Episode 162 - Morgan Brosnihan, Blaze Physio
In this episode of Soul of Travel, Season 5: Women's Wisdom + Mindful Travel, presented by @journeywoman_original, Christine hosts a soulful conversation with Dr. Morgan Brosnihan.
Dr. Morgan Brosnihan is a physical therapist, thru-hiker, and van dweller dedicated to combining her passions to bring quality injury care to long-distance hikers. She has a sidekick with four legs named Honey and has helped over 1,200 hikers continue on their journeys to hike from Mexico to Canada with her unique business model.
Morgan’s hiker training series provides 20 home workouts with education about injury prevention and backpacking tips.
Getting Started with Hiking
Morgan first found the thrill of hiking when her parents booked a guided hike down the Grand Canyon to Lake Havisu Falls, where the guide and mules carried much of the family’s load. Morgan credits this hike for giving her the “bug” as she later spent much of her free time on the trails with her dog. Christine and Morgan both recommend that folks who are wondering if hiking is a good fit check out a guided or hosted trip to more comfortably experience travel in this way. Every outdoor sport, Morgan shares, can have a hefty “entry fee,” so these types of trips are a great way to see whether you enjoy the activity before investing more in gear and time.
In Colorado, organizations like Women’s Wilderness even provide backpacking courses that include gear, food, and skills training to get you started, and this organization, in particular, also offers introductory programming for younger girls and nonbinary people.
Tips for Starting Van Life
When it came time for Morgan to make a decision about her next move, having moved frequently during her studies and young adulthood, she had a realization: she could take her home on the road with her. With her dad’s construction help, she dedicated her time and energy to a van conversion that would become both her new home and the hub for her new business.
Christine and Morgan discuss the juxtaposition between the life of a nomad who may want to take a break or be disconnected from home and routine, but this type of lifestyle adds even more predictability and a sense of home that moves with Morgan. She shares that the more time you spend in van life, the more the van and the road feel like home.
Similar to traveling light, committing to van life means carefully and consciously selecting each item of comfort, clothing, and tools and ensuring they have a purpose–even if that purpose is simple beauty. Morgan finds this approach more liberating than having a house full of “stuff.” This idea of minimalism and thoughtfulness also permeated Morgan’s thru-hikes; each item in her backpack required careful selection to get there.
Whenever considering any type of solo travel activity, Morgan shares, there are certainly a number of safety issues to consider. She shares that finding the resources to address safety is helpful but should be approached with a healthy dose of caution; going down the rabbit hole of what might happen can make van life scarier than it actually is. She shares that she parks at rest stops to sleep, for example, without getting out with her dog, Honey, or making her presence known. She says that approaches like this and being situationally aware are more than enough to keep you safe.
Morgan’s suggestions for people starting van life begin on the internet and blogs but recommends that readers take everything with a grain of salt and trust their instincts. If something seems overdramatized, for example, Morgan shares that it probably is. Prepping the van and gear with a trusted source of information (Morgan likes FarOut Ride) can make the difference between making the most of your investment and having your van life journey end prematurely.
She also suggests new van lifers take the process slowly in layers, and if you find joy in the process, keep going.
Hiking and Breaking Up on the PCT
When Morgan started her thru-hike of the PCT as a pair of couples, the two men were close friends, while Morgan ended up hiking with the other man’s female partner. In her case, “things that had been easier to smooth over needed to be confronted,” and both relationships ended up dissolving–on the trail. For Morgan, she and her partner realized their relationship had run its course, and her partner returned home. But after 800 miles, she wasn’t done with the trail. When the other couple ended up splitting as well, Morgan and her new friend wondered what it would be like to complete the trail. She even found herself becoming closer friends with the person who had been a stranger during the first miles of the trail and counts this experience as a powerful way to go through this period of her life and to process all her feelings.
Like entering into van life, Morgan suggests that folks take smaller steps to get to know the thru-hiking world if it is calling to them. For example, living near any one of the longer trails opens opportunities for Trail Magic, where “Trail Angels” set up food and drinks or even a cooler for hikers who are more than ready and incredibly grateful for a refreshing treat.
Morgan shares that the thru-hiking community is full of special relationships, camaraderie, and opportunities to connect with yourself and others.
Building a business—and a life—aligned with joy
After helping hikers with physical therapy on the PCT, Morgan was inspired to reframe her life around a mobile physical therapy business. She began to build out her van and slowly pulled away one safety net at a time, eventually achieving the moment when she had completely committed to her business.
Morgan’s company, Blaze Physio, is the creative combination of all the things she loves in a way that serves people with injuries in the thru-hiking community with physical therapy with virtual services, pre-trip support, on-the-trail physical therapy, and post-hike recovery.
“I think that sweet spot of feeling anxious and excited but feeling confident is a really nice place to be on an adventure. But feeling completely over your head and overwhelmed might make you not like the same activity that, if you had taken more baby steps to get into, might be something you’re really passionate about.”
Soul of Travel Episode 162 At a Glance
In this conversation, Christine and Morgan discuss:
From helping hikers on the PCT to a mobile rehab business
Van life and its challenges and benefits
Long-distance hiking
Creating a business aligned to the life we want to lead
Join Christine now for this soulful conversation with Dr. Morgan Brosnihan.
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Related UN Sustainable Development Goals
Sustainable Development Goal #3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
Resources & Links Mentioned in the Episode
Visit Blaze Physio to learn more about Morgan’s mobile physical therapy.
Purchase Morgan’s proven Pre-Hike Training System or PCT E-Book!
Connect with Morgan on your favorite social media network! Instagram / Facebook.
For injury prevention tips, head to this Outside Online article featuring Morgan and her on-trail PT.
About the Soul Of Travel Podcast
Soul of Travel honors the passion and dedication of people making a positive impact in the tourism industry. In each episode, you’ll hear the stories of women who are industry professionals, seasoned travelers, and community leaders. Our expert guests represent social impact organizations, adventure-based community organizations, travel photography and videography, and entrepreneurs who know that travel is an opportunity for personal awareness and a vehicle for global change.
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Credits. Christine Winebrenner Irick (Host, creator, editor). Morgan Brosnihan (Guest). Original music by Clark Adams. Editing, production, and content writing by Carly Oduardo.
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Soul of Travel Episode 162 Transcript
Women’s travel, transformational travel, sustainable travel, women leaders in travel, social entrepreneurship
Christine: Welcome to the Soul of Travel podcast. I'm Christine Winebrenner Irick, the founder of Lotus Sojourns, a book lover, Yogi mom of three girls and your guide On this journey. We are here to discover why women who are seasoned travelers, industry professionals, and global community leaders fall in love with the people and places of this planet. Join me to explore how travel has inspired our guests to change the world. We seek to understand the driving force, unending curiosity and wanderlust that can best be described as the soul of Travel. Soul of Travel Podcast is a proud member of the Journey, woman Family, where we work to create powerful forums for women to share their wisdom and inspire meaningful change in travel. In each soulful conversation, you'll hear compelling travel stories alongside tales of what it takes to bring our creative vision to life as we're living life with purpose, chasing dreams and building businesses to make the world a better place. But the real treasure here is the story of the journey as we reflect on who we were, who we are, and who we're becoming. We are travelers, thought leaders and heart-centered change makers, and this is the Soul of Travel.
