My next four caches were hard to choose from, there are several that could have made this list. Like this one: Hazel Creek Virtual Cache. I've decided I would create one post about my fourth favorite geocache. If you haven't read about my other top favorites click here.
Mt. Leconte is a virtual cache near the summit of the mountain that it's named after. It was created May 1st, 2002. It has 249 found it logs, and 53 favorite points, including one from me. Mt. Leconte stands at 6,593 feet and is the third tallest mountain in the Smoky Mountains National Park, but from its base to the summit Mount Leconte is one of the highest peaks in the entire Appalachian Mountains rising to 5301 feet. The mountain also hosts the highest inn on the east coast, which is also only accessible by hiking the trails to the summit. If you want to get a room here, you will probably need to reserve a year in advance. You can find more information about the lodge here.
On March 10th, 2012, a buddy came along with me on the journey to bag this virtual along with two others along this trail. We started off at 8am, surprisingly beating a lot of the crowds. It was still pretty cold this time of year, but not as cold as we were expecting and immediately had to shed some layers. Our first goal was the Alum Cave Bluff, also a virtual cache. This place was a treat. It took a couple hours just to get here as the trail is pretty strenuous as the sign above states. We stayed here for a bit enjoying the sights. I spotted two bald eagles flying above, but couldn't get my camera out fast enough to capture them. That was a first for me, spotting bald eagles in the wild. It was pretty awesome.
Arch Rock Alum Cave Bluff
The weather couldn't have been better for a hike in the Smoky Mountains, it was a little on the cold side the higher you got, but it felt good, perfect in my opinion for such a climb. And a climb it was, my buddy and I kept getting passed by other groups, alot of groups. We were slow, it showed just how out of shape we were! The trail in areas was very rocky, which made it pretty treacherous in some places with the ice that was still on the trail. The metal cables sure did come in handy, there was a couple of places you did not want to slip, as it was a long way down, but we kept going up, and up, and up. We thought we would never make it.
At one point, I didn't think we could continue, I knew we weren't far from finishing, my GPS said we were over 5000 feet. My hip-flexer started bothering me and we had to stop and take a break. Luckily I brought along some Advil. So we stopped along the trail and had a snack and let the Advil kick in. While we were sitting there a couple in their sixties passes us. I looked over at my buddy and gave him "Are you serious?" look, and off we went. Now no offense, but we weren't having someone twice our age beat us to the top. Did they beat us? Yes, they did. However, it just reconfirmed that we need to work out some more.
So now that we were re-energized it was off to find the final virtual on this hike. I didn't think I could walk another .2 miles for another virtual. I had to push myself, I wasn't coming up here and NOT get it. Luckily the trail was flat and not as icy to the last virtual cache, and was able to find the answer quickly, and off to the summit we went. It wasn't part of getting any of the caches, but you don't spend all day climbing a mountain and not summit it. The views at the top were awesome, you could see for miles. I'm really glad I went on this hike and that my buddy came along with me. It took us alittle over six hours to reach the top, with everyone passing us, we surely didn't set any records, and in comparison it only took us two hours to get back to the vehicle. All in all it was a great day. Keep following my blog so you can read about my top three. I just hope I don't take as long to write about them.
