Originally Posted by
scope
Here's how (and I'm being hypothetical, of course)...
Your sister has enjoyed listening to your stories of hiking and how much you enjoy it and hears of this popular area and thinks she'd like to check it out. She didn't mention this interest to you because if she did, you would've given her one of your maps, and perhaps a few other items to have just in case. But she's driving to a parking lot and doing a hike of just a few miles - I mean, its just walking, right? And she walks several miles a day already. And because none of her friends can make it that day, she's alone, which she enjoys the peace of being alone anyway. She's a little later getting up there than planned but still thinks she has time to get to do both Andrews Bald and to Clingman's tower. She's enjoying the hike and upon coming back to the Forney intersection, she decides she has enough time to take the longer and more hiker-oriented trail to the AT and then to the tower from there. But as she gets to the AT intersection, light is diminishing more than expected, so she's starting to get a little worried, not exactly in panic mode, but knowing she has to speed things up some. She sees the sign of 0.3m to the tower and is relieved because she knows she can make that and should be easy down to the parking lot. Plus its not that much more than the 0.6m she just hiked, incl distance to parking. In a bit of a hurry, she starts going west on the AT, when she notices another sign that she didn't pay as much attention to - perhaps because it wasn't as attractive as the weather-weary wooden sign. Its some sort of map looking sign that is designed to explain where she is now in the Clingman's Dome area of trails. She notices that based on where this sign says she is that she should instead head east on the AT, away from Goshen Prong and the shelter. She then notices the arrow on the wooden sign points east to the tower, or the opposite direction from GP/shelter. She hikes to the tower, sees the last glimmer of sunset, and makes her way back down to the parking lot on a paved trail in the waning light. And she tells you all about it the next day.
I'd like for you to understand that I detest the terms "cater" and "least common denominator", at least when it comes to other humans. Do I think its somewhat going out of our way to put additional or different signage in a place that already has it... sure. Is that so unreasonable? A life was lost, and right now, I'm just raising a point about signage to suggest what "might" work to help prevent another loss of life and completely open to other thoughts of action - I think thoughts of inaction should be tabled for now. Is there going to be another lost hiker death in GSMNP? Sure, and it likely might involve this area just due to numbers. The additional signage won't prevent that fact, but it might indeed save a life or two before that fact materializes. We don't know all of what happened this time, and its worth some patience here to let all the info get discovered and sorted out, but eventually, I think its all too appropriate to at least think about what can reasonably be done to "help" prevent this from happening again. I'm pretty sure if it was your sister, you'd have a different view of her station in this world, and in that I hope you can understand how ugly I feel your comments are.
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