Finish Date: October 19,2015

I can't believe it!! He's finished. It's over.

This amazing adventure that we spent a year planning and anticipating is over. This adventure that has made him into a man and taught me so much more of what it means to surrender my all to Jesus...It's over. 

My son is changed. He's changed in ways he isn't aware yet, in ways I'm not aware either. These discoveries will come with time. As he allows the Holy Spirit to bring to mind experiences and stories, he will slowly but assuredly figure out this new person he has become or will become or maybe a little of both. He has definitely already changed in so many ways, and there's no doubt he will continue to. He will draw on this experience for the rest of his life--this experience that as a young man of only 18 has shaped him in innumerable ways. 

He left out of here a hot headed teenager who couldn't wait for freedom. He wanted space. He couldn't wait to be alone--away from this chaotic family with 5 little siblings. He couldn't wait to show us that he could make it on his own. Sure, he loved us, but he didn't need us. He had this. 

Oh how all of that changed and changed quickly. I won't share too much on here because it's not my story to tell. I have really encouraged him to write a book. He really is an excellent writer, and I think the story needs to be told from the perspective of an 18 year old thru hiker. Maybe he could walk it again in 10 or 20 years and contrast the two. Who knows. But I do know that when I mentioned him writing a book before he left it was met with a big eye roll and basically, "Um, I don't think so, Mom." Now it's met with a shrug and "maybe." So we'll see. Breck told him he should write a book called, "A Walk in the WHOLE woods" since Bill Bryson only walked 800 miles of it then authored the most successful book ever written about the trail. I thought that was pretty clever!! 

To tell you now about his last couple of weeks...Many of you saw that I met him in Hot Springs for dinner about two weeks ago. He quickly left Hot Springs and got to Gatlinburg (Newfound Gap) in 2 1/2 days. He climbed Mt. Guyot, which is the 2nd highest point on the AT, walking uphill for 18 miles, to get into the Smokies. He was excited to be coming home. Even though he's only lived here four years, he's come to love these mountains. He shared some truths with me that day that God had been speaking to him. He told me that for him, this trail was discipleship and that God lived there. He said, "Everything about [the trail] is the gospel." He got to Newfound Gap 2-3 hours earlier than expected so he hitched a ride into town with a butcher who was out hiking. They ate lunch together while I had to get my other kids to their regularly scheduled activities before I could come get him!! 

Driving out to get him, I've never seen the Smokies so beautiful. The air was crisp and clear. There were no clouds, and the mountains had definition to them that I had never noticed or maybe it was just the way the sun shone that day. I could hardly keep my eyes on the road for wanting to look at them!! 

We picked him up in Gatlinburg and brought him home where he stayed for longer than expected. His trail friends had been doing very short days. They had waited on a package in Hot Springs and then decided they had nowhere to go or be so they didn't really want to be done. I think they don't want to have to be grown ups. They are in their 20's, some with college degrees, and they don't have a plan. So for as long as they can stay on the trail, they don't need one.

Anyway, after sitting at home for three whole days, Jon took Trand back on Sunday morning. I think he expected that they would surely catch up. But there's really no cell service in the Smokies so he hadn't been able to be in touch with them. After he'd been back on the trail for a little while, he found out they were still behind him. He tried to wait and slow down, but he was alone and freezing at night. As you know, he doesn't do well alone. So with only 150 miles left, he once again found himself wanting to quit. How many times over the last five months have I been the voice that says, "Don't quit!" "I have faith in you!" "I know you can do it!"?? So once again, I put on my encouragement hat, and I encouraged. I never doubted that he would do this, but he did. I never once faltered in my belief in him. If anyone was cut out to do this, it was him. 

He finally got fed up with waiting. The nights got TOO cold. He got TOO lonely, and he just walked. Over the last 100 miles, he slept for maybe 6 hours total. It was too cold to sleep so he walked. He walked slowly because he couldn't make himself walk any faster. He was frozen. The one night in Hiawasee, GA that I sent out a plea, he told me he was warm and safe and not to worry. He told me he made a new friend. HE SLEPT IN A FAIR BATHROOM ON THE FLOOR!!!! Well, he says he didn't really sleep. He was warm, but he couldn't sleep. Then a security guard kicked him out at midnight. He was back on the trail walking by 1 am. Can I just tell you how many times I've grossed out about that over the last 24 hours??? 

