Number of 2000 Milers on the Appalachian Trail by year.
Data courtesy of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy

How Many People Hike the AT and PCT?

Trail Permit Informaion

How many people hike the AT and PCT?

If you’ve been on the Appalachian Trail or Pacific Crest Trail in the past few years, and thought, as I have, “there are a lot of people out here,” you’re not wrong.

You may have also heard that crowds on these trails increased after popular trail books were published. Books like “Wild” and “A Walk In The Woods” did bring many people to these trail.  But few people have gone further than to show anecdotal evidence of this.

Luckily, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy has been keeping track of this trend for decades. This is long before Bill Bryson set foot in Amicalola Falls State Park.

The first graph shows the number of people per year who applied for the 2000-miler certification. This includes section hikers and thru-hikers. You’ll see that the numbers generally climbed slowly from the Sixties through the mid-Nineties. There are a few jumps after National Geographic published a book and an article about the Trail.

Number of 2000 Milers on the Appalachian Trail by year.
Data courtesy of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy

Once “A Walk In The Woods” was published, the numbers jumped by more than 50% over two years. What surprised me, though, was that those numbers started to fall after only a few years, and continued to fall until around 2008.

Since 2008, though, the numbers have grown steadily. The graph mentions the National Geographic film on the Trail released to Netflix in 2009, but I would also argue that the increasing prominence of hiker blogs and social media online has spurred the increase as much as any traditional media. But that’s an argument for later.

The previous graph tells how many hikers finish the Appalachian Trail each year, that’s not the full story. Conventional wisdom says that about one-third of hikers who start the AT each year will finish.

Another graph provided by the ATC shows the number of people who start the trail each year (this number is probably not 100% accurate, but provides a good estimate).

Number of hikers starting the AT from Georgia by year.
Data courtesy of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy

Again, I was surprised to see that the numbers of hikers dropped between 2000 and 2007 (apparently my year on the AT was the least crowded of the new millenium! Who knew?) before skyrocketing again.

So what about the Pacific Crest Trail and “Wild” the book and movie?

Data from the PCTA  2600-Miler list shows how “Wild” the book and movie likely impacted PCT hiker numbers.

PCT Finishers by year.

Reviews for the film “Wild” were much better than for the film “A Walk In The Woods”, including nominations at the Golden Globes and Academy Awards. Also, “Wild” was released in the winter, while “A Walk In The Woods” won’t see wide release until after through-hiker season is well underway.

So if you’re concerned about crowding on any of these trails, the next few years will be crucial. As the PCTA says in the above blog post, “Education Is Key”.

Make sure your fellow hikers know how to protect the ecosystem around the trail, the physical treadway of the trail, and the culture surrounding the trails. Hopefully we can all enjoy the pleasures of a through-hike without crowding out the fun.