It often amazes me when reading AT thru-hiker journals from the 1970s how popular the trail was back then. Crowded shelters in Georgia in the spring and in the Smokies, and lots of fellow thru-hikers elsewhere on the trail. I had thought the AT really didn't take off in popularity until later on. Anyone know when it started to transition from a lonely path in the middle of nowhere to the populous trail it is today?