Ron Metcalfe and his daughter Abby Metcalfe's first hike to Mt. LeConte, June 26, 2006

Full photo album of this hike, click here.
Pictures from other LeConte hikes, click here.

My daughter Abby and I (Ron P. Metcalfe) got a reservation for LeConte Lodge for Monday night, June 26, 2006.  It was a first for both of us.  I had heard of LeConte all my life and always wanted to go.  When I felt Abby, at age 8, was strong enough to make the hike, I booked us a night.   Using our family's Douglas Lake cabin as “base camp” we spent the previous weekend there.  Abby and I went to different stores to get our supplies – candy bars, snacks, peanut butter and jelly, bread, sandwich bags, band aids, moleskin, and anything else we could think of.  Since the forecast was for rain, we spent Sunday night rolling up our clothes and stuffing them into sandwich bags and then packing our backpacks.  In addition to our food and hydration packs, I packed us each a warm lightweight jacket, a windbreaker jacket, five pairs of socks, two extra pairs of shorts, three pairs of underwear, and three cotton t-shirts.  I also packed a pair of jeans for Abby and a pair of zipper-leg shorts for me.  We had gone to bed early in hopes of getting plenty of sleep, but knowing that the forecast was for showers, I laid awake until about midnight wondering what would be in store for us the next day.

We left the cabin at Douglas Lake at 5:37 AM and, at Abby’s request, stopped at the IHOP for a big breakfast.  As we ate, I kept looking outside at the weather.  I started to notice cars passing by with their windshield wipers on, indicating that it had started to rain.  Not knowing what the trail would be like beyond the Alum Cave Bluff and what the weather would have in store for us, I didn’t have much of an appetite, but I managed to choke down as much pancakes and eggs and bacon as I could.  Abby was completely undaunted and ate her entire plate of pancakes and bacon.  By the time we left Pigeon Forge, it had started to sprinkle.

We stopped at one of the Gatlinburg Bypass overlooks, but due to the clouds and fog we never got a view of Mount LeConte.  On the way up Newfound Gap Road it had started sprinkling a bit more and there were clouds of mist between the mountains and valleys as seen from this view from the Campbell Overlook.   After the nine-mile drive from the Sugarlands Visitor Center at the entrance to the Smoky Mountains National Park, we arrived at the Alum Cave Bluff trailhead around 7:30 AM.  There were only two other cars in the main parking lot, and a few other cars parked at the upper lot.  We hopped out of the Jeep and got geared up.  The rain was light enough that we didn’t think it was necessary yet to pull out the ponchos, so we strapped on our backpacks and began our hike.

Abby and I started our hike to LeConte at 7:42 AM at the Alum Cave Bluff trailhead.  It was cloudy with light drizzle and around 65 degrees.  After about twenty minutes of hiking, the rain began to pick up a bit.  In addition to that, large drops of water were dripping from the overhanging trees and leaves.  Before we reached the first footlog, the one-mile point, we debated putting on our ponchos, but since we didn’t have much further to go until we would be in the dry at Arch Rock, we decided to hold off.  Despite being out of the rain, the entire area under Arch Rock was wet, so we hung our packs on the safety cable and took out our ponchos.  Fortunately, the ninety-nine cent K-mart plastic ponchos were big enough to fit over our backpacks.  My poncho came down to just above the edge of my shorts, so every bit of water that drained from it soaked my shorts, legs, and boots.  Abby’s poncho, on the other hand, came down nearly to the ground, so most of the hike she kept it bunched up in her hands to keep if from becoming tangled in her feet.

