Originally Posted by
Lauriep
Pack shakedowns offer us an opportunity to provide one-on-one interactions, where we can organically promote and educate hikers about best practices/Leave No Trace. Reduced pack weight can also improve the quality of a hiker's experience.
If, in the process, we reduce the amount of trash further up the Trail, that improves the quality of the Appalachian Trail experience for other hikers those who don't have to look at the trash. It also means fewer volunteers and paid ridgerunners have to spend their valuable time and the Trail's financial resources on picking up and carting out trash.
If it leads to more successful thru-hikers, then we will work that much intensively to encourage and empower hikers to voluntarily spread themselves out. Dispersing use reduces physical impacts to trail resources and the social impacts of crowding. The voluntary thru-hike registration process has been effective at spreading out thru-hikers. The peaks and valleys of thru-hikers starting day by day in Georgia are now much more even, and northbound thru-hikers also start earlier and later. There are now also several hundred more hikers starting at locations other than Georgia each year that helps disperse use in an even more significant way.
If ATC's efforts (in cooperation with the Georgia A.T. Club, the U.S. Forest Service, and other managing partners) help hikers be more successful, and more thru-hikers reach Katahdin, we will continue to work with Baxter State Park to find innovative strategies that help them meet their management objectives while preserving the A.T. experience.
The Baxter Task Force led by ATC (that consists of Baxter State Park rangers, ATC staff, the Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association, the Maine Appalachian Trail Club, the A.T. Lodge in Millinocket, and Friends of Baxter State Park) has made significant progress in addressing the park's concerns. While numbers have been a part of the park's concern, hiker behavior was equally a concern, and brought attention to the numbers.
Not so much the majority of A.T. hikers, but the lack of awareness and respect for park regulations and resources (and other visitors) by a relatively small number of hikers was perhaps the biggest issue. A variety of initiatives and strategies have been implemented by the task force. This has included expanding staffing at the Monson Visitor Center for the primary purpose of educating and preparing thru-hikers for the park's unique circumstances. It also has included a messaging campaign comprised of posters, temporary tattoos, blogs, press releases, and outreach to influential members of the A.T. community.
ATC and our partners' efforts will hopefully improve the hikers' experience, and will result in hikers who are better educated in sustainable practices. It will also help more hikers have a better understanding of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail and the things that make this unit of the national park system so unique--including the truly remarkable volunteer tradition. Perhaps it may edge the success rate up a little bit too, or hikers may hike further than they would otherwise. But there are many things that affect the success rate on a hiker's 6-month journey. Running out of money, an unanticipated family situation, injury, illness, boredom or other dissatisfaction with their Trail experience are many other reasons that thru-hikers leave the Trail prematurely.
Our efforts to educate hikers on how to use the Trail most sustainably are multi-faceted, and this new initiative at Amicalola Falls is just one of them. The thru-hiker registration process allows us to communicate with thru-hikers before they begin, and offer education through information, Leave No Trace videos, and links. Last year (2017), more than 80% of successful thru-hikers participated in the voluntary registration. Ridgerunners have long provided on-trail education, and we are now offering courses to enable hikers to learn before they hit the Trail. Increasingly, we will look to technology to reach hikers before they start their hikes. We are also expanding our efforts to reach groups before they hit the Trail. Groups can have major impacts on the Trail, but two ill-informed, unprepared hikers can have more negative impacts than a group of ten well trained in Leave No Trace. Very often groups are young people, who will be future users and guardians of the Trail.
There's no silver bullet. It takes a thoughtful, concerted, and adaptive approach by many people working together who care about the Trail.
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