[pct-l] Is the " Golden Age Over?"

[blisterfree at isp01.net (Brett)]

I maintain that some of the reason for the surge in 
thru-hiker numbers, across the board, has to do with a 
realization that the golden age of SOCIETY is slipping past, 
and is doing so in direct proportion to our alienation from, 
and extermination of, the natural places which the great 
trails attempt to promote, protect, and which are actually 
replacing society at large as a place of kinship, a place of 
centeredness and belonging, and for some folks (however 
indirectly) even a place of livelihood.

Long-distance hiking is not a fad. Many folks are having 
their needs fulfilled out there in a way that society simply 
cannot do anymore, perhaps never could do. The trails allow 
for the ultimate making of the Individual, something the 
American dream has long promoted but never really delivered 
on. Because it can't. As someone around here once put it, 
"To walk in the wilderness is freedom."

- blisterfree

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