Date: 2010-06-10
From: Damascus, VA

To: Home
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

I finished up my second northbound AT section hike at Damascus, VA on June 9th. I rented a car at the Tricity airport near Bristol, TN and drove home to Florida. I missed home, and the day to day routine on the trail had become tiresome to me. I told anyone who asked me if I was a "thru hiker", that I would answer that question the day I was "through".   So today I'm through, at least for now. I love backpacking, but for now, just not enough to be away from home for 5 months to hike all the way to Maine.   When I began the journey from Amicalola Falls SP back on April 19th, I really didn't have any idea how far I would want to hike, or be able to hike, especially just coming off that serious plantar fascia strain in my left foot in early April. I took this A.T. hike one day at a time. I can say now that when I got to Damascus, I just decided it was time for now, to come on home.I know to many folks it sounds like making excuses or rationalizing failure.   But in my mind, hiking from Springer to Damascus in 31 hiking days is not a failure. I had decided back at the beginning of this hike in April that I would be satisfied making it thru the Smokies. I had trained a lot over the last year, but the training injuries in early April had really affected my confidence, and I was worried about a recurrence of the foot problem on the A.T. While there were a lot of days I was hiking most of the day with heel pain in both feet, I'm still unsure if it was from foot blisters, achilles tendonitis, heel spurs or plantar fasciitis. I learned to hike with the pain, and doing the stretching exercises on the trail that I was taught by my physical therapist friend Brett back home. And I also used a fair amount of Alleve along the trail. These were some of the many lessons I learned on this hike, the importance of stretching and flexibility to head off many of the knee, foot and leg injuries that can occur on the trail.Anyways I'm personally really satisfied with making it much further north than the Smokies this year. This AT hike was an experience of a lifetime. I can't begin to describe how cool it all was, how much I learned, how many fantastic people I met on the trail, in trail towns, and new friends I made who I hope to stay in touch with and maybe hike with again. I told somebody when I got home, this AT hike for me was kind of like trying to run a marathon after only training to run a 10K.   Going from Springer to Damascus was close to 25% of the entire AT. I learned a lot of lessons that I would apply if I were to seriously try a thru hike again, including taking more zero days and pacing myself more.I am at home now, and have gone back up to north GA and rehiked the 40 miles from Amicalola Falls to Neels Gap the first week of July, in 95 degree heat. Darn it was hot! Much like trying to hike in Florida this time of year, but the bugs are much worse down here. I also came across the timbler rattler in the photo about 4 miles south of Blood Mountain in the early morning hours. From other trail journals I've read, the record setting heat and humidity are really affecting the thru hikers that are still on the trail. Some hikers report mid 90s temps and high humidity in the Whites in early July. Sounds like GA and Florida!I haven't given up the idea of another AT thru hike attempt in the future, but that is a long ways off. For now, I'm very happy to call myself a section hiker. There are a LOT of other beautiful trails across America that I want to experience, including the Long Trail and the John Muir Trail. Meanwhile, can't wait for fall weather.