Longest you've gone without seeing another person

How many days have you gone without seeing / talking to another person?


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Ben

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What's the longest you've gone without seeing or talking to an other person. For the purposes of this thread i am asking specifically about solo time. If you're curious how long people have gone on a multi person trip with out seeing an other party, may be start an other poll? Feel free to share your answer in comments.
 
The majority of my trips are solo, but in the Southeast, it is hard to really get away from people. A couple of trips in the Smokies in the winter I've gone a couple days without seeing anyone.

I'd love to go a week in the woods without seeing anyone :)
 
The majority of my trips are solo, but in the Southeast, it is hard to really get away from people. A couple of trips in the Smokies in the winter I've gone a couple days without seeing anyone.

I'd love to go a week in the woods without seeing anyone :)

I live in the SE as well. If you haven't hiked it, check out the Benton McKaye trail, especially outside the GSMNP. I have regularly gone 6 to 7 days without contact on this trail. Very little cell phone service either. Another place is the Big South Fork NRA, although I will see people on horses there but few (or no) backpackers.
 
I live in the SE as well. If you haven't hiked it, check out the Benton McKaye trail, especially outside the GSMNP. I have regularly gone 6 to 7 days without contact on this trail. Very little cell phone service either. Another place is the Big South Fork NRA, although I will see people on horses there but few (or no) backpackers.

I was just in BSF for 3 days, only one backpacker, but dayhikers everyday. It is possible to find some quiet in the SE, but I get tired of 4 or 5 days of green tunnel hiking and start looking for a view and then I run into people. My usual solution is to hike in the winter when most of the fair-weather hikers are hiding inside :)
 
I've gone six days at least half a dozen times, but never seven. I think it has to do with the length of typical resupplies. I generally don't carry more than 8-9 days of food at a time and you're bound to see people on the first day out of town and the last day into town.
 
I've gone six days at least half a dozen times, but never seven. I think it has to do with the length of typical resupplies. I generally don't carry more than 8-9 days of food at a time and you're bound to see people on the first day out of town and the last day into town.
I figured you would have had like a 2-week span or something on your RIB hike. Makes sense with the resupplies though.
 
I figured you would have had like a 2-week span or something on your RIB hike. Makes sense with the resupplies though.
To me, the only way to go much longer than 9-10 days is if you're carrying a TON of food, or you're burying caches.
 
I've gone six days at least half a dozen times, but never seven. I think it has to do with the length of typical resupplies. I generally don't carry more than 8-9 days of food at a time and you're bound to see people on the first day out of town and the last day into town.

that was the limiter for me too. seven days is about the longest i look to do a self supported trip.
 
The difficulty of trips I usually take, plus I like the company to enjoy a good trip ... 3 days is the longest solo...
 
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What's the longest you've gone without seeing or talking to an other person. For the purposes of this thread i am asking specifically about solo time. If you're curious how long people have gone on a multi person trip with out seeing an other party, may be start an other poll? Feel free to share your answer in comments.

4 nights in isle royale when my kids were 4 & 6. They trudged into the wilderness without complaints. They experienced watching a bull moose graze the bottom of a lake, a cow and her twins cross the trail in front of us, and were woken up by our tent billowing from the breathing of a bull moose grazing under the tent! You could smell his breath! That was 1998 when the wolves still occupied the only true eco system left


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Now there have been a number of times when I went over two weeks without seeing anyone when hiking back in the South Absaroka - Yellowstone - Thorofare Country thru the years. It was absolutely fabulous. Time or two on my big trips it was close to three weeks. Now such time only in the wilds .... Just phenomenal. Wishing Everyone the Best!
 
4 days in 2018 during the OSR-Upper Sandslide-Lower Sandslide-OSR loop.
 
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