Guides Gone Wild

From Midlife Malaise to Machu Picchu (!!) with Bethany Cass

• Guides Gone Wild

Share episode

Today I’m talking to Bethany Cass, an awesome new friend I met around this time last year when she and her daughter Maddie attended the Guides Gone Wild Iron Chef weekend that I hosted with Ari Leach of Blackbird Guide Service.

At the time, as you’ll hear, Bethany was kind of treading water in a sea of discontent, but getting ready to take some bold strokes in new directions - and less than one year later, things are poppin' off for her, as the kids would say!

WAIT UNTIL YOU HEAR what she is doing in 2024!!

But the point I want you to come away from this conversation with is NOT that you have to go big or stay home. There is more than one right way to seek - and hopefully find - fun, inspiration, and fulfillment.

Bethany’s soul was called toward meditation, yoga, and spending quiet time in the wilderness - yours might be finding a dozen friends for a whitewater or ski trip, or dangling from ropes on a rock face or splashing in a waterfall, or maybe hanging out with your favorite four-legged friend at your local land trust trail. It's all good! If it's outside in nature and it makes you feel good, it's worth doing!

Some of the cool stuff we talk about - come on over to GuidesGoneWild.com to see the full list!:

We Built This Workshop - come build a tent platform with us!

Bethany Cass:

You know, when I sign up for these things, I always meet someone, and then that connection brings me to the next thing.

Jen:

Welcome to the Guides Gone Wild podcast. What is Guides Gone Wild, you ask? This is where you'll fill your ears and minds with the stories of everyday, extraordinary women who inspire you to take your outdoor adventure game to the next level. Whether you're starting your journey from the couch or the trailhead, this is the place for you. So let's get a little wild. Welcome to Guides Gone Wild. This is Jen, and before we jump right into some serious inspiration today, I wanted to let you know about a super fun event I'm excited about coming right up November 11th and 12th 2023. I'm working with the team at we Built this to host a framing workshop weekend at Evans Notch Lodge. I learned basic carpentry skills and build a dang tent platform in the woods and do yoga and get outside in nature and in community. Food and lodging and all the instruction and fun are all included. Tap the link in the show notes to get more info or register. I hope to see you all at the lodge next month. Okay, now on to the show. Getting that.

Jen:

Today I'm talking to Bethany Cass, an awesome new friend. I met around this time last year when she and her daughter, maddie, attended the Guides Gone Wild Iron Chef weekend that I hosted with Ari Leach of Blackbird Guide Service. At the time, as you'll hear, bethany was kind of treading water in a sea of discontent, but getting ready to take some bold strokes in new directions. Unless in one year later, things are popping off for her, as the kids would say. But until you hear what she is doing in 2024, I got so agitated I had to freaking bleep myself to save your ears. That's like the first time ever and I am riling myself up again just thinking about this. So let's just get into it with extraordinary every woman. Bethany Cass. All right, bethany Cass, welcome to Guides Gone Wild this morning. Thank you.

Jen:

Happy to be here. I'm super, super stoked that we're talking, because Bethany is like a Guides Gone Wild success story. I'm going to just say that right out from the get-go and pat myself in the back and throw my shoulder out in the process, because Bethany and I first. When did we first meet? Well, Bethany came to, yeah, last year.

Jen:

Last November she came to the outdoor cooking event that Ari Leach and I hosted and at the time she brought her daughter, Maddie, who's another just crazy success story. I'm not taking credit for that one, but it was super fun that came out of that event. But Bethany brought her daughter and they were awesome and super inspiring. And she told me the story of the fact that she was essentially kind of wanting to blow up her life, but not really, but doing some new things and flash forward a year later. It's just bonkers to think of all the stuff that has happened in the past year and she's got a couple of super exciting things on the horizon that I wanted to talk about, but we're going to dial it back. Take me back to whatever last summer, a year and a bit ago, yeah.

Bethany Cass:

Yeah.

Jen:

Tell everybody what you do in the real world for a living and how that whole thing has evolved as well.

Bethany Cass:

And I'm going to shut up now yeah.

Bethany Cass:

So I am a consulting actuary for Milliman. I've been doing this for over 30 years. So I've raised my three kids who are now my youngest is now 18, and worked full time while raising a family, which anyone who is in that same boat knows it's not easy. I traveled a lot for my job, which I loved. I think for me that kind of gave me the best of both worlds. I kind of would be home and then I'd take off somewhere and I love to explore, I love to travel. So that was a really nice balance for me.

