September 9, 2025 • 65 mins
Big news, Adventurers - Virginia Outdoor Adventures is back with a brand new season! That means more inspiring stories, hidden gems, travel-ready resources, and new adventures across our Commonwealth.
In this Season 6 Trailer, get a sneak peek at new content inspired by you, as well as a chance to shape future episodes with your feedback.
Be the first to hear about new features designed to keep you inspired and in the know about all things Virginia outdoors, and upcoming events where you can meet me in-person.
The wait is over – Season 6 has arrived and it’s time for new adventures. Let’s Go!
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Mentioned in this episode:
Ep 76 Primitive Camping and Backpacking in Virginia State Parks
Ep 41 Stargazing in Virginia’s Dark Sky Parks
Ep 59 Wandering Waters Paddle Quest with Sammy Zambon, Virginia State Parks
Ep 42 A Glimpse into the Wonderful World of Virginia’s Wildlife
Ep 43 Virginia’s Lost Appalachian Trail with Mills Kelly
Ep 13 Endless Outdoor Rec Opportunities on Shenandoah Mountain
Ep 66 Parks Advocacy Day: Be a Champion for Our State Parks
Fan Mail - Send Jessica a Text Message
Contact Show Host, Jessica Bowser:
jessica@virginiaoutdooradventures.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jessica Bowser (00:00):
Announcer, from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the
Chesapeake Bay, Virginia is amecca for outdoor travel and
adventure. Virginia outdooradventures Podcast is your local
guide for hiking, camping,kayaking, travel and so much
more. Get the information andthe inspiration to plan your own
adventure right here inVirginia, I'm your host. Jessica
(00:23):
Bowser, big news adventurers.
Virginia Outdoor Adventures isback with a brand new season
that means more inspiringstories, hidden gems, travel
ready resources and newadventures across our
Commonwealth. In this season sixtrailer, get a sneak peek at new
content inspired by you, as wellas a chance to shape future
(00:45):
episodes with your feedback. Bethe first to hear about new
features designed to keep youinspired and in the know about
all things Virginia, outdoorsand upcoming events where you
can meet me in person. The waitis over. Season Six has arrived,
and it's time for newadventures. Let's go Virginia.
Outdoor Adventures is sponsoredby breaks Park and heart of
(01:11):
Appalachia, known as the GrandCanyon of the South. Breaks Park
is a hiking destination in theheart of Appalachia, you'll find
trails for every skill level,featuring geologic wonders,
Canyon overlooks, streamcrossings and abundant wildlife.
Stay close to the adventure withlodges, cabins and campgrounds
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inside the park, beyond thebreaks, the heart of Appalachia
invites you to hike and bikethrough breathtaking mountain
landscapes, paddle hiddenhollows, reel in trout from
Crystal Clear streams, or hop onan ATV to conquer the rugged
spearhead trails. Take a scenicdrive, embark on an elk tour and
explore Virginia's treasuredSouthwest where you'll also find
(01:54):
vibrant local dining, shoppingand celebrations. Your next
outdoor adventure starts in theheart of Appalachia. Tap the
links for breaks Park and heartof Appalachia in your show
notes. Welcome friends to seasonsix of Virginia outdoor
adventures podcast. I cannoteven believe we're in season
(02:16):
six. This is unbelievable to me,and I'm pretty sure I started
the trailer episode of seasonfive saying the exact same
thing, but even more so now thatwe are through yet another
season. If you have been with mefor a long time, you know that
this podcast started as apandemic project, something to
keep me busy while I was athome, and it just sort of took
(02:39):
off, and really I had no ideathat I would still be doing this
podcast all these years later. Ithought it was just a temporary
thing that might be fun, andhere I am doing it as a full
time job. It's completelyunbelievable to me, especially
five years later. So I want tothank everybody for making that
possible, because this is notsomething that I have done
(03:01):
alone. There have been a lot ofpeople that have been involved
in this process over the years,but first and foremost, you the
listeners, have beenunbelievably fantastic in
supporting me, some people sinceday one. I mean, there are folks
who send me messages and emailswho have been listening since
(03:22):
very early on. And I lovegetting those messages from
people because it lets me knowthat I'm still doing something
right, if people are hangingaround this long. But also, I
love hearing from folks who arefans and appreciate what I'm
doing, and it makes me feellike, okay, I'm on the right
track here, and I might as welljust keep on going. So that is
(03:44):
what I'm doing. Welcome toseason six, folks, how was your
summer? I have been gettingmessages and being tagged in
posts from folks who have beenon their summer adventures. For
example, I heard from Ryan, whotook his kids to Alaska and is
planning to bike the GreatAllegheny Passage from
Pittsburgh to Cumberland,Maryland. And I also wanted to
(04:06):
point out that Ryan let me knowthat he just recently finished
listening to every singleepisode of this podcast, Ryan, I
feel like I should apologize forthat, because when I think back
to Season One, when I was stilltrying to figure out what this
podcast was about, what wasimportant to me, what was
(04:26):
important to the listeners, whatdid people want to hear? And I
look at some of the things thatI did, and oh my goodness. I
mean, I was still trying tofigure out what I was doing, as
you can probably imagine. And Idon't often go back and listen
to those episodes from seasonone, because, yeah, I don't know
it makes me nervous to do so Iknow they're good, to be honest,
I know they're good. I wouldtake them down if I was
(04:49):
embarrassed by them, and I'mnot, but I was still trying to
figure things out. So I thinkit's amazing that Ryan listened
to all of them. There's close to100 Now I think this trailer
episode is like episode 78 butthose are the numbered episodes.
There's also bonus content andspecial edition episodes and
trailers. I think that I didn'tnumber and swaps with other
(05:11):
podcasters that didn't getnumbered. So there's actually
really close to 100 and Ryan haslistened to all of them. So
Ryan, you are awesome. Thank youfor that. My friend Meg is
living in a camper now she'sliving my dream. I think ever
since I was a kid, I've wantedto live in a camper, and Meg is
doing it. So go, Meg. And thenDane has been photographing
(05:35):
hummingbirds in his backyard andhas been sending me the
pictures, and I've been lovingthem. It's been very fun to
watch the progression of hisphotography skills and his love
for those adorable and badasslittle birds. And also, he's
planning to visit one of ourdark sky parks this fall, which
I love because I believe he wasinspired by the podcast episode
(05:56):
about our dark sky parks, andthat was a couple of seasons
ago. So for people to still beplanning visits to dark sky
parks because of an episode thatcame out year and a half ago or
so at this point, I think it'sincredible. So awesome. Thanks
for sharing that. Dane Lori tooka falconry class. Oh my gosh. I
loved the post that she put upwhere she had a falcon sitting
(06:20):
on her arm. That's really cool.
And then Carrie so Carrie hasbeen messaging me for a while to
tell me that she's been enjoyingthe podcast, especially the most
recent episode that came out atthe end of last season about
primitive camping in our stateparks. And she talked about how
that has been an inspiration forher. And so it's been fun
(06:42):
talking to Carrie, who has beenon her trail quest journey. And
then she also started paddlequest. You might remember that
there is a podcast episode aboutwandering waters paddle quest,
which is like trail quest,visiting all of the state parks
but paddling in the state parksthat offer paddling
opportunities and Virginia StateParks rewards people for doing
(07:04):
this, so you get pins anddifferent swag in the mail, and
when you complete it, arrangerwill present you with a
certificate at the park of yourchoice. So I recently got tagged
in Carrie's post. Just lastweek, Carrie completed both
trail quest and paddle quest,which is like huge I think that
(07:24):
makes Carrie one of the first,like inaugural groups, to be
finishing paddle quest, becausethat's a relatively new program,
so not a lot of people havecompleted it yet. So kudos to
Carrie, and she tagged me inthis post where she was
receiving her certificates atPocahontas State Park, and
(07:45):
wouldn't you know she waswearing my merch? I loved it so
much. She had on one of the Tshirts, the love t shirt. So I
have this design where in bigblock letters, it says love, and
then inside the block letters isthe Blue Ridge mountain design
from the cover art of thepodcast, and she was wearing
(08:05):
that T shirt. I love it so much.
Carrie wrote this in her post. Icompleted my Virginia State
Parks trail quest and paddlequest today at Pocahontas State
Park, and was presented with mycertificate by the amazing
Ranger Alicia. My family wasthere to celebrate with me. I am
grateful for them for being sosupportive and holding down the
house, taking care of the dog,and making it possible for me to
(08:25):
go on so many adventures overthe last two years. For these
quests, my wonderful hikingbestie Pat and her husband
surprised me today by coming.
I've been grateful to have herand my hiking bestie Debra with
me on many of my adventures, andhere's where she gives me a
shout out. And I'm also thankfulfor Jessica and her podcast
(08:46):
Virginia outdoor adventures,which inspired and entertained
me during the long drives allover Virginia. Congratulations,
Carrie. I'm so excited for you.
I would love for anybody who isworking on trail quest or paddle
quest, to let me know how thosequests are going for you, I've
attended several peopleceremonies already where they've
received their certificate. Soif you're one of those folks who
(09:09):
is getting really close to theend and you're planning
something special for yourceremony, let me know I would be
more than honored to attend if Iam able to, I know several
people have said, you know, Iwanted to invite you, but I was
worried that, you know I wasoverstepping, or you wouldn't
come. And I'm like, No, inviteme. If I can come, I will be
(09:30):
there. If I can't, then I can't,but I would love to. I, in fact,
I would really be honored. Solet me know if you've got those
accomplishments coming up.
This seems like a good time toacknowledge all of the folks who
have been supporting the podcastmonetarily on my buy me a coffee
(09:55):
page. So lots of newcontributions have been coming
in, and I'm just going to behonest with you guys. I feel
like a terrible person, becauseusually when somebody makes a
contribution on buy me a coffee,I am very quick to send off a
thank you email, because Ireally, really do appreciate
these contributions. But I havebeen on the road the last
several weeks, and when I'mtraveling to make new podcast
(10:17):
episodes, my days are packed.
From the moment I get up, to themoment I go to bed, and it
leaves no time at all forsitting at my computer to
respond to emails or do any sortof work. So I know I am late on
sending my thank yous, but Iwill send them. I swear I will.
In the meantime, I hope it makesup for it a little bit by
acknowledging these folks now.
(10:38):
So I just want to say thank youto Donna, Tim, Renee, Kate
Kelly, Dave, Jim, Katarina, Liz,Sherry, Amanda, Austin, Melanie
and Derek. All of those folkshave made one time
contributions, which make a hugedifference. The money that is
contributed on the buy me acoffee page goes directly
(10:59):
towards offsetting my travelcosts, and also all of the many
subscriptions that I have to payin order to produce a podcast.
So this is super helpful. Thereare different membership levels,
and we have some brand newmembers of Virginia outdoor
adventures, starting with Jimand Tamara, who signed up at the
(11:19):
wild wanderer level. Also atthat level, Allison signed up.
Thank you so much. Allison,Kevin signed up to be a
trailblazer. And then lastly,Rafael signed up at the summit
seeker level. You all thisreally means the world to me.
Every time I open my email and Isee an email that says you have
(11:41):
a new member. It literally makesmy day. And not only that, but
it makes it possible for me tocontinue producing new episodes.
So all of the new episodescoming out in season six are
directly related to the supportthat I received from these folks
on buy me a coffee and everybodywho has contributed in the past,
so thank you.
(12:08):
Something that has changed withthe podcast over the last year
is the increase in listenersfrom outside Virginia. This has
really surprised me. When I lookat the stats, there's more and
more people who are listeningoutside of Virginia, most of
them are in neighboring states,but there are folks in New York
and Ohio, Illinois, North Dakotaand even overseas. There's
(12:30):
several listeners in Germany, acouple in China. I always wonder
who these people are, so let mejust back up and say that unlike
social media, where there arebots and easy opportunities to
create fake accounts andwhatnot. In podcast stats,
they're pretty accurate. Like,there really aren't
opportunities for people tocreate fake accounts and bots
(12:53):
and just start putting out fakedata all over the place. That
really doesn't happen. So whenI'm looking at these stats, and
I see that there's two peoplelistening in China. It's likely
that there really are two peoplelistening in China. So I have to
wonder, like, Who are thesefolks, and why are they
interested in a podcast aboutVirginia? But I do want to
welcome all of these newlisteners and just say I'm so
(13:17):
happy that you're here. I knowthat there are a couple of folks
who started following on thesocial media pages. And usually,
when I see that I have a newfollower on, like Instagram, for
example, if it's possible, I'llusually message that person and
say, hey, thanks so much for thefollow. And then just say a
little something about myselfand ask a little something about
(13:37):
them, and just try to start aconversation to learn you know
what people's interests are, andto let them know that they can
send me their feedback about thepodcast anytime. So welcome to
Matt from Maryland and Karenfrom South Carolina, Candice
from West Virginia, and Jenny,also from West Virginia, and I'm
(13:57):
sure there are many, many morelike. I have really no way of
tracking who new listeners arelike I can see the numbers
increasing, and I see the stats,but I don't see any personal
information connected with thosestats. So I only know these four
people from social media becausewe've connected there. So if
you're a new listener, I wouldlove to meet you. If you haven't
(14:17):
already reached out to me,please do you can do that on
social media or in the shownotes section of every single
episode, there's a link thatsays, Send Jessica a text
message, and that is the fanmail link. So you can reach me
anytime by clicking that linkand then sending me a message.
And it comes directly to myphone as a text it doesn't tell
(14:38):
me who it's from, though, so ifyou want me to know that it's
from you, you do have to tell mewho you are, and it like gives
me, usually an area code for thephone, but it like x's out the
last four numbers. So I can'trespond either, but I will get
the message, and if you're ifyou give me your contact
information, I'd be happy toreply. So welcome to all. The
(15:00):
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Explore local museums, culinarygems and fascinating history as
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Check your show notes for thelink.
