Latest / Go Wildly Podcast / Ep. 6 | Part 2 | The Owl, The Mountain, The Mouse

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Ep. 6 | Part 2 | The Owl, The Mountain, The Mouse · Go Wildly Podcast

• 0:00
  Life is so real outside and in those moments, that is the
• 0:03
  closest you get to the most real moments between life and death.
• 0:07
  Go. Don't let your daughter go
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  hiking, you know, in China, because that's how some people
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  die. Yeah.
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  It's like, so like, it's crazy, like these stories.
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  And I'm like, damn it, damn it. They're right.
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  I'm. Going to be the story.
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  The story now 98° about 90% humidity.
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  Yes. Yep.
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  Yeah. Never had I hyped, hyped for
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  real in the subtropics, hear a mouse die on her head.
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  I will never forget that moment in the woods in Prospect OR and
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  then these two fluffy, cute as fuck little owlets.
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  Like you can't come out of this without being in the cult.
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  Yeah, I want this around. I want this around for as long
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  as it wants to be around. This week on Go Wildly, Emily
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  heads out for a solo adventure and is joined by Christy Chow, a
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  dynamic force of nature. Born and raised in the wild
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  heart of Southern Oregon, Christy is equal parts brainy
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  and brawny, driving on movement, mischief, and meaning.
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  Whether she's diving into circular economies, sparking big
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  laughs, identifying birds, or pondering life's deeper
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  currents, Christy brings a unique blend of curiosity,
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  connection, and wild hearted joy to everything she does.
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  For the extended experience of our hike at the Green Springs
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  Mountain Loop Trail outside Ashland OR check out our
• 1:27
  YouTube. Welcome in Welcome into Part 2
• 1:31
  y'all. This one's all Christy.
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  Outdoor stories that shaped her, shook her, and honestly, it
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  shook all of us. From hiking in China to spotted
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  owls, from grief to growth, these are the big stories.
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  This one you will feel to your bones.
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  Let's get into it. We're doing all those things,
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  but we are diaphragmatically breathing in theatre.
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  That was something I always struggled with.
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  Same. I'm I'm not.
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  I'm a chest. Oh, I'm so sorry.
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  I'm so sorry. I'm knocking it around.
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  I'm a chest breather. And yeah.
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  So, so let's let's come, I can bring to to that to who Christy
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  is, where Christy came from upbringing roots and you're a
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  little bit about your life path to where you are now.
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  How long do you have? No, I'm just kidding.
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  Parameters. Wow.
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  Who am I? I'm Christy.
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  I was born and raised in Ashland, so Southern Oregon
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  here. Beautiful.
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  And I would say that I am a curious adventure that's like
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  that's, that's, that's who I want to be, I would say.
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  And so a lot of the time I am not, but I think I have a lot
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  of, there are a lot of like self barriers and, and many things
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  that I put in the way that makes it hard to be that person.
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  But at my core, that's who I am and that's who I get to be when
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  I am. I'm just so darn curious all the
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  time. And I have always been.
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  So I was raised to be very curious and to question things.
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  And my, my dad is a physician and my mom was a nurse.
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  She is, we'll get into this piece of it, but part of a big
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  part of my, oh, you guys, the battery died.
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  So we're going to swap those out because even in the wild, we
• 3:31
  come prepared with fresh batteries and other really cool
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  stuff. While we're locking that fresh
• 3:35
  energy in, go ahead and hop on over to our Instagram, Tiktok
• 3:39
  and YouTube. That's where the trail or the
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  river really gets twisty. The behind the scenes real time
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  chaos, unfiltered detours. The pod is the story, but the
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  socials, that's the wild ride. Meet us over there.
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  OK, and we're back from a battery change and just a little
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  when the breeze comes, there's a slight chill.
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  Yeah, slight chill, but it's nice.
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  I like this. Oh yeah, down there.
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  Well, I want to get. I want to get down there.
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  This is actually this is my my natural position is like this my
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  lower back these days in my no, I'm in my 30s, in my 30s yeah,
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  32 this year. It's like, you know, the back
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  doesn't love this as much, but I'm.
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  Here change positions a lot. Yeah, because we're meant to
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  move back, release. We are not meant to be static
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  beings. No, we're not.
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  But yeah, I was, I was, we were kind of talking about where I
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  grew up, raised in here in the valley.
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  So a lot of like that, first of all, like when I talk about what
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  I've gone into for work and like why I do what I do and why I
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  like going outside and like the hiking and all that in that
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  community, a lot of people, especially those who are in the
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  Pacific Northwest, they know Southern Oregon for hiking
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  predominantly the PCT runs through a lot of this.
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  So there's like a lot of that understanding.
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  But yeah, I grew up with on trails, not my family.
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  Like in particular, my parents are not from Oregon originally.
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  My dad's from California, mom's from Midwest, and neither are
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  particularly outdoors people. Yeah.
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  So yeah, how do you. It was truly one of those.
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  I talk about it being the community aspect.
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  Like you can't. I mean, I'm going to go ahead
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  and say this like you don't grow up here and like not get
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  exposure to to field trips where you're outside to draw art
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  lessons in the park to water quality testing for your science
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  unit, you know, at in Bear Creek.
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  Like that is to going to the Klamath Bird Observatory, the
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  best to look at people doing bird banding and to write down
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  observe. I mean, it's like everything,
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  all the science, the art, which is so much of this, this
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  community's culture is art and science and the environment.
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  Like, it's just like you can't come out of this without being
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  in the cult. Yeah.
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  So yeah, even if your parents aren't influencing it, just
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  being a Southern Oregonian, it's so much a part of the culture
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  that absolutely you're you're getting indoctrinated into
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  having a for better. For.
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  A relationship with the outdoors, it's like.
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  You know, on a weekend, it's so funny to look in the city now
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  and hear kids be like, oh, we're gonna go do this thing or go see
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  this show. And then like here, sure, there
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  maybe there was some of that, but it was like, so like, we
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  either go to the friend, our friend's house and like play
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  outside or we might game a bit or whatever.
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  But then like, are we gonna go on an adventure?
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  Are we gonna go on a trail? Are we gonna go on a hike?
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  So yeah, it was just such. And I grew up being the backyard
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  at my, my parents, They, they had a yard for us to run and
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  play in and I loved playing make believe, all that kind of stuff.
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  Very imaginative child and everything.
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  I didn't want to stay inside. There were times when I did,
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  obviously, but like in general, like if I wasn't outside at
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  least three times a day, something was, I was sick,
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  something was wrong with me. So I've always had that natural
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  pull, and I just grew up in a place where it was impossible to
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  not be outside at some point. And it was just like, that's
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  what you do. So was your sister with you
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  doing that too, or was she more of an indoors person?
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  Much more indoors, Much more indoors.
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  So. So even though you both were
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  growing up in essentially the same environment, the same
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  school, very similar influences, she gravitated more towards
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  staying inside. Yeah.
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  And you maybe were more naturally inclined to be in
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  nature. Yeah.
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  And I think too, like, yes, like that was an interesting thing.
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  And I think I always thought of it very much that way.
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  And then I realized, like growing up that my sister was
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  often outside too. She was just doing.
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  In my mind for so long, being outside was about being outside
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  and doing outside. It wasn't just being outside.
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  I was doing something else, right.
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  So for me, that was about the activity.
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  And it's much less now. It's like, I want to just be.
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  But like, there was always an activity or something I was
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  planning to do. My sister would get a book.
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  She was a reader, like, love to read, do crafts, and she would
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  do it outside. And to me, I didn't see that her
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  as being an outdoors person. Yeah, I didn't.
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  I mean, I still, like, would probably hesitate and be like,
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  Nah, not so much. Although she does hike now.
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  She really came into it and found and loved it when she
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  moved out of Ashland, interestingly, and then realized
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  she was like, wait, there's like, I wanna.
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  So she goes to the Jackson trails.
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  Jackson. What do they call them?
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  Jackson Perk. Trails in Jacksonville.
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  It's in Jacksonville, yeah. Jackson Perk trails or something
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  like that. Yeah.
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  Those are her favorite ones to go to.
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  And then the Rogue River trails and, and so she's kind of found
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  that beauty, but it was more of a pacing thing for her.
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  I learned this much later because she and I, we fought a
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  lot as kids all the time. We're it was like very, we got
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  into, got into a lot. And a lot of the things were
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  around when meeting the younger sister wanting to do something
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  in particular, go on a hike outside.
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  And she didn't really want to do that, go for a really long hike
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  outside. And I'd be like, well, we, you
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  know, well, you never want to do what I want to do, blah, blah.
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  You're not an outdoorsy person. And I like categorized her
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  right. And we were.
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  But she all along, she was in touch with being outside and she
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  liked flowers and, and, you know, being in the garden and
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  doing stuff like that, but reading in the sun.
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  She loves the ocean, she loves the beach.
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  You know, she there's so many things that I just was totally
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  overlooking, right. In retrospect that I'm like, I,
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  I was valuing it so differently. And now I'm like, that is out.
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  That's more of the outside, honestly, that I do know, right.
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  Like that is, or where what I what I where I am.
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  So, yeah. So I will say, yeah, we did.
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  We grew up in different experiences with the outside,
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  but it was still very much outside.
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  Yeah. That was a huge part of our, our
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  lives. So, so I think like that, like
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  that was like, my general existence has always been deeply
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  rooted in the outdoors. But, you know, I didn't go
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  camping until my friends started taking me camping And I, you
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  know, hiking was again, it was all based in like the commute.
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  I think you hear a lot of people who are like, Oh, I, you know,
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  or like your background, you know, you grew up rafting was
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  like in the family, but it was never in my family.
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  So that was a kind of an interesting thing because I'm
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  like, you know, I want to bring more people into this that, you
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  know, in my family that haven't had this experience too.
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  So I, I, it's definitely a foundational aspect of who I am,
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  but it just does. It's not if we're talking
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  familial roots, not part of it. Yeah, that's so.
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  I find that so interesting because my history and so many
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  of the people in my outdoor community grew up with it.
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  It's their parents that said this is what we're doing, this
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  is our activity, and they happen.
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  We happen to love it, and so we continue to do it.
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  And I'm always very curious how people who aren't raised in.
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  It. Yeah.
