Date: 2004-07-20
From: Bennington, Vermudd

To: Benny's Town, part two same day
Miles today: 0.0

HOWDY FOLKS. WELCOME. THIS IS YOUR NATIONAL PARK, ESTABLISHED FOR THE PLEASURE OF YOU AND ALL PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. PARK YOUR CAR, JEEP, TRUCK, TANK, MOTORBIKE, SNOWMOBILE, JETBOAT, AIRBOAT, SUBMARINE, AIRPLANE, JETPLANE, HELICOPTER, HOVERCRAFT, WINGED MOTORCYCLE, ROCKETSHIP, OR ANY OTHER CONCEIVABLE TYPE OF MOTORIZED VEHICLE IN THE WORLD¢S BIGGEST PARKINGLOT BEHIND THE COMFORT STATION IMMEDIATELY TO YOUR REAR. GET OUT OF YOUR MOTORIZED VEHICLE, GET ON YOUR HORSE, MULE, BICYCLE OR FEET, AND COME ON IN. ENJOY YOURSELVES. THIS HERE PARK IS FOR people. ¢EDWARD ABBEY, Desert Solitaire, 1971Every important change in our society, for the good, at least, has taken place because of popular pressure¢pressure from below, from the great mass of people. ¢EDWARD ABBEY, One Life at a Time, Please, 1988Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am. A reluctant enthusiast and part-time crusader. A half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the West. It is even more important to enjoy it while you can, while it¢s still there. So get out there, hunt, fish, mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the Griz, climb a mountain, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and elusive air. Sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness of the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves. Keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive. And I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound people with their hearts in safe deposit boxes and their eyes hypnotized by their desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards. ¢EDWARD ABBEY, US environmental advocate, 1927¢89Finally we are getting our camera back... We have missed it. Mount Greylock was as beautiful as ever! I only wish that we eliminated all roads leading into parks and let people walk in. The more Edward Abbey I read the more I wish National Parks were designed for people NOT motorhomes. You cannot possibly experience the same Greylock by driving to the summit! And I am sick and tired of seeing idiots wandering in their Polo shirts with cell phones along the trails near the tops of car accessed mountains. Yes, mountain roads should be available to those who can not walk! On the way up we were listening to NPR and heard how being fat is now a disease covered by insurances. I am fat and I realize the way to better health and skinny is to exercise and control eating. It is not to get medicine and have people pity that I am fat! I also realize there are people who cannot control their weight and THAT is a different matter! But, if you are overweight you need to go walking and curb eating bad food. Take your life into your hands! I sweat up every single mountain along the AT. I still need to lose more weight and manage to control it afterwards. But I do not need a government agency intervening and making easier not to do anything! The AT is a wonderful diet plan. Walk 2,100 miles, eat all you care to and meet some beautiful people! Oh yeah, and really enjoy walking in heaven!Back to Ed Abbey... I am sick of the AMC and their twisted logic. The Whites would NOT be overrun with folks if they eliminated every road leading to it and all those overpriced huts. Make people walk in and walk out. I am sick to learn that the AMC is going to continue their rape of the woods up in the 100 mile wilderness. Yes they are better than the lumber companies BUT only by the slimmest of hairs! I am not one to think I should be given special rights and access to all things woods because I decide to thru hike, or 1,800 mile section hike. The day user has equal rights to the AT as I do. The problem is the AMC brings more people into the woods and more over use of the woods. They do this in the name of money and NOT for a love of nature and wilderness. If they are democratic and wanting the woods to be open to all than make the huts and the new 250 dollar lodge in the wilderness accessible to those with tighter pocket books. If the six dollar per campsite charge is really to keep the whites clean than start cleaning them! I am sick of all the toilet paper one sees in their section. Buy the plot of land in the wilderness and build a Bears Den hostel or Blackburn Center and do not add any new roads or build up existing roads! Let the people walk in and walk out! And from a thru hiker standpoint I think it is completely absurd that every other part of the trail is free for us to walk thru but it the whites we are forced to pay their fees! Build some lean-tos for those who are thru hiking or less fortunate. Have a place where we need permits to hike thru with our destinations listed like the Smokies or Doahs. Also, reread Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey... National Parks for the people! Enough ranting from my soapbox...AswahSupport your local monkey wrencher! Peace from VT!p.s. I am writing my feelings because I have yet to meet anyone who can explain how the AMC is good. I am open to being educated and look forward to some debate on this. Be kind in my guestbook. RESPECT...