Date: 2009-11-13
From: Troutdale Baptist Church Hostel

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Hello Friends,As some or many of you know, I'm home. I briefly quit the trail and had my mother pick me up in Troutdale, VA, which is possibly the smallest, most middle of nowhere town we've seen since Maine. I've had a cold for about a week now that I can't seem to get rid off. I tried taking two days off to recover and felt a lot better, but then it seemed to catch back up with me. It's been raining in southern VA for three days which is bad weather to be nursing a cold in. So after lying around for days going nearly crazy in two different podunk motels and a church hostel (which was pretty nice actually) in three different towns in southern VA, I thought... hey, I could be at home lying on my own couch and eating real food instead. My mom drove two and a half hours to collect me from Jerry's Grocery, the only restaurant/general store in town.One of the main reasons I chose to go southbound was so that I could walk towards home. Not only is progressing closer to home turf a great moral booster, but also I suspected that towards the end of the trip my body would start unraveling. And boy was I right about that. With 500 miles to go my immune system is cracked, my knees are back to hurting (which they haven't done since southern Maine), I get random aches in my hips, and I sure as hell can't stand trail food anymore. You figure walking 1600 miles would be exceptionally healthy, but really, it's not if done in the course of 4 months. (I¢m speaking for myself of course.) So here I am, 500 miles away from Springer and sitting at my kitchen table coughing and sneezing.I left Josh and Phil to continue southward towards Tennessee; I will rejoin them in four days. I'm extremely sad to be skipping these miles as they hold some of the best trail experiences. Today they will cross the Grayson Highlands, home to wild ponies that roam this meadow and purportedly have a taste for hiker pack straps (salt from all the sweat...yum). In two days they will cross the VA-TN state line, taking them out of the longest state on the trail at 535 miles; one that has taken us a month to cross and therefore deserves a special victory dance. I'm disappointed to be punching a hole in my thru-hike, since a true thru-hike is supposed to be end to end, with no gaps, period. And if I only had a week left I would tough it out, cold or not, and just go, go, go. However, I still have a month of trekking before I can call an end to my adventure. Thus I am home fixing my cold, resting my feet, knees, hips, and everything else that has gotten to hurting from walking since June. Next spring I'll go back and complete this 60ish mile section that I'm missing, along with a few other holes I've made in my hike due to my never ending foot problems. I figure that in ten years, no one is going to care whether I hiked 95% of the AT at once and finished the other 5% the next year. Twenty-two hundred miles is a long way to walk, and I'm giving myself credit for walking that far regardless of whether I needed to sit out a few days at home near the end or not.My parents, especially my grandparents, are trying their hardest to keep me home for good. But with only 500 more miles to go before I sit atop Springer and cry my eyes out for sheer joy, I need to get back as soon as I feel up to carrying 40lbs up mountains in the cold again.Anya