View Full Version : how many hikers......
my co-workers are asking lots of questions
they would like to know how many hikers might be on the trail on an average day during peak season...ballpark guesses anyone??
their curiosity is the entire 2175 mile trail and i really have no clue what that number might be...including thru hikers, day hikers, section hikers, etc
so how many hikers would you say are on the entire trail on average on any given day?:-?
my co-workers are asking lots of questions
they would like to know how many hikers might be on the trail on an average day during peak season...ballpark guesses anyone??
their curiosity is the entire 2175 mile trail and i really have no clue what that number might be...including thru hikers, day hikers, section hikers, etc
so how many hikers would you say are on the entire trail on average on any given day?:-?
Nobody really knows, and any numbers tossed about are really nothing more than guesses. Even the 3-4 million number that is tossed around is nothing more than a guesstimate.
Pedaling Fool
06-06-2008, 14:04
Someone knows, the problem is knowing who that person is. This is my point; there are some people that have a special connection (almost psychic connection) to certain things. That is how Einstein discovered (without experimentation) that time is not a universal constant. Luckily he had the requisite knowledge in mathematics to articulate his theories to others in the physics community; otherwise no one would have believed him and our understanding of the universe would not be near as advanced as it is today.
It varies wildly with weather, season, normal vs. "holiday" weekend, and location on the trail.
30+ years ago, on a beautiful summer weekend, I took one of my frequent hikes over Franconia Ridge; I'm guessing there were easily several hundred, maybe upwards of a thousand hikers on that 8 or 9 mile stretch. (The final 3 miles or so weren't the AT proper, but a blue-blaze.)
Conversely, in 2006 and 2007, hiking off-season on the mid-Atlantic part of the AT, I had stretches of 24-48 hours on the trail without seeing another soul.
The "beauty spots" will always have more traffic -- GSMNP, SNP, and the Whites. The hard-to-get-to spots will always have less. Density of hiker traffic varies inversely with distance from the nearest trailhead.
Someone knows, the problem is knowing who that person is. This is my point; there are some people that have a special connection (almost psychic connection) to certain things. That is how Einstein discovered (without experimentation) that time is not a universal constant. Luckily he had the requisite knowledge in mathematics to articulate his theories to others in the physics community; otherwise no one would have believed him and our understanding of the universe would not be near as advanced as it is today.
If anyone knows, Lori Potteiger at ATC knows.
I am going to ballpark that figure at 15,000 during "peak" season, non-holiday Friday through Monday maybe half that amount Tuesday through Thursday.
warraghiyagey
06-06-2008, 16:04
Eleventy seven. There's always that many hikers on the trail.
4eyedbuzzard
06-06-2008, 16:56
...they would like to know how many hikers might be on the trail on an average day during peak season...ballpark guesses anyone??
...so how many hikers would you say are on the entire trail on average on any given day?:-?
About 1% of the number who are on hiking discussion boards.;)