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  Find it Yeah. My dad got his first real hiking
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  boots and his first Osprey daily backpack with me.
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  Yeah. So I started to, I have a very
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  like, I'm very close with my dad and and so I've always loved
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  doing hobbies with him. And I would say the outside
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  things we did were sports. So I was a softball player, I
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  like to play tennis, you know, that kind of stuff.
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  And he was really into that. So that was our experience
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  together. But and, and I should say he's a
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  he's a runner. So he he did, you know, run
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  outside, but it wasn't really trail running.
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  He has since because of the intersection between the hiking
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  that we've done and how much of an appreciation that he has for
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  nature that I've gotten to see through his exploration as a 60
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  something year old man, which is a beautiful thing to see.
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  He has now gotten into trail running with some friends, so
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  that's cool too. But but yeah, so always been
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  part of who I am and I think I've always known too that
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  that's kind of what I wanted to do in terms of like the work
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  that I wanted to do. I sound so cliche, but like I
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  want this around. I want this around for as long
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  as it wants to be around. I have a deep and healthy
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  respect for all of all of these things that I am like, not I'm a
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  part of, but like I have deep reverence for the trees and the
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  network of mycelium beneath us and every nook and cranny of
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  what we're we see right now, right.
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  Even those that are the invasive plants that have come in and
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  made this place their life. I I wanted to go into
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  restoration and conservation work.
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  All of those things like I have so much respect for that.
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  And I just always have animals in general too.
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  Like I mean, flora aside, fauna has been my why, like animals.
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  I think like wildlife as I feel like I exist here to, I don't
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  know what it is to help protect them, but that seems like
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  there's ego involved there. I'm not really sure.
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  But to just like more that, right?
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  More of like them living their lives and being able to live
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  their lives in whatever way they need to be without us coming and
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  ruin it all, you know, And so I, I've just always loved that.
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  I love, I love animals and creatures and I, I think that's
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  because I grew up around here, but I was like, how do I do
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  that, you know, for in life? And like, how do I make that a
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  part of my life? And like, not just as like a
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  wildlife vet, which I considered or like, you know, I thought
• 13:50
  about being an ornithologist for a long time.
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  I love birds, but I wanted to do that.
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  And so I think I, the work that I do now, I always knew it had
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  to be environmental. And in some way, what I do is in
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  a sense a part of the conservation system.
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  It's like I'm trying to help prevent waste from ending up in
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  places it should. And I'm trying to help make
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  systems better so that this can still remain too, you know, so
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  it's just, it's just a deep part of my being, I think.
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  Like I want to have some answer for why, but I don't.
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  I just know that this has always been who I am.
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  Yeah And I feel genuinely like the Raven that went by, right?
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  They're family. I feel that.
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  And that's so interesting cuz that's something that I might
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  say that my dad might not have, but like both he and my mom
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  might not ever like that's not something that they would have
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  raised us with. They wouldn't have said like
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  that, that Raven is like a sibling, you know, to you
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  treated as such. They treat living creatures with
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  respect. My mom grew up religious.
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  Maybe she'd have some of that kind of stuff.
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  But it's just interesting because it maybe it's in there,
• 15:00
  baked in there and and they believe that, but that's not.
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  I think I definitely am a product of the community and
• 15:07
  maybe how much of this is just me.
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  Yeah, that's coming to accept that too is a bit.
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  That's what I'm doing now is trying to come and like not have
• 15:15
  answers for why because what if this is just who I am?
• 15:19
  What if there is an innate sense of self, right.
• 15:22
  So absolutely, yeah. But the.
• 15:24
  Community helps to highlight and draw that out of you, and you
• 15:29
  connect with a certain community because it resonates with
• 15:32
  something inherent within you. Yeah, if if you were a
• 15:36
  different. A different Christie you may be
• 15:39
  attracted to a different. Kind of community, yeah, but you
• 15:43
  are the Christie that you are, and so you're drawn to the
• 15:47
  community that brings out the parts of you that make you feel
• 15:49
  the most you. Yeah, I love that.
• 15:52
  See, This is why you're the host.
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  Because it takes my my 40 minutes of rambling and
• 15:57
  summarizes it in the most succinct, beautiful sentence.
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  And now I feel like this is therapy too.
• 16:02
  This is. Perfect.
• 16:03
  Yeah, I love this. That was one of the videos that
• 16:07
  one of the, like, Instagram reels that Heather made was
• 16:09
  something about like, yeah, we could have gone to therapy, but
• 16:13
  instead we started a podcast. I literally just watched that.
• 16:15
  I was like, because I mean, I've been in therapy.
• 16:19
  I did. I've done therapy.
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  And a lot of what therapy showed me was like, this is the kind of
• 16:25
  shit that I this is the therapy for you.
• 16:27
  Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
• 16:28
  So yeah, No, I think this is for me too.
• 16:31
  It's like, it's like getting to a place where I can like.
• 16:34
  There's nothing more centering right now, right than seeing the
• 16:37
  wind flick, make the grass just flicker, right?
• 16:40
  Or seeing like, oh, there was there's like an Ant that's been
• 16:42
  crawling on my boot for the last like 20 minutes and it's just, I
• 16:45
  don't know what it's doing. It's trying to figure it out.
• 16:48
  Awesome. There's one little flower, 02
• 16:51
  little flowers. Those flowers, right?
• 16:54
  And they're dancing. Yeah.
• 16:55
  You know, like this is a place where all the noise can go away
• 17:01
  and all the good noise comes in. So I I think that's.
• 17:05
  Give a moment for that one eternity later.
• 17:11
  Now would be a really good time for a bird.
• 17:13
  I was, well, I was hearing the songbirds though too, and I'm
• 17:17
  like thinking of the chickadees that I'm hearing and yeah, yeah,
• 17:21
  it's so special. So I think like if it comes down
• 17:26
  to the core of it, like that's why I I you and am outside, you
• 17:31
  know, like I do all that stuff because I just feel it feels
• 17:34
  good, even when it feels bad sometimes.
• 17:38
  And that takes me to like that moment.
• 17:40
  Like I think I keep thinking about this moment that I want to
• 17:42
  talk about. There are many, but there are
• 17:46
  two in particular that I think are like, I just love to share
• 17:52
  in my journey of like my outdoor journey.
• 17:54
  One I'll start like chronologically.
• 17:56
  When I was young, really young, I obviously really liked birds.
• 18:02
  I wore I wore this hat today not just because it's purple and I
• 18:07
  wear this hat a lot. Got a male Hummingbird?
• 18:10
  On it, yeah. I wore it because I knew I
• 18:12
  needed to wear a hat with a bird on it.
• 18:14
  For Christy, it's. Perfect.
• 18:16
  It's I, I love it so much. And it's just you I like.
• 18:19
  It's, it's lovely. I love owls.
• 18:23
  You know this about me. I've always been fascinating
• 18:25
  birds, but Raptors and owls have always been really fascinating
• 18:28
  to me. I grew up with one living in our
• 18:32
  roof, which we then had transferred to a birdhouse that
• 18:35
  we put on the outside of the, the roof and we had to do some
• 18:38
  maintenance on the roof. And he moved over and had a
• 18:41
  whole family and he was amazing. His name was Pig Widgen, so
• 18:45
  Western screech owl, RIP. He lived a very long time, but
• 18:48
  his his progeny still live in that hole or in that birdhouse.
• 18:54
  So we've had generations of Western screech owls and he was
• 18:58
  very, very domesticated. Actually, I will say he came to
• 19:02
  us quite young. I was naive and would talk to
• 19:05
  him every day and go out and say hi.
• 19:06
  And at some point he was just, he was my buddy.
• 19:09
  So he'd go fly down on a little spruce tree and I would go sit
• 19:13
  next to him. We'd just chill and I'd tell him
• 19:15
  all my problems and hang out. I used to put a yoga mat out on
• 19:18
  the deck and just look up at him and just tell him what my and
• 19:22
  all the things he knew all my secrets.
• 19:23
  So wow. Yeah.
• 19:25
  So I mean, I think about him a lot, but one of the big moments
• 19:29
  I think was in like my animal loving journey and conservation
• 19:36
  journey was like understanding the cycles and truly that circle
• 19:40
  of life situation where you're realizing like the necessity of
• 19:47
  like something that you love having to go away in order to
• 19:50
  sustain something else that you love.
• 19:54
  And I'll clarify that more. Like what?
• 19:56
  Please do. Yeah.
• 19:57
  You're like what? No.
• 19:59
  And I think like, so for me, I think you probably know this,
• 20:03
  but there's there's a very endangered owl that lives in
• 20:08
  this region, very, very endangered.
• 20:10
  It's called the spotted owl. I do say this because I think a
• 20:14
  lot of people might not. You know, I think a lot of
• 20:16
  people do think it's extinct. We still have a few, quite a
• 20:19
  few, not that many, but they're centered in this kind of region
• 20:24
  up through Washington as well. And that was one of the first
• 20:27
  owls I actually ever saw. And that's really, really
• 20:29
  unique. And the reason I was able to do
• 20:32
  that is because we had some family friends who worked with
• 20:36
  the Bureau of Land Management and then Fish and Wildlife, and
• 20:41
  they knew I liked birds and they were monitoring this mother
• 20:44
  spotted owl and her two recently hatched babies.
• 20:48
  And I was like, like, they knew for me it was going to be like a
• 20:51
  once in a lifetime thing. And what a gift to like, I was
• 20:56
  10 or maybe 11. And they asked me, you know,
• 20:59
  will you come up? Do you want to come up with us?
• 21:02
  I had terrible anxiety. I still do.
• 21:04
  But I had really bad anxiety with strangers especially.
• 21:07
  And this was a bunch of people I didn't really know that well,
• 21:11
  but you can tell how much it meant to me because I was like,
• 21:13
  OK, I'm going to do this. I'm going to go up.
• 21:16
  Where did you have to go? We went up to somewhere in the
• 21:19
  deep woods of Prospect, OK on to the BLM land and I just, they
• 21:29
  took me into the woods. We saw this, she had a radio
• 21:32
  collar on and we saw this spotted owl.
