There are a mix of folks on the JMT from very experienced, very responsible to absolute clueless types. I have never found the trail "trashed" with garbage, but there are a lot of wayward snips of small pieces of trail bar wrapping, a little Kleenex, etc. I think these things just get away from people in the wind - I do not think they actually just toss them on the trail. I found some of the JMT hikers in over their heads and so exhausted that they lacked energy to do that extra effort for "leave no trace". I talked to a few JMT hikers and asked why then did not just camp a quarter mile or even a few hundred yards off the trail, and they said at the end of the day they were so exhausted that even getting 10 feet off the trail was more than they wanted to do!

Another problem I saw was that so many had just a small packet for trail maps (really not even maps but just a line map trail profile). Kind of hard to really know where you are if you only have a "tunnel" corridor map. Here is where the GPS is probably a good choice. Also, too much information may be in guidebooks- and this micromanages JMT hike plans. I think if each group/person did their trip planning in more detail, with their own needs and limitations in mind, there would be less traffic jams.

I feel the entire problem with the JMT is too many people bunch up on it. No kidding I would go 6 days and see nobody then get on the JMT and within an hour see 20+ people. Lots of the groups (particularly younger hikers) really viewed the JMT as a social experience. This is a little foreign to me as I prefer solitude and a wilderness experience. I could hear JMT hikers coming before I saw them, yak, yak, yak! Guess this is a generational difference! My kids think I am a hermit!

The problem with the permit system is that the quotas are for trailheads, not just specifically for the JMT. Not only JMT hikers, but a lot of others, like me, also get on the JMT on parts of our trips. That can mean hordes of folks at one place, not intended, but just random.