Hey There
This website was created to hold a space to honor a more traditional, digital approach for sharing adventures with BIG photos and long format stories that aren't limited by text counts on the socials. You'll find blog stories range the gamut of my life, from home construction, to thru hiking, to ultra running, to adventures with my pups, and intermittent commentary on living more simply in a world that wants us to do anything but.
About Me
The backstory that my most of my friends know is that I'm an engineer with an art degree who likes to pursue various activities diligently. What's lesser known is that I'm terrified of missing out on any ounce of life this journey has to offer. Although I do work hard on the efforts I chose to spend time on in life, there is no part of me that needs to be 'the best' at any endeavor. I simply need to know I am giving my best to still the fear that I could miss any opportunity to feel the awe and wonder of being in this beautiful world.
The longer story is that I grew up as a free range kid in the Midwest where values were heavily gendered and being a woman was limiting. Attending a small college, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, in my late teens and early 20's forever changed my life by providing the stabilizing, confidence-building family that I lacked as a child. I left the Midwest to take my first job that allowed me to move to Seattle, where the Pacific Northwest introduced me to a world of possibility and modalities for exploration. Seattle was the home that found me transitioning my field sports background of shot put, discus, and pole vault into endurance sport, running and Ironman triathlon, and mountain sport, mountaineering and nordic skiing.
In 2013 my unrest at toiling away at a big, heartless company got the better of me and I paused my career to study photography at the Art Institute of Seattle. It's often that first step of disruption to living the life expected that shifts our view of what is possible. After a few years of study, my language around my "someday" plans and dreams shifted to, "why not now?"
2015 found me setting out to thru hike the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), where my lens focused beyond everything I'd been told to want, onto my true passions and desires. As cliche as it sounds, a summer on the PCT changed my life. I returned from trail with a sharp 'knowing' that nothing in this life really mattered... but it all mattered so incredibly much. My lens on priority also shifted and "why not now?" became a mantra for chasing dreams as they arose. Yes, life remains a compromise where duty and obligations must considered, but the scales that weigh my decisions now more easily tip away from the delayed gratification of putting my dreams into a box labeled 'someday'.
Life now finds my living in my dream city with my partner, two active pups, and a remote job that I could not be more thankful for. The Cascade Mountains that are my backyard provide endless inspiration for activity, the outdoor community that surrounds me facilitates immersion into this active lifestyle, and am slowly chipping away the serious renovations my 1928 Mill House needs to remain livable.
This life has been such a wonderful, painful but gratifying, journey thus far and I'm excited to share some of that with those of you who found your way here!
~ Bri
