D E S I G N /// ck

I had a good adventure this weekend. I went on an "expedition" of sorts: me and three other guys climbed Mt. Le Conte (the third highest and most remote of the Appalachians) in the dead of winter. Most of the year this is only a strenuous day hike on the ol' Alum Bluffs Trail, about 6 miles each way. What made this more of an adventure was that the rangers had shut down the Cherokee Road because of the snowy weather, making it impossible to get to the trailhead. Feeling gung-ho, we decided to go ahead and tackle it all the way from Sugarland. For those of you who don't know the Smokies, Sugarland is the visitor center at the entrance to the Park, also one of its lowest points. Le Conte was ten miles away and 5000 feet higher. And it was going to get dark in four hours. And it was starting to snow. What else was there to do? We went for it.
I'll post some pictures and give a more extended description this week, but long-story-short: we made it back, clocking 20 miles in 24 hours, 5000 feet of elevation gain, and 6 hours of very cold semi-sleeping. I loved it.