Longest Walk Ever: Musings from inside a four-walled structure.

I finished the Appalachian trail on November 17th, 2011. Meeting me a mile from the end were my parents, who came to walk Springer mountain with me. After taking a few photos at the top I jumped into our van waiting at the bottom, and scarfed down three pies... I had made it, and just in time too - my friend Chrissy's wedding was on the 19th in Florida...a great way to celebrate the end.

I figured I should finally give the answers to the poll questions that have been on the right side of the screen for so long.

Total weight loss: 31lbs (I've already gained half of that back)
Time taken to hike the entire 2,181 miles of the AT: 4 months 10 days.

I'm back home now enjoying home-cooked meals, living in a four walled structure, and walking only when I feel like it. It took a while, but my body has finally healed to the point where I can wake up and get out of bed without first planning where I'm going to place each limb in a way which minimizes pain.

For now, I'm working at Gordon College on the moving/setup crew. I'm just beginning to face the inevitable truth that I need to start looking for employment. Before that happens, I hope to do a bit of writing - ideally, that would entail writing about specific events that took place on the trail, as opposed to attempting to scribe the whole journey in one huge text. It's nice to have an abundance of source material for once - it makes the creative aspect of story writing much easier. If nothing else, the trail has gifted me with personal interactions and dramatic elements that will continue to mold and enhance my writing. Now that I've actually had close run-ins with bears and snakes I don't have to fabricate what that encounter would look like - I've lived it. When it comes to enhancing the way you communicate, there's no workshop or class that is going to teach you quite like living out your life does.

I was often frustrated with the limited time I had to write while hiking, or the quality of work that I was putting together. Hiking with a deadline wasn't exactly the Shangri-La of writing situations that I thought it might be. If I was even able to keep my notebook dry on a given day, it was a good day. When I set off on this journey I thought "I'll write a book about this when I get back!" And I still might...but for now I need to work on cementing the memories I have in written form piece by piece before they fly away to be replaced by basketball games and whatever information comes along with a hectic job search.

You haven't heard the last of 9 Lives, a guy who went totally unprepared into a maelstrom, the most difficult challenge yet experienced in his 22 years on this earth. Stories will be written, and you can say you were there, following along as it happened. And I thank you for that...

Here's a few more goodies from the last days down south to send you on your way.