PA to the PNW
Maggie Woodwell
I imagine the majority of you don’t know me, so here’s a quick intro. My name is Maggie, I’m a trip lead for peaks, and I’m from the rolling hills of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Home to three rivers, The Steelers, a bunch of bridges, and most importantly: me.
The highest point of elevation in Pennsylvania is 3,213 feet above sea level. To put that in perspective, for those of you who have hiked Mailbox Peak you gain about 4,000 feet of elevation, so CONGRATS you have theoretically hiked more than the height of Pennsylvania!!
The Burgh
In highschool I decided to take my passion for adventure and roll with it. I became the girl whose instagram was flooded with insane vacation photos of hiking, climbing, and rafting. I wore a Patagonia snap t pullover at least once a week. I wrote my AP English paper about the psychology behind mountaineering. To top it all off, I committed to UW for the sole reason that I could be surrounded by the endless adventures that the PNW has to offer (I never even cared to check if UW had a major I was interested in).
I came here so secure in my identity as the outdoorsy girl, only to find that just about every single other person at this school is ~outdoorsy~ and not only that but they are 10x better at it than I am.
Feeling incredibly insecure in my key personality trait, I just had to do something if I were to continue to truly uphold my persona and stand a chance at meshing with the pure intensity that is PNW outdoors culture.
Some notable efforts on my part:
Bought a pair of Blundstones to fit in (pictured below)
Donated my umbrella (because apparently that’s a thing).
Went on a hike at Wallace Falls. Tried to explain my gasping for air and excessive sweating on “the high elevation in Seattle” - ps Seattle is like 100 feet above sea level, so nice try Mags.
My fun fact at every intro course was “I like to visit the National Parks.”
Totally oversold my outdoor experiences (For example: I would say something about how I loved ice climbing, and it would come off as though I was a pro. In reality I have gone once - still love it tho and have a dope picture of me doing it, shown above)
Posted only outdoor pics on instagram so my friends back home would think I was living the PNW dream.
This may be shocking, but owning a pair of Blundstones, making the perfect insta feed, or attempting to justify why I was hiking so slow did not make me any more of an outdoorsy person.
Outdoors culture can be so incredibly intimidating. It's easy to feel like you aren’t good enough, you don’t belong, or feel like people are judging you (believe me I've had every single one of those thoughts).
I’ve spent nights before hiking just tossing and turning, worrying relentlessly about those things. But the second I step foot on the trailhead, reach the overlook, or just breathe in the mountain air, all that worrying goes away. The mountains don’t care that I own Blundstones. The trees don’t care that I’m excessively sweating, and the trail sure as hell doesn’t care about my instagram feed.
You don’t need to have the coolest gear, be the fastest hiker, or have summited Mt. Everest by the age of 5. You can just be you.
I’m a girl from Pittsburgh who likes to hike incredibly slowly, ski the greens, and has no desire to climb any large mountain.
I still have a right to call myself outdoorsy. You do too.
