Game Over: Completed My Thru

[blue blaze cafe]

Hmmmmm, think we saw you in Damascus Congratulations on your epic achievement!

[HeartWalker]

Congratulations. Something you'll have forever.

[BuckeyeBill]

You can trust your car to the man that wears the star, the big bright Texaco star. OK now that I have shown my age, congrats on your hike.

[shakey_snake]

You wore that chain the whole way it looks like.

[IndyMike]

Congrats Texaco!

[JohnnySnook]

Great hike and quick trip thru the trail while making great milage. You blog keeps the reader wanting more. Could you please tell us about the down side of the trail? I will say I really enjoyed your blog but it sounds so perfect. I can feel your pain during the last months .thru your posts at the end. I think this would be when I would be slowing down to fish this legendary section of the trail. So what about the bad times? Whether it was making a wrong turn and hiking miles in the wrong direction, Getting false info as to what lies ahead, the worst people to share a shelter with, or sitting on the side of the road for an hour, etc.
Please let us know! Once again I really like your blog but one thing that is annoying is you talking about being a 22 year old owner of a audi and also owning a jeep just for fun. Things you point out often in your blog.
My main question would be: Did you hike the trail as a trophy?

Don't get me wrong. Your hike was epic! Just seems too perfect at times.

As I could be your dad mine will be much slower and fishing will be a part of my journey. Please don't take this post in the wrong way. I'd like to contact you for advice in the future.

[SOLODARE]

+1 jonnysnook

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[Texaco]

Great hike and quick trip thru the trail while making great milage. You blog keeps the reader wanting more. Could you please tell us about the down side of the trail? I will say I really enjoyed your blog but it sounds so perfect. I can feel your pain during the last months .thru your posts at the end. I think this would be when I would be slowing down to fish this legendary section of the trail. So what about the bad times? Whether it was making a wrong turn and hiking miles in the wrong direction, Getting false info as to what lies ahead, the worst people to share a shelter with, or sitting on the side of the road for an hour, etc.
Please let us know! Once again I really like your blog but one thing that is annoying is you talking about being a 22 year old owner of a audi and also owning a jeep just for fun. Things you point out often in your blog.
My main question would be: Did you hike the trail as a trophy?

Don't get me wrong. Your hike was epic! Just seems too perfect at times.

As I could be your dad mine will be much slower and fishing will be a part of my journey. Please don't take this post in the wrong way. I'd like to contact you for advice in the future.

Your post as a whole is interesting... Thanks for writing in.

I'm not sure there's more to say about the "down side" of the trail. I almost feel like I should apologize for it sounding so perfect... It really was an amazing trip. Perhaps there were less moments of down sides as I didn't spend a lot of time hiking with groups where drama would have become prevalent. In the end I only hiked 1/2 mile the wrong way, at Clingman's dome where I really didn't pay attention to the signage. No hours of hiking in the wrong direction. I took every bit of info about what was ahead with a grain of salt... Virginia is flat... Maine is easy after the Whites... etc. You did mention people sharing shelters with - I spoke frequently towards the end about dealing with SOBOs who were unfamiliar with shelter etiquette of "packing in like sardines" - that got really annoying, especially when night hiking was regular enough in the North that I'd arrive later than people were awake.

I don't really know how to respond to you finding it annoying that I wrote about my life (i.e. my cars...) What I'll say is that I never once in the blog itself mentioned my age... it's actually something I shy away from ever mentioning, as I like to hold myself to higher standards than those of most people my age. It's written in the "bio" so that people knew how old I was. What I did was write about things that are parts of my life... wanting to have my German sports car in the Blue Ridge Parkway is something that any motorhead could appreciate... had I said it was a '99 Civic turbo would that have been better for you? I own two cars... it's not common for someone my age, but I work my ass off owning my own company and I like to reward myself with nice things. Had I written about missing (hypothetical) kids, would that have been better? I wrote candidly about things that I missed, things that are part of my life... something people frequently ask about... I happened to miss my vehicles. Not sure why you have such an issue with something that literally came up maybe a half dozen times in 114 days of writing. I'm sorry it stuck out enough for you to feel the need to mention.

I don't think "hiking as a trophy" is a fair assessment. I hiked it to have hiked it... there was a very long post written about that fact. But I enjoyed the trip along the way, never rushed through to finish sub-100 or anything like that. It was an amazing experience, and something that I enjoy being able to say I completed. The friendships I forged are ones I hope will last forever.

