Over 50 and Outside

So far, I’ve logged 34 hikes in the 52-Hike Challenge. This is how I got started.

Teresa Baker loves the outdoors. A California native, she was a regular hiker of Yosemite and other national parks, but noticed there were no people of color, like her, on the trails. So she has spent the better part of this century working to change that, through initiatives including the “In Solidarity Project” and “Hike Like a Girl.”

Baker is a force of nature. Lately, she’s looked around and hasn’t seen many women over 50 on the trails either, so she went to her industry contacts and said: “Work with me.” 

The result is the “Over 50 Outside”  challenge, a campaign by Oboz Footwear, Osprey Packs and Outdoor Research, along with Karla Amador and Philip Stinis, the couple who started the “52-Hike Challenge.” Their goal: Encourage women over 50 to get outside. 

In late August 2021, I was on a Zoom call with these amazing people wondering what I had gotten myself into. I was one of 150 women from around the country chosen from more than 2,800 applications for “Over 50 Outside” and committing to hiking once a week for a year. I had applied on a whim, at the urging of my husband, Tom, who had forwarded me an email and said: “You should do this.”

He’s the outdoorsman, the Eagle Scout who took our boys camping and hiking growing up while I was content to stay behind and organize wine nights. But I’ve never forgotten how moved I was to see a rainbow at the bottom of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone on a long-ago family vacation. I had read Cheryl Strayed’s “Wild” and thought she was crazy — but also inspiring. I’d read Tom’s “Backpacker” magazines when he wasn’t looking and thought, “wow, that’s cool.”

The next thing I know, I’m in a Facebook group with women who are introducing themselves with pictures from Mt. Rainier and the Appalachian Trail, with the same sinking feeling I had that time in college when I wandered into a 400-level calculus class by mistake.

Thankfully, this group is not like that. It’s a supportive, encouraging group of women, balanced geographically and by skill level, who love being outside. I’m sure I checked the beginner box for the selection committee, and in my application wrote about how the Ozarks of Missouri offered some of the most beautiful trails and vistas in the country. I’m about to find out.

A hike can be anywhere, any length and any time — as long as it’s outside. I’ve got trail guides and apps, hiking boots and poles. I’ve got commitments from friends old and new to come along, and I’m going to hold them to it. 

For now, I’m just taking it one step at a time — literally — and finding solitude in this crazy 2021 world. And meeting other inspiring women. 

“The older we get, the less visible we become,” Baker said on the Zoom call. “I thought to myself, ‘Oh hell no, it’s not going to work like that.”

A version of this story appeared in the Sept. 17, 2021 issue of the Webster-Kirkwood Times.