What's in the future for the AT?

[squirrel bait]

What path do yall see the AT taking in the next ten years? Twenty? Is there an ultimate goal that we all should be behind?

[Lone Wolf]

There will be tons more shelters, hostels, trail angels and hikers. Over-use will be trail wide. Been to Springer lately. The AT is the I-95 of trails.

[chris]

The AT gets corporate and yet one has to buy a permit for a thruhike. This is enforced since Homeland Security tracking implants (ok, for identification or health purposes if you like) are required for everyone. The AT starts having "official" things. Idahoan becomes the official mashed potatoes of the AT. Cingular becomes the office phone company, since everyone on the AT now carries a cell phone, just in case. I move to Maine and lead a coup, delcaring myself Supreme Dictactor for Life and break away from the US. I ban all rangers, cars, and AMC members from Baxter.

[Newb]

Judging by what I see here in Virginia I would be the greatest threat to the trail is development. They're building huge townhouse projects right up to the edge of the trail west of D.C. Of Course, all those people that move out to the burbs in order to be closer to nature will find it very attractive to have a house right on the trail....then, of course, they'll get tired of all those undesirable smelly hikers tramping through their back yards all summer. Eventually the trail will be shifted again and again until it's marginalized.

[Youngblood]

I agree with Lone Wolf about the over use of the AT. However, I think and hope that we will see a network of trails that intersect, connect, parallel, etc with the AT. My good buddy Mowgli (aka Little Bear, aka Jeff Hunter) is actively involved in this and its pretty neat.

Right now in my neck of the woods you can do this to some extent and folks are working hard to keep it going and add connecting trails. I have hiked many of these trails and haven't seen a soul for days. You really learn to appreciate shelters, other people to talk to and some of the other conviences of the AT. All day rains and a lack of established campsites puts a whole different spin on what kind of shelter to carry and really favors a hammock with a large tarp for three season use because of the flexibility in site selection and the rain coverage from a large tarp... there ain't necessarily a shelter a few mile up the trail to get out of the rain for a while to cook and such.

I think us long distance hikers in the east will use the AT differently and it will be a good experience. In the southeast we have (or nearly have) the following trails that connect in some way that I have hiked: Foothills Trail, Chattooga Trail, Bartram Trail, Appalachian Trail, Benton MacKaye Trail, Pinhoti Trail. These are well over 500 miles of connecting trails and there are others that I haven't been on.

The AT is changing and it probably always has and probably always will. That's life... I'm still changing and so are you. We have accept this and make the most of it instead of lamenting what used to be. Take the path that takes you where you want to go and enjoy the experience for what it is.

Youngblood

[BlackCloud]

There will be tons more shelters, hostels, trail angels and hikers. Over-use will be trail wide. Been to Springer lately. The AT is the I-95 of trails.
Sadly, you're correct. The initial vision was a wilderness trail. Less then a century later, it's been marginalized (with some major exceptions) to a quaint walk in the woods. In another century, it might just be a big long dog-walking path.

All you arrogant people out there who "improve" it. You know you're like bad directors who are convinced that they can improve a great book.

Why am I turning into L.Wolf?

[Footslogger]

Sadly, you're correct. The initial vision was a wilderness trail. Less then a century later, it's been marginalized (with some major exceptions) to a quaint walk in the woods. In another century, it might just be a big long dog-walking path.
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The relatively flat sections with easy road access may over time become the "dog walking paths" you describe but unless there is some major re-routing I don't see the AT turning into a "quaint walk in the woods". When I lived back in the Atlanta area I hiked the GA and southern NC section repeatedly over a 16 year period. It never got "easier" and the Monday to Friday trail traffic didn't pick up to any extent outside of the main thru-hiker season from February to March.

I do agree though that the major threat to the AT remaining a "somewhat" wilderness footpath is developement. Seemed like every time I hiked the GA and NC sections I noticed a new cabin being built on the side of what once was a remote mountain side. Many of the old forest service roads typically unused by the general public are now being traveled and explored in the effort to locate and build weekend getaways. Just my opinion but to me at least, that is the process that needs to be controlled and/or stopped all together.

Anyhew ...that's my .02

'Slogger
AT 2003

[chris]

I do agree though that the major threat to the AT remaining a "somewhat" wilderness footpath is developement.


Threat? It has already happenned. I can't think of anything that even remotely resembles wilderness anywhere between Virginia and Vermont. There are some tracts between Springer and Damascus that almost or mostly qualify for (albeit small) wilderness. There are few small pockets where you can't hear a road (or see a phone line or power line). I have seen exactly zero wild animals on the AT over about 1600 miles of hiking. Note that the ponies in Grayson and the deer and bear in GSMNP and SNP do not count. I became a lot happier on the AT when I stopped trying to force my idea of the what a trail should be on it, and instead just tried to accept it for what it is. At its best, a pleasant way to spend some time living simply in the outofdoors.

[LionKing]

The areas that are busy now, will continue to be busy, and maybe busier.

As anyone who hikes out here knows, there are places you see alot of people, all the time...no matter what time of year....but these people are always in the same basic area doing the same basic, and usually, simpliest of hikes on the AT.

Your Damascus, Springer, Katahdin, NY< NJ, Smokys, and Virginia areas with national parks, and easy access always have and always will have greater numbers, but if you watch, most of them either dont leave their cars, or the first five or six miles of any major stretch.

There are still places...most of Maine, chunks of GA, NC/TN, a lot of Vermont, and a other smatterings that the only people, if any, I see are thru-hikers, or long distanced hikers. The true hard stretches, you wont see anyone but the hikers out there to hike...occasionly in Northern New Hampshire (Past Gorham)you will see a bewildered looking group of section hikers who had no idea of what the hell the terrian would be like, even this November in GA...I saw three guys out for the second day on Tray...they were beat up and sick of it...just that quick.

It happens, and that is one of the good things about some of the AT being so brutal, not everyone will hike out in those places because they do hurt.
Even thought they are quite nice.