Trail encounters

Grab your bear can or camp chair, kick your feet up and chew the fat about anything Sierra Nevada related that doesn't quite fit in any of the other forums. Within reason, (and the HST rules and guidelines) this is also an anything goes forum. Tell stories, discuss wilderness issues, music, or whatever else the High Sierra stirs up in your mind.
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oldranger
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Re: Trail encounters

Post by oldranger »

Common Mark

Remember last summer a half mile from the the Pine Creek trailhead about 1 pm and it was hot and humid and we encountered a pair of young men-- one waiting as the othern trudged up the trail pathetically slow, taking two or three steps then stoping to get his breath? We did politely suggest to the one waiting that it might be a good idea to wait until the next AM and start out when it was much cooler. I don't think the slow hiker was fakin it. Of course they ignored our advice.

Mike
Mike

Who can't do everything he used to and what he can do takes a hell of a lot longer!
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RooPhillip
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Re: Trail encounters

Post by RooPhillip »

Years ago, we backpacked out of Lodgepole early in the season. We wanted to camp at Twin Lakes but the snow was too thick so we ended up camping at Clover Creek. In the early afternoon we saw two day hikers in shorts and t-shirts headed up the trail towards the lakes, but we didn't get a chance to talk to them. As the day wore on, I kept glancing over at the trail, expecting to see them headed back down, but they didn't show. As dusk approached, I figured I'd simply missed seeing them coming back down. Nope: 15 minutes before dark they reappeared, jogging down the trail with panicked expressions. I tried to wave them over to see if they had a flashlight (I would have given them mine), but they didn't stop.

We were miles from the trailhead. The trail coming down Cahoon Gap was still covered in snow and very easy to lose. Plus the flow at Silliman Creek was raging whitewater, and the crossing had been very dicey for us even in broad daylight. I went to bed figuring we'd find those idiots' frozen bodies somewhere when we hiked out. Thankfully, we saw no corpses, and when I checked at the ranger station, they didn't have any reports of missing hikers.

To this day I wonder how those guys made it back to Lodgepole.
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balzaccom
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Re: Trail encounters

Post by balzaccom »

rlown wrote:you didn't do anything wrong, really. Other than when the women looked back at you in your story. And then you wonder. Is it a story? I'm kind of confused. You knew they were 3 hours out. no responsibility? Just wondering.

If this forum is just a funnel to your website just say so. might be your livelihood.

I'm here because i like the people here. not about draw to other sites.

russ
Our website is non-commercial---no money at all. So nothing to be gained there.

WE were NOT three hours away from the trailhead. We were three hours out of camp--and half a mile from the trailhead. But all three groups of hikers were headed to where we had camped.
Check our our website: http://www.backpackthesierra.com/
Or just read a good mystery novel set in the Sierra; https://www.amazon.com/Danger-Falling-R ... 0984884963
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