I began hiking at twenty three (to impress a boy, of course) and that first trip was up a loose scree slope in the Canadian Rockies. I was wearing nothing but a pair of barefoot street running shoes, a tank top and a pair of athletic shorts I brought with me along with nothing more than a store bought water bottle for hydration - not even a single snack. A few short years later I was introduced to backcountry camping and with that came the realization of how little I knew about the outdoors and the skills and gear needed to explore these spaces safely and comfortably. And so I did what I knew and then sent myself down a rabbit hole of gear research from top to bottom with a lot of time spent on the the bottom… of my feet.