[pct-l] ADZ thoughts

[jape at nethere.com]

1.  I have been reading the PCT-L since Mr. Reynolds and Birgitte Jensen
were creating a ruckus, and Yogi had only completed the first stage of her
triple crown.  In that time I've made some simplistic observations.  One is
the number of PCT trail journals that are started each year.  In '97, there
were ten.  In '06 there were one hundred and three.  (this from the trail
journals website.)  I would wager that a graph showing the increase in
journals over time, overlayed on a graph of the growth in clumping over
time, will mirror one another.

Another is that hikers, by-an-large, are type A, gregarious, outgoing and
social individuals.  I personally like people with this nature, and they're
easy to find because they tend to clump together.

A third is that long distance hiking is addictive, and addicts are clumpers
by nature.  Smokers seek out smokers, drunks seek out drunks, cycle geeks
...etc.

2.  The date of the kickoff is fixed a year in advance.  The stated purpose
of the ADZ necessitates a calender date at the beginning of the hiking
season.  One could schedule a "gathering" any month in the hiking season,
but the ADZ specifically targets those beginning the hike.  The median date
of the last weekend in April seems to be a fair compromise between early and
late season dates.

3.  If the ADZPCTKO is "bad", I believe that time and the internet will
bring about it's demise in the same way that it grew to it's popularity
today.  The San Diego County Park system could give the organizers the
boot.  (BTW, smoking is now illegal in SD County Parks), bad publicity
(think of the HikerTown brouhahah a few years back)could drop the
attendence to nil.    Or the organizers could weary from the constant
sniping at their well intended and gracious actions.

4.  And, by the same token, if clumping is bad, it too will disappear
naturally.  Trail angels will be forced to cut back or cease operations,
hiker discounts will go away, water caches might dry up...

Who knows, maybe the solo hiker of twenty and thirty years ago will become
the norm again.

Just my observations