Many people appear to not realize that north of Harpers Ferry through Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey much of the A.T. is on state-owned land.
Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) regs have been discussed here previously particularly by
shelterbuilder and myself. It is often difficult to have a discussion about laws and regulations here when others shout us down and throw up disrespectful posts. We have tried to do what we can to help inform hikers.
PGC posts regulatory signs at all points of entry and has created a sign to help inform hikers of regs that apply specifically to the A.T. and hikers. WhiteBlaze has an
image of PGC's sign contributed by
The Old Fhart in its gallery.
Built in the early 1970s as a result of a special use permit at a time when camping was not permitted at all on SGLs, Rausch Gap Shelter is in a number of ways unique. Last season
FD cleaned up many of the posts in this thread to reflect PGC's regs at my request.
Improvements have also been made to ALDHA's Companion to help clarify things. More could be done to inform A.T. hikers about SGLs and other state-owned lands and their regulations which not infrequently differ from the expectations of at least some hikers unfamiliar with these areas.