Just Say No to Abuse Declaring War on Terrorism. If you venture beyond your backyard and onto mountain, prairie or backwoods trails, personal safety becomes a concern.
Specifics vary from region to region.
Here are other basic wilderness danger factors to keep in mind that I have placed in three categories. Perhaps the most important awareness one can have in the hinterlands is of hypothermia, or the lowering of core body temperature. You don't have to be running up Pikes Peak in February to succumb to this number one killer in the outdoors. A 40 degree day in the Shenandoahs is no problem. Add wind and rain, and you have the recipe for trouble.