I have a passion for camping, hiking. 90-95% of my camping is solo (read me and my dog). The last 3-4 years I have thought hard about solo. At age 69 a lot more things can happen to me. One of the things I fear most is going out on the trail and not coming back, what would happen to my trusted companion? I have given a lot of thought to this. I go out to see, smell, hear, and feel the forest without intrusion. My campmate/companion of 10 great years passed away xmas of 07. Now I have a 1 year old German Shepard. His 1st camping trip was last Nov. for 7 days ( I usually go 7-14 days at a time about 10 times a year) I over extended myself cutting and carring firewood back to camp and started having a asthma attack. I had to sit down in my chair to try to regroup. My trusted companion saw me gasping for breath and came over and climbed up on my chair and put both of his front legs completly over my shoulders and laid his head against mine as if to say " its ok I am here". It helped me relax and I got myself back together. Also on our 1st long hike at the point I wanted to return as a "whim" I said to him, let's go back to camp, come on boy find camp. One year old that puppy turned around and went step for step exactly back to camp just like we had came. I will continue going solo (dog) as long as I think I can. BTW I second old soldier's post. I have been there!