2018 Year in Review - Thank You!!

2018 was an incredible year for Girl Gotta Hike and it is all thanks to you, dear readers and hikers! This idea of leading other women on hikes, taking them out of the city and into the woods and of encouraging them to come out and make some new friends was just a dream, but it’s in 2018 that it finally all came to fruition!

It’s because of the encouragement of family and friends and the interest from other people I’ve met who want to get out but don’t know how, or want to get out but need a buddy, that GGH has been able to build momentum. I had the honor to meet hundreds of you along the way last year at not one, but two Outdoor Fest Campouts, I presented slideshows about my time on the Appalachian Trail for Mappy Hour, took hikers on urban photo walks across the Brooklyn Bridge, hosted 7 Public Transit Series Hikes on trails upstate and in New Jersey, taught some young Girl Scouts about camping gear, was able to share hiking tips and trail stories through my blog and even won an award for getting people out via public transportation!

The greatest satisfaction though, has come from seeing smiles spread across the faces of the women I’ve been leading when we get to a viewpoint and cheer, when a woman from Maine said the trail I brought her on “felt like home,” when overhearing the laughs and the conversations of women who had never met prior to that morning but have become fast friends, and especially when, during the week of the Kavanaugh Supreme Court hearings, another said she was “so grateful to be around a group of encouraging women right now. It is just the kind of support I need.”

You are all amazing. Thank you for coming out on hikes, for reading the blog, for taking a leap of faith and trying something new. Your courage is the biggest motivation for me to keep growing Girl Gotta Hike! I can’t wait to see what 2019 will bring.