Re: [at-l] Handicapp Access

[tmcginnis@ucclan.state.in.us (Thomas McGinnis)]

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: [at-l] Handicapp Access
Author:  PaddyBeer@aol.com at ima
Date:    11/19/99 6:42 AM

<That great Irishman Paddy Beer posed>
 I have previously complained (I know Orangebug) that the trail is being 
overmaintained by volunteers to the extent it is becoming less of a 
wilderness trail and more of a wilderness sidewalk.  If one part of the trail 
can be made accessable then why not a little more then why not the whole 
thing?  Where does it stop?  When it is all blacktopped and graded or 
somewhere before that?  Isnt part of this experience having to face stiff 
climbs and rough terraine and God forbid cross a stream that you cannot spit 
across? 

<And the not-so-great Irishman SloeMcToe poses too to wit>
If there's not a clear standard set, and set soon, Trail "erosion" is 
inevitable, as the squeaky wheels get grea$ed. We have our Trail, we think, and 
we'll all be complacent about "Oh, just this little project. What's the harm?"

One way to develop a standard quickly is to reach out to somebody else's already
in place: the federal "Wilderness" standards regarding things like maintenance 
and user behavior. No wheels, no motors, etc.

A <current> complication is that federal Wilderness is really U.S. Forest 
Service, Department of Agriculture, Wilderness. The AT is a project of the 
National Park Service, Department of the Interior. 

(Well, there's some ideas.)
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