Tales From the Trail

[wildsidesky]

[These girls] were wearing skimpy booty shorts, tennis shoes, and draw-string backpacks...

Now, I'm a bit introverted and usually don't talk to strangers, but I could tell they were about to make a mistake that could cost them their safety, their lives, or the safety and lives of search and rescue.

So I said, "Hey, I don't want to seem rude or anything, but that trail goes to a bit of a technical route and it doesn't look like you all are prepared for that endeavor."

I'm no player, but I know enough to be pretty sure you played that wrong.

More seriously, I try not to judge people in the mountains, or tell them what to do. Plenty of 16-year-old girls these days climb way harder than I ever have or ever will, and sometimes you'll find a surfer-dude topping out a 5.7 in "inappropriate" footwear:

I would just say "Oh, that route's less crowded because it's way harder than the standard route," and let them decide what to do.

You're totally right. At the time, I was just trying to prevent another group from getting into trouble like my friend's group. However, their commentary made me certain they were not experienced like a surfer dude on a 5.7. They clearly did not have enough water and only noticed the side-trail without knowing where it lead. Much like the group my friend was with. Nowadays I keep the commentary to myself. I just kind of cringe when I see idiots on Longs wearing Vans and getting started at 8a.

[MtnHub]

This isn't technically a tale from the 'trail' but it might explain where I got my 'hiking genes.' I hope so anyway.

My mom (Dottie) has always been very active. She is now close to 91 years old but just recently came through a major surgery on her cervical spine. In the mid-1940s, she played guard on her HS girls basketball team. Since she was such a quick and scrappy player, she was nicked-named 'Dartie' by her teammates.

About 20 years ago when she was around 70yo, she was visiting my sister and brother-in-law (Denise and Andy) in San Diego one summer. Since they only had one vehicle back then and Denise had the car for a church meeting, Mom and Andy planned to walk the one mile distance to church to meet her for supper. Being in the Navy, Andy has always been athletic and in excellent physical shape, so the two of them walked rather briskly.

Later when Mom and Denise were alone, Dottie confided in her saying that Andy pushed her so hard she could hardly keep up with him. This upset my sister a bit knowing that Mom wasn't as young as she used to be and didn't want her to get a heart attack from needless, excessive exertion. She planned to chastise Andy later that evening when the two of them went to bed.

But just before she was going to address this to Andy, he tells her about the incident. He said that Dottie kept walking so fast, he could barely keep up with her!

[Trotter]

ok Mid Febuary on Longs peak. About 3 miles up the trail, out of treeline, and met a guy wearing jeans, tennis shoes, and a hoody. No backpack, traction, hat, gloves, or gear of any kind. Just a water bottle. Hiking along through the snow, and heading up towards Longs peak at 2 pm, while it was snowing, and a storm was supposed to roll in in a couple hours (predicted to hit 60 mph winds)

Asked him what he was doing, he said just hiking to see how far he could go. I informed him of the storm, he was surprised but said he would turn around once it got bad.




Luckily we saw him later, down near the TH.