There's always gonna be another mountain;
I'm always gonna wanna make it move.
Always gonna be an uphill battle;
Sometimes I'm gonna lose.
Ain't about how fast I get there.
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side.
It's the climb.
I like that message. But I must admit that my mind began to wonder and I thought about my last great climb - in the physically sense. Exactly a year ago, Tom and I made our second trip up a mountain named Mount LeConte. Here are a few facts about this mountain and the lodge accommodations at the top:
- Mt. LeConte is the 3rd highest peak in the Great Smokey Mts. National Park
- The temperature has never reached 80 degrees (I LOVE that)
- The only way to get to the top is by foot - no roads.
- Supplies for the lodge are delivered either by helicopter or by llama.
- There are 7 cabins at the lodge.
- Reservations are very difficult to obtain - booked well in advance.
- There are several different trails to reach the top, some shorter and steeper, others longer but still steep.
- In the cabins, there is no electricity and no running water.
- There are flushing toilets in an outhouse-type building near the lodge
- Hot water for sponge baths is available at the lodge.
You ask, "Why in the world would you go once, must less twice?" Good question, matey. The first year I suppose it was a crazy challenge for me to think I could do something like this. "Athletic" is never an adjective that anyone has ever used to describe me. Starting in January 2007, Tom & I started training for our June hike. We walked many, many miles around Simpleville. One day we walked 8 miles because the trail we took that year was 8 miles. Of course, we walked on mostly flat land, not climbing up a mountain. To say that I was ill prepared for that hike was an understatement. However, once we finally reached the top, I was geared to tackle this physical feat again in 2008.
Fast forward to January 2008. I should have started training for the June hike. That is about the time my knee started giving me trouble. We had already made our reservations. I was sure by June, I'd be fine. But it didn't happen. My doctor had told me that I was facing knee surgery, but that he'd give me a cortisone shot a week before my hike so I could climb pain-free. So, on June 27, 2008, Tom & I and others began our trek . . . . the nightmare trek.
We took a different trail in 2008 - the Trillium Gap Trail going up and the Alum Cave Trail down. Trillium Gap was a shorter trail than our ascent trail the previous year, but steeper. After the 2007 hike when we hiked almost 9 miles up, I was ready to tackle a shorter trail even if it meant I had to climb more. Taking two different trails up & down required us to park one vehicle at the starting point and one vehicle at the ending point. We began our hike by parking not far from downtown Gatlinburg. We had hiked almost 2 miles when we came upon this sign:
Wait just a minute. The entire hike was supposed to be 6.6 miles. We had just hiked 2 miles and we still had 6.6 miles to go!!!!!!! What the hay??? Apparently, we had parked in the wrong parking lot. There was another parking lot further up the road where our trail actually began. Of course, at this point I was already getting winded and sweaty. I immediately began to think that this hike was not going to be any fun at all.
Later, we met the llama "train". How very cool. They were coming down the mountain after leaving supplies at the lodge.
This was so interesting.During hour five or six, it began to rain. The people in our group began to pull out their rain gear. Not me. I welcomed the rain. And believe me it was a very cool rain because we had climbed in elevation considerably. Then it began to really pour down rain. Buckles of rain fell. The ruts in the trail became streams of rushing water. I was so exhausted at this point that I don't think I realized how dangerous it was to walk on slippery rocks and slicky mud. I was clearly just trying to put one foot in front of the other. Then it began to hail. Yes, hail! I literally walked in hail and through hell. It was terrible. At one point I became very light headed. Tom asked me if I was okay. Thinking back, I'm sure I was pale. I muttered to Tom that I was fine. I just wanted this hike OVER WITH! I should have listened to my body. It was screaming, "Sit down and rest, you stupid idiot." During the last and 8th hour, I stumbled on a root and fell on a huge boulder. I'm not sure how I did this, but the entire weight of me fell on my ring finger. (After returning home, I found that I had broken the finger.) But thankfully there was a boulder. Had that boulder not been there, I'd have fallen down a VERY steep cliff. There would have been the end of Joy as we know her.
From that point on, Tom walked behind me. (I always like to walk near the rear of the pack - goes back to my phobia of someone following me.) Tom, at times, literally pushed me up that mountain. I remember several times when we approached a big step up, he would push my rear end until I was on the next level. I was so totally exhausted that I was praying for God to give me the strength to put one foot in front of the other. Tom Rucker is my hero. I could not have made it up that mountain without Tom's physical help and without his encouraging words. He was worried about me, he told me later.
