Ahh! It's here! Our first publication at Boldly Went is live and beaming out to e-Readers around the world!

Despite spending a year and a half with my head buried in this project, I clearly can't stop writing about it, because to celebrate, I want to give you a thorough behind-the-scenes introduction, talk about how it fits into the big picture of what we're up to here at Boldly Went, and let you know how you can help if you want to see this thing blow up!

From the blurb, here's a short summary of what the book is:

 While the book focuses on those lovable, cheap, smelly, hardcore adventure junkies we refer to as dirtbags, I’ve done my best to make it as fun, interesting, and useful as possible for anyone who thinks of themselves as a part of the outdoor community. It's divided into chapters focused on five of the biggest challenges that confront people trying to build a life centered on adventure, and the topics are relevant for anyone who's likely to have found their way to this blog - how to save money on travel, how to balance a career and a passion for outdoor pursuits, how to live responsibly in a complicated world, how to navigate relationship challenges when your interests drift towards the extreme, and how to find meaning in life by immersing yourself more deeply in the things that you love.

To get there, I do my best to distill the concrete wisdom that Angel and I have learned through our own experiences, and through our interactions with other people who center their lives on outdoor pursuits. The book gets right down to the specifics of articles to read and organizations to get in contact with directly, the PDF edition is densely hyperlinked, and all versions include a long appendix with further resources to check out. I've done my best to include as much practical advice as possible, because I want to be able to confidently say that the things readers will learn will easily offset the cost of purchase. We really do want everything we do to be helpful to you all. That’s not just me being altruistic - it's the only way I personally can feel good about pouring so much into this. A major theme of the book is that people shouldn't waste time amassing useless "stuff" that doesn't improve their lives in any meaningful way, so I've done everything I can to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem! 

While there have been other good, practical guides to budget and adventure travel, as far as I know, there’s nothing quite like The Dirtbag's Guide out there. To my knowledge, it’s the first book-length attempt to comprehensively define the dirtbag counter culture, and to talk about why it's significant in the bigger picture. The book gets into big philosophical questions about how to be a decent person in a screwed up world, and beyond just a guide to saving money when you're hiking, the book is something of a dirtbag Tao - an outdoor "rule of life".

But let's be honest: you can't take yourself completely seriously on a project about dirtbags, that's primarily focused on organizing your entire life around playing outside more often, so even when it veers into serious issues, the whole thing's all in good fun. 

The book stands on its own, and I think dirtbags outside of our existing community will love it. But I think that those of you who are connected to the bigger Boldly Went project will have the richest experience. There's a lot of personal backstory from Angel and I that we haven't talked about in other venues, but more importantly the vast majority of examples, ideas, and references came from people we've met through Boldly Went. You'll almost definitely recognize some names you know! You might even be in it! (Don't worry, you all are awesome, and I only included positive examples!)

Rob "Danger Muffin" Zimmerman, who helped me shape the content and clean up an infinite number of typos, told perhaps my favorite PCT story ever in the podcast, and has been the key player in helping us get established in Truckee, CA. Megan Myers, who designed the logo, was one of our earliest Bend, OR supporters and also designed our business logo. Patreon supporters read early editions and offered advice on the text and first attempt at a cover, and the book really is an outgrowth of this community!

We also see the book as having the same overarching goals as Boldly Went. Everything we do is focused on building up the outdoor community, making outdoor adventure more accessible, connecting like-minded people who wouldn’t meet otherwise, and promoting important personal values that we also think are important in the outdoor community - environmentalism, simplicity, humanism, and a visceral connection with nature.

I genuinely appreciate that you're interested enough in this project to read this far into the post! So thank you! If you want to help us make it a success, there are a couple of important ways you can do so!

Where to purchase a copy, and why
You can currently purchase electronic versions of this book in three different formats: PDF, ePub, and Kindle, and if you're in the Seattle area you can sign up for a super limited edition handmade print copy!

• The PDF and ePub versions are on sale through our online store on Gumroad, where there are also notes to help you decide which format would be best for your situation. From our perspective, the advantages of buying there are that the PDF text is densely hyperlinked with useful resources for you (vs the other editions where the resources are only linked in an Appendix), and we get about 95% of the actual sale price from that site (vs Amazon, where authors receive 70%). 
• The Kindle version is available through Amazon.com. While we don't make quite as much per sale there, buying on Amazon has some advantages. If you use a Kindle, it's a super easy process to download. But it's also a great marketplace for the book, and the site does some automatic marketing. I secretly launched the product for sale on a Wednesday at about 1 am, and by the end of the next day it sold a couple of copies in the UK and the US without me ever so much as mentioning that it exists. The more people that buy there, the more likely Amazon is to recommend it to other readers.
• The print version is also now available on Amazon.com! 
• And the limited edition handmade dirtbag print edition is also on sale at our Gumroad store. There will only be 50 produced, and they'll be handed out at our official launch party. Visit the store for more details!

