Poll: Hiking or Climbing Solo - Do you do it? Ever?

[DougPaul]

Another consideration is that trail breaking back then, at least in my case. Was done on wooden snowshoes, yes youngsters, WOODEN. Its like when I told my nephews, "when I grew up we didn't have internet", they didn't believe me.

For my tale of breaking trail in deep snow I was using 13x28 inch flat bearpaws (wood frame with neoprene and nylon decking) with snowshoe crampons and neoprene and nylon Howe bindings. The flat, wide, and short front was good for kicking uphill steps in snow (a disappearing art...). The snowshoes are similar to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Snowshoe2.jpg. (The snowshoe in the image has rawhide decking and a different binding but the frame is the same.)

My modern MSR Evo Ascents are smaller, lighter, and have better traction but have less flotation, are not as good for kicking steps, and are not as good for skiing downhill in deep powder (too grabby).


I've been on the Internet since 1976*, so it seems to me like it has always been here too...
* It was the ARPAnet back then (started in 1972, the Internet was started in 1982), but there was no web (proposed by Berners-Lee starting in 1989).

Doug

 

[Raymond]

Also, it was uphill in both directions.

There were 150 of us living in a shoebox in the middle of the street ...

 

[TJsName]

Also, it was uphill in both directions.

There were 150 of us living in a shoebox in the middle of the street ...

Sadly, the part future generations might have trouble believing is the *snow*.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

How about the number of distinct posters for 2013, by login name not IP address, as you did for 2014?

That wouldn't prove the excess were all summer hikers not just dropouts, but would give a flavor for what % were active within a year.

374 people last posted in 2013, in addition to the now 263 whose last post is in 2014. I.e. they are disjoint.

Tim

 

[Raven]

I agree with this wholeheartedly but that does not detract from the enjoyment of the poll and its usefulness in learning about the hiking habits of one another who responded but it certainly can't be extrapolated for any statistically meaningful purpose that I can imagine.

The wording is abiguous for another thing ... I checked occasionally/rarely year round rather arbitrarily because I don't do it frequently but what is the meaning of occasionally/rarely.

It was designed to be for enjoyment but also to give a snapshot of hiking solo in the Whites from a self- selected group from VFTT. However, I think having an accurate picture of solo hikers in the Whites which addresses each month of the year, a very large sample size, and hits a random and wide selection of trailheads will be valuable to have. In that vein I met with a colleague last night and we are looking into the feasibility of taking on this study. I will keep people in the loop as we move forward with the literature search and focus groups and hope I can lean on this board for their expertise as we develop the project. I may even ask a few of you to be part of one of the focus groups for brainstorming purposes. We are also going to incorporate the 10 essentials into the study but will be keeping this one solely focused on the WMNF. I appreciate everyone's comments so far and the high level of participation.

Regarding the ambiguous language in the choices, that is by design to keep the poll simple for now. I did not want to complicate things by suggesting 'frequently' or 'rarely' must meet a minimum number or minimum percentage of hikes. Surveys and polls that are too complex see low response rates. We will be specific for the real study if we opt to move it forward.

Edit: my expectation is this study will take about a year and a half to do comprehensively allowing time to include a few upcoming grant cycles, multiple focus groups, and allowing for gathering information each month throughout the year.

 

[Raven]

374 people last posted in 2013, in addition to the now 263 whose last post is in 2014. I.e. they are disjoint.

Tim

Very nice. The poll now includes 50% of those board members who have posted this year.

 

[StaggerLee21]

Perhaps you could school me a little bit on the missing persons cases you mentioned?? I try to track hints like that and be mindful of overall patterns. I'm very aware of the severe problem in the holy cross wilderness in CO, and the northern sierras in California. though its less concentrated locally, there is also a huge problem like that in the Pacific Northwest which constitutes a great number overall. You can read about it from David Paulides in several books. He is an expert investigator, former police detective and former USFS ranger. I try to keep track of things like this because I solo hike alot and sometimes in afar areas. and this type of info does influence my decisions at least in some capacity.

 

[Tom_Murphy]

You can read about it from David Paulides in several books.

Bigfoot ? really ?

 

[whcobbs]

I like to SS solo in late winter in the ADK wilderness areas. Trails well marked, snow pack consolidated, not many people, ADK leantos plentiful.
Last August-September I "soloed" the John Muir trail, Tuolumne Meadow to Whitney Portal. Quotes because the JMT was pretty popular, never more than 2 hours without human contact face to face, always friendly. I climbed Mt Jefferson with a group 2/01/2014 with a group of 6, I was not among the summiteers, but enjoyed the hike.
Walt

 

[Raven]

Bigfoot ? really ?

