Summit 2013


The 2013 Summit took place on July 12-14, at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee. Click the links below for more information.

Maryville

Keynote Speaker | Clinicians | Schedule | Sponsors | Photos

Sanne Bagby

Sanne Larsen Bagby, aka Ready

Sanne (pronounced 'Seh-neh') Larsen Bagby, aka Ready, was born in Denmark and lived in Canada before moving to the United States as a child. Sanne's father was a nature enthusiast who loved sailing, riding horseback, and camping. She credits him for her love of the outdoors. Her first steps on the Appalachian Trail were with him during a family trip to Bear Mountain in New York; she was seven years old. During her childhood, she frequently enjoyed day hikes and car camping with her family and friends, often along the Appalachian Trail. (Throughout her life in the States, it seems, she never lived far from the A.T.!) Read more here...


Carla Robertson

Carla Robertson

Carla Robertson aka Zipper, is a teacher and life coach who specializes in guiding overwhelmed people back to their "wild and precious" lives. She makes her home in New Orleans where every day feels like vacation, and she loves helping others reinvent their circumstances so they look at their calendar and love everything on it. She believes in "Less worry. More wonder." In 2009 she thru-hiked the entire Appalachian Trail, and she revisits the woods whenever she can, taking willing and curious souls with her. She especially enjoys mentoring women who have dreams of long distance hiking and want to learn to be self-sufficient and confident on the trail via her four month "virtual campfire" tele-course called Wild and White Blazing. Find her at livingwildandprecious.com.


Regina Reiter

Regina Reiter

Regina Reiter - When her third son turned 18 and finished homeschooling in 2007, Regina walked the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia. At 52, it was her time to walk into her dream. Getting to the trail, completing the journey, and navigating the stormy relationship waters of attracting a new hiking partner gave Regina plenty of personal experience to test her new skills as a certified Radical Forgiveness Coach. She had walked the AT to get hiking out of her system only to realize that walking in Nature for personal transformation IS her system. She kept hiking! She walked the Pacific Crest Trail and the Superior Hiking Trail. Her favorite trail, the Benton MacKaye Trail, she walked four times – once in each season. Now, she's in her fourth year as an Appalachian Trail Conservancy Ridgerunner along the AT in Virginia. Her love of hiking and her mission to help courageous women love themselves fearlessly and walk into their own hiking dreams, inspired her business, Forgiveness Walks. Regina and her team at Forgiveness Walks are on a mission to say within the next five years, "Here are the 22 courageous women who walked the full length of the Appalachian Trail, spreading a wave of peace every step of the way!" www.forgivenesswalks.com


Stephanie Wright

Stephanie Wright

Writing in Nature

Stephanie Wright is co-founder of Divine Time Retreats, an event company that hosts personal growth retreats throughout the year that celebrate the strength, grace and beauty of women as they move through the seasons of their lives, A certified mediation instructor and reiki practitioner, Stephanie is passionate about meditation and studying herbal remedies. When she isn't busy caring for her two children you might find her leading meditation hikes for Trail Dames.


Leanna Joyner

Leanna Joyner

Leanna Joyner hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2003 and nearly half of the Pacific Crest Trail in 2010. The rewards she enjoys while in nature on our National Scenic Trails are those she hopes others will benefit from through her continued work with people and conservation-based organizations. She facilitates JoYusGROOVE in Asheville, North Carolina.


Rosie Enos

Rosie Enos

Rosie Enos owns and is an instructor for Roam the Woods, a women's focused backpacking company, our mission is to give our participants the confidence to embark on their own lightweight outdoor adventures. She started off her adventures roaming jagged lava fields as a young child growing up in Hawaii. Later her life path crossed with one Ted the Chicken, her trusty sidekick, in the woods of Kentucky. This is where she spent her summers leading countless kids stomping through creeks, crawling through caves, and searching for moon pigs. Consequently, the desert called. Wide open spaces and stars created a serious setting for thought provoking, life changing, young people type work. Taking a break from young people type work Rosie found herself chasing litters of puppies, scooping poop, and trying to stay upright behind a team of Alaskan Huskies for three winters. In the summer of 2010, she got the chance to meander, slog, roam, navigate, tumble, and hike a long section of the Pacific Crest Trail for five, awe-inspiring months. These adventures inspired a love for long distance backpacking that she continues to share with others.


