Kim Lipker - Smart and Savvy Hiking: What Every Woman Needs to Know on the Trail

Copyright 2008 by Kim Lipker

All rights reserved

Published by Menasha Ridge Press

Printed in the United States of America

Distributed by Publishers Group West

First edition, first printing

Printed on recycled paper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lipker, Kim, 1969

Smart & savvy hiking: what every woman needs to know on the trail/by Kim Lipker. 1st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-0-89732-671-1

ISBN-10: 0-89732-671-7

1. Hiking for womenGuidebooks. I. Title. II. Title: Smart and savvy hiking.

GV199.58.L57 2008

796.51082dc22

2008046168

Cover design by Scott McGrew

Text design by Travis Bryant and Annie Long

Cover photograph BlueMoon Stock/Alamy

Interior photographs: Tom Wald; Arnau Design; Gas PR; Claudia Ds Portfolio; Arpad Benedek; Kaspar Photo Art; Anthony Brown Photography; Gaby Jalbert; Saturated Photography; Mad Hadders Photo; Leading Lights Photography; Kaspar Photo Art; Alan Lemire Photography

Menasha Ridge Press

P.O. Box 43673

Birmingham, Alabama 35243

www.menasharidge.com

My grandmother started walking 5 miles a day when she was 60. Shes 93 today and we dont know where the hell she is.

Ellen DeGeneres

Acknowledgments

I cannot thank the following people enough!

Ruth and Roger Lipker, for everything. Karen Lipker, for your help and for everything. Anna, Alex, and Emma Lipker, for being my babies and for three of the four happiest days of my life: the days you were born. Ron Graham, for one of the four happiest days of my life: the day we met. Anne-Marie Cronin, Lisa Michaels-Carrion, Pamela OGrady, and Viveka von Rosen, for your support, your ear, your challenges, your examples, and your friendship. Kay Kimball for your consistent enthusiasm for life and my life in particular.

Bob Sehlinger, Molly Merkle, Ritchey Halphen, Travis Bryant, Scott McGrew, and everyone at Menasha Ridge Press, past and present, for everything. Diane Stanko-Martinez and Marty Martinez, for true friendship and an example of true love. Mahalo. Geri Kidawski, for your expert Master Naturalist guidance and your friendship. Jen Janssen, for being the absolute best mom and best friend I will ever know. Johnny Molloy, for being a mentor and walking me through your success. Abby Balfany, for being the best neighbor, friend, and lead support staff. Andrew Warnock, for your cute childrens book and for the good ideas regarding camping with kids. Laurel School of Arts and Technology, for being a safe, fun place to learn. Having my kids at such a terrific neighborhood school feels is like having an automatic second family. Lindsay Hopper, for taking such good care of baby Emma. Lindsay Smith, for taking such good care of all of my babies. Lisa Eaton, for your ideas and for your enthusiasm for your own books. Michael Bollinger, for being the original unconditional helper.

Renee Putman, Kris Baltrum, and Murielle Watzky-Brewer, for always being there and for your unwavering support. Nancy Stilson-Herzog, for being the Trainer Extraordinaire. Deb Murr and Tanja Pliler, for giving me time at home. Richard Hunt, for the original idea all of those Outdoor Retailer conferences ago. Russell Helms for starting this whole mess and being my favorite Obi-Wan. We are missing you desperately. Susan Cullen Anderson and Jenny Cromie, for your careful look at this important book. Your keen eyes are an essential piece of the package. Susan Haynes, for turning a girl into a woman. You are the perfect editor, and I am so glad you came on board when you did. Girls Guide was a good concept, and Smart & Savvy is a great book thanks to you.

About the Author

KIM LIPKER grew up in Colorado loving the outdoors from an early age. She is the author of three other guidebooks for Menasha Ridge Press: 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Denver and Boulder; The Best in Tent Camping: Colorado, 4th Edition (with Johnny Molloy); and Day & Overnight Hikes: Rocky Mountain National Park. She also wrote The Unofficial Guide to Bed & Breakfasts and Country Inns in the Rockies (Hungry Minds). In addition to writing books, Kim writes a regular parenting column and other features for Rocky Mountain Parent Magazine; for the Web site Away.com, she contributes features, ratings, and reviews covering parks, active sports, and outdoor adventures in the Rocky Mountains and Hawaii.

Kim has been at the writing thing for a while, having had her first news article published at age 12 and later earning a journalism degree from the University of MissouriColumbia.

Kim lives in Fort Collins, Colorado, with her three children, Anna, Alex, and Emma.

For more information on her upcoming projects, visit her blog at trekalong.com/lipker.

Preface

Take a Hike, Girlfriend!

Hiking sounds simple: you walk outside. Certainly when my sister and I were growing up in the mountains of Colorado, we never stopped to put a name to the constant running, walking, and exploring we were doing among all those trees and slopes. We were playing. Muffin, our adventurous family cat, trailblazed alongside us.

But now that I write outdoor guidebooks for a living, people frequently ask me when I began this way of life. In a radio interview, I told listeners about my earliest memories of hiking a human-made trail. It was in Rocky Mountain National Park, where numbers on posts interpreted points around a lake. Our parents had us stand by those numbers every year to mark our ages. When each of us turned 8, there we were, by number 8 post, on the Bear Lake Trail. And so on.

As a child, I dreaded the time when my outdoor world might be limited, when I would be a grown-up. Instead, hiking became my work. In fact, it is my calling. Helping women maximize their outdoors potential is my first-aid response to an emergency described by author Richard Louv. His book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder makes a compelling case that young generations are disconnecting from the natural world, the land, their families, and each other. A noted childrens advocate, Louv relates nature-deficit disorder to many kids increasing depression, distraction, and obesity. Luckily, Last Child in the Woods also shows us an alternate future, with families heading back outside. As mothers, wives, partners, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, and friends, we can help make that happen.

As a woman, I am grateful for the gifts that hiking offers meand my three children. In these pages I have tried to share the joy of my experience with women of all ages. I hiked during all of my pregnancies, and it nourished my body, mind, and soul. Then, after my babies were born, I used the calm of the outdoors to soothe their little spirits. Sections in Part Four (Hit the Trail) and Part Five (For Women Only) cover a lot of ground about hiking with childrenin utero and beyond. Part Five also offers straight talk about aging, trail hygiene, and other issues especially significant to women. Part Six, Mama Said Thered Be Days Like This!, covers crucial information about violence and safety. Ive included a special section, Journaling the Journey, to inspire you to use hiking time to sort out your deepest needs and goals.