I DID IT!!! I finished my spring hike almost a week ahead of schedule. Very encouraging after all the nagging joint issues I've had to deal with the last year or two. Even better than that was having it really work out right. Reversing the order helped a lot as far as taking my time with the parts I rushed through on my thru-hike ten years ago. I remembered enough to know what to look forward to and I'd forgotten enough that there were some wonderful surprises along the way. And the big finale was as good as I could have hoped for summiting the highest point in Virginia on the next to last day on the trail.
So now it's a couple of days of catching up on things before catching my flight home and then gearing up for another crazy fun summer at Fernwood.