So Sunday he texted and said, "My plans didn't work out last night. I'll be at Springer earlier than I thought on Monday." Sunday night he walked. He said he did try to set up his tent and sleep during the day, but he couldn't. Something wouldn't let him stop until he was at Springer. 

We got to Springer Mtn. and hiked up as a family--arriving at the summit at 1:45, 15 minutes before his scheduled arrival. We took pictures and climbed trees. It wasn't nearly the dramatic ending that Mt. Katahdin would have been!! There was a tiny view on one side, and it was very much just your everyday ordinary little mountain. There were a few other people at the top with us. I kept looking for him. Then right on schedule, he came walking up the path. I yelled, "There he is!!" as all the little ones gathered around. He didn't throw his hands in the air or yell or shout. He didn't act like he'd conquered the world. He walked over to the Springer Mtn. plaque, looked at it, sat down, and cried. He cried and cried. It was very emotional for me to watch him. He took it all in for awhile, then Jon showed him the log book to sign. He sat and read the stories and names of those before him that he's known this year, ones he'd heard about, and even a couple who quit but still came to summit and put their names in as SOBO failures! :) That made us all laugh. Here he is reading the log book and enjoying coke he asked us to bring!

We all cried as he cried and waited as he wrote an entire page in the log book himself. We loved reading what he wrote to his trail friends who would soon finish. 

"We hiked this damn trail. We can conquer the world!"

I know he can...and he will. 

Now we start praying for the next part of his plan. It's scarier (to mom anyway) and more adventurous than the last. The next 10 months are rather mundane, a stepping stone that he needs to get to his next phase. I'm rather glad for some mundane. He plans to move to Naples after Thanksgiving and work for Jon's parents and brother. He's a hard worker and will be a huge asset to them this year. He's planning on getting his scuba certification and taking a physics class at a community college there. In September of 2016 he plans to attend Holland College in Prince Edward Island, Canada to get his commercial diving certification and learn underwater welding. Some of you may know that he interned with a welder here in town last year. It was a great experience, and being an underwater welder has been his dream since he was 14. It's exciting and dangerous and will fulfill his adrenaline quota. It will also test this mama's claims that "I'm not a worrier!" His plan after that I think is to travel the world--wherever an underwater welding job may take him (because they can take you everywhere!)--for a couple of years anyway. I know he desires to have a wife and kids and settle down with a "normal" family someday. So he doesn't want the dangerous life forever. But for now? It's a part of who he is, and he's been showing me that from a very early age. God has prepared me for 18 years to be ready for what this kid will do. He's strong, he's determined, and he's a world changer. 

Here are a couple of pictures that I have that I wasn't allowed to share until after he was done. ;) 

Ace and his trail family at an epic AT spot. 

From when we went to visit him in PA. 

A couple of pictures from Trand this morning

A view from this morning coming into the GSMNP. 10/06/15

A view from yesterday 10/05/15

He's almost done....

I can't believe it....and neither can he.

This whole crazy idea that he talked about, saved money for, researched, and planned for about a year finally started on May 27th. He set out to summit Mt. Katahdin near Millinocket, ME with his dad, Jon, and one of his dad's best friends, Troy (who happens to represent the "Tr" part in his name.) It was a long, arduous day as they got a late start, he didn't have a stove because TSA confiscated his fuel, and they couldn't find anywhere to buy it!! Finally, they were off to climb what Jon said was the hardest climb of his life. They got completely drenched by pouring rain the last two miles down resulting in the fact that we now have no pictures of his start of the Appalachian Trail at the top of Mt. Katahdin! (I'm still not over that!) Jon and Troy left my 18 year old son soaking wet, sore and miserable at a lean-to shelter at the bottom of the mountain, alone and freezing.

The next day I got a (completely unexpected) call from him. He was miserable and questioning his sanity in doing this, thinking this was quite possibly the biggest mistake of his life. He had walked about nine miles and was on the border of Baxter State Park in Maine--heading into the Hundred Mile Wilderness where he wouldn't have any contact with us for 10-14 days. At the ranger's station, there were pop tarts. He had taken all sorts of food to cook and keep him alive and healthy on the trail. But he was going into the Hundred Mile Wilderness with no stove so most of the food he had was useless. Food was needed, and there were only pop tarts. He started the Hundred Mile Wilderness with a VERY heavy backpack (he did dump an extra pair of clothes and camel back on the side of the trail), 5 boxes of pop tarts and 12 granola bars. He was the 3rd Southbounder to start this season so there weren't many people around to help or with whom to talk. Baxter State Park isn't even officially open until June 1 so you can imagine. Yes, he knew this beforehand. No, there was still no changing his mind.

