Date: 2014-11-13
From: hawk mountain shelter

To: stover creek shelter
Miles today: 5.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 142My last alone day on the trail. In a lot of ways this feels like the end of the trail. Tomorrow is the victory lap. Tomorrow the family comes, tomorrow I camp .2 miles from the end. Tomorrow is the start of post trail life.Today however......I hiked, and sat, and read, and did the mundane things which I wanted to experience. I did the things that the Georgia shelter challenge was about. Enjoying the woods and not worrying about the days hike. All in all, I'm glad I ended like this, I'm glad I got to experience camping and hiking like I remember it. My two previous and only hikes before the Appalachian trail were only 5ish miles. I never imagined going the distances I went and never imagined I would be busy walking all day.This trail was nothing like I imagined, two questions were always asked of me before I started, 1 how long will it take. 2 are you going to walk alone.I always answered the same way to these1. It will take me about six months to walk, I plan on going real slow and just soaking up every minute of being out here2. I'm starting alone but I'm gonna find someone and hike with them, there's plenty of people out there and most people who start alone partner up.Clearly both these were wrong, and more problematically they were my two primary assumptions. It's not that I have too many regrets of my through hike but I wish had more memories of times I spent shooting the shit with other hikers and less memories of arguing with mayor Delmarva or evil fat. The one thing that I can say for certain is the trail has reaffirmed my belief in myself. ¢¢Motherfucker, I walked 2168 miles, ¢¢motherfucker, I climbed southern Maine, ¢¢motherfucker, I dealt with the kid, ¢¢motherfucker, I averaged 23 miles for 8 days with a broken hip belt, ¢¢motherfucker, I night hiked alone everyday for a week, ¢¢motherfucker I averaged 25 miles for a week, ¢¢motherfucker, I did 20 miles on a snow day, ¢¢motherfucker, I started with 55 pounds¢¢motherfucker, I did Virginia in 27 walking days, ¢¢motherfucker, I did 20 miles in tevas ¢¢Motherfucker I fixed my shoelaces when they broke on the mahoosic arm¢¢Motherfucker, I fixed my pack when my armstrap broke and had 4 more miles to go ¢¢Motherfucker, I CARRIED TOMATOES ON MY MOTHERFUCKIN BACK FOR AN ENTIRE MOTHERFUCKIN STATE, TOMATOES ARE FUCKIN HEAVY, motherfucker¢¢Motherfucker, I walked 3/4ths of the trail by myselfAnd lastly¢¢Motherfucker, I got about 30 more hours till I'm MOTHERFUCKIN doneMy point being, I if I may say so, pardon my francais, I'm the motherfucker now. I did something that was hard, that sucked a lot of times, and I pushed through. Most importantly for me I did it on my own, without company or assistance, which I thought I needed at the start. It's just when shit sucks in regular life, I can go to this note, and scroll up that list, and nothing can be as hard as what's written there. Yea happys the word I would use to describe how I feel right now, happy.....and MOTHERFUCKIN coldAM EDIT: motherfucker, I hiked 9/10th of the trail in a summer sleeping bagAlso these last two nights are the coldest of my entire trail, geeez it's cold