Despite the steadily falling rain, our ponchos were doing a pretty good job of keeping us dry from outside elements.  By that I mean that the rain wasn’t soaking my t-shirt and top of my shorts.  However, the effort of hiking and heat generated by our bodies inside the poncho caused a mini rainstorm inside our ponchos.  The greenhouse effect caused the water vapor to condense on the inside of the plastic.  While it wasn’t enough to soak our clothes, it did cause the plastic ponchos to stick to our skin.  Abby was staying pretty dry, but her poncho would occasionally get caught on her boot or on a safety cable or branch.  It never caused her any serious problems, but was getting to be pretty irritating to her.    In spite of the rain, the conditions made for beautiful scenes along the trail, not to mention the wonderful musky smell of a damp forest.   

We decided to stop at the Alum Cave Bluff where we could take our ponchos and packs off and sit in the dry for our “lunch break.”  We arrived at the Bluff at 9:27 AM and headed for the back wall of the “cave.”   It was cooler than when we started, and after two hours of pretty constant hiking, I didn’t want us to cool off too much, so we put on our jackets while we rested.  After catching our breath and snapping a couple of pictures, we each ate a peanut-butter sandwich and had some party mix and three or four candy bars for dessert.  A female hiker overtook us, and she said she was just hiking in and out for the day.  While at the Alum Cave Bluff, we took time to doctor Abby’s heels.  A small blister had started to form on her right foot, and a red area was developing on her left.  I cut a small patch of moleskin and put it over the blisters and then put a band-aid over it.  I also changed her socks to dry ones, as if that would do any good, given how hard it was raining. 

After about thirty minutes, we donned our packs and ponchos and hit the trail ahead.  It began to rain even harder and the drips from the trees became steadier also.  In addition, most areas of the trail had a little stream running down them.  We neared the halfway point around 10:16 AM.   I thought this was Gracie's Pulpit, but have since learned that Gracie's is just a bit further.  Near this "false" Gracie's Pulpit we met a Park Ranger who was on her way down.  She had stayed the weekend at the lodge and said the trail was fine above us and we shouldn’t have any problems.  She said that our $.99 ponchos were just as good as her Gore-Tex.  At 10:51 AM we reached the long log steps.  This seemed to mark the beginning of the longest stretch of incline along the trail.  From here on for the next 1-½ hours, we were going up hill constantly.  Having never been on this section of the trail before, my only references were the switchbacks or major elevation changes.  I had a copy of Ed Wright’s write-up about the Alum Cave Bluff Trail (AN EXCELLENT ARTICLE), but it was raining too hard to pull it out and take the time to pinpoint our location exactly.   

The only complaint Abby had all morning was the weight of her backpack.  And looking back, it wasn’t the best pack to have on a trail.  It was her regular school backpack that doesn’t have a huge amount of padding in the shoulder straps.  My Kelty backpack, in addition to more padding, had a chest and waist strap that helped relieve some of the weight on my shoulders.  We stopped and I transferred a few items from her pack to mine.  More than anything, the water we carried made the most difference in the feeling of weight on our shoulders, so the good news was that the more we drank, the lighter our packs got.     Around 11:15 AM we reached what I thought was Trout Branch.  Then around 11:25 AM we reached what I thought was Trout Branch again.  Then at 11:30 AM I said, “Nope, THIS must be Trout Branch.”  I kept hoping we were at the stream since the Grassy Slide should be just beyond it, and that would mean we were about one mile from the lodge.  Given our rate of hiking to that point, that would mean we had less than an hour left to go.  Each time we came to a stream crossing the trail I thought “this must be it” but each time we’d go a little further and find more water running across the trail.  It turns out there had been almost 2” of rain by this time and most places had a stream crossing or running down the path.  But hope sprang eternal.  FINALLY we reached Trout Brach . . . I think.  And then, just beyond, we found the Grassy Slide.  Abby was still as enthused as when we started hiking, although she commented that she was starting to get a bit cold and tired.  And truth be told, so was I.  But when she learned how close we were and how little time we had left to hike, she noticeably picked up her pace.  Around the Grassy Slide we met the girl who had passed us at the Alum Cave Bluff.  She was making her trip back down the mountain and assured us we were getting close and had less than another hour of hiking left.  It seems that each person we passed would give us an estimated time, but it always seemed to be in “down hill hiking time” rather than “up hill hiking time.”

