Comment submitted by William Horne

CRT Docket No. 105 In the interest of making the Appalachian Trail more accessible to persons with disabilities, I understand there is a proposal to open the trail not just to wheel chairs (which should be allowed) but to "other mobility devices" such as Segway and ATV's. As the Appalachian Trail Conference is concerned that the looseness of this phrasing may open the way to a more general use of ATV's on the AT, so am I. The AT is by definition a foot trail; it is closed to motorized vehicles, to bicycles, and for the most part to horses.The rugged, primitive, and solitary character of the AT experience and the escape it offers from the clatter of the mechanized world would be irretrievably damaged if the trail had to be made accessible to mobility devices such as Segways and ATV's. I speak as a person with a severe spinal curvature who completed the entire Trail in sections over a twenty eight year period. The trail is open to all those with disabilities who are prepared to meet the challenge of the trail. The Appalachian Trail would not be the Appalachian Trail if it were re-engineered to make it accessible to a broad range of mobility devices. This would be similar to ruling that all extant editions of Shakespeare's plays be reprinted in simplified present-day American English because not everyone can understand his Elizabethan English. A foot trail should not be turned into a trail for motor vehicles, even if the motives for doing so are well intentioned.