Saturday, July 09, 2005

 

LeConte

Most of my hiking recently has been on the A.T., but I had the opportunity to hike Mt LeConte with my girlfriend and her mother. We took a different way up than down. The way up was about 9 miles, the way down about 6.5 miles, with some additional hiking around the peak. The A.T. passes about 5 miles to the east of Mt LeConte. Of course, now that I have done LeConte I will not feel I have to take the side trail up LeConte when I do my thru-hike (though the A.T. side trail cabin was very nice -- we had to check it out).

I had a real blast on this hike. I had never hiked up over 4500' or so. The hike starts around 2500' and goes up to almost 6600'. As I have looked over my trail guides for the deep south (okay the southern part of the A.T. really isn't the deep south but many of those people in Maine sure think it is) I have somewhat avoided the N.C. and TN sections for two reasons: 1) no dogs in the Smoky Mountain National Park, and 2) the over 6000' peak of Clingman's Dome. I guess as I do this section I will have to miss my dog and 6000' ain't that bad.

So how was the stay? If you have accommodations (you have to book about a year in advance unless you get lucky), we this scheduled, the stay was great. After over 4000' of climbing in 9 miles the food was great! The coffee was even better!! I tasted the hot chocolate and it was fantastic too. The lodgings were super. In the last over night that we did I had a mouse climbing up my head during the night at one of the shelters. Mt. LeConte was much better: no mice. Breakfast was enormous and filling -- plus the coffee -- and the presence of warm water and flush toilets was something I totally did not expect.

I was also very happy to see their use of technology. They used solar power for their camp radios. They also used solar power for their water pump. They pump the water from the spring up the hill to two huge tanks (which we saw). Then they use gravity to get the water to the toilets, sinks, and taps. They also fly in the propane tanks each year. On the "low" technology side of things, we got to see the llamas they use to pack various items that must go up and down three times a week.

About the only thing I didn't get to see was a black bear and I don't know how disappointed I am that I didn't get to see this.

Comments:
Whoo! It was so fun!

Reservations for the year open up at the end of October. For our date, Mom made the reservation in mid- or early-November. I overheard someone talking, saying that weekends and June fill up first.
 
Yes, I am waiting to see if our reservations are approved also. I asked for anything in the month of September 2006, will see if it works. Looking forward to the climb, trying to make myself get in shape now. New to blogging, enjoyed your post.
 
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