Bethany Cass:

But when I think back to kind of the beginning of my journey, it kind of starts during COVID. When COVID happened it was like very hard for many people and for myself for work. My travel stopped. I had three teenagers home a son who was graduating from high school, a daughter who was now home for a semester when she should have been off to college, dealing with a lot of just emotional struggles with myself and family and friends, everything. So when I kind of take myself back to the beginning, I was definitely feeling stuck.

Jen:

And any midlife malaise you already had going into COVID just got completely amplified, exactly.

Bethany Cass:

I hear you, and so I was definitely feeling stuck at the time. But when I think back to when a lot of this started, it was my oldest daughter, maddie, who you know was turning 21. And she doesn't drink, and so I was thinking, okay, what can I do for my 21-year-old daughter? And she and I always talked about skydiving, and it was one of those. That was the first experience for me where I said you know what? I'm doing this, I'm not asking for permission, I'm making this a gift for my daughter and I'm doing it. And so she and I went skydiving that summer, and it was just what I needed to kind of feel alive again through all that COVID mess. And I think it was what I needed too, to just be able to say, okay, I can do this. You know, I can do this. I don't need permission from people.

Jen:

And so from there and let's just put, let's just stop for a moment and just say it doesn't necessarily have to be that dramatic, no, no, it's more of the step changing than the actual skydiving.

Bethany Cass:

I think for me I was just like living in this like monotony and comfort zone. And you're right, I'm someone who kind of likes to live on the edge a little bit. So for me it was jumping out of a plane, but I think I just need to get out of my comfort zone at that time. But I think that kind of just it did it, kind of awakened me to say, okay, that's something I've always wanted to do and I did it so that fall. Something else I always wanted to do was to stay in the AMC Huts.

Bethany Cass:

So you and I have talked about loving the hike and I always had this dream of that would be so cool to stay at these AMC Huts. But I could never get anyone else to share the same excitement. I would talk to friends, I'd talk to my husband and no one else seemed as excited as I was for this. So it was another one of those things I said well, what's holding me back? I'm just going to do it. So I had never backpacked before I hiked, but I went down to the REI garage sale, got myself a backpack on sale and figured out how to do this weekend solo backpacking hike, and so I think that was also just the start of a lot of this spark of just figuring out okay, can I do this? You know, I kind of had to do a lot of research. I was scared as hell. I just remember showing up at that trailhead thinking, okay, this backpack was for sale, I must have a hole in it.

Jen:

I was like, yeah, everyone was looking at me.

Bethany Cass:

You know which hut were you going to? I stayed at the Greenleaf Hut, so I did the. Franconia, lafayette, lincoln and Haystack.

Jen:

Yeah, and for anyone who is interested in backpacking, that is a great way to get into it, like because you have to carry some, you have to carry your stuff, but you don't have to like worry about setting up camp at the end of the day, and it's a really great adventurous entry point, like you know, especially if you go in the full service season, you know you're going to show up, there'll be a hot meal, there'll be people there who know what they're talking about to kind of help you out, and you'll meet like-minded people when you get there. So you know they're not cheap, but they're also not like staying at a luxury hotel and it's fun. I love the huts, so that's awesome, yeah.

Bethany Cass:

And you can show up by yourself.

Bethany Cass:

It's okay, you can show up by yourself. There was such camaraderie. I just remember meeting so many people who were telling their stories of hiking the Appalachian Trail, like it was everything I wanted to be but more I think what I got out of it was really just that time alone and just really the solitude and everything. When I think back to that weekend, I think it was really when I started to realize that I don't need much to keep me happy, like I was so happy and here I was, just me and my backpack, mountains, and you know, it really just kind of taught me a lot about myself. But then also just like it doesn't take much to be happy, you just have to know what it is you want, yeah, and then Reach, you know. So then from there I was like hooked and I said, okay, I'm doing the New Hampshire 48.

Jen:

Yeah, in classic Bethany fashion, go big or go home. Okay, you know, I've gone hiking once. Now I'm going to do a mall in a year.

Bethany Cass:

No so, but I was hooked, I was hooked and so, yeah, that fall and winter I just started going up, mostly by myself, which I was really again. I was just. I think I was enjoying that time, just to think. So you kind of talked about, like you know, blowing up your life and everything I knew. I just needed a change, like there was something I still felt stuck. I felt like not that work, you know work, something was missing. Yeah, something was missing.

