[pct-l] Town closures

Tue Apr 21 11:54:20 CDT 2020

The way you reach hikers is exactly the same way your reach anyone else: close all of the hotels and motels*. If they don’t want transients in their county, they close their facilities. This is exactly what other countries have done (see: South Africa). It’s nice to “ask” and for a while that looked like it was working for, say, Sweden, but we now know that doesn’t work.

As much as I’d like to think of hikers as being “good” people, at the end of they day they represent an increasingly broad swath of the population. This is great for diversity, but it really isn’t reasonable to expect them to behave differently than the average.

We have a government for a reason. Put it to work for you.

Cheers,
Armstrong

*Clearly allow some exception for necessary travel. I’m not writing policy here, just illustrating the broad strokes that are working elsewhere.

PS You will still need to reach trail angels that might bend over backward to help, but the towns know who those people are.
PPS Santa Cruz solved this problem quite easily: if you’re caught in public and your DL doesn’t show an address in the county, $1000 fine.

> On Apr 21, 2020, at 09:41, marmot marmot <marmotwestvanc at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi back
> I’m not on Facebook but if anyone else has access the Facebook 2020 “Still Hiking”
> Page you have permission to post this email to that and the other 2020 Facebook page. 
> No one is trying to shame or demean you “still hiking” PCT hikers. Just reaching out to state again what the problem is in hopes that this time you are open to hearing. It will not be long before the trails and towns open up again. In the mean time ,as our national death toll reaches 40,000 and still climbing, think of others. It’s been a few months since the first deaths—-40,000 people. The whole country is crying. 
> Marmot
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Apr 21, 2020, at 9:29 AM, JAMES MOODY <moodyjj at comcast.net> wrote:
>> 
>> Great info and warnings.  But how do we get this message to hikers who are now on the Trail?  I'd guess that most if not all don't even belong to the list, much less read it.  Signs at trail heads?  One-on-one pleadings at trail heads?
>> 
>> I live in TN, so obviously I can't volunteer to hang out at a trail head to meet hikers.
>> 
>> Mango
>>>> On April 21, 2020 at 12:00 PM marmot marmot <marmotwestvanc at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Not that a lot of current PCT hikers read this site but I thought I would pass on this information.
>>> Towns that have asked non locals to stay away:
>>> Julian
>>> Idyllwild
>>> Big Bear
>>> Lone Pine
>>> Independence 
>>> Bishop
>>> Mammoth Lakes
>>> Lee Vining
>>> South Lake Tahoe
>>> Truckee
>>> 
>>> These are the towns of which I am sure. There may be more
>>> The latest statistics from LA county show that thousands of people are testing positive for the antibodies that were never symptomatic. The medical fact still is that you can drag the virus from town to town without knowing it. There are still a lot of hikers on the trail. From what I am reading of the trail journals no one is practicing social distancing. They don’t even understand the concept. They still group together to camp. They still stay in motels. They still hitch to town. They still take public transit. This is a highly contagious virus. This is not about you. It’s about vulnerable people in small town,probably  with no health insurance. I’ve stopped watching their UTube videos because their self serving excuses make me cringe. They state what they plan to do and when they get cold or dirty or low on food they do what is convenient. No one is carrying two weeks of food as they claimed they planned to do. 
>>> These towns do not have hospitals. They do not have the infrastructure. 
>>> You still have time to do a flip flop. You still have time to start southbound. Wait until it’s safe please. 
>>> And no more campfires please. We don’t need a wildfire on top of everything else. This is clueless behavior that is on the level of putting up your tent in a dry wash with a major rain storm coming in.  Those  are just a couple of the behaviors that could require a rescue and about which these hikers seem to be uneducated. 
>>> The whole hiking community has worked diligently to counteract bad hiker behavior. 
>>> Don’t wreck it in one year. Don’t kill someone in a town please. Part of the value of long distance hiking is self reflection and character building. It hurts to go home. It feels like failure. You can actually grow up no matter what your age.
>>> Marmot
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Sent from my iPhone
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