AT Day 16: The end of the trail for me

Wednesday - 7/19 (0 miles) – I spoke to Professor this morning and made the difficult decision to end my trip 33 miles and 2 days short of my destination at the northern entrance to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park where the Standing Bear Farm hostel sits. Hot Springs, NC is where I’ll restart my trek from next year. He was disappointed because we’ve really enjoyed hiking together, but I told him I’ll meet him in MA next year when he begins his last LASH from the CT-MA border to Mt Katahdin in ME and hike for a few days. I have truly enjoyed his company and will be following him through the rest of his hike to Springer Mountain in GA.

I wanted so badly to see the next amazing alpine bald called Max Patch tomorrow, but the next 3 days are calling for heavy rain, thunderstorms, and high winds and I was stressed about walking across such an exposed environment on top of a mountain with the way I’ve seen ferocious storms materialize so fast in the mountains along the NC-TN border. I’m also here to experience the beauty of these amazing places and I didn’t want to miss out on sitting in the middle of Max Patch and taking it in like I did the balds on the Roan Massif, Grayson Highlands, McAfee Knob, Dragon’s Tooth, Mt Riga, Mt Washington, and so many other iconic places in the 1,924 miles I’ve hiked along this incredible trail from ME to Hot Springs. I have 274 miles left to go now to complete the AT and I want to enjoy every one of them when I come back next year. Now it’s time to head home, unpack, repack, and prepare to head to Washington to climb Mt Rainier with my son in just about a month!

I’ve been hiking for 15 days from Massie Gap in VA to Hot Springs, NC. That’s 228 miles which is far more than I’ve ever done in days or miles for one (almost) trip. I learned once and for all that I could never do a thru-hike. Despite the appeal of being able to say I hiked it all in one hike, the physical and emotional hardships of doing that for such a sustained period is not for me and I fear that I'd miss out on the grandeur of this amazing trail by getting into a heads-down mode of laying down mile after mile to achieve my goal of getting to the end.?Besides, after 2 weeks I already miss my family and look forward to getting back and seeing them.

I'll give you a quick tour of the Laughing Hearts Hostel, which is a pretty typical AT hiker's hostel. It's simple but functional, it shows plenty of wear from many weary hikers passing through each year, but it's luxurious compared to sleeping on the trail so who cares. This hostel is literally right on the trail before entering Hot Springs from the south, and the first thing you see is an "honor fridge" full of beer, soda, water, microwavable meals like hot pockets, pizzas, and ice cream sandwiches. You pay for what you eat and there's a jar in the fridge to put your money in. The bunk rooms are simple as well. This one has two bunkrooms, each with 10 bunks, a table, and a couch... you get a mattress with a sheet and pillow, but you supply the rest (sleeping bag for me). The kitchenette is very basic but you can cook a simple meal, boil water for your dehydrated meal or coffee/tea/oatmeal, keep things cold in the fridge... but label it or someone will eat your food!

I hung around the hostel for the morning waiting for Jason, the shuttle driver who shuttled us back and forth to Allen Gap yesterday, to pick me up and take me to Asheville where I'll fly home from the next day. As I sat under canopy at the hostel and watched it rain and thunder, I was still wishing I was out there with Professor pushing through the rain as I had so many other days on this trip. Had I not already booked my flight and checked in early, I just might have jumped up, thrown on my rain poncho and headed down the trail to catch up with him!

Thursday - 7/20 (0 miles) - It’s 4am and I’m at the Asheville airport. I was very cold last night in an air-conditioned hotel room after sweating most nights in a tent, shelter or bunk while hiking. After hiking hundreds of miles in the last few weeks, when the hotel said their shuttle didn’t start running until 4:30am and my flight began boarding at 4:50am, I decided to put my backpack on my back one more time this week and walk to the airport. It wasn’t far and I was there in no time, but the roads clearly weren’t designed for people to walk to the airport.

I know I shouldn’t do this to myself but the weather looked pretty good yesterday where Professor and I planned to be, bad overnight while we would have been dry in a shelter, and rough this morning, but not bad after that. To add insult to injury, after all the rain I’ve dealt with for weeks, starting tomorrow the next 6 days look fantastic with less than 30% chance of rain each day. I could have gotten all the way through the Smokey’s with good weather and been set up for a realistic chance of finishing next year! Argh, oh well, I made the decision I was most comfortable with at the time. I’ve been on an exposed mountain top with lightning bolts coming down both above and below me before … it was terrifying, and I never want to experience that again.

Friday – 7/21 (0 miles) – I’m back at home with my family and I finally heard from Professor today.?I was concerned since he had not gotten back to me last night when I texted him.?I expected he was already safely at Standing Bear Farm hostel.?It turned out that this morning he was crossing Max Patch in heavy fog after a rainy 2 days that slowed his progress down.?His picture that he sent of Max Patch was exactly what I didn’t want … being in the clouds with near zero visibility and unable to experience the sheer beauty of Max Patch.

It's been 3 days since I stepped off the trail, and I’m already longing for my next section hike on the AT next spring…

“the mountains are calling and I must go.” – John Muir