Why now? Like dusting off the creaky wheels of a fax newsletter

The idea to reboot a snarky old blog in 2022 feels a bit like dusting off the creaky wheels of a fax newsletter, yet here I am.

The original concept for WickedOutdoorsy took hold in my brain as a business tactic, a way to help me somehow justify a non-conventional relocation of Pale Morning Media to a sleepy ski town in central Vermont. By telling tales of life in the Greens, I thought, I could somehow give a face to this new place I was calling home that had no stoplights, barely any internet, and definitely no place to get a decent taco or bagel (at the time).

But as the words started piling up and life took a few unexpected turns, WO became a different thing altogether —a forum for self-therapy about a cancer diagnosis, a fascination with the early sustainability movement, lots of head scratching about Bush-era politics, and a venue to explore ideas about the outdoor industry. And, as history obviously has a thing for repeating itself, It’s totally safe to assume that this next phase of WO will also start in one place and wander off trail fairly quickly.

If I had to pin it down to one thing and one thing only, I’d say that the impetus for digging back into this weird side channel of creative expression would have to be the novel coronavirus pandemic. Like everyone, I spent an inordinate amount of time in the last couple years thinking about, well, about everything. I went on sanity walks. I stared at the clouds. I pondered my work and career and family and choices. And in a lot of cases, I wrote it down.

While very little of that dark personal content will ever see the light of day, one bright side of it all was a clear signal that putting words to paper is still something that provides me with a bit of satisfaction. And, as every writer can tell you, the only way to really feel that feeling is to put it out there in the world and let other people read it. If writing is a muscle, then publishing — even blogging — is that moment when you leave the gym and actually put those muscles to use.

Thanks for listening. See you outside.