Safe, Skilled and Confident on Every Trail.
Trail Notes | Trail Running Strategies
the trail belongs to you too
Safe, Skilled
and Confident on Every Trail.
Confidence on the trail is not a personality trait. It is a skill set, built through knowledge, practice and experience. The women who run alone in the dark, navigate technical terrain without anxiety and lead out on trails they have never seen before all started exactly where you are now.
The question of trail safety for women is complicated by a tension that many of us feel but do not always name directly. There are real risks in solo running, particularly in remote areas and after dark. There are also real costs to letting those risks curtail what we do, where we go and how freely we move. The goal of this Trail Note is not to minimise risk or to dismiss it. It is to give you the knowledge and tools to assess, reduce and manage risk well, so that your decisions come from informed confidence rather than fear or ignorance.
We cover navigation, night running, group culture, risk management and the specific considerations that affect women on trail. We are direct because these topics deserve directness, and because you are capable of handling both the information and the decisions it requires.
Safety is not the ceiling of your ambition. It is the foundation that makes bigger ambitions possible.
The runners who go furthest are not the ones who ignore risk. They are the ones who understand it well enough to manage it and keep moving.
Trail Note · 01
Navigation: the foundational trail skill
Getting lost is not primarily a risk for experienced navigators because experience teaches the habits that prevent it: checking the map before setting out, knowing where you are relative to landmarks and bail-out points throughout the run, and carrying a backup navigation option independent of phone signal or battery.
Navigation on trail does not require advanced orienteering skills for most trail running. It requires a small number of consistent habits applied before and during every run. Most people who get seriously lost in trail environments did not get lost because the terrain was impossible. They got lost because they were not regularly confirming their position during the run.
Navigation habits for every run
Download the route to a device that does not require signal. Strava, Garmin, Coros, AllTrails offline and Gaia GPS all allow this. A phone with a downloaded route in GPS mode works without mobile data.
Study the route before you leave. Know the key landmarks, the total distance, the major decision points (junctions, forks) and the bail-out options if you need to shorten or exit.
Check your position regularly. Every 20 to 30 minutes on unfamiliar terrain, confirm on your GPS device where you are relative to the route. Do not wait until you think you might be lost.
Trust early uncertainty. If a junction feels wrong, stop. Check the map. It is almost always faster to confirm your position and correct early than to run 2km in the wrong direction and backtrack.
Carry a paper map or screenshot of the full route when in remote areas. Battery and screen failures happen at the worst moments.
Learn to read contour lines at a basic level. Understanding how topography appears on a map versus what you are seeing on the ground is a low-threshold skill with high safety value in any mountainous or remote terrain.
Trail Note · 02
Night running: how to do it well
Night running is one of the most frequently reported barriers to female trail runners extending their distance, exploring new terrain or racing ultras. The dark is real, the uncertainty is real, and the specific risks of solo night running for women are real. But night running is also a learnable skill, and the fear associated with it reduces significantly with practice and the right preparation.
If night running is needed for your goals, whether for ultra training, early morning sessions or race conditions, the best approach is progressive exposure on familiar terrain before moving to unfamiliar or remote routes at night.
Night running kit and approach
Headtorch quality matters. A minimum of 200 to 300 lumens with a 3 to 5 hour battery life at that output. Carry a spare torch or backup in remote settings. A dim headtorch on technical terrain is more hazardous than no torch at all because it creates shadows and depth distortion.
Start on familiar terrain. Night versions of familiar trails feel very different and move you through the sensory adjustment period on ground you know.
Tell someone. Route, estimated time, emergency contact. This is non-negotiable for night running solo in remote areas.
Consider a running group for first night sessions. First night runs with others in Her Trails community runs lower the barrier significantly and builds the experience base for doing it solo later.
Slow down. Night pace is slower than day pace on technical terrain. Depth perception and peripheral vision are reduced. Accepting a slower pace and focusing on foot placement quality is more efficient than pushing pace and stumbling repeatedly.
Trail Note · 03
Personal safety and risk management for women
We are going to be direct here, because this section matters. Women face specific risks on trail that male runners generally do not have to account for with the same weight. This is not the most common danger in trail running (which for all runners is injury, weather and navigation failure), but it is a real factor in how many women plan and limit their solo running, and it deserves honest acknowledgement.
Our position at Her Trails is that reducing this risk through preparation is important, and that every woman gets to make her own informed decision about the level of risk she accepts. We do not tell women to stop running alone. We help them run alone as safely as possible, and we build communities where group running is an option when it is preferred.
Personal safety habits for solo trail running
Share your route and expected return time with someone who will act if you do not check in. This is the single most important safety step for any solo run in remote terrain.
Vary your routes and times when running regularly in the same area. Predictable patterns are a risk factor.
