DANGEROUS PEOPLE ON THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL: Our tips on staying safe & our encounter w/ James Jordan

hey everybody's dour duo and welcome to Florida so we live in Florida now and in this video we're gonna be talking about actually safety tips on the Appalachian Trail and how those tips came in handy for us when we ran into James Jordan during this video we're just gonna be traveling around to different locations in our area and bring you around with us until Phil those stories and safety tips again that's right obviously there are a lot of safety concerns on the Appalachian Trail fares falling a whole bunch of stuff but one that was our biggest concern me and sheriff's biggest concern was running into the wrong kinds of people so we're gonna kind of go over that today also a big motivation for doing this video is to just educate any 20:20 hikers for the ATO actually any any trail that you're gonna be doing especially just after some past events in 2019 and any kind of concerns so stay tuned [Music] [Applause] [Music] before our hike in 2019 I was still really new to the whole thing Tara was like new and did all the research already so something I looked up was a lot of the safety concerns that I had like do people die out there do people get attacked by animals out there and so after doing research I really found that there wasn't much to be concerned about obviously things happen but they don't really happen all that often yeah but unfortunately this year while we were out there on trail we actually kind of heard about more fatalities than we expected like I said before our biggest concern on that blood trail was people with bad intentions I'm running into those types of people so we formerly had a couple things to do in that situation before and during that bündchen trail alright so tip number one before we begin the Appalachian Trail me and Jonathan had a safe word the safe word was really important in situations that we felt uncomfortable with a certain person so we can say that word and it would mean caution to me and him but to another person I was just hanging around us they wouldn't think anything about it so that word for us was peanut butter so anything to do with peanut butter I'm allergic to peanut butter and peanuts so whenever we said that we knew it was like that's weird and so in this certain situation I said hey Jonathan do you want to eat peanut butter today and he said yes I do want to eat peanut butter and so that was just us communicating together while the other person didn't know what was going on essentially yeah so obviously for us we came out on the trail together because we're a couple but as you guys probably know most people go out there by themselves so we would just recommend as funny as this may seem like do something like that with your trail family because like if it were just be in an awkward situation with like a random person and like I felt really uncomfortable with one of my drill family members there wouldn't really be a clear way for us to communicate hey we're pretty uncomfortable in this situation we should get out of here so with your trail family we would just say like as much as you might joke about it you'll come up with a safe word that you guys would realize like this is caution caution we need to get out of here yeah when everyone else wouldn't really understand yeah because like that would be really funny like it'd be something you guys could joke about but if you ever did need it it's definitely something worth having so that brings us to our safety tip number two create trusting bonds with the hikers around you fine this is gonna come pretty naturally you'll find once you get out there I didn't really expect trail family I didn't really know anything about like hiking in a bubble it just kind of happened for me I think they expected that but I didn't so yeah you're gradually gonna like gravitate towards other hikers and just like create trusting bonds with them especially for uncomfortable or unsafe situations whether that be like getting injured whether that be animals like coming across dangerous animals whether that be coming across dangerous people dangerous people it's important to have like people you trust people you trust around you it's not like you have to be hiking with these people all the time it's just it's a little peace of mind knowing you have people around you that you know and that know you and that can account for you yeah yeah and you'll realize this like even though you're always on the move the people or the community around you pretty much stays the same relatively yeah as you go they might fall behind you might fall behind but it's kind of like it just kind of moves you guys just kind of move together so really try to get to know those people around you like I said you don't have to hike with them all the time but try to create those relationships yeah at least at camp that's the funnest part safety tip number three so our safety tip number three is don't be afraid to be weary of other and trust your instincts so it's okay to judge others to an extent I'm telling you but really trust your instincts out there and get to know people because that's how you're going to kind of realize like this person is not so cool and they don't want to spend a lot of time around them they're a little like questionable or like oh great this person is a lot of fun and I