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