LeConte Lodge Overnighter

June 23^rd, 2007

Connie Houk

 

The time had finally arrived for our yearly trip to Mount LeConte Lodge with the Church of the Good Samaritan from Knoxville , finding some of us a few pounds heavier and out of shape compared to last year but still anxiously ready to tackle the mountain. This year everything had not gone as smooth as in the previous years. Liz hadn’t got her reservation in time, but after a few adjustments were made everything fell into place.

 

She had made a reservation for two at the shelter since she didn’t get her reservation in for the lodge. On Thursday, after talking to Sarah on the phone, I decided to cancel at the lodge and stay with her at the shelter. That would put Alden, Carolyn, Alma Williamson (backcountry volunteer from Cosby), Pam Rogers (backcountry office), and Mike (backcountry volunteer from Maryville ) staying in one cabin at the lodge. On Friday, Pam called Liz to see if she would be interested in buying her spot because she had to work. She told her she was one day late because I had canceled to stay with her at the shelter. (One day late…what luck is that?) Pam ended up getting off of work early on Saturday so she still got to make the trip. Sam and Mary Ann Venable did not make the trip due to Sam’s back surgery. We missed them and their family and wish him the best and a very speedy recovery. Ben and Sarah Sheppard were in charge this year and they, as always, did a great job.

 

Leaving my house at 6:00 a.m. I was running about 15 minutes behind schedule. I had packed my backpack the night before, putting my sleeping bag in the bottom instead of fastening it on the outside like I always had done in the past, leaving the food and water for the last thing to pack before leaving in the morning. Well, no matter how hard I pushed and crammed, the food bag would not fit so everything had to be taken out and rearranged. I really felt like I would need my food to survive the mountain. Whew!

 

I picked Alden and Liz up at their homes, and then drove on to the Sugarlands Visitor Center . Liz dropped our overnight permit in the box. Having never met Alma before we weren’t sure but thought it was her standing in the parking lot. Alden spoke to her and sure enough it was. She was waiting on Carolyn to take a bathroom break. We drove on to the Alum Cave parking lot with them pulling in right behind us. Mike was hiking up Rainbow and Pam would be getting a later start because of working that morning. After loading our packs and stopping at the trailhead for pictures, we were on the tail at 7:30 a.m.

 

It didn’t take long for the ones that had extra clothing to start shedding layers. Carolyn was the last to take her jacket off but she doesn’t have as many un-shedding layers as the rest of us do. (If you know what I mean.) There was just enough light breeze in the air to make it comfortable hiking weather. The sounds of Styx Branch sounded soothing and calming. The water was down due to the recent dry weather. We started seeing markings and drawings on rocks that someone had left for maybe someone coming up the mountain later or maybe for everyone’s amusement. The first one was an !, a stick man, HI!, Illinois, dominos, an arrow with Lookout, a ?, and finally the last one was curved arrow. (Note: These were all gone on the hike back down the mountain. The person or persons that was responsible for this had evidently not heard of “Leave No Trace”). We did get a kick out of looking for them though. I took a picture of the group as they were trying to figure out what one of the rocks spelled. We finally all agreed on Illinois .

 

We passed the tree struck by lightening and then the ½ mile marker tree that leans over the trail. (We anxiously looked for this on the way back down.) I suddenly had a brainstorm and realized I had forgotten to tell Liz to get her Mountain House meals that I had laid in the back seat. Dennis had picked the meals and some stove fuel up for us the day before. I thought if I put them in the back seat right next to where she would be sitting, that I would remember to tell her about them. I was wrong. Since one meal had two servings we decided to share mine instead of hiking back to the car. Even though Dennis knows how forgetful I am, I still don’t plan on telling him about this and he will never know unless he reads this story.  We stopped at Arch Rock to rest a few minutes before climbing the steep steps. The cool air there felt wonderful! Ahh…………too bad, we had to move on.

