DISTANCES DECEPTIVE
At 12 o’clock sharp, I came around another bend and there ahead, across a valley stood a sharp precipice. They had told me that right behind this precipice lay the Le Conte Lodge.
I stood a minute, and tried to judge how long it would take to get there. Distances in the mountains are very deceptive. Out West you can see a long way, hence an actual distance is much farther than it looks. I remember once, in the high Rockies, figuring it would take an hour to get to a certain ridge, but it actually took three hours.
So with this in mind, I estimated one hour to get to this precipice. And shiver these old timbers, if I wasn’t there in 10 minutes. The climb was over, and I hadn’t even eaten my sandwich.
Just as I topped the ridge, I turned around in the direction of Park Headquarters, and looked far down toward where Ranger Edwards was probably nestling behind his desk, and I puckered up my mouth and said, “Five hours Pvvvvvvtt.”
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P. S.—And now that I’ve used up this whole column bragging on myself, I suppose I’ll have to get to work tomorrow and tell you what I saw on the trip. Hope I can think of something good.
MT. LE CONTE LODGE, Great Smokies Park, Oct. 26, 1940—
This Le Conte Lodge, they say, is the highest mountain lodge east of the Rockies. It stands at 6400 feet. With one exception, it is the only place within the boundaries of the Great Smokies National Park where you can stay all night. And the only way to get up here is to walk or ride a horse.
The Lodge is open about seven months of the year. In winter it gets to 40 below up here, and the buildings lie deep in snow. The hottest they remember it being in summertime is 68, and the people who work here get so used to cool summers that they almost die when they go down to the valley heat of Gatlinburg, a mile below.