Every adventure has a beginning…

On February 21, 2023, I found myself as I often did. Sitting in my favorite chair, feet on the window ledge, coffee cup in hand, gazing out the picture window that overlooks a small urban lake. The ducks were digging in the weeds, and an eagle was circling looking for its breakfast. There was a light fog on the lake as it was late-February, and the sun had just begun to rise. By all accounts it was going to be a good day.

My motivation was stuck somewhere between another cup of coffee and the inevitable slog of a commute that I had to deal with in my all too near future. Begrudgingly I pulled my gaze away from the tranquility of the lake and officially got my day started. I had a long drive ahead of me before hosting a long and rather dull meeting.

Throughout the day my thoughts kept drifting back to the lake and a conversation I recently had with a friend about a hiking YouTube channel I’d become captivated by. The channel was based in New South Wales Australia, and I couldn’t get enough of the hiking, camping, and fishing adventures. They had become my personal escape from the day-to-day routine.

I had recently completed a 365-day 10,000 step / day challenge and found that I was missing my daily excursions into the forests and parks. Over the past year I had come to relish my daily retreats and now that the challenge was complete, I was desperately in need of another outlet. I’ve never been one to dabble, I’m more of an all or nothing kind of guy and in recent days, since I had accomplished my 365 goal, I found that I was not motivated to do anything and it was not only affecting me physically but was also having a mental drain as well.

So on a spur of the moment decision that would inevitably reshape the path of my life, when I wrapped up my final meeting of the day in Yelm Washington, I turned left instead of right and headed out on an adventure. I drove to the remote Deschutes Falls in Western Washington. From there I pulled out my iPhone and began to record a 12min POV video of me exploring this marvelous waterfall park.

After my walk, from the same parking lot, I logged onto YouTube, created a new profile, NorthwestWalking, and uploaded my first YouTube video. It was raw, uncut, and very very rough, but it was a beginning. less that 24 hours later with only 30 views I had my first subscriber and I was hooked!