Date: 2012-09-27
To: My wife is a tower of strength
Miles today: 0.0

From the start, this Trail Journal has been a joint effort  However, today the opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.You would think after 36+ years of marriage you would know everything there is to know about your spouse. However the Appalachian Trail proved for me, that was not the case. For in five and a half months of hiking with my partner X, she revealed layers of grit, determination, and resolve I had not known were there. She became the bedrock of our team, and the key to our success.  Without her constant companionship, support, and assistance, I am certain I would never have come close to a successful finish.First off, quite simply, my wife became a hiking machine. After dropping the pounds that took her back to her pre-kids, honeymoon era weight, she got her hiking legs and reached a point where she could walk circles around me: on the level, uphill, and especially on the downhill. As this developed, at first I could employ the handicapping principle of assigning her one or two extra one liter water bottles to carry, to even out our paces, but especially on downhills in and after the White Mountains, even that tactic no longer worked! On a long afternoon when all the AT offered was rock hopping or masses of roots, what an advantage to have a strong hiking partner to follow.At first our trail names started out almost as a joke, but it is true my wife is the extrovert, and the many friends she made for us as she embraced the AT hiking community and our constantly changing hiker "bubble" was one of the most enjoyable aspects of our hike. By myself, I'd have probably walked the trail as a lonely hermit. At several points in the hike, especially when it seemed  like we'd already done everything there was to do but we still faced doing more of the same again and again, I found the mental aspect of the hike overwhelming. However, even on those handful of times when she suffered through an emotional meltdown, my wife's resolve to continue never wavered, as she remained focused like a laser beam on reaching Katahdin. Her strength and determination were amazing.   For 168 days, this woman "had my back" (even when it involved frequently changing the dressing there on my abscess incision!). As we leave Maine and head back home to Mississippi, I want to publicly acknowledge the person who got us through, and how fortunate I have been to have my best friend and soulmate as my hiking companion. For any of you contemplating a future AT thru hike, my first piece of advice would be find yourself the perfect hiking partner, and you are half way there...-N. TrovertNow about today:So. Free. Me. and back to New Hampshire. We're lucky to have our Base Camp Manager to serve as our chauffeur as we ride to I-95 and head south towards the Manchester NH airport. As we cross the Kennebec River, last seen by us from a canoe at Caratunk, N realizes this is the same river where as a National Park Service representative he saw the destroyer U.S.S. Shiloh (CG-67) launched 22 years ago this month. Somehow things have come full circle. At lunchtime we find a great little lobster shack right on the waterfront in South Freeport, Maine; and then stop by the L. L. Bean flagship store to get X some size 8 pants to replace all those useless size 12's in the closet back home. Tomorrow we have a predawn flight back to Nashville. We still want to do an evaluation of our initial gear list, and also give a few opinions on some things about the AT folks have asked about before we end this journal. Feel free to check back in a day or so and see if we can get that done before we are distracted by the return to civilization...