PDA

View Full Version : 82-year-old Conquers the AT



SavageLlama
10-27-2004, 12:41
Didn't see this article posted.. good stuff. Hope I can still thru-hike when I'm 82.. :cool:


82-year-old Caetano conquers Appalachian Trail

By Geoff Watts
Pensacola News Journal (javascript:NewWindow( 'FIISrcDetails','?from=article&ids=pnjl');void(0);)
September 14, 2004

When Father Time hands you a birthday card signifying entrance into the exclusive octogenarian club, most of us would probably celebrate the occasion with a relaxing family gathering and a chocolate cake.
When 82-year old Mike Caetano's (pronounced Katano) 81st birthday arrived, he found himself being serenaded with a "Happy Birthday" song by a small gathering of college students somewhere in the middle of the wilderness while hiking the 2,174-mile Appalachian Trail.

"Last year, I was on the Connecticut -Massachusetts border, just before the college students," Caetano said. "There were a lot of Ivy League schools -- Yale, Williams College, and so forth -- and they have hiking clubs . They go out there and have some fun.

"Well, it's my birthday, and I'm kind of lonesome. Along comes these students who have right-of-way, so I pull over, and they stop.

"I said 'no, no, you've got the right of way, keep going.' And they didn't move. They waited until everybody got there, and then I heard the magic sentence: 'Are you the 81-year-old?'

"I said 'yes,' and they sang 'Happy Birthday.'"

Such is one of many stories of strangers' kindness that the now 82-year-old Rhode Island native encountered on his just-completed two-year hiking journey through 14 states (Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine) on what is known as the Appalachian Trail.

"Everybody asks that question: 'Why are you out here?'" Caetano said. "I'm hoping it makes me a better person. The end result is the people you meet -- terrific people."

A Boy Scout leader for 30 years, Caetano inadvertently acquired his passion for hiking extremely late in life while on a Scout trip in New Mexico with two of his eight children.

"At the age of 61, when my doctor told me I was too old to hike, I went out there (New Mexico) as a 'designated driver,'" Caetano said. "I had two boys in scouting at the time that were going out there. So when I got out there, a young ranger said 'What are you going to do for 11 days?'

"I said 'I don't know - eat, sleep?' He said, 'Aw, come on.' And that started it."

For the former Pensacola Naval aviator and flight instructor, "it" eventually turned into his "retirement," culminating last Tuesday on the summit of Katahdin, Me., the designated finish line and fourth-highest peak of the Appalachian Trail -- elevation 5,267 feet.

Under the trail name "Cimarron," the name of the northeast New Mexico city where his passion for hiking was first introduced, Caetano completed the Trail in what he called "patches," beginning at the designated starting point -- Springer Mountain, Ga., -- and going back and forth between states before finishing in Maine.

"Actually, I was 'patching it up,'" Caetano said. "I had to be up in Hyde Park, N.Y., so I did Connecticut and Massachusetts. Then I went south and did New York and New Jersey in the hurricane (Frances). And then I had some of it left over in Virginia.

"Once I got it all patched up, I started in Vermont and Massachusetts and went straight up to Maine."

Caetano's friends and neighbors in the Scenic Hills subdivision, Gary and Millie Buffington (trail names "Bearbag" and "Sweetpea"), completed the marathon Trail themselves in 2000 and are astonished by their good friend's accomplishment.

"To be 82 years old and pull it off is just an unbelievable feat," Gary Buffington said. "I mean it was an unbelievable feat for me and my wife at age 55 to pull it off. To have a man 25 years older than that is just amazing."

Despite nearly a four-month separation, Caetano's wife of 49 years, Marguerite, never doubted for a moment her young-at-heart husband's resolve to complete the Trail.

"I'm very proud of him for doing that. He is a very determined person," Marguerite said. "Once in a while, I got a little nervous when I didn't hear from him. For the most part I didn't worry because we trusted in the Lord.

"He considers the woods God's country."

- - - - -

Mike Caetano, 82, recently completed a hike of the 2,174-mile Appalachian Trail. The Pensacola resident completed the arduous journey in "patches" over the course of two years.

The Solemates
10-27-2004, 12:44
Congrats! Also congrats to EZ1, 81 years old. Does anyone know if EZ1 finished his 5th hike of the AT this year? He was planning on finishing around the 1st of November or so.