In May of 2023, I came across an article in Outside magazine titled Injury Prevention 10 Tips for Through Hikers From a Physical Therapist living on the PCTI was so curious about how a PT might find herself living alone on the PCT and supporting hikers. And after reading today's guest story, I knew I had to reach out and invite her to join the podcast to learn more. I am so glad I did because I have loved our connection and enjoyed this conversation. Here's some backstory. In 2018, Dr. Morgan Brosnihan moved into her cargo van and completed her first long distance hike on Vermont's long trail. Then in 2019, she completed the 2,650 mile Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. After seeing countless hikers dealing with similar injuries and some resulting in expensive towns stays quitting the trail or losing their trail family, Morgan was determined to make a difference in injury rates of through hikers.
On trail, Morgan was able to help some hikers that happened to cross paths at the right time. After treating a hiker in her first 500 miles, she later ran into her at 1500 miles and learned her guidance was enough for her to keep going. Since the PCT Morgan has remodeled her bold red van to not only be a home, but also a mobile rehab offering accessibility to those in outdoor spaces, rural areas, or confined to home, Morgan brings quality care in a multitude of ways. In our conversation, we talk about three of the things that Morgan loves most van life, hiking and creating a business aligned with a life you want to lead. I loved hearing how much overlap there is in each of these spaces, including starting before you think you are ready and learning along the way. We ended this conversation with so much more to share, but I know you'll love everything we do discuss. Join me now for my soulful conversation with Dr. Morgan Brosnihan.
Welcome to Soul of Travel podcast. I'm really excited for today's episode. We have Dr. Morgan Brosnihan joining us and she is a physical therapist and also the owner of Blaze Physio, and we connected, I saw her on social media. I think I actually read an article in Outdoor magazine or some outdoor travel magazine and was reading about your story and thought, oh my goodness, this is such an interesting story. I've never heard anything like it did a little research and I was like, oh, I love everything that you're sharing. I am so interested and curious about your journey and reached out to you, and I'm so happy that you said that you would come here today and share your work with us. So welcome to the podcast, Morgan.
Morgan: Thank you. Yeah, I'm excited to be on a platform for women and all of this travel. This is lovely.
Christine: Yeah, thank you. I know you mentioned before that kind of being in the adventure space and the outdoor space, you often end up on podcasts that are hosted by men, and so it's not a common occurrence for you to get to chat with another woman, and it has a different dynamic, so I'm really happy to be that space for you as well.
Morgan: Yeah, I'm very stoked about that.
Christine: Well, we have a few things that we're going to work through today. We're going to talk a little bit about Van Life. We're going to talk a little bit about hiking and also talk about business. And as we were preparing for this conversation, we realized that there's kind of a real common thread between all those things, which is a little bit about balancing risk and reward, and also something I call perfection paralysis in my own life where I kind of see the perfect ending and that stops me from starting because I don't know how to get there. But really what we need to do is learn along the way, and I know these are things that you've done in all three of these aspects that we're going to talk about. So I'm really excited to kind of dive in. But before we get started, I'd love to turn it over to you, Morgan, and just let you introduce yourself to our listeners, tell us a little bit more about Blaze Physio, and then we'll take off from there.
Morgan: Awesome. Yeah, I graduated PT school in 2017. I went to almost all of my schooling in Pennsylvania, and I'm originally from Maryland. And pretty quickly after graduating I saw the writing on the wall of, okay, I'm going to have to work a lot. I've got student loans. I've got to figure out a work-life balance that makes me continue to love PT and still get to adventure. I think something that PTs really deeply understand is not waiting until you're 70 to live your life because we're treating a lot of people who are older and we see just what aging can do to the body. And so it's like how to have all of that experience as you go instead of putting it off. And so Van life became very prevalent and then just through a series of saying yes to things and just sort of opportunities evolved to the point of now practicing PT out of a van, treating hikers,
Christine: Which I can't wait to talk more about that process a little bit more in depth as we get into your story. But I would love to hear with you how you got into hiking and a little bit about some of your early outdoors and hiking experience. When is this, I guess, something that caught your attention, something you knew that you'd love to do and then would eventually turn into a career, but how did you first fall in love with the outdoors and through hiking and the adventure space?
Morgan: I think the first thing that really got me into hiking, I mean, I grew up very indoor sport oriented because I'm from a rural area. I mean there's hiking, but it's green tunnelly hiking, so it's not the kind of stuff that deeply inspires you to want to be an avid hiker. It's just sort of go, you're outside and that's lovely and fresh air. But I played sports and I had a lot of ways to move my body to value that kind of exertion. And then my parents actually booked a guided trip in the Grand Canyon. We went down to Hava Falls, and I think I was 21 when we did that. And it was just super impactful to me because it was like, oh my God, there's this beautiful space that we could only access in our case by walking, I mean you can't take mules down and stuff like that, but we accessed this by foot.
I loved how challenging it felt and just learning the different layers of being self-sufficient. So that being a guided trip, we didn't, we didn't have everything we needed on our backs. The guide service used a mule, the guide himself carried more than we did and things like that, but it was a really great intro into that world. And so I really think guided trips are an excellent way to get into this kind of stuff to see if you like it just set you up for success. And then after that, I even went home and was like, maybe I'll be a guide. I'm pretty easy to catch a bug of guides. And so I thought about that and then ended up going to PT school route and while in school got my first dog and a way of just getting away from the books and blowing off steam and spending time with my dog, which is to do more hiking. And so then it just started to really evolve from there.
Christine: And I love what you said too about the guided hiking being an easy way to get into this sport. We'll talk a little bit more about it later about some of the intimidation that people might have around the unknown or just how to even start hiking. But I think even in any kind of travel, if you're looking at traveling in a way that you haven't before, a guided or hosted trip is such a good way to more comfortably experience, have someone showing you the way without having to forge your own path right away, which again might set you on that path to the perfection paralysis or not starting something that you want to do because you're just not sure of the right steps. So I think it's a good way to go.
Morgan: Definitely. And I think a big barrier to outdoor activities in general, and it's something I talk about a lot to other people just in this world, is the expense of things and not knowing if it's even worth the expense. I always say that every outdoor sport can cost $2,000 of an entry fee of all the gear you need. And so a guided trip, unless you're doing a really crazy guided trip with hard to get permits and stuff like that, but most more casual guided trips are not going to be $2,000. And so it's a great way to have the gear applied and just see if you even like it before investing and then know what you would even want to be getting if before investing. So I think it's really nice way to lower that barrier.
Christine: Yeah, I know there's a few women's hiking organizations in Colorado where you can book a weekend hike with them or a short through hike and they provide everything, the tents, I mean everything, backpacks, sleeping bags, pads, and like you said, one, then you're not trying to figure out what you need and buy it. And then, I mean, I'm sure we could both say that you always buy the wrong thing first because you think it's right, and then you try to use it and you're like, oh, that was such a disastrous idea. So it even ends up costing more. So I love those types of programs to test it out as you go along.
