Group of 104 on trail in NC
Hi Friends,
This is my first post in years, but I am a long time reader of the site. I wanted to share an experience I had this weekend while doing a three day hike and hear fellow hikers take on the situation. I started my hike at Standing Indian Campground, and my plan was to camp on Standing Indian Mountain to enjoy the sunset on Friday night. All was great at first, I passed through Standing Indian Shelter, signed the register, then proceeded up to the mountain and set up camp fairly early, around 4pm or so and settled in to enjoy the view.
Around 6 pm, a couple of guys show up, and tell me that they are ahead of a large group they are bringing in to stay on the mountain for the night. No worries, I think, there seems to be plenty of room, and after sunset I will be passed out in my tent anyway. I’ll note that at this point I’m already set up for the night, with my tent up and my sleeping pad and bag unrolled. I asked the guys how many they had in the group. The answer was 104. That’s not an exaggeration. They were bringing literally 104 people up the mountain. If you have been to Standing Indian, you know that there is not enough room for that many people.
So long story short, this group comes up and completely overruns the site and entire mountainside. They could have cared less about me already being there. At this point, I think that like most hikers, they will settle down and get some rest. No such luck. These guys up at all hours, including the whole group getting up at 2AM for a prayer session. I asked them completely to keep voices and noise down, however in a group that large no one was listening. So, as you can imagine, not much sleep was had.
Now, I suppose in hind sight, if I had a do over, I would have just picked up and moved on when the big group arrived, however I was where I wanted to be for the night, and hell, I was there first. So I didn’t feel especially inclined to move. I packed up early, hiked while watching the sunrise, and enjoyed my nice rainy hike on Saturday.
So, I’ll ask the hiking community, has anyone had a similar experience? If so, how did you handle it? I’m all for free use of the trail, however I don’t believe the AT is the place to bring a group of 104. The facilities/ sites are just not equipped to handle it. I’ll note also that I picked up and packed out at least 10 items/ trash on the trail that likely came from this group. On my way out also. Sorry for the long post, but I am curious to hear your thoughts. And by the way, the sunset at Standing Indian was totally worth it. :)
104 Pilgrims at Standing Indian
Quote:
Originally Posted by
skater
I think it was an outrageous and inexcusable violation of all good hiker and trail norms. I can't say that there was any better action than what you did. Actually, I think you showed tremendous restraint.
If at any point this group passed through a wilderness area, they likely violated USFS regulations and could have been ticketed. However, I don't know how you could have reached a ranger at that time. Short of gathering information on the group members to pass on to officials, which could have placed you at risk, I think you did all that was possible.
I encountered a similar experience on Tray Mountain about 3 years ago. If I remember correctly this group of about 35 "marching" about 30 inches apart were from a Saturday Adventist training facility somewhere in the area and were having a bonding experience before departing into the world for missionary work. This was extremely disarming. No way can back country sites absorb such a heavy impact. Just the sanitary issues are overwhelming. But it seems that the entire southern AT, especially during the bubble season, is being overwhelmed by far too much traffic. How long before health officials will have to begin limiting the number of hikers on the trail one time?
I was at Derrick Knob Shelter in the Smokies in early September. When I when to use the potty on the non-water side of the mountain, I encountered what looked like more than a hundred "flowers" of unburied toilet paper. Now if the paper was unburied, then surely what goes with it was also not buried. This seems to be an fast expanding problem at all shelters without privies. Now at some shelterers the Poop side too the mountain is not clearly delineated with signage. This probably means that the water source is probably or potentially contaminated with fecal material and the health hazards that go along with it.
While I am at it, what about the major about of horse poop along the trails that surely finds its way into the areas streams. Probably a few parts per million horse poop? n top of this, horses basically destroy trail sections that are narrow and on real steep slopes. Horses and their s***** don't belong on steep mountain trails.
On a positive note,104 hikers trodding down the vegetation must be as effective as an ATC SWEAT crew in clearing the trail.