Park Rangers.
Park Rangers.
Varies depending on where and how I'm backpacking. Most times my biggest concerns aren't from Nature...bears, snakes, scorpions, spiders, ticks, waves, drownings, getting rim rocked, being sucked into quick sand, eaten by lions,... High up the risk list is usually something involved with humans... getting hit by a car, having gear ripped off, some drunken or drugged up jerk rubs me in the wrong way and will not stop despite my warnings,...
Slips, trips, and falls on trail. Wet or muddy roots or wooden trail construction or matted down wet leaves on descents. Not paying attention to footing and how rocks, logs, landslides, etc will move.
Staying motivated through the suck.
Ticks, family
Falling is my main concern. I have a medical problem & broken bones don't heal well for me. I have also torn a ligament on the trail when my foot slipped on a rock. Wasn't much fun to hike out with that one. And while I've never had gear stolen, I'd hate it if it happened! And then there's a fear of snakebite. I tend not to see them until I'm right on them.
I don't worry about it much - until someone brings it all up!
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Pterodactyls are my biggest fear when hiking. I guess they're not really that big in some ways but it's the wingspan that makes me nervous.
Zach
cannibals
bigfoot
I don't hike in the summer. I prefer fall and winter when the weather is cold...to me being hot is miserable. Views are better when the leaves are off the trees.
Doing some aftermath of my trips of this summer:
Hunters were no problem, so you were right.
Surprisingly the only troubles (if slight) I had were with horses. A flock of them came running towards me across the pasture and started begging for goodies. They were closing in forming a tight circle and when I started shying them away some turned their hind towards me. That got me really alarmed and I got out of the circle before they could start to kick, grabbed a huge stick (this was in the middle of a ski area, so sticks were plenty), and off they went.
BTW, in this same area in the past few years had been several accidents with aggressive cows, even one or two casualties.
Hmm, this is a bit of a zombie thread, but I missed it the first time around.
What I think is most likely to do me in Out There.
1. Automobile accident while traveling to/from the trailhead, roadwalking or hitchhiking.
2. Sudden medical emergency miles from anywhere.
3. Falling.
4. Drowning.
5. Hypothermia.
6. Dehydration
What I think might make me miserable - and end a trip - without killing me. Some of these have ended trips for me, or given me trouble after returning home:
1. Wilderness-acquired dysentery (viral, bacterial, protozoal - with the last being relatively rare).
2. Insect borne disease (West Nile, equine encephalitis, borreliasis, babesioisis, etc.)
3. Acute or chronic orthopedic injury
4. Trench foot
5. Acute lower respiratory infection
6. Losing food or gear to marauding wildlife
Virtually everything else falls in the general category of, "if you hear about it on the evening news, it's sufficiently rare that you don't have to worry about it." Human and animal attacks, snakebite, failure of navigation, flood, fire, lightning, and so on all fall into the category of "vanishingly rare if sensible precautions are taken, and fairly rare otherwise." A majority of snakebites, for instance, happen on the hand. Guess what people were doing? Don't do that!
I'm not entirely sure where to put hazards such as lightning and widowmakers, but I don't camp above treeline or under dead branches.
Most of these risks are reduced by orders of magnitude with sensible precautions.
I always know where I am. I'm right here.
Usually nothing in particular, but I fret about all the things could go south.
Weather, trail conditions, bugs, water, getting decent sleep, eating well, being regular, not getting banged up or sick, keeping it fun. That sort of thing.
Gear, I don't worry about. (A) it doesn't generally go bad, and (B) if it does, it's fixable, as long as attitude is OK.
Crossing fast and deep water. Water makes me really nervous, period, so if I came across a fast-flowing river without someone else, I'd be pretty stuck. It's the biggest worry for solo hiking for me...plus I always have a dog or two to think about; I always carry their pack across and don't want them to get swept down river even though they are strong swimmers.
Surprising a bear makes me nervous, but again with above-mentioned dogs, not knowing when wildlife is present is an pretty rare thing.