Maybe it was a "perfect" hike. Cold in the south as I got my legs, warm through the middle as I stretched out and flew through my miles, met a group in NY and slowed to enjoy the times, canoeing through lakes and swimming in trail magic pools, shifted gears and sped my way through Maine combating gihardia, lack of food intake, and 30+ mile days. I think it was everything anyone could want from a hike, condensed into 3 1/2 months.

Look forward to your response.

[JohnnySnook]

Texaco

I do respect your hike and hope my last post didn't sound to negative. I do agree with some off your comments and I actually started reading your blog after you finished which took days. Yes days. I feel that my comments were thing thats stuck out in my mind after reading all of your blogs and subscribing to your RRS feed. I guess our 20 year difference in age may be part of it.

I do feel the younger crowd on any forum or in life expects things to be given to them and like to point out the items they own. Maybe this was the same when I was your age also. Even though I see this in my goddaughters that are 19 and 16. I do know know when I was your age I was surfing all over central america and spending up to 3 months in a country that I barely knew the language. I've also surfed all of central america and some of south america.

On my first trip to Costa Rica my BF and I were shipped off at the age of 17 by our parents with barely a plan of where to go. We had a plane ticket and a couple days at a hotel and then a trip back to San Jose and plane ticket back. Remember this was way before iPhones and hardly any internet. Also way before the tourist boon in CR. If we could get a phone call out ever other day it was a miracle. Spent three weeks there exploring was something I will never forget. If only we could of talked our parents (they didn't believe us) into buying 10 acres of beach front property in the heart of Jaco for $10,000 we would be beyond rich and I probably wouldn't be righting this post.

These days you kids are given weather reports and trail conditions everyday via the internet. Easy ways to keep up with people you meet on the trail. Kind of like the young surfers these days. You can plan a surf trip around the forecast while we had to just stay in an area as long as possible to catch waves with no idea if the waves would come. I find that those days when the waves did show up and you scored it was extra special and you usually surfed with just your freinds. Nothing like know the wave were coming a week in advance and then flying down to surf them.

I'm not sure if this registers with the young crowd.

I little bit of my past was I did spend a month of every summer at the YMCA Camp Greenville. Look it up and send your kids there. Its a great place! You have "Pretty Place" and "Rainbow falls" for close hikes. Plus rock climbing and many adventures. I still have a 6ft rattlesnake skin that I almost stepped on but we killed and ate it. It was very different back in those days. We had much more freedom to climb up cliffs or do things that that camp would get sued for these days. Hiking for a week and river rafting for a week each summer. Those years I think about all the time. Hiking for a week to the top of Cold Mountain and spending time in the shinning rock area I'll never forget. Canoe or rafting the chattanooga, french, broad, and NOC. Surfing kept me away from the mountains. Maybe the girls also but thats another story.

I'm a big fisherman as you can probably tell from other posts. I really plan on trying to fish the trail. Just need to find more info on this subject. The only member I can seem to find that did was Wasabi in 2010.

I do feel that your comments about your Car(s) were a bit of bragging. I think it was the way you spoke about your Audi starting with your first blog when starting the trail and dropping off at a friends house. I do feel that if you have worked hard to own your own company as long as your parents didn't finance it for you you deserve it
. I'm not sure the exact audio industry your been I think its live events / concerts. I work in the film industry most working on commercials and music videos. This gives me the freedom to hike the trail in 2015 if I work enough. Its funny how those days in the mountains stay with you for the rest of your life. I do remember staying in shelters back then. Do the still have chain link fences to keep the bears out?

I guess thats it for now. Well maybe. Where you hooking up with legs? LOL.

[Wiki]

Texaco,

I followed your Blog from zero day to the Northern Terminus, commented a couple times. It was an awesome read, on top of already having the desire to hike the AT it really got me inspired to push for my goal, plus being a fellow Masshole I felt I could relate to you and your Sox cap . Hope you keep writing on your blog as I enjoy your writing.

I'm personally shooting for a 2016 NOBO attempt, thanks again.

Wiki

[Tipi Walter]

I hope you decide to keep Back Packaging---Let the Games continue.

[Andy P]

Congrats!

[Texaco]

I hope you decide to keep Back Packaging---Let the Games continue.

Yes. I will. Next adventure will be oceanic, it seems. But This game, the A.T. game in 2014, was over

Congrats!

Thank you!

[shelb]

Thanks for posting! Congratulations!