Sept. 22, 2014

Good afternoon to you.  This is Nathan filling in on High on LeConte duties as Allyson is attending the big wedding (more on that later).  We've been swapping up writing a lot lately, so I can't say for sure who'll do Tuesday's update.  I'm going to try to persuade William Faulkner to write a long-distance guest appearance.

Sunday turned out to be gray all the way through with a high of 63 and low of 37 early this morning.  We didn't get much rain, however, just 0.16 of an inch.  The weather story today was the return of real September weather.  I'd bragged earlier in the month about how September is one of the nicest weather months on LeConte.  That prompted us to receive rain 13 of September's 22 days to date.  However, today is bluebird beautiful with a favorable forecast most of the week.

The biggest news of the day is the wedding of Chrissy and Alan Householder, our llama wranglers.  We've been trying to blow some of these beautiful conditions into the skies over their ceremony.  There are some LeConte Lodge folks attending.  However, no llamas RSVPd.  A llama would make some kind of interesting ring bearer, but it was not to be.  In fact, some of the llamas came up to see us and deliver clean sheets today.  Tom Gage, our backup llama wrangler, will be leading the teams up this week while Alan and Chrissy concentrate on wedding business.

I don't have details about the ceremony, but I hope it turned out to be a joyous day for everyone.  I even made a "wedding biscuit" this morning for the mountain staff, as that's as close as we're going to get to eating wedding cake.  Others celebrated in different ways.  David Scanlon, who is closing in on 1,000 hikes to LeConte, chose to add a rock of honor to the top of High Top.  Literally and figuratively, Mt. LeConte stands a little higher today in honor of Chrissy and Alan.

Alan and Chrissy have done such a nice job taking care of the needs of our guests and staff over the years.  Those of us who remained up top to keep the lodge open wish Chrissy and Alan the best and hope this day is every bit as rewarding as they dreamed.  I've been fortunate enough to see fine people meet up here at LeConte and plot the rest of their lives together.  Happy trails.

Our "wedding biscuit" awaits its hot date with the oven.