Originally Posted by
Tipi Walter
Uh, how about oxygen? Eventually, with vast areas covered in air pollution, I guess only the rich will have clean purified air to breath in houses outfitted with fancy, expensive air cleaners. For the last 200,000 years of modern human existence, we lived on the land like we breathed the air, for free. While it's true tribal groups fought over territory and huntings lands, a great percentage of land was available for roaming and free living(just had to watch out for the grizzlies).
We've made a human choice to over-populate the country(and the world), and so we sit around and actually contemplate paying money to sleep in tents in the wild lands surrounded by tamed lands covered in sprawl, highways and millions of other people. How times have changed. Wouldn't the solution be a reduction in our numbers instead of queueing up(form a line, buddy)to pay a nightly fee and get a permit?
So, would you therefore like to see a nightly tent fee on the AT? How much? How about a flat one thousand dollar fee(with the necessary paperwork and permits)per one thruhike? Makes sense. And one more thing, how about listing every campsite you'll be staying at during your thruhike? Get a map, get a data book, get out the calendar, and have fun. Welcome to 21st Century Backpacking.