And by captioning him as such, the ATC seems to be saying that there was 1 - one - first thru hiker, not a group of, say, Boy Scouts. - Gary from Fairfax > weathercarrot writes: > > > Gene Espy, who for a long time was considered the second northbound > > And, given my conversation with him two weeks ago, considers himself to be > the second thruhiker. > > POG