Tayson: Hey everybody welcome back to the Live Ultralight podcast powered by Outdoor Vitals for those of you that are new to this podcast this podcast is all about getting you out on trail more comfortably and more confidently and the topic of discussion today is especially about those two goals we're going to be inviting you to join us in setting a massive goal um for some of you it's going to be able absolutely life-changing goal and we've seen that we've proven that out so today we're going to be talking about the OV 100 Mile Challenge we're going to be talking about changes to the program we're gonna be talking about how we open this up to the public this year instead of just our closed beta group and um we're going to talk about how we've made.
Tayson: It more possible for anyone anyone to take part and accomplish this goal so join us in this conversation um don't tune out don't sleep on this this could be one of the best things that you hear or take part in in all of 2023 don't tune out either if you think that 100 miles is too far you don't have any interest in that because the way that we've built this I think will work for anyone and everyone and take where you're at and just enable you to accomplish something great alongside us and really prioritize what's the most important which we believe is connecting with the vital Outdoors we're here to just help facilitate that and this is a fantastic tool for that that I think you're going to want to get all the details on. So with that we'll go ahead and jump right into the conversation we have Derek here our marketing director Tyler VP of Ops on the podcast with me today how you guys.
Tyler: Doing I'm doing great yeah I'm excited.
Tayson: To talk yeah Tyler specifically you've been putting a lot of energy and effort into this um and we really double down our efforts into this challenge a lot of you may not know what this challenge is so we'll quickly talk about that but really wanted to to explain why the heck we would be willing to do this why why you should should take this take a hard look at this but um you know for years we have developed content on YouTube we've done podcasts we've done all sorts of mediums the thing about that Medium is it's it's free advice it's take it or leave it and it doesn't always inspire people to get up off the couch and go set a big goal so because of that we have brainstormed for years should we build.
Tayson: A course should we um do live in person hikes with people and and just we've we've thrown out everything that we possibly could think of and what we eventually landed on was a challenge um and the reason that I personally love a challenge and so many of us in the office love challenges is we're very goal oriented uh personally in my life I've seen goals change the entire trajectory of my life for the better they've made me a better hiker obviously but they've also made me just a better human a better husband a better father they've they've pushed me to do things and Achieve things that would have never been possible that when I look backwards I'm so thankful that I had the opportunity to push myself I find most of the growth in my.
Tayson: Life and most of the things even worth having in my life come from pushing harder from from doing from taking the Hard Road that led to something better on the other side and so that really resonated with us and I think it was the best way that we could come up with to help inspire people to come hiking with us to be able to build that connection with our customers and and also just to to help you guys accomplish some amazing things and I think we really accomplished that last year in the beta form of this group well again last year we launched this as a just a beta test and it did extremely well so we're back this year to to push on it more and to see more of you guys go out. There set big goals and Achieve them um with that being said now um let's just talk a little bit about last year's event right and and and what we saw that maybe the things we expected maybe the things we didn't and and really what are what the people who participated in that event got from it.
Tyler: Yeah so uh like you said Tayson uh we've gotten a lot of requests over the years for people to come hiking with us and that would be really fun if that was feasible um that's hard to do with scheduling and permitting and just the logistics of us running a business and having to do other things on our company trips other than just you know hang out like we're doing r d and marketing and all that kind of stuff so that was one reason that we wanted to do an event last year another was we were wanting to give back to our Live Ultralight members wanting to just create a lot more of a sense of community and give back.
Tayson: Um to the group and what do you mean by give back though like we're this is an event we actually charge for it but we also try to provide a ton of value in it so we're charging for it though how are we giving back.
Tyler: Yeah so the giving back side was um kind of alludes to what you were saying about um all this content that we create and like we saw a need per se for creating backpacking courses or just putting more information out there to help people to become more confident and capable Outdoors but um we figured the best way to do it was to teach people how to complete a bucket list type backpacking trip and so we created what we call the Hundred Mile framework and that is a it's a combination of of education training plan stories and and everything that we could think of to put into one book that will help people to be as prepared as possible to account accomplish their most exciting and motivating backpacking trip.
Tayson: Yeah I think I think just to accompany that as well it alludes to the fact that we view this as a as a way that we give back because the way that we price this is to not make money on this event so like when you were decide if you were to sign up you're going to get a swag box and just in the shipping and the Swag Box and stuff we will send to the finishers alone those hard costs um that covers all of the cost of of the registration of it so all of our labor and time that goes into this is is essentially non-non-billable um and so to us this is giving back because this is the lowest Roi I can convince Derek our marketing director activity to to let us do. Because we.
