A Long-Awaited Post Script

Training with ABQ friends in the Sandias (altitude training!)

Hello friends!  EKG here, blogging from Albuquerque, NM a week before my flight to New Hampshire. I will be utilizing our blog for this little post script of the Journey.

The down low: I joined the Mafia last year in August, at Franconia Notch in New Hampshire. I didn’t begin with them in June because I wanted to  finish up my volunteer year program in New Orleans.

So I hiked 1800 some odd miles in four months, finishing with the Vermont Mafia at Mt. Springer in Georgia on December 15th to all the glory, hiked-in family, photographs, friends and champagne.

. . . yet the moment was bittersweet . . .

I was not a true Thru-Hiker. I hadn’t truly finished the trail. I still had 375 miles left — the hardest part: Maine and New Hampshire. Not only are these states home to the 100 mile wilderness and the White Mountains, but you may recall that it rained for almost 40 days when the Vermont Mafia hiked these miles last Summer. The weather, to say the least, can be unpredictable (can we say Mt. Washington!!!?).

Yet true Thru-Hiker status beckons, and I don’t like to leave things unfinished.  Therefore, praying for dry(er) weather, and in the company of my plucky New Orleans community member, Mr. Dan T., I will FINISH THE TRAIL!!!

. . . and I had better do it on time, because I’ve got to get to a wedding on time in upstate New York! Else the music will be short my violin!

Wish us luck!

EKG