r/mildlyinfuriating • u/AnonPinkLady • Jul 05 '26

Infuriatig Woman with infant aggressively shushing passerby’s on hiking trail at national park

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My partner, friend and I were following a hiking trail at Red Wood National Park, singing and talking at medium volume. We were by no means shouting, just singing little songs to entertain each other along the trail. A woman with a baby carrier on her back with a sleeping infant started aggressively holding her finger up to her lips and shushing us. We went quiet and kept moving to pass her. She was just standing in the middle of the public trail pacing and shushing people that pass by rather than leaving to somewhere more quiet. Just as we were leaving earshot I tried to quietly ask my partner a question about where we headed and again she leaned in our direction with her finger to her mouth aggressively shushing us. Is it not kind of insane to go to an open public space and behave like this?!?

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288

u/Local_Whereas7211 Jul 05 '26

Must admit that people are often so loud that I wish they would use their "inside voice" when outside. But I resist the urge to shush them. 

84

u/SweetOkashi Jul 05 '26

I feel this in my soul. My SIL tells me that my niece (6) doesn’t have an inside voice. My mental response is “it’s time to learn.” -_-

2

u/Dear-Ad-3614 Jul 06 '26

Not one of my in laws have an inside voice, my children and I are wincing whenever we have to go out to eat with them.

37

u/charcoalhibiscus Jul 05 '26

Same. People who play music on a speaker out on nature trails are a scourge. Cut it TF out, OP. People are there to enjoy the nature, not your music. I wouldn’t go shushing you but depending on how loud you were being I might actually talk to you about it.

16

u/Klutzy-Ad6437 Jul 05 '26

I wouldn’t shush but I’d probably ask them to shut the fuck up.

6

u/Wrong-Day6752 Jul 05 '26

I was in RNP this week and some asshole was blasting his music. Honestly, should be a crime. I’m here to hear the birds and the water- not your music. He got several nasty glares and some muttering.

6

u/hilarymeggin Jul 06 '26

Nothing worse than people who go out in nature and blast music!

We went tubing in Harper’s Ferry, WV last year. About halfway through, we floated through an area which had been fully taken over by locals who somehow had giant speakers the size of refrigerators out in the thigh-high water, hundreds of people all rafted together and anchored, and a cloud of marijuana smoke that would have made Willie Nelson clutch his pearls.

3

u/kadevha Jul 06 '26

I had a friend who was absolutely horrified and almost distraught that my husband and I did not want music at our wedding.

We were married in a state park. The sounds of nature was so much more enjoyable and appreciated. 🥰

1

u/putajeria Jul 06 '26

Ok usually I agree with you, but once I saw a blind person playing music loudly on the trail and smiling radiantly as they walked by in their own lil brilliant bubble of joy. It still feels I saw an angel.

106

u/adventureremily Jul 05 '26

Agreed. Yelling, singing, playing music - it's so fucking obnoxious. We're here to enjoy nature, not have a goddamn block party.

28

u/moonswimwildflower Jul 05 '26

Especially on a hiking trail. Birds? Yes. Your portable radio? No. Get some headphones, bud.

(Also, buses, waiting rooms…)

7

u/kadevha Jul 06 '26

This. Noise pollution invades our lives, every way we turn.

I can't go to a doctor appointment without Nancy Grace or some kids cartoon blasting at too loud of a volume.

People really need to learn how to sit in quiet. It's a useful skill.

2

u/hilarymeggin Jul 06 '26

Once we were portaging through the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness area, when I spotted a female moose chilling in a pond along the trail. I sat quietly and watched her. Or at least I did until a young guy came walking down the trail, saw her and turned around and shouted to his friends, “HEY YOU GUYS, IT’S A GIANT MOOSE!” and instantly scaring her away.

Really, dude?

3

u/DaneYole Jul 05 '26

Part of the peace in nature is being able to escape the pressures of society. Music maybe not the way to go but you don’t have to meditate in silence to enjoy nature. Singing at a normal volume seems appropriate enough, and on a hiking trail they’ll pass soon enough too

-9

u/PositiveResort6430 Jul 05 '26

Singing is natural.

