There’s lots of fallout in New England.
A popular foilage-filled wilderness in Lincoln, New Hampshire, has been overrun with tourists to the point that they are causing rush hour-like bumper-to-bumper traffic on trails.
This past weekend’s chaotic scene at the Artists Bluff Trail in Franconia Notch State Park was described as both “dangerous” and disgusting by seasoned local hiker Tamara Breau, who documented the outdoor nightmare on social media.
Despite the hike being a relatively easy physical challenge, Breau said the influx of visitors made things much more perilous and miserable, a foliage frenzy hilariously parodied on an episode of “Family Guy.”
“People were shoving, going off trail, climbing, and leaving trash,” she wrote in a New Hampshire Facebook group, calling on better monitoring from officials to handle “these crazy leaf peapers.”
“Someone came down crying because they had been so scared with the sheer amount of people at the top. I saw someone trying to carry a child down through the brush … These crazy tourists have no etiquette and no common sense.”
And, like the major traffic arteries of NYC, Breau told WMUR that the trail’s top was filled with “bottlenecking” as well.
“I couldn’t help but think, but like, somebody’s going to have to get rescued,” she added.
Breau wasn’t far off.
The station reported that state agencies had to conduct several rescues over the weekend at other popular locations, such as the Basin Cascade Trail at nearby Cannon Mountain.
Non-locals are also seemingly oblivious to earlier climate changes at higher elevations, according to New Hampshire Fish and Games conservation officer Chris McKee.
“Up here in the mountains, it’s already winter,” he said, noting that the state’s iconic Mount Washington has already seen five inches of snow, freezing temperatures — noting that “people just aren’t prepared.”
In Breau’s case, she said lots of folks were recklessly dressed in unseasonal sandals and shorts — and even slippers.
Adding insult to injury, the fish and games department said tourist traffic on I-93 has become such a standstill that it’s impacting rescues — one taking more than an hour to reach a person in need.
As for frustrated residents like Breau, she’s ready to scatter in the wind like fallen leaves.
“We turned around and went elsewhere,” the irked local concluded her post.
