Interview by Mercedes Arnold

Maine Vibes Magazine: Hi Amanda! Can you introduce yourself, state your pronouns, and talk a little bit about your business? 

Amanda Hatley: I’m Amanda Hatley, I use she/her pronouns, I’m the founder and director of She Summits Co. We are a female-oriented, women-owned, women-led entrepreneurial business that works in adventure and outdoor education, as well as provides summer camps for kids, which is our specialty here in Maine. We also provide escapes for mothers and daughters and host adult summer camping trips. 

We are hopefully going to be getting into some more education-related trips, such as learn-to-camp and learn-to-backpack for women of all ages. 

MVM: She Summits is so incredible. Why do we not continue to go to summer camp when we are adults? What’s that about? 

AH: I think we go from having fun adventures to having grown-up adventures with wine and charcuterie. We have to take time to transition into new things, I think college does that for us. When we call our camps adult summer camps, it’s an all-inclusive summer camp. We are a little different from traditional summer camps in that ours is more education-based and everyone works together for the common good of the group. 

You have to prep your meals and serve them to the group and work with the entire team to make the adventure work. It’s a lot of expeditionary behaviors as well as teaching people, for example teaching you how to fish versus catching the fish for you, which I love. 

MVM: What led you to create She Summits Co? 

AH: Back in 2018, a friend asked me what my passion was and what do I really want to do? At the time, I was working for a small outdoor business, and as much as I loved it and learned from it, I wanted to take those teachings and use them for something that I was doing. 

I thought there should be a woman-owned, women-led outdoor adventure company in Maine. We have all these wonderful outdoor spaces, there were sea kayaking companies, and whitewater rafting companies, but there wasn’t really a hiking company that helped people get into hiking or backpacking that was woman-owned and led. I wanted to create that for Maine. Right after we started, COVID came around. Instead of us going into our 4th year, we are going into our 3rd, and we are in our second year of summer camps. It’s been a crazy ride. 

MVM: Do you mind talking about that? I’d love to know how you started and how or if COVID shaped your business model, what’s your plan for moving forward?

AH: In 2019 I went to New Ventures and started a business class. It was nine weeks of getting a business plan together. I always say I learned more from that class than I did in four years of business school. It was less about the education piece of it and more about networking. The class helped me understand my local government and being a small business and what that meant to my state. 

Meeting code enforcement people in each town, lawyers, accountants, and other small business owners, and these were all important pieces for me to move forward. This class got me in with SBA and CEI as well and I’ve been there ever since. So, we officially incorporated She Summits Co. in November of 2019 and were in the process of hiring people for 2020. 

I was supposed to bring on my hires on March 14, 2020, and then everything fell apart across the board. I held off on hiring and wanted to see what was going to happen with COVID. In late 2020 we attempted a couple of escapes and those went really well. In February of 2021, we did another escape and I felt like we could really do this. We have four staff members last year and about 79 campers. This year, we have 10 staff members and over 150 campers. 

The small numbers have made it so we can create a unique experience in the backcountry, which is more a personally-guided experience for the kids, which is something that they don’t normally get. 

MVM: What a great experience for kids to have. Being in the backcountry is a total mind-changing experience. Did you grow up exploring the backcountry of Maine?

AH: I grew up in North Carolina. Long story short, I married my high school boyfriend who went into the military. We ended up in Anchorage, Alaska, neither of us have ever been out of North Carolina at that point. We stayed in the Pacific Northwest for about 10 years and then came home thinking we were going to stay in North Carolina. He then got an offer in Maine and we moved up here. 

I went from working at REI for 11 years before we moved up here. I went from a big outdoor business to a very small outdoor business. It was a very different job market up here. I love how much small business affects outdoor recreation here in Maine and how many small businesses there are, everyone has their niche and we can refer clients to each other for things we aren’t licensed for. 

MVM: That’s something really special about Maine is that we do have a smaller network of small businesses that you can send people to if you don’t offer the service they are looking for. 

AH: Adventure travel in Maine is getting huge, the number of referral businesses that there are at this point in life is pretty massive. It's exciting to see that we can find the niche for the person who's coming here so they can have a great experience in our state that we all love.

MVM: I read that you went to a summer camp when you were growing up in North Carolina. Have you always been into outdoor recreation? 

AH: My mom has always been a Girl Scout leader, so we camped throughout my childhood. I didn’t backpack until I was in sixth grade when I went to a summer camp that had a hidden outdoor adventure program. My mom signed me up for a 70-mile backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail that lasted over a week. 

