When I touched this white blaze it marked the completion of a long, meandering three month walk from my current home on Topsail Island, NC. The final tally: 694.43 miles from my living room to the AT at Yellow Mountain Gap on the NC-TN border. The last steps marked the fulfillment of another leg in my 'Personal Continuous Footpath' - a series of walking adventures that are taking me back to all the places I've ever lived using nothing but my two feet for transportation.
Today was a gorgeous sunny day, and I had to force myself to turn around and not just ramble on following the white blazes to infinity. I had 16 miles of peaceful back-road walking to get here, and my 65-year-old body was saying 'wait until tomorrow when you can tackle this favorite piece of the AT with fresh mind and spirit.' And so I reluctantly heeded.
So for today's agenda: getting there was all the fun. Below is a gallery of photos with captions intended to document the experience.
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Christmas Tree Hill. This area of NC is saturated with Fraser Fir Christmas tree farms. |
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The long and narrow Pittman Cemetery. Chance for a little off-road walking. |
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Flower meadow at Yellow Mountain Gap |
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I hope these children were okay |
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Old Montezuma Road - a peaceful meandering country lane |
Unfortunately today's near-perfect weather can't last. The mountain weather gods are fickle creatures. The coming days look to be more summer-like with haze and humidity at best, and thunderstorms at worst.
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Here's the map of today's route:
Connecting to the AT at Yellow Mtn Gap at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in Virginia
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