Their 44-mile day raised over $7,000 for better trails

Dr. Nancy East and Chris Ford celebrate the completion of their Tour de Le Conte.
Click here to make a donation to the Trails Forever program.

 Congratulations to Dr. Nancy Mercure East and Chris Ford for hiking the Tour de Le Conte on Friday, Oct. 25, and for raising thousands of dollars to renovate trails on the mountain.
 Nancy and Chris dedicated their hike to the Friends of the Smokies' Trails Forever program, which has renovated the Trillium Gap Trail to Grotto Falls, with more work planned next year on the upper sections. This is the same crew that did such an outstanding job on the Alum Cave Trail in 2015 and 2016. Their goal was $5,000, and thanks to the generosity of folks like you, donations have topped $7,000. 

In September 2020, Nancy and Chris broke the record for the fastest "Tour de Smokies," hiking 948 miles of national park trails in 29 days and 10 hours. This was a fundraiser for a safe hiking initiative in the Smokies. It's not too late to donate.

 Nancy and Chris set foot on the Bullhead Trail at 2 a.m., hiked 15 miles before sunrise, and finished their 44-mile trek before nightfall in a time of 16:13—giving her the fastest known time among the five women who have hiked all of Le Conte's trails in a span of 24 hours. They kept a pace of 2.9 miles per hour. See her blog for details of the hike or for how you might prepare for such a challenge. Click here to read the Smoky Mountain News story on her hike.

 Nancy is a veterinarian in Waynesville, N.C., and a mother of three who is known on the trails as "Seal Mom." With three visits to LeConte Lodge within 11 hours, she now has climbed Mount Le Conte 19 times. Chris, 51, a resident of Knoxville, is retired from the Air Force.

Nancy and Chris started up Bullhead (top left), and their route continued across Mount Le Conte, down the Boulevard and southbound on the Appalachian Trail to Newfound Gap (bottom), up Alum to Le Conte Lodge, down Rainbow Falls, up Trillium Gap to the Lodge, and down Brushy Mountain (top right).

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