I hope everyone's weekend is off to a fine start. We've been plenty busy with folks coming up to see us. However, the weather hasn't been much to shout about today unless you're passionate about gray. When I woke up at 4:50 a.m. the skies were clear, and I could see from Knoxville to Newport. The stars felt so close I feel like we should have charged them a lodging fee. However, that quickly changed and we've been in a thick cloud the rest of the day. Our visibility right now is about 100 feet.
Friday's high reached 61 for the second day in a row. The official low was 36, but that was actually recorded immediately after the weather observation on Friday morning. Saturday morning's low was about 47 and the temperature as of early afternoon has only climbed a couple of degrees. I expect the next few days to be colder. In today's High on LeConte update I'd like to provide a sampling from the guest register in the LeConte Lodge office. I know that some of our readers can't physically hike the mountain anymore for a variety of reasons, so I especially wanted to bring the comments of some current hikers direct to you. Also, I know many of you have spent more time on the phone than you would have liked this week for LeConte Lodge reservations. The traffic on the line has slowed down some at the office, and Christi (a fine person and our longtime reservation specialist) has earned a weekend without answering the phone. We appreciate your passion for the place and hope you'll get a chance to stay with us in 2013. I hope these comments remind you of why you love LeConte in the first place. As most of you know, the guest registry isn't strictly for overnight guests. If you day hike LeConte, you've earned the right to sign in. The majority of the comments fall into the categories of "amazing, great, loved it, awesome, gorgeous, hard, fantastic, long or worth the climb." We even got an "awesome" in Hebrew--"sababa" in October. I hope that's right, as my Hebrew is a little rusty. However, other comments are a little more colorful. I'm going to pass along a few of those to give you a feel for what some of our visitors have been thinking when arriving at the lodge. Even though most people leave their names and the register is public, I'll just be listing the comments. All of these comments were written since Aug. 31. "I want to move here." "Add to the bucket list. Beautiful day." "10-year engagement anniversary." "Honored to be here." "Perfect day." "Another day in paradise." "First trip after cancer." "Amazing trip, view and crew." "Bloody wet." "We are Alum alums." "Such a jewel up on the mountain." "Incredible plant life." "First trip as a Tennessean." "Got engaged last night." "... asked me to marry him ... I said yes." "Great people, great staff." "I don't want to leave." "I almost died--loved it." "Waded up the trail." "Love the llamas." "Very, very hungry." "Steeper than it was at 18." "In memory of my mom." "The most beautiful blue sky day we have ever seen." "Almost like home." Welcome home to LeConte Lodge. Come on up and see us (just make sure you pack appropriately for nasty weather this weekend). Happy trails. I took this photo on the spine of the trail leading to Myrtle Point. This shot looks south toward Clingman's Dome. The photo at the bottom was taken looking north on the other side of LeConte at the same time. They illustrate the difficulty of predicting weather and quality of sunrises and sunsets on LeConte.
Good afternoon to everyone. Things are hopping on the mountain as the Smokies swell with October visitors. I don't blame them; the mountains are wonderful. I worked 17 hours yesterday, and today looks to be every bit as busy as we welcome even more guests and day hikers. Today I'm writing about the difficulty of predicting the weather on Mt. LeConte. We were talking about the forecast the other day when Walt reminded me of an old saying I hadn't heard in a long time. "Only fools and flatlanders try to predict the weather in the mountains." I'm about to give you the weather report, and I'm no flatlander (which puts me squarely in the fool camp I guess). Thursday saw a high of 61 and low of 36. It was beautiful almost all day. So far Friday reminds me of its predecessor. It's been another pretty day at LeConte Lodge. The weekend forecast I heard this morning called for increased chance of precipitation moving through Saturday and into Sunday plus significantly lower temperatures. For those of you hiking up, I expect we'll be below freezing for overnight lows at least two nights in the very near future. All of this means that the crew will be paying particular attention to the LeConte Guess the First Snow Contest. In general, we receive much more precipitation (rain and snow) than the other folks in the Tennessee Valley. Until you've lived up here you just can't imagine how fast the clouds move over the mountain. It's something to behold. We're often living in the cloud as folks in the valley are enjoying sunny skies. If they look up at the summit of LeConte from below, we're often donning a sombrero of clouds. As a crew member you're often asked how sunset or sunrise should look; is it worth hiking out to see? The truth is most days we can only guess as there's a fine line between being clouded in and experiencing a sunset you'll remember for a lifetime. Sunset can even be a dramatically different experience in the short 0.2 miles from the lodge to Cliff Tops. Just a few days ago, the cloud layers parted just enough at sunset to allow the colors to bounce between the layers of clouds and paint the summit pink. It looked like a sunset layer cake. So, if a crew member is hesitant to predict the prospects for a sunset or sunrise, they're just being honest. It can change in a hurry. Here's hoping you get a memorable one for your next trip up LeConte. Feel free to write about your favorite LeConte sunrise or sunset in the comments section. Happy trails. Like the above photo, this shot was taken on the spine of the trail leading to Myrtle Point, this time looking to the north (on the Pigeon Forge side of LeConte). Keep in mind that both of today's photos were taken from the same spot in the trail within 30 seconds of each other with dramatically different views.
