The Big Decision

            I have reached the summits of two more mountains and made it all the way back to my home in Virginia since I last wrote.  There have also been some hard decisions that I have made since then, but we will get into that a little later.  When I did write last I was in North Carolina on my way towards its high point near Asheville. 

            My dad actually drove down and met up with me so that we could hike to the top together since neither of us had ever climbing Mount Mitchell before.  It was a good thing he did come down too because due to parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway being closed down my assault on a bike would have failed miserably.  As it worked out we had to drive an extra 40 miles around the mountain to reach the parking lot to hike up.  And those were some very steep windy roads we had to take.  Some I would say would have been pretty much impossible to ride up on my fully loaded bike.

            Eventually we did make it to the parking lot though and set off on our 12 mile trip to the top and back.  There were some spectacular views along the way and we only passed two other groups all day except for at the top.  Since you can drive almost to the very summit there were quite a few people up there checking out the sites when we made it.  Overall, a very pleasant hike and a great day for the weather.

            Next up on the agenda was Mount Rogers in my home state of Virginia.  It was only a couple days of riding to reach the Grayson Highlands State Park.  It is still considered the off-season there so the campground was closed down and didn’t have any running water and the restrooms were locked up.  Neither of those were a big concern for me since I am not overly picky about my locations for sleeping.  One thing that was nice though was that there was a little stream running of the mountain just a half mile away so I was able to fill up there and then purify everything as I went.  This was another relatively long hike being about 11 miles round trip.  So I ended up camping for two nights. 

            This is another summit I had never been to even though it was only a two-hour drive from my house.  But the Virginia highlands turned out to be another spectacular area that I got to visit.  There were a lot of great views from the very start and there were also quite a few wild ponies just hanging out next to the trail in some areas.  The summit failed to have much of a view although it’s surrounding were pretty cool.  The last half-mile was a drastic change from the rest of the hike as you entered a moss covered forest. 

            After Mount Rogers it was only a two-day ride to get back home.  At this point my body hated me since I had not taken a rest day since leaving Columbia.  But, I didn’t want to stop so close to home so I pushed on through.  I have been home for almost a week and a half at this point just relaxing, recovering, and thinking about the future. 

            The main thing I have been thinking about was whether or not to continue my journey on into the northeast section of the US.  This is a decision I have been struggling with making for some time now.  On one hand I have thoroughly enjoyed my trip from the start.  I have seen many awesome things and met a ton of great people along the way.  I was able to cut my life down to the bare essentials and do what I enjoyed doing while being able to avoid some of the stresses normal life creates.  Most importantly I was able to raise money and awareness for a very worthy charity.  The Big City Mountaineers characterized a lot of the attributes that I feel very strongly about as they helped give opportunities to youth that have helped turn some of their lives around. 

            On the other hand though there were certain things I have struggled with most of the trip.  I am usually fine being by myself and sometimes prefer it to hanging around with a crowd all the time.  However, even though I was meeting new people almost every night the days have become very lonely.  If the weather was nice and I was in a scenic area the ride would be easy.  However, when the weather turned bad or the scenery was not exciting or even if the roads were in bad shape the day would never seem to end.  When left with only your thoughts of misery to console you they can lead you to unhappy places which I’m sure most people have experienced at some point in their lives. 

            Another major factor was all the things in life I missed.  While I may have been doing something I enjoyed there was a lot more I had to give up in order to continue this one task.  One activity I missed a lot was rock climbing.  This was the first activity I found since graduating high school that worked as an outlet for both athletics and competition even though that competition was usually within myself.  This grew to become one of my favorite things to do and something I would participate in 4-5 times a week.  Another thing I missed was, knowing where I was going to sleep every night.  While on the trip it was fairly common to not have anywhere to sleep at the end of the day.  While riding I would be calling people in the town ahead of me trying to get something lined up.  Traveling is fun and the unknown can also be exciting but there is usually an end in sight where you can go back to normal and relax in the known. 

