[pct-l] Scott Williamson welcomed at monument by friends and supporters

[arm chair]

Scott was welcomed at monument by friends and supporters, the local
newspaper, CBS news, 2 documentary video creators and oh yes... the New York
Times called too.



What a great crowd to see Scott return to the start of his 2006 YoYo! We all
gathered at the monument around 1pm or so and the crowd got bigger as the
2pm estimated arrival came around. We spotted Scott coming up the trail
where he was suddenly stopped as Reinhold had predicted. There was a Pirate
barricade secretly set up across the trail stating 'Trail Closed due to
monument reconstruction - Please return to point of Origin'. Well Scott
turned around and headed back up the trail! Every cheered 'Hey Scott! Here
we are.. Come On' - so he continued towards the awaiting supporters when...
he was halted at another Switchback Pirate barricade! Something about not
having actually touched the Canada monument - so he needed to return to
Canada immediately to do that. You will have to ask Scott the exact messages
- he kept the "barricades" as souvenirs.



Luckly there was still a monument standing as one of the supporters came
within inches of backing against it with a car!!!



So it was a fun wait and he came Scott up the trail to the monument. He was
wearing his trail clothes of t-shirt and running shorts. We all had on the
warmest jackets available! I had a down jacket on!



He walked up the trail with the CBS news camera along side, touched the
monument, crossed the dirt road to the steel fence and touched it. Done!!!
Cameras were clicking, video cameras were rolling and everyone cheered!!!



Scott is a great guy, he stood with everyone to take pictures and answer
lots - lots of questions, smiles all the time. His fiancee, Michelle, was so
proud of him as we all were. He finally put on some warmer clothes, had more
pictures taken and talk with everyone there. I ask about his sleeping pad
and he said 'let me show it to you', he opened his pack (8lbs) and pulled
out a very flat grey pad. He said it was once and 1/8" thick but now is
quite abit thinner! He stated it wasn't really for comfort, rather for
insulation from the ground. Wow. So we all had a great time welcoming him
home!