can trust them and trust your instincts about those people you don't have to hike around everyone with that you can also hike faster or slower and get away from those people that are questionable also something I would do whenever we got to camp so we wouldn't really need once we were like in the meat of the trail we wouldn't meet a whole lot of new people maybe one or two here there like every other day but what I would do if I'm camping with them I would ask them a couple questions and get to know them as a person because I want to get to know the person I'm going to spend the night in the same vicinity I'm gonna be asleep I'm gonna be vulnerable and I want to know if they have bad intentions or not I know that sounds a little odd but just to make sure that I was gonna have a restful night's sleep I would just ask a couple questions and it would give me that peace of mind also for anyone on trail they should understand of other hikers weariness and concern of like people's safety right so like if we didn't know each other and I come up and if she's weirded me out or if I'm just like cautious she shouldn't like feel bad as a fellow hiker because we don't know each other yeah and so like just don't don't let that get in your head like everyone should be pretty understanding that look none of us know each other we're all strangers we're all out of the woods so yeah just there should be you don't have to feel bad about being weary about something yeah along with that bring up your concerns with your friend like with your other hikers yeah other hikers around the community yeah especially if it's a really weird uncomfortable situation because there have been a couple times one we've heard about a weird hiker guy making a lot of weird comments to a whole bunch of different girls yeah it's good to know about that too either stay away from him or like if they're girls in your group like yeah just it allows you guys to watch out for that person and also the incident with James everyone knew about this guy before we even met him before we even met him we knew that there was like a very sketchy personnel on trail a homeless man that was threatening other hikers that's how they figured out about him and his dog Felicia I guess communicate your concerns about certain people on trail and I'm not saying like go gossip about everyone I'm saying when you feel uncomfortable when it comes to a safety concern share that with your other hikers yeah [Music] all right so quick question should you bring a gun on trail I guess a quick answer to that for us is we did not we did not bring a gun on trail we'll do another video an extended video on one why we didn't do that two questions that you should probably ask yourself and answer before you make a final decision about that question and another thing is having a gun or not isn't your only way to stay safe you know we just went over three pretty important tips and helpful tips to stay safe on trail and none of those included a gun and so if you do choose to bring one or whatever whatever you end up choosing like a gun could be an additional safety tip but it doesn't have to be and it's definitely not your only way to be safe so before we get into our story of how he came to contact a James Jordan formerly known as sovereign for you guys that don't know about I'm gonna tell you a little bit what happened he committed a murder on Appalachian Trail in Virginia who killed one person and severely injured another person he killed strong Holt he was a army vet and it broke a lot of people's hearts something to know about James Jordan however is he has a serious mental disorder he has what I believed to be schizophrenic and up to today he cannot stand trial for the murder he committed because he is so mentally unstable alright so to finish this video we just wanted to give you guys a pretty much first-hand account of how we kind of put into practice all of these safety tips while we were on trail we were pretty much put in a situation where all of these things were either needed or really appreciated so a little after we left Hot Springs we started hearing about a man a home man actually who was running people out of the shelters this particular night the day after we left Hot Springs it was freezing cold numb fingers I mean rain was freezing there was um there are these it was so cold oh so cold we were camping with a small group none of our trail family but it was so cold but we heard that that same night a homeless man was running people out of a warm shelter with a shovel and he was threatening people too so we heard that about really quick on so that goes into the third point tell people around you what's going on that's how we heard about him we kept our ears open and our eyes open for this man wasn't a big concern yet just we're keeping our eyes open for him so a couple days after that we were at devil's fort gap I believe and we're getting trail magic from Casper and his owner but the band the guy with the man in the Mohawk so you're gonna trail magic from him is really nice hanging out with a bunch of other makers and we were hearing about him again and how the police were looking for him because he did threaten some people we got a description of him and we heard that he was sort of violent I think we heard he was violent uh his taste in people yeah a shovel yeah he has a big knife with him oh yeah that's that's when we started getting