Mt. LeConte…..With My Sister

We love Mt. LeConte in the Smoky Mountains.  We have hiked the mountain every fall since 2021.  If you have read all my stories, you may remember the first story was about our first hike on Mt. LeConte, and how I almost killed my husband.  This is another story about hiking Mt. LeConte, in 2024.  My sister, Shelly, joined us for this hike. 

I’m beginning to think that maybe I am not the one to take non-hikers on a hike.  There were some concerning similarities in the hike with my husband and the hike with my sister. 

Shelly is very active.  She likes to ride her bike, and she participates in several exercise classes every week.  But she doesn’t hike much.  When she said she would like to join us on the hike this time, I told her it might not be the best idea to start with this hike. The Alum Cave trail, which is the one we take, is a 2763 foot gain in elevation in 5.5 miles. But she wanted to go.  She had a few questions about the hike.  One question was “How long does the hike take?”  When I told her that the hike, up and back, would take about 5-7 hours, her next question was, “What do I do if I need to go to the bathroom?”  I told her there was a bathroom at the lodge at the top of the mountain, but if she needed to go while we were hiking, then she would need to squat behind a tree or a rock. She got a disgusted look on her face and said, “I’m not doing that.”  A few weeks later, she told me she had purchased a portable toilet to take on the hike. 

I told her she better get a backpack to carry the toilet, because it was not going in my backpack.  I bought her a Kula cloth (a reusable, antimicrobial pee cloth) for her birthday.  She found that disgusting too. 

We typically camp at the KOA in Pigeon Forge the night before and the night after our hike.  Kelly and Ryan have made the hike with me every year.  We all gathered at the KOA.  Remy, my grandson, who was nine months old at the time, was joining us on the hike this year too.

My husband, Greg, and Shelly’s husband, Aaron, were camping with us, but they were not going on the hike the next day.  Shelly called me over to their campsite and proudly held up her backpack she had bought to take on the hike.  It was camouflage and it was huge.  It was a hunter’s backpack, designed to hold guns, bows and arrows, but in this case it was going to hold a portable toilet.  This toilet…  It collapsed, but it was still big and it was heavy. 

There is not a rock or a tree big enough for me to be caught sitting bare butt on that thing.  It would be hard to be discreet while using that toilet. But she insisted on taking it, so there we were. 

We started out the next morning very early, before sunrise.  It is difficult to find parking at the Alum Cave trailhead, so you have to get there very early to get a space.  Plus, since we were hiking at the end of October, the days were getting shorter and we wanted to be back down the mountain and at the campsite before dark.  It was still dark when we started out on the hike, but it wasn’t too long before it started to get light.

As usual, the hike was beautiful and I was enjoying it very much. 

Shelly wasn’t too fond of the bridges, which looked like logs that had been cut in half lengthwise with a rail on one side, and she expressed her feelings at each bridge. 

The similarities between the hike with my husband and the hike with my sister were starting to emerge.  After a while, we began to hear comments, such as “Oh my gosh! How long is this hike?” and “There are more stairs?!” and “It’s so steep!”  These comments were very familiar.  We all decided it would be a good time to take a break.  As we were resting, I asked Shelly if she wanted something to eat.  She reported that it was not time for her to eat yet.  Shelly had been on a diet.  The diet required that she fast until a certain time in the morning.  I had told her she should not follow the diet that day, because she needed the calories for the hike. Apparently, she did not think that was good advice.  She had started out on this hike without eating anything. But I did finally convince her to eat a granola bar.  We continued the hike.  Shelly’s back was beginning to hurt because she was carrying this heavy toilet in her huge backpack. She finally decided the toilet was not worth the trouble.  She took the toilet out of her backpack and we hid it under some leaves, with the intention of picking it up on our way back down the mountain.  Kelly dropped a pin for the location so we would know where it was.  As Shelly was taking the toilet out of her backpack, we discovered she had also packed two glass bottles of tea, a few bottles of water, some protein bars, and a roll of toilet paper.  And by this time, she had also stuffed her coat, her sweatshirt, and her hat in the backpack. That was a lot of weight in that backpack.

We made it to Alum Cave.  We rested a while, and then continued the hike.  Shelly was getting very tired.  She was worried that she was not going to be able to make it. 

