When at first you do succeed, don't try try again.

Once you walk all or even most of the Appalachian Trail (AT) you get the AT virus. This means that each year you forget age, money, health, strength and reason and begin planning your next hike on the AT. The virus is a tough one to cure!!
Dan (my hiking partner in past years on the AT) and I began to plan a hike this past winter. Needless to say, as I was just getting over a hip operation and was somewhat over puberty , I should have been a little unsure of the wisdom of backpacking. It was then that the virus kicked in. We started a search of some section of the AT that was flat. The virus had infected my memory. No part of the AT is flat. Mistake number one. Next we figured out that we could carry a light pack. Mistake number two. Next we figured that September was a good month as it was cool and did not have rain in the forecast. Mistake number three.
We planned on meeting in Damascus, a town in Virginia just over the border of Tennessee. Dan drove up from Naples Florida and I drove from Wilmington. Damascus is a famous AT trail town on the AT that hosts Trail Days every year. The whole town caters to hikers and bikers . We stayed in a hikers hostel for the night and then had an outfitter drive us to our starting place. We planned to hike several days back to Damascus and then move on to a hike in the Roan Mountain area. Remember we had planned on a trail that was fairly flat and thus fairly easy walking. From the height of the mountains around our starting place, it became visibly clear that we had misjudged the terrain. Slowly my memory of the real AT began to return and I began to get nervous.
We hiked the first day about five miles to our first Shelter (a wooden leanto to those uninitiated). I knew then that the trail was not flat and also the light packs we carried were not really light. Although my pack was only about 17 pounds (which is about a third of the weight real thru hikers carry) it felt like 50. We managed to get some food and finally to lie down. It was then I remembered how difficult it is to sleep on a wooden floor. I remembered all night!!.
The next day we started to hike again. My legs and back were in opposition to the start and had to be encouraged. After several miles and still in the midst of a losing battle of encouragement, it began to rain. And I mean a big wet rain! I was now very unhappy and not a happy camper. Neither was Dan although he is younger and had driven 900 miles to hike and was thus somewhat more motivated to endure hardship.
Well, two old legs, an old back, and a sleepless wet body finally reminded me that this was not ten years ago and that George had bitten off more than he could handle. My body called out, " Stop this shit !!"
Somehow we managed to reach ( a struggled reach at that ! ) a road and were able to catch a ride back to Damascus where I spent a day recuperating before we decided to forget the rest of this strange form of masochism and return home.
And so ends this years hike. Are we any wiser? I say "yes" for now but who knows what evil lies in the heart of the AT virus and when it may strike again!

Happy Hiking from the mad hiker.