After another record year in 2017, backcountry managers with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are asking visitors to consider ways to enjoy the park while minimizing their impact.
With overall park visitation and Appalachian Trail hiking both growing, the number of people entering the park has grown significantly.
"2017 in terms of thru-hikers we saw the most thru-hikers come through the park on record," backcountry management specialist Christine Hoyer said. "2015, 2016, 2017 - each year is the new record."
Hoyer says around 4,400 hikers passed through the park in 2017. Combined with other backpackers staying at campsites and shelters, visitors spent the night at backcountry facilities more than 104,000 times in 2017.
"Our shelters on the ridge line have a capacity of 12 to 14. In the 70s, they held four spots open for thru-hikers during the height of thru-hiker season to accommodate that use," Hoyer said. "When they built those shelters, when they used that limit, they would've never imaged how many we have coming into the park every day during the height of thru-hiker season."
Hoyers says more than 50 thru hikers enter the park at Fontana Dam each day during peak times.
Seven of the ten most popular backcountry sites in the entire national park are on the Appalachian Trail and the popularity causes crowding.
"There are certain times of the year when we have exceeded our capacity, and it's a trail wide issue," Hoyer said.
In addition to growing during peak season, Hoyer says more people are hiking during months that used to be less popular.
"We used to see thru-hikers three months out of the year, a big bubble of them coming through. now what we're seeing is thru-hikers coming thru 12 months out of the year," Hoyer said.
Hoyer suggests people who want to experience the trail look at alternatives to the typical trek from Georgia to Maine during the Spring and Summer months. Section hiking, hiking southbound and hiking north from Harpers Ferry, then dropping down to Springer Mountain and hiking north are a few ways Hoyer says the impact on the trail and hiker experience can be limited.
"We're doing all kinds of things to try to honor the hiking experience without constraining it, but there may come a time where we have to do something differently," Hoyer said.