Where to leave a review, and why
If you do read, it's hugely helpful if you leave a review online - even if it's nothing comprehensive or stellar.

• Amazon, like a lot of other online services, pushes the products with the most reviews to the top of search results. I've heard that the number of reviews is more important than the number of stars or length, so if you buy on Kindle, it hugely increases the likelihood that other people will find the book if you leave a review! (To actually leave a review, simply scroll to the bottom of the product page and click on "leave a customer review".) 
• Goodreads and Google Books are the two other most influential review sites, that similarly direct people towards books they might like. If you didn't buy on Amazon or just want to be a super awesome supporter, it's also hugely helpful to get reviews on those sites (I'm currently working on getting a book profile set up on each page - I'll hyperlink here when they're live!)(Update: The Goodreads page for the book is live, and linked here.)

Where we'll be online

• The book page currently lives on the Boldly Went site here.
• The primary place we're building a social media account specifically for the book is on Instagram @dirtbagguide 
• And most exciting to me is that, along with the book, today we’re also launching the “Boldly Went Dirtbag Book Club” on Facebook. It's not actually a book club, but we wanted to keep it a bit confusing so that only people who are in the know will try to join. And if it is what we hope, it will be a group with the same spirit and goals as the Guide. In essence, it's a curated way to connect the mass of awesome friends we’ve met through Boldly Went with each other. We want it be be a social media resource that's actually fun, useful, and inspiring rather than the usual "people arguing or selling things", so the goals are specifically social, practical, and oriented towards real-life, non-Facebook-based adventure! We want to help the Boldly Went community make personal connections when you’re traveling, or find people close to home who might be open to teaching you a new skill, letting you borrow gear, or showing you a new place. If you've made it this far into this post, you're the type of person we're hoping will be a part of it, so I hope you'll request to join and learn more!

Other, maybe less-obvious, things you can do

• Send me your feedback! This might not be standard writing practice, but this project has been hugely crowd sourced, and I would love to hear your feedback about literally everything related to the book - content you'd change or add, people who would be good to include, bad grammar, anything! This thing is a living document that's relatively easy to update, and I plan to re-release on a regular basis (maybe every year or two) to make sure references stay up to date and the project stays fresh. I'm already building a file of reader input to consider for the 2nd edition!
• Let me know about "watering holes" where dirtbags gather where I might be able to promote this. If you know a place where the target audience hangs out, either online or in person, let me know, because those are great points of connection to help get the book into the hands of people who might like or benefit from it! (An example, if you're not sure what I'm talking about - a friend just recommended that we try to set up a vendor spot at an American Long Distance Hiker Association gathering that's coming up in a couple of weeks. Those sorts of ideas are super helpful!)
• Of course, share around with friends who might find this kind of thing interesting or useful - your recommendations are a lot more valuable than my own!
• Our main thing is live events! If you're interested in promoting this project in your town, or in a group you're a part of, let us know - we'd love to talk about organizing an event that hits on the themes we talk about in the book. 
• And finally, the people who pledge on Patreon are ultimately the most important supporters of this project! Consider becoming one of them! Upfront financial costs for the book were several thousand dollars, even factoring in discounted editing and art production services from friends, and doing everything as cheaply as possible. Considering the time spent on the project, it'll take thousands of sales for this project to really "pay" directly. I'm hopeful that we can get there, but many authors don't, even with full-blown marketing teams. We're appealing to a niche audience, which is part of what makes this awesome, but it also means that pledging supporters are even more important to making sure we can keep producing projects like this.​ (Just to be clear here - I'm not complaining or trying to guilt you in to anything - I'm just laying out the realities of self-publishing, and trying to offer as much gratitude as I can for the people who've invested in making this happen!)

Now, onward to trying to figure out how to get this thing to the masses! Thank you so much for helping make this writing dream a reality, and supporting this next big step in our crazy little Boldly Went project!

Hi Adventure Buddies! Angel here, producer and host of the Boldly Went podcast. Listening to a podcast is like listening to the radio, but  you have complete control over what program you listen to. Pretty awesome, right? 

