[pct-l] Rude behavior in Warner Springs

[Jessica Winters]

I really agree with this philosophy.  Even though I love having the water chaces and trail magic...  It does however enable some instead of encouraging extra appreciation.

Thanks for your post...

 
On Friday, May 02, 2008, at 11:09AM, "Matt Geis" <mgeis at yahoo.com> wrote:
>Solutions?  Here's a 'modest proposal'
>
>Remove the water caches.  There's enough water to do the hike without them.  Sure, you might have to go off trail a mile or two, or take an alternate route.  You might have to hike at night (hello, it is the desert, after all).  You might have to get up early, or take a break, or go slowly to not burn through your water, or actually (gasp) CARRY WATER A LONG DISTANCE.  You might even have to take a zero on the trail once you do get to a good water source, just to recover.  It's really not that hard or that big a deal.
>
>However, removing caches (and WIDELY announcing that there will be no caches) will reduce the number of thru-hikers to a smaller group of folks who are...
>
>a.  prepared
>b.  up for a challenge
>c.  grateful when they do get a little help
>
>There are a lot more hikers this year than 5 or ten years (or more) ago, which means there's a lot more GREAT people on the trail.  However, there's also a lot more people who feel that the hike should be easy, that they should be catered to, that they have some sort of *right* to trail magic (despite the fact that it's not trail magic if you expect it and are waiting or even depending on it).
>
>Of course, getting rid of the kickoff, the artificial "start day", and the herd would probably help too
>
>While my idea above is only halfway serious, if something isn't done (like addressing the herd created by the kickoff), at some point the situation is going to get bad enough to motivate someone go poke holes in water containers to find out how many non-hackers they can send home by forcing them to rely on their wits, their maps, and their common sense to make it through the desert on their own.
>
>Iron Chef
>
>
>
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