× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

GARDNERS — Many women walk the entire length of 2,182-mile Appalachian Trail in the same year.

But none have been the vintage of Nan “Drag’n Fly” Reisinger, of Camp Hill. She finished the hike from Georgia to Maine on Sunday at the age of 74, the oldest woman ever to do so.

“I wanted to finish my section hike when I was 70 years old and it didn’t happen,” the new thru-hiker said Sunday after stopping at the Appalachian Trail Museum at Pine Grove Furnace State Park. “We were on a hike at Harper’s Ferry last summer and Carolyn found out that the oldest woman was 71. She said, ‘you could to that, and you cannot wait.’ I always wanted to do that and thought, ‘I can beat that.’”

Reisinger and Carolyn “Freckles” Banjak, now 67, started to plan. Section hikers complete the trail in pieces, often over years. Thru-hikers do it in one piece in the same year.

They left Springer Mountain, Georgia, the southern terminal of the trail, on March 30 and reached Katahdin, Maine, on Oct. 4.

Injuries are among the many hazards on such an adventure and one befell Reisinger in her home state.