Consider a personal safety device. Garmin inReach, Zoleo and SPOT all offer satellite communication devices that work without mobile signal, enable live tracking and allow an SOS signal in genuine emergencies. For anyone running regularly in remote terrain, these are a meaningful investment in safety independence.
Trust your instincts. If something feels wrong, it is always okay to stop, turn back, take a different route or wait for another runner to pass. Your instincts are information. Act on them without needing to justify.
Be aware of your environment. One earphone or bone conduction headphones allow you to hear your surroundings while still having music or a podcast. Full noise-cancelling earphones in remote solo terrain remove important environmental awareness.
Know what to do if you feel threatened. A whistle, personal alarm or knowing basic verbal de-escalation approaches gives you tools rather than panic. An emergency contact set on your phone that can be activated without unlocking the screen is also worth setting up.
Preparation does not mean fear. It means you have thought through the run, made a plan, and taken the steps that allow you to go further with more confidence, not less.
Trail Note · 04
Group culture and why it matters for women on trail
Running in a group is one of the most significant safety and confidence resources available to women on trail. A good group extends your range, shares navigation responsibility, provides company in the dark, creates accountability for preparation and often produces better decision-making under pressure than any individual alone.
But not all groups create this experience equally. Group culture on trail matters. In inclusive, well-led trail communities, no one is left behind, the pace is set by the group not the front runner, route changes are communicated clearly, stops are managed so no one is cold or separated, and the experience of the less confident runner is actively considered.
In poorly led groups, newer or slower runners can feel dropped, anxious about pace, unable to navigate independently if they fall behind, or reluctant to raise safety concerns. This is not the culture we aim to build at Her Trails, and it is worth naming explicitly so that you can identify and choose groups that actively support every person in them.
Her Trails group run principles
No one runs alone. The group leaves together, regathers at junctions and finishes together. The pace is set by the collective, not the front. Anyone who needs to turn back does not do so alone. Navigation is shared, not assumed. Faster runners come back for the group; the group does not push to keep up with faster runners.
Trail Note · 05
Environmental risk management
Weather, terrain and wildlife are among the most commonly underestimated risks in trail running. Most serious trail incidents do not involve other people. They involve weather changes, exposure, navigation failure, injury in a remote location, or a combination of these.
Check the weather
Not just at the start, but for the whole duration. In mountain environments, afternoon thunderstorms, rapid temperature drops and wind changes can create dangerous conditions quickly. Know the forecast and the bail-out points if it changes.
Carry minimum emergency kit
Emergency foil blanket, a small first aid kit, a charged phone with offline maps, and enough water and fuel for longer than you plan. These items are light and cheap. Not carrying them is a false economy.
Know the local wildlife
In Australia this includes snakes, spiders and ticks. In other regions: bears, cougars, moose. Know what is likely in your terrain, the seasons when activity peaks, and what to do if you encounter wildlife.
Know when to turn back
Summiting or completing the planned route is never worth serious injury, exposure or becoming lost after dark. Build the habit of turning back before conditions become marginal. The trail will be there next time.
Trail Note · 06
Building confidence progressively
Confidence on trail is built the same way fitness is built: through progressive exposure to challenges that stretch your current capacity without exceeding it. The woman who runs confidently in the dark in technical terrain 20km from the nearest trailhead did not get there in one jump. She got there through a series of experiences that each built slightly on the last.
If navigation is an area you want to build, start on marked trails with your GPS tracking your position. Then move to less marked terrain. Then to new terrain you have studied but not run before. Then to terrain with less clear marking and more decision points.
If solo running is an area you want to build, start with familiar trails at times when others are likely to be around. Then move to quieter times. Then to new trails. Then to more remote terrain. Each step builds the experience, the habits and the confidence that make the next step feel possible.
The trail belongs to you. It always has. What you are building now is the knowledge and the confidence to fully claim it.
The skills in this Trail Note are not advanced. They are foundational. They are what experienced trail runners do automatically because they built the habits early. Build them now, and carry them everywhere you run.
prepared, confident, free to go further
Written by the Her Trails coaching team
Trail Notes are evidence-informed coaching journals written for women who train, race and run on trails. Made to be absorbed in ten minutes and remembered for a season.
Key references
Vos PE et al. (2022). Safety planning and risk management in trail running events. Sports Medicine Open. | Scheer V (2019). Participation trends of ultra endurance events. Sports Medicine and Health Science. | Hatcher JD et al. (2018). Navigation competency in wilderness environments. Wilderness and Environmental Medicine. | Lunde M et al. (2021). Falls and injuries in trail running: a systematic review. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports. | Outdoor Research Foundation (2020). Women and Outdoor Recreation: Safety, Confidence and Access. Field Report.
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