Meet Anna-Marie Favors | BLK Hiking Cub President, Army Veteran, Mom

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anna-Marie Favors and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anna-Marie, do you have a favorite quote or affirmation?
“When everything feels like an uphill struggle, just think of the view from the top.” -Unknown

I was born in San Diego, California into an environment of poverty having a mother that battled an addiction and an unknown father. I was raised by my grandmother for some time and eventually placed into foster care where I bounced through a few homes before being adopted at 16. My childhood was a struggle; verbally, sexually, and mentally. As a child I remember thinking “if I could only get out of here things would be so great”, and once I got out of that environment it was indeed amazing. I was able to meet some pretty awesome people and experience a number of unforgettable moments throughout my journey. A quote that as a child, I never knew was an actual quote, reminds me that despite what you may be going through in the moment, it may be hard right now, to dig through the darkness and whether the storm, but if you remind yourself of the beauty that you will see when you get through, the climb will always be worth the hard work in the end. Pushing through sleepless nights to finish papers for a college degree, working long hours to receive a high-level promotion, or embarking on a strenuous hike to capture frame worthy pictures, the struggle is always worth when you reach the top!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
About Us BLK Hiking Club is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing black hikers with a quality safe hiking experience in an unfamiliar space. Our goal is to ensure that black hikers know that they belong in the outdoor space too. We were established by our founder Tracy Stephens in 2021. During a hike he came into contact with a black female hiker and sparked a conversation. The hiker mentioned traumas and fears of hiking alone due to political messages and signs that caused her discomfort. It was that hike that Tracy decided to put the logo that he’d created the previous year into action. BLK Hiking Club was born. We have two chapters, Atlanta and Raleigh-Durham (North Carolina) in which both chapters hike on a Saturday bi-weekly basis from March-November. The Atlanta chapter hikes all over Georgia and has also traveled to Alabama and Tennessee for hikes as well. We also offer wellness events such as Yoga in the Park sessions during the summer and will soon offer virtual events in addition to other community giveback efforts throughout the year as well.

What Sets Us Apart
What sets us apart is that we treat our hikes as if it’s one big family reunion, LITERALLY. We encourage our hikers. We laugh with them. We’ve cried with them. We dance with them. We eat with them. We photobomb selfies with them. We ensure that every hiker that attends our hikes has contact information for at least 1 if not 2 members from our team, one of those people being myself. Some people consider this gesture to be no big deal, however, you would be surprised at how many hikers appreciate having accessibility to us whether it be to inform us of cancellations of attendance due to an unforeseen circumstance or to simply ask a question prior to our scheduled hike. We ensure that we are always available.

Also, we strive on bringing awareness to a number of causes. Mental Health Awareness, Domestic Violence Awareness, National Suicide Awareness week. HBCU pride, LGBTQ+ support, and more. We try our best to include certain topics within our hikes to support our hikers in other ways outside of just hiking. You never know what people may be going through, so we try our best to support our community in every way that we could possibly think of. We take the time to put ourselves in our hiker’s shoes when planning our events. We have a unique strategy that we follow to cater to our hikers in almost every way that we possibly could. Again, we plan these hikes like our hikers are planning to attend a big ole cookout. It’s not just a hike, it’s an experience.

What We Are You Most Excited For:
With it being the end of the year, I will start off by saying that 2023 has been such an amazing year for us. We have truly been blessed this year so I know that 2024 will be even bigger for us. Personally, I’m excited to see what is in store for us next year. Our hikers truly supported us to the fullest this year!

We are extremely excited to be partnering with Asa G Hilliard Elementary School in 2024 serving as mentors for some of their youth. I cannot wait to get these kids out on a trail.

Earlier this year we hosted our very first Wellness Weekend, so we are excited to host something bigger and better next year.

How Did I Get To Where I Am Today?
I mentioned earlier how Tracy’s idea to establish the club came about but I did not share how I became apart. I’m an Earth sign so naturally I am attracted to the great outdoors and just have this urge to be in nature. When serving in the military of course we spent moments outside and I always knew that it was something about sitting outside, being near water, or looking at trees that just gave me a sense of calmness. It was not until a former boyfriend and I went on a few random hikes together that I really realized that it was something that was cool. I would find myself going on solo hikes from time to time when he was not able to go with me. A friend of mine knew that hiking was something that I enjoyed and in the Summer of 2021 she stumbled upon the club on Instagram. She sent me the page encouraging me to check it out. I missed a few hike announcements and then finally I was able to join. My first hike was July 31, 2021 at Providence Canyon. The experience and the community was something that I felt that I needed and so I continued to attend hikes. Hike after hike I was there. November 2021 I was promoted to hiking leader. Sometime after, our founder shared that he needed to step away for a work assignment and asked me to lead the group to keep the momentum going. I accepted and as nervous and uncomfortable as I was I continued to show up because I felt that these hikes were bigger than me. People needed them just as much as I did. In February of this year I was promoted to Chapter President and the rest is history. Here I am!

Was It Easy
Heeeeeeeeeck no!!!!!! Although people do not believe me when I say this, but I am naturally a shy person. I would much rather be alone in my own world with music and snacks. Being promoted to hiking leader was scary in itself because it’s one thing to go on a hike on your own, it’s a totally different thing to lead a group of people on a hike and ensure that they safely return back to their cars afterwards. Each hike I would always have this rush of adrenaline leading up to the hike because I always had a fear of getting people lost. When I was promoted to President it made things even harder because then I became someone that had to be more of the center of attention to some degree but I also had more people depending on me to lead them. I’m a lowkey girl. I am not the friend that has to be in the camera capturing everyone’s attention, so this promotion meant that I now had to shift and learn to turn that off and become more comfortable being out front and center. That has been THE HARDEST part for me but I can say that I have grown from when I first started for sure.

