Trail Facts

No contact with the hikers for a week now so I'm posting trail history/facts in lieu of news:

• The AT winds through the Appalachian Mountains of 14 states, through 6 national parks and 8 national forests.
• The AT is home to more than 2,000 rare, threatened, endangered and sensitive plant and animal species.
• The original conception dates back to the early 1900's, with work constructing the trail beginning around 1922.
• The trail was primarily constructed by volunteers and was completed in 1937.
• In 1948, a WWII veteran undertook the first thru-hike to "walk the war out of my system"; many considered his thru-hike a stunt.
• The trail has seen many changes since that first thru-hike. Each year the trail undergoes relocations and other improvements to its route, causing the trails distance to change almost annually. Current length is roughly 2,178 miles - the longest marked footpath in the nation.
• The lowest point is 124 feet at Bear Mountain, NY; the highest point is Clingman's Dome in Tennessee at 6,625 feet.
• It takes approximately 5 million footsteps to walk the entire length.
• More than 6,000 volunteers contribute about 200,000 hours to maintaining the AT every year.
• Of those hikers who set out each year to thru-hike the entire trail, statistics of those who complete it vary year to year from about 15% - 30%.
• In 2008, 438 people completed the trail as thru-hikers; women make up 25% of the completed thru-hikes; 125 people have completed the trail 2 or more times.
• The oldest thru-hiker on record was 81.
• The first female solo thru-hiker, known as "Grandma Gatewood", was mother of 11 and grandmother of 23 when she completed the hike at age 67 in 1955; she completed it 2 additional times. She was famous for wearing only Ked's tennis shoes and carrying a small knapsack.
• There are more than 260 three-sided shelters or lean-tos located along the AT, with room for 6-12 people. Camping wherever you can find a suitable site is permitted along most of the AT.
• The trail is marked by two rectangular white blazes painted on trees, posts and rocks. Rock cairns (piles of rock) are used to mark the trail above timberline, in fields and on balds where no trees are available.
• A thru-hike can cost between $1,000 and $5,000, not including equipment which on average ranges from $1,000-$2,000. The low end on the cost spectrum involves going without restaurant meals and hostels when in towns.
• The potential for snow can last into May in Georgia and into June in New Hampshire and Maine. The first snows of autumn usually occur in September in New Hampshire and Maine. By November, any part of the trail is open to snow.
• It takes from 5-7 months to complete the trail depending on pace and the time you take off along the way.
• An average of 35 thru-hikers a day leave from the southernmost point, Springer Mountain, between March 1st and April 1st. Therefore, the majority of hikers are concentrated over a 300-400 mile stretch of trail.
• Most hikers who quit their thru-hike plans, usually do so the first week or so. Perhaps that's a hopeful statistic as these hikers have now been on the trail for 30 days!

I go forth to make new demands on life. I wish to begin this summer well; to do something in it worthy of it and me; to transcend my daily routine and that of my townsmen...I pray that the life of this spring and summer may ever lie fair in my memory. May I dare as I have never done! May I persevere as I have never done! - Henry David Thoreau