Latest / Virginia Outdoor Adventures: Hiking, Camping, Kayaking, Local Travel and more! / Conquering Resolutions: Setting Outdoor Goals and Challenges for the New Year with Alejandra Villanueva, Girls Who Hike Virginia (Ep 67, Part 2)

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Conquering Resolutions: Setting Outdoor Goals and Challenges for the New Year with Alejandra Villanueva, Girls Who Hike Virginia (Ep 67, Part 2) · Virginia Outdoor Adventures: Hiking, Camping, Kayaking, Local Travel and more!

• 0:01
  Jessica Bowser: From the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia is a mecca for outdoor travel and adventure. Virginia outdoor adventures Podcast is your local guide for hiking, camping, kayaking, travel and so much more. Get the information and the inspiration to plan your own adventure right here in Virginia, I'm your host. Jessica Bowser, it's that time of year when we set intentions for the future. Will your resolutions be outdoorsy? Alejandra Villanueva of the hiking community girls who hike Virginia, shares the story of her ambitious pursuit to hike old rag mountain 36 times before the end of 2024 her remarkable journey beautifully intertwined her love of hiking with the transformative power of nature. Alejandra's adventures on old rag are a testament of resilience and profound self discovery. She offers insights into staying motivated amid unexpected challenges, and harnessing the power of a hiking community and keeping her accountable. As we look ahead to the New Year, we discuss how to set meaningful outdoor goals for a year of adventure, let's go.
• 1:16
  Jessica Bowser: This is part two of a two part episode. Virginia Outdoor Adventures is sponsored by Virginia state parks, whether you're after a relaxing picnic or a two week vacation, leave life's daily pressures behind and reconnect with nature and family at a nearby State Park, you'll find plenty of programs, events and activities among 43 parks plus 1000s of campsites, hundreds of cabins, more than 500 miles of trails and convenient access to Virginia's major waterways, from Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean.
• 1:50
  Jessica Bowser: There's something for everyone at Virginia state parks.
• 1:53
  Jessica Bowser: Discover Your next state park adventure by clicking on Virginia state parks in the show notes of your listening app.
• 2:00
  Jessica Bowser: It's awesome that you found a friend who's willing to hike old rag twice in one day with you, and I'm sure that the hiking community as a whole was also a huge support to you. So can you talk a little bit about how the hiking community has kept you going throughout this process.
• 2:21
  Unknown: Yeah, for me, specifically, girls like Virginia, is the hiking community that I that I belong to and I use, I think it's fair to say that I probably would not have had the guts to want to do a challenge like this, and I also would not have been able to complete it and enjoy it as much as I have without that community that I have because I was able to host hikes, which was great, because if I put it in and I say, Okay, next Saturday, I'm going here and all these women sign up, well now I'm going, right. Doesn't matter how I feel when I wake up that morning, I'm going to go because there's people waiting for me. So that was a really cool tool for me to use to my benefit, to be able to use our group and facilitating hikes to keep me going on the hikes, irregardless of how I was feeling at the beginning of the year when I started doing the hikes, I facilitated a lot. That was something that ended up changing around the summer, when I got burnt out. I got burned out because of all the sunrise hikes and the lack of sleep, but also just being honest, I got burnt out because facilitating hikes is different than hiking by yourself, right? You are, you're putting on your facilitator hat, and you are there to cater to everybody else, not yourself. And while I love that, and I will continue doing that forever, I realized that now I wanted to kind of cater to myself, and the beauty was that I have now, I think I've belonged to the group for like, two, three years. I have so many hiking friends now that I was able to quickly be and just reach out through text message or DMS and say, hey, I want to hike, but I don't want to facilitate a hike. And I could easily put together a group of friends that are hikers and go on hikes. So not only have I been able to do it through like the official hikes, but now I have such a large community of hikers at my fingertips through a phone call or a text that I can at any time, go on a hike with a group of women, and I'll have to go alone, also, whenever I had questions, like when I wanted to hike for the first time for sunrise, that was very intimidating for me, because I was like, how am I gonna do the scramble in the dark? That sounds nuts, but I went on the group and I posted about it, and one of our ambassadors was like, Oh, I've done that before. And then we started talking, and she was super friendly, and she was like, let me know. Let's figure it out. When can we do it together? So she did it together with me on my first time doing it for sunrise, and just being able to do that anytime I had a question, anytime I had a concern, I could just reach out, and someone would raise their hand and say, hey, here I am. I can help you out. The
• 4:50
  Jessica Bowser: Higgin community here in Virginia is so fantastic. And as a podcaster, I often get people reaching out to me asking how to get started, like they're nervous, they don't want to go alone, and they.
