She is hiking alone, by herself. But she said that “There was a chance someone would come hiking down the trail, but only rarely did that happen…It didn’t matter whether someone came along anyway. I was in this alone”. By reading her thoughts, I get confused because she is saying that maybe someone would appear, but she does not worry about that. But if she did really not care about that, why would she question or think of the possibility of someone coming in the same route?. Is she afraid of going alone, or she just want to meet someone to talk for a moment?. Maybe she is thinking of leaving this trip in the past, adn come back to her reality. On the other side, maybe she wants to see how other person deals with this hiking. In conclusion, is she going to give up?