Brothers break record for the Tour de Le Conte

Elias Groft adds a stone to the cairn at High Top

 Congratulations to brothers Elias and Anthony Groft of Portland, Tenn., for posting the fastest known time for the Tour de Le Conte—completing all six trails on Mount Le Conte in just a shade over eight hours. 

 Here is a video tracking their day. 

 Running on Black Friday, Nov. 27, the brothers finished 45.3 miles in 8:03:38. That's 32 minutes faster than Luke Bollschweiler's time of 8:35 last Dec. 27. They followed the same route as Bollschweiller, up Rainbow, down Trillium, up Bullhead, down Alum, car shuttle to Newfound Gap, up the AT and Boulevard, and finishing via Brushy Mountain. They averaged 6.37 mph.

 Elias also ran the tour earlier this year. He is the fifth man to complete it more than once, and the first to do it twice in the same year.

 This has been the busiest year for the Tour, with 12 completions reported. Last year, there were 10. Since 1993, the Tour has been completed 43 times by 36 individuals. The list of completers is on the sidebar of this page. If you are reading on a mobile device, you'll need to switch to full-screen mode to see the sidebar.

Anthony and Elias charging up the Bullhead trail—their second ascent of the day

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.  

New route, record pace for the Tour de Le Conte

Ash Walsh after 51.2 miles

 Congratulations to ultra-marathoner Ash Walsh for pioneering a new route for the Tour de Le Conte that eliminates the shuttle between the Alum Cave trailhead and Newfound Gap.
 Starting at Newfound Gap at 5:02 a.m. on Friday, June 26, Ash went up the Boulevard, down and back up Alum Cave, down Bullhead, up Rainbow, down Trillium, and then returned to Trillium Gap to descend the Brushy Mountain trail. She finished at 7:32 p.m., completing 51.2 miles in 14:30:26. Even considering the extra mileage on Alum and Trillium, that's the fastest known time for a female and among the 10 fastest times by the 28 completers we have on record. Her route had a cumulative elevation gain of 10,705 feet.
 Ash said she has been running the trails of the Smokies for several years and calls Le Conte "my favorite mountain." A few years ago, she decided it would be "so fun to tackle all the trails on Le Conte in one day. I had no idea quite a few had already done it. I should have known!" She is the second to complete the Tour this year and the sixth female to accomplish all six trails in 24 hours.
 The way the six trails on Le Conte are laid out, most hikers who attempt the Tour use a car to get from Alum to Newfound Gap. In 2019, Nathaniel Klumb did it in reverse and rode a bike down from the gap to the Alum trailhead, which he said took just one turn of the pedal.
 Ash studied the possibilities and realized she could avoid the shuttle if she did Alum both ways. Her route still covered all the trails to the roadside trailheads and included three trips past the Lodge, which we count as a summit hike. The Tour does not have written rules, but by tradition, hikers are not expected to go to High Top on every ascent.
 Ash is 33, lives in Georgia with her husband and two children, and has completed nine 100-mile footraces. 
 She hasn't kept count of her LeConte climbs but estimates more than 30. "Being able to enjoy this mountain is truly a gift, and I thanked God for it the entire day. I really enjoyed Bullhead, as I had not visited the trail since the fires. Wow, what a change! But clear evidence that beauty can grow from the ashes."

Ash's route: Started at Newfound Gap, up the AT and Boulevard, down and up Alum, down Bullhead, up Rainbow, down Trillium to Cherokee Orchard, back up to Trillium Gap, and down Brushy Mountain.

Linton Kerr #33-34-35: All 6 trails in 1 long day

Linton Kerr with Melanie Salas as they reached the Lodge for the second time. 

 Congratulations to Linton Kerr of Kingsport, Tennessee, for completing the Tour de Le Conte on Saturday, June 13. 

