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Officials reported that four hikers who confessed to consuming psychedelic mushrooms were rescued after losing their way in New York’s Catskill Mountains. This marks the second incident of its kind this year in New York’s renowned mountain regions.
The hikers requested assistance around 5 p.m. on August 29 when one of them experienced a “debilitating high,” as stated by the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).
Forest rangers and the Pine Hill Fire Department located the group at about 6:45 p.m. — less than 1,000 feet from the marked trail.
New York State Forest Rangers assisted an incoherent hiker out of the Slide Mountain Wilderness after the group acknowledged using psychedelic mushrooms near Giant Ledge in the Catskills on August 29, 2025. Psilocybin mushrooms, depicted to the right, are known to induce intense hallucinations and confusion.
The men had strayed about 1,000 feet off the trail, according to the New York Times.
Once rangers and firefighters reached the group, they escorted them back to the trailhead for evaluation. Officials noted that none of the hikers needed hospital care, and later, the rangers transported them back to their rented accommodation.
The hikers also misplaced their car keys during the ordeal, according to officials. The next day, one ranger returned, locating a sling bag with the keys under a log amidst tall ferns.
Psilocybin mushrooms dry on a rack in the Uptown Fungus lab in Springfield, Oregon, on Aug. 14, 2023. (Craig Mitchelldyer)
In a previous incident in May, two hikers in the Adirondack Mountains in northeastern New York, close to Lake Placid, contacted authorities to report a fatality in their group. However, it was later revealed they had consumed hallucinogenic mushrooms and were mistaken.
The hiker who was believed to be dead called and was not injured. A ranger escorted the two hikers down to an ambulance, which took them to a hospital and brought the third to the group’s campsite, where they all later met up, officials said.
The two hikers who called 911 also told a steward on the mountain’s summit that they were lost. The steward “determined the hikers were in an altered mental state,” according to the DEC.
