Til the Last Hemlock Dies: My Hike to the Summit of Mount LeConte and My Stay at LeConte Lodge.

The first time I saw LeConte Lodge was on a dayhike to the summit of Mount LeConte in 1974. I took the Alum Cave Trail to the top of the mountain and spotted the lodge as I hiked up to the Cliff Tops overlook. Of course I had to take a detour and see the lodge. It was amazing to me that comfortable accommodations were located high on the mountain many miles from the nearest road and with the only access being steep and rocky single-file trails.

Back then the lodge was still being heated with firewood. Later, when the owners of this concession were no longer allowed to gather firewood, they switched to kerosene heaters; and these days the buildings and rooms are warmed with propane heaters.

After I climbed to the cliffs to take some photos and look out over the nearby peaks, I went back for another look at the lodge. I wanted to be able to stay overnight there and stopped in the office to ask how that was done. And, of course, I promised myself that one day I would make the trip up there and stay for a night or two.

Decades passed and somehow I never got the chance to go back, except for dayhikes to the summit. Over those years I managed to find myself hiking up there seven different times via three different trails. When I started working for the USPS I would call and try to arrange a reservation, but on the days that I had free there were no spots open. To draw a long tale short I had to wait until I was retired; to a time when I could take an open date no matter when it fell. Thus, last month I called and asked about any cancellations and found two dates open in August.

I ended up taking the first open date even though Carole and I would be camping for four days in the same Park the previous week. We would be coming home, and I would be returning to the Park for my hike to the top of LeConte two days later. So it goes. I no longer live by much of a schedule. I make the plans and don't need to worry about job responsibilities.

For this trip I chose to go up via a trail called The Boulevard. At about 8.4 miles it's longer than the others I had used, but I had been told it was a lot easier than the three with which I was familiar. This proved to be a load of crap, as it is harder than any of the other three. For my money, the best way up is still Alum Cave Trail. You climb more, but the distance is a brief five miles, and the scenery is superior to any of the four routes I've taken.

But I made it up. The hike took me about five and a half hours since I stopped to eat breakfast on the trail (protein bars and water). I also paused many times to take photographs, as I always do when I go hiking. The first part of the hike is 2.7 miles on the Appalachian Trail with a climb from 5300 feet at Newfound Gap to 6,000 feet near the top of Mount Kephart. From there I faced a series of moderate ups and downs, losing and gaining elevation in what the hiking community refer to as "pointless ups and downs". At last, I approached more open territory with very rugged terrain and a steep climb of eight hundred vertical feet to the top of the mountain, then a drop of about two hundred feet to the lodge.

By the time I strolled up to the buildings I was quite tired and sweaty. I checked into my lodge room and soon discovered that my stay would be everything that I hoped it would be. I was pleased. I quickly retrieved a metal bucket to take water to my room and use a wash basin to take a sponge bath. Clean and refreshed, the first thing I did was crawl into my very comfortable bed and rest for about fifteen minutes. After that I took a stroll through the grounds taking photos, then went back to my lodge where I met a young couple from Detroit who were staying there for two nights.

Later I took a walk up to Cliff Tops but the views were obscured by passing clouds so there were no landscape photography opportunities. At 2 o'clock they opened the dining hall for various drinks and I had a couple of cups of lemonade. I then just sat on the covered porch in a rocking chair and enjoyed the passing clouds, some of them enveloping the lodge with fingers of white mist. Temperatures hovered around 64 all that afternoon, into the night, and were the same on the following morning.

Because of Covid the dining hall was closed except for brief trips in to get beverages, and then only masked. So the crew brings dinner and breakfast to your lodge room for the duration. The evening meal was roast beef, green beans, mashed potatoes, baked apples, cornbread, cake, and I had opted for three glasses of wine. I had plenty to eat and turned down offers of seconds when the staff made another pass.

Every other time I have backpacked into the Park backcountry I have had to sleep in a shelter or a tent, using a sleeping bag and hanging my food from a convenient tree to keep it safe from bears and other marauding critters. But that night I slept in a log lodge in a bedroom with a propane heater, on an extremely comfortable mattress between cottons sheets and under two wool blankets with a pair of soft pillows under my head. I slept deeply.

The following morning I rose, shaved, brushed my teeth, deposited the gray water behind the lodge and got ready for breakfast. They opened the dining hall and I retrieved several cups of coffee and soon had a great breakfast delivered: pancakes with sorghum syrup, grits, scrambled eggs, Canadian bacon, and a biscuit with plenty of apple butter. I ate it all and chased it with another cup of coffee. After that I got my pack ready as a rainstorm rolled in (the peak gets 85 inches of rainfall per year). I chose to wait a few minutes to see if the rainclouds would pass over, and they did. As the sun was revealed again I hoisted my pack and took a reluctant leave of LeConte Lodge.

The hike down wasn't as difficult as the trudge up and I knocked it out in three and a half hours by making no stops at all and pausing only to take a few photos. I had wanted a two-night stay, and the next time I go I will be there for two nights. Because I will go back again. It's rare for an experience to be exactly what you hoped for. Any place like that is worth return trips.