Jen:

Had you made the adjustment on the work side at that point or not, quite yet Not?

Bethany Cass:

yet, okay, not yet. So leading up to that. So the adjustment on the work side yes, something was definitely missing and I wasn't feeling as satisfied from my work and I was really having to do a lot of soul searching to kind of figure out what it. What is it that was missing? You know? So I was really. I got into meditation. Yep, that fall I also started yoga teacher training, you know so I just started getting into yoga and meditation. So all of that was kind of happening at the same time. I was doing a lot of soul searching, reading a lot of books, going through yoga teacher training to really try to figure out what. What was I missing? And that, following summer, I decided to cut back at work. So I went back to four days at work and that really just gave me the space to kind of figure out more. What, what is it I like to do?

Jen:

Yeah, and, and I do want to talk I want to speak to that for a second because I feel like, you know, culturally lately everyone talks about, oh, follow your passion. And you know there's especially for those of us who are kind of like, have been professionals for a long time and potentially in the same job for a long time, and there's a lot to be said for a steady paycheck, benefits and the financial privilege to be able to do an experiment and seek outside of your professional life and you don't have to blow up your life because sometimes, speaking from experience, it doesn't go that well. You run out of money and so you know there's those of us who have been, you know anyone who's been doing something for a while. You have a lot of power in that position. You can leverage that to your advantage and think about what you want your life to look like and and just start the start the dialogue, because you might be surprised at how amenable maybe the powers that be would be to an alternate arrangement.

Jen:

You know, and I think we all kind of realize that during COVID, like hey, wow, things can look a lot different than they have been looking historically and the work still gets done and people are still, you know, pleased with my performance, and you know so. Not to say that every employer is going to let you get out of four days, but if you have a 30 year career somewhere, not for nothing, but I feel like that means that you mean something to that employer and they probably will want to keep you happy. And you know, one of my many back lives was in HR and I could tell you for sure it's way less expensive to keep a really good person who's got a lot of his legacy information in their brain than it is to go out and find a replacement for that person. So, and I, and I think a lot more companies are really considering that now. So, anyway, that's my soapbox for this whole thing of like.

Jen:

I thought that was a total power move on your part and it has worked out really well so far for you.

Bethany Cass:

Yeah, and I think you know it was I love what I do, like there's so much that I get from my job. I think when you're working full time and raising a family, like I always felt like I was on this treadmill, like there was just no extra space to think, to kind of give yourself the own self care and have the space to even think about what it is you want you would. Just, I was so busy and and I did not do this alone, I was working with an energy therapist at the time who I think was really instrumental with, first of all, telling me you got to give yourself permission, you know, to take care of yourself. And you got to. You got to listen to your heart. You got to really kind of listen to what it is you desire and kind of tune out all the other voices in your head.

Bethany Cass:

I had to let go of a lot of you know past perfectionism, overachievement, all these other things. So that's how I was thriving in my work life, but I was sacrificing, I think, on the personal side. So she, working with her, I think she really helped me have the courage to go part time. That was a really big step for me, but I think that I haven't looked back. I have absolutely no regrets, because I needed to find that better balance in my life Once I had those Fridays off and I was able to take those Fridays and really focus on me, which I hadn't done in 30 years. It just opened the door to all these other passions that I've had but were just buried for so long, which I think gets to.

Bethany Cass:

Maybe the next topic is trying to get back to getting in shape. So I think there's something a lot of people can relate to when you're working raising a family, it's just really hard to stay in shape, and I was someone who was. I was never an athlete, but I was always athletic growing up and then a lot of that got put on the back burner, and so one of the things that was important to me was kind of getting back in shape.

Jen:

And even just like even, if you want to. You can phrase it a lot of different ways. It's even just like feeling good in your body because you hit the sage. You hit like your 40s or 50s. It just starts going haywire all over the place, even if you are getting out and getting exercise. So if you used to be active and now you're not anymore, it just compounds all that and it's like wow, I don't think I used to feel like this. How much of this can be addressed?

Bethany Cass:

I'm right there with you and it's true.

