Day 174 - Saturday, October 9, 2021

Here we are… who would have ever thought this day would get here 5-6 months ago? Today is the 4th day of our final 4 hikes or in simpler terms - today is our last and final hike completing our “Platinum” Slack Packing Flip-Flop-Flip Thru Hike. We will have put our boots to the trail on all 2193.1 miles of the white blazes of the Appalachian Trail.

I’m not sure if I’m excited or disappointed that it’s almost over. Going through my final routine of  taping; felt like I was a Gladiator preparing to enter the Coliseum.  I am feeling a sense of pride and accomplishment knowing that only 20% of those who begin a thru hike actually complete it. So I’ll just go with that and finish this adventure.

Today we are completing the final leg of the journey, hiking from Gapland Road, Gathland State Park (1036.0 NoBo) to Harpers Ferry, Potomac River, Bryon Memorial Footbridge, WV-MD border (1026.3 NoBo) totaling 9.7 miles, the final steps of our 5,000,000 steps.

And there’s a 51% chance of rain today and I don’t even care…. 😂😉

We began hiking at 9:00 am. 



Today everything is a final milestone… final starting picture.





And of course… starting off with the only significant climb of the day puting us on a tabletop for the next several miles. 






So far so good… this may be “just a walk in the woods.”




 



Turtle Power thought he would make up for “naked hike day” held on the summer solstice which we missed as we were not on the trail that day 😬 🙄. Personally, I think he has some tactile issues… just sayin. 





Going underneath US 340 heading towards the C&O Towpath and Harpers Ferry.





Hiking along the C&O Towpath and the Potomac River. 



The Potomac River.



Getting closer to Harpers Ferry.



Our final break and lunch on the trail… I have to be honest as I will not miss the food  🤢🥴. If I don’t ever eat another granola or protein bar ever again will be okay with me!



Almost to the Byron Memorial Footbridge.





Reaching the Byron Memorial Footbridge.





Crossing the Byron Memorial Footbridge.



Eureka … we crossed AT milepost 1026.3 NoBo at 1:05 pm officially completing our thru hike. 







I will always remember the power and strength of “Nana korobi, ya oki”.





And let’s not forget about our celebratory ice creams 😉. I have been regularly eating a pint of ice cream and drinking 50 g of protein a day for about 2 months to help maintain my weight loss. 

The journey is over and I have seen so much in the past months. I appreciate and respect all the others that have hiked this trek…. “Just a walk in the woods” 😉.



Appalachian Trail Countdown:
Total trail miles: 2193.1 miles
Trail miles left to go: 0.0 miles

I’m coming home Jean…

Till next time... Happy Hiking    🥾 

😋


“There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.”

              Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz






Comments

  1. Ebb and FloOctober 10, 2021 at 8:06 AM

    CONGRATULATIONS ‼️

    ReplyDelete
  2. Joe ArcuriOctober 10, 2021 at 2:40 PM

    Splinter, CONGRATULATIONS to you and Turtle Power on completing the Appalachian Trail “Platinum” Slack Packing Flip-Flop-Flip Thru Hike!!! 🎉🎉🎉👏👏👏👍👍👍💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼 Great words of wisdom “Nana korobi, ya oki”!! Thanks for writing a great blog so that we all could vicariously share in the experience! Looking forward to seeing you and Jean in Florida!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 107A & B - Sunday/Monday, July 18-19, 2021

Image
Sunday’s “Zero” was a nice break. We took  this time to  do laundry and finish our tentative hiking itinerary that takes us through the Whites, over the President’s and into Maine. New Hampshire and Maine have their own system on the AMC website where you need reservations to stay at Huts and Lean-to’s aka shelters. But of course their on-line reservations is not working, let’s blame that on the pandemic, and they are not open on Sunday’s. We have to call tomorrow to finalize our reservations. Hopefully the Huts & Lean-to’s have vacancies for the dates we need?   Out next hike will take us over three days & two nights continuing from Franconia Notch (1820.0 NoBo) to RR Tracks, parking, Ethan Pond Pond Trail (1847.4) for a total of 27.4 miles. Due to the parking logistics we are hiking this section SoBo. This hike will also complete our approach to Mt. Washington.  We wake up today, Monday, and it’s pouring…. still, again 😵‍💫! So we decide to drive to the Et...
Read more

The Final Chapter

Image
My favorite scene on the Appalachian Trail near Petites Gap/Highcock Knob, VA, March 26, 2021 (Day 31). Reaching Springer Mountain, the Southern Terminus, June 13, 2021 (Day 90). Summiting Mt. Katahdin, the Northern Terminus, August 25, 2021 (Day 131). Completing our thru hike at Harpers Ferry on October 9, 2021 (Day 174). In the Beginning … This adventure actually started about two years ago in the fall of 2019 when Jim asked me about how I’d like to hike the Appalachian Trail with him. I gave it a good 2 seconds of consideration before I wasn’t politically correct at all in my answer telling him NO…LOL. I was just getting over an injury with my right Achilles tendon as I ruptured it a couple years prior and long distance hiking was the farthest thing on my mind to do.  Now lets back up about 57 years when Jim and I first met. His dad owned and operated a local campground, Coldbrook Campsites in Port Leyden, New York. Port Leyden was also the home of my father and he knew Jim’s da...
Read more

Day 5 - Sunday January 17, 2021

Image
The morning temperature was 32° with an expected high near 40° and the forecast is to be partly sunny all day.    Today we are hiking from Dennytown Road to the east side of the Bear Mountain Bridge, north on Route 9D    totaling 11.3 miles.    Tomorrow’s hike will take us across the Hudson River.  All the snow in the woods is gone and there is almost no ice on the trail which makes hiking much easier. The lakes and ponds are still frozen. Extended forecast for the next week looks good as no snow is being called for but we know that can change. The highest  elevation on the trail for this same time period is under 1400 foot which will help minimize any potential of snowfall.   We began  hiking at 9:05 am and starting right off with a rather good incline of 800 feet in elevation over .3 mi... you do the math  😂.  Half way up the first incline... There are a lot of day hikers on the trail today… I think some ...
Read more