Today marks one year since I completed my thru hike of the
Appalachian Trail and given that I am no poet I wanted to share a few words
from fellow hiker Douglas Hurdle, as he retells our final ascent on big K...
9/12/2011- 12:00am the alarm went off but I was already awake and pumped to start hiking. The moon was full and the skies were clear. We packed up our sleeping bags and started walking to the trailhead. You could see Katahdin off in the distances under the moonlight; a blanket of clouds slowly covered the summit. The trail was very easy to start off with. Thirty minutes in we saw head lamps coming down the trail and we though that it was the park ranger and we might get in trouble because the earliest you are supposed to start hiking is 2am. But it turned out to be three day hikers who had started the day before at 9am and were just getting down now. They were having trouble to say the least. At one in the morning we stopped to refill on water not knowing when we might get water again. About 2 hours in the trail started to get harder as we got higher. We took a break and we were just awestricken by the moon and the lakes below us that looked like clouds. It was also getting colder because the trees were getting shorter and allowing the wind to blow viciously. By 2:30 we got to the part of the climb where you had to do more actual climbing then hiking, so the trekking poles went away. There was nothing blocking the wind now so it was freezing and there were parts of the climb where you felt like you might actually get blown off the mountain. That stretch of climbing was short but took forever because of the technicality of the climbing. After that we reached “The Gateway” and things started to flatten out but the wind would not let up. It was blowing so fast that the straps from my pack would smack me in the face. It was so cold that my nose dripped snot uncontrollably but the wind would blow every drop away. “The Tablelands” seemed like another planet. As we were starting the final climb we guessed if distant shapes were the sign. Finally at 4:00am we were there, I waited for Stroller and El Perro to reach the top then all together we reached out and touched the thing that we have been seeking for months. Done. Took some quick night summit photos. Then found a place out of the wind, it turned out to be the perfect place because we could watch the sunrise in our sleeping bags. There were some amazing looking clouds and the sunrise could not be described in words. It was awesome to have the summit to ourselves. Called home around 5am they were so shocked. After the sun came up took some more pictures and just tried to let it all sink in. It was strange to leave the top because we had been hiking to it for so long so just to leave like that seemed wrong even though we were up there for hours. On the way down I couldn’t help but laugh because of all the happy thoughts racing through my mind about seeing my family, eating good food, and everything thing else I have been missing. But then the laughter stopped because I realized all of that was only true because this wonderful and awful thing know as thru-hiking was now over. No more waking up and looking out my tent at a beautiful view, no more free time to spend hours contemplating life, no more sweating my ass off everyday to reach the top of a beautiful mountain, no more gathering around a campfire with fellow hiker trash, no more joy of taking off soaking wet shoe after walking 20 miles in them and then putting dry socks on, no more taking a midday nap somewhere different everyday, no more not caring about what you look like, and no more thrill of the unknown. No its back to what our society calls real life but ill view my time away from the trail as just life on pause until I hit the trail again.
The past year has flown by since the end of my hike. Some things
have changed for me and some things are exactly the same, but when I stop to think
back on what I was doing a year ago today it seems unreal. I want to say THANKS
to everyone who played a part in supporting me and helping
me achieve the walk-Mom, Dad, Mal, Taylor, Mimi, Papaw, Mamaw, Joel,
Spencer, Michelle, Jim, Zoe, Zach,
Barringer, Kyle, Ben, Cooper, Caleb, Carlo, Ted, Kemp, everyone I met along the way,
and everyone who "followed" this blog. I couldn’t have done it without
each and every one of y’all.
Below are the links to some photos from the final part of my trip,
feel free to copy and save them to use as desktop wallpaper...
Cheers,
-B.
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