BERKELEY, CALIF. Women hear the call to go wild

Women-only adventure travel is big business.
By MICHAEL MARTINEZ
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Twenty-five years ago, not long after she'd been fired from a secretarial job at a San Francisco radio station, Carole Latimer sat in a coffee shop sorting out her life and planning her next move. She had a college degree and a love of the outdoors. Taking orders and making coffee for her co-workers weren't part of her career path.
Her first decision: Find something she enjoyed doing.
"When I got fired," she said, "I got really mad. I thought, 'I'm not going to do anything anymore that I don't like.' So I made the major mistake of making a business out of something I really love."
The recollection makes her laugh. Starting Call of the Wild, a women-only adventure travel company based in Berkeley, was no mistake -- even though there are often long hours and lots of planning every time Latimer or one of her guides leads a group on a high-altitude backpacking trip or day hike. She has been at it since 1978, making Call of the Wild the longest-running company of its kind.
Since her first trip to the mountains at Lake Tahoe, Calif., with a group of seven women, Latimer -- a member of the California Outdoors Hall of Fame -- has taken thousands of women on hundreds of trips to Yosemite, Big Sur, Alaska and Mexico's Copper Canyon. In August, she will make her 25th ascent to the summit of 14,491-foot Mount Whitney.
Big business
Women-only travel is big business, with various companies offering packages ranging from easy day hikes to river rafting to weeklong excursions with 40-pound backpacks. Latimer even offers no-camping trips that include spas and yoga classes.
But Call of the Wild sustains itself by helping women to realize their self-reliance -- and you can't do that with men around. It was the one thing, besides her love of the outdoors, that pushed Latimer to make all this work.
"I felt like I had a mission -- to make women aware of themselves as physically strong and independent people," she said. "I know that sounds grammar-schoolish now, but it was a new idea back then. I had a woman on my last trip to Lake Havasu, and it involved a scary rock-climbing trip to the Colorado River. She was 43 and had been married for 20 years, and it really gave her a shot in the arm. She needed to do something good for herself."
About the man thing: Latimer took men on a few of her early trips but didn't like it. Invariably, she said, men and women fell into their traditional roles -- men wanting to take the lead, women allowing them. She does employ a male guide on back-packing trips to Copper Canyon but has noticed how his presence affects campers.
"I had a little fit at a stream," she recalled. "We were late coming back, and three of the women waited for him to help them up the river. I said, 'What are you guys doing?' The roles are still there, and we're not going to get rid of them, but it helps people become a little more aware."
Some luxury
There is, however, a touch of luxury anyone can appreciate: good food. Call of the Wild specializes in unique cuisine, even on longer trips to the back country, and it's the one thing that Latimer believes distinguishes her from similar travel companies. After a long day of hiking, campers might dine on creamy seafood pasta, coconut-flavored Thai tom yum soup or gourmet pizza (with flour tortillas used as dough). Clients rave about Latimer's sun-dried tomato garlic spread and fresh-baked brownies.
"I know everything tastes good outdoors, but this is really good," Zich said.
Latimer, who wrote her own cookbook, "Wilderness Cuisine," said she likes the fact that meals become an integral part of every trip.
"I realized at some point that one of the things that creates group dynamics is the cooking," she said. "You sit around, prepare dinner, laugh and talk, and you're fixing this big dinner for each other."
Another thing a woman can appreciate is a warm bath. Latimer invented the solar-powered garbage-bag bath, an inexpensive way to get clean in the wilderness. It requires a water-filled 44-gallon plastic garbage bag, a tarp and lots of sun. Latimer said she has campers place the bags about 500 feet from streams so soapy water doesn't empty into the water, then leaves the bags -- knotted at the top -- in the sun about three or four hours to heat up. The tarp is used as protection beneath the bags so they aren't punctured by twigs or rocks.
When the bags are hot, they're untied and campers step inside to wash. Men like them, too, but they're a luxury women really appreciate.
"Guys like to see how dirty they can get," she said. "Women like to be clean. They love it."
Age range
Latimer's trips are limited to 15 people, and the age range is 20 to 60, although she once took an 83-year-old woman and her three daughters to Copper Canyon. Among her more popular destinations are the Grand Canyon and a seven-day climb of Mount Whitney.
"Whitney is a great one," she said. "It's the highest peak in the lower 48 states, and people want to climb it. They hear about a women's group that does it and figure I know what I'm doing."
It's one of the more difficult trips she offers, but mere beginners aren't left behind. Latimer offers easy weekend excursions to Lake Tahoe for hiking or beginners' backpack trips to the Lost Coast and Yosemite. If camping in tents doesn't sound enticing, there are trips with overnight stays in cabins. Everyone who signs up can attend a pre-trip class and learn what to bring, how to pack and how to read maps and purify water.
Call of the Wild hasn't made her rich, Latimer said. Just as in the early days, attracting enough clients is her most significant obstacle.
But for someone who appreciates being outdoors, it's better than desk work. And better than being out of work.
"You have to love the wilderness," she said. "I love it. I have no regrets."