(16:09):
So how was my summer? Lots ofpeople have been asking, because
I did say at the end of lastseason that I was going overseas
for a month. So I left in midJune and was gone until mid
July. I I was in four or fivedifferent countries. The whole
purpose of the trip was I had afamily reunion in Austria and
another one in Slovenia. Butalso my husband had some work
(16:31):
meetings. The company that heworks for has offices in pretty
much every major city across theglobe, so he often goes overseas
for meetings. So he had somemeetings lined up, and so I went
with him on the first part, evenbefore we were with family. And
then after the first familyreunion, he had to go back. And
(16:52):
the last week of the trip, I wason my own. So we started off in
London, and we had left theairport in one of those iconic
black cabs, and my face wasglued to the window, looking at
birds, and I'm calling out like,Eurasian Magpie, rock pigeon,
Eurasian Jay, great cormorant,and my husband's like, we
(17:12):
haven't slept in 24 hours, andyou're birding. Well, yeah, I
don't know what else heexpected. And I've been using
this new app, Berta. So before Ileft, I was looking for an app
that I could use to track mysightings. All the apps that I
normally use are for NorthAmerican species, and in the
(17:32):
past, I've not been able to finda good app for birds, either in
Europe or Asia. So I was lookingagain, and I came across Berta,
B, I, R, D, A, and it seems towork pretty well. I mean, it's
got all of the species. It's gotsome good information about
every species. It's userfriendly for the most part. My
only complaint, though, is itkept glitching and like,
(17:53):
sometimes the app would crash,and oftentimes it would just get
really slow. So I'm wondering ifanybody else has used this app,
or if you have another app thatyou would recommend, because I
think I'm looking for somethingmaybe a little bit better, or
maybe by the time I go onanother trip, they will have
updated this app, hopefully, andit will be working a lot better.
(18:14):
I logged 81 species in the monththat I was gone, which is so
exciting. Not all of them werelifers, because I've been around
Europe many, many times I'vebeen Asia. So a lot of the birds
that I saw on this trip arebirds that I have seen in the
past, but there are also a lotof lifers. So yay. It is always
(18:34):
so exciting to get a lifer. Andother than London, we were in
Milan for like, a quick 24hours, and we were off to
Venice. The highlight of Venicewas not actually Venice, it was
day trips out to the islands ofMurano and Burano. And I would
recommend that, because Veniceis so crowded. I mean, yes, it's
pretty and it's unique, and Ithink everybody should
(18:56):
experience it, but if you justkind of want to get out of the
hustle and bustle, take a boattrip out to these islands. It
gives you an opportunity to seeshorebirds and other waterfowl
on your way out to the islands,and then different species of
birds, and, of course, differentwildlife. And then, of course,
the cultures are completelydifferent out on the islands. It
(19:17):
reminds me a little bit ofTangier island here in Virginia,
where it's just isolated fromthe mainland. And so the
architecture is different, theculture is different. Yes, there
are Italians, but, you know,they just have a very different
lifestyle, similar to Tangier.
So I thought that was unique.
And then after Venice, myhusband and I split up, he had
(19:39):
to go to Frankfurt for anothermeeting, and I took the train
from Venice to klagenfer, whichis in southern Austria, in the
Carinthia region. And my cousinspicked me up at the train
station, and I spent a week atmy cousin's house, and the area
where they live is very close tothe border of Slovenia. In fact,
you can. See the mountains thatare in Slovenia, like from their
(20:03):
backyard. It's so, so beautiful.
Oh my gosh. While I was there,we went biking. Like, bike
touring is absolutely huge inEurope right now, and I think
it's growing in popularity inthe states too. But everywhere
we went, and we didn't we didn'teven have to go anywhere. We
were like, sitting on thebalcony just looking out onto
this very rural, mostly farmlandlandscape, and watching just
(20:28):
people going by on bikesconstantly every single day. And
I'm like, asking my cousin andher boyfriend, like, where are
these people coming from? Andthey didn't know. They're like,
we don't even know if they'reAustrian because it's it's
become so popular that nowpeople plan trips and weekend
getaways to neighboringcountries and other countries
(20:51):
around Europe to do differentbike tours. So we were
constantly seeing people go byon bikes. We were riding bikes
too, and that area of Corinthiaalso has several lakes that are
somewhat touristy, where, youknow, there are shops and
restaurants and hotels and andpeople come to swim and to sit
on the beach. And so even thoughwe were in this rural area with,
(21:13):
you know, very, very smallvillages and people who have
been living there forgenerations, like we were also
walking distance to thesetouristy areas. So that was
that's definitely unique. Andalso, during the day, we when it
wasn't blazing hot, we would goon on some hikes. We hiked to a
waterfall in an area that isactually a UNESCO global
(21:37):
geopark. And what I love aboutthis part of Austria is that all
of these hikes are like, soaccessible. There was one day we
hiked to a place calledkitzelberg, and we literally
just went out the back door,like went down the road, turned
the corner, around theneighbor's house, and then got
on the trail. It's thataccessible. And I'm like,
(21:58):
halfway, wondering why my familydidn't just stay in Europe so
that I could have, like, alsolived in this completely
beautiful, wonderful, awesomeplace. In fact, my husband was
like, I see where you get thisnow? Like, I think this runs
through your blood or something,but, yeah, it's, it's really
beautiful. We had a very nicetime there, attended the family
(22:20):
reunion, and then from there, wewent to Italy with one of my
cousins who wanted to plan thisgetaway for us, basically like a
vacation for a week holiday, asthey like to call it. And we
were staying in this Italianvilla on a winery, and it was
just stunning. It only took us,like two hours to drive there
(22:40):
from Austria, grapevineseverywhere for as far as you can
see really old, small towns andvillages all around us, and of
course, also amazing wine. Andso we just had a very relaxing
we had the villa all toourselves at this winery,
because there were only threebedrooms in in the whole place,
(23:00):
and we had two of them, and thethird one was un rented. So we
had the whole run of this placeto ourselves. We had an infinity
pool overlooking all of thehills. I of course, was like in
my glory with my binocularsburning every day. We had
amazing food. My cousin actuallyspeaks Italian, because she
spent, like, I think, six monthswhile she was in college
(23:24):
studying somewhere in Italy. Idon't even remember where now.
So it was just, it was lovely.
It was absolutely lovely. And atthe end of the week, my cousin
graciously went out of her wayto drop us off where we needed
to go. So we dropped my husbandoff at the airport in lublana,
which is the capital ofSlovenia, and then she drove me
(23:45):
to the kreinska Gorod region ofSlovenia, where she dropped me
off to start a week of hikingand folks, this is where things
went completely sideways, so Ihad a little Bit of an accident.
It's almost embarrassing to eventalk about it, because I cannot
believe this happened, but I'mchalking this up as another one
(24:07):
of those episodes of don't dowhat I did, kids. So I get to
Slovenia, my cousin drops meoff, and we're having lunch
before she leaves, and there'sthis bike trail on the main road
that we can see from therestaurant where we're eating.
And I was like, You know what,the day's half over, I can't
really start any big hikestoday, so maybe I just, like,
(24:29):
rent a bike and then eat. Like,I could rent an E bike and do
that trail right there. Andshe's like, Yeah, yeah, Jessica,
you should do this. And she wentwith me to rent the bike, and in
the meantime, I get this textmessage from my husband, who was
boarding his flight, and hesaid, Love you. Drink water,
don't die. And that's reallyfunny, because by the time he
(24:52):
had landed in Paris for hisconnecting flight, I had almost
died twice. So I rent this bikeand. I take off down the trail,
and I'm having the best time.
I'm literally like, oh my god, Ilove riding a bike. It is. The
weather is beautiful. I mean,the Alps, they look like the
Rocky Mountains, and there aregorgeous turquoise streams that
(25:13):
I'm riding my bike over, bigfields. And then, of course,
like all of the traditionalSlovenian architecture that I
grew up with in Cleveland. So Iliterally feel like I am home
and I'm riding my bike down thistrail, and I'm having the best
freaking time. And then I hear arumble, and I'm like, what is
that? And I get I stop the bike,and I turn around, and here is
(25:36):
this massive thunderstorm, like,rolling my way from behind, so I
hadn't seen it coming, and I'mlike, oh, and I jump on my bike
and I start pedaling back, butat this point, I'm already,
like, 20 miles awayfrom my start point, so I'm,
like, riding as fast as Ipossibly can, and the storm is
(25:57):
coming fast Now, luckily, Thetrail passes through a lot of
small towns, I was able to dodgeinto a restaurant just as it was
hitting. And this was like oneof those epic thunderstorms
where, like, it's reverberatingoff the mountains, which are
very, very close, and everythingis shaking. And I was like,
(26:17):
Well, that was a close one, butI waited it out, and then I got
back on the bike, and I rodeback into town, and I stopped in
an outfitter because I reallywanted a new pair of hiking
shoes, like it was time. Mytrail runners are a couple years
old already, so I had seen otherhikers on my trip wearing Scarpa
brand hiking shoes. Now, ifyou're a climber, you know this
(26:40):
brand. In fact, I think myclimbing shoes are scarbos, but
for some reason they don't selltheir hiking shoes in the US. I
don't know why, but over inEurope, everybody wears this
brand, and it might be one ofthe most popular brands of
hiking shoes, as well asclimbing and mountaineering. I
really wanted to get a pair, soI stopped into this outfitter
and I pick up a new pair ofshoes, but the shoe box they
(27:02):
came in was too big to fit in mypack, so they gave me a bag, and
I had to put it over myshoulder, because that was
really the only way to carry it.
And so I'm heading back on thetrail, and I stopped to take a
picture of a bird, and I went toget back on the bike, and this
is where it gets, like, superembarrassing. So an E bike is
(27:23):
heavier than a normal bike. Iwasn't used to how heavy it was,
and I was on a gravel inclinetrying to mount the bike with
this package with with this bagcontaining my new hiking shoes
over the over one shoulder. Oh,and also, the the seat on the
bike was a little too high, likeI had raised it earlier, and it
(27:45):
was fine while I was riding, butfor getting on and off the bike,
it was kind of hard for my toesto reach the ground. And so,
because I was on an incline, Icould not reach the ground at
all on one side. And so Iliterally, I just tried to mount
the bike, and I just fell over,and the bike fell on top of me,
and I'm laying there thinking, Ido not believe this just
(28:07):
happened. Also, no clue as tohow injured I was, so I stand
up, and the only other personwho saw me fall was this older
Slovenian man who had his shirtoff and had this big pot belly,
and he's standing behind hisvan, and he starts calling to me
in Slovenia and asking me if I'mokay. And I'm telling him Yes,
(28:27):
and he's telling me, you don'tlook okay. And I'm going, Yeah,
I'm okay. I'm okay, okay. So Iget on the bike just to prove
that I'm okay, and I start toride away. And for the first 20
seconds, I'm like, see, I'mfine, and then all of a sudden
it hit me, and every single partof my body hurt like in a way
(28:48):
that I can't even describe. Iwas moaning and groaning the
entire rest of the ride back,which was really only maybe five
miles or so, but I stoppedbecause the sun was setting, and
there were some really beautifulphoto opportunities, and I
wanted to get out my camera onmy tripod, and I'm setting it
up, and the whole time I'm like,limping and groaning and
(29:11):
bleeding. Yeah, I should pointthat out too. I had like, blood
on both knees, and I could tellthat my elbow. I couldn't see
it, but I could, like, feelblood on my elbows, and it was
just I was a mess. Took mypictures, though, and then I got
back to the room, and I couldbarely walk. My room was in this
adorable eco hotel, but it wason the third floor, and there
(29:34):
was no elevator and this, thestairs, of course, were super
steep, and I had to walk up twoflights of steps to get to my
room. I could barely lift myknee. I'm like hanging on to the
handrail with both hands andhoisting myself up every single
step. It was taking me like 15minutes to get up the stairs to
(29:54):
my room. And then once I was inmy room, the bathroom was
elevated up a big step too. Sojust like walking in and out of
the bathroom was horrible. I wasin such bad shape, and when I
woke up in the morning, my rightknee looked like I had a
baseball inside of it, and Icould barely move. And all the
focus seemed to be on my knee,because it was so badly swollen,
(30:18):
I didn't even realize that themost injured part of me was
actually my left shoulder, whichis the one that I had landed on.
So here we are in September now,and this happened in July. My
knees are fine. My elbows arescarred, but they're healed. My
shoulder is still all messed up,and so that really impacted the
(30:38):
rest of my trip, because I hadall of these big hikes planned,
and I just couldn't do them. Butat the same time, I was not
about to sit in the room likeeverybody was telling me, you
need to go to the hospital. AndI was like, no, because I don't
have time for that. I came hereto hike, and that's what I plan
to do, and I did, and I justpowered through the pain for the
(31:02):
rest of the week, but honestly,like, once you start moving, and
I think the blood startscirculating, the pain kind of
goes away. And I wasn't beingstupid, like I wasn't pushing it
by doing really hard hikes, Idecided instead to completely
alter all my routes, and I waswalking around villages and
taking some easy trails. And,like, initially, I thought,
(31:23):
well, maybe I can't hike at all,but I can bird. And so I just
grabbed my camera and mybinoculars and went out, but
ended up out for like, theentire day, and I was fine. So I
had a really, really enjoyablerest of my time. And Slovenia,
if you have never been, oh mygosh. You know, I could sell
anybody on this country, to behonest, it is clean, it is safe,
(31:47):
it is affordable. In fact, it'sone of the safest countries in
Europe. I walked around in thevillages at night. It was no
problem at all, like in thedark, and when I say dark, I
mean, like, there's it's dark,dark. There's no street lights.
