THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 18, 1996 TAG: 9605180004
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A13 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: KERRY DOUGHERTY
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
In ``Field of Dreams'' the motto was: If you build it, they will come. On the Appalachian Trail the new motto is: If you hide it, they'll go home.
As news stories last week reported, officials are fretting about overuse of the Appalachian Trail. The 2,159-mile trail, which wends its way through the mountains from Georgia to Maine, has been a favorite of hikers for decades. But every time a newspaper or magazine publishes a story about this wilderness footpath, hikers flock to the trail.
That's what's happening this year, following a series called ``Appalachian Adventure'' that ran in some East Coast newspapers. Preliminary estimates show that about 10 percent to 17 percent more ``through-hikers'' - those determined to walk the entire length - are on the trail right now.
Every year several thousand hardy hikers set out from Georgia, determined to walk all the way to Maine. About 200 of them make it.
It's these people the officials worry about. Ninety-five percent of the through-hikers begin in Georgia and head north. By the time they hit Gatlinburg, Tenn., the faint-hearted have given up. Not this year. Hundreds more hikers are passing through the Smokies this year, trampling vegetation at the overnight campsites and generally overwhelming the rustic facilities which are placed about every 12 miles.
How does the Appalachian Trail Conference, which manages the trail for the National Park Service, propose to remedy this? Will the conference institute ``through-hiker'' fees, to limit the number of diehards on the trail? Will it build more facilities? Will it divert hikers around some of the fragile wilderness areas? Or will it send in groups of conservationists to replant the areas around shelters with heartier vegetation?
None of the above.
Officials with the Appalachian Trail Conference came up with their own swell idea: Make the trail ``less easy'' to negotiate. They want to do that by removing some blazes from the trails and taking out some bridges. Blazes are simple trail markers, usually attached to trees, which keep hikers from becoming lost. Bridges are structures which allow you to cross rivers or streams without getting wet.
Think about this for a minute: The people who maintain the trail have decided that they want to ``discourage novices'' from through-hiking by removing trail markers and bridges. As if only the through-hikers would be confused by the lack of markers.
This sets the stage for inexperienced day-hikers to be wandering aimlessly around the woods, foraging for nuts and berries until they're rescued. What fun they'll have wading through streams which could be swollen from heavy rains or snow melt. Hypothermia is a deadly deterrent to adventure.
But why discourage novices at all? Where exactly should inexperienced hikers begin if not along the hiker-friendly Appalachian Trail? The trek from Katmandu to Mount Everest's base camp?
This curious solution is of importance to Virginians because about 25 percent of the trail is in our state. Ours are some of the gentlest, most-scenic paths along the way. For the time being, they're well-marked and make for delightful day-hiking for families, Boy and Girl Scouts and other novices.
Throughout the Shenandoah National Park and the Washington and Jefferson national forests, the trail is well-traveled, but challenging. That's as it should be: Hiking should tax your muscles, not risk your life.
The sensible solution is to build more overnight facilities or limit the number of campers using them. Removing blazes and bridges is foolhardy and threatens to turn one of the gems of our National Park System into an elite wilderness theme park restricted to those in peak physical condition with the instincts of homing pigeons.
Let's hope the Federal Highway Administration doesn't get wind of this splendid idea. Its officials might decide to remove all the signs and bridges from the interstates as a way to reduce traffic. MEMO: Ms. Dougherty is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot.
by CNB