I noticed the article you referenced is dated August 2, 2020 as the pandemic was starting. That impacted trail usage. IIRC there was porta potties at some trailheads.
AMC Action Plan for 2025-30
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Interesting link and certainly relevant. Although this was during the Pandemic and use was way up. It has been shown that it has calmed down. Your point on rescues is well taken but the poop is the problem. As an example of what I mentioned above whereas in The AMC is not adapting going forward. As already mentioned The Huts are a crutch. Going to a self service model at the Huts would go a long way into quelling the over use on the trails in The Whites. Less food means less people and less poop. Less impact on the trails themselves. I find it interesting that a funneling process was used on Baffin and part of that involved basic outhouses and not full on huts and it worked. The AMC has boxed itself into a corner with their manner of funding using the huts as a conduit to achieve their goals. Their entire operation could be downscaled for that matter. Yet they keep trying to grow where they could be consolidating their operation. One of the pivotal missions of The AMC is to make it so everyone can have the outdoor experience. But in consequence it increases impact. Compromises have to be made. Not saying the Huts should go totally away and they won't change until the higher oligarchs of The AMC age out of their system. Hopefully some new folks will bring something to the table that looks at a broader canvas and paints a better picture than the antiquated system presently in place.
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Age-old question I suppose. Do you purposefully not provide services (including rescue) and facilities and would that deter the less serious visitors, or do you provide those services/facilities because otherwise there is no management and things run amok?
pwsull
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In the NG article Douglas lists the nightly high season 1961 hut fee at $7.50 a night which included “lodging, supper, breakfast, a trail lunch for the next day’s travel- and a companionship beyond price.”
And from the article they were serving Roast Beef and Roast Turkey for dinner.
Adjusting for inflation that would be $77.20 in 2025 dollars. Huts now charge $145 a night during full service season, an up charge of 87% from 1961. Looks like the only thing that is still a good deal is the companionship.
I loved the huts of the 1960’s as a 12 year old camper and even the 1990’s when my kids couldn’t carry much weight on their backs, but I totally get why so many people complain about it being The Appalachian “Money” Club and elitist at those prices.
Haven’t been a member for 20+ years although I still get umpteen emails a month from them asking for money.
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That is not what I’m saying. A middle ground can be met or at least strived for. One has only to look at The RMC. It works. They provide a service with less money, less impact, rescues and less poop. Mean while The AMC continues to operate on a model of growth rather than decreasing environmental impact which has been their de facto model in place for decades. The AMC are for the most part good stewards of the land but the demographic has changed and they are not adapting.
Great points of analysis. I’m not an accountant but it has already been mentioned they might not be breaking even on The Huts.
If you mean which huts had copies of the 1961 NG issue with the W.O Douglass article, in the late 1960s all eight of them. If you mean in which huts did I work, Cata, da Flea, Madhouse, and Zool.
Some probably don't know the nicknames for the Huts. Maybe you could provide some insight. Unless you need some secret password.
AMC hut croos are not as involved in SAR now as they were when I worked in the huts in the late 1960s when there were not any volunteer SAR groups. Good thing, as hut croos today have a lot more work with full houses just about every night, whereas in the late 1960s full houses usually only happened on weekend nights. On the other hand, we packed a lot more non-perishable food into huts back then, which is now mostly flown in by helicopter at the beginning of the season. But hut croos are still commonly first on scene on trails near huts to stabilize injured hikers until SAR teams arrive with NHF&G officers.
Ha, ha, good point.
Cata = Carter Notch
da Flea = Greenleaf
Madhouse = Madison
Zool = Zealand
Ghoul = Galehead
Lone = Lonesome
Pah = Mizpah
Lakes = Lakes of the Clouds
WMNF also has a program that involves inner city kids with trail maintenance led by USFS employees that has warmed my heart. If you ever hike through Camp Dodge late in the day on the S&M Carter loop from the 19 Mile Brook trailhead, you will see dozens of kids involved with trail maintenance programs led by the AMC and USFS.
