What happens when you put a lawyer, an ivy grad, and a city chick on the AT?

[weary]

i was on trail around these three people near Damascus.... SO glad I got ahead of them. their journal is depressing and ridiculous.

Well, they made it despite all the naysayers. I found their end of trail comments among the best and most honest I've ever read.

Open http://appalachiantrail2010.blogspot.com/ and judge for yourself.

Weary

[kylemclellan]

Open http://appalachiantrail2010.blogspot.com/ and judge for yourself.

Weary

Interesting word choice...

[Lostone]

It is pretty easy to finish with sponsorship and a movie on the line.

Hiking on a broken toe took some guts.....

Yes, the last blog entry was nice.

[JJJ]

youll all make it. i know these things. good blog. yup. your makein it. as sure as i never will. youll all summit.

A prophet!

Congrats, folks.

[Beefstick]

Well, they made it despite all the naysayers.

Weary

If by made it you mean yellow and blue blazed, then yes, they did. Congrats. And I agree with my good online friend Roughin It. The blog was ridiculous.

[weary]

It is pretty easy to finish with sponsorship and a movie on the line.....

Well, it's easier, I'm sure. But a lot of comparatively wealthy people with no need of sponsors, may disagree. I had the funds to thru hike in 1993, but I found the trail to be both fun, and very difficult. I'm not sure "easy" is a proper adjective for any part of a thru hike.

Nor, I suspect, have many found it "easy" to gain sponsors. I suspect only one in several hundred, if that, get significant sponsor help.

These were three very bright kids, with a dream. They succeeded. We should all applaud -- regardless of their occasionally silly blog.

Weary

[rickb]

Of course you are right, Weary.

Perhaps if they billed themselves as a Dog Groomer, Letter Carrier and Cook, the reactions would have been different.

[KVKV]

I hiked behind them a lot of the way along the trail. I don't think that they yellow blazed. They did the whole thing and for a group of 3 people, it's not a bad feat. Not many people thought they'd finish but they were members of a very small group of people who actually get to the end. Well done1

[Blue Jay]

If by made it you mean yellow and blue blazed, then yes, they did. Congrats. And I agree with my good online friend Roughin It. The blog was ridiculous.

Wow, you saw that all the way from Washington.

[weary]

I hiked behind them a lot of the way along the trail. I don't think that they yellow blazed. They did the whole thing and for a group of 3 people, it's not a bad feat. Not many people thought they'd finish but they were members of a very small group of people who actually get to the end. Well done1

Many thanks for correcting the record. Not that an occasional blue blaze shortcut, or even an occasional short yellow blaze bothers me. Sometimes they are just a matter of being polite. I thought it a bit offensive, for instance, when a hostel owner drove us back to a point on the trail a half mile beyond the point we had left the night before, and one of the group demanded the hostel owner drive her five miles so she wouldn't miss that half mile.

From the beginning, I sensed the three kids would make it to Katahdin. I always thought the hostility mostly had to do with the claim of having passed the bar exam and having graduated from an Ivy League school.

People from many walks of life attempt to thru hike. But the trail is a great leveler. It seems it is best not to begin by highlighting differences from the general scruffy pose.

Weary

[Miner]

Actually, I thought the hostility was caused by the way they started off promoting themselves. They came off as pretty self centered and it stuck. Many of the problems that people had with them and some of the problems they had on their trip that they honestly talked about in their blog seemed to have been self-inflicted. However, congratulations should be given to them since they were able to finish which is more then many can say.

If they had only heeded the warnings and hiked some of our hikes instead of theirs, they would have avoided many of these issues.

[Jester2000]

It is pretty easy to finish with sponsorship and a movie on the line.

Hiking on a broken toe took some guts.....

Yes, the last blog entry was nice.

Thru-hiking and filming a watchable movie at the same time is incredibly difficult. Far more difficult than thru-hiking alone.

