[pct-l] Bear Killed... (clueless hikers)

[hikethewild at hotmail.com (Gina Acord)]

Here! Here! I have witnessed the typical American tourist ignorance over and 
over again. People chasing wildlife down the mountain for a good photo, 
thinking that its a leisurely jaunt to Camp Muir on Mt. Rainier from the 
visitors center (fortunately most of the ill prepared seem to turn around if 
they make it to the edge of the ice field)...the list is long.

I, too have had those looks of disgust when explaining bagging out waste. 
Like all our dirty stuff, people just want to leave it behind for someone 
else to deal with so they can just forget about it. Americans don't like to 
think about the consequenses of their messes.

Gina
hikethewild.com

>From: "dude" <dude@fastmail.ca>
>To: pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
>Subject: Re: [pct-l] Bear Killed... (clueless hikers)
>Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2003 12:01:31 -0400 (EDT)
>
> > I think both you and Tom over estimate the importance of the
> > thru-hiker crowd. Most forest users don't even know there is a
> > PCT, let alone whackos that hike the whole thing in a year. The
> > ones who **ARE** aware of thru-hikers are not the ones who are
> > causing the problems anyway, because they are the educated ones.
>
>
>Brick is dead on target.  Most people don't know anything about the
>thru-hiker subculture or even that it exists.  Most people think
>of "hiking" as: "I will drive to a campground and walk a mile to a
>waterfall or vista, then *maybe* I will sleep on the ground in a big
>stand up tent if I can figure out how to set it up."  To test this
>out, take a day trip to the Mist Trail in Yosemite.  You will see
>people hiking the 1.x miles up to Vernal falls with coolers, enormous
>packs, two-burner coleman stoves, baby strollers, suitcases, fine
>china, silverware, etc.  They have no clue that the trail isn't paved
>the entire way or that it is actually steep and rugged. "After all",
>they think, "the park service would never put people at risk by
>making them walk on actual rocks, would they?  How else would people
>get up there?"
>
>At the Whitney Portal its the same way (or at least it was before the
>lottery system; I haven't been since they instituted that).  You will
>see people who obviously have not trained and have no idea what it
>means to actually "hike" or "climb".  In 1998 we slept on the summit
>and started down to the Portal at dawn.  This allowed us to pass all
>the people on their way up.  I am talking SERIOUS COMEDY here.  We
>would pass these people carrying small lunch-mate Igloo coolers, lawn
>chairs, folding cots, small appliances, etc.  We'd start talking to
>them just to see what the hell they were doing.  They'd say "Oh... we
>just came out to walk up to the summit and maybe catch a few rays up
>there".  They would have a big metal round canteen that they got from
>Academy on the way out of town, some top-sider shoes, bermuda shorts,
>a golf shirt, and possibly a brand new "Mt. Whitney" baseball cap
>that they got at the portal store or in lone pine the day before.
>They would usually be accompanied by their wife who was equally as
>over-weight as they were and their pudgy Nintendo-addicted kids who
>were less than happy to be peeled away from the portable TV/VCR that
>they had in the travel-van where they were preparing for the trip by
>watching John Candy in "The Great Outdoors".  Invariably, when they
>would pass us, they would ask if we'd been to the summit.  When we
>replied "yes", they looked hopeful, as if it were only a few hundred
>yards to go and then ask "How much further?"  Of course, they started
>at the crack of 9am after they woofed down some pop-tarts and
>powdered doughnuts, so when we passed them, they hadn't even made it
>to Outpost camp.  When we would tell them that they probably weren't
>going to make it to the summit today, they would always look
>perplexed as if we told them some astounding revelation.  They'd want
>to know the distance, so we'd tell them "9 more miles". Then they
>say "No way!  You mean we've been walking for 3 hours and we've only
>covered 2 miles??"  We wouldn't waste our breath trying to tell these
>people that in addition to the 9 miles, it was also another 5000
>vertical feet.  It would have been a waste of time.  They have no
>understanding of what that means.  Of course, when we pass the solar
>outhouses along the trail people would always ask to borrow toilet
>paper.  I guess it never occured to them that their gastorintestinal
>system would still function while they were hiking.  Just the fact
>that there are two locations with solar outhouses on the way up to
>the summit and an additional outhouse on the summit says alot.
>What's even worse is that some people DONT USE THEM.  I've seen turds
>just out in the open both on the summit of Half Dome and
>Whitney.   ...so much for "leave no trace".  I've told people that I
>ahve packed out my poop before and they just stare in disbelief, as
>if I were some sort of disgusting freak.  I guess that the thought of
>visiting the Grand Canyon and seeing it filled to the rim with human
>waste is more appealing to them than packing out poop.  Oh yeah...
>can't forget about those people who haven't been outdoors in so long
>that they forgot what a sunburn is.  You know you've seen these
>people on the trail.  The ones who are as red as a stop light and
>have no clue that they are acquiring melanoma as they are talking to
>you.  Then when you ask them if they want to borrow sunscreen, they
>say something like "Nah... I tan easy."
>
>The last time I hiked Half Dome (July 4, 2003), we ran across dozens
>of people at Nevada falls who ran out of water and needed us to filer
>water for them.  We saw more than one family that only had like 1
>liter of water between four people.  One family we saw only had one
>20 oz Aquafina bottle for two adults and two kids!!  All these people
>are just utterly shocked that there is no water fountain at Nevada
>Falls.  They all say "this is ridiculous, they should put a faucet up
>here."  ...and I am thinking "yeah. right, lady.  maybe you should
>just grow a brain instead."  I am telling you, people are DUMB.  We
>spent over an hour filtering water for people at Nevada Falls and
>there was a line!  We had to turn people down because if we didn't,
>we would not have made it back down before dark.
>
>You might think that I am making this up, but I am not.  I am amazed
>at the stupidity every time I go to a popular destination.  This is
>most of America.  Why do you think that at the Grand Canyon, there
>are signs as big as billboards posted at the trail heads that tell
>people that hiking to the bottom of the canyon and back in one day is
>impossible?  Its not "impossible"; people trail run from the north
>rim to the south rim and back in one day.  Its just "impossible" for
>someone who has laid on the coutch in front of the TV, then gets a
>wild hair to go to the grand canyon because he saw a show on the
>Discovery Channel or watched City Slickers one too many times on
>TBS.  I am not making this sh*t up.  The park service put that huge
>sign there because they got tired of rescuing people who litterally
>walked themselve to exhaustion in 5 miles of downhill walking.  Its
>disgusting how out of shape the average american is, and also how
>ignorant (s)he is.  How in the hell does someone who is as fat as a
>whale and hasn't walked more than 100 yards from the parking lot to
>the mall in the last 10 years, think that they can just get up and go
>climb Mount Whitney on a Sunday afternoon with no preparation,
>training, or equipment??  I am telling you, talk to any park ranger,
>they will back me up.  ...or just watch a reality TV show to verify.
>
>Of course, I have also met some really cool, intelligent, and
>interesting people on the trail as well.  Most everyone that I have
>met in the backcountry has been really nice and fun to talk to.
>
>peace!
>dude
>
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