Shortly after noon we reached Lu’s Pulpit, an obvious turn in the trail back toward the summit of LeConte.  We could see the crest of Mt. LeConte above us, not very far distance wise, but it seemed to be quite a bit higher in elevation.  I somewhat dreaded having to hike up anymore, but checking the map indicated that we were walking around the edge of the Cliff Top peak.  The lodge, according to the profile map, was below that peak and about level with where we were.  We got an extra spring in our step now and made our final push.  Our reward was to find that the trail did, in fact, level off somewhat and then entered an area where the trees lined both sides of the trail and formed a canopy above.  It was still raining heavily, but we knew we were close.  

We reached the junction of the Rainbow Falls trail and a tremendous amount of water was gushing down a deep rut next to that trail.  Abby said she was glad we didn’t take that trail, since there was so much water going down.  We made the turn and I spotted something that really got me excited - a little manmade footbridge over a washout.  Abby didn’t think much of it until I told her that the only way for that to be here was for somebody to carry all that wood.  And they wouldn’t go far from the lodge to do it.  We were on the final stretch.

Just after 1:00 PM we saw the cabins to our left.  Abby actually noticed them first down a little foot trail from the main trail.  We took a trail to the left and came to the center of camp and found the lodge office.  We came to the door, stomped off our feet, shed our ponchos, and stepped inside.  There were a couple of people in the office, sitting around the stove keeping warm.  We met Trey, who checked us in, and Abby signed the registry book for us.  Trey took us back outside in the still pouring rain, showed us where the privies were, where to get hot water, where to get coffee and hot chocolate, and then to our cabin.  He also asked us to bring any food we had to the main office and store it in their large aluminum trash cans, since red squirrels will often come into the cabins in search of food.

The hot water spigot was located outside the back of the kitchen.   In our rooms were a bucket for fetching hot water, and a pan we could use to clean up.  There were two bars of soap and four coffee cups on a small table in the corner on which sat a kerosene lamp.  The windows of our room had a wire grid across them, presumably to keep out unwanted animals.  Our room had a chair and a bunk bed that was wide enough that Abby and I both could sleep comfortably in one of the beds.   One the beds were four wool blankets and a sheet, the top blanket being a beautiful (and soft) four-point Hudson Bay blanket.  The beds were made of logs with little space between the bunks, not enough for me to sit upright.

As interested as I was in hearing all of Trey’s instructions, I was more interested in shedding my backpack and wet clothes and getting warm and dry.  Abby, however, wanted to get some hot chocolate right away.  So we set down our packs and ponchos, got our coffee cups from our nightstand and made a quick trip down to the dining hall to get something warm to drink.  I made sure the heater was turned to MAX before we left.  Heading right back to the room, we went about changing clothes and calling home.  While Abby talked her mother and then her grandfather, I hung up all that I could on some nails on the beams of our ceiling.  We unpacked dry clothes and changed and lay down on the bed.  What a tremendous feeling of satisfaction, made even better because of the downpour we had just come through.  We lay there and talked about what we had accomplished, listened to the rain on the roof, and relaxed.   Abby even asked if we could come back again.   Trey had said we were the first to arrive for the day, another accomplishment that made the trip even better.  I was so proud of my "little girl."

After a small snack of ½ a peanut butter sandwich each, and after everything in the room was settled, we explored the area a bit.  It was still raining and water was standing in puddles in every low spot.  We went back to the office and checked out the games, bought our t-shirts and bandannas, then headed down to the dining hall for some more hot drinks.  There we met a woman and her daughter who had just hiked up for the day.  They were from Florida but were staying somewhere around Maryville, Tennessee.  She said they intended to eventually move to the area.  They had stopped at the lodge for something warm to drink and to dry off a bit.  We sat with them around the large stove and warmed our toes and talked for about thirty minutes.   They said they had just come in from seeing the llamas that had made their trip up earlier in the day.  We went outside to find them, but they had already started their trip back down the mountain.  Abby and I decided to head back to the room with another cup of hot chocolate.  Abby insisted I drink the hot chocolate instead of coffee since it was the best hot chocolate she had ever tasted. 

