Back to reality...

Sadly, the real world calls. So today, I'm catching up on the last bits of our hike from the waiting room at the VW dealer, while my little wagon is being serviced. Sorry for not posting in a while, but things have been a wee bit hectic since we finished. I'm backtracking to include some photos from our last few days before Thanksgiving. My parents came to pick us up outside of Franklin, NC the Friday before Thanksgiving so that we would have time to prepare for our house-load of people. Our last couple of nights in NC before the holiday break were seriously cold and windy, really pushing the limits of all of our gear. It was definitely a welcome return to central heating and hot showers.

On a fire tower, near Wayah Bald, NC.

On our last hiking day before Thanksgiving, we found some very
welcome trail magic, in the form of trail angel Apple (I think that's his
name--I'm drawing a blank). We sat with him and ate hot dogs, cookies,
and cold Cokes--awesome!

 

We were thrown off schedule by Puppygate, taking 2 days off for our impromptu maternity leave. We had planned to summit Springer on Saturday, Dec. 3, so that some of our friends and my parents could join us for the final mile. We decided to stick with that plan and stay an additional 2 days to make up the miles we had missed. There was a brief discussion of coming back at a later time to finish, but we decided that it would be far too easy to put it off indefinitely.

Lunchbreak. Hiking in north Georgia should not look like this....

We had a great day at Springer. The hike up to the mountain was absolutely beautiful, following a lovely creek through rhododendron groves. As we were hiking, we wondered where our buddy Beanpole was on the trail, figuring that he had to be getting close to the end. When we walked into the parking lot near the top of Springer, I saw a couple of hikers coming down the trail from the summit. Strangely familiar hikers. Beanpole! And John Wayne! They were with Beanpole's dad, who had come from Alabama to pick him up at the finish. So there were hugs and beers and stories to tell in the parking lot before they headed back to Birmingham.

With Beanpole and John Wayne. We made it!

The best part of the day was meeting up with our friends and family. Many thanks to Greg for organizing our little tailgate welcome-home party. It meant so much to us that he and Erin gave up football tickets and made the long drive to the mountains to share the experience with us. My parents were also there and even made the mile-long hike to the summit--having them there at the end was really special.

I am so thankful that we have such wonderful memories of that day on Springer. Tragically, we learned yesterday that our buddy John Wayne was killed in an accident over the weekend, while hiking with Beanpole in Alabama. I didn't know him that long or that well, yet I feel so saddened by this. Maybe because he was so young. Maybe because he had just completed a life-changing experience that would happen to be his last. I don't know why. But he was doing something he loved with people he loved, and I suppose that should be some comfort. He will certainly be missed.

Erin rocks her sexy lumberjack look on Springer.

Mountaintop celebration.

 

With Erin and Greg at the summit.

 

With my folks at Springer--the best trail parents ever!