Alexandria, VA

2175 miles (plus)! We are done! We summited Springer Mountain, GA, the southern terminus on Wed., Sept. 24th @ 6:00 pm! Yahoo! We did finish strong! We pushed and did 16 1/2 to 19 1/2 miles our last 5 days on the trail to finish a little earlier! Our first full day of hiking in GA had me a little concerned that we might take longer to finish. We did 17 miles that day and had 15 climbs, up and down, of mountains and big hills. That was an extremely tiring day! I was thinking if it really was going to be constant climbs that we wouldn't be able to keep up the miles/pace we wanted! But luckily we did have some level terrain that allowed us to finish strong! Our last day we hiked 19 1/2 miles to get to the top of Springer Mountain! We crossed the last road and had 4.1 miles to climb to the top of Springer. We did that 4.1 miles in 1 hour and 40 minutes! I think the adrenaline kicked in and wanting to be done that got us going hard and strong that last 4.1 mile climb! Maybe the Power Bar right before that helped, too? The last 2 miles I was crying...tears of joy and relief! Dan said he thought for sure that I would cry when we reached the top but I told him I'd already done it on the way up!

We camped on top of Springer Mountain amongst the signs "strongly discouraging" hikers from camping there because of high bear activity. Dan convinced me to stay there anyway because it was like the Smokies-there were warning signs everywhere and we saw no bears. So I agreed and camped there our last night on the trail!

On top of Springer Mtn., the AT southern terminus!

Our retired shoes, holes and all (yes, we trashed them at the end of our hike!) We both went through 2 pairs of shoes. I probably could have had a 3rd pair but after experiencing pain for 2 days when I changed out shoes before, I decided that these pair of shoes were going to make it through no matter what! We had duct tape if needed! Dan also threw away his shirt-it was pretty well faded.

Scenes from GA, our last state on the AT!

Acorns, aplenty, on the trail that made hiking like walking on marbles! Had to be extra careful!

Wow-what an adventure we had! Lots of different emotions, experiences, hikers, beautiful views and adventures. We thank you all for your support and prayers through our journey! We feel truly blessed that we were protected, kept strong, and healthy through it all! There are so many of you to thank but want to especially thank:

James-for sending us our resupply boxes and putting in the extra stuff that we needed at times; for taking care of the homefront for us; watching out for our bills; doing the all the extra "jobs"

Joey & Cathy-for allowing us to use their home for a home base whenever we were in town; for sending us great care boxes throughout our journey; organizing family get togethers when we were in town

Jason & Heather-for sending us calorie filled, great care boxes throughout our trek

Billy, Climber, Scout, Thru-Thinker & Herb-for making time to hike with us and bringing us treats

Dana, Bob & Rick-for hosting us and feeding us, we appreciate your wonderful hospitality

Thanks to all of you for your comments on our blog, for emailing and keeping in touch with us during our adventures: Kelly & Brian, Jenn, Jena, Billy, Carol, Ann, Heather & Jason, Brenda, Jayne, Donna, Clark, James, Michael

Herb-thank you for picking us up at the end of our trek and driving us to Atlanta

Mary Paq-thanks for the addresses we needed

Diane-thanks for the CHF updates we needed

Thanks to all of you who have sent in donations for our cause for Children's Hunger Fund! Those of you who have made a pledge, please send in your donations at your earliest convenience (see the top right corner of the blog for address). We appreciate your support for our cause! God Bless You all for sharing in this adventure and fundraiser with us!

Alexandria, VA

We're in Alexandria, VA for a couple days with my brother and sister-in-law while we're resting, eating and getting reorganized for the last 1/4 of our trek. We've hiked 1650 miles and have 523 to do. We drove from Bangor, ME to Pepperell, MA. We stayed with our friends Bob and Dana again for a night (they're the ones who made the lobster and clam feast for us). They fed us wonderful, filling meals again and we sure appreciate their friendship and hospitality! We left their home stuffed and rested. We drove down here-it was a loooong drive. Don't know which is better-hurting hikers feet/legs or hurting rear end from sitting for 10 hours! Anyway, we're here till Wednesday when we'll get back on the trail in Marion, VA and hike south to Springer, GA. We hope to finish by the end of September.


Pictures from our 100 mile wilderness trek!

If you zoom in on this picture you'll see the only moose we saw! It's in the middle of the picture across the lake!

This is the sign they have posted before going into the 100 mile wilderness!

