[pct-l] Squeaky update

[whitethunder10 at hotmail.com (Joseph Niemiec)]

Hi wc,

Good to see you are still around.

Squeaky - damn, that guy is just THE hiker of the century.  Whenever I here 
about him he is somewhere else hiking.  When I saw him at VVR in '04 I 
thought that he was a fast hiker, but didn;t think he would still be 
cranking like this.  That is seriously amazing - and by himself?  Wow.

Does anyone know if he has a website?

Peas,

Mouse
www.trailjournals.com/joeniemiec


>From: "The Weathercarrot" <weathercarrot@hotmail.com>
>To: at-l@mailman.backcountry.net, pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
>Subject: [pct-l] Squeaky update
>Date: Fri, 02 Dec 2005 01:05:59 -0500
>
>Squeaky came into Blackburn Trail Center (south of Harpers Ferry) two days 
>ago. I talked him into spending the night, so we had several hours to hang 
>out and chat about his experiences so far. As of Blackburn, he only had 997 
>miles left on his roughly 7,600 mile calendar triple crown. He hopes  to be 
>done by Christmas, or in time for his December 29th plane ticket back to 
>the UK.
>
>We talked a lot about the sierras (no prior ice axe or crampon experience 
>prior to his rock climbing and straight-up-the-chute ascent of Forrester), 
>the cascades (including the PCT around Glacier Peak instead of the detour), 
>taking none of the cut-off's on the CDT - he even did the 23 mile loop 
>prior to Grand Lake. And the hardest experience so far - the incredibly 
>deep snow in the saddle between the two peaks of Baldpate in Maine in 
>October. Lost the trail completely and had to post hole his way down off 
>the mountain. The rest of the Mahoosucs were not much better. After making 
>good time on snowshoes through the Whites in NH, he actually thought in 
>hindsight that snowshoes would have helped in portions of the high sierras 
>in the afternoons when the snow softened.
>
>He's now doing 40-50 mile days through Virginia so he can reach the high 
>peaks of NC/TN with enough time to go slower if the weather turns bad -- 
>although there's snow in the forecast for higher elevations of VA from 
>Saturday night through Monday.
>
>Given that he's doing all of these trails unsupported, one direction, and 
>in less than 8 months (and he's much younger than I thought he was - 25), I 
>have to say that I'm very impressed. He says it's far beyond everything he 
>imagined it would be. Physically and mentally more demanding, more 
>spectacular, more rewarding, etc. He says he feels great, although he found 
>it hard to focus on lengthy conversation (especially since we stayed up 
>well past hiker-midnight). I wish him well.
>
>wc
>
>
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