When does AT visitor level become unsustainable?

[GoLight]

There has been an unprecedented growth in users of the AT over the past 10 years. The trend shows every indication that user-ship will at least remain constant and it will probably even accelerate. At what level does it become unsustainable? When will we see more restrictions like the ones in GSMNP? When will we have to purchase a pass to hike it all? And another dam*ed thing, why is the AT so overwhelming popular? Can´t some of us focus on other trails that are just as pretty, just as challenging and just as convenient?

[blw2]

I think in a way your last question points to the answer of your previous one, perhaps. The AT is known, the others not so much.

I'm looking to do my 1st section next summer hopefully....not so much to do the AT, but because it's a known entity, it's well documented so I can figure out where to go, well supported for shuttles, etc... also the bit of "mystic" that goes along with it.... and perhaps the hope or dream that some day I could come back and do the next section...and the next....
Personally, if I knew of other options I would certainly consider them. I just want a nice trip, spend a week on the trail. A loop in some ways would be more ideal in my case....except that sortof takes away that dream of future sections....

[Tipi Walter]

More people drive than hike, otherwise you'd expect a heavily used foot trail like the AT to be augmented with other equally long trails to accommodate the traffic. New Interstates are built for this reason but not so long trails. The BMT comes to mind but it's only 300 miles long and mostly uses old existing trails. Foot trails are a low priority in our Car culture.

Wouldn't it be nice if more Americans hiked and more long trails were getting built? Instead of more highways?

[moldy]

My opinion is that we are not even near the limit in numbers to cause any type of restrictions. We all have a different definition of "overcrowded". This years trips to the AT I encountered less than a hundred other hikers each day. Encountering a few people every 30 minutes must be OK because I keep coming back. If I wanted to be alone I would go off-trail, or I could go to a Mets game.

[Tennessee Viking]

Opening more long trails or alternative routes like the BMT and GET will help. Besides the ATC has helped pioneered stewardship and trail maintenance. The trail has been relocated and rehabbed to be more sustainable in the last 15 years than ever before.

[rickb]

My opinion is that we are not even near the limit in numbers to cause any type of restrictions. We all have a different definition of "overcrowded". This years trips to the AT I encountered less than a hundred other hikers each day. Encountering a few people every 30 minutes must be OK because I keep coming back. If I wanted to be alone I would go off-trail, or I could go to a Mets game.

Agreed.

Its some of he privies and shelter areas that are at their limit, not the AT.

How one defines a problem can drive the solution.

If one defines the problem as simply "too many people", the remedy can only be to reduce their number.

If one defines the problem more specifically, a range of solutions can be considered.

[HooKooDooKu]

When will we see more restrictions like the ones in GSMNP?

Compared to 'General' GSMNP backpackers, there are no restrictions on AT thru hikers... actually quite the opposite. GSMNP has made allowances for AT Thru hikers that 'General' backpackers don't enjoy (such as not requiring that you get reservations for each campsite/shelter that you stay at, and allowing camping around the shelters when the shelters are full).

However, it looks like Baxter State Park has already launched the 1st salvo when it comes to restrictions... with the introduction of the A.T.-Hiker Permits (limited to 3,150/season).

But I could easily foresee a time in the near future where GSMNP begins something like daily or weekly limit on the number of AT thru hiker permits issued if the AT shelters in the park become too over-whelmed.

[evyck da fleet]

This.

Compared to some of the local trails near Atlanta the AT is a nice alternative. Privy management and finding people who want to maintain them could put a limit on overnighters. I don't see a problem with day use which is the majority of the trail use.

[saltysack]

I smell WAG bags in the future!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kaptainkriz]

I see this ad a self limiting problem. Most of the people experiencing the AT, at least in Maryland, are not through hikers. They are day hikers and weekenders. In Maryland where I live, the nature of the limitation is painfully obvious to me. There is no parking! When the roadside lots are packed to the gills, people go elsewhere. Parking and access are the limiting factors imho, not the trail itself. We know we have a problem when someone proposes parking garages at the trail heads.

[tour-kid]

some of us focus on other trails that are just as pretty, just as challenging and just as convenient?

Alot of us do. I only use the AT in 'off-season'
Something about crowds, trash, and little wads of toilet paper turns my attention elsewhere.

[MuddyWaters]

There has been an unprecedented growth in users of the AT over the past 10 years. The trend shows every indication that user-ship will at least remain constant and it will probably even accelerate. At what level does it become unsustainable? When will we see more restrictions like the ones in GSMNP? When will we have to purchase a pass to hike it all? And another dam*ed thing, why is the AT so overwhelming popular? Can´t some of us focus on other trails that are just as pretty, just as challenging and just as convenient?

If you define unsustainable in terms of negative user experience as it relates to effects of crowds of people.....way past already part of year.

You could probably sleep 30 persons in your house, but do you want to live that way?
No.

[TJ aka Teej]

When does AT visitor level become unsustainable?

About ten years ago.

[Sarcasm the elf]

I smell WAG bags in the future!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You can smell the future? What kind of a cut rate time machine is this?!

[gpburdelljr]

More people drive than hike, otherwise you'd expect a heavily used foot trail like the AT to be augmented with other equally long trails to accommodate the traffic. New Interstates are built for this reason but not so long trails. The BMT comes to mind but it's only 300 miles long and mostly uses old existing trails. Foot trails are a low priority in our Car culture.

Wouldn't it be nice if more Americans hiked and more long trails were getting built? Instead of more highways?

