"This whole year I have been looking for some positive way to deal with the grief," said Patsy Williams, mother of one of the slain hikers. Women around the country are expected to "Take Back the Trails" Memorial Day weekend, when thousands head for wilderness hiking trails to mark the one-year anniversary of two Lesbian campers being found murdered in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park on June 1, 1996.

The slaying of Julianne Williams, 24, and Lollie Winans, 26, rocked the Lesbian and women's outdoor communities and reminded many of a hate-motivated attack in May 1988, when a man fatally shot Rebecca Wight, 28, and wounded her partner, Claudia Brenner, 31, at the couple's campsite along the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania. According to court testimony, the man attacked the women because they were Lesbians and he ambushed the couple while they were engaged in sex.

Although the murder of Williams and Winans remains unsolved, many have wondered whether it, too, was hate-motivated.

Whether based on anti-Lesbian bias or not, however, violence against women in the outdoors has angered many women hikers who have come to regard the outdoors as a sanctuary from the violence they may fear in their everyday lives. "People get their solace in the natural world. It is the one place where we assume that we're safe," said Marty O'Keefe, a Take Back the Trails organizer. "Incidents like this burst that bubble and make some people wary to go out there again. Others say, 'I'll be damned if it keeps me away'."

Take Back the Trails was organized by the Women's Professional Group, a coalition of professional outdoor educators. The event consists of a series of loosely organized outdoor activities in areas around the country, including safety workshops, camping trips, and letter-writing campaigns that urge elected officials to speak out against violence against women -- whether the violence happens on the trails, on the street, or in the home.

One of the roughly 30,000 people expected to participate will be Julie Williams's mother, Patsy Williams of St. Cloud, Minn., who will hike with a small group of friends along trails that her daughter explored shortly before she was killed.

"This whole year I have been looking for some positive way to deal with the grief," said Williams. "This just seemed like the perfect means to do that. It is exactly the kind of thing that would have suited Julie's personality. She was all her life concerned about injustices in the world and would have been first in line to take part in this."

Although the number of reported cases of violence against women hikers is relatively low, outdoor enthusiasts have traditionally urged women to bring their street smarts with them to the wilderness. "We are doing this to say, 'Hey, you can still go hiking. Just be smart and be aware,'" said Nina Roberts, Take Back the Trails national coordinator. Roberts, who put together a pamphlet that outlines safety tips for women hikers, suggests that women hike in groups, leave a detailed itinerary with someone before they leave, and camp only in areas where they feel safe.

"Trust your instincts," she said. "If there are other campers around that make you feel uneasy, move to a new area. Don't be naive."

Said Patsy Williams, whose husband Tom will also participate in a Take Back the Trails event in St. Cloud, "We have to be aware that these things happen, and we have to know how to be safe. But we can't let our fears stop us."

To learn about Take Back the Trails events happening in the greater D.C. area, call Marianne Scippa at (703) 354-5087. To learn about Take Back the Trails events in other areas, call Nina Roberts at (301) 513-9115. The Take Back the Trails Web address is www.princeton.edu/~rcurtis/aeetrail.html

This article appeared in the issue of: May 16, 1997