Would you hike/camp alone in Appalachia?

[mala]

My BFF did it for two nights. I was nervous as hell. She's an experienced hiker and camper, sent several people her plans and itinerary and had someone picking her up, so if something went wrong plenty of people would know what she had planned to do and could, in theory, go find her. I was still so worried about her. I would never do it myself.

ETA: She was on the AT in VA, but it was a section that was far from towns and other people. My worry was a potential psycho/aggressive animal on the trail, rather than an accident since she is experienced in hiking.

[Dumbledork]

Hell no!

1) Much like the ocean is the shark's, the woods is the bear's home. No, thank you.

2)Hike alone, lose an arm. That's what James Franco taught me.


On the other hand, I would never, but DH would. He goes on multiple solo backpacking trips every year in a National Forest close to us. It helps him deal with stress.

He has to leave a highlighted map of where's he's going as well any info on the ranger station there, and then text a status update before he loses signal, and again when he comes back into signal. We'd like to get one of those emergency gps locator things, but they're a little expensive for us.

I'm more worried about him getting injured than any possible crime, though I did just watch an episode of Criminal Minds last night where the unsub was snatching little boys off the trail, so....

[wawa]

Dec 30, 2015 19:45:43 GMT -5 summer said:

Do you feel Appalachia is more dangerous than any other natural mountainous area? There are two sides in this discussion, one side has seen Deliverance and decided it is fact and the other gives Appalachia as a whole the benefit of the doubt. We are obviously all intellectuals here, and there may be heavy drinking and bets placed.

LOLOLOL! 
I haven't read the other two pages of this yet, but this one is cracking me up. 

I grew up spending summers running around West Virginia between summer camp and my grandparents house.  My grandmother (when she was the age my mom is now, which is crazy to think about) spent hours and hours out in those woods on her horse or hiking alone.  And I'd hike the AT alone without a qualm, though I'd bring one of those GPS distress signal things.  (which work pretty well there.  It's not nearly as inaccessible as places out west)  The AT trail gets positively crowded at times.  Even hiking alone, you're very rarely actually alone all day and finding a place to camp by yourself on some of the more popular sections can get challenging. 

Now if you're just talking about heading out into the backwoods by yourself?  Yeah, I'd probably hesitate to do that, but that's because I don't 100% trust my navigation skills without a marked trail and I don't want to blunder onto private property.  Because *that* would make me nervous.  (Or get lost.  But that's an issue everywhere, not just in banjo country)

[wawa]

Just because I haven't spend enough time out there to know and plenty of people here have - do you get a lot of the "GET THE HELL OF MY PROPERTY!" while holding a shotgun types in like, CO? It was always like, 50/50 if you got lost and ended up in somebody's yard whether they were going to be nice about it and point you toward where you meant to be or freak the fuck out. Like, even in PA amish county where I grew up, it was always a bit of a crapshoot to try and scout out a new trail since sometimes they veered off public land onto private property and you didn't always realize until you popped out into a yard or field or something. There were plenty of property owners who didn't mind a bit of course, and let us use their property on a regular basis.

We personally were a bit touchy about it - we got a lot of hunters. If you got lost and found yourself in our yard as the sun was setting, my mom would drive you back to your truck no problem. If you tried to think that you were gonna use our driveway to hike your ass into the state game lands and set up your tree stand just over the boundary you could damn well think again. There was just one guy we let use our property as a gameland access trail and parking area. He asked permission back when our house was getting built, and he paid us in a cooler of frozen fish every year.

[steamboat185]

I would. I hike alone now. I would totally hike the AT alone there are lots of towns and road crossings and lots of other people that you come across.

I want to hike the John Muir trail desperately and will do it alone if needed.

[itsme]

I wouldn't due to safety concerns. We have a lot of hiking here in the surrounding mountains and I won't hike any of it alone because of wildlife or potential injury.  I'm nervous hiking in pairs or groups as it is. My SIL saw bear cubs on a hike recently so mamma bear was around somewhere. I prefer the buddy system for hikes and runs (I need the animal to focus on someone other than me!) on trails. For some reason we have a lot of mountain rescues in this area.

[foundmylazybum]

Dec 31, 2015 10:19:33 GMT -5 wawa said:

Just because I haven't spend enough time out there to know and plenty of people here have - do you get a lot of the "GET THE HELL OF MY PROPERTY!" while holding a shotgun types in like, CO? It was always like, 50/50 if you got lost and ended up in somebody's yard whether they were going to be nice about it and point you toward where you meant to be or freak the fuck out. Like, even in PA amish county where I grew up, it was always a bit of a crapshoot to try and scout out a new trail since sometimes they veered off public land onto private property and you didn't always realize until you popped out into a yard or field or something. There were plenty of property owners who didn't mind a bit of course, and let us use their property on a regular basis.

We personally were a bit touchy about it - we got a lot of hunters. If you got lost and found yourself in our yard as the sun was setting, my mom would drive you back to your truck no problem. If you tried to think that you were gonna use our driveway to hike your ass into the state game lands and set up your tree stand just over the boundary you could damn well think again. There was just one guy we let use our property as a gameland access trail and parking area. He asked permission back when our house was getting built, and he paid us in a cooler of frozen fish every year.

My H did a lot of back country hiking, camping and fly fishing in CO. I asked him this and he said no. But, I  kind of feel like you are asking a few questions here.

I don't think if you were hiking people would get pissed off, especially if your lands are adjacent to public or state lands, and you are hiking.

If you are hunting? Well that's something else. CO especially has some very, very specific laws about private property and river ownership. So crossing a private river? Eh...I think there might be some problems.

Also, each person is different and so is the situation

[Deleted]

I would day hike alone, but I wouldn't camp and it's a just a safety thing for me. I think I'd feel better about the AT than some of the more remote trails out West.

