What is The Conservation Alliance? How is it funded?

The Conservation Alliance was established 34 years ago with the goal of uniting businesses and outdoor communities to support and advocate for the protection of North America's wild places. Founded by industry leaders from renowned outdoor companies like Patagonia, REI, North Face, and Kelty, the organization aimed to increase industry support for conservation by fostering cooperation among competing businesses. Over the years, the Alliance has grown to include 270 member companies from various industries that share the values of protecting wild places.

Can you share some of the conservation work that The Conservation Alliance has done over the years?

In its 34-year history, the Conservation Alliance has achieved significant accomplishments with the support of its members. They have collectively contributed over $30 million to grassroots conservation groups, resulting in the protection of more than 82 million acres of wildlands and 3500 miles of rivers. The Alliance has also played a role in removing 37 dams, with plans for one more this year, and designating five marine reserves, as well as acquiring 21 climbing areas.

Why is it important to protect wild places and outdoor spaces?

There are multiple personal, ecological, and societal reasons for protecting wild places. Personally for Nicole, these spaces are crucial for spiritual, mental, and emotional well-being, offering solitude, challenge, and character-building experiences.

Ecologically, wild places contribute to biodiversity and climate resiliency by storing carbon and providing natural buffers against greenhouse gas emissions. Protecting large-scale landscapes can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30%. Preserving these areas is essential for a healthier future and addressing climate change and biodiversity loss. Additionally, wild places offer economic value through outdoor recreation, stimulating local economies and generating billions in revenue. Ensuring equity and access to these places is important, allowing everyone to enjoy the benefits they offer. As the population grows and more people reside in urban centers, the need to protect and expand these areas becomes even more critical.

Outfitters or businesses, please consider joining as a member along with TripOutside. https://conservationalliance.com/join/
Support and donate to TCA https://secure.givelively.org/donate/the-conservation-alliance/the-conservation-alliance
Visit their website to learn more https://conservationalliance.com

Follow their IG for a social feed that will inspire you https://www.instagram.com/conservationalliance/

Ride bikes, not horses at this new type of Ranch in Southwest Colorado. On this podcast, we are joined by Jake from Zuma Bike Ranch from the southwest corners area of Colorado. 

They are located on the corner of 3 different cities in the area, Dolores, Mancos, and Cortez Colorado. Jake is a mountain bike instructor for over 5 years and has been coaching with Ninja Mountain Bike Clinics. 

He has been hooked on working with people on their skill development and is passionate about teaching riders how to be stronger, more confident, and more skilled riders. 

Jake has created a purpose-built mountain biking-specific property in the area that is dedicated to teaching and coaching mountain biking. The 40-acre property is right next to Phils’s world mountain biking trails and joins the new section of Phil’s world. He has taken time to build features that are great for teaching different skills by taking inspiration from the different areas in the country where he has taught mountain biking. Different areas of the country present with different features that make the trail networks unique like bedrock use or a side of a hillside to make some nice benched-in switchbacks. The first year, he walked the property with his dog and identified all the places where interesting features could be built for teaching. 

They have camping and trails right on the property for riders to camp and ride right on the property.

Find Zuma Bike Ranch on TripOutside 

Follow them on Instagram 

Darcy is the author of the book, The Amazon Woman and the co-owner of the Whitewater Kayaking business Smallworldadventures.com

How did you get into Whitewater Kayaking and what do you love about it?

A college friend invited her to skip the fall semester and go kayaking in Nepal. She was stoked about the adventure and traveling internationally. By going kayaking in Nepal, she was able to get away from the big tourist areas and find remote places to explore and she truly enjoyed that style of expedition traveling and which made her fall in love with kayaking. That's the style of kayaking that has kept Darcy loving whitewater kayaking. She enjoys getting as far off the beaten path as possible and challenging herself while seeing new places.

How do you see the big challenges and overcome the obstacles that appear in the big adventures that you take on?

The way she has learned to overcome it is by embracing the challenges. Going into these trips with the mindset with the attitude that things are going to wrong. You can hope everything goes well, but the reality is that there are definitely unexpected things that will go wrong. She really believes the stoic philosophy shared in the book, The Obstacle is The Way by Ryan Holiday. She thinks of this phrase often when she finds herself faced with expedition challenges.

How did the Amazon trip come about and what was your motivation to join Midge on the trip?

The trip came about in an unlikely way by David Midgley, "Midge" a brilliant programmer from London who was having a midlife crisis and thought he was going to waste his life away sitting behind a computer writing code. During this time he started thinking that if he could do one big adventure in his life, he could die a happy man. While he was searching for his adventure, he came across an interesting stat that more people had walked on the moon than descended the Amazon river from source to sea. Everyone who had gone down the river had hiked around the white water, or did it on a raft, or only did certain sections. He decided he wanted to be the first person to whitewater kayak the Amazon river. He reached out to SWA to train him to turn him into an expert whitewater kayaker.  After a decade of training, Midge invited Don and Darcy to join him on the trip.

Could you share a bit more about the Amazon river trip? What were some of the challenges you had to overcome on the trip and how long did it take?

Learn more about the physical, mental, and emotional challenges the group overcame during the 148-day adventure on the show

What message do you have for anyone that is feeling external societal pressures and think that the big goals are unachievable for them?

When Darcy was younger, she drew a lot of motivation from anger. She would be mad when people told her that she couldn't do something, she wanted to prove them wrong. When she realized that other people are watching her, and that she is inspiring others, she now feels that she draws inspiration from the idea that her actions are inspiring others.

