[pct-l] Time for the Annual "Why I Boycott the ADZ" Message

[enyapjr at comcast.net]

> The perceived problem (I'm not convinced there is one) isn't the KO, it's  
> the increased number of hikers attempting the PCT as a thru-hike.
> 
> Sly

And some day that's the conclusion some desk jockey at some government agency will 'sell' to his superior desk jockey (including that ADZ does indeed exacerbate said "perceived problem" by concentrating a higher number of hikers around an artificial "day zero" date and has done nothing truly 'constructive' to change that attitude or behavior) and so on up the bureaucratic ladder until... 
...can you say "quota"?

No one can say that it will NOT ever come to that (a quota system) on the PCT...  
Look at trailhead quotas, area quotas, length of stay restrictions at some destinations, no camping areas, no campfire areas, no human waste areas - all were deemed 'necessary' years ago (most WERE, and still are, needed - we, being backcountry users, were loving some wilderness areas to 'death'...  destroying meadows, lake sides, alpine tundra, the very wilderness 'character' we loved in the backpacking 'boom' of the '60s and '70s)...  
Unfortunately, I feel it's only a matter of time, and numbers, for the PCT to see a quota system, at least in CA (SoCal and possibly the Sierra, too)...
To totally ignore the possibility would be to bury my head in the sand; to figure it won't happen in "my" time (so it won't affect me) would be selfish and presumptuous... 
So some things do need to be repeated "annually" - why should I silently "pass along" yet another problem to the younger generations...  Many of my generation has long forgotten we were going to 'make a difference' and 'change the world' - but some of us are still bashing our heads against the proverbial brick wall...  that, and apathy...

Best wishes and good luck on your trek to ALL the '08ers...  Enjoy the journey!  LNT!!  ;-)
Happy trails!!!
Jim Payne

"Tug on anything at all and you'll find it connected to everything else in the universe."  - John Muir

"Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul."  - Edward Abbey