Mother Earth and I hiked the last twenty miles of trail in Mass. that I had to skip when my hip stopped working. This part of trail went up over October mountain, which I found to be both perfectly suited and ironic.
It was so different now, the leaves were covering the trail and falling on us as we walked. Everything was orange and red. It was beautiful. I consider this the actual end of trail for me.
I walked from the forest, over the railroad tracks, gradually onto a dirt road, then the trail turned to sidewalk. The transition back to the world was seamless. I wasn’t left in awe on some mountain somewhere. I walked back into civilization.
I’ve been working to get back out ever since.
Appalachian Trail Thru-hike 2015 
It sounds like you had the ending you needed on your thru-hike – actually sounds better in a lot of ways than ending on Katahdin. This post also makes me miss the AT and the feeling of autumn in the northeast dearly!
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