So the 100 mile wilderness wasn't so wild after all. There were some easy rode accesses from some other trails crossing the AT. Within the first 10 miles we came across telephone poles and a railroad. There were lots of people in the wilderness doing day hikes and section hikes, too, that's how easy it is to get to. These college age young men had thru-hiked the AT in 2006. They were so touched by the number of trail angels they came across that fed them during their trek that they decide to do the same. We were near the end of our day when we came upon them. We still had a ford and 5 miles uphill to go. "Sunshine" and "Helium" had a tarp and a grill set up and fed us dinner! Hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, soda, fruit, and twizzlers! That gave us the energy to finish our day and we didn't have to cook our dinner which was great as we rolled into a camping spot around 8 pm as it was getting dark.

We had 2-3 times as many river fords as was listed in our book because of all the rains ME has received this summer. Most of the rivers were running higher and current faster and hard. We had another scary experience doing 2 fords. In one rainy day we had 3 river fords that we had to do within 1 mile! The first one was like most of the others-water about mid-thigh to me. At the second crossing I was swept downstream about 20 feet by the strong currents. Dan was near and had tried to stop me but couldn't. He has bruises on both his inner thighs from stretching and straining to reach me. Fortunately I was stopped by a big rock in the river. I was able to compose myself and get up. Dan came down and we linked wrists and was able to get across; we were both wet as well as our packs! When we got to the other side the two hikers we were with had had a rope to throw for me but really it would have been too late. Just 50 feet more and I would have been down the falls that were there! But I was thankful for their being there and their support in case something drastic did happen. I said that I lost one of my hiking poles to the river and Dan just said, "but we still have you!" One of the hikers said, "Good answer!" One hiker found me a big stick that I'm now using to hike with! When we got to the third ford for that day, we could see the water was high and current was even faster! One hiker barely made it. He was most of the way across when he fell but he dove across to a big rock and held on. He was able to get to the other side and yelled for us to stay put and wait it out. Only problem is that the forecast was for rain for the next 2-3 days! (It's amazing how one day of rain or no rain affects the level and current of the rivers!) There was a rope tied across the river on two trees. I told Dan and the other hiker with us that I was going to climb across the rope rather than try to ford and then would could set up a pulley to get our packs across. They didn't like that idea. (You all know that I'm a monkey!) So Dan put a rope around my waist for the pulley and I pulled my legs over the rope and pulled myself across. No problem! Then they sent over my pack. I had to pull it across and get it off the pulley ropes-no easy feat! I put my gloves on to pull Dan's pack across-it hurt! I couldn't get his pack off the pulley because it was just too heavy for me. The other hiker, Burro, didn't want to climb the rope. He didn't think he could do it and tried to ford. He went back and said he couldn't do it. He decided to camp and wait it out. Dan didn't want to climb the rope but did. He was dragging in the water. He said he hoped he wouldn't get giardia since he was taking in water. Said he wouldn't do that again if he didn't have to and I said that I'd rather cross the rivers that way! Just so glad that we're done with fording rivers...I hope.

We had a beautiful day when we hiked Mt. Katahdin. It was sunny and clear and we had good views the whole time! We had some rock scrambling to do as well as climbing big boulders for part of the climb. Guess we're in pretty good hiking condition! It's said that the average time for climbing and descending Mt. Katahdin is 8-10 hours and we did it in 7 hours! It really helped to have good weather. We were able to have lunch and take in the views!

Mt. Katahdin

Some scenes from on top of Mt. Katahdin.

One area on Mt. Katahdin we could use this rope to climb a long steep boulder.

After climbing Katahdin, thru-hikers are seen in the parking lot hitching a ride to the next town which is 24 miles away. We ultimately needed to get to Bangor, ME which is another 50 miles to get a rental car at the airport. The ranger told us that it's not a problem to hitch to any of the towns as people are always heading out of the park that way. We really lucked out. We had met a father and son that were hiking part of the 100 mile wilderness and Mt Katahdin. We met them as they were starting their trek. The father had thru-hiked the AT 20-some years ago and was sharing parts of the trail with his teenage son over a period of summers. They are from NJ and we were summiting Katahdin the same day. They were heading home to NJ after their summit and gave us a ride all the way to Bangor since they were heading down that way anyway! Trail angels! We didn't have to do the begging for rides like we thought we would have to do! Thank you Rod!

Good things about the rain:

-keeps the bugs away, at least when it's raining

-keeps us cool

-feeds all the wonderful trees and plants

-we're having no problems finding our water for our daily needs

Some "tree art"

Zebra Swallowtail

Anyone know what this is?

Thank you all for your prayers! I know that we are being protected and appreciate all your support! We can see some light at the end of the tunnel! We're getting there!