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Fire on the (English) Mountain; Space Station in the Air

4/11/2012

 
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With all due apologies to the Marshall Tucker Band for heavily editing their song title, that pretty much describes a news-laden Tuesday on Mt. LeConte.  Perhaps all the following news will make up for some lazy July day when there's not much going on and we have to report for the 121st consecutive day that no crampons will be needed to get to the lodge.

First of all, I'd like to thank all of you for your kind words regarding yesterday's post.  I enjoyed meeting several of you, and look forward to having the rest of you visit fine LeConte Lodge.  I'll endeavor to keep you abreast of the goings on when Allyson and Chris are on off days.  Secondly, because of the way my position is structured (taking on portions of Chris' and Allyson's duties), I'll often be updating much later than Allyson.  For instance, I worked 17 hours yesterday taking care of our guests and lodge business, but I'll try to update the best my schedule will allow.  I appreciate your interest and patience.

I mentioned yesterday how nice our weather had been.  Not two hours after I wrote those words, we had some snow flurries flying about.  No accumulation, but this mountain makes meteorologists old.  It kind of reminds me of my meteorological ineptitude when I was a horse wrangler for a ranch in the Front Range of Colorado's Rockies.  My fellow wranglers would ask me after breakfast if I had put my sunscreen on that day.  If I answered yes, they knew that they should tie their rain slickers to their saddles.  Dust storms wouldn't be a problem that day.

On LeConte, we did top out at 40 degrees Tuesday afternoon, but shivered down to 18 at our 6:30 a.m. observation Wednesday.  On the bright side, because it has been so dry, I've received two good trail reports on Alum and Trillium.  One day hiker said conditions on Alum were still good.  Mitch, our llama wrangler, echoed that sentiment for Trillium Gap with the exception of a slick 10-foot section.

It may be hard to make out in the above photograph, but, to answer a question from yesterday, the smoke emanates from a fire outside the park on English Mountain.  Our thoughts go out to the folks who lost their homes.  We hope for safety for the firefighters who are struggling with the beautiful but rugged terrain.  Last night, the fire looked particularly ominous on our sister mountain to the north.  The dual fire tracks glowed ferociously like jack o' lantern eyes in the April dark.  The glow reminded me of the active lava flows at night in Volcanoes National Park near where I wrangled at a ranch on the Big Island of Hawaii.

To close on a happier note, we did enjoy our view of the International Space Station last night.  I was fortunate enough to be a crew trainer at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center's Space Camp this time last year, and admire the fantastic discovery science being accomplished on the International Space Station.  It's much nicer than our first venture into space stations, Skylab in the 1970s.  Skylab was built from leftover parts of the Saturn V rockets after the last three Apollo moon missions were scrapped.  Skylab ended up being pulled back to Earth, where it burned up upon reentry, depositing a large piece of space junk in Australia (harming no people or koalas).  Word has it that Australia fined the U.S. for littering.  We picked up our "litter," and that piece of Skylab is on display in the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., today.  There's some trivia for you.

Have a fine day.  Happy trails.

Meg W.
4/11/2012 06:38:52 am

Great post! Sounds like you worked at some other very cool places too. Keep up the good work! (I was a crew member in '87 & 07)

pam
4/11/2012 08:45:22 am

Wow wonderful post. Love to hear of others adventures. Thanks for sharing!

Addison Air conditioning link
7/30/2012 06:31:32 pm

Nice space station in the air.I like the informative post to read.Thanks a lot to share.

FLAndy
4/11/2012 09:04:25 am

Just down from enjoying two nights at the lodge with the wife and kids. Had a fantastic time as always, crew was exceptional. Met lots of great people and kids made friends with them all like usual - especially Bandana Man from Jersey. WARNING!!! We came down Bullhead Trail and encountered a very large black bear in the trail at 1.6 miles from the lodge (1mi from Rainbow/Bullhead junction). This bear was NOT afraid of humans and took nearly 20 minutes to get off trail after screaming, banging, rock-throwing, etc. Understand this was second straight day for bear encounter in this location. We reported to Park Service.

Donald Mahler
4/16/2012 11:18:15 pm

wow.. a bear... sure glad that was not on Alum.

and yes - I am bandana man. see proof at http://dmahler.posterous.com/great-smoky-np-mt-leconte-lodge-live-without

Rod
4/11/2012 09:16:50 am

Sounds like a long-exposure night photo is in order for English Mountain!

Debi link
4/11/2012 10:57:55 am

Wow!! Great post Nathan. Life is but one big great adventure and sounds like your living it to the fullest.

Randy
4/11/2012 03:12:06 pm

So you can continue your riff on the MTB with "Bears in them hills and they're waitin' for me there..."

I had hoped to look for the ISS on Sunday night when we were there (it would have been a short window of opportunity), but it was very cloudy.

Barbara
4/11/2012 03:19:49 pm

What an interesting life you're having! Gives you a different perspective on the mountain. From horse wrangler to people wrangler; there's some symmetry there I'm sure.

Tony Ga
4/11/2012 11:43:24 pm

I bet the horses were easier to wrangle.

doug y
4/12/2012 02:24:16 am

Enjoyed your comments; you've done some interesting things and I admire you for doing so; it's good that the lodge is in capable hands, too; there's a site where you can enter your latitude and longitude and coem up with a schedule for the ISS but I cannot recall it; I've seen the station many times as I get out a lot and do some stargazing, etc. keep up the good work !

Chris Frazier link
4/12/2012 02:48:13 am

Enjoyed reading your post and update. My friend, Jay, and I stayed 4/10-4/11/12 ...met some exciting people from all around the U.S. Couldn't believe I would see snow in April and the ISS fly across the night sky. Yummy meals prepared by your staff. Truly appreciate the hot cocoa, coffee, and lemonade throughout the day. There is no place like LeConte lodge !!!

air conditioning repair link
10/8/2012 11:00:08 pm

I thank you for sharing this very nice information. I always want and love reading quality contents. Keep sharing. Best wishes for your further efforts.


Comments are closed.
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