Susan Johnson

Standing on top of Mt. Holyoke, I can see Mt. Greylock to the west, and Mt. Monadnock to the north.

A search-and-rescue team carried me down on a stretcher. They hoisted me high up into the trail’s hemlock and spruce so I was surrounded by their needles and resin. 

When I first met my future husband, he asked me to go for a walk.

"Sure," I said.

"I’ll go get the kittens," he said.

I began hiking regularly with a friend and her chubby dog eight years ago. The friend worked a 9-to-5 job, so neither she nor her dog got much exercise. But on Saturday afternoons we would hike.

"You should have a cell phone," my mother-in-law says.