Hite's Cove on the S Fork of the Merced River isn't far from YNP and no doubt has it's share of rattlers, pumas, and both chemically and genetically altered weirdos, however the danger apparently is from Has-Mat as this very sad and tragic story seems to indicate.
Something to do with old mines? I don't know but do be cautious is your photographic travels take you to this area!
https://www.foxnews.com/us/californi...te-hiking-area
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
That is very bizarre. If they died in a mine that seems explainable by CO or CO2, but out in open country would be a different story and very strange indeed.
Could have eaten wild mushrooms, either around there or in something en route. Autopsies should weed out the wild theories. Mushroom poisoning leads to a lot of stomach bleeding. It always amazes me just how nonchalant even people on trails around here are about picking mushrooms in an uninformed manner. Over in Oakhurst, I remember when an entire family died within two hours of a salad with freshly picked Amanita "death angel" mushrooms in them. I'm going to turn on Channel 4 right now.
The side streams would be running dry this time of year, so it's unlikely they died from drinking toxic water, especially so close to the car. I've gotten some nice shots around there.
Wow!!! That is sad news for sure. That just sounds aweful for their family waiting for them to come home.
Certainly bizarre and not what you would think of when out in that direction.
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Quite frightening and sad. No signs of trauma.
Like Drew, I'm thinking it was something ingested.
An updated report says the trailhead has a sign warning of toxic algae in the river.
Here's an image of the four victims, all so healthy looking:
Drinking out of the main River would be nuts, but would more likely involve giardia or e-Coli infection, and take a few days to produce sickness.
If this is a case of drinking bad water, I'd agree that one can rule out giardia or e-coli since they're slow acting.
Blue-green algae, by contrast, is speedy. Maybe 3 or 4 hours after ingesting for symptoms to appear.
Make that very nasty GI symptoms. People and dogs.
Doesn’t explain the dead dog.Originally Posted by Drew Wiley
Who doesn't toss a dog a little snack at a picnic? Could have been a mushroom. Who knows. But if were toxic algae, a dog would be more likely to ingest the water than any human would, unless they were swimming. That is serpentine country with a bit of natural arsenic, but that would take months or years to accumulate. Old mine tailings can have all kinds of nasty stuff, but anything like that would have been zoned off before the trail was finished. If poison, it could have occurred some place else earlier.
My nephew lives nearby and hikes there frequently with his family, especially in the Spring when the poppies are out. There's nothing sinister about the area. It's hardly "remote" by local standards, and is in fact a relatively easy and popular trail except in hot weather. Hypothetically, just the heat itself could have got to them, especially this summer. But the dog probably would have survived.
The article has no useful information. Not ever worthy of reading without any information other than of the 160,000 people that died yesterday, you are to think of only those persons and not the rest
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