In defense of the appalachian trail

imported
#1

What measures would you take, personally or collectively, if a large corporate conglomerate such as Disney Enterprises decided to buy the Appalachian Trail. Imagine they marketed the trail as “The Ultimate Wilderness Adventure”. Imagine a “Thru-Hike Permit” that costs one hundred dollars at Amicalola Falls or at the Katahdin ranger station. Imagine “Disney Gift Shops” instead of trail-magic or coke machines and toilets at each shelter. Imagine a Disney logo on each sign. Imagine patches of forest being leveled to make room for a resort. Imagine any change that would make the trail more marketable to a larger group of people (beyond those of us who seek the primitive experience), or any change that might allow more business opportunities to be had on the trail.

I am not interested in whether this could or could not happen. Of course we know that the AT lies along a corridor of public land, thus it is not up for sale. Obviously, my example is an extreme one and only hypothetical. My point is to ask the chance of how much do you love the Appalachian Trail and not only that, but how much do you love the wilderness. The converse of the question is how much do you love civilization?

Even though my example is an extreme one, it is also very real. Understand that two hundred years ago, the AT could have been routed everywhere. But, now it is woven through the last wild and fragile remnants of the East Coast.

I ask this question because I wonder whether the AT hiking community regards the trail/wilderness as only a novel thing for recreation or whether it is regarded as something sacred, holy, something to be defended.

Please email me if you have any questions.

Thanks, cheers, solidarity. Onward - Nightfever, '03

nightfever

#2

I don’t think you have to worry about Disney. However, if oil were found in the Smokies or Maine, the trail would be sold for pennies in seconds. Democrats and Republicans would sell their mothers to get reelected.

Blue Jay

#3

“the AT lies along a corridor of public land, thus it is not up for sale”. Sure, the government would NEVER sell off public land!

3D

#4

Time the move west. The AT has been done and loved to near death.

Wolf

#5

Corporate sponsorships are not that far-off. Currently, the NPS does not have the funds to maintain the parks due to excessive budget cuts from the Bush irresponsibility debt-building economic policy. I’m not being political: go ask any Park Service management official and they’ll tell you the same thing. His voters believed the “programs” that would be cut were just handouts for homeless. Now the rug has been ripped out beneath the feet of the land protection agency. That tax return check in their hand seems to be shrinking every day.

If you want to protect the AT, you’ll have to think about that in Novemeber. See you at Ford’s Yellowstone Park! Or why don’t we meet at the Cingular shelter?

Tha Wookie

#6

It seems that someone has managed to purchase 150 acres of prime real estate from the BLM outside of Crested Butte, Colorado - for $875! What a ripoff! Private land in that area costs about $100,000 for a tenth of an acre lot, according to the mayor of Crested Butte, Jim Schmitt.

The land was controlled by the Forest Service, but the BLM controlled the giveaway. Could AT land be next?

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2065122,00.html

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#7

Indeed, as the Wookie says, my scenario is not that far-fetched because the Forest Service leases its land out on a daily basis for the sake of timber harvests (polite language for logging projects) and for mineral exploration (polite language for mining or oil drilling). Look at the Nez-Pierce National Forest where a 76,000 acre roadless area called Cove-Mallard is being clearcut or look at the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, home to the worlds largest tract of old-growth temperate rainforest, of which 100 million acres has been logged since 1950, more is scheduled in the future (including roadless areas). Even here, in my home state of Wisconsin, the National Forest will have 47,000 acres cut in the next five years.

And remember Bush’s proposal to drill in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)? Well, his initiative was only defeated by a narrow margin of four votes, meaning that he could easily reintroduce that proposal and successfully push it through Congress.

What does this matter? I guess the point I am trying to make on this discussion is that the wilderness that we, the AT hiking community, know and love is under constant threat. Even though National Forests are considered public land, the Forest Service can still ‘lease’ the land to private companies. Even if my Disney example was far fetched, it still speaks to the daily reality of destruction in our forests.

