One of the unintended consequences of the current effort to spread out the bubble for North Bound Thru Hikers is that it drives some brave souls to start so early that they get caught in dangerous weather. The recent blizzard has already produced some 911 situations. Prior to the “fear the bubble” effort we could expect a few dozen hikers venturing out in January. Now we have 10 times more. 10 times more likely for a deadly incident. Perhaps we should rethink this effort. There must be other ways to deal with increased numbers of hikers.
Francis