[at-l] AT may be too tough says oldtimer ;o)

[Snodrog5@aol.com]

Appalachian Trail May Be Too Tough
.c The Associated Press
 By DAVID SHARP
MILLINOCKET, Maine (AP) -- An 80-year-old man who has hiked the entire
Appalachian Trail three times says the nation's most famous footpath has been
made too difficult in the 50 years since he first walked the Georgia-to-Maine
route.
Earl Shaffer finished hiking the trail last month on the 50th anniversary of
the first time he did it. He said he felt like quitting because it was so
tough, and he won't attempt it again.
``It was never intended to be that way,'' Shaffer said. ``I'd like to see it
put back the way it was originally.''
Hiking the trail today means climbing 34 peaks, wading 25 streams and rivers,
and crawling in and out of caves. And that's only in Maine. The trail's
tallest mountains are in the South.
``It's an almost impossible trip,'' said Shaffer, who turned 80 on Nov. 8.
``Who wants to go out and wade across a 100-foot icy river barefoot?''
However, Shaffer and others had better get used to it.
With $15 million in federal funds available, federal agencies working with the
Appalachian Trail Conference are poised to make land purchases that will lock
in the trail's route for future generations.
The people who manage the trail say most hikers favor the rugged wilderness
experience that now pervades its 2,150 miles. But Shaffer, who lives near the
trail in York Springs, Pa., said the trail has strayed from the original
vision of a footpath connecting camps from Georgia to Maine.
He said one section heads straight up the side of a mountain ``just to be
nasty.'' He joked that portions need to be leveled with dynamite.
Thus continues a debate over the trail that dates to its creation in 1937, 11
years before Shaffer completed his first end-to-end hike in four months, four
days. He walked the whole way again in 1965; that time, he started from Maine
to become the first person to walk the entire trail in both directions.
Shaffer eschews today's high-tech fabrics and lightweight packs in favor of
flannel shirts, a tattered pith helmet and an Army-issue backpack like the one
he used in 1948. He carries no tent or cook stove and sleeps in shelters or on
the open ground, covering himself with a tarp to keep rain off his sleeping
bag.
Benton MacKaye, who envisioned the trail, was a dreamer who wanted a
wilderness experience featuring work camps along the way where city folks
could get back to nature. Myron Avery, who saw the project through to its
completion, was a pragmatist whose route often followed logging roads and even
paved paths, in addition to forest trails.
In 1968, the trail came under federal protection. The local groups that
maintain it decided the path should follow mountain ridge tops, abandoning
roads and towns as much as possible.
David Field, chairman of the department of forest management at the University
of Maine, personally laid out much of the 170 miles of new trail established
in Maine from 1970 to 1990.
Maine, which includes the Mahoosuc Mountain Range, has some of the most rugged
portions. One 30-mile stretch covers 10,000 feet of elevation, and a one-mile
stretch in Mahoosuc Notch forces hikers to crawl in and out of icy caves.
The Maine Appalachian Trail Club even has a policy of keeping bridges over
streams and rivers to a minimum, in part because raging water and ice jams
tend to tear them down.
Shaffer said he never would have attempted the trail had he known he would be
wading through icy water in Maine.
``In 1965, the trail was perfect, but they were not satisfied. They make all
these changes,'' he said. ``They seem to be obsessed with the idea you have to
make it as rough as possible.''
Part of the problem is that those who hike the trail end-to-end have less
patience as they near the northern terminus atop Maine's 5,267-foot Mount
Katahdin.
Field makes no apologies.
``The guidelines of the trail tell you you're supposed to be in the high
country, looking at the landscape,'' Field said. ``If you want to hike the
shoulder of Interstate 95, that would be easier. But that's not what the trail
is for.''
The debate whether the trail should remain tough has been rendered moot along
much of its path because of land purchases over the years.
The day Shaffer completed his end-to-end hike, President Clinton signed a
budget bill that includes money for the remaining 293 tracts of private land
in 14 states. The purchases will cover about 10,000 acres, including 27.6
miles of trail and right of way.
Shaffer knows he can't change the route on purchased land, but he intends to
lobby for changes where the trail crosses federal and state parks. But he
acknowledged it's an uphill battle.
Perhaps more obtainable is his goal of warning hikers about what lies ahead.
He said walking for hundreds of miles of rugged terrain is not as glamorous as
the media make it out to be.
``I've advised anyone who will listen that they should not try the through
hike unless they know exactly what they're getting into,'' Shaffer said.
``It's a series of obstacle courses.''

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