Links:

Website https://darcygaechter.com/

Order the book, Amazon Woman https://darcygaechter.com/amazon-woman

Send Darcy a note if you enjoyed the podcast! https://darcygaechter.com/contact

Follow on IG https://www.instagram.com/darcygaechter/

In this episode, I talked to Stephen Hatfield, the founder of Ptarmigan Collective, which offers regenerative tourism solutions to foster thriving communities and vibrant regional economies. Stephen brings 25 years of experience designing, developing and managing programs and experiences related to regenerative tourism, community engagement, natural and cultural history, environmental stewardship, and outdoor recreation.

Regenerative vs. Sustainable Tourism

Sustainable tourism has been around for a while and at its core is about mitigate the impact and reduce the harm. Regenerative however takes it even further, and rather of just reducing the impact of the lighter footprint, it's about developing and generating value for communities. Tourism has long provided economic benefits, but those economic benefits can often come with some extractive side effects that over time can turn what was once an incredible place to live, travel and explore into a busy, overcrowded destination for people that call it home and for the people that visit.

Regenerative Tourism looks at not just the economic benefits, but also incorporates the wholistic view of social, cultural and environmental needs of the community and visitors. Rather than just starting with the traveler's needs, it starts with the residents, the communities that live there and call it home as they are the natural stewards of the place. It finds ways to find their values and what the values of the place are and developing new systems and ways to travel to these destinations. It started in Europe and New Zealand and has now become a global phenomenon.

An example of Regenerative Tourism at work:

In Oregon, outfitters worked together with communities and developed regenerative multi-day itineraries where visitors could come to the McKenzie river and do adventures like rafting,  mountain biking, day hikes along with opportunities to rebuild trails, plant trees, remove invasive species and other restoration projects. They worked in close partnership with the local dining facilities and supported the overall local community and businesses.

We can all begin to think differently about how we travel to new destinations, which destinations we choose and the impact we leave on the towns/cities and wild places with our tourism.

If you're an outfitter and would like to develop a Regenerative Tour or Itinerary, we want to hear from you! Reach out at info@tripoutside.com and let's work together to promote Regenerative Outdoor Adventure Tourism.

Links:

Connect with Stephen Hatfield:

Visit https://ptarmigancollective.com/ or email [email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hatfieldpdx

In this episode, I was joined by Marianna Cevallos. Marianna, who is originally from Peru moved to Colorado in 2015 for college and fell in love with the outdoors. She lived in Avon and her friends would participate in a lot of outdoor activities, including floating in the river.

Unlike most of her friends, Marianna didn't have a car or enough space to have kayaks or paddleboards and when she came across Pack rafting, she loved the idea of being able to pack the raft in her backpack and take a bus to go join her friends on the adventures.

She wanted to solve this pain point for everyone that doesn't have storage or transportation and make the sport more accessible for all so she started her own Packrafting company with her partner Mike, Alluviarafts.com

How did packrafting start?

How to get started with Packrafting?

How long does it take to inflate a Packraft?

Using the inflation sack, it only takes about 3 minutes to get the Packraft to about 90% inflation and then using your mouth, inflate to 100% with about 30 seconds of blowing.

What are your favorite places to go Packrafting?

Leave No Trace tips while Packrafting:

Links

tripoutside.com/podcast

https://alluviaraft.com

https://thingstolucat.com/packrafthandbook/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/alluviapackraft/

Outdoor things to do in Breckenridge in the summer:

What's the best time to visit Breckenridge for the summer?

The cycling culture in Breckenridge:

Bike Path / Paved biking in Breckenridge:

Mountain biking in Breckenridge

Breckenridge mountain biking trails

Mountain biking tips in Breckenridge

E-biking Breckenridge

Visiting Breckenridge without renting a car

Links: https://tripoutside.com/s/breckenridge-co/any/

Learn to Freedive in Kona Hawaii

What is Freediving?

Challenges that you'll overcome in the Freediving course:

Most people don't realize how long they can hold their breath. Getting over the urge to breathe is one thing we go over in the course and how to get over the reflex of the urge to breathe. You'll learn to defeat the urge and maximize your ability to hold your breath as long as you can. You can apply the breathing techniques to your yoga, meditation practice, or your everyday life to destress.

Freediving Course | What you can expect to learn:

Level 1 freediver course is like the foundation of the house. It takes 1.5 days, with about 4 hours in the classroom going over the history, physics, physiology, technology, and the gear. Post lunch, we do practice work in the pool with breathwork and safety work.  The next day, we go into the ocean and work up to 20 meters, which is 66 feet.

Technique: Freediving is all about using your body in the most effective way and that's what the course is focused on. 

Safety: most people aren't aware of safety, and how to practice safety, and it is one of the biggest takeaways from taking the courses. It's like climbing, the higher you get the further you have to fall but with freediving, it's the opposite, where the deeper you go, the further you go from the surface and a higher likelihood that you'll run into issues should you push yourself too hard.

Gear: Choosing the right gear and how to use it. 

Leave No Trace and Responsible Recreation: What do we need to know about being good visitors to Hawaii?

Where to find KonaFreedivers: Website / YouTube

Freediving movies: My Octopus teacher, The Big Blue

Hiking in the Rockies

Find the full episode show notes on TripOutside.com/podcast

Book your Denver Hiking Adventure: https://tripoutside.com/s/denver-co/trekking/

Learn about some great hiking options around Denver

Benefits of getting outdoors and connecting with nature

How we can help save the outdoors

Getting started with an outdoors business

How many miles do you think you've paddled in your entire life? Is it more or less than 650?

Fun Unlimited is an outfitter based in Post Falls, ID that offers rentals in three major areas: Spokane, Washington and Post Falls / Lake Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Book your next human-powered adventure at TripOutside.com!