Carolyn Hartfield: 1st Life – Sedentary Corporate Manager, Detroit; 2nd Life – Outdoorswoman, Atlanta

Why is this woman up a tree and apparently happy about it?

Carolyn Hartfield invaded corporate America in the ‘70’s like a lot of us did leading the way for other female  professionals.  And again like a lot of us, she took a buyout when her company divested from the Bell System to start her first marketing consulting business.  Carolyn also bought and ran a few health food stores and that may have been what started her on the road to having a healthier lifestyle.  It also may have had something to do with her

abrupt move to Atlanta ten plus years ago where she currently owns and runs Hartfields Hikers, Hartfields Healthy Haven and OPALsSite.org (Older People With Active Lifestyles), leads a number of different meetups and is a health and wellness advocate and coach.  It’s better to ask what outdoor activity and sport Carolyn doesn’t do.  Oh, and she has gold and silver medals from competing in the World Senior Games and National Senior Olympics for basketball, which she didn’t start playing until she was 50.  Speaking of age, for her 65th birthday, Carolyn led a group of baby boomers down the Grand Canyon.  She did that along with a list of activities that year that you won’t believe and will leave you breathless.  Carolyn’s not just “living my life to the fullest”, her motto, but reinterpreting life, her second life.   

The list:
1. My first trip to Belize, Central America
2. My first experience sailing the high seas in a Catamaran yacht
3. Snorkeling for the first time
4. Riding my bicycle more than 40 miles, in one ride
5. Seeing the New York Broadway Show, Motown the Musical…seeing that I am a Detroit Motown girl!
6. Touring the Grand Canyon, hiking the Bright Angel Trail, biking the canyon rim, and walking the Sky Walk
7. Seeing a Moonbow at Cumberland Falls in Kentucky, one of only 5 places it is visible in the Western Hemisphere
8. Reconnecting with old friends, including friends from my teenage years, and my first boyfriend
9. Being featured in a local Atlanta area Lifestyle magazine
10. Being featured in a Life Plus, Informed & Inspired Senior Living TV segment.          And last, but the most significant…
11. Having my first doctor’s appointment as a ‘senior citizen‘ and being told there was no code for me in the computer system because I was ‘so healthy.’