real life ☀️ not leaving the house
online, it looks like people are out adventuring every day. here's what it really looks like sometimes:
I’ve been thinking a lot about our lives online versus our real lives— authenticity is trending again. When everything we put online is designed with the audience in mind, how can it truly be authentic. You can’t “dance like no one is watching” in a TikTok video. The whole point is that people might be watching.
On one of my women’s paddling trips this past summer, someone told me I was way goofier in person than she expected me to be.
It made me happy, but it was also a really good reminder that what we see of people’s lives online is a persona, not a person. It also made me wonder—
When we are picking & choosing parts of ourselves to post online, what parts are we leaving out that are still worth sharing?
oh hey there! there are affiliate links in this post! that means if you choose to make a purchase based on my recommendation, I make a small kickback at no additional cost to you.
instagram vs reality of my life lately ✨
I spent some time dog sitting in the Twin Cities over the past week— actually, the past few weeks have been pretty intense with a lot of travel, and catching up with friends and family, and going from place to place.
Andy and I moved in October to Ashland, Wisconsin (which I’ll share more about later and why Ashland imo is one of the best spots to base yourself for adventure in the Midwest) but haven’t actually been home all that much. Which in a sense is good— slowly settling in.
this article needs updating, but here’s a quick peak at the hiking near ashland, wisconsin
We spent almost two weeks dogsitting in the Twin Cities. Every time we’re in the Twin Cities it’s always a little bit chaotic with not a lot of down time— we like to go do all the things that we can’t when we’re up north, and visit with family, and a lot of our friends live in the Cities so it turns, or did this time, a “we’ve got plans every night of the week” kind of event.
Which is very much not how things generally are for me, especially over the winter.
rei: my favorite place in the twin cities (joke) (kind of)
One of my favorite stops on a Twin Cities visit is the Bloomington REI— I try to buy 90% of my gear used (Duluth Gear Exchange, read the guide to finding used gear here) but that specific REI scratches such a brain itch.
I left with the new Smartwool traditional snowflake socks (currently 70% off in red???), a Kari Traa baselayer (I was expecting to find overhyped but I do in fact, get the hype), an REI synthetic baselayer (underhyped, feels better quality than previous years), and the REI trailsmith overalls (this was kind of a crazy purchase but I feel i can become an overalls person).
canoeing the Mississippi in 20kt headwinds
Paddling in a place where you can take an Uber as your shuttle? Absolutely revolutionary. Reality is that this trip kinda sucked. Brutal work grinding against the wind for four hours. I was sore. It was still fun though.
Listen, I love life up north living in small towns, but if I had to move to a city it would be this one for sure. The Twin Cities just have so much to do, and so much more direct access to the outdoors than I think people realize. Where else can you rent a kayak and paddle park to park, then drop the kayak in a kayak locker and uber back to your car? Coffee and Minnehaha Falls Park, or Fort Snelling, or lakeside sauna?
My family flew in to visit us while we were there. I did uber eats for the first time. We went to an Applebees. It snowed and we got zero trick-or-treaters. We came back home, to Ashland, monday and it was a weird week. I made a really good bean soup. I tried to ignore election news because I knew what was coming, and then I felt guilty about that. I’ve been feeling guilty about a lot of things lately— I don’t work out enough, I don’t eat healthy enough, I’m not getting enough cleaning done, I’m not contacting my friends enough, and on, and on. I think maybe in general I am just the sort of person who hangs on to a lot of guilt.
And none of this made social media. Instead, I posted about the gales of november, with a header image selfie where I do, indeed, look like a thumb. Call it authenticity. See what I mean?
She’s so fun, she’s so off the cuff. She is not leaving the house today.
Still though, what a privilege to have a wonderful house I love that I can choose not to leave. After years bouncing from apartment to apartment, after three summers of #guidelife living in tents for months at a time the privilege of a long-term space that is ours is not lost on me.
What a privilege to travel this region, and have friends in so many places who love the things we love. It’s a privilege to have a job I really love, and family that wants to come visit me.
And it’s always, always a privilege that has truly never been lost on me to have the access to outdoor spaces I have had over the last five or so years. One thing that I do think is frustrating about Instagram pages like mine is that they make it feel like access to the outdoors should be easy.
For some people it isn’t— you often need a car and a park pass, and while you can do short hikes in any clothes often there’s pressure to get hiking specific clothes. While hiking has relatively low entry costs, sports like paddling or climbing are expensive equipment-wise. Cost aside, the communities themselves can feel really exclusive. Everyone who’s been there a while is friends; it can feel like they don’t want to let new people in— part of that is just life, and how friend groups work, but the result of it can be that it feels really, really hard to put yourself out there.
breaking into the outdoors:
Okay, so you want to get into the outdoors, but you’ve got very little money and don’t know where to start. Here’s what I’d recommend:
Facebook groups. You can often join a local hiking group and make adventurous friends that way!
Instagram. See someone cool in your area? Honestly, shoot your shot! I’ve made a lot of really cool friends through social media, and I’m still pretty down to meet up with people and grab coffee as long as they introduce themselves over dm and explain why they want to talk to me— like I’ve met up with a few people to help them get blogs started or apply for guiding jobs, or just go for a hike with someone in the area. (i will say i only do this with women for obvious reasons).
Carpool. This seems maybe silly or obvious, but once you’ve meet someone to hike or plan adventures with, set it up so you can carpool to a cool spot and split costs.
Find spots on Google Maps. Literally, google maps is your best friend for finding trails near you.
thanks for reading, and I hope you’re having a really great weekend❤️!
xMaddy
Those overalls have me TEMPTED!