Ten years ago, Diane and her husband celebrated milestone birthdays in the Caribbean. It was a joyful trip, the kind that honors a shared life and everything still ahead. Not long after they returned home, he was diagnosed with a serious illness. The two began making frequent trips to a hospital 80 miles away. Within a year, the illness had progressed, and Diane lost her adventure partner—something no one ever imagines.
During those long hospital hours, Diane filled her time with reading. In particular, stories of those who hiked the Appalachian Trail.
“To pass the time, I selected a book titled 'Lost on the Appalachian Trail' by Kyle Rohrig to read. It’s the story of a guy who hiked the entire AT with his dog. This book inspired me to read 23 more books that year about people who had hiked the entire AT,” said Diane.
A year and a half after losing her husband, those stories she had read about the AT were still lingering. So was a growing curiosity about what it could look like to embark on her own AT adventure. Could she create a story of her own?
One afternoon, she acted on that curiosity. She typed three words into a search bar: women, adventure, Appalachian Trail. That search led her to Adventures in Good Company.
“After googling, I was excited to learn that Adventures in Good Company offered several Slackpacking trips along the Appalachian Trail. I called my sister and asked her if she would be interested in taking a trip on the AT with me. We put down deposits, assembled gear, and eventually headed to Shenandoah National Park to hike Hut-to-Hut on the AT,” said Diane.
She Didn’t Let Her Wonder Stop Her
Like many first-time travelers, Diane felt a mix of curiosity and second-guessing. She wondered if she would enjoy it. She questioned whether it would be the right fit.
“I admit that anticipating my first AGC trip was a bit unsettling. Would I enjoy it? Would it be the right fit? What if the level is too difficult? Am I ‘too old’ for this? The reviews were good, but the ‘what if’s’ were greater,” said Diane.
Still, she didn’t let those doubts stop her from embarking on something new. It wasn’t just the deposit holding her accountable, though that certainly helped. She had made a commitment to herself. She had said yes to doing something for her own growth, even after a year marked by deep sorrow.
That one small yes eventually led to something far bigger than she could have imagined.
The Week on the Appalachian Trail that Changed Everything
When Diane arrived with her sister in Shenandoah National Park for her first AGC trip, she still wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. The nervous energy hadn’t quite settled.
“Upon arriving at the meet-up location, a woman approached me and asked if we were AGCers. I had no idea what that meant,” said Diane.
She quickly learned the woman was a seasoned AGC traveler. At the time, Diane couldn’t have imagined that one day she would be the seasoned traveler who greeted newcomers on day one and ask the very same question.
The group in Shenandoah was made up of women from across the country and from all walks of life. Different ages. Different careers. Different stories. What they shared was a willingness to show up and explore together. This was something Diane would come to recognize as the overarching trend on every AGC trip.
Over the next six days, they hiked sections of the Appalachian Trail through Shenandoah. By day, they covered miles of rolling terrain and scenic overlooks. By night, they stayed in park cabins and lodges tucked along the route
Somewhere between the steady hikes and the shared meals at the end of each day, something shifted for Diane from feeling nervous on day one to feeling exactly where she was meant to be.
Diane described her experience, “It was magical. I’m not sure if the feelings were from my old Girl Scout camp days or remnants of the books I had read, but the level of comfort I found on the trail that week was joyous and completely unexpected. I couldn’t remember a time in my recent adult life when I had laughed so hard and felt so free.”
The doubts that had felt so loud before the trip began to quiet down. The question wasn’t whether she belonged there anymore. It was how soon she could do it again.
From One Trail to the Next
Diane didn’t let that post-trip feeling fade away. Once she returned home, she knew she needed to keep filling her cup with the thrill that adventure had given her over the past week. Diane signed up again to travel with AGC just a few months after returning from her first trip. This time, the adventure would be Hut-to-Hut in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, a more physically demanding section of the Appalachian Trail, with higher elevation and tougher terrain.
“Hut to Hut in the Whites involved hiking the Presidential Range of the AT in the White Mountains by day and staying in the high huts at night,” she shared. “The forecast was set ‘in the clouds.’”
At that elevation, “in the clouds” isn’t just a figure of speech. It means hiking steep, rocky stretches with little visibility, trusting your footing to guide you.
“The huts were the rainbows in our days,” Diane said. “Dry, warm, and welcoming, with young, ambitious crews who fed and entertained us with nightly skits and songs. We laughed hard, ate well, slept solidly, and repeated this every day.”
The physical challenge of this trip was real, but so was the camaraderie and joy of traveling with a group of all women. With each mile, Diane, who once wondered if she was “too old,” was proving to herself that she wasn’t.
From Reading about the AT to Living It
What began as curiosity sparked by reading about other AT hikers’ stories slowly became a story of her own.
Diane didn’t just return to the Appalachian Trail once. She returned again and again. She completed Slackpacking® trips with AGC in Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, and Georgia, and tackled the White Mountains multiple times.
Over six years, Diane had completed six Slackpacking trips. Slackpacking allowed her to experience the physical challenge of the AT while returning each evening to a warm lodge, shared meals, and the camaraderie that had first drawn her in. The accomplishment was tangible, but so was the support.
Her travels with AGC extended far beyond the Appalachian Trail. She biked and explored fjords from Oslo to Bergen in Norway. She paddled the Adirondacks, rafted through Cataract Canyon, hiked the Scottish Highlands, and kayaked the Douro River in Portugal.
Yet when asked where she feels most like herself, her answer is clear.
“In all 13 trips taken with AGC, I’ve decided my best self is when I’m on the Appalachian Trail,” said Diane.
The woman who once spent hospital hours reading about other people’s AT journeys was now living her own.
The Miles Still Ahead
This July, Diane will return to the New Hampshire to Slackpack with AGC once again. It’s the very stretch of the AT where her confidence deepened and her appetite for more miles truly developed.
Over the past decade, it hasn’t just been the miles on the trail that have expanded; her circle of friends has, too. What began as a “yes’ to experience something new has grown into a community of women she now calls dear friends.
“My companion list contains names of beloved friends all met on prior trips,” said Diane.
Those friendships have become as meaningful as the miles themselves.
However, Diane shares that she still holds her first adventure partner dearly: “I will never stop missing the life adventure partner I lost,” she shared, “but I have discovered my true solo self this last decade.”
After 13 trips with AGC, she is clear about what matters most: “The great friendships gained on my trips with AGC are more memorable than the destinations. It’s these friendships and the fantastic guides leading them that keep me on these adventures,” said Diane.
And as she prepares to embark on the AT once more this summer, she shared her excitement about what’s ahead: “I’ve got miles left to adventure. In truth, we are only as old as we feel. I can attest on most days, while I’m now 10 in dog years, I’m still just a pup.”
Diane’s story is one of many that remind us that a single yes can unfold into something lasting. For our Very Important Adventurers, women who have journeyed with us eight times or more, travel is about more than just the destination. It’s about the friendships formed along the way and the kind of growth that happens from the inside out.
We are endlessly grateful for travelers like Diane who continue to explore, challenge themselves, and show up for one another on the trail. Their miles become part of our shared story, and we can’t wait to see where more stories unfold for women who bravely say “yes” even when life seems uncertain.
