Most backpackers seldom spend more than a week on a trail before returning to civilization. An exception to that is Walter Wehner.
The 65-year-old Tellico Plains resident sometimes spends weeks in the mountains of Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina.
“I like the freedom of being out in the woods. A lot of people, when they retire, they play golf. I go backpacking,” says Wehner, who goes by his trail name of Tipi Walter.
“I try to get out once a month. I especially like the winter.”
Wehner, who stands about 6 feet tall, regularly carries a backpack more than half his weight of 150 pounds. He got his trail name by living in a tepee 21 years on the outskirts of Boone, N.C. The closest thing he had to a modern convenience then was a wood-burning stove.