How many people do you see on the trail?

[Dworak]

I am planning on leaving late Feb. to mid March nobo. It seems that at first I might run into a decent number of people on the trail but the further north that I travel I assume that there will be fewer people out (people dropping out and people become spread out due to hiking paces.) On average though, how often would you see people on the trail?

[MOWGLI]

On average though, how often would you see people on the trail?

I left March 7 in 2000. That was a busy year for thru-hikers, or so I'm told. In Georgia & NC I saw perhaps 8-12 people a day on the trail. Shelters were generally full, and hostels would often fill up (except NOC). It took all the way into Virginia before I spent a day without seeing anyone else. If you're looking for solitude, you'll want to leave in February. You might not find it, but it'll be less crowded than March.

You can also tent alone all you want. People tend to congregate around shelters.

Little Bear
GA-ME 2000

[Footslogger]

I left this year on 3/29 and for the first 8 - 10 weeks or so I saw several people (5-8) on the trail each day. Even if you miss them during the day you end up bumping into them at night near the shelters or established campsites. In 2001 my wife and I left Springer on 3/17 and had about the same experience.

[Jumpstart]

We hiked in 2002, and left March 5th NOBO. We saw about 20-30 people a day to start, which I thought was a lot. I don't think we ever had a day where we saw NO ONE, but as we moved north, it thinned out to the same people over and over. The first three weeks on the trail you had to be at a shelter/tent site by about 2:00 to get a spot...then it seemed to ease off a bit.

Happy trails!

[Former Easy]

In 2002 I left Springer on February 10th to hike to Gatlinburg and still saw people every day, but probably no more than 6 or 7 in a day though.

When you meet people on the trail ... walk right on by them, many hikers feel the need to stop and talk to everybody, this can really become annoying when they engage in frivolous conversation which eats up your hiking time. Now I just use a cordial hello and keep on moving, so as not to get entangled in these frivolous conversations which seem to go on forever. If I see the same person at a shelter or during a smoke break I don't mind.

[bearbag hanger]

I am planning on leaving late Feb. to mid March nobo. It seems that at first I might run into a decent number of people on the trail but the further north that I travel I assume that there will be fewer people out (people dropping out and people become spread out due to hiking paces.) On average though, how often would you see people on the trail?

We did a section hike going south from Newfound Gap to Fontana Dam in the Smokies in April, 2003. Couldn't believe the number of people we came across! Probably saw a dozen people an hour for four days. The shelters were packed, but we were always able to find tent space. The good news is half the people we met were female. At Mollies Ridger, there were four of us males, to about a dozen female hikers. Even though I'm male, never much liked being in a male dominated sport like it has been in past years.

You just don't see as many of these hikers if you're going north. If it's solitude your looking for, either start early (mid February - but it's cold!) and hike fast, or you'll need a different trail - any trail. There isn't a trail in the USA that has the population the AT has. This can be a good thing. If you are just getting the long distance hiking bug, you'll have plenty of help along the way. On almost all the other trails in the US, you might be there for days if you were to break a leg or get your arm caught in something and have to cut it off with your rusty pocket knife! Maybe you should buy a new knife before you leave.

[Moon Monster]

While the thru-hikers do spread out, The scouts, college groups, summer camp groups, dayhikers, and general sectioners will be out there every day all season all the way to Maine. I saw many many times more of them than thru-hikers on my hike this year.

I left Springer on March 9, 2003. I spent my first night alone in a shelter in Georgia, and I had numerous nights alone in/around shelters for the 4.5 month hike. I was the only thru-hiker in/around shelters for the entire state of Maine, and I met no new NOBO thru-hikers for the last 4-500 miles (that is, the only thrus I saw were ones I'd already been around). I did see ~150 SOBOs though, as many as 20 a day in Maine.

The most NOBO thrus I ever saw in one place was at a Dairy Queen in Virginia--about 25 within one hour. That DQ was a sink, though and a day later, I was again only seeing the same 4 or 5 thrus every day. In southern towns, I'd see ~10 NOBOs. I probably met ~150 NOBOs the whole hike, about 3/4 of those in the first third of the trail. I probably never went more than 5 hiking hours without seeing another human and averaged maybe 2 hours. The fewest humans I saw on a single day was probably 2 or 3. Average was maybe 10.

[hungryhowie]

I began my hike on March 9, 2000, and finished on August 29, 2000. I took no extended breaks and hiked at a fairly normal pace. Like Little Bear says, 2000 was considered to be a slightly busier-than-normal year on the trial. Shelters were full (and then some) by about 3-4pm daily for the first several hundered miles. Spring time is always busy on the southern AT. Thruhikers, section hikers that "always wanted to hike this section with the thruhikers", spring-breaking college kids, boyscouts, etc, are all over the place. Every time I was in town, I would estimate that there were about 20 other hikers in town at the same time. After the initial "rush" out of the gate, I would say that, by far, the busiest section of trail was in the Smokies (the fact that it was a popular spring break weekend didn't help). National Parks always attract more people than N. forests do.

Don't be concerned about the crowds. If you want to avoid them, just don't stop to talk, and camp by yourself. It's easy to do. BTW, I never went a day without seeing another person on the AT. There were several nights that I spent alone, but I never went 24 hours. I've gone 2-3 days at a time in northern Alabama during the winter without seeing another person...man is that nice.

-Howie