It seems like when I first joined about one year ago (my first anniversary - I'm so excited!) there was a lot more forum activity. Some days I log on after being away for two days and on the first page of threads I see the same threads I saw two days earlier (without any new posts on them).

Has the activity declined a bit? Or maybe it does that every winter and spring and kicks up again in summer?

Just curious.

Things have definitely slowed down lately. Don't know why??

We have not looked at the measurement of posts onto the forums, which is what I think you are descrbing here as activity. But I can tell you that the volume of traffic on the forums is significantly higher (as measured by page views) than a year ago and continues to grow pretty rapidly.

One possible factor is the large volume of good discussion in the backlog of forum discussions, which might reduce the need to post and discuss some topics that have been discussed thoroughly in the past (yes, we know that search could be better...)

I also bet during good weather months more people are busy hiking or planning/packing their resupply caches out, etc. I know I'm busy for my JMT hike (training, planning, etc.)

i agree with roleigh. wintertime is when we all obsess about gear and talk about guns, bear canisters, dogs, lnt principles, and all that.

spring and summertime is when we actually hike!

Hey Roleigh, send some of that good weather up here to Oregon. We're tired of off and on wind-blown rain and drizzle, highs in the mid 50 to low 60's, and rare sunshine. Makes it seem like March around here.

Kinda hard to get motivated to take training hikes when the snow level starts at 2500 feet on Mount Hood and most trailheads are still under 6 feet of white concrete.

Edited by wandering_bob on 06/05/2008 17:41:45 MDT.

Bob, I lived in Oregon and remember the stats -- it has a greater degree of environment/weather variety than any other state -- that Nasa uses Eastern Oregon to simulate the lifeless Moon environment. I used to live in Hood River and Portland and my wife worked in The Dalles, the difference in weather been Portland the The Dalles is immense.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/04/moses_lake_and_the_moon_nasa_s.html
(I can't find the best link, this is for a Washington State area, but I remember a similar one in Oregon.)

You can do hikes on that trail that starts in Portland and goes for 45 miles NW of Portland, we used to hike that forest trail all the time. Get the book, 60 hikes within 60 miles of Portland.

http://tinyurl.com/3m59ja

When I lived in Portland, we always laughed, if you don't like the weather in Portland, wait 30 minutes.

Edited by marti124 on 06/05/2008 18:08:13 MDT.