1715 miles

Out of nowhere in the pitch black darkness last night, I heard, "Holy s**t! I didn't want to wake you guys up there, but something just ran over my face!"

I woke up completely confused, thinking Tyler or Keisha was talking in his/her sleep, but it wasn't either of their voices either. "Is there room up there?" Slowly, the fog in my mind was clearing, and it began to make sense. Von Moose had hiked into the night to try to catch us, and not wanting to wake us, had set up under the overhang of the shelter. "Of course there's room! Come on up!"

The next morning, we were all a-buzz with conversation and in high spirits because we were walking the last fifteen miles, mostly downhill, into Damascus, that famous trail town where I'm writing from right now. Gosh, the end is within reach.

Keisha said it best: "I hung the AT map up at home, and my dad said he used to have to look up when we told him where we were at, but now, he's got to get down on his knees to find us!" Yeah, yeah!

And I'm toasty in my new sleeping bag, and I sleep the sleep of angels. :-D