why a blog for inspiration?

Here is the introductory post I wrote to describe and explain why I have started this Trip Inspiration Blog. I hope you enjoy it:

Welcome!

I went to the Canadian Women's Wilderness Network (CWWN) Weekend last year. It's been going on for a number of years and while I've known about it for a while I just attended for the first time 2 years ago. Check out their website, our website, your website (!) to learn more.

You see, anyone can be a member, almost. As long as you are female and interested in spending time outdoors (and pay your one-time-only lifetime membership fee)you are in. (Assistance is available for the fee too, in case that makes a difference,which for many women it does.) The network exists as a forum to be together, to share experiences, as a place to get questions answered, and as a well of inspiration. The depth and extent of any member's involvement depends completely on them.

My whole experience has been to take part in the weekends. (There is a fee involved there too, which can also be subsidized, just so you know.) I do not intend to take on the task of describing the deep and vast beauty that happens at these weekends (though I do feel certain that will happen here quite soon) but I will say that even when I took part in a rather minimal way I felt included, valued, interested, and inspired, which brings us to the reason why I am writing.

After my first wilderness weekend gathering I was inspired. I had spent time getting to know women from all across a few provinces who are making deliberate choices about how they spend their time and money with regard to the planet and the wilderness. I talked trips and careers, hopes and dreams all weekend and returned home energized and ready to take on a bit more with my boys in the woods.

It was about this time that an idea started swirling around in my head. I walked into the next gathering a year later with some deliberate questions on my mind- I was hoping to pick some brains about how to better load and unload my wonderful, well-loved, spacious pig of a boat by myself; and I was hoping for more ideas of where to take my boys. What better place to gather information and ideas than at a gathering of like-minded, similarly (or more!) experienced people, many of whom are mothers. I spent my time at the weekend reconnecting with some good friends, forging a couple of new friendships, and collecting information. As we were all gathered to begin to close up the weekend, assigning jobs and making announcements, I felt the need to present my still swirling, almost-fully-formed idea to the group. I felt surrounded by tripping- hiking, paddling, camping, skiing, climbing, biking, experience in that room. I wished for the chance to sit for hours with everyone who had ever tripped anywhere, or dreamed of doing so, so that I could add their knowledge, their experiences and wonder, to my own. Would anyone else, I wondered aloud, be interested in being able to do so? What if, instead of actually sitting down together, we created an online forum where trip information could be shared. Would anyone be interested in accessing or contributing to such a thing? The answer was a resounding yes.
So here we are.

Welcome to The Canadian Wilderness Women's Trip Inspiration Blog.

What we are is an online forum to share tripping information. The specifics? Where we went, when, for how long with what size group. The level of experience that we have is helpful to share too- and however much more detail we are interested in writing down, like how much food you brought, where the freshwater is, how much you paid for parking, how busy the put-in was. You name it, you think of it, you write it.
This is meant to be an Inspiration Board, NOT a guidebook, so please use it accordingly. You know how much you can take on, what you have done before and what you are comfortable with. Keep yourself safe and our site operating happily by getting inspiration here and then gathering the necessary details, buying your maps and calling the parks and checking the weather, road conditions, and water levels yourself.
We are looking for contributors. I want to fill up this site with photos and ideas from across the country, across our experience level, across the seasons, and across activities.
Are you looking for some trip inspiration? Great! Check out the links on the sidebar or at the top of this page and click your way around.

Are you interested in contributing? Great! Click on the link at the top of the page and follow the guidelines.

The more contributors we have the better.

I look forward to your input, your trip experiences and your inspiration. Welcome!

Sonja