Crowds, Packed Trails Make Hiking at Your Favorite Destination a Serious Risk Right Now.
Last weekend like millions of other Americans, Brian, Sylvia and Fitz Roy got tired of sitting around the house and decided to head out on an adventure.
This should be the fun and happy tale of that story. Instead, it is a cautionary tale of why it is you should NOT join the thousands of other misguided souls who are right now pouring into the popular outdoor places to hike.
On Sunday with a window of good weather we piled into the car along with cousin Mikey and deiced to go for an extended walk. We’d been out the week before to western NC and were surprised how few people were out that week. What a difference a week makes – more on that later.
We decided to head to popular Hanging Rock State Park, just north of Winston Salem, NC. About two hours from home, it’s one of our favorite relatively close by places for an early season conditioning hike.
Brian, the Minister of Expedition plan, mulled this one over quite a bit before pulling the trigger. He was aware beforehand that Hanging Rock does tend to get busy on certain weekends. We have seen our share of clueless would-be hikers here. He considered some lesser visited destinations nearer to home such as Medoc Mountain…but after thinking on it a moment, made the decision.
With most of the park’s facilities closed, we both figured maybe enough people would stay home so that it wouldn’t be so bad.
We had every intention of practicing good social distancing, keeping six feet of distance between people, and in general doing our level best to avoid any behaviors that would spread the dreaded COVID19.
Well. We shoulda knowed it…
When we arrived at the park the lot for the Hanging Rock Trail was partly full. This was our first warning sign.
We intended to do the popular Hanging Rock Trail, which is quite wide and gives a lot of room for people to pass, a good thing when trying to manage a nervous dog (which Fitz Roy can be.) However, we had forgotten an important fact; the last quarter mile or so of this trail can be quite steep and narrow. We actually didn’t think much of it. We’d never seen too many people crowding the trail itself (on the summit, yes, but not the way up) and figured it wouldn’t be too much of a problem.
Well, we passed a lot of people on the way up. And due to the narrow nature of the trail, there was almost no way to keep any distance, social or otherwise, between ourselves and them. We became concerned, but pressed on having come that far.
The top of the rock is often busy; today it was a zoo. People – mostly high school and college aged kids – were EVERYWHERE sitting all over the various ledges. There was hardly a single flat piece of ground to sit on. This was the first time we’d been to the rock when we saw not one space to sit. Appalled, we sat near the edges of the rock and enjoyed what view we could.
However, more and more people began to arrive. The rock was filling up like a train platform. Finally, Sylvia called off an ill-advised picture taking sortie and advised that we go down. Not only were the crowds making it impossible to manage Fitz Roy, but it was becoming medically unsafe.
We took a few pictures of the busy summit area beware skedaddling.
We left the summit quickly…but getting down was a problem. It took us nearly half an hour to negotiate the narrow section of the rocky trail. Not only were continuous streams of people – and dogs — coming up and down, but people were seated on every rock or simply standing in the middle of the trail having conversations all down the steep chimney. We had great difficulty moving and increasingly nervous and cranky Fitz Roy down this trail, at no small risk to dog whisperer Sylvia.
We had chosen poorly. There were far better trails we could have picked but they would have to wait for another day. There were simply too many people about not taking the situation seriously. Who knows how many people had touched every rock, tree limb, bench, railing etc along the way. We packed cranky Fitz Roy into the car, sanitized as best we could, and gratefully headed home.
Brian felt quite bad about this, having planned it poorly; not only had we risked exposing ourselves to the virus, but we had asked too much of Fitz Roy. We had been lulled into complacence by the very excellent experience we’d had just a week earlier at Whiteside Mountain. But that had been a very different set of circumstances.
Brian and Sylvia had done what Brian in fact always rails against doing: we had joined the herd. We could have chosen a better trail, but maybe we should have listened to public officials and simply stayed at home instead. Instead, we went right along with the pack.
All across the country the same scenes are playing out. Zion National Park has closed Angels Landing, the main park road and several other popular destinations because people failed to heed advice and crowded onto the trails like ants. Rocky Mountain and Yosemiti National Parks closed yesterday or the day before; today, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Mount Rainier and Great Smoky Mountain joined the list. Even the Blue Ridge Parkway has partly closed.
Not only are these places being perpetually loved to death, but in this case they are also being turned into breeding grounds for the spread of disease, attracting people like magnets from all around and pressing them into close quarters.
This is a severe blow to anyone who loved the outdoors. We didn’t think this could be taken from us. Just a week or two earlier Brian was joking to Sylvia that all we’d needed all along was a plague to clear the trails. He’s never been quicker to eat his words; people are flocking into the outdoor spaces like never before, lured by the false sense that somehow, they are safe there. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth…because everyone else has the same idea too.
We thought we had a good plan, but we didn’t. Next week – assuming no lockdown orders go into effect — we may go out again, but if do, we’ll go local, and go somewhere less visited. There’s no need to be motoring up and down highways putting entire communities at risk in a selfish attempt at recreation.
Our advice is…don’t follow the herd. Follow the advice of our public health officials, heed warnings, use good judgement and don’t put yourself or others at risk. We’ll be doing just that and sticking close to home for a while.
