# of 2016 thru hikers and ovecrowding

[evyck da fleet]

I just got back from my trailversary, which is Tuesday, hike. Four years ago I was hiker number 940 to leave AF. As of today over 1,500 NOBOs have already signed the visitor center log. In addition to the trail clubs, scout groups and local outdoor clubs there were plenty of people on the trail. That being said I didn't feel like the trail was overcrowded. There is still a LNT problem but at least I couldn't smell the Black Gap privy from the trail or the Stover Creek one from the blue blaze like four years ago.

IMG_3434.JPG

[scrabbler]

I saw < 20 NOBO's "total" between Fri Noon and Sun noon as I was heading SOBO around Damascus. Seemed light to me.

[saltysack]

I have a friend who has a house in Wolf Laurel near big bald NC, he replaces the log book at the shelter as his property borders the AT near by. He said there's been droves of people passing thru....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Malto]

I saw < 20 NOBO's "total" between Fri Noon and Sun noon as I was heading SOBO around Damascus. Seemed light to me.

Thats good to hear. I will be hiking Erwin to Adkins Tuesday-Sunday next week and was thinking it would be less crowded than a couple weeks from now.

[u.w.]

Thats good to hear. I will be hiking Erwin to Adkins Tuesday-Sunday next week and was thinking it would be less crowded than a couple weeks from now.

I was up there a couple of weeks ago. Went from Watauga Lake, where the trail crosses 321, back up to Damascus and saw ten or more hikers a day. Admittedly only two days on trail, but more people than I thought I'd run into out there, in March. I have no doubts it will be a whole lot more crowed in a coming into May, as you mentioned.

u.w.

[Busky2]

I crossed while SOBO, three NOBOs thrus ... Indianan Jones and Yoda and a third they were just shy of NY a day ago, Indy was #12 to sign in this year and started Jan 21st I believe he said.

[Greenlight]

In the past month, I section hiked in the Smokies around Newfound Gap, and further up north in Maryland from I-70 south to Dahlgren Backpacking Camp near the Old South Mountain Inn. The Smokies were more crowded, but there were only two thru-hikers at our packed shelter. The rest were section hikers. You know Wild and A Walk in the Woods are driving up numbers, but my take is that the vast majority, whose only "why" was that they watched a movie and thought it would be fun, don't make it very far into Tennessee/NC...let alone Harpers Ferry, WV or Maine.

~Greenlight

[BigO]

Does anyone see the crime rate going up with the heaver crowds? New to the back packing world and really not sure what I'm getting into. But I'm starting to plan for a 2017 thur hike. Was a little nervous about being in the woods along but sounds like I won't have that problem.

[rainydaykid]

Does anyone see the crime rate going up with the heaver crowds? New to the back packing world and really not sure what I'm getting into. But I'm starting to plan for a 2017 thur hike. Was a little nervous about being in the woods along but sounds like I won't have that problem.

Carry a light sidearm like a Glock 26 and you should be good. I carried a Glock 19 for most of my 2010 thru, traded it in for a Ruger LCP .380 at Damascus because the Glock ended up being too heavy.

[displacedbeatnik]

Carry a light sidearm like a Glock 26 and you should be good. I carried a Glock 19 for most of my 2010 thru, traded it in for a Ruger LCP .380 at Damascus because the Glock ended up being too heavy.

Ha! Don't forget you can't carry the gun legally in some state parks along the way so you'll have to send it ahead in a bounce box and hope no criminals attack in the meantime.

[egilbe]

Need an FFL to ship firearms out of state. Or have someone with an FFL ship it to another FFL holder.

[soumodeler]

A gun is absolutely not needed on the AT. I am one of the first people to tell you to carry concealed in everyday life, but I see absolutely no need on the AT.

As for the legalities of carrying along the entire length of the AT, I wouldn't want to be caught with a gun in the extremely anti-gun northeast states like New Jersey and New York. Connecticut and Massachusetts are also opposed to you carrying a weapon for self defense.

[Hoofit]

Really?
would you recommend all 2,000 hikers carry a sidearm ?

[Hoofit]

Maybe we could all just carry a spear in the winter months so as to not disturb the Bears.........

[rafe]

Poison-tipped trekking poles.

[rainydaykid]

It was a joke. I never carried on my hikes. Never had a problem, either. Not that I see anything wrong with carrying one.

[Lone Wolf]

A gun is absolutely not needed on the AT.

neither are water filters, leki poles or bear canisters

[4shot]

neither are water filters, leki poles or bear canisters

I think the only necessities are decent footwear and a set of clothes, a sleeping bag, a buncha snickers and TP. Everything else is just luxuries or "nice to haves" iirc.

[displacedbeatnik]

I think the only necessities are decent footwear and a set of clothes, a sleeping bag, a buncha snickers and TP. Everything else is just luxuries or "nice to haves" iirc.

That sounds like a recipe for malnutrition and diarrhea to me. But each their own.

I too was joking about the gun. To each their own but totally not necessary.

[twistwrist]

Here's an article on Appalachian Trials describing the crowds.

http://appalachiantrials.com/how-cro...-trail-really/