Weirdness, Assault and A Frightening Night on the Long Trail

Things got weird and scary this past weekend for three women staying at Pico Shelter on the Long Trail when a man began acting strangely and then assaulted them. The women wish to remain anonymous but here is what they have posted as warnings to others.

Please report any sitings of strange behavior to local police.

This past weekend, my friends and I were staying in Pico Shelter for the night. At around 7, a tall man, long blonde hair and small beard, showed up to the shelter with just a small pack- he went by the trail name of Salt.

He said he just wanted to warm up his food before going to the Cooper Lodge Shelter, we however did not bring our jetboil system that night, but he did not leave.

He continued to talk to us for hours- telling us he was the lead singer of Metallica, that he professed his love to a pro snowboarder and now she’s divorcing her husband to be with him, that he wrote two new movies on Hulu, and had wrote many popular songs for artists like Taylor Swift… many delusions. He would become angry and say he needed to listen to his music to calm down (the whole time he was there he was playing music very loudly).

The situation turned from odd to scary when he began to make physical contact with me. He began to give me a massage without asking to touch me and ended in him straddling me from behind before we were able to move outside in hopes of getting space from him.

He followed us out and continued to put his hand on my lower back while my friends and I were looking at the stars outside, he kept saying he was in love with me, and when we said we were going to bed, he asked “who was going to cuddle him”.

The situation was so uncomfortable that my friends and I all slept on the same platform, unsure of what he would do in the night. He continued to sing and yell all night- in early morning he yelled “it’s 3am, the sun is up, and there’s three feet of powder on the ground!” No one got a good nights sleep, whenever we woke up we were scared to move, scared for him to know we were awake.

We almost didn’t stay the night at the shelter just to get away before it became bad but were too scared of it making him angry and violent.

Thankfully, it wasn’t any worse than it was. Be careful around the Killington area, especially if you are alone- he mentioned being around often.

This has been posted on All Trails, Guthook, Women of the LT, emailed to the GMC, and a police report will be made.