Day 160. Hangin’ With Slippery Otter

Mile 2175 – Gooch Mountain Shelter To Mile 2182 – Hightower Gap

We were excited to hear a couple of days ago that one of Rocket’s friends was going to make the trip to Springer for our last day! His family has a cabin nearby and they invited us to stay there with them.

We had a short hike planned today in order to save about eight miles to Springer for tomorrow. After hiking we met up with Slippery Otter and his dad who had flown in to Atlanta in the morning. They decided to hike this last eight miles with us tomorrow which will be a lot of fun.

Torch and Ox both have family coming in tomorrow so we should have quite a group up on Springer. The plan is for Brenda and their families to all meet us at a parking area a mile from the end and then all walk up together.

Rocket and Slippery Otter

It still hasn’t sunk in – tomorrow we’ll reach the end of the trail. Rocket and I have a small section left in Virginia before we will officially be done. But, for us, Springer is the emotional end point. It is the goal we’ve been pursuing together for over five months. Afterwards, we’ll take a day or two off and then tackle our last section. The thought of doing that without Ox and Torch is extremely sad.