Good afternoon to you all from High on LeConte. Despite a healthy shower around 9:30 a.m. there are plenty of people who've ventured up to see us. We may be the only locale in Tennessee this August afternoon with a heater operating in the office.
It's still cloudy with some distant thunder rumbling on top of LeConte, though the sun has made a few brief appearances. On Friday, the high temperature reached 70 degrees, the hottest day since July 18. Our overnight low was a comfortable 57. We totaled 0.08 inches of rain yesterday. That's not exactly a frog-strangling rain total, but I will tell you one thing I learned when I checked the rain gauge early this morning--0.08 inches of rain is enough to drown a bumblebee. Thanks to our prodigious flower display this year the bumblebees aren't exactly endangered on top of LeConte. Last night just before midnight we heard some distant thunder making some bellicose threats as it rumbled toward us and our neighbor mountain, Clingman's Dome. However, like a middle school bully, once it reached our backyard that boastful thunder whimpered away in the night. Usually a couple of times a week one of our friends who hikes LeConte regularly will bring us up a newspaper, which is greatly appreciated in the black hole of news. I was perusing the Knoxville News Sentinel from Wednesday, Aug. 7 and read something I liked about fair Mt. LeConte. Greg Johnson, the columnist, has been up to see us plenty on LeConte and always seems happy to be here. He also wrote a book of meditations about his hikes in the Smokies titled Sanctuary. He's given us a copy of the book for our guests to read in the LeConte Lodge office. At any rate, Greg is traveling in Italy and examines the impact of mountains on culture and commerce, specifically Mt. Etna (which he planned to summit Thursday) and Mt. LeConte (a little closer to home). Please check out the Sentinel if you'd like to read the whole column, "Reminders of Home While in Italy," but I particularly liked the following section of Greg's work. "To climb LeConte, for me and hundreds of other East Tennesseans, is the experience of a lifetime every time. To climb LeConte is to experience life in a few hours walking; the struggle, the strain, the pain, the rest, the respite and, finally, the touch of transcendence. To summit is sublime." Well said Greg. I can't top that. Here's hoping you had an enjoyable hike up Mt. Etna. Tell the good folks in Italy that we have a fine mountain waiting on them in Tennessee. Happy trails. Hello again to all of you High on LeConte readers. This is Nathan, and I'll be filling in through Sunday to keep you up to date on LeConte news until Allyson returns from quick days off.
Not 20 minutes ago I was working on some projects around the lodge and had to put on a hat to keep my bald head from getting sunburned. Now, as of 2:28 p.m., I'm watching raindrops fall outside the window. Most of the morning and early afternoon were cloudy, though the forecast today and Saturday calls for a 70 percent chance of rain. On Thursday we topped out at 65 degrees with an overnight low of 56 after totaling a scant 0.05 inches of rain. One of the best things about working at LeConte Lodge is all the interesting people you get to meet. I have two to introduce to you today. We were honored to host Dick McAliley and his family again. Dick celebrated his 85th birthday with us last night with a host of his family in attendance--all hiking in special 85th birthday yellow shirts they had printed for the occasion. Dick has hiked LeConte every year since 1990 except one. A man of few words, Dick told me, "missed 1998--had a stroke." His tone reminded me of the way others might lament a sore throat. Dick has a prized hiking stick with lots of character--medallions from trails he's notched and hand-lettered dates from each of his LeConte hikes. I'm glad he'll get to add "August 8, 2013" to his venerable hiking stick. From the LeConte crew standpoint, we're also appreciative Dick brought his granddaughter, Katie, back to see us. Katie was a member of the fine 2009 and 2010 LeConte Lodge crews, and she loves being back on the mountain. It was also nice to see Jerry Luth of Findlay, Ohio again. Jerry's Friday day hike marked his 100th trip up LeConte. Jerry, age 72, was escorted by his 8-year-old grandson, Jake Sewell of Dublin, Ohio, who was making his third trip up LeConte. Jerry didn't start his LeConte ascents until he was 60 years old. He has hiked the mountain 55 times in the last three years, which beats my total and I work here. Interestingly enough, Jerry counts his favorite LeConte hiking combination as coming up Bullhead Trail and descending Rainbow Falls Trail. The majority of our hikers prefer to climb Rainbow and descend Bullhead. Have a fine day. Happy trails. It is a guessing game as to the weather for today. We awoke to heavy cloud coverage and it is now sunny with bits of blue sky peeking through. Hopefully the good weather will stay with us while Chris and I hike down tonight. We will be gone for a couple of days. Time to take a breather and recharge so I can come back and finish up the busy summer. Yesterday was a bit wet with .35" falling on the mountain. The high was 65º with a low of 52º. If this weather pattern continues over the next couple of months, I hate to think what kind of snow fall we could get. I hope everyone has a great weekend. Chris and I will be running a Color Me Rad race in Knoxville. We will be back on Sunday. Enjoy Nathan's stories and happy hiking.
