're feeding horses or LeConte guests (they have a more sophisticated palate but aren't much help when getting charged by a bison), but it proved a nice morning with plenty of friendly people on the mountain. Later, after we finished our morning camp preparations and chores, we sat down and feasted on a Sunday brunch Nicholette prepared for us (including some more fresh strawberries from one of our nice guests). With all that fresh vitamin C from strawberries this week, we're doing all we can to take the fight to scurvy on LeConte. Finally, I met a nice father and daughter from south Alabama yesterday afternoon. The father owns a place on English Mountain, our neighbor mountain just outside the national park, which we could see in great detail this morning. His daughter also told me she writes a blog about fashion and hair styling. I had just been wrestling with our sun-starved incinerator to make sure all our food waste was properly burnt. So I had some soot on me, was wearing a bleach-speckled shirt and probably smelled pretty special, too. There were likely some remnants of leftover biscuit ash left on my bald head. One look at me and the daughter didn't figure I was a candidate to read her fashion and hair-styling blog, but she and her dad seemed like nice folks. Happy trails. Good afternoon to you. We've seen patchy sun in between clouds this Saturday, though sunrise was brilliant. We didn't have any precipitation Friday or thus far today. Friday's high temperature was 62 degrees with a low of 48.
Today I'm going to pass along a story Al Bedinger, a former LeConte Lodge crew member from the 1970s, told me about the genesis of syrup making on the mountain. Al tells the story better than I, but I promised I'd tell it earlier this year and here goes. After the Huffs left the top of the mountain, Herrick Brown ran the show at LeConte Lodge during the period when Al worked on the crew in the 1970s. By any account, and I've spoken with several folks, Herrick was a good man and a fine boss who cast a long shadow across Mt. LeConte. It's kind of a conundrum, but you have to be a practical kind of unpractical person to run the lodge. If you were a strictly practical person you'd never live at the top of a mountain without electricity or a road. However, you also have to find a way to make things work up on LeConte--a practical unpractical person. Like all good LeConte managers, Herrick was always looking for a better way to do things at the top of Tennessee. Then, as now, part of a LeConte Lodge breakfast included pancakes--"We've fixed two pancakes per person. Watch the platters because they're awfully hot. We've got a small griddle, but we'll bring out the rest of the food as soon as we can get it cooked." LeConte's guests wanted syrup on their pancakes, a perfectly reasonable request (if difficult to fulfill). In those pre-llama days, the horses would have to lug the heavy jugs of syrup up the Rainbow Falls Trail. Even though the guest numbers were lower in those days, we still went through enough syrup to wear a horse out. One day a crew member presented Herrick with a magnificent solution. "Most of the weight in syrup is from water. Herrick, we've got the best water in the state from the (LeConte) spring. Why don't you just order up some sugar, and we'll make our own syrup from LeConte spring water?" That's exactly what happens to this day, though the spring water is tested daily and treated now. Herrick thought that was a brilliant idea. So, he ordered several hundred pounds of sugar and made plans to haul those bags up to the lodge. However, the folks on LeConte weren't the only ones paying attention to the breakthrough idea. It seems there were some federal agents awfully interested in a brand-new purchase of several hundred pounds of sugar headed deep into the Tennessee mountains. Now, we get visits from federal employees all the time at LeConte Lodge. I had a nice visit with Mark Pitt, the National Park Service interpretive ranger who works LeConte Thursday through Sunday morning, today. Like Mark, most of the federal agents we see wear the park service's arrowhead patch on their uniform. However, after Herrick's sugar purchase, LeConte Lodge got a visit from the IRS, whose agents suspected some untaxed corn liquor was being distilled at the top of Tennessee. Evidently, they sampled the LeConte homemade syrup and were happy enough that was the strongest brew cooking on top of the mountain. That story was told to me as true, and I don't know how much embellishment flourished during the last 40 years. As promised, that's the tale of how the IRS got mixed up in the LeConte syrup business. Thanks for reading. Happy trails. Good afternoon from the top of LeConte.