MVM: How old were you? 

AH: I was 12 and I had a horrible experience. My mom sent me with new boots, I got quarter-sized blisters on the back of my feet not even two miles into the trail. This poor counselor who was 18 years old stayed behind with me the entire time to show me how to bandage my feet and take care of myself so that my blisters wouldn’t get worse. The counselors were really encouraging and I ended up finishing the entire 70 miles, then got to go rafting down the Nantahala River and had a fantastic time. 

Somehow my mom convinced me to sign up the following year. When we were doing check-in, the counselor recognized me and told me that her partner was the counselor who helped me with my blisters the previous year. He ended up going through boot camp for the Marines, the reminder of me with my blisters is what got him through it. That was one of those moments when I realized, wow, I can totally do hard things. 

MVM: I love how you inspired an 18-year-old Marine during what was probably one of the hardest things he’s ever done! It’s proof that as a 13-year-old, you can have an impact.

AH: I got to meet him again later on when I ended up working as a counselor at that same summer camp. It was a full circle moment. 

MVM: Ah, full circle moments are the best! I’m curious, how does Maine’s outdoor experience differ from North Carolina’s? 

AH: The different experience from where I was raised and where my kids are being raised [in Maine] is the amount of time to get into full solitude. Even on the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina and the Outer Banks you are still probably going to run across people. I’ve done full days in Maine where you don’t run into anyone, it’s just you out there in the backcountry with the squirrels and moose. I really love that about Maine, the only other place I’ve lived where I’ve felt like that was Alaska. 

It really has to do with the number of places you can access that aren’t accessible via roads. We tell our staff not to use Google Maps north of Bangor, chances are they are going to get on an ATV road and end up on someone’s private road driving not knowing where they are. We swear by the Gazetteer. 

When people from other states come to Maine, I don’t think they realize just how far away everything is from each other. I tell people, yes I know you can see that lighthouse from this cove, but it’s going to take us two hours to get there. It kind of blows people’s minds sometimes. 

We do a coastal camp, and one of the cool things we talk about is the fact that Maine has over 3000 miles of coastline, which is more coastline than the state of California. 

MVM: Maine is pretty spectacular. What made you want to learn about the state?

AH: When I got here, I was super curious about it. I was really interested in finishing up the AT section hike that I was working on, I still needed to do 100 Mile Wilderness. So I was incredibly curious along with working for the other small businesses that I started with here, I had to learn new things and fast. I was always working with a Maine naturalist and the owner was very knowledgeable about the state history of Maine. Also, taking my guide exam helped me learn all of the different facts about Maine. Then, quite honestly, my fourth grader taking Maine state history last year helped, too. 

I’ve always asked questions or looked it up myself, which has been another fun part of being here in Maine. We are in Baxter State Park so much, so I have to acknowledge the native history of the land. Teaching it to our campers is something I love to do and teaching them the Wabanaki names as well. We like to connect those pieces for the campers, and they have great questions too. 

MVM: That is so important to talk about how Maine’s land, the land we live on today, was stolen. [Learn more about Maine’s stolen land here] It’s always good to stay curious. In working with younger girls and women, how do these programs differ and what do each group get out of your program? 

AH: For the younger kids, it is the curiosity and exploring piece. We have a decision-making model that we use for everything. We use the model, BRAVE:

B - Building Community 

R - Reasonably Safe?

A - Authentic, Does it Fit in With our Mission? 

V - Vision

E - Environmentally Sound

For young kids, it’s about looking at a flower and admiring its beauty, but not picking it. We want them to question the natural world around them. 

For the adults, it depends on what program they are in. Our slogan is escape, live, blossom. Escape comes from the idea that for people to be their best selves, they need to escape to a different part of being, and take a breath. Living is living your best life, and blossoming is seeing people grow as they go through things. A lot of times, the adults get so much joy from being able to watch their kids play and they don’t have to worry about what to do for dinner. 

On our learning trips, it’s about us teaching people how to do things outside so they can go and enjoy the outdoors by themselves. They learn enough to be able to filter their own water if they were in Baxter where there’s no potable water, a lot of people don’t know how to do that. 

MVM: I love that you call it an escape, getting outside is an escape into the natural world. It feels free to be somewhere you don’t have cell service. I know one of your hopes with your programs is to help people gain confidence through these experiences. And personally, I've done a lot of hiking, and I spend a lot of time outside. Every time I complete a hike, I always feel so good about myself and more confident. It’s so special that you are providing the space for young girls and women to do that with guides, a lot of times it can be scary to do it on your own.

