Date: 2012-05-19
From: Abingdon Shelter

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 10.0

Sleep eluded me. Too many thoughts. Too much anticipation about the day ahead ¢ my last day of hiking as a Long Distance Section Hiker on the Appalachian Trail. Today, my hike of the AT would be completed.At 3:00 am the college class packed up and hit the Trail, hoping to get to Damascus early so as to not miss any of the festivities. ¢Piedmont¢ left at 4:30 am to make sure he got to the Damascus Post Office before it closed at 11:00 am. Courtney was packed and ready to go when I finally got moving around 4:45 am. (We had hoped to meet later in the day when I would be crossing under the banner to finish my hike, but somehow we never met up which was too bad -- I had wanted to say goodbye in person.) To my surprise, the Scouts up on what was supposed to have been ¢my knoll¢ were already stirring and starting to pack up, too. When I left the shelter, only the hillbilly was still asleep, alone in what had been an over-populated tenement just the night before.I headed south from the shelter, back the way I had come the night before. A mile back, USFS Road 69 crossed the Appalachian Trail at McQueen Gap which is where I had planned to meet Bill (my brother-in-law) and my son, Jack, around 7:15 am. While I was waiting for them to arrive, I made a sign out of a piece of cardboard I had carried with me from Black Bear Resort for that purpose: ¢TODAY I COMPLETED THE A.T. = 2,184 Mi. ¢ MAR 28, 2004 ¢ MAY 19, 2012¢ I wasn¢t sure what, if anything, I was going to do with it when the time came, but I wanted to have it available in case it seemed appropriate.Bill and Jack arrived right on time and we enjoyed the coffee and egg sandwiches they had brought along before Jack and I headed off, Northbound this time, toward Damascus while Bill returned to Abingdon with the bulk of my gear in his truck (I do love slack-packing whenever I can!)The morning was beautiful and although Jack wasn¢t feeling too well, he and I maintained a pleasant, brisk pace as each step took me closer and closer to the completion of my hike. Jack had flown into Charlotte from Philadelphia and driven over to Abingdon the night before to meet up with Uncle and his Sister who drove over from Chapel Hill. He and I had a great chance to get caught-up on a number of topics as we walked along; something fathers and sons don¢t get to do enough of in the ¢real world¢ but should. We took a ¢water and snack break¢ in a verdant gap along the way, but other than this stop and one to take pictures of us crossing the Tennessee ¢ Virginia State Line, we walked, and talked, pretty much non-stop all morning.About a half mile from Damascus and 300¢ above it, we met up with Bill, Kim (my daughter), Tim (my daughter¢s partner) and Miss Kitty (my daughter¢s sweet Jack Russell Terrier who is quite the old, but still game, grand dame of doggie Dom!) Together we made our way into town.With their encouragement I taped the sign I had made to my pole which I carried through the ¢Trail Days¢ crowd inconspicuously but with pride. Whenever anyone asked to see what it said, I held it up for them to see and smiled and accepted their heartfelt congratulations. The AT gave way passing through town along the Ramsey Branch, where one could explore a gambit of ¢Trail Days,¢ tents and vendors, and exhibits each touting camping gear and supplies. The crowds of hikers, former AT hikers, friends and family members of hikers and a wide assortment of ¢Trail Angels¢ and others from the AT Community was quite thick and the going was slow.As we reached the end of the booths, Jack bolted for the restroom facility, returning many minutes later, white as a sheet and clearly not at all well. He had hung in there with me for 10.5 miles and had gotten me as close to the finish of my hike as he could before the bug he was coming down with took control and sidelined him for the rest of the day. Kim gathered her car and took him back to the Hotel where he spent the next 16 hours in bed.Once the two of them were on their way to the Hotel, Bill and Tim and I turned right onto Laurel Avenue (the Main Street of Damascus) and made our way to the site where, under the Trail Days Banner in 2009, I had ended my Southbound Section. I was prepared to have both Bill and Tim take pictures of the occasion. I was not prepared for the number of people ¢ a few of them people whom I knew from the Trail, but most of them complete strangers ¢ who came up to me and shook my hand and congratulated me and took my picture or wanted to have their picture taken with me! As a result of this interest and support from people of all ages who were into hiking, I realized not only that my Section Hike of the AT was over, but that what I had done was really quite special! And that afternoon in the Virginia sunshine, in the small town of Damascus, I felt very proud of my accomplishment.We stayed for the Hikers parade (which is really a joyful, good-natured water fight between the people in the parade and the spectators with water pistols, water bombs and water blasters all acceptable armament for both sides!) and then located Kim and headed back to the cars and to the hotel. On the way we ran into Miss Janet who was very excited about the fact that she is now driving a van because her car bit the dust soon after I left Erwin. Yeah for Miss Janet!After checking in on Jack, I took a long shower and a quick nap before joining Bill, Kim and Tim for a delightful steak dinner on the balcony of the Tavern in Abingdon, which made for a truly wonderful evening. We talked a lot about my experiences on the Trail and, just having them there, made me feel very special and very honored to have been able to complete this incredible journey through the woods of the Appalachian Mountains all the way from Georgia to Maine!Some walk in the woods! And what a great way to finish it up.