Personal safety when hiking alone

LOL. I like the walking stick idea. Ever see Morgan on The Walking Dead with his stick!!

Small can of wasp spray or bug repellent can also work as an alternative to pepper spray. In the US, they sell travel size smaller cans of mosquito repellents.

MikePTY wrote: »

This discussion is gonna be lit when they finally introduce the disagree button.

The Ignore function is pretty cool. :flowerforyou:

Girl! You are not overreacting. What was the creepy incident that happened? A woman should always trust her intuition.

I had a dude follow me at the park with my child. Treat your life the exact same way as if your own child’s life was at stake. I read all these women’s stories about guys following them and they have no clue what to do but be afraid. Even if you call 911, there is a period of time before they show up. You need to be prepared to handle yourself. Carry a weapon. Or something you can use as a weapon - a car key, a pocket knife, pepper spray, hair spray if that’s all you have. Never be distracted or zoned out, you need to be hyper aware of your surroundings. Start screaming your head off. Carry an air horn. Have 911 at the ready when you start your hike. Don’t hesitate to call 911, too many women hesitate. Share your location on your phone with friends, *and* tell someone exactly where you’re going and what time you’ll be back. Don’t put yourself in isolated situations.

My real advice is don’t go hiking alone, especially in unpopulated areas, regardless of how rural the area is. And at the risk of sounding old-fashioned, I wouldn’t even advise for 2 females to go hiking alone. A group is always better. This is what I would tell my own family member. For a multitude of reasons, don’t go hiking alone.

MikePTY wrote: »

Australia, where the homocide rate is more than 5 times lower than the US.

Didn't you just have a mass murder at mosque recently that led your govt to ban guns after the fact. Good luck w/that unless you,also confiscated all of the guns still in private possession as,well.

More to the point, regarding the methods of safeguarding the safety of a lone female hiker, it really depends on the mindset, size and training of the female involved.

I'm a retired LEO (law enforcement officer) and can legally carry a gun anywhere in the US but I almost never carry a gun. Why? Because it's too heavy and the liabilities associated w/its use are too great and (in most cases) its need is too remote. And that's in an urban setting. No way I'd carry a gun & ammo weighing 2-4# while just hiking. While hunting maybe but on a day hike, no way.

Women of smaller stature are more likely to be targeted than women who are larger than the attacker simply because most attackers are looking for victims who are less theatening and less likely to be able to fight back. However, you really can't assess or plan for this risk because you'll never know how large you potential assailant will be. If he's 6'2" and 200# almost every woman would still be at risk.

That said, most women (regardless of size) are not trained to fight back when attacked. If you do not have the WILL to defend yourself w/all your might (and I'm not talking about any martial arts training), no weapon will be of much use to you.

But, if you are willing to do what it takes to physically fend off an attacker, then you have a chance, regardless of your size and whether you have a weapon or not, but having a weapon and knowing how to use it would be helpful and the weapon need not be lethal to be effective.

Pepper spay if used effectively would be useful but ineffective in surprise attack when it cannot be sprayed in the assailant's eyes quickly enough and at sufficient distance, so that you can run away while the assailant is blinded and before he can grab you.

Once he gets his hands on you, it doesn't matter if he can see or not, if you do not have sufficient strength to break away, because he can just hold onto you until the effects of the pepper spray wear off.

In that case, a key or other blunt force object, like a pencil or pen, placed between your fingers gripped w/your hand in a fist could be sufficient to cause sufficient pain to force the assailant to release you but here is where mindset is relevant. There are also specially designed pens for this purpose and other devices called kubutons specifically designed for such use.

The object of using such a device is not to just get the assailant to release you but to physically disable him so that he cannot or does not want to persue you further.

Most people (men and women both) aren't trained or prepared to take this step because what it means, for example, is jabbing the key, pencil or pen into the asssilant's eyes and or throat w/as much force as possible, inflicting blindiness, asphixiation and/or severe pain. Very little practice or training is necessay to do this if you can do it.

I guarantee that an assailant will break off the attack if you do this but few people have the stomach to do it.

But if you don't have the wherewithall to even consider such a thing, the next best "defense" is simply to never hike alone. Always go w/a buddy (male or female) and the odds of your being attacked drop dramatically.

If you do have the mindset to inflict lethal force on an attacker (which is a legal form of self defense IF you have a "reasonable" fear that you may be killed or suffer serious bodily injury as a result of the attack), I would suggest you look into carrying a light weight karambit blade which can be used very effectively w/o significant training. If used deliberately to cut the throat, femoral or brachial arteries, the result will almost always be fatal.

The one that I carry everyday is called the Pika (made by Bastinelli & Marcaida, the latter being the guy on Forged in Fire). The Pika is about 4"long, 1/4-1/2" thick at its its widest points, has a 1.5" scapel sharp cutting edge and only weighs 1-2 ounces. It can be easily carried in its kydex sheath or your belt.

