29 Massachusetts Hikers Saved by GPS…in One Day
By Rocky Thompson on October 20th, 2010
Two dozen Massachusetts hikers became lost on New Hampshire’s Blue Trail at Mount Belknap on Saturday. It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke. And in a way, I suppose it is. Thankfully one of the hikers thought to bring a cell phone, and the police used the GPS on it to find and bring them in. They found 12 of the hikers fairly early, but it gets worse:
Upon arrival, rescue crews discovered there were an additional 17 hikers still lost in the woods.
Seven of them were found on another trail using another hiker’s GPS, and then:
Just before nightfall, rescue crews located the remaining 10 hikers at the Mt. Belknap parking lot.
At that point it doesn’t sound like much of a rescue. Maybe these guys are going for some kind of Guinness Record. In any case, the leader of the Chinese Bible Church of Greater Boston should probably carry a flare gun from now on.
Tags: lost hikers
My first impression was that a string of 29 hikers would probably lead all the way back to the trailhead but on second thought they should probably have taken the fire officials advice. We recently did some backpacking in the Pisgah national forest and I was utterly amazed at the number of day hikers carrying nothing with them. I always assume backpackers are the ones needing assistance as they are heading deeper into the wilderness but after seeing so many people just walking the trails combined with the current state of forest and park signage and funding for trail upkeep I’m not surprised in the slightest that a group of 29 hiker somehow became lost.