[pct-l] Report on Continual PCT Conditions Idea

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

Switch,
 
Naw, let's just permanently post "trail guardians" every 100 yards and house them in make-shift shelters at, say, $40,000 each.  Now 2,658 miles divided by 100 yards equals 886 "trail guardian shelters" times $40,000 is only $35,440,000 and then their yearly salary of minimum wage would work out to $119,610,000 per year ($6.75 x 40 hrs/wk x 50 weeks x 886) .  Thus an endowment of a billion or two would put a total security net all along the trail and no one would ever get lost again, no one would ever be without immediate help again and the true, rich, vanilla flavor of the trail could finally come out!  
 
Hee, hee!
 
(tic)
 
Greg 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Hiker97@aol.com
To: pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
Cc: Rattlesnake5648@Yahoo.com; carolwbruno@yahoo.com
Sent: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 03:50:33 EDT
Subject: [pct-l] Report on Continual PCT Conditions Idea


I have a great idea for yearly real time updates of the PCT weather  and 
trail conditions.  There is a fellow on the journal list hiking the  trail with 
a 
laptop and satellite phone (Pete Behmer _http://pct2005.com_ 
(http://pct2005.com) ).  This are great  posts because they are so current from 
the trail.  
Almost daily pictures  and dialog of conditions.  Really neat.
 
Here is my idea.  Someone with a lot of money could do an endowment to  the 
PCTA for a 6 or 7-person team to start out one week apart (and stay one week  
apart) each year on the trail.  Say from mid April to the end of May. They  
would be equipped with a laptop and satellite phone to post daily reports of the  

trail.  Here is the requirements.
1.  Have a lot of money, say $5 million for the interest to equal  $100,000 
per year to fund the 6 person teams forever.  I would guess each  team would 
have 3 persons times $5,000 each for trail costs (18 times  $5,000).  That 
equals $90,000 per year for the program.  The extra  $10,000 is for equipment 
replacement and phone service fees each year for 5  months.  Of course, the 
initial 
equipment costs might be a little  higher.  I just bought a $400 laptop from 
Frys on a Fourth of July ad  special and had it upgraded for $110 to half a 
Gig of memory.  Really nice  little computer for the Internet with Ethernet 
connection.
2.  Set up the endowment to the PCTA for the yearly teams.
3.  Make sure Switchback is the exclusive executor of the  estate.
4.  Die.
 
This would solve a lot of problems with the continual need to know what is  
going on out there each year.  Also, there is a safety element to this, so  if 
there is a problem help can be gotten right away.
 
Always putting you first and thinking of your safety,  Switchback
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