• 4:58
  Jessica Bowser: Don't know how to find somebody, and I say, find your community.
• 5:01
  Jessica Bowser: And sometimes that's a meetup group, sometimes it's a Facebook group, sometimes it's a group, like girls who hike Virginia.
• 5:07
  Jessica Bowser: And if you just find your people, then it makes it so much easier to get out there.
• 5:14
  Jessica Bowser: There's, you know, not only somebody to go with you, but like, that sense of somebody's waiting for me at the trailhead.
• 5:20
  Jessica Bowser: So you're, you know, you're less likely to decide to sleep in and skip it. I think you said it perfectly. Yes, what have you learned about the trail? I'm especially interested in if you have noticed any changes, or if your experience has changed. You said earlier that you feel like you have a relationship with this mountain now, and I know from other folks who hike the same areas over and over again, or visit the same outdoor spaces, that they notice changes in the season, and they notice changes over time. And I'm wondering if you have noticed any changes.
• 5:53
  Unknown: There was a week during the summer where I went three times in one week, so, like, I've had periods where I go really often, and every time something's different, like, especially watching it through the through the seasons, especially fall. This year, I feel like there was only one hike that I did where I was like, Oh, this is peak foliage, and then it was gone. But it was really cool to see it changing.
• 6:15
  Unknown: Right now, we're in winter, and we're able to actually see the whole hike throughout because the trees don't have the leaves on them, so they're not covering it. I've also gotten to see as the trees fall due to like storms and things like that, some of them get cut up. And, you know, they they take them out of the way right away, and some of them end up just having a home in a new spot, just falling down. There's actually a section right before when you're going up the normal way, right before you get to the sign that says no camping beyond this point, there's this big boulder on your right, and it used to be like a spot where people would take a break, because it kind of creates like this nice little space for our large group to be able to pause and not be in the Middle of the trail. Well, a tree fell there in the summer, and that little crevice is blocked. And the way they went ahead and moved the tree, they left it blocked. So no longer is that a gathering space. So I've gotten to see things like that.
• 7:12
  Unknown: I've also just learned so much about the mountain itself. Like I didn't know that it used to be called Old, old ragged. That was the original name. And then out of just laziness as we are, you know, human, we now call it just old rag. Also, it's called old rag because of the granite. So that was the first place where they found that kind of granite.
• 7:35
  Unknown: And the granite is called old rag granite. I learned that one on the geology hike. I also, you know, there's a section that has like the stairs with the boulder. Everybody takes the picture holding it. That boulder fell down in the 80s, and there's all these articles about it. When it happened, I didn't know that before. Also, those stairs are not man made. It's called, in geology, it's called a dyke, and it's a different kind of stone that's coming through the old rag granite. So learned that, oh, one of the first things I learned that also just shocked me was, what are they called? Like, Geology markers, the metal circles that you see sometimes on top of mountains, marking like the highest spot. So I tried to find the one for old rag, because they're supposed to be one. It got stolen. It took a lot of research to figure out where it is. We found it, and we only found the little metal, like stump that's in there, but it got stolen sometime in the early 2000s and then the whole process for getting those fixed or like replaced is really confusing and long, and also they try to wait like, 10 plus years before doing it, because they don't want it to be stolen again. Yeah, those are the top things that I learned. I
• 8:48
  Jessica Bowser: need to go on this geology hike.
