Scree - December 28, 2010
AT News
The trail is longer! The Knoxville paper reports that the Appalachian Trail is 1.7 miles longer than it used to be. Now, the official length of the trail is 2,181 miles instead of 2,179 miles.
I was wondering how this change effects the finishers. Those who only hiked 2,179 miles - will they be grandfathered in as finishers? Could they actually have completed the additional 2 miles? Or would those extra miles be the tipping point for success or failure? Regardless, they will always have an asterisk by their names indicating the lesser achievement.
Perhaps the AT Conservancy will develop an online course for those short course finishers to get their extra miles; but of course we all know those on line courses are not nearly as hard as the real thing.
Maybe Congress can get involved to help us with legal directions to help solve these issues. HIking lobbyist and lawyers would find jobs defending each side of the issue. The state governments would also have vested interest in the jurisdiction, because if the short course finishers had to return to finish the long course in order to be true finishers, the number of hikers would sky rocket! Extra hikers mean extra tourist dollars.
thereis a lot at stake with these issues, we will try to monitor the proceedings. Just stay tuned!
More AT News
The Appalachian Trail - Trail Updates listed 35 entries. Of those entries: 6 were bear related issues, 6 were facility improvements, and 8 were vandalism warnings.
That was a total of 14 vandalism warnings, 8 from humans and 6 from the bears!
Better secure those belongings out of sight and reach of vandals. If the humans won't get you, the bears surely will. Hey, Hey, Hey.
