Blazing Trails with Sirena Rana

This week we are thrilled to have Sirena Rana joining us for a conversation about her work in trail design - she is quite literally blazing trails and making outdoor experiences more accessible through intentional and inclusive trail design via her company, Trails Inspire.

ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Sirena Rana shares her love for the outdoors through writing, photography, public speaking and trail design through her company, Trails Inspire. An avid hiker, backpacker, rafter and canyoneer, Sirena's favorite places are the Grand Canyon and the Sky Islands of Southern Arizona.

Inspiring and empowering others to take on their own adventures is her passion. She is especially interested in reaching people like her who didn't grow up hiking and camping. Sirena is the author of Best Day Hikes on the Arizona National Scenic Trail by Wilderness Press.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• We catch up with Sirena, who was on the original 20-night season of our Virtual Campfire podcast

• Sydney gushes about some Saguaro fruit leather Sirena sent, and Sirena educates about the use of the fruit in indigenous cultures, demonstrating one of the many reasons we love being in community with Sirena - we always learn something whenever we’re out exploring or in conversation with each other.

• Sirena tells us all about the trail system she recently completed in the Texas Canyon Nature Preserve and the finer details of trail design and trail building

• Part of her trail design includes honoring the indigenous people who have stewarded this land for thousands of years, and protecting native species of plants that are used by the local indigenous communities. Sirena shares the story of seeing the Tohono Oʼodham harvesting bear grass used for basket weaving for the first time on the trail and how the trail names are inspired by the Tohono Oʼodham and Apache

• Who is Sirena building trails for? “Suburban Sirena, who moved to Arizona 29 years ago and knew nothing about hiking.”