Anyone hike with Stacey Kozel (Ironwill) on AT

[rocketsocks]

...her mom tells how she did it, she dropped in!


Stacey calls her mom her hero and best friend. "There's other parents who would not be as cool as she is about my adventures," says Stacey, who has jumped out of perfectly good airplanes six times. "She always tells me what she thinks, but she never holds me back."

[JPritch]

Oh man, it would be sad to hear she is yet another in a long line of thru-hiking fibbers. I remember when she came through CVA last year and the local news did a story on her. I was so impressed by her. But over a year into the hiking scene now and I am much wiser to the folks who seem to seek attention about their hikes. It usually ends up the same way. Sad, if true.

[JPritch]

Forgot to add, I just finished the JMT and ran into a bunch of PCTers who had to skip that section on their thru hikes b/c of the snow and had returned to finish the High Sierra's. And these folks were all flying and doing big miles prior to and in the Sierras.

[Sly]

interesting article about her submitting Katihden. Over four days it took her on one attempt. She finally climbed in 26 hours but of course it was night and so she didn't take a pic.
http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/sto...il-exoskeleton

Climbed in 26 hours, how long to get down?

There are photos/videos of her near Chimney Pond but that's about it.

[MuddyWaters]

Climbed in 26 hours, how long to get down?

There are photos/videos of her near Chimney Pond but that's about it.

5-6 hrs . She summit 1 am . Friend met her as starting up trail in morning.

[Memphis Tim]

Here is the story that made the national news and the belated partial retraction from ABC. http://abcnews.go.com/US/facebook-gr...ry?id=50031481

[Puddlefish]

When did she start in 2016?

I only did 600 miles beginning mid April, 2016. Maybe half a dozen fellow hikers brought up the topic of her being on the trail, but more along the lines of "have you met her?" because they were aware of her hike on social media.

That said, the whole thru hiker label is self imposed, and didn't/doesn't impact my enjoyment of the trail at all. Doesn't matter a bit to me if she completed 10% of the trail, or 100%.

The only false claim thru hiker who bothered me, was this one super annoying guy, who I kept leaving behind intentionally, and miraculously kept showing up ahead of me. Screw that guy, not because he was lying, but because he was being annoying on the trail.

I think it's important that thru hiker or not, liar or not, we make an effort not to drive hikers off the trail with our derision (excepting that one annoying guy.)

[ZombieDust66]

Summit Katahdin damn auto correct.

Anybody that has climb Katahdin knows that it is patrolled and watched very religiously by the Rangers. Since they warned her before she climb, they would have known that she was camping up there for three nights and she would have been ticketed. Also, If she had that much trouble with Katahdin, how did she make it thru the whites and western Maine? On the PCT, she said she finished on the 5th of September but then when confronted with several inconsistencies she changed it to the end of August. I

How did she make it through the notch? Am I to believe the motorized braces were designed for 2200 mile hikes.


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[snowbliss]

I just want to know how she was able to get through the Mahoosucs after having so much trouble on Katahdin.

[Chair-man]

There is a story of a paralyzed hiker that reportedly just finished the PCT this year after thru hiking the AT in 2016. Did anyone hike with her on the AT? If so where and for how long?

http://www.kgw.com/news/local/woman-...rail/463512156

I was looking at this link and I now see where KGW.com has updated their article because of all the skepticism surrounding Stacey's hike. Here's the link http://www.kgw.com/news/local/paraly.../477641124?c=n

It appears to me her story is falling apart. Especially how her battery braces would have most likely shorted out if she had attempted a river crossing.

[Malto]

When did she start in 2016?

I only did 600 miles beginning mid April, 2016. Maybe half a dozen fellow hikers brought up the topic of her being on the trail, but more along the lines of "have you met her?" because they were aware of her hike on social media.

That said, the whole thru hiker label is self imposed, and didn't/doesn't impact my enjoyment of the trail at all. Doesn't matter a bit to me if she completed 10% of the trail, or 100%.

The only false claim thru hiker who bothered me, was this one super annoying guy, who I kept leaving behind intentionally, and miraculously kept showing up ahead of me. Screw that guy, not because he was lying, but because he was being annoying on the trail.

I think it's important that thru hiker or not, liar or not, we make an effort not to drive hikers off the trail with our derision (excepting that one annoying guy.)

I'm not sure the start date but the speculation is that she hiked very little only showing up at places like bear mtn for interviews. There wasn't a single hiker that met her anywhere other than major road crossings. This isn't a case of purism by any means, outright fabrication.

[TNhiker]

I remember when she came through CVA last year and the local news did a story on her. I

the news organization i work for also aired a story about her....

i am out of town this week---but I know we have heard about the possibility of her PCT hike being a fraud.....

not sure what we have done with it so far..

for many reasons than one---i tend not to get involved in these right from the get go....

with this one having questions----i might pipe in on it...

[ZombieDust66]

This guy claims to have seen her on the trail or a parking near the trail. This is from Mighty Blue's page when he interviewed her for his podcast.




