April 20, 2007

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My friend John Foster and myself hiked up to the lodge on Friday April 20th to celebrate turning 40. It was quite cold the week before. They had seven inches of snow at the lodge the Sunday before our stay. Most of the snow was gone by Friday though but they did get an inch of snow the night before our stay. We decided to hike up the Alum Cave Bluffs trail to the lodge this time. We had a treat on the road from Gatlinburg to the trailhead. We saw a bear grazing alongside the road. I've been to the park three times prior to this hike and had never seen a bear.

We have a father/son stay at the lodge on June 7th. I've never hiked the ACB trail up to the lodge, only down. I wanted to hike this trail up because we are planning on using this trail on the father/son hike and wanted to judge the effort required and whether or not the younger ones (namely mine) could handle the hike. As I suspected it's not bad from the trailhead to Alum Cave but the rest of the hike is pretty strenuous. However, it's the shortest, 5.5 miles, to the lodge. The trail at least gives you a chance to warm your muscles up before you really have to use them. The first part of the trial follows a creek for a good distance. We reached arch rock in a an hour. That's not too bad of a pace for us. John pulled a muscle pretty bad when we went in 2005. I'll take a little slower pace and no pulled muscle any day. John would concur on that approach. We were hiking in and out of the clouds for part of our hike. The weather guessers were calling for a high in the upper 60s in the valley and mostly sunny. Fortunately they got it right. We took a short break at the bluffs. There was a group of about 30 folks from Indianapolis, IN doing a day hike to the lodge and back. We did run into a bit of snow on the trail a mile or so from the bluffs. Up the 2nd set of trail stairs and onward to the lodge. We had some pretty views where we were in the clouds and you could see the snow line on mountains around us. The higher we went of course the more snow we had on and around the trail. Some of the snow in certain sections made the trail a little difficult to traverse. We arrived at the lodge around 12:30. It took us right at four and a half hours. Not bad considering some of the trail conditions. It was a pleasant 48 degrees and sunny when we reached the lodge. The llama train was getting ready to leave not too long after we finished eating our lunch on the deck of the office. We checked in with the lodge staff and got our stuff settled in our room in one of the group lodges. We took the requisite picture in front of the lodge before dinner to prove we'd been there. For dinner we had the same thing as always, soup with cornbread, roast beef, mashed potatoes, green beans, peach half and a chocolate chip cookie. We ordered a chocolate cake to be made so we could celebrate turning 40. My b-day was in February and his was a couple of weeks prior to our hike but we still celebrated. We each had a big piece, shared with our table, passed it around to all the other tables and still had three pieces left for the lodge crew. They were pleased with that! After being thoroughly stuffed from dinner and our cake we made the short trip to cliff tops to watch the sunset. We had a good crowd of people at sunset and of course everyone was in a good mood after just having a delicious big meal. There was a group from Western Kentucky University and the Mt. LeConte Liars & Hikers club staying at the lodge so it was fairly crowded for the middle of April. The sunset was beautiful as always. It was different than the other two times I've stayed at the lodge but still a great sight.

I got up to go view the sunrise from Myrtle Point. One of our lodge mates had told me to get him up when I left. I did but he didn't make it to sunrise. I was the only one present at sunrise at Myrtle Point. I had to use my new Gorilla tripod that my in-laws got me for my birthday to take my picture at sunrise. The new tripod worked really well and was very lightweight. It's great for taking on hiking/backpacking trips. What a shame no one else was there because it was a wonderful sight. It was very peaceful at Myrtle Point with only the birds to listen to and the wonderful mountain scene. I could watch this sight every morning and never tire of it. By the time I hiked back to the lodge and shed some of my layers of clothes it was time for breakfast. They didn't have to ring the bell long to get everyone in the dining hall. We sat with the same family from Mississippi for breakfast as we did dinner. Their girls were very cute. One was nine and the other one was four. The youngest one made it up the Rainbow Falls trail all they way and didn't have to be carried. We were impressed! John and I had a great breakfast of pancakes, eggs, Canadian bacon, grits, and biscuits. After taking a picture on our lodge steps we were ready to hit the trail for the trip down. There was still some snow to deal with on the trail but a lot of it had melted in the warm sun the day before. John made good use of the steel cables especially where there were drop offs. John has some issues when it comes to dealing with heights so I can certainly understand the use of the cables to give a better sense of security. We made it to the 1st set of steps in pretty good time. It seemed like John even got used to crossing the log bridges on the lower section of trail.

It was a short trip. We headed back home, O'Fallon, MO, after changing clothes at the Sugarlands visitor center restrooms. It was a great trip even though it was a little short. We had great weather. We are looking forward to going back in June for the father/son hike. Hopefully we will have good weather then.