Surprises

In my literature review I learned that of the U.S. population that participates in day hikes (similar to those in a letterboxing hunt), 42.7% are male (NSRE, 2000) where the sample of letterboxing participants in this study was predominantly female (76.6%). Although the number of participants was high in New England as I expected, the number of participants in the Pacific Northwest (i.e., Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington) was low (4.5%) as was the Pacific Southwest (i.e., Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada) at 7%. According to the U.S. Forest Service’s updated 2005 Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Assessment Report, relative to the total U.S. population, western metro residents participate at notably higher rates in day hiking relative to eastern metro residents (NSRE, 2005). The reported ratio of 1.41 West to East would suggest that a larger number of participants from western states would have participated in the study.