I had to use my headlamp to getaround. But as far as safety
concerns, there aren't too many,as far as crime and whatnot. So
(32:08):
it is clean, it is safe, it isaffordable. They are in the
European Union, so they use theeuro. And then on top of all
that, it is just beautiful, andit is so accessible, like the
lengths that this country goesto to make sure that outdoor
spaces and outdoor recreationare accessible to tourists and
visitors, is remarkable, on topof their very conscious
(32:35):
sustainability practices, sothat they are not overwhelming
the outdoor spaces or the peopleand the communities that are
located there. So they are veryeco conscious, and literally,
like all of their brochures andtheir literature that goes out
say, we welcome responsiblerecreationers, it's almost like
(32:56):
the underlying tone is saying,if you're not going to be a
responsible recreator, don'tcome here, but yeah, really
beautiful places. So I hiked inkreinska Gora, which is where
triglau National Park is. It'sthe only national park in
Slovenia, but also contains thehighest peaks. And then I spent
a couple of days at Lake bochin,and that is also a really
(33:20):
beautiful place, also verypopular for skiing in the
winter. And so that was in anutshell, my trip to Europe.
Fall is here, and Virginia stateparks are calling your name.
Experience the breathtakingbeauty of autumn with vibrant
foliage, crisp air and endlessoutdoor activities, from hiking
(33:42):
through golden forest to cozyingup by a campfire, there's no
better place to enjoy the seasoncapture the magic of fall with
family and friends in a stunningState Park. From the shores of
the Atlantic Ocean andChesapeake Bay to the Blue Ridge
Mountains and Cumberland Gap,adventure is never far away.
Start planning your adventure bytapping on Virginia state parks
(34:06):
in your show notes, or byvisiting Virginia State
parks.govafter Europe, I had almost no
downtime. The day after myflight landed, I was right back
at my desk getting ready for abrand new podcast season, and
within a couple of days, I wason the road doing my first site
visit for my first adventuretown episode. Let's talk about
(34:27):
what to expect in the newpodcast season. I am really
excited about this. I have a lotof adventure town episodes lined
up. And why not? Because all thefeedback I keep getting from
everyone is that they love theseepisodes. So I've got several of
those lined up for the firstcouple of months, and starting
with King George County, andthat was my first site visit. I
(34:49):
don't want to give away too muchabout these episodes, but King
George County is on the NorthernNeck. Bordered by the Potomac
and the Rappahannock rivers, andit contains Caledon State Park
and the Dahlgren heritageRailroad Trail. And my guests in
that episode are members of theFriends groups of both the State
(35:11):
Park and the rail trail. Andthen from there, I was off to
Grayson County. Most people knowGrayson County because of
Grayson Highlands state parkthat seems to be an iconic
location in Grayson County andin it. And actually, there are a
lot of iconic places in GraysonCounty, including the Virginia
(35:32):
Creeper trail, including a partof the Blue Ridge Parkway, Mount
Rogers recreational area. Ofcourse, Mount Rogers is the
highest peak in Virginia, andthat is in Grayson County.
There's just so much to do inGrayson, and it is a beautiful,
beautiful place. I have twoguests for that episode. One of
my guests help map the sectionof the new river that runs
(35:55):
through Grayson County, and thenmy other guest is from the town
of freeze, and new river trailpasses through the town of
freeze, and I got to experiencemy very first live music jam.
You probably know that that partof Virginia is part of the
crooked road music HeritageTrail, and Freeze has a very
(36:15):
rich history in music. And so Igot to go to my first Thursday
night jam. I have so manyvideos. I cannot wait to post
these on social. I wonder if Iplay a little bit.
(36:42):
It was so fantastic. I had justsat down in my seat. I don't
think my butt was in the chairfor even 30 seconds when someone
came up to me and asked me if Iwanted to two step with him. And
I was so excited, I rocketed outof my seat. I was like, what
took somebody so long to ask?
And I have never done thisbefore. I've never attended one
of these before. I have nevertwo stepped and he said, Don't
you worry, I'm gonna teach you.
(37:06):
And he did. It was fantastic. Somuch fun. Then after Grayson, I
was on to Massanutten resort.
And okay, I'm gonna share thiswith you guys. So I got a call
from Massanutten resort not toolong ago, and they told me they
were interested in sponsoring apodcast episode, and I was
definitely hesitant. I havenever worked with a resort
(37:28):
before, and I was a littleconcerned about promoting a
really large business. And so Itook the call, and the person
who had contacted me said thatshe did not want me to do a
podcast episode about theresort. She instead wanted to
focus on the partnershipsbetween the resort and the
(37:49):
community that gave thecommunity access to trails. And
if you've ever been toMassanutten, or you're from the
Harrisonburg area, you'reprobably familiar with the
western slope, and that is asection of the mountain where
the resort is located, wherethere are a lot of trails that
are primarily used by mountainbikers. Mountain bikers really
love these trails, but it's alsoopen to hikers as well, and I
(38:13):
was already familiar with this,because couple seasons ago I did
an episode about Mike mountainbiking in Harrisonburg. You
might remember, Thomas was theguest in that episode. He's the
owner of Shenandoah bicycle shopin downtown Harrisonburg, and he
took me to the western slope,and so he and I rode those
trails together. So I wasfamiliar with it, and through
(38:36):
him, I also became familiar withthe Shenandoah Valley Bicycle
Coalition, and that is anonprofit organization that is
working with the resort to buildthese trails and create access
to these trails and maintain thetrails. I was all about that. I
was like, let's talk about this.
(38:57):
And then on top of that, theyalso asked me to please
highlight and feature downtownHarrisonburg. And I was like, Oh
my gosh, like, this resort isasking me not to feature them,
but to talk about communitypartnerships and downtown
amenities, which increaseseconomic development. I was
like, I Yes, please. So that'swhat it's all about. And it
(39:19):
first, I was a little worriedthat listeners were gonna think
I sold out, or wonder why theyshould listen to an episode
about Massanutten. But I reallythink this is a great episode
that talks about hiking andmountain biking I do mention
some of the other outdooractivities that are available at
the resort. And then there wasone afternoon where it
(39:41):
thunderstormed and I foundmyself in the spa. So you're
gonna hear me talk about that,because, like, let's be honest.
You know, if you're on one ofthese trips and you're hiking or
you're paddling or climbing ordoing whatever you're doing
outside all day, especially ifyou're doing it multiple days in
a row, you're gonna get sore,and if it's. Thunderstorming
outside, why not find yourselfat the spa? So that's exactly
(40:04):
what I did, and I just talkabout my whole weekend adventure
in Massanutten, two fantasticguests. They are ambassadors for
the resort, but also members ofthe Shenandoah Valley Bicycle
Coalition and volunteers whohelp build and maintain trails,
and they were just so much fun.
We had a really great time. Andthen from there, I went over to
(40:25):
Waynesboro, where I met a guestthat is pretty popular. You
probably already know her, andI'm not going to tell you her
name just yet, because I wantyou to come back and listen to
the episode. But over the years,I've had multiple requests for
an episode about mushroomforaging, and I've been on the
hunt, pun intended for a guestthat is knowledgeable and
(40:48):
reputable, because, as you canimagine, I cannot have just
anybody coming on the podcastgiving out bad information,
because if you eat the Wrongmushroom, yeah, we all know what
can happen. So I did finallyfind this person. Last year at
go fest, she was presenting, anda friend of mine was listening
to her presentation and wastexting me from the
(41:10):
presentation, like, oh my god,Jessica, you have to have this
person on your podcast. She'samazing. And it just so happened
that I was looking for somebodywho could talk about mushroom
foraging. So I got together withher at the Blue Ridge tunnel,
actually one of the trailheads,and we were walking through the
forested area there, and we hadsome really good finds, and I
(41:30):
learned so much from her. AndI'm reading her book right now,
so I'm really excited to haveher on as a guest, because she's
so knowledgeable and sopassionate, but also talks about
sustainability and our place inthe ecosystem, and talks about
foraging from a biggerperspective as well. So it's
(41:50):
going to be really, really good.
And then after that, I finallygot to come home and take a
little bit of a break. I've hadsome conversations with the city
of Norton down in Appalachiaabout doing the next Virginia
adventure town feature there. SoI'll be traveling there in
October, it seems like. And thenalso in season, was it three or
(42:14):
four? I think maybe four. One ofthe most popular episodes of
that season was an episodefeaturing my friend Mills Kelly,
who is the host of the greentunnel podcast and had released
a book at the time called theLost Appalachian Trail. And his
book was about a section of thetrail in Virginia that had been
(42:37):
rerouted and the impacts ofrerouting the trail, on the
trail communities and the trailitself and the hikers, and just
a fascinating historical book.
And so many people had writtento me and said, I live in this
area, and I didn't even knowthat there was a lost
Appalachian Trail, and peoplewho went out looking for it, you
(42:58):
can still hike it. It's notofficially part of the at but
the trail itself still exists.
That episode was like thedownload numbers were unreal. So
Mills has a new book coming out,also about the Appalachian
Trail, a little bit differentthis time. And so he was asking
(43:18):
me if I would have him back on.
And I said, Absolutely yes. Sokeep an eye out for that. Those
are some of the upcomingepisodes. And then I wanted to
ask for feedback about one otherepisode that I'm considering but
haven't quite made a decision onyet. Somebody contacted me about
doing an episode about offroading, and I did a similar
episode a couple seasons ago,also, surprisingly to me, very,
(43:42):
very popular episode, but it wasdifferent in that the guests on
that episode owned a companywhere you could rent a jeep and
take it up into the mountains,and it was fully loaded with all
of the camping accessories youcould possibly imagine, like
(44:02):
rooftop tent and canopies andkitchen in the back, like
everything, and you would rentthe Jeep, and you would, you
would take it into the mountainsand camp with it for as many
days as you wanted to rent it.
This person, though, whocontacted me recently, wants to
talk about how to drive yourvehicle off road, and so there's
(44:25):
no opportunity to rent you wouldneed to have your own vehicle.
So that was my initial concern.
But after talking to him, andthat's because I want to make
sure that all of the activitiesthat I share are accessible to
everybody, and if you don't ownan off road vehicle, I was
worried that this might not besomething that's accessible to
folks, but what he explained tome is that most people own cars
that have off roadingcapabilities, and they don't
(44:48):
even know it. So he said that,like there are Nissans and some
versions of Subaru that peopledon't even know how to use the
off road cap. Capabilities, orthey buy the car not for off
roading purposes, but it'salready got these features built
in. And because it's notmarketed as an off roading
vehicle that, like the sales,people don't know about the
(45:10):
features. They don't talk aboutit. People buy these cars not
knowing that they have thesecapabilities. And he was saying
that he wants to teach peoplehow to use their cars so that
they can access more trails andmore public lands and places
that they might think that theycan't get to otherwise. And so I
thought that was reallyinteresting, because really, if
(45:32):
it is true that a lot of peoplehave cars that have these
capabilities but don't know howto use them, like, why not learn
to use them and why not makemore of the outdoors accessible
by being able to reach them withoff roading vehicles? And I
think about like my experiencesin the outdoors around Virginia,
and it's not very often that Ifeel like I need an off road
(45:55):
vehicle, but every now and then,I end up on a pretty rough
trail. And that happened inGrayson County. I was going up
to white top. And if you've beenup to white top, you know that
road is rough. In fact, there'seven a stream that crosses the
road that you have, you have todrive over the stream. Now,
luckily, I do have an off roadvehicle, and I know how to use
(46:16):
it, so I was able to navigate.
But one of the people who workedin the tourism office at Grayson
County was with me, and she wasin her own car, and she's like,
I'm not going up there. She'slike, you're on your own from
here on out. So every now andthen, there are times when I am
really glad that I have avehicle that I know how to use.
Otherwise I wouldn't be able toget to some of these things and
(46:39):
and often times you also don'teven know what's ahead of you,
like you're driving to a certaintrail and you're following your
GPS and it takes you down astate or a national forest road
that you've never been downbefore. Sometimes there's a sign
warning you, but oftentimesthere there isn't, and you find
yourself many miles down a very,very rough trail where you're
(47:00):
having to drive slowly andnavigate around boulders and
potholes and then it just getstoo rough. People get nervous.
They want to turn around. Sohere's an opportunity for to
learn from somebody who canteach you how to drive your car
and also how to unstuck yourselfif you get stuck. So I'm I'm
(47:21):
kind of leaning towards yes onthis episode, but I also would
love to hear from people if theythink this is a good idea or
not.
Last night, I dove into thelistener survey results, and if
you have not yet filled out thelistener survey. It is not too
(47:41):
late. Check your show notes forthe link. Everybody who takes
the listener survey is enteredinto a drawing for a $50 gift
card to river rock outfitters inFredericksburg. I was looking at
the results, and before I evenshare some of the results,
something really remarkablestood out to me. This is not the
first year that I have done thesurvey, but the first year I did
(48:04):
do the survey. So my friendAllison, who helps me with this
podcast, who is absolutelyamazing, she keeps me on track,
in addition to helping with someof the social media posts,
putting together outlines foremail newsletters, just a myriad
of tasks she helps me with. Andone of the things that she and I
did together was create thefirst listener survey, and so
(48:25):
she had access to it, and wassort of monitoring it. I guess
it was two years ago. I thinkthis is the third one I've done
now while I was in Europe twoyears ago for the family
reunion. And when I got back, wehad a meeting, and she said to
me, you need to sit down onenight at the end of the day,
when everything else is done,pour yourself a glass of wine
(48:46):
and read the results. And I waslike, why are they that bad?
