[pct-l] 3rd ADZPCTKO

[Bighummel@aol.com (Bighummel@aol.com)]

Hello Marge, Margo and all of the others that could not attend the 3rd ADZ.  
I must tell you, unfortunately for you and joyfully for us, it was the best 
ever!  

The weather = perfect!
The transportation help = great!
The food donations, preparation, serving and clean-up = superb!
The money donations to make it all work = enough to run two (if I had 
accepted all)!
The people = friendly, open, smiling, helpful, excited, thoughtful, kind.
The Lake Morena Rangers = helpful, flexible to our trespasses, excited to be 
part of it, looking for ways to make it easier and better next year. 

Where to start, where to start.  12 to 15 thru-hikers from 2000, twenty-or-so 
hikers crowded around Meadow Ed to get details of water sources and stashing 
sites, the Lounge Lizzards singing lude songs at midnight, Nick and Strider 
standing side-by-side at the urging of many to see who be the taller (Nick by 
a nick!), Lightningbolt extolling the virtues of his "deluxe cooking system" 
with a classic southern salesman's drawl, Mad Monte showing first hand the 
manufacturing and operation of the soda pop and cat food stoves, then giving 
all of them away to envious thruhikers, Donna Suffley tearfully calling for a 
moment to remember Butch Wiggins, the winners of the 1st AGPLDHG&IR grand 
prize G4 pack bubbling over it's virtues with Glen Van Peski (the 
manufacturer) and substituting it for one of their existing packs, Brian 
"Never Be" Robinson being swarmed all weekend by people seeking insight into 
his strategy of hopscotching back and forth between different sections of the 
three trails, Jerry Smith (a 1976 thru-hiker!) showing his Kelty Tioga next 
to mine except his loaded for a repeat thru-hike this year, an aspiring young 
couple put into a state of awe at the camaraderie, openness and kindness of 
these people . . . 

When I was asked to perform the unofficial duties of coordinator for the 3rd 
ADZ, I feared that it might ruin the experience for me.  I happily found so 
many, so eager to help, so free with their vehicles and so anxious to 
contribute.  "Hey, I need some help over here" I would shout to the throngs 
of people deep in conversations, and forward would jump 8 or 10 people ready 
to jump to the task!   "How can I help?" was the comment heard over and over 
and over.  It enabled me to join many of the conversations and meet almost 
all of the people and drink many, many cold beers and thoroughly enjoy myself 
along with everyone there. 

As Bob Reiss indicated in his message, transportation of hikers to and from 
San Diego and Campo and the border and Hauser Canyon and Warner Springs and 
Cibbets Flat campground went on daily from Thursday through Sunday.

Thanks goes out to Paul Dietrich who I sent out late Saturday morning to 
Warner Springs to pickup any stragglers to bring back to the ADZ.  He found a 
women hiker who had a serious foot injury and took her to get medical 
attention in Temecula!  He ended up missing the all of the main ADZ 
activities and worried his girlfriend and many of us as to his delay.  
However, when he returned to find most of food cold and put away, Paul smiled 
up at me, shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, isn't the point of this 
whole event to help out hikers?"

The PCTA signed up a lot of new members (including me, shamefully having let 
my membership lapse for way too long) and gave a good speech on the focus and 
goals of the organization.

Mad Monte Dodge filmed a large part of the event and interviewed many 
individuals and groups on video tape.  He gave me the tape to duplicate for 
those of you that could not attend and may wish to get a feel for the event.  
Send me a note, off list, if you want one, so that I can get a feel for how 
many copies I need to make.

The goals of the organizers of the ADZ have been, and continue to be, to hold 
a low key gathering of supporters, trail angels and past thru and section 
hikers for the benefit of the current and aspiring group of thru and section 
hikers.  I believe that we have succeeded beyond our original intent and 
concept.

Unfortunately, we have added a couple new rules to the existing:

Existing rules of the ADZPCTKO:
1) There are no rules.
2) Contributions from aspiring thru and section hikers will NOT be accepted

New additions to the rules of the ADZPCTKO:
3) Dogs are not invited
4) No lude song singing before 9 PM or after 10 PM
5) Remember rule #1

Already looking forward to the 4th ADZPCTKO,

Greg "Strider" Hummel

P.S. I believe that two things tie us together so closely, 1) the 
appreciation of the PCT and all of its virtues, and 2) singular acts of 
kindness and the burning desire to pass this on to others