[at-l] BSH part 10 of 10

[Arthur Gaudet]

(On whether a 72-mile dayhike on the AT is credible.)
A 72 Mile Hike on the AT
Some members of the AT-L list found the claim of a 72-mile day hike on the AT to
be beyond belief. Some allowed that perhaps there had been a very long hike and
that the distance was inflated over the years, subject to failing memory or
exaggeration for whatever reasons. In trying to analyze the possibility that the
hike was real I approached it with two ideas. How credible is it that a group
would try such a long day hike, and is it possible to find logical endpoints for
the hike along the AT. The date of the hike is not specified but from other
details in the story it’s likely to be in the early 1950’s. I’m assuming 1952
for this analysis. The story states that Max was in his 30’s that would be from
1950/51 to 1960/61. The scouts accompanying him were members of his Explorer
troop, these are older scouts ages 18-21. 
Would a group attempt such a long day hike?
There is documented evidence of previous hiking & walking accomplishments in the
Appalachian Mountains beginning with Alden Partridge, whom the Watermans call
the “father of American superhikers”. He and, later, Arnold Guyot established a
baseline for hiking mountains and walking roads that to most hikers today seems
unimaginable. Among Partridge’s walks and climbs, all originating from Norwich,
VT are:
		Mt. Monadnock (1830) 152 miles in 3 days.
		Mt. Holyoke (1830) 220 miles in 4 days.
		Walk to Concord, MA – 145 miles roundtrip.
		Several 3-day walks to Crawford Notch, 76 miles each way.
		Mt. Equinox (1830) 150 miles in 4 days (final day 45 miles)
		Boston, MA (1830) 300 miles in 5 days.
		In a walk from Concord, NH to Norwich, VT it’s rumored that he
beat the horse-drawn coach to his destination

Partridge was the founder of an academy at Norwich, VT, later to become Norwich
University. He, along with Edward Hitchcock, and Arnold Guyot, were prominent
educators & scientists, influential in their time, men who popularized the
mountain environment, promoting health & fitness along with academics.

Closer to our time was the phenomenal competition that took hold at Dartmouth
College in Hanover, NH starting in 1919. That year William P. Fowler established
a new record for a one-day walk/hike traveling from Hanover to Pike, NH – a
distance of 52 miles. In succession: Sherman Adams, Fowler, John Herbert and
Warren Daniell III pushed the record to 62 miles, then 66, 69, 83 and finally 86
miles for one day walk/hikes. Sherman Adams later became Governor of New
Hampshire and according to the Watermans his 1920 trip from Franconia Notch to
Hanover has never been duplicated (23 miles hiking, 60 miles road). Walter
Daniell did his 86-mile trip from Hanover to Hinsdale, NH entirely as a
roadwalk.

Competitive efforts among the AMC Hut Croo also established new levels yearly
for packweights (see Table 5 in Endnotes) and also for one-day hikes. Loomis &
Batchelder broke a barrier with the first successful one-day hut-to-hut traverse
in 1933. They traveled 50 miles from Lonesome Lake to Carter Notch visiting each
hut along the way, with a total ascent of 15,000 vertical feet.

Laura & Guy Waterman, in their book Forest & Crag (1989) also document the
speed-hiking surge in the New York City area that took hold in the 1930’s. This
was started by the completion of the new trans-Harriman SP trail system and it
was encouraged by the presence of railroad stations at several trail endpoints.
Hikes of 20-30 mile lengths could be easily attempted from New York City on a
weekend and friendly competitions arose between the City College Hiking Club and
the New York University Outing Club. These competitions were still in vogue in
1938 as documented by Raymond Torrey (and mentioned in Forest & Crag).

With this background it’s clear that a 72-mile hike along a fairly flat section
of the AT is consistent with achievements in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Max Gordon
would be familiar with the achievements in Harriman SP since he was local to the
area, and stated that the scouts had a long history of hikes in Harriman. In the
1920’s, before Ten Mile River Camp was purchased, the BSA made substantial use
of Harriman SP for their activities. Max personally was hiking in Harriman at
the same time as the college competitions. By the 1950’s Max may be remembering
these past accomplishments and challenging his Explorer scouts with something to
outdo what the previous generation had done. 

