[pct-l] Best On the Crest -- new and updated town information

[David Plotnikoff]

Hello from a long-time list lurker.

I'm pleased to announce that the annual update of Best On The Crest: 
Food and Lodging along the Pacific Crest Trail is complete. The site, 
at http://www.emeraldlake.com/pctguide is a critical and 
comprehensive look at restaurants and motels in each trail town from 
Campo to Manning.

New for 2007: Individual town pages from Odell Lake (Willamette Pass) 
through Manning. Pages covering Campo through Odell Lake have been 
revised to reflect business openings, closings, etc.

As always, I'm relying on the PCT community to keep me posted on 
changes they see along the trail. If you've had an uncommonly good 
(or bad) experience at a motel or restaurant, I'd like to hear about 
it. If you note new restaurants (or closed ones), I'd like to know 
those as well. I'll only be able to walk 500 miles of tread in 07, so 
I'm relying on the rest of you to be my eyes and ears. I hope Class 
of 06 folks will take the time to look at the pages and suggest 
additions, revisions, etc. based on their experiences this year.

Now, something on a personal note that I've been dreading to broach: 
I've been producing Best On the Crest as a free service to my fellow 
hikers for the past five years. I've been increasingly troubled in 
the last two years by reports of thru-hikers abusing the hospitality 
of business owners and service workers in trail towns. The recent 
discussion of the reprehensible situation at the Tahquitz Inn during 
the 2006 season (trashed rooms, hikers accusing the owner of gouging, 
general "Animal House" misbehavior and ingratitude) just brought the 
festering problem to a head for me.

Any special considerations hikers receive are gifts. Blessings. And 
they should be regarded with the requisite degree of humility and 
gratitude. These extra services and acts of kindness are not a 
God-given right. Any expectation of entitlement is totally misplaced 
and inappropriate.

I know for a fact that there are business owners on the trail who go 
out of their way to help dozens - if not hundreds - of PCT hikers 
each year. And I'm saddened when they tell me that mine was one of 
only three or four thank-you notes they received that season. This is 
not right.

Beyond "please" and "thank you," (concepts even my three-year-old can 
firmly grasp) it is incumbent on each of us to not engage in negative 
scenes that will have an adverse affect on the reputation of the 
hiking community. As surely as the special privileges and good will 
have been extended, they can be withdrawn. I am particularly 
frustrated by the inability of the thru-hiker community to impose 
social censure - to call out the bad actors in our midst and let them 
know that acting like a Bozo in town is utterly unacceptable.

The thought that one miscreant with a bad mouth and a bad attitude 
could poison the well for future classes of PCT hikers - destroying 
years of good will -- makes me very angry. In some town along the 
trail this coming year, odds are it *will* happen again. I wish there 
was something we as a community could do to self-police before the 
negative consequences catch up with us.

"Hike Your Own Hike" ? Great. But let's be blunt here: Your town 
karma is tied to the rest of ours -- whether we like it or not.

Here's to a wonderful 2007 on the trail.

David Plotnikoff
david at emeraldlake.com