[pct-l] Re: info...!

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

"The first official action toward the promotion of a Pacific Crest Trail was 
taken in the year 1926.  The suggestion came from Miss Catherine Montgomery at 
the close of a business interview of an hour's duration: 

'Do you know what I've been thinking about, Mr. Hazard, for the last twenty 
minutes?'

'I had hoped you were considering the merits of my presentation fo certain 
English texts for adoption!'

'Oh that! Before your call I had considered them the best - I still do!  But 
why do not you Mountaineers do something bigt for Western America?'

'Just what have you in mind, Miss Montgomery?'

'A high trail winding down the heights of our western mountains with mile 
markers and shelter huts - like these pictures I'll show you of the 'Long Trail 
of the Appalachians' - from the Canadian Border to the Mexican Boundary Line!'

That very evening I carried the plan to the Mount Baker Club of Bellingham.  
Favorable action was taken. The rest of the mountain clubs of the Pacific 
Northwest promptly contacted all other outdoor organizations.  All adopted the 
project with enthusiasm and organized to promote it.  Forest Service cooperated 
from the beginnin, with stress on the north unit from Canada to Columbia River. 
 For two years, until 1928, the interest held up, but much of the trail was 
but a vision."  
                                 Pacific Crest Trails, by Joseph Hazard, 1946

By the end of 1928 the Oregon Skyline Trail and the Washington Cascade Crest 
Trail were unified and nearly complete!  It took only two years for 2/5 of the 
PCT to go from concept to near reality!!!  It has taken the following 76 
years for the rest of the trail to come to near complete reality.  It isn't quite 
complete even now.  The Tejon Ranch is considering developement of a large 
piece of their property in the southern Tehachapis.  In exchange for development 
rights they have quietly proposed to set aside large areas for wilderness 
designation and realign the PCT through some better stretches; longer but more 
remote and beautiful.  The PCT needs a bridge of its own over the Klamath River.  
The trail needs to be realigned in several areas away from traffic and 
development.  Encroaching development in Sth California is threatening the view shed 
of the trail.  

Join the PCTA now.  This is the fight that they work on day after day, week 
after week, and when they go to Washington to lobby for funds. If not us, then 
who?

Greg