Thursday, February 05, 2009

Hiking the Appalachian Trail - Old School Style


This is a tribute to a friend of mine, Gene Espy. Gene was the second person to ever thru-hike the Appalachian Trail, and was the first person to hike it from South to North. Click here for a summary of his story.

This is a photo of some of the gear that he took on his 1951 hike on the A.T. It is hard to imagine using this type of heavy gear, when you look at the ultra light weight stuff that hikers have today. He spent 123 days on the trail, which was a much wilder trail at that time than it is now. He said you could hike for several days and never see anyone on it.

Thanks for being a pioneer Gene!

Below is a video that I found on YouTube that is also a nice tribute.

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