What is sort of sad here is the assumption - never challenged - that a man and a woman can be friends without either of them wanting, much less expecting, sex with the other. That's not far off from the equally wrong assumption that "men are the providers" and similar twaddle, or that "women carry less weight" and the rest of the drivel.
I've enjoyed hiking with friends, some of whom were women, and with women, some of whom became friends. I'm not interested - and wasn't - in sex with them, because my wife and I love each other deeply. But she has friends who are men, and I have friends who are women. Big deal.
While sometimes, as PG Wodehouse famously said, "nothing propinks like propinquity," I think it's kind of offensive for people to assume that, sooner or later, every woman and every guy - or even a lot of them - on a trail are going to want sex with someone else that they're not married too. Women hike, and carry loads, and can be as friendly (or not) as men. Those who think differently should go down to the Dollar Store and buy a better quality life than the one they are living now. For a buck.
TW