Hello fellow hikers/adventurers! My name is Destiny. I’m from the Milwaukee area and my goal is to explore every Wisconsin State Park. The idea came to me when I was bored in a Starbucks one afternoon. I was trying to come up with new places to hike and then it hit me: why not try to hike every state park in Wisconsin?
At the time, I didn’t even know how many there were, so I found a few lists out there and learned that there are 48 Wisconsin State Parks. And because all good ideas need an Instagram feed, that’s what I did next. I created a page on Instagram called @destiny_hikes_wisconsin and decided I would only follow hiking related pages/people.
I was instantly amazed by how amazing and welcoming the hiking community was, but I just had this feeling that something was missing. I spent a week or so searching for a women’s hiking group in my area, but found nothing! I couldn’t believe that there were no Wisconsin women interested in group hikes. In the meantime, I had seen several girls on my Instagram (found through
hashtags and locations) that seemed to have similar interests in both Wisconsin State Parks and hiking.
I figured it was a shot in the dark, but I decided to send @wisconsinwanderlust, @heavybooots, @dianabobana4 and @howsheseesmke a message (we still refer to ourselves by our insta handles). My message said something along the lines of “You all seem cool and I’ve been looking for a Wisconsin women’s hiking group that doesn’t seem to exist, but I think it’d be amazing!” I was shocked to find out they had all been looking for the same thing and were already planning on starting a group; and that’s how Women Hiking Wisconsin was born.
Women Hiking Wisconsin created an Instagram account: @womenhikingwisconsin (889 followers) and a Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/womenhikingwisconsin/?ref=bookmarks (612 members). We were so thrilled by how much interest other local women had in the hiking group and things took off from there. On July 8, we had our first group hike at High Cliff State Park and over 30 women (and some dogs) showed up! Now the wheels are really spinning and we are full of new and exciting ideas for the future. Please follow our endeavors as we can’t wait to meet you all! See you on the trails!
Website: https://destinyhikeswisconsin.com/
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/womenhikingwisconsin/?ref=bookmarks
Guest blog by Destiny Wallen.
Interested in hiking? Learn about Sierra Club outings in Wisconsin (including all women events!) by contacting our outings chair Eric at Eric.Uram@headwater.us