I’ve got lots of great things on tap this summer/fall. If you are interested in catching me for an online talk, conference presentation, stewardship trip, or backpacking class check out some of my upcoming events (more coming soon). You can always find an up-to-date list on my website here.

• August 16, 12pm – Free online presentation for the Mountain Lion Foundation
  • Hiking Through Lion Country
    • Name a long-distance trail and Renee “She-ra” Patrick has either hiked it (Pacific Crest Trail, Continental Divide Trail, Appalachian Trail), designed it (Oregon Desert Trail, Blue Mountains Trail), or it’s the next trail on her bucket list (Pacific Northwest Trail). Renee has encountered a cougar – once – in well over 11,000 miles of hiking. In this talk, she’ll share practical advice for how to coexist with wildlife while out on trail, highlight key conservation issues you could be hiking right through and share a few inspiring stories of hikers who have become terrific advocates for wildlife and wildlife habitat.
  • Register here
• August 19, 10am – PCT Days – Free presentation
  • How do we Improve the Long-Distance Trail Experience?
    • Have you ever had an idea of how to create a better trail experience for yourself or others? Are trails meeting the needs of everyone in our community? Join Long-Distance Trail Consultant Renee “She-ra” Patrick to discuss improving the trail experience, applying UX Design principles to our long trails, and creating an environment where hikers can learn about the environmental, cultural, and natural elements that make each long-distance trail unique.
  • Find out more info here
• September 10-14 – Shift Summit – Speed talk
  • Creating Conservation Advocates Through Long-Distance Hiking
    • The conference is a national gathering of great minds who care about improving the intersection of nature and preventive health for humans and lands. Attendees tend to be researchers, policy managers, health providers, planners, governmental, outdoor recreation, business, non-profit, military, foundations and philanthropic funders, educators, retailers, faith-based, conservationists, and/or nature-intervention professionals and organizations.
  • Register here
• September 18-21 – ONDA volunteer trip
  • Steens Mountain Wilderness Trail Maintenance
    • Join me and the Oregon Natural Desert Association to partner with the Burns BLM for National Public Lands Day to improve trail conditions and increase access to other stunning areas of the Steens Mountain Wilderness.
  • Register here (trip full)
• November 2-4 – Oregon Outdoor Recreation Summit
  • Apply UX Design Principles to Your Trail Projects
    • The 2023 summit will bring together Oregon’s outdoor community to learn, build relationships, and find solutions to the challenges we face in developing and elevating outdoor recreation opportunities to best serve Oregon communities and celebrate and protect our natural, cultural, and historic wonders.
  • Registration opens soon
• November 8 & 11 – Central Oregon Community College Class
  • Cold Weather Backpacking on the Oregon Desert Trail
    • In a classroom session, I discuss strategies to stay comfortable, safe, and strong during cold-weather backpacking trips, followed up by a day hike in the Oregon Badlands Wilderness along the first section of the Oregon Desert Trail.
  • Register here

I’m back!

I had a wonderful conversation with Zach and Juliana with Backpacker Radio in early June…we talked about lots of fun things (of course all trail related)…

You can listen here:

Or watch here:

If you haven’t heard my first conversation with Backpacker Radio, check it out here.

And, I announced my new services for hikers. Now you can work with me to:

• PLAN A TRIP
  • Identify trip ideas that fit your skill and fitness levels.​
  • Get advice on planning logistics and resupply strategies.
  • Discuss gear options for different climates and seasons.
• EXPLORE SOLO BACKPACKING
  • Plan your first solo backpacking trip.
  • Get advice to feel safe, comfortable, and most importantly, have fun when hiking alone.
  • Identify solo backpacking trip options.
• ADVICE & COACHING
  • Talk through your backpacking goals and plans.
  • Get advice on gear or get a pack shakedown.
  • Discuss strategies about skill development, goal setting, planning, and more.
  • Learn how to hike a route.
  • Explore environmental advocacy ideas for your next hike.
• DESIGN A LOGO
  • Develop the perfect logo for your trail name.
  • Brainstorm a visual identity.
  • Discuss a branding strategy.

To learn more book a free 20-minute meeting with me.

I have a summer logo special going on too (50% off through August)

My friend and fellow creative Shelby Little invited me on a hike to talk trail this spring, and just published this glowing (I’m blushing over here) profile.

I could do the same for this witty and entrepreneurial woman who started her own business a few years ago, Yarrow Creative Agency. I picked her brain more than once when planning for my own launch, and it was Shelby who helped inspire and encourage me to make a career path where no one had thought to before.

With this mutual love fest, I give you Thru-Hiker Renee Patrick Sits a Spell with Me.

Renee “She-Ra” Patrick on Oregon Desert Trail

I met Renee Patrick in the winter of 2015, shortly before she began a 160-day, solo hike of the Continental Divide Trail. We were bundled up, outside at a mutual friends’ house, where Renee was demonstrating the gear she and her partner, Kirk, had made for her backpacking trip.

