Hello!
I’m stoked you’re here. I’ve always been a little quirky, different, and I certainly didn’t fit in the normal confines of society growing up.
I’m 29 and work as international Trip Leader for an adventure travel company for 6-7 months of the year. The rest of the time is free to explore by bike, on foot, or whatever may strike my fancy. My goal in life is to simply live fully and spread love around the world.
This may seem like a basic and simple way to live, but let me share with you a bit more of my story.
My story is pricked with immense heartbreak and loss. My husband passed away when he was only 27. I lost my husband, life partner, and adventure cohort. I want to share with you how he shaped who I am today, but we’ve got to back up a little further in history first.
I began to truly LIVE in every meaning of the word in the summer of 2013. I spent a few months working in Yellowstone National Park where my eyes were pried open to witness the beauty of Mother Earth for what felt like the first time in my life. I fell in love that summer, but not in the way you think.
I fell in love with Mother Nature, a backcountry with minimal development, and the euphoric feeling of living each day in pure bliss. I wanted more. I needed more. When it was time to return home from Yellowstone, my life was lacking fire. I was alive, but I felt like I was only breathing.
After the Yellowstone, I returned to the East Coast where I attempted to finish my University degrees in Marketing, IT, and Professional Sales. While interning at a Fortune 50 company, I saw what my future would look like. My future would be confined to a 9-5 job in a cubicle with two weeks of vacation per year. My bank account would be happy but when I envisioned this future, my soul was screaming in defiance.
I dropped out of University with only 4 courses left. I turned my back on my my full-paid scholarship and went to rock climb in California. I lived out of a car for the first 6 weeks, ate rice mixed with beans for nearly every meal and was unequivocally happy.
From that moment, I fundamentally shifted the way I went about my life. I made a pivotal decision to intentionally live a life I was stoked on every day.
With this new freedom and my entire life ahead of me, at 21 years old I felt like I was reborn with wings. I traveled the country with just about anyone accompanying me in my passenger seat. I had a hunger to explore – I spent my days hiking, rock climbing, backpacking and watching the sunset most nights with a massive smile plastered across my face. I couldn’t believe life could be this good.
I was traveling west when I scooped up my future husband, Alex, in Minnesota with plans to hike in Montana for the subsequent 3 weeks. Love at first sight was just a fantasy until I met Alex. Alex matched my zest for life in a way I hadn’t witnessed before. The yearning in his soul to explore the world mirrored mine. From our first 18 hour car ride across the country, life with Alex simply made sense.
I wrote our love story for Valentine’s Day back in 2016. As a tribute to our short life together, I’ve included included it on my site. Click here if you’d like to read it.
Alex and I got married 11 months to the day after I picked him up in Minnesota. We proceeded to live a mobile life on wheels for the next five years. We worked our booties off for three months of the year, sometimes working 2-3 jobs each and saving every penny. Then, for the next nine months of the year we would live and travel in our vintage RV. Most of our days on the road were spent rock climbing; we become obsessed with the vertical world. Alex and I were partners, not just in life, but in climbing too. We put our trust in each others’ hands every day we roped up to climb in the mountains.
Alex passed away from a heart condition in August 2019. My life crumbled. I didn’t really know how to travel solo or climb without the partner I relied on for the past five years. For the first few months after Alex died, I went off the deep end and morphed into a woman I didn’t recognize. I tried to find happiness in the activities that used to bring me joy. In reality, the activities and locations that used to bring me happiness only swallowed me in memories of Alex. I felt broken, crippled, and guilt for being alive when Alex wasn’t.
I had no stability thanks to the life I built. However, it was this lack of stability that ultimately lead to a path of healing.
All of this heartache brought me to life on a bicycle. I was in Argentina when my good friend, Kyle Hughes, suggested we ride bikes together for a few weeks. I purchased a used bike for $100 and it changed my life for the foreseeable future. Click here to read the full story of my first bike packing trip in Argentina.
Riding my bike saved my life as I knew it. I was in desperate need for some type of therapy and the methodical pedaling over thousands of miles provided me the space to process Alex’s life and early death. My therapy consisted of riding my bike throughout Argentina and Chile for a few months before I returned to the states due to COVID. During the Summer of 2020, I rode for a few thousand miles along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, the Colorado Trail, and through breathtaking landscapes in-between.
Throughout this healing, I fell in love again. This time, I fell in love with riding my bike.
Just as I was reborn after my summer in Yellowstone National Park, I experienced another rebirth after Alex died. This rebirth gave me a new perspective and love for life. I no longer feel survivors guilt and am no longer trying to live my life for my late husband.
I live today to simply enjoy every moment, be a help to others, and share the love in my heart with others.
I invite you to follow along as I continue to explore the world on my bicycle.