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Trail Safe: Averting Threatening Human Behavior in the Outdoors
In this landmark book, the first of its kind in outdoor literature, author Michael Bane examines personal safety in the outdoors. He describes a relationship between awareness, intuition, and fear that, when fully understood, can both enhance our relationship with the wild and help keep us secure. Michael Bane is a multi-talented adventurer. In addition to being an international business consultant, motivational speaker, and best-selling author, he has stayed safe in the wilderness for three decades by applying the techniques described in Trail Safe.
176 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 25, 2008
This is a must read for people who are thinking about hiking a long trail.
Questions frequently appear on forums about the issue of safety, particularly for solitary individuals, while hiking either the Appalachian Trail, or the Pacific Crest Trail. The vast majority of responders on these Forums take the position that it is much safer to hike outside in the woods than it is to live just about anywhere in the USA, and have statistics to back it up. While they are probably correct in the abstract, there are bad guys out there, and you had better know what to do when you encounter one of them.
I dealt with one of these individuals on my 2007 AT thru hike. He was traveling with a young group of hikers, who considered him a friend. He stole a wallet from a thru-hiker, and managed to escaped the authorities after he conned the mayor of a town in New York to give him money. I later learned that he was wanted in 4 states.
A close hiking friend had to end her 2007 hike in Maine after walking over 2,000 miles, when the State police advised her to go home rather than chance another encounter with a stalker who was intent on some bizarre whacko personal revenge mission.
In 2008 Meredith Emerson, who had been hiking in Georgia on a trail approaching the AT, was abducted and brutally murdered. On May 7, 2008 Randall Lee Smith tried to kill two young men in area of Dismal Creek, just off the AT. In May 1981, Randall Smith was found guilty of second degree murder and sentenced to two 15 year terms for the deaths of two hikers in that same area. Department of Corrections records show Smith got out of prison and was put on probation in 1996.
People who are street wise don't need this book. They likely have a well developed sense of labeling creepy situations and have at least some tools how to survive encounters with individuals who are looking to steal, mooch, or do worse to them.
If you take away only one idea from reading this book, it would be to preserve the option of avoidance as your default strategy. If talking your way out appears to be going nowhere, then AVOID, get out of there, take evasive action. "When in doubt, go faster." For example, react minimally in terms of friendliness but then get going.
Numerous real-life examples in the book illustrate creative ways of avoidance, including what I call the " outcrazy the crazies" strategy, which boils down to purposefully acting weird or putting something out there that communicates to the potential victimizer that your logic and behavioral pattern are unpredictable.
Living outside in the woods for weeks or months at a time inevitably leads to situations that are beyond our control. Mr. Bane encourages us to "embrace chaos" by thinking flexibly, and only attempting to control a limited amount of those experiences.
Mr. Bane posits a very perceptive observation that, "You can brake or steer, but not both". Braking is our visceral reaction of fear or panic in the face of escalating force, and steering is the thinking mode.
This book is the right step in acquiring more flexible thinking and having a bottom line plan when that situation comes up. You have to have some sense of what Plan B looks like.
Questions frequently appear on forums about the issue of safety, particularly for solitary individuals, while hiking either the Appalachian Trail, or the Pacific Crest Trail. The vast majority of responders on these Forums take the position that it is much safer to hike outside in the woods than it is to live just about anywhere in the USA, and have statistics to back it up. While they are probably correct in the abstract, there are bad guys out there, and you had better know what to do when you encounter one of them.
I dealt with one of these individuals on my 2007 AT thru hike. He was traveling with a young group of hikers, who considered him a friend. He stole a wallet from a thru-hiker, and managed to escaped the authorities after he conned the mayor of a town in New York to give him money. I later learned that he was wanted in 4 states.
A close hiking friend had to end her 2007 hike in Maine after walking over 2,000 miles, when the State police advised her to go home rather than chance another encounter with a stalker who was intent on some bizarre whacko personal revenge mission.
In 2008 Meredith Emerson, who had been hiking in Georgia on a trail approaching the AT, was abducted and brutally murdered. On May 7, 2008 Randall Lee Smith tried to kill two young men in area of Dismal Creek, just off the AT. In May 1981, Randall Smith was found guilty of second degree murder and sentenced to two 15 year terms for the deaths of two hikers in that same area. Department of Corrections records show Smith got out of prison and was put on probation in 1996.
People who are street wise don't need this book. They likely have a well developed sense of labeling creepy situations and have at least some tools how to survive encounters with individuals who are looking to steal, mooch, or do worse to them.
If you take away only one idea from reading this book, it would be to preserve the option of avoidance as your default strategy. If talking your way out appears to be going nowhere, then AVOID, get out of there, take evasive action. "When in doubt, go faster." For example, react minimally in terms of friendliness but then get going.
Numerous real-life examples in the book illustrate creative ways of avoidance, including what I call the " outcrazy the crazies" strategy, which boils down to purposefully acting weird or putting something out there that communicates to the potential victimizer that your logic and behavioral pattern are unpredictable.
Living outside in the woods for weeks or months at a time inevitably leads to situations that are beyond our control. Mr. Bane encourages us to "embrace chaos" by thinking flexibly, and only attempting to control a limited amount of those experiences.
Mr. Bane posits a very perceptive observation that, "You can brake or steer, but not both". Braking is our visceral reaction of fear or panic in the face of escalating force, and steering is the thinking mode.
This book is the right step in acquiring more flexible thinking and having a bottom line plan when that situation comes up. You have to have some sense of what Plan B looks like.
September 11, 2008
I liked his attitudes & philosophies. What he said also fit in well (although was not identical to) my RAD class that I like quite well.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews