Wednesday, September 24, 2008

I made it! Hooray!

How do I feel, you ask? Let's go through some summit pictures:

Exuberant!


Exhausted


Um...come-hither?

Yes, I have made it to the end of the Appalachian Trail and have officially thru-hiked it. I summited Mt. Katahdin yesterday, September 23rd: Exactly six months from my starting date! I have feelings of both extreme accomplishment and confusion as to what I've just done and why. But I think that's normal...I hope.

Right now I am in Millinocket, basking in beginning of an endless line of zero days I have before me. My body feels like it should be hiking right now, but it's going to have to get used to being lazy for a while...a long while. I need a massage.


Oh, and there was the 100 mile wilderness I hiked before Katahdin:



Here are some photos of that remote and freezing experience:


That's Katahdin off in the distance


Very beautiful terrain, but I felt as if I were back in Georgia again. Temperatures dropped below freezing most nights, and again, I was wearing everything I owned in a cinched up sleeping bag. But once I got hiking in the mornings, the cool air felt great!

It really hasn't hit me yet that I'm done. One thing I know I've accomplished is that I've conquered the fate of my trail name. For I am no longer LongShot: the courageous thru-hiker. I am now Logan: the unemployed bum. I'll probably have to do something about that.

Well, that's that. Eventually I'll make it home to Vermont through a series of buses or something. Thanks to everyone for your support and your comments. Your encouragement meant a lot to me in each town along the way, and kept me going! I'm sure I'll see many of you shortly and you can check out/gasp at my beard. That'll be fun. Till then, I'll be sleeping a lot!


And one more thing:


Watch this for reference.


17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent adventure Logan! Thanks for sharing the experience with us. - Jack

Unknown said...

Woot! You acomplished something amazing, and will have an epic story to use to pick up chicks. Go you!

Anonymous said...

Logan, Journey's end and you look to be a picture of health. An incredible accomplishment! We are truly privileged to have been in a very small way, part of this great adventure. Our door will always be open to you should you find yourself back in this neck of the woods..... JJ&Don
jenjenet@verizon.net

DRC Leary said...

congratulations! and other such comments and compliments! we hope to see you soon and conceal our own lack of accomplishment by making fun of you for being a jobless drain on society. ah life...

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Logan!!!! You did a great job! Loved the blog and all of the pictures (Dylan and Gabby loved them too). Let me know if you need anything regarding references too. We of course are hoping you will come back to MT. :) Talk to you soon. :)

EB said...

You rock! This is a fact.
Granted it was true before, but even more true now.
:) Huge congrats!

Anonymous said...

Yay! Congratulations Logan! What a great accomplishment. Thanks for all the posts too. It's been a lot of fun to read about your journey!

Dustan and Betsy said...

Longshot- what a great picture of Katahdin! And yay! Congrats on finishing. We are currently in Millinocket waiting for the hurricane to pass. It's Sunday night and we expect to summit with a HUGE herd of people on Tuesday.

It was so great hiking with you and so fun to watch you go ahead and give us little spoilers to look forward to. Let's stay in touch.

The Bulls

M+M said...

Hey Longshot...congratulations!!! It looks like you had a good summit day. I know how exciting and sad this time can be. I wish you a sane re-entry.

M&M

Anonymous said...

yeeeeeaaaah! way to go dude. and your summit photos are fantastic.

tailgate

Anonymous said...

Longshot, I'm all choked up...

I love the ending video.
It looks like you made the right decision after all. :)
Best of luck with the whole fixing the Bum situation. It's weird eh?

ChasingSquare said...

one year ago tomorrow.

I just stumbled on this, but you took some great photos.

Congrats.

Jim Wells said...

Thanks for sharing. I started in Georgia on March 31, 2008, and intended to make it all the way but had to stop in Virginia due to some family issues. I know what a great accomplishment yours has been. Good going!

I have a blog at www.peacetalking.org.

Unknown said...

Just stumbled upon and read through your blog; hoping to do a small bit of the trail next month but making it a life-goal to complete it! Great job; it was a pleasure reading about your adventure!

Anonymous said...

Hey! My name is Daniel Cartin. I am currently 17 years old (18 in May) in my senior year at Kennesaw Mountain High School in Kennesaw, GA. I am currently in the process of planning out an end of high school celebration hike starting from Springer Mountain all the way past the VA border most likely finishing the hike at the Whitetop Laurel Creek Parking Area (still unsure of final destination... our goal is just to break the VA border... any alternate final destination suggestions would be awesome!). This hike is something that me and about 5 other friends are wanting to celebrate our graduation with. Nothing better than doing it in the great outdoors! We have begun researching this and are trying to plan it out (we saw that planning is key on hikes like this). The group of guys that are going are all in top shape (all involved in varsity sports such as lacrosse, cross country, swim team... most are co-captains of teams) and we are hoping to be able to average about 17-20 miles a day. In order to get a good feel for how fast we will be able to hike, we are planning on going on a 4 day hike starting from Springer Mountain to the GA / NC border during our Spring Break to get a good feel for an average daily mileage (we would plan accordingly to our results from this trip). We are giving this trip a little under a months time to hike and are wanting to start late May and finish late June. I am trying to get out a little and talk to thru-hikers or long-distance hikers with experience on the AT in order to get some feedback on this trip in order to aid us and give advice. If you would not mind to take a little time to answer a few questions and give some of your advice on this trip and on purchasing gear that would be awesome! If you would please respond back whether or not you would be willing to share experiences and advice that would be great!

Feel free to email or call!

Thanks!
Daniel Cartin
danielcartin@gmail.com
678.373.6152

Anonymous said...

I am planning a thru hike myself and happened to stumble on you blog. Just wanted to say congratulations on a job well done. =)Also, I was just wondering what camera you used. Your pictures are great.

Anonymous said...

Its been a few years now since your thru-hike! Congratulations! I am leaving in April '13 and can't wait to begin my hike! Your blog was yet another inspiration that has excited me once again about my trip!! Thanks for sharing your experience!
SarahCBM@yahoo.com