            So after debating on what to do for a long time I have decided to not continue my journey past my home in Virginia.  While I have enjoyed my journey and wouldn’t go back and change anything, it is time to move on to something else.  For everyone that has helped me along the way I want to thank you.  I couldn’t have made it this far without you.  After spending 182 days on the road I managed to travel 6,118 miles by bicycle while averaging 11.99 MPH. This required me to spend over 505 hours in the saddle.  Finally the one stat that I know everyone paid the most attention to is that I had 67 dogs come out and chase me all over the country.  Now if anyone has gotten excited about going out to do their own little cycling adventure to any high points let me know.  I’ve done a lot of work and planning for the trip and would be happy to talk with you about it and pass along any information that may help. 

We are still in the process of wrapping things up on our end with finances and will be making another donation to the Big City Mountaineers once we get it all together.  In case you might have been holding on to a donation till a certain point in the trip I would ask that you please go ahead and make that donation through our website if your still interested in doing so.  Here is a video from the charity about how a trip turned around one youths life http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ucfDRD54yo.  I know that I will still do what I can to help out this worthy cause and I hope you will to. 

Thanks again for all your support over the past 7 months,

 - Michael Hunter

A Long Awaited Update

            It has been over a month since I last wrote a blog and a lot of things have transpired since then.  I have reached two more summits and then got to spend a week and a half back in Columbia, SC while taking a break.  Not to mention some pretty exciting moments while just riding across the country. 

            From Arkansas I continued south into the state of Louisiana for my next high point.  It was pretty cool just crossing over the state line because there was a fairly substantial change in the vegetation along the side of the road that gave a very different feel to the ride.  The state was pretty nice to ride through because there was not much traffic and the roads were in good shape most of the way.  Although I did hit some roads that were in terrible shape and made for a very uncomfortable ride.  The highpoint itself required about a mile hike in to it but even at the top you could not see anything around because the high point is only 535 feet about see level.  That makes it the 3^rd shortest high point in the country. 

The Bridge crossing the Mississippi River.

            My next target was Britton Hill in Florida and to get there I would need to travel back through Mississippi and Alabama.  While crossing the Mississippi river at Vicksburg, Mississippi I had one of the scariest moment of the trip while riding.  Due to the size of the Mississippi river there are very few options for crossing it.  When I first crossed it heading west I had to take a ferry across the river.  This time I only had one option.  That was to ride my bike across a bridge that was also known as Interstate 20.  As I started across the bridge I thought it was going to be all right because there was a pretty good shoulder.  However, that soon became pretty much worthless since they had installed drainage grates all along it with there slots running in the same direction I was travelling and they were big enough to eat a tire up if you strayed into it.  This left me about a foot between these grates and the speeding traffic on my other side.  There was also another issue.  The bridge had multiple expansion joints across it.  Most of these were not an issue but there was one that seemed to have spread out almost a foot.  I didn’t notice it till the last second and I thought I was done for upon seeing it.  Some how though I was able to make it though with only a dented front rim to show for it. 

            Eventually I made it to the high point in Florida, which was only about a mile over the border from Alabama.  Britton Hill is the lowest high point in the country coming in at a whopping 345 feet above sea level.  After making it to this high point I was pretty excited because it meant I was headed back to Columbia to finish up the first leg of the trip and I was going to be able to take a couple days off and rest. 

            Another thing I was very excited about was that when I got back to Columbia we were going to have a fundraising event at the Public House, which is a local bar in Columbia.  We ended up having 99.3, a local radio station broadcast live from the event.  There was also a raffle and silent auction in order to raise money for the Big City Mountaineers.  Not to mention having a wing buffet and some drink specials with proceeds also going to the charity.  All in all we made $2025 that went directly to the charity.

My bed back in Columbia.  It got a little crowded.

            After the fundraiser I was able to hang out in Columbia for 1 more week just hanging out with some friends and completely shutting down.  Now I am back on the road and headed towards Mount Mitchell for my next high point in North Carolina.  The next time I write yall I will be back home in Virginia for another extended stay in order to try and recharge some batteries.  Until then make sure yall don’t forget to move your clocks forward on Sunday and get outside to enjoy the extra our of daylight.

-Michael Hunter