Sandra Friend

Sandra Friend

A lifelong hiker and writer, Sandra Friend comes from a long line of nomadic adventurers, including Sami reindeer herders and the explorer Henry Hudson. She's the Chair of the Freelance Council of the Society of American Travel Writers, and author of 27 books. Sandra (Navigator) and her partner John (JK) tackled 525 miles of the Appalachian Trail in 2012 as a "Not Quite Thru" and are continuing the AT in sections. http://www.sandrafriend.com


Terri and Maria

Terri McLellan and Maria Hopgood

Terri McLellan (left) is a AT section hiker and is the Head Dame of the Trail Dames of Maryland. She is a certified Maine whitewater rafting guide on the Kennebec River. She is an ATC volunteer in Harpers Ferry and enjoys being outside hiking, biking or rafting.
Maria Hopgood (right) is an Appalachian Trail section hiker who started hiking the trail in 2006. She is an ATC volunteer in Harpers Ferry, WV.


Judy Gross

Judy Gross

Judy Gross grew up in Staten Island, New York . As a child, her mother taught her how to sew and instilled in her a love of the outdoors. She has maintained a passion for both throughout her life. She entered nursing school while still in high school and received her LPN upon graduation in 1974. In 1984, she received her BSN degree from the University of Southwestern Louisiana and then moved to Houston . While working as an RN, she attended the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and received her Masters Degree in Nursing (Family Nurse Practitioner) in 1994. In 2004, she attended Fashion Design School at Houston Community College.
A single mother raising twin boys who ultimately both became Eagle Scouts, her love for the outdoors took her on a journey of the Appalachian Trail in 2006. A rotator cuff injury forced her off the trail after almost 900 miles but she returned in 2007 and continued on to Massachusetts . The tent she carried on her hike weighed about 4.5 pounds and took up a large portion of her pack. She knew there had to be a better alternative. She melded her knowledge of hiking gear and her sewing skills to start LightHeart Gear in 2009.
Judy has been a vegetarian for over 15 years. With her background in health care, she is knowledgeable about the need for quality nutrition on a long hike, and is very concerned about chemicals, preservatives and pesticides that are in our food system (and refuses to eat any of them). With a little experimenting, she has learned to cook and dehydrate most of her own backpacking food. On her AT hike, she had over 30 different dinners, a dozen different lunches and several different desserts.


Deborah Berman

Deborah Berman

Deborah Berman was a recently retired nurse and 55 year old novice hiker when she decided to walk 500 miles across northern Spain. Six years later, she continues to hike, several hundred miles a year on various branches of the Camino de Santiago, aka the Saint James Way in Spain. Deborah lives in Greensboro, N.C. She is married and has 3 grown children, 2 grandchildren, 1 dog, elderly in-laws and a developmentally disabled sister-in-law for whom she and her husband are guardians. When she is not hiking or planning the next one, she is busy with family and also enjoys photography, and fooling around with fused glass and mosaic art. She is writing a book about her Camino experiences.


Judy Young

Judy Young

Judy Young discovered backpacking and long distance hiking late in life. Teaching and raising a family occupied all of her time and energy. During those years, she learned about the Appalachian Trail and spent her spare time reading every memoir she could find. Finally, the kids were grown, she retired from teaching, and it was now time to realize her dream. She completed the AT in 2003. She went on to hike the Long Trail, the Northville Placid Trail, The West Highland Way in Scotland, the John Muir Trail, and she has hiked part of the Foothills Trail. She's hiked in Newfoundland , some of the Tour Du Mont Blanc in Europe, and has been to Peru & the Galapagos Islands. Besides backpacking, her other love is sled dogs. She has handled for a friend who races sled dogs, in Wyoming & Wisconsin. She attended the Iditarod with her in 2000. She even did a small race in WI....but she likes training & taking care of the dogs better than racing. She is a board member for ALDHA...Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Assoc. She serves as the Outreach Coordinator and she is a Head Dame for the KY Trail Dames Chapter.



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