Thanks to great partnerships, AllTrails (Trail Guide App) and Piedmont Land Conservancy worked together to see what data was available to help show the impact Helene had on trail use in Western NC.
At a Great Trails State Coalition meeting, it was asked if any member could assist with analyzing the data. Friends of the Valdese Rec Media Specialist and Duke University student Zakk Heile agreed to volunteer his time and asked for datasets starting in January 2022. He knew this would help show trends; as well as, look at the influence Year of the Trail had across the state.
The AllTrails dataset provided recorded monthly hiking or trail usage, by North Carolina county, from January 2022 to December 23, 2024. This information requires an AllTrails user to actively ”record” their movement along a trail using the AllTrails app. No specific individual data was shared.
Western NC counties showed a measurable dip (90%) in 2024 trail usage relative to expected baseline growth, suggesting the hurricane substantially disrupted typical trail visitation.
One example is Yancey County, going from 1640 recorded hikes in
October 2023 to 8 in October 2024.
In the maps below, dark red shows major loss in recorded hikes moving to dark green indicating a significant increase in activity.
Since the Year of the Trail kickoff, the Great Trails State Coalition has promoted sustainability and providing alternatives to over loved trails. Outdoor enthusiasts are now accustomed to improvising when they are not able to access their planned location. During Helene, this shows up as hikers moved to counties just east of the hurricane impact in October and then as towns opened, changed to counties in those areas.
Counties studied: Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Cabarrus, Caldwell, Catawba, Cherokee, Clay, Cleveland, Forsyth, Gaston, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Iredell, Jackson, Lee, Lincoln, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Nash, Polk, Rowan, Rutherford, Stanly, Surry, Swain, Transylvania, Union, Watauga, Wilkes, Yadkin, Yancey
Looking at the 2023 Year of the Trail campaign, 90 counties had positive growth in trail use from 2022 to 2023, with the majority of counties’ usage growing by 30-40%. Data hints that Q3/Q4 were particularly robust, possibly reflecting momentum from the initiative.
As a reminder, this data is based on AllTrails App users who “recorded” their activity in the app. It is possible folks use the app at State Parks or hikes they are not familiar with versus their daily local hikes. It is also possible local parks and trails provide their own apps, online details or paper maps that visitors may use instead of the app.