Ever since I first hiked the Alum Cave Bluffs trail to the
bluffs in 1990s, I have wanted to overnight at the LeConte Lodge at the top of
Mt. LeConte in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
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| The Lodge |
It’s not easy to do that –
there is such limited space and so much demand that a lottery is held every
year for reservations. About ten years ago, I got reservations, but had to
cancel for work. So, last year, I decided I needed to get it done. I entered
the lottery in 2015 and got four slots for April 18-20, 2016. After polling
friends and family for potential hiking partners, I slimmed it down to two
slots and planned the hiking trip with my brother and excellent hiking
companion, Mark Pedretty.
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| Brother Mark |
Interestingly, after I had booked the cabin, the “Sassy
Stevens” group of women in Scott’s family, decided to plan a weekend in Asheville/Black
Mountain, N.C. Everything worked out for the weekend to be April 22-24. Becca
couldn’t make it, but Caty signed up and we decided to follow-up with a drive
through Shenandoah National Park. So, the itinerary looked like this:
April 16 – Fly to Knoxville and stay in Gatlinburg
April 17 – Mark arrives and stays with me in Gatlinburg
(explore Great Smoky Mountains National Park)
April 18 – Hike up to the LeConte Lodge
April 18-19 – Stay at the Lodge
April 20 – Hike down and stay in Gatlinburg
April 21 – Mark leaves, Caty flies into Knoxville and stays
with me in Gatlinburg
April 22 – Explore Great Smoky Mountains and drive to Black
Mountain
April 22-24 – Sassy Stevens Weekend, Black Mountain/Asheville
April 25 – Drive through Shenandoah National Park and stay
at the Skyland Lodge in the park
April 26 – Explore the park and fly home from Dulles Airport
near Washington, D.C.
A very efficient plan to enjoy spring in the Smokies.
The Trip to Gatlinburg
The morning I left started with a bit of drama – a pretty
serious snowstorm in Colorado.
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| Yikes! |
Luckily, a cab was able to make it up the
mountain and I was able to get out. Very lucky because my neighborhood got over
20 inches of snow by the end of the day.
After we had found a VERY inexpensive house to rent for the
Sassy Stevens weekend, I decided to look into renting a cabin or a condo in
Gatlinburg instead of staying in a hotel. I found one through HomeAway with two bedrooms, two
baths, a kitchen and a view for only $150 a night. Much better than a hotel.
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| Our condo; Photo: Mark Pedretty |
I had just one problem, which was totally my fault. I
accidentally put in the street address for the condo as Sky View instead of Ski
View. Of course, there is a Sky View in the area, but not with the right street
number and not in an area where you want to drive if you are lost. I assumed
since the elevations are lower, mountains roads in the Smokies would be less
intimidating that some Colorado roads. Nope. Two-way roads wide enough for one
vehicle, no shoulders, grades in excess of 12 percent, no guard rails. It was
harrowing and I was lost. And, this after driving through the nightmare that is
Pigeon Forge on a Saturday afternoon when there is an antique car show (I sat
through 10 light cycles waiting to get on the main road). I HATE Pigeon Forge.
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| Afternoon view |
So, after a scary roller-coaster ride up and down the
mountain, I decided to use the written directions to the condo, but, since I
wasn’t starting in the right place and some directions said things like “take
the first left” rather than naming a street, I got lost again. THEN, I
discovered the error in the street name and I started over. It was still
harrowing, but I found it around 8:00 p.m. I was exhausted and so hungry, but
the thought of driving down that mountain – eek. So, I had a pizza delivered
and I crashed.
Besides being a hurricane hell drive to reach, the condo was
lovely. It had a spectacular view of Gatlinburg...
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| Early morning view |
... and every morning a little
Eastern Towhee awoke me as it sang its heart out ...
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| "Chewink, chewink, chewink" |
... and preened ...
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| Fanned tail |
There were lots of reports of bears in the area, but I didn’t see any.
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| Not my favorite |
A great advantage of the condo was
that I could access the Smokies without driving through Gatlinburg. I don’t
hate Gatlinburg as much as I hate Pigeon Forge, but I don’t love it. It’s
kitschy, crowded and generally pretty tacky – although it has cleaned up some
recently.
And, as much as I hate southern redneck stereotypes, a
drive through Gatlinburg makes you think that maybe they are true.
Great Smoky Mountain National Park
Anyway, I started out early the next morning with a stop at
the GSMNP Visitor Center to check on trail conditions for the hike. The
shortest and most popular hike up, Alum Cave Bluffs is slated for major
repairs starting in May and I knew that it had steep, narrow rocky areas with
cables, so I wanted to make sure it was passable.
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| The trail |
The ranger assured me it was.
