[pct-l] solo

[pct2003 at attglobal.net (pct2003@attglobal.net)]

I've found I appreciate extended outings more if I
can 
alternate traveling alone and traveling with other
people.

Ironically the problems of traveling alone often
relate 
to other people: who'll watch my pack while I'm in the
outhouse?       On the PCT, animal problems are a
much smaller
concern.     In Europe (Camino de Santiago), not
worth worrying about.

Aside from people and animals, on the PCT there is
some
danger from accident or illness if alone; this was
not such an issue on the Camino.

On his solo southbound trip in a snowy year, which is
still pretty remarkable even if he didn't do
everything
he said, Eric Ryback commented on the constant 
hunger and loneliness.       Nowadays one can go with
the crowd from ADZ and never worry about either.

I usually plan my PCT section hikes to go southbound
at times and places to encounter northbound through
hikers.       Some are glad to stop and talk,
others seem
to resent the time lost.

The most intense experiences are when one is alone
and not distracted by company.      But there is
nobody
to share them with.

I take more pictures when I am alone.   Perhaps I
increase the odds of taking a few good ones that way.

I don't particularly plan for solo hiking.    It
happens often
enough without any special planning on my part.     As
others have remarked, if you want to go to a
particular
place at a particular time in a particular style,
you might
well do so alone.      It seems worse to be
depressed at home because you couldn't get anybody
to go with you.

I'm interested in what women hiking alone have to say.
Many women hikers I know will not go alone, and not
without some good reasons, namely some of the strange
men they may encounter hiking alone, like me.     
It's hard to
say what the relative odds of a problem of that
sort vs
lightning, hypothermia, tripping on a rock and
breaking
a leg, rattlesnakes, lions and tigers and bears,
and all
the other problems that do happen to hikers but not
very frequently.