Morgan: Definitely. And there's a lot of, you could go down gear recommendations on YouTube for hours, and then that definitely does not make you feel like you're any closer to a decision. Yeah.
Christine: Yes. Decision fatigue is also real. I feel like we're going to have a lot of jargon that's going to come out. We'll have a dictionary at the end of the podcast for people to pull from. But when you mentioned Van Life, that was something that caught your eye. Can you take us back to what really inspired you to set off in this kind of solo band life journey?
Morgan: Yeah, so it was something so simple. I think I just saw an REI ad where this person lived in a van with dogs and was in all of these beautiful places and I was just like, that's it. That's the move. I'm 31 now. I was 20, how old was I when I graduated grad school, like 25. And the housing market has just never looked good and period since I've been in the world. And so I'm looking at that, looking at student loans, looking at wanting to be able to go on adventures and do things. And a big part of it at that point was like, how can I go on adventures still work and tap my dog? And so seeing somebody doing that was just like, oh, what about that? What if I stop putting expenses out to such an extent of $2,000 rent and more so have ownership on something and have flexibility to just move?
Because at that point too, I had moved so many times between different housing, during grad school, housing during college, I was gearing up to move again to decide if I wanted to stay in Pittsburgh or if I wanted to move out west, which is where I was leaning. And so I was just like, oh man, I could stop moving and just all my stuff is loaded, my house comes with me, and then I just show up and just feel at home everywhere I go. And so it was just a very quick, yes, that's it. And then I'm fortunate to have the resources of having a dad that has a construction business. So for me, I just had to find Van and then we figured the rest out and I had help with building, but I mean I have friends in band Life that have my one friend Sarah, she did her whole band conversion by herself, self-taught on borrowed some tools, and it's definitely something that can be done. Thankfully, it wasn't something I had to do that way because it's not something that totally tickles my interest to build the band. I like being involved in it, but I didn't actually want to build it. And so it was nice to be able to have that option and then go from there.
Christine: Yeah, I just was thinking the thing that you said about your home being with you, I think a lot of times people might have this notion that people that are living a van life or nomadic lifestyle or people that really love to be disconnected and kind of constantly getting out of the routine, but I love that you just mentioned you bring your routine and your home and your comfort with you everywhere you go. I feel like those two things are pretty contrasting in terms of maybe what I would've expected as an answer, what I love so much that that is what you mentioned. I know even when I start traveling a lot for work, I really start to crave that consistency and the creature comforts of home. And it's definitely not as easy for me to replicate that if I'm headed to Peru or somewhere far away. But I really love that idea of that you aren't attached to a location, but you are still attached to that sense of home.
Morgan: Yeah, definitely. And there are ways, the longer you do van life and things like that, the more ways you establish that home-based feeling of like, oh, I can't wait to get back to the van. And then you just sort of sit down with that same relief that you feel when you get back from a trip. But it's all relative to your perspective on what you've established means home for you. And for me, it's like some creature comforts, like I'm sheltered. I have heater now, which is the ouest edition I've put in the van, so I'm warm, which is amazing. I've got my dog. I'm out of public perception. Just not being perceived is nice. Sometimes just tuck yourself away so you can be turned off and then having familiarity things. So I have some pottery that I've made that I decided was worth the weight and epoxy to down so it can never fall down. And some little drawings from my nephews and the convenience of wardrobe and shoe changes everywhere you go also cannot be overstated. So if you go on an adventure and you're like, ah, man, I just wish I had this thing you do, you have it. You have everything. So you're so overly prepared for everything all the time.
Christine: Yeah, I love that too. I think a lot of people would think you have paired down and are really living in a minimalistic way that maybe you don't have everything, but everything is selected with such intention that you do really have what you need and you find you don't have all the things you don't need. And then like you said, everything is at your fingertips, so you haven't gotten to base camp and you're like, oh, this thing would've been great.
Morgan: And you also generally know where everything is too because everything has to have a home. And it brings me comfort to be able to think about my stuff and run through it almost mentally in my head of everything I own versus when I've had periods with houses and things like that. I feel like my impact and everything is just so sprawled and everywhere and I'm like, oh God, it brings me stress to just have stuff laying that I don't know where it is. I don't know what I have. It just feels cluttery. And so the nature of the van makes you very aware if you're not using it and you're kicking it around, then you're like, okay, this needs to go. And you keep it very essential in that sense.
Christine: Yeah, I love it. I feel like for me the more, as my family has grown and stuff, our house has grown and our stuff has grown. And I'm at a point right now in my life where I want rid of so many things. I really desperately desire a smaller house and less possessions, and my kids want nothing to do with that at this point in their journey. But I know that at some point for me that that would feel more aligned with just how I want my energy be. And like you mentioned too, when you're tracking things and keeping things clean and organized and everything, I think people don't often realize how much that is absorbing your focus and your attention. And so the more that you simplify it really does help you to feel better.
Morgan: And I think that's one of the best things about backpacking too, is you learn on a through hike everything I needed and had was on my back. And we would have times in town where something random would happen, we'd end up dancing at a concert or something. Or you do have moments of normal activity during a through hike because stopping in real places or going to restaurants and stuff like that. But the mental load of, I don't even have to consider what I look like or what I'm going to wear because I literally have one outfit and so it's going to have to be good enough and I'm going to go because not going to skip this activity. And that's such a beautiful mental shift to happen. And then I think carrie's over post through hike. And then fan life just is a nice easy bridge because it's still very minimalist, so you're still kind of like, I'm not going to avoid this activity because it's that concept of not doing something until it's perfect. I'm not going to avoid this social activity or this outing because I feel like they don't have the right outfit because in hindsight it's so silly.
Christine: Yeah. And I think we've all been there, but when you say it like that, it does feel like why would I have made that choice? That's crazy. Of course, also, no one was paying attention to what I was wearing besides me, and that's probably a whole nother rabbit hole we could go down, but I think it's such a powerful awareness. And I noticed that too when I travel and I just traveled for four months with a carry-on my daughters. That's all we had. And it was so freeing. Like you said, I had three tank tops and I'd be like, which tank top do I want to wear today? Which it was a luxury that I had three. And then I would find still at the end of that I could have had two because that was a choice I was still making. And I would find I wouldn't want to wash something right away, so I'd wear it over and over anyway, so you could find yourself learning how you could pare down more. I would love to talk to you a little bit more about some of the other maybe misconceptions about Van Life, maybe concerning safety or who it's for or what the experie is really like. Can you talk to some of those ideas?
Morgan: Yeah, for sure. And this I think speaks true to just women's existence in this world. If a woman wants to go on a run, we've got pepper spray and a guarded ring and things like that, and then our phones and tell someone where we're at, and then men can generally just leave the house. And so there's always that type of thinking whenever considering any kind of activity. And so Van life is not an exception to that in terms of how women view van life. And there's certainly a lot of safety things you can get into and a lot of good informational posts of like, oh, here's ways to basically give you an armored vehicle.
