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[pct-l] sac bee article
This article appeared in the outdoors section of yesterdays Sacramento
Bee. It was titled "Grade: Incomplete- After 30 years, Pacific Crest
Trail still isn't finished"
I know most of you know all of this, but thought you might enjoy:
This tale of two trails begins in 1965, when President Lyndon
Johnson, in tune with America's love affair with the outdoors,
commissioned a study of the nation's trails. The result was the
National Trail System Act of 1968, which designated the Appalachian
and Pacific Crest trails as the first two National Scenic Trails.<P>
Thirty years later, however, the 2,665-mile Pacific Crest Trail,
which runs from Mexico to Canada, traveling through the deserts of
Southern California and the glaciers of northern Washington, is
still not complete.<P>
Worse yet, portions of the "completed" trail are routed on public
highways and narrow easements across private land. Some of that
private land is up for sale, which worries Bob Ballou, executive
director of the Pacific Crest Trail Association, a nonprofit,
watchdog organization of the PCT.<P>
"The property could be sold and approved for high-density housing,
" Ballou said, referring to one parcel of land in Southern California
between Palmdale and Santa Clarita. "Can you imagine a National Scenic
Trail going through a housing project, on an eight-foot asphalt or
cinder block trail? That's a pretty ugly site."<P>
Ballou hopes a recent move by his association to make members of
Congress more aware of the PCT situation, as well as getting government
funding to purchase the remaining private land on the trail, will stop
any possible "ugly development."<P>
"We didn't start a government funding effort until March, and already we
have all the members of the House of Representatives behind us," Ballou
said. "And those members whose district the trail goes through have
signed a letter calling for the Subcommittee on Interior Committee on
Appropriations to appropriate $5 million this year and/or 1999 to help
purchase the private portions of the trail."<P>
The Appalachian Trail, which is 2,000 miles long and meanders through 14
states, is completed. Land acquisitions that will provide a quarter-mile
corridor surrounding the trail are nearly complete.<P>
When the National Trail System Act was passed, $5 million was approved
for the Appalachian Trail and only $500,000 for the PCT. At the time of
the trail systems act, much of the land designated for the Appalachian
Trail was on private land, while most of the PCT ran across federal
property.<P>
Still, it wasn't until 1982 that plans and money for constructing the
PCT were actually appropriated. By that time, there were a lot of things
working against the completion of the PCT as it was conceived in 1968.<P>
First of all, inflation made the $500,000 appropriated in 1968 a paltry
sum. In some places where it traveled through private land, the trail
had only an eight- to 20-foot corridor. There wasn't enough money to
purchase a wider corridor.<P>
Also, the Forest Service's approach in the 1980s was extractive. The
forests were managed for timber cutting, mineral production and anything
that could be taken out and sold to make money for the Forest Service. It
was not uncommon to see tractors and trucks on what was supposed to be a
trail for hikers and equestrians only.<P>
Finally, several miles of the trail were designated to follow public
rights-of-way, such as highways, bridges and power lines, "on an interim
basis." Some of those "interim" alignments were on rural roads that are
now busy, paved highways, subjecting trail users to heavy vehicular
traffic.<P>
"That interim kind of thinking turned into "Oh, we finished the trail'
kind of thinking," Ballou said. "There are a lot of people, the general
public as well as Congress, who think the trail is completed just
because of all the interim stuff."<P>
With the current recreational bent of the Forest Service and the backing
of politicians in California, Oregon and Washington whose areas the trail
goes through, Ballou is optimistic. He thinks some of the land needed to
finish the trail can be acquired and the corridor can be widened, as
well.<P>
That's a relief to those who use the trail each year. The PCT offers
a wide array of trail experiences, passing through some of the West's
most remote and pristine lands, through the desert and over the
mountains. The trail rises to 13,200 feet at Forester Pass in the
Sierra Nevada and drops to 140 feet in the Cascade Range to cross
the Columbia River on the Bridge of the Gods in Washington.<P>
From Campo, on the Mexican border, to Manning Park, in Canada, the
trail is enjoyed by thousands of people every year. It connects
national forests to national parks, wilderness areas to resource
management areas, and state parks to provincial parks in California,
Oregon, Washington and Canada.<P>
Although there is no official count of how many use the trail
(mainly because there are so many trailheads entering the PCT),
Ballou said approximately 150 people a year attempt to travel the
distance in a single season.<P>
"Only about half of them make it," Ballou said. "Those who don't
may come back the next season and start where they left off."<P>
Today, with the PCTA 2,600 strong -- membership has tripled in three
years -- and the anticipated financial backing from Congress,
construction on the PCT also may finally pick up where it left off.<P>
And after 30 years, the longest trail in the United States may finally
be completed.<P>
<HR><BR>
<B>The Pacific Crest Trail Association</B>, a nonprofit volunteer
organization, is dedicated to preserving and maintaining the Pacific
Crest Trail. Members devoted more than 36,000 hours of their time
last year to keeping the PCT open.<P>
Membership in the PCTA is $35 for an individual or $45 for a family,
and is tax-deductible.<P>
The Association also provides a Web site <a href="http://www.gorp.
com/pcta" TARGET="_blank">www.gorp.com/pcta</a> that offers updated
trail conditions and trail news.<P>
For more information about the Association, call executive director
Bob Ballou at 349-2109.<BR>
<H5>Copyright © 1998 The Sacramento Bee</H5>
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