New Patreon Community!

Exciting announcement: I’ve created a Patreon community at Patreon.com/desertsirena! Join now to get videos, newsletters, digital downloads, my upcoming guidebook, prints and behind the scenes content for my writing, photography and trail design. For a limited time, you can get even your name listed in my upcoming book, Best Day Hikes on the Arizona National Scenic Trail!

Patreon is a monthly subscription-based site and I’m thrilled to create a community of folks who want to learn about and be inspired by the outdoors. Support from Patreon will allow me time to produce content, promote my current book and get started on the next one. And I’ve got a fantastic idea for my next book…

Each month, you’ll receive a newsletter exclusively for my Patreon community with information on what projects I’m working on and any events, podcasts or articles I’ve been featured in. I love sharing what I know about hiking, backpacking, the desert and how to get started in the outdoors. You’ll get an inside scoop on my trips, whether it’s packing for a weeklong backpack or just walking around and appreciating nature close to home.

For the first time, I’m providing a peek behind the scenes at my process for writing, photography, travel, and trail design and development. I look forward to sharing because I believe that people get inspired to do things they might have never thought possible by seeing how others do it.

Everyone who joins will receive a Sonoran Desert Wildflower Guide, discount codes for Gossamer Gear and Huppybar, and be entered in a raffle to win one of five Gossamer Gear Bumster fanny packs. Join at Patreon.com/desertsirena and share the link with your circles!

I’ll also be a part of a panel discussion with Joshua Tree National Park Association on Thursday, August 13th at 4pm PT called Why Leave No Trace? The link to join the event is https://www.joshuatree.org/live/ and here’s the overview:

As our public lands and outdoor spaces gain increasing popularity, it is our responsibility as good guests and visitors to make sure these spaces can be enjoyed by future generations. Hence we are faced with the challenge of minimizing the impact of millions of us who are eager to explore the great outdoors.

When we talk about Leave No Trace (LNT), we talk about caring for the natural resources of the places we come in contact with through self-awareness. But, why should we Leave No Trace? Who practices these principles, and who is left out? Why is that?

In this panel and open discussion with live audience members, we intend to explore the big questions of WHY that surround each of the 7 Leave No Trace principles and the idea of Outdoor Ethics as a whole.

Hope you can join in! It will also be available after the event at this link. I also did an interview on Instagram with JTNPA to talk about my experiences with the outdoors, trail design and the upcoming book.

 

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A look back at 2019

Happy 2020! This was the first time that I used the One Second Everyday app to record the events of the year. I really enjoyed the experience, it gave me a reason to capture memories of friends, places visited, days at home, and work at my consulting company, Trails Inspire. If you’d like more frequent updates on my wanderings, follow me on Instagram at @desertsirena and @trailsinspire. I’d recommend watching the video below full-screen.

Top 10 2019

1. Finishing my manuscript for Day Hikes on the Arizona National Scenic Trail
2. Wildflower superbloom
3. Visiting family in India after 16 years
4. Snow in the desert (three times!)
5. Women on the Road Campout
6. Wrote and was quoted in quite a few articles and featured in podcasts
7. Danced a lot
8. Grand Canyon trips for Anish’s wedding, Diversity workshop and book celebration
9. Colorado trips for Summer Outdoor Retailer, road trip with my Dad and Project 16x
10. Volunteering at Wildlife Rehabilitation in Northwest Tucson

Thanks to my sponsors, Gossamer Gear, Huppybar and Purple Rain Adventure Skirts for providing me food and gear for my adventures and travels, and thanks to Wilderness Press and the Arizona Office of Tourism for support on my book, which will be released in the Spring. And as always, grateful for my husband Brian’s support of my hopes and dreams.

This year, I am grateful to have visited the ancestral lands of the Tohono and Akimel O’odham, Yaqui, Chiricahua Apache, Western Apache, Havasupai, Hopi, Hualapai, Navajo Nation, and the Yavapai-Apache, Ute and Cheyenne.

Looking forward to putting together my book tour, doing more sections of my Grand Canyon Traverse (hopefully this is the decade I complete it), and trail design and development projects in 2020. Thanks to all who have followed along! If you’re looking for a retrospective about the last decade, check out my post on Ten Years of Sirena’s Wanderings.

Top 10 of the decade with photo collage:

1. Starting Trails Inspire and creating a career promoting the outdoors
2. Writing my first book, Day Hikes on the Arizona National Scenic Trail
3. Working as a rafting guide on the Colorado River
4. Finishing the Arizona Trail twice
5. Grand Canyon Traverse segments
6. Volunteering at Wildlife Rehabilitation in Northwest Tucson
7. Arizona Trail Gateway Community Program
8. Developing my photography skills
9. Off-trail travel and scrambling, canyoneering and climbing
10. Trail Design

Wishing you exciting adventures and personal growth in the coming year, if you’d like to be on the mailing list for the book release and tour, shoot me an email at sirena@trailsinspire.com.

Happy New Year and new decade ahead!

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