[pct-l] Illegals on the trail

[Ron Graybill]

At mile 8.8 on Saturday, March 2, I encountered four "illegals" southbound
on the trail.  Southbound? you ask.  Yes, mountain bikers!  Three men and a
woman.  I had collected my wits enough as the woman was about to pass to
say: "You know you're not supposed to be here, don't you?"  "Yes, that's
right," she answered nonchalantly.  I was able to follow their tire tracks
all the way to Lake Morena, wondering darkly what a treking pole would do
to the spokes of a moving bike or a couple of dozen carpet tacks to their
tires. . . hmm, but my treking poles were expensive and I wouldn't want to
bend them, and carpet tacks might puncture the sole of some hapless PCT
hiker in trail runners, not to mention that either option might render me
"illegal" for malicious mischief!

P.S. I didn't see or hear a single Mexican, citizen or non-citizen,
anywhere along that stretch of the trail, and I did camp overnight at Mile
11.

--Manzanita