[at-l] Hiking Community---

["Leslie Booher" <lwbooher@evansville.net>]

>I doubt the trail needs that ATC as much as the ATC needs the trail. Just
to be clear, the ATC is an organization or bureaucracy if you will. As such,
much of its efforts are first in self preservation. Anything energy left
over is applied to its cause. That doesn't make the ATC bad, it's just a
fact of life.

If the ATC were just a fraction of its current size, or for that matter
didn't even exist, people would still hike the trail. Hikers don't need ATC,
WF, ALDHA, the Internet or this mailing list to get between Springer and
Katahadin.

I'm sure that all of these people believe they are doing good things for the
trail and the hiker community. But does anyone really believe that the
thru-hike today is any better than thru-hike prior to the existence of these
people and organizations?<

Yes, I do think it's a better experience today, thanks to the existence of,
at least, the ATC.  Without them, we'd still have road walks lasting days at
a time, we'd be hiking across private property, we would be looking in
people's back doors instead of into the woods.  Do I need to go on?  I will,
if you don't get the picture.  Sloetoe and I talked about this a couple of
months ago, and I've been thinking about it ever since.

Without the chains of communication, we couldn't arrange for ferries back to
our cars, we would reach road crossings and maybe wander miles in search of
a grocery store that closed two years ago, or that maybe never existed in
the first place, but we wouldn't know, because all we'd have is a state road
map.

I'm thankful for all the people who are involved in the trail community,
whether paid or un-.  I'm thankful for the people on this list who are
willing to answer questions and to discuss the pros and cons of issues and
gear.  I'm thankful for the at-l community, because I can't wait to get home
from a trip and see what's going on with y'all.

Lest I get more maudlin, I'll close and save the rest for Thanksgiving.  :^)

Leslie


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