Life and Leadership

To Get My Feet Wet, or To Not Get My Feet Wet? Lessons in Leadership from the Arctic

To Get My Feet Wet, or To Not Get My Feet Wet? Lessons in Leadership from the Arctic

Last August I experienced two weeks of backpacking in Alaska’s Brooks Range and Arctic National Refuge. It was epic.
By epic, I mean the experience was life changing and unforgettable. It was beyond scale. The scenery was epic – truly, out of this world. The people with which I shared the experience – who started [...]

Epic Adventure – and Longing

Epic Adventure – and Longing

Hi. My name is Shelli. I’m 43 years old. I have been married to Jerry for almost 20 years and we have three young sons, Wolf, 11, Hayden, 9, and Finis, 4.

This is a post about a wife and mother’s longing. It is also [...]

We Are Of Many Minds; How to Leverage The Best One

I wake up at 4 am three mornings a week to go to the gym and work out. Many people ask me, “How do you get up at 4 am to work out?” This question is not surprising; 4 am is crazy early. And of course the reasons I do it are numerous, but include [...]

Life is Full of Micro & Macro Route Decisions

Life is Full of Micro & Macro Route Decisions

(Note: Here’s a 4-minute video blog of the same)
Most of us have an idea about what we want our life and future to be. Call it our destination. It’s where we’re headed. It’s the life that we’re trying to create. It’s what every day we’re working toward.
There are many ways we can get there. And [...]

Route Finding in Life

In your life, are you following a well-traveled trail or charting your own course?

To Win, Back Yourself Against a Cliff

I am a goal-oriented person. I always am working on a goal, or ten.
From time to time, I refer to the goals I set as Ulysses pacts. A Ulysses pact, or contract, is a self-made decision that binds one to the future. The term refers to the pact Ulysses (Odysseus) made with his men as [...]

My Brooks Range People Made Me Better

My Brooks Range People Made Me Better

This is Post 2 in a series about my recent Alaska Brooks Range backpacking course.
It was Aug. 6, the afternoon before the start of my NOLS Brooks Range Hiking course. I was in Alaska, enjoying the comforts of the Ah, Rose Marie Bed & Breakfast, in Fairbanks, while waiting for others enrolled in the course [...]

My NOLS Brooks Range Hiking Course: Not a Vacation or Guided Tour

My NOLS Brooks Range Hiking Course: Not a Vacation or Guided Tour

Greetings from my beloved Frontier of Wyoming. I am re-entering upon returning from my National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) course in Alaska’s remote Brooks Range and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
For two weeks, I backpacked a country that is so big and unending and wild and spectacular that there is no way I can adequately communicate [...]

Alaska’s Brooks Range or Bust

I leave you with this video blog as I depart for my NOLS course in the remote Brooks Range and Arctic tundra of Alaska.

This Hike Takes Your Breath Away

This Hike Takes Your Breath Away

It was very early morning on July 29, when reasonable people were still in their beds sleeping.
Four of my closest girlfriends met my husband and I at our house at 3:09, and by 3:17, we departed for the trailhead at Dickinson Park, about an hour-and-a-half drive. Despite the early hour, as we left Lander, it [...]