[at-l] Appalachian Trail: The Quick Way

[spiriteagle99@hotmail.com (Jim and/or Ginny Owen)]

Bob Cummings <ellen@clinic.net> wrote:
>
>Let's all remember that Benton MacKaye believed that the most important 
>record would be held by the person who takes the
>longest to thru hike. I'm ashamed to say that by Benton's wise standard my 
>six months and three days
>was only very  slightly better than average.



Weary -

More times than I care to remember I've seen people use MacKaye as a club to 
denigrate one "style" or another of thruhiking, be it running the Trail or 
blue blazing or .... whatever.  And they're all wrong because they're 
inevitably trying to promote their own "style" under the assumption that 
MacKaye would have approved of their way of doing it.

But if you talk to those who actually knew MacKaye you'd find that it 
wouldn't matter how fast or slow you did the Trail - he disapproved entirely 
of the whole concept.  To him, thruhikers weren't the top of the hiking 
pyramid - they were the bottom.  Somewhere around the level of pond scum.

You also said:

>However, the main problem with section hiking is that it is too difficult 
>for most of us.

And I agree entirely with that.  I started as a section hiker - and we 
section hike between thruhikes.  They're two different worlds, two different 
experiences - and both are worthwhile.  Personally, I prefer thruhiking - 
but not everyone is willing to commit 4 to 6 months (or more) to a thruhike. 
  Thank God - if they did we'd have to do the Trail in lockstep with 
thousands of other hikers.

Walk softly,
Jim


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