Its Labor Day Weekend and so many of us are hitting the roads and the skies today through Monday. Today I’m traveling back to California from Oregon and wrapping up a week in the Pacific Northwest with @alaskaair. When you’re living out of a suitcase or a backpack it can become pretty clear how little we need and also what things we can’t live without. What I love about camping, traveling and being on the road is learning how to live in a more minimalistic way. These are lessons that I take home with me and try to adopt on an every day basis. Things like buying and accumulating less things, making sure that I always have my reusables with me and using less water. I’ve come to learn that cutting back and living with less is not only easy, but is also so rewarding. As I wrap up this trip and head back home I’ll be showing you how @alaskaair is working to eliminate excess waste on their flights by going strawless. I also want to hear from you! Share your travel tips with me via my IG story and also include ways that you’re learning to live with less at home too. #strawlessskies #iflyalaska #sponsored - 📷: @heyguystudios

After two nights of backpacking here at White Sands National Monument... there was only one question: buttercream frosting or marshmallow fluff? - 📷: @elisabethontheroad

This is one of my favorite waterfalls here in Oregon. The basalt walls and 92 foot falls get me every time. Gorgeous right?! Well, what you don’t see in this picture is the trash that I cleaned up along the trail and also from inside of the pool. Ever since this weekend as I started to take part in the @alaskaair campaign for #strawlessskies, I got to thinking about what more we can do to help keep and ensure that places like this get to maintain their natural beauty. I happened to come across a plastic bag while I was down visiting the falls and was able to fill it up during my hike on the way back. Everything from crushed cans, abandoned socks, and even a small single use plastic cup wading in the water. Whenever I visit a trail, I make sure that do my part. I pack out what I pack in and sometimes, like this time, I take that a step further by also cleaning up after others. These efforts may seem small, but every little bit does count and is a step in the right direction. I also know that I am not alone in these efforts, and I want to know what you’re doing both on the trail and while traveling to help reduce your carbon footprint. If you share a post tagging @alaskaair and use the #strawlessskies hashtag you could WIN two @alaskaair flight vouchers to any destination that Alaska Airlines flies to. So, share your tips and help us spread the word by letting us know how you’re helping to reduce waste by commenting below and by posting your own to your feed to win a trip! #iflyalaska #sponsored

Little known fact about me. In 2007 I moved to Colorado. I was in the early stages of getting diagnosed with AIHA, then lupus. Upon moving here I summited this mountain. It ended up being the only 14er I climbed while I lived here. Just this past week, ten years later… I made it back. - A huge thanks to @Merrell for bringing me back here and helping me to remember that along with all of the bad days I’ve had fighting these illnesses, there’s also days like this. - 📷: @andrewmaguirephoto

This coming Saturday is National Public Lands Day, a day where those of us who love the outdoors will come out in support of these places: our wilderness, parks, forests, memorials, historic sites, scenic trails, wildlife refuges, conservation areas, and Monuments. This past spring I spent six weeks on the road all throughout the Southwest with @elisabethontheroad. This trip and project was a labor of love that took us to thirteen different public lands, and this coming Friday I’ll be sharing the first video and a blog which details where we went, what we learned and how you can get involved in protecting and preserving these places, our public lands. Check back in later this week to see the first one-minute teaser and also over at @merrell to see how we can all come together for Public Lands Day. A big thank you to everyone who has followed along so far, hope that you’ll join me this weekend by watching, sharing and getting involved, because if there was ever a time, ever a reason for us to come together on something, it should be this: protecting and preserving our public lands. - 📷: @elisabethontheroad

First snow of the season. Rumor has it that the Sierras got their first dusting of snow last night… Last year @elisabethontheroad and I made our way to Lone Pine, meeting up with @matthew_tufts to watch the first snow fall on the peaks here in the Eastern Sierra Range. After a few dark days, some intense wind storms, one broken sleeping platform and the many beers (and wine) drank… we were greeted with the first winter white of 2017. And it was a damn good time. - 📷: @elisabethontheroad

