My daughter and I were on the MMWT on 6/18 & 6/19 and both of us acknowledged the "carnival" atmosphere at Trail Camp and the lack of the wilderness feel was disappointingly absent
. Fellow hikers were really friendly but everyone I talked (or attempted to) seemed to be in a huge hurry, even the overnighters we met on the trail. There was one exception and that was a lady who we met on the trail when I stopped to tend to a sore foot problem my daughter had just on the trail just before Trail Camp. She saw us the next day and asked how she was doing and was glad to hear that there was no more foot issues and I felt eternally grateful for her concern. The attitude on the trail was similar the what I get everyday on flatland - very rushed and not relaxed at all. It struck me as rather sad that people could be that way in such a beautiful and stunning place. I'm sure it's the same attitude that allows people to leave their used bags on the trail and not bother to pack them out. We counted 6 used bags at or around Trail Crest, with rocks on them, on the way up and I told my daughter that hopefully these people will pick them up on their way out. They were still there on our way down. Looking back we should have hauled them back out - my bad. We did take out trash form previous campers that was left on our site that was stashed under rocks and shoved behind boulders to obviously hide it.
One observation I had was that I saw no bags on the trail before trail camp, not even around Outpost which is a popular place to stop and rest. Not sure if that's a sign of hikers carrying their bags all the way to Trail Camp and just dumping them there or some peculiar GI effect TC has on people.
IMO, the dump stations at Outpost and Trail Camp would be a good idea if implemented correctly, meaning well marked and plentiful. This system worked fairly when on Rainier with their blue-bag system with dump facilities at Camp Muir and Camp Shurman. The contents are helicoptered out but the MMWT could definitely handled with mules or llamas. Plus more signs need to be posted higher up on the trail to remind hikers of there responsibilities on the trail.
One question I have, and perhaps someone may have an answer, is: Are the majority of abandoned bags from dayhikers or overnighters?