If you're a long time listener, you already know how to listen to podcasts. Before you go, we need your help! I hope you'll help us demystify the world of podcasting for the 2 out of every 3 people who don't currently know how to listen to podcasts. You can do that by telling them about this show, but better yet, share this article with anyone who you think would like step by step instructions about how to start listening. And at the very end of this article, I've listed some of my favorite podcasts, and I'd love to hear your recommendations too! 

Can you believe 2 out of 3 people are missing out on all this amazing content? For someone like me, this can be easy to forget because I spend so much of my time in podcast production, but I see the real-life evidence because people ask me all the time how they can listen. This is a great question, buddies, and I'm here to help.

It seems like there are a million ways to listen to a podcast, and I'm regularly learning new ways to listen myself, so no judgement here if you find this world to be full of nebulous sound waves that you aren't sure how to access. In this article I won't be covering all 1 million ways to find and listen to new podcasts, but this handy-dandy guide will get you started then you can help others along in their podcast discovery journey too by sharing this article with them!

Note to readers: You'll notice I reference the Boldly Went podcast in the examples given throughout this article. If you are trying to listen to any other podcast, just substitute the name of that podcast and that should get you where you need to go. Ready to ignite your adventure?

Many podcasts have a corresponding website where you can stream episodes for free. So the easiest and fastest way to find a podcast that you've heard of is to Google it.

At Boldly Went we have multiple ways you can listen through our website.
​
Here's the first way you can listen through our website.
​
Follow these steps (numbers corresponding to image below):

1. Go to www.boldlywentadventures.com
2. Select the Listen Tab
3. Scroll until you see the web player
4. Click the play button to immediately start listening.
5. Or, select the specific episode you want to listen to then hit the play button. 

If you just said to yourself, 'What the --- is a podcatcher?,' join the club. I never hear this word in use, so don't worry too much about it. A podcatcher is commonly a podcasting app. What I want you to know is that using a podcatcher, after the initial set up, is the easiest way for you to follow podcasts you love so that you never miss an episode. A podcatcher tracks your listens and lets you pick up right where you left off. New episodes can be automatically downloaded and ready for you the next time you want to listen. Following a podcast in a podcatcher is way easier than listening through a browser.

In that picture just above, you'll see I added some blue stars. They're right next to Radio Public, Apple Podcasts, and Google Play. Those are podcatchers. You'll see links to some other podcatchers just below the web player including Stitcher and TuneIn.

​Boldly Went is on a bunch of other podcatchers too, as many as we know exist, but it gets to be a bit much to list those out all over the website so that's why you'll hear me say, "or Search Boldly Went on your favorite podcasting app and subscribe." 

To get started with a podcatcher, it's pretty simple:

1. Select the Listen Tab
2. Click one of those buttons anywhere you see it on the page.
3. Follow the steps to start listening, create an account, or download the app. Please keep in mind that most, but not all, podcasting apps are free to download. 

RadioPublic makes it easy to find and subscribe to podcasts and is available for iOS and Android. I only learned about this app over the summer of 2018. I wish I'd known about it sooner, because RadioPublic actually pays creators a tiny amount for every listen through the app. The Radio Public app is totally free to download and use so consider trying it out! 

To start listening to Boldly Went using RadioPublic follow these steps:

1. Send to your phone by visiting Boldly Went's RadioPublic page
   1.  If you’re on your computer: click the "Share" button, then type your phone number into the "To:" box and hit “Send.” Then we’ll text you a link to our show. Open the link on your phone, then tap the “Get the app.”
   2. If you’re on your phone, you’re one step closer: just tap the “Get the app” button.
2. Open the app. Once you’ve downloaded the RadioPublic app, you’ll be presented with Boldly Went in the app. 
   1. Click on the Episodes tab to see a list of episodes. I suggest starting with our most recent episode. 
   2. Tap on an episode description to read more or press the play button to listen directly. 
   3. If you want to download an episode to listen to on the go or without using your phone's data, click on the description and tap the button on the right with the downward arrow.  
   4. Click "Follow" to get automatic updates in your shows queue when new episodes release every Monday! 

 ​
If RadioPublic isn't really your thing, and/or you want to learn how to listen in other ways, here are my other suggestions.

