[pct-l] met 'first man to solo pct in 72

[Deems]

The PCT has seen Martin, Eric, Henry, and Scott hiking it in their own way 
and time period. Each one is a legend of the PCT, and much has been written 
about Eric and Scott.  Here is a bit of the story about Martin's 1952 PCT 
thruhike. He passed on in 2003, I believe. Eric is out there, but is hiding 
from the PCT crowd of today, but there are many, like me, who would like to 
welcome him back to the trail. It's great that Scott has met Henry, two PCT 
explorers have crossed paths, and both have much to share and celebrate 
together.
http://www.aldhawest.org/Gazette/V3_2_EarlyPCT.asp
^^^~~^^^~~^~^~~~~~~~~
One name; Martin Papendick.  May his memory live forever as THE first person 
to hike Canada to Mexico in 1958!

Greg "Strider" Hummel
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In a message dated 01/22/07 10:04:14 Pacific Standard Time, pct-l-request at 
backcountry.net writes:
From: Acu4harmony at aol.com
Subject: [pct-l] met 'first man to solo pct in 72
To: pct-l at backcountry.net
Message-ID: <bb8.b29ac88.32e576c5 at aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Yesterday I had the honor to meet Henry Wilds who according to many people
was the first to solo thru hike the PCT doing so in '72'.  I know  Ryback
hiked before that but the story has never been clear on that. First  or not 
I was
fascinated to find out that Henry was 16 years old when he started  his 
hike!
He hiked south to north and started at Campo (not at the 'terminus'  once
located  five miles to the west near Tecate as I would have guessed)  in 
June, as
he had to wait to be done with high school to start his hike. We  talked for
hours about his experiences on that hike. If you ask me a  sixteen year old
hiking a two and a half thousand mile trail, much of which did  not exist, 
with a
60-plus pound pack, is impressive!!! My hat off to him and all  early thru
hikers!! As Henry lives nearby to me I am hoping he can advise me  some on 
an
idea I have had in my head for sometime now. Has anyone considered  (or done
recently) doing a thru hike attempting to follow the circa 1970's PCT 
route?
Only an idea for down the road some time, but was wondering what some of 
the
'old' timers think of this? Would it be feasible?   Scott