Call Me Jen

Call me Jen. I grew up in two very different worlds; one in a suburb of San Jose, Costa Rica, and the other in a small suburb of Dallas, Texas. Growing up in Costa Rica allowed me to develop a deep love of the outdoors (and coffee) at a young age and I had unforgettable experiences there. Our family had the opportunity to travel all over Central America to see rain forests, mountains, rivers, and volcanoes and much of my day-to-day life growing up there was spent outside.

I moved back to the states to Mesquite, Texas from San Jose, Costa Rica in 1999. To say I experienced culture shock feels like an extreme understatement. It would be years before I settled in and even longer before I rekindled my love for the outdoors and found ways to adventure and recreate outdoors in my new home state. 

The Big Trip

In 2016, my husband and I decided to take a week long camping/hotel hopping trip that started along the coast of Oregon and ended along the California coast. We’d never planned a trip like this one before and apart from loving the idea of traveling the west coast line along the 101, I can’t say for certain what possessed us to make this primarily a camping trip other than cost. During our first couple days of the trip in Portland, Oregon, we looked up a few places to stop along Oregon’s coast and made a loose plan for the first few days of car travel. We loaded up packs with all new gear (most that we had no clue how to use) at an REI store in the city, rode bikes back to our rental car and hit the road the next morning. It was an incredible trip, although frustrating at times due to hours spent in a car and sometimes arriving at campsites that were slightly flooded and swarming with mosquitos. But it reignited my love of spending time outdoors.

From then on I planned more and more trips to get outside. Most were just weekend long campouts to places that I could get to within a two to three hour drive but I started discovering beautiful places all over Texas to spend time outside. Around this time I also began camping with my son and seeing him find joy in spending time outside made the trips we took that much sweeter. 

Falling in Love with Opting Outside

In 2018, I went on my first backpacking trip in Arkansas. A 28 plus mile, loop trail in the Ouachita Mountains. Even though I returned home blistered, bruised, and exhausted, I couldn’t wait to go again. I was hooked. Within a week of being back from the trail, I started working with REI. Throughout my employment with REI I’ve been sent to Experiential Training Events (ETEs) to learn all about outdoor gear directly from vendors, completed several hours of training on gear and how to outfit others for their own adventures, and have gotten the opportunity several times over to encourage customers of all ages and backgrounds to get outside and rekindle their own love of the outdoors or to try something completely new to them and out of their comfort zone. This by far has to be the best thing about working for a place like REI and is the reason I started to teach in-store classes. Later in 2019 I got to take on more of a role managing the class calendar for the store and in January 2020, I was promoted into an official role planning and coordinating in-store classes, community events, and potential excursions. I was finally doing something that aligned my love for the outdoors and teaching others and I couldn’t have been happier. 

Just after our first community event in the early days of March 2020, REI (and most of the world) shut its doors for what we initially assumed would be a two-week period. A couple of months later I would finally return to work only to learn that my role was dissolved “until further notice” and I started performing in other capacities in the store trying to find something that would be as fulfilling as teaching. Meanwhile, throughout the later part of 2020 and for all of 2021 and 2022, customers were calling almost weekly to ask when classes would be back on the calendar. This is when I fully realized the value these classes offered to our community and I started offering to teach classes on behalf of REI for various groups at various locations in order to take advantage of any opportunity to continue teaching. I knew then that I would eventually want to branch out on my own to share the knowledge and experience I have and continue to encourage and empower others to adventure outside.

Dreaming and Doing

Throughout the years I’ve been employed with REI, I’ve backpacked in mountains and deserts, gone on day hikes in different Texas state parks, camped with my family, and started kayaking around Fort Worth. I made it my goal to get as much hands-on experience as time would allow and started looking into Wilderness Medicine courses to further my own knowledge and educate not only on different ways to spend time outdoors, but how to do so safely. As a solo hiker and as someone who hikes with her kids, safety is pretty important to me and wilderness medicine courses offer a lot of great knowledge for staying safe while recreating outdoors. I also knew that someday I would aim to not only teach classes but also to work as a guide on hiking, camping, and backpacking trips.

In January of 2023, after planning and waiting nearly four years, I finally completed a Wilderness Medicine course hosted in Terlingua, Texas through NOLS, a nonprofit global wilderness school. It challenged me in all of the best ways and I learned so much more than I expected to. I got the opportunity to learn from extremely passionate instructors and from others who are current outdoor guides or who work for state and national parks. It was an experience that was well worth the wait. I look forward to sharing everything I learned there and am currently planning to re-certify next January in a more advanced course (Wilderness First Responder or bust!).

Welcome to Wild Grit Adventures

Since having our daughter, I feel it’s even more important for me to make time to get out and adventure to show her that there’s a place for girls and women in the outdoor world too.

I intend for this to be a place where people from all walks of life can come for inspiration to get out on their own adventures and a place to share experiences with those who are new to spending time outside, starting again after years long hiatuses, or who are looking to learn about gear and how to use it to enjoy more time outdoors.

My genuine hope above all else is that the stories you’ll read here will inspire you to get outside any way you can. And when you’re ready to take a class, join in for a hike, or participate in a community event, sign up through the events page and I’ll see you there!

Thanks for reading.

-Jen