• iPhones and iPads all have Apple Podcasts built in so you probably already have it. See the YouTube video below for step by step instructions. 
• Androids can easily download Google Podcasts by searching the Google Play store.
• If you use Spotify, you can listen to podcasts directly from there. To listen to our podcast, type 'Boldly Went' into the search bar.
• If you have other phones, I have no idea what apps will work best for you, but I would like to update this section using your advice! So tell me what you're using, and how it works. Then I'll add it here.
• Sorry, flip phones and land lines probably don't have the capability to run podcasts. ;) 

Our episodes stand alone so you can start listening anywhere you want. Here are some suggestions for first downloads:

• Start with the most recent episode which you can link to through the Listen Tab.
• Then check out Season Highlights episodes
  • Season 2 Highlights: Ep. 69 & 70
  • Season 1 Highlights: Ep. 35 & 36
• And you might check out these special episodes featuring Destination Trail's 200 mile running races for something different.
  • Field Notes 79: The Moab 240! Live From The Race
  • Field Notes 74: Tahoe 200 Endurance Trail Run

Some podcasts I enjoy listening to include: 

• Love + Radio 
• Sacred Rage 
• Dear Sugars 
• Bundyville 
• Snap Judgement 
• 99% Invisible 
• The Moth (duh!) 
• Welcome to Night Vale 
• Special Mention to this brand new podcast by my friend, Beth Baker. A brand new podcast called "Why We Run" which interviews people while running about why they do it! It's oddly relaxing as you get into the cadence of their heavy breathing as they run along. 
• Around the Buoy all about sailing/boating.

​I could go on, but please, I want to hear what you like! I'm all ears! (haha!) Leave your comments and suggestions below.

Angel here. I'm pretty excited to be putting final touches on our 2019 Winter Spring Show Tour line up RIGHT NOW! I was just tapping out an email to our show hosts in towns all over the place, and realized that I had a lot of feelings that I wanted to share with them, but with you too. So rather than burdening our hosts with all of these feelings in a lengthy email, I thought it would be better to jot out those thoughts here. Then I can do the next most annoying thing to sending a really long touchy-feely email and provide them with a link to this blog post in the shorter email I send to them instead....that most of them will probably never click. Let's face it, they're small business owners too, busy beyond belief, and clicking another link in an email is probably not at the top of their "Should Have Gotten Done Yesterday But I Didn't So Now It's On Today's List." That's precisely why I didn't end up sending all of these thoughts in that email. What do you think? Good or bad decision?

I started writing this email because I wanted to share with them how important I view their roles as show hosts. Not only because they are giving us the opportunity to hear, record, and distribute stories by local adventurers from their communities that leave us flat out awe-struck, but because of the additional, non-tangible benefits they are providing to our communities, and by extension, the world.

When our hosts bring us to their towns, they are doing so much more than giving us the opportunity to listen to some cool stories. The true magic of what show hosts bring to their town when hosting Boldly Went is the creation of an inclusive space that provides equal access to adventurers of all kinds so that we can share intriguing, inspiring and impactful adventure stories together. They are giving voice and value to the stories that aren't traditionally heard. They are providing space for us to go, and to be open, and to be exposed to those stories that maybe we would never encounter otherwise.

This is why we love creating Boldly Went, because we are essentially directing the focus away from our differences and towards our audience's common connection point, outdoor adventure. When we see a person who is sharing a story that we previously perceived as different from us, connecting to the same world we do, we are suddenly opened up to see them as friends. When we do that, a tiny pathway in our brain might be prepared to learn things about the world that we didn't know or understand before and, most importantly, that we didn't even know we didn't know or understand before.

This has been hugely encouraging for me lately. Maybe because I live in a country that is increasingly divisive... (Hi Canada! I see you up there on our show tour schedule! I know these aren't your problems. I hope maybe you can see me and understand me as I write this? The government down here is shut down. I can't visit my National Parks. Public toilets on National Forest Land are untended. Park rangers, their families, and thousands of federal workers are soon to be forced to miss their paychecks because their livelihood has suddenly been pulled out from beneath them by this shut down. For...what...a border wall?)

Seriously, a border wall. Every time I think about a border wall, I remember the time I stood next to it when I started my northbound journey on the Pacific Crest Trail. It looked ridiculous; a giant ugly eyesore that blocked me from seeing the sweeping landscape as it was meant to be seen. It stopped poor animals from following their normal foraging and migration patterns. I realized then that a border wall is as much a conservation issue as any other.

I remember trying to take pictures so that the wall wouldn't ruin my memories of that day when I started such a monumental journey. And I see that border wall, that taupe colored metal monstrosity with barbed wire all over the top of it so even a tired and innocent bird would not be able take rest on it, seared into my memory as I stood with Tim, my mother and father-in-law who drove us to the southern terminus. I resent that border wall as being part of a memory that, unknowingly at the time, would be the 2nd to last time I would ever see my father-in-law walk unassisted. He died of brain cancer just a couple months later. 

