[at-l] Earl Shaffer's hike questioned

[carla_dave_hicks at verizon.net]

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/291803

"Did the man heralded as the first to walk the entire Appalachian Trail take a shortcut into history?A new report questions whether Earl Shaffer actually walked the trail's entire length. 
By Laurence Hammack
 981-3239

 ....

Jim McNeely, a West Virginia lawyer and hiker who spent years researching the epic hike, says Shaffer bypassed at least 170 miles of the trail -- taking multiple shortcuts by walking on country roads and twice accepting short rides in cars.

"This is not nitpicking about someone leaving the trail to go around some downed trees," McNeely said of his findings, detailed in a 158-page report he shared with The Roanoke Times.
"I was looking for knowing, deliberate decisions to not walk the Appalachian Trail."
...."