Actual mileage was 48.5, subtracting
 the shuttle from Alum to Newfound  Gap

 Starting at 4:40 a.m. in Cherokee Orchard, he went up Rainbow and down Trillium in 4:48, up Bullhead and down Alum (two laps complete in 10:06), shuttled to Newfound Gap, and went up the Boulevard and down Brushy Mountain, finishing at 9:26 p.m. in Greenbrier.  He covered 48.5 miles in 16:46:27, sustaining a pace near 3 mph. He went out of his way to tag High Top on each climb and also went by Myrtle Point and Cliff Top, which made his route a little longer than others. Beyond the finish-line gate, he had to hike two more miles, because the Porters Creek road is closed because of a washout. 
 He now has 35 lifetime climbs of Mount Le Conte. With two exceptions, he's been to the mountaintop every year since 1994.  
 Linton had high praise for Melanie Salas, who ran 37 miles with him before stopping because of the heat. "I could not have completed this without the support of a wonderful friend," he said. "I am so proud of what this lady accomplished in her first day ever on Le Conte."
 Linton is the first Tour completer reported in 2020 and the 27th since it was first accomplished in 1993. We have a list of completers in the sidebar of this page. Mobile viewers will need to switch to fullscreen mode to see the sidebar.  

Fastest known time for the Tour de Le Conte

Luke Bollschweiler averaged over 5 mph on a 47.5-mile route that climbed 11,086 feet

 Congratulations to Luke Bollschweiler of Maryville, Tennessee, who ran the six trails of Mount LeConte on Dec. 27 with the fastest known time for the Tour de Le Conte.
 Luke covered 47.5 miles in 8 hours, 35 minutes, and 34 seconds. Starting at 7 a.m., he went up Rainbow Falls, down Trillium Gap, up Bullhead, and down Alum Cave. After a car shuttle to Newfound Gap, he went up the Boulevard, and down Brushy Mountain to finish in mid-afternoon. The previous record was 10:03:41 by Dave Worth in 2011. 
 It was the second time Luke has broken one of Dave's records. This past March, he ran the 72 miles of the Appalachian Trail through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 14:28:33, which was 22 minutes faster than Worth did it in 2011. That race is called the Smokies Challenge Adventure Run. A video crew followed his trek and produced a film called "Ultra Man."

 According to an interview last year in the Maryville Daily Times, Luke and his wife Sarah moved to Tennessee in 2000 when he took a job in Maryville. He grew up in Idaho and went to Brigham Young University in Utah.
 This was the 12th time in 2019 (and the 36th time since 1993) that the Tour de Le Conte has been successfully completed in 24 hours. Luke is also the first to complete the Tour in daylight. Most completers have done at least two of the trails in the dark. 
 The list of completers is on the sidebar of this blog, below the Le Conte Honor Roll. If you are reading on your phone, you will need to switch to "View Web Version" to see the sidebar. You can also click on the "Tour de Le Conte" tab on our masthead to read previous stories about the Tour.

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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IF YOU ARE READING THIS ON YOUR PHONE, you may need to switch from the mobile view to full screen (iPhone users click on "View web version" below) to see our all-time Honor Roll and the list of TLC completers.