And that can in turn those resources and that mindset are great, but can also make it seem scarier than it. It's so it can make you think that you desperately need all of these things or you can't start. And I think that is the biggest misconception because general situational awareness is good for anybody, but as far as band life goes, it is much safer than, and especially if you are in the outdoor spaces, I've just never had any real issues and I've been doing this now since 2018 and I park at rest stops when I'm crossing the country and the little extra things I do or just like I'll park there and I just won't get out. And that just sort of makes me feel better rather than being just out with honey and just making it very apparent that I'm there all night. I just pull in and I sleep. I've never had someone try to break into my van and I feel safe to continue to do that. And then in these small towns especially or these outdoor towns, there's a lot of people in vans and just people just don't generally bother you. And so it's just a matter of if you're going places you're allowed to be and being just even lightly situationally aware, it is not hyper dangerous. The internet would lead you to believe.
Christine: Yeah. Yeah, I think that's really valuable and I think that crosses over, like you said, this is kind of a hat we all put on as women when we leave, no matter what we're doing, whether you're going to the office, whether you're going to an outdoor activity, whether you're traveling solo in any other form, it's something that we find that we pick up this idea and carry it with us. And I do think that it is a world we live in that that is something that we need to think about, but not letting it be the thing that gets in your way from letting you have this experience. So I really love that you shared what that's been like for you. You did talk about resources. For someone who's really curious about this lifestyle, how would you suggest that they would get started and look for more information instead of letting that be a barrier?
Morgan: I would say there's a lot of good information in blogs, but you also have to take some internet things with a grain of salt because things are kind of glamorized on the internet or overdramatized. So if it feels hyperbolic when you're watching it, then it probably is, it's probably not the greatest resource to explore because I mean, from my experience in Van Life, the most dramatic things that happen are just physical discomfort from being too hot or too cold or it raining and you're kind of stuck in your van. So that's mostly as dramatic as it gets for the majority of Van Life people, some people have great luck and some people have terrible luck, and those extremes will make it muddy the internet waters. But I think in terms of getting started, just finding someone whose story kind of aligns with your, who's willing to put information out in terms of just band life gear and the technicalities of it, the ball guy use a lot is called Far Out Ride.
They've been doing it for a while and they just break down a lot of the DIY things about the technical aspect of Van Life, not so much the lifestyle, but I think if it's something you're considering important steps to take are not waiting until you've dumped hundreds or tens of thousands of dollars into a van setup to actually go be in the some. So if you have an empty van, something that I did in the beginning was I had my empty vans at this point. I was out $9,000 because I had just bought a van with nothing in it, and I put a futon, one of those beanie bag futons that lays out into a fluffy mattress thing. I put one of those in the back and then I went to New Hampshire and went hiking in the whites. And so it had no amenities, I spent no more money on it, I slept in it.
I thought about what it felt like to find a place to park, to sleep in a vehicle to explore that kind of space, that dynamic. And I was like, yes, I'm in. So that took me to the next phase where I made a bed platform and cabinets and then lived in it for a month like that. And then after that decided, okay, it's worth investing in a nice fridge and a nice stove. And so I think doing it in layers is a really great way to make sure that you prioritize the right things and that if at any point, if you're stoked on that level of van life, at any point you're going to be really stoked with the final product for sure. But if you're not stoked with the buildup phase, you could end up out quite a bit of money, get into it and then be like, I hate this, and now you're trying to hopefully rekindle your expenses and sell a built top band.
Christine: Yeah, I think that's such a good idea. And I think people would think, oh yeah, I need, again, we really get caught up in this end point version, but like you said, just if you would go camping anyway, sleep in the van, then you'll know, okay, this is a sense of this. And maybe someone's discomfort they might find is driving a van like, oh, I didn't realize I didn't even like that. And so even a place of starting might just be finding someone else that has a built out van and seeing if you can experience that with them or just get to know who you are in that space. I think, and we're going to talk a little bit about this with hiking too, is these are areas that get romanticized. We have this idea in our brain of who we're going to be in this experience and we can't wait for this freedom or this challenge or whatever this notion is that we are connecting and resonating with, and then we forget about the actual experience of living that and what it's like. And so I think it's such a good idea to just maybe set that romanticized version aside and see what the real life feels like and then go from there and then you can hook back up to your romanticized version if that's something that you're really attracted to
Morgan: For sure. And if things are going well and you're into it, it's just going to give you more excitement and just energy towards making it everything that you want it to be. But I mean, a lot of Van life is sitting with discomfort. So I think when people have the hardest mental time with Van Life is when they go into it kind of looking for something that they might need to get more out of therapy than Van Life, looking for a change in a reset. And then what it does at first is kind of strip you of a lot of security, so it strips you of knowing where you're going to be parking every night, which can be a little bit of a stress, some physical comforts, like we said about just climbing control and just space to meander and stuff, so you have less stuff.
So if you're sitting with the thought of getting rid of all those things and it starts to make you really uncomfortable, then you might need to do a little bit of mental work before going. It doesn't mean that that's something that won't be appropriate for you at some point, but I think, and through hiking, it's very much the same. Sometimes using these adventures in lieu of things like therapy and working through some of those discomforts, it just sits you into really deep discomfort and then you're overcome with a lot of stuff. So sometimes they need to happen simultaneously and sometimes just one before the other before, and sometimes it's not a factor period, but I've found that whenever it overtakes people and just puts them in a worse place, because that was probably the part that was missing.
Christine: Oh, yeah. Oh, that's such a good, I think a word of wisdom again in so many contexts because a lot of times I think travel and like you said, outdoor spaces and some of these lifestyle experiences, they are the allure at first is the disconnect. And the disconnect is maybe coming from, like you said, some other part of your life that you are trying to leave behind. But what really needs to happen is you need to confront it. And I do think that does happen sometimes through travel and through this proximity to yourself when you're the only person that you're with, you're going to figure some things out pretty quickly, but at the same time, being aware of the choices that you're making and knowing that you're not going to actually outrun it, you are going to have to deal with it. It's not going to disappear just because you've created this new environment,
Morgan: Right? Yeah. So I think if you feel like when you are put in the position to have to face those things, if you don't feel like you have the tools to then process and face them, that's whenever you might need to get those tools first because it will happen. Even if you don't think you have stuff sit around in a metal box for a while or you walk in the woods for a while, you have stuff. Yeah.
Christine: Hey, it's Christine interrupting this conversation for just a moment to tell you about an incredible resource for women and non-binary entrepreneurs starting their travel businesses or wanting to create a more solid and sustainable foundation for their business. I am delighted to introduce you to one of the Soul of Travel allies women's work. Women's work helps women and non-binary folks build thriving tourism businesses through education, mentorship, and community. I'd love to take you back to my first connection with women's work. Back in December of 2021, I had a meeting with the founder, Iris ccu. She was in the early stages of launching the accelerator program, but I was actually meeting her to hear about a property in Nicaragua she was representing at the time. She hopped on Zoom, fresh off the beach with still damp hair, and if I recall correctly, she was still wearing a swimsuit and coverup from her easygoing full of life energy and passion for creating community and building connections between impact driven companies.