Bethany Cass:

It's like once I started getting back and moving my body and I had a Peloton, I was getting back into biking, I was hiking on the weekends, I was just feeling better, I was feeling more alive again, feeling back to who I wanted to be, so that kind of felt good. And then now we're in 2023, the beginning of 2023. And we always do New Year's resolutions with our family and I was learning through my therapist that I need to focus less on the doing, focus less on what is it you want to accomplish? How do you want to feel? And so, when I thought about what it was, how did I want to feel? It was about kind of still accomplishing something, but doing something that I didn't think I could do, and that feeling of when you actually get to the finish line of something that you didn't think you could do. So that's what inspired me to sign up for a half Ironman, which I did in June, right, Again, don't start with a sprint try or anything like that as a non-swimmer, non-runner.

Jen:

Right, you were biking at the time.

Bethany Cass:

I was back to biking, but now I haven't been in a pool in 10 years. I had never really run, like I had never run a 5k, like I literally had never even joined up for a race. I never signed up for anything before.

Jen:

But okay. Well, my therapist is telling me to relax, but at the same time, I am still a Gen X achiever person, so I'm going to sign up for half Ironman. I'm not signing up for a full Ironman.

Bethany Cass:

Right, no, it was that stretch goal. But I think I was just visualizing how I wanted to feel and I knew if I signed up for a sprint, it was like, well, okay, I could probably do that. So I signed up, really thinking okay, I don't know if I could do this, you know.

Jen:

But yeah, that's legitimate. I can see that. That's funny, you're so funny.

Bethany Cass:

I think that's what I was going for.

Jen:

And I did do it and you did do it, yep, and it was great. You killed it and you've been doing a bunch of other stuff too, I mean. So like the other thing I want to talk about, because I've been kind of getting reminded a lot lately of just this power of community and the community that has kind of coalesced around the podcast for me since I started it and I've just been getting smacked in the face with how grateful I am that all these things have happened. But you had another like you came up and we got to meet each other and it turns out you live like literally half an hour for me in the same town my brother lives in, so we kept in touch. But like there was all kinds of other stuff that came out of that.

Jen:

So tell me a little bit more about all of this, because it's been so so, so fun to watch.

Bethany Cass:

Yeah, so. So I met Jen through I know Jen's brother. He's here in town and I started posting stuff about my hikes on Facebook and Jay reached out and he said you got to meet my sister. So that's how.

Jen:

I like the only nice thing he's ever done for me.

Bethany Cass:

But you know, but, but yeah, it was awesome and so. So when I connected with you, Jen, and I started listening to your podcast, you know. So here I was like this, this newbie, wanting to get into this whole world of hiking and camping and outdoor stuff, so your podcast, like I think, like I was your perfect target market. Right, I mean because everything that I listened to just was so inspiring for me. I love the fact that it was so based on women, and so every podcast I'd listened to was just like inspirational and like, okay, yes, I can do this. Like, look at all these amazing women out there doing these amazing things. It was just so awesome. So our weekend cooking with fire was was terrific, and I walked away with a whole laundry list of people. But one of the one of the companies that you had talked about was Sopyo and Jana at Sopyo, and so, let's see, I saw you in November and so and I'm like, if you like it here, you should go check out her place, because it's freaking nice.

Bethany Cass:

So I signed up for my first Sopyo retreat that January. So January this year was my first Sopyo retreat. And so Sopyo is a company that brings like-minded people together to do adventurous things and they do. They end up paddleboard yoga, they do day hikes in the white mountains, they do weekend retreats in Bartlett, new Hampshire, international retreats trips in Acadia. I mean, everything about Sopyo was just like it checked all my boxes. So I had joined the first retreat and was like wanting to just basically sign up for every other retreat that year.

Bethany Cass:

But when I talked with Jana, I think I also saw the opportunities of being able to leave the retreats and kind of I was hiking with Jana and kind of said, yeah, I would love to do this someday.

Bethany Cass:

And so she had reached out to me and I started assisting on some of the retreats. And so that spring I assisted on one of her retreats in the White Mountains and I love to cook and so every like it just was like all of my passions, my cooking, my hiking, wanting to create community with other women, like minded women Everything was just coming together and it just checked all the boxes for me. So I helped out with the retreat in the spring and then I got certified to do paddle board yoga with her and then I did a retreat up in Acadia in June and every time I'd come home I was just telling my husband I was like it was awesome. It's just, I loved everything about it and so that's been wonderful and I've been helping to do some of the yoga hikes up in the White Mountains. And then this has led me to my most recent opportunity. Was she called and said would you be willing to lead the retreat in Peru which is for next August to do Machu Picchu?

