Lately it feels like everyone wants a piece of me. There are thirty unanswered DMs from strangers who need my advice—
what is seasonal work like, i’m visiting Duluth and want to know the best hikes can you help me, do you know of any cute cabins near traverse city, it would be really helpful if you shared my small business on social media, hey we loved your most recent post can we send you some free product in exchange for a reel, i disagree with what you said in that 20 second clip and rather than find the context for it i demand you debate me now (but you’re a stupid influencer who has had everything handed to her and I don’t actually care what you think, I just want to remind you that I’m smarter, better and more ethical than you), can you tell me fun things to do in the apostle islands with kids, do you think you could take me and my friend hiking, would you want to meet up and shoot sunrise, it’s shameful that you don’t use your platform to promote more social justice causes, please only share about hiking stay in your lane, what are good hikes near Chicago, I stop reading
It used to be that I could reply to every single DM, but lately it’s been too much— which is of course, to be expected of being seen online. The cost of visibility, of success as a freelance outdoor writer/photographer, is that people ask things of you that you can’t give. Everyone has an opinion on what you should be doing, and everyone wants a piece of your time.
Still, I appreciate that people take time out of their busy day to read my work, interact with my content. I try and do the same for them— I’m prioritizing emails.
My sister came up to visit this weekend.
When we were little, we would canoe on the lake at Grandma’s house together, walk through the “enchanted forest” across the street. Today, we cobble together the cheapest hiking-oriented vacations we can pull off. This summer, she came to Washington to see me and we camped and traipsed around the Cascades and San Juan Islands. This past week, the North Shore.
The trails are sheets of ice and we pull on microspikes, but it’s sunny and there’s more people out than I’ve seen in a while. I don’t mind sharing the trails.
At Cascade River State Park, a women recognizes me from Instagram. It doesn’t happen all that often, but more and more these days— I’m a local-ish travel writer/online personality in a small area. I don’t feel like the type of person someone would recognize and be excited to talk to, but I guess there is something to be said for scale— the Upper Midwest outdoor community is small.
After the women leaves my sister smirks at me. “So what, you’re some kind of little celebrity now? You know all my friends follow your Instagram?
“I think it’s kind of embarrassing,” I explain. I wanted to be a writer, that’s all. Not anything else. If the ground wasn’t frozen, I might dig a hole and crawl into it.
“It’s kind of cool,” my sister shrugs. “Plus, I tell all my friends that you’re actually boring and annoying don’t worry”.
for icy hiking gear i recommend check out my gear list!
check out all my favorite fall hikes on the North Shore — don’t worry they’re good in the summer too :)
Last winter, I worked at a small, popular coffee shop on the North Shore. Behind the counter, I would sometimes hear people pull up my Instagram or blog to find hikes in the area, talking about it right in front of me. The coffee bar leant a comfortable veil of anonymity. I was out of context.
I had a friend say to me once that she was really happy she met me before she started following my Instagram. She liked that knowing me, the person, colored her perception of my writing and social media, not the other way around.
I think about that more and more, as people I don’t know ask things of me as if they know me like a close friend.
for more hikes like these ones, check out my eBooks designed to help you explore the Upper Midwest!
This winter on the North Shore is gray and brittle. It’s a beautiful area in any season, but I’m struggling to find the constant freeze and thaw, the mud on boots1 and the ice on my windshield, beautiful. I’m struggling even more with knowing that though it looks and feels like April, spring isn’t around the corner. We’ll likely get a late season blizzard. I think I’d be happy to see snow.
I’ve been lucky in that I’ve spent the last month wildly busy with work and travel— Bayfield, the Keweenaw Peninsula, now my sister visiting here on the shore. Now, there’s a long gray month stretching between me and my next trip with no plans to fill it out, only computer work. I know spring is coming but it feels really far away.
Do you ever feel like that? Like the promise of a change in seasons, or change at all, feels impossible? I feel a little like that right now.
I think it’s okay to feel that way sometimes— to feel very not in love with the world, like everything is gray and cold, to feel overwhelmed by things outside of your control, exposed and a little bit fragile.
I’m working on sitting with my feelings, on not pushing for optimism, pushing things under rugs. I’m looking forward to spring, but right now it’s too cold to go outside, and that’s okay.
group trip updates :)
I’m running a small group women’s sea kayaking trip in the Apostle Islands! Come paddle with me in one of my favorite places in the world :) DATES: July 19-23
(code MADDY24 for $50 off registration; this way I make a small kickback that helps compensate me for some of the time I’m spending answering questions, writing curriculum, and working on logistics)
Here are some quick answers to the questions I’ve been getting about the trip:
Q: Who is this trip run through?
This trip is run with Chicas Abroad, a small women-owned business that I met this past summer while working as a sea kayaking guide in the San Juan Islands. The structure and curriculum of this trip is done through Chicas, while the sea kayak expedition portion will be outfitted through Lost Creek Adventures, a local outfitter in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
This trip is completely independent of large tour companies running influencer trips. This will be my 6th summer working in sea kayaking, fourth summer guiding in the Apostle Islands, and I personally will be writing all the curriculum and making the route that I think is best for our group based on the caves and places I love in the Apostles. I know the owners of both Chicas Aboard and Lost Creek Adventures, and they are both awesome businesses that I’m stoked to be a part of.
Q: I’ve never kayaked before, and I don’t know how to set up a tent. Will I be out of place?
This trip is designed to fit anyone looking to expand their outdoors and sea kayaking skill set. We’ll be doing Zoom sessions in the months leading up to the trip to work out group transport logistics, as well as to gauge where everyone is at with their comfort in the outdoors. I expect that we’ll have a decent mix of people with camping and paddling experience and people newer to the sport, which is awesome!
