<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Dear Donna,<div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>I do not buy this premise. It infers that the herd is caused by ADZ. While ADZ probably exacerbates the problem, the kickoff is based on expected hiker start time, rather than hiker start time being based on the kickoff. There are, of course, exceptions.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>AT hikers start hiking in almost every month of the calendar and there is a considerably higher percentage of SOBOs on the AT, than the PCT. So having a starting event in Georgia makes no sense on the AT. The start window for the PCT, however, is fairly narrow. And an overwhelming number of hikers are NOBO. A start event makes sense for a number of reasons, primarily in ease of access for all hikers.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>I am going to start hiking earlier than the kickoff in order to miss the crowds early on in my hike. Not for LNT reasons (hangs head), but that's what I prefer. Others will begin some time after the kickoff. I have been re-reading Suge's 2003 journal, and he started in May, but attended the kickoff earlier. Point: scheduling an event at Lake Morena does not dictate hike start time. It influences it, most likely, but people will start based on their own styles and wishes.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>I started to write that it is unlikely that the kickoff will change. But I don't know if that's true. I hope it does not change too much. Even if the kickoff were to go away, there would be a herd. The nature of conditions in the west create it, not the kickoff.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>With great respect and affection,<br><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Jim Keener ( J J )</div><div><a href="http://oldmanwalking.net">http://oldmanwalking.net</a></div></div></span> </div><br><div><div>On Feb 26, 2008, at 11:44 AM, Donna Saufley wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="State"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"><div class="Section1"><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; "><o:p> </o:p></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; ">First and foremost, having a starting event that attracts hikers to start on or around a specific date is against Leave No Trace principles which state, “</span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; ">Schedule your trip to avoid times of high use.” “Visit in small groups when possible.” “Consider splitting larger groups into smaller groups.” <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.lnt.org/programs/principles.php" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">http://www.lnt.org/programs/principles.php</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> <o:p></o:p></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><br></div></div></o:smarttagtype></o:smarttagtype></o:smarttagtype></div></span></blockquote></div></div></body></html>