[at-l] What Bugs Us About Max?

[RoksnRoots@aol.com (RoksnRoots@aol.com)]

    I suspect that even some of Max Gordon's worst critics are bugged by some 
of his background and comments about his hike. There's definitely a conflict 
here where something has to be wrong one way or the other. My thoughts here 
are that Max wasn't written off as a nut immediately because he provided us 
just enough facts to make us wonder. His background raises questions of 
whether what he is saying is actually true or not. Let's look at some of the 
reasons we have trouble dismissing Max:


      1) Max was a dedicated scout and later and adult scout leader involved 
with outdoors activities. You have to question if such a recognized and 
awarded scoutmaster would be someone who would later fabricate a fantastic 
claim for dubious purposes? Would a veteran scoutmaster make something like 
this up?

    2) Max gives us just enough background information to appear like the 
last shreds of a strained memory trying to recall a real event. Being 15 when 
it happened doesn't help because he was less likely to collect adult details 
or an adult perspective.

   3) Bear Mt State Park, NY hiking could have given Max's troop a 
familiarity with the then evolving AT. For all we know, it's possible the 
previous generation of troop 257 was involved with the first miles of 1923 
Trail or those who built it?

   4) Max clearly details a veterans group being enlisted to fund and support 
the scouts. He even mentions a support truck being used to run them supplies 
at prearranged meeting points. This makes one consider that the hike had been 
so well planned that rendezvous points could be calculated. Since the hike 
was so well planned, and Max stated a predetermination to hike the entire 
Trail, you begin to wonder if this fantastic claim has enough logistical 
structure to actually be true? 
    
    5)   Though he doesn't have clear memories of Maine, he does say that 
they were driven up to the northern terminus and dropped there with the 
intention of hiking southward. His memory does contain an image of walking 
south through snowpack on the Trail (probably on the ridges), and he does 
remember walking to New Hampshire, and then to a rendezvous in Adams. This 
gives the hike some realistic structure rather than just saying he did it.

    6)  Bear Mt would be a good place to meet with Pop because of its 
geographical location in relation to their home. He supposedly has a picture 
of this.

    7) He claims a memory of the Shennandoahs (They are still heading south. 
How did they get there?).

    8) The pin given to him in North Carolina is material evidence and it has 
a memory attached. One is left to ask, "how did they get to NC if indeed they 
were trying to hike down the AT? Maybe Mr McQueen's descendants could 
elaborate?   

    9)  Old Max seems to have a confident memory of finishing on Oglethorpe. 
If they were trying to hike the entire AT and somehow ended up on Oglethorpe 
after 4 months of walking one is forced to contemplate whether or not they 
actually did it! As unbelievable as such an undocumented claim is, you are 
forced to ask yourself if there is enough credible background in Max to take 
it seriously? What bugs me about this whole weird mystery is Max's confidence 
that they walked the whole thing.

    10) Max claims to have done a 72 mile marathon hike on the AT while he 
was in his 30's. If true, he shows innate long distance ability, which aids 
us in believing his claim to have lasted the entire Trail. Is he lying about 
this too?

    11) The support veterans would be likely to encourage and aid them in 
staying the course. The memory of the vets providing them maps furthers this. 
The vets probably wouldn't map, plan, and support a section-skipping hike if 
the boys were setting out to do the entire Trail. I find it unlikely the 
veterans would help boy scouts, who by honor don't cheat or take short cuts, 
jump portions of the AT if they had planned enough of a hike to have support 
down its length for 4 months.
     Who knows what they planned or did? 

   12)  Max describes the respect and admiration he received from his 
schoolmates and peers upon returning home. They had to have done *something* 
to deserve this whether it was a supported through-hike or not. Somewhere 
those students were told that the scouts did something worthy of distinction. 
What were they told to make them treat the returning hikers as heros and who 
told them?  

    13) Max's memory starts at Maine and ends in Georgia. 


     All considered, we are left with only a few possibilities. Either he's 
lying (CHaynes said he learned about it by word of mouth); he's 
reconstructing and revising a totally different hike or hikes; time has made 
him feel safe redefining a smaller hike as an end to end; he had some kind of 
late life mental failure that would lead him to attempt such a bogus claim; 
or he's humbly telling the truth - and that bugs me...  


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