• 21:34
  She was banded as well. And then these two fluffy, cute
• 21:39
  as fuck little outlets just on the branches there and they were
• 21:43
  like, OK, this. So this is The thing is you're
• 21:45
  coming up to see this thing and you're not just here to see it
• 21:48
  for your pleasure. But we are monitoring her and
• 21:51
  we're making sure that she has the resources she needs to make
• 21:54
  sure that these are successful offspring.
• 21:57
  You need to feed her. You're going to get to feed her.
• 22:02
  So we had some cute, cute mice with us that I, I like
• 22:07
  creatures, right? Every creature is cute to me.
• 22:09
  I love animals. I had to literally think about
• 22:13
  this for a minute because they were like, when we put, get
• 22:16
  this, this mouse out, we're going to put it.
• 22:19
  You have a hat on. We asked you to bring a hat.
• 22:21
  We're going to put another one on your head and we're going to
• 22:23
  put a mouse on top of your head. And then she's going to, because
• 22:26
  she needs to be able to see it. They were these white mice so
• 22:29
  that she can take it. And I had a struggle.
• 22:32
  I had a real struggle. Because you didn't want the
• 22:35
  mouse to die, but you want the owl to live.
• 22:38
  Absolutely. So I I will never forget that
• 22:42
  moment in the woods in Prospect OR with these people who wanted
• 22:48
  to do the right thing and save this species.
• 22:52
  And also we're asking a child like to be brave and like hear a
• 22:58
  mouse die on her head. Why you just can't make that up.
• 23:06
  And this, that child honestly, greater good was brave and did
• 23:11
  it. But there's a moment when you
• 23:15
  hear a mouse squeal that you don't forget.
• 23:19
  And at the same time, when that moment passes, the beauty of
• 23:24
  feeling the wind sweep your face from the owl, a very endangered
• 23:29
  owls flight path. And then they took a picture of
• 23:33
  it. So I actually have a picture,
• 23:35
  but it's very blurry. It was like, I don't remember.
• 23:38
  It was the owl flying. And it was like that, really.
• 23:40
  And we're dark woods. But I am standing there in the
• 23:44
  photo and with my back to the camera as an owl swoops down.
• 23:49
  Wow. Yeah.
• 23:50
  And I'll just like the so powerful that the second hat
• 23:53
  that was on top got knocked off when she took the.
• 23:57
  It was like a split second. If you blinked, you know it
• 23:59
  wasn't real, but it was like it was.
• 24:02
  So everything they say is true. So like time slows down a little
• 24:05
  bit because I remember hearing this film be like goodbye mouse
• 24:08
  and then like, but hello, like beautiful mother.
• 24:13
  So that was probably the first really pivotal like outdoor
• 24:18
  moment for me was this understanding of transitions,
• 24:25
  the circle of life. Like I said, why?
• 24:28
  Why I'd come back to it because literal circle of life moment,
• 24:31
  right? So yeah, that that had there was
• 24:36
  a lot of like I felt like I came out of that moment and I came
• 24:41
  back from the woods there. I was changed for sure.
• 24:44
  Totally. Because you, you don't.
• 24:46
  You don't, especially when you're young.
• 24:48
  You're not, you know. But I also in that moment knew
• 24:52
  that to me, the spotted owl and that, but more so the mouse,
• 24:56
  like that whole experience, the spotted owl and the mouse like
• 25:00
  this is the kind of cycle like that was that was real and
• 25:04
  necessary for her. And like the the I want to
• 25:07
  protect this, you know, and I don't more than anything, I
• 25:11
  don't, I don't want to disrupt so much.
• 25:14
  You know, there are times when like we were talking earlier
• 25:17
  that you, you do want to disrupt and be loud.
• 25:19
  And this was not one of those moments.
• 25:22
  Like these are cycles that I don't want to disrupt.
• 25:24
  So ultimately, like I wanted to protect that and go into that.
• 25:28
  So I love seeing those those moments too in nature.
• 25:31
  It's like harsh and crazy and like, but planet Earth put that
• 25:35
  on for me, you know, put it on. That's gonna happen whether or
• 25:39
  not you're here. And if it doesn't happen, we're
• 25:42
  screwed. Yeah, we're screwed.
• 25:44
  We're totally screwed. Like, and if it happens too
• 25:46
  much, you know, like, I mean, yeah, I could go on and on about
• 25:50
  the cousins of that owl that are are causing harm to the
• 25:53
  population. You know it's not just logging,
• 25:55
  it's also more. Adaptable species.
• 25:58
  Yeah, an invasive owl that's coming in and taking the
• 26:01
  territory that was the spotted owl.
• 26:03
  Right. And my judgments about that
• 26:05
  growing up and then realizing, like now where I live in
• 26:08
  Washington, those are the common owls that I see.
• 26:10
  And they're living their life and they adapted, you know,
• 26:13
  like, and so kind of being like, so now there's like management
• 26:17
  thoughts of do we put a bounty on them and shoot these other
• 26:20
  owls? The conflicts there is so
• 26:24
  fascinating. And where did these owls come
• 26:26
  from? Did they exactly?
• 26:27
  Did they arrive because of human intervention and therefore human
• 26:31
  intervention is required to reduce or control the
• 26:34
  population? Or is it just natural selection
• 26:38
  and owls changing their habitats and moving into new spaces and
• 26:44
  the stronger species, the stronger breed, whatever?
• 26:48
  Love the fittest, right? We evolution and adaptation, all
• 26:52
  of that. Yeah, yeah.
• 26:53
  For someone who has like an ecologically science framed
• 26:57
  mind, it's like these are the things that keep me up at night,
• 27:01
  which means I'm very privileged. But I also like it's, it's a
• 27:05
  lot, you know, you think about these things.
• 27:08
  But we need people like you. Thank you.
• 27:11
  Thank you, Emily, who have a mind for this that are kept up
• 27:17
  at night thinking about this because it is a a thing that
• 27:21
  plagues life on this planet. Yeah.
• 27:24
  That somebody has to think about.
• 27:26
  Otherwise, if the if it is actually deemed a problem, if
• 27:33
  nobody's thinking about it, then the problem gets even bigger.
• 27:35
  Or maybe it just goes away on its own.
• 27:38
  Yeah, I think like the whole theme of that is like I, I
• 27:42
  realize you realize in the work that we do and everything that
• 27:45
  you've done to like the fear for me is the fear of people taking
• 27:50
  things for granted because especially with the earth and
• 27:55
  like the environment, like that's something that a lot of
• 27:58
  people take for granted. So on every person at some
• 28:01
  point, I took it for granted. You know, I took for granted the
• 28:05
  ponderosa Pines that I grew up with and they're getting
• 28:08
  decimated. And it's, I was crying about it
• 28:11
  the other day, just seeing the gaps in the trees and, and, and
• 28:14
  realizing that things are, are changing and some of it's good
• 28:18
  and some of it's preventable and like, do some reading.
• 28:23
  And also, we're only here first. We're only.
• 28:25
  Here. This like blade of grass worth
• 28:28
  of time in the lifespan of this planet so like.
• 28:32
  So what are you going to do at that time?
• 28:34
  Yeah. And what is maybe it is part of
• 28:38
  the natural rhythm of the planet for these trees to be eaten by
• 28:46
  this beetle and dis, you know, dismantled and go into the
• 28:51
  fossil layer and something new will arrive.
• 28:54
  Like, how do we know that it should be prevented or not
• 28:59
  because we're only seeing a single blade of grass.
• 29:03
  Yeah, in a enormous Meadow and system of life.
• 29:11
  Yeah, I think about ecological succession a lot with forests
• 29:15
  too, right. Like that in particular.
• 29:17
  I think we we're very, I mean, I think I speak for both of us
• 29:21
  growing up in this area. Forests are just as much as the
• 29:25
  rivers and the meadows. Like forests are a key metaphor
• 29:28
  for so much. So many of this is hugely Yeah.
• 29:32
  And so that kind of the transitions and the succession,
• 29:39
  I think the part that I'm trying to understand more is like is
• 29:42
  the succession that I'm seeing the the basically emergence of a
• 29:48
  new stronger kid on the block in the forest that's taking over or
• 29:53
  in the bird world in my 32 years lifetime.
• 29:59
  Is that too rapid? You know, like, are some of
• 30:02
  these things like where, what is the balance and where, where are
• 30:07
  we? You know, at some point I'm
• 30:10
  starting to feel uncomfortable with some of the changes I'm
• 30:13
  seeing and, and where is that me personally being like, EW, no.
• 30:16
  Change. This isn't what I remember
• 30:19
  exactly. Exactly.
• 30:20
  Or in my day, you know, like where is that?
• 30:23
  Seriously. Back in my.
• 30:24
  Day like where is is that me or is that also like like is do we
• 30:31
  need to be waking up a little bit more right So like talk
• 30:35
  about someone who's like as an environmentalist I'm also daily
• 30:38
  questioning like am I just like getting old and like wanting
• 30:41
  things to stay the same but like I think it's good to have that
• 30:44
  awareness yeah I think ultimately.
• 30:46
  You have that awareness is more than a lot right, right others.
• 30:52
  Right. So, but anyway, so that was like
• 30:55
  that was one really big like pivotal moment that I think of
• 30:57
  probably daily. I probably think of that daily.
• 31:03
  Do you have that photo printed out and framed on your desk?
• 31:06
  Like where does that photo live in your life?
• 31:08
  Yeah, it's actually so funny because my I actually didn't
• 31:12
  think coming here seriously that the two moments I was going to
• 31:14
  talk about were that connected. I actually realized that the
• 31:18
  place I lived when the other pivotal moment, outdoor moment
• 31:21
  in my life, which really only comes in when I have a
• 31:24
  challenge. I think about it only when I
• 31:26
  have a challenging time in my life and when that comes into
• 31:30
  play, I realized I was living in a place where in China spoiler,
• 31:35
  I lived abroad and Emily was a big part of that whole part of
• 31:39
  this. Like go ahead, follow your
• 31:40
  dreams. And but, but that photo was on
• 31:42
  the wall there. I, I put up that photo in my, I
• 31:45
  had very few possessions I could bring with me to China and I
• 31:48
  brought first. I hadn't thought about that
• 31:50
  photo a lot, but I printed it out and I brought it with me and
• 31:52
  it was on my I put it up with tape on my dorm, in my dorm.
• 31:57
  Room cool. Yeah, that's so interesting.
