According to court testimony, the man attacked the women because they were Lesbians and he ambushed the couple while they were engaged in sex. Although the murder of Williams and Winans remains unsolved, many have wondered whether it, too, was hate-motivated. Whether based on anti-Lesbian bias or not, however, violence against women in the outdoors has angered many women hikers who have come to regard the outdoors as a sanctuary from the violence they may fear in their everyday lives.
People get their solace in the natural world.
Incidents like this burst that bubble and make some people wary to go out there again. Others say, 'I'll be damned if it keeps me away'. Take Back the Trails was organized by the Women's Professional Group, a coalition of professional outdoor educators. One of the roughly 30,000 people expected to participate will be Julie Williams's mother, Patsy Williams of St. Cloud, Minn., who will hike with a small group of friends along trails that her daughter explored shortly before she was killed. This just seemed like the perfect means to do that.