LIFE

You have a wok. You love soy and hoisin sauces. Your favorite way to add flavor is with garlic and ginger. But where to go from here?

But while wine, yoga, good food and a little self-care isn’t foreign to the Mountain Mommas, this group has spent the last 30 years taking annual trips that involve rugged outdoor adventures such as backpacking, canoeing and cycling – while also developing unbreakable bonds.

On September 11, 2001, Leah Lopez took a late breakfast before heading into New York C ity on a Metro North train that never arrived. "I happened to be on the train an hour later than I woul d have usually been," she says over coffee at LaSalle in Collinsville. "After that I doubled down on what I really wanted to do with my life."