H I S is the third book I have written on hiking the 2,160-mile Appalachian Trail from one end to the other. The first book, published in 1971, described my 1970 hike from Georgia to Maine. The second book, published in 1978, was an update of the 1971 book. This third book describes my hike at age 75 of what was intended to be another Georgia to Maine hike.
Between the 1970 hike and the one in 1990 I have done extensive hiking on the Appalachian Trail, some of these being seven to 10 day trips, many of shorter duration. And through an odd quirk of fate I found myself on numerous hiking trips to Yugoslavia and even one to eastern Siberia. Much as I enjoyed backpacking I had no burning desire to participate in another end-to-end hike of the Trail in a single year. The decision to do so was made at the 1983 general membership meeting of the Appalachian Trail Conference at New Paltz, N.Y. David Sherman of the National Park Service and Ronald Tipton of the Wilderness Society had been discussing the exciting progress being made by the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service in the acquisition of the Trail right-of-way from Georgia to Maine. At the speed with which land was being acquired they felt that within a few years the entire Trail right-of-way would have been completely acquired and the maintaining trail clubs would have had time to do the hard work of actual trail relocation and blazing. They felt that by 1990, seven years hence, those things would for the most part have been accomplished, and it would be a great time for four of us to hike this “new Appalachian Trail.” 
They had already discussed the idea with Albie Pokrob, who had already thru-hiked the entire Trail on three occasions, and had agreed to do it one more time. They asked if I would agree to be the fourth member. Actually the hike they proposed was not entirely new to me. On several occasions when visiting the National Park Service’s Appalachian Trail Project office in Harpers Ferry, the then project manager, David Richie, would inform me of the progress being made on the land acquisition work and he would conclude by saying only somewhat in jest “Ed, when this land is all acquired you’re going to have to hike the A.T. one more time and then write another book on it.” So now when a specific proposal and date was presented to me I readily consented. It would mean that I would have three younger and stronger men to assist in the project and I would welcome the companionship. So it was that on April 14, 1990, I found myself at the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail on Springer Mountain in north Georgia, surrounded by over 30 members of the Benton MacKaye Trail Association and the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club, about to set forth on my second attempt to hike the 2,142-mile Appalachian Trail. Because of job or family commitments, the other three men were forced to forego the hike. Those who have read either the first or second books I wrote will find a certain amount of repetitious material, but that is necessary as each book must be complete in itself and provide needed background material.
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(Note: Photo of Springer plaque by Waldo L. Jacquith.)
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