Musings from the Oregon PCT

Since 2020, I’ve made a habit of taking at least a few weeks off in the summer to decompress by backpacking. At the peak of the pandemic, I explored Idaho’s Sawtooth Wilderness and recharged between trails in their roadside hot springs. Starting in 2022, I began chipping away at section hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. It took me two seasons to complete the 506-ish miles of Washington. Last summer, I completed a southbound through hike of Oregon.

A month long backpacking trip may not be everyone’s idea of fun, nor what one would consider vacation. And I swear, I really did intend to turn my brain off. Instead, I started writing a pitch for what would become an essay that published yesterday, In Defense of the Burn Zone.

I am used to being in places of environmental destruction. At the start of my career, I spent three months investigating Southeast Asia’s palm oil industry. I’ve written about the emotional toll of bearing witness as a science writer. But walking almost every day through land torched by wildfires hit different. Especially through trails that I’ve experienced before. Especially through places once dubbed ‘the green tunnel.’ I didn’t want to feel depressed by the experience of it, but I wanted to look for what existed.

I’m feeling a shift into how I approach my craft. I’m noticing that I’m less afraid of inserting myself, of writing in the first person. Yet, as someone who came up in journalism during the era of Lena Dunham/Girls/Nora Ephron/ “Everything is copy,” I don’t want to think about my life as as commodity that can be parceled and sold for a few thousand dollars at a time.

It is frustrating to try and do that in an era where media outfits are now paying less than they ever have (I would have been paid $1000 more for the essay on burn zones a year ago). I can’t just think about whether or not I have an interesting idea I want to follow, but need to consider if I can actually make a professional wage for the value I’m adding to the world. It is also frustrating that media outlets do virtually nothing in elevating the work that they do put out by their freelancers. Perhaps it does not surprise anyone that REI famously does a really bad job of elevating what they publish on Uncommon Path.

If you love something you read, especially if it’s written by a freelancer, or published in an independent media outlet, here’s a reminder for you to help share it.