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[at-l] Through Hikers vs. Weekenders Long

Hiyall...
I snatched these from rec backcountry...nice thoughts from some
weekenders.......

For me, the AT has become so crowded and worn it serves nowadays mostly
as an access path, a way to get somewhere else. The memories are there,
and I do stop along it to savor them when the mood strikes, but it isn't
creating many new ones anymore.

Not that I'd abandon it, not by any means. Its very existence catalyzes
and focuses what we have left of our once grand preservationist ethic.
In order to preserve the AT we have to preserve other lands around it as
well, and it drives a public motive (even if a weak, sputtering and
progressively defeated one) to add to those preserves and slow down
development along the Blue Ridge. Like a good watchdog that just can't
romp with you in the yard anymore, it still earns its keep even if it is
now old, tired and losing its teeth.

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The Appalachian Trail is anything but an elitist Trail.
    Just read some of Benton Mc Kaye's original ideas for starting
    the AT. At different times in our lives we have the luxury of
    hiking the whole Trail. 20 years ago, I managed to hike about
    500 miles of by stringing together long weeks here and there.
  
    Now I'm lucky to hike a 5 mile section or so every 3 or 4
    months. (You know, job and all that stuff).

   I revisit certain favorite sections over and over,
   year after year, because I cherish the memories and love
   the sections.
 
    How many through hikers are hiking for the sake of ego
    gratification, and how many return year after year to
    re-hike over their favorite sections? The Appalachian Trail
    is much more meaningful to me viewing it through the prism
    of time and re-visiting sections that really mean alot to me
    instead of rushing through it with intolerance to those
    who simply want to walk and savor the subtleties of the
    experience.
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I think you hit a tender spot. I did some of the trail last year and
will do some this year. Not unlike you I remember the trail sections by 
theexperience and not the milepost. I think though that a certain amount 
of "self aka ego" must be mixed with the recipe to get the total 
experience. I will qualify my comments by saying that I had some of that 
overbearing ego for awhile, but the AT has ways of dealing with that. I 
am now a simple man who realized the journey was in summary of each day 
and not the accolades of the feat itself.
I would give anything to have attempted the trail before its current
popularity, but I don't know for certain if I would have been mature 
enough to understand its impact. Doing 14 to 20 or more mile days; I may 
have been simply wishing that it would all end soon. 8^)Who knows. I do 
realize that by not hiking the whole thing at one time, I have the rest 
of my life to enjoy the mountains and give thanks for two good legs and 
a sense of
adventure.
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