Photographic Journey

I just finally got all my pics from the whole trail experience up on Picasa: click here. Have a look!! (300+ photos, mind you...take it in stride)

What A Long Strange Trip It's Been

Well KOA followers, whoever you may be after three and a half months, my hike has come to an end. Last Wednesday I summitted mighty Mt. Washington, highest peak in the northern half of the AT, Thursday I hitched into Gorham, NH from Pinkham Notch at the base of Mt. Washington and later that evening I decided that I had reached the end of my journey. I'm actually home in Newtown Square now thanks to a ride to the Manchester Airport from Susie's Mom, a trail angel in the truest sense, and a flight home to Phillayy.

Why in god's name would I stop the trail with just over 300mi to go? The physical act of hiking was just no longer fun for me anymore. I was tired of being so disconnected from family and friends. I realized climbing Katahdin wasn't as important as the journey itself and I had already accomplished all I needed to in my 1800+ mile hike. I realized that mom would be proud of me anyway.

The White Mountains were absolutely spectacular and some of the most difficult and dangerous hiking I've ever done. The rocks and peaks were humbling. Perhaps that had something to do with it as well. Maybe spending those four nights with Mom Dave Kev Mima & Papa made me realize how much I missed family and that end o'day shower. I have every intention of finishing those 300 miles some time in the near future and reaching Katahdin on my own terms - the feeling will be just as sweet as having thru-hiked the whole dang thing in one fell swoop. I wouldn't trade this past three and a half months on the trail for the world. It was just time to come home.

I leave you with a quote from a column regarding our relationships with the natural world in the Winter/Spring 2009 Appalachia Journal put out by the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) that I read in Mizpah Spring Hut:

"If you don't know the ground, you are probably wrong about nearly everything else," Norman Maclean wrote somewhere. Our culture hardly sets foot on wild ground anymore. Learning to know the ground requires both intellectual knowledge and experiencing life out there upon it, which turns out to be exactly the same process as reconnecting with the wilder world - an exercise we now recognize to be necessary to the health of our earth and the survival of civilization itself. Our backcountry fears are signals to us of our opportunities for reconnection; they direct us to go out there with respect, romancing the land and the life upon it, participating with it. And not expecting that land or the wild creatures to love us back. That requital will in fact come from within."

In case you just haven't gotten your fill of the AT this summer, I'd encourage you to follow Greenlite, Buckeye & Flex to the end of their journeys (their names link to their trailjournals). Greenlite & Buckeye should be finishing within 2-3 weeks and Flex by the end of August.

McKee clan - can't wait to see you all at Kristin's wedding!!!