[pct-l] Re: 33+ miles/day average

[kahley@ptd.net (kahley)]

At 01:43 PM 7/24/02 -0400, Brett Tucker wrote:
>One hundred hours of continuous hiking: I want to purchase the tell-all
>book! When's it coming out? What website can I point my browser toward?

His sister set up a website but she changed jobs and moved during his hike
so there really were  no updates.

http://www.msu.edu/~benne129/index.html
I know he intended to keep a journal but
I'm not sure he did because of the miles he was doing.
I first met Han before his AT Thru.  He hired me to do his maildrops.  I
learned that he hadn't done any LD hiking, in fact, little hiking at all so
I quizzed him on his gear in hopes of helping him pare down the weight.

That was not an issue.  No bag or tent, he took a tarp and an army poncho
liner.  Now I've used an army liner myself so I know it's limitations.  I 
tried to
talk to him about being under prepared but he insisted he'd be fine.  I 
asked what
was he gonna do when the temp fell into the 20's at night and his answer 
was :"I'll hike."
Later, he shipped home his tarp and I again asked him what he would do if the
shelter was full and his answer was, "I'll hike".  That has been his answer for
every problem he has encountered, even falling of that freakin mountain.

We haven't really had a chance to talk when he was in his right mind yet, but
I think the marathon came just before Skycomish.  He said he didn't intend on
doing it.  He was trying to reconcile that he was too far off schedule to
finishing by tomorrow as per his plan, so he decided to keep hiking thru 
the nite.
He has been doing a lot of that anyway because of the heat.  He managed
that OK and when the next nite came, he decided to go for it again.  At some
point, the motivator became fear.  He said he knew that if he lay down, 
he'd sleep
for  30hrs and then the effort of the previous nights would be wasted.  He 
said he
had to keep going until he found someone who would wake him in a couple hours.
Only, he never found anyone till he got into town.  I talked to him 
there.  He was wasted.
Blathering.  But he had found someone who was willing to feed him barbecue 
and let him sleep
for the night in their yard and get him on his feet and back to the trail 
in the AM.
If the details of this are screwed up, it's my fault.  Our conversations 
were brief and usually
restricted to logistics for his next drop.  BTW....since I didn't know the 
marathon was
underway, I was following his schedule and his drop almost didn't arrive on 
time.  I sent
it, timed for Saturday arrival in case he pushed and got their Sat instead 
of Monday as
was scheduled.  He arrived Thursday, three days early.  Luckily the package 
arrived early
on Friday.  With a night's sleep, food, including a pack of Canada mints 
<g>. he headed back out.
That's all I know until' the fall.