This will make you smile

just a few things to make you happy this week :)

I woke up to one of those mornings the other day. Knocked over a glass of water on the carpet. Spilled coffee. Went to pick up the mug I spilled from and hit my head on my desk. A why-is-normal-shit-suddenly-impossible morning.

Usually this means I probably need to eat protein. Sometimes I feel like I need to go back to bed and just start clean over again. Instead of start over, I took a break, had a snack and a cup of tea and thought about a few of the things that have been making me smile lately, and decided to share them here with you:

---

Audio dispatches from the tundra

Legendary adventurer Will Steger is on a spring thaw trip to the Arctic Ocean through Northern Canada. Here at home spring has sprung with green leaves finally unfurling and rabbits literally everywhere in my yard — way up north though spring looks a little different.

Steger is sending out daily audio dispatches from his trip. Listen to spring thaw come to the Arctic, live.

---

Surprise aurora :)

Since getting back from Michigan, I have been going and will be going pretty much nonstop until the last day of May (at which point I expect to collapse on the couch and never move again). Saturday night, I was out late in Northern Wisconsin for an early season sea kayaking training when I got a happy little surprise!

For someone who lives so far north, I have terrible Northern Lights luck. Once, they were out in full force on one of my overnight sea kayaking trips and I slept through it completely. Without fail anytime I am backpacking in the desert or in Berlin or just generally out of town Northern Lights are happening.

This was just a happy little case of right place, right time. We stayed up late and watched them from the beach until midnight, far later than we should’ve with a 6 am wake up looming, then crashed at camp. Not a terrible start to the summer.

---

Bee hikes the PCT

One of my favorite backpacking YouTubers Bee’s Wild Life is hiking the Pacific Crest Trail this summer, I’ve really been enjoying her vlogs from the trail AND she has a relatively new Substack (subscribe below!)

I especially enjoyed her gear swaps and failures, and how to find the confidence to go solo backpacking. Overall though, it’s just really cool to see someone crushing it outside and documenting it in a way that’s both detailed and fun to follow along!

---

Where I’ve been lately…

I spent a chunk of the week out in Battle Lake, MN at The Grove Glamping. I’ll be honest here, the western side of Minnesota was not super high on my to-visit list. I had sort of thought it was all just Fargo-esque flat and not much to do.

I ended up finding a lot more than a flat place and I had really forgotten how much I actually love finding little bits of magic in places where you sometimes have to look for it at a different angle.

On Thursday night on a sunset hike I found myself smiling so wide my face hurt while I watched an otter swim across a clear blue stream. No mountains, but this place is magic in a different kind of fairytale way. This is where one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world meets the hardwood forest, where clear blue streams cut through woods and rolling golden prairie hills, and I’m really excited to show you all exactly what I found in this Wednesday’s Postcard From.