[pct-l] Wannabe Solo Female Hikers

[Janet Grossman]

I'm still impressed that my mother was willing to drop me off for my first-ever solo backpacking trip, back in about 1976 when I was 19 and newly diagnosed with Type I diabetes, but she did it with no comment other than good wishes. I was only out 1 night before my then-boyfriend met me to go on together (and later celebrated my graduating from college by doing the AT), and I was scared. I never considered going out by myself again until 2007 when I started out on my attempted PCT thru-hike, with a partner I found through this list. We were very compatible, but I had to take 2 weeks off for blisters to heal. I returned to the trail alone (dropped off by my parents) and have been section-hiking alone ever since. I remember being just totally excited when I walked away from my parents' car that day, and I've been loving being out alone, not least because of the ease of doing what I want when I want. I don't sleep a whole lot at home or on the trail, so it's wonderful to just get up and on the trail when I wake up even if it is 4:00 a.m. or whatever. And I'm way too lazy to put up my tent without good reason like weather or bugs, but the tent in its stuff sack makes a good pillow. I wake up throughout the night and just love looking at the stars or clouds or both, and the nights out are well worth the need to sometimes dry out my sleeping bag during the day since it got wet with dew. But my job is as a therapist doing intakes with people coming in for mental health services. I have the PCTA map of the trail on my office wall, marked with the approximate area I've covered (Campo to Kennedy Meadows so far), and surrounded by PCTA calendar photos of the trail. This week I was assessing a child, and his mother noticed the wall, asked about it, and then freaked out about my hiking alone. She said, "I may never see you again, but now I'm going to have to keep worrying about you out there by yourself." Her husband also got upset when I said I wasn't "packing" (a gun). I'm just glad my parents and partner keep their worries to themselves if they have them. I can hardly wait to hit the trail this summer, planning to hike from KM to Belden.
Janet