Caregiving prepared me to be an even better backpacker as well because nothing's more

challenging than caregiving and watching your mom and your best friend pass away.

Hi, I'm Willow Belden, the host of Out There.

I'm releasing this bonus episode to give you a sneak peek at some of the stories that are

going to be featured at our live storytelling night tomorrow.

Back in March, Out There podcast turned five years old, and we promised to throw a party.

Tomorrow's event is that party. It's taking the form of a live storytelling night, and you

are invited. The whole thing will be online, of course, and the theme for the evening is

beginners, which seems fitting since this is the first time we're doing an event like this.

So I wanted to give you a taste of what you can expect if you decide to join us.

I'll be emceeing and five storytellers from across the country will be sharing personal tales about

first times in the outdoors. For example, we'll hear from Out There's advertising manager,

Jessica Taylor, about her decision to move into an RV and live on the road full time with no one

but her chihuahua for company.

We'll also hear from a woman who went on a 70-mile backpacking trip with a man she had just met.

I let emboss me around like I was an over-eager child.

In those moments, I was transported back to so many times in my life when I'd played small,

taken on the role of the amateur to boost the ego of other men.

This trip, this feeling like a beginner, while I'm doing something that I'm good at and that I love,

it helped me realize how I downplay my strengths

in order to fulfill a role that I don't really want to play. We'll hear a story about

learning to backpack and losing a parent. After my mom passed away, backpacking was also my healing. I hiked the John Muir Trail

...