"Larry L" wrote in message
...

I am a loner, and [have a great opinion of myself.....especially
compared to all the pants wetting effete latter day pantywaists I
somehow unaccountably run into in every lonely place I go to].

Well, "Everything depends on perspective", as a wise man once said.

I am not a loner.....except occasionally by happenstance. But in the
past thirty years I've gone on more solo backpacking, hitchhiking,
bicycle touring, day tripping, bird watching, hunting, and fishing
trips than I can count. Spent as much as three weeks out on
backpacking trips, and six or more bike touring or hitchhiking. A lot
of these outings were solo as much because none of my friends were
interested in participating in a particular trip as for any other
reason. It has always been tempting to think of myself as some sort
of hardy outdoor individualists or some such ****, but it's very hard
to carry it off. For you see, like Colin Fletcher (though he said it
better), every time I've found myself at the end of the road or trail,
up against the wall, the last impenetrable thicket beyond which no man
can possibly go, somebody has stepped out from the other side, calmly
dusted him or herself off, nodded a "howdee do", and continued on over
the horizon.

While it is certainly true that there are a lot of people who never
get TO, let alone off, the beaten path, there are millions of others
who routinely do **** that makes my hair stand on end. Your
observations on the multitudes of the fearful and inept you encounter
frequently enough to codify their behavior says at least as much about
your habits as theirs.

Wolfgang