NCT Westbound Mock Hiker Completed

According to my 3rd party amateur data, if the North Country Trail was hiked continuously from one end to the other, at generally 24 and 18 miles per day depending on the terrain and zero days at every 21 days generally, it would take 295 days to complete my estimate of a total length of 4,829.4 miles.  That number includes the Arrowhead in Minnesota, the NCTA's current GIS track in the Adirondack Park and a questionable smartphone trace of a map from a jogging app for part of Vermont.  My tracks still contain certain inconsistencies with the NCTA's issued tracks, but not enough to affect the total by more than +/- 15 miles.  That's that best that I can do at this time. 

According to the parameters that I use, North Dakota has two amenity gaps and takes the mock hiker into it's reserve mileage (24 to 29.5 miles) once in this state.  Those amenity gaps mean that no sleeping amenity that I could confirm here at my desk could be found within 29.5 miles of the starting location.  Routing the mock hiker into it's reserve incurs a penalty of a zero day.  It's part of the rules to keep it reasonable and highlight areas that need more support.  But, on several occasions, I routed it in to the reserve because the mock hiker was coming up on a zero day in someplace that was ideal anyways.

Even if the NCTA doesn't recognize thru hiking, I still came out with an important piece of information.  According to the written simulation, only 98.62 additional miles added to the trail's total was necessary to cover to reach an amenity off-trail.  This was in question on Buckeye last year and I sure wish that I had a number for this.

Since North Dakota features two amenity gaps, there is no need to pursue an eastbound mock hiker because the difference between the two would have to start right away. 

This is all a part of a 3rd party review (myself) of the North Country Trail's camping/ lodging capabilities.  You might call it a benchmark test?  The data from this will probably also be used to construct an "Early Warning System" map for the unofficial Adventurer's Project in SE Ohio.  The way it works is that if the hiker reports their location with mapping app or Facebook, we could input their location to our map which will show how far out they are and help predict the date of their arrival at The Wilderness Loop - Buckeye Trail (North Country partial).  I'd say that the North Country Trail at this rate of progress looks pretty healthy.  For a distance hiking trail in the Upper Midwest, it's performing well.