• 32:00
  Did you plan this maybe flowering realizations in a
• 32:04
  Meadow? Oh my God.
• 32:05
  And. When you were like, when you
• 32:09
  were there in China looking at that photo, Yeah.
• 32:13
  What did it mean to you in those moments that you'd find yourself
• 32:18
  like? I think there's a reason and I
• 32:20
  think about that photo a lot now.
• 32:22
  I think it's, it's first of all, it's the only photo I have from
• 32:26
  that day. I'm just grateful to have that
• 32:29
  still. And the photos I have of it now
• 32:31
  are photos that I like cuz the original was printed out for me.
• 32:36
  So they're photos of a printed photo.
• 32:39
  I mean, this is talk about recycling time.
• 32:42
  Yeah, exactly. Talk about this transition.
• 32:47
  And so it's like just really, why is it so important to me?
• 32:50
  I don't think actually anyone's ever asked me that.
• 32:52
  Like, why did I have that? What did it mean to me?
• 32:54
  Then my first thing, my first thought is home.
• 32:58
  You know, I've always felt like a very strong pull to like what
• 33:01
  I consider home. And it's it's this this region
• 33:03
  and these experiences. And then I think because I'm
• 33:08
  standing there with my back to the camera as this creature
• 33:12
  comes towards me in the photo, there's a there's a little bit
• 33:15
  of a badass defiance that but in a child.
• 33:20
  And there's something about that that I you, you can lose or you
• 33:23
  get hardened in different ways as you get older and go through
• 33:26
  different things. And like, I wanted that.
• 33:29
  I think I've always aspired to be the, that part of like
• 33:33
  Christie and, and the Christie that's out here and, and it's
• 33:37
  tied to my youth, deeply tied to my like childhood and innocence
• 33:41
  or whatever, and that, that moment, but that I was always a
• 33:45
  bit mischievous and defiant in some ways.
• 33:47
  I've always had that curious adventure, adventure streak and,
• 33:51
  and pushing boundaries it. But then at a certain age,
• 33:53
  right, you feel like you can't be that way or you, you know,
• 33:56
  you, you had their consequences. And but I, I've always valued
• 34:00
  her so deeply, that girl. And so I think that's why, what
• 34:05
  it meant to me and why I brought it, you know, because in in all
• 34:08
  challenges and all walks of life, remember her, You know,
• 34:12
  she learned a lot that day and she, she lived so fully and like
• 34:17
  she is still there, you know, and so she.
• 34:20
  Said yes to something that was otherwise utterly terrifying
• 34:24
  right that if like being out there with strangers and having
• 34:28
  a. A mouse get killed, essentially
• 34:31
  a creature that I was like wanted as pets or like, you
• 34:34
  know, like hearing it die on your head, but to be fed to the
• 34:39
  things that you love, right, because they have to have that.
• 34:43
  Like that's just such an, it's so interesting.
• 34:45
  So I always think about that moment of like what's necessary,
• 34:49
  you know, or like what it's it was so many different emotions.
• 34:52
  There's so much you can pull out of it.
• 34:53
  It's juicy. It could be its own episode
• 34:55
  honestly. How did I get to China?
• 34:58
  How do I do that in like 1 minute?
• 35:00
  I got to China because I needed to get the fuck out.
• 35:06
  I needed a break. I was going through a lot as you
• 35:09
  know. At that point, my mom was
• 35:12
  diagnosed with a progressive neurologic condition and neuro,
• 35:22
  her neurologic tissue brain is deteriorating essentially quite
• 35:28
  slowly compared to a lot of the peers that have had this and in
• 35:32
  like the different study groups. But but she has always, she's
• 35:36
  been sick for a very, very, very, very big portion of my
• 35:40
  life. Like what age were you?
• 35:44
  So she started getting I'll just body.
• 35:48
  I would I say it differently, like brain versus body, even
• 35:51
  though it's all together. But her body started breaking
• 35:53
  down before I was born. Wow.
• 35:55
  Yeah, she has lupus. She has a like she has got
• 36:00
  immunodeficiencies, just a lot of immune issues.
• 36:03
  She was born very prematurely. I think she was 2 lbs when she
• 36:06
  was born. She barely survived.
• 36:08
  Wow. It's a miracle that she's here,
• 36:11
  especially considering bring the medicine back then.
• 36:13
  So I mean, like, it's, it's just it truly, my dad fell in love
• 36:18
  with her. She went into nursing because,
• 36:19
  you know, had been to a lot of doctors.
• 36:21
  She wanted to help people. My dad is a doctor and he fell
• 36:25
  for her and he knew that she was sick and that she could get
• 36:29
  sicker and, and, you know, but he was like, I, I still love her
• 36:32
  and I, you know, she's great and I want to be with her.
• 36:34
  And to be fair, I didn't really realize she was like sick.
• 36:37
  I knew she took a lot of pills and all that kind of stuff, but
• 36:39
  I didn't know she was sick until I was like maybe middle school
• 36:43
  when she started getting hospitalized for various things.
• 36:47
  She was, I mean, she's always been such like she's always been
• 36:49
  there. She was like our primary
• 36:51
  caretaker. I mean, she was like mom.
• 36:54
  So really that stuff wasn't she's always just been such a
• 36:58
  like a force to be reckoned with funny ass mom.
• 37:02
  Until I was in about midway through college through
• 37:07
  undergrad when she started forgetting a lot of things and
• 37:11
  started talking to random inanimate objects and forgetting
• 37:15
  details. We talked daily but forgetting
• 37:17
  things we had just talked about and like things started getting
• 37:20
  weird. My dad was noticing it and she
• 37:23
  basically started losing her mind in a lot of ways.
• 37:26
  I mean, it sounds harsh, but she was thinking that too.
• 37:29
  And her moods were changing and the way she reacted to things
• 37:32
  were more intense and she didn't have a filter and her
• 37:35
  personality changed a lot. So she started becoming less
• 37:40
  mom. I think in in college, I just I
• 37:43
  went into this. We were our whole family's very
• 37:45
  close. So I just went into this like
• 37:47
  mode of being very and being away and like I was really.
• 37:51
  Cuz you were. You went to College in Santa
• 37:52
  Clara. In the Bay Area, Yeah.
• 37:54
  So I was just like, I didn't know what was going on.
• 37:56
  I was trying to figure out who I was going to be as like this
• 37:59
  emerging adult and young adults. And also, I still wanted to be
• 38:03
  like, baby, take care of me back home.
• 38:05
  Like I missed my my family and I was used to being the youngest
• 38:09
  child like my parents were, my mom was like her kids were her
• 38:12
  life. So like, you know, suddenly
• 38:14
  there were these other things going on and everything, my
• 38:16
  whole environment was changing. There were transitions happening
• 38:19
  and I wasn't ready for it. And I wanted to hold on deeply
• 38:22
  to all of the things that were, you know, that I were familiar
• 38:26
  and comforting. So that was like really a
• 38:29
  stressful time. When I graduated, I knew I was
• 38:32
  doing environmental work. This condition was still
• 38:35
  ongoing. They started to give it a name
• 38:38
  and, and it was a genuine like in the family of what they like
• 38:43
  Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, that kind of stuff.
• 38:47
  So had to do with a certain protein in the brain that was
• 38:49
  taking over and causing deterioration.
• 38:52
  And it's, it's eventually happens until they lose
• 38:55
  neuromuscular control and usually aspirate.
• 38:58
  And then folks, usually you die at that point.
• 39:01
  But, but so, so all of this is going on.
• 39:06
  My dad's a doctor, but this is not his specialty.
• 39:08
  He's working a ton. Like everything's just our
• 39:10
  family's in a bad place. And so I come back home from
• 39:14
  college because the job, the restoration job I had gotten
• 39:18
  down in the Bay, I was grateful for it.
• 39:21
  But the Bay SO30K offer in the Bay starting out.
• 39:30
  Full time full. Time I with housing, I wouldn't
• 39:35
  have been able to even get like food essentially, like with
• 39:39
  everything, with transportation, with all the things that added,
• 39:41
  like it didn't add up and it couldn't have.
• 39:44
  And I like I, I just like couldn't make it work because I
• 39:47
  at that point didn't have family to stay with.
• 39:49
  I was staying with family before.
• 39:51
  So I was like, OK, I got to figure something else out.
• 39:54
  So I came back, was trying to regroup.
• 39:56
  All this stuff is going on at home, so I'm outside as much as
• 39:59
  I can. I'm on the trails.
• 40:00
  The trails saved my ass. Like they saved my life.
• 40:05
  And I was on, I was doing the Lithia trails.
• 40:08
  I was up here, you know, I was with friends.
• 40:11
  And then, you know, a year later, like you came into my
• 40:15
  life, wonderful, wonderful people came into my life that I
• 40:19
  couldn't not be real about what was going on, about who I was as
• 40:22
  Christie. But also like I'm a Christie.
• 40:24
  That there's another part of me going on right now.
• 40:25
  It's it's very affected by what's happening with my family.
• 40:29
  And I think like I bring that up because you truly you and, and
• 40:35
  you know, the group of folks, Deanna, all the other folks,
• 40:37
  like held me in those moments, like emotionally like, but as
• 40:43
  friends of like, let's let's like remember that you are you
• 40:49
  and you're not being selfish If you're taking time to enjoy
• 40:52
  these things and be out here doing these things with us.
• 40:55
  And also like trying to follow your dreams in this field.
• 40:59
  That's that can be tough right now.
• 41:01
  But also like taking time for your family and knowing, you
• 41:03
  know, just taking a step away from that is not selfish.
• 41:07
  So thank you for that. First of all, I don't think I've
• 41:08
  ever gotten to thank you like in person for that.
• 41:11
  You're welcome. And yeah, so I mean, I think
• 41:14
  like my, my constant excuse became, Oh, my mom, my mom, my
• 41:16
  mom. And it's not as much an excuse
• 41:19
  so much as it is like just a part of my story and my reality.
• 41:22
  My mom is just is she's always just been very sick and she got
• 41:26
  sicker and, and things got a lot harder and they continue to get
• 41:30
  hard. We figured out more of a system.
• 41:33
  And so it's like we've adapted and, and so we're more resilient
• 41:37
  in that way. But I needed a break by the time
• 41:42
  it was like 20/17/2018. So I was like, Emily, I got a
• 41:46
  dip. I might come back.
