Hogmaw’s Renewal: The Journey

​My name is John and my trail name is «Hogmaw,» a title derived from the Pennsylvania German dish orF a stuffed and baked pork stomach. Yo I am a 65 year old retiree WHO grew in the north end of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in the 1960s and 1970s.

my friends and me at the time I played many sports, mainly American football, baseball, and basketballwith wiffleball“home run derby” and pickle thrown. The fields and courts varied, depending on local activities. I still remember many of our friends Phone numbers my brother Andy and I called to organize games.

We developed rules and solutions that allowed the games to be played. although our lack of enough players or adequate equipment. Our support in the Spectra-Kote field was an increaseterm shipping pallet supported by a piece of two by four. The batting team had to provide the catcher, older brothers were often all-time pitchers, and batters had to throw or hit immediately, since right field hits were outs for right-handers and left fielders. shooting were treated the same way for left-handed In football, three completed passes were a first down and the sweatshirts They served as corner markers for the goal and end zone lines.

a palreadyand was called by he person who was harmed, and those calls were generally respected, unless he person had a tendency call He committed fouls every time he was defeated in a play. TO allegedly valid foul driven to a “repetition”, wwith the touchdown or denied basket, and he play or download reproduced for him team that originally had the ball (no one ever asked for a repeat an incomplete pass or a miss hop shot). daboutyes kept the competence flowing, avoiding the game‘s ending on a bitter note. We all loved the games that juice, and a sustained repetition them alive, even if many of us they were not completely satisfied with this approach.

In 2025, I hiked the Appalachian Trail with my hiking partner, Central. It was a radical change, necessitated by my quarterly medical visits to Johns Hopkins for cancer treatments, and for vacation and other events.

My 2025 IN hiking The story could be subtitled «Appalachian Hospital Visits.»,« while making three stops in those facilities, one in Virginia and two in Maine. Two ambulance trips included.. I got on The small heart attack that caused in Virginia by severe dehydration married to overexertion, and the first hospital visit in Maine diagnosed a serious bruise, but not a broken leg. but my second Maine hospital stop – This in Rumford – found four facial fractures after a trip on a rock, followed by a slideof on a rock we had already completed the 100-METROwith W.old age and summit Katahdin because of our inclination for flip flops, but my The walking attempt endedapproximately 435 miles less than termination of the Way.

Despite that, I propose a “do-over.” No, I didn’t get fouled, but my game ended prematurely and I want to complete everything. nine entries. Yo need to see what I can do, given the chance. A replay consists of keeping the game going until it concludes naturally.yes. I want that opportunity.

Getting ready

I have intensified my training efforts since returning from Maine in September 2025. YoI have joined the local YMCA and lifting weights ttwo or three times a week, and Yo Visit a personal trainer once a week to work on strengthening. my core and improve my balance. I walk either wrinkle weekly, ride a bike, and enjoy a monthly payment body massage to unknot the several muscles and connective tissues resist my training efforts.

These may not be the perfect actions for a 65 year old body, but heand seem to be ration. I’m trying to ensure that in 2026, I will be able to complete he remaining 435 miles of trails That escaped me in 2025.

Completion of the AT by Central

While I return in 2026 to complete the parts of the AT I still need it, my friend Central removed the entire Appalachian Trail in 2025. I left it high and dry on September 9, 2025., after me calamity, with him heading southnear Maine – New Hampshire edge. Central decided to take a new turn, attacking the track headed north of North Adams (Massachusetts)the place where we had stopped our walk northbefore our jump to Mainesensitive to possible early closure of Mount Katahdin.

doing this move in in mid-September put Central behind almost everyone throughhikers, but he still encountered day and section hikers, and he He was able to complete the route.

I recently asked Central what the end of the IN The walk meant to him. I couldn’t write your thoughts below exactly as indicated, but he had three generals ideas that came from his IN hike termination:

1. Central felt an amazing sense of accomplishment upon completing the trail. It was not a feeling of superiority, but similar to the meaning of deep satisfaction when overcoming multiple difficulties and move forward, despite enormous challenges and thousands of miles. It sounded like happiness, relief, and satisfaction all together.

2. Interestingly, while Central I felt this sense of accomplishment.ent, the I had a companion sense of inconsistency either irrelevance. In comparison with the size of the AT and the incredible variety of terrain, elevation, climate, and flora and fauna, he felt that he was a lot smaller thanIt is enormity. rang similar to the sense a person develops when starring to evening darling full of endless starsseen only in air conditioningIear, dark night in a rural environment.

3. Lastly, youThe end of the walk has awakened central desire to undertake similar physical and mental challenges. Us plan join someone else hiking frfriends and undertake the Camino de Santiago in 2027. We have a lot of planning ahead of us and we know the approach and team will be different, but we are looking forward to the challenge and personal growth that will involve travel. ThThe desire to undertake the Camino de Santiago is emblematic of this third feeling.

my plans

​Soon I’ll be heading south to Virginia to ride the 105 miles of the AT between Troutville and VA Route 56, just north of The Priest. Yo omitted this section in 2025. Central is going to help me on this nine-day trip. Am both excited and nervous, similar to how I felt when we started south in February 2025, of Duncannon, Pennsylvania. In a way, I don’t have to prove myself, sinceI have completed 1,760 miles of the AT. but iIn a different sense, I did not complete the Trail, so I have that duty – responsibility for termination – pendant over my head.

​In May we headed to Damascus, Virginia for Trail Days. in the middle-June, Central and I will host a day of magical trails for northbound hikers through Caledonia State Park in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, which estimate as It’s a good time for the bubble to arrive in our section of Pennsylvania. And finally, in August and September, We are heading north to New England to complete Vermont, New Hampshire and 20 miles from Maine. It’s not as busy a schedule as I had. in the AT inorth 2025, but he willpower keep me focused on the path.

Let me know if you have any Magical ideas for our mid-June effort, and thank you. to read. I hope you can join me for the rest of the trip.

Hogmaw out.