Like that? I need to drink whenI read the survey results, and
she said, No, she's like, you'regoing to be really touched by
some of the things that peoplewrote. People wrote really,
really nice things. And this isnow the third time that I'm
reviewing the survey, and everysingle time this is true, you
(49:09):
all give me such thoughtful,insightful feedback, and not
just on the survey, but alwaysin social media, posts, in fan
mail, in emails, directmessages. And I think that's
really remarkable, because Italk to other people in the
Creator space, who are, youknow, either social media
influencers or YouTubers orwhatever they're doing, and the
(49:33):
constant complaint that I hearfrom them is how disrespectful
people are all the time, andnasty comments and people
fighting on their pages and and,you know, okay, everybody has
seen it. It's right. We've allseen this honestly in the last
five years. I think I can counton one hand the number of times
that somebody has given me somesort of feedback that's either
(49:57):
rude or disrespectful orinappropriate. Appropriate, or
any of those things. And I satdown and read through some of
this survey last night. No joke,it was after midnight, and I was
getting teary eyed, especiallyas I got to the end where I was
asking one of the questions was,what can the host improve on?
(50:18):
And I think the last questionwas like, what were the host
strengths, and the things thatyou all said in there like
literally brought me to tears. Iwas so touched by your
thoughtfulness and your honesty,even the criticism that I
receive is respectful andconstructive. So I really want
to thank all of you. I know ittakes time six minutes,
(50:38):
approximately of your time tocomplete the survey. But these
results are so helpful. I mean,this gives me the feedback that
I'm looking for. It gives me thedata that I'm looking for. It
helps shape the future episodesof the podcast. It gives me
information that I can provideto sponsors and advertisers,
people who want to know thingsabout my audience. This This
(51:00):
helps me provide a lot of itwhere other data specs aren't
available, and then it's justlike the honest feedback, like
the real people leaving me realcomments. Those are so
impactful. So I love that youall have taken some time out of
your life to give me thisfeedback. And I appreciate it. I
appreciate you. I received somegreat feedback on the section of
(51:23):
the survey regarding theVirginia's adventure town
series, and I wanted to sharejust a few So this one says it
would be great to include a bitof info on kid friendly
activities in these towns, easytrails, interesting playgrounds,
coffee shops with play areas,etc. I travel solo with my two
year old, so our trips are hisspeed right now, which is slow.
(51:44):
Lol. This is really greatfeedback. And if you have not
already, go back and listen toepisode 29 great hikes in
Virginia with Erin Gifford. Erinis the author of the book hiking
with kids Virginia. 52 greathikes for families, and she had
just released that book when werecorded that episode. So all of
(52:04):
the hikes that we talk about inthat episode are from her book
and are kid friendly. Your twoyear old might not quite be
ready for that yet, but he willbe before you know it. And for
anybody else listening who haskids who's interested, that's
episode 29 and I will say alsothat I have been more mindful
about incorporating informationabout kid friendly stuff in all
(52:26):
of my episodes. So the very nextepisode to come out next week is
about King George County, andyou will hear us discuss in that
episode the all naturalplayground that was installed by
the Friends Group at CaledonState Park. And when we talk
about the Dahlgren trail, weactually discuss each section of
the trail and what the terrainis like, and we very
(52:47):
specifically say which sectionsare the most friendly for small
kids on bikes or even strollers.
Next comment, I'm a Virginianand have loved how it highlights
towns across the state that I'venever been to. I like how it
highlights the people from thearea who know their town and the
activities that make them proudto be a part of their community.
These episodes help in makingplans to go visit sometime, and
(53:09):
I appreciate that you visitthese places while I appreciate
this feedback, because it meansthat I have been hitting my
goals. All of this feedback isexactly what I strive to do in
each one of these episodes inthe series. I am very thoughtful
and deliberate about the gueststhat I choose because I do want
them to be from the communityand to be engaged in their
(53:31):
community and proud of whattheir community is doing in the
outdoor space. And additionally,I want you, the listener, to
have all the resources that youneed to plan a trip, and that
includes lodging, dining andother attractions. And I
received other feedback that I'mnot going to read, but quite a
few people had said how muchthey appreciate, especially the
episodes where there is a statepark in the town, and I can
(53:54):
completely understand why,because state parks are a huge
draw for folks, and people arewilling to drive a long way to
visit one but they don't usuallyknow what else there is to do in
the area when they get there.
For example, I had heard fromseveral people who said they
really appreciated the episodeabout St Paul because they were
(54:15):
traveling five or six hours tovisit the new Clinch River State
Park, but then they didn't knowwhat else to do once they
arrived, so that episode gavethem lots of suggestions and all
of the links in the show notesto all of the places that we
talked about, so that they couldfill their itinerary for a
weekend. I am so glad to getthis feedback, because it means
that I'm hitting my goals andI'm doing my job. The next
(54:38):
comment says this series almostconvinced me to visit one of
these towns, and I may stillsome of them are just a little
too far of a drive for a weekendgetaway. Well, I don't know
where this person lives, becauseall of this feedback is
anonymous, but I will say that Itry to have episodes in the
series that cover all regions ofthe state, so I've got episodes
(54:59):
in. In the coastal area,including one on the eastern
shore in Appalachia, in centralVirginia and south side. So
depending on what on where youlive, unless you're living
outside of Virginia, thereshould be at least one that is
close by. And if not, hangtight, there are plenty more
coming, and there should besoon. And then somebody said it
(55:21):
would be great to include oneswithin one hour of the Richmond
area. Well, there is one withinone hour of the Richmond area.
Check out episode 53 aboutFarmville, which features five
state parks in the area,including the majestic High
Bridge and high bridge TrailState Park, which runs right
through the middle of downtownFarmville. People sent me lots
(55:44):
of great ideas for new episodes.
I'm going to share a few.
Somebody said RV campingweekenders like me, full timers
or the occasional and someoneelse said an episode on hammock
camping would be helpful. Idon't recall that subject being
covered. I love both of theseideas, mostly because lots of
people enjoy camping, and theseare just two variations of
(56:06):
camping, and it's quite possiblethat a lot of people have never
tried either of these, but afterhearing an episode, they might
think about it. So what I needfrom you all are suggestions for
guests. A guest on RV campingwould need to be able to talk
about owning and renting an RV,and then I just don't even know
(56:26):
where to begin looking forsomebody who could talk about
hammock camping. So if you guyshave ideas, please send them my
way. Someone else suggestedcamping, backpacking and solo
trips. While there are lots ofepisodes about camping and
backpacking. There are noepisodes about solo trips yet,
but it got me thinking, becausealmost all of my trips are solo
(56:48):
trips. Now, there are someactivities that I'm not going to
do alone, like I need a buddy togo caving and I need a guide to
go ice climbing, for example,but all of the traveling I'm
pretty much doing on my own, allof the hiking, the camping, the
backpacking, that's all solo. Sothis has got me thinking that
maybe I should be talking alittle bit more about my
experiences doing these thingssolo, but I'd like to hear from
(57:10):
you all what you think aboutthat someone else said more fly
fishing for women and cycling. Ihave done episodes on fly
fishing and cycling early on,like in season one and two, but
it's been a minute, so it mightbe a good time for me to think
about revisiting some of thesetopics, and maybe from a
different perspective or adifferent angle. So yeah, I
(57:33):
appreciate that feedback,because now you've got my wheels
turning, pun intended, divinginto the s, p5, 100, and maybe
talking to someone who has hikedall 500 miles of trails in SNP,
it's a cool accomplishment, forsure. It is a cool
accomplishment, for sure, hiking500 trails in Shenandoah
National Park. I think I'm insome sort of a Facebook group
(57:57):
for people who are are doingthis. And I think I saw that
they're starting to, theystarted creating patches or
stickers or something for this.
So, yeah, I think that there area lot of people interested in I
think it. I think this would bea great subject. I mean,
Shenandoah National Park is avery popular place for a lot of
folks, and setting goals is alsoreally important for a lot of
(58:19):
people. I did an episode aboutoutdoorsy goal setting with
Alejandra from girls who hikeVirginia just this past January,
and that episode, man, peoplewere eating it up. So, yeah, I
think this is a great topic. Ijust have to find a guest, and I
could start looking around. Butif somebody has suggestions.
(58:39):
Send them to me, please. Thisnext suggestion is more
biologists, historians and staterepresentatives. This, I think,
is super interesting. So I havehad biologists and historians on
the podcast. Check out episode42 a glimpse into the wonderful
world of Virginia's wildlife.
(58:59):
And that is with Megan Thomas,who is a biologist from the
Virginia Department of WildlifeResources. And she talks about
Falcon cam and the three otherwildlife cams that DWR makes
accessible to the public. Veryinteresting episode. People love
episodes about wildlife, somaybe I'll start looking for
biologists for other wildlifetopics, mills. Kelly, who I
(59:22):
mentioned previously, is arecently retired history
professor at George MasonUniversity, and he's coming back
on and then staterepresentatives. This is the
thing that really fascinates me,because the last two surveys, I
was surprised how many peoplesaid they wanted to hear from
legislators about policy andlaws and other legislation that
(59:45):
impacts outdoor recreation andgosh, me, personally, I could
geek out and talk about policyall day, but I don't, because I
don't want to put people tosleep. But I also think that
maybe there is an opportunityhere. To hear a different
perspective, because outdoorrecreation and access to our
public lands is absolutelyimpacted by politics, and not
(01:00:09):
just federal, but also state andlocal, because state and local
is where it's at, folks. So itmay be having a couple of
legislators come on and talkabout, you know, what's coming
up in the General Assembly thatwe should keep our eyes open on,
or just general informationabout how the state budget or
other policies impact our accessto the outdoors. So I really
(01:00:30):
like this topic, but also Ireally like it because it
appeals to me, and I want tomake sure that it also appeals
to other people. So send me yourfeedback on that before I dive
down that rabbit hole. Thensomebody said, Anyone from the
PA TC? And if you're notfamiliar with the PA TC, that's
the Potomac Appalachian Trailclub. So anyone from the paetc
(01:00:53):
that maintains trails? I lovethis idea. I did do an episode.
It's episode 22 hiking McAfeeknob and Virginia's triple crown
with Diana Christopoulos fromthe Roanoke Appalachian Trail
club. Check that out, as well asepisode 13, which is endless
outdoor rec opportunities onShenandoah mountain, with Lynn
(01:01:15):
Cameron, who's the co chair offriends of Shenandoah mountain
and also a very active member ofher Appalachian Trail club, and
she and her husband Malcolm dotons of volunteer trail work. So
there are episodes out there,and I would love to focus on
more, because there are, thereare Appalachian Trail clubs all
(01:01:36):
over the state, and they'reregional. And even though I have
done a couple, I would love toreally highlight some of the
lesser known areas, like McAfeeknob in Virginia's Triple Crown
is really well known and reallywell loved. But I know that
there are other areas of theAppalachian Trail through
Virginia that maybe aren't quiteas known. And there are great
(01:02:00):
hikes, not just on the at but inthose general areas, and
somebody from a trail club couldtalk all about those. So I love
this idea, and I'm glad somebodybrought it to my attention. And
then lastly, someone said maybesomeone talking about effective
conservation advocacy,if you missed it just this past
January. Episode 66 is parksadvocacy day, be a champion for
(01:02:24):
our state parks. And the guestis Michelle Shope, who is on the
board of the Virginiaassociation for parks. It's a
special edition episode. I don'tnormally do these types of
episodes, but we had AdvocacyDay coming up at the capitol
that I wanted to let people knowabout, and also let them know
what the experience is like,because a lot of folks are
(01:02:47):
really nervous or intimidated bythe idea of going to Richmond
and talking to statelegislators, and that's
completely understandable, butalso it shouldn't be scary or
intimidating. So Michelle talkedabout what her experience had
been like the year before, whenshe was brand new to it. You
know, we talked people throughwhat they could expect if they
(01:03:08):
decided to join us that year.
And we do this every year. Sothere is an opportunity coming
up again this January to do itagain. So check out that
episode. And thank you so muchto everybody who sent me their
feedback. There was lots ofother suggestions. I can't go
through all of them, but I cantell you that I have read them
(01:03:28):
all. And one more reminder, thisis the last chance to fill out
the listener survey. The surveyis going to close at the end of
this week, and if you have notsubmitted your responses, please
do so now the link is in yourshow notes.
There are a couple of eventscoming up where I will be in
(01:03:51):
person so you can come out andsay hello. If you'd like in the
listener survey, somebody wrotethat they would like places she
will be, with a little noticefor those of us who plan ahead,
and I had to chuckle, because Iam also a planner and like to
know things well in advance,especially because I have a
really busy schedule. So in thepast, I have been posting any
(01:04:11):
upcoming events where I'm goingto be in person on social media,
but I understand that it's easyto miss that. So starting this
season, I'm going to beincluding those upcoming events
in my email newsletter as well.
So if you're not alreadysubscribed to the email
newsletter, you're going to wantto do that, because not only are
you going to know about upcomingevents, but giveaways are going
to be in the newsletter. Andthen I'm working with several
(01:04:33):
new brands this year that areoffering discounts on their
outdoor gear, and that'sexclusive to my listeners, and
it's only for people who receivethe email newsletter. And then,
of course, you'll never miss anew episode, because you'll
always receive an emailnewsletter after a new episode
is released. So you'll want tosign up for that by going to the
link in your show notes andclicking on email newsletter
(01:04:54):
sign up. So the two events thatare coming up are beats on the
back. End at seven Bend StatePark, and that's going to be
really soon, Sunday, Septemberthe 14th. And then this is not
confirmed yet, but most likelyI'm going to be at go fast in
Roanoke, and that is October 17through the 19th.
(01:05:19):
So mark your calendars, friends,the first episode of season six
drops one week from today. Thankyou for sticking with me
throughout this adventure. Icouldn't be more excited for
another podcast season, and Iappreciate each of you for your
support and the community we'vebuilt around our mutual love for
our beautiful outdoors righthere in Virginia. Virginia
(01:05:43):
Outdoor Adventures is inspiredby and supported by listeners
like you, which is why yourmessages and feedback means so
much to me. You can text medirectly by clicking on Send
Jessica a text message in yourshow notes, I answer questions,
respond to comments and shareyour feedback on the show. Never
miss a new episode. Sign up formy email newsletter and receive
(01:06:07):
my listener resource guide withthe top podcast episodes a
Virginia outdoor bucket list andexclusive brand discounts for my
listeners. Click on newsletter.
