[pct-l] hiking partners for women a must?

[abiegen at cox.net]

jamie szewczyk <jamieszew723 at gmail.com> Wrote:
 
>I am a 29 year old female whose hiking partner just bailed on our planned 
>thru-hike unfortunately for them.  I was wondering if I could join a hiking 
>group that is starting at kick-off.  I do not want to be traveling alone in 
>the woods as I feel I would need to carry a gun to protect me from who or 
>whatever.  I would feel so much better about this journey inward and 
>otherwise if I knew some people have my back.  Any ideas?? 

Jamie, here is my advice. Go to the monument at the border in Campo early in the morning. Wait 15 minutes to an hour. Several wonderful hiker people will show up. Start talking to them and you will find that you have a tremendous amount in common; much more in common than you have with the friend who ditched you. They love to hike, they are easy going, they have similar gear, clothes, equipment and most importantly goals and aspirations. You will never find someone like that if you go to the center of whatever town you live in and sit there for a year or maybe even ten years. you will feel like you finally have found people who understand what you want to do and what you are going to do. And the great news is that even given all that you have in common maybe you don't want to talk as much or hike as fast or stop as many times or whatever; just keep walking and within a few hours (at the beginning of the PCT) or a few days (further on on the PCT) you will find any one of 300 more people just like you in various groups, hiking speeds, hiking styles, those that like to go to town and hand out, those that do yoga on the trail, those that sit peacefully and listen to nature, those that laugh until they fear wetting their pants.

Plan B - go to kick off and meet almost all of them at once. Walk around and talk to people who look like the type of people you might want to hike with.

Keep in mind that relationships on the trail are often serial in nature. You will hike with one person or group for a while. Maybe they will want to go to town and you won't. You will meet up with another person or group and hike with them for a while. Again there may be some reason to separate. Often you will run into one of your old hiking buddies who now has caught up with you or you have caught back up with them.

These are the best people you will ever meet. You need to trust me on this. Or you could go back and read some of the journals from last year. People helped each other out all the time. People rescued each other, found new gear for each other when gear was lost or stolen in town, lent each other money when wallets were lost, shared all the knowledge they had, made sure that their friends were safe. I have no reason to doubt that this year will be different.

And you will never regret not leaving the gun at home (if you have one).

Trailhacker

"When my feet hurt, I can't think straight"
Abraham Lincoln