• 8:51
  Unknown: You do it's fantastic.
• 8:51
  Unknown: Yeah, next
• 8:53
  Jessica Bowser: time you do one, please let me know, because this sounds like something I need to be a part of. Oh,
• 8:58
  Unknown: yeah. And they don't just do old, right? They do everywhere. Oh, cool. It's really cool going on a hike with somebody who's so passionate about it. His name's Daniel, just getting to watch somebody talk about the thing they love, you know. And that's how he feels about all things rocks. Is like He loves them, and he's so excited, and he's a really good teacher. Are
• 9:18
  Jessica Bowser: these events that are like, he collaborates with girls who hike Virginia,
• 9:21
  Unknown: yeah? Because his girl, his girlfriend, is an ambassador. Yeah?
• 9:24
  Jessica Bowser: Oh, how convenient,
• 9:27
  Unknown: yeah. Well, one of the things that we do through girls hike Virginia, if you're an official ambassador, you don't have to have any kind of skill to become one. But we do try to prioritize teaching something while we go on hikes. There are people who teach about maybe the significance, the historical significance of the land.
• 9:44
  Unknown: There's people who will teach you stretching or exercises you can do to help you with hiking.
• 9:51
  Unknown: And so what this Ambassador does is, instead of hurt and certainly teaching, she just teams up with her boyfriend, and he teaches the geology. So that's how that comes to me.
• 9:59
  Jessica Bowser: Hey, that.
• 9:59
  Jessica Bowser: That's another benefit of joining a hiking community, is you get those experiences that you wouldn't get if you're just out on your own. Yes, and
• 10:07
  Unknown: you don't have to learn it on your own, like again, for me, hiking, I'm still I probably think I know maybe 5% of all the things that you need to know for hiking at this point, because there's so much out there. But when you have a community, you can just organically learn it as you go. You don't have to be fully prepared right away. You also don't have to start out hiking old rag you can, you know, start out at your local trails and with a group of people, and you can slowly make your way out and find the kind of hikes that you like.
• 10:38
  Jessica Bowser: Adventure seekers will find endless opportunities in Grayson County, where many of Virginia's iconic trails and landmarks excite hikers, cyclists, paddlers and happy campers alike. Imagine this. You're hiking on one of the most scenic sections of the entire Appalachian Trail through the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, summiting mount Rogers or white top mountain, the two highest peaks in Virginia, or strolling through the valley of elk garden, where the now extinct Eastern elk once roamed. Or maybe your perfect day is on the water. Grayson County is home to the New River, one of the oldest and most scenic rivers in the world. Enjoy a leisurely class one float with the family or adrenaline packed class three rapids, navigate the waters using the New River float calculator to plan your trip.
• 11:28
  Jessica Bowser: The app factors flow rate, water levels, weather conditions, vessel type and more to calculate flow times from point A to point B. Prefer two wheels.
• 11:35
  Jessica Bowser: You won't want to miss the grace and gravel traverse a 72 mile mixed surface gravel bike route that connects the Virginia Creeper trail and new river trail over well maintained and remote roads featuring a variety of challenging climbs in the foothills of Virginia's highest peaks. This overlooked gem of Virginia presents some of the best gravel cycling in the state mostly unwritten and undiscovered after a day of adventure, there's nothing like gathering around a campfire under a sky filled with stars.
• 12:10
  Jessica Bowser: Grayson County offers plenty of spots to pitch a tent like the New River campground or cozy up in a rustic cabin at the buck wild reserve. Discover why Virginia is for outdoor lovers.
• 12:22
  Jessica Bowser: Start your Grayson County adventure at the historic 1908 courthouse and visitor center, or access the visitors guide online by clicking on visit Grayson County in the show notes of your podcast listening app.
