Has any park gotten it right? Can we?

Smith

But not so for owner Steve Smith, who had a record-breaking year in 2020.

In 1998 when he first opened his shop, people thought he was “nuts” (a map store?). His business’s heightened success during a pandemic showed just how much interest in hiking and the outdoors grew in a short time, he said.

Even before the pandemic hit, Smith had witnessed hiker conga lines up to summits and an increasing amount of trash at trailheads. A member of the committee for New Hampshire’s 4,000-footer club, Smith would normally mail about 250 to 300 patches a year to those who had climbed all 48 peaks. Over the