 Soon it got dusk, a grapy dusk, a purple dusk over tangerine groves and long melon fields; the sun the color of pressed grapes, slashed with burgandy red, the fields the color of love and Spanish mysteries. Jack Kerouac Morning y'all, It's a beautiful, clear morning up top. The high yesterday reached 38 degrees. The overnight low reached 31 degrees. It was 33 degrees and clear at 7am observation. The mountain received .57 inches of rain yesterday, before stopping abruptly around noon. The trails should be a bit drier after the previous days of rain. There was very little ice on the trails after the warm rain. Get out and enjoy this beautiful Monday! Yesterday was one of my favorite types of days at the Lodge. It was gray and gloomy for much of the day, with rain spitting, winds gusting and the weather basically begging you to stay inside with your favorite book. I did a little reading, then started on some alpine pizza dough with Grace and Ryan. Once we had the dough rising, the sauce on simmer and the toppings prepped, we went out to check out the sunset. It had been a quiet, gray day in the spruce-fir forest, but the moisture of the passing front brought out some seriously rich colours. It was the nicest sunset of this abbreviated season thus far. I just love how one dusk excursion can reset the narrative for a day.
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 What we lose in our great human exodus from the land is a rooted sense, as deep and intangible as religious faith, of why we need to hold on to the wild and beautiful places that once surrounded us. Barbara Kingsolver Morning y'all, It's a warm, rainy morning up top. The high yesterday reached 48 degrees. The overnight low was 36 degrees. It was 36 degrees and raining at 7am observation. The mountain received .87" of rain yesterday and no snow. There is no snow on the ground. The warm rain melted plenty of ice and there is very little left on the trail. The trails are sure to be wet and sloppy. Don't forget your rain gear. Please keep in mind - THE LODGE IS CLOSED FOR THE SEASON. THERE ARE NO ACCOMODATIONS AVAILABLE UP TOP.  Nature was here something savage and awful, though beautiful. I looked with awe at the ground I trod on, to see what the Powers had made there, the form and fashion and material of their work. This was that Earth of which we have heard, made out of Chaos and Old Night. Here was no man's garden, but the unhandselled globe. It was not lawn, nor pasture, nor mead, nor woodland, nor lea, nor arable, nor waste-land. It was the fresh and natural surface of the planet Earth, as it was made forever and ever. Thoreau Morning y'all, It's a blustery, warm morning up top. The high yesterday reached 42 degrees. The overnight low was 26 degrees, recorded early yesterday morning. It was 42 degrees and cloudy at 7am observation. The mountain received no measurable precipitation and there is no snowfall on the ground. The trails are a little soggy and are sure to be a bit slick. I wouldn't say that Microspikes are a necessity, but I would recommend carrying them if they give you peace of mind. Get out and enjoy this breezy Saturday!  The adrenaline and stress of an adventure are better than a thousand peaceful days. Paulo Coelho Morning y'all, It's a cold, gray day up top. The high yesterday reached 26 degrees. The overnight low was 2 degrees and it was recorded around 10am yesterday. It was 26 degrees and clear at 7am observation. The mountain received no new precipitation and there is no snow on the ground. The trails are in good shape - I hiked up Alum yesterday without spikes and had no problem. There are a few short sections where you need to rock hop, but it is not a serious concern quite yet. Get out and enjoy this lovely Friday! I had a wonderful hike down to the valley with my friends Grace, Casey and Eliza. It was intensely cold up top yesterday morning - the thermometer kept plummeting after I did 7am observation. It was so cold that we could see our breath in the kitchen and our eggs were slightly frozen. We left at 10am (when the thermometer read 1.8 degrees) and headed down Alum. The warm sun on the ledgey sections was much appreciated. The ambient temperature was so cold that the ice almost felt sticky, rather than slick. It was my first truly bitter cold day since I was caretaking at the AMC's Carter Notch Hut in the White Mountains this past April. On that blustery day, I ran up to Carter Dome in shorts, a wool baselayer and Microspikes. I was tired of letting the bitter cold dictate my running and decided not to pay much attention to the forecast that morning. If the sun was out, I would go. I got what I deserved and was greeted with sub-zero windchills up top. I hid behind a rock and ate a Snicker bar, waved at the Presidentials, then started my icy descent. Winter's cold brings specific joys - I missed the way your breathing seizes with each cold pulse of air and how distinctly good the sunshine feels relative to just how cold everything else is. The cold itself is an isolator - it keeps people at home, leaving those of us who venture onto the trails to an entirely different mindscape.  Which is why the hour or so I spend running, maintaining my own silent, private time, is important to help me keep my mental well-being. When I'm running I don't have to talk to anybody and don't have to listen to anybody. All I need to do is gaze at the scenery passing by. This is a part of my day I can't do without. Murakami Morning y'all, It's a cold, foggy day up top. The high yesterday reached 33 degrees. The overnight low got down to 6 degrees. It was 6 degrees and foggy at 7am observation. The mountain received no new precipitation and there is no snow on the ground. The trails are likely to be quite frosty today and there could be more ice on the trail. I would recommend bringing some sort of traction device if you intend to reach the summit. Get out and enjoy this cold, cold day! I've got to get out the door and investigate this frost!  