[pct-l] PCT post office closures

[Ken Powers]

This whole thing reminds me of the Postal Service stopping the delivery of 
US Mail to the "in holdings" in Idaho's wildernesses. These are ranches that 
were established long before the lands became wilderness. The people living 
there depend on the mail delivery by airplane for their food and almost 
everything else. Much of Idaho raised a big flap. They found a recent speech 
made by the Postmaster General in which he stated the postal service would 
deliver mail to all postal customers on a regular basis. That pretty much 
ended the discussion. The contractors who flew the mail into these remote 
areas even got a new contract with an increased fee.

We mailed several ICT re-supply boxes to these backcountry in holdings by US 
mail. When the boxes arrived at various small airports around Idaho they 
were flown into the postal patrons on their weekly postal deliveries. We 
even called the contractors and told them we were shipping fuel canisters in 
the boxes. They laughed and said no problem. When we picked up the packages 
we found that they also deliver 55-gallon barrels of  fuel to these sites. 
It was interesting seeing the way these ranches worked. No phone service 
(not even cell), but TV and internet service via satellite. No roads near 
them, but golf cart style vehicles and tractors all over (flown in by 
helicopter).

Now if we could get the Idahoans interested in hitching. I grew up in Idaho 
and I remember hitching a few times.

Ken