You state this very well and this is the source of my anger in many hiking groups. The hiking community has a thorn in their side for the Cog and to be honest, many of these so called hikers, have little stake in the North country. They are new to it and take this ridiculous Theory of LNT to a level that makes no sense whatsoever. They love the AMC huts, built in pristine alpine tundra by the way, yet the Cog, which predates the AMC by years and years is a villain. Tourism is gold in NH and the Cog has set the bar for years and provided thousands of people the thrill of seeing the alpine country we all take for granted. I took my mom up that train, she's gone now, but I still remember how much fun we had that day. All those years of me talking about the terrain up there and she got to see it. Think of everything that has come and gone since the 1800's and the Cog is still there, How people cannot appreciate that is beyond me. The modern-day hiker is a selfish, self-centered, know it all that has little to no basic understanding of the Whites and its history. Drives me nuts. That's ok, I can relate to the Cog, I've been hiking up there long before many of them and I'll be hiking up there, long after many of them.