A Template for DIY Pilgrimage and Backyard Adventure: Lessons from an Urban Thru-Hike in Portland
Lessons about DIY pilgrimage, backyard adventures, and urban thru-hiking from a really long walk in Portland.
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Tim Mathis
16 min read
Go alone, but take people with you: Individual pilgrimage as a community endeavor.
Reflections from the Pacific Crest Trail about pilgrimage as both a solo endeavor and a community event.
Tim Mathis
13 min read
Travel is my church: Using ritual to turn your trip into a pilgrimage (Go on, make it weird!)
I know "ritual" can seem creepy, but embrace it. Do odd things. Watch your trip become life-changing.
Tim Mathis
14 min read
How to travel with intention: Deciding what your trip is going to teach you
It feels weird to talk about things like “setting intentions for your transformational journey," but such is life.
Tim Mathis
9 min read
Why do people go on adventures? It's so simple that even a child could understand.
Adventure serves the same purpose for adults as play does for children: to learn to be human.
Tim Mathis
13 min read
Pilgrimage means finding a place with a good story and moving your ass towards it.
We've introduced the concept of a GAP Month as a reliable framework for transformational travel. In short, it's a month of goal-directed...
Tim Mathis
2 min read
84 of the world’s best long distance pilgrimage and adventure routes.
File under: GAP Month inspiration. We’re serving 1997 Angelfire realness around here, so I made this unwieldy in-no-particular-order...
Tim Mathis
8 min read
The GAP Month: How do you make travel life-changing?
The GAP Month: How to design your own transformative travel experience, based on centuries of pilgrimage wisdom.
Tim Mathis
13 min read
Taiwan Cycle Route 1: What English-speakers need to know to bike around Taiwan.
11 things you need to know to have a great time on Taiwan Cycle Route 1. This article is a “Part 2” of a series on Taiwan Cycle Route 1....
Tim Mathis
20 min read
Why biking Taiwan Cycle Route 1 was the virtually perfect trip.
If you’re going to devote time and money to a trip, you want it to be good. Life-changing if possible. A lot of places in the world have...
Tim Mathis
10 min read
12 Books that Define Dirtbag Culture (and a few more that should)
Books that have shaped outdoor and travel culture into what it is today.
Tim Mathis
14 min read
Ghost sighting: Crybaby Bridge, West Alexandria, Ohio. June 22, 2022.
It seems like there’s a Crybaby Bridge in every small town in the Midwestern United States. I don’t normally go for that stuff, but I...
Tim Mathis
8 min read
Kurangaituku: The case to make a surreal Maori myth the next book you read.
Kuragnaituku is the best book you almost definitely haven't heard of (yet).
Tim Mathis
16 min read
Seattle music history, by way of artists that I've behaved strangely around.
It would be hard to argue that it keeps up with the London’s and the New York’s of the world, but considered purely in terms of per...
Tim Mathis
14 min read
The Old Dogs of Olympus
The gods may be long gone, but there's still magic on the climb to Mt Olympus
Tim Mathis
9 min read
Everything I need to know about New Zealand’s pandemic response I learned in a bar in 2018
A story about the social fabric that made New Zealand strong enough to beat Covid.
Tim Mathis
8 min read
New Zealand Is a Force That Makes Us Dirtbags
Aotearoa New Zealand has a way of making you care less about things, and more about the outdoors.
Tim Mathis
5 min read
Stating your intentions is the first step: Birthing Travel, the PCT, and the dream life
The first step on the Pacific Crest Trail, for me, happened on the internet. Big life decisions are like that.
Tim Mathis
6 min read
The Lower Hudson: A paddling gem hidden in plain sight
The Lower Hudson, Between Albany and NYC, is a criminally under-appreciated and accessible multi-day paddle.
Tim Mathis
13 min read
How to discover island paradise on the cheap in New Caledonia.
New Caledonia. Never heard of it? Here's why you shouldn't overlook this Melanesian dot on the map in the middle of the Pacific.
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