concerned because we heard about the knife so after we heard about that we started hiking in a group I remember we actually me and our friend giggles got stopped by the police and they just told us like fight him off with your trekking Pole if you come into contact with them as they're driving around their vehicle they should be on the trail that's just my tip but anyways so they taught us fight them off with your trekking poles at that point me and giggles are like oh this is like serious after the police had stopped me and giggles me Jonathan flipper and giggles we're hiking together really close we didn't want to run to this guy alone so that's where we implemented kind of getting to know people around you and trusting them hiking in a group in those kinds of situations a couple days after that we actually heard that he got he was found and arrested and so we figured okay great like he's no longer a problem or a concern like we don't need to be so like watchful for him so so we thought yeah that's the end of that yeah week later maybe within a week later the rain kind of came back it actually started hailing on us and so we're like all we need to do it was just me and Terra all we need to do is get to the next shelter and then we'll just call it a day yeah it was a terrible it wasn't terrible day raining all day I'm having yeah we're getting hailed on yeah so we're getting hailed on as we come up to the shelter and we get inside we see a couple having lunch and and then there's a guy up like with his dog like in the shelter on the platform so we thought nothing of it first yeah we didn't think anything of it we walk in and the girl who's with this couple actually like looks up at here and gives her this look she like stares at me and she goes excuse me she gives me these sorry she looks up at me and gives me one of these like uh I'm thinking one she doesn't like me and not cool whatever not cool or two like hey caution caution late that we got weird situation here because she didn't say a word she just like yeah yeah so we start like unpacking and we haven't eaten lunch yet so we start eating lunch or like getting our food out and this guy who's with his dog just like kind of starts talking to us sayings like oh are you guys gonna stay here I said he was super friendly by the way yeah yeah and I said yeah we're gonna stay here and he's like you're not gonna stay here like yeah we are and he's like fine whatever free country and from that point on pretty much every thing that was said back and forth between us and him didn't really make any kind of sense yeah it was never threatening it was never like like this is scary but it was just weird and so I started like looking at his gear yeah and he started fitting this perfect description everything we heard about before yeah about this guy on trail and at this time we're not like communicating at all about this and so I'm also piecing it together I look up a picture of this guy on my phone because they had a mug shot I look up a picture I'm like oh my gosh this is the guy that's the guy that was chasing people out of shelters and I didn't I didn't realize she was doing that but I'm looking at him and I'm literally thinking I mean did the police arrest the wrong guy because this is this guy and and he's in jail every supposed to be in jail so yeah so you look up the mug shot and yeah um so I look up the mug shot and like you said before he wasn't like threatening to us but he was just overall weird and didn't make sense everything he said after that point like are you staying this shelter it's a free country after that it was just like nonsense so Jonathan um what happens at chess yeah he just asked me like Oh what do you what do you like to do or no he said do you like playing chess and I said yeah I loved playing chess and he says I will do you have a chess board and I said no do you he's like yeah okay do you want to play he's like no I was lying I'll have a chess board I was just seeing if you were lying like no okay yeah and like Jonathan said about his gear his gear was very like odd for three you're like I've seen some pretty odd gear from thru-hikers but this was particularly like odd because he had like all cotton clothes he had long johns like very weird pack he his dog had really great gear so that is one thing about James Jordan he loved his dog Felisha dolphin whatever her name was he fed her well and she had a great pack but his gear it was odd it's just not backing up here so like you could he just kind of stood out as not a backer which is helpful to identify him but yeah anyways and um and then I'll just go over a couple other things that happen I kind of called our attention to him was the couple still here eating and they're completely silent but he he's really big about he was really big about signing logbooks so he asked me like are you gonna sign the logbook just really serious I'm like no I don't think so and he was like why not just ask me why and I was like I don't know I just don't sign logbooks he's like just effing sign the logbook so ya uses some bad words so I'm like freaked out a little bit because he kind of just yelled at me so I'm signing it super like ineligible I'm just writing like we're from New York City and we're happy to be on trail and I make up some names and I make it super weird like you can't tell who it is or what our names were gave it back to him and read it it's just