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[Malto]

So, a couple of parking lot sightings but no others? There has to be someone out there that would have met her if she hiked the AT in '16 Anyone????? Here's a photo.

IMG_2478.JPG

[claybonnyman]

Well, shoot.

That comment to Mighty Blue is me, and at the time I wrote it, I believed it.

Here's the deal:

Somewhere around Maryland, I walked through a park in a high-traffic area and saw a woman with unusual leg apparatus speaking with 2-3 other people. I wondered what her deal was, because the leg braces looked extremely beefy and unusual, but I am an impatient hiker and I walked on without stopping. I'm recalling that she was maybe 25 yards from where I walked through.

I never heard anything about her, or anyone like her, for the remainder of my hike, which I finished on Sept. 22 (I flipped Katahdin-Vermont to finish).

*After* I got home, I found news stories and video of her hike online. It was only at that point that I put two and two together and assumed I'd seen her (in Maryland or somewhere in that general area) in the park.

Now the thing is, I am a die-hard skeptic. Indeed, I thought Wildcard Ninja's tale was a load from the moment I first heard about it last year. But for some reason, my dubious-meter never clicked at all when it came to Kozel's tale. I never doubted it for a second, which is weird for a cynical bastard like me.

In conclusion:

a) I *think* I saw Kozel somewhere in the mid-mid-Atlantic last year. It was a high-traffic park and public area, on a significant road.

b) I am deeply disappointed in myself for not exercising my skepticism later that fall when I began reading about her hike.

[ZombieDust66]

Well, shoot.

That comment to Mighty Blue is me, and at the time I wrote it, I believed it.

Here's the deal:

Somewhere around Maryland, I walked through a park in a high-traffic area and saw a woman with unusual leg apparatus speaking with 2-3 other people. I wondered what her deal was, because the leg braces looked extremely beefy and unusual, but I am an impatient hiker and I walked on without stopping. I'm recalling that she was maybe 25 yards from where I walked through.

I never heard anything about her, or anyone like her, for the remainder of my hike, which I finished on Sept. 22 (I flipped Katahdin-Vermont to finish).

*After* I got home, I found news stories and video of her hike online. It was only at that point that I put two and two together and assumed I'd seen her (in Maryland or somewhere in that general area) in the park.

Now the thing is, I am a die-hard skeptic. Indeed, I thought Wildcard Ninja's tale was a load from the moment I first heard about it last year. But for some reason, my dubious-meter never clicked at all when it came to Kozel's tale. I never doubted it for a second, which is weird for a cynical bastard like me.

In conclusion:

a) I *think* I saw Kozel somewhere in the mid-mid-Atlantic last year. It was a high-traffic park and public area, on a significant road.

b) I am deeply disappointed in myself for not exercising my skepticism later that fall when I began reading about her hike.

I don't know why you would doubt the story when you just saw one piece of the puzzle. Through groups like this and Facebook, everyone sees lots of pieces to the puzzle.

There's no doubt in my mind she probably made a few appearances on the trail just to bolster her story.

I listened to the Mighty Blue podcast with Stacey again last night and she did not talk about one specific story about the trail. It was all about her and her braces.


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[dwcoyote]

I heard her interviewed on Marcus Luttrell's "Team Never Quit" podcast and was having a real tough time believing her. At the time she was still on the PCT. A lot of her stories seemed like things she may have read or heard but not experienced. Very general without much detail. I questioned her then and felt bad for it, but now feeling like my spidey senses were correct.

[Malto]

I don't know why you would doubt the story when you just saw one piece of the puzzle. Through groups like this and Facebook, everyone sees lots of pieces to the puzzle.

There's no doubt in my mind she probably made a few appearances on the trail just to bolster her story.

I listened to the Mighty Blue podcast with Stacey again last night and she did not talk about one specific story about the trail. It was all about her and her braces.


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I agree completely. if you read the Katahdin account now it looks like sure proof of "embellishment". BUT, if you assume she hiked all the way to Maine, through NH and Maine then you say "if she did that then Katahdin seems reasonable". Context. I am really surprised the authors of the article did say "if it took 12 hours to go a mile and a half then how did she make it through the Whites?"

[egilbe]

When was she supposed to have finished?

[claybonnyman]

I don't know why you would doubt the story when you just saw one piece of the puzzle. Through groups like this and Facebook, everyone sees lots of pieces to the puzzle.

There's no doubt in my mind she probably made a few appearances on the trail just to bolster her story.

I listened to the Mighty Blue podcast with Stacey again last night and she did not talk about one specific story about the trail. It was all about her and her braces.


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I just think if I had watched the videos closely, having just slogged the entire trail myself, and seen how much difficulty she had moving even over relatively flat ground, my skepticism would have kicked in. Like I say, the second I heard about Wildcard Ninja I was suspicious; perhaps I gave Kozel the benefit of the doubt because of her disability (which, btw, is now under suspicion, at least as far as what it actually is and how it developed; she has given at least three different stories in public to date).