Re: [at-l] Questions about the Shelters along the Trail.

[goinggoinggone@webtv.net]

Although it has been many years since I have used an AT shelter, one of
the main irritations/health-hazards apparently has increased in
proportion to the increase in hikers: the mice. I would suggest that you
design a shelter with a double wall on at least on side which could
contain a humane live trap, with a lockable access panel through which
shelter maintainers could bait and empty the trap, or, you could design
a predator-operated disposal system wherein the mouse trap would have
spring-loaded drop hatch that would automatically drop a few mice into
an adjacent trap on a slightly lower level, where the mice could be
eaten by the several non-venomous snakes that could be raised in the
lower-level trap, which in turn would have a snake-proof access hole
through which through-hikers could reach in to fetch a snake for dinner.
Thus could we turn a hanta-virus carrying menace into something that
tastes " just like chicken", although it might work best if the sign
above the snake access hole said something like " get your M&M's here"
rather than "snakes"....

Al

" How often I found where I should be going only by setting out for
somewhere else "
R. Buckminster Fuller