In addition Max Gordon’s experience with the WWI veterans may have established
other stories and records of military walks in his memory. I haven’t researched
activities during the war but I can easily imagine times on the 1936 hike when
the veterans could entertain the boys with stories of their own hiking/marching
achievements.

What would be the endpoints for such a long hike?
Max states that the trip started at Kent, CT and went south on the AT. Using my
1998 AT Databook a hiker starting at Rt. 341 outside Kent, CT would end his trip
about 1.5 miles into the woods just past Arden, NY. (This is nearly 8 miles past
Tiorati Circle in Harriman SP). This is pretty unsatisfactory since it asks us
to believe he exaggerated the distance by at least 1 ½ miles, or even more if
his end point was Tiorati Circle.

The logic of a Scout hike ending at Bear Mountain Bridge, the summit of Bear
Mountain or at Tiorati Circle is very appealing. All 3 locations provide easy
access for vehicles and comfortable waiting locations for the support crew. All
3 locations were in common use by the Bronx scouts as indicated in Max’s story.

The AT guidebooks that I’ve used for this analysis are NY/NJ 1948, NY/NJ 1957,
and the CT/MA/VT/NH 1952. For this analysis the only mileage differences occur
in two places, from Canopus to US 9, and from US 9 to Bear Mountain Bridge, West
End. These two differences nearly cancel each other out, making the trail in
1948 (for this section) just 0.05 miles longer than in 1957. 

My first effort was to start at the 3 logical endpoints, and then calculate
where 72 miles would place the hikers in 1948 and 1957. The bridge & summit
start points put the end of the hike near Cornwall Bridge, well north of Kent.
This makes Tiorati Circle the only logical endpoint. Beginning at Tiorati Circle
puts the end of the hike 3 miles past Rt. 341, the road crossing just outside
Kent. At first glance this seems unlikely since it puts the scouts on top of
Cobble Mountain, inside Macedonia Brook SP.  (The AT no longer loops through
this SP; instead it hugs the Housatonic River as it heads towards Cornwall
Bridge.) 

Next I read in the AT guides about accommodations for hikers in/around Kent. One
location is listed as a frequent overnight stay for hikers, Macedonia Brook
Farm.  To reach the farm along the AT you would hike N 1.88 miles from Rt. 341,
then walk .32 miles along Macedonia Brook Road. Adding in the .26 mile walk
along Rt. 341 and I have the final totals for the table. If I use regular
truncation method for truncating mileage to 1/10 mile then total trip mileage
becomes 71.6 miles which rounds up to 72 miles.

Table 4
	1948 guidebook mileage	1957 guidebook mileage	
Macedonia Br. Farm to AT	.32	.32	
AT south to Rt. 341	1.88 	1.88	
Rt. 341 roadwalk	.26	.26	
Rt. 341 to Schagticoke summit	3.53	3.53	
Schagticoke to NY 55	4.47	4.47	
NY 55 to NY 22	8.5	8.5	
NY 22 (Pawling) to NY 216	5.4	5.4	
NY 216 – NY 52	6.09	6.09	
NY 52 – Taconic Pkwy	6.35	6.35	
Taconic – NY 301	5.97	5.97	
NY 301 – Canopus Valley	7.59	7.59	
Canopus – US 9	5.95	6.15	
US 9 – Bear Mt. Bridge, west	4.81	4.56	
Bridge – Tiorati Circle	10.33	10.33	
			
Totals	71.45 (71.6)	71.40 (71.6)	
			

So the 72 mile hike likely started with the scouts sleeping overnight at
Macedonia Brook Farm, in Macedonia SP outside Kent, CT, and the hike finished at
Tiorati Circle in Harriman SP. The hikers first hiked the dirt road south to the
AT and then followed the white blazes to Tiorati Circle. Arrangements were made
for support since “Fourteen started the marathon hike, and, 18 hours later, Mr.
Gordon and three Scouts completed the trek.” It’s possible that this “official”
BSA hike is noted in archives somewhere but no attempt has been made to locate
these materials.

More topics have been investigated if there is interest: 
Attempt to uncover Max Gordon, his wife Lillian, brother Mandel. Search of
Presidential & Scouting Awards. 
Attempt to find Seymour Dorfman & Louis Zisk. 
The Aftermath: anti-semitism in the AMC and ATC; lack of notice in local
newspaper, BSA publications, etc. 
My executive summary of the research effort, my feelings on the work. 


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