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Re: [at-l] Trail Challenge vs Challenge of the Trail

PaddyBeer@aol.com wrote:
> is this really a hiking adventure anymore?  

Define adventure.  If you are talking life threatening....barely.
If you mean an activity outside the normal parameters of most people's 
life experiences...than, yes it is an adventure.

When Benton MacKaye (sp?) proposed the AT, his purposes were diverse,
but when distilled it seems to me to be, to bring people to the 
mountains and give them a 'way' to engage nature.  The area may have 
been a wilderness in many ways back then, but his plan has worked. And 
it is wilderness no more.  You just can't have it both ways. 

I agree, it is now, more a test of endurance and resolve than an 
adventure in the sense many use the term.  But I've had adventures
in the middle of big cities.  So I hope that if I bring a spirit of
adventure with me, I may find some on the AT too.

If you are looking for high adventure, like Warren found, think PCT.
Except, from reading the journals of PCT hikers, it's probably too
late for that.  Maybe the CDT...or Peru or ????.  Sad isn't it?

> If it keeps going the
> way that it is, with bridges seeming to appear over ever minor stream
> crossing and that ferry in Maine, why not just black top the whole darn
> thing?

Although no one wants to see the trail black topped, read how many 
people complain about the PA trail.  "Heaven's sake....why doesn't 
someone do something about all these rocks!"  And "There would be some 
views if they"d just cut down a couple trees here and there"
The PA trail is rocky and tree covered now, just as it has been since
the start.  How long it will stay that way is anybody's guess.
The trail will be what people want it to be...for good or ill.

As far as the bridges go...build'em.  I hate wet boots<<VVVBG>>>  
We are not explorers..we are endurers.			Kahley
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