September 2, 2016
We are 52 miles from completing our goal of walking the Appalachian Trail twice! Camped just 1/2 mile from Manchester Center, we’ve positioned ourselves to get down to the road, hitch into town, pop into Food Chopper for a bite to eat, shop at Eastern Mountain Sports, pick up our last food box at the Post Office, then hitch back out to the trail with enough time to walk 10 miles.
We have a choice to make, though! When we reach Sherburne Pass and celebrate our second traverse of the AT, we have to (get to?) choose what to do next?
Here are the choices we’re seeing right now:
1) Go to Ohio for my cousin’s funeral. I found out this afternoon that my 76-year old cousin, who had been in hospice care for the past week, passed away last night. The funeral would be next week, and there would be time to finish the AT walk and get there.
2) Go on hiking. Our completion point is very close to Maine Junction, where the Appalachian Trail and the Long Trail diverge. The AT turns east and continues its route to Maine. The LT continues north for another 178 miles to the Canadian border. Although we wouldn’t have time to do all 178 miles before my next family visiting date, we could walk for about 8 days.
3) Split up and go separate ways, me to Ohio and John to the trail.
4) Something else we haven’t considered. There’s ALWAYS another choice!
We’ll sleep on it tonight in our cozy site that’s partially hidden between a couple of boulders, and see what the morning brings. In fact, we can wait until we complete our AT walk and choose then!