MT. LECONTE HIKE 3/26/18

They did some trail work on this section.

I’m not sure what type of bird this is but they are common on the trail.

The eye of the needle is over there somewhere.

Steps leading up to Alum Cave. On the way up it was empty but on the way back down it was way too crowded.

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We weren’t able to reserve a night at Mt. Leconte Lodge for the spring break 2018 season so we decided to do a day hike up there and see if maybe there was a cancellation. It ended being full but in either case it was still a good hike. But, the good thing is that we were able to get a steak after we hiked down so the trade off wasn’t too hard to take.

We hadn’t hiked up the Alum Cave Trail for probably four years (I hiked down Alum Cave back in December) and since they did the work on it in the last year or two. They had re-anchored some of the cables and made the steps safer from what I could tell as well as graded the trail a little better in some areas.

Fortunately for us there was minimal snow and ice on the trail on the day we hiked up but apparently the day before was quite different and spikes would have been warranted. It was wet and muddy when we hiked up which wasn’t too bad and it was an excellent hike. The hike down was even better because it was sunny and definitely drying out the trail. Overall this was another excellent hike up to the lodge.

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