Time to deny out of country visitors who want to thru-hike?

[BaxterBear]

I am wondering what the overall idea of denying temp visa's to people who are not United States citizens who come to the USA with the intention of thru-hiking the AT. Would this help lower and slow the amount of hikers who start at Springer each year? Laurie P said that 50 people starting a day is unsustainable so this would lower than number who leave each day.

I know it might seem odd to suggest this, but as the ATC and Baxter State Park have both expressed something needs to be done. This seems like a quick way to directly lower the number of hikers. Any reduction is good to lower the environmental impact.

Share what you think!

[imscotty]

What do I think? I think that would be wrong.

I also do not think that 50 hikers a day is necessarily 'unsustainable.' They way things are implemented now may be unsustainable, but I think measures can be taken to deal with these volumes without excluding people. Many excellent suggestions have been made on this site.

[Starchild]

To me wrong on many levels.

[MuddyWaters]

Unfortunately, US citizens cannot get permits to hike the JMT or Grand Canyon corridor , while others from other countries do.

Sure seems to be something wrong with that to me. I hate to exclude anyone, but US citizens SHOULD come first. Period.

[Connie]

The european hikers, in my experience, in Glacier National Park are better equipped and more experienced hikers.

U.S. Citizens are excluded from permits, to hike in JMT or Grand Canyon corridors?

[MuddyWaters]

The european hikers, in my experience, in Glacier National Park are better equipped and more experienced hikers.

U.S. Citizens are excluded from permits, to hike in JMT or Grand Canyon corridors?

Everyone goes in a lottery on the day you apply for, 4 or 6 months in advance, and the in-advance permits are difficult to get. The # of applicants is many times the number of permits available.. People from other countries get lucky and get them when US citizens dont.

Fixed capcity model, and the problem getting worse with time.

[Slo-go'en]

Non-US citizens probably amount to 0.5% of the number of hikers. If you look at the list of completed thru hikes posted by the ATC for this year, you'll see that the vast majority of thru hikers (at least the ones who actually finished) are from the east coast, which stands to reason.

From this we can conclude that either East Coast hikers are better prepared to hike the AT or not too many from outside the area come here.

[fluffkitten]

Do you have figures for how many of us foreign types are hiking the AT? I have a feeling we're a drop in the bucket considering the expense plus visa hoops we need to jump through just to get into country for long enough.

Would be interesting seeing how you'd intend enforcing it. You'd probably need the immigration people to deny visas.

[Hot Flash]

I think it would be a terrible idea to deny foreigners the ability to hike our trail.

[Coffee]

Terrible idea and it won't solve the problem unless trails are currently overrun with foreigners which I don't believe to be the case.

[Odd Man Out]

This is about the worst idea I have heard.

Some of the best experiences I have had in national parks is sharing the park with international visitors. I especially enjoyed chatting with the motorcycle gang from Finland at the Grand Canyon. But I do have another idea. During rush hour, the police are going to close the highways and only let local people drive on them. This will solve all of our traffic problems.

[ALLEGHENY]

Why come here to spend money? Everything is made in China.

[StealthHikerBoy]

This issue could be fixed simply: just get rid of the first dozen or so shelters on the trail.

[TNhiker]

wellllllllllll..............

unless someone is 100 percent native america indian----we are all foreigners...........

[Lyle]

Absolutely terrible idea to place any special roadblocks to international visitors. Same rules should apply to all.

One thing that may slow folks down, is to eliminate dropping hikers off from FS42. Make that a "pick-up only" access point for if folks change their mind in the first 10 miles or if friends/family want to hike the first few miles with a thru-hiker. If no method to enforce this is available/feasible, then just close that access point to all non-emergency or non-official operations. You want to hike the AT, hike to the beginning, like you are required to do in Maine. Not saying that would solve the problem, but it won't hurt and it may reduce the initial "party atmosphere".

[Jeff]

At Green Mountain House 8% of our hiker guests are from outside the USA. Some may be hiking the Long Trail, but the majority are AT thruhikers. The international hikers bring a unique perspective and getting to know them is a real treat.

The suggestion of this thread is NOT a good one. How would we Americans like to be restricted from hiking the Camino in Spain or the Te Araroa in New Zealand ??

[gpburdelljr]

wellllllllllll..............

unless someone is 100 percent native america indian----we are all foreigners...........

American Indians are no more native than I am, their ancestors just arrived from other continents before my ancestors did.

[BCPete]

I am wondering what the overall idea of denying temp visa's to people who are not United States citizens who come to the USA with the intention of thru-hiking the AT. Would this help lower and slow the amount of hikers who start at Springer each year? Laurie P said that 50 people starting a day is unsustainable so this would lower than number who leave each day.

I know it might seem odd to suggest this, but as the ATC and Baxter State Park have both expressed something needs to be done. This seems like a quick way to directly lower the number of hikers. Any reduction is good to lower the environmental impact.

Share what you think!

Wow ... . This kind of thinking is like blaming a Prius driver for bad air quality, while you drive a Hummer to the convenience store 100 yards down the block.

[Coffee]

The suggestion of this thread is NOT a good one. How would we Americans like to be restricted from hiking the Camino in Spain or the Te Araroa in New Zealand ??

Precisely. I have a number of international destinations on my bucket list including the Camino, Swiss Alps, and Te Araroa. I'll probably avoid the destinations that fleece foreigners (Kilimanjaro, Nepal, etc). Tourism is good for the US, even from hikers who may not be dropping the big money.

[Fairway]

The suggestion of this thread is NOT a good one. How would we Americans like to be restricted from hiking the Camino in Spain or the Te Araroa in New Zealand ??

And that is exactly what would happen to American hikers. Tourist visas issued to Americans already have an inflated cost in other countries simply because our government likes to charge it's visitors more than everyone else. Its a two way street.