My Lamentations About My Future Experiences.

[Professor Paul]

For those who jumped on White Shimmer for expressing his concerns, the ATC has actually made those exact worries (i.e., the potential problems associated with WITW, particularly ruining the sense of solitude) central to their last couple of newsletters and other publications. So he's right in the mainstream of the organization that, you know, coordinates everything on the AT. So everyone should please lighten up. That said, the tips offered, especially regarding going in the offseason and whatnot, should alleviate things enough. Hiking has a way of taking care of things all by itself anyway.

[4eyedbuzzard]

I think Benton MacKaye, Arthur Perkins, Myron Avery, et al, would be pleased with the amount of concern about over-crowding on, and over-use of the AT. But I think they would be even more pleased that so many people are actually hiking the AT to cause need for that concern. It was built to be used. Its sole reason for being is that people actually use it. If people didn't use it, there would be little reason to justify the public money and effort spent on its construction, protection, and maintenance.

The purpose of the trail was, and still is, to address a much larger problem - the effect on humans living in an industrialized(now technological) era in congested urban areas. The trail was built to be accessible to the country's major population in the eastern US, in order that those people would be able to temporarily escape for a few weeks every year to "re-create", and experience (an illusion of) the wilderness. Much of MacKaye's original vision such as work camps, farms, and such never materialized. And people now have much more leisure time than he likely imagined. But what did survive and flourish is a very unique linear park whose use we should encourage, not discourage. Because spending some time hiking and camping in the woods usually makes people's lives fuller, makes them better people, and gets them interested in protecting the little wilderness we have left.

Yes, there's some issues with crowding and overuse: the NOBO thru-hiker bubble, crowding in the Whites (which is nothing new), and BSP's recent concerns (over-reaction?) over thru-hiker behavior/impact. We need to encourage alternate itineraries along with better infrastructure in the south to handle the NOBO bubble, and we need to better educate prospective hikers regarding respect for rules and standards of behavior. But as these issues are solved, others will arise, and the trail will always remain a bit of a work in progress.