The trail got the best of me last week, and I stopped my hike on Thursday after completing 417 miles in 36 days. It was a combination of things, rather than any single factor, that made me decide that it was time to stop. The desision came pretty quickly once I'd started considering it, after realizing that it just wasn't fun anymore and that I'd rather be doing other things. So, I am now back in home territory and moving forward with Kristin on our next steps of acquiring our camper rig and getting out on the road to explore in a different way.

Kristin and I have not given up on the AT though. We are thinking about how we can continue with it in different ways, probably in combination with our fifth wheel home, to hike sections of the trail rather than do a complete thru-hike in one go. Now that we know what it's like to hike the trail, we're thinking we might give back to the hiker community by providing "trail magic" - though this certainly is not a fully-baked idea. We've really not had time yet to discuss our options, but we do plan to return.

I'm still settling back into "real" life, and I haven't much more to say at this time, so I'll close again with pictures. Enjoy!