Jen:

Which was when I got Bethany on the horn. It was like, and I was like I couldn't even. I couldn't even speak. That has been on my bucket list forever and I'm like get the out. Bethany is going to Machu Picchu. We got to, we got to, we got to get you on the podcast and talk about that. So I mean as soon as you say that I'm like my, my heart goes through my mouth. I just can't even. I can't even imagine. I'm so excited for you.

Bethany Cass:

And I think you know it's when I thought, when I was thinking back to kind of thinking, ok, if I wasn't an actuary, what would I want to do? I had done a lot of trips through a company called Backroads, which is also kind of a multi sport adventure company, and I said I'd want to be a backroads leader, like that was. That was like kind of like my dream, like, ok, if I had done anything else, I would have wanted to do that, and it was kind of like completely out of the norm for an actuary to want to become a retreat leader.

Jen:

Yeah, it's good to say that you are definitely crossing the spectrum, but I'll be honest with you.

Bethany Cass:

I literally like, looked on job postings and started looking at what, who do they hire, what type of skills would they need? And one of the skills was wilderness first aid. So I said, ok, I'll sign up for that. Like I started just like building these skills behind the scenes with this like dream in my head that I never thought I'd achieve, but was just trying to put it all together, you know. And so, yeah, when that opportunity came, I was kind of like, well, hell, yes, but let me go, let me go ask my husband. You know he's been very supportive through all this. So so, yeah, super, super psyched for that. So it's a week long retreat in Peru. We'll be spending three days in Cusco and then we are working with another outfitter to go hike and camp the Inca Trail. So they'll be helping with all the cooking and the tents and teaching us all the cultural stuff. So it's going to be. It's going to be amazing, so freaking awesome, and that's in August, right, that's August, august 18th, right.

Jen:

And they have info up already on the SAPIA website. Tragically, my oldest daughter is going to probably be going to college right around then. Because I was like dang, I'm going to start putting away you know pennies a week and try to save up for this trip because it sounds amazing. So I don't know TVD on that one, because I really want to get there and it would be super fun to go with you. That's amazing. Are you still doing the trip over Indigenous Peoples Weekend? Yes, so tell us about that too.

Bethany Cass:

Yeah, so just another opportunity that presented itself was a good friend of mine husband started a company called Sherpa of Souls and this started at his first 50th birthday. He invited all of his friends to hike Kilimanjaro with him and he got a bunch of people to go with him. So he hiked Kilimanjaro and the experience, as you can imagine, was just like really transformational for him. And at the time I think one of his buddies or one of his buddies, his wife, said you're kind of like a Sherpa of Souls, you know, because he kind of brought all of these people together to do this amazing adventure. And so from that, I think, he left his corporate job. He took his family. They lived out in Italy throughout the COVID period and now he's got this Sherpa of Souls company going and so his mission is really kind of transforming people through the wilderness and bringing in aspects of meditation and yoga.

Bethany Cass:

So it's still, it's very similar to, you know again, all these things that I've kind of been passionate about coming together the meditation, the yoga and the wilderness and just your overall kind of personal development. So he's leading a trip over October 6th through 9th and he was looking for someone to help him out with that, and so he invited me and again I was like hell, yeah, let's do it. So I'm psyched for that. We're going to be back in the White Mountains, we'll be staying. This will be a four day trek. You know about 25 miles, and we'll be staying in three different huts throughout that weekend.

Jen:

Right, because you're doing. Can we wilderness on that one? Yeah.

Bethany Cass:

I think I was staying at the Greenleaf, galehead in.

Jen:

Zealand hut. Yeah, it looks amazing. Yeah, so that's gonna help. I'm gonna have to get my button guarantee if I can get this up in time for people to sign up for that.

Bethany Cass:

The pressure's on. But so yeah, sherpa of Souls, and hopefully you can put some links into his website as well.

Jen:

Yeah, absolutely, because I don't think this will be the first. This won't be the last time. I'm sure that you do something with him. So tell me what's your initial thinking around as you've been turning your passion more and more into a job Like, have you had any anything that has given you pause or caused you concern at all, or are you still thinking this has just been the best thing ever?

Bethany Cass:

Yeah, I mean, I still, I still have a lot of thinking to do and I think what I've learned from a lot of this is just the key to balance is, you know, trying to find that, trying to find that perfect balance. But you know there's no perfect balance, but I am trying to figure out. You know, can I do both? You know, can I? Can I still do my consulting job, which again provides a lot of satisfaction in some ways, but balance it with the things that truly, you know, make me feel alive, you know?

