[at-l] New AT speed record... today?!

[carol1944 at brmemc.net (Carol Donaldson)]

Speed hiking the AT is like Hiking Your Own Hike: it's no one's business but
your own.
I favor NOT doing very much to publicize nor give awards of any kind for any
particular kind of hike.
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Bill, that was kind of my point in a round about pointless way.

WHY is it so important for the rest of us to know?  Why brag unless you're asking for someone to do what you're doing or what you did 'better' or 'faster' or 'cleaner' or 'lighter' or . . . .????

Is a speed record more important than a three year old's first 'backpacking' adventure an entire half-mile on the trail to a campsite?

Yeah, well, ANYONE can speed hike (if they train, etc), but not anyone can be three years old again and go 'backpacking' with Daddy and Grandpa for the first time.

I'd give the trophy to the three year old.  Or at least a patch that makes him an 'official' backpacker.

I like to hear that Thru Hikers completed the Trail.  I don't do the math to find out how many days (altho' some of them put it in their Journals) or what their average hiking mileage was or how many town stays they had or zero-days.  It is an accomplishment that 'just about anybody' can accomplish.   They accomplish it and join the ranks of the "2000 milers" -- Section Hikers finish and they're part of that "club" with equal bragging rights:  "I DID IT!"

>>>>>>>>>>>> As you all know, I think Lynne Whelden's Video "Backpacking Lightweight Secrets Revealed" (which has film of Annie and the Salesman for those of you who are still secretly mourning our loss as a Trail family of that fine couple).  What's interesting about the people he interviews is that I'd only heard about a few of them and I never would have known any of them were "light" hikers, if I had known them all.  They didn't go bragging about it.  They went hiking.  And then they taught us what they'd learned via Lynne's video.  And YES, I like to BRAG, but I've got to go cut the end off my toothbrush, cut the excess paper off my maps, remove that useless daisychain from my pack and find a lighter pair of hiking shoes.

I'm kidding about the toothbrush, maps, daisychain and hiking shoes.  I'm a serious braggart, though.
Coosa  (In about a thousand days I'll be retired and on the AT.)