July 24, 2017

The American Turks Cap Lily, one of the Smokies grandest summer flowers.

Good Afternoon,
     Summer on the mountain continues, with abundant sunshine beating down and temperatures reaching the 70's with ease now, having almost scraped 74 already today.  A toad-strangler quickly dumped 0.75" of rain on the mountain during the night, with plenty of rumbles to boot. As the sunlight faded, the entire northern horizon was lighting up with the flashes of storms pounding the Tennessee Valley, the Cumberland Mountains, and beyond. Sunday's high temperature came in at 68 degrees, followed by a low of 54.

So many colors, and they all go so well together.

     The scenery surrounding camp continues to impress with each passing day.  The fields of Yellow Coneflower should reach peak bloom in the next week, but the show will last for a while after with other wildflowers joining the parade.  In what has already been declared a record number of squirrels seen on the mountain this year, I'm thinking the same can be said of the local deer population. Given the endless buffet lying before them, I can't blame the deer for choosing to call this place home for the summer.  The way they congregate makes counting them fairly easy at just about any time of day.  To date, we have seen five different bucks, with antlers ranging in size from 2 to 8 points.  There have been as many as six does seen at one time, and we know of three fawns still getting their running legs under them.  Everyone's pretty well used to one another by this point, so you'd have to come around a corner quickly to even startle one.

Fields of gold, basking in endless sunshine. Not a bad day to be a solar panel either!

     Come on up and see the beauty!  Even without A/C, fans, ice cream, or swimming pools, this comfortable mountain air has to beat what's going on down below. Take care and be safe out there!