A man found shoeless and wearing a trash bag in a rainstorm on a British Columbia trail late last week told first responders that he had misplaced his gear mid-hike, the team that rescued him said.
On October 31, two trail runners reported to authorities that they had encountered a man wearing a black trash bag on the trail to Norvan Falls in Lynn Headwaters Regional Park in the Vancouver metro area, reporter Abby Luciano wrote in North Shore News. Rangers headed up the trail on a utility vehicle while a team from North Shore Rescue (NSR) headed up on foot, encountering the man about two miles from the trailhead. After helping the wet but uninjured hiker dry off, they drove him down to the trailhead.
As it turned out, the rescued hiker had been on trail since the previous day. He told rescuers that he had stashed his pack in a hollow tree and gone to collect water, but had been unable to find it afterward. As for his shoes, he said, he had lost them after he fell while searching for his pack in the dark.
Located roughly a half-hour from downtown Vancouver, Lynn Headwaters Regional Park is the largest of the Vancouver metro area’s 23 regional parks at more than 9,200 acres. While it boasts trails ranging up to 13 miles in length, the park doesn’t allow camping or overnight backpacking, and had closed its backcountry for the season on October 30, the day before the incident.
Don Jardine, a search manager with NSR, told North Shore News that team members had gone back up the trail the next day to attempt to locate the lost hiker’s pack, but had been unsuccessful. With days getting shorter and temperatures dropping, he recommended that hikers know when to bail on their objective.
“If you’re not going to make it to your destination, turn around and come back,” he said. “Don’t keep pushing it if you’re going to run out of daylight.”
The post Hiker Found Barefoot, Wearing Garbage Bag in Rain After Losing Gear appeared first on Backpacker.
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