Hello to everyone. We're sky high in the middle of another beautiful day on Mt. LeConte. The weather is delightful and temperature pitch perfect. Our high topped out at 61 Wednesday with a mild overnight low of 43. I fully expect that low to get chopped down over the weekend.
In today's update I aim to tackle the most consistently asked question of a LeConte Lodge crew member. Every one of us answers this question at least five times a week, and that may be a conservative estimate. "Do you live here or do you hike up and down every day?" It's certainly a fair question, and I'll try to explain how that all works from a crew member's perspective. I always enjoy the wonderment on a first-time hiker's face when they reach the lodge and have no inkling that anything would be up here on top of LeConte. Taking in all LeConte has to offer and trying to figure out how these "mountain people" make it work is a lot to soak up after a hard hike. The quick answer to the most asked question: Yes we do live up here except for eight days a month. We all live in crew quarters. As a general rule, most of the cabins above the dining room are guest quarters. Meanwhile, the cabins below the dining room are crew quarters. Sometimes we share a cabin, but we all have our own room. You know about the lack of electricity and connected bathroom before you come up to work, so that's not a big deal. We use kerosene lamps and headlamps in our cabins just like our guests. We also use the same restrooms and clean them every mid-morning, though they do see a lot of traffic. They're certainly the nicest restrooms in the East above 6,000 feet. Considering some of the above limitations dictated by the location, our crew quarters are fine setups compared to housing in many other seasonal jobs. All of us have our rooms decorated with photos, books and different mementos from home. We have our own space, which is something of a rarity in this lifestyle. In Antarctica, I had three roommates in a tiny space. Thus, I really like my room on LeConte. Even after working in some of the most magnificent spots in the nation, the view from my porch on LeConte ranks tough to beat. We're open from mid-March (March 19 this year) until the day before Thanksgiving. We do have a winter caretaker (last year and this winter that person will be J.P., who does a fine job for us) who stays up during the offseason--December, January and February--to look after the place. However, we are not open and have no guest services available during the winter. The crew usually hikes up in early March as it takes a couple of weeks to get the lodge ready and stocked for opening, especially if we have nasty weather. Each crew member gets eight days off each month. Almost without exception, we hike down for our days off. As long as there are enough crew members up to run the lodge operations, you can take all your eight days together or split them up, depending on your plans. While down we try to stock up on some luxuries hard to find on top of LeConte--salad, ice cream, okra and sweet mint tea being favorite examples for me. Some crew members head home to visit family on off days. Others hole up with friends. Others spend time in campgrounds, motels or in the backcountry during hiking trips. Some attend concerts or work limited days on other jobs if you can finesse the schedule. I plan to early vote on my October off days, while others will apply for absentee ballots and some will be down on Election Day in November. Our schedule does force you to plan to maximize your off-time. I can always tell how hectic my off days are by how much cable news and how many episodes of "Bonanza" I get to watch. If I watched enough to hum the "Bonanza" theme song when I return to the mountain (which irritates my fine coworkers to no end, especially if I also sing the words), then I at least got a little rest on my off days. In the days when the Huff family ran LeConte Lodge, crew members stayed up the entire season (though the season was a bit shorter with a lower guest capacity). While we enjoy being on LeConte, current crew members want no part of those "good old days." Off days make you better for your "on days." I hope that answers a few questions. Thanks for reading. Come up and see us. Happy trails. I pass along regards to all of you on a beautiful day on top of LeConte. The ugly weather moved out, and we're basking in a sun-kissed day at the top of Tennessee. Tuesday's high was 57 with an overnight low of 44. We received a scant 0.04 inches of rain Tuesday morning before the weather system bid us adieu.
I've always loved fall. There are things I love about each season, but there's just not much to dislike about autumn in East Tennessee. The views open up under azure skies. The mountains put on a pageant, emblazoned with colors Crayola wish it invented. The clouds are fluffier, stars are brighter and temperatures pegged at perfect. That lucky old sun is our welcomed guest today, and we're going to put it to work pumping water from the spring with our solar pump. With all the gray days recently, our water tanks haven't been as full as I'd like. With the sun crowning the top of LeConte, I've got a good partner for running the solar water pump today. It's a good feeling to fill those water tanks and not use a drop of fuel to do it. We've been fortunate to host some fine folks up on the mountain recently. A nice group of ladies hiked up to spend the night with us recently with some roses in tow. I'm not sure I'm clever enough to get anything that delicate up the trail, but those ladies sure boasted a nice centerpiece for supper on LeConte. Based on their packing expertise, I think the women may secretly be the same folks who expertly pack our fresh eggs for the llama trip up the mountain. I enjoyed visiting with Kip and Jean Ann Miller of Jackson, Tenn. (the land of Casey Jones and Carl Perkins) this afternoon. Kip and Jean Ann were enjoying their 239th hike up LeConte as a couple. Jean Ann was also celebrating her 79th birthday Wednesday (she gave me permission to post that). Kip counted 80 candles on his last birthday cake. In 2000, Kip had bypass surgery and then notched his 100th trip up Mt. LeConte just 24 days after surgery. We're lucky to meet so many interesting people up here High on LeConte. Happy trails. Good afternoon to all of you High on LeConte readers. Today I'm continuing with the Meet the Crew biographies. Walt Andrews takes center stage on Tuesday. Walt is wrapping up his second season on the LeConte Lodge crew after also working in 2011.
