My younger brother, Matthew (aka. Natural), has been hiking Southbound, Maine to Georgia on our Nation’s grand Appalachian Trail. Using calling cards he checks in periodically to let us know he’s alive. That, and the tree-bark content of his stools. He called from Duncannon, Pennsylvania last night to holla at his peeps, and give us a long overdue update on his trek on the AT.
According to the “Classic Appalachian Trail Distance Calculator” my brother and his trail buddies have covered 352.2 miles in the last month, averaging between 10 and 15 miles per day!! They were a scant 80 miles from the Pennsylvania/Maryland Border. and only 1133.3 miles from their journeys end at Springer Mountain, GA. That’s 1041.3 miles hiked so far!
According to Wikipedia “Pennsylvania has been known as the Quaker State since 1776; prior to that, it was known as the Quaker Province, in recognition of Quaker William Penn’s First Frame of Government constitution for Pennsylvania that guaranteed liberty of conscience. Penn knew of the hostility Quakers faced when they opposed rituals, oaths, violence, and ostentatious frippery.” (For the record…in todays language, “ostentatious” and “frippery” are almost synonyms- Think Bling, Bling! ya’ll!)
Duncannon is located at 40°23′38″N, 77°1′44″W .
We were thrilled to hear from Matt, and wished him well, but at his current rate his projected finishing time is somewhere Mid-January. Well-into-winter. He assured us that the most challenging part is behind him and his going should be faster from this point forward. We are all hoping so.
In contrast- The current speed record is 47 days, 13 hours, 31 minutes, set by southbounder Andrew Thompson in 2005. Don’t ask me how, since the math tells me he was averaging 46.26 miles a day, I would think it inhumanly possible!
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