AT Mail List

Hi Ryan, This is Saunterer. I dropped off the AT Mail List last spring but would like to submit a guest-post. The following is an e-mail I sent to the ATC. I thought the subject might be of interest to the list members.


        To: editor@atconf.org Subject: First Thru-hikers? 
       
        I read the letter from David Donaldson in the Nov.-Dec. issue of ATN with interest. I had not read the article he mentioned in the May-June issue so I was surprised to learn that ATC was crediting 6 Boy Scouts with being the first thru-hikers 12 years before Earl Shaffer. 
       
        I also read the response from Brian B. King and have been pondering it. I am bothered by the recognition of Max Gordon's claim and ATCs willingness to list this alleged achievement. Granted that it does not diminish Earl Schaffer's achievement and influence on generations of subsequent hikers. I understand that he is still considered by ATC to be the first to complete a thru-hike of the *completed* trail but that is part of what bothers me. Surely before the AT was complete or for that matter even thought of, there were others who walked from Maine to Georgia (or the reverse) and even farther. The native American population walked everywhere. Many early settlers walked great distances. But... they weren't hiking the AT. It didn't exist. 
       
  The other part that bothers me is that when Mr. Shaffer completed his hike the ATC, by all reports, was skeptical of his achievement and required proof in the form of his journal, photos etc. Mr. King says that "...Max Gordon... never sought any recognition and whose credibility after several interviews, by two staff members and a seasoned reporter, was one reason the 1994 article was published. His name and the names of the others were later entered in the database of 2000 milers without further inquiry (emphasis mine) - as more than 5000 other save been since interrogation of applicants for "2000 miler" status ended in 1973". But Mr. Gordon wasn't claiming to have thru-hiked the AT post-1973. It seems to me, in view of his extraordinary claim, that it should have been subjected to at least the level of proof that was required of Earl Shaffer 12 years after this alleged thru-hike. 

  I can accept that ATC "lacks the resources to fact-check those (post-1973) reports". Hundreds of people now complete the trail each year. But this is just one claim by one man which, it seems to me, requires more than the post-1973 standard of evidence.

  James F. Bullard

--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/html
---
* From the AT-L |  Need help? http://www.backcountry.net/faq.html  *

==============================================================================
To:            <at-l@backcountry.net>