The dream of a lifetime ended in a dream postponed for two Bradenton sisters who planned to hike the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine by mid-September.

Blizzards, illness and painful knees cut their dream short in the first month of their journey.

With tornadoes and hail storms swirling around them, Ruth Lawler and Linda Becker set out March 15 from Springer Mountain, Ga.

On March 27, after hiking nearly 70 miles, Becker's painful knees gave out at Dick's Creek Gap near Hiawesse, Ga., after she scrambled down Powell Mountain, a harrowing steep descent dropping 1,200 feet in just more than a mile.

"When I reached the creek's edge, I said 'That's it; I'm not taking another step,'" said Becker, who turned 54 on the trail. "I was just so tired of the pain."

Determined to keep her promise to raise funds through the hike for the kids at Children's Academy of Southwest Florida, Lawler pressed on while Becker went back to Florida to get her truck. She then drove back to Georgia, to meet Lawler on her trek north.

"I became a trail angel, driving ahead and picking out a camping spot and setting up the tent," Lawler said.

Some days Lawler shared the trail with other hikers. Other times she was alone. Once she made a wrong turn and was lost for nearly four hours until she found herself on a horse trail that led to a camp site where she ran into a couple from Vero Beach who helped her find her way.

"The climbing was rugged," Lawler said. "It was up and down, all day and every day, climbing along the ridges."

Even in the early part of the trail in the Georgia mountains, the path was often steep, said Becker. "We would be climbing up and down two or more mountains a day. Sometimes the path was no more than six inches wide with a sheer drop. The only way you could stop for a drink was to find a tree you could hold onto."

On April 5, just after entering North Carolina, Lawler broke a tooth. "I thought I could make it because my gum didn't hurt but the next morning, the pain began."

With the help of her trail angel sister, Lawler found a dentist in the little town of Wesser who did a crown repair in two days.

Lawler pressed on, but then she began to cough as the temperature plummeted. By this time, her 14-year-old nephew, who was on spring break, had joined her on the trail.

But the snow kept falling, soaking right through Lawler's clothes and boots.

"I was so cold that by the time I reached the next shelter at Stacoah Gap, I was shaking all over, not just shivering but shaking," said Lawler. "It was like shell shock. We had been hiking that whole day, but had covered only seven miles in seven hours. I was going into hypothermia."

Fellow hikers helped Lawler and her nephew build a fire, but her cough worsened and her fever spiked.

On April 15, after hiking 148.5 miles through two states, Lawler, was forced to lay down her pack and call it quits for this year.

"It was darn hard work, with struggles I was not prepared for, particularly with not being well," Lawler wrote in her last trail journal entry. "I had to admit to myself, as un-American as it sounds, I hate mountains. . . . I get very winded, I am unsure of my steps, so I go extremely slow in the careful placement for each step."

In the weeks since they have returned home, the two sisters have come to terms with this temporary set-back, dealing with the uncertainty of what to do next.

"We haven't given up," said Lawler. "We are going to regroup. Lots of people do the trail in sections. It's too late this year, but we will go back another year."

Bradenton author Lenore (Bunny) Schneider, a member of the Mountain Marching Mommas is cheering her on. Schneider and five women friends took 20 years to hike the entire Appalachian Trail.

"They began the trail when their children were toddlers and ended as grandmas," Lawler said, as she opened a copy of Schneider's book, "It's Always Up" which tells the story of the Marching Mommas, a gift from the author. The inscription inside reads: "Keep your dream alive. You will hike the A.T."

Lawler intends to keep hiking this year to fulfill her goal of completing 2,175 miles to raise money for the Children's Academy. Quite a few individuals have pledged or made donations already. I want to hold up my end of the bargain."

She is planning a fall hike on the 1,400-mile Florida Scenic Trail which meanders through the Panhandle to the southern shores of Lake Okeechobee.