travel and rhum

Have been hiking for half a year. So far always solo.

I just prefer to go on my own pace. I appreciate the solitude, time to think about things in my life and etc. Not to say that I will never hike in a group, but for now I just prefer to stick with solo hiking.

Well, I can never hear the end of it from my friends and family. None of them are really hikers, but they all tell me that “Rule 1 of hiking is to not go alone”. I don’t know if that’s true or not, I see plenty people hiking solo, and truly I don’t believe that hiking solo is THAT much more dangerous. To my parents and friends solo hiking is like parkour over rooftops. To me it’s more like not wearing a helmet while cycling. It’s “bad” but not like “bad bad”.

Though at the same time maybe I’m ignorant and wrong, hence I want to ask the experienced folks. How bad solo hiking really is?