 

I stopped abruptly when I saw a little ring-necked snake lying right in the middle of the trail. It paid no attention as I took his picture, then coaxed if off the path with my hiking stick. A baby salamander was playing in the trail where he had found a teeny tiny puddle of water. We stepped carefully around it. The rhododendron had already passed its peak on the lower part of the trail but higher up it was still in bloom. We kept watching to meet up with Ronnie Valentine on his Saturday morning hike but something must have prevented him from hiking that particular day.

 

At Inspiration Point we stopped to rest and have a snack. We had lots of entertainment from the boomer squirrels that were competing with a gray catbird for handouts. They both got plenty. No one was for sure what type of bird it was so I looked it up in my bird book when I got home. It was different from the many juncos that make the mountain their home. We enjoyed talking and getting to know Alma better. It didn’t take me long to see that she fitted right in with our crazy bunch. For the ones of you that are familiar with the 900 miler club and their website, she is the author of the  poem “The 900 Miler Song” that is on their homepage. She is working on her 2^nd 900 miler and is very knowledgeable on the park.  She pulled a bag of bagels, packs of jelly, and honey out of her bag to share with the group. She can come with us anytime she wants! While we were sitting there, the “Runner” passed by us. We see him every year on the trail. He ran the trail two times, and passing us four times but sometimes he runs it three times. He said that day he had to go home and mow the yard. We thought he was the one we had heard about that was training for a marathon, but when we asked him about it he told us it wasn’t him. He said he does it for himself and the exercise. We found out later that he is a good friend of Ben and Sarah Sheppard. We could have stayed there forever with our now full-bellied boomer and catbird friends but had to move on up the trail. The first to pass us from the Church of the Good Samaritan group were the Downy children just before the bluffs. Their parents passed just right after the bluffs. The climb to the bluffs was steep and slow going but we still had that cool breeze blowing ever so often.

 

Arriving at the bluffs to find no one there was a great surprise. We couldn’t understand why more people weren’t on the trail. Carolyn reminisced about her first trip up the mountain before the railing was installed. It’s must easier now. Because of the dry powder and dust we didn’t break here but moved on up the trail. I stopped to take a picture of the Eye of the Needle. The views were excellent as we took our time and soaked them in. No signs of the Peregrine Falcons were seen or heard. Carolyn had many admirers on the trip with one even shaking her hand. This is her 3^rd trip up the mountain with us. Overnighters started meeting us and we got to see what the new tee shirts looked like. Really nice! We had our colors picked out before arriving at the lodge.

 

 

When we reached Gracie’s Pulpit there were a group of gentlemen there taking a break. They graciously got up to let us have a place to sit when one of them said, “Hey, I know you.” It was Randy Baker from Sevierville on his yearly overnight trip to LeConte. Dennis and I had met him at a yard sale last year before our hike and discovered our trips were just one night apart. Last year we had met up in the Saddle, this time they were farther down the trail. They told us the sunset wasn’t visible the night before and there were rumors of a bear at the lodge even though they didn’t see it. We talked for a while before moving on. Going through the Saddle we got to rest our legs and were glad to see the Catawba Rhododendron still in bloom. One hiker that had passed us earlier that morning met us coming back down from the Lodge. He asked if we had seen any bears. Right after he had passed us he went around a bend and there in the middle of the trail stood a bear. Taking him by surprise, he didn’t know what to do so he just stood there and the bear decided to go down the side of the mountain. We wished we had seen Mr. Bear but told him we didn’t see and we stopped to rest and have another snack. We wet our handkerchiefs in the cool water that flowed across the trail before we began the climb up to the upper steps.

 

After we climbed the uppers steps we each found a shady spot on the bank to sit and have our lunch. It felt good to take my heavy pack off. Alma had brought a piece of homemade pound cake that she shared with us. (I like her better all the time!) The meal was good but we didn’t tarry long. The lodge was getting closer and closer. At Lu’s Pulpit we saw the last rock sign. It had a crooked arrow on it. Sarah and Ben Sheppard passed us somewhere in this section. I was looking forward to a cold drink of water at Trout Branch but it was just barely trickling down the rocks. Instead, we just wet our faces. The views from Grassy Slide were awesome. Alma pointed out Newfound Gap parking lot and Clingmans Dome. The Tower was just barely visible. I was unsure of where the Old Horse Gate was so Alma showed us the location of it. Carolyn spotted a small patch of sorrel in bloom. Ahh…. The beginning of the level section. It’s always a feeling of victory when you reach that point. Alma and Alden hurried on ahead for a visit to the potty.