AH: With the mother-daughter trips that we do, it’s a lot of people who were active when they were younger, before they had kids. Getting them back into this place where they feel powerful and awesome is so much fun to see, I love it. 

MVM: Do you go on some of the trips with your counselors? 

AH: I do the escapes with my operations manager in the wintertime and the springtime when I can. We have international trips that are starting this year, I will be on some of those. But, my main job and focus are to hold our training with our trip leaders in the backcountry for three weeks in June every summer. My job is to train them well enough so they can carry out the vision and mission and take care of the girls. 

MVM: That’s great that you can enjoy some of the trips with your leaders. 

AH: It is pretty great. We had a clear night recently and looked at the sky at night with our interns. Some of them are from the city and it’s really cool to watch them see how bright and big our night sky is, and seeing them see the Milky Way for the first time, their minds are blown. 

MVM: It is mind-blowing how small we are compared to the size of our galaxy. WHEW! So I know that you’ve section-hiked the AT. I’m curious, what was the most rewarding part about hiking the AT, and what did you struggle with the most when you were hiking? 

AH: So the answer to that question is almost the same for both parts. My most rewarding part was refining myself. I started section hiking the AT after I weaned my youngest kid, mind you, my kids are only 14 months apart. It was three years of my body not being my body. I had such a tough time with it and really needed to prove to myself that I was actually myself still. I had this crazy idea to start section hiking the AT and my co-workers at the time encouraged me to do it, so I decided to give it a try. 

Starting and finishing my first section hike and realizing that I’m a mom but I can still do this, it’s still my body and I can still do this. At the same time, it was so hard to be in the backcountry by myself for the first time. I didn’t realize what an impact that would have on me. During that trip, there was a tornado that came through in Georgia, and we were evacuated by the ridge runners. The entire time I was thinking about my kids. Finishing on Katahdin four years later was pretty amazing. The kids hiked to Chimney Pond and I met them after coming down. It was amazing. 

MVM: Congratulations, that is huge! What a badass accomplishment, YOU are a badass. If someone is looking to become more familiar with the outdoors, what would you say is the safest and best way to ease into outdoor activities, like hiking? 

AH: My first piece of it is; that if you're not quite sure what you're doing, where you're hiking it, or how to backpack, rock climb, fish, or hunt, hire a guide. Give that investment to yourself. It’s like when you go to the gym to get ready for a big athletic event, you're going to hire a personal trainer, to get you ready for that event, just like a guide would help with the outdoor stuff that you need to do.

Then, I would say take some kind of a wilderness first aid class. If you’re really brand new and you’re not sure that you want to sleep outside for the night or be in the background, take a front country class. There are a ton of classes, REI does them, and LL Bean has classes. There are a ton of small outfitters that do front country classes. 

MVM: I'm glad we have all those resources for people, especially because we have a lot of people moving to Maine who may not be familiar with Maine’s outdoor rules and regulations. Do you want to mention other businesses? 

AH: There are quite a few. For businesses that we work with that I really, really love; Nancy Zane with North Star Adventure, she's a fantastic sea kayaking guide on the mid-coast, as well as hosting wilderness first aid classes. Abby Row is the current president of Wilderness Medical Associates and she does all of our wilderness first aid responder training, I love what she has done for that field. Jen with Guides Gone Wild, a lot of folks a lot of women-owned businesses in Maine have been interviewed by her and on her podcast, and she does some networking for us. Then we have folks that we're currently trying to recruit to do guest stuff for us this winter. Also, if you haven't seen the recycled art from Mariah Reading, she's a Bangor native and she's a park ranger every summer, she does some incredible paintings. Aislinn Sarnacki from Maine Nature Hikes, she was a Bangor Daily News reporter and started her own guiding business after she got her Maine Guides, she has some incredible photographs. 

There’s also a there's a huge network of women guides who've been doing this before the internet. They are transferring knowledge and teaching the next generation at this point, I really appreciate that and love that. 

MVM: Thank you for sharing. It sounds like you and your leaders are going to inspire so many young girls to go and do awesome things, whether it’s in the outdoor industry or not, they will have important skills and hopefully the confidence to do hard things. That foundation you are providing is so meaningful. Any last pieces of advice? 

AH: Always stay curious about everything around you, and ask questions. Hopefully, you will find your answers to those questions in your curiosity. 

Thank you, Amanda, for taking the time to talk with Maine Vibes Magazine!

Web: https://www.shesummitsco.com

Instagram: @shesummitsco

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