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

[Slyatpct at aol.com]

I'll try to use AT Trail Days as an example.  It's held the week after  
Mothers Day and is 450 miles from the start or about 6 weeks hiking on that  trail. 
 Take a guess what, traditionally was/is the biggest starting  day is?  April 
1st.  It's not because of Trail Days.  The Trail  Days date was choosen 
because that's when most hikers arrived at Damascus.   Of course, as the number of 
starters grew, people wanted to spread out, so now  they start earlier and 
earlier and get back to Trail Days.  Now, there's  not one huge herd but several 
with most hikers starting on or around 3/1, 3/17  and 3/21 along with 4/1.  
Each of these "herds" is about the same size of  the PCT herd.
 
Now  say  the KO was moved to Wrightwood  or Kennedy Meadows  or wherever.  
In order for it to be successful, you'd need to pick a date  when most of the 
hikers would be arriving.  This date would be an average  from when most people 
start the trail.  That date would be towards the last  weekend of April if 
only not to arrive in the Sierras too soon.  Back to  square one. 
 
Even with quotas, of say 10-15 per day leaving Campo spread out over a 30  
day period, the herd would still bunch up in towns.  The towns, PO, stores,  
hostels, motels on the AT deal with 1000's of hikers, packages,  requests.  
Certainly the west coast should be able to deal with 300.
 
Sly
 
 
In a message dated 2/27/2008 12:54:33 PM Eastern Standard Time,  
dsaufley at sprynet.com writes:

Moving the ADZ to much later in the season and further up
the trail  would not make the event any less special.  I propose that it
become  AZD for annual zero day. 


Personally, I think hikers who make it into the
Sierra deserve  a party and a free meal more than the starters do. They've
earned it,  whereas a third of the starters don't make it that far.

If you can come  up with a better solution than that, I'm all ears. 



 



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