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[at-l] Boy Scout Debate
In a message dated 6/15/2002 10:35:11 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
saunterer@jimbullard.org writes:
> I've considered that he might even have had the year wrong but how far are
> we going to make allowances for his lack any supporting evidence? Note
> that Weary has told us that the answer to how often is the AT in Maine
> mostly snow covered in June is "never".
~~~ Bear with me. The reason I'm doing this is to allow for the
possibility of one otherwise publicity-uninterested man happening to mention
a historic hike and not being believed.
But Saunterer, we have reason to believe that the winter of 1936 could
have indeed provided a serious snow pack for May. In all his attention to
details, I've noticed that Weary fails to mention that just last year there
was a serious snow pack left over from the record snow year which caused
Brian Robinson to abort his hike. Just last spring I read on this site posts
by Weary himself telling of reports of snow too deep to start a May
southbound. Rafe confirms this. I suggest if you, Weary and myself went to
the AT last May 15th or so and started a southbound, we would at minimum
encounter conditions that a 15 year old Bronx boy would easily consider
"drifted snow for the length of Maine". I have a feeling that his version of
"drifted" is actually "winter accumulated hardened base packs remaining in
sheltered pockets and on ridge lines". These ridge deposits would look like
drifts because they would be piles of snow checkered by open ground making
them look like drifted accumulations. Due to elevation they would be on all
the ridges for the "length of Maine". I believe comparison of the winter of
2001 would show some serious rain events prior to May. Obviously they didn't
melt the high ridge snow pack and could even have been snow up there...
> Weary:
> >Possibly the original goal was to do "all" the trail. The fact that they
> >didn't
> >may explain why the adventure -- planned as a promotion -- never was
> >publicized.
> >
~~~ Weary could be more right here than he realizes -but not in the way
he suspects. It's possible that honor bound Boy Scouts could have realized
that they didn't do the 3 miles that were uncompleted in 1936. Hearing of
Earl's achievement, maybe the living scouts realized that there would be no
reason to supplant a record that they couldn't have possibly earned under the
Trail's condition in 1936. Earl hiked the entire completed Trail, they did a
truck-supported scout hike that was a common approach back then.
I have a problem with Weary's low mileage estimates for the group. After
all, if some of the hike is true, maybe the "2 weeks" for Maine is true too.
This leaves the boys supported by a structured map and itinerary following
vet group team expecting them to keep a pace for resupply. If the Maine
segment was an accurate example of this pace, the 121 days gets them down the
AT and into history. If we can find a record of the time they actually took
off from school, we would have a better estimate of just how long they were
out there. At that point we have a vet support truck dropping them off at the
north end and picking them up at Oglethorpe 121 days later. Something
happened in between...
>
>
> FACT: So far there is nothing that constitutes a record of Max's alleged
> thru or even objective anecdotal evidence that supports his claim.
~~~ I'm curious where Cliff Hayne's troop picked up word of the 1936 hike?
That was 1959. Somewhere somebody was talking about it enough to pass the
word. The word they were passing, if I understood Cliff correctly, was that
these scouts had done the AT. I wonder if that was a Maine based story or if
it was circulated BSA wide? Where did they hear it?
All we > have is his story which doesn't mention Katahdin or the Kennebeck
> (the
> start of his alleged epic journey and the first major obstacle) and spotty
> memories that include some extreme weather that is unlikely to have
> happened according to weather records and the norms of weather in Maine and
>
> NH during the period of time he alleged the hike occurred.
~~~ If they started in May, they probably would have skipped snowbound
Katahdin. I'm sure they didn't ford the Kennybeck in May. It would have been
6 feet deep! Even if they skipped Katahdin, I'm interested in exactly what
they did hike? It would still be a novel hike...
>
> Yes, one can quote all kinds of unusual weather possibilities that might
> have gone unrecorded but it's twisted logic to say that one possible but
> unlikely and unrecorded event is 'evidence' in support of another
> undocumented and somewhat questionable alleged event.
>
~~~ Well let's slow down here. This is certainly better than declarations
of the hike's illegitimacy before searching every possibility. Max Gordon's
school record would be a boon to the investigation if it showed a 1936 date
for special early dismissal. Especially if it showed one for May! His class
could then be sifted for names that line up with preserved registers from
Katahdin and the Whites. It's way too early to pat old Max on the head and
give him a sympathetic "good try"...
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