Good afternoon to all of you from the top of LeConte. This is Nathan, filling in to give you news from the lodge. While Halloween festivities are planned, the chance of severe winter weather tops our list of concerns for the weekend. We'll try to juggle responsibilities to provide a LeConte Lodge weather update on this site by 9 a.m. Saturday to help those of you deciding whether to hike up.
We saw a few light flurries early this afternoon while loading the llamas. However, the clouds have enveloped us with a light mist floating around at mid-afternoon. The temperature at 3 p.m. is 33 degrees. Thursday's high reached 47, but I don't expect we'll be seeing the mercury rise that high for a few days. The overnight low sank to 23 degrees. The weather forecast continues to bump up the expected snow accumulation on top of LeConte. It's extraordinarily tough to forecast up here, but we've heard some reports telling us to be prepared for more than a foot of snow. The snow is supposed to begin this evening and continue through Saturday night, followed by bitterly cold temperatures until Monday or Tuesday. Maybe we don't get any snow at all, but I wouldn't dare think of hiking LeConte this weekend without first-class gear (including some ice traction devices like YakTrax, Microspikes and the like) and some winter hiking experience. Regardless of the snow accumulation, the temperatures during the weekend will be "killing cold" and windy if you're unlucky enough to get injured on the trail. Keep in mind it will take most of the day (and maybe night) to perform a rescue in tough conditions, and there will be no possibility for helicopter airlift or probably even an evacuation by horse. Also keep in mind that if U.S. Highway 441 is closed between Gatlinburg and Cherokee that hiking the Boulevard Trail or Alum Cave Bluff Trail is ruled out. We'd recommend Rainbow Falls Trail (a 6.5-mile, one-way hike) if 441 is closed, which would keep our hikers on the same trail. Remember that the road to the Trillium Gap trailhead closes Saturday through mid-May. The trail is still open, but you'll have to hike extra mileage from the Rainbow Falls/Bullhead parking lot to access it. To answer a question from yesterday, we have made arrangements with the National Park Service to allow the llamas to resupply LeConte Lodge through the close of this season. ROAD CLOSURE ADVISORY Due to the Park Service replacing bridges, Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail (access road to Grotto Falls/Trillium Gap trail heads) will be closed from the evening of Friday, October 31, 2014 through mid-May 2015. To check on other road closures in the Park, please check NPS website at: http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/seasonalroads.htm . Finally, I heard that Chris gave an excellent eulogy for David Scanlon last night. Allyson's comments on this site regarding David were spot on. He was an excellent ambassador for Mt. LeConte, always so welcoming and friendly to newly-minted day hikers. He always had something kind, interesting and encouraging to say to the mountain's newcomers, old-timers and staff. You didn't have to visit with David long to realize the depth of his knowledge and love for the Smokies. People he had befriended on the trail or at the lodge would often ask him how many times he had hiked LeConte. I remember one time in August, I think, he replied, "77." I was around to hear that and let the folks know that they needed to add 900 to that total for a truer picture. I don't know exactly how many LeConte hikes David made, but I would guess within two or three trips of 982. He was a delightful man. He loved coming up to help out with the llamas. He'd always arrive a little before the llama train, pour himself a glass of Tang and visit with any of us lucky enough to have finished our chores. He would help feed the llamas leftover pancakes and biscuits and help us unload the clean sheets and food from the critters if we were short on help. He was also a fascinating man, who had lived an interesting life, including working in Liberia several decades ago. Despite his life experiences, he always took time to learn the stories of each staff member and kept up with us. David usually hiked up once a week during the LeConte guest season. I remember doing the math early this season and regretting that I wouldn't be on staff next year for his 1,000th hike. However, Nicholette, Ruthie and I talked about them baking a cake for him in 2015 and making a big event of it. He deserved that and with each visit to LeConte Lodge made our days nicer. Happy trails David.
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What a beautiful afternoon I am writing from! It is cold and clear as a bell up on top today and this is Ruthie again. A very important road closing announcement today:
ROAD CLOSURE ADVISORY Due to the Park Service replacing bridges, Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail (access road to Grotto Falls/Trillium Gap trail heads) will be closed from the evening of Friday, October 31, 2014 through mid-May 2015. To check on other road closures in the Park, please check NPS website at: http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/seasonalroads.htm . And now for the weather! As i mentioned before it is all blue skies and frosty temperatures today. Our high yesterday was only 45 and the low reached 26 making for a chilly night. Please be aware that there is snow in the forecast for this weekend, starting on Friday night, and accumulation is predicted. This of course means please please please pack very warmly, have traction for your feet, keep waterproof gear with you at all times and just because it isn't warm anymore, don't forget to stay just as hydrated while hiking! The mountain is beautiful in the snow, but it can also be treacherous so don't let the winter wonderland go to your head and continue to practice safe hiking! I hope to see lots of smiling faces (with warm hats on, of course) this weekend and please don't forget about the access to Trillium Gap Trail being closed! Have a lovely rest of your afternoon and stay warm! It is a wet morning on our favorite mountain top. We are experiencing heavy cloud coverage and light rain. I have become spoiled over the last few days. The weather has been picture perfect. The high yesterday was 59º with a low of 44º. Hard to believe the weather prediction for this weekend is snow showers. If you are hiking up this weekend, you can keep an eye on the weather through this link, http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?zoneid=TNZ074#.VFDT_ufzRZg.
