Blog de Puree

Is it true that the number of backpackers and hikers in America is declining? According to the Kitsap Sun, a Washington state-based newspaper, it is.

The article in Kitsap Sun asks what’s causing the decline. The author, Seabury Blair Jr., writes that the number of backpackers in the last decade has seriously declined, despite the fact that more than 13 million Americans will be having some kind of outdoor overnight experience this summer.

The 2006 Outdoor Industry Association’s participation survey found that the number of backpackers has dropped 22 percent since 1998. The survey also found that the number of backpackers ages 16-24 is declining, while the number of overnight hikers ages 25-44 is increasing.

Blair points out that recent news stories are reporting that the nation’s youngsters are not getting out as much anymore and that video gaming and TV are to blame. Blair also writes that this might have something to do with the fact that the country’s youth just don’t know where to go. Call it a lack of information.

My first thought as a hiker, backpacker and overnight camper (The real kind, not that drive into the campsite and sleep in a bunkhouse garbage.) who falls in the increasing 25-44 age bracket, is that it’s nice to have the trails relatively free of humanity and not have to deal with swarms of noisy youngsters.

But it’s sad that less people are experiencing the outdoors and I worry if that will result in less environmental activism, which is thankfully gaining momentum these days. It’s also a sad testimony to the fact that the older generation may not be sharing an appreciation for the outdoors. We absolutely should.