Column: Surrounded by people without masks on Niagara River gorge trail – Buffalo News

One of the most spectacular places in Western New York is the lower Niagara River gorge.

That is where my wife and I took a hike Thursday afternoon from Devil's Hole State Park, along the Niagara Gorge rim, down the steep stone steps to the whirlpool rapids, along the Devil's Hole Trail on the river's edge, and then back up those steep Whirlpool State Park steps.

If you were among the hundreds of people I passed on the trail, perhaps you noticed me.

I was that guy with a mask that I put over my mouth and nose whenever I approached anyone.

If you saw me, you were probably among the 99% of the hikers that afternoon who didn't don a mask as you hiked along the narrow trail, which is about 2 feet wide in most places.

The no-mask crowd included moms and dads with kids, lots of young adults with college T-shirts, starry-eyed couples and groups of more than a dozen people.

I'm sure they are all good people whom I would love to meet.

But frankly, it was discouraging. I thought Western New Yorkers were smarter, more caring and more considerate of others.

When we passed, most of you didn't bother to turn your head away or walk on the edge of the trail as you labored up the steep steps by the whirlpool, breathing loudly, sending microscopic droplets of whatever was inside your lungs in my direction.

Normally, that wouldn't bother me. But I've spent the past two months editing stories about some of the 555 Western New Yorkers who have died with Covid-19 and the more than 6,000 who tested positive many of whom might have taken their last breath if not for ventilators or dedicated doctors and nurses.

I'm a freedom-loving guy. I'd start a revolution, if necessary, to preserve our rights to free speech, as well as our right to peacefully assemble, to vote, to worship the God that we want, and to seek redress if the government violates our rights.

I get it that as Americans we don't like the government telling us what we can and can't do.

But when you decide that it's your right to not wear a mask in public in places where it is impossible to stay 6 feet away from me and my wife, then you are infringing on our rights and you could cost us our lives.

If the droplets that come out of your mouth when you breathe or talk or cough carry the coronavirus, you freedom-lovers could take away someone else's rights all because you refuse to cover your mouth and nose with a piece of cloth for 15 seconds while you pass by them.

Now you say you didn't wear a mask on the trail because you don't have Covid-19. How do you know? Plenty of people have tested positive for the virus without showing symptoms.

Yes, epidemiologists say the risk of transmitting Covid-19 outdoors is lower than the risk indoors. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't help keep each other safe in our parks.

Perhaps you think that I should just stay the heck home and stop complaining. But don't you recognize others have the same right to take a hike as you?

So how do we resolve this?

Do we obey the advice of the top health experts in the country and voluntarily don a mask in public when social distancing is not possible, like on the crowded narrow gorge trails?

Or do state and local law enforcement authorities have to step in to safeguard the public health?

Would you be happier if the state put a police officer on the narrow gorge trails and barred every hiker who wasn't wearing a mask? How about if the state just shut down the gorge trails until the virus threat drops, like it has closed playgrounds, schools and businesses?

Would that make you feel free?

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Column: Surrounded by people without masks on Niagara River gorge trail - Buffalo News