Appalachian Trail History

[MedicineMan]

Help my out here folks but all of us here are indeed 'into' the trail and I was thinking that one thing I love to read about and hear about is the history of the trail, the Grandma Gatewood stories, the Myron Avery stories, the story of when the park service in GSMNP had to snowmobile out the thru hikers in that freek storm several years ago-I could go on....so maybe a forum on AT history-kind of like our birthdays here at Whiteblaze, where each day something of import would suddenly appear (or get posted or somehow magically presented to us)...day the Trail became National Scenic, day the last section was opened, first shelter built, and on and on and on...
would anybody even be interested? seems like it might get us to research it some
It could also have interesting tidbits given with each historical remark, like highest shelter, lowest point, coldest temp....anyway you get the idea.

[SGT Rock]

I honestly do not know any important dates, but it sounds like a good idea. If anyone knows some good ones, please feel free to do so. Maybe someone could do some research into it and become the unofficial WhiteBlaze historian.

Seems like on the old TrailPlace there was someone who was a journalist that had done a lot of research about the history along the AT.

Important dates (maybe):

1. Benton McKay's Article published.

2. AT started

3. AT completed (first time)

4. Earl Schaffer's start date and end date.

5. Enactment of the National Scenic Trails Act.

6. Summer solstace (National Nude Hiking Day)

7. Vernal and Atumnal Equinox (start of spring and fall)

More to be named later.

[Kerosene]

It seems like it could be tough to find 365 dates that pertain to the AT (at least I couldn't think of many). How about developing a database of AT factoids, some of which would be dates, and display one each day, kind of like a "thought a day" calendar?

Here are a few additional ideas that could be used...

• Most common start and finish dates for thru hikes
• Growth in thru hikers by year or decade
• Impact of Skyline Drive on the Trail
• Shelters built by the CCC
• Different types of water sources to be found on or near the Trail
• Greatest vertical rise (NOBO and SOBO)
• Longest, toughest ascents (calculated as vertical rise times tenths of miles), NOBO and SOBO, by state?
• Calories burned per day (weight, mileage, vertical)
• etc.

[EarlyRiser]

just a random question, i dont know if anyone knows the answer or not. but how many white blazes are there on the full length of the trail? obvously it changed not long ago but did anyone ever have a figure? i think thatd be an interesting fact. and if it dosnt exist, well then were just gona have to go count ourselves.

[MedicineMan]

My girlfriend mentioned to me once in passing that there is so much known about the AT...surely she is right and I think that we have an opportunity here at Whiteblaze.net to create/assemble that huge knowledge consortium of the AT....maybe research assignments to each of us? or maybe we have a member already who is the librarian type? regardless those facts and tidbits are all fascinating to me and I am sure to so many others and I have been thinking about how many white blazes there are and what an assignment that would be to count them all! I think that should be SGTROCK's challenge when he thru hikes.

[EarlyRiser]

if somone would like to fund my research id be happy to count them!

[Hikerhead]

White Blazes-rough estimate.

Total miles, 2168 (this number has increased) X 5000 (est number of feet in a mile because I don't know for sure) divided by 250 (guessing the ave lenght in ft between blazes) = 43,360 blazes.

I wonder just how close I am. Hmmmm

[Peaks]

I know that someone has counted them. The information has been posted, or published. I just don't remember where I read.

You would think that someone would have more to do than count the number of blazes in route.

[SGT Rock]

I started copunting them on my last section hike, but kept loosing count, I kept having to run all the way back to Wesser to start over. After about 4 days of going back, I realized I would never make it to springer that way. Sheesh.

[Don]

If you're interested in trail history, a good place to start is with the Special Supplement published by the Trail Conference...its a pretty detailed history of the beginning of the trail and of current managment issues...

It can be found at:

http://www.appalachiantrail.org/abou...railyears.html

and is in .pdf format...

The ATC also has a condensed version on their web-site...

enjoy.....

[Lugnut]

The new ATN has a short article about someone that actually did count the white blazes. The total is: 82,366

[DebW]

Hikerhead, your estimate was off by a factor of 2 (that's usually pretty good in my line of work). So the average spacing of blazes is 139 feet or 46 yards or 38 blazes per mile But the double blazes were counted as 2, so that skews the average.

[Hikerhead]

Thanks DW

Gosh!! I was way off, but only by 40,000 or so

I think I'd like to be the first person to thru hike and paint/touch- up every blaze. Now go figure how many gallons of paint I would need.

2 strokes per blaze X 82,366 =164,732 strokes.

How many strokes per gallon--500?

329.464 gallons

Add 10% for leakage/spillage and new blazes=29 gallons

358 Gallons of paint

Man, that's a lot of paint!!!!!!

Now how mush is that going to cost?

$10 a gallon X 358 gallons=$3,580.00 I better call ATC to see if they would fund this historic hike and if they could pay me up front.

[DebW]

358 gallons of paint x 8 lb/gallon =
2,864 lb of paint

You resupply every 5 days over a 6 month trip, so you need to carry 80 lb of paint after each resupply. Have fun, Hikerhead!

Maybe you should buy a gallon of paint and see how many blazes it makes. The 250 blazes per gallon might be off by a factor of 2.

[Hikerhead]

250 blazes per gallon X 135 ft ave between blazes = 33,750 ft of trail per gallon.

33,750 ft / 5000 ft (est) in a mile=approx 6.5 miles per gallon.

13 mile days=2 gallons per day X 8lbs/can=16lbs of paint a day.

If I could get resupplied with paint every day. I think I could do it.

Plus DW, you could help out when I get up your way.

Do they use waterbased paint, I hope so it's more tree friendly- if so I could thin that out to about 50/50 mix. That would save me half in paint. Let me go back and refigure this..............

[DebW]

Add in the weight of the cans. Steel, right? Maybe you can get titanium paint cans. And if you stop every 135 ft to paint a blaze, you won't make 13 miles per day. 6.5 would be difficult. So say 1 gallon per day at a 6.5 mile per day pace. But at that pace you won't cross roads as often, so you probably have to carry 2-3 gallons of paint. And now the thru-hike will take you 334 days. OK, how about we work together and each paint every other blaze. Oh, no, I just realized that 82,366 blazes is the number in one direction only. There are probably 82,366 southbound blazes also...

By the way, the paint is glossy latex. Any individual blaze needs to be repainted maybe every 5 years or so. I saw the compass and pack of the guy who paints the yellow AT boundary markers. I'd hate to think what we'd look like after painting 82,366 x2 blazes.

[Hikerhead]

Wow, you're right! I completely forgot about the blazes on the other side of the tree. That's almost 165,000 blazes. That's really hard to comprehend.

[Lugnut]

You guys need to get out on the trail. You're starting to hallucinate.

[Peaks]

my paint cans say 1 gallon covers 400 to 450 square feet.

Now, a blaze is supposed to be 2 inches by 6 inches. that's 12 square inches, or 1/12 of a square foot. So, on that basis, 1 gallon of paint should do 4800 blazes.

But, in the woods, assume 2400 blazes per gallon. That drops the paint needed to 34 gallons.

[Hikerhead]

Peaks-thanks, that sounds a lot better.

Lugnut-you're absolutely right.