Re: Backcountry Meetings

The original poster asked this:

Quote:

I was wondering if someone can explain the dynamics
of meeting people in the backcountry.

As most have summed up pretty well already, encounters in the back country are almost always cordial, or at the least, uneventful.

As I think back through my own experiences, a couple of minor exceptions come to mind, though neither example is particularly "bad".

One is when I hike on trails where bicycles are allowed. I really hate to generalize, but at least in my own experience, it has seemed like the dynamics between cyclists and hikers isn't very good. Each seems to resent the other's presence. Again, I haven't seen anything "bad" result, but the encounter is more one of "grudgingly tolerate" than cordial.

The other is when I hike on trails where "horse people" travel. I notice the same thing - hikers dislike the horses because of the stink and the flies. The horse riders (and the horses!) dislike the hikers, and sometimes the horses actually get spooked. I had one such encounter a couple months ago in a wilderness area in the Sierra. A group of three guys, with about 4 or 5 horses a piece, carrying everything including the kitchen sink (literally), passed me on the trail. Although I followed protocol and stopped, stepped well off the trail on the downhill side, and waited, the some of the horses got spooked and wandered off the trail. Needless to say, this really ticked off the riders (understandably so). If looks could kill, I'd certainly have been dead on the spot from the look one of the riders gave me.

Other than that, my back country encounters have all been cordial. The further I get from trailheads, campgrounds, roads (and as has been mentioned, the presence of alcohol), the less concerned I am. I'm actually much more concerned when I'm on a remote road or at a remote roadside campground, than I am in the back country.