very odd and then at that same time he like picked up a log and like threw it across camp and said like I hate when I lose control and this whole time he's still saying stuff that makes no sense and we can tell this guy's like mental health is like declining like he's slowly getting into one of those episodes because like at first it was like okay but then it like declined obviously me and Jonathan like through all these things that he's saying and doing eventually a friend smiley came up but before that everything's kind of alerting us about this guy like this is an odd situation and I'm not feeling very comfortable anymore so I asked Jonathan this is the second tip or no this is this is the first tip excuse me I asked Jonathan do you want to eat some peanut butter today so this meant nothing to Sovereign and it didn't cause any red flags for him but for us that was a red flag and that was a way we could communicate with him in our presence and make sure that we were on the same page about this and so he said yes I do want to eat some peanut butter so that meant to us like we had already like set out some of our gear and stuff because we were cold and wet from the hail so we had already set out some gear and then at that time we started packing up slowly and putting stuff away yeah so after we packed up our stuff we kind of headed back out into the hail and everything but there was just no way we were gonna stay the night no way and so really I mean we just did like another point two miles down trail and set up a stealth spot so that night it was me Tara our friend smiley and our friend Abe yeah so we got out of there and we actually for a while we kept like passing him along the trail but we were with our trail family and we just kind of like we kept our distance you know there's there's someone that makes you uncomfortable on trail there is zero reason why you should feel any kind of pressure to like stay it stick around yeah this is not worth it you don't need to do that if someone's making you uncomfortable keep your distance something for us on trail this isn't really part of story just a side note we really viewed the trail like four five and a half months like that was our home you know that was our home out there and so kind of think of it like when it comes like how much distance you're keeping between you and someone else think of it like sleeping under the same roof you know because when you're in a campsite in a tent or when you're just in the open space of a shelter you know there's not really any security there you know the best security is distance so yeah treat your sleeping area like you would your home and the people around you are the people that you would share like or stay under the same roof with yeah yeah like you can surround yourself with your trail family in a campsite that'll add a lot more like security I guess that's like a helpful way to think about it just to kind of kind of like allow it yeah gage and allow yourself to be like I'm actually gonna keep going a little bit just to create some distance here you don't need to feel bad for that ever obviously what happened with James Jordan is one of tragedy and it's not something to be overlooked but it also isn't a very it's not like a toad the accurate representation of what trail life is like and what the people out there are like this really does not happen very often at all it's always unfortunate and tragic when it does happen but it's always better to be prepared in how to how to handle safety concerns than to not be prepared and have a situation just come up on you and you just have no real idea how to handle it and so when it comes to safe when it comes to your safety concerns I think the best thing just real quick advice is be attentive to your situation around you and look out for your fellow hikers you know if you and your trail family are doing those two things then you guys just you're taking care of each other and you're aware of what's going on around you oh we are hoping to create a conversation between people that are gonna be hiking soon and between us too and any former or future hikers just to kind of keep that conversation going in how we can better take care of each other so if you do have any safety tips or just questions definitely comment below we would love to hear those and we'd love to respond or just um let others join that conversation so definitely comment those also if you haven't subscribed yet please subscribe we are almost at a thousand subscribers and that's so exciting we're super excited to bring more content about the Appalachian Trail and adventure to more people and lastly last point so I have a video before this talking about making a introduction video for the class of 2020 so go check that video I will link that somewhere up here so you can check that out the deadline is December 1st so get your video in before that we would love to include you in the 2020 introduction video but that is it for our safety tip video thank you for watching and we hope to see you again see you next time bye [Music] you

Channel: Tara Treks

Views: 229,976

Keywords: appalachian trail, dangerous appalachian trail, dangerous people on trail, appalachian trail danger, murder on the appalachian trail, danger with hiking, hiking death, appalachian trail thru hiker

Id: muHIYSK-044

Length: 24min 40sec (1480 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 08 2019