Sure, we think going light is the way to go, but it's not like we came up with the idea ourselves. There's a long tradition of rucksacking, dated back to...we don't know, a long time ago. There are any number of people who could be entered into the Rucksacking Hall of Fame, but here are four that immediately jump to mind:
- John Muir
Naturalist, enviormentalist, rucksackist. Muir would often head out for weeks in the wild with little more than a big wool coat and a loaf of bread.
- Earl Shaffer
Shaffer was the first man to hike the entire length of the Appalachian Trail (in 1948), and did it more than once during his lifetime, most recently in 1998 -- at the age of 79.
- Grandma Gatewood
Gatewood (who died in 1973) first hiked the Appalachian Trail when she was 67 -- without a tent, backpack, sleeping bag, or map.
- Ray Jardine
Jardine has the distinction of being the only living rucksacker on the list. Whatever we could write about him has already probably been said somewhere else. Let's just call him a rucksacking pioneer, shall we?
