[pct-l] Planning First Solo Hike

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

On May 23, 2010, at 9:50 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> Planning First Solo Hike

You aren't likely to be very alone on the PCT unless you hike out of  
season, and even then it would have to be an ugly boring section with  
intolerable weather so you didn't meet section hikers. I went for a  
solo hike this weekend and within half an hour had met two people who  
knew my mother. Within another hour or two I'd met another fellow. A  
few more hours I had met three more. Eventually we all ended up at  
the same campsite and several more also arrived. There was a PCTA  
work crew there so we had hot meals and a warm campfire to enjoy  
along with conversation and camaraderie on what was a windy and  
frigid night. In the morning we had breakfast in the snow showers.  
Hiking the PCT is far from a solitary existence full of scary beasts.  
I'm sure the scariest beast you'll ever meet is that guy with his  
gun, but I bet he sends it home early on in his hike. Unless he's a  
section hiker and then you probably will be able to walk through his  
radius of influence in less than an hour.