Mount LeConte Lodge Two Night 3/31/16 To 4/2/16

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I’ve stayed up at Mt. LeConte Lodge a few times now but this was the first time I was able to obtain two nights up there so I was really excited. A friend of mine suggested that it could be boring being stuck up there for a few nights so I was a little concerned that my nephew and I would run out of things to do but I was more than willing to give it a try.

We decided to hike up the Trillium Gap trail and down the Bullhead Trail because we neither of us have hiked either of these trails. We were due rain and possible storms on the day we were to hike up so we decided against Bullhead on that day because it’s exposed.

This proved to be a good idea because it did rain a good piece on the way up the hill so the plentiful tree cover proved to help a little.

The Trillium Gap trail proved to be a decent hike but in my opinion it just didn’t have the awesome views of any of the other trails. I found it was lacking the wow factor that the other trails have with their gorgeous views and waterfalls and rock formations. Now, from what I can tell this trail would be a better hike with the full tree foliage and blooming flowers of late spring and summer but at this time of year it lacked all of that. I intend to go back and experience this trail during late spring or fall in order to get a better feel of this trail.

The Bullhead trail was simply amazing and in my opinion provided all of the wow factor of both the Alum Cave and Rainbow Falls trails but also added the ridgeline hiking of the Boulevard trail to make this trail an incredible hike. I can’t wait to hike up Bullhead and experience it in the other direction because I’ve heard the last mile of the Boulevard is pretty tough so it sounds like a great climb. I kind of doubt I’ll get the same views that I would hiking down the trail but I bet it’s pretty amazing regardless.

Our first night on the mountain came with 50 mph wind gusts and a thunderstorm. Now, thunderstorms are awesome at lower levels but they are intense up high and I’d say it was about one in the morning when that first boom woke me from a dead sleep. Wow, pretty intense. It was really awesome!

The second night was quite the opposite weather-wise and in fact it was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. The wind was not moving at all. It was a really calm cold night which probably helped to qualm the wind and storms. It was also very clear and allowed for some gorgeous nighttime views of Gatlinburg. The addition of a fine guitar player at the lodge brought in the beautiful night. It was a great way to end the day.

I took my small Osprey 28L daypack which weighed about 16 pounds once fully packed with about about 54 ounces of water. I was advised there aren’t many water sources on the Trillium Gap Trail so I went prepared.

Below is a list of the items in my pack for this trip. At this time of year you just don’t know what kind of weather you can get this time of year. Last year when we arrived there was about 2 feet of snow at the lodge around the same time. See here for my notes on that trip. This year the weather was much different – with daytime temps around 60F but still getting down pretty chilly and the last night it got down around 28F. The tradeoff with those warmer temps is the wind which can get downright brutal in the Smoky Mountains because of mixture of warm and cold air.

FOOTWEAR/BACKPACKS/CONTENTS	WEIGHT OUNCES	WEIGHT POUNDS
SHOES/BOOTS NOT INCLUDED IN PACK WEIGHT
VASQUE SCREE LOW SHOES	36.00	2.25
TREKKING POLES NOT INCLUDED IN PACK WEIGHT
BLACK DIAMOND FL ULTRA DISTANCE TREKKING POLES	16.00	1.00
BACKPACKS
OSPREY HELIOS 26L DAYPACK	55.00	3.44
PACK COVER
EQUINOX SMALL PACK COVER	3.20	0.20
TARPS
BEARPAW DESIGNS SILNYLON GROUND TARP	8.00	0.50
FOOD
SNACKS	10.00	0.63
BASICS
MINI COMPASS AND TEMP GAUGE	0.70	0.04
SOL EMERGENCY BLANKET	2.50	0.16
SAWYER FILTER MINI(2OZ), ONE SQUEEZE BAG(1.5OZ), SCOOP CUP(2OZ) MESH BAG	5.50	0.34
SAFETY LANYARD – BG COMPACT SCOUT KNIFE/ADVENTURE MEDICAL RESCUE HOWLER/COAST G10 FLASHLIGHT	2.80	0.18
TOILETRY KIT – MEDICINE/TOOTHBRUSH/TOOTHPASTE	4.00	0.25
FIRE KIT: DRYER LINT/LIGHTER/LIGHT MY FIRE FIRESTEEL	2.80	0.18
POTTY KIT – DEUCE OF SPADES/TOILET PAPER	3.00	0.19
CLOTHING
MARMOT RAIN JACKET	17.20	1.08
EDDIE BAUER IGNITELITE PULLOVER JACKET	12.10	0.76
MARMOT DRICLIME WINDSHIRT	9.90	0.62
NIKE RAIN PANTS	12.40	0.78
SPRING CLOTHING KIT 2 NIGHT: WOOL SLEEP SOCKS/MIDWEIGHT WOOL THERMAL BOTTOMS/TSHIRT/BOXERS/WOOL MID SOCKS/SHORTS	14.00	0.88
OR ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOW GAITERS	4.80	0.30
WATER BOTTLES – BLADDERS
SOBE BOTTLE FULL	29.00	1.81
PLATYPUS 1 LITER PLUS BOTTLE PARTIAL FULL	32.00	2.00
LIGHTING
BLACK DIAMOND STORM HEADLAMP IN HMG NANO CF8 CUBEN STUFF SACK W/EXTRA BATTERIES	5.30	0.33
EXTRAS
BG SURVIVAL KNIFE	14.70	0.92
POWER CHARGER	6.30	0.39
TOTAL SUM OF WEIGHT OUNCES	255.20
TOTAL SUM OF WEIGHT POUNDS	15.95	15.95

ML MAP 033016 — We hiked the highlighted section of this map in a clockwise direction. On April 1st we hiked a total of about 3 miles exploring Cliff Tops, Mt. LeConte and the Boulevard.

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I parked my vehicle at the Rainbow Falls trailhead so we wouldn’t have a long walk after we came off the mountain. This was an advantage at the end of our hike made our walk to the Trillium trailhead an additional 2+ miles that was all uphill but if I did that same hike again I would do it the same way regardless of the initial elevation gain from the vehicle to the Trillium Gap trailhead.