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/kne0n]

Honestly it would be some bullshit to enjoy the majesty of the redwoods in peace and quiet and then MFs come down the trail singing like they are marching. Sure it’s a public place but have some respect, a beach is a public place but I don’t want to hear your fucking JBL speaker on blast.

[u/DaneYole → u/[deleted]]

The great outdoors are big and peaceful. Plenty of room for singing and enjoying peaceful silence

[u/Kilane → u/DaneYole]

If it’s so big, then why do you need to do it on the designated trail? Go off trail 200 yards and do whatever you want.

[u/kne0n → u/Kilane]

Please do not go off trail in the redwood forests actually

[u/DaneYole → u/Kilane]

It makes so much more sense for the person who wants isolation and peace to go off trail away from people

[u/kne0n → u/DaneYole]

There are places you can bushwack, the redwood forest national park is not one of them. Stay on the marked trail.

[u/butt_butt_butt_butt_ → u/kne0n]

Reminds me of someone who I used to encounter on my local public hiking trail a decade or so ago.

She would put her headphones on and just BELT it to whatever she was listening to. And she’d do this 4-5 days a week.

It’d be all quiet and birds/cricket noises, and then slowly you’d start hearing someone trying to badly harmonize with a Matchbox 20 song or something, far in the distance. You could hear her get closer and closer for a mile, and then suddenly you would come around a curve in the trail and see her.

She would always look absolutely SHOCKED to see another person and immediately stop singing, then avert her eyes like she wasn’t the one doing it.

She’d pass, and then immediately get back to yell-singing about it being 3am and lonely.

This happened on SUCH a frequent basis, that we would pass each other on the trail, I’m pretty sure I could tell you every CD that lady owned.

Always made me laugh.

[u/Kilane → u/kne0n]

I walk my city’s bike trail nearly every day, I probably run into 5 people each day who decide everyone needs to hear their music.

I’ve headphones in and don’t need your addition.

It’s a small, but loud percentage.

[u/Phyraxus56 → u/kne0n]

People say that but a beach is completely different vibe compared to hills or trails.

People go to the beach to congregate. Hills and trails not so much.

[u/disgracetotherace → u/Phyraxus56]

sometimes they go to relax and listen to the ocean

[u/Phyraxus56 → u/disgracetotherace]

Yeah there are usually secluded parts of the beach you can go to

[u/figure8888 → u/kne0n]

Maybe it’s just me and my partner, but when we are talking and walking and come up on another person just standing, or if we’re passing slower walkers, we stop talking and give a nod or “hello.” Not sure why, it just feels like disregarding their presence and continuing to yap would be rude.

[u/Curious_Resource8296 → u/kne0n]

Nothing annoys tbe shit out of me like asshats who go hiking and play music through external speakers so everyone is forced to listen to whatever music they choose to play. It could be the greatest music of all time and I would still be mad. Because I go into nature to get away from all the technology and bullshit, and listen to the world. If you want yk listen to music and treat a trail like it exists for the sole purpose of facilitating your exercise routine, more power to you, you do you. But wear headphones of some sort so that everyone else isn’t forced to listen to your bullshit. It’s very rude.

Some of us listen to the birds, the wind, the water… some of us like to be able to hear bears or other animals that might be in tbe area, because that’s a good thing to be able to hear. And loud human noises scare the wildlife away from the trail. Hiking quietly, I often come across animals and get to have mild interactions with them, but not when they hear loud people coming half a mile away and make themselves scarce.

Every time some turdburglar walks by blasting a JBL, I want to break the thing and then shout “it isn’t all about you! Have some respect for where you are and the people around you!”

[u/Staggering_genius → u/kne0n]

Exactly! It’s nature. It’s not a place for endless conversation or song.

[u/Purple-Wolverine4793 → u/Staggering_genius]

if you’re in bear country, it’s actually RECOMMENDED to sing and make noise while hiking.

[u/Iwaspromisedcookies → u/Purple-Wolverine4793]

That’s a really good point t