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First hiker to walk Appalachian Trail does a repeat
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Shaffer
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August 3, 1998
Web posted at: 12:59 p.m. EDT (1659 GMT)
PINE GROVE, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Seventy-nine year-old Earl Shaffer was already
past the halfway point Monday in his attempt to walk the full length of the
2,160-mile Appalachian Trail
. Fifty years earlier, he had become the first person to do
so.
Shaffer reached the halfway point near Pine Grove, Pennsylvania, in July and will
be heading into New York state this week.
The trail was completed in 1937, and in 1948 Shaffer became the first to hike the
entire trail in one uninterrupted trip, drawing national attention to the by-then-
neglected footpath winding through mostly public land in 14 states. Shaffer hiked
the trail a second time in 1965.
Each year, about 1,500 people attempt to duplicate Shaffer's feat but only about
one in 10 make it.
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