Bethany Cass:

Yeah, thank you yeah yeah, so I mean, my, my energy is certainly tending toward one side, but, like you said, you know I'm trying to figure out how do you, how do you, keep it balanced both, and I think there's there is some benefit to trying to keep both going. I'm someone who just needs to keep really busy, so, like right now, I'm really happy because I have so many things going on, and I think that's just the way I operate. So so, yeah, it's, I'm still giving it a lot of thought. I think what I'm realizing, though, is that there's, you know, a lot of people talk about retirement like you retire and then what are you going to do? What I'm realizing now, I thought a lot about midlife, and what I'm kind of learning now about midlife is that you know you've there's this analogy of these two mountains, you know.

Bethany Cass:

So you have your first mountain that you've climbed, and midlife is kind of like when you're in the valley, and it's understanding that there's another mountain to climb, and so, once I kind of looked at my life that way, it's not like I'm going to. I don't have to hold this career till I'm 65 and then retire and do nothing. It's more about how can I reinvent myself and you know, there's this whole other mountain ahead of me that I feel I can. I have a lot of gifts that I can give toward it, and it's kind of exciting to think about what if I could kind of reinvent myself to do something different.

Jen:

Yeah, absolutely. I think that has been. Yeah, that's been a big motivator for me too. It's like and I do think you know we're essentially the same age and you know we kind of came up in a time when, like that's just the way people thought about everything and you know our parents are boomers and they were like you got to work and you got to work for the man till you retire. And you know we're kind of like can we maybe divorce ourselves from this whole achievement culture and all these things that we used to think were important that haven't necessarily done us justice so far? You know not to say that. You know, if you love your job, great, good on you and stick with it.

Jen:

But I kind of feel like maybe it's more just about, you know, constantly revisiting is my life bringing me joy? Am I where I want to be? Am I doing what I want to do with the people I want to do it with and just allowing yourself to evolve? And that doesn't mean I keep telling my husband I'm like we're not going to. I don't think either one of us we just want to be semi-retired forever. You know it's more about like having flexibility to do what you want to do when you want to do it, but you can't just get up and have nothing to do all day and I'm not going to go play golf or buy a Harley, so like, yeah, what's next.

Bethany Cass:

So I think it's the flexibility, the flexibility to have the freedom to do what you want to do.

Jen:

Maybe my second mountain will not be as quite as much vertical as my first was. But you know, so be it, it's okay.

Bethany Cass:

But it could be a hell of a lot more fun.

Jen:

Exactly, exactly. I won't lose my breath all the time and won't be as sweaty it would be fantastic.

Bethany Cass:

I mean it is. It is an exciting time in my fifties and it is an exciting stage to be in there's. I mean I have so many things on my bucket list that I still want to do and I now kind of have both the financial and the freedom to do it. So it's yeah, I've got. I'm looking forward to a lot but, it's still scary, yeah, oh for sure.

Jen:

But it does also motivate me to be like okay, keep moving, keep your brain fresh, keep your body as fresh as it can be, because you have a lot more things you want to do. So, take care of yourself. I know you're going to have your health Right and, speaking of like fun things we want to do, tell us a little bit about Maddie and her.

Bethany Cass:

Because, like your daughter, kind of had this parallel thing going on. Yes, jen, changed both of our lives.

Jen:

I love it.

Bethany Cass:

It was like right place right time, right place, right time. So so my daughter, maddie, she graduated. Let's see, she graduated in 2022. And so Maddie and I went up to Jen's you know we treat there in Maine and we were sitting around a bonfire and she invited her friend Polly to join us.

Jen:

And Polly Mahoney of Mahusa Guide Service.

Bethany Cass:

So Mahusa Guide Services? So she was talking about her dogs letting in the wintertime and I don't know. We just started talking. I think, Jen, you were the one that was like hey, Maddie, like she hires apprentices, you know, in the summer, Right.

Jen:

Polly and I had been talking about like she has apprentices pretty much year round and Maddie had she was she's attending ongoing in med school. But she, yeah, was in the process of like studying for her M-cats, m-cats or something, yeah, and I'm like just saying yeah.

Bethany Cass:

So Maddie had she had a year while she was kind of doing her med school applications and she wants to be a doctor and rural main. That was kind of her passion. And so to kind of immerse herself in Maine and be able to do this apprenticeship and learn all about everything that Polly had to teach her and be out and learn you know, just learn these skills and be in Maine was really appealing to her. So she applied for the job. She got it. So Maddie's been. She just finished her last canoe retreat.