At 2:48 PM we got back to the room and I thought I would take a few pictures of camp.   Abby lay down on the bed.  At 2:50 PM when I came back into the room, she was fast asleep.  That seemed like a pretty good idea to me, so I scooted her over and laid down myself.  It felt so good to lie down in our nice warm room with the sound of rain outside.  We awoke a little before 5:00 PM as our cabinmates began to arrive.  Abby and I read some of her “Wonderful Wizard of Oz” book that we had packed along.  As I stepped outside to look around, I noticed that the rain had mostly stopped and the gray clouds that hung over us all day had broken up.  There were still come clouds above and below us, but the view was starting to become beautiful.

At 6:00 PM sharp, the dinner bell rang and we made our way to the dining hall.  We were assigned a table with our cabin mates:  Ben, Amy and Duncan from Oklahoma.  Our table was set with a glass of water at each plate, a half a peach in a small bowl, and a bowl of hot soup and hot cornbread.  Abby and I ate every drop of soup and every crumb of cornbread.   I wasn’t sure if that was all we would get or not.  But as we finished that, the lodge crew began bringing out the main course:  a large bowl of beef and gravy, mashed potatoes, and green beans, and baked apples.  We each had a large chocolate chip cookie for dessert.  It was delicious!  We enjoyed the conversation with Ben and his family about how people visit the area but don’t really get an appreciation for the mountains from the six-lane highway through Pigeon Forge.

Abby was ready to go explore some more after we finished supper.   So, about 7:00 PM we decided to take the trail up to Cliff Top to check out the view.  We put on our hiking boots, which were about 80% dry, and headed out.  We made it up the short trail and took in the view.  The rain had stopped and there was enough of a breeze to have dried most of the rock surface where we sat.   And the view was amazing.  There was a thin layer of clouds above us, and the sun was just about to come below them.  Below us, there was a fluffy layer of clouds, of which we could see the tops, with Chilhowie Mountain peaking through them.  It was like flying in an airplane.  We sat alone for a bit and then decided to head back down and play some games and maybe read some more.  After a stop by our room to shift all the wet things around and to hang our boots back up to finish drying, we headed to the office to check out some of their board games.

Abby decided that we should play checkers, but when we discovered there weren’t enough pieces, we opted for Monopoly.  As we played I noticed that the sun must have set low enough to shine between the layers of clouds, as the entire mountain took on a golden color.  We wrapped up our game, which Abby was winning handily, and went outside.  We debated walking back up to Cliff Top to see the sunset, but decided to just relax around our cabin.  From our vantage point at our cabin, trees and the peak of Cliff Top hid the sunset, but the colors were still spectacular.  We could see the lights of Pigeon Forge and Sevierville starting to twinkle like a runway below us whenever there was a small break in the clouds below us.  The clouds above us were high enough that they captured the rays of the setting sun and turned bright orange and pink. 

By the light of our kerosene lamp, we read some more “Oz” and talked about the day.  Around 10:00 PM we turned out the light and went to sleep.  I awoke around 3:00 AM and took a look outside.  Shortly after sunset, the clouds had all disappeared below us and we could see the lights of Sevier County, but by 3:00 AM the mountaintop was back in the clouds.  I awoke at 5:58 AM and stepped outside.  The entire area was shrouded in clouds.

