Re: Talk of rerouting end of Appalachian Trail

As Hikers Celebrate on Appalachian Trail, Some Ask: Where Will It End?

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYEAUG. 29, 2015

MOUNT KATAHDIN, Me. — The storied Appalachian Trail, which begins 2,190 miles away in Georgia, ends here, with a final scramble up Maine’s highest peak — some of it nearly vertical, much of it blocked by boulders. For those who have trekked five or six months, Katahdin’s iconic summit is an exhausting challenge with a rewarding end.

“It takes your breath away,” said Chuck Wood, 64, a hiker from Norristown, Pa. “Just to be there, it’s like an audience with the Lord.”

But that experience is now in jeopardy. Faced with increasing crowds and partylike behavior by a few — including an ultramarathon runner who celebrated at the summit last month with a spray of champagne — officials here are threatening to reroute the end of the trail off Katahdin and out of Baxter State Park.

The very idea has stunned the hiking world. Katahdin has been the trail’s northern terminus for more than 80 years. For the thousands who set out annually to follow its entire path, moving the trail’s endpoint off this rocky peak would be a momentous detour, forcing long-distance hikers to end their treks not with a bang but a whimper.


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/30/us/as-hikers-celebrate-on-appalachian-trail-some-ask-where-will-it-end.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0

Peak? Looks more like a hill to me.

Now now...it's big for back East.

This story is interesting to me. Here we have quotas for Half Dome, quotas for Donahue Pass, and Quotas for Whitney, as well as quotas for backpacking just about every trailhead in the National Parks in California---all in an attempt to keep at least some semblance of wilderness experience for those sites.

And the AT is getting huge amounts of flak for suggesting that the same things might be appropriate there. The hike to Katahdin is a lot shorter than the hike to Whitney....but I doubt that our rangers would be pleased if someone decided to ignore quotas and regulations and host a media party on top of Whitney without their approval--no matter how fast they hiked the JMT.

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In any event the clumsy way the situation was handled and the citations make them all look petty and distract from the worthwhile message of conservation and semblance of wilderness experience. That is why they are getting the flak. The notion that they would change the end of the trail to somewhere else is kind of silly. If someone has managed to hike all the way from Georgia to finish the trail, I have a suspicion they aren't going to allow the lack of a permit and grouchy Maine ranger keep them from finishing the traditional route.

The case was "settled". The Park and DA pressed he case but ended up dropping the littering and party limit charges.