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Exploring the outdoors can be fun, especially if you like camping or hiking alone.But if you often explore new areas solo, you can prepare before SHTF by considering important factors like safety and decision-making.

Keep reading to learn more about five importantaspects of solo hiking that you should carefully consider.(h/t to Survivopedia.com) Safety

When exploring the outdoors alone, you should prep ahead so you can keep yourself safe if things go south. Common emergency scenarios you may face include getting lost or getting injured.

If you plan your hiking route ahead of time, you can avoid dangerous wildlife or pests that pose a significant threat.

Self-management is an importantaspect of safety, especially regarding fatigue and hypothermia. In a group setting, you may hesitate to voice some concerns or disrupt the flow of the group’s conversation to address personal needs. (Related:Bug out survival planning: How to get out of the city after SHTF.)

But when you’re hiking solo, you can quickly attend to different concerns like thirst, hunger, cold, heat, fatigue, or blisters on your feet.

Certain accidents, like fatal falls, are just as dangerous if you are alone or hiking with a group.

Statistics show that going solo does increase the inherent risks. For example, more than 50 percent of search and rescue operations are conducted for solo hikers, campers, or people who got separated from their group during group trips.

When you’re outdoors alone,safety becomes your main priority.

Protect yourself when hiking solo by starting with an easy trail, especially if you’re new to hiking. Do some research on the trail you chose, and make sure you can navigate it safely.

Lastly, check the weather so you know what to expect on your hike. Decision making

Exploring solo gives you thefreedom to make your own decisions, from choosing your route, when to take breaks and what to eat for lunch. Gender

In some ways, gender is related to the first item on this list: safety.Men camping or hiking solorarely face inquiries from others about their safety.

Women on solo camping or hiking expeditions might tend to make cautious decisions and carefully consider various factors, like the location of the hiking trip.

Despite theevident gender “gap” when it comes to preparedness, survival and venturing into the wilderness solo, it all boils down to your skills and abilities.

Whenplanning a solo camping or hiking trip, always consider all factors that may present challenges. For example, self-defense is crucial for all hikers, regardless of gender. Loneliness

Depending on your preferences, hiking solo might be something enjoyable, or it can make you feel lonely.

While walking or foraging, try to appreciate the tranquility and silence that accompanies traveling solo. Use this time to sort through your thoughts and meditate as you escape the hustle and bustle of daily life.

If you are going on your first hike, you maystruggle with feelings of loneliness, but relish the scenery and make the most of your time in nature. Gear

When you’re hiking with others, the weight can be shared by dividing your supplies and gear.

But when youre alone, gear can feel heavier. After all, youre the only one responsible for carrying the load.

If you are struggling with the weight of your hiking gear, reevaluate your supplies. Keep your bag light by only bringingthe bare essentials.

If you’re not sure what to bring, here are 10 essentials for hiking: Drinking water Food/snacks Weather appropriate clothing Emergency blanket or shelter Map and navigation Sun protection First aid Fire starters Headlamp Knife or multitool

If you have space in your bag, bring asolar charger so you can charge your phone, which you might be using as your GPS through an app.

Be careful while hiking because you don’t haveabackup if something breaks or gets lost.

If you are prone to accidents like slipping or tripping on the trail, bring multi-purpose gear and focus on the essentials. If you only bring items that you know how to use, you will be fine if something goes wrong and you have to find resources.

To distribute the weight of your hiking gear,carry some items in your pockets and others in your backpack.

Hone your prepping skills and makesure that if you accidentally lose your backpack, you can still find your way back to the campsite and that you cansurvive alone in the wilderness when SHTF. Benefits of hiking solo

Hiking alone may seem scary to a beginner, but there are many benefits of hiking solo.

You don’t have to wait for someone else, which can be important if you’re the sort of person who gets impatient when your companion walks too slowly.

You can hike at your own pace, which can be a benefit if you tend to walk slower as you enjoy the view on a hike.

It builds character, especially if you want to become more independent. You have to set up your campsite alone, and you have to prepare and cook your food without help from anyone else.

Sometimes a simple hike can help completely refresh your headspace. Getting away from your busy life and various distractions and doing something simple like walking for hours can be almost meditative.

Going on a solo hike can also teach you new skills, or help you practice old prepping skills. When you’re hiking, you can honepractical skills like navigation, foraging, or firestarting.

