Mile 978

Mile 978

The last few weeks have been interesting. We have pretty much seen the last of what the south has in store. For the 1st time I actually feel like we have accomplished something when we reached 900 miles. It's hard to explain and surreal  when I think about 900 miles anywhere and we are not even half way done lolol. Coda will be going home for a month, the heat and miles are to much for her right now, and the heat is only going to get worse. We will be in Harpers Ferry , WV on wed. It feels good especially because the vision of me hiking the AT started when I visited Harpers Ferry last fall, and couldn't seem to get the thought out of my head. So I'm excited to actually walk through there this time with a pack on my back and the full beard I have earned as an AT thru hiker class of 2012.

Last week we aqua blazed through 50 miles of the Shenandoah's it's actually 80 trail miles if you choose to hike it, canoeing is a good way to break up the trip and give the legs a rest. It was fun we made a good choice. Hiking Virginia is 600 miles just in this state alone roughly one quarter of the entire trip. Virginia is a mental  beast, I have seen more people stray or quit due to injuries, financial strain or just sick and tired of hiking in Virginia, even some of the strongest of hikers are off the trail by now. Leif and I both feel fortunate to still be among the few still on track to finish in Maine by October. I have to give most of the credit to our family and friends even friends of family and friends .for their amazing support, we are just doing the walking but they are the ones keeping us here and driving ahead on schedule. In All we people ask me how we do it, I honestly don't know, I guess I just take it 5 miles at a time and that has lead to 978 miles traveled.

The heat this summer is exhausting, 5 miles feel like 10 with the sun and humidity bearing down on you. I can drink 5 liters of water while hiking and still manage to be on the brink of dehydration by the end of the day when we are finished. We welcome rain for the first time on the trip , but I have to admit no matter how hot it gets, I would tater sweat to death than freeze to death any day because in my mind, the cold is just demoralizing.
God speed to all those hikers left we are all out here sweating together.

~Nomad


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