It's easy to find a road route, because it doesn't have to be in the forest. Finding long stretches of forest for a trail is difficult.

[Another Kevin]

You can smell the future? What kind of a cut rate time machine is this?!

No, you parsed that wrong. He's foretelling a future of smelling WAG bags. Phew!

[Another Kevin]

More people drive than hike, otherwise you'd expect a heavily used foot trail like the AT to be augmented with other equally long trails to accommodate the traffic. New Interstates are built for this reason but not so long trails. The BMT comes to mind but it's only 300 miles long and mostly uses old existing trails. Foot trails are a low priority in our Car culture.

Wouldn't it be nice if more Americans hiked and more long trails were getting built? Instead of more highways?

Some places are working on it. It's agonizingly slow, both because of lack of labor and because of bureaucracy. But in my part of the world I see progress. New York Long Path (which has always, where feasible, been a route rather than a trail, but trail development is often necessary to protect a corridor) has added a number of sections in recent years.

Shawangunk Ridge Otisville section
Mamakating
Vernooy Kill (not yet open - the forest fires in the Shawangunks the past few years have delayed it)
Romer Mountain
Warner Creek
Gifford Farm

In the same period, there have been three major pieces added to the Northville-Placid: Northville to Woods Lake; Woods Lake to Upper Benson, and Wakely Dam to Stephens Pond, eliminating significant roadwalking.

It's been "three steps forward and two steps back," because in the same period we've lost Huntersfield (a single landowner not only revoked an 'irrevocable' trail easement, but also started buying up narrow strips of adjacent parcels to block the trail from being relocated nearby), and Roemer High Point (a new land purchaser revoked an easement). Neither case appears to have involved hiker behaviour; just an "it's all MINE!" attitude on the part of the landowners. (This summer, there's been a seemingly endless closure at Indian Ladder after a hiker was struck by falling rock. I thought that was a natural hazard of a cliffside trail, but the parks department seems to think it's a catastrophe. And not quite everything is rebuilt from the fires, but it's coming along.)

Some of the problems may be too late to solve (there's no good way across Orange County, and no good way across the Mohawk Valley), but it is possible to thru-hike from a subway station in Manhattan to the Adirondacks - and indeed, as of last year, 150 people had the patch. The trip out of suburbia is endless (but surprisingly pleasant), but the stretches of the trail between Otisville and Wawarsing and again between Riggsville and Conesville are awesome. (I've section-hiked those.) When I retire, if my physical condition allows, I want to thru-hike it myself, with a twist: the original description lays out a route beyond Great Sacandaga Lake up to the Adirondacks. With the state's purchase of Finch Pruyn, something approximating that route has been possible again, as it has not been since the Second World War because of posted lands. I'm itching to explore it. The finish of such a hike would be amazing: a traverse of the Adirondack Great Range and Mount Marcy, and exit through Avalanche Pass. All in all, it would be about a 500 or 600-mile trip with a handful of long bushwhacks near the north end to make the connections.

I'm intrigued with the idea of hiking from the Big City to the High Peaks. From 'slackpack through city parks, taking the bus to a motel at the end of the day' for the first few days, through 'trail walking', 'TOUGH trail walking', 'back to slackpacking through the farm country', and 'trying to follow century-abandoned haul roads through beaver swamp and high mountains', to 'wrapping it up with a grand zig-zag on established trails.' From the sidewalk in the concrete canyons to the rock above timber line.

I dream of that more than of an AT thru hike. Heresy, I know, but the idea of spending half a year in a hiker bubble just doesn't capture my imagination, while doing the research and exploration to recover an old route and maybe lay the groundwork for others to follow - that sounds like a fine project.

Also, in my part of the world, the North Country Trail is being worked on.

There's hope for us yet.

[Tipi Walter]

but trail development is often necessary to protect a corridor)



Some of the problems may be too late to solve (there's no good way across Orange County, and no good way across the Mohawk Valley), but it is possible to thru-hike from a subway station in Manhattan to the Adirondacks - and indeed, as of last year, 150 people had the patch. The trip out of suburbia is endless (but surprisingly pleasant),

There's hope for us yet.

I'd say these two points are why building new long distance foot trails are much more difficult than say building new highways. Highways do not protect a corridor (and in fact destroy trail corridors) and highways--development (or sprawl) are themselves part of Suburbia.

Here's the taste test in my opinion---Can you backpack these new trails and camp every night by the trail? If yes then it's a genuine foot trail---If not then it's a Day Use Only urban greenway. Perhaps more and more of our foot trails are becoming so designated---no camping allowed --- as urban sprawl inches closer and closer to undeveloped land, i.e. the AT corridor.

[Deadeye]

To add to Another Kevin's point: there are lots of options for making multi-day to multi-week routes in many parts of the US. That doesn't help those that have it in their heads to hike the AT, but if you simply like long-distance hiking, and want to avoid crowds, making your own route (legally!) through public lands is a very good option.

[swisscross]

My opinion is that we are not even near the limit in numbers to cause any type of restrictions. We all have a different definition of "overcrowded". This years trips to the AT I encountered less than a hundred other hikers each day. Encountering a few people every 30 minutes must be OK because I keep coming back. If I wanted to be alone I would go off-trail, or I could go to a Mets game.

Close to a hundred a day...that alone would make me want to home elsewhere. I am lucky. My last three multi days hikes ( few days each) I have seen a total of, wait for it, one other backpacker and one runner. Total of two people in about twelve days.

Seeing 100 people a day....is over crowded.