I do believe in simplicity. It is astonishing as well as sad, how many trivial affairs even the wisest man thinks he must attend to in a day; how singular an affair he thinks he must omit. When the mathmatician would solve a difficult problem, he first frees the equation of all encumbrances, and reduces it to its simplest terms. So simplify the problem of life, distinguish between the necessary and the real. Probe the earth to see where your main roots run. Thoreau Morning y'all, It's a beautiful, clear morning up top. It is our first undercast of the season! Clouds are spread as far as the eye can see this morning. The high yesterday reached 39 degrees. The overnight low was 23 degrees. It was 24 degrees and clear at 7am observation. The mountain received .21" of rain yesterday, mostly in misty bouts throughout the day. The trails are sure to be a bit icy and soggy, so beware! I have seen folks make it up in much worse without traction, but I would recommend carrying a pair of Microspikes just in case. Get out and enjoy this beautiful day! I did some light exploring through the mist yesterday afternoon. I have always believed that the weather in the Park is one of its great attractions. With a different humidity level every day, there is always something new happening to the views and to the light. It is difficult to feel like you have a handle on a place when it is in constant flux.  Poverty gave him all his wealth. The leisure to spend a day, whenever he chose, walking twenty or thirty miles, or voyaging about the river in December, when the drops froze on his oars, pleased with the silvery chime of the icicles against the stem of his button brushes. Van Wyck Brooks Morning y'all, It's a calm, cloudy morning up top. The high yesterday reached 38 degrees. The overnight low was 28 degrees. It was 33 degrees and cloudy at 7am observation. The mountain received .57" of rain yesterday, mostly in the morning. It looks like it will be in and out of the clouds today. I would expect the trails to have some ice, but nothing too hazardous. It feels like another quiet day to be out - enjoy!  Top photo: The evening show. Above: Grace and some evergreen silhouettes. I spent another day laying around the cabin yesterday (morning came and morning went...), reading books and listening to the rain. After the rain subsided around 1, I was surprised to realize that it looked like the makings of a fine sunset. Grace and I headed out at 5 and caught a great episode of 'caretaker tv'. I am enamored with that time of day. The evening light has a great angle to it, highlighting the understory of jagged rocks, soil and strange mosses bathed in a warm orange. With the coming evening chill, there was a fragile ice starting to set in along the outer edges of the puddles on trail. We walked back along that familiar old path in a dense dark, just before the bright moon rose over High Top.  We must unhumanize our views a little, and become confident / As the rock and ocean we are made from. Robinson Jeffers Morning y'all,
It's a foggy, drizzly morning up top. The high yesterday reached 38 degrees. The overnight low was 28 degrees. It was 37 degrees and raining at 7am observation. The rain started around 4am up top and it rained .24" as of this morning. Rain is in the forecast until this afternoon up top. The trails should be soggy and I would expect that there is still a little bit of ice in sections. I'm sure the trails will be quiet today - take advantage! One of the things I love most about returning to LeConte every winter are the little seasonal milestones. I am usually a great sleeper (every man must have one skill!), but I was up for a few hours last night. The winds started to pick up at 2am and I realized that it was my first truly stormy night in the cabin this season. I recalled that it typically takes me a few storms to get used to sleeping through them. It is not an anxious feeling, although I am occasionally forced to consider whether the solar panels' support beams will snap or if the cabin could possibly be blown down the mountain, like something out of a dark fairy tale. Mostly, it is a procession of interesting sounds: the bellowing of gusts flowing up from the propane racks, the oddly hypnotic creakings of trees, the tired sound of cabins that have lived through countless nights like this. They are all so distinct that they force a certain level of awareness, one that rides out just above sleep. I know now that the lodge has seen far worse and fared fine, so it is mostly about drinking in this little symphony before my energy gives out and I daze back into an equally blustery dreamworld.  Morning y'all, It's a beautiful, clear morning up top. The high yesterday reached 30 degrees. Yesterday's low was 13 degrees, recorded early yesterday morning. It was 28 degrees and clear at 7am observation. The mountain received no new precipitation and there is no snow on the ground. There are patches of slick ice on the trails, but as long as you are careful with your rock hopping, I don't believe that spikes are a necessity. I saw no smoke or fire damage along the Boulevard, the AT or Alum. Get out and enjoy this beautiful Sunday!  Top photo: Where it all started. Above: Sun setting on Alum Cave trail.  "The best men come from the hills. Let me refine that statement: the best men, like the best wines come from the hills." Edward Abbey Morning y'all,
It's a beautiful, clear morning up top. The high yesterday reached 16 degrees. The overnight low was 7 degrees. It was 14 degrees and clear at 7am observation. The mountain received no new precipitation and there is no snow up top. There are a few select patches of ice on the way up, but it was relatively easy to dance around. I wouldn't consider Microspikes a necessity. As far as I can tell, the air quality is fine. I hiked up yesteday with no troubles and my lungs feel great. I could not see any sign of active fires on this side of the Park, although it is evident that the Chimney Tops lost some significant trees up top. Get out and enjoy this beautiful day! |
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
January 2025
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