To deploy it, you simply insert your index finger in the finger hole built into it, and grasp the handle as you pull it from the sheath in a reverse hand grip. Even w/o traning, if you flail away at your assailant w/random stabbing and slicing movements you will inflict very serious damage.

Also, because of its small size and how its held, it it very difficult to remove the knife from your hand and any attempt to grab it will most likely result in serous damage to the assailant's hands.

This is the best close quarters, hand on hand self defense weapons that I know of and if you have the will to carry/use it. I highly recommend it, if you want/need to carry a potentially lethal weapon for self defense while hiking during the daytime or while walking the strrets of a city alone at night.

If not, find a buddy to accompany you instead.

Good luck!

OBTW, if the assailant has a gun, all bets are off and your only defense would probably be to run (not in a straight line or w/o sufficient cover or concealment. The karambit "could" be effective but ONLY if you are near enough to get inside the arm holding the gun to strike the assailant w/it.

BUT , I'd only suggest trying this as an absolutely LAST resort when your life is at risk snd you have no options left.

NorthCascades wrote: »

Carlos_421 wrote: »

MikePTY wrote: »

Carlos_421 wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

Carlos_421 wrote: »

aokoye wrote: »

See, one of the reasons why I'm less than keen on going on hikes by myself is because I'm afraid people will have guns and think "oh god this person must be a threat!" Not that many Portlanders carry guns, but that's along the same lines of, most violence against women is perpetuated by people they know (and that not stopping women from being scared of things like hiking alone).

And no I'm not a threat to anyone, but not being a threat or acting like a threat doesn't mean that people won't think you are (I'll let you all fill in the various dots). It is crappy though because there is a lot of very good hiking here and I currently have way too much free time on my hands.

People who are concerned with their safety may take notice of someone who seems threatening and keep an eye on them but they don't preemptively attack strangers who leave them alone.
That's not a thing that happens.

Alas, this is not true, but I don't want to take this thread there. I'm sure if you think about it, you will recall some high profile instances where this was not the case. But we shouldn't derail this thread with that discussion.

You could have provided a single example instead of alluding to supposed "high profile cases" to substantiate your claim.
Instead, you just made the claim and stated that to counter it would be to derail the thread.

However, it wouldn't be derailment at all.
This is a discussion about safety while hiking. The claim was made that people may perceive a peaceful person as a threat, despite them not acting in a threatening manner, and that this makes hiking unsafe for the peaceful yet scary looking person.
I replied that this isn't a rational concern because people don't approach and attack others in broad daylight on the basis of "I thought they looked threatening" when the person has left them alone.

So, on topic with the thread, I maintain that being attacked for looking scary isn't a reasonable cause for concern when hiking.

If you believe that to be inaccurate, I do request that you present one case of a civilian attacking another civilian, unprovoked, on the basis of "I thought they were a threat to my safety" while hiking in broad daylight.

Two people in a neighborhood getting into an altercation at night, regardless of who started it, which leads to one of them dead with only the survivor's side of the story left and a media frenzy surrounding the controversy does not factor into a discussion about whether or not your looks make it unsafe to go hiking.

"in broad daylight while hiking" is a very narrow clarification of it. It's happened plenty of time where people in the world are just generally minding their own business and doing nothing to lead others on that they would be threatening.

Example: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/michael-adams-white-man-indicted-elijah-al-amin-murder-black-teen-over-rap-music-2019-07-11/

"In broad daylight while hiking" is the topic of this thread and exactly the circumstances in which it was claimed that a person's looks make them unsafe.

ETA: Also, a disgusting racist who murders a kid over rap music isn't an example of someone attacking someone for looking threatening. Again, that's the claim that was made, that they were afraid to go hiking because someone may think they look threatening.
I'm not debating whether or not racists exist. They do. I'm not saying senseless murders don't occur. They do.
But the claim wasn't "I'm afraid to leave the house because of racists."
The claim was "I'm afraid to go hiking because another hiker may think I look threatening."

We get it. You really love guns. They're tacticool toys and you feel threatened by people saying they don't love them too. But this is a thread where somebody is asking for advice, and guns aren't the answer where she lives. Please drop it.

And where in this little side discussion did I even mention guns? Oh, I didnt?
No, I didn't.
Nor did I ever once recommend that the OP consider guns as an option for self defense.
Maybe stop projecting.

Hannahwalksfar wrote: »

Anyway. Today I skipped out on the hike I had planned and did farm work instead. Behold, tiny cow butts. Little orphans/poddy babies trying some hay.

Aww brings back memories of hand rearing poddy calves..

Hannahwalksfar wrote: »

Never mind. It’s illegal here.

To that I say "So what??" You can buy it on Amazon. Carry it when you hike and have it in a place you can grab it quickly. I talked to an ex- Navy Seal who said part of their training is being sprayed in the face with it, and he said the toughest of guys were rendered incapacitated- if only for a couple minutes which is long enough to run.