[RoxMonster]

I hike alone all the time. Like almost daily in the summer. This is at a local park/forest preserve and I feel totally safe.

I would hike alone in a state park or national park, especially if the trails were populated and I was familiar with them.

I would not camp. Anywhere ever. Not even with other people because camping sounds awful to me lol.

I think as long as you are prepared, have supplies packed, and let at least one other person know when/where you are hiking and when you will be back, there's no reason to not go out in the woods alone. Stuff can happen, but there is inherent risk with many activities we do in life. FWIW, I am an avid hiker and absolutely love it.

[sushi]

No wonder my gramma worried about me. I hiked all the time by myself when I moved to Colorado. Well, my dog hiked with me, does that count? It wouldn't have occurred to me to worry about cell phone range because we didn't have cell phones back in the day. I probably would have camped alone, but I don't like camping that much.

Would camping with another woman be ok? Or do we need a man around?

[pinkdutchtulips]

Dec 31, 2015 10:33:23 GMT -5 steamboat185 said:

I would. I hike alone now. I would totally hike the AT alone there are lots of towns and road crossings and lots of other people that you come across.

I want to hike the John Muir trail desperately and will do it alone if needed.

The John Muir Trail at Yosemite ? I did that one w xh back in 01 ? It's a pretty easy hike, tons of people on it.

[steamboat185]

Jan 1, 2016 18:11:06 GMT -5 pinkdutchtulips said:

Dec 31, 2015 10:33:23 GMT -5 steamboat185 said:

I would. I hike alone now. I would totally hike the AT alone there are lots of towns and road crossings and lots of other people that you come across.

I want to hike the John Muir trail desperately and will do it alone if needed.

The John Muir Trail at Yosemite ? I did that one w xh back in 01 ? It's a pretty easy hike, tons of people on it.

I just need to find the time. I think I can do it in about 18 days-it's what 221 miles? It's just impossible to take that much time off in my current job.

[pinkdutchtulips]

Jan 1, 2016 18:16:18 GMT -5 steamboat185 said:

Jan 1, 2016 18:11:06 GMT -5 pinkdutchtulips said:

The John Muir Trail at Yosemite ? I did that one w xh back in 01 ? It's a pretty easy hike, tons of people on it.

I just need to find the time. I think I can do it in about 18 days-it's what 221 miles? It's just impossible to take that much time off in my current job.

We only did a portion of it to get to Vernal Falls ?? I want to go back to YNP and go through the mountaineering school and tackle Half Dome.

[MrsAxilla]

Jan 1, 2016 18:20:22 GMT -5 pinkdutchtulips said:

Jan 1, 2016 18:16:18 GMT -5 steamboat185 said:

I just need to find the time. I think I can do it in about 18 days-it's what 221 miles? It's just impossible to take that much time off in my current job.

We only did a portion of it to get to Vernal Falls ?? I want to go back to YNP and go through the mountaineering school and tackle Half Dome.

We hiked most of the way up Half Dome but had to turn back because of lightening.  Totally bummed.

[Chuppathingy]

Dec 30, 2015 22:45:53 GMT -5 karinothing said:

Dec 30, 2015 19:45:43 GMT -5 summer said:

Do you feel Appalachia is more dangerous than any other natural mountainous area? There are two sides in this discussion, one side has seen Deliverance and decided it is fact and the other gives Appalachia as a whole the benefit of the doubt. We are obviously all intellectuals here, and there may be heavy drinking and bets placed.

I think there are bears. Otherwise I don't think it's any more dangerous than any other place

There are bears. My city is near enough that one once came down and took a bath in the creak behind the Courthouse downtown.

Sent from my SM-N910T using proboards

[sushi]

I've seen bears in shenandoah which is part of the AT.

Still not worried.

[aurora]

I'd hike alone in most places in the U.S. during the day. i run alone on trails all th time.

I love camping but am not sure I'd camp alone. Would depend on the situation.

[bears]

I would hike alone, though, as long as the trails weren't too technically complex.

[sparrowsong]

I'm more afraid of lighting than bears. I'm more afraid of people and driving than either of those.

[Velvetshady]

bears what have you done to make everyone here wary of you


There are bears in these there hills...


We had a bear on our deck a couple years ago (on Halloween, apparently our candy wasn't up to his standards).


At least he learned how to open the composter lid vs throwing the entire thing 6 feet so I had to clean it up.

[joenali]

No. I would want to hike with someone. Buddy system. Because this is what happened the last time I went hiking and I wasn't alone.

[bears]

Jan 2, 2016 12:46:11 GMT -5 Velvetshady said:

bears what have you done to make everyone here wary of you


There are bears in these there hills...


We had a bear on our deck a couple years ago (on Halloween, apparently our candy wasn't up to his standards).


At least he learned how to open the composter lid vs throwing the entire thing 6 feet so I had to clean it up.

I'm pretty much the worst, obviously.

[scout8]

What happened joenali?

[joenali]

Jan 3, 2016 8:41:56 GMT -5 scout8 said:

What happened joenali?

I fell and broke my ankle when dh and I were hiking. I had to be carried out by search and rescue.

[scout8]

Jan 3, 2016 10:57:27 GMT -5 joenali said:

Jan 3, 2016 8:41:56 GMT -5 scout8 said:

What happened joenali ?

I fell and broke my ankle when dh and I were hiking. I had to be carried out by search and rescue.

Oh no! I'm sorry. 

[joenali]

Jan 3, 2016 11:15:05 GMT -5 scout8 said:

Jan 3, 2016 10:57:27 GMT -5 joenali said:

I fell and broke my ankle when dh and I were hiking. I had to be carried out by search and rescue.

Oh no! I'm sorry. 

It was quite the experience! I'm now 7 months out in my recovery.