Love that Terrapin Photo logo. You should make that your avitar.Originally Posted by terrapin_too
That's my dog, Echo. He's a fine young dog.
The west and southwest are awesome, I agree. And the Northweast too, and the CA and OR and WA coasts. Ahh. Byooteeful country we've got here.
Marketing.Hmm. That's an unusual reaction, I dare say. Most folks I know who've been there are in awe of the place. I've only climbed Katahdin three times, myself.
Thoreau. Priggish a$$ though he was.
Kidding? If the place was ever really marketed it would be elbow to elbow all the way up the trail. Katahdin isn't any old mountain..Is at least one of the greatest.... sure there are bigger ones out west but there you start hiking at 10000 ft and go to 14000... with Katahdin you start at around 900 and go to 5000 so it's in the same league. And its a way better hike than Washington and not just because of the road. I hike Katahdin at least once every year and will continue to do so until I can't hike it anymore. It's awesome and a most fitting end to the AT. Excuse the passion but I love that mountain.
I respect that. I don't find it all that.
I respect that too.
Nor will I, though I've done most of it a dozen times, and some sections scores of times, each hike is different.
There's nothing in the southwest that's comparable to Katahdin. But if you want to make the southwest the AT termini, I'd support that. Just figure out a route and how to acquire the land.
Let's see. After leaving Katahdin the trail should loop through all the northern states and maybe pick up the Continental Divide Trail, south to the desert.
Weary
As I understand it, at times of year the summit of Katahdin is the first point on the continental USA to get the morning light. Other times it's the top of Cadillac Mtn. in Acadia NP. Anyone else heard that? Teej? Weary?
Some hikers use a float plane instead of a ground shuttle to get to Jo Mary Rd. They are definitely faster, and sometimes cheaper.
Nah...
It's a plenty long trail as it is. Adding thousands of miles to it will make thruhiking only something near-Olympians can aspire to do. This would knock out the thruhiking community, and turn us all into sectioners.
Better to just extend the AT south to just northeast of Birmingham, AL, and north to the Canadian border. Keeping it A) in the Appalachian Mountain range (and related/similiar mountain chains) and B) within the same nation would seem to be obvious appropriate restrictions.
Further, #A implies IMO that the AT is inappropriately sited between the northern end of the Shenandoah and Vermont. Take a close look sometime at the diorama of the AT in the ATC office in Harper's Ferry, and you'll see how it's pulled down into foothills. IMO the AT should swing west of Harper's Ferry (missing it), going through Winchester instead. Further, it should then head towards the Adirondacks, avoiding CT/MA altogether (not to mention the eastern half of PA). The higher average altitude would make for cooler average summer hiking weather, not to mention better natural water availability in NY (the AT is routed far too low/close to the coast in that state IMO).
You understand, of course, that the AT was sited the way it was so as to be maximally-accessible by folks from the eastern US sprawl? And I presume you understand that the very earliest AT visionaries were in fact New Yorkers?
Mind you, these were New Yorkers with a sense of grace and style, because they fully knew about the really good *****t going on with New England trails -- they just had the crazy idea of hooking up all the NE trails into one big one.
There's a reason the AT crosses the Hudson where it does. If it took your plan, it would still have to cross the Hudson somewhere, only it would be called Lake Champlain and be a lot wider. The DAKs are beautiful, so I read your plan with some amusement and interest. Also: geologically, the DAKs aren't p/o the Apppalachians.
But why does it go thru a friggin zoo? Assinine.
In all seriousness, Wolf. I completely missed the friggin' zoo. I walked up Bear Mtn. on Sept 3, a rainy Sunday. There was nothing going on at the base of the mountain, and nothing on the top. By the time I got to West Mtn. it was sunny again. No friggin zoo. What t h e ? ?
So you can see the Bears!
E-Z---"from sea to shining sea''
Hmmm. The trail has the Lone Wolf tupes. Jack Tarlin types, MinnesotaSmith types -- even Frolicin Dinasaurs and Weary types. Perhaps, LW, because the trail is a zoo.
All true and very wise, MS. But that doesn't override the importance of getting the terminus off Katahdin and into the deserts of the southwest. Instead of criticizing all real hikers will get behind Lone Wolf's plan!!!
I've heard it contested between advocates of both mountains. I think the math says Baxter Peak. I've been lucky enough to have seen several sunrises and sunsets from both peaks, I'd hate to have to pick one over the other.
Teej
"[ATers] represent three percent of our use and about twenty percent of our effort," retired Baxter Park Director Jensen Bissell.
Actually, the area around (and IN) what is now the Bear Mountain Zoo is one of, if not THE oldest section of the entire Trail. I suspect they keep the Trail going thru there out of a feeling of history/tradition; also, keep in mind that hikers have to get across the Hudson River somehow, and the Bear Mountain Bridge is a pretty effective way of getting them across. Having the Trail there isn't such a bad idea.
Oh, and it's also about the only place on the Trail one is virtually guaranteed to see a bear.
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