OK – I’m finally, finally getting around to putting up some very preliminary numbers from my Appalachian Trail Thru-hiker Study. 532 thru-hikers participated in this study, representing over One Million Miles of cumulative experience. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be presenting some of the results, and hope to completely be through this number-crunching madness by early spring.
First up, a quick post on gender. Almost 28% (n=147) of the respondents were women, most of which were within the past five years. This jives with the “common sense” (dangerous stuff, that common sense) that there are more female thru-hikers compared to the late sixties and early seventies.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll get more into gear selection, basic demographics, water treatment and it’s affect (or not – this is a teaser!) on water-borne illnesses, motivations, money spent, and all sorts of other thru-hiker topics.
Anything in particular you’d like to see? Contact us with any questions!


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