March 16, 2020|Resources/Books
I have almost always taken part in activities that were “Boys Only”. I started my career in the fire service in the mid 90’s about the same time I began hiking, and backpacking. Those activities did not have many woman participants. I have always felt pretty comfortable hanging with the boys, and doing “women only” things just never appealed to me. With that being said, I am not sure why I even got this book. I was at REI waiting for the clerk to get my new Inreach Mini (review to come!) and I spotted this book. It was expensive and not something I would normally read, but I got it anyway.
Women Who Hike by Heather Balogh Rochfort is 203 pages. I paid $24.95 at REI, but you can get it a little cheaper at Amazon. Heather is a freelance writer and author that resides in Colorado.
Even more than stories, I was drawn to the pictures. They were all beautiful and made me want to hike every trail in the book. One of my earliest hikes I went to because I saw a picture of it (Blackwater Falls, WV).
The stories were awesome too! It was so inspiring to hear about each woman and her story. They each work so hard to bring women to the wilderness. There are many women that are still fearful about going into the woods. If they do go, they think that they need a man to be there to protect them. That is just not true. Each woman in this book helps to make other woman feel comfortable in the wilderness and at the same time, heal something within themselves.
My favorite story was that of Mirna Valerio (page 168). Mirna is a plus-sized ultra runner, and she is such an inspiration to me. I gained a bunch of weight (80+ lbs!) in 2012 after getting very sick. No matter what I have done since then, I have not been able to lose it. I have not let it stop me. I continue to trail run and do adventure races as much as I can. I am not the fastest (in fact I am usually last), but I keep going. That is the same with Mirna, she just keeps going. It is nice to see her inspiring women of all shapes/sizes, races, and age as she continues to push herself.
So, in the end I am so glad I got this book. I read it straight through and plan on keeping it handy so that I can look at the pictures and dream of beautiful places.