[DesertRhino]

“No one should ever hike in a wilderness area alone.”

John Muir who the wilderness is named after wouldn’t have done that./ The only person he risks by going alone is himself. A second person is mostly going to be a second victim, or a witness to the heart attack, death fall, deadly avalanche, etc.

A second person might help locate a body sooner. But the second person degrades the precise reason some people want to be there alone in the first place. Our pussified society recoils in fear at someone who wants to hike alone, but its a classic human activity.

[trisham]

Go for it. I’m not stopping you.

[GJones2]

I read John Muir's A Thousand-mile Walk to the Gulf (from the edge of Ohio to Florida). If I recall correctly -- and except for occasional companions -- he walked the entire distance alone. In 1867 that included a good bit of wilderness.

I wouldn't recommend it, though. I used to read many autobiographical adventure stories, and from all the hardships the protagonists overcame and dangers they escaped, I formed the opinion that most things weren't nearly so hard or dangerous as they seemed. I began to consider doing something similar myself. Then suddenly it dawned on me. These books were written by the persons who survived. The ones who don't survive don't write books. :-)

Also the law of diminishing returns is at play here. Someone who hiked the entire length of the Appalachian Trail once said something to the effect that "After you've seen your first thousand pine trees, the next thousand look pretty much the same." I do hike (more like walk) short distances alone, but usually in areas where the risk isn't very great.