521 Rick's Riffs- Campfires, Trail Dust & Kern River Lessons: My Outdoor Origin Story
The first time I realized the outdoors could be more than just a place, it could be a calling, was somewhere between a nervous 11-year-old with a skinned knee and a whitewater rapid called Satan's Cesspool.
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Show NotesI didn’t plan on building a life around the outdoors.
Then it happened.
A shy kid — the kind who barely muttered a word for two days — tugged my sleeve and asked if I could show him how to identify tracks on the trail.
We knelt in the dirt like two mini wildlife detectives, tracking a raccoon through pine needles like it was a national treasure. The look on his face when he figured it out? Lit. Up.
That moment rewired something in me.
Suddenly, the outdoors wasn’t just a place. It was a pulse. A calling. That same summer I found myself guiding rafts down the Kern River, soaking up adrenaline and humility in equal measure — because rivers don’t care if you think you’re cool. They’ll throw you out of the raft just to prove a point.
I went from teaching ghost stories around the campfire to cooking steaks by river eddies and sleeping under a galaxy-thick sky that made me feel both tiny and infinite.
Principle: Sometimes your calling doesn’t shout — it whispers through pine needles, screams from a rapid, or nudges you with a quiet “Hey, can you show me how?”
Transition: A lot of people wait for some grand sign to show them what to do next. But what if the answer is already in motion — just disguised as curiosity, community, or one unforgettable outdoor moment?
That’s why: That’s why I shared this story on the latest episode — not to tell you how to find your purpose, but to show you that it might already be hiding in the things that light you up when no one’s watching.
Call to Action: If you’ve been feeling stuck or unsure about what’s next, don’t wait for clarity to knock — go listen to this episode. It might just reconnect you with the spark you didn’t know you lost. 🎧