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[pct-l] HikerHaven, response to the entire PCTA.
To Everyone reading this posting,
Greetings.
I am Randy, of HikerHaven, on the PCT above Fork Springs in Mission Creek.
(Calif. C3/C4). Parts of this are also from Brad, of HikerHaven.
Many hikers and others have been contacting the PCTA concerning the dispute
that is documented on the website (http://www.hikerhaven.com).
Bob Ballou posted a letter stating the PCTA position, in response to a letter
he received from Chris Bailey, and many others. This is a matter of record.
A good opportunity has been missed here. The controversy surrounding
HikerHaven is going to be resolved, with or without the support of the PCTA.
There was an opportunity available that is now all but gone.
Life goes on, and so will the PCTers of '99. Congratulations for the
adventure! May the wind always be on your back, and water found where it is
needed!
I have been living on and off, or full time, at South Fork, MissionCreek for
twenty-one years. Brad, six. Anyone who has actually been there can
appreciate what this means. I am, primarily, a
backpacker/explorer/adventurer. Have been for 35 years. Did sections of the
PCT before there was a PCT. I have spent over a year backpacking in the Grand
Canyon. Even for all that, Mission Creek upper is still my main sweetheart.
Or was....
My original cabin in the wilderness was not built for hikers or others. It
was built for love of the place.
Because others also appreciate this land, I found I had more visitors out
here in the wilderness than I ever would get in the flatlands. The visitors
liked the way human life was lived in harmony with this wild canyon.
In Mission Creek, I have had hikers and others off the PCT stopping in at my
place since the early 80's. Some of these people have turned into best
friends.
I have been blessed, or whatever you want to call it.
I find it a badge of honor that no bureaucracy has been needed to bring this
place into existence. It has not been needed to keep it alive all these years.
Hikers and other individuals voted with their feet, whether some institution
endorsed their vote or not. I have twenty years of logbooks to illustrate
this.
On all of the PCT, HikerHaven has been unique. Those who have been there know
this to be true.
No person is qualified to render an intelligent, informed opinion of
HikerHaven unless they have been there. In 1993 the PCT was made usable in
the MissionCreek section. In 1994 we noticed the first significant use on
this section, and had a few extra visitors to my place...mostly those who
were lost!
In 1995, a snow laden-till-late year, there was more usage, and more visits
from lost hikers and others. In 1996 was even more usage. On the advice of
many hikers, (the real PCTA), we improved the 100 year old trail up to my
place...making it easier for lost hikers to get around! Brad & I also kept
the entire Mission Creek mid-area of the PCT open and maintained, as best we
could, from '95 till last year when paid professionals finally showed up to
do it. At great expense.
In 1997 we had 85% of all hikers who came up the PCT to Fork Springs come to
HikerHaven, as it is now called. This was an exceedingly hot/dry year,
overall, from Campo to Big Bear.
The incredible souls who survived that rugged year, and made it all that
distance to my place are qualified to give an opinion concerning the future
of HikerHaven. I have almost 200 opinions from the 1997 group written in my
log books. Bob Ballou has never read these.
Nor has he read the entries from 1998. This was a dangerous year, not for
dehydration and heat prostration, but for heavy snowpack, frostbite,
hypothermia and exposure. Brad and I had cases of all the above show up in
1998. The Hikers of '98 know this very well, and can render informed
opinions. The month of May was when the name "HikerHaven" stuck to the place,
for very literal reasons.
There are over 200 opinions stated in my logbooks for that year, many of them
women, who were more numerous than ever before in '98. Solo, or in pairs. We
have a polaroid of every hiker. Mugshots!
Have you read all of the those entries, or seen the pictures, Bob Ballou? Did
you even try?
If the institutional PCTA were a democracy, HikerHaven would have the
favorable vote of, at least, a simple yet significant majority of actual
hikers. At least those navigating the PCT in Southern California from Campo
to Big Bear. Hard to argue with the "foot vote." And logbook entries.
Yet those "votes" have been negated by institutional bureaucracy. Maybe this
is simply inevitable in an increasingly hectic, liability ridden world that
has now invaded even the wild reaches of Mission Creek, South
Fork...HikerHaven.
I would like to state, for this parting record, that it was great while it
lasted! I have done my best to save the place, but to no avail. I am only me,
and that has not been enough. I regret this, deeply.
To the hikers, and others, who have been to HikerHaven: Thank you for the
adventure!
Every one of you had your own opinion of pack weights (some were dangerously
heavy opinions, some were dangerously lite! ) and other trail problems, but
almost all of you loved the place, and found it uplifting and useful. So did
Brad and I.
Thank you for your support, if only in thought, or expressed in the logbooks.
Good memories are good memories. Don't ever let institutions of any kind take
those from you. It is all that remains over the years. And, probably, of
Randy's HikerHaven on the South Fork on Mission Creek, part of the newly
extended San Gorgonio Wilderness Area.
With Grateful Admiration and Respect to all PCT Hikers, past present and
future,
>Randy Testman, founder & builder of HikerHaven..."the human mule".
>Brad Cadman, loyal & poverty stricken worker at HikerHaven..."thanks for
nothing, PCTA."
The Adventure will continue...tune in occasionally! ( www.hikerhaven.com)
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