So yeah, I don't have a strong affection for the border wall for that reason but also for another reason. This reason has to do with how that border wall made me see at least a glimpse of what it means to be a person of color hiking in the outdoors. I remember hiking and leapfrogging along with another thru-hiker who also happened to be brown. I didn't think much about it until we ran into some police on the trail. Sometimes the trail crosses roads, and this was one of those instances, the police had barricaded the road and the trail because they were looking for people who had crossed the border illegally. I was hiking. Tim was hiking. All thru-hikers were hiking. That's what they do. We walked right by, as most everyone did. But guess who didn't walk right by? If you guessed the brown thru-hiker, you are right. He was the only one of us who was stopped for questioning. His story to me is one that made me understand the world a little more that day.

What we're creating here at Boldly Went isn't just a fun story time. I mean, it is that. It definitely is that! But it is also actively and intentionally creating spaces where we can hear all stories. This is a story that I don't usually think about, but with the border wall dilemma, I remember it. These are stories that would not be considered important enough to share with an audience. I mean, what would the draw be? But these kinds of stories are important and they are the heart of Boldly Went. 

When our show hosts partner with Boldly Went and bring us to their towns so that we can work with them to create a way for people to tell their meaningful outdoor adventure stories, no matter if they are professional athletes or weekend warriors, what they're really creating is an opportunity to share important stories in the context of outdoor adventure which allows us to gain deeper understanding of who we share this big world with and how we can be better stewards of it.

That's what Boldly Went is trying to accomplish, and we think our hosts share these values and we couldn't be happier to have them on board for the 2019 Winter Spring Tour. 


Don't see a show in your town and want to?  Consider hosting one. It's fun! We work with you to make it easy. And your community will love you for it! 

It was the afternoon before the race, and I’d just finished the check-in process. I’d retrieved my drop bags from my car, and was carrying them to the designated area. That’s when I saw Jovica. He was up a small slope from me, standing where all 150 of the runners would soon gather to hear the pre-race briefing.

Jovica and I were too far apart for me to say anything. I could have shouted, but it seemed like that would have been obnoxious since we didn’t know each other very well. Instead, I waved. He waved back. His face was unmoved. Stoic.

I wasn’t sure how to read his lack of an expression. We’d been the first and second place competitors for the first 140 miles of last year’s Tahoe 200 race, so I thought that maybe he viewed me as an opponent rather than as a friend. I wanted to respect his feelings even if I didn’t understand them, so I decided I should just give him his space.

I finished the short walk to the drop bag area without another glance up.

​I didn’t see Jovica again until we found ourselves standing side by side near the starting line the next morning in the gradually increasing light of the rising sun. Still trying to respect his space, I remained silent. We stood there for several long moments before he broke the ice by saying hi. We exchanged well-wishes for the coming race, then the horn blew and the race began.

by Ana Hinz

​I'm someone that has always looked to the future, ever since I was a child. I distinctly remember a moment (I was probably 7 or so) standing at the edge of a field in my small hometown, and wondering where else could I go? What could I see? (Like Belle from Beauty and the Beast, but in Wisconsin and not France... so less brie and more cheddar.) While it's a charming thought, and likely the perfect start for a story about a glamorous world traveler (spoiler: I'm not one), it also has a significant downside. In short: wanderlust is ruining my life.

​Let me explain.

I was raised as an only child, so I had a lot of solitude and time to entertain myself. Thankfully, I loved daydreaming and reading books about far-flung places. I got the fun of learning about it as well as imagining it, with a few well-curated photographs for illustration.

Contrast that with modern technology, and having Instagram at our fingertips. We can indulge in "travel porn" at any moment of the day. And wow, do we. We gobble up photographs of stunning locations around the world, and add new places to our exponentially growing bucket list. We double-tap these photos, and then after a 10-minute binge session, compare our own seemingly mundane existence, and ask ourselves what the hell we're doing with our lives.

No? Just me?

Is my life so disappointing? Of course not. I’m active and healthy, have a fantastic husband, a good job, amazing friends, and live in a safe and beautiful place. However, with time, my existence has become comfortable (the complacent American Dream, it seems.) And comfort does not spur growth. I want freedom, but from what? My privileged life? Ugh. I disgust myself. But traveling to a new place can be a catalyst for healthy challenges and personal growth, and I'm craving that adventurous change of routine (and Instagram is amplifying that desire.)

​Of course, we all know that seeing people's perfectly curated lives on social media can spark envy. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that these photos are often staged and edited, and not a true representation of what actually happened. 

