July 18, 2014

Good afternoon from LeConte Lodge.  The weather's not been too welcoming thus far today, but that's not kept many hikers off the trail.  Our office and dining room are full near capacity with folks stepping in out of the chilly rain and drying off before they head back down into the land of thick air.

It started raining lightly around breakfast this morning, but we've not really had any heavy showers--just enough to soak you through and get the shivers started on a cool, windy, gray July day at the top of LeConte.  Thursday's high-low was 60 and 48 with no rain.  After breakfast we had a run on ponchos in the office, which topped morning sales with nine sold.

As usual, we've had plenty of interesting guests.  I spoke with one guest in her 80s who first came to visit LeConte in the 1960s.  She's been coming up annually pretty much ever since.  She said she missed a few years about 30 years ago, which she told me almost apologetically.

I visited with another nice guest who was born in Ukraine but had been adopted by American parents.  She said her homeland was lovely, and I'd like to see it myself some day.  But it made me think how fragile our beautiful places are when their protection is shoved aside by conflict, which unfortunately happens everywhere in the world.  There were even a few troops (though no real battle) scampering around Mt. LeConte during the Civil War (but that's a story for a different day).

Thankfully, there's not much to fight about up here today so far.  Everyone left the mountain this morning with a belly full of pancakes, biscuits, grits, eggs and Canadian bacon, coffee, hot chocolate, treated spring water and Tang.  Hope to see you up soon, too.  Happy trails.