Though not directly ralated, I can tell you as a fly fishereman that many long time fly fishers were not happy after "that damn movie" (A River Runs Through It) came out. It was responsible for an explosion in fly fishing, a boon for the industry that supported it but a curse for those who enjoyed what used to be solitude on the waters they fished and the resulting decline in many fisheries. I hope the same thing doesn't happen with the release of "Wild" and "A walk in the woods." It's already gotten WAY more crowded in the back country than when I started hiking in the 70's. But I guess that's just me being selfish.
+1 Quotas and regulations are ultimately inevitable. YES, they can be a good thing! Much of what has been suggested are temporary short term solutions at best.
Getting beyond the AT, as much as I personally love the AT(you always have a fond remembrance of who you lost your long distance backpacking virginity to), spreading the backpacking usage around to other areas/trails/routes will help offset the impact. Umpteen 100's of miles of trails east of the Mississippi that could be hiked beyond the AT. For those that truly desire to backpack AT quotas will enforce greater recognition of these other trails/trail miles. This isn't going to be so well received with east coasters stuck in a east coast only backpacking mindset or on a site dedicated to AT fanatics but, indeed, lessening the fascination with the AT will help too.
These stats have changed my planning a bit. I'll be relying more on mail drops for the first two months for provisions. Leaving April 1st, I'll be in the center of the bubble. If I get to lagging behind the peak just a little (which is likely), resupplying near the trail may become an issue.
I'll see how things go after most of the other folks drop out before Virginia, then reassess my supply program as needed. Regardless of the political/environmental/social/generational issues, I'm going to enjoy my journey, and take it as it comes, good or bad.
AKA "DANGER" AT Thru-Hiker Class of 2015
The ATC has some really interesting alternative thru hike agendas on their website any number of which I would consider if I were planning a thru nowadays. Personally, I'd rather be Donald Trump's hair stylist than be any part the mob of folks leaving Springer between March 1 and May 1.
Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.
I don't know what the answer to the overuse problem is on the AT but to echo dogwood I do hope that it might encourage people to try other trails in the east. For example in Pennsylvania there are probably a good 1000 miles of backpacking trails outside of the AT that are underused and quite frankly much more scenic and wild than the AT. The long term sustainability of these trails would be helped if more people used them. I find that I enjoy doing trail maintience on these because they need the TLC more than anything I have seen on the AT. The AT is amost over engineered but I suppose it needs to be with the use it sees.
Institute a $100 thru-hiking attempt stamp AND ENFORCE THE REG. If you can financially afford to attempt a thru-hike you can afford the stamp. If you really want to attempt a thru-hike you get the stamp just as if you want to drive an automobile you pay for a diver's license. In lieu of the $100 stamp you can offset it by supporting the AT through trail maintenance hrs, volunteering credits, picking up garbage, somehow giving back to/supporting hiking, etc. The stamp money goes to supporting the AT by building and maintaining campsites, garbage removal, privy maintenance, trail construction, etc.
That is a $100 AT thru-hiking stamp. Again, it will give greater consideration to other trails/routes/trail miles other than the AT - that don't have this fee.
There's plenty of other trail mileage here in the East, so I don't see what's wrong with an East-Coast mentality! On a 70-mile section (OK, an unsuccessful thru-hike attempt) of the Northville-Placid Trail, I saw, I think, eight other hikers - and I was going southbound. If I'd been going northbound like most people, I'd probably have had people a day ahead and a day behind and seen nobody. And that's a "popular" trail, with a patch for finishing it.
Next summer, one of my buddies and I are thinking of doing the fifty miles or so from Butternut Grove to Margaretsville in the Catskills - a section of the Finger Lakes Trail, plus the Dry Brook Ridge - for no better reason than the fact that the catskillmountaineer.com web site has no forum posts of trip reports from anywhere in that section, and we want to fill in the blank spot. From what we can see, it's a great bit of trail, but hardly anyone ever goes there. We're not expecting a lot of company, but the trip should be a blast!
I have not the least bit of trouble finding spots to be alone.
Moreover, so far there's near zero bureaucracy. I have my free New York City watershed access permit for the Catskills, and I sign up for the free access permit at the trailhead if I'm hiking the Eastern High Peaks region of the Adirondacks, and I can pretty much come and go I please on public land in New York. Outside the state parks (the Catskill and Adirondack parks aren't State Parks, they're Wild Forests and Wilderness areas, and some other odder regulatory regions), there are also few restrictions on camping. Anywhere below 3500 feet elevation (4000 feet in the Adirondacks) and 150 feet from a trail or water source is pretty much fair game.