 

At 3:00 p.m. we arrived at the Lodge where people were bustling around everywhere. Just as we were walking up by the office, Henry Neel rounded the corner. Carolyn asked where cabin #6 was and he pointed us in the right direction. We left Carolyn at her cabin with Alden and Alma, spoke briefly to Mike, and then Liz and I headed on to the shelter to claim a sleeping space. The ferns along side the trail were lush and bright green.

 

At the shelter there were two groups, a total of six male hikers, which would be our roommates for the night. Two of them were older and the other four were from Knoxville, probably in their late twenties or early thirties. I’ve never been great at guessing one’s age. First question I asked was if any of them snored. When one said they all did I was relieved to know I wouldn’t be the only snorer in the group. One of them had hiked down earlier to get Kentucky fried chicken. (Bears love fried chicken!) We remembered him passing us on the trail earlier. He told us that he stayed in a shelter just about every weekend and that he had to get up the next morning to go to work. We thought he was pretty funny with some of the wild stories he told. Liz and I spread our sleeping bags and thermo-rest on the top platform in the right corner. Since we would only be sleeping at the shelter we took our packs back to the cabin at the lodge. Pam had arrived when we got back. We told her about the lively group at the shelter and that one of them had mentioned he needed to talk to her. We told him she would be up later. When we described him to her, she knew exactly whom we were talking about. His last name is Carver, and since he stays at the shelters a lot she talks to him on a regular basis. His group is known to party she tells us but except for one using the f word a lot we had no problem with them.

 

We bought out tee shirts and sat on the cabin’s front porch in the rockers for a while. Then Alma came out with a bag of caramel coconut balls that she passed around to everyone. Ymmm. Liz and I couldn’t talk anyone into going to Myrtle Point so we set out alone about 5:00 p.m. I knew I wouldn’t get up for the sunrise in the morning. I have never been able to talk myself into getting up that early out of a nice warm cozy bed to (most of the time) a cold, dark, and damp mile walk. I know it would be rewarding and worth it and one of these years I will do it! Just beyond the shelter we could see the view of the Newfound Gap parking area. We took several pictures of the rhododendron. It was especially pretty in this area. The blooms were a dazzling pink. The others just don’t know what they missed!  We saw only two hikers from the lodge on our short trip and, and we had Myrtle Point to ourselves. We took turns posing on the rocks for a Kodak moment. We would like to have lain on the rocks for while and sunned like two turtles but we had to head on back to cook our supper.

 

We came back to an empty cabin. Everyone was in the dining room for supper. We took our food and cook stove around to the picnic tables and had our supper there. We ate and got a few chores done before the others came back. We saw a boomer with an empty zip lock bag and another one chewing on a bag of trail mix just as fast as he could. Someone would be very surprised when they got back to their cabin. We sat around some more on the front porch just talking and having a good time.

 

I couldn’t talk anyone in to going to Cliff Tops until Liz finally agreed to go. She had gone to the restroom and I told the others to tell here she didn’t have to go that I didn’t mind going alone. On the way there I talked to a nice gentleman whom was working on the 900 miler. We had just gotten to the top and here came Liz. One of the young men from the church group had brought the lodge’s guitar. He played and sang for the group. He sang a couple of songs that he had written himself. He did a great job! That alone was worth the trip, especially since we didn’t get to see the sunset because of the clouds.  We headed back down just before dark.

