It’s hard to miss Benjamin Wetherby. The lanky 26-year-old Lake George native, with long hair pulled into a ponytail and a scraggly beard, looks as if he has been holed up in the woods for the past year. And, in a sense, he has.
Five days a week, Wetherby works as a caretaker for lodges in Vermont’s Green Mountain National Forest. His jurisdiction: Vermont’s highest peak, Mount Mansfield (4,395 feet).
"I hike it every day for my job," Wetherby said.
Last year, Wetherby hiked the 2,175-mile Appalachian Trail — considered one of backpacking’s most challenging feats and also one of its most prestigious honors. He hiked it in six months, between March and August.
