We're back...

But not from a backpacking trip in the SIerra...

Nope, we were lucky enough to get invited to spend two weeks in Italy visiting all sorts of wonderful places, and we usually ended up hiking around once we got there.

We'll have a trip report, and photos, in a day or so. But first, we could not resist this story that appeared while we were gone:

"According to the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, your odds of becoming a victim of violent crime in a national park are one in 708,000. In the United States overall, it’s one in 50."

We've talked about this before...including a conversations with someone who works in an urban environment completely unarmed, but then wanted our advice on the appropriate sidearm for the wilderness.

Just for the record, we don't carry a firearm when we hike. It's unnecessary weight, and if you've read ANYTHING on these pages, you know that we hate carrying unwanted weight.

And in forty plus years of hiking, we've never felt the need for one, either.