So, I want to ask the question again. What would you do? What if you were hiking down from, let’s say, Dragons Tooth and from the angle of the summit you saw that the trail was running through a clear-cut. A field of stumps, dotted with bulldozers and the whir of chainsaws? This is not an outrageous example. Would this make you angry? Would you ask the loggers to stop? Would you just keep hiking on towards Mcafee’s Knob? Would sabotage the machinery? Would you climb up into a tree so they couldn’t cut it down?

Again, my question is how much do you love the AT and how much do you love civlization?

nightfever

#8

more info?

http://www.endangeredforests.org/report/10_me_2003_opt.pdf#zoom=100

nightfever

#9

We would do nothing but complain that there were no Whiteblazes. Hell, most AT hikers do not even belong to the ATC. You expect us to fight for the trail, many of us do not even vote.

Blue Jay

#10

It is what you get from it, and even if Disney took over and made the ‘Mickeys Haunted Forest’ in PA, ‘Goofys Log Jam’ in VerMud, ‘Chip and Dales Rock Scramble’ just North Of Gorham…etc…it would still be the same thing, as people who do hike year to year over distances realize is that no matter where you are, no matter the crowd size, you truly can lose yourself in your thougths and in the wilderness. Its just a matter of allowing yourself to not need others around to make your journey feel real and to verify in you that you are accomplishing something other then what you have set out to accomplish.

A journey of discovery and growth.

If Walt every steps in and tries to change that…well then…it’ll be time for more then a Mouse Hunt.

But then the Coke machines at every road crossing thing…that would rock.

Hope all is Well Feva’.:boy :cheers

Lion King

#11

they would probably make it illegal to use pepsi stoves, and “send you home” for letting weekenders see the rouge labeling. Then it would be just like what actually happened in a school recently with a teacher -true story. Far-fetched? Hardly. It happens in our public schools, why not our public lands?

The real question is: How long are we willing to accept dependabilty on corporate livelihood for public resources?

Basic social resonsiblity in this country for health, recreation, and spiritual freedom has been hijacked by big business inside the government. The walls for our wilderness are coming down. Much has already fallen, like the precedent removal of Wilderness status for Wilderness study areas in Utah, and the so called -healthy forests innitiative.

There is not one magic answer here that will serve as the solution. What must start the personal creativity is the indiviual’s solidifying integrity. Personal integrity is the key.

The hiking community must come together and promote integrity to our brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers…

Tha Wookie

#12

Did someone mention Bush? lol Sorry people, I know this page is about camping and hiking, but Tha Wookie mentioned how bad this man can get, and I thought, I, as a good American, would show you just how bad he has been. Things will only get worse with the likes of him around. So enjoy this great Appalachian Trail while we can, some day we will be telling our grandchildren about it.

Wild Bill

#13

The wording for the justification for holding people without trial in Cuba reads almost word for word as the justification used to hold people in Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany. While he hides under his bed he actually said “Bring it on” while our guys are in the line of fire. Adolf Bush needs to go.

Blue Jay

#14

Tha Wookie is a wise man when he says, “There is not one magic answer here that will serve as the solution. What must start the personal creativity is the indiviual’s solidifying integrity. Personal integrity is the key.”

I think its sad that we must target all of our blame onto George Bush. This was not my intention in starting the discussion. Its too easy to blame the politicians, the legislatures, the corporations, while also ignoring the ways that we contribute to the unmaking of our wilderness or the ways the we DO NOT contribute to the protection of wilderness. Yes, his politics are abhorrent, but it is not enough to blame George Bush, he is merely the face-mask of a much larger and deeper structure. It is a structure that we all participate in. By targeting George Bush, we remove our own personal responsibility from the task of enhancing the world, promoting wilderness, cultivating beauty.

Again, I have to ask the same question again, aside from politics, how much do you love the wilderness? How much do you love the Appalachian Trail? How much do you love the progress-machine, civilization? These are personal questions for you to respond to. This doesn’t have to be a heavy question: we all know in our guts why we love the trail and the forests and the boulders and the moss.