If the popular bits of the A-T turn into a sacrifice to tourism, I will be only a little bit sad. I'll see them as similar to Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondacks or Hunter Mountain in the Catskills - nice mountains, overrun by tourists, so that they're quite shabby, but that keeps the rest of the parks nice for those who step beyond the tourist areas. Then again, I can take a long view. I've hiked past the ruins of grand hotels in places that are well on the way back to becoming wilderness again.
Ruins of the Overlook Mountain House by ke9tv, on Flickr
I always know where I am. I'm right here.
Many thru hikers are lured to the AT as a notch in their belt.
I would bet many will not continue hiking after their thru. How exactly will a 100 dollar stamp influence them to consider other trails?
Also a stamp is only as good as someone's word. I can here it now. No sir, I am only a section hiker.
Is it really that big a problem? Georgia and North Carolina up to the Smokies definitely take the brunt of the yearly influx of hikers, but at least the terrain is reasonably well suited to handling the numbers. If we had those kinds of numbers in NH and Maine, there would be a serious problem.
As for supplies, the stores along the trail have a good idea how much to stock up to meet the demand. If they run out of supplies, they loose money so it's in their best interests to have plenty available.
I would like to see more emphasis placed on "Pack it in, Pack it out" then "Leave no trace." I think it's easier to convey the idea of "pack it out" (if you were able to carry it in, you should be able to carry it out) then "leave no trace".
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I grew up hiking the AT in the 70s up in New England. The trails were completely overrun and ruin. The shelters couldn't be sleep in because they were unsafe and then they came out with the caretakers and everything changed. I know very well that all of you hate to paid to camp but it made all the difference in the world. It also has made a job that you have to wait years to get. Plain and simple you have to take the party out of the trail. Too many people think they can just go out there and have all the fun they want you know hike your own hike. The trail was originally made to get away from all that to become one with nature. Okay you're all going to really hate me to say this but I'm going to say it anyhow the real problem is trail days. Don't get me wrong I love trail days and look forward to going to it but that's the thing about hiking northbound getting to trail days. There also may be a thought of closing the Forest Service Rd. down so that getting on top of Springer Mountain isn't so easy. Just during the peak thru hike season I'm sure it I will slow it down a hair.
What if you push trail days a month ahead?
Lastly I have to say I think it is ludicrous to say that people are thru hiking the trail for a picture and a certificate. They are hiking it to feel proud of themselves in a world that you can't feel proud of yourself anymore.
But we are part of nature and nature is part of us. Our ways of forming community differ very little from a pack of wolves or a community of penguins. We do what we can because we must (bonus pints for the youtube link). Our oneness with nature inhertantly includes us for who we are. And that is part of the HYOH mantra - be yourself.
The ATC press release for the $25,000 REI grant states the grant, focused on the AT in GA, NC and TN, is for "addressing litter, waste disposal, trail erosion, campsite use and backcountry facility maintenance and rehabilitation." I wonder if these resources will lead the Tennessee Eastman Hiking & Canoeing Club to revisit their "no privies" policy. For those unfamiliar, TEHCC looks after the trail and shelters between Spivey Gap, just south of Erwin, and Damascus. The popular Overmountain Shelter, in the midst of the Roan Highlands, is the only shelter in this stretch with a privy.
I hiked all of their trail section in May of 2013, during NOBO thru season, but after its peak. In the course of looking for good spots to dig cat holes when I was in the vicinity of shelters, I saw first-hand that some hikers don't always bother digging cat holes. I know there is room for honest disagreement on the best way to deal with human waste on the trail, but if lack of resources has played any part in the TEHCC's thinking on this issue, then now is a good time to reconsider. And as a side note, I want to say that I know very well that the TEHCC is working harder than any other trail club, through their aggressive trail relocations, to address the "trail erosion" aspect of trail supervision.
On an unrelated note, I think the suggestion that more self-sufficient NOBO thru-hikers consider the Benton Mackaye Trail as an alternative to the AT's southern 238 miles is a very good one when it comes to dispersing hikers on the trail. I know Sgt. Rock chose that itinerary for his attempted thru-hike a few years back.
