The end of the trail: Marines hike Appalachian Trail to show support for their friend

STORY AND PHOTOS BY EILEEN BRADY
THE DAILY NEWS OF JACKSONVILLE, N.C.

HIAWASSEE, Ga. — A scraggly beard and outgrown hair had taken over the clean-cut face his friends had known. He had lost 25 pounds in the six months he had been gone, and he looked more like a mountain man than a former Marine Corps gunnery sergeant. 
Jay Platt jumped up in celebration of the sight of the two rented vans pulling into the place where the Appalachian Trail crossed Hwy. 76. Six of his former colleagues spilled out to shake his hand and to get a better look at the inspiration for their long ride. 
Platt’s easy accent, a remnant of his native Valdosta, Ga., assured them he was the same man underneath the disguise earned from more than 2,100 miles on the Appalachian Trail, from Maine to Georgia. Platt was on the home stretch. He was due in Springer Mountain, Ga., on Saturday to finish the journey, and his former co-workers from the Staff Noncommissioned Officers Academy at Camp Geiger had come to spend three days trying to get a feel for his undertaking. 
Their nine-hour drive was the easy part.

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