Following Your True North: The Path to an Unlikely Life Outdoors

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m an outdoorsy person. It could be because most of the time I look like I’ve stepped directly out of an REI ad, but I like to think it’s because my love of the outdoors is a deep part of who I am. It’s always been that way, but it’s a path I had to discover all on my own.

That’s because my granola girl persona is in complete opposition to how I was raised. In fact, I can count on one finger the number of times I went camping as a child, because that number is one. And it wasn’t even with my family. It was with my friend’s family, and it is a core memory. I was twelve. We were camping in Yosemite Valley. It was pure magic. That trip became an important signpost in my relationship with nature, but the story didn’t actually begin there.

My true origin story began in creek beds and the hills behind my house growing up, and continued to develop as I made conscious choices to learn more about the outdoors as I made my own life as an adult. I gleaned information from anyone who was willing to offer it. I went on weeks-long camping trips in the Sierra with my now ex-husband. I volunteered to take students on outdoor education trips (don’t worry, I’m an educator, so it’s not weird). I read a lot of books and blogs.

And I stumbled. A lot.

There was the time I almost burned my eyebrows off because I thought I could put extra cooking oil into the campfire. My eyebrows and that forest are both still intact. Or the time I was convinced it was a better idea to go to bed a little cold than too warm. In a tent. In January. That was a very shivery night! But with each trip and each misstep, I learned and honed my skills.

Even after years of doing this, part of me still feels like a novice. Maybe that’s because I didn’t grow up speaking the language of camping and backpacking. Everything I know about being outdoors is something I had to consciously learn.

But I did just get back from a Pacific Northwest adventure with my now sixteen-year-old son. It was just the two of us as we explored North Cascades, Glacier, and Mt. Rainier National Parks. We confidently planned hikes, navigated intense weather, made acquaintances with several mountain goats, and made the tough call to cut a hike short when a grizzly appeared on the trail.

I was able to do all of this not because I grew up in the backcountry, but because I’ve consciously built the instincts and skills over the last twenty years to make a trip like this possible.

All this to say: if the mountains or river or forest is calling, answer it! That call is coming from inside. You don’t need a pedigree of outdoor adventuring to make it possible. You don’t need to have grown up camping. You don’t need parents who taught you how to pitch a tent or build a fire. And you definitely don’t need to know everything before you start.

You do need to be prepared. You need to be willing to learn, make a few mistakes, and keep going.

And since you’ve found your way here, you’re off to a pretty great start.