• 41:48
  This is, this is like a year and a half.
• 41:50
  And I was like, I've got to, I've got to figure something out
• 41:53
  because like I know like I need to get more in touch with my
• 41:57
  roots too in China. Like I have, I'm half Chinese
• 42:00
  and like, I want to speak the language better.
• 42:03
  And I just like want to, I know I need to go there.
• 42:07
  And after our conversation about manifest and stuff too, I was
• 42:10
  also like, so this is partially your fault.
• 42:12
  I was kind of like something's calling me there.
• 42:15
  So I was like I I got to go. So I went went for many reasons.
• 42:19
  I won't get into all of them, but I had an experience when I
• 42:22
  was there where I came, I wanted to go on a hike because that's
• 42:26
  what you do when you are raised here through line.
• 42:29
  And I went with some friends and we went to this mountain called
• 42:34
  Yao Mountain, and it was supposed to have an official
• 42:38
  trail. It did not.
• 42:39
  We didn't really realize that there was a kind of trail and
• 42:43
  then it ended so that you could take a sky gondola thing up this
• 42:48
  like 5000 foot elevation gain. I mean it was insane.
• 42:53
  I was like, Oh God, but I was came in as this.
• 42:56
  I'm from don't worry, friends from China and other places in
• 43:00
  the world that were here with me.
• 43:01
  I I can I can show you hiking because I'm from Oregon.
• 43:05
  Oh my God, I have never hiked something like this in my life.
• 43:09
  I mean it was truly God. How high was this mountain?
• 43:13
  I don't even remember. It was like it was insane.
• 43:16
  Here's the other insane part. Conditions 98°, about 90%
• 43:23
  humidity. Yes.
• 43:25
  Yep. Yeah.
• 43:27
  Never had I hyped hiked for real in the subtropics where there
• 43:32
  are monkeys that if they smell your food, they will get violent
• 43:35
  and come after you where there are all these things.
• 43:37
  So I'm like starting to think halfway up I was like, Oh, we
• 43:39
  don't need to take this sky train thing.
• 43:41
  When I realized it was officially not a trail and we
• 43:43
  just needed to like scramble and summit this thing in the sun
• 43:47
  beating down. Now I can't like I was I was the
• 43:50
  most I was a husk. I was me.
• 43:53
  I was the bare. Bones of me.
• 43:55
  And that was so gratifying. And also, I just remember
• 43:59
  thinking halfway up that mountain, I was like, it's going
• 44:04
  to be even harder to get down. It's hot.
• 44:06
  We need water. We know that there's a little
• 44:08
  like center at the top where people are getting off the
• 44:11
  gondola where they can get water and stuff.
• 44:12
  I'm like, that's the goal. We've got to get there.
• 44:16
  There are tourists like with their selfie sticks, looking at
• 44:18
  us going. Yeah, I was there on the gondola
• 44:20
  and you're on the ground. Insane.
• 44:22
  Like there were like there, she's crazy.
• 44:25
  We're sweating through. We're like, we're probably going
• 44:27
  to die. But there, there was a moment
• 44:29
  where I, I told myself, as I'm sweating, I said, if I can do
• 44:33
  this, Christy, if you can do this and get to the top because
• 44:37
  you do feel like you're going to die.
• 44:38
  And honestly, it's shitty. Like you can do anything.
• 44:43
  And maybe you hear that with people's stories, in particular
• 44:46
  ones like this, where they're maybe actually on the verge of
• 44:49
  death because it was pretty dangerous.
• 44:52
  I tell this, I'm telling I'm leaving out a lot of details,
• 44:55
  including one where my friend passed out and we had to, like,
• 44:57
  go and get help. So we actually had to go back
• 44:59
  down after we got close to the summit and then halfway down and
• 45:02
  then find somebody. And then they had.
• 45:04
  It was crazy. Yeah, it was wild.
• 45:06
  You can say more. Well, OK, so we were going up
• 45:09
  and this friend, I don't know what happened, but she did run
• 45:12
  out of water and she started to get dizzy and we're like, OK,
• 45:18
  wait, let's have you sit down. But there was no shade.
• 45:20
  There's no place to sit down where it's not going to be
• 45:23
  really hot on your ass. And it's also still 90 whatever
• 45:26
  degrees, 90°. So it was like we got to figure
• 45:30
  something out, like we just have to take our water and keep her
• 45:32
  like cool. And she's like, no, like, go on,
• 45:36
  at least get to the top, get some water and come back for me.
• 45:40
  And we're like, no, it felt like that.
• 45:44
  And then there was this moment where I was like, well, I can't
• 45:46
  do that, you know? I mean, it's all about these
• 45:48
  moments of, like, what internal struggle?
• 45:51
  And I was like, legit, like, that's probably smart.
• 45:54
  Like, maybe somebody stay with her.
• 45:56
  No, everyone decided to come. So we all went, yeah, that was
• 45:59
  not the smartest thing. But we all went up to get, like,
• 46:02
  water. And then halfway up again, I'm
• 46:04
  like, no, I got to go back for her.
• 46:06
  I mean, it was just insane. It was these moments of
• 46:08
  indecision. I was panicking.
• 46:10
  The worst part is as I got back down to her to try and be like,
• 46:13
  I'm just going to, we're just going to carry you up.
• 46:16
  She wasn't there anymore. Yeah.
• 46:19
  So we're like, well. Where'd she go?
• 46:21
  Where? Did she go?
• 46:23
  Turns out there was somebody else attempting to do the same
• 46:26
  summit. They had found it slightly
• 46:28
  easier way around the back. This is why you always look for
• 46:30
  other routes. So she was able to get with them
• 46:34
  and go along towards like skirt along.
• 46:36
  Honestly very dangerous towards the back.
• 46:38
  And then there was a more stated, easier way to get up.
• 46:42
  But we were flipping shit. Yeah, we were like we were
• 46:46
  looking. Cuz down those trails intersect.
• 46:49
  Like, how would she know that we're gonna find her on this
• 46:52
  this? Way that you could get around to
• 46:56
  get to the other side. And it did not.
• 46:58
  Nothing was nothing's marked. I mean, this is like a fake
• 47:01
  trail. Yeah, this is not a trail.
• 47:04
  And she just suspected to change location and that y'all would be
• 47:07
  able to find her. She was gonna get to the top.
• 47:10
  She. Was gonna just come and meet you
• 47:11
  where you were. Yeah.
• 47:12
  Wow, yeah. So not good on her part either.
• 47:16
  Not smart. We learned a lot of things.
• 47:18
  Don't do that. Please don't do that.
• 47:20
  If you're hugging with you, don't feel good.
• 47:22
  Stay. Stay in your place.
• 47:24
  Like what is the rule that you learn when you're a child and
• 47:27
  you get lost in a grocery store? You stay where you are and you
• 47:31
  will be found. Don't go looking for your
• 47:33
  parents, stay where you are. They will.
• 47:34
  Find you might almost die trying to go back down to find you and
• 47:38
  then panicking going back up. But I have never, like, had more
• 47:41
  drive to get to the top than it after that moment, too, because
• 47:45
  I was like, holy shit. I like, need to make sure she's
• 47:48
  not dead, you know? Yeah.
• 47:50
  And I'm like, this is like real situation.
• 47:52
  People go abroad and someone dies.
• 47:54
  Yeah, That had happened before to some of my parents friends.
• 47:57
  Like, they were like, oh, don't let your daughter go hiking, you
• 48:00
  know, in China because that's how some people like.
• 48:02
  Yeah. It's like, so like, it's crazy.
• 48:03
  Like these stories. And I'm like, damn it, damn it.
• 48:06
  They're right. I'm.
• 48:07
  Gonna be the. Story, The story now, but yeah,
• 48:11
  no, that was like this is more of my like very kind of
• 48:14
  quintessential outdoor model. But but I just remember thinking
• 48:17
  that of like meaning to get to the summer and say if I if I can
• 48:20
  do this because I was hurting too.
• 48:21
  You know when you're like when you are summiting something and
• 48:24
  you're at the scramble portion and you know when you're like
• 48:27
  obviously steps are not the same rise and run of a comfortable
• 48:31
  stair, right. So you're like desperately
• 48:34
  lifting and desperately hoping that when you take that step
• 48:37
  down, you will be able to get enough of a push down and
• 48:40
  momentum to then your glutes are gonna work to lift your next
• 48:44
  your leg up to get to the next one.
• 48:45
  Yeah. And at some point you're like,
• 48:47
  should I put my arms down to help me?
• 48:48
  Yeah, like that am I crawling that?
• 48:50
  Am I? Crawling and that is where we
• 48:52
  were and so I'm like and it's. And on a on a populated trail,
• 48:56
  there's people coming down telling you you're almost there.
• 48:59
  Oh my, you're almost there. You're doing great.
• 49:01
  Screw. You.
• 49:02
  Yeah, You're one of those. Don't say that.
• 49:05
  So annoying but I've been that person too.
• 49:07
  I've been on both sides but. Only if it's real.
• 49:09
  Yeah. I also will tell people you got
• 49:12
  a ways to go. So.
• 49:15
  But if there's nobody else around, no, you have no context
• 49:18
  for when you're reaching the summit.
• 49:20
  You have no context and also now picture it's really hot and
• 49:24
  you're thinking is there somebody like with nefarious,
• 49:27
  like is there somebody who's out to harm someone?
• 49:29
  Did they take my friend? Yeah, well, she can't happen.
• 49:32
  Did she fall off the Cliff? Yeah, literally.
• 49:34
  So we're like looking down. It's just it was crazy.
• 49:38
  So so I had those moments and I I really still think back.
• 49:41
  I say I bring, I bring this moment back when I, when I'm
• 49:43
  doing something that's really difficult, particularly with
• 49:46
  like work, things that aren't like real compared like life is
• 49:51
  so real outside. Life is so, so real outside.
• 49:53
  And in those moments, that is the closest you get to the most
• 49:57
  real moments between life and death, right?