​We know intellectually that we shouldn’t compare someone's highlight reel to our blooper reel. Comparison is the thief of joy. Yada, yada, yada. But here's the thing: Instagram didn't create my wanderlust. It's always been there. And this doesn't mean that I should stop dreaming. Or setting goals. Or being inspired.
​
While wanderlust can push us to explore the world in new ways, it also intensifies dissatisfaction with our current lives. So how can we be inspired and not depressed by wanderlust?

This summer I spent time exploring local places within a few hours’ drive, and I loved it. It helped bring my focus back here to the present (and the financially feasible.) Go hike that trail you always meant to check out, or visit that vineyard you heard about one time, or visit that state park just an hour away. Microadventures like these remind me how many amazing places there are, right in my "backyard." Be a tourist in your home geographical region!

​Okay, let's discuss this one. While I'm all for taking a break from the soul-sucking dumpster fire that is Facebook and/or Twitter, I'm personally not quite ready to give up my visual escape that is Instagram. Mostly because it's not really the platform that is the problem. It just amplifies something that already exists in my psyche. However, as we all know, everything is best in moderation (except maybe chocolate and hugs.) So maybe dial back the usage to one session a day, or just a few minutes at a time instead of a 20 minute session that leaves you depressed from all of the totally-authentic-and-not-edited-at-all perfection you just witnessed on your feed.

​If you still need an escape (ahem, I do), perhaps try a vintage form - a book! Flex that (possibly rusty) imagination by reading travel essays. (I love this collection.) Or if you want to feel better about your life choices, you can always read about dramatic polar expeditions or woefully unprepared Amazonian adventures by a former president. If you're still looking for a visual escape, check out a photography book as visual candy and a learning opportunity for your own photography. Reading books about traveling and adventure is my go-to when I desperately need an escape from the couch.

Want to escape to something new and exciting? Try a new hobby! Write about someone traveling to a new place. Take an art class to create your own beauty. Go to a concert featuring traditional music from around the world. Try a new sport with a friend, like trail running, rock-climbing, or kayaking. Begin learning a new language (in a class or using Duolingo - whatever works.) Take a salsa or ballet class. Try cooking some recipes from a place you’ve always wanted to visit. There are loads of small ways to get that thrill of experiencing new people, places, food, music, scenery without having to get on a plane. I’ve tried a number of these options, with varying levels of success, but I loved the challenge of each one!

If all else fails, this is always an option.

The goal is to lose the social media envy and keep the inner child who thinks about life's possibilities. When we indulge our wanderlust with travel, we are open to new experiences. Just like that little kid that dreamt about traveling the world. That wondrous soul gets stomped on enough in the demanding reality of adult obligations, so let's not continue that trend during our leisure time. Let’s take this opportunity to foster that curiosity!

​While it may feel boring compared to a round-the-world vacation (sorry, fresh out of those), let’s workshop some solutions to this challenge! How do YOU encourage or tame your wanderlust?

A year before Bigfoot, in September of 2017, I was running my second Tahoe 200. I’d trained for Tahoe harder than I’d ever trained before, and, after finishing in fourth place the previous year, I went into the 2017 race with the hope of winning. Viewed from the online race tracker, it might have looked for a while as if I was doing reasonably well. I trailed Jovica Spajic of Serbia in second place for most of the first 120 miles, and a couple times I overtook Jovica to take the lead. By the time I hit the Tunnel Creek aid station at mile 140, the race was a three-way tie for first place between Georg Kunzfeld of Germany, Jovica, and me. We arrived at that aid station together, all moving a bit slowly. But the difference between them and me was that they seemed to be feeling reasonably well, whereas, due to major electrolyte issues, I hadn’t been able to keep any food down except a few grapes for the last forty or fifty miles. Jovica and Georg got back on the trail after a brief stop to refuel. I took my time at the aid station, eventually got moving again, and then dropped out of the race five miles later. I still couldn’t eat anything without vomiting, and, based upon my dark brown urine, my kidneys were in the process of shutting down.

That drop was my biggest disappointment in 28 years of running.

​It was hard to get my mind off of what happened at Tahoe until March of 2018, when I began training for Bigfoot. I’d run Bigfoot once before, in 2015, and I knew it was a tough race through the Cascade Mountains with a lot of steep ascents. But it was my chance, in my mind at least, to move past what I viewed as a terrible failure. I didn’t have to win, but I had to give it the best effort I possibly could.