Lessons We Have Learned Along The Way
Now, my hardest lesson has been learning to truly step out of my comfort zone and be in the spotlight, however, I think that the club’s hardest lesson has been remaining silent and professional when we receive racist comments. Quick backstory, in March of this year we hosted a hike at Roswell River Walk. This was the largest hike that we had had at the time since the club had been established. On this particular hike, the founder nor I were present as we both had separate out of town events to attend. I was on pins and needles!! This was only the 2nd or 3rd hike as President and I was not present. However, my team showed up and showed out! They led the hike without us with ease (which I knew they would, but I still wanted to be there with them). I posted the picture in a Georgia Facebook hiking group and later sent the picture to the GA Followers group in hopes of getting the club a little recognition for the work that we’ve been doing. We went viral!! But the viral picture did not come with positive welcoming arms like I anticipated. We received A TON of negative racist comments from people who insisted that we were doing something wrong for having a group of black hikers in nature together. People who stated that we were racist because the club is called BLK Hiking Club as opposed to calling it something differently. People who made ugly comments and insisted that we were segregating the same group of people that become upset when segregated, not realizing that we were actually creating a safe space because most do not feel comfortable being out alone due to world occurrences. People made comments of others having weapons in nature spaces amongst other cruel words and sayings. Before this, I had not encountered racism of this caliber. Before the club, I’ve never been a victim of racism this much. As much as we wanted to respond, we could not. As much as we want to respond to the hikers that we encounter on trails still now, that make racist comments about us “being on probation” or “us looking like we’re about to breakdance” or to the ones that have followed and taken pictures of us, we refuse to respond. Accepting the unfortunate reality that in 2023 racism is still very much a thing and we as an organization must ignore it to maintain our reputation has been the hardest lesson. This is why a group like ours is needed.

Our Brand, Our Story
What I would like the world to know about our brand is that we host these hikes because we love what we do. We truly enjoy our hikers. These hikes are bigger than us. These events are to show those that think that black people don’t go hiking know that black people actually do go hiking. The moments of dance breaks are to enjoy each other as a nature family because what’s a good family reunion without dancing. Our spreading awareness to various causes are to shower our hikers with support and encouragement. We have had a number of hikers that have gone through some of the things that we bring awareness to and I think that it’s important for them to know that we support them in their journeys outside of hiking. Our wellness events are to remind our community that mental health is a real thing and that although they may not feel safe sharing their internal struggles with others they can share and receive love, resources, and empowerment through us. Some of us have experienced this first hand, myself included. Nature is healing, and it’s okay to not be okay.  We are pillars of our community and pioneers for our culture. What I want the world to know about our story is that we will continue to create safe spaces for hikers that look like us. BIPOC (black indigenous people of color) need these spaces. There are other spaces that we share a similar community with within Atlanta (Peace in the Wild, Hike with Banji, Itsnotiq Bruh, SoulSisters Hike Too, Eb.In.Flow, just to name a few). Take the time to visit and support these groups as well. All we have is us, because this is our space too! Our story is unique because it was built off of passion and the drive to want to create change. The best part of our story hasn’t even been written yet!! We’re still on chapter 2. The end of our story will be nothing short of amazing! Stay tuned!! 

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
There is ALWAYS something to do in the great city of Atlanta, so the itinerary would include a handful of eateries and other activity filled events to visit. BUT I cannot have my best friend come into the area to visit without including a hike for each day. I’m the hiking professional remember. Lol Here are 7 of my favorite hike locations in Georgia:

Providence Canyon (aka Little Grand Canyon)
Cochran Mill Park
Mount Yonah
Bell Mountain
East Palasides (aka Bamboo Trail)
Panther Creek Falls
Vogel State Park

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
First, I would like to shoutout the entire BLK Hiking Club team. Although I serve as the face of the Atlanta Chapter, there is no way that I can lead our hikers on adventures month after month if it was not for them. They show up, they volunteer, they take charge, we laugh, we dance, and we laugh some more. I don’t make any decisions regarding our operations without considering them first, and the times that I involve them to help me make the decisions, I love that they are always open and honest. They hold me accountable and they all in some way or another inspire me as individuals. I think that that is truly special. The BLK Hiking Club team is literally the glue that helps keep us going. There’s no I in team over here. We’re all family.

My honorary dad SFC Fincher for an unimaginable amount of support and for creating the foundation of the importance of the 7 Army values. Thank you for teaching me that “crap” happens and you just have to pick your head up and keep going.

We can’t forget the babies!! My children for putting up with this crazy hobby that never seems to stop no matter how far the hike is located or how ugly the forecast may state the weather will be. Kaleb will hike on some and Janari won’t hike on none haha but the support is there all the same.

To my close friends (names are not needed as you each know what space you hold in my heart). Thank you for allowing me to flood you with random hike ideas, for praying with me, crying with me, laughing with me, talking through things with me, pulling me off of the ledge when I’m going too far, and for lifting me up when I’m feeling too down. Thank you for accepting me and simply allowing me to be me.

Lastly, shoutout to the universe for the creation of this magical space of beauty called nature. “The world is big, and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.” -John Muir

Website: www.blkhikingclub.com

Instagram: @annamarie_favors / @blkhikingclub

Facebook: Anna-Marie Favors / BLK Hiking Club