• 50:00
  I mean like, like, so when I'm stressing about a deadline or
• 50:03
  when it's really something like that gives me so much
• 50:07
  adrenaline, I'm freaking out. Sometimes I, I, I go back to
• 50:11
  that moment and I think about myself trying to push one leg at
• 50:14
  a time up to see if my friend's OK in a 98° weather and 9090%
• 50:19
  humidity on this ridiculously insane nobody should actually be
• 50:23
  allowed to climb it mountain in China.
• 50:26
  And I think about that and think, I told myself if I could
• 50:30
  do that, I could do anything. And I did it.
• 50:31
  I got up to the top. I did it.
• 50:33
  I drank water. We found my friend.
• 50:36
  I was so mad at her. Are you still friends with her?
• 50:40
  You know, we, we are social media friends, but I don't
• 50:43
  actually interact with her that much.
• 50:44
  I I may send her this podcast if this makes it in.
• 50:48
  I'm going to send this to her. So, Lily, listen up.
• 50:52
  Thanks, Lily. Thanks, Lily.
• 50:53
  Stay where you are next time. Yeah.
• 50:56
  No, but I, we were, I was like, she's dead, but she was alive.
• 50:59
  She's like, I came off the back, you know, someone showed me
• 51:02
  whenever I came off the back, I was like, OK, yeah.
• 51:06
  But I I'm like now I've had that moment and I can't, you don't
• 51:10
  take that back. So I will.
• 51:12
  I have to stand by that. Like, I want to stand by that.
• 51:15
  I want to think about all these other things I say are so hard.
• 51:18
  And some of them are legitimately hard in other ways.
• 51:21
  But I'm like, but I got through that.
• 51:23
  Like at least let me have that and remember that so that I can
• 51:27
  like, adjust and see, you know, how bad is it really?
• 51:30
  Yeah, yeah. Like, do I feel like I might die
• 51:33
  right now? Yeah.
• 51:34
  Or is this just a challenge that I will easily overcome and I'll
• 51:40
  move on from? Exactly.
• 51:41
  Exactly. Yeah, so.
• 51:43
  It's really bringing up in me this new viral meme of almost
• 51:48
  forgot that this is what it's all about.
• 51:50
  Right. So going through that
• 51:54
  excruciating challenge, yeah. And having that in your mind, if
• 51:58
  I can do this, I can do anything.
• 51:59
  Yeah. That's what it's all about.
• 52:02
  Yeah. It's all about overcoming those
• 52:04
  situations and reflecting back on that and remembering, keeping
• 52:08
  perspective. Perspective is.
• 52:09
  So I mean, that's what this gives you.
• 52:11
  Yeah. Being outside, maybe this is
• 52:14
  probably the the main through line, right?
• 52:16
  It's like, I think one of the reasons I seek being outside too
• 52:20
  is not only to center myself, but because it reminds me of
• 52:25
  like where I am in the big system and like how tiny it all
• 52:30
  is and how much of an impact I can make within a small area.
• 52:34
  So that's important for like greater systems, but like
• 52:37
  ultimately like whatever I'm sweating about, there's bigger
• 52:41
  things. Yeah, there's bigger things and,
• 52:43
  and like there always will be. And so.
• 52:46
  It doesn't mean that what's stressing you isn't important
• 52:48
  and has validity, no, but there's but it shouldn't
• 52:53
  debilitate you because there are bigger things.
• 52:55
  And part of me choosing how to react to that situation that I'm
• 52:59
  in appropriately or bet in the best way that I can is, is
• 53:04
  remembering the perspective is remembering that I'm probably
• 53:08
  not going to die on a mountain right now doing this thing.
• 53:11
  So let's calm down a little bit and like take a step back.
• 53:16
  And then, oh, what does that step back helped me do?
• 53:19
  Now I can think through like a smarter way to do something
• 53:21
  Totally. So, so thank you to that
• 53:24
  mountain experience. And also, but I just, it's
• 53:28
  crazy. It's crazy.
• 53:30
  Yeah. I almost wish that it was like,
• 53:32
  it's a very different kind of culture, right.
• 53:33
  So it's not like in the Northwest we're like, Oh yeah,
• 53:36
  atoms or, you know, Rainier or whatever.
• 53:39
  Like, oh, we did Hood, you know, if for perspective, talk about
• 53:43
  perspective, but of like a hike of how difficult something is or
• 53:45
  like how long it takes should take or what your elevation gain
• 53:48
  is or you did a 14,000 footer or whatever.
• 53:51
  There's no like there wasn't a way for me to like, even if I
• 53:56
  were to say this and be like, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, the mountain,
• 54:00
  yeah, mountain. Like people that wouldn't get it
• 54:02
  or understand it. So that's what.
• 54:04
  They'd be like you did what? Where, yeah, like you have to
• 54:08
  tell the story, you know, because it's not a famous
• 54:10
  enough, It's not like part of the ingrained in their culture
• 54:13
  enough for it to be like a big maybe.
• 54:16
  Maybe there would be some friends who thought I was insane
• 54:18
  because I didn't take the gondola, which true, fair.
• 54:21
  But yeah, it's just like I wanna be able to be like, you know,
• 54:25
  that's that's I'm just gonna have to.
• 54:26
  It'll have to be. It'll have to live on through
• 54:28
  this. It'll be a metaphor for the
• 54:30
  hardest fucking thing you've ever had to physically do.
• 54:33
  And this is not an encouragement for anybody who may be listening
• 54:36
  to go to China and climb this mountain.
• 54:38
  Don't do that. There are other mountains
• 54:40
  actively discouraging you from doing.
• 54:42
  That please don't do that. But yeah, I think like, you
• 54:48
  know, you, you always do learn something about about yourself,
• 54:50
  but I, it's like that's the moment where I'm like, whenever
• 54:54
  I'm in a challenging situation, think of that.
• 54:56
  And then for all other things that like I want to remember
• 54:59
  like my goal and my mission and like why I am the way I am and
• 55:02
  why I do what I do. I think of the spot and all.
• 55:05
  Yeah. That makes a lot of sense.
• 55:06
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 55:08
  Thank you. Yeah, thanks for sharing those.
• 55:10
  Yeah. And how they how, how they've
• 55:12
  impacted each other, Yeah. And how they continue to
• 55:16
  influence your daily life. I think that that's, that's I
• 55:20
  think the core of this question that we're asking people of this
• 55:24
  pivotal outdoor moment is not just that this thing happened,
• 55:27
  right, and maybe changed the trajectory of your life from
• 55:30
  that moment, but really how that experience plays into your life
• 55:38
  ongoing. Yeah.
• 55:39
  That it's something that you use as motivation, as a reminder in
• 55:43
  all that you do and all that you are, that brings you back to
• 55:46
  yourself, that pushes you forward, and you use as that
• 55:52
  recalibration, like return to your factory settings.
• 55:57
  Yeah, from those experiences. Yeah, I like the way you said it
• 56:02
  return to your factory settings. I also think about it in terms
• 56:06
  of like these experiences are the factory settings.
• 56:10
  Because before all of everything that we know as society was
• 56:15
  like, like when when when we were all just out in the land as
• 56:20
  human beings, and this was work and this was whatever every
• 56:23
  aspect of our lives was outside. These things happen all the
• 56:27
  time. Yeah.
• 56:28
  Yeah. You know.
• 56:29
  When pre sitting down here talking about oh you just eat
• 56:34
  something from the land and wait to see what happens to you.
• 56:38
  Like Yep do you live or do you die?
• 56:41
  Do you get sick? Do you get energy?
• 56:45
  It's just learning and doing hard things, but there's no
• 56:48
  other context for that being the hard thing that's gonna push you
• 56:54
  for the rest of your. Every day.
• 56:55
  It was the hard thing, right? It was the hard thing.
• 56:57
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 56:58
  So it's kind of fascinating. I like that we get to talk about
• 57:01
  isolated experiences. Yeah.
• 57:03
  The creature comforts of not having to do all these things
• 57:06
  all the time, but also the drive to like ultimately the the
• 57:10
  benefits of being out and here and and learning the learning
• 57:14
  part of it because like if you at the end of the day, if you
• 57:17
  don't. Die.
• 57:19
  Well, did you die? No.
• 57:20
  OK, then can you marry on? A great You must have learned
• 57:23
  something, right? Yeah, it was hard.
• 57:26
  You didn't die. What'd you learn?
• 57:27
  Exactly. Yeah, I love that.
• 57:30
  Is that like a mantra? Probably.
• 57:32
  Well, it is now. It is.
• 57:33
  I mean, it was. Hard.
• 57:34
  Did you die? What'd you learn?
• 57:35
  Yeah. I love that.
• 57:37
  In other words, that's essentially what my like dad, my
• 57:42
  huge dad lesson has always been is like, OK, you fucked up, but
• 57:46
  how do you recover? What's I imagine with,
• 57:50
  especially with being on the river, which I still haven't
• 57:53
  done. Well, we'll have to change that
• 57:56
  like. Yeah, how do you recover?
• 57:59
  It's all about the recovery. Yeah.
• 58:00
  And that's that has played into all parts of my life.
• 58:04
  Yeah. And even when we were doing
• 58:06
  outreach work, like, OK, you had a you had a shitty customer, you
• 58:09
  had a shitty day. Yeah.
• 58:10
  How are you gonna move forward? How are you gonna recover like
• 58:14
  how are you gonna get out of. You can't just stay in that shit
• 58:18
  yeah. So how do you take what was good
• 58:21
  and take what was bad and move forward, recover, apply, Apply
• 58:25
  what you learn and move forward, Yeah, and get better.
• 58:29
  It's just an. Endless cycle of learning and
• 58:32
  adapting. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 58:34
  Figure out that. Also pre sit down talking about
• 58:39
  like making mistakes and learning the lesson and seeing
• 58:44
  somebody else fall and OK, baby, I'm not gonna go that way or
• 58:46
  seeing somebody else sink into the mud.
• 58:48
  Nobody fell, nobody, nobody tumble, someone sink into the
• 58:51
  mud. But OK, I'm gonna take a
• 58:54
  different route. I'm learning from that person's
• 58:56
  mistakes, but also I sink into the mud.
• 58:59
  Well, when I come back, I'm gonna take a different path,
• 59:01
  right? Because that was a, that was a
• 59:03
  gentle fuck up. Yeah, I'm gonna recover by going
• 59:06
  a different way. What, Yeah, I mean outdoor, the
• 59:09
  outdoors and hiking and the outdoor activities and my
• 59:11
  experiences are like the best metaphors, the best and the best
• 59:17
  ways to like think about framing, challenges,
• 59:24
  opportunities, puzzles. So I, I think that's another
• 59:28
  reason why I really gravitate towards it.
