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Agreed.<br>
<br>
Seems like any event that's planned either at the time most hikers
begin their thru or at some point along the way is going to create a
herd effect.<br>
<br>
L-Rod's suggestion to support Trail Fest, an event that occurs at a
time other than when hikers will be starting on the the trail, may be
the best solution for a big group get-together that will not result in
the herd effect.<br>
<br>
Greg<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Slyatpct@aol.com">Slyatpct@aol.com</a> wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:d36.243c9160.34f7043a@aol.com" type="cite">
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<div>I'll try to use AT Trail Days as an example. It's held the week
after Mothers Day and is 450 miles from the start or about 6 weeks
hiking on that trail. Take a guess what, traditionally was/is the
biggest starting day is? April 1st. It's not because of Trail Days.
The Trail Days date was choosen because that's when most hikers arrived
at Damascus. Of course, as the number of starters grew, people wanted
to spread out, so now they start earlier and earlier and get back to
Trail Days. Now, there's not one huge herd but several with most
hikers starting on or around 3/1, 3/17 and 3/21 along with 4/1. Each
of these "herds" is about the same size of the PCT herd.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Now say the KO was moved to Wrightwood or Kennedy Meadows or
wherever. In order for it to be successful, you'd need to pick a date
when most of the hikers would be arriving. This date would be an
average from when most people start the trail. That date would be
towards the last weekend of April if only not to arrive in the Sierras
too soon. Back to square one. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>Even with quotas, of say 10-15 per day leaving Campo spread out
over a 30 day period, the herd would still bunch up in towns. The
towns, PO, stores, hostels, motels on the AT deal with 1000's of
hikers, packages, requests. Certainly the west coast should be able to
deal with 300.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Sly</div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div>In a message dated 2/27/2008 12:54:33 PM Eastern Standard Time,
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:dsaufley@sprynet.com">dsaufley@sprynet.com</a> writes:</div>
<blockquote style="padding-left: 10px; margin-left: 10px;">
<div><font style="background-color: transparent;" color="#000000"
face="Arial" size="2">Moving the ADZ to much later in the season and
further up<br>
the trail would not make the event any less special. I propose that it<br>
become AZD for annual zero day. <br>
</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font style="background-color: transparent;" color="#000000"
face="Arial" size="2"> Personally, I think hikers who make it into the<br>
Sierra deserve a party and a free meal more than the starters do.
They've<br>
earned it, whereas a third of the starters don't make it that far.<br>
<br>
If you can come up with a better solution than that, I'm all ears. </font></div>
</blockquote>
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