My History and Life Story

My History and Life Story as it relates to Adventure

For the most part, I fully acknowledge that one really asked for this story, but I figure if I am going to have a travel/adventure blog, I should talk about my experiences in the outdoors. Especially since the blog is called Bald Dude Outdoors. Maybe the story of my baldness will be shared at a later time.


I began my outdoor adventure career in the early 1990s as a Boy Scout. I loved being outdoors, I loved the new places to go, I loved the idea that you could take a backpack and go anywhere in the world, I loved the mysticism, I loved the mystery, and I loved that I could do it for my whole life. Then I got older and my life had me slow down and reconsider how often I could get out in nature and participate in adventurous activities.

I attended a small college in Maryland and earned my degree in Outdoor Education. While this sounds cool, well, it was really cool. Classes included backpacking, ropes course facilitation, Scuba diving, as well as kinesiology and human biomechanics. The problem with this course of study is that it only sets you up for being an outdoor bum, living in your car, or working at a year-round summer camp (neither of which were of interest to me). Most of my friends from this program tried to stay in the Outdoor Ed field but some became teachers (like I did) or started small businesses (unrelated to Outdoor Ed), only one stayed in the field and landed a job running the Adventure program at a college in Ohio. After college, I started working for one of the largest climbing gyms in Maryland. When I started with them as an intern, I was barely making minimum wage while working well over 40 hours a week. But I was super excited to be working in a field I had a passion for. I had learned rock climbing from a friend before I moved away to college and when I found out I could get a job teaching climbing, I was in. This job gave me the ability to teach climbing all over the mid-Atlantic (indoors and out). As well as give me time off to take personal climbing trips up and down the east coast and out west. I know many of you reading this live in the western states already, but the idea of going to Colorado, California, or Nevada to climb was magical.

All the while during this time, I had fallen in love with an elementary school teacher and she had landed an amazing job in Maryland, so instead of moving somewhere where I could have bigger adventures, we stayed in Maryland. I continued to take trips and adventures within 4-12 hours of the DC/Baltimore area. Like the time my buddy and I drove to New Hampshire overnight with the goal of climbing the Black Dyke (a popular ice climb) because we had heard the flow had frozen a little early that year. We got there at 6 am, saw the parking lot was full of other climbing parties with the same idea we had, so we left and hiked Mt. Washington instead. Then drove home overnight to get back to work the next day by 9 am.

I left the climbing company when my wife gave birth to our first child, so I could become a stay-at-home dad. Here I strived to get my son to take part in my mini-adventures. My son and I would take hikes, runs with a jogging stroller, mountain biking, skipping rocks, “treasure hunt,” and rock climbing (although he started to hate it, so we stopped).

Once my son was out of diapers I started on a graduate program to become a Physical Education teacher. All this time with my family, graduate school, working as a bartender at night, and a climbing coach on the weekends, left little time to take adventures. I continued to try to take hikes, bike rides and runs through the woods, but it never seemed like enough adventure.

After graduate school, I landed a job in the same district as my wife teaching middle school Physical Education. It was around this time that I started to change my perspective or shift my point of view on an adventure. I was getting older and busy and did not have the same goals or aspirations for adventure that I once did. I was okay with climbing at the gym for a 90-minute boulder session, I was okay with a few-mile mountain bike ride, and I was okay with a trail run or casual hike with the family. I did not want to have long car rides or alpine starts, or climb from sunup till sundown, or have to ride bikes for 60 miles to have a good day of adventure in nature or in the mountains. I realized I was happy with small adventures or even watching what an adventure my kid was having while he saw a grasshopper for the first time, or visiting a new playground.

Creating a mini-adventure just takes rethinking what you feel defines adventure. If you are in the city, you may have to go to a local green space or find a way to rent a kayak at a local lake, or beach. Perhaps you already live in a mountain town, then maybe it is taking an afternoon bouldering, or a quick paddle or an early morning run to take in the sunrise. The point is that with a little creativity, anyone can look around and make a bite-sized adventure for themselves, their friends, their spouse, their relationship person, or their family.

I am hoping to take you on a creative journey in this blog where you will be able to think of fun things around your home for the day or even overnight that would be short, mini, creative adventures. 

An adventure’s and adventure, no matter how small. Start your bite-sized adventure time today.