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asphalt commando
09-27-2006, 07:37
First time to start thread, so hope this works!! Had read somewhere that approx. 8000 hikers have completed the AT on a thru-hike. Was wondering if anyone knows if this is correct and/or where the number of hikers that have completed thru-hike can be found.

TJ aka Teej
09-27-2006, 07:56
http://www.appalachiantrail.org/site/c.jkLXJ8MQKtH/b.851143/k.C36D/2000Milers_Facts_and_Statistics.htm Not counting 2006, 8990 have reported to that ATC that they've completed the entire trail.

fiddlehead
09-27-2006, 08:15
I've done 3 thrus on the AT and only reported the first one. why bother? many don't.

Lone Wolf
09-27-2006, 08:16
I've reported none.

jlb2012
09-27-2006, 08:18
and on the other hand somepeople report completing a thru hike who did not really complete the hike

All I am saying is that there are no _GOOD_ numbers to base an estimate on so any such number has to be taken with a fairly large error term (and a grain of salt)

Lone Wolf
09-27-2006, 08:22
Hog is right. Tons of people report they do thru-hikes when they've skipped big sections. It drives the purists batty.:D

StarLyte
09-27-2006, 08:41
I've done 3 thrus on the AT and only reported the first one. why bother? many don't.

I admire you.

DiamondDoug
09-27-2006, 10:24
Hog is right. Tons of people report they do thru-hikes when they've skipped big sections. It drives the purists batty.:D

I missed a section in the Shenandoah Park when I came out of the woods onto the Skyline drive at the south end of a parking lot and walked through the lot. Then I saw a trail that led 100 yards into the woods where it rejoined the AT. I followed it and turned north, having missed maybe 200 yards of the AT.

Two weeks after I finished my hike I drove through the Shenandoah, parked in that same lot, walked south on the road to where the AT came out of the woods and then north on the trail to where it met the side trail from the parking lot. Walked back to my car and continued on. When I got home, THAT was when when I mailed in my thru hiker report to the ATC.

Lone Wolf
09-27-2006, 10:29
That's admirable albeit a tad anal.:)

Blissful
09-27-2006, 10:41
Hey, we bypassed a part of the AT running along a hill in SNP so we could see the overlook below it. Much better view. Oh, and I must admit, we cut out twenty yards of the AT by bushwacking through the trees to a cross over at a parking lot on the Skyline Drive (I mean it was right there!!).

Skipping obvious whole sections (not doing it, that is) isn't being a 2,000 miler. But there are times that parts need to be skipped - for a view, bad weather, etc.

As it is we are sectioning part of VA right now (James River to Harpers Ferry) which we plan to skip over on our thru in 2007. This is so we make it back by the end of August for Paul Bunyan to go to college. For me it's a combo section and thru all in one.

DiamondDoug
09-27-2006, 11:11
That's admirable albeit a tad anal.:)

Yeah, I know. :) Still, it just didn't feel right to send in that report knowing I had, however unintentionally, missed a section. And I was driving on the Skyline anyway, so it wasn't out of my way. (He says, rationalizing anal behavior.)

Lone Wolf
09-27-2006, 11:25
At least YOU'RE honest.

Bloodroot
09-27-2006, 11:32
Coming into Pearisburg I shot straight down the hill because I got sick of the switchbacks getting nowhere and it was pissing down the rain. Does that count as skipping? ;)

Lone Wolf
09-27-2006, 11:34
Coming into Pearisburg I shot straight down the hill because I got sick of the switchbacks getting nowhere and it was pissing down the rain. Does that count as skipping? ;)

Maintainers love when you do that s**t!:D

Bloodroot
09-27-2006, 11:38
I didn't bring but half the hillside with me! :D

Jack Tarlin
09-27-2006, 16:43
I skipped a section a few years ago by bicycling on the Creeper Trail instead of walking back to Damascus.

And Lone Wolf saw me do it!

Truth be told, he also provided the beer and bicycle!! :D

Blue Blazing rules....to each their own. Like where you hike and hike where you like!!

(That being said, in the interests of full disclosure, I was NOT thru-hiking that year but just doing some big sections.....otherwise, I'd be tempted to go back to Damascus and fill in the missing stretch!)

