[pct-l] PCT usage quotas

[Brett]

The idea of a quota system for the PCT is utterly ridiculous, would be 
impossible to implement and enforce, and further should not be 
necessary, given the tried-and-true example of the Appalachian Trail and 
its great numbers of users - both short and long distance hikers - and 
the vigilance of hiking clubs all along the way who monitor and maintain 
the trail to a degree appropriate for its level of use. The future of an 
ever-more-popular PCT needs to follow the lead of its east coast 
counterpart, not that of a Mount Whitney type of numbers-based permit 
system. National Scenic Trails should remain available to everyone, and 
a long distance journey along them not turned into a premeditated ordeal 
of phone calls, applications, and fast mouse clicks to reserve a "spot" 
in front of the excluded hordes.

Would an AT-style PCT irrevocably alter the Wilderness character along 
much of the PCT corridor? Probably, but the alternative of increased use 
without sufficient stewardship of the resource would ultimately do more 
real harm. This isn't to suggest the PCT needs a shelter system, for 
instance, but only that active as well as passive regulation can take 
other forms than sheer exclusion.

- blisterfree


enyapjr at comcast.net wrote:
>> 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
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