Sign up in your show notes orvisit virginiaoutdoor
adventures.com thanks forlistening until next time.
Adventure on you.
Announcer, from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the
Chesapeake Bay, Virginia is amecca for outdoor travel and
adventure. Virginia outdooradventures Podcast is your local
guide for hiking, camping,kayaking, travel and so much
more. Get the information andthe inspiration to plan your own
adventure right here inVirginia, I'm your host. Jessica
(00:23):
Bowser, big news adventurers.
Virginia Outdoor Adventures isback with a brand new season
that means more inspiringstories, hidden gems, travel
ready resources and newadventures across our
Commonwealth. In this season sixtrailer, get a sneak peek at new
content inspired by you, as wellas a chance to shape future
(00:45):
episodes with your feedback. Bethe first to hear about new
features designed to keep youinspired and in the know about
all things Virginia, outdoorsand upcoming events where you
can meet me in person. The waitis over. Season Six has arrived,
and it's time for newadventures. Let's go Virginia.
Outdoor Adventures is sponsoredby breaks Park and heart of
(01:11):
Appalachia, known as the GrandCanyon of the South. Breaks Park
is a hiking destination in theheart of Appalachia, you'll find
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Stay close to the adventure withlodges, cabins and campgrounds
(01:31):
inside the park, beyond thebreaks, the heart of Appalachia
invites you to hike and bikethrough breathtaking mountain
landscapes, paddle hiddenhollows, reel in trout from
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spearhead trails. Take a scenicdrive, embark on an elk tour and
explore Virginia's treasuredSouthwest where you'll also find
(01:54):
vibrant local dining, shoppingand celebrations. Your next
outdoor adventure starts in theheart of Appalachia. Tap the
links for breaks Park and heartof Appalachia in your show
notes. Welcome friends to seasonsix of Virginia outdoor
adventures podcast. I cannoteven believe we're in season
(02:16):
six. This is unbelievable to me,and I'm pretty sure I started
the trailer episode of seasonfive saying the exact same
thing, but even more so now thatwe are through yet another
season. If you have been with mefor a long time, you know that
this podcast started as apandemic project, something to
keep me busy while I was athome, and it just sort of took
(02:39):
off, and really I had no ideathat I would still be doing this
podcast all these years later. Ithought it was just a temporary
thing that might be fun, andhere I am doing it as a full
time job. It's completelyunbelievable to me, especially
five years later. So I want tothank everybody for making that
possible, because this is notsomething that I have done
(03:01):
alone. There have been a lot ofpeople that have been involved
in this process over the years,but first and foremost, you the
listeners, have beenunbelievably fantastic in
supporting me, some people sinceday one. I mean, there are folks
who send me messages and emailswho have been listening since
(03:22):
very early on. And I lovegetting those messages from
people because it lets me knowthat I'm still doing something
right, if people are hangingaround this long. But also, I
love hearing from folks who arefans and appreciate what I'm
doing, and it makes me feellike, okay, I'm on the right
track here, and I might as welljust keep on going. So that is
(03:44):
what I'm doing. Welcome toseason six, folks, how was your
summer? I have been gettingmessages and being tagged in
posts from folks who have beenon their summer adventures. For
example, I heard from Ryan, whotook his kids to Alaska and is
planning to bike the GreatAllegheny Passage from
Pittsburgh to Cumberland,Maryland. And I also wanted to
(04:06):
point out that Ryan let me knowthat he just recently finished
listening to every singleepisode of this podcast, Ryan, I
feel like I should apologize forthat, because when I think back
to Season One, when I was stilltrying to figure out what this
podcast was about, what wasimportant to me, what was
(04:26):
important to the listeners, whatdid people want to hear? And I
look at some of the things thatI did, and oh my goodness. I
mean, I was still trying tofigure out what I was doing, as
you can probably imagine. And Idon't often go back and listen
to those episodes from seasonone, because, yeah, I don't know
it makes me nervous to do so Iknow they're good, to be honest,
I know they're good. I wouldtake them down if I was
(04:49):
embarrassed by them, and I'mnot, but I was still trying to
figure things out. So I thinkit's amazing that Ryan listened
to all of them. There's close to100 Now I think this trailer
episode is like episode 78 butthose are the numbered episodes.
There's also bonus content andspecial edition episodes and
trailers. I think that I didn'tnumber and swaps with other
(05:11):
podcasters that didn't getnumbered. So there's actually
really close to 100 and Ryan haslistened to all of them. So
Ryan, you are awesome. Thank youfor that. My friend Meg is
living in a camper now she'sliving my dream. I think ever
since I was a kid, I've wantedto live in a camper, and Meg is
doing it. So go, Meg. And thenDane has been photographing
(05:35):
hummingbirds in his backyard andhas been sending me the
pictures, and I've been lovingthem. It's been very fun to
watch the progression of hisphotography skills and his love
for those adorable and badasslittle birds. And also, he's
planning to visit one of ourdark sky parks this fall, which
I love because I believe he wasinspired by the podcast episode
(05:56):
about our dark sky parks, andthat was a couple of seasons
ago. So for people to still beplanning visits to dark sky
parks because of an episode thatcame out year and a half ago or
so at this point, I think it'sincredible. So awesome. Thanks
for sharing that. Dane Lori tooka falconry class. Oh my gosh. I
loved the post that she put upwhere she had a falcon sitting
(06:20):
on her arm. That's really cool.
And then Carrie so Carrie hasbeen messaging me for a while to
tell me that she's been enjoyingthe podcast, especially the most
recent episode that came out atthe end of last season about
primitive camping in our stateparks. And she talked about how
that has been an inspiration forher. And so it's been fun
(06:42):
talking to Carrie, who has beenon her trail quest journey. And
then she also started paddlequest. You might remember that
there is a podcast episode aboutwandering waters paddle quest,
which is like trail quest,visiting all of the state parks
but paddling in the state parksthat offer paddling
opportunities and Virginia StateParks rewards people for doing
(07:04):
this, so you get pins anddifferent swag in the mail, and
when you complete it, arrangerwill present you with a
certificate at the park of yourchoice. So I recently got tagged
in Carrie's post. Just lastweek, Carrie completed both
trail quest and paddle quest,which is like huge I think that
(07:24):
makes Carrie one of the first,like inaugural groups, to be
finishing paddle quest, becausethat's a relatively new program,
so not a lot of people havecompleted it yet. So kudos to
Carrie, and she tagged me inthis post where she was
receiving her certificates atPocahontas State Park, and
(07:45):
wouldn't you know she waswearing my merch? I loved it so
much. She had on one of the Tshirts, the love t shirt. So I
have this design where in bigblock letters, it says love, and
then inside the block letters isthe Blue Ridge mountain design
from the cover art of thepodcast, and she was wearing
(08:05):
that T shirt. I love it so much.
Carrie wrote this in her post. Icompleted my Virginia State
Parks trail quest and paddlequest today at Pocahontas State
Park, and was presented with mycertificate by the amazing
Ranger Alicia. My family wasthere to celebrate with me. I am
grateful for them for being sosupportive and holding down the
house, taking care of the dog,and making it possible for me to
(08:25):
go on so many adventures overthe last two years. For these
quests, my wonderful hikingbestie Pat and her husband
surprised me today by coming.
I've been grateful to have herand my hiking bestie Debra with
me on many of my adventures, andhere's where she gives me a
shout out. And I'm also thankfulfor Jessica and her podcast
(08:46):
Virginia outdoor adventures,which inspired and entertained
me during the long drives allover Virginia. Congratulations,
Carrie. I'm so excited for you.
I would love for anybody who isworking on trail quest or paddle
quest, to let me know how thosequests are going for you, I've
attended several peopleceremonies already where they've
received their certificate. Soif you're one of those folks who
(09:09):
is getting really close to theend and you're planning
something special for yourceremony, let me know I would be
more than honored to attend if Iam able to, I know several
people have said, you know, Iwanted to invite you, but I was
worried that, you know I wasoverstepping, or you wouldn't
come. And I'm like, No, inviteme. If I can come, I will be
(09:30):
there. If I can't, then I can't,but I would love to. I, in fact,
I would really be honored. Solet me know if you've got those
accomplishments coming up.
This seems like a good time toacknowledge all of the folks who
have been supporting the podcastmonetarily on my buy me a coffee
(09:55):
page. So lots of newcontributions have been coming
in, and I'm just going to behonest with you guys. I feel
like a terrible person, becauseusually when somebody makes a
contribution on buy me a coffee,I am very quick to send off a
thank you email, because Ireally, really do appreciate
these contributions. But I havebeen on the road the last
several weeks, and when I'mtraveling to make new podcast
(10:17):
episodes, my days are packed.
From the moment I get up, to themoment I go to bed, and it
leaves no time at all forsitting at my computer to
respond to emails or do any sortof work. So I know I am late on
sending my thank yous, but Iwill send them. I swear I will.
In the meantime, I hope it makesup for it a little bit by
acknowledging these folks now.
(10:38):
So I just want to say thank youto Donna, Tim, Renee, Kate
Kelly, Dave, Jim, Katarina, Liz,Sherry, Amanda, Austin, Melanie
and Derek. All of those folkshave made one time
contributions, which make a hugedifference. The money that is
contributed on the buy me acoffee page goes directly
(10:59):
towards offsetting my travelcosts, and also all of the many
subscriptions that I have to payin order to produce a podcast.
So this is super helpful. Thereare different membership levels,
and we have some brand newmembers of Virginia outdoor
adventures, starting with Jimand Tamara, who signed up at the
(11:19):
wild wanderer level. Also atthat level, Allison signed up.
Thank you so much. Allison,Kevin signed up to be a
trailblazer. And then lastly,Rafael signed up at the summit
seeker level. You all thisreally means the world to me.
Every time I open my email and Isee an email that says you have
(11:41):
a new member. It literally makesmy day. And not only that, but
it makes it possible for me tocontinue producing new episodes.
So all of the new episodescoming out in season six are
directly related to the supportthat I received from these folks
on buy me a coffee and everybodywho has contributed in the past,
so thank you.
(12:08):
Something that has changed withthe podcast over the last year
is the increase in listenersfrom outside Virginia. This has
really surprised me. When I lookat the stats, there's more and
more people who are listeningoutside of Virginia, most of
them are in neighboring states,but there are folks in New York
and Ohio, Illinois, North Dakotaand even overseas. There's
(12:30):
several listeners in Germany, acouple in China. I always wonder
who these people are, so let mejust back up and say that unlike
social media, where there arebots and easy opportunities to
create fake accounts andwhatnot. In podcast stats,
they're pretty accurate. Like,there really aren't
opportunities for people tocreate fake accounts and bots
(12:53):
and just start putting out fakedata all over the place. That
really doesn't happen. So whenI'm looking at these stats, and
I see that there's two peoplelistening in China. It's likely
that there really are two peoplelistening in China. So I have to
wonder, like, Who are thesefolks, and why are they
interested in a podcast aboutVirginia? But I do want to
welcome all of these newlisteners and just say I'm so
(13:17):
happy that you're here. I knowthat there are a couple of folks
who started following on thesocial media pages. And usually,
when I see that I have a newfollower on, like Instagram, for
example, if it's possible, I'llusually message that person and
say, hey, thanks so much for thefollow. And then just say a
little something about myselfand ask a little something about
(13:37):
them, and just try to start aconversation to learn you know
what people's interests are, andto let them know that they can
send me their feedback about thepodcast anytime. So welcome to
Matt from Maryland and Karenfrom South Carolina, Candice
from West Virginia, and Jenny,also from West Virginia, and I'm
(13:57):
sure there are many, many morelike. I have really no way of
tracking who new listeners arelike I can see the numbers
increasing, and I see the stats,but I don't see any personal
information connected with thosestats. So I only know these four
people from social media becausewe've connected there. So if
you're a new listener, I wouldlove to meet you. If you haven't
(14:17):
already reached out to me,please do you can do that on
social media or in the shownotes section of every single
episode, there's a link thatsays, Send Jessica a text
message, and that is the fanmail link. So you can reach me
anytime by clicking that linkand then sending me a message.
And it comes directly to myphone as a text it doesn't tell
(14:38):
me who it's from, though, so ifyou want me to know that it's
from you, you do have to tell mewho you are, and it like gives
me, usually an area code for thephone, but it like x's out the
last four numbers. So I can'trespond either, but I will get
the message, and if you're ifyou give me your contact
information, I'd be happy toreply. So welcome to all. The
(15:00):
new folks tucked into thefoothills of the Blue Ridge
Mountains. Martinsville is asmall city with outsized
adventure potential. The SmithRiver blue way provides 45 miles
of accessible paddling and worldclass trout fishing on the crown
jewel of Martinsville, justbeyond city limits, Philpot lake
(15:21):
offers 25 miles of undevelopedshoreline with camping, paddling
and hiking opportunities. Bringyour bike or borrow one for free
and ride the Smith River TrailSystem, a network of local
trails, including the 11 milepaved dick and Willie passage
trail that serves as bothrecreation corridor and
community connector. But theadventure doesn't end there.
(15:44):
Explore local museums, culinarygems and fascinating history as
part of your must doMartinsville bucket list. Tap on
visit Martinsville in your shownotes, or dive deeper into this
Virginia adventure town inEpisode 75 blueways, trails,
camping and more in thefoothills of the Blue Ridge.
Check your show notes for thelink.
