re: Dale Sanders, 91, reclaims record as oldest hiker to complete the Appalachian Trail

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Never hiked it (for any real distance) so this may be a dumb question, but is there just a single trail that runs the entire distance? Or is there multiple trails from start to finish? Easily marked as to not get bad lost

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Yes, there is a continuous path, but it’s also broken up into sections.

A thru-hike is starting from the beginning and going in order within 12 months

A flip-flop hike, like this guy did, is you can hop around where you hike over 12 months, but you complete the entire trail

ETA: Buddy of mine did a section hike, where he broke it into sections over many many years, but has completed it(doesn’t count as official cause it didn’t happen within 12 months of starting)