[pct-l] Re: pct-l Digest, Vol 30, Issue 27

[wpsnotebook at charter.net (Richard Woods)]

Snowshoe Thompson carried mail, medicine, tools, books, even the lead 
type and newsprint for the region's first newspaper, back and forth 
over the Sierra from Mormon Station (Genoa) Nevada, to Placerville 
starting in 1856. His load was regularly near 100 pounds. He did it on 
hand carved 25-pound oak "snowshoes" better known as ski's these days. 
90 miles, two to four times a month, all winter long. He carried no 
shelter, no compass, no map, and rarely stopped for long, eastbound 
took him three days, westbound two. He carried a rock once, a funny 
blue color, for assay in Sacramento. Turned out to be the silver ore 
sample that announced the Comstock Lode discovery. He also lead the 
rescue of a miner with frostbitten feet. In all he traveled 400 miles 
in ten days, crossing the Sierra Nevada, continuing to Sacramento, and 
returning with chloroform. Never complained once in the twenty years he 
made the run. Died of appendicitis that turned into pneumonia.
Mo Jo

On Saturday, October 22, 2005, at 10:07  AM, 
pct-l-request@mailman.backcountry.net wrote:

> Hiker 97 said >>>> "Yes, I am carrying 100 pounds to  go  camping this
> weekend.  You know the usual ax, iron skillet, and  base camp  
> expedition tent."  I
> would complain loudly about the pack  weight  and spit a lot of 
> simulated
> tobacco juice too.>>>
>
>
> Little Joe LeConte carried just such pack weights in the early days of
> Sierra Nevada mountaineering.  Only he also carried full sized library 
>  books in
> Greek and Latin, but was never heard to complain...tho I don't know  
> about the
> tobacco juice. He usually carried about 60-70% of his body weight, if  
> I
> remember the story right.