SAR folks, can you enlighten us on these rescues?

[cam]

Hi Cynthia. I'm with Riverside Mtn Rescue. I came across your post and wanted to address you original question. We do have missions from time to time where we respond to hikers on the Skyline Trail (also known as Cactus to Clouds Trail). Palm Springs Mounted SAR handles the calls on the lower half of the trail (part of their jurisdiction), and RMRU handles the calls on the upper half of trail. Palms Springs SAR does tend to recieve more calls, but reasons for these rescues are typically the same. Many people that do this trail are inexperienced hikers that are either unaware of the limitations of their fitness or overconfident in their abilities. These hikers almost never bring enough water or food, and are simply not prepared with the right gear. The Cactus to Clouds Trail is one the most difficult hikes in the nation in terms of most elevation gained relative to its length of the trail. With steepness of trail, extreme temperatures, and exposure, the unprepared hikers usually cannot continue and end up calling 911. One thing I'm unsure of is what motivates people to hike this trail during the day in summer and diregard or ignore the posted warning signs?? I don't believe there is typical reason while people do this hike with these kind of conditions, but the decision is unique in each case.

[cynthia23]

Thanks for your response, Cam. One thing I'm wondering is if there are any common denominators about the demographics of this group--are they locals, people from out of town, young people, older people, male, female--do you notice any commonalities? The other question is related--do you have any sense how these people learn about or conceive a desire to climb Skyline? This is the part I always wonder about--how do they hear about the trail in the first place? If we knew, then perhaps we could post a clearer warning in that source material. In the 'olden days' few people knew about Skyline so few people tried it. In this case,knowledge is not power, or they don't have enough knowledge, perhaps.

Thanks again for your info.

[lkelly]

Facebook and meetup

[cynthia23]

Well, there are a couple of local meetup groups that regularly do Skyline, but they contain experienced people and have not been a source of any problems or rescues that I've heard of. As far as Facebook, do you mean folks who post pix of themselves on the trail? I'm not sure I understand what you mean. But I do agree that it's pretty obvious that the Internet is the original source of the problem. Although it also seems that a surprisingly large number of locals end up getting rescued from the trail, which suggests that at least for locals, the info source might actually be word of mouth (i.e. "my brother's girlfriend's cousin hiked this awesome trail last month", or, as you suggested, Facebook ("hey, look at these awesome pics of my brother's girlfriend's cousin on this trail last month.").

[Wildhorse]

At Cowles Mountain today, in San Diego, the city erected a temporary sign at the trailhead warning hikers of the risk of heat stroke - for dogs. Many dogs die there every year from heat stroke. From time to time, people die too, but not as many as dogs. Still, at 90 degrees in high humidity today, with almost no breeze, I saw six dogs. None of the owners was carrying even a drop of water for themselves or their dog. I also noticed that less than half of the people were carrying water, including several people who were running, not walking.

Amazingly, probably all of the people survived. With the high humidity and lack of wind, it was hard to cool down, even by stopping and drinking water. If one slips over the high danger threshold, the tipping point, not being able to cool down quickly could be disastrous. The threshold is passed without warning. That is the problem. For dogs, and people.

I think it is safe to assume that most people don't realize the danger to themselves or their dogs, or they deal with it by denial, whether on Skyline or the much easier and cooler Cowles. Of course, as others have noted here, some part of this majority of trail users think of rescue workers like room service (bring me a bottle of water) or calling 911 as something like a child crying mommy. This situation is cultural, and it cannot be reduced to ignorance of risk and lack of hiking knowledge.

[cynthia23]

"This situation is cultural". That's a powerful and well stated point, Wildhorse, and sadly, I think you may be right.

[scotts]

I think these extreme-seeking hikers probably see themselves as more heroic and individualistic than as social beings.

That they end up depending upon a social response to save their bacon, upon the efforts and goodwill of the many, I'm sure is something most of them would never even countenance.

So as it is.

More, a few days later: as it becomes obvious that humankinds stewardship** of the planet is producing an unmitigated hell disaster, our culture has taken a retrograde, atavistic turn where nature is concerned.

Here, nature is not the font and reservior of all life, but a hostile place humans go and 'survive' before scurrying back to their civilization, outriding prowess demonstrated. Here, pristine Alaskan rivers are places to dig up with giant tractors in search of pea sized gold nuggets. Here, we survive (and thrive, at least as heroic sci-fi individuals) countless apocalypses, or continue in outer space when we have to!

OUr culture is in overdrive trying to preserve the judeo christian value set in which nature is something to fear, conquer, loath (and yes, continue to exploit relentlessly), then crumple up like a paper cup.

What's easy to forget, amongst all our proving, strutting, chest-puffing dynamism, is that the human body is also part of nature.

But who knew? Thought is not valued here. This is the context in which heroes take to skyline.

**If rape can be called stewardship.

Edit the next day: OK I'm done here. Cheers all.

[Hikin_Jim]

When I consider Apage's report here, my own observations of people on urban trails, newspaper stories, and the observations of environmental organizations, my impression is that most people using urban trails are not hikers, just trail users. Traditionally, hikers have been like athletes who trained for their sport. They learned to hike and survive in wilderness from parents, friends, books, and periodicals. Through experience, they developed their skills and discovered their abilities and limits. Users of urban trails don't seem to do this. So they don't know what they are doing, and they are taking chances and are not conscious of that.

Wildhorse, that is probably the most succinct, accurate description that I've seen.

Most of the people I hiked with as I started my hiking "career" were people who had sort of "come up through the ranks." We learned from the experiences of others: Scoutmasters, parents, the Army, Sierra Club, etc. There was not only a body of outdoors knowledge but also an outdoors ethos -- an ethos of caring for and respecting the wilderness. I'm almost more distressed by lack of care and respect for the wilderness than I am about rescues.

I personally was brought up on Jack London stories (To Build a Fire) and SAR reports (A Lonely Grave in the Sierra). Which is not to say I didn't do some pretty stupid things in the wild in my younger days, but at least I knew what I was up against. Wildhorse, you are right on when you say "they are taking chances and are not conscious of that". Exactly right. They are taking chances they are not conscious of. They just have no concept of what the risks are (again, my example of trying to explain the color blue to a blind man).

HJ

[Wildhorse]

I'm almost more distressed by lack of care and respect for the wilderness than I am about rescues.

That's the thing for me too. The change in trail user traits that results in more rescues has also harmed the land.