Settled in how we would get up to Mt. LeConte, I now had time to explore GSMNP.
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| A CCC-built bridge |
Established in 1934, GSMNP is one of the nation’s
most-visited national parks. It has no entrance fee because its main roads are
actually through-roads for getting across the mountains. It showcases the
beautiful Smoky Mountains, part of the Appalachian chain, that are named
because of the constant mist that gives them a smoky look.
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| Smoky |
Although the
elevations are much lower than Colorado, the rise of the mountains is similar
because the base is not much higher than sea level. But, because the mountains
are lower, there is no tree line, giving the mountains a softer, gentler look.
It’s much wetter, with many streams and waterfalls. Still, there are some very
steep mountains and sheer cliffs. In April, it was far less busy – actually,
practically empty – compared to my last trip in October 2014.
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| October 2014 |
First, I drove to Cades Cove to look for wildlife. A broad valley surrounded by
mountains, Cades Cove was, first, a Cherokee settlement (named after a Tsiya'hi
leader known as Chief Kade) and, then, a farming community established after
the U.S. drove the Cherokees out and, eventually, sent them to Oklahoma via the
“trail of tears.”
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| Horses |
The farmers fought the land being incorporated into the
national park, staying in the valley for several years after its formation. There are still farm buildings and animals in the cove.
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| Graveyard |
And, the Primitive Baptist Church continued to be active well into the 1960s.
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| Church bell |
Cades Cove is one of the most popular destinations in the
park, mainly because it is known for frequent wildlife sightings along the
11-mile one-way loop road that circles the cove. It didn’t disappoint. I saw a Black Bear shortly after I arrived.
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| Black Bear |
I am still getting used to my new camera and
lenses, so I didn’t use the long lens and I wasn’t too pleased with my pictures
of the somewhat-far-off bear. I had gotten there just a few minutes late for a
close-up shot.
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| Some people! |
I was a bit surprised on my drive that spring was just
starting in the Smokies. I had expected full-blown green trees and flowers.
They were starting, but there were still lots of bare tree. As a result, I
didn’t take many scenery pictures. It was just too gray and stark.
As I drove through, I saw no more Bears, but I did see Wild Turkeys and far-away White-tailed Deer.
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| Gobble, gobble |
Then, I went back to Gatlinburg and drove the Roaring Fork
Motor Nature Trail, which is a lovely one-way drive along steams and past
waterfalls. The area, like Cades Cove, has a number of historic cabins.
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| Cabins |
It is
also the site of several trailheads and I wanted to know where they were and what
the parking situation was. It looked as though the Rainbow Falls trail had the
best access and parking. That would be our route down from the LeConte Lodge.
I then drove through the park to check other trailhead
locations and look for Bears. I saw another one, down a hill and deep in some
green leafy plants, which he was eating as aggressively as he could. The Bear
was tricky to photograph because of the deep shadows and many plants.
Apparently, I had just missed a close-up of this Bear, too.
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| Hiding |
Mark arrived later in the day (he had flown to Atlanta and
driven up), so we had dinner and prepped for our hike the next day.
Hike Up Mt. LeConte
We planned to leave early for our hike – which would, of
course, begin with dropping one car off at the trailhead for our down hike.
From among the five trails that go to the LeConte Lodge, we had decided to go
up Alum Cave Bluffs (5.5 miles, 2,560-foot elevation gain) and down Rainbow
Falls (6.5 miles, 3,820-foot elevation loss) so we’d have some variety in
terrain. In case you didn’t notice, those are pretty significant elevation
gains/losses.
Our first big obstacle was breakfast. While I am a light
breakfast eater and I had bought groceries for our hike (bagels, cream cheese,
summer sausage, cheese, Chocolate, apples, trail mix …), I didn’t have supplies
for Mark’s typical he-man breakfast. So, we wanted to go out for an early
pre-hike breakfast. Unfortunately, no restaurants in Gatlinburg open before
7:00 a.m. (seriously? no one gets up early?) except Dunkin’ Donuts. So, our
plan was to drop a car at the Rainbow Falls trailhead and eat at Dunkin’
Donuts. It was a pretty yucky breakfast, but we got adequately fueled and took
off.
Next, we drove to the Alum Cave Bluffs trailhead. By now, it
was light and still chilly, but comfortable.
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| The start; Photo: Mark Pedretty |
The hike up was strenuous, but not too difficult.
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| Going up; Photo: Mark Pedretty |
Of course, my
pack was heavier than it needed to be. I was prepared for possible rain and
cold weather (even ice) and had too many clothes with me. But, except for sore
shoulders, it was OK.
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| Some parts are straight up; Photo: Mark Pedretty |
The trail was in pretty good shape, but you could see where
repair would greatly improve it. The trees were much more wintery than I had
expected, so it wasn’t as pretty as I had hoped.
