The Guidebook

This is the second part of a long interview I did with Rachel in December. I love Rachel’s perspective and we got a lot deeper for this second half. We talk in this episode about bodily functions (skip ahead about 10 minutes if you’d like to avoid it!), food, community, injuries, and mental health. This was a very full episode with laughter and seriousness. "You know those meme posts where it's like, 'you're taking all of this,' and it shows a pictures of pills. Then it shows like a very stereotypical shot of some pine trees and a trail and says, 'but you really need this.'?"

Rachel and I discuss her struggles with substances growing up, how she came out of that phase of her life, dipping her toes into the backpacking community, and becoming who you want to be one step at a time. "[hiking] totally let me know my worth."

"You are allowed to feel any emotion you want out there. If you're angry, be angry! But you're only angry at yourself. It's not like you can be angry at anyone else!"

"To this day that's where I feel home is, on trail."

"You always have to go through the extreme first before it becomes easier."

“All the times that felt so hard and heavy, taught us how to love and be a better person and how to be grateful for those times.”

"If your goals don't scare you they're not big enough."