Re: [pct-l] Geritol

[Owen <jrowen@ibm.net>]

Brick Robbins wrote:
> 
> At 01:19 PM 1/14/99 +0000, you wrote:
> > At 51 years of age and a section hiker, I can't
> >quite figure out what's with the term "geritol"?
> 
> The term comes from the commercial horse outfitters in the Sierra Nevada.
> 
> They refer to their older customers as "Geritols" and they say that the
> only way these  folks and other physically hadicapped people are able to
> visit the backcountry is on the back of their livestock.
> 
> IMHO this is hiding behind political correctness to sheild themselves from
> attack from those attempting to apply the same rules to them that apply to
> us: limitted use of the wilderness by wilderness permit quotas.
> 
> By claiming to provide access to the handicapped, (I guess they consider
> you handicapped) they justify their overuse of a limmited resource. Who is
> going to argue for something that would deny access to one group of citizens?



Let's see here - God willing and the creek don't rise, I'll turn 60 in
Colorado, headed south on the CDT - without the livestock.  Tell me
again - who's handicapped?  :-)

Walk softly, 
Jim


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