• 12:34
  Jessica Bowser: Well, that's really neat that you can have that experience on old rag over and over, but it's never the same. And it reminds me, do you remember when you and I were up on old rag, and I think we were at one of the overlooks, and we were sort of looking out over the mountains, and I was telling you that there's this historical fiction.
• 12:54
  Jessica Bowser: The name of the book is ghost girl, and it's written at a sixth grade level, but I used to read it aloud to my fourth graders, and it's a history of the park before it was a national park. And one of the characters in there is the elementary school teacher, who was the very first teacher in the very first school house for the people who lived in the mountains there. And she kept a diary. The author used that diary to help write the book.
• 13:20
  Jessica Bowser: And in her diary, she wrote that the Blue Ridge Mountains were never the same shade of blue from one day to the next. And I just fell in love with that because I thought about it, and I'm like, she's so Right. Like every time you stand it in overlook and you're looking out at the mountains, it never looks the same as it did all the other times that you were there before. And I think that's sort of a magical part of the experience as well.
• 13:46
  Unknown: And now I have experienced that in every weather that you can imagine, every time of day that you can imagine. And like, I love sunrises. Sunrises are my favorite. And there is no sunrise that's ever the same.
• 13:58
  Unknown: And it just makes it so much more special, because when you have it in front of you, like, now I have like, millions of pictures, but the picture never does it justice. So when you're there, whoever you're with, it just feels like you're experiencing a once in a lifetime moment. And it also just moves so fast, because if you are there for sunrise or sunset, like it's a little blimp that, just like, you capture it in that moment with your picture and you and then it just changes, and it's no longer the same.
• 14:23
  Jessica Bowser: Yeah, that's true. It changes so quickly. So what have been some of the highlights of your journey? I know you shared a few, but are there any others that you haven't shared, that you'd like to share? So the
• 14:34
  Unknown: first one that comes to mind is on one of the first hikes that I facilitated. I had 17 women with me. That was before I set a limit. I didn't know to set a limit, and I had 17 women with me. And during that hike, there was one particular woman who, as we were going through the scramble, she needed more support than others.
• 14:51
  Unknown: But it wasn't necessarily physical. It was it was mental, like it was, you know, how am I going to do this? Like you want me to climb that? Like how right, she was doing things that she had never done before, and she was a trooper. She had a great positive attitude. And then we got to the gap. And if you've been through old rag at the very end of the scramble, you have a section that you're going to have to jump, like a two foot gap, but the way you're standing on the rock, it's elevated versus where you're landing. So from your point of view, you can't see the gap, and it's scary, at least for me, it is, but right before that gap, you also have to launch yourself up into the boulder that you're going to jump from. When you're launching yourself, you have to put your foot in front of you at another gap, and kind of just trust that gravity is going to catch you and you're going to be able to push yourself far enough so enough. Well, we were in that section, and her nerves just got the best of her. It was me, and I think at this point we had like, three people who hadn't gone through it yet, so we went ahead and, like, start to strategize on how we're going to help her. Because once you're at this point, there's no going back, there's there's nothing.
• 16:01
  Unknown: We have to figure out a way to get you through this right. And again, because it was one of my first times facilitating for such a large group, I had a moment where I was, I needed her to launch herself. I was, I had my hand out so I knew she was going to catch my hand, and I knew that I was gonna be able to pull her but what I couldn't do for her was launch herself right, and I needed her to do it, but she was in this place mentally where she was shaking, she was tearing up, and I knew that I needed to, like, get her out of it. And in that moment, as I'm surrounded by other people, I had, I had to decide.
