[pct-l] Help needed to stock 3rd Gate Cache

[Eric Lee]

PCT Mom wrote:
>
Why is it illegal to set out bottles of water on the trail ?
>

According to the news article that was linked, it's not illegal to set out
bottles of water on a trail per se.  It's illegal to litter.  The person who
was convicted of littering was *apparently* randomly distributing bottles of
water all over the wildlife refuge.  I guess that makes sense - if your goal
is to aid illegal immigrants without putting them at higher risk of getting
caught you wouldn't want to set up a single cache, you'd want to spread the
bottles out all over the place so that folks can stumble over them as they
work their way cross-country.

It's not at all clear whether that legal precedent is applicable to PCT
water caches if they're not distributed randomly and are regularly
maintained.  I suppose littering is one of those misdemeanors that are open
to interpretation and can be invoked to discourage all kinds of behavior if
the authorities want to do so.  In any case, I'm not aware of any
authorities who have actually made a statement against PCT water caches, so
I very much doubt that people maintaining water caches are at any legal risk
if they take reasonable steps to maintain and police their caches.

Eric