Mt. Le Conte

A few weeks ago I mentioned one of the activities Casey and I were hoping to squeeze in before we move is hiking Mt. Le Conte in GSMNP. Mt. Le Conte is one of the highest peaks in this part of the Appalachian mountain range, approximately 6,500 ft. The Appalachians are the oldest mountains in the world, which is why they are so much smaller than their western cousins - they've had millions of years longer to erode. It's also pretty cool to think about how old they are when you're hiking around in them.

Le Conte is special here for a couple of reasons, one is that there is a lodge built on top, you have to hike to it, there are no roads. You can rent a cabin and have dinner there. Reservations have to be made a year in advance, the waiting list is long, though you can sometimes get in on a cancellation. We only did the day hike. The other interesting part about hiking Le Conte is the terrain. It is five miles straight up 3,000 ft. I run five miles during lunch on a relatively flat and paved greenway trail, it takes me 45 minutes. Climbing five miles straight up a mountain took us approximately 2.5 hours. Going down was much faster, but boy are we sore today. It was a great workout. In addition to the benefits of exercising our bodies we witnessed beautiful views and got to spend some quality time with Casey's brother, Tyler. It was a great trip, and to be honest both my body and soul needed it. I'll try to post more pictures later, below are a few from my bro-in-law's Facebook album.

This move has gotten us seriously down in the dumps. I won't get into all the gnarly details. There is nothing easy about this move. It has worn us down, frayed all our edges. This feels like an endurance race and I've hit my wall. If you remember when I ran my marathon, then you remember that shortly after hitting my wall I puked on the side of a downtown San Antonio building. I wonder if I get a t-shirt at the end of this?