Going on solo adventures can test your limits and develop your survival skills.

Traveling solo increases the potential for danger, but it can also heighten the sense of accomplishment and self-discovery. Before you head to your campsite, prepare ahead to avoid any dangers on the hiking trail.

Watch the video below for some hiking survival tips.

This video is from theReverend Christine channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories:

Survival essentials: 5 Bushcraft skills for preppers.

Twelve things you can do right now to be more resilient against collapse, famine and nuclear war.

Survival basics: 7 Essential skills for modern preppers.

Sources include:

Survivopedia.com

BeyondWildPlaces.com

Brighteon.com
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How Britain’s most notorious gangster turned up at a charity lunch to fact-check a retired detective’s talk

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How Britain's most notorious gangster turned up at a charity lunch to fact-check a retired detective's talk

Britain’s most notorious gangster and the detective who pursued him have been involved in a bizarre confrontation…at a charity lunch.

Former Detective Superintendent Ian Brown was at a Kent golf club and about to give a talk on the infamous £26m Brink’s-Mat gold robbery when he was summoned from the stage by officials.

Mr Brown, who appeared on the award-winning Sky News StoryCast podcast The Hunt For The Brink’s-Mat Gold in 2019, said: “I go outside and they say ‘he’s here’ and I say ‘who’s here’ and they say that table over there in the corner, that’s Kenny Noye with a baseball cap pulled down over his head.”

Noye stabbed to death an undercover policeman during the Brink’s-Mat investigation, but was acquitted of murder, though he was jailed for handling the stolen gold.

After his release, he used a knife again in the M25 road-rage murder of motorist Stephen Cameron.

“They said what are we going to do?” said Mr Brown.

“I said are you serving food? Well, just use plastic knives.”

Former Detective Superintendent Ian Brown
Image:
Former Detective Superintendent Ian Brown. Pic: Robert Mulhern

Although Mr Brown had not personally arrested Noye over Brink’s-Mat he had identified him as a suspect months after the robbery.

Years later he met him during an ill-fated TV interview in which he quizzed him about his role in the robbery.

He said: “He told me everything I wanted to know except the truth. He still insists he had nothing to do with it.”

The interview was never broadcast after the prison authorities threatened to send Noye back to jail for a breach of his parole.

Read more:
What happened to the Brink’s-Mat gold?

Kenneth Noye and Stephen Cameron
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Kenneth Noye, left, and Stephen Cameron

Mr Brown, 86, said: “I went over to him and said ‘thanks for coming, nice of you to pop in’, but I don’t believe you’ve turned up with your sons and grandkids to listen to me telling how you killed a police officer.

“And he said ‘I want to make sure you don’t say I’ve been dealing drugs’ and I said ‘I’ve never said that Kenny’.”

The retired detective told Noye he wasn’t going to change his presentation just because he was there.

“He said ‘mate, I wouldn’t expect you to and I’ll come up [on stage] if you want me to’.

“Can you think how he’s turned up with his family to listen to somebody talking about you killing the police? Now, you put logic on that.”

The bizarre story emerged when I rang Mr Brown after I’d been told about the meeting.

A series of podcast documentaries from Sky News, telling compelling and unheard real life stories from around the UK.
Image:
A Sky News podcast told the story of the Brink’s-Mat heist in 2019

I also wanted to ask him about the recent BBC hit drama series The Gold which retold the story of the Brink’s-Mat heist at Heathrow Airport in 1983.

“It was an absolute shambles, far too much dramatic licence and the real story was so much better,” said the ex-detective, whose job had been to follow the trail of the 6,800 gold bars to the US and the Caribbean.

He said he chatted to one of the show’s writers for a long time in a phone call but then heard no more.

“They invented people, changed a bit here and there and made it politically correct in so many ways. I’m just very sad that that is what people will believe.

“And I couldn’t work out who my character was supposed to be. I could have been one of the female cops.”

He also criticised the portrayal of Noye, now 78, as a likeable jack-the-lad character when the truth about the double killer with a volatile temper was quite different.

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L.A. routed 18-1 in worst loss at Dodger Stadium

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L.A. routed 18-1 in worst loss at Dodger Stadium

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Dodgers suffered their worst loss ever in Dodger Stadium, an 18-1 blowout at the hands of the Houston Astros on Friday night in the series opener of a matchup between division leaders.

