Today I finished all 2,190 miles of the Appalachian Trail. WOOT!
Hey, Y’all.
Welcome to my blog.
Expect reflections on long distance hiking, hiking culture, nature, creativity and my undying love for backrests.
Welcome to my blog.
Expect reflections on long distance hiking, hiking culture, nature, creativity and my undying love for backrests.
All tagged great smoky mountains national park
Today I finished all 2,190 miles of the Appalachian Trail. WOOT!
I summit the highest point on the AT, but don’t stick around for long…it’s cold, and there are women in heels.
Today, I find the silver lining of surviving standing room only, a parade and a circus.
Today I saw a ranger on the trail.
I’d been wondering if anyone actually worked here in the Smokies.
He told me he was out for two nights, picking up trash and checking privies since there’d been no ridge runners out this year.
Even though these 70-ish miles through the Smokies are the last 70-ish miles I have to finish the AT, I’ve both dreaded and procrastinated this section. This is the third permit I’ve bought, and I’m determined that it will be my last. This time, I finish.
Day of views, bears, moving goalposts, life-defying feats on rickety fire towers.
Day hikers continue to surprise me with their questions.
Day 24 involved an unscheduled trip to Cherokee. And Cherokee is definitely a trip.
There are always good things, even on the worst days. And today ranked up there as one of the worst if you were inclined to look at it that way.
The crowds thinned out on the other side of the long, creepy tunnel at the end of the creepily-named “Road to Nowhere.” No one left out here but me and a couple of fishermen. And lots and lots of big rushing creeks.
“One of the great misfortunes of modern life is the want of any sudden surprise, and the absence of all adventure.”
~Theophile Gautier
