Date: 2018-10-14
From: Moore Creek

To: Atlanta
Miles today: 5.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 17 was my last day on the trail for this section hike. It was a wonderful day.I slept really well despite the rain, sleeping until around 7:30.  I was slow to get up as it was chilly and wet.  It¢s really no fun to pack up a wet campsite. My bear bag was fine and unmolested. I saw that Jason and Cross hadn¢t set out yet.  I packed up everything except for the tent while I was making a hot breakfast (Mountain House lasagna). I¢ve found that I¢m getting hungrier each day on the trail.  Cross was the first to be ready and took off around 8:30, followed by Jason maybe 15 minutes later.  I have no doubt that Jason will quickly catch Cross.   I packed up my wet tent and set off around 9:30.  I had something like 6 hours to go 5 miles, so there was no rush.  I found a cell signal not far from the camp and took the time to post yesterday¢s journal entry.  As usual I forgot stuff I meant to add.  I¢ll try to fill in some of that in today¢s entry.  I noticed today the leaves have started changing colors.  We¢ve had a lot of leaves fall since Michael swept through but those were largely just yellow or brown.  Today there were reds as well.  I guess getting farther north, getting cooler weather has helped trigger the change. I¢m sure it will grow in beauty in the coming weeks.  The clouds cleared around 11:35 and the sun came out in all its glory.  You could those who¢d spent the night on the trail as we all had our pack covers on from the previous rain.I met several SOBO through hikers today: Whip and Hustle.  Whip was slowing down so his wife could join him for his finish at Springer Mountain.  She¢d started his trek with him at Khatadin Mountain (sp?) in Maine as well. Hustle was hiking with an older man I initially took to be his father but was instead a retired local who did lots of section hiking.  Like a lot of the younger thru hikers, Hustle wasn¢t using poles.  I forget to mention yesterday that I met the colorful Turtle Wolf thru hiker.  I never did have a chance to ask him where his name came from, though I did have to ask him several times to repeat it.  There were lots of day hikers out today as there was good access to the AT.  I guess I¢ve been on the trail long enough to get the ¢look¢ because I was asked multiple times if I was a thru hiker.  I took that as a compliment.  I heard from  Ron Brown, my shuttle driver, that he was going to be several hours earlier than originally thought.  That sounded better than a long wait so I picked up the pace.  He was picking me up at the Wayah Crest Picnic Area.On my way up to Siler Bald (a bald is what it sounds, a naturally occurring open area on various mountain tops in the Appalachians, there was grass but no trees, but it wasn¢t a tree line as there were trees that ringed the bald area), I ran across a group of Asian tourists doing a day hike.  There were something like 20 of them.  They were very friendly and gave me some fruit.  When I asked where they were from, they told me Atlanta, but I don¢t think so :)I descended from Siler Bald, meeting several groups/families of day hikers who all wanted to talk.  It was fun.  They mistook me for some sort of celebrity.I was picked up by Ron around 2 and arrived in Atlanta several hours later.I¢m currently clean, and am drying out my wet gear.  I have a late checkout so I¢ll have a quiet day until my late afternoon flight.  I tried to leave earlier but it wasn¢t worth the extra money.I ended up spending 4.5 days off the trail.  That meant I didn¢t go as far as I¢d planned, but really that¢s ok.  I needed a zero early on.  I needed some half days to get to places where I could resupply and do laundry.  I certainly didn¢t plan for Hurricane Michael and that cost me 2.5 days.  But it was all part of the experience.  The mileage is just a number, and not what memories are made of.I¢ll reflect more on what I learned and what my favorite memories are from the experience in the coming days and intend to sum it up in a final entry.Daily Steps: 20,000Daily Floors: 119Final numbers: 130 miles backpacking, 115 miles of the AT completed.