I don't know. I fixed it for you in your first post, by copying the URL, highlighting the text, clicking the link icon, then pasting the URL into it.
I'm missing something but I don't want to hijack this post, I'll go to the help section. You can delete my posts about this after.
Yes, after looking at the list I'm sure it was the Grandma Gateway one because I remember reading about the rattlesnake bites. I may get another one to read, I really enjoyed that book and those type of books in general.
Oh man - go for it! I've read so much about the Appalachian Trail and would love to do the whole length. I'd take it very easy, 6 months if I could. It won't happen though - too far away and I doubt I get Dany to join me. We hike regularly - up to 25 kms a day (but not consecutive days). Most days we do between 8 and 12 kms.
If I didn't have back problems, I'd be doing hikes here along the coast with my daughter who does them with her friends. I did do a hike a few years ago with my sister in Colorado Springs. She heads up a hiking group every Thursday. Most are in their 50's like my sister but there's one 85 year old woman my sister was telling me about That's really fit.
We have a friend of 69 who has arthritis in her spine - I'm not sure exactly where in her spine or the extent of the disease. Anyway, she had to give up hiking but missed it so much that she started using those nordick walking sticks. She doesn't use them to power-walk but to enable her to hike again. She does have some pain but, evidently, not enough to stop her again for the moment. I can't imagine not being able to walk - it's such a soothing meditative thing once a rhythm has been found - I hope I'm still hiking at 85 like your sister's friend.
Yes, the hiking sticks do help...my sister had extra ones and I used them when in Colorado. Even if you don't have back problems they're helpful. I was more worried about feeling the altitude in Colorado but I was okay.
http://www.prevention.com/fitness/fitness-tips/conditioning-exercises-hiking It seems I am not getting this hyperlinking at all. But the above link may be of help to you Ken.
I can't seem to fully comprehend that Appalachian Trail. It's not really that alien to me because I have seen a tv documentary and although just a portion, it gave me an idea of what to expect. With that record of 46 days, that clearly means the hike would take much longer especially for an ordinary or should I say newbie hiker like me. I have been to the woods here once or twice but only for some hours of walking, brisk and not leisurely. I can keep up with the pace because we usually do the Antipolo walk when I was younger - that's a sort of hiking pilgrimage of 28 kilometers from our home to the destination. However, the route is urban, we hike on the main roads. I can relate to the hiking in the Appalachian Trail like the climbers of Mt. Everest. If you have seen the movie, a friend said that the scenes were very realistic. In fact, the leader of one hiking group was the casualty during that year (portrayed in the movie). Now this question about the hikers in the Appalachian Trail , do they really have to hike that long? But in fairness to the location, it looks like there are facilities and you can always quit when you are not capable of continuing. I like that part where there is a signal for the cellphone. At least I can post a selfie in the social media.
Here I am, coming up on another summer in which I am thinking of doing this crazy thing, which I didn't do last summer. Given that walking upstairs is sometimes painful, I am not sure why it is that I want to do this, except that every year that I don't do it, it becomes less likely that I'll ever do it. The 100 Mile Wilderness is said to be the hardest of the more than 2,000 miles of the Appalachian Trail. But then, for most people, it's the last part of the trek. Once someone starts this part of the Appalachian Trail, there are no more outs, in that giving up would mean going back the way you came or hiking through an unmarked wilderness towards the nearest road, which would probably be Route 11, known as Katahdin Avenue in Millinocket, where I live. There is, come to think of it, one possible out along the way. There is a river that has to be crossed. During the hiking season, there are often people there who will ferry hikers across the river for a price and, I am told, there is a camp on the other side of the river that cannot be driven to. Reportedly, the owner charges a tidy sum to people who rent a cabin there, to rest up, but I think that he has cellular access, and he must have a way of getting to and from the place since he also has a restaurant there. There is a bell on a rope that someone can pull to request a boat to take them across, but it's only for people who are staying at his camp, but it's been a few years since I heard about that so I'm not sure he's still even in business. Hikers I have spoken to say that they travel about ten miles a day in that part of the trail, and there are lean-tos or rustic cabins set up for hikers to spend the night in, spaced at about the distance that most people hike in a day. However, most people who hike the trail are in their 20s or 30s and in much better shape than I am, so I would figure on taking a couple of weeks. If I were to do this, it would probably set me on a better course toward healthy living, or else I'd die along the way. Either of these might be preferable to being rescued because that comes with a tab that reaches the thousands of dollars. The trick there would be keeping my wife from prematurely worrying about me, given that I have no idea how long it would take me, and there's no cellular access along most of the trip. Here are some photos that others have taken along the 100 Mile Wilderness. The first one is Knife's Edge, which is at the very end of the trip, leading to the summit of Mount Katahdin. What you see there is the trail that you walk across. There are easier alternatives, however, although longer.
I don't know anyone my age who would be interested in doing that, and the only way that I'd be able to do it would be to keep to my own pace.