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If your business would like to support us in amplifying the voices of women and supporting more women in achieving leadership roles in the industry, reach out to me@connectlotussojourns.com. Thank you again to Iris and women's work for being an ally of the podcast. I deeply appreciate your partnership and support of my work. Thank you for taking the time to hear a bit about women's work. Now let's head back to our soulful conversation. Well, let's talk about walking in the woods for a while. I know that you have hiked the PCT, you really fell in love with through hiking. Speaking of hikes that brought up stuff. I know you started the PCT as a trip with two couples and it didn't end that way, but if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit of that journey, one of those early hikes, and we can talk a little bit more about the hiking in general and the community of through hiking.
Morgan: Yeah, so we had talked about this a little bit in the pre-interview because it's not, I mean, I've had a lot of hiking podcasts, but again, women's platform, I felt like this story is a little more impactful. But yeah, we started our hike as two couples and the relationship dynamic was that the two boys were friends. And so Kelly, the girl I ended up hiking the whole trail with, and I didn't really know each other at the start, we had met once at St. Patty State party for an hour, so not much of a relationship there. And so we started and didn't have plans to necessarily stick tightly together, but the way the mileage broke down, we ended up doing the whole desert together and had that group of four and started to look like, okay, that's going to be probably the whole trip. And then this is maybe advice for anybody in a relationship going into a hike.
This is, or it's actually same line of thinking as the van life thing when there are things deeper and then you put them in these challenging circumstances where you strip away a lot of stuff, you have to confront it. And so in our case, that was kind of what happened, things that had been easier to smooth over, just needed to be confronted. And so it ended up with just sort of dissolving both of those relationships. And the comedic factor of this is just that the timing of it just happened all in the same week. So my relationship, we decided it had its course, and so he went home and a week later or the other couple reached the same decision. And after my breakup, I was very adamant I'm not leaving. I think initially it was a little assumed that me as the female in this situation and being my first through hike, but not his, that, okay, well clearly I'm going to leave and let him keep this thing, this is what he does.
And it's like, no, I mean I've already hiked 800 miles. I'm not leaving. And so I was like, I'm going to stay. And ultimately what was better for him was to leave. Anyway, so he left. I decided to stay and I thought, well, I'll hike with these other two, or maybe I'll go by myself, we'll see what the dynamic's like from here. And then they ended up splitting, and then she and I kind of looked at each other, we going to do this, let's just, what if we just hike the whole thing? What if you and I just keep going? I mean, at that point we had gotten closer over the last 800 miles because obviously these weren't breakups that happened overnight. They were like we were having some troubles. And so her and I were getting closer as we were processing and going through these tough times.
And so that's what happened. So we were like, okay, I are friends enough that this will be fine. If not, I guess we'll figure it out. And it turned out to be a absolutely lovely way to process and bond with another human. So we're both going through something very similar and walking all day with no outside influence and time and space to process those relationships and the fears and anxieties of now continuing on this hike that didn't look how we thought it would look was very profound for both of us. And also I think we processed those breakups that kind of warp speed because of that, if we had the societal set up to be able to sit with our emotions that long and that deeply in anything that goes wrong, we would all probably have less grief and stress and triggers. And so it was like we just got really fortunate to have that space together.
And so it didn't take all that long before we were having a great time and so thankful the way our hike turned out. And it changed a lot of our logistics and how we went about the hike and it opened us up to new friends and experience, and we really felt the empowerment of just being two girls doing it. And it took away that, oh, as if these are our protectors in some way, or Oh, good thing you've got the boys or you couldn't do a hike like this. And it was sort of like, ah, that's not the case. Women do this hike alone, women do this, hike with friends, women through hike and overwhelming numbers.
Christine: Yeah, I love that. It's so interesting because even like we were saying before, so many people, the breakup would happen and then the travel would be the answer, but you actually had the whole course of everything happened in one experience, unplanned, but then you kind of got to see how it can be a container for healing. And like you said, when you are so focused on processing anything, it's going to happen. You have nothing else to do. And I do think that's some of the allure of why people do look to these experiences for healing. But I think, like you said, being conscious of the choice that you're making and realizing that that's the process you're looking for, I do think it also sneaks up on some people maybe they don't know they have. And again, I think this is that romanticized pull or that draw that these huge experiences have to people, they don't maybe know what the pull is, but when they get out there, they're like, oh, I see what this is about.
And I think so many of my guests have been fans of Cheryl Stray, and I don't know where she lands in the through hiking community, but I do know that she's inspired so many women to tackle things in their lives that they wouldn't have without having seen. Her journey was a permission for them to do these adventures and to be the woman on the trail by themselves to say, Hey, I have seen it done before. I think in anything, this is why this podcast I think is so important. When we see someone else like ourself doing an experience, it gives us some permission to do the same thing. If we're looking out at that trail and it's all men who've gone before us, we're less likely to say yes. But when we start seeing women doing these same things in business and hiking in any arena, then we feel like we can also, we don't have to blaze that trail by ourselves that it's kind of already been opened up for us. So I think I love that you kind of also had both of those experiences in your own PCT with starting with having men as a part of the journey and then realizing as it ended that you could be two women that completed this as well.
Morgan: Yeah, I think that is just the concept of representation matters, and when you do hard things, it just teaches. You can do other hard things, but sometimes somebody else doing a hard thing that you relate to is the first step to you doing the first hard thing.
Christine: Yeah, I know we kind of laughed that I always find setting out on adventure that seems just ridiculous. I always go back to the image of Cheryl putting on the giant backpack and being like, I know I'm at least one step ahead of that, so I'm sure I can do this. I use it as this weird measuring stick for my own barometer of success.
Morgan: And Cheryl Strait is very well-received in the through hiker community. There was a little SPO where I think it was cool to be, so many people started through hiking because of Sheryl Stray, but then it was cool if you weren't like, oh, I've never even seen Wild. And then it didn't take very long before everyone was like, knock it off in the year of the Barbie movie. We're not doing that.
Christine: Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm glad to hear that because I mean, I do think that it really did shift the way, well, one, it really put a spotlight on what through hiking was. I do think it was something that was lesser known, and it brought a lot of visibility through hiking. And I know that another thing that we talked about in our pre-conversation was really trying to measure the risk and the reward for one of these experiences because one, you're taking time away from your daily life, your nine to five life or whatever you want to call it, because it takes a long time to complete one of these trails, even if you do it in sections, which some people do section hiking of the larger trails. And then if you're looking at being a woman on the trail, if you're looking at all the different risks that go into it, if you are well-versed in through hiking or not, if you are assessing all those things and then you're trying to balance that with what you take away and what you learn about yourself, how do you encourage people to navigate that question? And I think we'll pull this into business as well. I think it's similar. How do we step away from that comfort zone and dive into this other experience and what do you think people take away from it that really shows the value of the risk versus the reward?
