[pct-l] Monetary Contributions

Robert E. Riess robert.riess at cox.net
Mon Sep 24 19:19:43 CDT 2012


I am not a Trail Angel.  I do not live on or near the PCT.  I live 40 miles from the trail in San Diego.  I started hosting hikers in 1999, the same year of the first ADZPCTKO, and I have been associated with hosting hikers and the ADZPCTKO almost nonstop since then.  Over the years it has been my pleasure to host over 500 hikers.  Generally, I meet them at the airport, bus or train station, put them up for a night, and drive them to the southern terminus for a start at first light.  400 trips of 80 miles each comes to 32,000 miles for the trailhead runs and a similar amount for airport pickups, grocery and gear runs.  Scout and Frodo, and Girlscout are other San Diego hiker hosts who have recently far exceeded my contribution to the hiker community.  I would not be far from correct if I estimated Scout and Frodo hosted nearly 200 hikers this year.  

It has been my policy since the very beginning to not accept monetary contributions from hikers.  Although most offer a generous contribution, I have thus far been successful in not accepting money from hikers.  For those hikers who are most insistent that I accept their money, I just say I have no intention of being rude, but I do what I do because I want to.  Of course, for some hikers, $20 or even $50 is within their budget.  For others, 5 bucks is a lot of money.  I want to treat them all the same, much as we are all the same out on the PCT.  So I accept no money.  Often, when I have a small group of hikers, we decide to go out to a restaurant for dinner, and I have been the beneficiary of many hikers’ generosity when they individually or as a group, pick up the check.  I did find a $20 bill in my van glove box once, several months after hiking season.  Another hiker put $80 on the step of my RV out at the ADZPCTKO.  Since I could not determine who had made the donations, I used these monies to defer the cost of food for the ADZPCTKO.  Sometimes hikers become very insistent on wanting to contribute, and when they say things like they want to contribute so I can continue hosting, I generally just tell them that when it stops being fun for me, I will stop hosting.  I also make a clear and unmistakable statement that hikers who feel compelled to contribute can wait a year and make a generous contribution to the ADZPCTKO, or to the PCTA.  Present year hikers are hosted free of cost.  

My situation is different from most Trail Angels.  Hikers are invited to my home, and as such, they are my guests.  Most are strangers in that we have not previously met, but that does not alter the fact that they are my guests.  I take a great deal of satisfaction from helping my hikers get off to a good start here in San Diego.  There is one more data point I would like to mention.  Just out of my own curiosity, I asked my automobile insurance company if my guests were covered while riding in my vehicles, even though they were not relatives, but acquaintances I had just made.  They said the hikers were covered, but they added that if I took money from them, then it was fee for service and the hikers would not be covered.  Another reason not to accept contributions.  Sorry this is so long.  Good Luck to the Class of 2013.  Bob Riess, San Diego


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