When the horn blew at the start of the race, I made a conscious effort to not allow myself to be sucked in by the excitement of running hard out of the gate. I wanted to be somewhere up with the frontrunners, but, above all, I wanted to control my pace. After the initial hundred meters of pavement, the first section of the trail was a relatively easy climb that most people near the front of the still-dense pack ran, with some occasional walking of the steep parts. It wasn’t long before I was able to look up the slope and count roughly nine runners ahead of me. It was possible a couple more had already slipped out of sight over the next crest, but it didn’t matter. I maintained my pace.

The route got tougher as we moved farther along the course, and the first signs of the pack stretching out a bit became apparent. At one point, I was about to cross of one of the ash-filled washes when I mis-read a course marker as indicating I was supposed to turn to the right and head up the ridge on the near side of the wash. I went a couple hundred meters before spotting two runners on the opposite ridge. Realizing my mistake, I turned around and headed back to the dry wash. There, at the base of the opposite hillside, was the marker I’d missed. My only consolation was that I’d caught my mistake before I’d gone very far.

Here at Boldly Went, our most visible "product" is our podcast, but we have a couple of primary ways of making money. Within the flow of the business, ticketing for the events where we gather stories is our primary income source most months, and we get a little bit from event and podcast sponsorship and merchandise sales (thanks Territory Run Co!). And we occasionally take people out on tours around the Seattle area or rent them our kayaks through the Navigator Network.

Beyond those transactional pieces though, we also have a Patreon page where people who believe in what we're doing can pledge monthly, PBS Telethon style, to allow us to keep going.

Because you know those pledges come from pure support, it always feels especially good to get a new one. Selling a ticket is great (and actually amounts to more money into the business a lot of times), but getting a patron subscription feels like more of a personal affirmation that we're on the right track.  

Practically speaking, those pledges are also super helpful because they're stable, in the sense that they don't require ongoing advertising work on our part, and aren't as up in the air as ticket sales. One of the most nerve wracking parts of this whole thing, especially when we're traveling, is wondering whether events will cover the costs of travel for the places we go, and it's great to have that consistent base so we feel like we can take risks on going to smaller towns and places that are more off the beaten path - like Poulsbo, WA, for instance, where we just had a fantastic experience last week.

At the moment of writing, we know a few things about our base of Patreon sponsors. The average pledge for Boldly Went is $10/month, which is 33% higher than the average Patreon account.  We have 53 current patrons, and a decent number of those are friends and family, so that might factor in to the higher than average dollar amount. But I also think that it has to do with what we're up to. A big part of our goal is creating community - which involves making new friends and family. So the support feels warm and personal, and often either springs from, or develops into, real world relationships. People who have supported us on Patreon have also helped us get events organized in their home towns, let us crash on their couches (thanks Callista, and see you tonight, Dan and Stacie!), consulted personally with us on business development, and literally hung out in the woods for days on end. That's the kind of thing we're going for!​

We're not a nonprofit, so we don't have an itemized public statement of exactly where the organization's money goes (although Angel has this somewhere because she's on top of all of that stuff in a way that I'm not...), but I can tell you concretely that almost all of the money that comes in to the business goes towards the basic tools of the trade for us. It goes to keep our car running, to pay for insurance, to get gas and food between towns, to keep our technology functional, and occasionally to put a roof over our heads when we're on the road in the winter. We embrace a full-on dirtbag business model, so most of the time we're crashing on couches, in our car, or in a tent, and our tech amounts to a couple of old iPhones (one of which was donated by our friend - thanks Angie!), a couple of old laptops, and a used iPad (which we bought using Patreon money so we could do this more reliably on the road!) 

From the beginning, I'll admit, we've been trying to build this business as a sort of life-hack: an attempt to create something we could get paid for that also grows out of things that we love to do. In Angel's case, traveling around, making new friends, and playing outside, and in my case writing, creating, and trying to help people navigate the thorny hellscape that we call the modern world.

​Because it's so integrated with what we love, we put as much of ourselves into the project as we can - and concretely Patreon sponsorship buys us time and emotional energy to do that. It's letting us live out some dreams, because it's allowing us to spend less time on other work and more time on this project.

I've done a fair amount of fundraising work in the non-profit world, though, and in my experience almost no one gives money to people trying to replace the rear differential on their car or purchase an old iPad on Craigslist. People give to things that they feel personally invested in, causes they believe in, and products and services that they personally benefit from. So, those ideas guide what we're trying to build here. Our goal from the beginning has been to create something using the gifts and interests we've got that is concretely valuable to the world. 