• 16:37
  Unknown: I was like, All right, how do I do this? And I only knew one way of doing it, but I knew that it was potentially embarrassing to do this for myself. But I was like, All right, we're gonna show up authentically in the world, and we're gonna help her, and we're gonna do this. So I looked at her, and I was like, All right, look at me. Look at me. I'm gonna need to repeat after me. Okay, I'm gonna get you through this. We're gonna get through this, but I need you to say this out loud with me.
• 16:58
  Unknown: And she's like, okay. And I'm like, I am a badass. I'm like, trying to be serious. I say this because I truly mean it, but I'm aware that I'm saying this out loud and that potentially she's gonna look at me like, I'm insane. And she looks at me and she like questions, and I'm like, I need you to say it with me. I am a badass. And eventually she goes, I am a badass, kind of like, with her voice breaking. And I was like, Yes, you are. Continue saying it and launch forward, and then she does it. And it was just one of those moments where, like, it was hard for me too, because I wanted to show up authentically for her. But there's that fear you have in your head of like, how are how's the world gonna receive this? Am I gonna be a fool? Am I gonna be judged for this? But that moment kind of shaped the rest of my hikes, because I've had now many moments where somebody needed me to be there for them, and I no longer hold back from showing up authentically. So that's probably one of my most memorable moments, because as much as I'm sure it helped her, it helped me, not just on hiking, but in the world to just be like, Look, when that moment comes up and you hesitate to be yourself, don't ever hesitate to be yourself your people, like you were talking about finding your community, right? Your people can't find you unless you show up authentically. If you are molding yourself to try and fit in the world, then no one's going to be able to truly find you, and the people that you end up with are not going to fill your cup. So that was probably the most memorable moment that I've had, and it happened early on.
• 18:28
  Jessica Bowser: And I wonder, if you were to ask her today what that did for her, I would imagine she probably said it changed her too. Because I you know when you haven't, when you have a type of experience where you're not sure how you're going to get through, and you're terrified, and the fear takes over, then you have to push through and figure out how you're going to do it. And once you get through it, then it's like, oh, well, heck, if I did that, what else can I do? It's kind of like what you were saying earlier about how Monday morning when you go to work, you're like, Well, I just hike old rag last weekend. I can do anything today, so I'm sure that it probably had a similar impact on her as well.
• 19:07
  Unknown: Think she messaged me afterwards again. This was very early on in the year. I was talking about her on a hike recently, and the person I was talking to was like, I know her, and she remembered her by name, and said that now she's gone on and, like, she's jumped off a plane, and she's done all this, like, really crazy stuff, what?
• 19:20
  Unknown: So I have to look her up, because I haven't since then, but I have to look her up and see how she's doing. But I did hear that actually, literally, yesterday morning from another friend. Yeah, you need to
• 19:32
  Jessica Bowser: find her, because if she went from too afraid to get through the rock scramble on old rag to jumping out of a plane, yeah, you need to find out what the heck's going on there. That's
• 19:42
  Unknown: wild. I'm gonna do that right after this. Yeah,
• 19:45
  Jessica Bowser: oh my gosh.
• 19:45
  Jessica Bowser: Okay. Alejandro, would you do anything differently if you were setting this goal for yourself again for 2025, or any other time?
• 19:54
  Unknown: Immediately? My answer was like, No, I'm glad that I did it. There are some things that I had said. I would try to do throughout that I didn't end up doing. I'm trying not to regret not doing them. I'm trying to just be like, hey, some things were not part of like, the journey, and that's okay. Like, for example, I wanted to try and hike it backwards, and because of timing, because also me procrastinating, it just hasn't happened. We are on December 20 right now, so the likelihood of it happening is probably not going to be it, because it's really cold outside, and I don't want to add another element to the challenge. I also wanted to hike it with my dad and because of one thing or another that didn't happen. But it's not going to keep me from doing those things next year, right?
