Day 9 — 15 miles
Gravel Springs Hut to US522 at Chester Gap
June 10, 2002

When we awoke on the last morning of our trip, we heard Heman and Detour along with Hamsterhead all getting up to join us as we left for our last day on the trail. Jeremy and I didn't really feel like getting out of our bags this morning, but after lounging for a couple minutes, the pull of the trail was too much and we were soon busy packing up camp.

We hung out longer than usual and had a Clif Bar as all the rest got ready to begin their day. We left camp ahead of everyone, fully confident that they would catch us in no time at all. Our pace was slow all morning. The map showed that the majority of the day would be downhill, and my feet didn't like that news.

As we walked on, we noticed that as we neared the park boundary the wildlife became more skittish and sightings less frequent. It was clear that they knew where the park boundaries were, and they didn't want to be anywhere near there. We were moving slowly for the first part of the morning. Our feet ached and our muscles were sore. We were heading out and our minds were already shifting back to the real world. Our progress seemed slow and labored.

We stopped for some water and a Snickers, which gave us a boost to keep going. We left the park and took a few pictures to commemorate our achievement. After a couple more miles we came to the Tom Floyd Wayside. This was a much nicer shelter than any of the ones inside Shenandoah. It had a nice porch with a railing around it and wooden benches built into it. There was a hiker at the shelter, he didn't seem to want to share any time hanging out with Jeremy and I, so we grabbed our bags and continued on.

We descended, sometimes very steeply. On the way down we passed a group of school children who wanted to know if we were hiking to Maine. You could see the disappointment on their faces when we told them that we were not.

We did perk their spirits back up a little when we told them that not too far behind us was a group of three hikers on their way to Maine. We weren't sure how far behind us they were, but we were sure they couldn't be too far. We kept pushing on, as we descended, the temperature and humidity began to climb. Trail Magic was on our minds. Not for us, but for the others, there were three great thru-hikers behind us that whose spirits we really wanted to lift.

Earlier in the day I'd called my Dad to have him leave sodas in the car, but they'd dropped the car off. So when we reached the car we drove the couple miles into Front Royal and picked up some cold Cokes for our fellow hikers. We'd left them a note when we went for the sodas, when we returned we really expected them to be waiting, but they hadn't been through yet. We waited for about 15-20 minutes before depositing the sodas in the bushes with a note telling them where to look. I hope they found the sodas and enjoyed them.

As we left it seemed weird to be done. We had hiked 110 miles. Most people don't hike that far in a year's time, we had just done it in 9 days. When people hear about what we just finished, most will ask why, why would you hike that far, don't you know there are roads that go along the spine of the Appalachian Mountains through the same National Park you just hiked?

Looking back, I wouldn't do anything different. We did everything just the way I wanted. Jeremy and I had planned for this trip, and everything went off just as planned. Sure, there were bumps and hardships along the way, but without them the trip wouldn't have been such an amazing adventure. We made some friendships along the trail that, I'm sure, will last a lifetime!!!