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Keith &
Sandra Warren of New Hebron, MS hike with friends to LeConte Oct 20, 2008
Sandra will
send pictures for this hike as soon as she figures out how.
We met our friends Charles & Judy
Wright of Murfreesboro, TN at Shoney’s in Pigeon Forge for breakfast at 6:00
A.M. Keith and I left to pick up our friend Kathy McPhail of Prentiss,
MS at her hotel in Gatlinburg as Judy & Charles drove on to the upper Alum
Cave parking lot. We arrived to pick them up and headed to the Trillium
trail head on the Roaring Fork Motor Trail road. When we arrived, we
were excited to see the llama
train still there. Kathy had never seen them before since this was her
first hike up. We took a few pictures and Kathy asked Alan the handler
why there were muzzles on 2 of them. He told her that they like to eat
all along the way and that the plants were poisonous to them. All the llamas
were seasoned this time, no trainees like we had seen before. The llamas
took off at their steady pace and we took a group photo at the trail head
sign
then took off at a slow pace at 8:30 with the temps in the 40’s. We
sure missed Judy’s parents, the McMahons, who always was our shuttle and
John Downs who usually hiked with us.
We continued our hike to the falls and took several pictures behind the falls and chatted with the few people who
were there. We later found out that the lady and 3 men in a one party
were all from Meridian, MS. One couple was day hikers to the falls. The
falls were nice even though there had been little rainfall for the year. There
were many rocks on the trail in places but very little water. There were also
ups, downs, and switchbacks which are always fun. The colors
and views were nice when we saw them although the color wasn’t as good as
other years. The weather was perfect for hiking. No one ever broke
a sweat except under the backpacks where there was no air circulation.
We also enjoyed the nice timber and gravel build ups in places that were
washing. They made for nice long steps and we saw them through out the
trip which was 6.7 miles long. Kathy and I wondered how they had gotten the
timbers and gravel up there and later we discovered a pallet with a load of
small sacks of gravel. At first we thought that the helicopter carrying
supplies to the lodge had dropped one, but then we investigated and discovered
the gravel. We took several short breaks along the way since we were all so
out of shape from hiking.
At the gap and Brushy Mountain Trail head sign, we stopped to take a lunch break as we always do. Alan the llama handler had told us to take the short hike on the Brushy Mountain trail to see the views and the see the Lodge from there. It was beautiful and we did see the Lodge. After a nice break, we continued the hike with temps in the 60’s. We had begun to think that they had moved the lodge but all of a sudden there it was, sweet relief from the hiking. I took the first rocking chair that I saw. One of the staff stepped out of the back door of the kitchen to inquire if we were the McMahon Party and how many would be eating supper. We apparently were the last to arrive. We only saw six hikers on the trail that passed us and two going down from their hike for a total of 8 all day.
We made the trip in
8 ½ hours and had missed the hot chocolate but we were just in time for
supper!! After we signed the register (#8 for Keith I me) we got a quick tour
with instructions and dumped our packs, the dinner bell rang out then
announcing supper/dinner. We had the usual meal
of soup (which had changed from our last time to Knorr cream soup), beef tips
and gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, fried apples, cornbread, water,
coffee and hot chocolate. Oh yeah, and a peach half and a giant
chocolate chip cookie which we saved for the trip down since we were so full.
There was a beautiful blue bunting sitting in the bush outside the window. The
picture didn’t turn out. We left for sunset after supper and made the
very rock ¼ mile trip to Cliff Tops. The sunset
was beautiful and there were many people there enjoying he views. Kathy
really enjoyed her first sunset
on LeConte and Keith had to sit on the edge by himself since I am not so keen
on teetering on the edge of a mountain. Charles & Judy elected not
to make the hike for sunset. Kathy took a picture of Keith
& me.
We all assembled in
the main lodge for visiting and games before bedtime. The heater
rocking chairs are always such a welcome site. There were people playing
card games, board games, reading the articles on the walls, and just visiting
with those friends that we hadn’t seen in a year or longer that we see every
overnight stay. We visited with Robert Morrison and his daughter Christy. We
also had chatted with Beal & Elaine Williams, Ben & Janice Simpson and
Mike Lundy. About 9:00 Keith and I decide to settle in for the
night and Kathy soon followed. We were all dog tired. We took a
quick sponge bath
to knock off some of the hiking grunge with the wonderful hot water in the
bucket from the kitchen. The cabin was very warm as there are now
propane
heaters in each room. So many people kept a late night that I didn’t
get any sleep until way into the night and then it was only a couple of hour
but thank goodness I didn’t have to make that middle of the night trip
to the outhouse
like the others did thank goodness. The over night low was 24 degrees.
BURR!!
People started
milling around early so that they could hike up to Myrtle Point to see the
sunrise. Everybody in our cabin declined after seeing how foggy it was.
We were socked in big time when we got up and about. One of the staff
members stuck his head in to the cabin to tell us when breakfast was so I went
down to get a picture when they started ringing
the bell. Breakfast
was wonderful as usual. We had eggs, Canadian bacon, pancakes, biscuits,
apple butter and the usual drinks in addition to the orange juice (tang). I
told Henry when he served our table that Ed Wright would be coming up on
Saturday unless he had to cancel for some reason. He seemed pleased.