Following the footsteps of the Tour trailblazers

Katie Baker (right) with a friend who hiked with her up Brushy Mountain Trail

 Katie Baker wasn't going to let rain spoil her 40th birthday parade. That was the day she intended to complete the Tour de Le Conte—hiking all six trails that lead to Mount Le Conte in a span of 24 hours. 
 Accompanied by friends, Katie started up the Brushy Mountain trail at 5:07 a.m. on Oct. 19, then went down Rainbow Falls, up Bullhead, down Boulevard, and up Alum to LeConte Lodge for the third time in 12 hours. The rain intensified as she hiked down the Trillium Gap trail and made her way behind the torrent of Grotto Falls. At 10:02 p.m., after 44 miles and nearly 17 hours of hiking, she reached the Trillium trailhead on Roaring Fork Road. The Trillium Gap trail actually continues another 2.4 miles to Cherokee Orchard, but by that point the storm had made it dangerous to continue, so she and her hiking partners decided to stop there. 
 Does that count as a completed Tour de Le Conte? 
 The question stumped me, since there are no written rules for the Tour de Le Conte. The spirit of the challenge is to hike all six trails that lead to the top of the mountain, which she did. All the other routes start at roadside trailheads, so to me, there's nothing wrong with stopping at the first road you reach coming down.
 I've asked other completers for their perspectives. One of them told me that back in 1993, the original completers of the Tour de Le Conte, Lee Lewis and Mike Povia, also stopped at the same place Katie did. 
 When I initially reported that Katie's completion time of 16:55 was the fastest known time for a female, she emailed me apologetically. "I don't deserve that title," she wrote. "Had we done the last two miles to Cherokee Orchard, I think it would have been the fastest, but I am happy we stopped at Roaring Fork. It was becoming unsafe out there.
 "If this means we didn't 'do' the Tour, I understand. Having traveled so far and crossing the summit three times should count for something. I hope this makes it right in the eyes of the Le Conte family, and I hope a gal comes along soon who crushes the record."
 Her wish came true six days later, when Dr. Nancy East completed her Tour in 16:13, including the extra miles between the Roaring Fork and Cherokee Orchard trailheads.
 I would appreciate opinions from the hiking community on how to define the Tour de Le Conte. For now, I am crediting Katie with finishing the Tour, but I am not posting her time on the list of completers since it would be unfair to compare it to others who went the extra miles. Your comments on this are welcome below. 
 To me, the gap at the end of Katie's hike is similar to the one between Newfound Gap and the Alum Cave trailhead. We accept that most completers will take a car between those trailheads, even though Nathaniel Klumb recently used a bicycle for that section.
 To me, anyone who completes all six trails from the trailheads to the Lodge has earned Tour de Le Conte bragging rights.
 Katie's respect for "the Le Conte family" comes from deep roots in the Smokies. She is the great-granddaughter of Fanny Cable Carringer (1894-1986) of Cades Cove. Katie is a homeschooling mother of three, and a published author who has climbed Mount Le Conte five times.

WHAT SHOULD WE CALL THE TOUR? 

 Tour de Le Conte has become the popular name for the six-hike challenge. Personally, I  prefer it without the "de", since Tour Le Conte has a lyrical cadence that matches Tour de France. Also, I like 24 Hours of Le Conte as a nice parallel for 24 Hours of Le Mans, the French auto race featured in the film, Ford vs. Ferrari. 

THE 5-TRAIL TOUR: A WORTHY ACCOMPLISHMENT

 Some hikers disregard the Brushy Mountain Trail as part of the Le Conte network because it connects to the Trillium Gap trail so far below the summit. Still, the other five trails form a worthy challenge that deserves recognition. 

 In 1999, Ann Marie Otis and one of her students at Christian Academy of Knoxville, Katie Felde, completed the five highest trails in 18:30—then made it to school the following day.
 In 2016, Minta Ray and Taylor Drake successfully hiked the five highest trails, covering 39 miles in 19 hours. At the end, they went up and down Alum. 
 Ed Wright's journal mentions a man named Kent LaVoi and a friend named Brant or Brandon from Sevierville who attempted the tour on Nov. 25, 1997. Kent signed in twice at the Lodge but evidently did not make the third loop.

Putting a Fleur de Lis on the Tour de Le Conte

Nathaniel Klumb at Cliff Tops, early in his 51.7-mile jaunt

 Congratulations to Nathaniel Klumb from Louisiana for completing a jumbo version of the Tour de Le Conte.
 Nathaniel, a computer programmer from Baton Rouge, hiked and biked 51.7 miles in 19 hours and 18 minutes on Oct. 13-14, not only covering all six trails to Mount Le Conte but also including all the spur trails. He even pre-positioned a bike at Newfound Gap and rode it down to the Alum Cave trailhead—a 4.4-mile interval where many hikers catch a car. "Pedaled just once to start rolling," he said. 
 Click here to visualize his route. 
 He started at 3:15 p.m. on Sunday Oct. 13 in Greenbrier, climbed the Brushy Mountain Trail, visited Cliff Tops for sunset, and descended Bullhead as night fell. At Cherokee Orchard, he backtracked for a mile for a Gatorade resupply, climbed Trillium Gap in the dark and descended on the Boulevard, with side trips to Myrtle Point and the Jumpoff. 
 After the bike segment, Nathaniel climbed Alum Cave trail at daybreak and finished the Rainbow Falls trail at 10:33 a.m. on Monday Oct. 14.
 Nathaniel's extra mileage matches the route taken by John Northrup in 2010, who included the side trails on the first of his four successful Tours, completing 50 miles in 16:48. 

