A huge podcast listening friend referred me to a podcast a couple months ago called Dirtbag Diaries. She sent it my way because one episode was about a guy who paddled a lot of the Missouri River. I’ve been sort of listening to the podcast off and on when I can. Each episode typically is a story about a trip, and experience or event that happened to its subject in the outdoors. I popped on the most recent episode called Solo She Rides. Its focus is on two adventurers who undertook epic adventures solo.

https://dirtbagdiaries.com/solo-she-rides/

The first 6 minutes or so is the introduction by the writer, Fitz Cahall and tells a short story about one of his early solo adventures. His masterful telling of a story from his youth highlights the challenge of undertaking an adventure solo, but also why people do it and why it is so rewarding. His explanation for the thoughts of a solo adventurer couldn’t describe my feelings about my upcoming river trip any more aptly.

One quote that really struck a chord with me. On a solo adventure, “it’s pretty hard to BS yourself, you define the parameters, you define the terms of success, and that’s a pretty rare thing in life.”

Leading up to my trip, I’ve had a lot of people ask my why I would do this alone, why not do it with others and it’s been tough to put an answer in to words. I’m of the school that someone has probably already said it better than myself, and Fitz certainly did just that in the first 6 minutes of this podcast. I highly recommend listening to the rest as well, it’s about some pretty rad women.

One more quote from this episode I thought was especially poignant: “You don’t have to be amazing at something to do it, you just gotta get out there and do it.”

mf