[pct-l] Squeaky update

[weathercarrot at hotmail.com (The Weathercarrot)]

Squeaky came into Blackburn Trail Center (south of Harpers Ferry) two days 
ago. I talked him into spending the night, so we had several hours to hang 
out and chat about his experiences so far. As of Blackburn, he only had 997 
miles left on his roughly 7,600 mile calendar triple crown. He hopes  to be 
done by Christmas, or in time for his December 29th plane ticket back to the 
UK.

We talked a lot about the sierras (no prior ice axe or crampon experience 
prior to his rock climbing and straight-up-the-chute ascent of Forrester), 
the cascades (including the PCT around Glacier Peak instead of the detour), 
taking none of the cut-off's on the CDT - he even did the 23 mile loop prior 
to Grand Lake. And the hardest experience so far - the incredibly deep snow 
in the saddle between the two peaks of Baldpate in Maine in October. Lost 
the trail completely and had to post hole his way down off the mountain. The 
rest of the Mahoosucs were not much better. After making good time on 
snowshoes through the Whites in NH, he actually thought in hindsight that 
snowshoes would have helped in portions of the high sierras in the 
afternoons when the snow softened.

He's now doing 40-50 mile days through Virginia so he can reach the high 
peaks of NC/TN with enough time to go slower if the weather turns bad -- 
although there's snow in the forecast for higher elevations of VA from 
Saturday night through Monday.

Given that he's doing all of these trails unsupported, one direction, and in 
less than 8 months (and he's much younger than I thought he was - 25), I 
have to say that I'm very impressed. He says it's far beyond everything he 
imagined it would be. Physically and mentally more demanding, more 
spectacular, more rewarding, etc. He says he feels great, although he found 
it hard to focus on lengthy conversation (especially since we stayed up well 
past hiker-midnight). I wish him well.

wc