Donna and I closed out the summer of 2026 with a Labor Day hike on the Appalachian Trail. We drove to Washington Monument State Park near Boonsboro, Maryland to start our trek at the stone tower atop South Mountain, which abuts the AT. We had visited the tower, linked to abolitionist John Brown’s ill-fated attack of the armory in nearby Harper’s Ferry, on a previous trip ( here’s a link to my blog about it ). Hiking on any part of the AT is magical. There’s a community of through-hikers who have trekked the entire 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail, either all at once or in segments. (A college buddy and I briefly considered taking it on after graduation, but nothing ever came of it.) While Donna and I are certainly not members of the AT through-hiker community, there’s a thrill even at hiking on the same path where those heartier souls have trod. Dale “Grey Beard” Sanders, at age 91, last month became the oldest hiker to traverse the entire length of the Maine-to-Georgia trail. (Yo...