The famous Grandma Gatewood started out with shower curtain, blanket, a homemade denim drawstring bag, and hiked the entire Appalachian Trail in 1955. She did do a lot of scrounging (make that begging) along the way, but she made it and completed the trail twice more, the last time in sections. Ben Montgomery's Grandma Gatewood's Walk is a good read about this intrepid lady.

I would suggest starting out with shorter trips closer to home and, especially, not waiting until you are age 67!