Less than a thousand miles to go! Never would have guessed the thought of 999 miles would be encouraging, but compared to the ground we've already covered, it's nice to have a 3 digit number left.
At the Appalachian Trail Headquarters in Harpers Ferry they have a three-dimensional map of the trail. If they had this at the beginning, it might give aspiring hikers a little more pause.
The AT HQ people took our photo and informed us that we are #189 & 190 of people that started at Katahdin and made it this far south in 2015.
I am shocked. Fewer than 200 other nutters have done this?!? That is a fairly selective number of crazies we are now included in. There is another batch of 1300-1500 thru-hikers who have walked from the south, but still a pretty low total though all publicity claims these trails are becoming "ever more popular." It seems there is no danger of a long distance hiker boom affecting American life in any way just yet.
With 1200+ miles in 70 hiking days behind us, I was able to convince Forrest to take a 36-hour break from the trail to go celebrate Thanksgiving with nearby family. Never again will we be able to consume as many calories as our current hiking-metabolism allows, so why waste a food holiday? Re-fortified by copious amounts of butter and time in the good company of loved-ones, we are back to conquer The Shenandoahs.
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