(16:09):
So how was my summer? Lots ofpeople have been asking, because
I did say at the end of lastseason that I was going overseas
for a month. So I left in midJune and was gone until mid
July. I I was in four or fivedifferent countries. The whole
purpose of the trip was I had afamily reunion in Austria and
another one in Slovenia. Butalso my husband had some work
(16:31):
meetings. The company that heworks for has offices in pretty
much every major city across theglobe, so he often goes overseas
for meetings. So he had somemeetings lined up, and so I went
with him on the first part, evenbefore we were with family. And
then after the first familyreunion, he had to go back. And
(16:52):
the last week of the trip, I wason my own. So we started off in
London, and we had left theairport in one of those iconic
black cabs, and my face wasglued to the window, looking at
birds, and I'm calling out like,Eurasian Magpie, rock pigeon,
Eurasian Jay, great cormorant,and my husband's like, we
(17:12):
haven't slept in 24 hours, andyou're birding. Well, yeah, I
don't know what else heexpected. And I've been using
this new app, Berta. So before Ileft, I was looking for an app
that I could use to track mysightings. All the apps that I
normally use are for NorthAmerican species, and in the
(17:32):
past, I've not been able to finda good app for birds, either in
Europe or Asia. So I was lookingagain, and I came across Berta,
B, I, R, D, A, and it seems towork pretty well. I mean, it's
got all of the species. It's gotsome good information about
every species. It's userfriendly for the most part. My
only complaint, though, is itkept glitching and like,
(17:53):
sometimes the app would crash,and oftentimes it would just get
really slow. So I'm wondering ifanybody else has used this app,
or if you have another app thatyou would recommend, because I
think I'm looking for somethingmaybe a little bit better, or
maybe by the time I go onanother trip, they will have
updated this app, hopefully, andit will be working a lot better.
(18:14):
I logged 81 species in the monththat I was gone, which is so
exciting. Not all of them werelifers, because I've been around
Europe many, many times I'vebeen Asia. So a lot of the birds
that I saw on this trip arebirds that I have seen in the
past, but there are also a lotof lifers. So yay. It is always
(18:34):
so exciting to get a lifer. Andother than London, we were in
Milan for like, a quick 24hours, and we were off to
Venice. The highlight of Venicewas not actually Venice, it was
day trips out to the islands ofMurano and Burano. And I would
recommend that, because Veniceis so crowded. I mean, yes, it's
pretty and it's unique, and Ithink everybody should
(18:56):
experience it, but if you justkind of want to get out of the
hustle and bustle, take a boattrip out to these islands. It
gives you an opportunity to seeshorebirds and other waterfowl
on your way out to the islands,and then different species of
birds, and, of course, differentwildlife. And then, of course,
the cultures are completelydifferent out on the islands. It
(19:17):
reminds me a little bit ofTangier island here in Virginia,
where it's just isolated fromthe mainland. And so the
architecture is different, theculture is different. Yes, there
are Italians, but, you know,they just have a very different
lifestyle, similar to Tangier.
So I thought that was unique.
And then after Venice, myhusband and I split up, he had
(19:39):
to go to Frankfurt for anothermeeting, and I took the train
from Venice to klagenfer, whichis in southern Austria, in the
Carinthia region. And my cousinspicked me up at the train
station, and I spent a week atmy cousin's house, and the area
where they live is very close tothe border of Slovenia. In fact,
you can. See the mountains thatare in Slovenia, like from their
(20:03):
backyard. It's so, so beautiful.
Oh my gosh. While I was there,we went biking. Like, bike
touring is absolutely huge inEurope right now, and I think
it's growing in popularity inthe states too. But everywhere
we went, and we didn't we didn'teven have to go anywhere. We
were like, sitting on thebalcony just looking out onto
this very rural, mostly farmlandlandscape, and watching just
(20:28):
people going by on bikesconstantly every single day. And
I'm like, asking my cousin andher boyfriend, like, where are
these people coming from? Andthey didn't know. They're like,
we don't even know if they'reAustrian because it's it's
become so popular that nowpeople plan trips and weekend
getaways to neighboringcountries and other countries
(20:51):
around Europe to do differentbike tours. So we were
constantly seeing people go byon bikes. We were riding bikes
too, and that area of Corinthiaalso has several lakes that are
somewhat touristy, where, youknow, there are shops and
restaurants and hotels and andpeople come to swim and to sit
on the beach. And so even thoughwe were in this rural area with,
(21:13):
you know, very, very smallvillages and people who have
been living there forgenerations, like we were also
walking distance to thesetouristy areas. So that was
that's definitely unique. Andalso, during the day, we when it
wasn't blazing hot, we would goon on some hikes. We hiked to a
waterfall in an area that isactually a UNESCO global
(21:37):
geopark. And what I love aboutthis part of Austria is that all
of these hikes are like, soaccessible. There was one day we
hiked to a place calledkitzelberg, and we literally
just went out the back door,like went down the road, turned
the corner, around theneighbor's house, and then got
on the trail. It's thataccessible. And I'm like,
(21:58):
halfway, wondering why my familydidn't just stay in Europe so
that I could have, like, alsolived in this completely
beautiful, wonderful, awesomeplace. In fact, my husband was
like, I see where you get thisnow? Like, I think this runs
through your blood or something,but, yeah, it's, it's really
beautiful. We had a very nicetime there, attended the family
(22:20):
reunion, and then from there, wewent to Italy with one of my
cousins who wanted to plan thisgetaway for us, basically like a
vacation for a week holiday, asthey like to call it. And we
were staying in this Italianvilla on a winery, and it was
just stunning. It only took us,like two hours to drive there
(22:40):
from Austria, grapevineseverywhere for as far as you can
see really old, small towns andvillages all around us, and of
course, also amazing wine. Andso we just had a very relaxing
we had the villa all toourselves at this winery,
because there were only threebedrooms in in the whole place,
(23:00):
and we had two of them, and thethird one was un rented. So we
had the whole run of this placeto ourselves. We had an infinity
pool overlooking all of thehills. I of course, was like in
my glory with my binocularsburning every day. We had
amazing food. My cousin actuallyspeaks Italian, because she
spent, like, I think, six monthswhile she was in college
(23:24):
studying somewhere in Italy. Idon't even remember where now.
So it was just, it was lovely.
It was absolutely lovely. And atthe end of the week, my cousin
graciously went out of her wayto drop us off where we needed
to go. So we dropped my husbandoff at the airport in lublana,
which is the capital ofSlovenia, and then she drove me
(23:45):
to the kreinska Gorod region ofSlovenia, where she dropped me
off to start a week of hikingand folks, this is where things
went completely sideways, so Ihad a little Bit of an accident.
It's almost embarrassing to eventalk about it, because I cannot
believe this happened, but I'mchalking this up as another one
(24:07):
of those episodes of don't dowhat I did, kids. So I get to
Slovenia, my cousin drops meoff, and we're having lunch
before she leaves, and there'sthis bike trail on the main road
that we can see from therestaurant where we're eating.
And I was like, You know what,the day's half over, I can't
really start any big hikestoday, so maybe I just, like,
(24:29):
rent a bike and then eat. Like,I could rent an E bike and do
that trail right there. Andshe's like, Yeah, yeah, Jessica,
you should do this. And she wentwith me to rent the bike, and in
the meantime, I get this textmessage from my husband, who was
boarding his flight, and hesaid, Love you. Drink water,
don't die. And that's reallyfunny, because by the time he
(24:52):
had landed in Paris for hisconnecting flight, I had almost
died twice. So I rent this bikeand. I take off down the trail,
and I'm having the best time.
I'm literally like, oh my god, Ilove riding a bike. It is. The
weather is beautiful. I mean,the Alps, they look like the
Rocky Mountains, and there aregorgeous turquoise streams that
(25:13):
I'm riding my bike over, bigfields. And then, of course,
like all of the traditionalSlovenian architecture that I
grew up with in Cleveland. So Iliterally feel like I am home
and I'm riding my bike down thistrail, and I'm having the best
freaking time. And then I hear arumble, and I'm like, what is
that? And I get I stop the bike,and I turn around, and here is
(25:36):
this massive thunderstorm, like,rolling my way from behind, so I
hadn't seen it coming, and I'mlike, oh, and I jump on my bike
and I start pedaling back, butat this point, I'm already,
like, 20 miles awayfrom my start point, so I'm,
like, riding as fast as Ipossibly can, and the storm is
(25:57):
coming fast Now, luckily, Thetrail passes through a lot of
small towns, I was able to dodgeinto a restaurant just as it was
hitting. And this was like oneof those epic thunderstorms
where, like, it's reverberatingoff the mountains, which are
very, very close, and everythingis shaking. And I was like,
(26:17):
Well, that was a close one, butI waited it out, and then I got
back on the bike, and I rodeback into town, and I stopped in
an outfitter because I reallywanted a new pair of hiking
shoes, like it was time. Mytrail runners are a couple years
old already, so I had seen otherhikers on my trip wearing Scarpa
brand hiking shoes. Now, ifyou're a climber, you know this
(26:40):
brand. In fact, I think myclimbing shoes are scarbos, but
for some reason they don't selltheir hiking shoes in the US. I
don't know why, but over inEurope, everybody wears this
brand, and it might be one ofthe most popular brands of
hiking shoes, as well asclimbing and mountaineering. I
really wanted to get a pair, soI stopped into this outfitter
and I pick up a new pair ofshoes, but the shoe box they
(27:02):
came in was too big to fit in mypack, so they gave me a bag, and
I had to put it over myshoulder, because that was
really the only way to carry it.
And so I'm heading back on thetrail, and I stopped to take a
picture of a bird, and I went toget back on the bike, and this
is where it gets, like, superembarrassing. So an E bike is
(27:23):
heavier than a normal bike. Iwasn't used to how heavy it was,
and I was on a gravel inclinetrying to mount the bike with
this package with with this bagcontaining my new hiking shoes
over the over one shoulder. Oh,and also, the the seat on the
bike was a little too high, likeI had raised it earlier, and it
(27:45):
was fine while I was riding, butfor getting on and off the bike,
it was kind of hard for my toesto reach the ground. And so,
because I was on an incline, Icould not reach the ground at
all on one side. And so Iliterally, I just tried to mount
the bike, and I just fell over,and the bike fell on top of me,
and I'm laying there thinking, Ido not believe this just
(28:07):
happened. Also, no clue as tohow injured I was, so I stand
up, and the only other personwho saw me fall was this older
Slovenian man who had his shirtoff and had this big pot belly,
and he's standing behind hisvan, and he starts calling to me
in Slovenia and asking me if I'mokay. And I'm telling him Yes,
(28:27):
and he's telling me, you don'tlook okay. And I'm going, Yeah,
I'm okay. I'm okay, okay. So Iget on the bike just to prove
that I'm okay, and I start toride away. And for the first 20
seconds, I'm like, see, I'mfine, and then all of a sudden
it hit me, and every single partof my body hurt like in a way
(28:48):
that I can't even describe. Iwas moaning and groaning the
entire rest of the ride back,which was really only maybe five
miles or so, but I stoppedbecause the sun was setting, and
there were some really beautifulphoto opportunities, and I
wanted to get out my camera onmy tripod, and I'm setting it
up, and the whole time I'm like,limping and groaning and
(29:11):
bleeding. Yeah, I should pointthat out too. I had like, blood
on both knees, and I could tellthat my elbow. I couldn't see
it, but I could, like, feelblood on my elbows, and it was
just I was a mess. Took mypictures, though, and then I got
back to the room, and I couldbarely walk. My room was in this
adorable eco hotel, but it wason the third floor, and there
(29:34):
was no elevator and this, thestairs, of course, were super
steep, and I had to walk up twoflights of steps to get to my
room. I could barely lift myknee. I'm like hanging on to the
handrail with both hands andhoisting myself up every single
step. It was taking me like 15minutes to get up the stairs to
(29:54):
my room. And then once I was inmy room, the bathroom was
elevated up a big step too. Sojust like walking in and out of
the bathroom was horrible. I wasin such bad shape, and when I
woke up in the morning, my rightknee looked like I had a
baseball inside of it, and Icould barely move. And all the
focus seemed to be on my knee,because it was so badly swollen,
(30:18):
I didn't even realize that themost injured part of me was
actually my left shoulder, whichis the one that I had landed on.
So here we are in September now,and this happened in July. My
knees are fine. My elbows arescarred, but they're healed. My
shoulder is still all messed up,and so that really impacted the
(30:38):
rest of my trip, because I hadall of these big hikes planned,
and I just couldn't do them. Butat the same time, I was not
about to sit in the room likeeverybody was telling me, you
need to go to the hospital. AndI was like, no, because I don't
have time for that. I came hereto hike, and that's what I plan
to do, and I did, and I justpowered through the pain for the
(31:02):
rest of the week, but honestly,like, once you start moving, and
I think the blood startscirculating, the pain kind of
goes away. And I wasn't beingstupid, like I wasn't pushing it
by doing really hard hikes, Idecided instead to completely
alter all my routes, and I waswalking around villages and
taking some easy trails. And,like, initially, I thought,
(31:23):
well, maybe I can't hike at all,but I can bird. And so I just
grabbed my camera and mybinoculars and went out, but
ended up out for like, theentire day, and I was fine. So I
had a really, really enjoyablerest of my time. And Slovenia,
if you have never been, oh mygosh. You know, I could sell
anybody on this country, to behonest, it is clean, it is safe,
(31:47):
it is affordable. In fact, it'sone of the safest countries in
Europe. I walked around in thevillages at night. It was no
problem at all, like in thedark, and when I say dark, I
mean, like, there's it's dark,dark. There's no street lights.
