back country camp sites?

[brianW]

Recently close to my house a 9 mile extension of Bartram Trail opened up along the southern shore of Lake Thurman. This is largest man made lake on the east coast and is located on the GA/SC border about 20 miles from Augusta, GA. This extension now makes it possible to mt bike/hike for a distance of 31 miles one way.

One thing that seems to be lacking is dedicated back country camping areas. My questions really is it better for a dedicated area(s) along the trail for this? Would it lessen the environmental impact to the area? Do trails with back country sites attract more overnight usage? any back ground info would be helpful.

I plan on sending a letter proposing this idea to the Corp. of Engineers who manage the area. I guess the worse thing they can say is no. There is no local hiking clubs in the area but the local mt bike club, SORBA-CSRA is very active in trail building and maintenance.

 

[RoySwkr]

One thing that seems to be lacking is dedicated back country camping areas. My questions really is it better for a dedicated area(s) along the trail for this? Would it lessen the environmental impact to the area? Do trails with back country sites attract more overnight usage? any back ground info would be helpful.

I would contact the Appalachian Trail Conservancy/Conference for actual research data, they are very interested in these questions.

According to their maintainers handbook, shelters result in less disruption to the natural environment than indiscriminate camping. Many of their new campsites are deliberately built on sloping terrain so that people must use the graded tent pads and can't easily camp nearby.