That's the stuff that's worthwhile, we think - in terms of our time and your money. The important point isn't the type of recording device we're using. It's what we're using it for - to what end we're employing our time and resources. That's the big picture of what the money that goes into this business goes towards.  That's what's interesting because I think we're creating something pretty unique.

So, what are we providing to the world that we hope is worthy of time, money, and energy? Both our own, and the people who support us?

1) Numbered lists, because people like lists.

2)  A connected outdoor community.

One of the early recognitions we had when we were thinking about business ideas was that there was a niche to be filled in the outdoor community, because even though outdoorsy people have a lot of shared values and commonalities, they don't have many central, social gathering places. We'd said for a couple of years that outdoors-types need a bar in every city to hang out in, the way football fans have sports bars. Storytelling events have been a way to create that in a natural way, and it's been a ton of fun, and a real, unique added value in the outdoor world, we think. The Navigator Network has been one concrete platform to create real world connections through the business outside of events, but more than a few people have also met through events and the podcast, which we think is pretty cool.

3) A platform for stories to be told that wouldn't be normally.

It was also an early recognition that in the outdoor community, there is a particular type of voice that you normally hear at public events - winners, champions, record setters. It's not that we aren't interested in those things. We just also think there's a lot of value in hearing about the losers, oddballs, and also-ran's of the world. And it's been interesting - so many of the stories we've heard at events focus on failure, or things that suck, rather than victories and glory, that it's almost a surprise when someone talks about a big accomplishment. Our events and podcast, we think, create a uniquely robust picture of what the outdoor experience actually is, and what it's actually about, because we give anyone who wants it a voice at the table.

As a related aside, Patreon has been a great support for gathering these types of stories - because it gives us some freedom to go to smaller towns where we aren't likely to make money on events. There are good stories everywhere, in our experience, and our goal is to gather as many of those as we can.

4) A Platform to tell stories that are important.

I will be completely honest in saying that there was no real higher social cause (beyond connecting people who wouldn't otherwise be connected) when we first started developing this idea. What we were envisioning with events and the podcast was essentially lighthearted fun. But pretty much immediately, it became clear that when people came to events, and were given an mic to tell any story they want, most of them talked about reasons that their outdoor experience has mattered. They've either shared about lessons learned, or traumatic events, or ways that playing outside has taught them important lessons about life. Based on the platform, it was maybe inevitable that along with "that funny thing that happened that one time", stories have moved towards the interface of the outdoors and social issues, struggles with mental health, gender and sexuality in the outdoor community, and race in the outdoors, among many other things. 

When we realized that was happening, we embraced it for what it is - a great opportunity to be a platform for people who are telling stories that are important beyond just recreation, and trying to be good stewards of those stories has become a central goal in what we do. That plays to an existing strength in lots of ways - we're healthcare providers, and I have a Masters degree in religion, so life and death, both literally and figuratively, has been our business for most of our adult lives. But at heart, it's a side benefit of the platform. Give people 10 minutes to share who they are, and they will show you something important.

5) A platform to tell stories that are niche but are interesting to the wider world.

As we've branched out, out attempt to connect with a broad community of outdoorspeople has naturally lent itself to stories that are about the way our weird hobbies are relevant to the interests of people of all kinds. As the business has been developing, a fun spin off of that has been that we've been able to attend, and tell stories about events like the Bigfoot and Tahoe 200 Mile Endurance Runs, and Seventy48, a 70 mile endurance paddle, and share them with a world that wouldn't normally have any idea what they're about.

6) Stories from travel and adventure that are helpful.

We've also naturally gravitated towards practicality. For a lot of adventure types, it's natural to want to provide beta when you're telling a story, so that people who want to can repeat your adventure. Because 10 minute stories aren't quite enough time for that, usually, our Field Notes have been a way to dig deeper into experiences in a way that's useful. 

The book I'm working on, "The Dirtbag's Guide to Life", is entirely focused on communicating things we've learned along the way, and will eventually become a real thing you can read. In the meantime, I try to keep this blog primarily useful, because from the beginning we've really wanted to use our platform to make adventure more attainable for more people.

That's a relatively broad list, and while supporting what we're doing, basically, is supporting more events, podcasts, and web content, the important thing we think we're providing are the meaty intangibles - helping people make new friends, providing solid beta, inspiring people to get outside in ways they hadn't thought of, understanding a bit about why all of this madness we engage in on the weekends is important, and how all of it connects us to one another and to the environment we live in. All of that is why we do this, and we hope it's a contribution to the world that those of you supporting us find worthwhile!

Thanks so much for being a part of this thing and helping it continue to grow!