• 20:35
  Unknown: It just won't be part of this challenge. One of the things this challenge taught me and has helped me with is my organizational skills, but my lack of organizational skills throughout the process affected some of the things, so I didn't get to do them because of that, and I'm fully aware of it. If I could have somehow worked on my organizational skills prior, would have had a better experience. Yes, but this is how it needed to go. Yeah, you live and learn, right? Exactly. I'm way more organized now than I was at the beginning of the year.
• 21:07
  Jessica Bowser: Yeah, that makes total sense. And I'm glad you said that. It's December 20 right now while we're recording, because this episode will come out in January. And I'm curious, have you done all 36 hikes? Are you really close? Like, what's the status?
• 21:21
  Unknown: I'm at 32 as of yesterday. I'm hiking it again tomorrow, and I'll be hiking it on either Monday or Tuesday, I haven't decided yet, but I'll be at 34 by Christmas, and then I have one more weekend where I'll hike it one more time, and then I am hiking it on the last day of the year. So my first hike was at the first day of the year. I'm hiking the last one on the last day of the year. Wow,
• 21:46
  Jessica Bowser: that sounds really cool. Oh, it's happening, yeah. But also it would make me a little bit nervous, because what if there's like, a really bad weather day on the last day of the year, and then you you don't get to finish that last hike? You know,
• 21:57
  Unknown: that was a fear that I had earlier on, and I kept thinking, like, do I do 37 hikes instead of 36 and for some reason that fear has left me, I think it's because I've hiked in every weather now. I've hiked it in the rain. I've done the scramble in the rain, which was something I never thought I would do. I've hiked it in snow already, also because I allowed myself to have different routes that I can use. Worst case scenario, if it's snowing and it's icy, I'll go up the back through very hollow to reach the summit, and that still counts.
• 22:31
  Unknown: And I don't have to do this. I wouldn't want to scramble in ice, because that would probably be very dangerous. So if that's the case, then I will end up doing it the back way. Nah.
• 22:40
  Jessica Bowser: Just strap on your micro spikes and grab your poles.
• 22:46
  Unknown: We'll see. We'll see. I still haven't, I still haven't decided. I originally thought I was going to do the last hike as a sunset, but I honestly love sunrises so much more. So I was like, I can just choose to do the sunrise on the last day of the year. So I may do that again. One of the things is, at first I was very like, everything's organized and I know exactly what I'm doing. And now I'm more like, I'm gonna go do it. I don't know how I'm gonna do it yet, but it's gonna happen.
• 23:12
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• 24:19
  Jessica Bowser: What advice would you give someone who wants to set an outdoorsy goal for themselves in 2025 Yes.
• 24:30
  Unknown: So I actually wrote this down because you have to come up with a system. So I call it like my system for success, and the first part and your system can be different.
• 24:39
  Unknown: Everybody should customize this to themselves, but the first part, and this is like your building blocks, so you cannot do it without this is your why, and it needs to be something very meaningful to you. And it should be also multi layered, like if I think of my why, I already said, you know, I turned 36 this year. Also I wanted to feel like a badass all year long. Um. I wanted to help other women do it. I wanted to see how I would help my health, all this stuff. So there was so many elements to my why that throughout the year, as I came up with like reasons not to hike it, I had one of those elements pop up and be the one thing that got me out of the house right.
• 25:16
  Unknown: Sometimes one of the things was more pressing than other, but I needed several. Because if I had just said, Oh, I'm turning 36 this year, and that's the only reason why I'm doing this, that would not have pushed me through some of the months that I went through, right? So that's your why. And then from there, brainstorming on the obstacles that you're going to face, because they are going to happen. I brainstorm about summer. I brainstormed about the time that it was going to require like I knew that even though I'm part of a hiking community, and there's so many events that come up and I get tempted by I knew I had to say no to all the other hikes. I knew that if I was doing anything outside of old rag, it had to be local, it had to be short. I could not risk potentially spending a whole day somewhere else, when I could be doing an old rag. I also thought about injuries. So at the beginning of the hike, I didn't know this would happen, but I ended up using my hiking sticks on all of my hikes, because I used it as a preventative measure for making sure that my knees could hold up. I actually, I don't have any wood near me to like, knock on. But I had not, I have not had an actual, real injury throughout this entire experience. And I think it's because I really tried to be very conscious of, like, how is doing things to make sure that it was healthy as possible? So yeah, thinking of your obstacles and preparing for them, and then accountability. Think about accountability. If you're one of those people who says they're going to do something and they do it, I'm jealous of you.
