Saturday Rest Day

It felt unusual this morning to remain at home and not meet the running group at 9:00 as I do most Saturdays.  But after a 20-mile week (and continued recovery from injury), including a tough hill run on Monday and mile repeats on Wednesday, I decided to take a rest day before tomorrow's planned Fathers Day hike up Mt. LeConte.  A trial hike up Whiteside went well, although I had to be careful not to overflex that knee on the descent.  And the new Oboz boots are broken in nicely now.

I am an inveterate record-keeper, and like my race book, I keep a little diary of my hikes up this glorious mountain.  I note that my last ascent up LeConte was on June 14, 2014, with Martha.  It was my 28th climb and Martha's 8th.  "Perfect weather," I noted at the time, and we ate at Cherokee Grill after the hike, which we plan to do this time as well.  The unusually hot weather has turned cool and breezy, and those conditions are predicted to prevail over the next two days.  What a balm it is to feel the cool breeze in the morning!  The Alum Cave trail, which has been closed for construction for two years during the week, is open Saturday and Sunday and we are curious to see what improvements they have made.  Some portions of the trail were in dire need of improvement but I hope it has not been improved to the point of some other area trails, like Whiteside Mountain, which now seems like a gravel road in places.  Surely they have not replaced the steel-cable handrails on the steeper portions with "real" handrails? 

But I know that whatever they have done will not interfere with the unique splendor of this mountain, climbing through river birches along Alum Creek, crossing it many times on logs (which I hope is still the case!), higher and higher past Alum Cave into a maple and hickory forest (the dead hemlocks long-since fallen), and then finally rising above the hardwoods into the delicious aroma of the Frasier Fir Christmas-tree forest at the summit!  We are looking forward to our 29th/9th climb.