[pct-l] The hazards of hiking alone

[Mountaingoat Fraser]

Some good points here, Tom.

On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 1:54 AM, Tom Bache <tbache at san.rr.com> wrote:

> I'm a section hiker who has hiked 2000 PCT miles over the past 5 years. I
> hiked with other people early on, but quickly learned that it is much
> better
> to hike alone.  Some of the benefits are obvious -- no need to coordinate
> schedules or to compromise on hiking pace and style.  But the biggest
> benefit came as a surprise and delight.  Stated simply, other people are a
> distraction, and the solo experience is much deeper and more intense.  When
> alone, I hear, see, and smell elements of the natural world that would go
> unnoticed in the presence of input from other human beings.  This includes
> companions, of course, but it extends to all human-created input.  The
> trail
> itself is a distraction from this perspective, but that's unavoidable if
> the
> objective is to hike the PCT!  Digressing a moment, I encountered many
> miles
> of snow-covered trail in Oregon early this summer, and noticed that the
> intensity does go up when traveling with no signs of human activity --
> interesting, but a very slow way to cover 2650 miles.
>
> Almost everybody who hears about my solo hiking trips seems to think it is
> a
> dangerous thing to do.  I usually respond that the hikes are orders of
> magnitude less dangerous than the long drives I take to get to and from the
> trail.  I sometimes point out that the odds of injury inflicted by nature
> are millions of times less likely than the odds of injury inflicted by
> other
> human beings, so it is safer on the PCT than in most cities.  In any case,
> I
> have never felt any danger on the PCT, and I suspect that is true for most
> hikers.
>
> Tom Bache
> San Diego
>
>
> > Date: Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:01:48 -0700 (PDT)
> > From: Nathan Miller <erccmacfitheal at yahoo.com>
> > Subject: [pct-l] The hazards of hiking alone
> > To: pct-l at backcountry.net
> >
>  > For everything we do and every choice we make, there's always a
> > trade-off--always.  Whether and how to hike is no different.  My last
> three
> > hikes were done solo mainly because everyone who was interested in
> joining me
> > had to bail for one reason or another and I was too stubborn to just stay
> > home, despite my wife's wishes.  The first of these ended prematurely
> when
> > blisters prompted me to make a strategic withdrawal--on this trip, I only
> saw
> > one person in 3 days.  On the second, I had no mishaps at all (aside from
> some
> > relatively short-lived bad weather on Mt. Hood) and met a lot of other
> people
> > on the trail, a few of whom were also out there by themselves.  On the
> third,
> > I encountered a cougar, a bear, a rattlesnake and then subsequently
> crashed
> > the car on the way home--I saw a few people the first two days, but no
> one the
> > rest of the time.  Good times, good times....  Anyway, my wife,
> understandably
> > insists I don't hike alone.  In fact, most people to
> >  whom I talk about hiking -- section or through -- say, "Oh, you're not
> going
> > alone, are you?"
> > After reading this list and hiking, I've come to conclusion that hiking
> by
> > one's self isn't really any more dangerous than doing anything else by
> one's
> > self.  I'd be interested in hearing about y'all's attempts -- successful
> or
> > not -- to convince others of this.  I fear I'll miss out on some great
> hiking
> > because I fail -- through my own fault or not -- to secure hiking
> companions.
> >
> > -Nathan Miller
> > Newberg, OR
>
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And That's All the Goat Wrote