Monday 31 August 2009 – Winston Salem, North Carolina

Since the last entry a whole host of things have taken place – I crossed the 2,000 mile marker, spent the night in my final trail town (Monson), hiked through the ‘100 mile wilderness’ and most importantly, on Monday 24 August 2009, climbed Mount Katahdin and completed my thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail.
In total the hike took me 159 days to complete including 26 days where I did not hike (largely made up of 5 days off with shin splints, 10 days in Washington and 5 in Burlington). My longest day was on the 12 July when I covered 27.6 miles concluding my longest week on the trail of 159.9 miles. I carried my pack for the entire 2,178.3 miles of the trail and did not miss any section, always returning to the trail from the point at which I had left it. I can now officially call myself a thru-hiker and a member of the class of ’09.
The final miles of the trail were an unusual experience – I experienced a number of conflicting emotions: happiness at being near the end, anxiety at the prospect of picking up an injury in the home straight (particularly as I seemed to grow more accident prone the closer I came to Katahdin), restlessness as wanting to be finished and sadness at knowing that once I’d finished I would no longer be part of the thru-hiker community.
The final day on Katahdin however was wonderful. It is a tough, technical climb, but one that is a lot of fun and gives some fantastic views. The experience at the summit with David, Rolling Stone, Freeze and Motor was excellent as we took lots of photos to ensure we had our perfect ‘summit picture.’ As if completing that trail weren’t enough I got just enough cell phone signal on the summit to receive a text message from Lisa telling me that England had won the 5th Test at the Oval and reclaimed the Ashes. What a day.
That evening we went into Millinocket (after some shenanigans with our ride getting a flat tyre) for a day of relaxing (and celebrating) before moving on to Bangor and my flight, first to Philadelphia and then on to Greensboro, North Carolina to meet Lisa.
I am now sitting in the Office of the Capital Defender in Winston-Salem, North Carolina where Lisa is doing her internship. The last few days in Winston-Salem have been nice (being back with Lisa is wonderful) but my body has started to react a little peculiarly to normal life – my legs ache and my stomach has started to cramp in the last two days – hopefully that will sort itself out soon. I also still wake up every morning thinking that I need to go hiking.I’ve trimmed back the beard a little for my return to polite society, but it’s still very much a woodsman’s beard. My current project is trying to untangle the enormous dreadlocks that have formed in my hair over the past few months – it’s a time consuming and painful business.