Long Distance Hiking Numbers Skyrocket

     With long distance hiking becoming more mainstream nowadays, due in part to recent films like A Walk in the Woods and Wild, trails across the world are becoming increasingly more crowded than years past. The most popular trails in the United States such as the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, John Muir Trail, are beginning to experience the effects of overpopulation on trail and enact rules to limit the negative effects with over-useage. Areas like the Great Smoky Mountains National Park down here on the NC/TN border began issuing mandatory permits to thru-hikers (someone who is hiking an entire long distance trail in one season) in 2015, the year that I hiked the Appalachian trail. If memory serves me right, I had to buy a $25 permit allowing me access to the park for a full week, (only takes 3-5 days on average). No hikers ever had to do this in previous years and it shows the necessity to keep tabs on the thousands of thru-hikers passing through the park every year. Much farther north in the Whites of New Hampshire there’s much fewer numbers of thru-hikers passing north, however the hut system often becomes over-crowded regardless. We even had to pay an absurd eight dollar fee per night to sleep in a (really crappy) shelter up there as well. We spent the night there at the base of Mount Washington and the weather the following day had significantly worsened above treeline. It was getting late in the morning and reports kept coming in of 100+mph winds ahead. For safety's sake, being responsible hikers we were forced to spend our entire day in a leaking lean-to and charged another eight bucks for the second night, (not happy). With such an increase in population on trails in recent years, we have been seeing increased numbers of hikers going missing and in some terribly sad cases, perishing while trying to accomplish their dreams. It’s wonderful that so many people are interested in experiencing what our national forests, parks, wilderness lands have to offer, but it comes with some responsibilities. Keep our land clean and leave no trace. Be prepared and respect everybody, on and off trail.

                      Descending from the Presidential Range, White Mountain National Forest