[pct-l] severe dehydration danger on the trail

[Eric Lee]

Nick wrote:
>
I'd watch out for noobs out there...they may not know what a serious
situation is until it's too late.
>

This is not a new thing.  There are inexperienced newbies every year and
that's been true for a long, long time.  There may be *more* this year - I
don't know.  But it's a fact of life that some people will arrive at the
southern monument with an entirely romantic/unrealistic expectation of
what's about to happen.  I don't think anything we can do will entirely
prevent that.

It's arguable that all the talk about trail angels, water caches, and
AZDPCTKO makes people think that the trail is more of a managed and
controlled experience than it actually is, but then, many of the
worst-prepared hikers haven't even done enough research to hear about those
things in the first place so you can't dump all the blame on those things.

No easy solutions.

Eric