• 59:30
  So I love it, yeah. Thank you for sharing that.
• 59:33
  Yeah, of. Course, Yeah, yeah, I know a lot
• 59:35
  of rambling to get there, but it's part of the game, yeah,
• 59:38
  part of the story it's. Part of the journey, yeah.
• 59:41
  We got our. We got our.
• 59:43
  OK, Q dramatic cut here. This episode is brought to you
• 59:48
  by dead camera batteries. May we always have a few more in
• 59:51
  our backpacks. Enjoy.
• 59:54
  Put a background. Did I press play somewhere?
• 59:56
  Yes. Yeah, we've known each other
• 59:59
  since. Middle school reconnected,
• 1:00:01
  right? We've, like, stayed, you know,
• 1:00:05
  peripherally connected over the years.
• 1:00:07
  But then I reached out last summer and I was like, hey, we
• 1:00:12
  need to do something. Yeah.
• 1:00:14
  So I need to reposition the camera just slightly.
• 1:00:18
  And so we've been deeply reconnected since last summer.
• 1:00:24
  I love that. Okay, I think.
• 1:00:31
  That's better. Okay, so quick little wrap up
• 1:00:36
  recap. Yeah, before we head on down the
• 1:00:40
  trail. Down the trail that we know
• 1:00:42
  exists now, we found the loop. Finally made it yeah wow.
• 1:00:47
  Thank you for coming down from taking a day away from your
• 1:00:52
  family on the limited times that you're down in Southern Oregon
• 1:00:57
  from Seattle and spending the day with me to tell family, tell
• 1:01:02
  your story, family. Thank you.
• 1:01:05
  Our our other question that we like to ask our guests is when
• 1:01:10
  when your body expires and your soul moves on, how do you want
• 1:01:16
  to be remembered? Oh.
• 1:01:18
  Man, how do I want? Well, first of all, positively,
• 1:01:22
  fondly I I while I want people to.
• 1:01:27
  I haven't really thought about this, but why?
• 1:01:28
  I guess I want. I don't think most people do, I
• 1:01:31
  hope, But I love this guy. I'm loving this question.
• 1:01:34
  Do people kind of like, splutter around at first?
• 1:01:37
  Not yet. Oh, I mean, I think I want
• 1:01:42
  people to miss me, but I want a little laugh, smile and get
• 1:01:49
  outside. Like I feel like that's really
• 1:01:51
  on brand for this podcast. And it sounds like kind of like
• 1:01:54
  I'm planning to say that, but that's actually the truth I I
• 1:01:57
  think. You are on brand for the
• 1:01:59
  podcast, that's true. It was curated.
• 1:02:02
  I was hand picked because. Because that would be your
• 1:02:06
  answer. And that's unscripted.
• 1:02:08
  That's completely natural. This is absolutely unscripted.
• 1:02:11
  Like I I want people to think about all of this.
• 1:02:20
  I want people to think about the birds, I want people to think
• 1:02:23
  about the rivers and the trees. And I want people to go see them
• 1:02:28
  and think of me and get curious and just bring back that youth,
• 1:02:34
  bring back that like youthful curiosity and question like the
• 1:02:40
  wise and the house. How can I, like, make this
• 1:02:44
  better and help Like, I think just that in terms of like,
• 1:02:50
  yeah, I want people to enjoy and celebrate the outdoors.
• 1:02:53
  So that's what I think. I want people to have and to
• 1:02:55
  Remember Me, but I don't want it to be like, I think we do to
• 1:02:58
  some degree think about like if we died, what would people do
• 1:03:02
  like? What are they going to read?
• 1:03:03
  What's my obituary going to say? Cry like, you know, and I so in
• 1:03:09
  that vein, yes, maybe I've thought about that.
• 1:03:11
  But I, I only think of the classic, like celebrations of
• 1:03:18
  life instead of like the funeral, which I think is, is
• 1:03:21
  very common. But I don't, I don't think I've
• 1:03:24
  ever once thought about that being inside.
• 1:03:26
  Yeah, it's not inside. And if it's inside, like whoever
• 1:03:31
  did it probably didn't know me. Like really, It's like, I mean
• 1:03:36
  it Celebrate me where I'm meant to be and think of me whenever
• 1:03:43
  you slip on some granite and are like, I need to get better
• 1:03:47
  tread. I need to get some boots with
• 1:03:49
  better tread if I'm hiking on some granite trails.
• 1:03:52
  Christy told me and I didn't listen, but I'm going to listen
• 1:03:55
  now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:03:57
  If you see a spotted owl, I really hope that they're still
• 1:04:01
  around at that point. And think of, think of me
• 1:04:07
  beautiful, Yeah. Thank you.
• 1:04:09
  Yeah, I I do think of you when I see owls.
• 1:04:13
  Yeah. I mean, I don't ever see owls in
• 1:04:15
  the wild, unfortunately. But when I see owl things, I
• 1:04:21
  think of you and birds. And often I'll see a bird and
• 1:04:24
  I'll be like, I wish I could have got a picture of that or
• 1:04:27
  the sound of it so I could send it to Christy and she could tell
• 1:04:29
  me what it is. But I love that.
• 1:04:32
  I love hearing that, but I feel so seen when people say things
• 1:04:36
  like that, like I think that's, that's like, so thank you.
• 1:04:40
  Because I think that that's also one of the most gratifying
• 1:04:42
  things is when people are like, I saw this bird and I thought of
• 1:04:46
  you or they like send me a photo and say, what is that?
• 1:04:49
  Because it's an acknowledgement that I that they see that that's
• 1:04:52
  a part of myself that I really like.
• 1:04:55
  That's me that I resonate with and that I love about myself.
• 1:04:58
  And they're, it's like, I don't, I think like, you know, there
• 1:05:03
  are a lot of times we're very critical of ourselves and don't
• 1:05:05
  love a lot of things about ourselves.
• 1:05:06
  But I will always really like honor that girl, like I said,
• 1:05:10
  who had that moment where she she valued the life of the mouse
• 1:05:15
  and of the owl and knew that they had to like that system had
• 1:05:18
  to work that way. And like her curiosity and her
• 1:05:23
  drive and her beating, her anxiety to go up and see that
• 1:05:26
  and to be part of that and like that all came from a love,
• 1:05:31
  respect and curiosity of nature. So.
• 1:05:37
  Thanks for being you. Thanks for having me and thanks
• 1:05:41
  for like bringing me into this community of go wildly.
• 1:05:44
  I'm excited to see more and see how it expands.
• 1:05:47
  And yeah, we should. We should.
• 1:05:51
  We should hike more. Yeah, I agree.
• 1:05:53
  Me too. Cameras are not.
• 1:05:54
  Yeah, neither way. I mean, cameras are fun and also
• 1:05:59
  sometimes they get in the way. Batteries die, you gotta get up
• 1:06:02
  and go change them and they're flopping.
• 1:06:04
  Around you have like an overly loquacious guest, and then
• 1:06:07
  you're on your last. Battery happens, it happens,
• 1:06:11
  it's worth it. It was very easy for me to like
• 1:06:15
  when when Heather and I were curating our list of guests to
• 1:06:19
  reach out to and I was just looking through my phone
• 1:06:22
  contacts. You're in the seas, so you're
• 1:06:24
  pretty, pretty up at the top. Yeah.
• 1:06:26
  But also, like, I already had a list in my head of people that I
• 1:06:30
  knew that I thought would make for amazing conversations out
• 1:06:35
  here. And you were very early.
• 1:06:38
  You were immediately on that list before I even found your
• 1:06:41
  name in my contact to write down.
• 1:06:43
  You were on the top of mind of, oh, if I could get Christy down
• 1:06:47
  here, she'd make a great guess. Man, I love that so much.
• 1:06:52
  Thank you. I really appreciate it because
• 1:06:54
  I've, I've loved watching what you're doing and just, yeah,
• 1:06:56
  getting to be a part of it. Honored honestly to know that
• 1:06:59
  like even what I'm saying is worth watching or listening to.
• 1:07:03
  Of course, that's early. You may get into post and be
• 1:07:05
  like, none of this is good. We're going to have to ask her
• 1:07:09
  to do it again and do it better. You know what I mean?
• 1:07:15
  If we will have to do this again, we have to do this again.
• 1:07:17
  Bummer. Like or how unfortunate to have
• 1:07:21
  to invite somebody to go on a hike with me again.
• 1:07:24
  Yeah, I mean, such a bummer. And like, what if you have to
• 1:07:27
  come up and see me too up in Seattle area where we go to the
• 1:07:31
  North Cascades and look at the Alpine lakes.
• 1:07:33
  I don't know. Oh, it sounds horrible.
• 1:07:36
  Twist my. Arm.
• 1:07:38
  Well, and you'd have a place to stay.
• 1:07:40
  Oh. I see this happening in the
• 1:07:45
  nearish future. Yeah, as long as you're OK with
• 1:07:49
  the cat, which I know you are. Yeah, I have 3 in my house.
• 1:07:52
  I think that I might be slightly allergic to cats though.
• 1:07:56
  I like, I fixed my like dietary stuff Three.
• 1:08:00
  Well, there's kind of always been a lot of cats in this
• 1:08:02
  house, but I'm with everything that I am trying to fix about
• 1:08:09
  myself. Nothing's broken, but I'm trying
• 1:08:10
  to make things about my being and my body better.
• 1:08:13
  Sure. So it's been our Yeah.
• 1:08:16
  And towards myself actualization, like have
• 1:08:19
  everything working in proper order and in good condition.
• 1:08:23
  Yes. So diet has been like a main
• 1:08:27
  focus for several years. Yeah.
• 1:08:29
  And I finally feel like I, for the time being, have fixed my,
• 1:08:34
  fixed my diet, fixed my digestion, I feel.
• 1:08:38
  Oh my God, I'm intrigued. You're glowing.