Morgan: Yeah, I think in a lot of ways, and this is kind of applicable to the outdoor space, is weighing that risk tolerance and some of that risk tolerance comes with skill. So mitigating risk is largely done by what you are qualified to do. So if you're coming in at a very beginner level, then you need to look more at bites. So you build skills and confidence and then your risk mitigation goes is much better. And then you also just feel like you can take on bigger things without going over your threshold. I think that sweet spot of feeling anxious and excited, but feeling confident is a really nice place to be on an adventure. But feeling completely over your head and overwhelmed might make you not like the same activity that if you had taken more baby steps to get into might be something you're really passionate about.
And as far as through hiking specifically goes, there are so many ways to get involved in that community without biting off the whole through hike. And sometimes that's a good way to see almost kind of the same thing with the van. So you kind of take little steps and then if you're stoked on those steps as you go, then you're more energized and more willing to put the effort into the next phases. And so something that if you live anywhere near one of the long trails, like the Triple Crown trails, which is just the PCT, the Continental Divide Trail and the Appalachian Trail, something like Trail Magic is a really fun way to get involved. And there's a lot of people from the community that we would call Trail Angels. They get out and they do things like they'll set up a random table with food and drinks and snacks at a trail head or somewhere where they can get access to the trail.
And then hikers are so stoked about that and that immediately welcomes you into their community. So whoever comes through that day, you get to have that sort of unbridled companionship, which is what a lot of people gain from through hiking and really love about through hiking. It's just that sort of like when you're stripped down from all that other stuff and you have one common goal with people, you just get to know them really fast and the relationships are really special. And so being a part of their experience by doing things like Trail magic gets you in a way that is more accessible for some people, so much lower risk. And then giving rides to people who are clearly through hiking, it's hitchhikers. That's a way to get to know people in the community and have them in your car for a little bit. And then if you're not close to a trail town in that way, just being out on trails, you can still get some similar camaraderie or joining groups.
So especially women's hiking groups and things like that that would just help you get some community, get some skills built and just sort of take those small bites before going for the big thing. But I think if you get past that layer of stuff, then doing get out for a week, figure out the time maybe that the bubble is passing through, and if you're going to take out a section on one of the big trails, do it whenever most of the three hikers are coming through, and I can't guarantee that they wouldn't just blow past you depending on the point in the season, which might end up at a camp with some of 'em or just feel inspired by how fast they're moving and being on the trail that they're hiking. Those kind of things can go a long way in terms of building enough inspiration that the relative risk seems lower and lower. So I think it's in general about just the small bites.
Christine: Well, I love that you mentioned the community because I think maybe people have the initial draw to through hiking because of something that's happening in their life or this challenge that they want to achieve this goal they've set. But maybe, I know you mentioned, and I've heard other people mention, that this community is something that brings you back over and over again. And I know that's also part of what led you to create your current business. So that's what I would love to talk about is the catalyst for that. And I know for so many of the women that I've interviewed, they've kind of had to navigate this transition of leaving a stable income or a corporate path or nine to five the way we thought that we should be living our lives to really creating something more aligned with who they are and to be able to serve a community and to serve a greater need. What did it really take for you to take this idea and trust that instinct or that need that you felt in yourself and then be able to bring this to life to serve a community that you really grew to love?
Morgan: Yeah, I think first was the unfun stuff of like, okay, I need to get my affairs in order. I need to save up a little bit of money to give myself a bit of a room to fall without it being devastating. And then cross your t's, dot your i's in terms of legally setting up a business. So doing that kind of stuff while still working full-time is what that looked like for me. And then just sort of finding people that gave me the space to be inspired and allowed me to talk about it and either match the energy of that or stoke the flames. So sometimes if you have friends or family that you can almost feel like you're in a think tank with or you're throwing out stuff and then they're like, oh, what about this? Oh my God, good idea. Those kind of people are so valuable in your life if you can find those.
And then, so for me, in the beginning I was working three jobs to work a little over full time, and that was in part because it was during Covid and so what else was I going to do? So I had a little extra time to spare and trying to really save up money every morning I would walk. My mom thankfully is my think tank person. She also, she owns a dance school, and so she's got a very creative mind and creative business. And so I would call her in the morning walking honey, and I had this idea, what if I did it this way and just talk her ear off? And she would always give me that space. And then I would go to work, which would serve as its own form of motivation of this is great, but I don't want to do this the rest of my life.
So more motivation for the next morning to then be back in the think tank of like, okay, what can I do? And so I think at a certain point you kind of have to give yourself some concrete goals of, once I've saved X amount of money, then this. So that way you don't forever have the someday complex. And so it's, for me, I hit that savings goal and I had also set a time limit of when Covid lightens up, I'm going to go out to the next available hiking season and I'm going to just start. And so that ended up being 2022. So I saw that coming and started getting everything wrapped up and was like, okay, it's almost time to cut the safety nets. And then in this particular incident, it was just a matter of I, all the ideas had a general concept of what I wanted, and then I just needed to start because I realized I was at a point where I didn't know what I didn't know, and there was no framework to follow.
So I was like, at this point, I just need to go out and try and see what happens. And so I slapped a magnet on my van and showed up at the Southern Terminus Campground and just started meeting people and just started telling people what I was doing. And then after a few people took the option to use me to help them and then started telling other people that I helped them, it started to really quickly snowball. And then before I knew it, I was seeing a full day's worth of people every day for a few months. And it very, in my case, very quickly replaced the workload and income of my prior job, which was exciting. But also I knew my off season was going to be looming and how am I going to make money when the hikers aren't hiking? And so I had a little bit of telehealth in that off season, but I ultimately had to take a 10 week contract.
And so that's something fortunate with healthcare is the contract working option. And so I had cut most of my safety, well, I cut all my safety nets all through the summer, pulled in one more quick safety net, and then went out in the next season. And now 2024 will be the first year that I've officially cut the external sources of income safety nets. And so I think recognizing that people who are running businesses don't often cut all their safety nets all at once and permanently. Usually it's a slow trickle. So if it feels like you're wanting to start something and you're scared about cutting your safety net, and it looks like other people do that, maybe seeing that that isn't always the case, sometimes there's just a bit of a doubling up for a spell. But if you don't eventually cut it when you've hit sort of a tipping point, then your safety net might be holding you back.
Christine: I think there's so many good lessons in there, and I love the idea of what you're saying, what you might perceive about other people's experiences that you think they just went all in and you're afraid because you're not ready to go all in, but you're not seeing what's around them. Like you said, that they may have created these spaces to kind of build towards. And we're only seeing what they're showing us, which is also something of course, we know through social media doesn't always give us a full picture of things, but that's why I love having these conversations so we can see what that path actually looks like. And then also just this idea that to keep moving forward is really important, and to not let your safety net hold you back, which is I think what can really happen to some people. It can be hard to make that last cut.
And I think also the people around you, that's the most common advice I give to people when they ask about how do you create businesses that succeed is it's the people that you have around you because you need that sounding word. You need the person that your mom is for you. I have those people in my life that I'm like, okay, I've hit the next hurdle. What do I do? Because doing this by ourselves usually, and we don't know everything. We can't know everything. We have to learn as we build. And so we need other people's expertise and we need their kind of detached overview of something. We're so deeply invested that sometimes we can't see our way out of certain situations and they can have this higher view, just be like, oh, I think if you connected this to this, you'd really see the solution. And then you go, oh, may have seemed so obvious, but when you're in it, you just can't get that perspective. So I love that you shared that. And I just was thinking as we were talking and as you were talking, we haven't really clearly defined what it is you're doing right now, Morgan. So I'd love for you to talk a little bit more what Blaze Physio is and what you have brought to life.
