Date: 2017-10-25
From: Hawk Mountain Shelter

To: Springer Mountain, Appalachian Trail Southern Terminus
Miles today: 8.1
Weather: clear sky

The sun rose. The sun set. Just another day. But no day on the AT is just ¢another day.¢ Exceptional. All of them. But today is Exceptional among exceptionals.Today I finished the Appalachian Trail. Today I was reunited with Frodo. Today I am a Triple Crowner. How¢s that for hitting the trifecta.Since last October, I¢ve worn a pendant around my neck. It¢s an AT emblem. It¢s numbered. There are only 500. Mine is 383. They are supposed to change hands, be given to someone who has helped you in an extraordinary way. I¢ve only ever seen two others. I scoured the internet and found no other instance of someone giving one away. But mine was given¢first to Joan ¢Bump¢ Napolitano by two AT hikers she¢d helped on the PCT and then last October she gave it to me. The die-stamped diamond-shaped pendant has rested near to my heart. Deep down, since the moment I first joyously put it around my neck, I knew I had to give it away. But I didn¢t want to ¢¦.  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...In Australia they measure how cold a night is by whether it is a ¢one dog,¢ ¢two dog,¢ or ¢three dog night.¢ Last night was cold, down to freezing, lower. It must have been a ¢two dog¢ night. Literally. Franky slept with his golden retriever Summer and Mona¢s friend Hollywood slept with her big black lab puppy. Both said their dogs shivered. But in sunlight today, the measure will be tissues, not dogs. Will it be a one-tissue, three-tissue or ten-tissue day? The tears will fall as surely as the temperature fell last night. In fact, just before noon, the first words my sister said when she, her husband and Frodo greeted us three-quarters of a mile from Springer¢s summit were, ¢Don¢t start crying now.¢ She wanted me to save it for the summit. Fat chance of that. I buried my head in Frodo¢s shoulder.When we crested the summit and saw the end-of-trail plaques, there were day hikers mingling about. They didn¢t realize what was about to unfold. ¢Why is that silver-haired man crying?¢ High fives. Pictures. Crowns came out to be put on heads. We wore smiles like a king's jester, smiles wider than Lewis Carroll¢s Cheshire Cat. But there was something I had to do. ¢Let the crown wait for a moment. Please come here,¢ I asked my wife. My sister started filming. I told them all about the Appalachian Trail pendant--I have only seen three. I know of no others that have changed hands. I clutched it tight as I told Frodo, ¢I want you to be the first to know who this is going to.¢ I told her about the man I tried to give it to a thousand miles ago. ¢He gave me the keys to his car. He gave me shorts and a t-shirt so I could wash my sweat-stained clothes. He closed his hot dog stand to drive me around. But when I grasped the necklace cord to give it to him, he reached out and physically stayed my hand. Mitch already knew what it took me another 500 miles, all the way to the Shenandoahs, to realize. This pendant belonged to someone else. It was never mine to keep. My privilege was to carry it for 2200 miles. The necklace was destined to belong to the woman who was the first to say, ¢Scout¢s hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2017.¢ It belonged to the woman who sent me dozens of food packages, who flew out seven times to see me.¢ Here Frodo started sobbing. ¢This necklace is yours," I said to her as I lifted it over my head a last time and put it around her neck.  Now it was time for crowns. Now it was time for the champagne. Now for the fist bump with Franky, Aloha, Funky Duck and Buck. The day hikers wanted our pictures too. ¢Congratulations!¢ ¢That¢s amazing!¢   http://www.trailjournals.com/j...   http://www.trailjournals.com/j...  Afterward, I walked down the 8.8 mile AT approach trail with Frodo. We started to get used to the idea of being around each other without the other leaving soon. Used to life without having to say, ¢Make wise decisions.¢ I played tunes from my iPod shuffle 63-song power mix for her. ¢You need to know how much these sustained me when it was so tough Maine..¢ I played my all-time favorite song. It¢s not on my power mix. I have not listened to it for ten years. ¢Why not?¢ she asked. ¢This way it stays my favorite,¢ I answered. It¢s on the Who¢s album WHO¢S NEXT. It is Baba O¢Riley. At the end of the approach trail, after climbing down the 604 steps alongside stunning Amicolola Falls, I walked through the arch that marks the beginning for so many, and for me the end, of their Appalachian Trail hike. Frodo caught the moment. I am wearing the "International Appalachian Trail" hat given to me five months ago by Carol and Kirk, IAT trail maintainers who helped set Rolling Thunder and me off on our journey at the Canadian border.    http://www.trailjournals.com/j...    To have Shelley and Nahum, my sister and brother-in-law, here was way more than icing on the cake. There is no substitute for being present, for showing someone else you are so important that you will fly across the country to be there, experience that special moment as it happens. I¢d asked Shelley beforehand to practice with her smart phone video camera, hoping she could catch my giving Frodo the pendant. She did so and that night Shelley exclaimed, ¢Look at it on Facebook,¢ as it went from one hundred, to two hundred and then double that in ¢likes¢ and the scores of comments mounted. Shelley had just retired. Maybe she has a second career ahead as a film maker.  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...This day could not have been better. It ended with an all-you-can-eat buffet at the Amicolola Falls Lodge. It ended with the princesses getting a photo of me with the Crown they had made. It ended with me in Frodo¢s arms in bed. It ended with me thinking back to a skinny thirteen-year-old boy, not even 80 pounds, carrying a 35-pound pack, drenched every day by unseasonably cold Sierra rain, wishing for a soda, but falling in love for the first time. With the outdoors. With backpacking. Backpacking would give that boy his soulmate, his wife. Frodo and I went on our first backpack together before we went on a first date. What would that boy think of me today? That was probably thirteen- or fourteen-thousand hiking miles ago. I think he¢d be frightened by that prospect but then he would smile. He had so much to look forward to. And he still does. What's next? What wonderful thing will be around the next bend? Good Nite. I am not on the trail, but am still writing for you dear ones who followed along. Scout