[pct-l] The Teddy Roosevelt Challenge on the PCT

[Connie Davis]

I am visiting a friend in Boston and we just got back from the JFK  
library.  There is a special exhibit about JFK's efforts to renew the  
President's Physical Fitness Challenge.  Apparently in 1908,  
President Theodore Roosevelt wrote an Executive Order that all Marine  
Corps officers be able to walk 50 miles in 20 hours.  When JFK  
learned of this, he asked if the Marine officers of the early 1960's  
could do it and spurred a nationwide interest in hiking.  There was a  
magazine on display (looked like a LOOK or LIFE magazine,  
unfortunately the date and issue was not displayed) of a photo-essay  
of average people all around the US who decided to see if they could  
walk 50 miles in 20 hours.  The  photos showed a 10 year old in a  
Davy Crockett cap and women in plaid coats, head scarves and galoshes  
trudging through the snow.  I'm sure there are several PCT hikers  
who've completed the Teddy Roosevelt Challenge (I am not one of them!)

Lookout
Class of '05
http://www.trailjournals.com/lookoutandmongous/