Morgan: Yeah, that's funny. Yeah, blaze Physio is basically a combination of all the things we've been talking about. So I already lived in a van, I was already working as a pt and I had already through hiked. And so this was sort of my creative vision of a way to combine those things for a community that I really felt a strong pool to want to continue to be involved with, but also one that needed help. And in the midst of my through hike was sort of the seed planting that these people need help, but also I might be the person to help them. And that just happened through a lot of experiences of seeing people injured and watching the processes they were going through. I mean, when I hiked, I was a baby pt, so I always think it's important for people to understand I wasn't out on trail like saving everybody's hikes and offering advice in all these group settings.
I was actually mostly keeping to myself, I'm not generally super extroverted anyway, and b, I don't know any PT that doesn't have imposter syndrome to an extent. And so baby new grad looking at these gnarly overuse injuries, I had nothing to say to these people at first, but I did have one hiker that I just knew well enough and what she had I was pretty sure about. And so I helped her. And whenever she, I ran into her probably a thousand miles later and she had said that that really helped her and that I think was where I was like, maybe I am qualified and I can also do more work in terms of acquiring more education and specializing into this population to be the best qualified person for it. So now I follow the trail in my van and move town to town. So through hiking in general, it's basically five day backpacking trips strung together for five to six months.
And so when a hiker is injured, their priority is going to be to get to town one way or another. So they're either going to bail or they're going to hike through to the next road crossing, and then they're going to go into town and then figure out what to do from there. So it's less about me showing up on a ridge line, although that has happened sometimes just because I'll be out hiking with my dog, like a day hike and I'll run into somebody who's in turmoil. But generally these hikers are getting themselves to town. And then my role is to provide them with somebody who knows what they're doing and understands the resources they have, whether I'm there physically or virtually chatting with them. So that way the understood goal when I'm talking to them is that they want to continue this hike.
And that was the part that was deeply missing other than just the orthopedic and endurance athlete knowledge that was missing in a lot of these towns with the providers that are mostly PCPs, who their primary role in that kind of injury would be to assess the severity of it and then refer to the appropriate specialists. So other than those people, that information was kind of there, but then they didn't really quite know what to do to tell them to keep hiking, which is their goal because a lot of people, we've talked about what it takes to be off work six months and how that in itself is a huge conversation. So once you've done it, you put all the stuff in order and you're there and you have tendonitis, absolutely terrible advice would be to just quit hiking if it hurts when you hike, stop doing that.
That's so unbelievably unhelpful and arguably harmful for people who have put so much on the line to be hiking. So that's where my role is to sort of mitigate those and try to keep as many people on trail as appropriate with the occasional injury that is trail ending. But having that conversation from the perspective of somebody who's done this hike and had several aches and pains, like everybody who does it, where you wonder if your hike is over. So hearing that from somebody who understands the weight of it, I think is also a little more empathetic than somebody who is just at their regular nine to five job and you're kind of the anomaly patient for the day and they're like, well, quit doing that. It hurts. Yeah.
Christine: Yeah, I think that's so valuable. And I think so important I think in healthcare and journey management across the board is someone that knows your goal and is kind of invested in your experience is a very different care provider than someone who you said, if you're kind of this offhand person, my oldest daughter is a ballet dancer, and she got it in her mind that as she progresses, she has her dream of what that's going to look like for her. But she has had an injury already that she spent a lot of time in PT with, and before we found the right care provider, she was saying, oh, I think maybe when I grow up I want to be a physical therapist for ballet dancers. Because one of her teachers actually had to stop dancing professionally because she had an injury rehabilitated to the point that she can function normally, but she can't dance because they didn't understand that they needed to keep a certain amount of elasticity as this was rehabilitated in order for her them to continue to be able to do the skills they needed to do.
And she's like, if they'd have just known they could have rehabilitated it differently. And so then she's like, that's what I want to be when I grow up. But as you were speaking, it's such a different, if you're asking someone a question and they don't really fully understand that greater outcome, they can't really help to answer the question in the right context. And so you can understand what does tendonitis on the trail mean? Does that mean I have to take two days off and then I have to hike slow for a week and then I can build back? Or does that mean X, Y, Z? Whereas someone else might just mean, well, that just means you stop. It's a very different question and a very different conversation.
Morgan: Definitely. And I think something potentially exciting that's happening in healthcare, especially in the world of PTs, is the internet is bringing wider information so people are able to connect to better resources and to question when they're getting bad advice, to have a concrete reason to see like, whoa, you're telling me I can't ever ride my bike again, but here's this person that specializes in people who ride their bikes and the people who are overcoming injuries seem worse than what I'm dealing with. So that seems to be a disconnect. And so I'm my hopefully not overly optimistic. Hope is the power in the patient. So knowing your resources and advocating for yourself will become better and better. But also the little bit of pressure that puts on providers to stay up to date and to admit when they might not know, but they acknowledge that somebody else probably does know and being more transparent with that because we're all just people and we are all specialized in what we're specialized in.
And so I think better providers are ones that could see a hiker and be like, look, this is what I think you have. This is a context that's not my out of depth here. There is probably somebody that could better serve you even if you don't know who that person is, to be able to reach your goals rather than just telling them, using your limited knowledge to then limit them for potentially life. And when I worked in gen pop, that was something that frustrated me a lot is a lot of times people would be in their later sixties, and this is where this was a bigger problem, is people in their sixties who got injury when they were in their twenties or thirties and then some, I would assume still, well-intentioned, but either Ill-informed or just maybe a sign of the times provider told them to stop because we had a lot of fear of movement with injuries even as much as 30 years ago told them to stop doing whatever that thing is they love.
And so if they had always exercised and been runners or bikers or hikers or whatever it is, somebody told them to stop, nobody ever told them to start again, and they just stopped and then they've lost something they were passionate about, which is huge. And then they've also lost their major form of physical activity, which can then send you into more of the chronic disease path as opposed to injuries and pain are a super normal part of life. So managing them and continuing to move is definitely the better option than stopping and now heading headfirst down chronic disease trajectories and then having a way harder time crawling back out of that as opposed to just occasionally managing some knee pain or ankle pain or something like that.
Christine: Yeah. Oh my gosh, the line that injuries and pain are a normal part of life, that feels so powerful to hear because I think in the context of outdoor activities, but also just in business, and we try to avoid those things like we avoid fear, we avoid pain, we avoid all these things. And so normally what we try to do is get rid of it as quickly as possible, not process it, not figure out where it's coming from, which then leads to all these things later and to just embrace, yes, we're not going to get through this journey without injury or without pain, but how do we tackle that when that happens? How do we just acknowledge that it's normal and then move forward without just trying to make it invisible within our existence? So I think I feel like we could probably take that in a lot of different directions, but I love that.
