They met on the trail as strangers.

Every Tuesday for over thirty-five years, Shan, Brenda, Judy, and scores of their friends lace up their trail runners and venture into the wild heart of the Tetons.

But the steepest switchbacks aren’t marked on trail maps. They twist through grief, trauma, and quiet fear.

Ranging from forty to eighty years old, they shoulder life’s challenges along with their backpacks as they weather heatwaves, cross snowfields, avoid moose and bear, and limp home with aching hips and knees.

They’ve trekked through adversities too: injury, ailment, unimaginable loss, and a harrowing fall. Together, these otherwise ordinary women confront aging, illness, and emotional upheaval, climbing life’s cruelest trails with grit, grace, and–thanks to each other’s support–even laughter.

Blending powerful tales of personal experience with breathtaking descriptions of nature’s grandeur, The Last Mile Is Always Three explores why women say yes to the struggle–and the deep bonds they forge along the way.

Fans of Raynor Winn’s life-affirming journey in The Salt Path and Brené Brown’s musings on persistence in Braving the Wilderness will find a powerful truth in The Last Mile Is Always Three. Healing doesn’t happen by accident but in footsteps, friendship, and the courage to show up for ourselves and each other—especially when it’s hard.