Up and Adam: All 6 trails in 24 hours

Here's one way to do the Tour Le Conte, starting in Cherokee Orchard and ending in Greenbrier Cove. The colors indicate elevation. (Map by John Northrup)

 

Adam Gravett, Adam Williamson, Adam Ozment

 Have you ever climbed all six trails to Mount Le Conte? For most of us, that's a lifetime goal. On the other hand, there are a few unstoppable hikers who have completed the entire "Tour de Le Conte" in a single day.
 It's been done at least 30 times, four of those by John Northrup, the manager of LeConte Lodge. He wrote about the challenge in a 2017 post on the Lodge blog, High on Le Conte.
 On May 1, 2019, three friends who answer to the same name—Adam Gravett, Adam Ozment, and Adam Williamson—completed the Tour Le Conte, hiking 44.5 miles in 23 hours and one minute. If you want to follow along, here is a RELIVE animation of their odyssey. They started at 2 a.m. at Newfound Gap and hiked up the Boulevard Trail, down Trillium Gap, up Bullhead, down Rainbow Falls, shuttled over to U.S. 441, ascended Alum Cave and descended Brushy Mountain to finish in the midnight darkness in Greenbrier Cove.
 Local TV stations interviewed the Adams to get their story. Watch on WATE-TV or WBIR-TV, or read about them in Blue Ridge Outdoors magazine.
 The Tour de Le Conte is also known as the TLC, the Tour Le Conte Challenge (my preference), the 24 Hours of Le Conte, or the Le Conte Triple Summit. 
 The first successful TLC was November 7, 1993, by Lee Lewis and the late Mike Povia. Amy Povia has her dad's completion time (22:29) tattooed on her wrist for inspiration. Lewis (who has climbed Le Conte well over 100 times) wrote on Facebook in 2018:

"When Mike and I did this 25 years ago, we didn't have any inkling of what a gauntlet would be thrown down. We hiked it because it had not been done before (to our knowledge) and why not. Our record, although maybe not the fastest because we hiked it, we did not run it, cut any switchbacks, or take off-trail shortcuts, but we still did it within our self-imposed time limit of 24 hours, and that record stood for 17 years. We had John Mansfield sign off on our homemade sheet at the Lodge and Tom Brosch sign off at the trail heads/shuttle points to prove we had been there. We did not have cell phones or even camera documentation, and because of that we enjoyed every step, we enjoyed conversation, we enjoyed our friendship—we hiked."

 I keep an informal list of completers on the sidebar of this blog. (If you're reading this on a mobile device, you'll need switch to "View web version" to see the sidebar.)
 The fastest known time for the TLC is 8:35:34 by Luke Bollschweiler in 2019. He covered 47.5 miles, up Rainbow Falls, down Trillium Gap, up Bullhead, down Alum, up the Boulevard, and down Brushy Mountain. 
 He broke the 2011 record of 10:03:41 by park ranger David Worth, who wrote on his blog:

"I enjoy these sort of challenges because at the end of the day there are no cheering crowds and no finishers' medals. You are alone with the trail and the truth of the situation. Quiet moments on the trail and an honest sense of fatigue are reward enough. There are purists who argue against these speed hikes and runs, viewing them as nothing more than a continuation of our hurry-up culture. For me, a day of trail-running is more than a simple race against time. It's how I've come to appreciate the trail the most. Thoughts of grocery lists, school work, and everything else yet to be done take a back seat. I'm able to experience the trail directly, without mental chatter."

 Only a few others have broken the 12-hour barrier. 
 Other than Northrup, I know of only two hikers who have completed the full TLC more than once: Brian Thomas and Shawn Carson. In 2011, they completed 45.7 miles in 22:02 (Rainbow to Trillium, Bullhead to Alum, Boulevard to Brushy). In 2015, they changed course (Boulevard to Bullhead, Rainbow to Trillium, Brushy to Alum) and covered 46.4 miles in 19:32. Thomas has a blog called LeConte24.com that's a great resource for anyone who is considering the challenge.

The original Tour de Le Conte

 This clipping from the Nashville Tennesseean tells the story of Mike Povia and Lee Lewis on the inaugural Tour de Le Conte in 1993.