Around 7:00 AM, one of the crew walked by with a large thermos of coffee, so I followed him to the office and had a cup.  As the kitchen came to life, I got some hot water and our washbowl and took a little bath on the front porch and got cleaned up.  After I finished, I sat on the front porch for a while longer and watched as the clouds moved across the mountain.  The sun would break through briefly, then the whole area would be covered again in the clouds.  As I returned later to the cabin after another cup of coffee, I was met at the door by a boomer that had apparently come looking for food.  He stopped at the door and waited for me to step back before he rushed outside.  8:00 AM sharp the breakfast bell rang.  As we came into the dining hall, we chose the same table as the night before and sat again with Ben, Amy, and Duncan.  On our table was a huge plate of pancakes and warm syrup and a basket of biscuits.  After digging in to that, the crew brought out a large plate of eggs and ham and a big bowl of grits.  After eating as much as we could hold, Abby and I went back to the cabin and began to pack up.

After packing, we took her “Oz” book out to the porch and pulled up a couple of rocking chairs in the sun and finished it.  We packed it up and refilled our water bladders and got ready to leave.  At 10:01 AM we took our picture in front of the dining hall and then set out on the trail.  It was a beautiful morning, a bit cool, sun breaking through the clouds. The parts of the hike above the Alum Cave Bluff, the areas that had worried me prior to the beginning of our hike, turned out to be no problem at all. After the log steps and last switchback, the trail curls around the edge of the Cliff Top peak of Mt. LeConte.  Most of the trail has been carved, chipped, and blasted out of solid rock.  The trail was wet on the ascent, but the rocks were jagged and rough enough that we never really were in any danger of slipping.  Much of that part of the trail, too, has steel cables installed for extra grips in areas where the other side of the trail drops off precipitously.

One area, which we passed on the way down that we hadn’t fully appreciated on the ascent, was the large Rock Slide and Grassy Slide.  During the hike up, the fog and clouds were so thick that we couldn’t get a good idea of the magnitude of this area.  The Grassy Slide begins just below Cliff Top, with the trail cutting across the middle at one of the widest points.  There are actually two slide areas - one of which has overgrown with grass, the other remains rocky.  We stopped along both of these briefly and joked that anything we dropped would never be seen again.  I suggested to Abby that maybe we had just found a quicker way to the bottom.  Despite loose rocks on both the upper and lower sides, the trail was pretty solid.  We also caught a glimpse of Cliff Top.

We stopped again at the Alum Cave Bluff and picked the best rock and sat down to eat the last of our food.  We each had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, finished off our trail mix, and ate the last of our Snickers and Butterfinger candy bars.  We talked to several people heading up the trail for their overnight stay at the lodge.  We also spoke with a family from Florida just out for an afternoon hike.  None of them seemed prepared for the 2.3-mile hike to the Bluff, as they all had on flip-flops and had no water.  Abby even noticed that the family of five couldn’t have made it much further. 

After a break, we rounded Inspiration Point and talked to those we passed about our trip, how much further, etc.  Abby even noticed who seemed to be well or ill prepared for what lay ahead.  At the Arch Rock we stopped for a rest and to have our picture taken by a young couple that we had seen at the Alum Cave Bluff.  We knew we were getting close, but the last mile of the trail seemed to stretch forever.  As a bit of a reward, I let Abby take off her backpack and I carried it for her.  But around each bend I kept thinking we’d see the last bridge.   Finally, there it was, the last bridge before the trailhead and the Jeep at 1:39 PM.

We got to the Jeep, took off our boots, dried the sweat from our brow as it had gotten warmer and warmer on the trip down.  Stopped for a couple more pictures and then left.  We stopped by the Sugarlands Visitor Center to get Abby’s National Park Passport Book stamped and to buy her some trial patches as proof of her adventure.  On the way out of Gatlinburg we stopped on a pull off of the bypass and took in a view of Mount LeConte.  I pointed out to Abby where we had just been.  The peaks were hidden in the clouds.  Reaching Pigeon Forge, we both had an urge for some ice cream, so we stopped at Baskin Robbins.  Once through Sevierville, stopped at McDonald’s around 4:00 PM.  From there, we drove back to the Douglas Lake cabin to pick up the items we had left there, and then we headed back home.

 

 

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