A Rochester massage therapist believes he may be the first person to consecutively hike all 46 High Peaks of the Adirondacks without any help. Others have accomplished the feat, but they weren’t alone.
Josh Stratton completed the 205 mile, 8-day journey on July 2.
"In today's world, there are so many people that do this stuff, it's hard to believe I'm the first,” he said. “But I guess nobody has gone on line anywhere and I talked to Jan, one of the locals, and I guess he hadn't heard of anyone who'd done it, either."
Stratton carried all of his supplies on his back, including packaged food and snacks and a bivy, a pod-like sleeping bag/tent combination.
The 36-year old said it took a few days for the swelling in his feet to come down. Stratton wants to attempt the hike again next year, in a shorter amount of time.
He said he never thought about giving up.
"Because, I mean, I was kind of doing it for myself, not to be the first solo or anything like that. So I was like, 'yeah, I'll finish if it takes me ten days or whatever.' "
Stratton kept a blog about his journey that you can read here. He also appeared on this podcast on running.