I had to use my headlamp to getaround. But as far as safety
concerns, there aren't too many,as far as crime and whatnot. So
(32:08):
it is clean, it is safe, it isaffordable. They are in the
European Union, so they use theeuro. And then on top of all
that, it is just beautiful, andit is so accessible, like the
lengths that this country goesto to make sure that outdoor
spaces and outdoor recreationare accessible to tourists and
visitors, is remarkable, on topof their very conscious
(32:35):
sustainability practices, sothat they are not overwhelming
the outdoor spaces or the peopleand the communities that are
located there. So they are veryeco conscious, and literally,
like all of their brochures andtheir literature that goes out
say, we welcome responsiblerecreationers, it's almost like
(32:56):
the underlying tone is saying,if you're not going to be a
responsible recreator, don'tcome here, but yeah, really
beautiful places. So I hiked inkreinska Gora, which is where
triglau National Park is. It'sthe only national park in
Slovenia, but also contains thehighest peaks. And then I spent
a couple of days at Lake bochin,and that is also a really
(33:20):
beautiful place, also verypopular for skiing in the
winter. And so that was in anutshell, my trip to Europe.
Fall is here, and Virginia stateparks are calling your name.
Experience the breathtakingbeauty of autumn with vibrant
foliage, crisp air and endlessoutdoor activities, from hiking
(33:42):
through golden forest to cozyingup by a campfire, there's no
better place to enjoy the seasoncapture the magic of fall with
family and friends in a stunningState Park. From the shores of
the Atlantic Ocean andChesapeake Bay to the Blue Ridge
Mountains and Cumberland Gap,adventure is never far away.
Start planning your adventure bytapping on Virginia state parks
(34:06):
in your show notes, or byvisiting Virginia State
parks.govafter Europe, I had almost no
downtime. The day after myflight landed, I was right back
at my desk getting ready for abrand new podcast season, and
within a couple of days, I wason the road doing my first site
visit for my first adventuretown episode. Let's talk about
(34:27):
what to expect in the newpodcast season. I am really
excited about this. I have a lotof adventure town episodes lined
up. And why not? Because all thefeedback I keep getting from
everyone is that they love theseepisodes. So I've got several of
those lined up for the firstcouple of months, and starting
with King George County, andthat was my first site visit. I
(34:49):
don't want to give away too muchabout these episodes, but King
George County is on the NorthernNeck. Bordered by the Potomac
and the Rappahannock rivers, andit contains Caledon State Park
and the Dahlgren heritageRailroad Trail. And my guests in
that episode are members of theFriends groups of both the State
(35:11):
Park and the rail trail. Andthen from there, I was off to
Grayson County. Most people knowGrayson County because of
Grayson Highlands state parkthat seems to be an iconic
location in Grayson County andin it. And actually, there are a
lot of iconic places in GraysonCounty, including the Virginia
(35:32):
Creeper trail, including a partof the Blue Ridge Parkway, Mount
Rogers recreational area. Ofcourse, Mount Rogers is the
highest peak in Virginia, andthat is in Grayson County.
There's just so much to do inGrayson, and it is a beautiful,
beautiful place. I have twoguests for that episode. One of
my guests help map the sectionof the new river that runs
(35:55):
through Grayson County, and thenmy other guest is from the town
of freeze, and new river trailpasses through the town of
freeze, and I got to experiencemy very first live music jam.
You probably know that that partof Virginia is part of the
crooked road music HeritageTrail, and Freeze has a very
(36:15):
rich history in music. And so Igot to go to my first Thursday
night jam. I have so manyvideos. I cannot wait to post
these on social. I wonder if Iplay a little bit.
(36:42):
It was so fantastic. I had justsat down in my seat. I don't
think my butt was in the chairfor even 30 seconds when someone
came up to me and asked me if Iwanted to two step with him. And
I was so excited, I rocketed outof my seat. I was like, what
took somebody so long to ask?
And I have never done thisbefore. I've never attended one
of these before. I have nevertwo stepped and he said, Don't
you worry, I'm gonna teach you.
(37:06):
And he did. It was fantastic. Somuch fun. Then after Grayson, I
was on to Massanutten resort.
And okay, I'm gonna share thiswith you guys. So I got a call
from Massanutten resort not toolong ago, and they told me they
were interested in sponsoring apodcast episode, and I was
definitely hesitant. I havenever worked with a resort
(37:28):
before, and I was a littleconcerned about promoting a
really large business. And so Itook the call, and the person
who had contacted me said thatshe did not want me to do a
podcast episode about theresort. She instead wanted to
focus on the partnershipsbetween the resort and the
(37:49):
community that gave thecommunity access to trails. And
if you've ever been toMassanutten, or you're from the
Harrisonburg area, you'reprobably familiar with the
western slope, and that is asection of the mountain where
the resort is located, wherethere are a lot of trails that
are primarily used by mountainbikers. Mountain bikers really
love these trails, but it's alsoopen to hikers as well, and I
(38:13):
was already familiar with this,because couple seasons ago I did
an episode about Mike mountainbiking in Harrisonburg. You
might remember, Thomas was theguest in that episode. He's the
owner of Shenandoah bicycle shopin downtown Harrisonburg, and he
took me to the western slope,and so he and I rode those
trails together. So I wasfamiliar with it, and through
(38:36):
him, I also became familiar withthe Shenandoah Valley Bicycle
Coalition, and that is anonprofit organization that is
working with the resort to buildthese trails and create access
to these trails and maintain thetrails. I was all about that. I
was like, let's talk about this.
(38:57):
And then on top of that, theyalso asked me to please
highlight and feature downtownHarrisonburg. And I was like, Oh
my gosh, like, this resort isasking me not to feature them,
but to talk about communitypartnerships and downtown
amenities, which increaseseconomic development. I was
like, I Yes, please. So that'swhat it's all about. And it
(39:19):
first, I was a little worriedthat listeners were gonna think
I sold out, or wonder why theyshould listen to an episode
about Massanutten. But I reallythink this is a great episode
that talks about hiking andmountain biking I do mention
some of the other outdooractivities that are available at
the resort. And then there wasone afternoon where it
(39:41):
thunderstormed and I foundmyself in the spa. So you're
gonna hear me talk about that,because, like, let's be honest.
You know, if you're on one ofthese trips and you're hiking or
you're paddling or climbing ordoing whatever you're doing
outside all day, especially ifyou're doing it multiple days in
a row, you're gonna get sore,and if it's. Thunderstorming
outside, why not find yourselfat the spa? So that's exactly
(40:04):
what I did, and I just talkabout my whole weekend adventure
in Massanutten, two fantasticguests. They are ambassadors for
the resort, but also members ofthe Shenandoah Valley Bicycle
Coalition and volunteers whohelp build and maintain trails,
and they were just so much fun.
We had a really great time. Andthen from there, I went over to
(40:25):
Waynesboro, where I met a guestthat is pretty popular. You
probably already know her, andI'm not going to tell you her
name just yet, because I wantyou to come back and listen to
the episode. But over the years,I've had multiple requests for
an episode about mushroomforaging, and I've been on the
hunt, pun intended for a guestthat is knowledgeable and
(40:48):
reputable, because, as you canimagine, I cannot have just
anybody coming on the podcastgiving out bad information,
because if you eat the Wrongmushroom, yeah, we all know what
can happen. So I did finallyfind this person. Last year at
go fest, she was presenting, anda friend of mine was listening
to her presentation and wastexting me from the
(41:10):
presentation, like, oh my god,Jessica, you have to have this
person on your podcast. She'samazing. And it just so happened
that I was looking for somebodywho could talk about mushroom
foraging. So I got together withher at the Blue Ridge tunnel,
actually one of the trailheads,and we were walking through the
forested area there, and we hadsome really good finds, and I
(41:30):
learned so much from her. AndI'm reading her book right now,
so I'm really excited to haveher on as a guest, because she's
so knowledgeable and sopassionate, but also talks about
sustainability and our place inthe ecosystem, and talks about
foraging from a biggerperspective as well. So it's
(41:50):
going to be really, really good.
And then after that, I finallygot to come home and take a
little bit of a break. I've hadsome conversations with the city
of Norton down in Appalachiaabout doing the next Virginia
adventure town feature there. SoI'll be traveling there in
October, it seems like. And thenalso in season, was it three or
(42:14):
four? I think maybe four. One ofthe most popular episodes of
that season was an episodefeaturing my friend Mills Kelly,
who is the host of the greentunnel podcast and had released
a book at the time called theLost Appalachian Trail. And his
book was about a section of thetrail in Virginia that had been
(42:37):
rerouted and the impacts ofrerouting the trail, on the
trail communities and the trailitself and the hikers, and just
a fascinating historical book.
And so many people had writtento me and said, I live in this
area, and I didn't even knowthat there was a lost
Appalachian Trail, and peoplewho went out looking for it, you
(42:58):
can still hike it. It's notofficially part of the at but
the trail itself still exists.
That episode was like thedownload numbers were unreal. So
Mills has a new book coming out,also about the Appalachian
Trail, a little bit differentthis time. And so he was asking
(43:18):
me if I would have him back on.
And I said, Absolutely yes. Sokeep an eye out for that. Those
are some of the upcomingepisodes. And then I wanted to
ask for feedback about one otherepisode that I'm considering but
haven't quite made a decision onyet. Somebody contacted me about
doing an episode about offroading, and I did a similar
episode a couple seasons ago,also, surprisingly to me, very,
(43:42):
very popular episode, but it wasdifferent in that the guests on
that episode owned a companywhere you could rent a jeep and
take it up into the mountains,and it was fully loaded with all
of the camping accessories youcould possibly imagine, like
(44:02):
rooftop tent and canopies andkitchen in the back, like
everything, and you would rentthe Jeep, and you would, you
would take it into the mountainsand camp with it for as many
days as you wanted to rent it.
This person, though, whocontacted me recently, wants to
talk about how to drive yourvehicle off road, and so there's
(44:25):
no opportunity to rent you wouldneed to have your own vehicle.
So that was my initial concern.
But after talking to him, andthat's because I want to make
sure that all of the activitiesthat I share are accessible to
everybody, and if you don't ownan off road vehicle, I was
worried that this might not besomething that's accessible to
folks, but what he explained tome is that most people own cars
that have off roadingcapabilities, and they don't
(44:48):
even know it. So he said that,like there are Nissans and some
versions of Subaru that peopledon't even know how to use the
off road cap. Capabilities, orthey buy the car not for off
roading purposes, but it'salready got these features built
in. And because it's notmarketed as an off roading
vehicle that, like the sales,people don't know about the
(45:10):
features. They don't talk aboutit. People buy these cars not
knowing that they have thesecapabilities. And he was saying
that he wants to teach peoplehow to use their cars so that
they can access more trails andmore public lands and places
that they might think that theycan't get to otherwise. And so I
thought that was reallyinteresting, because really, if
(45:32):
it is true that a lot of peoplehave cars that have these
capabilities but don't know howto use them, like, why not learn
to use them and why not makemore of the outdoors accessible
by being able to reach them withoff roading vehicles? And I
think about like my experiencesin the outdoors around Virginia,
and it's not very often that Ifeel like I need an off road
(45:55):
vehicle, but every now and then,I end up on a pretty rough
trail. And that happened inGrayson County. I was going up
to white top. And if you've beenup to white top, you know that
road is rough. In fact, there'seven a stream that crosses the
road that you have, you have todrive over the stream. Now,
luckily, I do have an off roadvehicle, and I know how to use
(46:16):
it, so I was able to navigate.
But one of the people who workedin the tourism office at Grayson
County was with me, and she wasin her own car, and she's like,
I'm not going up there. She'slike, you're on your own from
here on out. So every now andthen, there are times when I am
really glad that I have avehicle that I know how to use.
Otherwise I wouldn't be able toget to some of these things and
(46:39):
and often times you also don'teven know what's ahead of you,
like you're driving to a certaintrail and you're following your
GPS and it takes you down astate or a national forest road
that you've never been downbefore. Sometimes there's a sign
warning you, but oftentimesthere there isn't, and you find
yourself many miles down a very,very rough trail where you're
(47:00):
having to drive slowly andnavigate around boulders and
potholes and then it just getstoo rough. People get nervous.
They want to turn around. Sohere's an opportunity for to
learn from somebody who canteach you how to drive your car
and also how to unstuck yourselfif you get stuck. So I'm I'm
(47:21):
kind of leaning towards yes onthis episode, but I also would
love to hear from people if theythink this is a good idea or
not.
Last night, I dove into thelistener survey results, and if
you have not yet filled out thelistener survey. It is not too
(47:41):
late. Check your show notes forthe link. Everybody who takes
the listener survey is enteredinto a drawing for a $50 gift
card to river rock outfitters inFredericksburg. I was looking at
the results, and before I evenshare some of the results,
something really remarkablestood out to me. This is not the
first year that I have done thesurvey, but the first year I did
(48:04):
do the survey. So my friendAllison, who helps me with this
podcast, who is absolutelyamazing, she keeps me on track,
in addition to helping with someof the social media posts,
putting together outlines foremail newsletters, just a myriad
of tasks she helps me with. Andone of the things that she and I
did together was create thefirst listener survey, and so
(48:25):
she had access to it, and wassort of monitoring it. I guess
it was two years ago. I thinkthis is the third one I've done
now while I was in Europe twoyears ago for the family
reunion. And when I got back, wehad a meeting, and she said to
me, you need to sit down onenight at the end of the day,
when everything else is done,pour yourself a glass of wine
(48:46):
and read the results. And I waslike, why are they that bad?
Like that? I need to drink whenI read the survey results, and
she said, No, she's like, you'regoing to be really touched by
some of the things that peoplewrote. People wrote really,
really nice things. And this isnow the third time that I'm
reviewing the survey, and everysingle time this is true, you
(49:09):
all give me such thoughtful,insightful feedback, and not
just on the survey, but alwaysin social media, posts, in fan
mail, in emails, directmessages. And I think that's
really remarkable, because Italk to other people in the
Creator space, who are, youknow, either social media
influencers or YouTubers orwhatever they're doing, and the
(49:33):
constant complaint that I hearfrom them is how disrespectful
people are all the time, andnasty comments and people
fighting on their pages and and,you know, okay, everybody has
seen it. It's right. We've allseen this honestly in the last
five years. I think I can counton one hand the number of times
that somebody has given me somesort of feedback that's either
(49:57):
rude or disrespectful orinappropriate. Appropriate, or
any of those things. And I satdown and read through some of
this survey last night. No joke,it was after midnight, and I was
getting teary eyed, especiallyas I got to the end where I was
asking one of the questions was,what can the host improve on?
