The synchronized trail count on Sunday, July 31 allowed us to see the usage patterns of the trail at a later afternoon time and on a hotter day than the count in May. We added the new, recently-opened Pump House trail head at the popular Waterfront shopping area to our counting sites and discovered that it was already one of the most popular trail heads on the Great Allegheny Passage. With the Boston bridge closed, we saw the expected decrease in trail users passing through. Recruiting new volunteers for the trail count as well as for the trail-wide surveys was one of our necessary goals, and meeting new people at various meetings and by posting calls for volunteers on the GAP Yahoo! Group allowed us to find new people eager to be involved with the trail. In addition to the synchronized trail counts, we continue to do manual counts on various days of the week, in which we ask trail users for their zip codes. We are aiming for approximately 70 hours this trail season, for the 5 counters that we manage along the trail in Pennsylvania.
-Phil Wu