If you are hiking up this weekend, make sure you have plenty of warm layers to change into when you reach the top. If you are day hiking and you find it is taking longer to hike up than you expect, remember, you are only half way once you reach the top. You still have to hike down. It is getting dark around 6:45. It will probably take you about an hour less then it did to hike up. Turn around if you calculate that you will not have enough day light to reach your car. We have seen a lot of day hikers on the mountain around 5:30 and when asked, they have no flashlight or experience hiking at night. Remember, these words of advice are for novice hikers. If you have small children with you, make sure you get them off the mountain in plenty of time. We do not want another case of families spending the night out in these temperatures. One other thing to remember, if you introduce your children to hiking and they have a horrible experience, you may have turned them off to the great outdoors for the rest of their lives. That would be a shame. Chris and I will be hiking off the mountain tomorrow. We are attending the memorial service for our dear friend, David Scanlon. Ruthie and Nathan will be keeping our entertained for a while. They will update you on trail conditions. Be safe and happy hiking. Did we skip winter? It felt like a warm spring day on the mountain. The high was 68º and the low was 46º. The crew had on their t-shirts while sitting out enjoying the sunshine. It was a great day for a hike. Tim's wife Lisa made the trip up the mountain. She comes up at least once a year and works on the dining room chairs. This time she brought her best friend, Carol Ann Vaughan, and taught her the art of chair caning. Carol Ann seems to be a natural at this art form. Our chairs are going to look like new when they are all done.
Yesterday was a perfect day to go for a hike and say goodbye to our friend. There are still some vibrant colors in the lower elevations. The storm that blew through a couple of weeks left some leaves on the trees. The high yesterday was 55º with a low of 42º. It is already 50º this morning. It is looking like we will have another gorgeous day up top.
We are officially at the one month mark for the end of the 2014 season. Our room is starting to feel cold and empty. We have sent most of our belongings down the mountain and we are left with what we need for the next four weeks. This next week will put the busy October to bed and the mountain will start settling down for a long winters nap. But, before we tuck October in, we still have the Halloween Pumpkin Carving Contest! The crew is looking forward to showing their creativity and hoping the guests pick their pumpkin as the most creative. The winner gets to sleep in the next morning. That is a big deal when you report to work at 7:40 a.m. This is one of the toughest posts I will have had to write during my stint on this blog. It is with great sadness we learned of the passing of our dear friend David Scanlon. He graced us with his smiling face and gentle soul almost every week. He hated to miss a Monday due to holidays or weather, so he would hike up another day during the week. He enjoyed bringing us the paper and catching up on the weeks news. David was a true advocate for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He served as an officer on the boards of the Great Smoky Mountains Association and Discover Life in America. He was an avid hiker and completed all 900 miles of trail in the park. David was a long time member of the Smoky Mountain Hiking Club and had the opportunity to lead many hikes for them. His knowledge of this park and its history was abundant. Mt. LeConte was added to his long list of passions in 1966. He told us his first hike up was a memorable one. He was excited to have met Harvey Broome at the lodge. Mr. Broome and then lodge operator, Herrick Brown, entertained the guests with stories of this beloved mountain. Twelve years on this mountain has provided many memories of sitting across the lunch table with David and discussing the latest current affairs, what flowers were blooming in the lower elevations, what hikes he went on over the week, and what trips he had taken recently. He was a wealth of knowledge and we are better people for having had him in our lives. September 30th, 2014 was David's last hike up his favorite mountain. He had close to 1000 trips to the lodge. David Scanlon will be dearly missed. May his soul rest in peace.
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. I suspect the trails will be busy with hikers getting out to enjoy this perfect autumn day. I guess it might not as busy considering the college football game that is happening in Knoxville. It is a tough day on the mountain. Thank goodness all of our Alabama fans are on days off. Just kidding Jeanie and Ruthie, but I am a Bama girl with orange blood and a VOL heart. I would imagine this will be one of the games we listen to on our radio in the kitchen.