Day 3 he set out to start the Hundred Mile Wilderness as a very lonely, (still) wet, cold and scared kid without much food. This Mama was a praying fool and had so many joining as well!!

Many of you know the story of his being "saved" by angels with skin on--who quickly became his first friends on the trail and led him to probably his biggest influence that he's had on this whole endeavor. Poet. "Poet" and his wife own Shaw's. It's a hiker hostel in Monson, ME. There he was ready to actually listen and learn. Poet took everything out of his pack that he didn't need, outfitted him with a new stove, and other essentials. He had come out of the Hundred Mile Wilderness feeling like he was almost dead (had eaten two pop tarts a day for 5 days) and delirious. The "angels" had led him to a road where they got a ride to Monson. Here he spent two days letting his feet and boots dry, eating substantial amounts of food and finding the community he had no idea he needed. These two days changed him. He then (along with his two new friends) got a ride back to where he stopped in the Hundred Mile Wilderness to finish the next 6 days. He stayed two more days at Shaw's with Poet and loved every minute of it.

Since then there have been many ups and downs. Many times he's texted me right at his breaking point. I'm sure there have been many times he's been at that breaking point when he hasn't had service, alone and hurting, when he had no one but Jesus to cry to. He's had some amazing people along the way who have opened their homes to him that have just reached out to me on Facebook or even that friends of mine have asked for me!! The Burgers in southern MA were a god send and totally providential as he was crossing the highway to their house the very day he picked up his new phone from the post office (and I had put their name and number in it--just in case.) They gave him a meal, shower, company and a bed for the night! They also have given him prayers ever since!

A friend I knew from Covenant College, Jennifer Gladwin, picked him up at Harper's Ferry and gave him a bed for two nights. She drove him around, entertained him with frisbee golf, fed him good food and lots of ice cream! She also has continued to pray for him and keep up with his journey.

Of course, on the trail Firefoot has been a constant since New York. They've picked up others along the way, and they will always be a part of Trand's memories and life.

We've been privileged to be able to visit him on the trail. Once, the kids and I drove to PA to stay two nights with him there. Breck got to hike with him, and we got to meet the Turtles, three trail friends who stayed one night with us. Jon drove to VA to take he and his friends out and then stay two nights with him there. And of course, the infamous trip I took to pick him up and bring him home for the weekend when he hurt his back so badly he couldn't go on.

Last night when I visited him over dinner in Hot Springs, NC (about an hour and 15 minutes from us) he told me stories of all sorts of people who hike the trail. I love hearing these. I love the trail names, and I love what different ones have meant to him--even the ones that he hasn't liked so much--because they are all a part of his journey.

He's a SOBO. A Southbounder. They are a different breed. They are proud to be SOBOs. They are few and far between. A SOBO starts at Katahdin and heads south with Springer Mtn., GA as his goal. They represent about 20% of AT hikers. One in four people who set out to thru hike the entire trail each year will actually finish. Many SOBOs actually give up in the Hundred Mile Wilderness. It's easy to see why. Percentage wise more SOBOs actually finish than NOBOs. In 2014, 272 people started out at Mt. Katahdin to thru hike to GA. 76 finished. In 2015 Trand was #3 starting at Katahdin May 27. Even with his very rocky start, he was #15 when he went through at Harper's Ferry.

As hard as this has been, he said last night that he can't believe it's actually going to be over. For so many months he's texted me with, "Why can't this just be over???" And now, it will soon be a reality. He will have to learn again to live "off the trail." He may hide out for a while. That's okay. He will probably have a few lunches and maybe even a few hikes with my friend, Travis, who was a SOBO 11 years ago (and happens to be my hair dresser!!) I've texted Travis quite a few times during this journey for questions and general reassurance!! I'm thankful for him!

God has used so many in his life and mine over the last 5 months. We've both been changed. In about two weeks, he will be done, barring some unforeseen life changing circumstance. He began this journey as an 18 year old kid with all sorts of crazy, unattainable goals (that were mostly shattered in his first week out) and he will finish an 18 year old man with a smarter outlook on life. Is he still a hot head? Yeah, I think so. Losing that will come with age. Is he still the most stubborn person I know? Yeah, but that's what got him down the trail. But he's done a lot of figuring out what's important in life. And that's a beautiful thing.

I'm so proud of him. I'm in awe of him. He's my hero, my "Ace."