I watched as she raised a dark umbrella with a mosquito-netting cloak. She stood under it, joyfully exhibiting the usual rain and sun protection and—as the small crowd oohed and aahed—how the mosquito net had an elastic waistband to keep bugs off her while she hiked or slept. Renee flashed her characteristically toothy grin and I got the distinct impression I was meeting the Mary Poppins of American Trails. But as Renee showcased more of her and Kirk’s creations—a beer-can stove, a trail wallet, alpine skis with modified bindings for hiking boots—I thought, no this is more of a James Bond scenario.  What I didn’t know then, is that Renee Patrick is an original, a prototype, as made evident by her lifestyle choices and her accomplishments on the trail. 

Read the rest over on Shelby’s blog, and enjoy these short clips of our conversation:

Some of you participated in the panel discussion a few weeks ago about Thru-hiking in a Big Snow Year, and since then Treeline Review published a very detailed blog post written by another panelist, Giggles. I’d highly recommend checking it out!

The video of our chat was recorded and you can watch it here:

Thanks to Treeline Review for providing this critical information!

If you haven’t visited their website before, they offer very detailed reviews on some of the products we all use in the backcountry…their latest is on portable solar chargers…something I have not had success with over the years, but I’m closely following the topic as I’d love to carry an efficient solar charger instead of the very heavy power banks I have been using over the last decade.

Join me and some of my friends and other bad-ass lady thru-hikers for this panel on Thursday, April 13 at 5pm (pacific time) presented by Treeline Review.

Bring your questions or curiosity and register here.

I’ve had the good fortune to guest on a few podcasts recently about my new business.

The Trail Show

I always love chatting with the folks over at The Trail Show. Skip to 20:30 for my interview, but don’t miss the interview right after with Salty on her amazing Grand Canyon Traverse!

Hike

I enjoy my conversations with Lori at the Hike podcast. I’ve been on in the past to talk about the Oregon Desert Trail and Blue Mountains Trail, and this time we covered my new business.

I have more podcasts booked this year, so stay tuned!

How wonderful to see this article come out in our local business paper!

I worked for Cascade Publications (home to Cascade Business News and Cascade Arts & Entertainment) for over four years, before the last 7+ years of the Oregon Desert Trail, before my hike of the Continental Divide Trail.

I was the A&E Editor and can attribute a lot of my design and writing chops to designing a 40-page art magazine once a month for years, and writing twice as many feature stories for both publications during that time. A hard publishing deadline is one of the best teachers!

I feel so lucky to be doing this work, and I couldn’t have gotten here without years of sweat, tears (yes, those deadlines sometimes provoked tears!), and just showing up day after day. There are so many metaphors I could insert here about how hiking is like life…blah blah blah, but it’s all true.

One step at a time.

Don’t get lazy.

How you live your days is how you live your life. – Annie Dillard

This Thursday I will be giving a free online presentation for American Trails, Activating the Trail Community in Conservation Issues.

I will explore ways to empower and activate trail users on your local trails.

Register and join me at 10am (Pacific Time)

The talk will be recorded, so if you are interested but can’t attend, you can still register and receive a recording following the event.

Hope to see some of you there!

I love that this podcast, which was recorded last fall, was released today, on International Women’s Day…something I very much identify with 🙂

Please give it a listen, and if you are reading this on March 8…hope to see you at my launch event tonight!

I recorded a new conversation recently with Off Trail Podcast (scroll to the bottom to get to the recording).

The show’s host, Ryan “Constantine” Bunting is quite an impressive dude. He started hiking in 2016 on the Appalachian Trail, and went on to hike the PCT in 2017 and the CDT in 2018…since then has gone on to hike all 11 National Scenic Trails, culminating with a speed record on the 4,830 mile North Country Trail in 2021 and has hiked over 22,000 miles and counting.

I like how he described our conversation:

We begin the show with what it means to identify as a thru-hiker. Renee has been involved in the outdoor, backpacking, thru-hiking world for 20+ years now, and we dive into what it means to her to be a thru-hiker, and whether or not that definition has changed over the years.

We dive deeper into time itself and as she describes it, “Deep Time.” Is there a finite amount of time needed to reach this type of time and what are the conditions that it is found? Along the way we go through her time in the outdoors and her progression into who she has become today. We start with her initial thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail back in 2002, and how the fire that began there was never quenched. Travelling forward through a masters degree to her next thru-hike on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2006, we chat the thoughts when she reached the point many in the outdoors eventually reach, the question of, “How can I make hiking my life.”

We discuss the growth from a hiker into making hiking your life. We chat Wilderness First Responder courses, meeting other hikers involved in the industry, and following your curiosity.

We go into all things Blue Mountains Trail and Oregon Desert Trail. The trail systems are located in the state of Oregon, which Renee has an important role in the decisions of trail routing, conservation, and trail awareness. We discuss the missions of both trails, and how one goes about bringing the thought of conservation to the forefront of each hiker’s minds and most importantly actions. Is it the maps, the trail association, the individual’s responsibility, the preparation, the information along the way, what are the ways and how does it become a reality? We discuss what a trail means when sometimes the very point of a “trail” is to not become a “trail.”

We chat a pair of scissors and $5 per cut of hair “fundraising,” the immensity of time in 6 weeks to build 30′ of trail, and the beauty of alternates.

Listen today!