Page 17 - SENIORS ROCK MAGAZINE

In the middle of the 100-Mile Mississippi River. He broke the medication or the two different kinds
Wilderness in Maine, far from record for underwater breath- of eye drops that Sanders needs for
help, he was bleeding internally holding in 1959 and was IUSA glaucoma.
and having heart palpitations - not spearfishing athlete of the year
surprising considering that he in 1965. But he had never done a “As older people, we have a great deal
was 50 or 60 years older than most hike lasting more than two weeks. more challenges,” he said. Injuries
of the people he had met on the For this one, which he started in take longer to heal, including the
Appalachian Trail. Georgia in January, he was on the hip he injured in a fall on Kinsman
trail for a total of seven months. Mountain in New Hampshire that
Sanders called his wife in Bartlett, took two months to stop hurting.
Tennessee, and she urged him He is, incidentally, two years older
to keep going. With a go-ahead than the Appalachian Trail, which During the hike, he wore a tracker
from his doctors, he did, and on was officially “connected” in 1937, so people at home could locate his
Thursday, Sanders, 82, officially meaning people could hike it in its position. He fell “about 100 times”
became the oldest person to hike entirety from Georgia to Maine. along the rocky, mountainous trail,
the entire 2,190-mile trail in a year. Sanders hiked it in a “flip-flop” but only the Kinsman Mountain fall
sequence, meaning he did a Georgia- was serious.
He walked much of it alone, but
for the last mile, ending at the “A few times I played the age card,
Appalachian Trail Conservancy The best comment I admit, and it worked every time. I
headquarters in Harpers Ferry, didn't hitchhike, I flagged cars down,
West Virginia, Sanders was joined from one of them and I told them my story and they
by friends, family and hikers - said, 'Get in.'”
including a pair of dogs - he had met was, 'I want to
along the trail. be like you when Sanders' personal story includes a 50-

programme administrator. He spent
At the end of it, he danced a jig. I'm your age,' ” he year career as a Parks and Recreation
farm, worked as a lifeguard and was
“I feel euphoric!” he said. “I keep said. “That kept his boyhood on a Kentucky tobacco
thinking, is someone going to come me going. a circus acrobat and cotton-candy
out of the woodwork and say, 'Uh- seller.
uh, I hiked it last year... and I was
83' - but no one has stepped up and “He always did acrobatics,” said his
said that.” sister, Elaine Bush of Nashville, one of
to-Harpers Ferry leg, followed by a several family members celebrating
“Someone said to me, 'You can't do Maine-to-Harpers Ferry leg. with him in Harpers Ferry; his wife,
it, the only way an old person's going a daughter and son-in-law, and two
to be able to hike the Appalachian A naturally gregarious person, grandchildren also came. “He was
Trail is if they've hiked it before.' Sanders had periods of depression always in the limelight, because he
That challenged me.” while alone on the trail. He was was unusual and he did unusual
helped by what he calls “trail things.”
Sanders had completed angels,” people who recognized him
other impressive feats. from seeing him on the Internet, Sanders takes 30-inch steps, so he
A couple of years who called out his trail name - “Grey figures he took 4,625,256 steps for the
ago, he paddled Beard” - and hiked alongside him hike. Along the way, he passed tens of
the length for a stretch. (Sanders' long beard is thousands of white blazes that mark
of the white, but he named himself after a the trail. When he passed the last one
Cherokee Indian chief he admires.) on Thursday, he stopped, took off his
cap, and kissed it.
“The best comment from one of
them was, 'I want to be like you A few yards later, at the conservancy
when I'm your age,' ” he said. “That headquarters, he hugged his wife and
kept me going.” accepted a glass of sparkling cider.
And with all the honesty that 82 years
The majority of his fellow hikers affords a man, he announced his next
were in their 20s. They didn't have move.
to keep track of blood pressure
“I'm done, and I'm tired,” he said. “And
I can go home.”

The Washington Post

17
senior’s rock magazine