[SamAdams76]

I've gone hiking alone for over 40 years now. Guess I'm just lucky but my most harrowing experience was getting temporarily lost in a sudden snowstorm in New Hampshire in the dark back in the mid 1990s. The wet snow quickly obscured the trail markers I was following. I found my way back to my car thanks to a compass I carried and being able to maintain an easterly direction to find the north/south road I was parked on.

My point is these incidents are fortunately rare and that they should not dissuade solitary hikers any more than the prospect that you might get into a fatal accident while driving on an interstate highway.

[Twotone]

My father, trying to raise five daughters, drove into our heads the dangers of going off alone. There certainly are lots of possibilities, even aside from the human danger. He may have done too good a job, as I’ve always had anxiety about going off into unknown territory by myself. The dangers are real enough, even if the risk of such events is low.