[pct-l] the hazards of hiking alone

[Janet Grossman]

I went backpacking by myself for just one night in 1977 when I was 19 and recently-diagnosed with Type I diabetes. I was kind of scared and got blisters on my feet, was mostly impressed with my mom for dropping me off for this solo venture. At 21 I did the whole AT with my then-boyfriend, who was enough faster than me that we mostly hiked separately and just had meals and spent the nights together. Later on, I spent 7 years with a man who called himself a backpacker and had equipment, but could never get his act together to actually go on a backpacking trip. When I decided to thru-hike the PCT in 2007, I found a hiking partner through this list, since my life partner of the past 15 years is NOT a hiker. We started out together and proved very compatible. However, I then got such bad blisters that I got off the trail for 2 weeks, so when I returned to the trail, it was alone. I discovered on my first day out how wonderful it felt to be hiking alone. I was unable to complete the thru-hike due to continued serious blister problems, so have been section hiking since then, all of it by myself. I've certainly made mistakes, could easily have killed myself getting over Mt. Baden Powell in the snow in May, 2008, but overall have been having a great time of it. My hiking partner from 2007 may join me for a section next year, but whether he does or not, I'll be out there again. Yes, plenty of people think I shouldn't be doing this alone because I'm female, because I'm diabetic, because there are wild animals out there. I refuse to stay home because of these or any other reasons, and for each of my section hikes thus far have gone days without encountering other people, have been quite comfortable that way. On my 136-mile hike ending 9/19, I encountered 2 men on an ORV on my 4th day, and no other people the whole time. I also had no cell phone coverage the entire time, so was glad these 2 men were willing to call my partner and let him know I was ok. I'm still learning, am still quite willing to hike with others if it works out, but just love the freedom of doing everything at my own pace and being solely responsible for whatever goes right or wrong on my hike. And I loved my solo encounters with a bear, a grey fox, and a rattlesnake a week and a half ago.
Janet