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View Poll Results: Should the ATC end the 2000-Miler Award?

Voters
25. This poll is closed
  • Yes, It’s time has gone.

    5 20.00%
  • No, Keep it.

    20 80.00%
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  1. #1
    ME => GA 19AT3 rickb's Avatar
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    Default Straight forward poll: Should the ATC eliminate the 2000-miler award

    This poll asks if the ATC should cease handing out the 2000-Miler Certificate. Other groups like the ALDHA could fill the void if there was an interest.

    I have been saying this for years. I am personally convinced this would be best moving forward.

    This is a straight forward forum, so I would ask that everyone answer with a simple yes/no without additional comment.

    ***

    Post edited at 5:55 PM to remove a line of brief commentary reflecting my personal opinion and a quote from the ATC. My intention was not (and is not) to debate on this, so it was not really fair to say anything, especially in a straight forward section asking for just a yes/no.

    I also understand that “Award” is probably not the best word to use, so I changed it to “Certificate” in this post. I was unable to edit that word in the actual poll question.
    Last edited by rickb; 02-11-2021 at 18:55.

  2. #2
    Registered User LittleRock's Avatar
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    Default

    Yes they should eliminate it.
    It's all good in the woods.

  3. #3

    Default

    Yes, they should.

  4. #4
    1000+ miles down, 1000+ miles to go
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    No...and I admit I don't understand the problem.
    "When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute.
    But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute--and it's longer than any hour.
    That's relativity." --Albert Einstein--

  5. #5
    Registered User ldsailor's Avatar
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    The PCT, the CT, the AZT, etc. as well as the ATC all give out completion awards. I've got mine on the wall for the CT and hope to add the AZT this year and the AT when I finish the last 265 miles. I don't understand why they should be eliminated. Would somebody care to explain?
    Trail Name - Slapshot
    "One step at a time."
    Blog - www.tonysadventure.com

  6. #6

    Default

    Not that these are particularly scientific polls but you have terribly biased your polling. It's one thing to provide context but you have really slanted the question. Asking as a moderator here, I know it's in SF.

    Also, isn't it a certificate of recognition not an award?
    "Sleepy alligator in the noonday sun
    Sleepin by the river just like he usually done
    Call for his whisky
    He can call for his tea
    Call all he wanta but he can't call me..."
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  7. #7

    Default

    I assume that the objection to the continuation of the certificate/2000 miler patch is that some significant portion of the spring hoard would be less inclined to undertake a thru hike if there were no external reward involved? Or that the time, energy, and money spent by the ATC keeping up w/ all the certificates, etc... could be better spent on something else? I realize that this is the SF forum but maybe the OP could explain his concern.
    Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.

  8. #8

    Default

    Classic example of a push poll. Doesn't belong in the 'straight forward' forum.
    Teej

    "[ATers] represent three percent of our use and about twenty percent of our effort," retired Baxter Park Director Jensen Bissell.

  9. #9

    Default

    I think most hikers that completed the AT are proud of their achievement, so NO the certificate shouldn’t be eliminated. The only people I’ve seen on this forum that even mention it are the ones upset that the ATC suspended the certificates, for good reason, during the current pandemic.

  10. #10
    Registered User Grampie's Avatar
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    Default Eliminate 2000 award

    Quote Originally Posted by LittleRock View Post
    Yes they should eliminate it.
    A certificate for completing the AT means little. It has become something that is given out to almost anyone who applies for one, with no proof at all if they did the hike or not.
    I thru-hiked in 2001. After reviewing those who were award a certificate I knew several of the awardes that did not finish or skipped large sections.
    Grampie-N->2001

  11. #11
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    I can hardly fathom a reason to have ATC stop the certificates but allow ALDHA to continue as the OP puts it. Is ATC somehow deficient and negligent in issuing them? Is this about them suspending them during the pandemic? That's the only thing I can come up with in the circumstances of ending ATC but continuing ALDHA.

  12. #12
    Registered User hobbs's Avatar
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    If the ALDHA can acknowledge a hike the ATC can as welll....The only thing should be off limits is shelters..Let people hike
    My love for life is quit simple .i get uo in the moring and then i go to bed at night. What I do inbween is to occupy my time. Cary Grant

  13. #13

    Default

    Mandatory issuance now!

  14. #14
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    Is this about them suspending them during the pandemic?



    yes.....


    my thoughts------if you like the certificate program, apply for it (once they get back to recognizing it)....

    if you don't like the program-----don't apply for it.....


    or, as they say HYOH....

  15. #15

    Default

    IMHO the ATC should issue the awards to anyone who meets the requirements for the award. Let the CDC and NIH make the travel pronouncements.

  16. #16

    Default

    Your poll needs a 3rd answer for,,, dont give a rip either way.

  17. #17

    Default

    Not sure why this is an issue unless it's disagreement with pandemic related closures.

    The value of the certificate is the recognition from the official operations organization of the trail. I've not seen anything relating to ALHDA taking over for the ATC, agreeing to do the heavy lifting of trail maintenance, notifications, promotion, funding, and the myriad facets of managing a complex network of regional's Chapters as the new official organization. Unless ALDHA is proposing to take over these functions as the official trail authority, recognition of completion should remain the official issuing source, which is the ATC.

  18. #18
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    Default

    If the OP doesn't like that ATC suspended recognition for the pandemic, why does the OP wish to further stop ATC recognition by ending it forever?

    Quote Originally Posted by Nanatuk View Post
    IMHO the ATC should issue the awards to anyone who meets the requirements for the award. Let the CDC and NIH make the travel pronouncements.
    The requirements and recognition of thru hiking has always been beholden to ATC, and not ATC is beholden to the requirements of thru hiking. ATC can set and change the requirements that have to be met and has in the past.

    In the past ATC has changed the requirements for a thru hike. I believe 2016 or 2017 ATC accepted SoBo thru hikers who hiked from Katahdin to Hot Springs as thru hikers. That was because of the multiple wildfires AT south of there BUT also the hazardous dry conditions that could become wildfires. Also in the past ATC allowed vehicle bypassing of hazardous sections, now I believe such requirement is to walk the roads around the hazard instead. ATC has set the standard for it's purpose, and can change it when a change is deemed needed.

    In the case of the pandemic it's not as simple as the probability of thru hikers spreading the coronavirus, but the perception of it in trail towns and the possibility of a 'hot zone' around trail towns. ATC has worked very hard with the trail towns and some areas can still be hostel to hikers (due to how the AT corridor was taken from the people there). Maintaining good relations with the trail towns is arguably part of ATC's mission, and even if you don't agree with that, ATC does.

  19. #19
    Coach Lou coach lou's Avatar
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    I agree....if you want a picture, take it, if you want the patch, sew it on, you want the certificate, frame it!

    Been hiking the AT since 1967....I ain't never getting that piece of paper

  20. #20
    Registered User kolokolo's Avatar
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    Default

    No, the ATC should not stop handing out 2000 mile certificates.
    Formerly uhfox

    Springer to Bear Mountain Inn, NY
    N Adams, MA to Clarendon VT
    Franconia Notch to Crawford Notch

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