If I'm not mistaken Bigfoot also hikes solo periodically.

 

[RoySwkr]

374 people last posted in 2013, in addition to the now 263 whose last post is in 2014. I.e. they are disjoint.

Thank you, sounds like the number of summer-only is fewer than I expected

Also sounds like most members no longer post at all

 

[RoySwkr]

If I'm not mistaken Bigfoot also hikes solo periodically.

Bigfoot leaves no trace
http://imgcdn.geocaching.com/cache/log/large/6b82dd0a-af68-463d-a08c-d15387275e0a.jpg

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Thank you, sounds like the number of summer-only is fewer than I expected

Also sounds like most members no longer post at all

The new member rate is pretty close to the outgoing rate, where outgoing is defined as the month last posted. There are a lot of people who are members but simply do not post, but they do read regularly - and having an account lets the system keep track of their last visit and only show posts since.

Tim

 

[mc.lynch]

I took the poll. I haven't hiked much in the last few years (I need to get back out there more). When I do, it's almost always with others (whether summer or winter), mostly because I'm not likely to head out unless someone else "drags" me along. If I was hiking more frequently, I'd probably be doing some/more of it solo.

 

[StaggerLee21]

Bigfoot ? really ?

actually not all of the cases are about Bigfoot. David has just written some books simply documenting the stark data of missing cases, partly because he, as well as other park service employees were worried about families,children etc who (as the public) were not being told about the plethora of missing persons cases, some of them with grim ending details that are unable to replicated by human beings or known wildlife.....and many to be genuinely a problem related to human murder. he has many books. if your skeptical about bigfoot, I suggest you just go and walk the Sawyer river area from july till october. Thats all i will say, other than to say there's park service employees in New England, that I personally know of who are aware of similar issues I'm not willing to discuss. I do suggest that you don't solo hike in that area unless it's past the end of November or a very cold early winter. I had a pants soiling and genuinely life threatening experience that ended in me doing 60 mph in 4 wheel drive down sawyer river road. and never spoke with anyone for years about it, until I dropped a hint that was well received with a ranger who responded in kind. and dont ask more.....I went down that road, was involved in research and bailed when I learned the dangers of being involved in contraban phenomena. You might also want to poke around in the center south ravine on south bond. If the season is right, you might just slack your bowels,lol. once your in the club, you dont turn back, you meet others who clearly understand the unforgettable, and you will forever pitty endemically ill skepticism, which often relies on extremes of dismissal and denial which counter its own rationale....Ive had ample time to make some basic assessments.....namely being that I don't care what anyone on here thinks of me, and that has nothing to do with aversion or dislike. call it stoicism. What I do care about is people's safety. I'll leave the rest for you people to have a kanipshin over. indeed there is valid footprints, visceral experiences, DNA and the like, but in the big picture, the phenomena thats manifesting does not always fit in the box, or leave smoking guns and that's something that a select few people have been forced to contend with first-hand.....and the rest of society and the world will bumble with.....until eventually 3000 year old canonical wisdom is simply confirmed again in the cycle of life. Noodle on that.

 

[Grey J]

This thread has officially drifted off into Ghostbuster Territory. I liked the Stephen King novel, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, but I'm pretty sure that was fiction.

 

[rup]

Hmmm. Easy on the BF criticism. Ya never know. I'll bet that 90% of this audience blasts thru the woods too fast to notice anyhow. Wanna trade stories over 40 years???

 

[Ed'n Lauky]

Hmmm. Easy on the BF criticism. Ya never know. I'll bet that 90% of this audience blasts thru the woods too fast to notice anyhow. Wanna trade stories over 40 years???

There have been a handful of times over the years when Lauky has let me know that something was out there following us, something that I never saw. Generally it has been only for a few minutes, but once down in a very isolated section of the Belknaps it went on for over a half hour. I never saw it but assumed it was a cat of some sort or a coyote. Fortunately it never occurred to me at the time that it might have been BF.

 

[rup]

While I have not seen one, I've heard very LOUD woodknocks (Ka-LUNK) coming from steep grades approaching tree line. Not sure how someone could, or even would want to, get in there, never mind swing an axe / bat / stick. Also several 'tanks' rolling thru the woods - but without the engine sounds. Also heard that wierd 'samarai chatter' thing. Very wierd. Just kept hiking, and ooking over my shoulder. Mostly in Maine and the ADKs.

 

[gaiagirl]

Me thinks the medical cannabis industry in my home state of the Commonwealth of MA is selling some VERY potent product these days ..... And that is all I will say