Well saturday May 27, 2006 I completed my first hike to the summit of Mt. Leconte by way of Alum Cave Bluff trail.

This 5.5 mile hike (11 mile hike round trip) to Mt. Leconte Lodge rises in elevation almost 2,900 feet. As you can see the Lodge is at 6,593 feet.

The Mt. Leconte Lodge is only accessable by foot and trail, so if you want to stay at this exclusive mountain resort you better lace up your shoes. As every year they open the bookings for the following season in October usually before the end of the month they have booked the following year. I was told this year they set a record by filling the entire booking capacity for the 2006 season by October 11, 2005 ONLY 11 DAYS!

I just visited the lodge as a dayhiking guest which allows me to use the bathrooms, refill my water supply from a mountain well and warm up in the community office. I will return soon as a lodge guest as soon as I can make a reservation. I was told that every week they have a guest or two call to cancel from sickness, injury or someother personal reason that would prevent them from being able to make the climb or visit the park so it is possible that I will get to stay overnight this year. I am just going to start calling the reservation desk weekly till I make it in. The views of the Smokey Mountains from here are amazing! I look forward to being able to see both a sunset and sunrise from this summit.

I have slowly started putting together galleries of my hikes in the smokies that can be found here. http://www.pbase.com/lundy/smoky_mountain_hiking