Cumberland County Edition
April 2015
Vol. 16 No. 4
2,000 Miles of Happy Trails Cumberland County Woman the Oldest to Hike Appalachian Trail By Rebecca Hanlon
The grisly 2,185-mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail could not take down Nan Reisinger. The Cumberland County resident is not the first woman to tackle the rocky slopes, but she is the oldest. At 74, she has the strength and determination of someone decades younger. Reisinger isn’t going to spend her retirement years cooped up at home. Instead, she canoes in Florida, skies in Connecticut, and climbs the steepest trails in Maine. And she laughs at the idea that she might be getting too old. The record was held previously by a 71-year-old woman. That was all Reisinger needed to hear. “I decided to give it a try,” she said. “Listen, I can beat that. That was the reason for it. Strictly for the glory.” With her friend Carolyn Banjak, Reisinger would leave her East Penn Township home to complete the trek from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. Their goal was to finish before winter set in. She would make every last step from March to October with a 25-pound pack on her back, completely self-sufficient on what she considers one of the greatest accomplishments of her life. please see HAPPY TRAILS page 18
Avid hiker Nan Reisinger completed a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail last fall. Here, she pauses along Blue Ridge Parkway in southwestern Virginia.
Inside:
Living Your Best Retirement page 8
A World-Class Event in a World-Class City page 10