Having hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, the Continental Divide trail and the Appalachian Trail you can be said to be a Triple Crown hiker. However, it is not a Heisman Trophy or Americas Cup or any award of any kind. Anyone can complete the three hikes and many do but it is not verified with any official authority other than your word. I have hiked a couple hundred miles in California and I have met people from a lot of countries in Europe. It’s a big deal for white people. I have met one or two Asian people but it’s mostly Americans and Europeans and also mostly white.
I have also talked to people or known of people skipping sections because of too much snow or too many fallen trees or other bad conditions. The woman who wrote the and made the movie skipped almost 300 miles from Kennedy Meadows all the way to Tahoe and she is considered a goddess among PCT hikers. That section is about the most rugged part of the Sierra Nevada mountains. I went from Yosemite to Mount Whitney on four different trips covering different parts and I can tell you it was pretty grueling for a guy in his 60’s. But nobody is out there making sure that you walked every step along the trail the way a yacht would have to navigate every nautical mile or a football team would have to win 16 games supervised by referees.
I admire someone who can do such a trifecta but I guarantee you that he cut a corner or two somewhere on those trips. The article is basically a hand job by the writer.
Even so, it’s an ode to nature that should inspire other weekend athletes to try to breathe some fresher air than they usually do.
Not me. I’m an armchair athlete concentrating on the exercise of my digits and enjoying the screensaver fish tank that does all the moving for me so I can relax and applaud their effort.
But clapping for the intrepid souls that dare the great outdoors and hoping they avoid the ticks while they wend their way through the great scenery I’ll enjoy on YouTube.