As far as Greenleaf Hut (aka da Flea) being a catalyst for the upwards of 1000 hikers on the Franconia Ridge loop on a single day (data complied by ridge runners archived at USFS headquarters in Campton) during the non-winter season, it is not. We have had this argument before, but simply divide 1000 by 48 (number of bunks in da Flea) to get 20 times more day hikers than overnighters. Of course, lots of these day hikers stop at da Flea to use the toilet facilities, which I still maintain is better than all of them pooping along the trail.
Unfortunately, The AMC is now frowning upon people cutting through Camp Dodge. This comes from a very reliable source. My Neighbor is way up in the hierarchy of Trail work with the club. But kudos to the USFS on their efforts.
Yes, a sign was posted several years at the beginning of the side path upslope from the bunkhouses because hikers were using the limited toilet facilities that were posted only for private use. Of course, only hikers doing the S&M loop clockwise would see this sign. They tried limiting access with combination locks on the facilities, but that was inconvenient for the residents. Classic example of a few hikers ruining something for the larger whole. I began hiking the S&M loop exclusively counterclockwise at the time so that I would be slipping through Camp Dodge late in day when the residents were in the dining hall, and of course I never used the toilet facilities per their request. Compare with earlier posts about using AMC hut toilet facilities, which is more than welcomed by the AMC.
Creag Nan Drochaid
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Before I wade in to something too deep for my boots, let me repeat a universally known truth: When you gotta go, you gotta go.
This matter is an issue for the powers that be (PTB), esp. USFS, NH DNCR, AMC, RMC, WODC, CMC, etc.
Since the PTB now welcome all hikers to the mountains, then facilities must be sited to accommodate hiker calls of nature.
The natural world is overrun with hikers who overstep their bounds, and others have to step over the results.
The PTB are to be commended for providing such facilities at all overnight shelters where the traffic bears it. The science is
detailed in a 1980 book by Leonard, Spencer, and Plumley: Backcountry Facilities: Design & Maintenance. Practices since then, like linear layout of campsites, and moldering privies, are refinements and additions to what was known then.
One very successful means of limiting human fouling of the woods and tundra is at Lincoln Woods and other places. At roadside parking lots
where there is electricity and access for trucks that pump out waste tanks, are buildings with flush toilets. They concentrate waste where it is most efficiently disposed of and spare the backcountry from that impact. This siting has the greatest benefit at places thronged by day hikers. The parking for OBP and Falling Waters Trail, at Lafayette Place, comes to mind. There are pit toilets there, but...
Since this site is on NH State Park land, they can always put an iron ranger there to take cash donations from grateful hikers.
This matter is an issue for the powers that be (PTB), esp. USFS, NH DNCR, AMC, RMC, WODC, CMC, etc.
Since the PTB now welcome all hikers to the mountains, then facilities must be sited to accommodate hiker calls of nature.
The natural world is overrun with hikers who overstep their bounds, and others have to step over the results.
The PTB are to be commended for providing such facilities at all overnight shelters where the traffic bears it. The science is
detailed in a 1980 book by Leonard, Spencer, and Plumley: Backcountry Facilities: Design & Maintenance. Practices since then, like linear layout of campsites, and moldering privies, are refinements and additions to what was known then.
One very successful means of limiting human fouling of the woods and tundra is at Lincoln Woods and other places. At roadside parking lots
where there is electricity and access for trucks that pump out waste tanks, are buildings with flush toilets. They concentrate waste where it is most efficiently disposed of and spare the backcountry from that impact. This siting has the greatest benefit at places thronged by day hikers. The parking for OBP and Falling Waters Trail, at Lafayette Place, comes to mind. There are pit toilets there, but...
Since this site is on NH State Park land, they can always put an iron ranger there to take cash donations from grateful hikers.
Exactly! Not having privies at hiker lots for Signal Ridge, Caps Ridge, Greeley Ponds, Davis Path, etc is just stupid policy. Every roadside picnic grounds I have ever seen has a privy. Trailheads should be no different since they see a lot more traffic.
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