Jack Huff's great-grandsons complete the Tour

Parker Bowling, Cade Huff, and Wes Fortner—completing 3 trips over Le Conte

 Following in the footsteps of their great-grandfather Jack Huff, Parker Bowling and Cade Huff—along with their friend, Wes Fortner—made their own history on Mount Le Conte when they completed the Tour de Le Conte challenge, which involves hiking all six trails in 24 hours.
 Parker, Cade, and Wes started at 4:10 a.m. on Friday, July 31, and went up Rainbow Falls, down Trillium (yielding to the up-bound llamas), up Bullhead, down Alum, up Boulevard despite a thunderstorm, and down Brushy Mountain, finishing at 3:12 a.m. on Aug. 1. That's a total of 45.7 miles, which they completed in 23 hours and two minutes. Jake Agee did the first two legs with them, so there are four in their video.

 Jack Huff (1903-1985) founded LeConte Lodge in 1926 and climbed the mountain thousands of times, including the famous day in 1929 when he carried his mother to the Lodge in a chair strapped to his back. Jack and Pauline were married at Myrtle Point in 1934, raised their children on the mountain, and ran the Lodge until 1960. He built the original buildings, including the dining hall in 1939. Jack stopped counting hikes after he surpassed 1,000 in 1937, but we have estimated that his lifetime total was about 2,500. Parker has climbed Le Conte 27 times (eight this year), Cade 23, and Wes 22.
 Cade is the grandson of the late Phillip Huff. Parker is the grandson of Cookie Bowling, Jack's daughter. Cookie once had a piggy-back ride up the mountain, too—when she was three months old.
 "Jack would be so proud!" says a Facebook post from the family-owned Jack Huff's Motor Lodge in Gatlinburg. Parker said, "This challenge is very personal to us and was an amazing and challenging experience." Parker, Cade, and Wes all are 19 years old and students at the University of Tennessee.
 We have documented 31 hikers who have completed the Tour de Le Conte, including five this year. They are listed in the sidebar on the left side of this page (If you are reading on a mobile device, you will need to switch to full-screen mode to see the list.)

Back when you could keep a reservation for years, Jack Huff's descendants had a reunion hike each May. This one was in 2012. On the second row, Cookie Bowling is second from the left, and Cade is wearing a stocking cap. On the third row, Wes is on the left and Parker in the center.