The Appalachian Trail is the longest continuous walking trail in the world. It stretches for over 3,500 kms up the east coast of the United States. Walking the Appalachian Trail is virtually the equivalent of hiking from Sydney to Darwin. It's a long walk. Each year about 2000 wide-eyed bush walkers set out to walk the Appalachian Trail. Very few make it. Half the walkers don't even make it one third of the way. One in ten of them drop out within the first week. There have even been cases of people who have travelled half way round the world and spent a small fortune on camping equipment but then who have pulled out within three days. They turn up, it would seem, expecting a nice stroll through the woods with the sun shining, birds singing and squirrels playing. But what they get are rocks, mountain climbs, rain, hypothermia, ticks, bears and snakes. It just isn't what they expected. It all goes to prove the saying; "When the going gets tough, the tough get going!" It's when things get difficult, when things aren't as easy as you thought they might be, that you see peoples' true spirit come to the fore. That's when you see what people are really made of. It's only when the going is tough that you see a person's true colours. The going was tough for the apostle Paul when he wrote 2 Corinthians. It is therefore a letter that shows us Paul's true colours. His