I can't comment on the watchability of their film (as that's in the future), but let's not pretend that what they've done up to this point is "pretty easy."

[takethisbread]

Wow, you saw that all the way from Washington.

Actually I think Beefstick thru hiked this year (that's Dr. Beefstick to you)

[Blue Jay]

Actually I think Beefstick thru hiked this year (that's Dr. Beefstick to you)

OK, I hiked south thru all of Virginia. I met the Traveling Circus near where the Blue Ridge Parkway intersects the AT for the second to last time. I was hiking the Parkway, yellow blazing as I've done Virginia now 5 times. They were hiking the trail. If there is anywhere to yellow blaze this is it and they were not. I enjoyed Monkey's selter entries the rest of the way south and they were timed exactly correct. I next met them in Great Barrington Mass. while shuttling another hiker. They came into town from the south. I offered to take them out on Rt 23 effectively eliminating about 10 miles. They laughed and told me to take them were they got off. I do not believe for a moment they yellow blaze.

Also I timed my Virginia hike to see as many Nobos as possible. I also hiked CT, Mass, and southern Vermont recently. Not once, in any state, did I see a shelter entry by a Beefstick (or Dr. Beefstick). I am NOT claiming, like Dr. Beefstick, that there is no evidence that Dr. Beefstick has never made it east of the Mississippi, let alone thru hiked. I might have missed every single entry. Keeping track of other hikers must be very tiring, he must have been too pooped to write.

[Appalachian Tater]

The odds of three people hiking the entire trail and finishing are not at all favorable so they deserve congratulations for what they accomplished regardless of any comments or impressions they may have made or reasons for hiking, etc., which are a different issue. If a thru-hike were easy, then 99% of people who attempted it would finish but that is not the case.

Congratulations to them!

[Kashmir]

beefstick definitly thru-hiked.
from what I can remember we were on Ron Haven's bus shuttle out of Franklin and I never saw him again.

I actually Loved the Circus's blog.... we stayed at the ,, I'm gonna say second shelter out of the smokies together with TP, Jack Straw and Cob.

I really liked them but then next day they when on by and I only ran into them at Newfound Gap for a brief moment.

I caught up to Lightning after the Split up, and she's a really cool girl.

I'm not sure why the animosity towards their blog... as a fellow thru-hiker I thought it was great.

[Kashmir]

I never intorduced myself to Mr. Beefstick either so he probably does not know of me. I just know from word of mouth, ,and reading his entries.

[double d]

They started in GA. and finished in ME. and I give them my congrats. I only got to hike 52 miles of the AT this summer, so I'm happy for them in that they got in 2122 more AT miles then me.

[mistiaggie]

Hi Blue Jay, you probably remember us Ridley and Panther from the trail in Virginia and seeing you in Mass when you packed wine up for Sly Jangle to Goose Pond.

Beefstick is indeed a thru-hiker and we hiked with him for a good while in NC to southern Virginia and he completed the hike a few days before we did...about two weeks ago.

I can't say for certain if the Circus blue or yellow blazed, I know they slacked a lot of the time, but as for the other...well, that was their hike.

They are nice people despite how they hiked or how they live their life. Just people, out hiking, just like every one of us out there this year. Gossip is gossip. Whatever.

[Nean]

Well, walking a road isn't yellowblazin... its blue.

I've only met a few who actually care if someone misses a few whites for blue and discredits thier hike. I consider it (elitist ego) in the same way I do with all the yellow "thru" hikers. Its a character flaw that humors me much more than it upsets.

On the trail titles don't matter-- so leading with titles has a bad smell. I'm sure that plays well to the general public, but not with hikers themselves.

I actually hung out a little longer in Pa. just to meet them, after all I heard and read.

They seemed pretty normal to me, having a good time, friendly.

I enjoyed cheering RL & Monkey on to victory in the half gallon challenge and the 6-pack challenge I shared with Lightning.

Congrats for hiking their hike and reaching thier goal.