This is a special day for a big history fan like me. Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Allied D-Day Invasion during World War II. It's hard to imagine piling out of those flat-bottomed troop transport boats with enough gear to drown you, all the while staring down 100 different kinds of misery in the face on Omaha Beach. About 10 years ago, I was visiting Philadelphia attending the Penn Relays track and field meet on business for the University of Tennessee. In between a long break in events, I took a walk down to see the Liberty Bell. The guide there told me that one of the last times the Liberty Bell rang was on D-Day, June 6, 1944. The bell, long since cracked, was struck with a rubber mallet to symbolize liberty and independence. We'll ring our bell (triangle) twice today at LeConte Lodge to call guests for breakfast and supper. We'll remember those who participated and sacrificed much on that murderous French beach on that momentous day 70 years ago. In other news, Thursday saw us enveloped in a thick cloud most of the day with some rain showers interspersed. Our high was 56 with a low of 50, as the thick cloud cover constricted our temperature range. We totaled 0.24 inches of rain. Last night we welcomed a scout group from Rochester, Ill. It's a challenge to get much elevation training in the Land of Lincoln, so I hope the scouts get a sharp-looking badge for their ascent of LeConte. Also, congratulations to Oscar, the short-legged llama, who made his first trip carrying weight to LeConte today. Oscar had made two training trips prior, but Chrissy put a "baby load" on him today for the first time. He was huffing and puffing a little, as he does have a harder time with the higher step-ups, but he delivered clean dish towels on time. He's still a ways from qualifying for his CDL and trucker's cap, but Oscar's getting better every trip (as is his fellow rookie Ranger). Yet another great thing about LeConte Lodge is its mild and short bug season. I don't think I've gone through a full can of mosquito repellant in my four seasons here. We do have some of the winged critters flying about, but they're pretty tame compared to the vampiric insects below. My least favorite insect up here is the woolly adelgid, a non-native which is responsible for so much devastation of the mature spruce and fir trees in the highest elevations of the Smokies. The park service has few ways to attack the invaders, and none of them easy, quick or cheap. I was hustling around the lodge grounds the other day doing chores and broke a sweat on my bald head. A cloud of adelgids buzzed around my head, and I felt like Pigpen from the Charlie Brown cartoon. I returned inside to find a mirror and discover I'd drowned a couple of adelgids on my perspiring head. That's not a particularly efficient method of adelgid control, but we're trying to be good neighbors at LeConte Lodge and do our part. Happy trails. Hello to all of you. After the regular business of weather conditions, I'll continue this update with the profile of a new LeConte Lodge crew member. Today belongs to Nicholette Szypulski of Steubenville, Ohio, who is in her first season as assistant cook at LeConte Lodge.
Wednesday afternoon gave us more frequent glimpses of the sun. We ended up getting some rain, wind, thunder and lightning beginning about 10:30 p.m. However, it was a pretty tame storm by LeConte standards. This morning's sunrise was muted, which has since given way to a thick wall of gray clouds. Yesterday's high and low was 67-51 with 0.32 inches of rain. We enjoyed a wonderful treat yesterday. Larry, a frequent LeConte day-hiker, brought up a bucket of delicious strawberries. Under assistant cook Nicholette's and crew member Jeanie's careful guidance, we enjoyed an impressive dessert of sour cream pound cake with homemade whipped cream and fresh, sliced strawberries. Jeanie skillfully made the cake using her mother-in-law's recipe. Nicholette had the hardest job in securing the fresh milk. You should have seen all the scratches she ended up with after milking those squirrels. With that, I'll turn Nicholette's profile over to her, who penned it in her own words. ---------- It's amazing to see where your choices in life get you. You won't necessarily enjoy all of them, but you still have to appreciate them. After all, I wouldn't be living on top of this magical mountain, meeting all of these amazing people if it weren't for some of those decisions. Every morning I wake up to a new and beautiful sunrise, every afternoon the same two deer wander around camp fearlessly and every evening God paints an exciting sunset. I've even been blessed enough to meet a wonderful man to share these special days with. Each day holds an adventure just waiting to be experienced. I understand now why my Pappap always wanted to visit this place. I only wish he had the opportunity to do so. Thank you Pappap and Mummum for bringing this place into our lives. Thank you Mom and Dad for your strength and faith. Thank you to my family for your continual support in my decisions. I love you all very much! I look forward to what's coming next. God bless and enjoy your adventure! ---------- Thanks to Nicholette for sharing her story, and thank you for reading. Happy trails. Good afternoon to you. It's been a busy day on LeConte with people (and critters) coming and going ahead of the storms forecast for tonight. The most noteworthy thing is this morning I captured the first known photo of a whitetail deer and a bobcat in the same frame in the history of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. That's important evidence for the diversity of species in park, and I've posted the photo at the end as a public service.
