Women, a note of caution when blogging your location
For safety's sake, you might refrain from giving your location, or deliberately misstate where you are.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1698564.html
When WF used to host journals on trailplace he started to delay posting updates to females journals for a week or so to make it harder for someone to figure out where the hiker was going to be. He did this when a young man developed a crush on a hiker whose journal he was reading and showed up at a road crossing to meet her. Nothing happened but WF figured better safe than sorry.
That poor girl, I hope she's alright. Really though, I doubt Paranoia is the answer. If anything, you ought to be honest about your location if you're going to give it in the first place. If something happens and you lie about your whereabouts, how will rescue teams and other hikers come and get you?
I would post locations but delayed a week or more. Send email or text to trusted one's with ACTUAL location.
I believe it was last year or the year before and a female I was reading her trailjournals, and she stated she got off the trail due to a stalker/hiker who had kept up with her locations on TJ.
For a couple of bucks, get a weird haircut and waste your life away Bryan Adams....
Hammock hangs are where you go into the woods to meet men you've only known on the internet so you can sit around a campfire to swap sewing tips and recipes. - sargevining on HF
This caution applies equally to men.
For better or worse, I don't think so.Originally Posted by Tom Murphy
"It's fun to have fun, but you have to know how." ---Dr. Seuss
Although men should be careful as well, this statement is just not accurate. Women are at a disadvantage when hiking alone. It shouldn't stop them, but they do need to take additional precautions.
Curious why we are at a "disadvantage". If anything we have an advantage because we trust in instinct. We know when things don't feel right. Men need to see it to believe it.Although men should be careful as well, this statement is just not accurate. Women are at a disadvantage when hiking alone. It shouldn't stop them, but they do need to take additional precautions.
Thats a safty precaution that every body should have.
I have every respect for the rights, abilities, and talents of women. But take a look statistically at the numbers of women who are raped vs. the number of men who are raped (outside of the prison population). Everyone should take precautions, but women need to be especially careful. Men may be stalked, but few of us are going to be stalked with the intent of rape.
I disagree on the matter of women being more instinctual, given that I myself could be described as near-feral while in the woodlands to begin with, but otherwise I hold your sentiments.
+1 to Blissful. I see no disadvantage due to gender. It's possible for anyone can end up in a comprised situation at any time. Risk management while hiking, for me, includes listening to and respecting my instincts, and that is not gender specific.
You are, of course, correct although a lot of "politically correct" statements are being tossed around.
Any guesses on how the young lady who got raped at Traildays a couple years ago would answer this question?
She might answer that question with "I was really stupid, but I didn't deserve this"
That's a stretch to compare a party victim in a town with someone that "might" have been stalked.
If the stats are looked at, it doesn't seem that the sex of those murdered or almost murdered on the AT are much different between male and female. I suppose if you just narrowed it down to rape it would be, but not assaults in general.According to court records, onlookers saw a man pull a sleeping bag up over a woman’s head and, while she mumbled “stop,” he said “who cares if she’s passed out.” He was asleep behind the passed out woman, whose pants were around her ankles, when the Damascus chief of police arrived.
I'm waiting to see that he was actually following her journals before i conclude what happened to the woman rowing was an actual journal stalking.
The trouble I have with campfires are the folks that carry a bottle in one hand and a Bible in the other.
You never know which one is talking.
I assumed we were talking AT here as you said hiking, not what happens in the lowlands. I have see no difference with women vs men in assaults and even deaths on the AT. In fact, from what I have seen, more men has been assaulted (there was a guy on the trail in the south who was beaten, the Beauty Spot issue this yr - though the guys did a great job subduing the idiot, Nature Boy last yr in his tent, etc) and killed (Scott Lily) in the past year at least. That is what I was referring to.
EVERYONE should take the necessary precautions to safeguard yourself, your identity, and your belongings while hiking.
Last edited by Blissful; 07-26-2012 at 14:56.
My response had nothing to do with the issue of stalking.
I was responding to the political correctness BS that women do not need to be more vigilant than men.
I don't think that more men are assaulted, percentage wise, than women. There are a lot more men on the trail- according to the ATC, it's about 3/4 men and 1/4 women- so their numbers would be higher. No statistics on lone female hikers, but I'm willing to bet they're facing higher risk than lone male hikers.
I know a lady hiker who stopped posting on trailjournals.com because she was met at a road crossing by a guy who not only knew her trail name, he knew her real name. And he could have only known that from her trail journals. So YES, women are stalked.
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."
I remember a male hiker was attacked during his "fastest" AT attempt. Most here concluded that he was too accurate and up-to-date on his trail journal.
What I don't remember is anyone posting a thread directing men to be more vigilant because of that incident.
I don't have a clue what actually happened, but what i recall is that most concluded that it didn't happen.
I
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