• 26:42
  Unknown: That's not me. I knew that I would require peer pressure, so I told everybody in my life about it. I knew that I would require a lot of support. So I knew my fiance needed to be on board with me. I knew that, you know, I could use girls hike Virginia as a platform to share about my journey. I actually posted every single time I did a hike there, and I had lots of people being checking in on me and seeing how it was doing on my challenge, so that helped me move forward. Actually, I don't know if you know this, Jessica, but you are part of my accountability. When the opportunity to be on your podcast came up a few months ago. I was in the middle of feeling very stressed, and I was super behind on my hikes. And at first, when it came up, I was like, first of all, why would I get a podcast who wants to hear about me? But then I was like, I'm so behind. This is that I don't want, I'm not gonna go on a podcast and talk about this.
• 27:37
  Unknown: It's been a mess, like, I like, I didn't do three in a month like I was supposed to, and then I was like, No, I'm gonna say yes, and that's gonna push me.
• 27:45
  Unknown: That's gonna push me to get back on track. So you were part of my accountability team without knowing it.
• 27:52
  Jessica Bowser: That's awesome.
• 27:52
  Jessica Bowser: I'm very touched. Yeah, no,
• 27:55
  Unknown: seriously, that's it takes. It takes a whole community, right? And then the last part is, organize yourself, plan it out like I before the year ever started, I pulled out my calendar and I put in all the hikes I was going to do. I personally don't work on federal holidays, so I was going to prioritize that. I was going to prioritize Saturdays, and I knew that I was going to have to use PTO for hiking on the week, on the weekdays, right? But then, once you have it all scheduled out, create some kind of checkpoints for yourself.
• 28:26
  Unknown: Because I didn't think about this in the beginning, but then I ended up developing this throughout the year. Once a month I would pull out my little calendar and recheck and reorganize, because if I missed a hike or if I wasn't able to do it now I have to it has to be moved somewhere else, right? So just set it up, but then be ready to restructure it as the year, or whatever time frame you're setting up for yourself is going be constantly ready to pivot and pivot and pivot. Yeah, that would be the structure that I would set up.
• 28:54
  Jessica Bowser: That sounds like a solid plan. That's great advice. How has this experience and hiking in general changed you
• 29:02
  Unknown: I'm in a healing journey from life. There's nothing in particular, which is like life. I'm an adult, and I'm working on, you know, just healing a lot of things for myself, and hiking is therapy for me. I don't always do this, but I do try to set intentions to my hikes, especially the challenging ones. So I did that a lot this year. Is whatever I'm currently struggling with, whatever is currently on my mind, I kind of like, just make a mental note that that's what I'm going to work on during this hike. And so when you're in that hike, and in that moment, we're like, oh my god, questioning all my life choices. My legs are burning, my you know, my lungs hurt I think about, I'm like, All right, what are we trying to work through right now? Oh, that's right, we wanted to work through this, all right. And then I start to just like, let my brain go. And I've, like, I think I said earlier, I've had lots of epiphanies throughout hiking again, it gives me the strength to come back to my regular life and deal with things that are much better.
• 29:59
  Unknown: Better Way, because I know what I can do out in the woods. So it just boosts my confidence. It's made me healthier in every way.
• 30:05
  Unknown: I mean, I'm a huge fan now, and I tell people all the time like, maybe it's not hiking for you, but try it out. You know, in your journey to finding whatever it is that's going to help you.
