The amazing stupidly of city tourists to the ADKs

While having my post golf beer today I was chatting with a couple of 20 something guys from Philly.  They were on thier 3rd beer.  It was 4 pm.

They were asking about the best hikes in the 46 peaks and had decided they were going to do Cascade.  I said it should be ok to hike Monday but check the weather.  They say well we are going to it right now.  I'm like you guys have all your gear, food, shelter, clothing, packs to go tonight.  Well we have some jackets will we need them?  I explained that about once a week the DEC rangers have to rescue city folk unprepared for hikes they undertook.  The bartender and another local at the bar piped in to help save these guys from hurting themselves or spending a hungry night in the woods.

We suggested a hike of Cobble or a walk around Mirror Lake instead.

Holy crap man. They would only possibly need a light for Cascade. Don't make it sound like some dangerous outing. The trail leaves right from the highway

I've hiked Cascade, Porter, Algonquin, and Giant.  There are some smaller ones that I've done, but those are the 4,000+ footers.  My dad told me that when planning a hike, you should always estimate how long it will take and make sure that you have the time to make it back within daylight.  You also need to be careful on mountains where there are multiple trails to make sure you go down the same one you went up.  For example, Giant has 3 trails, you don't want to go up the one from Route 73 and go down the one to 9N (because it's almost 8 miles long and you'll be stranded at the bottom).

Getting there by 5 would have been ample time to get up and down without needing light, but better advise would have been to recommend some light and hang for the sunset

Not everyone is a backcountry skier who hikes miles for every run like you are.  Most people go on a few big hikes a year, if that.  It would likely take them longer to get up and down, and they might lose the trail if it got dark and they had no light.  Only experienced hikers should be in the woods after dark.

I don't do long hikes much anymore.  Would you do that hike with only a small bottle of water?  The experienced hiker at the bar with me thought it was a terrible idea too.  Plus these guys had 3 beers over a short period of time.  

snoloco wrote

Not everyone is a backcountry skier who hikes miles for every run like you are.  Most people go on a few big hikes a year, if that.  It would likely take them longer to get up and down, and they might lose the trail if it got dark and they had no light.  Only experienced hikers should be in the woods after dark.

Nonsense. A bunch of 20yr olds can get up and down Cascade in 4hrs easy. Also stop with the after dark crap. Only a bunch of morons couldn't get off Cascade in the dark with some lights.

Gotta admit, I was expecting worse. You should have gone with them and loaded some beer in their packs. It would have been a nice surprise for sunset!

If you read Z's original post, the group did not have lights.

Coach Z wrote

I don't do long hikes much anymore.  Would you do that hike with only a small bottle of water?  The experienced hiker at the bar with me thought it was a terrible idea too.  Plus these guys had 3 beers over a short period of time.

No, would have brought a couple beers too

snoloco wrote

If you read Z's original post, the group did not have lights.

Right that's why I stated recommending a light and hanging. Its a pretty cool experience

If you're at least a somewhat experienced hiker, then that would be a cool experience and I'd say go for it, but would it be remotely smart for anyone who had never hiked a 4,000 footer to go in at night on their first time?

snoloco wrote

If you're at least a somewhat experienced hiker, then that would be a cool experience and I'd say go for it, but would it be remotely smart for anyone who had never hiked a 4,000 footer to go in at night on their first time?

You don't listen so well. It was go in while light, hang for sunset and go back out with light assistance. No big deal even for 1st timer if someone gave them 5mins of direction.

And again 4hrs is plenty of time to get up and down in daylight

They didn't even have one day pack to carry water or beer with them.  That's why I asked them what gear they had.  Only one of them said they had hiking boots.  What water they planned to carry would be in thier hand.  One slip and bye bye water.

If I was going to do the sunset hike which would be a great view I would bring a small day oak with a couple liters of water given how hot it was, some snacks and energy bars, light, cell phone, compass, map, multi tool, matches, and a shell jacket.

Yeah  a pack would have been useful, but going up and down Cascade in sneakers for a bunch a youngsters would be a walk in the park. Ever see the little kids going up and down that trail? Boy your making a big deal out of someone dropping a water bottle.

Again that's why I stated 5mins of direction and they'd be all set. Like each person bring some water, stop and get a light just in case. Maybe also give them some trail direction, which on Cascade is pretty much impossible to fuckup

Your experienced hiker did them a disservice instead of giving them 5mins of knowledge. Was it Sno?

Some of the best stories I have or have heard from others are about the incredibly stupid decisions/ideas/poorly planned adventures and it turned out to be a good learning experience but those experiences could have very easily gone a different way and get people dead.

One of my favorite quotes... "You go into the mountains with a handful of luck and hopefully you gain a handful of knowledge before your luck runs out". author unknown and this is probably not word for word.

That being said, man people sure can be stoopid! :) Myself included!

Yellowstone this year seems to be going off with this dumb tourist move stuff.

raisingarizona wrote

 Yellowstone this year seems to be going off with this dumb tourist move stuff.

You got that right RA ! A month or so ago the TV news kept repeatedly showing a vid of some D-bags going off the boardwalk and walking far out to a hot spring's edge.

Oh ! Note to self....others will now be doing it and it won't be very long until someone falls in.

Sure enough, it wasn't long at all.

The trail up Cascade is so well used you would have to go out of your way to get off it. This time of year there would be plenty of people going up and down even in the evening and you would be coming off a full moon so there would be some light.
It would be plenty warm so the danger level would be low. The bigger concern would be loading up a car full of drunks and sending them out on the road.

Agree with PeeTex and skimore in this thread. Cascade is a superhighway. Tough to get into any kind of trouble on that hike. And with all the traffic, even if they are poorly prepared and don't bring any water, someone will probably help them out. (I've had to toss some water to thirsty people out on trails before).

I was expecting way worse when I clicked on this thread. PeeTex is right that a bunch of drunks on the road are more dangerous, and skimore is right that a couple of beers on the summit of Cascade seems like a fun afternoon or evening to me.

So now these guys are drunks???

Holy jumping to conclusions -- YIKES