Blue Ridge Country

Blue Ridge Country editor-in-chief Kurt Rheinheimer and his wife Gail woke up on Valentine's Day in 2004 looking to do something a little different in recognition of the occasion.

Since then, Kurt and Gail have hiked at least once every weekend for almost five years. Of those 250 weekends, they have missed 13, virtually all due to occasional balkiness from Kurt's old-man knees or achilles. For the first two years (Valentine's Day 2004 through Valentine's Day 2006) they didn't miss a single week. They completed the 546 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Virginia in the summer of 2008, and have walked more than 2,300 miles total, mostly in Virginia but including hikes in West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Florida and Oregon.