• 30:19
  Unknown: I definitely think you should test out hiking. Hiking doesn't have to look like what I did this year, right? I did the 36 old rock hikes. Great hiking for somebody else can look like going to their local trail every morning, and that's their that's hiking for them. Whatever it looks like, it's fine. There's no no no set parameter, but just find it, because it's very healing. And we all know the science, like you can Google it, being out in nature, reading fresh air, spending time by yourself. I didn't do this a lot in the beginning, but I challenged myself to finally do it towards the end of the year, I did old rug for the first time by myself, and now I've done it a few times. Oh, my god. That was that was a really cool experience, because to have all that time and all those challenges just by yourself, there was a moment I did it. I did the full scramble by myself a few weeks ago. And there's the first section of the scramble where you have to, like, jump down into a crevice where there's
• 31:18
  Jessica Bowser: just, like a tiny little ledge that's barely big enough for, like, the ball of your foot to rest on, yes,
• 31:24
  Unknown: yes. So I've done that in the big in the little arrow just pointing down. You're like, what?
• 31:28
  Jessica Bowser: Yeah, exactly.
• 31:28
  Jessica Bowser: You're like, there's a mistake here.
• 31:32
  Unknown: But I have done that now many, many times when I did it by myself, I sat there and I paused, and I just sat there, and I just looked up to the sky, and I just looked around me, and I just like, I was like, I don't have to move right now. I can just sit here. I've never just sat here. I've always, like, been teaching someone how to do this, or been rushing to do it myself, because there's a crowd of people behind me. So hiking it by myself was a very cool experience. I struggle being alone with my thoughts I'm either playing music or listening to a podcast or surrounded by people hiking pushes me out of that comfort zone, and if you let it right, because you could still bring your podcast and your music, but if you let it that time by yourself in the woods can be really good for just getting to know you without all the noise.
• 32:22
  Jessica Bowser: Alejandra, this has been a wonderful conversation. How can listeners connect with you
• 32:28
  Unknown: on socials, you can find me, and they're firmly kind on Instagram, and then through girls like Virginia, we are a non profit, so you can go to our website, girls like virginia.org, and you'll find me in there. Or we also have a Facebook group, and I'm an active ambassador for the northern region in there, so you'll see me as well. I
• 32:46
  Jessica Bowser: will put links to all of those in the show notes, so people can check their show notes to connect. Thank you again for this wonderful conversation. I feel inspired for 2025 I've never set outdoorsy goals for myself because I'm I know you're not going to like this. I'm that person who just says I'm going to do something, and then I do it, but this year, I feel like
• 33:06
  Unknown: jealous of you. It doesn't mean I don't like you.
• 33:10
  Jessica Bowser: I think this year I'm actually going to do it, because I have found, especially this past year, I get so wrapped up in this podcast that I don't spend enough time outside. It's like the irony of having a podcast about outdoor recreation is I spend less time outside than I ever have, so I feel like maybe something like this would be good for me. So you've got me inspired, and I'm going to be brainstorming about what might work for me in 2025 and I hope that other people listening will also be inspired and set some outdoorsy goals for themselves.
• 33:43
  Unknown: That is so cool. Let me know once you set yours and I can cheer you on. I would
• 33:47
  Jessica Bowser: love that. All right. Alejandro, thanks for being a guest. Adventure on,
• 33:51
  Unknown: adventure on take care.
• 33:54
  Jessica Bowser: Virginia.
• 33:54
  Jessica Bowser: Outdoor Adventures is inspired by and supported by listeners like you, which is why your messages and feedback mean so much to me. You can text me directly by clicking on Send me a text message in your show notes. I answer questions, respond to comments and share your feedback on the show never miss an update. Get even more information and inspiration by signing up for my newsletter.
• 34:20
  Jessica Bowser: Click on newsletter, sign up in your show notes, or visit Virginia outdoor adventures.com thanks for listening until next time. Adventure on you.