Bethany Cass:

So she's been up there working with Polly and Kevin and she's been helping to lead camping and canoeing retreats. She's been taking care of all their dogs and doing all kinds of projects around the property. So she has learned so much. She's worked hard but it's been a really, really good experience for her. So yeah, she wouldn't have been doing that if it wasn't for Jen. Well, and now and then she just got hired to work the Maine Huts and Trails over the winter. So she'll be doing that for, I don't know, the next six months or so until hopefully she'll get in somewhere and she'll go off to med school in July. So she'll be up there in the winter time and she also loves to cook. So this will be another job where she'll be outdoors. She'll be doing a lot of the cooking at the Huts. I've never been up there, but I'm definitely going up there this winter to check on out Super cool.

Jen:

I haven't been there in the winter and I'm like super stoked. Now we have a reason to plan a trip, do you? Does she know yet which hut she's going to be in? She doesn't yet. I asked her, she doesn't yet.

Jen:

Ok, yeah, super cool hut system. If anybody I mean hopefully everybody has heard of them by now. But yeah, they're kind of on a rebound from a couple of tough years. But it's a beautiful hot-to-hot system that was designed for, I think, first off for cross-country skiing and movement in the winter between these huts. So they're not like the AMC huts in that they're more modern, they're more insulated, so you can stay there in the cold.

Jen:

It's in the Carabasset Valley and, yeah, they're super cool and the full service season is amazing. The food's great. You can buy beer and wine there. Yeah, it's a great time and I think in the summer they have them open on a self-service basis and in between times I think you can rent them out for groups and stuff. So anyway, definitely check them out. I'll link that up in the show notes too, but I was super psyched to hear that Maddie would be working there, because it's a great place. I love going up there and now I have a reason to bring my cross-country skis next time and slounder around on the snow if there's any this winter, yeah, yeah.

Bethany Cass:

And bring you with me. That'll be fun.

Jen:

Yeah, that's super exciting. So this is awesome. So what's next? More trips, you think?

Bethany Cass:

Yeah, I mean I just kind of just keep doing the next thing. That seems right. I'm not really looking too far ahead, but I think hopefully, with these retreats, like you said, hopefully I'll have more retreats coming up. I don't know, I don't know Jen.

Jen:

That's what I love about you, Matthew. You don't know, but you're going to freaking do it. But I'm quick to say yes.

Bethany Cass:

You are.

Jen:

Quicker and quicker, I think too. So yeah, I mean, there's just so many great takeaways. You're like embodying my whole message to humanity of like, just take that first step, just try something, just do it and don't necessarily quit your job. Just like try it on the side first to figure out what you like, because I just think that's awesome and it's been so fun, so, so, so fun to watch.

Bethany Cass:

So thank you. I was listening to one of your podcasts and the takeaway was to don't overthink things, and I think that's so true. Like it's so hard getting people to try to join you on some of these things and they think too much about it, they worry too much. It's like just try it.

Jen:

Yeah, yeah, I just went through that. Last weekend I went on a pack rafting bike trip. That when it first got introduced to me by a podcast guest, so I was very, very thankful of the opportunity. But my immediate knee jerk reaction was like oh my god, no, I don't have time for that. Like it's so far away, I don't have very gear. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And yeah, it was. I was like what am I doing?

Jen:

Why, like I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna regret going Like if it rained it was terrible, like whatever it's not, I could just get in my car and go home, but like, if I don't go I'm gonna be mad at myself. So you know, and it's a privilege to be able to even consider going on these things. So yeah, I don't know, I'm just like just freaking do it, Get out of your own way.

Bethany Cass:

And I find every time I've gone, you know I've signed up for things with the AMC. You know, when I sign up for these things, I always meet someone, and then that connection brings me to the next thing. So when I think back to the things I signed up for, something else came out of it. So Maddie and I are doing a intro to backpacking weekend at the AMC putts in November, and I know something will come out of it, right? You know, it's kind of like I'm going to meet someone and then who knows? So it's just yeah, it's just do the next thing. That feels right, right?

Jen:

Just like, yeah, it's like you know what, and just open yourself up to stuff. I just find that like you say yes and then maybe you're like having second thoughts or whatever, but like there's really, there's basically nothing that I have said yes to, that came out of this podcast or any other offering from anybody I've met through this. That hasn't been awesome. Like it just winds up being like I'm so glad I did that. Maybe I'm not going to do it again, but I'm super glad I did it and it just I don't know. Yeah, I'm with you, reach, love it, I love it.

