Everything looked good, the pack weight was less, the weather was great and the trail was some of the best that I’ve walked in the last 600 miles,,, yet here I am back in Michigan again. I hate getting old.
My good friend Ken (AKA “Woody”) had planned to hike with me thru the Shenandoah National Park in northern Virginia so, now that my ankle has healed up I decided to skip the middle section of Virginia and catch it in the fall on the way back to the boat. I felt great when we left the hotel and started up into the mountains. The trail was easy and we were taking it easy to avoid injury yet by the time 10 miles rolled around woody and I could both feel a slight pain in our knees. Should have gone back to the last spring and set up camp but NO,,, onward we pressed and by the time we got to the next water source we were both limping badly. From there the knees just went downhill. The next day was only 8 miles and by the third day we had walked only .4 and we could feel the same knee pain setting in so we tossed in the towel and headed home. I feel good that I finished as much as I did but sad that I couldn’t finish the entire trail. It’s a monumental task, bigger than anything that I have ever tried before. The AT humbled me but I hope to come back and finish the trail in another year.
Here are some pictures and videos of the trail, Thanks to everyone that has taken the time to click on this Blog and especially to those who have emailed words of encouragement to me along the way; it meant a lot to receive those letters. Thanks!
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