• 1:08:40
  I'm glowing. I've gained 15 lbs in the last
• 1:08:43
  six months of muscle. I mean, you're, I'm seeing you
• 1:08:47
  like climb and like hop and swing and all of the incredible
• 1:08:53
  real helpful movements. That I literally a lot of those
• 1:08:58
  things I couldn't do a year ago, like I, I have supported my
• 1:09:05
  physical strength and development through diet and
• 1:09:09
  vice versa. And I feel like I've hit a
• 1:09:12
  fucking sweet spot on all of that.
• 1:09:15
  And I'm like, feel like I'm cruising.
• 1:09:17
  What a journey though. Huge, wow, huge.
• 1:09:21
  And my next like fix my body thing is my breathing.
• 1:09:27
  So we've talked about breath a little bit.
• 1:09:29
  Yeah. And I'm finding that I'm a,
• 1:09:32
  there's something that is irritating my nasal passage and
• 1:09:37
  it's some kind of allergy and I feel it in all sorts of ways.
• 1:09:41
  And it's not seasonal. It doesn't seem to be entirely
• 1:09:46
  like location related. Like I was having issues when I
• 1:09:49
  was in Costa Rica last year. And so now I'm tuning in more to
• 1:09:54
  like, OK, I'm breathing. I can breathe through both
• 1:09:57
  nostrils kind of, kind of. And then where I can breathe
• 1:10:03
  most. And then, OK, now I'm in a
• 1:10:05
  setting where I'm feeling that. Yeah, get constructed
• 1:10:09
  denominator. And it's might be cats.
• 1:10:13
  Oh no. And I'm not like, dying.
• 1:10:16
  Sure, but I could be more comfortable.
• 1:10:18
  But I could be a lot more comfortable.
• 1:10:19
  And Asia's cat came in, like, laid on my chest a couple nights
• 1:10:25
  ago. And then I went to get up and I
• 1:10:27
  couldn't breathe at all. And that was my like, really
• 1:10:31
  like, OK, yeah, I think it's the cats and.
• 1:10:35
  Well, right now is instead of long haired.
• 1:10:38
  Or there's 2 long haired cats and 1 short haired and they're
• 1:10:41
  all in an indoor and outdoor. So The thing is like, and this
• 1:10:45
  is what I'm learning, 'cause I was a dog person, never a cat
• 1:10:47
  person, you know this about me. But I suddenly had this like,
• 1:10:52
  you know, like post fire born little kitten with asthma
• 1:10:55
  because of the wildfire. He's on daily meds.
• 1:10:59
  But truly they were like, he has such scarred lungs up in
• 1:11:01
  Seattle. They, they said his lungs are
• 1:11:03
  really scarred for a kitten. And I was like, well, he was
• 1:11:05
  born into wildfire. But anyway, he he is like the
• 1:11:11
  light of my life and I'm obsessed from my social media,
• 1:11:13
  you know, he's like everything but yeah.
• 1:11:16
  Full. Entertainment full.
• 1:11:17
  Entertainment. He's an asshole, but I love him.
• 1:11:21
  I love him. Dogs are still #1 but this cat
• 1:11:25
  rules my life, so it's hard. It's hard when you love them.
• 1:11:28
  But he anyway, he's he's blowing his coat.
• 1:11:31
  He had a winter coat. He's a short.
• 1:11:32
  Guy. But they still have, they get a
• 1:11:35
  different kind of coat in the winter and in the summer they
• 1:11:37
  start to shed a lot more. So you might be OK if it's bad
• 1:11:41
  right now and you've got too long haired especially they're
• 1:11:43
  like Dander's going OK, Yeah, so.
• 1:11:46
  Good to know. Just seeing how.
• 1:11:48
  Yeah, I like, I'm redoing the whole house essentially.
• 1:11:53
  I've got air purifier next to my bed.
• 1:11:55
  Now I'm gonna get another one in the living room.
• 1:11:57
  I just sold my couch so I basically have no furniture in
• 1:12:00
  the living room. Interesting.
• 1:12:02
  Laughing it. Are you gonna do like cushions?
• 1:12:04
  Yeah, Floor, floor lounge. I love that.
• 1:12:06
  And like movement space. Yes.
• 1:12:09
  And the couch that I sold is the couch that my mom bought when we
• 1:12:11
  moved into the house in 1999. Wow.
• 1:12:13
  Wow. So there's a lot.
• 1:12:18
  There's a lot there, but like clearing out furniture and not
• 1:12:23
  having as many places for cat hair and dander to build up I
• 1:12:26
  think is gonna be really helpful and just kind of.
• 1:12:31
  Sweaty. So I have like cases on the
• 1:12:33
  pillow, the linen, like I do a mattress cover and like you
• 1:12:37
  want. It's just a lot of that that you
• 1:12:39
  gotta do. And they're also just disgusting
• 1:12:40
  little creatures. Especially when they go outside
• 1:12:43
  and then they bring whatever they found outside inside.
• 1:12:46
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
• 1:12:49
  Yeah, yeah, okay, Deep squat. Yes.
• 1:12:54
  And do you want people who are listening and viewing to be able
• 1:13:02
  to find you on the Internet? Where would you direct them to
• 1:13:07
  resources or to learn more about you or plug into your life It's.
• 1:13:14
  Harder on that. We're on a, we're on a little.
• 1:13:16
  Slang like down. We can.
• 1:13:18
  We can turn around. I'm up for the challenge.
• 1:13:21
  I like I see because you were doing, I was going to do
• 1:13:24
  authentic Asian squat. Ladies and gentlemen, let's see
• 1:13:26
  if we can do this right here. OK, feet together down and
• 1:13:31
  you're like deep in your Yeah. And that's how you go.
• 1:13:34
  You go deep. We're on a, we're on a slope.
• 1:13:36
  On a slope, yeah, I'm a, I'm a narrow deep squatter.
• 1:13:39
  This is good. I like, I like, I'm a narrow,
• 1:13:41
  deep narrowed. But like pointed out right as
• 1:13:43
  your anchor. Well, ideally your feet would be
• 1:13:46
  facing forward if you have to point out.
• 1:13:49
  I'm on more of an inclined. Yeah, I found like a kind of
• 1:13:52
  flat spot. I can't sit totally straight up
• 1:13:55
  otherwise I will fall backwards. I have to have a slight lean
• 1:13:58
  forward. Yeah, I feel it.
• 1:14:01
  Heels on the ground, the. Heels on the ground, but.
• 1:14:04
  Below, holding onto the grass for your life.
• 1:14:10
  Nature provides, yeah. Do you want people to be able to
• 1:14:14
  find you on the Internet or find the work that you do?
• 1:14:18
  Yeah, I mean, I'm happy to. My LinkedIn is very public so
• 1:14:22
  they could find that. I'm trying to reduce my social
• 1:14:26
  like I actually have it so I can only go on my social media on
• 1:14:29
  weekends. Beautiful.
• 1:14:31
  It's like I have an app that cuts it off so I'm not like.
• 1:14:33
  The brick or something? No, although I have seen that
• 1:14:36
  and I'm like, oh, that's interesting.
• 1:14:37
  But that seems like a little extra.
• 1:14:39
  So I'm going to try an app called Minimal.
• 1:14:41
  OK. And so it actually times me out
• 1:14:43
  and I would have to go into the settings and like take off all
• 1:14:47
  these permissions in order to get back.
• 1:14:48
  And that enough is a deterrent for me to stop.
• 1:14:50
  Totally. So minimal.
• 1:14:52
  Cool, check it out. But yeah, so I'm doing that.
• 1:14:56
  So I'm not super responsive on there.
• 1:14:57
  I'm definitely more on LinkedIn because it's connected to my
• 1:14:59
  work. But I would say I want to kind
• 1:15:03
  of like take a step back from the social and like, I would
• 1:15:05
  love if you want to connect with Emily and ask her for my e-mail.
• 1:15:09
  Seriously. Sure.
• 1:15:10
  I'm a weirdo who will do e-mail. I will connect with you over
• 1:15:13
  e-mail. Cool.
• 1:15:14
  Yeah, yeah. Or a call.
• 1:15:16
  Phone call, yeah. So if you want to get to know
• 1:15:19
  Christy, if you want to have a one-on-one chat with her, just
• 1:15:23
  send, send, go wildly an e-mail or chat us and leave us a
• 1:15:29
  comment. Leave us a chat, leave us a
• 1:15:31
  review that you want to get to know Christy more and I'll reach
• 1:15:34
  out and send you her contact info and they'll vet to see if
• 1:15:37
  you're a weirdo. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:15:39
  We'll do a, We'll do a background check.
• 1:15:41
  Here you go, please. Nothing.
• 1:15:45
  Nefarious, please, just just just happy.
• 1:15:48
  Goodbye, Not happy. It could be sad, but just no
• 1:15:51
  weirdos please. Only good weirdos.
• 1:15:54
  Yeah, 'cause we're all. We're a little weird.
• 1:15:56
  No, I you know what? Come on now.
• 1:16:02
  The water's nice as. It is the grass is soft.
• 1:16:06
  I mean they. Narrowly missed a Thistle.
• 1:16:09
  Yeah, thank God I was. I was rolling.
• 1:16:12
  This is what I love too though. Thank you earth.
• 1:16:15
  Like this is just. It's soft and it's lovely, ready
• 1:16:18
  to receive us and honestly like to just keep rolling.
• 1:16:23
  You know what? This could have taken a very
• 1:16:24
  different. Time.
• 1:16:26
  This could have been the last. Podcast.
• 1:16:28
  Yeah, yeah, Heather's just going to have to come and find the
• 1:16:30
  camera out here. GPS location because we're down
• 1:16:35
  the hill. But what a way to go?
• 1:16:37
  Yeah. Purple flowers.
• 1:16:41
  Thank you, purple. Flowers.
• 1:16:44
  Thank you. Reddit film edited and produced
• 1:16:53
  by Heather White and Emily Brillant.
• 1:16:54
  The Go Wildly music is Rainmaker by Jared Masters.
• 1:16:57
  Special thanks to Christy Chow. Recorded on location at the
• 1:17:01
  Green Springs Mountain Loop trail.
• 1:17:02
  Thanks for listening. Please follow, like, subscribe,
• 1:17:05
  and of course, share. New episodes drop every Friday.
• 1:17:08
  Remember to rate and review. Find us at Go Wildly podcast
• 1:17:12
  everywhere.