After college she served two years in the Peace Corps in Colombia, SA, working with a cooperative of weavers in Usiacuri, Atlantico. An interest in mountain trekking led to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, to Uhuru Peak (5895 m.), and Pokalde Peak, Nepal, (5807 m.) as well as trekking Peru's Inca Trail to Macchu Piccu, the Cordillera Blanca, and the remote Huayhuash Circuit. She also trekked the Annapurna Circuit, as well as the Cho La Pass and Gokyo Ri Pass in Nepal. In Peru's Amazon she collected frogs with Bora Indians, guide Richard Aukoo Fowler, and jungle traveler Steven 'Bo' Keeley. She belongs to a desert hiking group, the Desert Survivors, and has hiked extensively in Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, as well as California's Death Valley and Mojave preserves. She has also climbed Mount Whitney and Mount Shasta in California.