Jen:

All right, what did we not say that you need to leave us with any parting wisdom? Oh gosh, I think we think we covered a lot, jess. We covered it. I know You're freaking awesome, bethany. I'm so, I'm so excited. Thank you so much for doing this with me. And you know, hopefully somewhere out there is like one person who's going to listen to us and just go do something and just go do it, Hopefully change their freaking life and be happy, and in two years I'll interview you her too.

Bethany Cass:

So tell me your stories, tell me your happy stories. I guess I will leave with this. I mean, a lot of it is giving yourself the space to kind of really think about what it is you want.

Bethany Cass:

Yeah, and the permission to just do something for yourself or for your change, Because I think there was so much that was burning inside of me but I just kept pushing it down, pushing it away or just saying, nope, I don't deserve that. But so much was inside of me. So I think once I started listening, it was just like the floodgates were open right. Right, right, because none of us have time for this.

Jen:

But, it's all about making the time for it. Yeah, yeah.

Bethany Cass:

And in hiking going up to the mountains and hiking by myself that was pretty critical to kind of giving myself that space to really think what it is I want.

Jen:

So give yourself that time, yeah, and if you can't get away to the mountains, right, this second, just take a walk around the block, like, literally, if you unplug from your life and what you think you have to do for even a half an hour at a time, and just like breathe and move and don't put your earbuds in and don't bring your phone with you, it's like remarkable, the kind of stuff that just comes like bling off of your psyche. So, all right, yeah, that is great. Great advice, so awesome. Well, thank you, this is a joy. That's right, I didn't ask the last question, but it's like, wait a minute, you can ask my last question and I do. Okay, I'm asking the last question. I knew you were going to ask what? Yeah, and I wanted to hear this from you. So what is your favorite piece of gear that costs you less than $50?

Bethany Cass:

Yes, this was so easy for me, and I know someone else has said this before, but it's the Kulu cloth. Kulu cloth, yeah, I love it. Yeah, so that's that's my one gift to people that I get into hiking. I'm like, okay, you got to have your Kulu cloth.

Jen:

So what's what kind of design do you have on yours? I have a blue one.

Bethany Cass:

You know I have a couple, but they're all you know they're fun. But you know my, my sister and I did a lot of outdoorsy things when I was in my twenties and she and I would always joke like a weekend where you didn't pee outside wasn't a good weekend. So anyone who's hiked with me knows I just I just pee a lot, so I have no qualms with it. So the Kulu cloth is pretty cool.

Jen:

Yeah, that's funny. I just went hiking with a college friend of mine three or four, maybe three weeks ago. I just randomly again randomly contacted her and was like, hey, I'm going to be around this weekend, let's do this. And we went hiking. She was already going with a friend of hers because she is trying to do the 40, the 4,000 footers. So we went and I got both of them on to Kulu cloth and, you know, one of them never heard of it. I'm like, what are you talking about? Actually, what happened is somebody walked by us and what?

Jen:

The other girl made some comment about a potholder. I'm like, no, no, no, that's not a potholder Common misconception. Yes, no, that is not. She's not cooking, she's peeing. And and then, yeah, we, I was telling them all about it, not only about the benefits of the product, but about how it is like one of the best Instagram follows of all time, because in a stays is sister mayor, I think, is her name is freaking, hilarious and worth getting on Instagram for it. If you're not even on Instagram, yeah, anyway, that's good, I love it. All. Right, that was a good one. I'm glad we. I'm glad we turned the recording back on for that.

Bethany Cass:

All right. Well now, bethany, and we'll see you in the mountains.

Jen:

We will see you in the mountains. Indeed, such huge thanks to Bethany for reminding me why the heck I keep doing this podcast. I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am when I hear these stories. So hey, if you're a guides gone wild listener who's hooked up to adventure with a previous guest, or you've tried something new to you based on some inspiration you gleaned on this podcast, I want to hear from you. Drop me a line over at guides gone wildcom, or you can always email me guides gone wild podcast at gmailcom. Make sure you check out today's show notes for some links to the goodness Bethany shared with us. Or if you want the complete list of resources and links, come on over to the episode page at guides gone wildcom and share the love. Send this episode or one of your favorites to that friend who needs to hear it. Who knows, maybe that friend will wind up in Peru with Bethany next summer getting a little bit wild.