Date: 2013-05-16
From: MY HOUSE!

To: Daphne AL
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Well I am off the trail. Coming out of Daleville, VA was a real struggle for me. The weather was beautiful and I couldn't help but think about the Gulf of Mexico and how fishing was just picking up. My hardest times on the trail were times when I thought about saltwater and being separate from the water for months on end. I packed a pizza from Pizza Hut out of Daleville and enjoyed a beautiful hike of around 11 miles. I camped that night with Baker and his girlfriend, Sweet Tea, Water Buffalo, Woodrow, Fly, and some section hikers/weekenders. The woods were coming alive around me and I enjoyed seeing fish and crayfish in the creeks, birds in the trees, and snakes and lizards and flowers all along the trail.The next day had some climbs, none which should have been too difficult, but my head just wasn't in the game. My day culminated in a beautiful shelter right on a creek which could house up to 20 hikers. I slept on the second floor with Woodrow and Fly, and down below was Raider, Not a Bear, Tinman, Camaro, and Rash. We built a huge fire and I enjoyed a beer which Frost's Fiance Sunshine left out for thru hikers in a cooler near the Blue Ridge Parkway. I bathed in the creek (don't worry--down stream!) and stayed up late enjoying my friends' company.The next morning, Tinman rekindled the fire and we again sat around and visited for some time. Tinman and I talked about the water and both agreed that as soon as it was time to go fishing it would be the end of walking up mountains all day everyday for us. The journey for us was not about the destination, but the adventure of it all. Time wore on and Tinman and Woodrow finally left camp. Fly and I lingered and visited with south bound hikers passing through. Around noon, we began to realized that we were probably going to take a zero at that shelter. Right as we mentioned this aloud, a huge group of boy scouts came down the creek bed and set up camp at the shelter. 5 minutes later Fly and I were packed up and hiking north. My head was not in the hike and Fly was having pain in her hip, so we set up camp 3 miles north. We built a fire and kept it going from around 1pm until midnight or so. We had several southbounders stop in and visit for a time. It was interesting to speak with hikers who seemed so close to finishing their journey! I asked them how they handled things when they didn't feel like hiking and their answers were simple: "Don't hike."Frost and Sunshine camped with us that evening and hung around for awhile the next morning. A while after they started up the mountain, Fly and I both decided that we didn't feel like moving forward, so we did the opposite. We hiked south 3 miles to a blue blazed trail leading to a road.We had no idea until we reached the road that it was a dead end of a gravel road that seemed seldom used. There were sporadic houses along it but none seemed to be occupied currently. I flagged down a woman in a passing SUV at a crossroads hoping for directions at the least, but she seemed extremely nervous and was quick to speed off. Fly and I picked a road from the crossroads at random and hiked up it until I had cell service and could see we were going the wrong way. We hiked back and down the road to Middle Creek Camp grounds where we got a shuttle to Daleville.As luck would have it, some hikers we ran into told us that Moxie would probably be coming into town that very evening! They were right and we had a great reunion. Mexican food for dinner and being lazy around the Howard Johnson made for a great couple of days while Moxie waited out a storm and saw a doctor in town about minor pains in her foot.After Moxie left and I still wasn't feeling drawn to the trail, I knew I needed to go home. Fly decided to go to her brother's college graduation and her parents graciously gave me a ride to Durham, NC where I spent the night with them in a NICE hotel for a change! The next morning I hopped a train from there to Charlotte. Riding a train and travelling around Charlotte by bus with my pack was bizarre. I was wearing tattered clothes and got plenty of looks, though I found that for the most part people seemed to avoid making eye contact with me. The airport in Charlotte was an extreme culture shock for me and I got there 5 hours before my flight departed. I'm notashamed to admit that I was feeling very emotional at this point and nearly had a breakdown a couple of times. I went into a shop in the airport to get some water but I couldn't bring myself to pay 2.50$ for "spring water." I couldn't help but think that none of the people around me knew what spring water really. I was definitely in an alien world and I was seriously questioning my decision to leave the trail.Fast forward to today, 5 days later, and I am more confident in my choice. I am still getting acclimated to life off the trail but I am not feeling that unexplainable pull that led someone who had hiked twice in their life to embark on a multimonth hike over hundreds of miles, 758 miles to be exact. I regret nothing at this point. I had a great journey and I met some amazing people. I hope I can keep in touch with my friends on the trail for years to come. I am definitely going to visit Fly in DC, Slapp and Dragon will have to show me around Philly, Woodrow will need to show me the best pizzerias in New York, and I am going to go climb Pike's Peak with Moxie! Fresh Ground even called me the other day and we are talking about the Leap Frog Cafe in 2014! Stay tuned thru hikers in that class!I am picturing reunions around a campfire reliving the lively times we had...As I sit here in 80 degree weather, salt and scales fresh off my skin from a fishing trip this morning, it is hard to imagine that two months ago I was setting out on the greatest adventure of my life, among a handful of strange people in the mountains, where our water bottles froze if left away from our body warmth for five minutes!I hope that everyone who embarks on the trail has the time of their lives and enjoys it as much as I did. I have many friends still on the trail who I could not have made it without. I wish them all the best and may even want to try to take a bus up later in the year and hike with them for a time.I want to thank everyone for their support and interest in my hike. I hope that no one is disappointed in my failure to "complete" the trail! For me, for now, the trail was complete.......but who knows what the future holds!Leprechaun, over and out!