Thank you, Baxter State Park for recognizing the essential quietude of your trails, your ponds, your woods, and Baxter Peak where so many of us have gratefully and solemnly reaped the coveted moment of terminus joy - in line with the spirit of the park. Thank you for striving to maintain respectful celebration of this joyous occasion!

Good job BSP.

To sum up what I've read here: Scott and his team were ticketed for their celebration (and filming it). BSP would like to draw more attention to the tickets... OK, BSP, we get it! Way to keep it classy!! While I understand that it's your job to protect the park and generate revenue from permits, is it also your job to vilify folks who don't follow the proper channels? Shouldn't issuing citations be enough? Unfortunately, the parks stance on this makes them look petty and vindictive instead of protectors of a cherished resource.

Bahaha. Baxter state park must be looking for some national attention.

I wonder if Baxter State Park got permission to use the professional photos before slamming Scott Jurek. Giving credit or not, using them without permission is a violation of copyright laws.

Here's an idea. Start in Maine and head south. I can almost guarantee the people of Georgia would have welcomed Scott with a beer and some home cooking instead of crying about too many people and a few sips of champagne after an extreme feat of physical and mental stamina. Don't you want people to come to your park. You had a large group of people some who probably went there for the first time to see Scott complete his journey. Stop complaining and realize you had an amazing event happen in your park and there were a lot of happy and excited people in your park

I appreciate this statement and fully agree with BSP officials. I thru hiked the AT in 2006 and Katahdin is the ideal climax of this six month hike. However, I noticed even back then the AT had become or was becoming a party trail where many of the kids weren't really there for the wilderness but for a collegiate atmosphere with alcohol at every turn, parties at shelters, and a supposed need to fight the boredom of nature with contests for bragging rights in form marathon speed hiking. I fear very much that the days where the AT finishes atop Baxter Peak may well be numbered. BSPis on of the most spectacular spots east of the Mississippi and I can tell you that if the rangers didn't enforce laws and take care of the place like they do the natural grandeur would be significantly reduced. One possible solution for park rangers might be rather than removing the AT, significantly increase the penalties for violations of park rules. I would have put Scott Jerek's penalties well into the thousands of dollars!

It has been very tough for me to read about Baxter's critique of Scott Jurek. On the one hand, I grew up with the park in my backyard, I knew the history and I, as much as any one, appreciated the great gift to the people of Maine. On the other hand, I've greatly appreciated who Scott Jurek is and what a great promoter he is of respecting and admiring the outdoors environment. I'm aghast at Baxter's reaction to him and actually embarrassed at how they twisted what actually occurred into sounding like he horribly ruined the summit of Katahdin! Far from it! I truly think that Baxter should have the end of the AT moves outside of the park, if this is how Baxter truly feels about people like Scott Jurek.

Wow, I think I lost some respect for Baxter state park. There always someone who needs to stir the pot for attention

A Scotsman's view on this.