Sensible or chicken?

A phone won't get you help immediately. It's not a magic wand. Help could come far too late. Listen to your gut. If you're uncomfortable or having to consider whether or not to do something then just don't do it. Find something else to do.

On Monday I tripped on broken paving slab and now have a severe ankle sprain., luckily no fracture. But painful, swollen and bruised. The hospital gave me a crutch to use. My GD was with me as going to the park. I was multitasking talking and walking. I used to be able to do that. So now feeling apprehensive about walking. I don't feel safe for lots of reasons going off on my own anymore. Maddening as I've always been a walker. Doesn't one's life shrink with age.

My eldest daughter tells me the same as the OP.
It's probably best to err on the side of caution in case anything untoward happened to you then you have the "I told you so's" and martyred looks if you have hurt yourself and need looking after. Frustrating, I know, to curtail things you might have enjoyed doing but anything for a quiet life, I suppose.

Very very sensible!

I don’t feel quite so wimpy reading your responses and my daughter would of had kittens if she knew I’m sure.
I might ask my grown up Grandsons if anyone would care to accompany this dotty old lady up a hill 🤣

I think you were being sensible too, Tanith. I’ve been pulled over by our ‘reactive’ dog a few times in the past, so am very cautious these days and use a secure field for him to enjoy.
We need to be aware of our limitations, but to still enjoy ourselves.

Tanith, you were being sensible.

Do you have any walking poles? Could save you from the possibility of a trip when out walking.

DD’s dog is a shihtzu winterwhite but it’s never bothered me walking him late. He’d lick an attacker to death! My neighbour, who is a bit nervous, says she likes to make sure I’m home safely with him!
When DD was alive, but at work, I’d be up the fields at 11pm on summer nights with 10 working springers. Some of them were worth £thousands each, but there wasn’t the dog-napping in those times.

If your temperatures are in the 30s as they are in Oxfordshire, you would have been unwise to tackle any of the options. The heat can be debilitating. You made the right choice, which will please your daughter.

When I look at photos of some of the hills and gritstone edges we used to scramble up and down in the Peak District, it breaks my heart that I can’t manage them now. Hips are shot; balance is terrible; confidence non-existent! “Happy highways where I went, And cannot come again”.

I always make sure my husband has his phone with him when he walks the dog, and I have a 'find my phone' app on my phone, so in the event that something did happen and he couldn't call me, at least I could track his phone and find out roughly where he was. Might be handy for some of you too?

I don’t think I could go to an isolated woody area in the late evening unless the dog was a Rottweiler.

I once climbed a hill in the Black Mountains by myself, turned round and saw a motor cyclist dressed in black bumping along the track behind me. Terrified. What a wimp.

I do walk without my phone many times and must stop. I would always go. by how do I think about it.

I take DD2’s dog to quite an isolated woody area and rarely meet anyone there, as it’s always late evening. I do, however, make sure I have my fully charged phone with me - the signal there is fine.

Thanks ladies I will find out about the phone signal, I do think I’m fit enough to tackle it but I have had the odd trip very occasionally that is what’s on my mind I think.

I used to walk in quite an isolated spot with narrow paths and long drops if you tripped. It didn't bother me at all.
I now have a painful hip so I won't risk those walks. Signal is sketchy so someone may not be found for days if they fell.
You know the walks you plan to go on so assessing their difficulty and your own fitness to do them seems sensible.
I still walk but use the safer better used pathways now.

Is there a decent signal? If so, and if you have a phone on you (in a pocket or somewhere you could reach if you fell) then so long as you are fit enough to do it, I don't see why not, but it's difficult to say without knowing the variables.