When we finally reached the top, we went straight to the lodge where the meals are served. If you arrive prior to 5 p.m., free hot cocoa is served. (If we had missed that 5 p.m. time, I'd have gone ballistic on the kitchen staff.) Sweet Ellie, who was about 11 years old, met me outside the lodge. I swear I think she had pompoms b/c she was cheering us for making it to the summit and for enduring the storm. She greeted me with a hot cup of cocoa. The cocoa tasted like liquid gold to me. I had guzzled plenty of water throughout the hike. To be honest, I drank all my water and half of Tom's water. I sweat, thus I thirst! But that cocoa was the best thing I'd ever had.
This is a picture taken just outside the lodge. It has the date published on the building just for picture taking.
(This was AFTER I bathed and cleaned up!)
Then we checked in to our cabin. It's very, very rustic. But after such a difficult climb, I'd have gladly stayed in a sleeping bag outside with the bears. Here is a picture of our cabin.
The King's shared a cabin with us and their daughter and family stayed across from us in another cabin.
Tom soon brought me the nicest bucket of hot water. I had a luxurious sponge bath and I was immediately revived. Dinner that night in the lodge was scrumptious. We joked that the meat was probably llama, but we didn't really care.
Every single stitch of clothing we wore was soaking wet. We looked like a family from "Deliverance".
There is another building where people sit around a wood stove. There are lots of board games. I chose to sit in the rocking chair and just talk to others and relax. Going to sleep was no problem. Getting up the next morning was. I ached all over. Breakfast was another tremendous meal. Then we filled out water bottles and headed down the Alum Cave Trail which was 5.5 miles of very steep hiking but downhill! Just as we began down the trail, we met a guy running up from the other direction. He joyfully greeted us. We all decided that he had really just gone ahead of us and turned around running back to make us think that he had jogged the entire trail. Show off.
We'd hiked less than an hour when I was maneuvering on a large, sloped boulder. The next thing I knew I was kissing the rock because I fell down quickly, this time on my left knee - my only good knee. I pulled up my pants and saw a bloody cut, not bad, but I had a "goose egg" that was more the size of a giganotosaurus egg. Holy Cow! Now I had a very swollen (and broken) finger, a right knee that was awaiting surgery and a left knee that was black & blue and HUGE. I seriously began to wonder if my hiking group thought I was . . . well, "special". I felt completely UNathletic. But I laughed it off and continued down the steep mountain trail.
As we continued to hike, that Jogging Jim came up from behind us and spoke to us again . . . very friendly. We were amazed that he had caught up with us. Little did we know that we'd see him time and again . . . jogging up then jogging down - a total of three times! Finally, when we were getting closer to our finish line, we stopped him and questioned his sanity. Not really, but we wanted to know about his continuous run up and down this 5.5 very steep trek. He said it the joy of his life to jog that trail. He had jogged it many, many times over the years. When he jogs, he jogs it several times in one day. Maybe we should have questioned his sanity.
When we reached the Alum Cave Bluff, well, you just have to see it for yourself.
Absolutely awesome!The guy in front is one of our group. He gives you an idea of how humongous the bluff is.
After hiking down the mountain, we reached the parking lot and were very tired but nothing like the climb up. Would I climb Mt. LeConte ever again? Not just, NO, but ............I'd better not say that. Let's just keep it at NO WAY DURING MY LIFE TIME. I hiked it twice. I'm very proud of that fact. The view from the mountain top was breathtaking. (I never enjoyed the view going up b/c I could hardly breathe.) The view descending the mountain was incredible. There is no way that anyone can see that beauty and not know for a fact that God is alive. Such wonder! Such splendor! I now have that on my digital camera and I shall marvel at that beauty from afar.
The Climb
by Smiley Bye-Bye-rus
There ain't never gonna be another mountain.
I ain't never gonna wanna make it move.
There may be some uphill battles,
But Mt. LeConte ain't one I'd choose.
Ain't about if or when I take the hike
Ain't about what others choose to do
I ain't gonna climb.
1 comment:
hahahahahha
love your new song
glad you survived the climb!
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