Day 172. You’re Never Gonna Make It!

Mile 1358 – VA Route 56 To Mile 1336 – Humpback Rocks Trail

Several weeks ago, Rocket and I were passing some day hikers who were walking in the opposite direction when they shouted out to us: “You’re never gonna make it!” We started laughing hysterically and it gave us a huge burst of encouragement. We immediately knew that Torch, who was up ahead of us, had told them to say that when they passed us.

When hiking around our group, you’re likely to hear this a lot, along with other dire predictions like “we’re gonna die out here!” It is a way of facetiously coping with the overly negative messages that we all receive.

Sunny day

Today was our last day on the trail. After watching a dozen fellow thru hikers finish their hikes at Katahdin, and after being there at Springer when Ox and Torch completed their hikes, it was finally our turn.

When we bailed out on Thanksgiving day, we took a side trail to a parking area and then walked on the closed Blue Ridge Parkway for a few miles to reach an open road. The parkway is still closed, so today we needed to repeat those same off-trail miles to get back to where we left off. This left us with the prospect of another 25 mile day to complete the trail. We briefly considered splitting it into two days, but quickly decided that today would be the day we finish! Brenda had returned to Montreal but Ox and Torch dropped us off in the morning and we knew they would be waiting for us at the end of the day.

Shenandoah Valley

It was a beautiful, thoroughly enjoyable day of hiking. It was more emotional than I expected. At Springer we reached a symbolic goal, but today we officially completed what we set out to do five and a half months ago: hike the whole trail. The finality of it hit me today. I don’t know what we will do tomorrow when we wake up, but it won’t be following white blazes.

Enjoying the views

It was dark when we reached the road crossing where Torch and Ox were waiting. A random spot in the middle of the woods seemed an inauspicious place to end our journey, but having our friends there with us made it special. We were beginning to celebrate as we crossed the road when they shouted to us one last time: “you’re never gonna make it!”