Size of the Pool

[BigHornRam]

The number as a percent is small, but the percent that do, do it often.

 

[Irrelevant]

Americans who went hiking US 2023 | Statista

More than 61 million people in the United States participated in hiking activities at least once in 2023.

www.statista.com

I'm going to change my answer to the lowest number.

 

[BigHornRam]

My wife and I did a middle fork Salmon raft trip once with a group of about 30 from all over the US. Cushy trip but all 30 would qualify for the pool. Same with anyone doing a Grand Canyon trip. My Dad, brothers and sister would all qualify even though none have spent a night a mile from a road in many many years. I voted 5-10% thinking the number is probably closer to 5% than 10%.

 

[Shangobango]

I voted for the lowest percentage.

The issue here is not only getting a mile from a road but the legalities of camping there when you do. None of the WMA’s or NWR’s allow dispersed camping around here. That only leaves ~600,000 acres of National Forest. If you highlighted all the NF land that is within a mile of the maintaned numeral only Forest Service roads there wouldn’t be a lot of FS ground left.

 

[44hunter45]

I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on Youtube.

To me this says a lot more about the number of roads than the number of users. Idaho F&G uses the term "Government Maintained Road", which I like.
It includes unpaved USFS arterials and county gravel roads.

I'm still working through Mark Kenyon's book (That Wild Country), but his coverage of the battles between those who said we needed the roads if we wanted folks to use/love the land and those who wanted no roads are interesting.

The idea that roadless areas (which I love) are elitist predates Bob Marshall.

Car campers have value, though it can sometimes be hard to find through the piles of soiled diapers.

 

[Aperventure]

You are over thinking it. This is not law school or the Clinton impeachment trial. There is no way I could make a one sentence question that covers all possible perpsectives, considerations, definitions, questions, possibilities, etc. It's a 10 second question asking for a 10 second answer.

agreed... numbers always seem to require justifications for their selection.

So the less controversial question might be “how many people sleep at least one night after moving their tent camping gear from the vehicle to the campsite in one trip”. Meaning, put all your camping gear in backpack, on horse, in canoe, bicycle, wheelbarrow, atv, sideXside, etc. Not car camping, but camping.

one trip is summarizing “I didn’t shuttle back and forth from car 6 times” which would mean I’m a reasonable distance from a
road.

tent camping means sleeping under the stars (no lodge/bed)

 

[Aperventure]

That said above, I voted for lowest number.