(50:18):
And I think the last questionwas like, what were the host
strengths, and the things thatyou all said in there like
literally brought me to tears. Iwas so touched by your
thoughtfulness and your honesty,even the criticism that I
receive is respectful andconstructive. So I really want
to thank all of you. I know ittakes time six minutes,
(50:38):
approximately of your time tocomplete the survey. But these
results are so helpful. I mean,this gives me the feedback that
I'm looking for. It gives me thedata that I'm looking for. It
helps shape the future episodesof the podcast. It gives me
information that I can provideto sponsors and advertisers,
people who want to know thingsabout my audience. This This
(51:00):
helps me provide a lot of itwhere other data specs aren't
available, and then it's justlike the honest feedback, like
the real people leaving me realcomments. Those are so
impactful. So I love that youall have taken some time out of
your life to give me thisfeedback. And I appreciate it. I
appreciate you. I received somegreat feedback on the section of
(51:23):
the survey regarding theVirginia's adventure town
series, and I wanted to sharejust a few So this one says it
would be great to include a bitof info on kid friendly
activities in these towns, easytrails, interesting playgrounds,
coffee shops with play areas,etc. I travel solo with my two
year old, so our trips are hisspeed right now, which is slow.
(51:44):
Lol. This is really greatfeedback. And if you have not
already, go back and listen toepisode 29 great hikes in
Virginia with Erin Gifford. Erinis the author of the book hiking
with kids Virginia. 52 greathikes for families, and she had
just released that book when werecorded that episode. So all of
(52:04):
the hikes that we talk about inthat episode are from her book
and are kid friendly. Your twoyear old might not quite be
ready for that yet, but he willbe before you know it. And for
anybody else listening who haskids who's interested, that's
episode 29 and I will say alsothat I have been more mindful
about incorporating informationabout kid friendly stuff in all
(52:26):
of my episodes. So the very nextepisode to come out next week is
about King George County, andyou will hear us discuss in that
episode the all naturalplayground that was installed by
the Friends Group at CaledonState Park. And when we talk
about the Dahlgren trail, weactually discuss each section of
the trail and what the terrainis like, and we very
(52:47):
specifically say which sectionsare the most friendly for small
kids on bikes or even strollers.
Next comment, I'm a Virginianand have loved how it highlights
towns across the state that I'venever been to. I like how it
highlights the people from thearea who know their town and the
activities that make them proudto be a part of their community.
These episodes help in makingplans to go visit sometime, and
(53:09):
I appreciate that you visitthese places while I appreciate
this feedback, because it meansthat I have been hitting my
goals. All of this feedback isexactly what I strive to do in
each one of these episodes inthe series. I am very thoughtful
and deliberate about the gueststhat I choose because I do want
them to be from the communityand to be engaged in their
(53:31):
community and proud of whattheir community is doing in the
outdoor space. And additionally,I want you, the listener, to
have all the resources that youneed to plan a trip, and that
includes lodging, dining andother attractions. And I
received other feedback that I'mnot going to read, but quite a
few people had said how muchthey appreciate, especially the
episodes where there is a statepark in the town, and I can
(53:54):
completely understand why,because state parks are a huge
draw for folks, and people arewilling to drive a long way to
visit one but they don't usuallyknow what else there is to do in
the area when they get there.
For example, I had heard fromseveral people who said they
really appreciated the episodeabout St Paul because they were
(54:15):
traveling five or six hours tovisit the new Clinch River State
Park, but then they didn't knowwhat else to do once they
arrived, so that episode gavethem lots of suggestions and all
of the links in the show notesto all of the places that we
talked about, so that they couldfill their itinerary for a
weekend. I am so glad to getthis feedback, because it means
that I'm hitting my goals andI'm doing my job. The next
(54:38):
comment says this series almostconvinced me to visit one of
these towns, and I may stillsome of them are just a little
too far of a drive for a weekendgetaway. Well, I don't know
where this person lives, becauseall of this feedback is
anonymous, but I will say that Itry to have episodes in the
series that cover all regions ofthe state, so I've got episodes
(54:59):
in. In the coastal area,including one on the eastern
shore in Appalachia, in centralVirginia and south side. So
depending on what on where youlive, unless you're living
outside of Virginia, thereshould be at least one that is
close by. And if not, hangtight, there are plenty more
coming, and there should besoon. And then somebody said it
(55:21):
would be great to include oneswithin one hour of the Richmond
area. Well, there is one withinone hour of the Richmond area.
Check out episode 53 aboutFarmville, which features five
state parks in the area,including the majestic High
Bridge and high bridge TrailState Park, which runs right
through the middle of downtownFarmville. People sent me lots
(55:44):
of great ideas for new episodes.
I'm going to share a few.
Somebody said RV campingweekenders like me, full timers
or the occasional and someoneelse said an episode on hammock
camping would be helpful. Idon't recall that subject being
covered. I love both of theseideas, mostly because lots of
people enjoy camping, and theseare just two variations of
(56:06):
camping, and it's quite possiblethat a lot of people have never
tried either of these, but afterhearing an episode, they might
think about it. So what I needfrom you all are suggestions for
guests. A guest on RV campingwould need to be able to talk
about owning and renting an RV,and then I just don't even know
(56:26):
where to begin looking forsomebody who could talk about
hammock camping. So if you guyshave ideas, please send them my
way. Someone else suggestedcamping, backpacking and solo
trips. While there are lots ofepisodes about camping and
backpacking. There are noepisodes about solo trips yet,
but it got me thinking, becausealmost all of my trips are solo
(56:48):
trips. Now, there are someactivities that I'm not going to
do alone, like I need a buddy togo caving and I need a guide to
go ice climbing, for example,but all of the traveling I'm
pretty much doing on my own, allof the hiking, the camping, the
backpacking, that's all solo. Sothis has got me thinking that
maybe I should be talking alittle bit more about my
experiences doing these thingssolo, but I'd like to hear from
(57:10):
you all what you think aboutthat someone else said more fly
fishing for women and cycling. Ihave done episodes on fly
fishing and cycling early on,like in season one and two, but
it's been a minute, so it mightbe a good time for me to think
about revisiting some of thesetopics, and maybe from a
different perspective or adifferent angle. So yeah, I
(57:33):
appreciate that feedback,because now you've got my wheels
turning, pun intended, divinginto the s, p5, 100, and maybe
talking to someone who has hikedall 500 miles of trails in SNP,
it's a cool accomplishment, forsure. It is a cool
accomplishment, for sure, hiking500 trails in Shenandoah
National Park. I think I'm insome sort of a Facebook group
(57:57):
for people who are are doingthis. And I think I saw that
they're starting to, theystarted creating patches or
stickers or something for this.
So, yeah, I think that there area lot of people interested in I
think it. I think this would bea great subject. I mean,
Shenandoah National Park is avery popular place for a lot of
folks, and setting goals is alsoreally important for a lot of
(58:19):
people. I did an episode aboutoutdoorsy goal setting with
Alejandra from girls who hikeVirginia just this past January,
and that episode, man, peoplewere eating it up. So, yeah, I
think this is a great topic. Ijust have to find a guest, and I
could start looking around. Butif somebody has suggestions.
(58:39):
Send them to me, please. Thisnext suggestion is more
biologists, historians and staterepresentatives. This, I think,
is super interesting. So I havehad biologists and historians on
the podcast. Check out episode42 a glimpse into the wonderful
world of Virginia's wildlife.
(58:59):
And that is with Megan Thomas,who is a biologist from the
Virginia Department of WildlifeResources. And she talks about
Falcon cam and the three otherwildlife cams that DWR makes
accessible to the public. Veryinteresting episode. People love
episodes about wildlife, somaybe I'll start looking for
biologists for other wildlifetopics, mills. Kelly, who I
(59:22):
mentioned previously, is arecently retired history
professor at George MasonUniversity, and he's coming back
on and then staterepresentatives. This is the
thing that really fascinates me,because the last two surveys, I
was surprised how many peoplesaid they wanted to hear from
legislators about policy andlaws and other legislation that
(59:45):
impacts outdoor recreation andgosh, me, personally, I could
geek out and talk about policyall day, but I don't, because I
don't want to put people tosleep. But I also think that
maybe there is an opportunityhere. To hear a different
perspective, because outdoorrecreation and access to our
public lands is absolutelyimpacted by politics, and not
(01:00:09):
just federal, but also state andlocal, because state and local
is where it's at, folks. So itmay be having a couple of
legislators come on and talkabout, you know, what's coming
up in the General Assembly thatwe should keep our eyes open on,
or just general informationabout how the state budget or
other policies impact our accessto the outdoors. So I really
(01:00:30):
like this topic, but also Ireally like it because it
appeals to me, and I want tomake sure that it also appeals
to other people. So send me yourfeedback on that before I dive
down that rabbit hole. Thensomebody said, Anyone from the
PA TC? And if you're notfamiliar with the PA TC, that's
the Potomac Appalachian Trailclub. So anyone from the paetc
(01:00:53):
that maintains trails? I lovethis idea. I did do an episode.
It's episode 22 hiking McAfeeknob and Virginia's triple crown
with Diana Christopoulos fromthe Roanoke Appalachian Trail
club. Check that out, as well asepisode 13, which is endless
outdoor rec opportunities onShenandoah mountain, with Lynn
(01:01:15):
Cameron, who's the co chair offriends of Shenandoah mountain
and also a very active member ofher Appalachian Trail club, and
she and her husband Malcolm dotons of volunteer trail work. So
there are episodes out there,and I would love to focus on
more, because there are, thereare Appalachian Trail clubs all
(01:01:36):
over the state, and they'reregional. And even though I have
done a couple, I would love toreally highlight some of the
lesser known areas, like McAfeeknob in Virginia's Triple Crown
is really well known and reallywell loved. But I know that
there are other areas of theAppalachian Trail through
Virginia that maybe aren't quiteas known. And there are great
(01:02:00):
hikes, not just on the at but inthose general areas, and
somebody from a trail club couldtalk all about those. So I love
this idea, and I'm glad somebodybrought it to my attention. And
then lastly, someone said maybesomeone talking about effective
conservation advocacy,if you missed it just this past
January. Episode 66 is parksadvocacy day, be a champion for
(01:02:24):
our state parks. And the guestis Michelle Shope, who is on the
board of the Virginiaassociation for parks. It's a
special edition episode. I don'tnormally do these types of
episodes, but we had AdvocacyDay coming up at the capitol
that I wanted to let people knowabout, and also let them know
what the experience is like,because a lot of folks are
(01:02:47):
really nervous or intimidated bythe idea of going to Richmond
and talking to statelegislators, and that's
completely understandable, butalso it shouldn't be scary or
intimidating. So Michelle talkedabout what her experience had
been like the year before, whenshe was brand new to it. You
know, we talked people throughwhat they could expect if they
(01:03:08):
decided to join us that year.
And we do this every year. Sothere is an opportunity coming
up again this January to do itagain. So check out that
episode. And thank you so muchto everybody who sent me their
feedback. There was lots ofother suggestions. I can't go
through all of them, but I cantell you that I have read them
(01:03:28):
all. And one more reminder, thisis the last chance to fill out
the listener survey. The surveyis going to close at the end of
this week, and if you have notsubmitted your responses, please
do so now the link is in yourshow notes.
There are a couple of eventscoming up where I will be in
(01:03:51):
person so you can come out andsay hello. If you'd like in the
listener survey, somebody wrotethat they would like places she
will be, with a little noticefor those of us who plan ahead,
and I had to chuckle, because Iam also a planner and like to
know things well in advance,especially because I have a
really busy schedule. So in thepast, I have been posting any
(01:04:11):
upcoming events where I'm goingto be in person on social media,
but I understand that it's easyto miss that. So starting this
season, I'm going to beincluding those upcoming events
in my email newsletter as well.
So if you're not alreadysubscribed to the email
newsletter, you're going to wantto do that, because not only are
you going to know about upcomingevents, but giveaways are going
to be in the newsletter. Andthen I'm working with several
(01:04:33):
new brands this year that areoffering discounts on their
outdoor gear, and that'sexclusive to my listeners, and
it's only for people who receivethe email newsletter. And then,
of course, you'll never miss anew episode, because you'll
always receive an emailnewsletter after a new episode
is released. So you'll want tosign up for that by going to the
link in your show notes andclicking on email newsletter
(01:04:54):
sign up. So the two events thatare coming up are beats on the
back. End at seven Bend StatePark, and that's going to be
really soon, Sunday, Septemberthe 14th. And then this is not
confirmed yet, but most likelyI'm going to be at go fast in
Roanoke, and that is October 17through the 19th.
(01:05:19):
So mark your calendars, friends,the first episode of season six
drops one week from today. Thankyou for sticking with me
throughout this adventure. Icouldn't be more excited for
another podcast season, and Iappreciate each of you for your
support and the community we'vebuilt around our mutual love for
our beautiful outdoors righthere in Virginia. Virginia
(01:05:43):
Outdoor Adventures is inspiredby and supported by listeners
like you, which is why yourmessages and feedback means so
much to me. You can text medirectly by clicking on Send
Jessica a text message in yourshow notes, I answer questions,
respond to comments and shareyour feedback on the show. Never
miss a new episode. Sign up formy email newsletter and receive
(01:06:07):
my listener resource guide withthe top podcast episodes a
Virginia outdoor bucket list andexclusive brand discounts for my
listeners. Click on newsletter.
Sign up in your show notes orvisit virginiaoutdoor
adventures.com thanks forlistening until next time.
Adventure on you.
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