Date: 2013-12-21
From: Woody Gap - Hiker Hostel

To: Springer Mountain, GA!
Miles today: 21.0

We were NOT planning on finishing tonight, but we did! I was in shock. We got up this morning and ate breakfast - included with our stay at the hostel. So, we got an early start in the gross fog and rain. It was warm though. Somehow, the fog and rain made everything beautiful, this section is gorgeous! So many green pines and rhododendrons and multiple stream crossings and cascades. With the foggy backdrop, the colors of everything seemed to pop out more. It was a really easy hike today, and with all the rain, we didn't stop except for lunch, and that was only for a few minutes. So, once we got to our "first destination" and it was really early and we only had eight miles to go, we got the idea in our head that we COULD finish tonight. But we didn't decide for a little longer for sure that we wanted to do that. We were still thinking we would go a bit further, then have just 3 miles to do tomorrow morning. But, ultimately, we were feeling good, we wanted to keep going, we would wake up and have to put on wet clothes tomorrow, and tomorrow morning is supposed to be thunder and lightning storms with high winds tonight and tomorrow. Since that didn't work out so well for us back in Massachusetts, and we felt good, we decided to see if we could find someone to pick us up tonight at Springer, after dark, in this crappy driving weather. It was too late to alert my parents since they are three hours away, it was not enough time for them to be able to get there. We called Mr. Ron Brown,and had success! He gladly agreed to come get us. Before I knew it, we were at Big Stamp Gap, with 0.9 miles left until it was all over. Well, technically 1.8 since we had to summit, then hike the .9 back down to the Gap where the parking lot was and Ron would be waiting. It was just about dark, and the rain had picked back up a little bit - not enough to be miserable, but just enough to make it feel a bit more epic. Like the end of Lion King after all the fire and fighting and Simba goes out to Pride Rock in the rain to claim his place and it's all super epic. Anyway, I couldn't process the fact that in 20 minutes, it would all be done. We stashed our packs off trail, grabbed our headlamps, and headed up to Springer. We stalled with about .1 left for a snack break. Then walked, silent. I didn't know we summitted until I was practically stepping on the plaque by the last white blaze. A bit anticlimactic, but emotional nonetheless and made more intense by the conditions - heavy fog, steady rain, dark, very low visibility. We took a couple pictures, stared at each other for a minute, high-fived and backtracked to the parking lot where Ron was waiting for us. Fortunately, he had his overhead light on inside his car so we were able to find him, otherwise, we would have had to walk up to every car, peering into the windows - that's how bad the fog was. We couldn't thank him enough for picking us up in these conditions - soaked, muddy, and until we got down to a paved road, visibility was MAYBE 5 yards - no exaggeration - I'm relieved my parents didn't have to drive up in this. It took a while to get to Dahlonega, but we made it =) We splurged and stayed at the Smith House. We went out to dinner after getting cleaned up, it was nice to have a night just for Team D0C0 to celebrate and have some time to decompress. We went out to dinner, shared a bottle of champagne, and a celebratory cigar. Absolutely cannot believe it!When we stashed our packs, I remember to grab the stone that Ben, from back in Pennsylvania/Maryland, had given me under the sole condition that I would carry it all the way to Springer. I put the stone in my pocket, and I kept my promise. I know a lot of people were supportive and believed that I COULD do it, but somehow, I think he was the only person who knew that I WOULD do it. Not even I thought I would make it the whole way. And yet.