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Re: [at-l] What has the trail become?

I think a lot of this post was off-base, but others have responded to
it, so I'll add just one thing.

Richard K Mann wrote:

> What has the trail become?  It is a pathway full of tradition, but the
>
> tradition is forever changing.  The trail does not follow the original
>
> footpath.  The bureaucracy that oversees the trail must continually
> change the trail in order to justify its own existance.

I'm not sure whether this statement emerged of ignorance or of malice,
but it doesn't reflect the kind of thinking and effort that's been
devoted to protecting the AT from a variety of physical encroachments,
and to place the trail in locations that minimize the impact of the
recreational use it attracts.

What this means in plain English is that the trail has had to be moved
in response to many factors - eviction from private property (or fleeing
a private owner's decision to degrade natural aspects of the land), to
get it off steep slopes or to reduce the grade on the same slope, to
improve stream or river crossings, to bring it to a place of natural
beauty, to eliminate a long road walk.  I've worked on half a dozen
major or minor relocations over the same number of years, and I haven't
met any bureaucrats justifying their own existence.

Who I have met is thoughtful people, including a lot of volunteers,
struggling with the difficult question of how to keep a popular
attraction from destroying the natural resource that is the source of
its attraction.  These people sometimes disagree, privately and
publicly, as when a former trail crew leader/volunteer and the Leader
(also a former thruhiker, and longtime volunteer) of a trail maintaining
club discussed in the Register their conflicting views of the James
River relocation now underway.  Both have paid their dues with hundreds,
perhaps thousands, of hours of both physical and mental exertion on
behalf of the AT.

It really toasts me when someone so mischaracterizes the service that
has gone, and continues to go into making the AT possible.  Go ahead and
disagree with particular decisions (I do!), but do it on the basis of
the facts, not through this sort of baseless aspersion.

- Priest

P.S.  I'd really be interested if someone has a justification for the
design of the new shelter near the Mt. Rogers headquarters.  I haven't
been there, but written descriptions make it seem way out of proportion
to me.

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