Date: 2006-10-11
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I finally feel some closure to my trip, now that a Mudbogger (but was it Sr. or Jr., I ask?!) signed my guestbook! Good times down south.What an adjustment it's been being home. I'm sure you all could have guessed it. I refuse to continue to journal my life for the public after this trip, so I waited a while to give a big complete update. Overall though, big adjustment. Some days I want to be back on the trail, others I'm so content to drive around and rest up. I do have a few points to tackle, though.1. All that exhaustion I complained about at the end of the trip turned out to be mono! Geez. I thought I'd be super energetic and active when I got home, but I spent my first few weeks home recovering. To think I hiked 20-mile days with mono is crazy. Then again, the whole trip was crazy!2. Hadn't quite reaccustomed myself to using a wallet and balancing a checkbook, and overdrafted from my account for a beautiful suit for a job interview. Argh, all the complications of the real world.3. Got the job! I'm officially a SCIENTIST (!) for a consulting firm in Mass that does petroleum remediation. I was getting anxious for an income...4. Finally went for a hike over the weekend with Leon up Mt. Monadnock. $3.00 to climb a mountain infested with hundreds of high school students on the summit. Awesome.5. SAW DONKEY AND HOT SPRINGS!! Hoorah. Leon and I drove down to Cape Cod on a most rainy day to have breakfast with Donkey's family and see both of them. I didn't get to say proper good-byes, and it was just so nice to see familiar trail faces. Donkey's a different man minus the beard, and Hot Springs was as fresh as ever!6. Made it to the Red Sox game. The season was well over and they lost anyhow, but that game was one of big motivations while I was hiking. Funny how we play tricks on ourselves. It seemed so important while I was hiking somewhere in the mid-Atlantic.7. Adopted a new kitten! I never said a proper thank you to everyone who supported me on my trip. So many thanks to my family, especially my mom, for all their support. No one had fancier maildrops than me! Thanks to everyone who visited me or fed me or let me rest for a night with them. To every stranger who gave me a safe ride. Thanks to all my fellow hikers who created a community for me while I was away from home, one that I still miss even now. Thanks for all that trail magic. To Lindsay for getting me from Georgia into Virginia. To everyone who followed along my journal and believed in me and sent me good energy. And of course, to everyone who had their doubts, which only made me push harder. To Leon for...well, everything. I could go on and on (trail maintainers, Tom in Dalton, the Obs, whoever invented Crocs). I don't think a day went by that wasn't made easier due to someone somewhere.Life has slowly gotten more normal. I remember to wear deodorant most of the time. My body still aches after any physical exertion, even just a walk. I guess the trail took more of a toll on me than I had anticipated. Splotches on trees look like faded blazes to me, and a green traffic signal arrow looked, just for a moment, like the AT symbol. My strange tan lines on my hands from my trekking poles have all but faded. I haven't washed my sleeping bag, though- I'm sure it smells awful.So I think this is really the end of me sharing my AT thoughts with the world. If anyone has questions about the trail, sign the guestbook, as I'll continue to check on that. I'll try to put up more pictures, gear info, etc.I'm terribly sad to end this chapter of my life. But I can't hike nonstop, and if I had to I'd undoubtedly miss the rest of my world. I try to keep the grass green wherever I may be.Cheers,Erin