Trailhead
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.... CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Most people will never hike the two-thousand-176-mile Appalachian Trail once.
.... But recently, 55-year-old Leonard Adkins started on the trail for his fifth time.
.... The Charleston, W.Va., native -- who now lives in Virginia -- was 29 when a friend convinced him they should hike the Appalachian Trial -- which runs from Georgia to Maine.
.... Two weeks before they were to leave, the friend backed out. But Adkins decided to forge ahead.
.... He says the trail defeated him and he only did about 900 miles. But when he returned home, he kept thinking about it and decided to finish the trip where he had left off several months before.
.... At that point, Adkins says he was hooked. He met his future wife Laurie 10 days into his second Appalachian Trail hike. Five years later they married.
.... Laurie will also be hiking with Adkins. This will be her fourth trip and their dog's second.
.... Adkins has hiked more than 17-thousand-miles through the United States, Canada and Europe.