Kevin's AT Thru Hike

Day 62, Tuesday, 5/17 – We all packed up and got a ride back to the trail at 10:30am. We took an Uber as hitching would have been difficult from the hotel. It’s generally easier to hitch from the trail rather than back to the trail. I hiked with Dillan and Birthday Sandwich. Broadway, Genie, and Splitzy had to run a few errands and were a couple hours behind.

I heard from Dillan yesterday that he booked a trip to summit Mt Rainier in September after the thru hike. What I didn’t know is that this was an impromptu decision. Anyway, I was hiking this morning talking about marathons. I asked the group if they thought thru hiking was good training for running a marathon. The consensus was that it couldn’t hurt. I was energized by Dillan making an impromptu decision, so I also made one. After no more than 20 minutes of deliberation, I’ve made my first commitment for my life after the thru hike. I registered for the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon on 10/2! I’ve never run a marathon before, but I figure there’s never going to be a better time than after a thru hike.

Birthday Sandwich, Dillan, and I were all hanging out at Taylor’s Mountain Overlook when a lady drove up and asked if we were hiking NOBO. When we said yes, she told us there was trail magic two miles up trail with fried chicken. So, we hiked to Harvey’s Knob Overlook (16 miles total to mile 746) and sure enough, we ran into Tree Hugger with a trail magic setup.

We hung out with Tree Hugger for a long while. We had planned to hike another 2.5 miles to the next shelter, but the view at the overlook was great, and weather is supposed to be nice tonight. So, Birthday Sandwich, Dillan, and I decided to cowboy camp at the overlook. Cowboy camping is when you sleep under the stars without setting up a shelter. It’s pretty windy, so that should keep the bugs down.

It’s a really funny spot to set up camp for the night. We’re camping at one of those overlooks that you drive up to, pull over, take a few pictures, and drive on. We are in the grass directly next to the parking lot in our sleeping bags. As the sun was setting a few people stopped at the overlook, and more drove past. We got some looks for sure.