From my perspective, Walt's travels rate impressive. He didn't mention all of them in his bio (which is his right), but Johnny Cash may have been singing about Walt in "I've Been Everywhere." Walt can also flat out fly on the trail, hence the "Fastest from Lascassas." More importantly, Walt's a fine cabinmate. It's a rare and impressive person who can be described as a good neighbor and aspiring banjo picker with only a thin wall between you. I'll turn the rest of the bio over to Walt before closing with the weather report. --------------------- I returned to these mountains from western states where I spent most of my 20s. I guided and worked as a field ecologist before coming to work at LeConte. A summer in the San Juan Islands whet my appetite for life in the Pacific Northwest. The snow-covered volcanoes rising above Puget Sound drew me west of the Cascades. After finishing degrees at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., I continued to do field work and began climbing again. Through-hikes of the Appalachian and Pacific Crest Trails led to climbs in the High Sierra and Cascades. I couldn't get enough of the mountains and freedom found in the backcountry. I still can't. Walt grew up in Lascassas, Tenn. He enjoys plant ecology, literature and trail runs in the Smoky Mountains. -------------------- Now for the LeConte weather report. After the weather broke about midmorning, Tuesday's skies have been filled with a healthy dose of sunshine, allowing us to peak down in the valley. However, the clouds seem to be rising up from the valley. The forecast calls for a 50 percent chance of rain Tuesday with a chance of severe weather. Wednesday's forecast sounds much nicer. We didn't end up with any severe weather on Monday, just one of the most sustained windy days I remember in my two seasons on LeConte. We also received a whopping 2.74 inches of rain, most of it coming overnight. The 2.74-inch rain tally made Oct. 1 unofficially the second-wettest day since May at LeConte Lodge. The temperatures were kind of odd for a second day in a row. The high temperature of 55 was recorded at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, usually the coldest time of day. The low of 49 came just after Monday morning's weather observation. Happy trails. Good afternoon to all of you. This is Nathan, and I'll be patching in for Allyson for a few days. I'll try to keep you up to date on the LeConte news and may try to introduce you to a couple more crew members in the next week (Walt and Chrissy are up next).
First of all, I'll pass along the weather report. The blustery weather has been mighty ugly today, not exactly chamber of commerce conditions. The rain and wind started up about 4 a.m. and really haven't given us much of a respite, though the rain hasn't been a downpour. The forecast calls for worsening conditions throughout the afternoon and evening, so be prepared and careful if you're coming up to see us. All morning we've been experiencing robust wind. Sunday's high topped out at 58. The official low was 33, but that's a little deceiving. That temperature reading of 33 degrees actually came just after our Sunday morning weather observation. It didn't get colder than 48 degrees Monday morning as the clouds insulated us on LeConte. Had that 33 degrees occurred with this morning's rain, we likely would have had a winner in the crew's annual LeConte Guess the First Snow Contest. Chrissy got on the board first with an October 1 guess. Allyson has won the last two years, so people pay attention to the date she picks. It's something fun to do as the season winds down and the activity of October ramps up. Our Guess the First Snow Contest is kind of like a poor man's Price is Right, except no one ever wins a car or gets to spin the big wheel. You enjoy what you have. The llamas were up eight strong about 11 a.m. They didn't have much of an adoring public to greet them, as the nasty weather conditions kept most dayhikers below in the land of thick air. Even though it was rainy and windy, the llamas much prefer that to the searing heat and humidity of summer. They are definitely boys of spring and fall. After we got the llamas loaded, Mitch, our llama wrangler, said something that you won't hear very often down below (I hope). Mitch was tying the llama string in preparation for the descent down the mountain and placed Rex behind Earl (who is Rex's father). "I've got a bad feeling about you being tied up with your dad," Mitch said. Had that been uttered anywhere else in this fine land there may have been kidnapping charges brought, but life on top of LeConte is a little different. Here's hoping Rex and Earl played nice on the trip back to the farm. Thanks for reading. We'll try to ride out the storms up here and hope crystalline October blue skies are on the way. Happy trails. |
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April 2024
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