[at-l] ON TOPIC Empowerment

[greyowl at rcn.com (greyowl@rcn.com)]

I am always amazed at the behaviour of thru hikers.  Most of 
the Guys and Gals are decent people, but there are always a 
few bad apples and those are the pains.  FOr some rason they 
believe the trail was constructed just for them and they are 
empowered, by their hike, to act like idiots.  We have had 
this discussion before about alcohol consumption and the use 
of drugs and obnoxious behaviour on the trail.  The only 
people that one is hurting is the future hikers.  FIrst off 
look at the numbers, let us say that there are 6,000 people a 
year that attempt a thru hike.  I would estimate that is the 
number of people that utilize the trail at DWG in one week.  
It has been estimate that approximately 3 million people use 
the trail every year, so the through hikers are a minority 
and often times a disliked minority.  I have a friend who is 
a ranger at SNP and she said that the rangers actually 
celibrate when the last of the north bounders leave the 
park.  There has been discussions, none serious at this 
point, about limiting the number of thru hikers through the 
park.  Want to lose the opportunity of hiking thru SNP?  Keep 
pissing off the rangers.

Remember you are visitors on the trail and hiking the trail 
does not empower one to act like a fool.

Grey Owl