Where thru-hikers spend their nights

[map man]

I accumulated a database of 240 completing NOBO thru-hikers logging very thorough journals at trailjournals.com for the Hiking Rates article I wrote here at Whiteblaze. I've looked through them again and found that I can use most of them to figure out exactly where these hikers are spending each night on their thru-hikes (using the "stats" section embedded in their journals). Here is a brief summary of what I found:

The mean number for each category of accommodation:

Shelters: 62 nights
Tents or hammocks: 53 nights
Motels: 23 nights
Hostels: 21 nights
Private homes: 9 nights

As you can see, on average these thru-hikers paid for lodging a mean 44 times. There is a pretty broad range, however. Even if you throw out the extremes (the 15% using the most and 15% using the least) the range is still 26 to 62 nights and is directly related to how many zero days hikers take. It seems like this would be useful information for those trying to plan a budget for their hikes.

55% of hikers spend more nights out on the trail in shelters than in tents or hammocks, but this varies in some groups of hikers. Couples hiking the trail are much more likely to tent than non-couples. Solo women and those under 30 are a little more likely to prefer sleeping in shelters than the "average" hiker. Also, in this study (from the year 2001 through 2010) hikers from the later years (2007-2010) were spending slightly fewer nights in shelters than hikers in the earlier years (2001 to 2004).

Some groups varied when it came to off-trail lodging as well. Couples spent close to 10 more nights in motels (and definitely preferred motels to hostels) than non-couples. Couples and folks aged 30 and over spent a greater percentage of nights in town (versus out on the trail) than average. Under 30s used paid lodging (motels or hostels) for close to 10 fewer nights than those 30 and over. Solo men and solo women, on the other hand, were very similar to each other when it came to the percentage of nights in town and the lodging they chose when they were there.

If you want more details just go to the last couple comments that I posted in the comments section for this article:

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/content.php?44

Or read the article itself if you have questions about the data collection or are just interested in some statistical information about fairly typical completing NOBO thru-hikers.

[WingedMonkey]

Now we need a study comparing successful thru hikers who post to Trail Journals compared to successful thru hikers that don't.

[flemdawg1]

Is a significant number of the over 30s going as couples?

[Bronk]

Wow...I'm not saying I don't believe it (its actually very believable), I just find it surprising that people who want to thruhike the trail spend about 1/3 of their nites off the trail. During my thru attempt I was on the trail about 120 days and spent only 10 nites total between motels, hostels and private residences combined.

[imscotty]

Map Man does it again! Interesting data MapMan. I am curious about the outliers. Those at the most extreme of often or never staying off-trail?

[RangerZ]

Excellent work again, Map Man.

[sympathetic joy]

The way the data looks above it looks like sometimes people slept in tents, sometimes in hammocks, sometimes in shelters, and sometimes in town. But I'm pretty sure that pitchers and hangers are more or less mutually exclusive groups.

What if you broke the data into 2 groups - Pitchers (those who pitch a tent) and Hangers (those who hang a hammocks.)

Then looked at the same breakdown within those two groups. Then compared the two groups on those variables (shelters, motels, hostels, private homes) to see if there is a sig difference.

I'm thinking that those who use tents stay in shelters more often than those who use hammocks.

[rocketsocks]

Nuttin' like a good Stat!

[map man]

Is a significant number of the over 30s going as couples?

No. For this "where they spend their nights" part of the study I've got 117 hiker journals who are 30 or over and only 15 of those journals are for couples.

[map man]

Wow...I'm not saying I don't believe it (its actually very believable), I just find it surprising that people who want to thruhike the trail spend about 1/3 of their nites off the trail. During my thru attempt I was on the trail about 120 days and spent only 10 nites total between motels, hostels and private residences combined.

When I first started looking into this some years ago this (percentage of nights in town) was a surprise to me too. I suspect it would come as a surprise to a lot prospective thru-hikers in planning mode, too. When I see proposed budgets here on Whiteblaze I think many underestimate how many nights they will be paying for lodging. Your own experience of just 10 nights in town out of 120 total nights is unusual, I think.

[map man]

Map Man does it again! Interesting data MapMan. I am curious about the outliers. Those at the most extreme of often or never staying off-trail?

