[at-l] The End

[South Walker]

It was 8 years ago today that Logjumper and I, after a huge breakfast off trail, started from Hightower Gap and walked to Springer to finish our hikes. In spite of the breakfast I found my self digging for some snacks, a couple of Cheese Danish and a double hand-full of mixed nuts, within 20 minutes of the start.

We were met at the parking lot by my wife Sherry, Logjumper's brother-in-law Gaylord, and my friend Foster, aka First Pilgrim. Sherry had brought along Walker, my dog. Walker didn't seem to recognize me,  but sure knew who I was once he got a good smell.

After all the food we could eat, we all walked to the summit. I was glad to be at the end. The last few weeks of cold days and long nights had been tough at times. At the same time it felt, as I am sure all "thrus" know, somewhat unreal. It was hard to imagine what a day without a long walk would be like.

Looking back there a couple of things that I miss that were common occurrences on the trail; a sense of accomplishment at the end of each day and the focused intensity which became such a part of my hike. I was driven to finish, to reach the end. Sometimes I create in my mind a mental image of the east coast and I ponder just how far it is from Maine to Georgia and I am in awe of the fact that I made it. Lesson learned; you can hike a long way if you just do some miles, day after day after day.

With the passing of the years the memories of those many days on the trail are still deeply imbedded in my mind and are as sweet as ever. What a blessing it was!

To the class of 2008, I hope you are successful in your hike!


South Walker    
MEGA1999

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://patsy.hack.net/pipermail/at-l/attachments/20071129/3c8cbda4/attachment.html