Evan Harr's blog for the final AT hike

This expedition had hikes that were pretty hard, but it was cut short due to an injury. One of the kids had broken his ankle from tripping on the trail because his shoelaces were untied. It snowed during the hike, it got below freezing at night, and we even slid down a hill off trail to get back to the road. There were also things like climbing up to the top of a hill, and going on top of a watchtower to see an amazing view. We also had to watch out for hunters looking for bears or deer. Lastly, we got to go into the town of Asheville to eat at a restaurant and stroll around.

The hikes were hard because of how long and what type of hiking we were doing. We were ridge walking for a lot of it, and it was usually right over a steep cliff. Sometimes we even had both sides as a drop off, even with the snow. A lot of the time we would be looking for the next shelter to stay at and setup our tents at. We did get to stay in tents this time, but it was harder to carry the extra weight around. This was nice though because it kept us warm at night when it got to freezing temperatures.

Climbing to the top of a hill called Albert was a fun adventure. I was with the first group, and we climbed up to the top really fast. It was faster then we expected, and then when we got there, it was a really awesome reward to see the view, especially from the watchtower. After that, we had to go back down and it was right around the corner from one of the shelters that we stayed at. We built a nice fire that night.

The last thing we did in the woods was going off trail and sliding down the hill. We didn’t exactly know where we were going, but it was fun for the most part because it was like a ride down a hill. We didn’t exactly know where we were going, but we eventually made it to the road anyways. When we finally got there, we went and hiked up the road a little to a park where we waited for the van so we could restock on food. When we got back to base, we got to shoot bows and arrows and throw hatchets at a target. Some people got bulls eyes, and both of the targets got taken down by Preston. Apparently there is a bear on base, and he broke into and tore up one of the staff’s car!

Overall it was an intense, but shortened expedition. We hiked with a lot of elevation gain and loss. We hiked the whole way through, even with the cold snow, and finished off with someone who had a broken ankle. It was a pretty hard hiking expedition, and in the long run we made it through. We did it fairly well, and had some fun along the way. It was our last week in the woods, and it was well worth it to finish it off. Our next stop is Washington D.C.