I'm Gail Strav and you're listening to She Explores, a podcast for and about

inquisitive women in the outdoors on the road and besides. On the first episode

we talked about Fear with Liz Song and Rachel Goldfarb, two women who are no

strangers to taking on the unknown. We learned that so often fear is essential to

growth. I left the conversations feeling invigorated and a little

less scared to take on this podcast. This episode also tackles them many elements of fear.

I interviewed Julie Hotts, a videographer and photographer

living in Los Angeles. So intrigued by a human-powered adventure that why don't

I get myself to the trailhead using a bike leaving from my front door.

You know, so often we think of adventure as having to get on a plane and go somewhere first And then everything kind of starts when you get there.

It's like, well, you can have adventures

leaving your front door in Los Angeles or Boston

or wherever you live.

By all appearances, Julie isn't afraid of much.

She's hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, and last summer she biked from Los Angeles to Glacier

National Park.

From there, she hiked the Pacific Northwest Trail through

Montana, Idaho and Washington all the way to the ocean. I talked with Julie about

the challenges of solo travel and overcoming some of her own mental and physical blocks on this particular trip.

One of the really fun parts about this episode is that Julie recorded herself along the way on the bike

portion solo and with her hiking partner Grace on the Pacific Northwest Trail.

So you'll get to relive the experiences with Julie.

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