It may have been a gloomy day on the mountain, but something was shining. It must have been that new ring on Laura Brake's finger. She and her boyfriend, Kevin Strausbaugh, hiked up for the day. While enjoying the view from the back porch, Kevin went down on one knee and whipped out a ring box. You can tell by the huge smiles, and the ring on her finger, that Laura said yes. They met a year ago in Yellowstone National Park. He soon moved from Oregon to Tennessee to be with her. I find it only fitting that they got engaged in another National Park. Congratulations, Kevin and Laura. It made my day to witness the exciting moment.
The rain held off for the day, but it remained cloudy. I am afraid we are not going to be so lucky today. They are calling for thunderstorms all around us. I am sure we will get some of that rain. I am getting a lot of questions about Rainbow Falls trail. As I said in an earlier post, we are suggesting for people to not use Rainbow when there is chance of heavy rain. The problem is the creek crossing just above the falls. It appears that the flow of the creek has shifted which creates a massive amount of water at the crossing area. When we receive heavy rain on the mountain, it causes high water in that area. It can be unsafe to cross. If it is a dry day, go ahead and use Rainbow. We are suggesting people use Bullhead when there is any chance of heavy rain. There are rain drops falling on the mountain, but we can see the valley below. The clouds do not look promising for clearing out. I think it is going to be a read indoors kind of day. Yesterday was beautiful. The high was 69º with a low of 45º. There seems to be a push to get that last vacation in before school starts. We have seen a lot of kids over the past few days. I love watching the children get excited when they discover some cool insect or salamander while exploring the mountain. I wonder how many little LeConte Lodge guests will become future Park Rangers?
I had to really look to find this jewel weed flower. For some reason they are not doing so well this year. This is one of my favorite flowers around the lodge. I have always known these flowers to be called touch-me-not. I learned, as a small child, the wonders of medicinal plants and this one is great for taking away the itch of poison ivy. One Sevier country resident told me how she takes the stem, breaks it up, and puts it in ice cube trays with some water. She then freezes it and when you need a bit of itch relief, you take it out of the freezer and melt the ice. You then have the natural anti-itch relief all year round. I have also heard tale of the blackberries starting to come out. They are not ripe yet, but we are keeping an eye on them. It will be interesting to see how they do this season. I have heard folks talk about the ones below not doing so well.
It is a beautiful day on the mountain. The high yesterday was 60º with a low of 42º. We can not complain of the temperatures being too hot this year. They are nice and cool. It is a rainy Sunday morning on the mountain. It is nice to have a window full of flowers when all of the other views are socked in. Our guests had a great day for a hike up yesterday. The high was 67º. It did get cool last night. The low was 48º. The rain held off until this morning. Someone asked about the oldest and youngest person to stay on the mountain, I know that our manager, Tim Line, brought his two week old son up the mountain. I would guess that is the youngest? I know there are a couple of you folks out there that will know the oldest. If I am remembering correctly, I am going to say 91? If any of you know differently, feel free to chime in.
If you are hiking up today, take it slow and remember to bring extra, dry clothing with you. It is chilly up here and you will cold quickly. Happy Hiking Our fellow crew member, Bethany, was super excited to have her family make there annual trip up LeConte. They brought 31 people this time, including baby Lily. Lily is Bethany's new niece, as of three months ago. When I walked into the lodge to meet the newest Houghton family member, she was cozy in the hammock they had improvised. I was so impressed I thought we should share it on the blog. Lily was having a good ole' time swinging back and forth. I must say, I was a bit jealous. They had a beautiful day for bringing her up the mountain. The sun was out for the better part of the day. The high yesterday was 65º with a low of 52º. It is currently partly cloudy with a hint of blue sky hanging around.
After a couple of days of rain, the sun has come back out. Yesterday was a bit gloomy around the lodge. We received .41" of rain. The high was 59º with a low of 47º. It always helps lift our spirits to awake to the sun rising up over High Top. I am sure today is going to be a busy day. I think there are a lot of folks trying to get that last summer vacation in before the kids go back to school. Today is a good day for that hike. Come on up and see us. We will have plenty of lemonade waiting for you.
Chris and I were talking about the amount of rainfall we have had this season and we think that the rain has provided us with the best year of monks hood we have ever seen. The monks hood flowers are the purple flowers in the picture above. They are growing like crazy, of course, everything is growing like crazy. Everyone is posting about mowing their lawns, Chris has not been able to play with his new weed eater as much as he would like to. It has been way to wet. I thought I would tally up the rainfall for the months of Jan. - July. It is a rough tally but the number I came up with is a little over 68" of rainfall. That is not including snowfall. We received over 30" of rain in June and July alone. We did get rain yesterday and it is currently raining now. The high yesterday was 68º with a low of 50º.
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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
April 2024
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