1982 to 2000

    My brother Rodney and I started hiking the Appalachian Trail in GA on April 9, 1982. He was 26 and I was 32; I was practically middle-aged compared to the other hikers, young kids just out of high school or college, or else retirees, many ex-military. We got as far as the Delaware Water Gap, more than half-way, on July 1, when we both left the trail. I had to go to a conference in Philadelphia to look for a job for the fall, and Rodney was out of money. In the full heat and humidity of summer, the soft life off-trail was too appealing to resist. I managed to get back on the trail later, hiking from Mt. Greylock in MA to Killington VT, and then the White Mountains in NH, Hanover to Pinkham Notch, before starting a job in September.

1982: Rodney and me in Harpers Ferry, happy to be out of Virginia at last

I eventually finished all the sections of the AT I had skipped by October, 2000, a week or two at a time, sometimes hiking with Rodney, his son Corey, or my son Miles. Over the years since then I've done another 1/4 of the trail, from Delaware Water Gap to Connecticut, Massachusetts into Vermont, and the White Mountains again. You never really leave the trail.

2000: finishing in Harpers Ferry, holding the 1982 photo

Now it's time to try again, at age 64, half my lifetime later: Rodney and I are starting from Harpers Ferry in late March and hiking south to GA by June; I'll be taking much of the summer off, then flipping up to Mt. Katahdin in ME in late August and hiking south in the fall.