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Meet Brice Hammack
By Monte Dodge
Back in 1977, I did my one and only " Thru-Hike" along the Pacific Crest Trail at the ripe old age of 19 years old. The oldest thru-hiker I saw on the trail that year was 29 years old and all us whippersnappers thought, " This guy must be on Geretol”!!!
After joining ALDHA-West a few years ago I quickly learned how really young that old guy was back in " 77". I kept hearing about this guy Brice who was out doing all the trails in his 70's and 80's and could hike as well or better than folks a third his age. In fact Brice Hammack is the oldest known " Triple Crowner" to date after thru-hiking the PCT in 1987-88, the AT in 1990-91, and the CDT in 1993-94 finishing at the age 75. He still racks up the miles all summer long during his many different outings. This guy is one of my life heroes as he is doing what I hope to be doing when I retire. (Such a humble and modest guy to meet in person, you really have to pull the info out of him about his incredible life!!)
Brice grew up in Northern Calif. during the great depression and started working while still in grade school. At age sixteen he secured a long and enjoyable summer job working on trails in what is now the " Marble Mountain Wilderness". In those days, he only saw a few ranchers, a few Indians up from the valley on hunting trips and his Forest Ranger on horseback to check on his trail repairs. The nearest thing to a backpacker was a few prospectors with a donkey or two in tow.
Brice says," For some 15 million of us younger men, life followed a predictable pattern. Out of high school, commencement of college for a fortunate few of us, and then the call up for World War ll. My war experience included 30 flying missions over the flak infested sky of Germany. We went to war as propagandized youth and returned four or five years later as mature men to an improving economy.”
Brice worked as a professional forester until he retired at age 65. During his working career he saw and crossed many hiking trails, which he longed to follow. Looking back he states, " I sometimes wonder what my choice of continual work or long distance hiking would have been at age 25 given the popularity and challenge of backpacking we experience today." Brice also advices, " A big part of the pleasure of long distance backpacking is adapting to new equipment and planning for future backpacking trips".
My take is that Brice has seen a lot of backpacking gear come and go during his years of hiking in the back country and is still out there using today's " Cutting Edge" stuff. At our gathering two years old at Lake Wenatchee, Brice walked down from Canada to attend and showed up at Bob Norton's place in Skycomish wearing Frogg Toggs, running shoes and a pack with a base weight that would make Jardine himself jealous!!! Brice says, " You really can teach an old dog new tricks"!!!