Following the Blue Blaze - Day 19 - Home

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Its finally over! I made it home today at 2:30pm after hiking the last 16 miles. It was really nice to be able to walk home and not have to rely on a ride or drive myself. It was strange to walk with my pack on the familiar trails near my house. Usually I am hiking without a pack, biking or trail running on those trails.

My thoughts as I was finishing the final miles was that the full hike was much harder than I thought it would be. When planning this trip, I thought I would be able to cover more miles in a day or not feel as sore or tired as I did at the end of each day. But I think that is the reality of many outdoor trips we plan.

Overall, I was away from home for 26 days. This included 19 days on the trail, four days in the BWCA and three days playing tourist in Cook County. I think if I would have attempted to do the through hike without any time off trail, it would have taken a few days longer than the 19 days it took me to finish. I think fatigue would have taken more of a toll.

I want to thank Maureen for all her help. She did a wonderful job ghost writing while I was on the trail. You can tell she has a gift for writing. She also resupplied me which allowed me to carry less weight. And the weekend we spent in Cook County was just what I needed at the time. Her help made the experience much easier and more enjoyable.

I will follow up in the next week or two with some additional details and pictures. I will type up my trip journal notes and describe my gear performance, menu, the trail and the people I met on the trail. Stay tuned for some additional posts.

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Photos

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Beaver meadow near my house

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One of the last blazes I saw

Comments

[Larry]

Great blog!
Had a good time reading the blog every day, looked forward to your days story. Thanks LK

[Ron Chicka]

Congrats
Way to go! Maybe I'll bike that length some day.

[Tom]

Glad you made it.
Hi Andy, good to see you had a successful hike. It is a bit harder than one would think. There are some rugged portions for sure, and more up and down than you would think possible in MN. Maybe we'll run into you some other time. Tom, Julie and Heidi.