TRAIL CROWDS

One of the things I initially worried about was being alone for such a long time. But I quickly discovered that I will be not be alone at all – especially in the beginning. In fact, lots of trail literature talks about how “crowded” the trail is these days. Forty years ago, there were only a couple dozen hikers each year who attempted to do the whole trail, but by 2001, there were 2,375 would-be thru-hikers leaving Springer Mountain each spring.

Strangely, the last few years has seen a steady and considerable decrease in thru-hikers – in 2006, only 1,150 people attempted a thru-hike. Your guess is as good as mine as to why that is. Maybe it’s because people have less free time and money, or more and more students have larger and larger loans to repay, or because there’s less of an environmental ethic, or even fitness ethic, than in previous decades. It might even have something to do with how many young adults are tied up in the military nowadays – I’ve read that the Trail draws lots of people who are transitioning out of military life.

At any rate, there are still a lot of people who start out from Springer Mountain each spring. I suspect it will be crowded at early shelters and in popular places like Smokey Mountain National Park. In fact the vast majority of hikers go the same south-to-north route I do. Only 15% of hikers start in Maine since that section is the toughest and you have to wait until June or July for the snow to melt and the blackflies to go away.