Date: 2015-09-17
To: Final Final Thoughts
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

It¢s been almost a year since I climbed Katahdin and finished my thru hike. There are probably several folks climbing Katahdin today and finishing their thru hikes - congratulations!I said in my first post that I¢d write later on why I decided to thru hike the AT and why I decided to post a journal. The latter I covered in my April 28 post, but I never addressed why I was hiking the trail.The thing I liked most about Boy Scouts was hiking and camping. I remember reading in Boys Life about a scout who hiked all of the Appalachian Trail ¢ I don¢t remember if it was a thru hike or a series of section hikes. At any rate that inspired me to want to thru hike the AT some day. As I went off to college and a busy life moving around a lot, that dream was always in the back of my mind, although I knew it would have to wait a while.Linda and I have traveled around the country a lot, and whenever we would be driving down a road that crossed a part of the AT I hadn't hiked before, I would stop the car and walk a short distance down the trail. Then back to the car and drive on. When we lived in Northern Virginia in the late 90¢s/early 2000¢s, our daughter Sarah and I did a few short backpacking trips on the AT in Virginia and once in NH.When we moved to Gainesville, GA, not far from Springer Mountain, that dream became more real as I did day hikes and short section hikes around and on the AT, completing all of the AT in Georgia. That¢s where I met thru hikers and started reading their journals, waiting for the time when I could do my own thru hike.As that time approached, I wasn¢t sure I really wanted to do a thru hike. I¢m not good at doing the same thing day after day¢¦ I can¢t even do the same job for more than a few years before needing to move on to newer challenges! I was concerned I¢d get bored after a few weeks on the trail.So, I gave myself a couple of learning objectives to keep me occupied.One was to keep a journal. Although I¢m very comfortable giving talks to folks, I haven¢t been writing a lot in recent years and wanted to improve my ability to write more easily. I discussed my reasons for writing a journal and making it public in my April 28 post. Although I didn¢t do a very good job at the primary objective of sharing my thoughts and history with our kids and grandkids, I have enjoyed all the comments and encouragement I¢ve received through it and have also enjoyed using it to help me reminisce about my experience! My second learning objective was to spend more time with people on the trail than I naturally might. Although I am a friendly sort of guy, my introvert, goal oriented personality would probably have led me to just put my head down and hike all day with just casual acknowledgement of folks along the way. Instead, I took the time to chat with and enjoy the folks I met. That turned out to be the best part of my hike!Interestingly, I discovered my two learning objectives conflicted with each other. At the end of the day, I could either hang around the campsite/shelter enjoying other hikers¢ company, or I could retire to my tent and update my journal. Most of the time I did the former, and am glad I did! As a result my journal posts weren¢t quite as detailed as I intended and were often posted several days later. But all the wonderful people I met certainly solved the boredom concern I had!Some of my older relatives are not internet savvy and couldn¢t follow my adventure on line. So for them, and for anyone else who would want a hardcopy of my journal, I decided to copy all my posts into a word document and print it out.I discovered it¢s much cheaper, especially for color copies, to print it through Amazon than through one of the office supply stores or printing services. So, I'll do that. I don¢t expect to sell any copies except to me to give away to friends and family.The title will be AstroGuy - Appalachian Trail Journal. Not very catchy, but that¢s what it is. :-)I'll update this post when it's available on Amazon.Finally, finally: Thanks everyone! :-)I am indeed a blessed man!