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Posted by Alicia on January 20, 2008 at 11:14:18 am EST
In reply to Missing Hiker posted by Old Hermit on January 3, 2008 at 11:52:23 pm EST

Thanks for all of the comments.

Like so many things, I think you have to find the balance between being safe and prepared for potential risks and not living your life in fear of every imaginable scenario.

It is a bit of a double standard. Several years ago, I was running at lunchtime with the cross-country coach at the college I used to work at. He was showing me where some different trails went and casually mentioned something about it being safer for a woman to be shown the trails with someone who knew them. This man is one of the nicest I’ve ever met and he wasn’t being arrogant or macho or anything. But it struck me that I’d never even considered my solo, daytime runs on these trails as potentially dangerous. I wasn’t sure if I thought he was being overprotective or if I was being naïve.

I’m still not sure. This is an area I know extremely well. I only went in daylight. I occasionally saw other runners I knew or knew of in the same areas. Common sense and awareness is necessary, but I don’t think there’s a magic formula that keeps anyone safe no matter what.

Since then (and much more so since a murder that happened on the same campus) I’ve thought much more about personal safety when I’m out alone. I tend to do the stuff we talked about above and remain very aware of other people. But I haven’t stopped running or hiking.

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