My goal is to meet everyone where they’re at with their comfort in the outdoors and work on goal setting together. Some of those goals might be hard goals, like “I want to learn how to read a nautical chart and use a compass” or “I wan’t to learn how to self-rescue in a tandem sea kayak”. Other goals might be soft goals like “I want to be comfortable sleeping outside”, or “I want to meet more outdoorsy women”, or “I want to have an adventure”. All of that is awesome, and I’ll do my best to facilitate meeting those goals.
Never heard of the Apostles?! Check out my very detailed guide to visiting the Apostle Islands, my favorite National Park!
Q: What’s the age range on this trip?
The youngest we can take out on a trip like this is age 12 (accompanied by a parent). With teens especially, whether or not they enjoy a trip like this really depends on their interest in the outdoors and kayaking, and whether or not they are going to quit. It can be dangerous for the whole group to have someone along who decides they are done paddling halfway through a long crossing to an island, so it’s good to make sure your kid understands they might have to grind through it, even when it’s hard. Ultimately, you know your kid and the type of trip they can handle!
That said, this trip is specifically designed for beginners and should have a moderate activity level. So long as everyone involved understands this is an adventure trip and it might be hard for an hour or two here and there, but we’ll get through it, you’ll have a blast!
There is no upper age limit on a trip like this! The oldest person I’ve taken on an overnight sea kayaking trip was a women in her late 70s, and she was the fastest paddler in her group!
Note that we are bound by the limitations of the sea kayak itself; shoulder injuries can make paddling extremely uncomfortable and you must be able to sit in a kayak 3-4 hours max. We also have a maximum weight of 275 lbs and a max height 6’6”; this is due to the type of sea kayak available and safe on Lake Superior. Unfortunately, as of now there is not a more inclusive option available that is safe for guided overnight tours on Lake Superior.
If you have any questions about comfort or limitations, please feel free to shoot me an email hello [at] madelinemarquardt.com and we can talk about some options to make this trip work for you!
Q: What’s your kayaking background?
I have three years of guiding/expedition paddling in the Apostle Islands themselves, plus a year guiding overnight trips in the San Juan Islands, plus a 70-day sea kayaking trip in British Columbia under my belt!
I’ve got a long history of guiding sea kayaking trips, and by far my favorite trips to guide are women’s trips, particularly groups where the women haven’t met each other beforehand.
It’s been so incredible to watch people build confidence and become a team over the course of a few days, especially in the outdoor space where so many women start uncomfortable and feeling unqualified. I’ve listened to a lot of women start a trip with phrases like “I don’t think I can do this” or “this is really not something I’m comfortable with or going to be good at” and by the end of the trip be launching and landing their own kayaks.
Sea kayaking is a sport that really lends itself too women’s strong suits— it’s a thinking and planning sport to get from island to island, and it’s a teamwork sport in a shared boat. You steer a kayak as much with your hips as with your rudder and paddle, and the people who excel tend to be people who come ready to learn and without a whole lot of overconfidence.
By far, my favorite part of guiding has been watching women connect with kayaking and feel at home on the water and facilitating people’s relationships to the water.
Q: Are you the only guide?
We’ll have a second Lost Creek Adventures guide along with us as per the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore regulations to maintain the 1:6 paddler to guide ratio! I will be the only guide on day one/night one, and our second guide will join us when we hop on the water for the wilderness kayaking portion on days two-five.
Q: Will I be able to take photos?
Totally! While photography isn’t necessarily the focus of the trip, I’m happy to help anyone who wants to take sea cave photos, and we should have plenty of time both at camp and on the water to practice kayak photography.
Q: What is the cost of this trip?
The cost of this trip is $1450 for five days. This covers guide fees, tips for the Lost Creek Guide, meals as indicated in itinerary (which is all of the meals you are with me for!), tent use, four days of wilderness sea kayaking, and (some of) the countless hours Melanie (from Chicas Abroad) and I have spent working out the itinerary, logistics, and curriculum.
We’ve done our best to run this trip at a budget-friendly rate and keep the price as low as possible while covering all our expenses, and are committed to continuing to do that if we offer more trips like this in the future.
Also! The code Maddy24 will get you $50 off the total cost of the trip, and I make a small kickback for marketing and answering questions :)
other good links :)
I was a guest on one of my favorite podcasts last week! We chatted sea kayaking and expedition paddling, North Shore life, and why it’s so hard for women to feel comfortable in the outdoors when they’re just starting out, and what we can do about it. listen here!
My sister and I visited Grand Marais this past week, the beautiful small town tucked between Lake Superior and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness with the Superior Hiking Trail in the hills above. I lived here for a few years before moving farther south down the shore, but it’s such a wonderful little town. Check out my favorite things to do in Grand Marais!
Wondering what gear you need for your kayaking adventures this summer? Check out my beginner’s guide to kayak camping!
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NOTE: Muddy trails in the Northland often translates to trails closed to hiking. All of our hiking was done with temps in the mid-20s; ie open trails and ice. When temps hit the mid-30s and sunny, it’s best to stay off the Superior Hiking Trail and check for local closures.
I think we just all need a change of seasons. This has been the longest November of my life. Good job on promoting your sea kayaking trip. I wish my granddaughter was old enough to go with you. She is a force!
Thank you for sharing your writing and life with all of us, even when it feels weird and you have bad interactions with people online. You're an inspiration of mine and I'm thankful for your presence here! Also, I'm not sure if you've read anything by Audrey Sutherland, but I think you'd really enjoy her life story and her two books. Additionally, Hudson Bay Bound is also a great read. Both are about paddle travel ✨ Keep doing what you do, friend