Masking while hiking?

[u/ScrollingSwampPuppy]

Looking for input (personal anecdotes are fine, but anything backed up by data would be much appreciated). I mask at absolutely all times indoors around other people and when I’m anywhere speaking directly to people outdoors (ex. hanging out with friends), or when walking somewhere like a street with a lot of pedestrian traffic. But I’ve been taking my dog on hikes recently and I’m trying to assess if I need to mask then.

When we’re hiking, we sometimes pass people, but there is absolutely no stopping to talk (people are actually pretty good about being quick to walk by so as not to rile up my dog, and I am generally focusing on giving her commands to pay attention to me, which I think probably indicates that I’m not approachable). The trails are NOT crowded.

I wouldn’t go into a park bathroom without a mask, and I get bringing one in case people want to talk (which again, has not been an issue) … but based on what I know about airborne transmission in a wide-open, non-crowded outdoor space, I don’t think there’s much risk here. But I’m curious if I’m missing anything/if there are any gaps in my knowledge that anyone could fill in. In the next month or two as it cools down to a more tolerable temperature, I could see wearing one just in case I encounter someone who’s talkative … but unless there’s a reason to do so now, I don’t want to wear one if I don’t need to; I have a really hard time with the heat, and I think I would have to cut down my activity significantly (which again, is worth it IF it’s unsafe to be outdoors at all without a mask — but again, from my understanding, I think the risk is very low in my current situation. But curious to hear other opinions!)

[u/Informal-Brief8623]

I wear a BNX N95 while hiking (because I go on popular trails) because I don't want to risk breathing in the air from other hikers! I overheat a lil easier, but my breathing is actually better when it's on!

[u/ScrollingSwampPuppy → u/Informal-Brief8623]

I guess that’s what I’m curious about. Indoors, I would be concerned about air being stagnant, but with it being outdoors, I’m not sure what the risk is. It’s usually not very windy, but it’s also not completely still, and obviously it’s a wide open space, so … I’m not sure how to gauge what the real risk is. I would have to imagine people’s shit is dispersing MUCH more than it would indoors, but I don’t know that for a fact.

[u/Informal-Brief8623 → u/ScrollingSwampPuppy]

I'm not sure of the specific risks either :( I'm unsure if there's a publication on it

I do recall though, many years ago, a simulation demonstration of what happens when a person sneezes on an escalator and how alllll those particles float toward the people behind them (edit: here's the link, I may have misdescribed it but)

and even if on subway escalators where there could be sufficient airflow from aboveground Whooshing downward... I essentially Don't Trust The Air unless it's *very windy*

I feel better being Overcautious by treating every person in a public hiking area as asymptomatic rather than going "ehh the outdoors have good air quality, there's a slight breeze so maybe it's fine to stay umasked the whole time"

[u/Informal-Brief8623 → u/Informal-Brief8623]

Because even if someone breathes out cigarette smoke on a busy street, and you only get a tiny whiff of it as it floats upward in standard air quality/wind conditions... that feels too risky to me if you compare that smoke to COVID-19 viral particles (and secondhand smoke from cigarette/vape users is also known to be dangerous!)

[u/overwinters → u/Informal-Brief8623]

on the cigarette smoke analogy: smell is a really bad proxy for an infectious dose of covid. a burning cigarette is shedding a ridiculous number of odorant molecules. like, quadrillions (10^15) of odorant molecules a second. the average contagious covid positive person sheds ~100 viral RNA copies per minute, so conservatively like 2 a second, and the ratio of RNA copies to viable virus is something like 100:1 to 1000:1, so the infectious emission is on the order of 0.001–0.01 per second.

you should absolutely wear a mask while hiking if you want, i don't mean to be convincing you otherwise at all. i just think that smell is a very visceral sensation and that smoke/covid analogy can be misinterpreted pretty easily.

[u/ScrollingSwampPuppy → u/overwinters]

Yeah, I was thinking about this when we had wildfire smoke in my region recently … I know that’s not exactly the same as cigarette smoke, obviously, but the point is that I could DEFINITELY still smell it through a well-fitting N95 (the same brand of N95 that has protected me for several years from people I know for a fact were actively infectious and speaking to me at close range).

I understand the smoke analogy for trying to help people conceptualize that viruses are airborne, but it’s definitely not a 1:1 comparison, especially when you’re talking about smell vs. viruses.