June 22, 2013

Eye to eye with the anvil of severe weather.

Good afternoon.  We're enjoying a partly sunny day on top of Mt. LeConte, more sun than we've seen in several days.  However, the clouds continue to shuttle over the mountain and hem us in at times.  Friday's weather reads much like a sequel of Thursday's conditions.  Yesterday we saw a high-low of 62-46 with 0.19 inches of rain.  We've had measurable rain five of the last six days.

Most of our guests get a kick out of watching from above as a storm churns up the valley.  The towering cumulonimbus clouds backlit by distant lightning are some of my favorite skies up on LeConte.  Last night we saw some thunderheads building in the distance, their shape resembling aerial anvils.  The forge of lightning and thunder rose above the Forge of Pigeon.

Crew member Austin and I lucked into a surprise fireworks display in the valley last night.  I saw some explosions of color down in Pigeon Forge.  You could make out the colors clearly and even see some shapes in the fireworks (hearts, circles and the like).  It was a good show and apparent it wasn't some character in his backyard with a bunch of Roman candles, sparklers and bottle rockets.  I wouldn't have wanted to foot the bill for a show down below that we could watch for five minutes on top of LeConte.  It whetted my appetite for July 4.  I hope we get good clear skies on LeConte on Independence Day.

Assistant cook Caroline pieced together a fine leftover day for the crew lunch.  Her dishes the last few days have had an international flair.  I always like leftover days.  The crew has three leftover lunches each week so we minimize our food waste.  People worked powerfully hard to grow, transport, stock, shop for and haul our food up the mountain.  We don't like to waste it.  At any rate, there were a lot of clean plates today as the leftover menu read like a potluck at the United Nations.  Maybe we should start addressing each other like UN delegates.  "The delegation from the United States would like to thank our distinguished colleague from Paraguay for his contribution of Latvian bacon crepes."  Could be that's a little too formal for LeConte.

I hope you're having a nice weekend.  Happy trails.