Last fall when we visited the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Brad read some information about climbing Mt. LeConte and staying at their lodge. (Lodge = no electricity, no indoor plumbing, etc.... but more on that later.😉) Mt. LeConte is the highest peak contained within Tennessee, and the third highest peak in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We thought it would be fun to do this for his 60th birthday, but when we called, we had missed the window for their lottery system. However, we were told to call everyday to see if there was a cancellation. (That thing called The Internet could really come in handy, don't ya think!) Anyway...... Suzanne called everyday and on Day 3, an opening appeared! So all we had to do was wait for Brad to get older.......and the day came!
There are multiple trails to LeConte Lodge, and we had originally decided to hike up Rainbow Falls Trail and back down Bullhead Trail - both trailheads share a parking lot and we wanted to make it a circular route. However, there were too many downed trees on the latter trail, and it was pretty much closed, so we hiked to/from on Rainbow Falls Trail. (In hindsight, we may have preferred the more popular Alum Cave Trail, yet on our hike up we passed maybe half-a-dozen people, meaning it was a quiet hike, which we enjoy.)
On May 10, 2024 (AKA The Day That Brad Turned 60), we started the 6.7 mile, 3,900 ft up, 100 ft down hike at about 7:45am. Brad wore a pin that read, "It's My 60th Birthday" pin all day, and the few people we passed, plus everyone at the lodge, repeatedly wished him a Happy Birthday, so that was nice.
We hiked for about 1 hour and 45 minutes....some of the trail was comfortable underfoot....
...and some rocky......
.....over a few rock bridges......
...when we arrived at Rainbow Falls.....
(We met a group of four women - all super nice - who were also staying at the lodge that night.)
We continued hiking (the path was quite rocky underfoot, so by the time we made it to the lodge, our feet were hurting) among trees with the occasional view and made it to LeConte Lodge at 12:30pm, so about five hours of hiking - oh, and it was a steady climb uphill for sure. There had been a huge rainstorm the day prior - about eight inches of rain - so the trail was quite wet with lots of standing puddles - Suzanne's feet were soaked by the time we got to the lodge.
(The date is on the right, by the peak - should really have said "Brad's 60th Birthday!" 😀)
We checked-in and were taken to our cabin.........
Super cute - no electricity, but had a propane heater and kerosene lantern (which provided very little light in reality). The drying rack was super helpful for our wet clothes.
That bucket is the wash bucket......
There were bunk beds - we slept on the bottom bunk - not the most comfortable mattress in the world! 😆
There was a bucket with a top for us to store all of our food - more on that later. 😉
We changed out of wet clothes - Brad moved his "Today is my 60th Birthday" pin from his backpack to his jacket......
....and we took a quick half-mile hike to the Cliff Tops and enjoyed the view......
We then meandered around the lodge area, checking out the lodge......
and the kitchen (again, no electricity).
The llamas were there - they hike along the Trillium Gap Trail three days a week bringing supplies. Clearly, they are camera shy......
It was very cold, so we hung out in the lodge and played some games - Connect 4 and eventually, Sorry! Brad took the Sorry! Championship by winning two of the three games we played.
The bathrooms had flush toilets - considered a "luxury." 😏
Dinner were served at 6:30pm, family-style, all-you-can-eat.
We sat with six other people - all very nice - all from Tennessee. Dinner consisted of: (watery) cream of broccoli soup, a canned peach half, corn bread, some red meat thing (Suzanne had a vegetarian entree which was very good), green beans, mashed potatoes, and all-you-can-drink-wine-in-an-hour. The food was good, not great. The staff was amazingly nice and attentive - we think there were only about 5-6 people working at the lodge and doing everything. What was dessert? Suzanne pre-ordered birthday cake to be made and provided to all of the guests and staff as a surprise for Brad. So when dessert came, all 50+ people sang Happy Birthday to him, which was super cool.
Eventually it was time for bed. Suzanne thoughts she heard "scratching" at some point, but Brad assured her that it was simply the wind and a squirrel running over the cabin's roof. Brad was awake on/off all night. Suzanne slept like a rock. The next morning as we all waited around for our 8am breakfast, people were all talking about being kept up all night by the scratching of the mice and mice inside (INSIDE!!) their cabins running around searching for food. WHAT?! 😵 (Thus the food storage bucket - unhappy/hungry mice leave quicker than eating-granola-bars mice!) Apparently, Brad knew that it was mice scratching - not the wind - and very smartly lied to Suzanne. He even put a bandana in a hole by the door frame and he kept checking it throughout the night to find it moved - repeatedly - and there were even mice droppings on it! It took 60 years for Brad to figure it out - but there are things to lie about - and mice running around while Suzanne is sleeping is one of them!
We enjoyed our breakfast of coffee/hot cocoa, Tang (yes, it still exists), pancakes, eggs, ham (which they called bacon), and grits (remember, we were in the south). We hit the trail to head back about 9am and were back to our car at 1pm, so a 4-hour descent. It was much less wet this time around, which was nice.
😀Happy 60th Birthday Brad!! 😀
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