[pct-l] Recruiting New Water Cachers!

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

This year was particularly high volume because it was a low snow year  
and not too much of a dry year in So Cal. Perfect year to do it if  
desert and snow hiking concerns you. I predict that a nice drought  
year or a high Sierra snow year will scare off hikers in future years.

As for your question do hikers even get lonely? You can have a lonely  
hike if you want. I certainly did. All you have to do is hike your  
own hike.

One way to hike your own hike is to go SOBO. Another way is to start  
in the middle and hike north, then return and hike south. Another way  
is to hike large sections rather than do a thru-hike. A thru-hike is  
nice but it's not the only way to experience long-distance hiking.  
Yet another way to do it is to hike in the midst of the herd but  
refuse to join forces with anybody. This is really easy to do. I did  
it. And yet another way that probably nobody will do is you can take  
alternate routes and truly design your own hike. In other words,  
don't fall for the "all or nothing" idea of what hiking the PCT  
means. Anybody who wants solitude can find it.

Personally, I think I got the whole solitude thing out of my system.  
This summer I traveled to Wyoming to join some CDT thru-hikers so I  
wouldn't have to hike alone. I had such a wonderful time finally not  
hiking by myself. The stories they told me of their thru-hike so far  
sounded like the olden days of the PCT. The CDT will certainly keep  
away the hoards for a long time to come.


On Aug 11, 2012, at 10:00 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> From: Ken Murray <kmurray at pol.net>
> Subject: [pct-l] Recruiting New Water Cachers!
>
> 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.