I offered to go back down the mountain with her, telling Kelly and Ryan that we would wait for them at the bottom.  (Greg had also told me that he did not think he was going to make it when he was doing the hike, but I did not offer to go back with him because we had reservations for the lodge. Priorities, you know).  Shelly very firmly told me that she was going to finish the hike because she had told people she was doing this hike.  Stubborn runs really strong in our family.

Other comparisons between the the hike with my husband and the hike with my sister: 

Greg                                                                Shelly

Stopped talking altogether                            Regularly commented on the conditions….

Experienced shoulder pain                            Had back pain due to the gigantic backpack

Significantly slowed pace as he tired            Significantly slowed pace as she tired

Vomited                                                         Cried

Reached destination after dark                     Reached destination after dark

Much happier going down the mountain    Much happier going down the mountain

We finally made it to the top of the mountain.  There were bathrooms… well… outhouses, for hikers to use.  I have to admit, the bathrooms were stinky.  Shelly expressed her opinion about the stinky outhouses.  But I think using a stinky outhouse with a door was still better than sitting on a portable toilet on the side of the trail. 

We went to the lodge to buy snacks and souvenirs.  We took some pictures to commemorate making it to the top. 

We rested for a while before heading back down the mountain.  Shelly seemed happier about the idea of going downhill.  She was convinced that would be easier.  But she still had the gigantic backpack. 

We started down the trail.  Shelly was moving pretty slowly.  I told Ryan and Kelly to go ahead and go to the parking lot.  Remy had been in the carrier most of the day, and I thought he needed to get out and move around.  They took off and Shelly and I continued down the trail.  Shelly was complaining that the backpack was hurting her back.  She took off the backpack and started carrying it in the front of her.  Then it was on one shoulder.  Then it was on the other shoulder.  Then it was around her neck. Then it was on her head. 

I offered to carry the backpack so we could move a little faster, but she refused to let me carry it. We looked for the toilet, but we could not find it.  We later found out that Ryan and Kelly had picked it up. People on the trail kept asking Shelly if she was ok as they passed us by.  I guess they weren’t used to seeing people carrying their backpack on their heads.  Pretty soon, we stopped seeing other people and it felt like we were the only ones on the trail.  I finally insisted on taking her backpack.  She was able to move faster without the backpack.  It started getting dark.  I told Shelly to start making some noise.  She asked me why.  I told her it was because I did not want to surprise a bear.  Her response was, “A bear?! There are bears?!”  Now, while my statement was mostly true, my reason for saying it was mostly to get Shelly moving a little faster.  And it worked.  We finally made it to the parking lot, found Kelly and Ryan, and headed back to the campground.  I called Greg once we had cell service and told him I thought we should order pizzas rather than try to cook at the campground in the dark. He insisted that we should cook the food we brought.  That was not what I wanted.  It had just taken us 12 hours to do a hike that usually takes about 5-7 hours.  But when we got to the campground, Greg had everything ready for us to eat.  We all had dinner, cleaned up, and went to bed.  I was very proud of Shelly for successfully completing the hike!

Tips:

1. You may want to think twice about going with me on a hike if you’re not really a hiker.  It appears that I am not the person to show you a good time.
2. Don’t fast before a hike.
3. A portable toilet is not a good idea on a hike.
4.  Nobody will steal a portable toilet hidden in the leaves on the Alum Cave trail at Mt. LeConte. And who would have really cared if they had?
5. The Alum Cave Trail to Mt. LeConte is a great hike.  The views are beautiful, and the trail is very well maintained.  I highly recommend it. You can hike Mt. LeConte as a day hike, or you can stay the night at the lodge at the top.
6. There are six trails that lead to the top of Mt. LeConte.  We have only hiked the Alum Cave Trail every year, but we plan to start hiking the other trails next year.  Alum Cave Trail is the shortest, but it is the steepest.  The other trails are Rainbow Falls Trail, Boulevard Trail, Trillium Gap Trail, Bullhead Trail, Brushy Mountain Trail.
7. If you want to score a night at Mt. LeConte Lodge, visit their webpage, lecontelodge.com, and follow the directions.  Be sure to submit your email request during the submission period.  The reservation requests are for the following year.
8. If you are considering a Kula cloth, you can buy them at REI stores. You can also go to their website at http://www.kulacloth.com. They sell more than just Kula cloths. They support Leave No Trace practices and sustainable adventures. They are actually a really cool company. If you subscribe, they offer webinars and all sorts of information about hiking, backpacking, and other outdoor adventures.