Sly
09-27-2006, 17:31
If I'm not mistaken the ATC numbers are for those that completed the trail, either by thru-hiking or section hiking. Since many don't report their hikes and others claim to hiked it all when they have not, it's about as close as you'll get to the real number.

ed bell
09-27-2006, 17:38
Coming into Pearisburg I shot straight down the hill because I got sick of the switchbacks getting nowhere and it was pissing down the rain. Does that count as skipping? ;)


I skipped a section a few years ago by bicycling on the Creeper Trail instead of walking back to Damascus.

Sound like what one would hear in a Puraholics Anonymous meeting.:D Maybe now would be a good time for someone to admit that they forgot to walk across the highway after a hitch and re-supply.;)

Sly
09-27-2006, 17:39
OK, looking at the stats it seems about 20-25% of completed hikes in any given year are section hikers, so there have been approximately 7000 thru-hikers and the rest section hikers.

max patch
09-27-2006, 17:40
Since many don't report their hikes and others claim to hiked it all when they have not, it's about as close as you'll get to the real number.

Lot more of the latter than the former I'd be willing to bet.

Jack Tarlin
09-27-2006, 17:40
I'm not sure the number is "close" at all, Sly. The number of folks who report a completed hike who have actually skipped significant sections of the Trail grows every year. And there are a lot more of these folks than there are those who don't choose to ever submit a report.

This year's "completion" figures will probably reveal close to a 25% completion rate for 2006 thru-hikers, and this figure is ridiculous.

Of the men and women who set out to hike the Appalachian Trail in its entirety in one continuous journey, less than 3% actually do so.

I don't think the ATC's recent "completion figures" are anywhere NEAR close to the actual figures.

Sly
09-27-2006, 17:45
Of the men and women who set out to hike the Appalachian Trail in its entirety in one continuous journey, less than 3% actually do so.

How do you come up that 3% figure?

Jack Tarlin
09-27-2006, 17:51
From having met with, hiked with, or interacted with a very large percentage of the men and women who have thru-hiked---or claimed to---since 1997.

Fact is, Sly, the vast majority of today's A.T. long-distance hikers skip sections.

And sometimes, states.

Sly
09-27-2006, 18:01
Jack, I know, you know, lots and lots of hikers, but I seriously doubt you've talked to 100% or over 500 hikers in any given year for the last 10 years you've been hiking the AT.

I seriously hope you're not counting crossing hiwayys or blue blazes in and out of shelters.....

Even if someones skips a state, you have no idea if they hiked it before their "thru-hike" or after and before the ATC yearly report when someone claims to have hiked the "entire" trail.

Jack Tarlin
09-27-2006, 18:03
Here's an expanded answer to that, Sly:

In my experience, while many, if not most thru-hikers claim that they intend to hike the whole Trail when they first start out, by Harpers Ferry, the vast majority have skiped something somewhere. By New England, this figure is even higher. My Northern New England, it's almost universal.

My guess is well under 50 people every year actually hike the Trail in its entirety. There are contless times when I've been at a crowded shelter, hostel, restaurant, whatever, and the topic has come up, and the number of "purists" present (i.e. non-skippers) is always tiny; there might be one in a group of fifteen----and sometimes, not even that. The reality is that by a certain point in the trip, nearly everyone has missed something.

As to why I think the completion rates are inflated, it's easy: Let's say, in any given recent year, something like 1700 people set out to hike the entire Trail. Let's further say that 500 of them reported a completed hike. Sly, that would be a "completion rate" of nearly 30 per cent. Do you honestly believe , Sly, that one out of every three thru-hikers is a White-blaze purist?

I don't.

If actual purists represent a mere fraction of the folks who claim to have completed the Trail, then there's something wrong with recent completion figures.

And what's wrong is that many of these claims are nonsense.

Jack Tarlin
09-27-2006, 18:11
When did I ever say I've talked with 100% in any given year, Sly?

I said I've met, spent time with, talked with, hiked with, or met MOST of them.

And I've certainly met at least 500 a year. Hell, I met that many in Hot Springs and Damascus last year alone.

Most recent "thru-hikers" haven't actually hiked the entire Trail, Sly, and this number gets higher every year, as it becomes more acceptable to fudge one's actual achievement.

If you wanna ask me where I get this data, the simple answer answer is I've probably spent as much time out there in the last ten years as a long-distance backpacker than just about anyone else, and I've met or interacted with thousands of folks.

I'm not being judgmental, I'm merely stating a fact, and the fact of the matter is that most folks skip something by the time they finish their hike.

