[pct-l] ] Thru numbers

[Eric Lee]

Joe wrote:
>
I DON'T like signs that tell you what to do or how to do it, BUT........
next year there will be a sign saying something like,"Have ONE OR TWO and
move on". Be considerate of those behind you and those who have to buy and
re-stock on a daily basis.
>

Wow . . . if the Andersons are starting to feel taken advantage of then
things are really getting out of hand!  That's absolutely not a criticism of
the Andersons at all - they have a well-deserved reputation as one of the
most generous trail angels out there.  It just speaks to the size of the
problem.

I guess it's closely related the "REI return policy change" thread - there
are always people out there who will abuse anything that can be abused.
When your audience size is small it can often be tolerated.  When the
audience size is gets too large the number of abusers gets to be an
insurmountable problem.  When you have 1 real jerk out of 100 thru-hikers,
it's easy to set that aside and move on.  When you have 10 real jerks out of
1000 thru-hikers, it's harder.  The ratio is still 100-to-1 in favor of
wonderful people but 10 jerks is a lot of jerks when you have to deal with
all 10 of them.

It's pretty clear that for better or worse there are major changes coming to
the trail angel system that thru-hikers have enjoyed for the past decade or
so.  The number of thru-hikers is going up every year and that isn't likely
to stop.  That's actually a *good* thing for the long-term future of the
trail - as the government continues to de-fund things that they used to do
(like the Forest Service), the only way that the PCT will survive is if
there are a lot of citizens out there willing to stand up, speak out, and
get their hands dirty.  But numbers have a way of altering what's feasible.

That means that the days of trail angels being able to host every hiker on
the trail, or provide refreshments for every single hiker on the trail, are
probably drawing to a close.  There will probably be some frustration, hurt
feelings, and stress as the community adjusts to a new normal, whatever that
ends up looking like.  But that's the way it's going to be.

Eric