It was mid-afternoon. We were on the last leg of our hike out of the backcountry, and only about a mile from our car. It had been a great hike, and we were now looking forward to taking off our packs, a nice drive home, hot showers, and a dinner that didn't involved freeze-dried anything.

The weather was perfect for late September, sunny but not warm.


The first couple was young and sportif, wearing only shorts and t-shirts, and they moved briskly up the trail towards us.

"Hi there," I greeted them. "Where are you headed?"

"We are going to the lakes!" the young man replied, with enthusiasm and a French accent.

"Ah!" I gave this some thought. The nearest lake was at least five miles further along the trail. "You realize that they are about five miles--eight kilometers--from here?"

The young man nodded. "About forty minutes?" he asked.

I considered this. "No, closer to two or three hours" I explained.

"OK. Thanks!" he continued up the trail. His girlfriend looked at me.

They were not carrying even a daypack, and I didn't see any bottles. "Do you have any water?" I asked. There was no real source of water for a few miles. We had very little in our packs.

"No, it's OK" he called back over his shoulder.

I looked at the girlfriend. She looked at me. "Maybe we stop before the lakes." she said.

I nodded and watched them hurry up the trail.


A hundred yards later we met an older couple, almost as old as us. Now I was really curious, and I asked them the same question. "Where are you headed."

"Up the traill," the husband replied as he panted uphill past me.

His wife looked at me and asked me how far the lakes were. I told her. "Well, we'll just see how far we get," she said. They each had a daypack, and I asked them if they had water. "Oh yeah, we have lots of water," she replied.

"Good," I thought. "You might want to share some of it with the nice young couple ahead of you."


A half-mile from the trailhead we met the last couple: two young men sitting on a couple of rocks and resting. When then heard me coming down the trail, the first young man turned around quickly and said,. "Oh, good. You're not a bear."

"Nope," I assured him, I was not a bear.

"How much further is it to the lakes?" he asked. He and his partner had a full complement of cameras, tripods and other paraphernalia.

"About five or six miles," I said.

He looked at his watch. I looked at mine. "We left our camp there about three hours ago," I explained. "So that would be about six hours, round trip."

He nodded. He looked at his watch again.

"That means you would get back here about 7 o'clock," I explained. IT would be close to dark by then.

"I guess we better get moving," his partner chimed in. He didn't get up off the rock that he occupied.

"Well, maybe you hike faster than we do," I offered.

They both nodded.

"Then again," I thought,"We didn't stop in the first half mile from the trailhead when we did this hike, and we were carrying full packs."


I wonder how far each group hiked...

I think you might have found tourists.

That happens a lot - we were at the Ostrander trailhead - a carload of folks rolled up, the guy looks at the sign from the driver's seat, then says "how far to the lake?" I gave him the same answer the sign did, and off they drove.

Yes, we run into this all the time day hiking. The wife and I are big wildlife lovers and this is a big part of our enjoyment in the wilderness areas. When visiting places like Yellowstone, Glacier ect. we see it all. Hiking in flip flops, no water on board, no rain gear, and hiking quiet as a mouse without bear spray in some notorious grizzly country. The tourist types eye us up and down and we have been snickered at by numerous folks for simply being prepared.

When we first started hiking out West I almost started questioning myself, am I carrying too much for a day hike? Do I need this rain gear? Do I carry too much water? Well after getting hammered by a few incredibly nasty COLD thunderstorms and hiking a few bone dry trails in some oppressive heat I don't think about it so much now. I do however think about how my lesser prepared trail mates are making out.

We do find the more miles we put on from the trail head the better prepared folks are.

jimmyb

Heh, quite a cross-section in a scant few miles.

Once spent a few spring days in Estes Park, from where we did a few day hikes into RMNP, and the array of walkin' tourists was always a source of amusement. The lingering snowpack was a good barrier to folks getting themselves too far into the soup, but there were still plenty of jarring sights--none better than the Texan couple wearing reeeeally fancy cowboy boots and hats and best of all—long fur coats.

Y'all have fun pettin' those elk now, hear?

There's a reason they call the Colorado Rockies the "Texas Alps."

Cheers,

Given how many stories I see here and on other websites, I'm surprised more people don't disappear or die from exposure. I have read posts on VFTT (Views from the Top, a NE site) about hikers who come across unprepared tourists in winter on a regular basis. Some do wind up needing to be rescued.

Hikers get rescued fairly often in the local (San Gabriel) mountains because they have no water, no light, no skills and no clue as to where they are going.

I remember doing a day hike near Idylwild (up above Palm Springs) and getting caught out as it was getting dark without a light. We weren't that far from the car, but I haven't done that again.

Winter hiking is a whole other story, but I don't go day hiking in winter (on snow) without enough gear (clothes, bag, stove, food and of course, my shovel) to bivy overnight. Depending on where I am, I'd probably take my snowshoes as well, just in case. When I was in Yosemite up around Badger Pass, if I planned to be out of site of my tent for the day, I took my day hike gear with me.

One more thing-a lot of people could save themselves a lot of grief if they just checked the weather. i saw a story on Dateline or one of those shows about a couple who were up around Tahoe in winter,drove around a closed gate, got stuck in heavy snow, a storm came in, the guy tried to walk out and later so did the woman. She found his body down the road a ways and lucky for her, relatives figured out where they might have gone and found her before she froze to death too. All preventable.