Date: 2008-08-19
From: On the Way Home!

To: HOME!!!
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

WE DID IT!!! We walked from Georgia to Maine - over 2175 official trail miles, plus many unofficial trail miles! We challenged ourselves in ways physically and mentally that I don¢t think we could ever have imagined. We forded crotch deep streams so strong that they vibrated our hiking poles and threatened to take us downstream in one fell swoop. We walked more miles in a single day (23.8) than we ever had. We walked in day after day of rain. We survived single digit temps at night. We hiked through 90 mph gusts on balds. We had sleepless nights as we counted waffles instead of sheep jumping over the fence. We hiked with black flies dive-bombing our ears and biting our faces. We walked through trails covered with 8 inches of snow. We hiked on days with the sun boiling down on us at 103 degrees. We hiked through hail. We hiked in Maine during a 10-year record rain. We walked on trails that were solid ice. We fought off trench foot ¢ the bottoms of our feet more wrinkled and red than a newborn baby. We hiked on slippery slanted slabs of rock that took our feet out from under us over a dozen times, each time taking more skin for our cause. We hiked the elevation change equivalent of 16 Mount Everest round trips. We camped with the black flies covering our tent, losing count of them after 200. We hiked in mud so thick and deep that it completely hid our shoes and socks once we reemerged onto a dry trail. We hiked with deer flies biting our heads. We hiked or camped in rain or snow on 48% of our days. Mold grew on our tent, as it was seldom dry. Our wet soggy socks, shoes and rain gear smelled as bad as a dead animal trapped in a baggy on a 100-degree day. We hiked on a treed ridge directly under the bolts of lightening. We slept in open shelters with snow blowing on our faces. We hiked through knee deep water flooded trails. We hiked 10 miles, sick with a 102-degree temperature. We fell off bog logs into knee deep mud. We hiked through swamps with mosquitoes trying to suck every single drop of blood from our bodies. We hiked with hunger so strong that the duff on the trail began to look like pretzels and peanuts. We hiked despite the pain on the bottoms of our feet, our achy knees, our numb big toes and our overall physical tiredness. We slept with limited success as nerves painfully fired through our feet. We hiked with stomachs that were hungry 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And we continued to hike although our minds struggled at times with the endless rain, the endless green tunnel and the seemingly endless miles still left. But do we regret doing it? NO, absolutely not. Hiking the Appalachian Trail was something we had dreamed about doing for several years. The decision to hike the trail was not made without a lot of consideration. We did not go into it blindly and we believe we were prepared for it the best we could have been, both physically and mentally. We would not have changed anything. Not the high rivers. Not the Lyme Disease. Not the rain. Well, perhaps the rain. But Life is Good and we had a blast on our adventure. We met many Trail Angels who renewed our faith in the kindness of total strangers. We met many other crazy hikers, each with their own interesting personal story. We toured via foot the beautiful Appalachian Mountains from Georgia to Maine, from valleys to ridges to mountain summits. We witnessed animals of every size, shape and assertiveness, up close and personal. We visited small mountain towns that thrived financially and spiritually due to the hikers. We became more tuned in to the world around us; the slowness, the stillness, and the quietness; the speed, the ferocity, and the noise; the life and the death. We learned to fall to sleep at sundown, and wake to birdsong at sunup. We witnessed a tree fall in the woods, and yes, it does make a sound! We are proud to be a member of the 2008 AT Thru-Hiker Class.   We will always cherish our experience.And of course, we cannot express enough kind words of thanks and appreciation to all those who helped us. From family and friends to complete strangers. Packaging food and gear to send to us. Sending surprise care packages. Meeting us in towns and providing an arrangement of food fit for an army sized Royal family. Translating voice recorded journals to text. Posting pictures to the web to share with others. Sending us letters of praise and encouragement. Delivering us to and from the trailheads, several times. Sending email updates to family and friends for us when we did not have internet access. Watching over our possessions and paying our bills for us while we trampled around the woods. Opening homes for us to stay for a few days. Rides to town. Rides back to trail. Rides to the grocery store. Rides to the doctor¢s office. Ice chests of soda, crackers, fruit, chocolate, and homemade bread beside the trail. Deli made-to-order sandwiches served out of the back of a pickup truck for dinner. Jugs of fresh already filtered water alongside a waterless stretch of the trail. Notes left in trail registers for us saying hello and encouraging us on.   The simple words of THANK YOU do not seem to say enough. We could not have done it without all of you. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.THE END!!!