I am currently flying across the country to do things this week that some of you may be surprised to hear are well outside of my comfort zone. This past year has been a whirlwind. I actually can’t believe that in a month from now we’ll be creeping up on what is the beginning of the holiday season. I started out this year the way I do most any other year by thinking about the things I want to do and then planning how and when they will get done. Along with these things have come some incredible opportunities that I just could never say no to. This summer has been a challenging one, and I just want to say, before this caption gets inexplicably long that trying to and pretending to be well is far easier than admitting that you are ill, that you’re struggling. And this has been what my entire year has been like really. I thought I would do more. I thought I would go more places. I thought I would have climbed more peaks… including Mt Kilimanjaro, which I sadly had to pull from this year. It might be the most devastating decision I have ever had to make and come to terms with. When I write these things, about my health and well being, it isn’t for sympathy. It isn’t for more comments or attention on a post. I actually mostly always fight myself on when, how and sometimes even if I am going to reveal that I’ve been struggling. It’s far easier to just write a generic caption to go along with a pretty picture of somewhere I’ve been. This week I am speaking on the Force Of Nature panel in Waterville Valley, NH. Here’s one of those opportunities that have come my way that I could never say no to. This is also the something that is out of my comfort zone. On the stage with me will be other women that are far more accomplished than me, and I am OK with that. I’ve always had a little saying that creeps into interviews that I’ve done and it is, “I’m not special.” I’m just like any other woman who has stumbled upon the trail and while on it found both strength and healing, and thankfully that is the kind of woman that I will be speaking to and spending the weekend during the last REI @Outessa event of 2018. - 📷: @beccaruski

“I am someone who is constantly unsure of themselves…” This was my first answer during the Force Of Nature panel this weekend at REI @Outessa, here in the White Mountains. Same place where this photo was taken one year ago. My friend @gpowersfilm took it and when she sent it to me she said, “it captures your essence.” Outessa is one of those experiences that brings out the best in you. I feel it from the moment that I arrive, all weekend long and as I’m headed home again. I also see it in the other women who attend. #sweatydirtyhappy is more than just a hashtag. It’s a mantra, and we live it all weekend long. This time I’m coming away from Outessa feeling a little more sure of myself and I have many women to thank for that: @stephjagger @themirnavator @colbyhaze @blindambitionpatricia who sat alongside of me during the panel and so many other women who shared in the many moments throughout the weekend. A big thanks of course to @saveriat @raminucciani and the entire REI staff and team, and @merrell for bringing me along again this year.

Just yesterday I wrapped up some final content pieces on the Southwest trip. Some of my day included me sitting with a sheet over my head in a makeshift sound booth recording many different takes of 15 seconds of voiceover. It starts with how during this trip I not only got to find out about how much these places mean to me, but also how much they mean to others, and how our public lands are a place where we can come together, and right now there is no better time for us to come together in protecting and preserving our public lands. We, @elisabethontheroad and I started out on this trip in May and we spent six consecutive weeks on the road visiting 13 National Monuments and a few other public lands along the way. During this time we shared what we were working on via our social media feeds but there was so much that you didn’t see and therein is where the real work lies. Social media can be a great space to share adventure and spread awareness, but I have come to find that there is much to be done offline and never was that more apparent than during this trip. In my blog, which I also wrapped up yesterday and will soon be on the @merrell website is a few different calls to action. One of which includes the place pictured here, Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. While we were there we learned that this particular area located off Hole In The Rock Rd will no longer be part of the GSENM and thus will lose the protections it has under Monument Designation. There is an open comment period (yes, another one) via the BLM website, and I’ve included the link in my bio. This comment period is about the new planning units that I shared in a previous blog written just after this trip ended. Per the BLM website, “Comments help shape future management of these public lands.” You can learn more about these units and the comment period on the BLM Utah website. - 📷: @elisabethontheroad

“Our public lands are a place where we can come as we are and a place where we can also come together.” Tomorrow is National Public Lands Day, and more than ever I feel that there is no better time, no better reason for us to come together in caring for, protecting and preserving these places that have given us all so much. When we started this road trip nearly six months ago, I had no idea how much of an impact it would have on me. I had no idea that I would become so immersed and so invested in what these places mean and how we can advocate for them. To me, these places and the current issues that surround our public lands is personal, and it should be for you too. During this trip, I got to not only find out how much these places mean to me but also how much they mean to others. The locals. The tourists. The backpackers. The climbers. The Rangers. And the many of you who followed along and sent messages about your own experiences in some of the places that we visited. Six weeks. Five states. 4,700 miles. 13 National Monuments, plus the parks, forests and other public lands we drove through and visited along the way. This video is just a short love letter about what these places mean to me and how they can bring us all together at a time where it feels like we are so divided. In the link in my bio is my blog on the @merrell website and a full five minute video showing you even more of where we went, what we learned and what actionable steps can be taken in helping to protect, preserve and advocate for these places. A special thanks is due to the people that we met along the way like @lennecefer, Josh at @cedarmesafriends, and of course @elisabethontheroad and @merrell for jumping in with both feet on a project that means so much to me and so many others. In celebration of Public Lands Day, I hope you get out. I hope that this message can help us all appreciate and come together in protecting and preserving these places: our Public Lands.