You’d think my skin was as thick as Kevlar with as much rejection as I’ve endured over the years in my freelance writing career and book publishing journey. But 2023 ended up being deeply soul-sucking in the ratio of my article pitches to published articles. In an attempt to rationalize (to myself) why I have…
Justin & I have collectively lived in 14 states, and every state—heck, every town—has a different system for trash collection and recycling. So I’m not surprised that moving to a small town in the woods means there’s no Trash Day or Curbside Trash Pick Up, let alone recycling. I thought #plasticfreejuly would be an opportune…
Currently living/working: Most of you know we haven’t had “traditional” 9-5 jobs in years. Actually, a decade. We always make the claim that we sling a lot of mud at the wall to see what sticks. So even though we had no idea what our summer would entail, it turns out there’s a lot of…
Currently living/working: We are still wintering in Alaska, and November was a freakin busy month with writing deadlines, book madness and finishing up Leave No Trace. So we spent a lot of time hibernating in our cabin hunched over our laptops. Backpacker Magazine: We submitted just about 100 items for the holiday gift guides, all…
Currently living/working in: We are happily in Alaska, where winter is in full swing. Work is busy! And by work, I mean the multiple projects/jobs we are juggling. In fact, I feel like this deserves a list-type snapshot with some of the bigger, more pressing deadlines (actually helps me see the big picture too!) Backpacker…
Currently living/working in: We are well passed the halfway point of our Leave No Trace contract—still from Alaska. The full schedule continues. We finished up in-person programming at the campgrounds in Denali National Park and did some cleanups in September before the snow covers any summer trash! For October, we’ll be focusing more on online…
Currently living/working in: We’re two months into our Leave No Trace contract—still from Alaska. It’s been a surprisingly full schedule even though we are not traveling around like we normally would be! We weren’t sure what kind of in-person programming we could do, but since Denali National Park is open, we’ve been filling in lots…
Currently living/working in: We’re one month into our Leave No Trace job—from Alaska—and all is going well. Besides lots of meetings and trainings to get up to speed, we’ve mainly been working on content projects, including 3 blog posts, 1 Instagram Live Video (follow @Leavenotracecenter on Instagram if you aren’t already!), and our first webinar…
Currently living/working in: We started Leave No Trace work 6/29! It’s all based from Alaska and online for now, but it takes some adjusting to be back on a specific schedule. Knowing this was coming, we spent most of June tying up quite a few freelance content projects, including a secret project that hopefully I…
Currently living/working in: We are still at our cabin in Healy, juggling multiple writing projects and hustling to gain more. It’s been a pretty full plate of freelance work lately, all things considered. Thankfully, the long summer days mean we can still get ‘er done and have time to play! We also have a tiny…
Currently living/working in: Well, we’re still in limbo job-wise, hanging in Healy and literally cannot conceptualize where we’ll be and what we’ll be doing beyond May. We’ve done lots of coloring outside the lines to piece together a livelihood over the years, and it’s worked well to juggle 10 “jobs” at a time as a…
Current mood: I hope this blog post finds everyone healthy and in good spirits. I’m pretty sure our mood is in line with everyone else’s: unsettled. The COVID-19/coronavirus pandemic escalated quickly and keeps shape-shifting daily. It’s hard to ignore the terrifying/heartbreaking news and not to let your mind wander to the what ifs. It’s hard…
Oh hey faithful blog readers! I am THREE whole days late with my CURRENTLY post!! Did you notice???? I did, and I HATE being late, but we started going 90mph in life this past week, so all I can do is ask for forgiveness! Currently living/working in: This month was full of professional development (and…
Currently living/working in: We spent the first part of the month holed up in our cabin in Healy, Alaska, juggling writing deadlines. Then we flew to the East Coast for 3 Leave No Trace cleanup events (Jacksonville 11/17, Philadelphia 11/23 and NYC—specifically Queens—11/29) as part of the REI Opt Outside / Opt to Act campaign.…
Currently living/working in: Healy, Alaska!!! We finished up our Leave No Trace/Subaru contract and flew to Alaska Oct. 14. I greatly appreciate sitting still after a summer on the road, but even more so in our cozy little cabin. Lest you think we’ve just been doing puzzles and watching the snow fall out our windows,…
I’m posting blogs in chronological order, so bear with me as I catch up to the present! Our 2019 Leave No Trace/Subaru Zero Landfill Initiative Summer Tour was a huge success. We visited the same 3 national parks that are striving toward zero landfill (Grand Teton, Denali & Yosemite). Leave No Trace gives us a…
We finished our Leave No Trace/Subaru Zero Landfill Tour on Sept. 30 in Yosemite National Park, and even though Sept. 30 was only 19 days ago, it feels like 19 weeks! I figured I better post my Yosemite Wrap Up sooner than later (and full tour wrap up next). Everyone loves Yosemite. But as I…
***Sorry for the delay! We were climbing to the top of Nevada (blog post forthcoming!)*** Currently living/working in: We just finished up our final Subaru/Leave No Trace Zero Landfill Initiative outreach destination in Yosemite National Park and we’re in route to Denver/Boulder, where we’ll be for about 9 days. Then off to our new cabin…
We are already halfway through our last leg of the Zero Landfill Tour, in Yosemite National Park. But I couldn’t go without doing a wrap up from our time in Alaska! 34 days 26 events Mileage Driven: 5,250 miles Nights Camping: 6 Miles Hiked: 45.2 Miles Paddled: 10.5 Denali Sightings: 6 Black Bears Spotted: 3…
Last summer while we were working in Denali National Park for the Leave No Trace / Subaru Zero Landfill Initiative, Joe Lamp’l from Growing a Greener World asked us to part of his show and the premiere of Season 10 Episode 1 happened this month! To give background, Growing a Greener World airs on PBS…