SoCalGirl, very well articulated. Plenty to think on in your response - I've read it 3 times to make sure I caught all your key points. Very similar to Bee's line of thinking as well.
Despite the elevated level of debate going on here and at WPS - and my participation in it - my thoughts are pretty much the same as yours. I've never carried in the wild, and probably never will (Glacier and Yellowstone being the parks I'm hedging on). But then again, I'm not the potential target of those two-legged predators like women are, especially the solo female hikers.
It chafes at me that many women can't take a ramble in the woods by themselves without experiencing a level of anxiety that most men will never know. A solo dayhike in the wilderness re-charges me, clears my mind and leaves me feeling relaxed; I'm afraid for many women it's a constant worry and an exercise in 360-degree perimeter-awareness. My wife won't hike without me under any circumstances because of the anxiety level she feels, especially after Meredith Emerson's experience here locally.
Being so conscious of this, I try to give women a reasonably wide berth when I encounter them on a hike. I try to avoid ever entering that strike-zone that Bee refers to, so that their level of tension doesn't go any higher than it has to (I do most of my hiking solo as well, so unfortunately I'm "that guy" many women are concerned about - a lone male hiker). The mountain trails in the South are generally very narrow and steep though, so when you pass another hiker it's almost always in very close proximity. I make it a point to always step off the trail - often not an easy thing to accomplish - to allow women to pass me with a reasonable cushion.
My recognition of this unfortunate fact really hit home a few years ago during a hike in Death Valley. I think I posted on some thread on WPS last year an experience I had between the Keane Wonder Mine and Chloride City with a young lady who had basically been abandoned on the trail by her boyfriend. She was in a bad way physically - dehydrated, exhausted, flushed, trembling, possibly some AMS - and the SOB had taken all of their water and the first aid kit with him as he continued his self-indulgent hike. I eventually got some water and analgesics into her, gave her my wide-brimmed hat (typical DV day), and escorted her back down to the trailhead. Long story short, when we were in view of the parking lot she broke down sobbing - because it was finally evident that I was trying to help her, not victimize her.
The entire way down - about 4 hours at her very slow, unbalanced pace - she was wound tight as a drum, half-convinced I was up to no good despite all the evidence to the contrary. We had a long chat in the lot while she ate a few power bars and waited for her loser boyfriend to return (he had the car keys), and she just kinda let it all out about the fear she felt being alone up on the mountain, but how that fear actually increased during the first couple of hours of my assisting her. I could sense that she was embarrased to tell me this after the effort I had put forth to get her down safely, but I appreciated her honesty immensely. It was eye-opening for me.
That experience has stayed with me ever since - vividly - and has led to some of the modified behavior on the trail I described. I've been hiking steadily and for quite a while - I would estimate well over 5000 miles so far - but that was the only time I had ever rendered assistance by myself to a lone female in the wilderness. In this young lady's fear I saw my own daughter's future, who was very young at the time but already demonstrating a strong interest in hiking with dad - and it scared the bejeezus out of me.
In a roundabout way, that's why I pose the question of how experienced female hikers feel about carrying in the wilderness. I recognize that I may be a little more emotionally invested in the issue than some, and maybe it clouds my perception, but I can't get the image out of my mind of Gary Hilton coming across Meredith Emerson on that Blood Mountain trail two years ago. In my vision, he sees a sidearm on her hip and a confident look in her eye - and keeps on going. I know it's not grounded in reality or even probability, but it provides me some hope.
