New in 2025, I plan to recap my monthly adventures (big or small) with the goal to motivate others while simultaneously motivating myself. I kicked this off recently with my top travel memories of 2024. Some months may be more uneventful than other months, but all recaps will focus on how I was able to incorporate movement and adventure into my life for that month.
Have an idea on how I can continue incorporating movement into my daily routine? Or how these monthly recaps could better serve you? Let me know!
- Miles hiked/walked: 74.27 miles (166,673 steps)
- Miles recorded on trail: 27.11 (activities recorded on Strava/AllTrails)
- New places visited: Two Harbors, MN
Table of Contents
Skiing at Lutsen Mountains
Ski season in the Minnesota/Midwest region usually starts around or after the New Year. For us, it started the second weekend in January in Lutsen, Minnesota. Lutsen is along Lake Superior’s north shore and is one of the most popular ski resorts with the Minnesota/Wisconsin locals. Lutsen Mountains Ski Resort has lodging (as do the towns around the resort), but Eric and I stayed in the town of Two Harbors, and Jessica and Emily stayed in Duluth.
Saturday was our first day of skiing, which unfortunately ended up being minimal. The gondola broke down, stranding Emily and Jessica on Moose Mountain. Because of this, they didn’t get much skiing in for several more hours – until they were able to get a snowcat ride back to the main mountain areas. It was unbelievable. Eric and I arrived just after noon and missed getting on the gondola with them and even though we weren’t stuck, we could only go on the same few runs all day. Sunday was more successful: the gondola was open again, and we all got a few hours of skiing in before our long drives south back to our homes.
You can catch the group of us all around the Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan ski areas each season!
Volunteering at Feed My Starving Children
If you haven’t volunteered with Feed My Starving Children before, you really should. If not because you’re creating hundreds of meal packs for those without food, then at least do it for the competition and the fun. Volunteering at FMSC is a blast. The energy is high, the atmosphere is fun, and you’re doing something good in the world. I try to go 4 times per year, quarterly or more. Sometimes it’s when I host a Women Who Explore (Minnesota chapter) event (photo below), sometimes it’s just me and Eric.
Volunteering at The Great Northern
I first learned about The Great Northern Festival and its Climate Solutions Series event in 2024 when Pattie Gonia posted about speaking there. I was so bummed to have missed that event! Our environment, climate, and how to keep the earth happy is something I want to keep educating myself on. Since learning about TGN, I added myself to the newsletter list and signed up to volunteer as soon as the volunteer sign up window was open.
I was timekeeping for the Our Winter Weather Future: Understanding, Preparing For, and Navigating Winter In the Midst of Climate Change panel and/or the Britt Wray and Leah Thomas in conversation session. I was running slides and facilitating audience Q&A for the Unraveling Textile Waste: Hidden Costs and Solutions session, or the Growing Connections: Building Food Hubs to Support Farmers and Feed Communities session, or the Emerging Climate Careers session.
The Great Northern also has art series, music, an ice bar, and sauna village.
I hope to be able to volunteer again next year!
Skiing at Trollhaugen Outdoor Recreation Area
January’s adventures concluded with a day skiing at Trollhaugen Recreation Area in Dresser, Wisconsin. I’ve been here multiple times throughout the years and would consider it to be of my favorites (even though it’s small). I successfully made it down one of the black diamond rated runs! There’s a first time for everything 🙂
Trollhaugen has 27 runs divided by four levels: 6 green circles, 10 blue squares, 10 black diamonds, and 1 double black diamond. I personally prefer the greens and the blues – the ski level which I’ve been at since learning to ski in 2013. It’s my favorite, so flowy and carefree.
You guessed it – the same group of us from Lutsen 🙂
Lots of walks with Archie
Of course, so much walking with Archie! He doesn’t mind the polar vortex weather like I do, so we still try to get a little bit of outside play time throughout the day. Even though Archie doesn’t mind the cold, I still get nervous about unsafe air temps (-44* in parts of Minnesota, the lowest at our house was -21*) and try to limit cold exposure.
I look forward to slightly warmer walks in February 🙂
