It happened again a few days ago! All year long we have occasionally met people who were either 1. not where they thought they were or 2. had absolutely no idea where they were. Lately, the numbers of the lost have been increasing. Though fit (fitter than us) and appropriately dressed for the conditions (or not), the lost often look the part of experienced hikers. But are they really? One can only surmise these people cannot read maps, choose not to read guidebooks, take no notice of signs, don’t bother to ask anyone where the trail starts from the trailhead, or do any homework at all before setting out. Maps can’t get any bigger or better than those at West Bragg which are at every junction, so one would think the area is lost proof. But not so.
Some people rely solely on Alltrails and go around the mountains with their eyes glued to the app. So it’a annoying, eh? when you can’t even find a vestige of the supposed trail. And even when the trail is shown correctly, some choose to ignore it like the group we met on Eagle Hill who thought they were on Deer Ridge.
So on flogging up the lesser known UShoulda and down the even lesser known Flo’s Diner on Ben’s Hill a few days ago, we hoped to see none of the lost people. Just say hello to our friend from the MMBTS who was doing some shovelling. Well, that didn’t happen. On the well road crossing of Little Elbow trail we met a couple who were out searching for Elbow Falls up the well road. And on Flo’s Diner we met another couple going up who thought they were climbing Prairie Mountain. Ah well…
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This just happened. After a rainy and windy day, we get back from Bryant Lake to our vehicle parked on Powderface Trail by Canyon Creek. A lone hiker approaches us asking which way to “the Prairie Mountain parking lot”. The long story short, 30 minutes later he is at Elbow Falls talking to Conservation Officers and RCMP. They were already looking for him and another person still unaccounted for at the time. Supposedly, the original group was five hikers…
Acouple of weeks ago we had just returned to Ribbon Creek parking lot when we met an older couple on the bridge. They were new to the area and had inquired at K Village which trails were good for beginners. So they had driven back down to Ribbon Creek parking lot and flogged partway up Terrace (the intermediate bit) from the bridge, decided it was too hard for them and had struggled back down again which is when we met them.
ºWe were also told that Coal something or other was also a good trail for beginners.. Whereabouts is that?”. asked the woman.
I was appalled. “ No NO don’t even think of it”
And we told them to drive back up to K Village, but this time take the second road to the right into Woodys’ Pub parking lot where starts the dead easy section of Terrace. We last left them packing up the car, hoping they were able to salvage the rest of the daylight after having paid parking fees..
So misinformation is a another cause of people being on the wrong trail. And one can’t help thinking that if the Barrier Lake Info Centre had been open they would have received excellent advice.
A percentage of these people go out at night deliberately, to walk in the moonlight (hopefully) or to climb to a top to watch the sunset or the sunrise. Prairie and Moose mountains seem popular.
Personally, I always find walking in snow much easier in the dark as long as you have a headlamp which shows up every indentation in the trail.
There is also hikers, trail runners, dog walkers heading out at or just before dusk. Bright winter days early in the season drop off into dusk and darkness so quickly. A snowy trail in lowering light can really slow you down. At the very least you are going to be late for dinner. I guess avoiding that scenario is also about preparing for trip.
Seems like there’s a lot of very bad beta on the Internet these days, including nonexistent/incorrectly marked trails (especially on open-source mapping platforms). Also, I can’t count the number of people I ran into this summer who had totally inadequate footwear for what they were doing…
And then, hiking up Lady MacDonald, there was the young, lightly dressed couple in runners, who on a hot afternoon were asked if they had enough water with them and replied, “oh that’s alright, we will pick something up at the Teahouse.”
Almost every day there are people on social media asking advice on where they can hike or snowshoe, whether they need microspikes or what conditions are like in local areas such as West Bragg or the Kananaskis Valley. Don’t they know enough about the area to do some basic research for themselves? Why don’t they drive out with both spikes and snowshoes and find out what conditions are like?