Last week, four of us,all girls, hiked from Max Patch to Hot Springs. We then drove back to Max Patch to retrieve the second car. Well, my old beater didn't make it up the gravel road to the parking area. As I was pulling to the side, a pick-up started to pass. We asked if they wouldn't mind giving my friends a lift to the top of the mtn, about 4 miles. The two older men seemed excited to help, so my three friends hopped in the back of the truck as I limped my beater back to the bottom of the mtn.
As soon as the pick-up was around the corner, my friends told me the men pulled the truck over and both got out and approached the back. They then asked my friends if they 'could tell a tale', saying that they were going to show them off to their friends. After a time, in which my friends became incredibly uncomfortable, they drove on. The driver stopped again when they got to their wagon train friends, many more men, then they did take my friends to the parking area. From what the men told my friends, this is a group that travels from place to place via horse drawn wagons. ...besides scaring the crap out of my friends, nothing happened.
***I do think that the men in the pick-up did not mean any physical harm, but I can't imagine they were ignorant as to how scary they came across. If anyone knows this group as friendly and wonderful, I don't mean to give them a bad rap. I am just reporting on how my friends felt that their safety was in jeopardy.
I guess my friends could have jumped out of the back and ran away, but they were in flip flops and without any gear.
Just wanted to put the word out about the situation. I am a very trusting person, especially with the hiking community, maybe to a fault. This made me re-assess how willing I am to put myself, or my friends, into an odd situation.