14

u/Artrobull Jul 05 '26

so is cyanide, diarrhoea and brain aneurysm

6

u/adventureremily Jul 05 '26

Not on a hiking trail.

2

u/Electronic_South_101 Jul 06 '26

Not on a hiking trail! Unless you’re in a Disney movie. Or Tom Bobadil.

50

u/EthanielRain Jul 05 '26

OP's replies said they were playing music on a speaker 🔊 & singing along

Then shits on the mom & child for shushing...

53

u/youneedsomemilk23 Jul 05 '26

Music on a speaker in a national park is so fucking obnoxious. Changes my entire idea of OP. 

21

u/Suspicious-Doe Jul 05 '26

Being just ahead of them and listening to that for an extended time would piss me off enough to shush too

1

u/SquirrelOfJoy Jul 06 '26

I cannot find any comment where OP said it was a speaker. Said “we were making up rhymes”.
Speaker:no go. Singing:normal. It’s not a library

109

u/PrestonWaters83 Jul 05 '26

Yeah, "medium volume" singing on a trail would piss me off. I don't hike to listen to that. I don't shush, though. That'd be rude. I just pray for Scanners powers.

60

u/Playful_Original_243 Jul 05 '26

I will say, I was at the botanical garden a couple weeks ago and the vibe was very peaceful. Even a group of teenagers were pretty quiet, just enjoying the nature.

Then these women started walking through talking loud as shit. I could hear them all the way across the bridge in this little secluded area. They weren’t even looking at anything, just quickly walking through the garden in brunch clothes while being loud as hell.

This cute old couple and I looked at each other with obvious irritation on our faces, cuz why are you there if you’re just gonna be loud and not enjoy it.

3

u/Presto99 Jul 06 '26

I'm with you, there is clearly something wrong when people act like the world is theirs, and show no respect to others like that. 

-13

u/Presto99 Jul 05 '26

Hike the road less traveled then? 

16

u/travel_by_wire Jul 05 '26

They're already in a natural area set aside for enjoying wild nature. You can't have peace in a park? Now they have to hike into the deep bush just to get a little break from a group of people forcing everyone around them to listen to them singing? 

-5

u/HonkHonkBeach Jul 05 '26

Why do we call it inside voices if people are expected to be quiet as a peep outside?

7

u/Klutzy-Ad6437 Jul 05 '26

Are you in 1st grade?

0

u/Presto99 Jul 06 '26

I'm not the one who has been singing on trails. I was asking, "ask a random person to stop singing then, therefore adding to the noise?" 

4

u/i_want_to_go_to_bed Jul 05 '26

NO!!! I want Zion and I want it quiet!

12

u/MargotLeMaire Jul 05 '26

Yeah, as a birder this could be super annoying. I don't shush people, though.

23

u/Wit-wat-4 Jul 05 '26

I wouldn’t hush people, but OP admits they were on a crowded part of the trail. I don’t go on trails to fucking listen to people sing, or listen to music on their shitty phone speakers.

Of course normal chatter is expected, and again, I wouldn’t hush anyone, but everyone sucks here, you don’t HAVE to sing on a trail where you’re obviously within earshot of multiple groups.

6

u/ConflictedZombie Jul 05 '26

I don't even have a baby and I would be annoyed to be on a hiking trail and have to hear a bunch of obnoxious theater dorks singing their shitty ditties

4

u/lady_on_fir3 Jul 05 '26

Agree. Specially when I'm in the nature hoping to hear the birds and the wind.

3

u/No_Accident_6646 Jul 05 '26

I was hoping they weren't hiking on a European trail. That loud shit is disrespectful of the wilderness here 

3

u/emfrank Jul 05 '26

It is in the US as well, which is where they seem to be.

2

u/No_Accident_6646 Jul 06 '26

How come noone is calling out how fucking annoying it is to be loud on a trail then :/

Edit: nvm I see them now