Day 33: Mile 473.7 to mile 486.4

8.23.21 -

12.7 miles +1,200 -3,100 ft

Segments: 28

I woke up this morning feeling nothing but excitement. Excited to finish this thru-hike, excited to see my parents and pups at the finish line, excited to celebrate with the friends I made along the way, and excited to eat some real food!

I was the third person to leave camp, a few minutes after Matt and Deep Thoughts, but didn’t end up seeing them all morning. I actually didn’t really see anyone in the morning, until I was a lot closer to the trailhead and the day hikers appeared. I pretty much flew down the trail, only stopping at the small stream about a mile from camp to fill up for the rest of the day. There weren’t many views, just a lot of trees, but it was a very pleasant hike. And the sunrise was a really nice final good-bye to the trail.

I tried to think about the past month and all that has transpired, but I couldn’t really pull it all together. For starters, it didn’t really feel that long, but it also felt very long. I was grappling a little bit with the fact that the trail was finally starting to get more enjoyable and easier to hike and its all coming to an end.

And by the time I finished thinking about that, and saw more and more day hikers, I finally hit the trailhead and found Splash, Bee, Deep Thoughts, Chaney, and Bullwinkle all there, about to go to town. We all celebrated quickly, and I saw my parents drive into the parking lot - talk about good timing! I was so excited to see them and my two dogs! My puppy, Jade, barked at me when she saw me - she didn’t recognize me at first! I hugged my parents, we took photos, and then it was off to town to do laundry, take a shower, and eat some food. We also took the dogs to a beautiful dog park on the river, which the dogs loved. And then we all got dinner together with hiker friends in town - Squid, Stretch, Berry, Splash, Bee, Deep Thoughts, and Butterfly. It was such a nice way to end the journey.