Later I told Grace Line (Tim’s daughter). She said that she hadn’t
seen Ed in a while. She is working the season at LeConte as she decides
where to work as a nurse now that she has her degree.
Keith and I were
disappointed that Ed had to postpone the hike until this Saturday from
the last Saturday. We had planned to hike with him, but things happen!!
Hope he made the trip and that the predicted rain didn’t hamper him. We went
to the main lodge to purchase our t-shirts from Chris. I showed Kathy
the articles
on Ed Wright and the Jack Huff Pictures of him with his mother on his
back. We also went to the map
to put a pin the the area of New Hebron & Prentiss on the state of
Mississippi. After gathering all our stuff, we went outside to take the
group pictures and the pictures
of us in front of the dining hall. Poor Chris had a whole line of
cameras to use, but he did it with a smile. He needed a break from work
any way!!. After taking the group
shot that also included people that we didn’t know we took shots of just
our
group of 5 then of individual shots. We then headed up the steps to
start the hike down the Alum Cave trail.
We took to the trail and looked at all lovely ferns all along the trail. We soon reached the point at the cables where we looked back to see Cliff Top the place where we had watched the sunset. As we hiked on, we looked back several times to see the different vantage points of Cliff Top. We pointed Paul’s face out to Kathy. We started seeing day hikers at this point. Guess they got up really early!! We stopped along the way to point out to Kathy all the points along the way such as grassy slide. We arrived at Lu’s pulpit and took a break for a few minutes then on down to Bust @ss rocks. I tried to be very careful so that I wouldn’t hurt my knee. Keith & Charles were always checking on me at the step downs to make sure that I didn’t fall. Charles spotted a bird’s nest in the branches of a tree that was right by the trail. We all took a look and admired the way the birds make the nest then hide it from view. We continued on down the trail and stopped at the old man’s stump to take a rest. We saw many unusual looking trees and took pictures. We finally got to hear one of the trees singing. I had told Kathy how they creak in the wind sometimes. We carried on, continuing to see many hikers on the trail.
There were singles, doubles, families and one group said that they were boy scouts. There sure were mature for their age. All seemed to be in the 30-40 year range. We made it to Gracie’s pulpit and stopped for a break. We then continued on & soon saw Little Duck Hawk Ridge. We continued on to Alum Cave Bluff. What a welcome site that was. Keith stopped to visit with a few people as we continued on down. It is such a welcome relief to have the rails to get down the bluff. I remember the times that I was very nervous as I slide around on the loose dirt trying to make it down. We took pictures and told Kathy how we had seen the giant icicles there at times. We pointed out Little Duck Hawk and Big Duck Hawk Ridge to Kathy. We did not see the Peregrine Falcons but we didn’t expect to since it is fall and not spring or summer when they would be nesting or training their fledglings.
We saw they Eye of the Needle and took pictures and for the first time that I remember, I saw another eye way down the ridge. I am sure that I had seen it before but guess I forgot. We finally made it to Inspiration Point and took a longer rest. We visited with the couple who were the only ones there. We also tried to coax the boomers out but they were a little shy and took their snacks from a distance. We also saw birds stealing snacks. We looked out at the beautiful site and the views of Dolly Parton Peaks and Myrtle Point. We visited with several other people who stopped. We snacked on the cookies that we saved for the Lodge supper the night before as well as apples and Charles’s Smoky Mountain Taffy that he carried up.
The wash out was
our next point of interest. Here we ran in to a young guy with a camera
and tripod. We chatted a moment then carried on. A little further
down, we ran into a cute young woman with at darling little boy. She
said that her husband was up ahead with his baby and she had her baby.
His was the camera. Later they passed us and he had the child and she
had the camera. They had swapped babies!
We continued on down the trail always passing people going up until we got to the Alum Cave. Charles and Judy were ahead of us and went to the bottom of the cave and took as seat to rest and wait on us. When Kathy got to the bottom, we took pictures of her then when I went down Keith took pictures of me before heading on down the steps. He got almost to the bottom and a camera flash hit him in the face just as his foot hit the step. He slid a few steps and then hugged the side of the cave to stop him. I was so worried about him afraid that he had turned or broken his ankle. He skinned his knee but that was all thank goodness. After a little rest, we headed on down continuing to meet people going up. Some in dresses and dress shoesOUCH!!
We enjoyed
listening to the creek
as we hiked and stopped several times to take pictures. We finally made
it to the first of four foot logs. What a relief, as it wouldn’t be
long now. We passed around 200 people this day. We continued on and
finally reached the trail
head sign. We stopped to take pictures then on to the car.
What a site it was to see Charles opening the trunk to put our gear in.
We headed to the Roaring Fork trail to pick up our truck but first we dropped
Kathy off in Gatlinburg at her hotel. In the past we have always
gathered for supper/dinner after a shower and rest and this night was no
exception. We went to No Way Jose’s in Gatlinburg. Food never
tasted so good. Keith and I love to eat there but it was the first for
Kathy and Charles & Judy. They all enjoyed it as well. After
we ate and visited awhile, we headed back to get a good night’s rest.
We all needed it!!!
[Home] [Trail History] [Trail Map] [Selected Log Excerpts] [Photos] [People] [Order the Book] [Links] [E-Mail Ed Wright]