2007 Overnight Trip to Mt. Le Conte
Mount Le Conte boasts the tallest face (distance from base to summit) of any mountain east of the Mississippi. Views of sunset and sunrise from the summit are accessible only to those staying overnight near the summit. Le Conte Lodge, built by Jack Huff ( a Gatlinburg mountaineer) before the creation of the park in 1930, provides overnight stay in rustic cabins and hot meals. Reservations, very difficult to get, became available to Bruce Bente, Tom Bindrim, Joe Cirvello, Stuart English, Kathleen Hannigan, Ruth Hartzler, Ashok Kudva, and Joan Lemire.
On Wednesday, May 23, we left Stuart’s truck at the Rainbow Falls parking lot and drove in the other two cars to the Trillium Gap trailhead at Grotto Falls parking lot. On the Roaring Fork Motor Trail we stopped to see 2 bears (who were ignoring us). We hiked behind the Grotto Falls and up the trail to lunch at Trillium Gap. From there while Tom and Joan protected our backpacks from the bears, we took a side trip to the summit of Brushy Mountain to watch some mountain scenes. During our ascent from Trillium Gap to Le Conte we met the llama caravan descending. Tom and Joan had a nice visit with the llama-leader, Alan Householder, a former CMC hiker (photo attached).
Although the lodge does not have electricity and running hot water, they have flush toilets, a supply of drinking water and propane-powered heaters and kerosene lamps in the rooms. Hot water is available from a spigot on the outside of the kitchen building. We took sponge baths with hot water and changed for dinner before the bell rang at 6:00PM. A friendly Hendersonville family of 4 with two college girls shared our table. Cream of potato soup, roast beef, cornbread, baked apples, mashed potatoes , green beans, a peach half, chocolate-chip cookies and bottomless glasses of wine were served. The lodge -cook presented our table a special chocolate cake with announcement of Tom and Joan’s 21st anniversary. We shared it with all hiker-diners.
After dinner our 0.5 mile hike to Cliff Tops was rewarded with a nice sunset. During the return Joe played his harmonica to the delight of hikers. Kathleen, an accomplished singer for the Asheville Symphony Chorus , sang as darkness set in the lodge to delight many overnight guests. Joe honored their requests with harmonica tunes. It ended a great day.
Thursday morning we were up at 5:30 and hiked 0.75 mile to Myrtle Point to capture a spectacular sunrise at 6:32. Jack and Pauline Huff married here at a sunrise service in 1934. Tom played Sunrise serenade on his recorder on the trail and near the AT shelter to the delight of campers. During the return we stopped at the Le Conte summit (6593 ft) to place a rock in the endless project to make it higher than Clingman’s Dome (6643 ft)… After a big breakfast at the Lodge , served with a 8:00AM bell, we revisited Cliff Tops and Myrtle Point. At noon we started our return trek on the Rainbow Falls Trail (photo by Ruth Hartzler is attached).
We saw many wildflowers. Mountain Laurel and umbrella leafs were in full bloom. After our 4000ft descent, we somehow managed to crowd into Stu’s pick-up truck for the drive back to the other 2 cars. This time on the Roaring Fork Motor Trail we saw a deer instead of bears. We concluded our trip with a great dinner at Bear Creek Grill near Greenbrier on Rt. 321 before returning home. Photos of our hike posted at http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/559179898HViLat and are also accessible on the CMC website Members-Photo Album.
We took the new CMC “Let’s Hike” brochures and distributed to a few hikers and left some at the Lodge office. -reported by Ashok Kudva, with additions from other hikers on the trip
