Date: 2010-12-08
From: Hiker Hostel, Woody Gap, GA

To: Springer Mountain Shelter, GA
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: overcast clouds

What do I say now? I guess I should say that I'm at the end, but it's not really the end. Not yet at least. I have one more night, and even though it's around 10 degrees, Guillermo and I have decided to make the best of it.For our last full day of hiking on the trail, Guillermo and I just couldn't stand the idea of actually having a nice leisurely stroll in the daylight to the finish line. We had that the day before, minus the finish line. So you see, we had planned to spend our last night on top of Springer Mountain no matter what, and in the interest of continuing normalcy, we decided to make our last day like any other. Naturally, it had to include a late start from town, more miles than we had daylight for, and lastly, an almost guaranteed night hike of some sorts.We got up at the Hiker Hostel with only 20 miles to walk. Only? I still catch myself saying that as if 20 miles is just a short stroll. I guess it is now after so many miles, but whatever, that's beside the point. We woke up with the intention of hitting the trail early, but we just kept getting roped into tangent conversations with the hostel owners and Willie, AKA the man. Finally, we got packed and hit the trail sometime between 10:30 and 11 am. I'm not really sure. I didn't care what time is was at all. However, we hit the trail and set to it.About 19 uneventful miles later spent dodging the military in hot pursuit, we hit the state forest road only a mile from Springer MT. This was an exciting moment. Not only because we were a mile away but also because we could have our final night hike. What fun! Hiking over our last mile of trail was interesting because we kept dodging patches of ice and taking bets with each other about which ones our mothers and family would slip and fall on the next day when they would come to bring us breakfast. However, we arrived at the shelter, and even though we were only 0.2 miles from the finish, we couldn't have cared less. That was for tomorrow. We still had one last night on the trail and we had planned to enjoy it.Sure, it was cold. We couldn't leave water out or it would freeze. We guessed it was around 10 degrees, but that didn't bother us. We put our poncho tarps up over the opening of the shelter to block the wind, lit our candles for light and sat down to our last supper of Mac 'n Cheese, 2 ramen noodles and spam. What a trail feast! And then... Guillermo stepped on my water reservoir by accident spilling it everywhere. Oh well, at least we had an ice skating rink in the shelter after that happened.Later, we toasted our airplane bottles of Jim Beam to our fallen hiking compatriots, Creamsicle and Black Eagle; to all of the trail angels who helped us on our journey (Rob Byrd, "Short'n'Sweet," Dave and Rob, my family, Guillermo's family, and the many others whose names will be added); to all the excellent memories; and finally, to each other. We let the candles burn out and enjoyed our final night of pillow talk from across the shelter.As we lay down to sleep in the freezing cold night, I could only think of how tonight was such a perfect end to the perfect thru-hike. Falling asleep, I truly felt blessed to have made all the memories and have met all the people that made up my hike. Yet, I was most happy to have shared almost the entire trail and every day for 5 months with a true friend, who I did not know before the hike, but has now become an important part of my life. Thanks, Guillermo.In closing, a wise man once said, "Step ya game up. Aim high, miss high."