Sly
09-27-2006, 18:22
I would never think of talking "Whiteblaze Purists"..... I'm not that anal. We'll have to brake it down....

Jack, if someone starts out with an honest attempt to hike the AT and takes a blue blaze along the line, which are largely "old AT" by the way, are you going to say they haven't "thru-hiked"?

About the blue blaze in and out of shelters, missing "official white blazed"' trail? Give me a break.

I will agree if someone has missed sections of "trail" white/blue or otherwise conecting the dots to mainne without making it up their claims can be deemed false.

Sly
09-27-2006, 18:26
So of the 500 hikers you met and talked to personally, all completed, applied and got the patch and admitted to you they skipped sections?

mweinstone
09-27-2006, 18:35
no numbers work for that stat. dont worry. if you want a patch you can get one.i think its cool not to use patches and deplomas and school letters. they give a meaningless memory to a real exspirence. i used to be so proud of my diploma from nols and my marine crap and my ycc patches and even saving my moms ashtray got old. do you know,.... i think about good memorys more when there arent any visual aids to remind me. and i get sad when i look at some of them at the wrong time. i will keep my acomplishments on the inside me thinks.

mweinstone
09-27-2006, 18:39
oh and by the way,.. im with lone wolf on this,.. i dont stop in to sign anything at ammacalola .if i ever got to harpers i would want that photo though. and no patch.

Jack Tarlin
09-27-2006, 18:40
This is a silly argument, Sly. You've been around long enough to know what I'm talking about.

By the time people get to New Hampshire or Maine, most folks have quit.

And of those that haven't very few of them walked the whole Trail to get there.

And by the way, Sly, insulting folks who've chosen to not miss any of the Trail by calling them dirty names is sorta childish, don't you think? All they've done is managed to actually accomplish what thousands of other folks have merely claimed to have done.

No need to insult them for being truthful.

rickb
09-27-2006, 18:52
Earl Shaffer didn't hike the entire AT in 1948. He wrote that he took alternate trails in the Whites because he failed to mail his maps in time.

That said, I am thinking that he really was a thru hiker in 1948.

Any thinking person would have to agree.

Sly
09-27-2006, 18:59
Sorry for my use of the word anal. When I use it I mean "one stickler for rules". In my opinion, hiking a trail there should be no rules, except for common respect, sense and decency.

Other than that, we could talk til the cows come home.... especially about that 3% that came out of your ass! :p

RedneckRye
09-27-2006, 19:24
A real good friend of mine here in town is a triple crowner and hasn't reported any of his hikes. Do I know for a fact that he hiked every foot of every trail? Nope, I wasn't with him. But I know him well enough to know that he don't lie about anything.
I think one of the more ridiculous things about the AT is the whole "purity/ENTIRE" deal. Other than you and your mom, who cares?? Did you have a great time, meet great people, and enjoy yourself?? Isn't that enough?? Y'all need to get out onto some other trails that don't give out certificates and patches and enjoy yourselves and stop worrying about what "Pisses His Own Bag" and "Which Way is North?" may have told the ACT they did. Maybe the ATC should do away with the certificate and just start selling the patches. Oh, wait, they already do. So for about $2.00 you too can be a "2000 MILER".
Can't wait to see y'all at the GATHERING.
RYE

Big Daddy D
09-29-2006, 14:27
I look forward to my “next” AT thru hike, which I plan as a SOBO.
As long as I start at one terminus and end at the other, and walk on good old American soil the entire way, I’m going to call it a thru!!

I climbed up and down Katahdin, so I have already got the “first leg” done.
I plan to see a few more peaks in the Whites on blue blazes.
I will walk down the Creeper Trail (to stop at the eatery that’s on it).
Not going to “sweat” retracing every step back out of every trail shelter.
I heard that the old trail was paved over and now is some portion of Skyline drive, I guess before I was ten years old , but I’ll still hike on today’s white blazes.
May even yellow blaze a mile or so (oops, can’t write that!).
May really slack pack in Maine or near Kincora, etc.
And lastly, I’ll walk down to the ASP off of Springer, rather than back hike from the mountain let-off point (0.9 miles on trail).

But skip a state…that’s rubbish!

Always let the ATC know you were there, if for no other reason, to get them better data.

PS-I love to hike in Pennsylvania-it ROCKs!

PS-JT is probably fairly accurate about the number of completed thru hikers.