The 17-run loss marked the Dodgers’ largest margin of defeat at home since the team moved to Dodger Stadium in 1962, and the franchise’s worst home loss since July 3, 1947, when Brooklyn lost 19-2 to the New York Giants.

Jose Altuve homered twice while reaching base five times and driving in five runs for the Astros, who held the defending World Series champion Dodgers to six hits including Will Smith‘s solo homer.

“That was one you want to flush as soon as possible,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I don’t think there were many positives from this night.”

Dodgers fans relentlessly booed Altuve throughout his at-bats, chanting, “Cheater! Cheater!” He’s one of two players, along with Lance McCullers Jr., remaining from Houston’s 2017 team that beat the Dodgers in the World Series. It later came out that the Astros were stealing signs with the help of video and relaying pitches to batters by banging on a trash can.

The AL West-leading Astros scored 10 runs in the sixth, highlighted by Victor Caratini‘s grand slam and Altuve’s three-run shot. It was the most runs given up in an inning by the Dodgers since April 23, 1999, when they allowed 11 to St. Louis.

McCullers (2-3) allowed one run and four hits in six innings of his second start since returning from a sprained right foot. He struck out four.

Isaac Paredes hit his first career leadoff homer on the first pitch of the game from rookie Ben Casparius. Altuve doubled and scored on Christian Walker‘s RBI single for a 2-0 lead.

Jake Meyers doubled leading off the third and scored on Altuve’s 14th homer. Rookie Cam Smith doubled and scored on Walker’s 417-foot shot halfway up the left-field pavilion to cap four straight hits given up by Casparius and extend Houston’s lead to 6-1.

“I don’t think Ben was good tonight,” Roberts said. “It seemed like they were on everything he threw up there.”

The Astros broke it open in the sixth. Smith had a bases-loaded RBI single, reliever Noah Davis hit Walker with two strikes on him to force in a run and Caratini hit his slam with no outs. Meyers added an RBI single, and Altuve hit his second homer of the night.

Casparius allowed six runs and nine hits in three innings and struck out three.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Raleigh ties M’s record with 35 HRs before break

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Raleigh ties M's record with 35 HRs before break

SEATTLE — Cal Raleigh hit his 34th and 35th home runs to set a career high and match Ken Griffey Jr.’s Seattle record for homers before the All-Star break, helping the Mariners beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-0 on Friday.

Raleigh, the major league leader in home runs, turned on a fastball from Bailey Falter (6-4) in the first inning and walloped it well past the wall in left. The exit velocity on the two-run shot was logged at 115.2 mph, per Statcast, making it the hardest-hit ball of his career.

Raleigh topped his previous career high for homers, set last season, in the sixth with a solo shot that chased Falter. The Mariners mustered only one other hit off the left-hander, but it was also a home run courtesy of Randy Arozarena in the fourth inning.

Raleigh’s 35 homers are tied for the fifth most in MLB history before the All-Star break (since 1933), matching Griffey in 1998 and Luis Gonzalez in 2001. Barry Bonds holds the record with 39 at the break in 2001.

Raleigh said he was honored to tie Griffey, whom he called the face of the Mariners.

“To be mentioned with that name, somebody that’s just iconic, a legend, first-ballot Hall of Famer, I’m just blessed,” Raleigh said. “Trying to do the right thing and trying to keep it rolling. If I can try to be like that guy, it’s a good guy to look up to.”

Raleigh is on pace to hit 65 home runs this season, which would break New York Yankees star Aaron Judge‘s American League record of 62, set in 2022.

Manager Dan Wilson, who was a teammate of Griffey Jr.’s in 1998, tried to put Raleigh’s fast start to 2025 in perspective.

“It’s remarkable. It feels like he hits a home run every game, that’s what it feels like,” Wilson said. “And I can remember feeling it as a player, that [Griffey] just felt like he hit a home run every day. Again, that’s the consistency that [Raleigh] has shown. It hasn’t been a streak where he has hit a bunch of home runs in a short amount of time. It’s been kind of 10 per month.”

A switch-hitter, Raleigh has more home runs as a left-handed hitter and as a right-handed hitter than anyone else on the Mariners: He has 21 from the left side and 14 from the right. Arozarena ranks second on Seattle with 13 homers this season.

The Mariners play eight more games before the All-Star break.

The Associated Press and ESPN Research contributed to this report.

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