Perhaps mushrooms and hiking don’t always mix.
The Associated Press reports that last weekend, two hikers in New York's Adirondack Mountains called 911 to inform emergency services that their friend had died on a popular summit. However, that wasn’t the case.
The hikers had apparently taken magic mushrooms and erroneously thought their friend had passed away on Cascade Mountain. The tripping hikers also thought they had gotten lost, which, according to a ranger on the mountain, also wasn’t the case.
The ranger then “determined the hikers were in an altered mental state,” according to a statement from the Department of Environmental Conservation.
After the two hikers made the report, their purportedly dead friend called and said they were very much alive.
The ranger accompanied the two hikers to an ambulance, and they were transported to a hospital, while the third friend was escorted to the trio’s campsite. They later reunited.
Microdosing hallucinogenic mushrooms has become increasingly popular in the U.S. According to a 2024 report from the research organization RAND, shrooms have become the most popular psychedelic drugs in America, outpacing other substances like MDMA. A recent national survey revealed that around 8 million American adults used shrooms in 2023.
