By Summer McCreless
As the co-lead of LOW — League of Outdoor Women — I love bringing free hikes & outdoor classes to women. One of the reasons why this is important to me stems from a trip I took with a friend of a friend in the mid-1990s. Let me tell you about it!
I grew up in Tennessee in the ’90s. There wasn’t much opportunity for women — much less young women — to get outside & backpack or learn how to rock climb or master any other outdoor skills without paying for expensive classes. But I wanted to try. However, I didn’t feel comfortable going alone & didn’t have any female friends who wanted to go. I asked around and a male friend of a friend had some backpacking experience, so we planned a trip to backpack to the top of Mt. Mitchell. We drove all day from middle Tennessee to North Carolina and camped at the base of the mountain near the trailhead. The first clue that maybe this young man had been a bad choice was the next morning when he insisted we divide the gear into equal piles. Sounds good, right? But with him at 250 lbs. and 6 feet tall and me at 5 feet 5 inches and 110 lbs., carrying backpacks of equal weight wasn’t equitable at all! My load was the tent and half the food along with my own gear. I didn’t complain, though — just packed it all up. Then, as we set off, he informed me that he was a fast hiker and would see me at the campsite near the top of the mountain. I was shocked! The entire reason I had planned this trip was to have a partner to hike with for safety. If he was that far ahead of me, how would he know if something happened to me? This was my second clue that I had picked the wrong person and probably would have been better off alone.
Heading up the mountain I had a lovely hike, enjoying the scenery and slowly taking it one step at a time with all the weight in my pack. I finally made it about 3/4 of the way to the top when I rounded a corner and found the large & fast hiker sprawled out on the side of the trail. His legs had started to cramp, he said, and he needed to rest. As I passed him I threw him a “see YOU at the top” and never stopped plodding on.
I managed to get to the campsite, set up the tent, find water and hang my share of the food in a bear bag before he made it to the campground. The next morning I hiked to the top of Mt. Mitchell alone (he wasn’t feeling well & wanted to start down to the parking area). This trip became an impactful lesson for me: Someone saying they have backpacking experience doesn’t always mean what you might think. Turns out that his “experience” was backpacking in Jamaica as he traveled from hostel to hostel — he had no wilderness backpacking experience.
I love that LOW gives women of all ages the ability to learn outdoor skills in the company of other women. LOW gives women the confidence & experience to find other competent folks to go hiking or backpacking or adventuring with safely. And all of our classes are free!
To learn more about LOW, visit our website & follow us on Facebook.
