Less People Hiking?

[skiguy]

Ferncroft on Saturday

I thought they stopped parking on the road on the way into the actual parking lot for the trailhead. Guess not. Feel sorry for the people whom live on this road.

 

[Beckie and Prema]

Saturday afternoon we had the Laughing Lion Trail all to ourselves. Five or ten minutes in I could see why. Sunday - Rumford Whitecap lot was full, but folks were dispersed so it did not seem crowded.

 

[sierra]

I thought they stopped parking on the road on the way into the actual parking lot for the trailhead. Guess not. Feel sorry for the people whom live on this road.

People just don't care. I did a loop hike in the Belknap's from the bottom of the carriage road. There is a small 4 car lot and some cars can park along the roadway. About 100 yards or so up the road there are big no parking sings. Upon my return from my hike, there were at least 4 cars parked past the signs, I mean you can't miss them, I just shook my head, how do you ignore signs like that? There is another small lot for another part of the range, twice, I have found it full and just went elsewhere. This is why people post their land, a complete lack of common courtesy by some users.

 

[peakbagger]

I was the first one parked at the Webster Jackson trailhead lot this morning, when I came down at around 1 PM there were six other cars parked.

 

[rocket21]

People just don't care. I did a loop hike in the Belknap's from the bottom of the carriage road. There is a small 4 car lot and some cars can park along the roadway. About 100 yards or so up the road there are big no parking sings. Upon my return from my hike, there were at least 4 cars parked past the signs, I mean you can't miss them, I just shook my head, how do you ignore signs like that? There is another small lot for another part of the range, twice, I have found it full and just went elsewhere. This is why people post their land, a complete lack of common courtesy by some users.

This is why we lost the Jesus Valley Road access!

 

[Ken MacGray]

I've been out at Cardigan Lodge a couple times recently. The end of Shem Valley Rd. has very clear "no parking along the road" signs. Guess where people were parked?

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

Only saw a few other hikers on the Ammi-Cog loop over da Wash this afternoon, besides the LOC croo preparing to open the hut for this coming weekend. Still deep snow in places on the upper Ammi.

 

[Bernerbabe]

I thought they stopped parking on the road on the way into the actual parking lot for the trailhead. Guess not. Feel sorry for the people whom live on this road.

Think there are signs on the right going in

 

[Kimball]

I'm no statistician although this is a great looking graph. But it is only a subjective extrapolation that google searches directly relate to actual hiking numbers.

Very true.

The graph was just one search term, and just on Google. You could run the same graph (but I didn't) on any hiking related term to get more facts. But my gut says they'd show a similar downward trend. Plus, google does not know the full picture. Lots of hikers don't do any (or very little) research. They just go. Or maybe they ask on Facebook. Or use AllTrails (yuck!). You won't be able to pick up what these hikers are doing this summer with google trends.

 

[JoshandBaron]

Somewhat relevant video from one of my favorite you tuber. The last half talks extensively about Baxter and the AT.
Too Many People Are Going Outside

 

[MikePS]

Very good overview of the issue, especially regarding Baxter, although they did present a lot of shots of Doubletop in the AT section, thanks

 

[peakbagger]

BTW, I am not aware that Baxter has ever run out of their allotment of thru hiker "permits". They really are not permits as much as tracking documents to ensure that the park knows where typically transient thru hikers are inside the park (particularly overnight) and to ensure that the thru hikers are aware of the same rules that apply to anyone entering the park through a park gate. Even if the allotment is exceeded, it just means that the thruhikers have to go in through the Togue Pond gate rather than unmanned thru hiker entrance near Abol Bridge. A lot of the "ruckus" raised by the new park rules was mostly a strong hint to the NPS and ATC (and a lesser extent to MATC), that the park expected assistance in managing the thru hiker rush. ATC started funding a seasonal employee stationed in Monson that assists thru hikers in making advanced reservations in the park for available slots. The Birches had been abused for many years by weekend and short term hikers using it as a reservation free place to stay in the park.

Many of the BSP shots were taken at road accessible photo locations along with what I suspect are stock aerial phots and videos of the summit.

 

[Ear Drum]

How to beat the crowds: go mid-week; hike 52WAVs; hike in the rain. Check, check and check -- saw a grand total of 5 people on trails in 3 days of hiking this week. LW lot looked busy but not jammed when I went by Friday midday. Motorcycles everywhere, as noted elsewhere here.

 

[Darby Field]

I have become a huge fan of weekday hiking, and rarely hike on the weekends anymore. I'm fortunate that I have more vacation time than I know what to do with, so I tend to cherry pick good weekdays to hike. Today (Monday) I did my trail maintenance duties on the lower section of the Cascade Brook Trail. After 6 hours on the trail, I only encountered 5 people all day, including one NoB thru hiker who was flip-flopping. Just the way I like it.

 

[peakbagger]

I am member of a large meetup group and am a hike leader so I get notifications when people join. Lots of people joining this spring. There are 6700 members (approximately) in the group yet I have been listing a midweek hike to two 52 WAV summits lately and to date I had one member sign up and they dropped out quickly. The few weekend hikes they run usually fill up but to date a whole lot of folks who claim to want to go on hikes who joined meetup but not a lot actually doing so during the weekdays. Like VFTT, there is no weed out process for inactive members and free membership so inherently group size just keeps growing.

There is the Facebook group, Hiking Buddies, I am not sure how active they actually are but did run into two enthusiastic supporters earlier this winter. Their big fundraiser and party at Waterville Valley is coming up soon so that may be an indication of how active their memberss are.

 

[sierra]

I am member of a large meetup group and am a hike leader so I get notifications when people join. Lots of people joining this spring. There are 6700 members (approximately) in the group yet I have been listing a midweek hike to two 52 WAV summits lately and to date I had one member sign up and they dropped out quickly. The few weekend hikes they run usually fill up but to date a whole lot of folks who claim to want to go on hikes who joined meetup but not a lot actually doing so during the weekdays. Like VFTT, there is no weed out process for inactive members and free membership so inherently group size just keeps growing.

There is the Facebook group, Hiking Buddies, I am not sure how active they actually are but did run into two enthusiastic supporters earlier this winter. Their big fundraiser and party at Waterville Valley is coming up soon so that may be an indication of how active their memberss are.

That's the group organizing the upcoming hikes for Emily Soto's benefit. From what I've seen in some of the hiking groups I belong to, they are fairly active. Emily needed 12 peaks, but there are 33 hikes going on, I asked about that number and it seems like they had so much interest, they just made multiple teams, for instance, there are at 3 least three groups doing the ridge.