{"id":36273,"date":"2018-01-03T13:50:05","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T18:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=36273"},"modified":"2018-01-08T16:20:42","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T21:20:42","slug":"couple-completes-appalachian-trail-odyssey-17-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2018\/couple-completes-appalachian-trail-odyssey-17-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Couple completes 17-year Appalachian Trail odyssey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Since 2001, Lois and Ernie Hess, both 1965 graduates of Eastern Mennonite University, have been chipping away at their goal of hiking all 2,189 miles of the Appalachian Trail before they each turned 75.<\/p>\n<p>With the deadline approaching, the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, couple completed 322 miles in 2017.\u00a0They covered the last 75 miles at the New Hampshire\/Vermont border this fall.<\/p>\n<p>With just two days left, they were surprised by their daughter Audrey Hess \u201994, who came from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and their son Phil Hess \u201991, from Big Sky, Montana.<\/p>\n<p>A Dec. 24 article published by Lancaster Online (timed to come out right before Ernie\u2019s 75th\u00a0birthday) shares more of the backstory.\u00a0<strong>Read more <a href=\"http:\/\/lancasteronline.com\/sports\/outdoors\/after-years-and-tribulations-lancaster-county-couple-finish-appalachiantrail-at\/article_35ec86a2-e658-11e7-b40c-834d99bb778e.html\">here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The couple first hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1965 during their honeymoon at Camp Hebron.<\/p>\n<p>Ernie\u2019s retirement from Lancaster Mennonite School, where he was a teacher, guidance counselor and administrator, meant they could take on the goal in earnest, working around Lois\u2019s vacations from her job at a senior center.<\/p>\n<p>The article shares more of their 17-year quest, including the overcoming of serious health issues and hiking accidents, as well as the joys of the trail and the sharing of the journey with their son and daughter and grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since 2001, Lois and Ernie Hess, both 1965 graduates of Eastern Mennonite University, have been chipping away at their goal of hiking all 2,189 miles of the Appalachian Trail before <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2018\/couple-completes-appalachian-trail-odyssey-17-years\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"more-link\">... read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">about Couple completes 17-year Appalachian Trail odyssey<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,17562,8845],"tags":[],"feature":[17241],"class_list":["post-36273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-digest","category-emu-at-lancaster","feature-news-feature"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - 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