What will you do to express your love?

Nightfever

#15

Geez, thanks for the History Lesson/Political Fillibuster!
I logged in hoping to get a little info to help me decide whether I want a Tarptent with a sewn-in floor, or a Hammock! Guess I should have checked the thread header before I haplessly walked into this one. Maybe i’ll be able
to get the tarp vs hammock info I need from cnn.com…

Tim H

#16

Unfortunately, I think that money will always come first. Here in NJ, the govenor is trying to institute a “Highlands Protection Area” (the AT runs through this area, by the way.) The whole area of N NJ is already very developed, even so, the remaining woods are a watershed for drinking water for 4-5 million people. This is it. Every day I drive around, and I see more & more developments & strip malls w/big Walmarts go up (while the K Mart down the street days abandoned, what’s the point of that?) Of course this plan is being met with huge oppostion, mostly arguments about money, and NJ Builders Assoc. using scare tactics that ulimately come down to money. Right or wrong, in my opinion, money will always up the environment, at least in the short run. This is just the way people function.

Owl Avenue

#17

Disney may not be an immediate threat but the fear of the commercialization of the AT as already materialized. Next door to the factory in Cambodia where children are sewing Mickey Mouse T-shirts for less than a dollar a day, is another factory where children are sewing our backpacks, tents and clothes under the same conditions. Introducing technology to hiking is certainly a mixed blessing as we now hike with lighter loads. Nonetheless, a good number of us as spend in the thousands in an industry the employs low wage labor and relies on the oil industry, something that a few recent wars have been fought over, with many casualties.

Fortunately, there are many positive aspects. As the outdoors industry grows, so does it’s recognition by the political powers. Hiking, is an economic driver that is supported by consumers who care very much about preserving the environment. As more and more people start at Springer year after year, supported by new high-tech equipment that makes the experience more enjoyable, hikers as a group become more influential.

Jeff T

#18

. . . so check the tags at your local outfitter and see where your gear and clothing is being made and buy with a conscience. Patagonia only deals with fair labor companies for instance and is as green as a company can be.

Of course, buying what’s made in the good ole’ US of A is a great decision. Support brands made domesticlly like Western Mountaineering, Chaco, etc. I should know, here in NC, textile jobs are going overseas left and right.

Cap’n

#19

You should make your own gear ordered from US fabric supplyers. OR you could buy gear from one of the many American gear and how-to makers, like Lynne Wheldon (lwgear.com) Ray Jardine (www.Rayjardine.com), Hennessey (hennesseyhammocks.com), Tin Man (antigravitygear.com), and others? Who else is out there?

Buy it from the guys who thru-hike the trails! Or better yet, make-em yourself! Oh, and don’t forget your Chacos;)

Tha Wookie

#20

We need no more words on the matter. What we need now are heroes. And heroines. About a million of them. One brave deed is worth a thousand books. Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul. Or as an old friend of mine once said, If I regret anything, it is my good behavior. What demon possessed me to behave so well?

So much for all of that. Now I can do no more than offer one final prayer to the young, to the bold, to the angry, to the questing, to the lost.

Beyond the wall of the unreal city, beyond the security fences topped with barbed wire and razor wire, beyond the asphalt belting of the superhighways, beyond the cemented banksides of our temporarily stopped and mutilated rivers, beyond the rage of lies that poisons the air, there is another world waiting for you. It is the old true world of the deserts, the mountains, the forests, the islands, the shores, the open plains. Go there. Be there. Walk gently and quietly deep within it. And then –

May your trails be dim, lonesome, stony, narrow, winding and only slightly uphill. May the wind bring rain for the slickrock potholes fourteen miles on the other side of yonder blue ridge. May God’s dog serenade your campfire, may the rattlesnake and the screech owl amuse your reverie, may the Great Sun dazzle your eyes by day and the Great Bear watch over you by night.

E.A. 1983

Nightfever