Missing Hiker On Maui Found Alive

[MarkP]

True problem solvers try to pick out what's wrong with an idea rather than what's right. If you ask this lady why she sat down to meditate she says to gain clarity. If you look at it objectively she said she sat down to meditate and when she opened her eyes she had lost her sense of direction. In this case meditation screwed her but she still seems to think it was a good idea. Me, I would be ashamed to admit that I did something that I didn't have to do that so totally screwed me. The problem solver in me would identify the point at which I had lost it and the selfish self-aware part of me would instinctively try to protect that which I value above most everything else, my status as someone who deals with the bottom line.

I'd lie and say I fell, hit my head, and got lost.

[Hunt Stoddard]

It may be that Hawaii is kind of an ideal place to get lost. The moderate size of the islands lulls people into a false sense of security. It's an island, right? How do you get lost on an island? They're small enough to make people think they're safe, but large enough to really get lost.

[Durian Fiend]

Her perseverance and honesty are admirable. A bit wacko, perhaps, but nothing out of the ordinary by Puna standards.

A 74 yr old neighbor got lost on his own lot not too long ago. We heard him crying for help and came to assist.

A nightmare scenario would be getting stuck in a couple acres of 12 ft. tall cane grass without knowing the correct direction to battle your way out of it.

[TomK]

I'm surprised no one has picked up on this story:

"The body of a missing hiker was found in Hawaii"

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/29/us/hawaii...index.html

"The same rescue team that found hiker Amanda Eller on Friday joined the search for Mina over the weekend.
Searchers used a helicopter to locate Mina's body 300 feet below a fall line in the summit region of Mauna Kahalawaia, according to a statement on the family's "Bring Kekai Home" Facebook page."

[Rob Tucker]

I was very sorry to hear that news. My sincere condolences to his ohana.

[Midnight Rambler]

A lot of the critics on that reddit thread (and others there) are mainlanders who have clearly never hiked in Hawaii. All talking about how it's no big deal to walk 5 miles down to the coast as if it's open pine forest, no uluhe or guava.

[MarkD]

One more item on this topic: Eller's episode is yet another piece of straw weighing on the rights of hikers--increasingly challenged--to enjoy Hawaii's wild areas.

There is a loose but powerful coalition challenging these hiking rights. The coalition:

1) Rescue personnel getting weary of going into the woods to rescue people,

2) Officials worried about the mounting rescue costs, including helicopter time, and

3) Private property owners worried about being held responsible for hikers' injuries or disliking people roaming over their property.

Every hiking mishap is more ammo for them to further control hiking.

It's bad enough when hikers get into trouble from legitimate mishaps, e.g., sprained ankles or other injury that prevents them from making it out of the woods. It's worse when we have idiots going into the woods completely unprepared or stupidly trying to traverse unstable cliffs or engaging in vision quests or acid trips or some other foolishness.

It is not entirely clear that Eller falls into the first category.

I guess we ought to we assume she does, but now that she has been on national television telling her story, the weight of her straw is heavy. See what happened to her? We need to close off that area to hikers.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

We need to close off that area to hikers.

* Last week a man died by shark bite on Maui.
* 6 days ago - A 70-year-old man from Utah has died in waters off Kekaha, Kauai.
* May 1, 2019 - The Kauai Police Department has identified the man found dead below a cliff on April 23 as Rodel Constantino, 30, of Kaumakani
* Mar 15, 2019 - A 52-year-old Georgia man died after he jumped into the water at Ho'opi'i Falls in Kapaa on Thursday.
* A Big Island man was hit and killed while riding his motocycle last week.

With the same logic applied for lost hikers and hiking trails, we should also outlaw swimming, snorkeling, diving, and motorcycles.

[kalakoa]

mounting rescue costs, including helicopter time

Simply claim that the hikers were cultivating marijuana, leverage Federal prohibition funds for the helicopter time, problem solved.

outlaw swimming, snorkeling, diving, and motorcycles

Any of these activities might involve marijuana or other dangerous prohibited substances, so we can probably get some free Federal money here too.

Eventually, we can redirect all tourism into safe, protected, santized resort complexes with TSA-style body scanners and no alcoholic beverages, swimming pools, or hot tubs. Tourists can simply sit in their rooms and watch Law & Order reruns or live streams of the "dangerous Hawaiian wilderness".

[alaskyn66]

Our overworked EMT people are to busy dealing with people with mental dis orders, to waste time on rescuing visitors. Perhaps it would be better if tourist just stayed in their rooms.