Date: 2021-09-23
From: Stover creek shelter 

To: Springer Mountain 
Miles today: 2.8
Weather: light rain

So I¢ve decided to end my AT thru hike attempt, it¢s just not worth the effort after all. Ok, maybe not. I spent one last night in my trusty hammock and delighted in the mid-40¢s temps. Other than a few bursts of machine gun fire from the Army base around 10, the night passed quietly with no Morgan Fairchild bus driving hijinks to disturb my slumber. I even got a chance to practice breaking camp by the light of my cell phone, having discovered the night before that I left my headlamp at the hostel. This is fine. Iceberg, Quiksilver and I were packed and ready for our planned 7:45 departure, though truth be told I was pretty cold and kinda-sorta got us all on trail a little early at 7:30. Jessica, Susan and Quiksilver¢s Dad and step mother had all stayed at the Amicalola Lodge Wednesday night and were departing for the hour drive up to the Springer parking lot at 6:30 - then they¢d hike the one mile to the summit. It was cold and misty as we got on trail, it was still wet and muddy but the rain had stopped yesterday afternoon and things were a bit more dry. We covered the 1.8 miles to the parking lot in about 40 minutes and then decided to wait there for 20 minutes or so to allow our families time to get to the summit. Hiking this morning, it felt like so many other mornings over the last five months, but I knew it the ending would be so very different. As we approached the summit, Quiksilver said: ¢We¢ve hiked over five million steps, only 1000 more to go¢.  That really hit me hard. There is no other way to do anything than one step at a time, but looking back on those steps it seems almost monumental.  But I reflected that getting here was just a series of daily decisions to keep moving forward. That, and a large dollop of good fortune. With less than .1 miles left, Iceberg went on ahead to let them know we were near and Quiksilver and I came on up. I was hoping to have an ¢Officer and a Gentleman¢ ending, but Quiksilver and I kept arguing over who got to be Debra Winger.  Then we were going to be Batman and Robin (finally, a chance to use my purple tights!), but then Iceberg had to show up and ruin that. We were left with simply finishing as three friends.  Stumbling into the not-so-great Kid Gore shelter on a stormy Vermont Afternoon and meeting those two yahoos turned out to be the most fortuitous event of my entire hike. My growing list of ¢thank-you¢d¢ wouldn¢t be complete without including the two of them for their friendship, camaraderie, and tolerance. Then, we were there. A nondescript mostly tree covered mountain in Northern  Georgia.  And just as we arrived, the sun burned through the mist and there was blue sky above. True story! Seeing my wife there along with the others and with Iceberg and Quiksilver is what made it such a special morning, not the miles. We celebrated and took a ridiculously awesome number of pictures. Susan had banners made for the three of us and Quiksilver and I got our ¢summit¢ pictures. I signed the log book with a ¢Sev wuz here¢ and we took a few more pictures. Then it was time to head back to the parking lot for the drive back down to the lodge. After cleaning up, we met in Richard¢s (father to Quiksilver) room on his patio and had a champagne toast before having lunch together. The party broke up at two as we all had some driving ahead of us and we exchanged ¢see you later¢¢s before hitting the road. I do have more to say about my AT hike (shocker, I know) and plan to have two or three more posts over the next few days, if you¢re interested in that kind of thing. Thanks,Sev/Dave