Interesting discussion. As a ham radio operator, lightning is a big part of my life! My grounding system here at home audibly bleeds off ground potential as thunderheads pass over. My equipment has been hit at least once. Also as a sailor and kayaker, lightning gets discussed often....get caught out on a lake and there's really nothing to do but ride it out. Hunker down all you want but you're still the tallest thing out there. I've been caught out a few times and nothing happened.
To maintain weather spotter status, I have to attend a NWS school every two years. Lightening as a subject is still in it's infancy and most of the information is theoretical. We're getting pretty good at shielding buildings and electronics from hits, but predicting "where" a strike will hit is still a black art. Potential/charge can be detected but not where or when a strike will happen. "Blue Sky Lightening", where a bolt can reach out 20 miles from a thunderhead, is amazing and common. And random.
The nature preserve I care for has a few blackened trees in it. For whatever reason, lightning likes trees....probably because they have some resistance to ground making an ionized path easier for an arc, but not very good bleed points. My house system, buildings with lightening protection, and the big local TV towers have a low impedance to ground allowing potential to bleed off, averting an arc. The TV towers still make a great light show during storms.

I guess a hiker could carry around his own lightweight Faraday cage to hide in. A well grounded tent? As a hammocker, I just pray and go back to sleep.

Flooding is the major killer with regard to weather.