On April 11th I made the 13 mile roundtrip hike to the top of Mt LeConte to deliver Homes & Land of the Smokies to the LeConte Lodge. It turned out to be a yucky day... foggy, rainy, cold, wet, you name it! Everything but pretty!!! But I was determined to deliver my magazine to the lodge so hikers and visitors would be able to find their next home here in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park!

We took what I believe to be the hardest route up and down (Bull Head trail up and Rainbow Falls trail down). Mt LeConte still had snow on the ground because they had received 14 inches the week before! Most of it had melted which caused the trails to be extremely wet. Not good when you're not wearing waterproof boots! :) On the way back down, the Rainbow Falls trail was actually flooded out and we had to cross about a 10 foot section which was up to my knees! (see video below, it's right before we crossed! I wish I had shot the actual crossing!) Thankfully I have watched enough Man vs Wild to know you don't want to get your socks/shoes/clothes wet. So we took off shoes, socks, and rolled up pants to wade across the 30 something degree water. It was COLD!!! Thankfully we survived and I have a nice story to share here :)

Ok, ok... so I didn't make this trip ONLY to deliver Homes & Land. I really wanted to get some amazing photos/views from the top but unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate. However, I did take the magazine with me and place it at the Lodge so that my advertisers would get some great exposure at a place where they probably wouldn't get exposure any other way :) I hope they appreciate my dedication :)

If you'd like to view some additional photos of my hiking weekend you can look at them here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022327&id=1386480624&l=77fb39afcd  All the sunny pictures were shot on Sunday which was absolutely beautiful!

This was a daytime shot which I photoshoped to look like a sunset :)