139 person Grand Canyon Hike

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/man-banned-national-parks-organizing-221736083.html

Interesting that they could ban him from several National Parks. A couple of the local meetup group leaders used to routinely ignore and violate group size limits in WMNF Wilderness areas locally. BSP put in group size limits and more tightly defined hiking groups about 10 years ago. Other than the highly publicized AT runner, I am unsure if any other group has actually been written up but expect its has been used to persuade some groups from trying.

Just hope some of these MeetUp and AMC group leaders don't see this... a 140-person conga line up Monadnock could be their ticket to The Guinness Book of World Records!

Scubahhh said:

Just hope some of these MeetUp and AMC group leaders don't see this... a 140-person conga line up Monadnock could be their ticket to The Guinness Book of World Records!

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Let's also hope they don't try and do it on Summer Solstice either following certain traditions.

Should have been banned for much longer or for life. Most of the time, on articles like this, you have to try and see if any comment amongst the many are any good. Most of the comments past the ownership of public land typical argument were okay.

pretty sure some of the old VFTT gatherings and hikes came close to matching this

Good for the National Park service for doing that. He was well aware of their polices.. I love camping in the NP campgrounds as well as the National Forest service one's. They run a tight ship and that makes it a safe and enjoyable stay. I saw them kick out a few un ruly folks fast over the years.
Heading out to many NP's and National Forest campgrounds for lot's of hiking out West this coming May and June with our RV.. probably 7000 mi RT for sure.

Can't stand the private campgrounds.

roadtripper said:

pretty sure some of the old VFTT gatherings and hikes came close to matching this

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We got busted near the top of North Tripyramid with 15 people in a Wilderness Area on a VFTT hike.

David Metsky said:

We got busted near the top of North Tripyramid with 15 people in a Wilderness Area on a VFTT hike.

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The Moriah Trip was close to this but we spread out after a while. Wasn't in a Wilderness area either. One other one that might have come close I organized split into two groups, one did the Franconia Loop, the other did East Osceola. Didn't get those numbers on the key swap hikes, however, the weather may have played a role in that.

Never made an official Gathering, however, there were usually multiple hikes. The BTS Presi-traverse had more than 15 but again, very spread out.

School Groups and Scouts would be bigger also, however, not close to 140. Biggest School Group I was part of was about 30 at a hut. (Dave was there too.) We made sure that groups were spread out on the way up to Greenleaf. I did check with the Ranger Station to see if we needed any additional paperwork also. (Did not need.)

On occasion, a bus would be parked at ADK trailheads with a Meet-up group making the trip across the border usually. I don't recall ever seeing a full bus at a WMNF trailhead.

A certain religous based group is well known for invading Adirondack trails with extremely large groups with little demonstrated knowledge or care for LNT principles. They have been ticketed in the past for such activity, but have learned to keep their announcements quiet. It doesn't always work out like they hope.

David Metsky said:

We got busted near the top of North Tripyramid with 15 people in a Wilderness Area on a VFTT hike.

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In other words we have VFTT to blame for the concept of meet up groups.