Wow! I thought we were going to be blown off the top of the mountain last night!!! The wind gusts were relentless and lasted the entire night, bringing with them bone-chilling cold. I got no more than one hour of broken sleep and was very tired when we started to pack up at 6:15 am. We left camp around 7:20 am and had a short (and mostly downhill) 10 mile hike into Damascus, Virginia. In fact, we covered this distance in 3 of hours, 15 minutes. It was a great feeling to finally cross over into our 4th state. Upon arrival we visited the new Trail Center in town and then went to a local diner for an early lunch. Damascus is known as “Trail Town USA” and is kind of the epicenter of the hiker world on the east coast. The town hosts a huge “Trail Days” event each year in May which draws up to 20,000 hiker enthusiasts. Not bad for a town with a population of less than 1,000. It appears that Mountain Crusher will return tomorrow and join back up with the team as he appears to be feeling better. I sure hope the worst is behind him and that he is strong enough to resume this arduous hiking schedule. 

Prior to beginning my AT thru hike adventure I had never done a single day of backpacking in my life. Everything hiking-related that I have shared on this site has been learned or acquired “on the go”. At the start of this journey I had two major concerns: first – could I physically handle the demands of so many daily mountain hikes and, second – could I embrace and enjoy the “hiker life style”. 

Regarding the first concern, I have been amazed at how well my body has handled the physical and mental demands  associated with such difficult terrain. I have not suffered one injury and have not even had a single blister. I have managed to keep up each day with my young teammates (who are 29 – 40 years younger than me) and I still have hiked the most miles in one day (20+ in the Smokies) on our team up to this point. I am so thankful that I have been able to meet the physical and mental challenges the trail has offered up. 

However….,.(I know, there’s always a “however”, right?), I have struggled, and eventually failed, at embracing and enjoying the “hiker lifestyle”. In fact, I really, really, really dislike it. Poor nutrition, terrible hygiene, inability to get a decent night’s sleep, long evenings in camp with nothing to do but sit and wait until the next day to hike again, going to bed dirty and waking up dirty…. I have just not been able to embrace and enjoy this part of the experience. And, after nearly 7 weeks on trail, and almost 500 miles, it’s clear to me that this part of the experience is not going to change, and my dissatisfaction with it has reached the point that I no longer enjoy the daily hikes and challenges offered up by the trail. And, this adventure is simply too demanding physically and mentally to not get a high sense of accomplishment in the daily miles and routines. 

So….I need a little less than 30 miles to exceed 500 trail miles which I will do over the next couple of days. At the conclusion of that I will hang up my (badly worn and smelly) hiker shoes and leave the rest of the trail to my young teammates to wrestle with. And, I know they will do great. 

Despite not making it further in this journey, I would not change anything. I have learned so much about myself and my abilities/inabilities, have seen so many beautiful places, experienced so much kindness from strangers and Trail Angels,  and met so many fantastic people that it has made all the challenges and unsavory parts of the experience so worthwhile. When I jump off trail in a couple of days I will do so with a huge smile on my face both looking back at what I have experienced/accomplished and looking forward to a return to “normal” life (especially a hot shower every morning!😊). I hope the journey you have taken with me has been enjoyable and that you have learned some things about the AT (and what it takes to be a thru hiker) that you didn’t know before. But most of all, I hope it has instilled in you, in some small way, the desire to take on your own challenges and adventures no matter what the outcome may be. After all, it’s the adventure itself that allows you to push and expand your own boundaries. I will be posting the final couple of days on the trail as usual before signing off after reaching my 500 mile mark. In the meantime, I will be working on the logistics of closing out this journey and making my way home to New Hampshire.  

Pics from yesterday and today – Old barn on AT, oldest shelter on AT (at least that’s what I was told), departing camp this morning – was too cold to take off long underwear😊, welcome to Damascus