Hike 1282 4/10/04 I scheduled this hike to suit the schedule of My daughter Peggy, her husband Mark and their children Laura and Mike. Good Friday was scheduled as a Holiday for the East Chapel Hill High School where Mike is a senior and Peggy works. Laura attends the University of North Carolina and they were having no school. As it turned out, there have been lots of snow days that needed to be made up so Peggy and Mike really were not off but they just took off. I drove up to Chapel Hill, NC in time to attend the East Chapel Hill/Riverside High of Durham Lacrosse game. Mike is a team co-captain and they are ranked # 2 in the state.
I was very concerned with the trail conditions because of the recent 14" of snow at the LeConte Lodge. Barry Kohler was hiking up to the lodge on 6th with his family, spending two nights and hiking down on the 8th. I asked him to call me at Peggy's home Thursday evening to give me a heads up on the trail condition. After we returned from attending the Lacrosse game, in which East Chapel Hill beat Riverside 12 to 2, Barry did call and said that except for near the top, the trail was fine on Thursday, when they had hiked down. He admitted that the trail was pretty awful however when they hiked up on Tuesday.
We drove over to Cherokee, NC Friday and spent the night at the Quality Inn. We started for the mountain after having breakfast at Hardee's. I was still concerned because it was only 34 degrees in Cherrokee and the temperature usually drops about 3 degrees for each one thousand feet of elevation. I was concerned that it would be below freezing at the Alum Cave Bluff and the water dripping from above would freeze on the trail. Luck was with us. as we climbed, the temperature went up and in fact was 44 degrees by the time that we reached Newfound Gap. It's elevation of 5,050' is just about the same at the the bluff. By the Alum Cave Bluff trailhead at 7:00 a.m. it was 34 degrees again. We wanted to get an earl start to beat the forecasted rain for the afternoon.
We started our hike with everyone wearing long trousers. Most of the other hikers wore heavy jackets or shirts. I just wore a short sleeved T-Shirt. I was cold for the first mile but was very comfortable or too warm after that. The weather was mostly sunny. We took a short break at Arch Rock and made good use of the bench that the trail maintenance crew had fashioned out of excess log length from replacing the footlog at this location. The 47 steps up the arch were steep and tough to climb for the older folks. Laura and Mike did not have any problem. The sun started bathing the trail just before we reached Inspiration Point. Even the moon was shining upon us.
I took a short break opposite the Eye of the Needle to take yet another picture of this feature. If the truth was known, I took the picture to justify a short break from the steep climb. Everyone else had made it to the best rocks to sit on at Alum Cave Bluff before I arrived. I picked the sharp pointed rock seat that remained and shot a couple of pictures of the Haythorns'. After a short break and s few snacks we moved on up the hill past Little Duck Hawk Ridge. We paused for a snack break at Gracie's Pulpit and I pointed out the four peaks, over 6,000' elevation, that make up Mt. LeConte. I also pointed out Grassy Slide, Paul's Face and Cliff Top.
The next 0.4 miles was a nice downhill but you pay for the luxury during the return trip. Pockets of residual snow remained on the trail and under the rhododendrons that the deep shade provided by these plants blocked the sun from melting the snow. Breaks became more frequent for me as we started climbing again. We paused at the three mile marker for another snack and a short rest. These never lasted more than a couple of minutes.
Shortly after resuming our upward hike, we met seven high school boys who were descending from an overnight stay at the LeConte Shelter. We then met three men with large, heavy looking packs descending. they were getting in shape to start the Appalachian Trail. They left the trailhead at 3:00 a.m., hiked to High top and were heading back down. Pure torture if you ask me. Above the upper steps, we met Jeff Lynch from Monroe, MI. I had met him on the trail last year, Hike 1277. Jeff works for Ford Motor in Allen Park, MI/ He had overtaken me just after I had left the trailhead. He said that he had e-mailed me before starting the hike but I did not get it. Jeff must be using my old e-mail address edwright@mtleconte.com. I changed it many months ago to get rid of Spammers and viruses. Since changing, I have had almost NO Spam but copies of the Netsky virus is driving me up the wall. I have set up a new e-mail address eaw@mtleconte.com If the copies of the virus do not cease, I will shut down ed@mtleconte.com
We met Ron Valentine near Trout Branch. Ron is certainly the champion hiker to Mt. LeConte but he refuses to tell how many trips that he has made. He said that Ray Ogle had a hip replacement five weeks ago and was making exploratory hikes. I expect that he will hike to the lodge soon. We stopped at Grassy Slide to take a photo of the Haythorn's with Clingmans Dome in the background. The trail was covered with snow and ice from the site of the Old Horse Gate to the lodge. Lots of snow also remained in the dying Frazier fir trees.
The temperature at the lodge was 28 degrees for the overnight low. It was probably about 50 degrees when we arrived at 11:00a.m. Allison Verdun gave me a copy of a write up about me from the Decatur Alabama Newspaper. She was originally from there and her mother sent the copy to her. We signed in and bought new Llama featured T-Shirts from a new Crew Member Josh. The price had increased another 50 cents to $18.50 each. I bought the T-shirts for everyone except for Mark. He decided that he had rather have the money. I saw Henry Neel and lots of other folks at the lodge. Lots of them were asking about Tillroe Smith. I told them that Tillroe had stayed home to attend Easter Service. We signed the register and returned to the rocking chairs on the front porch to eat our lunch. I had brought a six ounce foil pact of tuna, packed in water. It was pretty dry and hard to eat with my fingers. Don't think that I will try that again. Mr. White, from Double Springs, AL took our picture on the porch. He did a nice job with everyone except for me.
The trip down was much easier for me than the hike up. The opposite was true for Mark. The downhill put a different stress on his knees and it was very painful for him. We met Jim Davis and his son-in-law Jeff, before reaching the site of the Old Horse Gate. Jim was proudly wearing his patch showing the he had hiked every trail in the GSMNP. Congratulations Jim. You now join your wife Barbara in completing all of the trails. We met Tim from near Russellville, AL and his wife further down the trail. We stopped at Gracie's Pulpit for a short rest and nourishment. I pointed out Cliff Top through the trees. The Lodge is beyond the center of the peak. I took a picture of Laura and Mike at the bluff. The hike was a lark for them. I saw a young man with a Superman T-Shirt on reading a new hiking book. I walked up to ask him about it. It is a recent publication by the Natural History Association featuring Day Hikes with lots of pictures. I tried to get Superman to call Lois Lane back over to get into the picture with him but she stayed her distance. I don't think that she appreciated superman concentrating on the new book instead of her. Women!
I took another photo of the Eye of the Needle as we passed by. A short distance later I met my hiking friend Dr. Ed Jones. He graduates from the Vanderbilt Medical School in June and is going to practice near the Yosemite National Park. He is doing that so that he can hike. We took a short break at Inspiration Point and visited with hikers before moving on down the trail. I took a shot of the Haythorn's crossing the first footlog on the downward trek. We returned to the 53 degree trailhead at 2:45 p.m. We made ready to return to Chapel Hill. We reached Peggy and Mark's home at about 8:30 p.m. We lined up for a picture of the four new T-Shirts the next morning. Mark took the picture because someone had to and he didn't have a 2004 Lodge T-Shirt.
A great hike with a great family.
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