Be naked. Bring beer. Very attractive to men.

I can feel your pain.
As a guy, when you want to ask a lady our or tell her your interested, it can come off as pushy or overbearing.

To damn many Neanderthals messing with peoples heads and making them afraid of everything. Can never tell who's going to think what's over the top, and there are occasions where I don't say anything at all, then they think I'm aloof and uncaring

Dating, attraction, etc.. it's a real complicated thing

Have cards printed that say 'International Woman of Mystery'.

Hiking is starting to look like a great idea!!

"Forward" is a relative term.

I think it's amusing that you can describe yourself both as a "flirt" and as "not forward enough". Flirting in and of itself is more forward than many women can manage. I daresay most women are too withheld to even consider that strategy.

You clearly have the force of personality to be assertive; you perhaps just need to divert it from "flirting", to something more direct and concrete (and risky). But also, less complicated ... and trust me on this, most men will thank you endlessly for not being complicated or confusing. If you flirt but don't seek actual connection, that's mixed signals. We men are simple creatures. We like clarity.

If a man is not interested, that is generally not a slightest reflection on you, particularly since you're clearly an attractive, positive, curious and interesting person. It is just where the man is in life or where his existing commitments lie, or perhaps, a simple matter of taste (for which, as they say, there is no accounting).

If I were somehow transformed into a sauve, debonair creature, and a woman flirted with me but did not ask after my availability or contact info, I would be a bit baffled and perhaps disappointed, but it's the last you'd hear from me. So ... for what that's worth (two cents plus inflation, I imagine) consider the input and adjust accordingly. As a man, when I was "on the market", I found flirtatiousness to be a bit suspicious (though not an automatic deal killer) but direct, frank, open interest was, to me at least, completely disarming.

Have you ever been hurt from a relationship, of course, we all have! The memory of that pain tends to make us stop ourselves from being forward with others that we may find attractive and/or interesting. When you find yourself initially interested in someone push yourself to take a chance. Be careful to pay attention as to how the other person uses there words. Go over that initial conversation, write it down if necessary, and look for things that were said that may raise red flags in your head, about the other person. If we never take the chance, we may never know what could have blossomed! Good luck and happy hunting!! Sincerely...

Ask to borrow their phone, then add yourself to contacts. Smooth...

I once went on a hike with the Sierra Singles and found myself with a women that seemed nice. We got to talking and soon got on the sexy (not) subject of overpopulation. To my surprise she was interested. At the end i said good bye and we separated and I kicked myself. Sometime later we found ourselves on another hike together and this time I asked about her. She had just relocated to Seattle after getting her nurse practitioner license from Chapel Hill in family planning. She was looking for a place to live and I happened to have a lot of extra room. She ended up moving in with me. After 2 weeks we realized it was too far too fast and she moved into my basement apartment. After Over 20 years we are still friends. She is married now and lives in Bellingham. Point is sometimes you have to take the proverbial Bull by the horns and speak up. With your track record the first thing I would ask is how do you feel about Jesus?
BTW her name is Jill and we tell people we broke up because we got tired of the Jack & Jill comments (and there were lots).

A late friend who was an author once showed me a drawer full of rejection slips from publishers. He said: " I do not give up because my book was rejected, I keep on sending in my manuscript and sooner or later some publisher will want to print it. All I need is one."

The best place to meet people to fall in love with is doing what you love. If you find them out there doing the same thing, chances are you'll make a great couple. My wife and I were both teenagers when we met, working in the medical field. She as a nurse and I as a corpsman. We're still together! This is our 49th year.

I like your story! This is usually the kind of question, as you hinted, that I hear from younger men especially. I will tell you what I tell them. Just put yourself out there that little bit more. Ask what are you doing up here alone? Or why didn't you bring your wife? That tells a sharp guy you are interested in more than conversation. But there are plenty of dull guys who are perfectly wonderful but will still think you are just requesting information. Like they're a trail guide of some kind. With them you must be persistent. Stand in front of him and question him closely if somewhat obliquely. You might find out all kinds of interesting things good luck!

I have had that regret at not having been more bold many times, but I have also been shot down on more occasions than I care to count. I think the latter experience does tend to increase the likelihood of the former.

It's possible you come on too strong for people who value peace and quiet, and the silent spaces in conversation. Those people wouldn't be a good match anyways, so nothing is lost there.

Some have no sense of humor. None.

I'm horrible at it myself.
I am always friendly, but I'm fairly stupid at reading people.
Some one could be flirting with me, and I'm the last one to realize it.

Memory weighs nothing. Tell him your number. It's his job to keep up with it. If he's genuinely interested he'll put his pack in the snow, while you move efficiently on up the trail. Or set up an email account with an easy to remember name, so he doesn't even have to write it down. Hi, I'm greenfriedtomatoes@blahblah, etc.

my dad had cards that said something like hi my names .... i like chatting arguing drinking etc then his landline number he hated mobiles i lost count of the number of women i met at his house. His rational was women may feel uncomfortable giving their number and they can easily throw away the card later and it only cost him a few quid to get 100 printed

sex...lots of it

However at that early of a stage why do you care about the rejection...I mean the only vulnerability at that point. Chances are you may not see them again unless you carpe diem.
Risk reward equation only you can solve for you?

Done the same on the guy side. No real regrets, just wistful what if's to bring a smile around. Try putting pen and paper in your hat ala old reporter style.

A phone weighs, what, 3 oz? "Too heavy" even though it could save your life, never mind get numbers...really?

If you don't need a smart phone get an aftermarket samsung verizon juke. They're not much larger than a lighter. Very zoolander, wonderful little phone. I miss mine. I've a new cherry red one but caved to the "smart phone" vortex ?
I've no words of wisdom on these situations because I'd do the same thing you just described.

If only I could just pop over the Northern Atlantic for a quick flirt or three!
I've enjoyed just a handful of flirts over the past few years. It's nice when it happens, but the ladies are usually attached or just a little too young (thirties). So I head away to void the embarrassment of my vulnerability showing.
I did have a few 'close moments' with a lass two years ago, but I wonder if that was just our souls were just playing together. Age and professional attitude would keep me from finding out if it was only me that thought that way. I'm way too cowardly to pursue her now the professional connection has gone.

Just tell them you dropped something on the trail and it'd be great if they happened to find it. Of course they would need your number at that point

I do not like the card thing as it can make you look easy and separate. So think about it. In seeing your new picture if a man does not respond you might want to check for a pulse and breathing. I mean can we get real here.