Derek: Don't turn an Roi on this yeah I I spent a lot of time looking at numbers and and looking at you know what can we do as a company to to make sure we have profits and can stay um a company but this is something that is well worth all the time and energy and effort that we can put into it I like to live my life as best as I can by a quote that goes something like this you know live your life so that you can get to the end of each day and turn around and say I'm glad I did and to me personally that's a huge reason that I want to promote this challenge I want to be a part of and I want to help as many people as possible.
Derek: Participate in it there's a lot of us out there that we've had goals and Tayson has brought that up we've had goals and we've put them off and we said you know maybe when I'm in a better position to to accomplish this I'll actually do it you know maybe when my job's not so busy or maybe when my Health's a little bit better or whatever it is and we keep putting things off and then you know years go by and we get to this point and realize well I never did it and now the windows passed so to me this challenge will help all of us do the hike you know accomplish that Adventure go go experience those amazing things outdoors that that benefit all of us so much mentally emotionally uh in any way. You know being outside really connecting with the outdoors is what we want to help everyone do.
Tayson: So I want to ask now both of you guys have completed this challenge before um and which means inherently that both of you have hiked a hundred miles so why would someone choose because because I imagine a lot of our listeners are are you know they've hiked 30 miles they've hiked maybe 40 miles on trips maybe a little bit more um and some have done 100 miles right but like why why are we doing 100 miles and what's the benefit to someone to to set a goal like that like why does it even matter.
Derek: Well to me a goal is not really worth having if it doesn't push you a little bit you know if it's something that you could have instantly I mean just do it and it's not really worth setting a goal for it um but you know Jason you've talked about setting goals and how that's helped you be a better father a better husband and better and all these aspects of life and I think for me that's part of it um physically and mentally a hundred miles is big enough that it's it's a stretch and it puts some it puts some some pressure on you to just push a little farther and dig a Little Deeper which in turn when you've accomplished that goal will give you a bigger and better reward you know going back to.
Derek: You know being able to turn around and say I'm glad I did I'm much more glad I did something big than you know hey congrats Derek you got up and brushed your teeth today you know versus you hiked 100 miles this summer and you saw some amazing things you were able to disconnect that much because you're so far out you know on the on this hike and and that's just so rewarding and I think it's something that everybody especially in today's fast-paced culture can benefit from.
Tayson: You know so so to sum that up it just sounds like because the goal is big enough it's changing and altering your behavior leading up to it right so you might get into better physical condition you're gonna you're gonna care more about the gear you takes you're vetting that a little bit more um and then there's the benefit of look you know doing 100 miles especially if you're if you're one who choose chooses to do this all in one shot you're getting like five plus days of dedicated hike time instead of you know a one-nighter here one nighter here um which which may not have given you personally enough time to disconnect.
Derek: Yeah no if I wasn't purposely trying to do that I probably wouldn't have taken that much time to prep and to actually execute the hike and and I really would have gotten less from it overall yeah.
Tayson: Yeah I think that's I think that's really good about you Tyler I think.
Tyler: Another reason uh that we focused on a Hundred Mile Challenge is because you really don't hike 100 miles by accident right it's like um it's hard to hike 100 miles in a month typically unless you're a through hiker but this is a challenge that we created that we wanted to prepare people and motivate people to do a really substantial like life-changing type bucket list kind of backpacking trip and by by setting it at a hundred miles it does a couple things it it scares me enough to take it seriously which is which is like great because then I do train better I go in more prepared and I have a much better experience right the other thing is a hundred miles is a pretty good distance for covering a whole mountain range there's there's a. Lot of trails or sections of through hikes all across the U.S where if you do a hundred miles you've covered an entire range of mountains and and uh for those who cannot quit everything to do a four-month through hike a hundred mile hike through an entire mountain range is an awesome experience it's awesome and accomplished possible.
Tayson: Yeah it's totally doable like you even for those of you that don't have a full week off of work per se you know three days plus plus your weekend and you're right there in the mix um yeah I would I would second everything that that these guys have said on why 100 miles mattered to me um it it definitely motivated me to improve my physical condition um you know lost lost weight even in preparation um became way more capable of a Backpacker just in the training let alone when you know getting into that execution stages of it um it seems like today we live in this situation where whatever has the closest deadline like gets the attention and so for me if like let's say it was a 50 mile trip um and I wasn't.
Tayson: Trying to do it in a let's say a tighter time frame or something or or even at the 50 mile trip I can say okay I can break that into three days I can I can get that kind of work off time or time off work um like it's not going to hit that scale for me of I need to prioritize training over fill in the blank right so um I think that the Hundred Mile scares me enough just like Tyler said to to prioritize the training of it um I think the other aspect of it though for sure is what you can do with a hundred miles um that you maybe not be able to do on a 25 mile a 50-mile trip for us we went and did the Uinta Highline Trail and. You know to go from the east to west or west to east Terminus on the that trail it it's 110 ish miles straight shot so.
