This week I catch up with Emily Kirkton, a long-time registered Maine guide and the owner of GearME (pun absolutely intended!) which is a fantastic outdoor consignment and rental store in Freeport, Maine.

Emily started GearME after spending several years with a large, regional outdoor retailer, so she absolutely knows her stuff, and as we talk about, if there’s something she doesn’t really know, she just jumps into action anyway and figures it out as she goes along.

GearME and Emily are super-valuable resources for anyone interested in getting outside along the Maine coast. Not only does she consign a wide range of technical clothing and gear, she also rents paddling equipment, snowshoes, packs and poles, and will be expanding those offerings this coming summer season.

Emily has also curated an amazing variety of family-focused outdoor adventure trip reports, with pictures and great descriptions of locations, trails, and anything else you’d be wondering about. She and her partner Hayes know first hand what it’s like to wrangle multiple kids of different ages outside for adventures, and she documents the highs and lows - and whoopie pies - she encounters along the way, so we can all benefit from her wealth of experience and hit the water or trailhead better prepared.

Make sure to check out Emily and GearME on the GearME website, and at GearMEOutdoors on Facebook and Instagram. And if you're looking for inspiration for your own Adventure Tuesdays, here's a direct link to her Kids in the Woods guide.

Some other cool things we talked about:

• What is Scottish Highland dancing?
• GGW Episode 39 with the ‘other’ Emily (Holland)
• Tumbledown Mountain (Weld, ME)
• Wicked Whoopies (Freeport, ME)

And a shameless plug for Guides Gone Wild on NewsCenter Maine’s '207'!

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