[at-l] Outside Plug For Supported AT Hike

[RoksnRoots at aol.com (RoksnRoots@aol.com)]

     Outside Magazine -


         High Style Trekking On The Appalachian Trail


        " Brace yourselves for a debate as luxury through-hiking arrives on 
the Appalachian in spring 2007. Foot Travel, an Outfitter based in Black 
Mountain, North Carolina, will begin offering gear transport and other logistical 
services at key points along the trail, which means that the only chores left to 
you on this 2,170-mile, 153-day slog from Georgia to Maine are carrying a 
daypack and setting up your tent. Foot travel does the dirty work - from cooking 
to cleaning to carrying that heavy load of Russian classics. "

        PRICE - $10,120 ($66 per day)




      -  R 'n R:
                
          You can see 'Outside' deals with the impact this will have on the 
Trail's wildness with "brace yourselves for a debate". 

        'Outside' is starting to anger me more by the year. In 2001 they 
printed an article telling readers to buy real estate on the ridges of North 
Carolina for development of recreational homes. Those ridges are the viewshed of 
the AT.

           The magazine continues to become more elitist and effete by the 
year catering more to top end tours and pricey adventures tuned to the high-end 
advertisers associated with that demographic.

       Frankly I'd love to see a nice boycott of the magazine to set them 
straight on the relationship of that demographic with the places they sell. This 
is painful because it has the best articles on outdoors adventure.


            So, "brace yourselves for a debate" is 'Outside's' way of 
marginalizing a serious Trail issue while plowing through the sensitivity of this 
matter like the blunt instrument its demographic represents.

             $