Date: 2007-11-27
To: Warner Robins
Miles today: 0.0

Some final thoughts, ¢¦MAINE: Hands down my favorite terrain of the trail. I¢ve never seen mountains like that before (above treeline), and I was physically challenged every day. It was super awesome to catch up to and meet the SOBOs in the beginning. Everything about it was just fantastic. I had no idea I would finish the trip, but the immense and overwhelming unknown gave me a constant knot in my stomach that made me want to charge straight ahead. Every day I learned volumes about myself, the nature of people, nature itself, etc. This will not be the last time I hike in Maine.WHITES: Incredible mountains completely(?) ruined by the AMC. I HATE the hut system, but there are no real alternatives (like a regular shelter where you don¢t have to pay $8 to have a helicopter fly in mulch), and we spent several nights sleeping under the stars just to avoid them. The mountains are great, though, Moosilauke being my favorite. VERMONT: Everyone said there would be no views in Vermont. Not so. True, there aren¢t the above-treeline views from supernatural peaks, but there are views of small New England barns, wildflowers, roadside peacefulness, etc. So lay off Vermont. Meeting the NOBOs was really cool, too, those guys were awesome.MASS/CONN: All about the people. I got sick for a few days, so some of my memory is negatively biased. However, still good times. I would¢ve loved to stop in towns in Conn, and I hear they¢re pretty cool, so I might have to go back and see it again. I learned more about myself in one day than ever before (see TJ 08/18/07 ¢ the Connecticut Challenge) and physically proved myself to myself. NY/NJ: Damn. The whole Bear Mountain area, though super-overcrowded, is still some of the most beautiful scenery I¢ve ever had the pleasure to witness. The big deal with SOBOs was the heat and humidity, and I must admit, this was the only time I ever thought about taking off some time just until the heat wave passed. Glad I didn¢t, though, the bad times are what really reveals and shapes ones character, and I¢m thankful for every miserable minute. Besides, NYC was AWESOME!!! One reason the southern part of this section was so bad was that I missed my hiking buddies. Friends for life, baby.PA: This was most definitely the craziest section of the trail by far, at least for me. PA was all about the towns and the new superbad crowd (Pyro, Farsang, Alpine, PB). Just when I¢d gotten comfortable hiking by myself, too. Started this state with a bang of misadventure (see TJ 08/31/07), 2 days later got propositioned by a creepy-ass hotel manager guy who went sifting through my trash, then ramped up all the way to Duncannon (4 nights in the bars, met a guy dubbed ¢pickles¢ who could¢ve killed TNadine, almost got beaten up once or twice myself, Contact was talking about throwing me off the Doyle balcony ¢cause I was slackpacking too much, just a hell of a good time (see TJ 09/09/07)). HA! Boy, oh boy, what a state.MD/WV/Northern VA: Fun hiking, fairly easy, great weather. Saw my folks for the first time in Harper¢s Ferry, which was really cool. I got so fed-up with trail drama, trash-talking, etc, that I stopped referring to myself as a thru-hiker and instead as some guy walking from Maine to Georgia. Met the next crowd (Porta John, Solar & Lunar, Cowpie & TS) and had a hotdog party outside of Linden I¢ll not forget anytime soon. Good times, happily over halfway and a calm way to work off my hangover from PA.Shenandoah/VA/northern TN/NC: This whole month, from around mid-September to mid-October, was the slugfest I tried to describe in the journal. I was pretty much by myself, seeing my folks every once in a while and occasional SOBOs like Highlife, Fiesta & Siesta. I accidentally passed most of the last big crowd (Sweet Tea, Yellowbird, Lady & the Tramp, Quasi, Brit, Stoker, Smokey, Ranger, Fresh, anybody else I forgot) in the middle of the night coming into Pearisburg, but eventually met them when my pack decided it was a $250 piece of shit. Whatever. By this time I knew I was going to complete the hike, it was just a matter of time and slugging out miles in gorgeous terrain. Which is exactly what happened. From mid-Virginia south, running out of water became a constant issue, but it¢s not the worst thing ever. I got creative with shuttling and water-drops a few times, but by that point in the hike it was just a matter of problem-solving, not dropping out.TN/NC/Georgia: 3 weeks to the end¢¦ 2 weeks 6 days to the end¢¦   2 weeks 5 days 16 hours to the end. I couldn¢t help it. I¢ve hiked all this stuff before, I have great memories, and I absolutely love those mountains. But I was ready to have it done, ready to get back to work, ready to start attacking my future. Every day I spent at least a couple hours mindlessly reminiscing about the previous sections of the hike, getting ready to stop saying I was ¢hiking¢ and change it to I ¢hiked¢ the AT. The end was not nearly the emotional experience I had anticipated. My folks and a few close friends came up to Springer, we drank like fish, ate like kings and had a great time. It was the perfect way to end the trip, not looking back but forward instead. Thanks for reading.   ~ Dr Jekyll (Obie)   ME-GA 07PS: ¢¦ time to be looking forward ¢¦