The weather has been better today than the last couple of days. We've seen periodic (short) intervals of sunshine between our walls of gray. I hope it will be enough to get our solar power up to a better charge. The high was 58 degrees with a low of 48 and no precipitation. We were treated to a lovely concert last night by the occupants of lodge number 2 (or New Lodge as the staff knows it). After a day hemmed in by clouds, the skies began to open over LeConte during supper, a prelude to the music to come. We ended up with a nice sunset, beautiful night sky and impressive sunrise before the clouds rolled back in this morning. As last night's sunset was bowing out, I heard some beautiful hymns being sung in harmony floating off the porch above the kitchen. It was good enough that I turned off the Merle Haggard I was listening to (and that's high praise) while I was doing manager's reports and tuned in. Guests would stop by and listen and applaud after each song. They wrapped up just before quiet hours began at 10 p.m. and serenaded folks headed back to their cabins for slumber. You hear lots of folks singing up here. Most carry a tune admirably after hiking up to the top of Tennessee. However, once in a while, you'll hear someone who sounds like an alley cat is fighting an accordion in a loser-leave-town match. These folks last night could sing and were on the other end of the spectrum. I was also pleased to meet Jenny (who comments here at times) this afternoon. She hiked up LeConte off-trail via Styx Branch and dropped by to say hello. We welcomed the llamas back to LeConte Lodge on a Wednesday food resupply. Llama wrangler Alan told me he saw a bear in the Trillium Gap parking lot. We've had some bear sightings on the mountain in the last week, including the first one I've seen at the lodge this season about three days ago. Make sure you're conscientious about your food and storing your pack. Also, as the top photo shows, we had some rare guests show up at the lodge. I noticed three men strolling through the lodge and heard the familiar "clink, clink" of spurs as the boots hit the wood floors. I think I've only seen two instances in the four seasons I've worked on LeConte in which people brought up horses for pleasure. There are some soft edges to the Trillium Gap Trail, which a llama can navigate with ease but a much heavier horse must skillfully maneuver. It was different in the past, but now it's a rarity to see horses at the lodge. These horses were resting at the tie rack on Trillium Gap Trail just before you reach the spring. Horses are not allowed in camp and can't stay overnight. Trillium Gap Trail is the only one servicing LeConte that is open to horse (and llama) traffic. Usually, when we see horses up top they've come to assist with park service work (and may arrive via the Rainbow Falls Trail as the pre-llama, former LeConte pack horses did). Happy trails. Hello again to all of you. This is Nathan, patching in on High on LeConte for Allyson during her June off days. We've been welcoming lots of interesting guests since I last wrote, including more than a few nice folks last night.
We hosted folks celebrating a birthday and anniversary. In addition, there was a gentleman spending last night with us who has made a trip to LeConte Lodge for 41 consecutive years. More than four decades without a miss puts him in some lofty company. Additionally, we welcomed two nice ladies from Ireland as overnight guests. We did our best to be hospitable, going so far as to order up 40 shades of green and a heaping helping of gray to embrace them. That brings us to the weather. We topped out at 62 degrees with an overnight low of 49. We've been bathed in a cloud for most of the last two days. Late last night the ceiling raised enough for us to look into the valley, but most of the time we've not been able to see across camp. I know from some conversations I've had with hikers and those living down below that the cloud doesn't extend all the way to the valley. Some told me yesterday that they had decent skies until the last couple of miles of hiking before they reached the lodge. The cloud seems to be clutching the top of LeConte like a kindergartener afraid to leave his parents on the first day of school. I call our current crown of clouds the "LeConte sombrero." Last week I saw firsthand the ring of clouds suffocating the top of the mountain as I drove through Pigeon Forge under clear skies on my way back to work. It appears the LeConte sombrero has been donned the last couple of days. Sometimes when we're lucky enough to be clear for sunset on Cliff Tops, I notice the same effect on Clingman's Dome. In some ways LeConte's thick crown of clouds fits perfectly with summer on the mountain. The vegetation closes in and impedes visibility into the woods. You certainly can't see very far off the trail. Perhaps summer is the most secretive of seasons, always hiding something that would be in plain sight the rest of the year. The sleeves get shorter and we swap jeans for swim trunks, but summer holds onto whispers as the woods become less revealing. Autumn will come soon enough, blowing off the cloak of secrecy and opening up the mountains to honest scrutiny. There's still plenty of beauty to behold even on a cloudy day hiking up LeConte. I noticed the Catawba rhododendron blooming last week, impressively framing Inspiration Point on the Alum Cave Bluff Trail. The colors of the rhododendron blooms pretty near matched the dress of my date for my senior prom during the Clinton administration. Thanks for reading. I'll try to sniff out some more LeConte stories for you during the next week. Happy trails. It is time for Chris and I to head down the mountain for some rest and relaxation. Who am I kidding, we are going to be working down there as well. We will be setting up for the Gatlinburg Farmers Market on Saturday. I am sure you all are going to enjoy Nathan's tales while we are gone. He has a gift for spinning a yarn. We are treated to some of his stories every now and again. This year, the crew has been enjoying "Radio Night". Pat and Jeanie have been recording old radio shows through their satellite radio. The crew sits around and listens to them with great amusement. Some of you may remember "Dragnet", "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar", and the "The Fat Man". These are the shows they are listening to. It is just one of the many ways the crew enjoys being on the mountain for eight and half months. They are making memories that will last a life time.
Yesterday turned out to be a day in the clouds. We were covered all day. The high was only 53º with a low of 45º. We were told the sun was making an appearance below, but the clouds never gave way for us. It is a different day today. The sky is blue and the sun is shining. It will be a great day for a hike up the mountain. We are so proud of own Bonnie Northrup. She had a personal goal of hiking all six trails to the lodge in one day, and she did it. Her official hiking time was 19:35. She and her loving husband, John Northrup, started at 3:30 in the morning hiking up Brushy Mountain trail and finished hiking down Alum Cave trail. This was John's third time hiking all of the trails in one day. He was "just along for the support".
It was a good day for a long hike. It ended up being partly cloudy with a few showers here and there. The high was 62º with a low of 48º. We are currently under heavy cloud coverage. |
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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