Careers of Backcountrypost.com

I agree. This has been an interesting string to read through. I've never met most of you but I feel that from posts and comments through the years that I kinda know many of you. It's been fascinating to see a little more into your lives and find what diverse and interesting paths through life you all have taken.

As for me, I work as a structural engineer at a small consulting firm in eastern Nebraska. It's a way too responsible job and I've got too many other responsibilities to get in very many bag nights per year so I really treasure my time when I do get out. My favorite landscapes are the desert and mountains and living in eastern Nebraska makes getting to those places harder too.

I noticed how many of you changed careers in order to be able to spend more time outdoors. I also thought about it and made a career move once myself - but that wasn't about being able to spend time outdoors. I lived in Florida for 6 years after college and after getting married. Having grown up in rural New Mexico, Florida always felt wrong to me somehow. I hated hiking there - basically nothing but heinous bushwacking, lots of bugs, and occasional aggressive poisonous snakes. But I did get into sailing which was a blast (when there was wind) and which occasionally had the added excitement of dodging alligators! I went from Florida to Nebraska. I have a lot of good reasons to be here that don't have to do with being outdoors and I'm glad I made the decision to come here even though I do have that one regret. Retirement is on the horizon and my wife retired this year. So we're thinking about what's next in our adventure.
 
Wow, I am kinda surprised how many non Utahn's are on this site. Seems like when this place started it was all Utah folks. Kinda cool that it grew this way over the past few years. It's kinda interesting, a few years ago it seemed this place never got any traffic, so I didn't come around all that much. Spent a little more time on bogley.com, but that place now has about 7 active posters and I just got bored with it. I'm gonna have to start checking in here a little more often.

As for the thread, I am a commercial loan officer in SLC. Not the most exciting of gigs, but the pay is good and I get a ton of freedom with my daily time. I typically get about 50 ski days a year, about half of which are weekdays. Lots of "client meetings" up in the cottonwoods in the winter, and on the mtb bike trails in the summer.
 
uintafly said:
It's kinda interesting, a few years ago it seemed this place never got any traffic, so I didn't come around all that much. Spent a little more time on bogley.com, but that place now has about 7 active posters and I just got bored with it. I'm gonna have to start checking in here a little more often.
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It's our magic recipe of actually trying to be kind to each other and keeping it about the outdoors. Turns out it makes the place grow like a weed.
 
DrNed said:
Yes it has. I think it's Kettering U now.

I grew up in Flint back in 80's and GMI was where all the smart kids went.
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I was at the bottom of the General Motors Institute, GMI, class and struggled to keep up - too many distractive revels may have had something to do with it.

I graduated and promptly left there in 1982. Tough place to live - at least for a mountain person.
 
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uintafly said:
Wow, I am kinda surprised how many non Utahn's are on this site.
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I’m from southern Arizona and the first time I took my rucksack to Utah we went to Coyote Gulch. We met a couple from Oregon who had come back every year for eleven years in a row after seeing it for the first time. We met another couple from Montana on that same trip who had come back six years in a row. There is really nothing like The Four Corners and the Colorado Plateau with Utah possessing a major portion of the crème de la crème. We only went to Coyote that one time but went back to Utah twice a year decade after decade exploring many places. We only scratched the surface of the possibilities. People come from all over the world to the unique and vast, world class public lands of Utah.

I retired young after a 30 year career being an aerial mapping photographer. I controlled where we would land and spend the night and my pack was always on board. So it was work hard for three hours and play hard the rest of the day unless it was too cloudy or windy to do precision mapping photography and then it was play all day long for 30 years. So I got in a lot of hikes in some amazing places while getting paid for it. Now I just play all day long period.
 
Artemus said:
Wild. Can you illuminate us on some additional BCP fun facts? Monthly visitation? %lurkers vs. registered accounts? Most popular threads/pages? Please?
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Yes, but I don't want to derail this thread anymore than I have. I also don't particularly want to share some things with the whole world. I think I'll start a sub-forum that only BCP supporters can see where we can chat about stuff like that.
 
Nick said:
Yes, but I don't want to derail this thread anymore than I have. I also don't particularly want to share some things with the whole world. I think I'll start a sub-forum that only BCP supporters can see where we can chat about stuff like that.
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Makes sense...
 
Back on track...spent about 35 years in the wine business: marketing, PR, etc. In the process I also became an instructor at Napa College and written a book about wine marketing.

Now I'm retired from the biz, two more books coming out, and teaching four courses at the college...but I keep telling myself I'm retired...grin
 
I''m a news reporter in London, but with my newspaper's cost-cutting, increasing time has been spent sat in front of a computer (dreaming of something adventurous!). I'll post on the separate forum how I accidentally got into the outdoors & the US in particular, but the reason I get so much chance to visit is that I get 5 weeks vacation,, but as i work Sundays & public hols I can make that into almost 8. It's one reason why I've stayed in the same job as it's got less interesting & despite the pay not being that good & I shun a lot of things people spend money on to spend it on travelling (now with kids, a weak pound, & soaring US motel and food prices since 20 years ago it's tougher feeding my addiction!). But thank god for your gas prices compared to our $7.60 a gallon. I don't know anyone in my newspaper who shares my enthsiasm, but then southern England isn't an outdoorsy place as there are no mountains. It would be interesting to know how many Brits look at this site (& other Europeans). I've come across 2 or 3 Brits, one I arranged to go on vacation with to Utah for 2 weeks having never met him before!

The difficulty, not being from the US, is finding contemporaries (I'm in my 50s), who have no kids, sufficient funds & vacation time, the interest & the inclination & fitness to vacation with me. I've persuaded 5 people, but none more than once as they wanted to see other parts of the world & my South-West wishlist got increasingly obscure, off-trail, non-National Parks, off paved roads, technical canyons - places I don't want to go alone really.

So it's an ideal time to express my gratitude to members here & similar sites for their inspiration regarding places to visit, givine knowledge on many subjects (answering what probably sound stupid questions from less experienced people) & finally those who've agreed to join a complete stranger on trips (as being a tourist I don't have a 4WD or boat & there are no opportunities to get proficient at technical canyoneering). Several members I've met up with several times now & have more in common with them than UK friends who watch TV most of their lives!

My one major frustration is it's impossible to get good at canyoneering when we have no canyons in the UK & with kids there's no way I could devote weeks to gaining experience especially at my age with the fitness clock ticking down & any limited vacation time & money I want to spend crossing off the bucket list rather than learning stuff I will have forgotten a year later. (And canyoneering isn't something you want to think you roughly remember most of what you were told, when your life is on the line!). When in canyons there's been too little time for people to stop & teach & practice. I'm a bit ashamed I have to rely on others' kindness, as I know it's wrong, but fortunately I continue to be amazed at the kindness of those willing to take newbies & who've given me some of the most memorable days of my life.


PS (So, with my ultimate outstanding dream left being to see some limestone slots at the bottom of the Grand Canyon if by any chance anyone is ever willing to invite me I would give anything to achieve it....the gym 5 days a week, hours of overtime to fund the trip, show you every castle and palace in the UK, or lick your 510s clean, you name it, I'll do it!)
 
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