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| Still wintery |
But, it’s a nice trail that
includes some interesting geological features, including an arch you walk under and the namesake cave bluff...
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| Mark at the bluff |
The bluffs are 80-feet high and contain the
minerals alum, Epsom salt, saltpeter, magnesia and copperas. It was mined in
the early 1800s, depleting the easily accessible salts.
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| Saltpeter |
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| Mark at a pleasant part |
The trail has some rocky,
steep areas with crumbly steps. Fortunately, it has cable handholds to help you negotiate the trail up. As daunting as that sounds, it wasn't too bad.
Some parts of the trail are extremely narrow, so it was lucky that the hike wasn’t at all crowded.
But, there were also some pleasant semi-flat areas where the trail had been paved with flat rocks. That was nice after climbing strenuously up for awhile.
And, there were some lovely vistas.
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| Nice for early in the season |
LeConte Lodge
We made it to the Lodge at around 1:00 p.m.
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| The office |
We had a whirlwind
introduction that included a walk around the grounds and
instructions about everything in our cabin – all before we had taken our packs
off. Most of it went right over my head.
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| Down to the Dining Hall |
We ate our lunches in the cozy Dining Hall after we checked in because we just never
really stopped on our ascent.
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| Cozy |
After we finished, we were told to stash the rest
of the food in the Lodge office. They don’t want food in the cabins to prevent
bear issues. Turned out we had enough left (and it was cool enough that storage
wasn’t an issue) that I didn’t even need to buy a lunch for the hike down. Mark
did.
The Lodge, which sits at 6,360 feet (roughly the elevation
of my house in Colorado) is on the third highest peak in the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park. It started as a tent camp erected in the 1920s to
entertain visiting dignitaries from Washington, D.C., in the push to establish
Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The “Lodge” is actually a collection of rustic
cabins and a dining hall, so it has a very different feel than many of the
grand national park lodges in the west.
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| Up to our cabin |
The weathered cabins are quite charming and have a very "Smoky Mountain" feel.
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| Roofline |
Our cabin was for four people, but I am very glad there
were only two of us. The bunks are two double beds on top of each other –
pretty cozy.
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| Glad we didn't have to share |
There is a small desk, a washbasin, a propane heater ...
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| Rustic, but it works |
... and a bucket
to fetch hot water from a spigot at the Dining Hall.
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| Fetching |
There are both flush
toilets and pit toilets near the Lodge office. Our cabin had a very nice side
porch, which looked as though it had been recently added and featured really
nice rocking chairs.
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| Very mountainy |
We took advantage of the porch to soak up the sun in the afternoon.
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| On the porch |
LeConte Lodge is really more of a cabin complex than an
actual lodge, giving it the appearance of an old-time mining camp. In addition to the small cabins ...
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| Still fetching |
... there are bigger ones (some with fireplaces) for larger groups.
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| Big cabin |
It was still
pretty leafless up there and the ground was covered with last year’s dead
grasses, so it wasn’t quite as pretty as I think it is in mid-summer.
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| Still brown and gray |
There was a Bear trap in the back. Foreshadowing?
Unfortunately, not. We saw no Bears.
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| Bear trap |
I guess we didn't need the wire on the cabin windows.
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| Bear retardant |
And, also unfortunately, the hoped-for plethora of birds and
flowers didn’t materialize either. We did have plenty of Slate-colored
Dark-eyed Juncos, but that was about it in the wildlife area.
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| Just some Juncos |
The summit of LeConte is 6,593 feet. There is a pile of
rocks on the way to the summit ...
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| Locals say they are working on becoming the second highest peak |
We spent the afternoon exploring, resting and photographing
the Juncos.
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| Posing |
Then, it was time for dinner, which is served family-style in the
Lodge. Dinner was so-so; not nearly as delicious as the meals at the bottom of
the Grand Canyon. The meal consisted of very thin soup, a canned peach half, cornbread (a little dry and grainy),
shredded beef, mashed potatoes, green beans, stewed apples and cookies.
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| Dinner |
Our dinner companions included a variety of families and
individuals, with some lively conversation.
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| I suspect the trail can also be a stream; Photo: Mark Pedretty |
As night fell, we could see the lights of Gatlinburg and beyond
come up. Although pretty, it certainly interfered with my pre-conceived notion
that this would feel like a true wilderness experience.
Then, off to bed. We made the initial mistake of thinking we
didn’t need the heater, so we didn’t try to turn it on. Hours later, when my
nose was freezing off, I got up to turn the heater on and couldn’t figure out
how to get it to work. Mark was sleeping like the dead, so I finally just added
a few more layers of clothing and gloves and hunkered down under the covers. And, fortunately, each bed has two very heavy wool army blankets.
