[pct-l] Recruiting New Water Cachers!

[Ken Murray]

Friends, 

The issue of trail support has weighed on me this year.  With the destruction of my ankle, I'll probably never complete the trail, so my perspective is soley as a support person.  I spend most of my summers working on the trail in the Sierra, and run into many hikers on their journey.  I was involved in cutting the trees at Red's Meadow this year.

I was very bothered by the volume of people this year.  The impact of about a thousand people is significant.

Even in the ten years that I've been doing support, there has been a huge increase, and not just this year.

When I was doing a project at Lake Edison this summer, I asked several hikers what most surprised them, and they were unanimous in saying "the social aspect".  

My observation:  This increase is occuring because the trail is becoming easier to hike. All of the resupply options, all the water support, the support books of various sorts, maps, descriptions of how to do it, the places to stay as a group that has a HUGE impact on the psychological component....they all have an impact.

The KO has filled up every year.  There are not significantly more people this year at the KO, than there were 5 years ago.  What HAS happened is that it fills up quicker and quicker each year...Used to take a month, now less than a week.  The pool of potential hikers has hugely expanded, but they are not being accommodated at the KO.  

Donna has had to set daily limits.  The volume of water at caches used is sometimes unbelievable....and will go up. 

I don't have an answer to all this, but the future is predictable.  You used to have to be able to manage snow, manage water, manage permits, manage your mental state, manage resupplies.  It is getting so you don't even NEED a formal resupply. How best to get cell phone coverage? Spot? Sat phone?

Do people even get lonely?

This is not the trail that Eric Ryback hiked, nor Teddie, nor Strider, nor Kelty Kid.

In the forest service, they say that wilderness management is a misnomer.  We don't need to manage the wilderness, it has done fine for itself for millenia.  It is about managing PEOPLE, and it's true.

How to manage the people will be the biggest challenge for the trail, I think.  But as is true for many things, more people does not make the problem better.