Mount LeConte

Last vacation post, I promise.





Our final hike of our vacation was our longest. 12.5 miles.  Since my parents were with us in Gatlinburg we'd had this idea prior to our vacation that we could hike up/down to Mount LeConte via two different trails.  Dropped off at one trailhead in the morning and picked up at another at night.

 

When the day came to actually hike it though, we weren't sure we had 12.5 miles in us.  For a way out, in case we needed one, we decided to start at the Rainbow Falls trail and see how far we got.  That way, if we wanted to turn around at the falls we could. But, if we wanted to keep going to the top we could.  The plan was to only turn back if we were miserable. 

We made it to the Falls rather quickly and both had a lot of energy.  So after 2.7 miles we made the decision to go almost 10 more miles to the top of Mount LeConte and then down the Alum Cave Trail where my parents would pick us up. 


Almost there - Rainbow Falls Trail

It was difficult, but it was also really fun.  Six miles in, I wouldn't have told you it was really fun. We were only a little sad that we didn't hike a half marathon.  We started at the Rainbow Falls trailhead at 10:00 am and arrived at the Alum Cave trailhead at 5:10 pm.



At the Clifftops on Mt LeConte

The weather was perfect for the hike.  I think the high on the mountain that day was around 62 degrees, and sunny the entire way.  Not exactly what I would have expected on October 25.


Cabins at LeConte Lodge

Four days later the effects of Hurricane Sandy hit LeConte. 


October 29 image via High on LeConte

October 30 image via High on LeConte

While we enjoyed a sunny, warm, sometimes hot hike. Just 4 days later they had a snow storm lasting 2 days and ending with 3' of snow on the ground. All of which is documented on this cool blog, High on LeConte.  (Which I was introducted to it after our hike and now read every day :))

And as an aside, here's a sneak peak at my current knitting project.