And then as you were talking about care and end goal where if you are a medical provider, your end goal is obviously a healthy human, and so no matter how that happens is the right way for it to happen. And I think we get competitive in business, I'm sure in medical practice it's competitive. And so at some point you maybe forget that that's the end goal. And I think now maybe we're seeing, like you said, more collaboration or more, it's okay if I'm not your person, and we talk a lot about this in travel. I don't even know. Let's say you're in a group with 50 people who run trips to Peru, but not one of us runs the same trip. And it's okay that if you come to me Morgan, and I'm like, my trip's not for you, but this is the experience you really desire, I want you to have it because my end goal is that travel is a powerful and transformative experience for you. So I want to find the person that allows you to have that experience. And I think it's such a different environment for business and for work to have that mindset where the end goal doesn't mean you got them there, but it means somebody got them there. And it's such a different way of thinking, but this will be my optimism hope here is that that's reality, that we can start to think that way and to really to treasure that outcome more than the delivery and that the delivery is ours.
Morgan: And I think that is kind of in line with the scarcity mindset and that if you approach everything as if there's a scarcity, you're going to make more tight decisions like, no, I'm going to help you. It's got to be me. I don't want to let you go. Versus if you have more of an abundance mentality, you helping somebody who came to you, but you connect them to something better or you were a quick stepping stone so they got on the right path, the way they're going to feel about you in that instance is so much more favorable in that they may still tell some of their friends to, Hey, check them out. It wasn't what I needed, but they still got me connected with this person who's been exactly what I needed. Versus if you held them too tight and ultimately they still didn't get what they needed, they're not going to recommend anybody come your way in business or in healthcare. So it's like if we just are a little bit looser and let people come and go as they're meant to, it's just way less friction.
Christine: Well, I had so many other things on my list that I wanted to tap into with you, but we're already at the end of our time, so I'm sad that that is happening. I think this was such a great conversation and we brought together so many things. But before we end, I want to jump to our rapid fire or rapid fire ish questions to wrap up our call. So the first one of those is what are you reading right now?
Morgan: Currently I am studying for the OCS tests, so I am reading current concepts in physical therapy.
Christine: Great. Well, we're all going to run out to get a copy of the shirt, but relatable.
Morgan: Yeah. Yeah. I do have the green mile high on my list. I just wrapped the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon, so I would like to read the Green Mile, but I can't vouch for it yet because I'm still deep in current concepts.
Christine: Yeah, that's alright. Well, this will be a good one for you because we know that we've talked about the intentionality of what you're carrying, but what is always in your suitcase or backpack when you travel?
Morgan: I would say my emotional support water bottle.
Christine: That feels like a whole nother story that I'm sad to be leaving behind. And I was looking on your website and I saw some stickers that you sell and there was a backpack that had this water bottle hanging off and that's the only thing that I noticed. So now maybe we're going to have to have a secret part of this conversation that people can come back and hear about later. Let's see, to Sojourn is to travel somewhere as if you live there for a short while. Where is one place that you would still live to Sojourn
Morgan: That I haven't already gone? Yeah. Well, I think so many international places, but lately New Zealand has been deeply calling my name, so I think part of me is hesitant to go there in the thought that I may never come back. So that one's probably top of my list
Christine: That feels relatable, especially for incredible hiking and outdoor activities and culture and yeah, I can see that the allure. What is something you eat, eat that immediately connects you to a place that you've been?
Morgan: I would say I have a pretty deep association with ramen and mountaintops, so just cheap chicken flavored ramen and just beautiful expansive beef.
Christine: I was waiting for it to be some really random trail food, so I'm glad you didn't let me down. Who was a person that encouraged you to set out and explore?
Morgan: I would say my parents. They're very much like say yes to things and figure it out later kind of people and exposed me to a lot when I was growing up that I think set me up for a lot of the confidence I feel with travel. Now,
Christine: If you could take an adventure with one person, fictional or real alive or past, who would it be?
Morgan: I think my grandma, she didn't get to get out too much. She was in the generation where it was crazy that she even was the breadwinner and working so much and a nurse and things like that. And I think if she had just been one generation later, she would've really had some ambitions for travel and done some cool stuff and I'd like to take her on that kind of trip.
Christine: Yeah, I think grandma's hold a really special space in so many of my guests heart and mine as well. So I'm glad that you mentioned her. Who is one woman in the travel industry or the outdoor space that you would admire and would love to recognize here in this space?
Morgan: Oh, there's so many. I think if we're keeping kind of a hiking theme, one that is, well, two, can I name two that are same thing, different font. Okay. There's Liz Thomas, who is a hiker and owns her own business and she has treeline review and every encounter I've had with her has just been absolutely wonderful and lovely and inclusive. Oh man, that makes me want to name three. And then Anish is her trail name Heather Anderson. She said a lot of records. She's an author, she's written if anybody's into the book Wild Anything by Heather Anderson is worth reading. She talks a lot about the mental side of things with the trip she is been on where she's hiking 50 to 60 miles a day and setting speed records and things like that. And also genuinely lovely human who has her own business. So two pretty prominent women.
Christine: Yeah, thank you so much for mentioning them. And you've said trail names and I also wanted to talk about trail names. So we have so many things that we're leaving on the table here. My daughter, she was so mad, but we were traveling together for four months earlier this year and I was like, oh, your trail name is dongle. And she was like, I hate you so much, but her backpack had always all these things coming off of it and we were traveling by train and stuff like that, and she'd get on and this stuff is just smacking people as she goes by. And I was
Morgan: Like, oh,
Christine: But it's the only name that you have. It's yours. I'm sorry.
Morgan: That's funny. Jungle's a good trail name. Yeah.
Christine: So yeah, we'll put that on the follow-up conversation I guess. But thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it. I loved hearing more about your journey and I hope it really inspires other people to just pursue their passions without worrying about what the end looks like at the beginning and know that the journey is really worth the experience.
Morgan: Yeah. Thank you for having me. It was as expected lovely to have a female podcast host. I so appreciate getting to speak to this audience and speak with you.
Christine: Thank you so much.
Thank you for listening to Soul of Travel presented by Journey Woman. I hope you enjoyed the journey. If you loved this conversation, I encourage you to subscribe and rate the podcast. Please share episodes that inspire you with others because this is how we extend the impact of this show. Learn more about each of my guests by reading our episode blogs, which are more than your average show notes. I think you'll love the connection. Find our episode blogs at www.souloftravelpodcast.com. I'm so proud of the way these conversations are bringing together people from around the world. If this sounds like your community, welcome, I'm so happy you are here. I am all about community and would love to connect. You can find me on Facebook at Soul of Travel podcast or follow me on Instagram, either at she Sojourns or at Soul of Travel podcast. Stay up to date by joining the Soul of Travel podcast mailing list. You'll also want to explore the Journey Woman community and its resources for women travelers over 50. I'd also like to share a quick thank you to my podcast producer and content magician, Carly Eduardo, CEO of Conte. I look forward to getting to know you and hopefully hear your story.
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