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| 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. |
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.
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| 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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Oh my gosh, I came to your website to contact you about our fundraiser, and I found your post about it! Thank you so much for the plug and for your donation--it means so much!! :-)
ReplyDeleteWarmly,
Nancy East
Nancy, I respect what you are doing. Back in 2006, three years after having a heart attack, I jogged a half-marathon as a charity fundraiser on a challenge from Mark Speir, the football coach at Western Carolina. I had the same financial goal as you, which seemed as impossible as the footrace, yet with lots of support I finished them both.
ReplyDeleteI love that story, Tom! Sounds like your heart has been ticking strong ever since, too! Take good care and I hope our paths cross in person one day on the trails!
ReplyDeleteNancy! We just did the TLC yesterday! If you want to chat about it before your trip, let me know!
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, Katie, huge CONGRATS!! That's so awesome!! I would love to hear about your experience and I do have a couple of random questions if you don't mind me asking! Are you on Facebook or anything where I can message you?
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