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MILLINOCKET, Maine — <\/span>More than 14 million older adults fall every year in the U.S., perhaps none so often as 91-year-old Dale Sanders.<\/p>\n By his count, Sanders fell 71 times while reclaiming his record as the oldest hiker to complete the Appalachian Trail. Seven were what he calls hard falls, including one that led to a brief hospitalization and another just 200 yards from the finish. But none were enough to permanently divert him from the 2,193-mile (3,530-kilometer) trail that runs between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine.<\/p>\n The Appalachian Trail Conservancy defines a thru-hike as completing all of the trail’s sections in any order within a year, allowing for pauses. Sanders started Sept. 6 in West Virginia, hopscotched around with some brief breaks and finished Monday atop Maine’s highest peak.<\/p>\n Sanders, whose trail name is Grey Beard, first set the Appalachian Trail record in 2017 at age 82. Four years later, his 83-year-old friend M.J. Eberhart, aka Nimblewill Nomad, took the title. But within months, Sanders announced his plan for a comeback.<\/p>\n While Sanders\u2019 first journey was easier than he expected, the latest was considerably harder. Despite six months of training near his home outside Memphis, Tennessee, he said he wasn\u2019t in the best condition when he returned to the trail.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd even today, I feel that I should probably be in better shape than I am,\u201d he said last month. \u201cBut I just have to always go back and say, \u2018But I am 91, so I’m blazing new ground hiking long distances like this.’\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s a huge difference between hiking the trail at 82 and 91, he said. \u201cBut it is possible, because I\u2019m proving that.\u201d<\/p>\n In June, Sanders was descending Killington Mountain in central Vermont when he fell forward in a boulder field, scraping his legs, arms and hands.<\/p>\n \u201cThank God nothing got broken, but I was banged up,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t rub the blood off, I just kept hiking.\u201d<\/p>\n Weeks later, his left arm went numb and he ended up at a Maine hospital. What doctors initially feared was a stroke turned out to be a pinched nerve, but though he was soon cleared to resume hiking, he considered giving up. <\/p>\n He returned home in early August to be with his wife, whose mother had just died, and she convinced him to press on.<\/p>\n Some of Sanders\u2019 best days were in Pennsylvania, where he enjoyed well-maintained trails and treats delivered by \u201ctrail angels.”<\/p>\n \u201cWhen people are taking care of you and bringing you caramel frappes on the trail, the rocks don\u2019t matter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In fact, Sanders has become something of a star among fellow hikers. Thousands more follow him on social media, which surprised Sanders and caused him to expand his mission beyond reclaiming his record.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanna get it back, but right now, that\u2019s secondary,” he said. “Right now, what\u2019s the most important thing – and it\u2019s one of the things that surprised me \u2013 is that people are motivated and given encouragement by my efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n Meredith Ewenson, who met Sanders in June while leading a hike in New Hampshire for 10 other women, said he embodied not just the idea that anything is possible, but that the journey matters most.<\/p>\n \u201cSeeing it in real life is something that I’ll definitely remember forever,” she said.<\/p>\n Ewenson said her group spotted Sanders early in the morning, but it wasn\u2019t until he blazed by them hours later that they saw the Grey Beard logo on his T-shirt and realized who he was. They caught up with him that night at an Appalachian Mountain Club hut, arriving around 4 p.m.<\/p>\n \u201cI got here at noon,\u201d he told them.<\/p>\n The next morning, she and others cheered as Sanders performed a \u201cvictory dance” before setting off again.<\/p>\n \u201cMy first thought was \u2018Wow, his mobility is insane,\u2019\u201d Ewenson said. \u201cHis face on that body just doesn\u2019t make any sense. My brain couldn\u2019t compute how he was so impossibly fit for being that age.\u201d<\/p>\n Sanders was born in Kentucky in 1935, two years before the Appalachian Trail was completed. Bullied as a child for his small size, he gained confidence in solo sports like acrobatics and swimming. He later served in the Navy and retired in 2002 after a long career in parks and recreation.<\/p>\n Sanders holds numerous other age-related records, including becoming the oldest person to paddle the entire length of the Mississippi River, an 87-day trip he started on his 87th birthday.<\/p>\n On his latest adventure, he tackled obstacles like downed trees or steep scrambles with vigor, though he started to get a bit wobbly toward the end of one 12-mile (19-kilometer) day. He laid down on the trail, said he needed a power nap and briefly fell asleep. <\/p>\n Two minutes later, he got up and kept hiking.<\/p>\n ____ Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n