Is this year a "normal" trail year?

[K2]

There has been some crazy weather and, now, three deaths close together. To some, Trail Days was a bust.

In a "usual" year, are there any deaths? Is the weather always this crazy?

I'm almost glad poor health and money kept me off the trail this year.

What's going on? K2

[Pedaling Fool]

Doesn't mean a thing. Some get kind of metaphysical when stuff like this happens, but it's just stuff, nothing else.

Crazy weather:confused: I don't know where that came from.

But I'm sure someone will try and tie it to GW:rolleyes: Problem with that is that all the predictions of weather changes expessed by GW theorists is exactly like Nostradamus predictions -- they're so broad and ambiguous that they can apply to almost any situation that arises.

No one knows the future, the current events are evidence of sht, so just get out and hike



:sun

[K2]

Nothing metaphysical about it; I've just observed that early starters seem to have gotten hit with a lot more snow, ice and cold than was thought typical; that there have been deaths, that some people were disappointed with Trail Days. I'm just wondering if this is normal hike
"chatter" (no offense) each year, or if this year was particularly exceptional.

K2

[emerald]

The more A.T. user-days, the greater the probabality people will draw their last breath while on it.

I don't watch the weather closely, but I expect we're seeing little extraordinary activity exceeding what's been recorded previously.

We should not be surprised by issues at Trail Days either.

[FritztheCat]

I've been sort of paying attention to the weather the last couple of years. It seems 2003, 2006 and last year were very wet years. Although I have no evidence to prove it, I'm going with the theory that every three years are wet years so the next will be 2012. Which ultimately means that next year (2011) the weather will be perfect. :D

[johnnybgood]

Maybe when compared to a "typical" thru- hiker year the on trail deaths are a bit of an anomaly today but may indeed be more the norm in the not to distant future as more baby boomers retire and want to challenge themsevles by taking on the trail , possibly with underlying health problems.

[Ladytrekker]

I kind of had some of the same thoughts about the weather. I followed several trail journals last year and many stated it was the wettest year in like 10 years and the trail journals from the early starters this year talked about record snow. I read some journals where people were hiking in thigh high snow only getting 2 to 3 miles a day the white blazes and the trail could not be seen some got lost and had to find their way back, some had to get off trail for a few weeks waiting for the snow to quit, etc.

I hiked two weeks ago for a couple of days and had the most beautiful weather on Hawk Mountain. High 70's low 50's and no rain.

[Jack Tarlin]

*Millions of people use the A.T. every year. It's inevitable that in the course of a year, if you have several million folks residing or passing thru the same space, there will be some deaths. Think about it....plenty of folks live in communites of less than a few thousand people, but EVERY DAY, their local paper lists several obituaries.......so a handful of deaths on the A.T. is not that noteworthy (and I mean the statistical figure; I'm in no way saying these deaths are unimportant or insignificant; these folks were obviously improtant to somebody).

*The weather has not been THAT unusual. There was a bunch of snow in March down south. Then there was a GREAT stretch of weather and tons of people had 7 consectutive great days in the Smokies, which was rare. But there's ALWAYS something "weird" with a season's weather on the A.T. Some years, like 2003 are really wet for awhile. Some, like 2001, are really dry. Some are snowy. Some aren't. In short, there was nothing that out of the ordinary with the weather so far this year.

*Some folks thought Trail Days was a bust? Gee, what a surprise. Most fols thought it was a wonderful weekend. There's simply no pleasing some folks. You could provide a free gourmet meal to hikers with rib-eyes, potatoes, Caesar salad, shrimp cocktail, you name it. And in the register book for guests to sign, someone will contain complain about the options one had for steak sauce or dessert. In other words, the fact that some folks reported here or elsewhere that they thought Trail Days was a bust is no surprise. After all, pick up any newspaper in mid-December: There's no shorage of articles and stories about people who don't much like Christmas. Go figure.

[K2]

Thanks for your responses. K2