Please Be Careful

[+Amazon Annie]

I just heard on the news about a woman who fell to her death at Mount Nemo yesterday while hiking with her husband. I was wondering what all those sirens were about while I was out (alone) hiking not too far away.

 

Please people, with the wet leaves and snow (this afternoon) let's be extra careful. My thoughts go out to the family.

[+Algonquin Bound]

Very sad, indeed. Unfortunately, the news reports I have seen are suggesting that more warning signs are being considered. Are there actually people somewhere who truly believe that people looking over the edge of a cliff don't realize that it is a dangerous cliff unless they read it on twenty freakin' signs? We know there are cliffs and we know cliffs can be dangerous. Sometimes we go closer to the edge, sometimes we even climb them, with no equipment or anything. We know the risks and signs probably don't influence us all that much. Again, it is really very sad, but let's not go nuts with signage in the woods.

[+res2100]

Anyone have a link to the news story? I was trying to find it yesterday, but it didn't come up in any searches on the net or local papers.

 

I am curious to know if the woman was just walking along the trails and slipped off the edge or if she actually went walking off the trail to look over the edge and slipped? My son and I have hiked there a few times over the last year and I can think of atleast a couple of spots where the trail takes you very very close to the edge and if someone slipped I can see why they would go over very easily. At one of these points I can remember it seemed so dangerous on the trail, that we actually went off trail for a few meters to avoid walking right up to the edge. I was not as much worried for myself, but more for my son perhaps slipping. There are also some which I think are unofficial trails that are very close to the edge too...and slanted in some points.

[+Algonquin Bound]

Hey Folks,

 

Here is a link to a short report on the incident:

Woman killed in Mount Nemo fall

[+EmmaBean]

There was an article in the Hamilton Spec yesterday

 

Escarpment fall kills Grimsby woman

Dave Kewley

The Hamilton Spectator

 

Angelica Pauls 'did a lot of work for people in need.'

 

A relaxing hike on a beautiful autumn day at Mount Nemo suddenly turned into tragedy for a Grimsby couple.

 

Mike Polimac and his wife Angelica Pauls, of Ivan Avenue, Grimsby, were on their way back Sunday after walking for a couple of hours along the Bruce Trail, when they stopped briefly at a natural lookout atop the Niagara Escarpment at approximately 4:30 p.m.

 

"I turned and started heading back to the trail. I was about 20 or 30 feet ahead of her, when I heard her scream. I looked around, but she was gone," recalls her grief-stricken husband.

 

Sergeant Val Hay of the Halton police said it appears Pauls lost her balance near the edge of the cliff and fell about 15 metres to the rocks below.

 

Polimac, 55, ran out of the conservation area trail about a kilometre to the nearest house to summon help. Police, the Burlington Fire Department and Halton EMS responded,but Pauls, 51, was pronounced dead at the scene.

 

The accident scene was "almost inaccessible," and emergency personnel were also hampered by darkness trying to recover the woman's body, says Bob Burchett, director of conservation land service for Conservation Halton.

 

Burchett says it was not a climbing-related accident, nor a case in which the trail is too close to the edge of the escarpment, because sections of the Bruce Trail have been moved away from cliffside.

 

"It's simply a case of two people out for a hike that turned into a tragedy. They purposefully walked off the trail to look at the view," he says.

 

Burchett adds that with more than 25,000 people visiting the area annually, there have been three deaths in the past five years, and one of those was a suicide.

 

Polimac says he and Pauls were married for 25 years and had lived in Grimsby for the past 15 years. The couple have no children.

 

He said she had always worked hard. For 20 years, she worked at the Stamford Deli in St. Catharines and then for the past several years was an employee of the Punjab Food Market on Queenston Road in Stoney Creek.

 

A close friend of the couple, Renatta Luch of Rochester, N.Y., says Pauls was a Mennonite who did a lot of good work for people in need without ever seeking any recognition for her deeds.

 

"She was a very kind-hearted and caring person who would help anyone. When she worked at the deli, even though it wasn't store policy, she would often personally deliver groceries to elderly customers who were not able to get out on their own," Luch says.

 

The fatal accident remains under investigation by Halton police, but Hay said it is not being treated as a suspicious incident.