Morning y'all, It's a cloudy, snowy morning up top. The high yesterday reached 29 degrees. The overnight low was 11 degrees, recorded shortly after observation yesterday. It was 28 degrees and cloudy at 7am observation. The mountain received no new precipitation and there is about 2 inches of snow remaining. The snow has been packed out a bit and is still quite slick. I would recommend carrying Microspikes if you intend to reach the summit. It's an eerie, quiet day up top - get out and enjoy it! Grace and I went out for our evening sunset stroll and saw a few surprising things. First off, there were other human tracks on the mountain! 441 and Cherokee Orchard road yesterday morning and we met two folks spending the night in the shelter. Even more surprising, as we wandered out there, Grace noticed a bear track! I have seen bear tracks up here in the snow, but was surprised to see the big fella getting out after how cold the past few days have been. The track came sometime yesterday (it was rather warm up here during the day) - we did not notice the track the previous two nights on our evening rounds. Even odder, on the way back to our cabin we saw some tracks - a bit too big for fox and bobcat, but the snow was rather powdery so it was hard to get the texture and shape of the print. Finally, we reached a windswept area where we could make out a cloven hoof! I have never seen a deer or deer track up here in the snow, but if there is a year for the unusual, this is it...
5 Comments
Dave
1/10/2017 11:52:45 am
The track may have been a Clemson Tiger paw.
Reply
elktonbrant
1/10/2017 07:42:23 pm
That wins the "comment of the week" award!
Reply
Marie Heatley
1/12/2017 01:53:18 pm
I do believe it is a tiger paw. Hey, when Dabo said the Tiger Paw flag was now on the top of the mountain, he surely was referring to LeConte. GO TIGERS!!!!!
Reply
elktonbrant
1/10/2017 07:53:56 pm
It doesn't surprise me that even the bears and deer are confused this year. Between the fire and the insanely fluctuating weather, none of us animals have any idea what to do or expect. I know here in Mid-TN we're going from -4 windchills last Saturday to nearly 70 degrees tomorrow. It seems like everyone has some sort of sniffle or a headache almost every day, so it only makes sense that the rest of the animal kingdom isn't sure what to do either!
Reply
Tammy (Tx)
1/11/2017 03:31:41 pm
19° here a week ago. In the 80s today! And I feel like I'm about to blow right off this planet! Crazy weather for sure. Think about it.....Mr or Ms. Bear has their winter home all picked out...fire comes......bear escapes that home.....bear may or may not return to that home....home may be gone anyway (tree stump)....bear is now searching for a new winter home......those spaces up under the cabin porches at the lodge with no one around except JP look like a great new home for a homeless bear. I hope the park service cuts these possibly wandering and misplaced bears some slack.
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
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
|