Ten Mile River Shelter, CT to Morgan Stewart Memorial Shelter, NY – 15 Miles

I’m feeling relieved that this is my final night on the AT, which tells me I made the right decision.

To celebrate, 12 ounce picked up a 25 ounce beer to share with the other hiker at the shelter. Just because it was my last day and someone at the deli offered, I “yellow blazed” for the first time, hitching and skipping 5 miles of trail. Normally I make a point to connect footsteps, but on my last day I broke this tradition.

Between lunch and dinner I called my recruiter and secured a travel nurse contract for late September that will allow me to move back to Tahoe, which is what I’ve been wanting all along. I also took steps toward working a few weeks in Houston hospitals for Hurricane Harvey relief, which I hope will come through. I am more excited about both of these options than I am about walking in a green tunnel for the next 8 weeks.

🚐🚐🚐

I intentionally pulled up roots on my life Seattle that I didn’t love so I could walk for a while and put them down again in a more deliberate way. I got a lot of exercise, burned off that cooped-up feeling from living in the city so long, and learned to keep myself good company in solo travel.

This trip serves as a reset. At this point I’m excited to leave and go back to my life, which is exactly the change I needed. I don’t have much more to gain by continuing another 1400 miles to Georgia.