 

Liz and I walked by flashlight to the shelter. We made one last bathroom stop on the way, hoping we wouldn’t have to climb down from the 2^nd level during the night. All the hikers were in bed but one that was cooking. We were in bed by 9:45 p.m. It was an uneventful night except for all the snoring and other bodily sounds. Liz had to make one bathroom trip, which she did without incident or wild animal sighting. The guy that was cooking late happened to be sleeping on the top level also and during the night he made a loud weird sound, jumped straight up out of his sleeping bag and landed with his legs hanging over the side. The next morning he said that he had a nightmare and didn’t know where he was. I believe I would leave the late night suppers off! We woke up around 6:30 a.m. but lay there for a while. We hadn’t heard any hikers go by earlier that morning for the sunrise but they told us later at the lodge that there were some that went. This wasn’t the year I chose to go…. maybe next year…we’ll see.

 

The others were already up and getting ready for breakfast when we got to the cabin. They had a ruckus in their cabin that night too. Carolyn, trying to be very quiet, as she had to go to the bathroom during the middle of the night, dropped her flashlight making a loud bang, giving everyone a scare. We went to the lobby and got coffee first thing. Liz and I cooked our breakfast on the front porch while the others were gone to the dining room. The porches that have been added on to each cabin are a very nice addition. It’s nice being able to sit outside your own cabin and rock as late as you want and not have far to jump in the bed. After the other ones came back from breakfast there were lots of pictures taken. We talked Rachel (I hope I remembered her name right) into taking one of our group on the cabin porch. Mike and six women………….hmmmmmm………….don’t know how Carolyn talked him into that. Pam and he left shortly after that to start their hike down the Bullhead Trail. I got a picture of them as they headed up the steps. We were on the trail by 9:20 a.m.

 

We had great weather again, even though it was hotter than yesterday. We took our time going down the mountain, rested a lot and just had a good ole’ time. I took a picture of some sunshine yellow colored lichen growing on the rocks under Cliff Tops. Alma told us it was a combination of iron and sulfur.

 

We met Tillroe Smith coming up the trail just after we passed Grassy Slide and visited with him for a few minutes. Then it was on to Trout Branch where we wet our faces again. We stopped in the Saddle for a rest and that is where Tillroe passed us again. He had already been to the top and back! We told him we had been waiting on him but he didn’t buy that. He told us to have a good day as he went by. Alden and Liz spotted some Saint John’s Wort blooming right next to the trail. I had walked right by and didn’t see it. I went back and got a picture of it.

 

When we got close to Little Duck Hawk Ridge we could hear the Peregrine Falcons. We watched as one circled around and around the ridge. This is the first time we had seen the Falcons so we were pretty excited. We took several pictures, but my zoom would not get close enough to get a real good one.

 

We stopped to let two gentlemen and one lady pass and Carolyn recognized her from last year. She was the lady that Alden had me take a picture of because she liked her hair cut so well. I told them we had her picture in our hiking journal. You never know whom you will run into on this mountain.

 

To our amazement again, we arrived at the Bluffs to find no hikers there. At the railing we met two hikers going to the Lodge for the night. We couldn’t figure out where all the day hikers were. We went on to Inspiration Point hoping to see the falcons again, but we heard no more sounds or saw them again. We stopped there to rest and have another snack. Alden started to sit across from Carolyn but decided she would go farther down the trail to find a shady spot. Carolyn spotted a snake curled up about a foot from where Alden started to sit. How lucky is that? The snake reluctantly slithered down the bank as Alma shooed it with her stick. Carolyn couldn’t wait to tell Alden she almost sat on a snake. It was larger than the one we had seen yesterday and I’m not sure what kind it was but it wasn’t poisonous. It could have been though if you consider causing one to have a heart attack, which probably would have happened if Alden had sat on it. The boomer squirrel and gray catbird were back again begging for handouts. We didn’t stay there long because the sun was too hot.

 

After climbing down through Arch Rock we decided the cold water would feel good on our feet. The water was so cold that it made my feet ache, but it sure did cool them off. After that we felt refreshed. Going across the 2^nd foot log, I looked down at the water and there lay one of the biggest black salamanders I had ever seen. We watched for the leaning tree a long time before we finally saw it. We reached the parking lot at 4:30. Alma ’s hiking friends had left a note on her windshield to pick them up at Huskey Gap Trailhead. We dropped Carolyn off at Sugarland's, got cold drinks and headed for home. It was another great weekend for a hike!!

 

 

 

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