Hordes of leaf-peepers, unprepared hikers pack New Hampshire trails: "It was chaos"
FRANCONIA, N.H. - A crush of leaf-peepers and tourists descended on popular New Hampshire hiking spots during the holiday weekend, creating unsafe conditions at the height of foliage season, witnesses and law enforcement say.
Tamara Breau is an experienced hiker who went with friends to Artist's Bluff Trail on Saturday. With rain in the forecast for Sunday, it appeared many had the same idea.
Breau snapped a picture of a bottlenecked section of the trail. She said she's seen crowds like this at the Grand Canyon, "but not to this degree on a small trail."
"It was chaos. There was no order, there was nobody being polite about it," she told WBZ-TV. "People were just trying to shove their way through."
The website AllTrails describes Artist's Bluff as a "moderately challenging" 1.5-mile loop. But Breau said many visitors were not dressed appropriately for hiking, with some wearing "slippers, short shorts, and go-go boots."
"It was starting to get a little concerning when I was watching people carry children down the side of the mountain, off trail," she said. "If you slip, you fall, you're going to hurt yourself, you're going to maybe take somebody else down with you."
Hiker from Massachusetts rescued
Elsewhere in Franconia, a 33-year-old woman from Boston was rescued Saturday after getting hurt while hiking alone on the Franconia Ridge Trail between Mount Lincoln and Mount Lafayette.
The New Hampshire Fish and Game Law Enforcement Division said heavy traffic on I-93 made it difficult for rescuers to reach the woman quickly. She slipped and hurt her leg and got stuck on the ridge with temperatures in the 30s and winds gusting as high as 80 mph.
It took a team of 25 rescuers to carry her 4.2 miles to the trailhead.
"They are going to be getting a bill"
Chris McKee, a conservation officer with New Hampshire Fish and Game, estimates there were at least a dozen rescues over the weekend. He said many people were ill-equipped for the harsh conditions on the mountains.
"We've seen a huge influx of leaf peepers and tourists in the area, which is kind of causing a problem on the hiking trails and on the roads as well," he told WBZ. "It might be fall out there, but in the mountains it's already winter. Mount Washington's seen over five inches of snow this week. A lot of people just weren't prepared for that. They didn't have the flashlights. They didn't have the warm clothing. They didn't have any food or water or maps or just didn't know where they were going or what their actual plan was."
McKee personally helped rescue hikers on Saturday night. He said some of those rescued had never hiked in the White Mountains before and started their hikes too late in the day.
There are financial consequences for needing a rescue in New Hampshire.
"They are going to be getting a bill," he said. "It's basically their negligence that they didn't have the proper gear, didn't have the proper equipment and needed the rescue. They will get charged for that."
McKee advises anyone hiking this fall to "be prepared for the unexpected" and make sure they have proper footwear, warm clothes, extra food, water and batteries.
