A.T. Voluntary Thru-Hiker Registration for 2015
If you are planning a thru-hike for 2015, please register using an online voluntary registration system available at www.appalachiantrail.org/thruhikeregistration.
The more hikers who register, the more effective the system will be.
The primary purpose is to spread out thru-hikers more evenly at the start of the Trail, for the benefit of hikers and the Trail itself. People naturally gravitate towards certain dates such as March 1, March 15, and April 1, so there tends to be larger clumps of people on those days. Other days in between sometimes have far fewer people, especially mid-week. If hikers who have not made travel plans and have flexibility in their starting date, choosing a date with fewer people can spread out hikers more evenly at the start of the Trail in Georgia, where conditions are most crowded. Attrition will gradually reduce the the number of hikers along the Trail, with approximately 1 in 4 making it the entire way.
The voluntary registration system will also allow ATC to do the following things:
1) Gather better data about those who start thru-hikes, and when and where they are doing it. ATC has a wealth of information about those who complete the Trail, but very little information about those who start.
2) Communicate with thru-hikers before their hikes, and if they opt-in, during and after their thru-hikes. This will allow us to share information about closures or important updates such as norovirus outbreaks, and survey those who attempt thru-hikes and hike 100, 500, 1000 or 1500 miles, not just the successful ones who become "2,000-milers. ("2,000-miler" is the term for hikers who complete the entire A.T., regardless of the time it takes.)
3) Educate hikers about and promote alternatives to the traditional northbound thru-hike. Starting a thru-hike in the middle of the A.T. northbound not only allows hike avoid the "bubble" of northbound thru-hikers, it can offer a number of benefits for those willing to forgo ending on Katahdin.
There are a number of threads already about the registration, but the title of the most active thread "ATC Registration" does not fully convey to a hiker coming to WhiteBlaze for the first time even that the registration is for thru-hikers. Also, ATC is the lead organization in developing the registration, and we are the ones administering it, but it is broader than just ATC. The U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, volunteer trail clubs, and a variety of other stakeholders were involved in the development of the registration.
This year's registration is a trial run to learn as much as we can to get ready for 2016, when a larger number of people is expected to hit the Trail after the movie A Walk in the Woods hits theaters later this year. Please bear with us as we iron out the kinks this year.
We've made a lot of improvements over just the last few weeks, and are eager to hear feedback about changes we can make to make the system better. There are limitations within the calendar function of the registration, which can only show days that are at maximum capacity. However, we will periodically post graphs showing the number of people registered each day at various locations.
Laurie Potteiger
Information Service Manager
Appalachian Trail Conservancy
3 Attachment(s)
Graphs of hikers registered through 2/14
So far, we have about 525 thru-hikers registered. Here are charts that shows the distribution by day of the various categories, through Feb. 14.