Yesterday's temperatures were a bit extreme. We went from 58º, during the day, to 32º last night. The cooler weather has made for some great views. I keep hoping to see the northern lights one last time before I leave. Chris and I have had the pleasure of seeing them twice in our twelve years. They were a faint glimpse of what they are up north, but I still think it is cool that we saw them in Tennessee. Time to go make a ton of hot chocolate. Today is going to be filled with tons of laughter and comradery between fellow hikers. Happy Hiking. First of all, I want to apologize for the lack of a post yesterday. We had some technical difficulties that we finally determined to be an issue with the website. It was another jaw dropping day yesterday. Bright blue skies and fairly warm temperatures. The high was 50º with a low of 37º. A perfect day to be in the woods and judging by the traffic on the mountain, a lot of folks agreed with me.
I am sure you are wondering why I posted a picture of a hollow tree. Well, I don't know how many of you know this, that tree could be a perfect den for a bear this winter. Our black bears tend to prefer trees like this where they can climb up into the top section and wedge themselves in good and tight. The female bears also give birth to their cubs during this period. I like to think there is a bear snoring away in his cozy den when I pass these trees while on my winter hikes. Another place they like to den is in rhododendron thickets and large crevices in rock formations. So, have fun looking for perfect bear dens while on your hikes. I think you will find some great neighborhoods out there. It was certainly a different trip up the mountain than Nathan had a week ago. It was gorgeous in the lower elevations. It wasn't until we reached a quarter of a mile to the lodge that we started hiking in the clouds. What a difference the clouds make. It was a bit cold up top. If you are hiking up, please remember to bring dry layers to put on. I started out in a t-shirt and had to put on my jacket for the last section in the clouds. The high yesterday was 40º with a chilling low of 26º.
This is the time of year when the weather can change on a dime. I start carrying my ice traction up and down the mountain. I know you have been reading about it a lot lately, that is only because we feel being prepared can make a huge difference between life and death, especially this time of year. Please be careful and always let someone know where you are going and when you return from your hike. If you are not an avid hiker, research the trails you are planning on hiking. Have a general knowledge of what you should expect. Preparedness will go a long way in making your trip a success. Happy and safe hiking. See you at the top. Hello to you all. After a beautiful sunset and sunrise, that golden orb is still our companion this afternoon on Mt. LeConte, though some clouds appear to be building in the valley. Like Friday and Sunday, this is just about perfect October weather. We tallied no precipitation with a high and low of 56-27.
In the midst of all this beautiful October weather, I'm going to flip back the calendar two years and recount what I recall from our bout with Superstorm Sandy in 2012. October is our regular month for our first taste of flurries, though one year we saw some in September according to our weather chart in the office. This year we've already seen a few lonely flurries flitting around the evening sky more than two weeks ago now. Sometimes October snows accumulate but usually don't present too much of a problem for those prepared for the conditions. In late October 2012, Superstorm Sandy proved a whole different breed of cat. In my gut, I thought we'd get between eight inches and a foot of snow. We ended up getting about three feet of snow piled on us. It snowed for three days straight. We always preach how different the weather can be in Gatlinburg versus LeConte. Superstorm Sandy provided a textbook case. The vertical mile of elevation between the summit of LeConte and Gatlinburg made all the difference, as the folks at the base of the mountain didn't even get flurries while we were buried in three feet of snow. It's a rarity to hold on to guests for extra nights because of weather conditions. Our policy is that if any trail to LeConte Lodge is open, we are open, during our regular operating season. However, we did have a few guests stay an extra couple of nights until Rainbow Falls Trail became passable. As crew, we still had work to do--guests to feed, dishes to wash, beds to make, bathrooms to clean, food to stock, etc. I well remember the futility of shoveling snow to keep the walkways between the cabins, restrooms, office and dining room open. We would shovel like crazy before breakfast and come out midmorning to find all the work we'd done erased by a white carpet. The more we shoveled, the more the snow taunted us. In the end, it looked like a World War I reenactment (without the mustard gas) with bundled-up people darting through the trenches between the cabins with snowdrifts piled up high. I also remember the snow drifts building between the bottom of the stairs and the dining room. The snow collected in that corner so high that Chris could walk on snowshoes directly from the ground to the roof of the dining room. The weather finally broke on Oct. 31, Halloween. When the gray veil finally lifted, the skies exulted in a shade of blue no word does justice to describe. The sun was blinding. Looking up the steps from the dining room, the contrast between the blanket of white, the blue sky and what remained of the vibrant red mountain ash berries was stunning. The snow completely covered the railings down the stairs to the dining room. One of my favorite non-scenery photos from that season on LeConte was the jack-o-lanterns on display on snow steps we made above the buried railings. The candles wouldn't stay lit long because the wind still howled, but the orange light flickering on the snow was memorable. That's certainly not the case today with our nice weather, but it's nice to go back and recall nearly the two-year anniversary of the biggest October snow on LeConte in decades. It's even nicer that I don't have to carry 12 dozen eggs across a sheet of ice today. Happy trails. |
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June 2024
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