Once again, authorities have used an incident that didn't involve anyone hiking alone to discourage people from being alone. Here is a link to the article:
http://www.abc15.com/content/news/no...-Q4ZwTOrA.cspx
The story is about four young hikers who got lost because their only light source was a cell phone. After telling about the rescue the article goes on to list a bunch of "tips." The first one is "Avoid hiking alone." Nothing in the story has anything to do with hiking alone.
Hiking alone is certainly not as dangerous as hiking with a whole bunch of other idiots who are not prepared.