[pct-l] PCT Numbers & Stehekin P. O.

[jason moores]

I don't have any definitive answer to the question of how many start/finish each year. I think that someone counts the entries at both borders but that number is imprecise since not everyone signs in and out.

The bit of insight that I can lend is this. As of the end of Sept. the Stehekin Post Mistress, Adel, claimed to have received 300 packages. By the second week of Oct. over 80 boxes had not been picked up. Some people send more than one resupply box at a time, not everyone stops in Stehekin and so on, but I find it an interesting set of numbers nun the less.

A heads-up to anyone planning to send packages to Stehekin. Don't count on the boxes being returned to you if you fail to pick them up. The post office feels that it is too expensive to ship 80+ boxes back down lake on the Lady Expess. They do hold the boxes for aprox. 6+ months before disposing of them. I know for a fact that they don't resell hiker goods in the store at the landing, but I can't guarantee that someone doesn't benifit from unclaimed boxes. 

Also, Melissa and I heard several complaints of resupply boxes being stolen... by other hikers we believe. We know of at least 3 hikers having their boxes coming up missing in Stehekin, and one being broken into. Stories of this having happened at several other stops on the trail this year leads me to belive that this is more of a trail wide problem than a Stehekin one. Many people have been using buckets and tool boxes as bounce boxes, one of the reasons is they can be locked up. I would hate to think that theft is a growing problem on the trail. 

At Kennedy Meadows in '06 I was pointed to a back room and told to go find my own box, unsupervised. If I were the dishonest type... 

I'm relating this so that people can consider the possiblity of this happening on the trip. If I had special medication needs I might reconsider trustin my meds. to the care of a small resort.

chef

ps
To: The sensitive reader

No, this is not more fear mongering, just one more "Reality" of the trail. 



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