[pct-l] Kickoff Party

[kborski at yahoo.com (Karen Borski)]

Hey Squeak!

Hope you are well.  Still hikin' next year?

As a hiker this year, I was quite shocked at how many
other thru-hikers were all heading into and out of
Lake Morena at the same time.  I think it would
benefit the hikers and many of their support
businesses (e.g. Mt. Laguna store/PO) -- not to
mention, the trail angels and their water caches -- if
the thru-hikers were encouraged to be spread out more.

In other words, a more vigorous advertisement of hiker
car pool service wherein trail angels/Kickoff
attendees could sign up to drive to designated places
north of Lake Morena (e.g. Mt. Laguna, Boulder Oaks,
Warner Springs....even Pines to Palms and Idyllwild)
where they would pick up thru-hikers and drive them
back to Mt. Laguna.  They could have multiple pickup
times and locations, as well as commensurate drop-off
shuttles.

This type of shuttling would take a lot of crowding
pressure off of businesses, trail angels, the
environment, and the hikers themselves.  Another
benefit would be the "fun factor" -- hikers and
ex-hikers and wanna-be hikers and kickoff attendees
who really don't want to hike but enjoy the comraderie
would have a chance to intermingle more during the
rides back and forth.

I'm sure some other more experienced ADZ folks have
better ideas about how to manage this problem, but
crowding is most certainly an issue that is not
limited to the weekend of the party.....it has
repurcussions for the trail community all the way to
Donna's house and beyond.   

The Kickoff is great.  No one wants to miss it.  But
it is now so big and there are now so many more PCT
thru-hikers, that the party has molded start dates
around that one weekend.  In '04, the party had grown
A BUNCH over '00 when I first attended.  I'm sure it
will continue to grow.  

Nocona

--- squeaknpup@yahoo.com wrote:

> Any suggestions ro differences you would like to
> see.




		
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