This intersectional ladies’s outdoor group goals to get extra Black, Indigenous and girls of shade exterior to get pleasure from, reconnect with and discover therapeutic in nature.
Evelynn Escobar is aware of firsthand how onerous it may be to really feel like an outsider within the outdoor. Even although she’d spent a pair years mountaineering native trails in Los Angeles, she didn’t go to a nationwide park till age 23—and on that journey to Zion, she discovered herself standing out as the one Black particular person among the many crowd.
After that journey she was decided to proceed discovering methods to be in nature, and in addition to ensure different Black and Indigenous ladies and girls of shade have been ready and felt comfy to do the identical. In 2017, she based Hike Clerb, a nonprofit group and intersectional ladies’s out of doors membership that seeks to carry extra variety to the paths, parks and camps all through the United States.
“Understanding how quintessential a practice of going outdoors was to my own healing journey and my own mental health, I realized that I really needed to help get other Black and brown women out there, so that they can experience what it means to just be in nature,” Escobar just lately instructed “Wild Ideas Worth Living” podcast host Shelby Stanger.
Escobar’s group places on group hikes and different adventures frequently, primarily in Los Angeles and New York City. More just lately, Hike Clerb has expanded into different cities, like Toronto. In this movie, we meet Escobar and a Hike Clerb crew for a trek in New Mexico.
Hike Clerb is meant to be a protected area, each actually and figuratively: The organized occasions are supposed to create security for girls hikers, particularly in additional distant areas, in addition to to supply an emotionally and socially protected area “to bring your whole authentic self and not hold back,” Escobar explains. “Take up space.”
To be taught extra about Hike Clerb, be a part of or begin a neighborhood chapter, or donate to learn the group, go to hikeclerb.com.