Three hikers in the study spent 15 days or fewer in motels/hostels/homes (the fewest was 10) and all three of them took less than four months to complete their hikes. Quicker hikers tend to spend a lower percentage of time in town -- no surprise. Three hikers had over 100 nights away from trail. One of these guys (a well-known hiker with many thru-hikes under his belt) was the outlier of outliers -- he took a break part way along to ride his bicycle all the way across the country and then came back and picked up where he left off and completed his calendar year thru-hike in 282 days with 174 nights off trail!

[map man]

The way the data looks above it looks like sometimes people slept in tents, sometimes in hammocks, sometimes in shelters, and sometimes in town. But I'm pretty sure that pitchers and hangers are more or less mutually exclusive groups.

What if you broke the data into 2 groups - Pitchers (those who pitch a tent) and Hangers (those who hang a hammocks.)

Then looked at the same breakdown within those two groups. Then compared the two groups on those variables (shelters, motels, hostels, private homes) to see if there is a sig difference.

I'm thinking that those who use tents stay in shelters more often than those who use hammocks.

I can't compare the two groups because the number of hikers in this study who spent most of their trail nights in hammocks (rather than tents) is so small -- I can count them on one hand. That's why I counted the two groups together (along with the rare nights cowboy camping). I see hammockers out on the trail but not in anywhere near the percentages that are found on-line on trail forums.

[Coffee]

On the AT it is easy to retreat to a town due to the common rainy weather. I can see why many hikers spend more time in town than planned, but towns are a time and money drain. Even staying in a hostel, going into a town is a pretty sure way to part with $75-100 after paying for lodging, food, drinks (for some), etc...

[Ricky&Jack]

Motels: 23 nights
Hostels: 21 nights

Motels are more popular than Hostels?

For those here who have completed a Thu (Or a attempted a large portion): Did you really use motels more often that hostels?

**UPDATE** Well I guess that may be because almost every town has a motel, and not every town has a hostel.

[Coffee]

I have only section hiked but hostels are a much better value plus you get to meet other hikers. I'm not a very social person normally but given the option of paying $25 for a hostel and meeting interesting people or $50-75 for a (usually) shabby motel room where I'll just sit inside watching TV, the choice isn't a hard one. The privacy is obviously greater in a motel but I've found that this isn't a big issue for me.

[flemdawg1]

Motels are more popular than Hostels?

For those here who have completed a Thu (Or a attempted a large portion): Did you really use motels more often that hostels?

**UPDATE** Well I guess that may be because almost every town has a motel, and not every town has a hostel.

There are probably just a bunch of towns without hostels, and some people (myself) prefer private hotel rooms to hostels. And where you can split a room or share a room as a couple the price isn't that bad compared to most hostel rates. Some hostels are just shelters with showers and mattresses.

Scenario a: Townville, has a hostel for $20 but no laundry included, or you can split a $60 room 2 or 3 ways. There's a washer and dryer onsite also and no rules in the hotel against drinking & smoking (you happen to like both). Alot of folks pick the hotel.

[map man]

I did one last calculation, this time looking at how many hikers had a really marked preference for shelters over tents/hammocks, and vice versa. Around 35% of hikers in the study spent at least two-thirds of their on-trail nights in shelters instead of setting up their own tent or hammock -- a marked preference. Around 20% spent at least two-thirds of their trail nights in tents or hammocks. The other 45% were in between.

[Venchka]

Is there anyway to gauge the mean time between town lodging nights? Just curious.
Thanks for the good analysis.

Wayne


Sent from somewhere around here.

[map man]

Is there anyway to gauge the mean time between town lodging nights? Just curious.
Thanks for the good analysis.

This will be a real seat-of-the-pants estimate. The total number of town nights is 53.0. But some of these nights are consecutive nights in one place because of zero days. So if we subtract the 20.7 mean zero days for hikers in the study, that would leave 32.3 discreet different places for overnight "town" stays . The average thru-hike time for hikers in the study is 168.8 days. So take that number and divide it by the 32.3 "town" stays and we get one off-trail overnight stop for every 5.2 days of a thru-hike.

This is not the same as saying people resupply every 5.2 days because sometimes people resupply without accompanying it with an overnight stay. And theoretically hikers also might not resupply every time they overnight off trail.

[Odd Man Out]

If a person slept in a tent adjacent to a shelter, did that count as staying at the shelter?