[pct-l] Re: Trail Racing

[Bighummel@aol.com]

Will,

Yes, we PCT'ers are awfully sensitive to encroachments to the ideal that 
Clinton C. Clarke envisioned years ago and has so slowly been degraded over 
the years.  We've been bitchen' about the dirt bikes and the clear cuts for 
'bout thirty years and we are constantly vigilant and on the look out for any 
new potential threats to this simple path.  Unfortunately the PCT traverses a 
diverse area of America and suffers indirectly from this and the interests 
rooted in several specific areas.  These interests are deeply rooted and wont 
be ripped out by a few radical PCT'ers.  But, mind you, we do howl loudly 
about the devastation that the clear cuts do and the scars that the 
off-roaders do.  

The problem with allowing incremental inroads onto the PCT is evident in my 
home town.  It started off as a fight between "open-spacers" and 
"developers".  The developers cried that the city will die without the new 
tax base and the open-spacers cried that the incremental development would 
result in the city just becoming another washed-over, totally built-out, LA 
community like the rest of them.  The developers cried that preventing the 
small incremental development was an unreasonable position and the city 
council agreed that the open-spacers were taking too hard of a line.  The 
development continues and the open hillsides are being carved up, graded flat 
and sprayed with the green slim to promote new growth on topsoil-less earth.  
The high priced homes go up and all of the property owners (I'm one of them) 
yell "hooray" as our values raise.  But, the common lament at neighborhood 
gathering is the changing face of the city and how the hills used to run off 
into the distance towards Mt. Baldy, looking as though you could walk all of 
the way and not cross a road.  "Time to move further out, I guess" is often 
heard.  How far out is far enough? 

The problem isn't unique to LA communities.  The PCT is a trail.  As soon as 
it was designated as such it began to degrade.  Just as the game trails 
became the Indian trails, became the explorer trails, became the pioneer 
wagon trails, became the telegraph line, became the dirt road, became the 
asphalt road, became the divided highway, became the six lane, concrete 
freeway!  Have you ever seen a road taken out and replaced with a trail?  
Pretty rare.  Better yet, have you ever seen a road or developed land 
returned to its near former state?  Almost never.  The equation always flows 
the other way.  

Without vigilance, small incremental degradation of the PCT will ruin the 
experience for a generation at some point in the future.  Do we want it to be 
the next generation? Or, ten generations from now? 50? 100 generations?  What 
stand do we have to take now to insure the preservation of the experience for 
our loved ones 100 generations from now.  I hear their voices loud and clear! 
 I cannot ignore them.  The voices that you hear on this list that are 
stedfastly against incremental encroachment are fed up with the "Oh, it will 
be alright" attitude, IMHO.

Sincerely,

Greg "Strider" Hummel


"I got caught right up in the scenery. I walked right out of the machinery. 
My heart going: boom, boom, boom. "HEY!", he said, "Grab your things, I've 
come to take you home . . . "
            Peter Gabriel
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