Last edited by map man; 12-14-2014 at 20:06.
Well, maybe not right this instant but the numbers continue to grow and grow with every passing year. If it isn't a problem right now, and even that's debatable, it will be before very long. The last couple of springs I have done a few sections north of the Smokies up to Roan and I can tell you the areas around the shelters looked like garbage dumps. Trash everywhere and toilet paper gardens behind the shelters, it was disgusting.
I don't have the answers but I think it is irresponsible to not begin the process of figuring out what the best approach for the future might be. I think that's what the ATC is trying to do. Start the conversation before the problem is too overwhelming to deal with.
Personally, I think if you remove the shelters in the southern states it will create even more of a problem. Education is the key I think and possible even adding shelters and privies in the first couple hundred miles. Those sites are strained and need relief. If you think about other overcrowding situations in other areas of life the answer is providing enough facilities to satisfy the number of people. I think it would be different if we were talking about a year round problem but you just have to get the herd through that first few hundred miles and then the problem disappears.
Section hiker on the 20 year plan - 2,078 miles and counting!
Interesting discussion. We got a glimpse of how crowded the trail has become when we did a short section in March of 2010. Despite the snowstorm that hit on our first night, there were 50 people a day starting the weekend of March 1. Very different from what I experienced on my thruhikes.
I think the suggestion that has been made several times in the past to have an AT corridor, with multiple trail options rather than a single overused trail, is a good one. The PCT has several places where alternate routes are encouraged and used by many hikers. Alternate routes are a huge part of the CDT culture as well. Only the AT discourages using alternate routes.
While the idea of getting rid of shelters is appealing in a way, they do concentrate use in ways that protect other areas. Improving the camping areas makes more sense than building bigger shelters though. If you have 50+ hikers a night heading to the same water source, only a few will actually be able to use the shelter, the rest will have to camp. The ones who are not prepared to deal with the elements will end up dropping out sooner rather than later.
If there is eventually a permit system, as seems likely, it wouldn't be the end of the world. The PCT does that well. It might be hard to enforce on the AT unless it gave advantages like free entry to GSMNP and discounts at the huts/shelters in New England. It would increase membership in the ATC, at least for the short term, and it would allow ATC to send out more LNT and bear aware type information. When most thuhikers got all their information from ATC, all that info was included in the packets, so people were at least exposed to LNT before their hikes (though even in the '80s, trash at the shelters was a problem.)
Tongue in cheek or no, doing the Long Trail in VT the year before my AT thru showed how much I truly love backpacking. Esp since there was no linear community as much as on the AT. If anything, doing the LT was a better prep for the CDT vs the AT in some ways as you are (were? That may changed) by yourself more.
I think if many future AT hikers did a two-week shake down hike (with the emphasis on hiking) the drop out rate would be less overall.
More prepared people AND more people starting who enjoy hiking all day.
My wife loves the outdoors. She's done two-week trips. But those were low-mileage/base camp style trips with her college. Doubt she'd enjoy a thru-hike.
And that's cool as there are many ways to enjoy the outdoors! And long, hiking oriented trips is just one of them.
I'd hate to make a two-week hiking trip pre-thru mandatory (impossible!) but think it is a good idea.
Last edited by Mags; 12-09-2014 at 16:28.
Paul "Mags" Magnanti
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The true harvest of my life is intangible...a little stardust caught,a portion of the rainbow I have clutched -Thoreau
Many, if not most, people have no idea what it is to be natural. Andrew Shurka has tears in his eyes in a National Geographic Live special. He speaks of animal trails, over the best terrain for a trail. Then, he sees a migration trail. He realises it has been used thousands of years, that gave him a perspective.
That experience is only available in a natural environment: walking in an old growth forest, walking among the Redwood giants, sailing on salt water, etc.
Our own authentic nature responds to the natural.
Everything else, we cope or we don't cope.
I see trail maintainance as a public service. I also support Outdoor Programs, like we had at our college. Trip lists posted. Have minimum gear. Borrow gear from the Outdoor Program. If no student card, pay a fee for equipment borrowed. Sign up.
The "trip leader" posted the sign up list.
The trip leader and a few exoerienced people, who signed up, are expected to instruct and help the others.
By this means, new people learn how to read the maps, use map and compass, use GPS, learn relevant skills.
Then, the new people can plan on their own.
WhiteBlaze is helping people HYOH.
It doesn't have to be the AT.