It's done. The hiking is finally over. I have officially thru-hiked the AT, so this will be my last post. My Dad and I summited Katahdin with Hazard, Spoon, and CrocStar on Tuesday, Sept 8th. So that makes for 121 days on the trail; a little under four months. 109 days of actually hiking and 12 days off. Which is almost exactly 18 miles a day counting days off. Not too bad.
I've taken the last week or so to adjust back to normal life. It was pretty weird at first. Waking up and realizing I don't have to hike 20 miles is something I haven't yet fully gotten used to. I have so much time on my hands and I'm sure what to do with it yet. When there was free time on the trail, you tried to do as little as possible. The less you moved, the better lol. Every day, there was a job to do. Now, I come home and I'm unemployed and not going to school so I'm just bouncing off the walls all day. I have to say, I kinda miss it.
Finishing the trail was bitter-sweet. A couple months ago, I never would've guessed I would miss it at all really. But as time went on and I came closer to finishing, I realized there were a lot parts of the trail and the lifestyle that I would miss. The hiking itself wasn't that great, but living in the woods was pretty freakin cool. There's a simplicity to it that is liberating.
I think my favorite thing about the whole trip was the people. I met a lot of great people. The hiking community is relatively small so most of the time, everyone knows everyone. I found that hikers are typically very friendly, warm, outgoing people. What was even more uplifting, were the generous people I met who weren't hiking. Several times, I was brought in by strangers who gave me a bed, good food, a shower, and laudry and expected nothing in return. The trail really helped me developed more faith in people.
When I wrote in Monson, I mentioned hiking with Hazard, Spoon, and Crocstar. I hiked the last 3 weeks or so with them and it was a great way to finish the trip. I love those guys. They're some really fun people to be hiking with. We had a lot of good times together. I plan on seeing them next year at Trail Days (a hiker's reunion in Virginia).
There's a million things to talk about but I dont want this to get out of hand lol. I want to thank everyone who followed me and gave their support on my hike. It helped me keep motivated. I especially want to thank Dan for hiking with me for the first 7 weeks. You definately made that part of the trip more enjoyable for me. Thanks man.
And if anyone is ever thinking about hiking the AT or anything nearly as absurd, well; I won't tell you not to, but I'm not really gonna recommend it. Its a pretty dumb thing to do. Just go car camping lol. Thanks for reading!
-Nick

Dont have too much time to write but we're in Monson, ME, which is the last trail town before Katahdin. I'm hoping to summit on Sept 8th but as with everything else on the trail, we'll see how it goes. For the last couple weeks I've been hiking with three guys I've known since pretty much the beginning. Spoon, Hazard, and Croc Star are some really fun guys and we've been having a blast hiking together. I think they'll stay friends for while. anyways gotta go. see everyone soon.