About
Guides Gone Wild
What started as one woman’s fan-girling is getting a little wild.
About the Podcast About Jen Support Our Community
About the Podcast
The Guides Gone Wild Podcast was born out of one woman’s harder-than-it-should’ve-been effort to find a few female outdoor guides to work with in western Maine.
When I finally found and started talking to a few women who were licensed Maine guides, I was blown away by their knowledge, diverse backgrounds and interests, and general awesomeness. I’d spent several years as a recruiter, talking to - ahem - slightly less interesting people most of the time. I couldn’t get enough of these amazing conversations. Why wasn’t everyone talking about these women?!?
I love a good adventure story, and I wanted to share everything I was hearing with the world, so they could be as inspired as I was. I also love podcasts. So I putzed around for more than a year, thinking about starting some kind of podcast featuring these women.
And then the COVID-19 pandemic trapped me at home with my family 24/7 (ARGH!) but also gave me back 10+ hours a week from not commuting and forcing small talk with my coworkers (YAY!). It was like white fuel on the sparking ember of my idea. (Well, not really, because I’m super lazy and one of the world’s worst procrastinators.) As of June 2020, I finally birthed my Guides Gone Wild Podcast baby… and now we make history!
About Jen
Jen (“I” in the section above, for everyone following along at home) is the squirrel-brained fast-talker behind Guides Gone Wild.
The classic Gen-Xer, Jen spent 40+ years dutifully working the script she thought she’d been handed - go to school, get good grades, go to another school, get a car, get a job then another job then another job, get a house, get a family…. And basically what she got was frustrated, anxious, and pretty glum.
One of the few things she did right in her 20s and 30s was say ‘yes’ to almost everything her friends asked (or dared) her to do, especially when it involved being outdoors. A few regrets and lots of good stories later, Jen realized that simply spending time outdoors was the salve her soul needed when the rest of her life was getting her down.
So when mid-life started kicking her butt, instead of buying a Harley (a legitimate response, this is a no judgment zone) she blew up her life, bought a decrepit 1930s roadside motel and cabin court in the middle of nowhere (right before a global pandemic stalled the hospitality industry), and got the idea for Guides Gone Wild.
When Jen’s not in Maine taking care of Evans Notch Lodge and having as many adventures as her aging knees and kids’ social lives allow, she lives in Massachusetts with her very patient husband and two teen daughters.
Image credit: Katherine Donnelly
Support Our Community
