[at-l] Genuineness of Contemporary Thru-hikes

[bullard@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Jim Bullard)]

At 12:58 PM 1/5/2003 -0500, Slyatpct@aol.com wrote:
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>Saunterer
>
>I'm glad you pointed this out.  If you read walking With Spring closely
>enough, there are several passages where Earl bushwacked in and out of towns,
>took old AT, not the official new relo, and perhaps even took a short yellow
>blaze near Delaware Water Gap.  I pointed this out to WF one time and he said
>he's have to ask Earl about it.  If it were true, then Gene Espy was the
>first thru-hiker.  WF's words, not mine, give me a break!  It's likely that
>Gene took some liberties and Chester and Grandma.....

Well, I'll have to reread Gene's account in "Hiking the Appalachian Trail -
Vol. 1" but I don't recall any of the early hikers obsessing over whether
they walked every bit of *THE OFFICIAL TRAIL*.  On the contrary they were a
rather freewheeling lot who were out for an adventure that happened involve
walking from GA to ME or the reverse.


>I'm also under the impression that even Myron Avery may have hiked trail
>"unofficial" sections of trail on his hike.  I'm not about to question early
>pioneers on their hikes, so why are comtemporary hikers so quick to question
>their peers today?

I've never seen an account of Avery's hikes but he either laid out or
checked (by walking through) every section of trail so I suspect he did it
all (as it existed at the time) and probably a lot of blue and yellow
blazing too since he did it in sections over several years.

I first encountered the focus on "purity" the year I was on ATML.  I'm not
saying that WF started it, mind you.  He was just the first I ran into who
seemed to think it was important.  He thought it was important to the point
of boring me with it just as some here are complaining that it's
boring.  In any case it seems to be a recent phenomenon along with the
increase in the numbers of folks attempting to thru-hike.  Perhaps now that
it is not so rare an accomplishment as it was when Earl and Gene did it,
those with a competitive nature feel the need to set themselves apart
somehow.  That's just a guess.  I don't really know why this has become
important to some people in the last decade (or two?).  What constitutes a
valid thru?  I'm reminded of Obi Wan's reply to Luke regarding his father;
"it depends on your point of view".  If, from your point of view, you
walked from GA to ME (or the reverse. Mustn't forget Felix) and you are
content with your hike and the ATC was satisfied with your word for it,
what I think doesn't matter.

>Although the ATC has a specially worded guideline for 2000-miler, it's still
>open to interpretation.  I've yet to see a official definition for
>thru-hiker, so I'll use Earl's hike as the basis, but in my opinion as long
>as your out there enjoying yourself for months at a time, that's all that
>counts.

AMEN!

Saunterer