[pct-l] Rude behavior in Warner Springs

[Postholer]

Obviously, I'm with you on this one Matt. Just thought I'd support your 
publicly expressed sentiment.

-postholer

>>>>
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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