Girl Gotta Hike The Podcast

Episode 15 is with Melodie Mendez, outdoors advocate, NYC Chapter Leader of Latino Outdoors, and all around lovely human being! Mel(odie) takes Mel(issa) on a meandering walk all around the beautiful North Woods and Ravine in Manhattan’s Central Park, where they talk about all things DEI and how representation matters.

Mariah Reading — Eco Artist, Interpretive Park Ranger & NPS Artist in Residence talks all about process, inspiration, nature and landscape painting with a purpose! Also her dedication to cold water swimming (in the winter!) in her home state of Maine.

Lucky episode #13 has dropped and it’s the longest (and funniest?) Girl Gotta Hike the Podcast episode to date — and it’s all about thru-hiking The Appalachian Trail, The Pacific Crest Trail and everything in-between!! Grab a drink, kick back and get ready for a super fun Q&A with Click, Woodchuck and NoSeeUm.

Fellow Brooklynites and hike leaders, Avalou Baptiste and Claydona Dennie, have been nurturing a growing love of the outdoors within their Caribbean community through their group TriState Hikers. On this episode, they talk about how their weekly hikes have become the saving grace for the mental health of so many of their participants during the COVID pandemic, the importance of inclusion and representation of Black people in the outdoors & so much more!

A super fun convo with photographer and farmer Sarah “Harvest” Jones Decker about her artistic (& logistic) journey over the last few years documenting all of the 270-plus shelters along the Appalachian Trail for her beautiful book, “Appalachian Trail: Backcountry Shelters, Lean-tos, and Huts.”

How does one attempt to become the first Latina from New York City to reach the Seven Summits?! By not letting anything stand in your way of your goals. Episode 10 is chock full of inspiration from professional boxer turned high altitude mountaineer, Patty Boom Boom Alcivar. Check it out!

Interested in city hiking? Episode 9 of Girl Gotta Hike The Podcast features Alexandra Kenin, west coast hiking guide & founder of Urban Hiker SF, an urban hiking tour company. She’s the author of two incredible guidebooks to the Bay Area — so cool!

Take a virtual Forest Bathing (also known as shinrin-yoku) walk / audio journey down The High Line in New York City with Brooke Mellen of Cultured Forest on Episode 8 of Girl Gotta Hike The Podcast …

On the seventh episode of Girl Gotta Hike the Podcast Brooke Mellen, a Forest Therapy guide and founder of Cultured Forest teaches Melissa about the Japanese art of shinrin-yoku & why she was compelled to start an Art & Nature connection company here in NYC …

The sixth episode of Girl Gotta Hike the Podcast features Jenny Siegfried, mixed media artist, illustrator and outdoor enthusiast, right here in New York City. She talks about her time as Artist in Residence at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, making art out in the elements and hiking around NYC.

On the fifth episode of Girl Gotta Hike The Podcast, I talk with Tamara Jacobi, author of “Wildpreneurs,” about how she lives such an amazing adventure-filled lifestyle on the Mexican Pacific half the year, travels the other half and how she managed to write a book and have a baby all at the same time!