Jack-o-Lantern Huff

Nathan Kirkham carved a pumpkin to portray Jack Huff carrying his mom up Mount Le Conte

 Among the ways the Lodge crew amuse themselves is by having a Jack-o-Lantern contest the week of Halloween. The 2014 winner, by Nathan Kirkham, celebrated the 85th anniversary of Jack Huff's famous 1929 hike carrying his mother up the mountain.

The tour of all Tours: 5 ascents, 78 miles!

Zach Andrews

 Give me a minute, and then go read this blog by Zach Andrews.

 On Wednesday, Oct. 14, Zach conquered Mount Le Conte in a way that defies imagination. In less than 24 hours, he climbed the mountain five times, covering 78.2 miles and climbing 20,740 feet.

 In my research, I've identified 34 individuals who have completed the Tour de Le Conte, which requires hiking all six trails (up or down) in the span of a day. None of them attempted anything nearly as ambitious as Zach did. 

 An ultramarathoner from Montevallo, Alabama, Zach respects Le Conte so much that he has the summit elevation—6,593—tattooed on his chest. After seeing how his friend Ash Walsh completed the tour in 51 miles without using a car shuttle between trail heads, he came up with a plan—he called it The Great Ascension—to attempt every trail both ways in 24 hours.

 After stashing supplies at several trailheads and a quick nap at the Alum Cave Bluff trailhead, Zach hit the trail at 1:10 a.m. Oct. 14. Then he went down and up the Boulevard/AT to Newfound Gap, returning to Myrtle Point before sunrise. At daybreak, he descended Brushy Mountain to the Porter's Creek trailhead and retraced his steps up to Trillium Gap and down to the Trillium trailhead. He climbed Trillium to the Lodge, with apologies to a trail crew he interrupted. (Trillium is closed Monday through Thursday for construction.) He went down and up Rainbow Falls, navigating through sightseers, down and up Bullhead, and then hiked down Alum to finish after midnight, with an elapsed time of 23 hours and 38 minutes. Along the way, he encountered a bear, a fox, and a coyote.

 Zack counts 36 lifetime ascents of Le Conte. 

 There is one record Zach didn't break—most summit hikes in one day. John Northrup, the manager of Le Conte Lodge, climbed the Alum Cave Bluff Trail seven times on Sept. 28, 2012. The first lap he carried a 40-pound pack through a rainstorm. After that, he said he felt like he was walking on air. "I was pretty much averaging 3 hours per roundtrip the rest of the day," he said.

 John has completed the Tour de Le Conte four times, more than anyone on record.

 Now go read all about it in Zach's own words.

Zach's route: Up Alum, down and up Boulevard, down and up Brushy, down and up Trillium, down and up Rainbow, down and up Bullhead, and down Alum.

One for the books: Fast time for the Tour de Le Conte

Jevin Hoeper and Jeff Conyers at the finish line in Greenbrier

 Congratulations to Jevin Hoeper and Jeff Conyers for completing the Tour de Le Conte on Columbus Day. They ran 50.1 miles in 13:07:23—the fastest time this year to complete all six trails on the mountain.

 Starting before dawn at Newfound Gap, they went up AT and the Boulevard, down and back up Alum Cave, down Rainbow, up Bullhead, down Trillium, back up to Trillium Gap, and then finished after dark via Brushy Mountain. "The trails were wet (like running through a creek sometimes), muddy, and slick, but we got through it," Jevin said.

 Jeff is the president of the Dollywood Foundation which supports the Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, so he and Jevin ran as #TeamDPIL to raise awareness for the library, which has provided over 145 million books for children. Jevin works on the trail maintenance crew for the national park.

 We have documented 33 hikers who have completed the Tour de Le Conte since 1983. Jeff and Jevin's course was longer than most, because they wanted to avoid car shuttles between trailheads. That required extra miles on Alum and Trillium.

11:33 was their moving time, but the entire tour took 13:07:23 elapsed time.