HikerDuane,

I hope you didn't take what I said in a negative way! 'cuz I didn't mean it to be negative, just kinda fun seeing how many different ways there are to hike.

It is a personality thing for me - when I hike with others I get anxious - am I hiking too fast, too slow, taking too many breaks or too few and gee I can't hear them because I'm hard of hearing and do they think I'm ignorning them and gee I wish they'd shut-up so I can listen to that bird.

Not to say I don't talk on the trail - mostly it goes like this:
"No Moose on the loose - hey moosey moose"... and well you get the picture