Melissa Wright saw her life branching out before her like a green fig tree. Mirroring a passage in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, she was overwhelmed by the figs she could have chosen, each representing a different path. “Once you’re a mom and a wife, you’re told what your goals are and what to build toward,” she says.
Wright grew up homeschooled in a sheltered, religious environment in Parker. She met her future husband at age 18, married at 20 and was pregnant with her son at 21.
“In the book, [the main character] is wracked with a decision, and in a dream, all the figs withered up and rotted to the ground,” Wright says. “She realizes that not making a decision is a decision.”
Wright chose her fig: “a husband and a happy home and children,” as Plath wrote. She also began going on walks, which evolved into hikes, as she sought a sense of belonging. No one in her inner circle shared her curiosity about the outdoors, so she went alone. As that curiosity developed, she recalls, one of her more adventurous friends gave her a copy of The Bell Jar.
“I read that, and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I chose my figs when I was 18 years old,’ ” Wright says years later.
The same friend invited Wright to go on a backpacking trip across Europe, which Wright wasn’t sure was appropriate for a wife and mother. But her then-husband was supportive, she recalls: “He was like, ‘For the love of God, can you just go? Just go. We’ll figure it out.’ ”
Today, Wright and business partner Lindsey Egan want women to know they can choose more than one fig. Their international network, Women Who Explore, helps like-minded women across North America connect through activities that vary from book clubs and knitting to kayaking and mountain biking.
Wright first stumbled on Women Who Explore’s Instagram page when the group was managed by two sisters from Canada. And when there was a call for ambassadors in 2017, she applied to start an Arizona chapter and Egan applied to lead the one in Portland, Oregon. The two met on a Women Who Explore training retreat for trip hosts.
“I’ve always wanted to have a community that just brought women together and gave them a space to meet other people,” Egan says. “I’ve kind of always had a hard time meeting friends, especially girlfriends.”
Many women face that challenge, Egan and Wright say. As it turns out, making adult friendships while navigating parenthood, careers, households and other responsibilities is hard. Women Who Explore aims to ease that difficulty by making activities more accessible.
In 2020, the founders of the group approached Egan about selling Women Who Explore to her. Egan then called Wright. “I don’t want to do this without you,” she recalls saying over the phone. “We should do this together.”
And they did. Egan and Wright bought the company in September of that year, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic and at a time when few people were traveling. What followed was a challenging adjustment period full of Zoom calls, virtual classes on outdoor education, restructuring the ambassador program and building up Facebook groups. By 2022, though, the company was back up and running.
Today, Women Who Explore has more than 100 affiliated Facebook groups throughout North America, with 240 ambassadors managing those groups. The Arizona chapter has more than 8,000 members. Combined, the local groups hosted about 1,200 free events in 2024 and counted more than 500,000 women as members.
One of those events was an ambassador camping trip to Lost Dutchman State Park this past November. Wright and Egan welcomed women who host events all over the U.S. and Canada for hikes in the Superstition Mountains, yoga, first-aid training, campfire skits and meaningful conversations.
Participants in Women Who Explore events tend to open up and share their secrets and struggles. That’s what the trips are all about, says Egan, recalling the loneliness she felt while navigating her divorce. Finding others who were going through similar chapters of their own lives gave her people to lean on, and now, she hopes to help others find that comfort.
“Maybe what this community also brings,” she adds, “is hope that the hardest times don’t have to be so hard, and you don’t have to always be alone.”
Get Involved
If you’re a woman interested in connecting with other local women while exploring the outdoors — or through events such as book clubs or beer crawls — find your nearest Women Who Explore chapter on Facebook. For Arizonans, the Facebook group is called “Women Who Explore: Arizona.” Click “Join Group” and answer several questions to be considered for membership. Ambassadors and other members post details for hiking events, exploration opportunities and more. For more information, visit womenwhoexplore.com.