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[at-l] Re: at-l Digest, Vol 3, Issue 11
- Subject: [at-l] Re: at-l Digest, Vol 3, Issue 11
- From: rickboudrie at hotmail.com (rick boudrie)
- Date: Tue Jul 8 10:19:46 2003
"It seems to me that if you walk 2000 miles on the AT then you have earned
the 2000 Miler Patch".
The ATC's written standards not withstanding, I think you would find that
most people on this list would probably agree with you.
I think its a "hiker-centric" approach, however. The ATC and others have
put in an extrodinary amount of effort into blazing, building and protecting
an unbroken footpath from ME to GA. While some might argue that insuring
there is a continuous marked trail really isn't worth all the effort (heck,
CDT is a great trail in part because it isn't precisely marked) I don't buy
into that. I don't think the ATC does either. On the contrary, I believe
that the ATC sees every foot of the marked footpath as being important to
the whole, because every foot is a link in a chain that extends from ME to
GA. I'd go so far to say that they even see marking parts of the trail
that ran through mosquito-infested swamps and along roads as being
important. Because of where they led and what the connected to. A break in
the trail is just not acceptable.
With that in mind, I am not surprised that the ATC started to recognize
people who walked every bit of Trail they saw before them. Because the
2000 Miler award wasn't just about a person's hike, but because it was about
the Trail itself. A trail whose blazed continuity matters, and has for a
long time.
The 2000-Miler listing (the patch came later, anyone know when?) was not a
bunch of through hikers bestowing an award on each other for wonderful
walks, but rather a bunch of Trail people recognizing those who walked what
was so important to them-- the AT. And, every bit of white-blazed Trail
was and is important to them-- even those sections that "Suck".
Recently though, the 2000 Milers has come to be more about hikers than about
the Trail. Those that are on the 2000 Miler list have defined what it
means now by adding their names. I guess we should celebrate the democracy
in that. No doubt, many define the 2000 Miler listing to be an
acknowledgment of walking 2000 miles, more or less. Even if the ATC does
not define thier award that way. It is what it is, now. Who knows what
the desigmnation will mean in the future. It used to bug me a wee bit that
people ignored the ATC definition, but I still like my patch and don't think
poorly of those who felt compelled to define the award by thier own terms.
People do that with awards and institutions for more sacred than a 2000
Miler listing.
But I still think that every bit of the marked footpath is important,
whether one decides its worth walking or not. And I still think that
walking all those Blazes is a neat thing to aspire to. Not because of a
patch, but rather what they represent and connect to.
Rick B
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