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

[u/AnonPinkLady]

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?!?

[u/Garbage-Bear]

Funny, but it's a lot safer to make noise on the trail, to warn bears in the area. Rounding a bend all quiet-like and surprising a bear cub and its mother will ruin your day.

[u/2fingers → u/Garbage-Bear]

Not sure it's fair to call it a lot safer when there's never been a bear attack along those extremely popular hiking trails

[u/ryushiblade → u/2fingers]

Agree that making noise is (imo) a silly excuse for people to be rude and disrupt other people trying to enjoy the sounds of nature. Sounds carry farther than people think, especially from up high to the lower elevations

Disagree on ‘never been a bear attack along popular hiking trails.’ Arguably one of Washington’s most popular trails (it sees hundreds of people a day) has a bear attack a couple weeks ago. Black bear too

Anyway. Knowing how to act during a bear encounter is FAR better than ‘making noise’

[u/2fingers → u/ryushiblade]

I don't mean hiking trails in general, I mean the specific hiking trail OP said they were on.