Do Many of you Hike Alone?

Have historically been a solo hiker. For the 2015 and 2016 hiking seasons I have been very, very fortunate to have my daughter as trail companion. Will cherish the present and accept that time and availability will trend towards the solo side.

Summit: Jagged Mountain (13,824'), Weminuche Wilderness, CO - August 12, 2016

Yes, I find it freeing to literally hike my own hike without having to worry about other's pacing and issues. I started with state parks and worked up from there. I usually spend 3-7 days out at a time, and get out quite a bit since I don't have to coordinate with others schedules. If I could carry more than 7 days worth, I wouldn't come home. So it's probably a good thing. :D Give it a shot!  (I have not idea why this chicken posted, but I can't seem to delete him.)  :D

Old thread I seemed to have missed? But there have been a few similar over the last couple decades on this and other boards. There is a higher percentage of solo hikers among older, more experienced, backpacking enthusiasts because over the years unless one's backpacking companion is one's marriage partner, sooner or later friends and life circumstances change and one finds one either goes solo or not at all. For we urban working people with typical complicated modern lives, that live hours away from our mountain regions, it is often too complicated to sync up with others, especially shorter the notice. Same thing with my snow skiing life. Over time it becomes easiest to just tell upcoming plans to a few people and unless one of them decides to join, just plan like it will be a solo trip.

This summer I backpacked twice with others and twice solo. Over the decades probably two-thirds of my trips have been solo. I quite enjoy the company and conversation of others if their personalities and behaviors and interests out in the backcountry work. Most of my trips are semi-basecamping trips so am not continually each day walking down trails and routes like many backpackers. I like to really explore scenic places well, slow down, and really get into nature deeply as much fascinates me. Some especially those without much of a natural science background much might be bored. Even when out on a group backpack, I'm often spending a lot of time doing things solo and day hiking solo. But I always encourage doing things as a group, as a team if people want to. I quite envy guys that have wives that love hiking and nature and share those experiences over years of adventure.

Last month did a 10-day solo backpack up Pine Creek that is in the Bishop area. Started hiking at 9pm with headlamp and 2200 feet later at 1am tossed down the sleeping bag.  Hiking at night is both physically and mentally challenging and admittedly has a scary element in the darkness one is only going to experience when alone solo.  Much of the later trip was rambling about off trails at or above timberline. Then this Monday returned from a 5 day late summer trip up and over Bishop Pass where I base camped 3 days. Lots of exciting inspiring times.  Life is good.  But solo is not my ideal but rather practical reality. For the next week plus, much of my free time is going to be processing images and then coding html to add the trip story to my 2016 Trip Chronicles feature.

David
www.davidsenesac.com/2016_Trip_Chronicles/2016_Trip-Chronicles-0.html

That describes my circumstances to a "tee".

Used to backpack with some colleagues after completing a large demanding project, but before the next one really ramped up.

Now we all work for different employers, and in some cases, they've moved on to other interests (flying, sailing, etc).

Too bad. You're missing so much.

Better to go alone than not to go at all.