Hiking Mt. LeConte

Mt. Leconte is one of the highest peaks in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. It is also home to the unique and famous mountain top destination of LeConte Lodge, were you can spend the night near the peak at 6600 ft and enjoy heated cabins and hot food. The Lodge was established as a retreat in the 1920’s, and hikers have enjoyed the destination ever since.

There are no roads up to the Lodge at the peak of Mt. LeConte. If you are lucky enough to get reservations to stay at the lodge, the only way to reach the destination is to hike one of the five trails up the mountain. Supplies to the Lodge are provided by, no lie, a train of llamas that makes the trip up and back three times a week, and a helicopter drop once a year. (Check out the website for more details.)

Naturally, Kevin and I decided to make the trip to the top of Mt. LeConte. We chose the very popular and scenic Alum Cave Bluff Trail, which is the shortest but steepest of the five trails at 5.5 miles long.

Since the smokies are a good 4 to 5 hr drive for us, we took a long weekend to get the most out of the trip. Along the way we stopped to visit the Wheels Through Time motorcycle museum in Maggie Valley NC, and we camped the night before the hike on top of Mt. Balsam, which is about an hour away from the base of the trail. And because we are compelled to stop at any site that is connected with hydropower, we visited Mingus Mill, a restored and fully functioning historic grist mill:

Wheels Through Time motorcycle Museum – Maggie Valley, NC* – Sept. 18, 2008

*The Museum is scheduled to move to Arizona.

Camping on Balsam Mountain – Blue Ridge Parkway, NC – Sept. 18, 2008

Mingus Mill – Great Smokey Mountains National Park, NC – Sept. 19, 2008

Mt. LeConte – Alum Cave Bluff Trail – Great Smokey Mountains National Park, TN – Sept. 19, 2008

Dan River Boat Race

Every year, the town of Madison, NC hosts the Dan River Boat Race. Its a fun family event late in the summer where about 150 teams race canoes and kayaks down the Dan River. I’ve blogged about our participation before, but I forgot to this year, so here’s the highlights:

This is Kevin’s third year racing with John in the men’s tandem canoe class, and my second year racing with Anna in the women’s tandem canoe. Anna and I won the class this year:), while Kevin and John failed to defend their second place title:) Bleu and his dad John won the class, despite this being their first year racing together. As you can see from the picture above, the weather turned stormy about halfway through the race. The clouds let go and it absolutely poured that afternoon and rained out the awards ceremony, which had to be moved inside to the rec center. It was worth waiting, however, so that Anna and I could claim our new first place title:)