Georgetown resident Mike Bogert began hiking the Appalachian Trail last month to raise funds and awareness for WaterAid—an organization that provides clean water for countries in need. “I’ve run ultra-marathons, and this is the most difficult thing I’ve ever done,” Bogert said. “But every morning you put on the pack and do it again because you have to push up the trail.” Bogert said the five-month venture is worth the trials. He has raised nearly $4,000 for the charity and worn a WaterAid shirt to promote the organization through his hike. “WaterAid addresses the most fundamental of human needs—water access, sanitation and hygiene—and has helped in excess of 5 million people in the last five years,” he said. “They’re linked with World Health Organization, and their credentials are sound.” Bogert, who recently retired from the insurance industry, said he has been preparing for the hike for nearly five years—building up for hike with a series of 16-mile treks around Lake Georgetown and area parks. “It’s not as stark uphill climbs as you have in those mountains. We’re fairly level,” Bogert said. “Some of those summits in Appalachia are pretty high. They can be real technical.” Mike Bogert is hiking the Appalachian Trail to raise money for charity Water Aid.[/caption] But difficulties arose when Bogert hiked Silers Bald in Great Smokey National Park, 194.3 miles from the trail's start in Springer Mountain, Georgia. Bogert endured a medical issue that led to a National Guard helicopter flight to a Knoxville, Tennessee, hospital. “I’m a healthy guy, but I had an episode with testicular cancer about 18 months ago,” he said. “We found out it was the good kind of cancer, so doctors luckily cleared me for the hike.” Medical scans for cancer treatment showed a large kidney stone. But Bogert said doctors could not treat it until it presented itself as a problem. Hiking dislodged the kidney stone. A trail nurse called in two medics who hiked in that evening with IV bags and anti-nausea pills. “They were all very professional,” he said. “The next morning, the National Guard dropped the cable down to the ground and zipped me right up.” The health condition forced Bogert to temporarily return home until the kidney stone passes through a stent. Doctors will then remove the stent so he can return to the woods. “Oh golly; the heartbreaking part was that I was making great progress,” he said. “You get through some of the most difficult parts of the trail early on, and it tests you. I was almost past all that when it happened.” Bogert said friends intend to link up with him, in brief rotating sessions, until he reaches Baxter Peak-Katahdin, Maine. “My daughter and her friend, our second daughter as we call her, are going to meet me outside of New York,” he said. “I made it a point to call my buddies and say don’t bail on me, to make sure they’re still with me.” But Bogert will not restart where he stopped. He said he will have to skip a 716.3-mile section between Silers Bald and Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, to hike alone after the entire trail is finished. “I plan to reconnect with my trail buddy near Harpers Ferry,” he said. “Even as we speak, he’s hiking north.” Bogert said the hike was not a Wild-like pursuit for meaning in life. But he said it gives him the chance to experience strenuous, character-building physical activity while seeking solace in the “heavenly outdoor aesthetics.” “Everyone seems to implicitly understand the beauty of nature since [naturalist] John Muir. You see all kinds of wildlife that leaves you breathless,” he said. “But everyone has their reason for their pilgrimage, and I have mine.”