🌿 Belonging on the Trail: Motherhood, Healing & Community with Alexandrie 🥾🤍
In this powerful and deeply grounding episode of Hikes & Mics, we’re joined by Alexandrie, founder and organizer of Black Hikers Explore, for a conversation about how hiking, motherhood, and community-building can come together to create spaces of healing, belonging, and joy in the outdoors.
Born and raised in Haiti, Alexandrie shares how her earliest experiences in nature were rooted not in recreation, but in survival—a foundation that shaped her relationship with the outdoors long before she ever stepped onto a marked trail. After moving to the U.S. and rediscovering hiking in New York and New Jersey, she began to notice a familiar absence on the trail: people who looked like her. That realization became the spark behind Black Hikers Explore, a community centered on representation, accessibility, and culturally aware outdoor experiences.
We dive into how Alexandrie intentionally designs beginner-friendly, inclusive hikes—from pre-hike circle introductions and realistic mileage planning to prioritizing connection over pace, metrics, or gear culture. She breaks down the real barriers many BIPOC communities face in outdoor spaces, including representation gaps, safety concerns, cost of gear, and access, and shares tangible ways she helps people move past those hurdles and feel confident showing up on trail.
A central thread of this conversation is motherhood and mental health. Alexandrie speaks candidly about navigating postpartum anxiety and depression, and how daily time in nature—sometimes just 30 minutes near water or trees—became essential to her healing, emotional regulation, and sense of self. She also shares why she brings her children everywhere, from hiking Mount Tammany to biking, canoeing, surfing, and even camel trekking through the Sahara Desert, where her toddlers famously fell asleep mid-ride.
🎧 This episode is a powerful reminder that the outdoors doesn’t have to be intimidating or exclusive—it can be a place of care, culture, and coming home to yourself.
Episode Links:
Follow on Instagram @blackhikersexplore
Black Hikers Explore Website
This episode was Produced by Jordyn Smith, follow her on Instagram @jordyn.journeys
Follow us on Instagram, @Hikesandmics
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