[pct-l] Overcrowding the PCT

[roni_h3000 at yahoo.com (roni h)]

It seems to me that the clump of hikers that Donna is complaining about and the fact that this year, for the first time ever, not everyone who wanted could attend the ADZ due to over registration, both are first symptoms of a deep problem which the PCT will have to deal with in the future -over usage by thruhikers.
 
The only reason that the p.c.t. isn't flooded by thousands of wannabe thruhikers every spring like the Appalachian Trail , is because is not nearly as famous as the A.T. is, so fewer people grow up with the dream of one day thruhiking it. In fact, from what I've seen, most people who live in the vicinity of the PCT  don't even know it exists. 
But things are changing.  Every story on the LA TIMES increases the awareness to it, and the potential for future thruhikers.  And all it takes is one "walk in the woods" like bestseller about the PCT to make every outdoor enthusiast on the west coast dream about thruhiking it.
 
The thought about one thousand people all starting north at Campo is frightening, and seems unrealistic right now, but so would have probably been the thought to late 70's A.T. thruhikers that 20 years later almost 3000 thruhikers will start at springer.
 
It would be interesting to check the thruhikers statistics (does anyone have them?) and try and guess when the number will reach 1000 and more. I'm almost certain it will happen and probably sooner than we expect.
 
I'm not sure what the solution for this problem is. Spreading out the kickoff as Donna suggested might somewhat help, but the basic fact is that the narrow window for thruhiking means that almost all thruhikers will time themselves to leave K.M. within a week or two of each other, hence cause a 200 mile wide clump of hikers,  .
 
The only thing I can think about to help alleviate this tide of hikers, is to encourage section hiking. If instead of those 1000 hikers spread out over 200 miles of trail, we could cause them to hike over 2000 miles of trail,  the strain on  towns and trailangels would disapper and it might even make it possible for amenities like hiker hostesl to be economically feasible like they are on the A.T..  No hostel can survive on accommodating hikers for three weeks every year (see Etna), but perhaps if it is spread out over 3 months it would be economically sustainable.
 
How can we encourage section hiking?  As mentioned in previous post, organizing transportation between section would be extremely helpfully. For example, a once weekly bus organized from K.M. to Donner pass would enable thruhikers to flipflop, and start much earlier from Campo.  
Organizing some kind of Sobo Kickoff would also help.  It's a real shame that even this year, which is probably the most Sobo friendly  year in a decade, I only know of less then two dozen southbounder planing to start in Manning this June including myself.
 
Another help (and much more logistically easy to do) would be to maintain the water caches year round.    In 2003 I left campo twice, once after the Kick off and once 10 days later.  To my disappointment I found the second time only about half of the water catches that were there 10 days earlier.  Leaving a few jaggs of water for late hikers at every water catch couldn't be that difficult.
 
 
I hope I'm over pessimistic when I'm imagining a decade or two from now, a thousand people all starting from campo at the same day, and hope that the pcta will never have to use quota's of thruhiker permit for each section like it's done right now for mt'  Whitney.  
I'm realy worried that one day the PCT would be as overused as the AT is today.
 
 
 
Roni (in Israel)



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