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| To bed ... |
Still, it was a long, cold night. Turns out, the pilot light was out, so there was
nothing we could have done.
When I walked to the bathroom (on the other side of the complex) around 3:00 a.m., I looked for
bears, but didn’t see any (or anything else).
The next morning was family-style breakfast – biscuits,
pancakes, eggs and ham. Coffee was liberally poured, but it was difficult to
get hot tea. Coffee-drinkers sure have convinced the world that everyone loves
coffee.
When you stay at the Lodge, you get dinner and lunch and you
can buy a sack lunch for the hike down. When you stay more than one day, as we did,
you also get lunch, which you can either get as a sack lunch or in the Dining
Room. We opted for the latter. It was delicious chicken salad to make into
sandwiches. For some reason, we took lots of pictures!
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| Lunch; Top left photo: Mark Pedretty |
After lunch, we did a few hours of hiking on the Boulevard
Trail, which is the longest route to and from the LeConte Lodge. The Boulevard
includes a segment of the Appalachian Trail and passes through Newfound Gap. We
had considered this trail for our trip down, but instead opted for 6.5 miles of
Rainbow Falls instead of the Boulevard’s 8 miles. Although
its elevation change average is less than other trails, it is actually the most
difficult because it goes up and down a lot. We encountered one group of ladies hiking up the Boulevard to have lunch at LeConte before going down Alum Cave Bluffs. That’s almost 14 miles – pretty ambitious. Every time I
feel good about myself for doing this kind of hike at my advanced age (63), I
am humbled by other hikers I encounter. Much to my surprise, I didn't take any pictures. I guess the sparse environment and lack of animals just didn't inspire me.
I wanted to get a stamp for my National Park Passport, but the Lodge doesn't have one. Really? The best I could do was this "Lugged by Llama" (applied very carefully but upside down by a Lodge employee) stamp.
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| I prefer to stamp myself (but i also sometimes get them upside down) |
It references the fact that supplies are carried up (and trash down) by llamas. The take the Trillium Gap Trail twice a week. Although they were coming up the day we left, we didn't stick around for them. Mark was a zookeeper, he has had experience with llamas. And, I saw plenty in Peru.
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| Left, Mark with Llamas in Oakland; Right, me with some in Peru |
Dinner the next night was pretty similar – adequate, but not
fabulous. We had more thin soup, a canned peach, cornbread, chicken and dumplings, corn and carrots, mashed
potatoes, green beans, stewed apples and cookies.
Among our dinner companions this evening was a group on a
tour-guide-led hike (the company, Wildland Trekking, has just recently expanded
into the Smokies). Interesting. I feel that the hike to LeConte is straightforward
enough to not require a guide, but, to each his own. The guide was a very
young, very cocky man who was a little too loud and full of himself for me. It
got worse.
As dinner begins, the Lodge manager, Brian, gives a welcome
and some instructions. One that concerned me a little was his advice to shout
and throw rocks at any Bear you encounter. This doesn’t jive with my
understanding that the best approach is to remain calm, speak loudly enough to
ensure that Bear knows you are there and to back slowly away, giving the Bear
its space to go where it wants to. Of course, the Lodge wants to discourage Bears from hanging around, so the yelling and rock-throwing might be warranted,
although it seems risky to ask tourists to act aggressively towards Bears that
are not threatening them.
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| Respect the Bear |
When I mentioned my concerns about this instruction at the table,
Tour Guide Nick proceeded to lecture the table that GSMNP Bears are “unique”
and must be treated aggressively. He recommended bluff-charging Bears, which I
objected to. I sure didn’t want the innocent folks at the table getting bad
ideas about how to behave around Bears, which could result in injury, death or
a hefty NPS fine.
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| It's their home |
Nick wouldn’t back down, explaining further that Black Bears
“don’t eat dead meat” (well, they do) or fish (well, some do, in areas where
there is salmon). He also said that one should lie down in the fetal position
if one encounters a Grizzly Bear (no on this, too; the fetal position is
appropriate only if the Bear is actually biting and clawing you). I was appalled that a tour guide would have so much misinformation – and be so
adamant about it.
The next night’s sleep was heavenly (if a bit “crispy” for
Mark on the top bunk, which has very little head room) because we had heat.
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| Close to the top |
The next morning started with breakfast identical the first.
Fortunately, we were able to seat ourselves away from Tour Guide Nick, so we
didn’t need to listen to any more bad info.
On my next installment, I will chronicle our hike down ...
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| Getting ready to go |
... and
the rest of our stay at GSMNP – including some great Bear stuff!
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| More to come |
Oh, and here's a link to a video of the Lodge.
Trip date: April 18-26, 2016
