Week 19

Week 19 Thursday- Tuesday Well folks, I have officially flopped, and the beginning of the end is upon me. I was doing some counting earlier and it seems my weeks had runith over and I was technically in Week 19 when I summitted Khatadin, so I thought I'd do a short entry to align my writing schedule back up with my weeks. Week 19 ended with a very early flight from Portland, ME to Charlotte, NC. This was the closest airport to the town where I originally started my hike. My Pop drove in from Atlanta and met me at the airport. We spent a day in Charlotte, ate lots of food, and then headed for Damascus the following day. 

We ate lunch in town and I took Pop on a stroll on the part of the trail that runs on the main road through town. He got a kick out of it, and I did too. It was quite the full circle I was experiencing as I walked arm and arm with him down the same street Wes and I had walked down together what seemed like a lifetime ago. 

After a little lolligagging around town, Pop and I parted ways, and I was about to officially head South to complete the last 470M of my trek. I threw my pack on my back for the first time in 3 days. That's when I noticed something was off. It was lighter than usual. With a full resupply, this shouldn't be the case. I went to do some readjusting and then it hit me, my tent was not attached to the bottom! Ahhh! I panicked. At first I thought it had fallen off in Pop's car, but when I called him he said it wasn't there. I called the hotel we stayed at in Charlotte and they had not found any items left in our room. I started scratching my head. Where could I have left it? I didn't think I had taken it off of the pack at all. I knew it was on there when I checked the bag in the Portland airport. Then I remembered that I had taken an obligatory baggage claim selfie right after I took my bag off the carousel in the Charlotte airport. I flipped to the picture in my phone and sure enough, pack was in the background minus a yellow tent synched to the bottom. I called SouthWest and filed a claim, but of course needed another one in order to hike out of Damascus with some sort of shelter. $250 later, I had a tent similar to my original one and hit the trail. Despite the tent setback, my Southbound excursion has been glorious thus far. It has been such a throwback to my beginning days out here.

The rhododendron tunnels, the switchbacks, the meadows and farmland all remind me of Virginia hiking. I missed it. The views are not as epic as they are in the North, I will admit, but the overall vibe of the South is wonderful. I simply can't get enough of the small footbridges, and windy ridge lines through the mountain sides, which are nearly constant on this part of the trail.

I'm not mad about the pace I can keep on this terrain either. I have been able to make around 22M a day since Sunday. These are the largest consecutive days of hiking I have ever had, and I feel awesome abut it. Tomorrow, after about 5M, I will make it to the TN-NC state line. I am so excited to only have two States left, and less than 400M to go. The Roan Highlands might slow me down a touch, but they should be beautiful.