[at-l] WF and AT-L History Long Delete at will

[kahley@ptd.net (kahley)]

At 11:16 AM 3/22/02 -0500, Bob C. wrote:

>  But what she left out is his dedication to the trail.

I figured you and R would handle that. <g>.  And dedication is such a ....
subjective word.  I actually looked it up when I thought of using it in
the history.

'self-sacrificing devotion 'sez Miriam.  And there lies the base of
many of the flame wars I am trying to avoid here.  It hinges on his
motives and who can really know a person's motives?

>  One other small point. Kahley, I've never heard of a group doing "thruhiker
>  certification." Who might that be?


Nobody does thruhiker certification except the thruhiker.  I was uneasy about
the word so i asked Miriam.

certificate.
1 : a document containing a certified statement especially as to the truth
                      of something; specifically : a document certifying 
that one has fulfilled
                      the requirements of and may practice in a field

OK, skip the part about practicing and that's what it is.  Dan stated that
he had hiked the Trail from end to end contiguously (is that the word)
in one season and the ATC gave him a paper that said that.  I know they
took his word for it each of the seven times he submitted as they do for
who ever submits.  It's the hiker that is certifying as to the truth of his 
claim,
Not the ATC...my bad if I left that unclear

Sorry, I never paid too much attention to that whole aspect of AT hiking
to....well......not my bag,. I thought that was the deal.  What did I get 
wrong?
Anyway, someone who's been in Dan's house saw them framed on a wall
in the hall IIRC and mentioned it to me many years ago.  At the time, I
thought it was very impressive so it stuck in my mind.

So later, when Dan announced he didn't like the fact that some people
were lying when they said they hiked the whole thing  and decided to
start the Avery society (?) which would actually check out the claims
somehow so they could be verified as true Thrus and worthy of an Avery,
I thought it was really odd.........considering what he revealed about
his own claim of seven Thrus.  But I guess he felt, from personal experience
the ATC was too quick to give out the papers  and decided there should
be something more verifiable?  I got that right didn't I?   Weary, you were
still on TP then weren't you?  Please correct if I'm wrong.  I was gone by
then I think so I'm a little unclear about that whole idea, except for what
was written here.