Gracie and the Mountain: Growing Young Climbing Mount LeconteGrace McNicol’s lifelong delight in walking and hiking helped her achieve feats considered impossible by many. At the age of 62, she moved to Tennessee and began climbing Mount Le Conte, a 6,593-foot mountain in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. She overcame a broken back, two strokes, and other personal hardships to climb the mountain a record 244 times. This revised and expanded volume includes photos, diary entries, andGracie’s Wildflower Notebook, which contains entries compiled during the year she made her 200th climb. This inspirational biography chronicles the uplifting life and achievements of a remarkable woman. |
Contents
Pulling up Stakes at SixtyTwo | 1 |
Finding a New Job and a Mountain | 17 |
Learning to Talk with Chickadees | 29 |
The 500Mile Year | 45 |
One Too Many Wild Rivers | 51 |
The Competition | 63 |
Life Almost Slipped Away | 73 |
Gracie Three | 87 |
A Milestone Not a Destination | 105 |
Gracies Le Conte Wildflower Notebook | 123 |
Common terms and phrases
Alaska Alum Cave Bluffs Anita balsam balsam fir beautiful bee balm began birthday blooming Boulevard Trail Brown Bullhead Trail cabin Cave Bluffs Trail Cherokee Orchard Cliff Top climb Mount climb the mountain clouds Cole Creek Crabtree diary dinner Emily enjoyed entry Eula Father Morgan feet flowers friends Gatlinburg going Grace McNicol Gracie recalled Gracie Three grass of parnassus green guests Herrick Highway 441 hikers hiking horse Knoxville looked Maryville McCarter miles moun Mount Le Conte Myrtle Point National Park Newfound Gap Newton Ogle night North Carolina nurse October peaks purple rain Rainbow Falls Trail ranger reached rhododendron ride river rock rode Ruth sand myrtle Sevierville Sitka sleep Smoky Mountains snow spring stay sunset tain talked Tennessee told took Trail head trailer park trees Trillium Gap Trail trip usually violets walk wildflowers woman wrote yellow