Tayson: Um you just can't see all that country unless you know we did a lot more trips and looped a lot of trails and and all sorts of things like that shuttles yeah yeah and and for me it the five days that we took to do that four and a half days whatever it was um really mattered because it is enough time for me to disconnect as well to to be able to just be there and not worried about what's what I left at work when I'm coming back to at work um you know those types of questions that when you're pulling off half days and and things like that um they can start to cloud cloud your experience out there so um a hundred miles has been a phenomenal experience for us and I I.
Tayson: Think that's I think that it could be a great experience for everyone whether you're doing a little section hike of 100 miles on the at or any of those through through hikes whether you're doing a full mountain range um whatever it is I think it there's there's just more you can do within 100 miles so that I I if you've never thought about that I I challenge you to just think about that for a minute um you know what would your bucket list hike be if you were if you had that kind of time or that kind of distance to to accomplish something it broadens your horizon right it's kind of the same concept of of when we started fast packing um the reason that I latched on to fast packing was hey you know.
Tayson: Traditional backpacking the way that I was doing backpacking hiking let's say 15 miles a day gives me you know a 30 40-ish mile trip and a weekend or or you know a three-day trip and that doesn't always give you enough time to complete some of the hikes that you'd want to do and so when we started to speed that up it it literally like doubled the amount of trips and opportunities that I had to go and accomplish certain trails and Hikes and and see things see things that I just couldn't see if it wasn't going faster so by prioritizing and setting these big goals and putting 100 mile label on it it's going to open up bucket list level opportunities for a lot of people listening so.
Derek: Now based off some of the previous comments on our YouTube channel and on this podcast there there might be a few of you that are kind of bulking at the 100 miles part you're thinking you know well I would never do that that's just not something that I I would want you know have ever done or maybe would want to do but maybe just hold on just a second there there's a few things that that we could explain that might might.
Tayson: Help with that yeah yes for sure we learned from last year a few things we were inspired by a few people and we will have options for some of you that just flat out think 100 miles is too far so stay with us yeah there's one other.
Tyler: Thing I wanted to talk about before we get away from why we're doing this and uh that is really like like we we talked about doing this challenge as a way to give back and part of what we mean by that is we want to facilitate um all of you everyone who's hiking and and interacting uh without their vitals to be able to make new friends learn new things and share with the entire group so we look at ourselves as facilitators of a community that is built around this Challenge and that was one of the coolest things that we experienced last summer when we did the beta was we had a separate Facebook group for those who had had joined the challenge and uh everyone just jumped in there and they were sharing how their.
Tyler: Training was going um what gear they were using what food they were taking what Shakedown trips they were doing and they were just making all these comments they were making friends they were setting up meetups and it was just really cool to see how creating a challenge also created a community that people got a lot of value out of and and I think that's one of the most exciting things about this is when when everyone has one United goal and they have a way to communicate about it it opens up a whole new type of synergy and an energy that just keeps people in it until it's finished you know there's a lot of accountability and camaraderie.
Tayson: And all of that so yeah we definitely don't call this like the OV 100 mile solo event right we we wanted to build as much Community into this as possible and that really Came Out Swinging in our first year that Facebook group had constant comments in it people sharing and they were really inspiring to us and other people in the group right just hearing how people were losing weight working through injuries um you know building confidence in themselves getting out prioritizing training so that they were even just going hiking in the mornings or something for training and how much that they appreciated and enjoyed and enjoyed that there was a massive sense of community that came from from this that that really took off and and it was way more than a solo event a.
Tayson: DIY event it was a community event and it felt very much that way maybe on trail you're not like talking with the members but I thought multiple times when we were out on the Highline Trail about how many other people were out on trail at the same time as us you know and and what it was going to be like to come back and jump back into that Facebook group and and you know share those experiences and see where everyone else had been and see what they were up to um so I think we built a really cool Community by by doing it as this event and it is not we it does not feel and and we've built we've leaned into this more which we'll explain in a minute of building more Community into. This as.
Derek: Well you know one thing that was interesting about that that Community is that especially on that Facebook group people continue to encourage each other even after the trip window had ended so let me just read a few comments and things that people had had either put on the Facebook group or or emailed it in after the challenge was over and they were still commenting and leaving their feedback um CJ he said the program helped me to get stronger it also helped with education on hydration nutrition and general safety uh Brandon he said my daughter and I made a goal to get 100 miles together over two months my daughter is nine years old we had King's Peaks as our final adventure of our 100 mile summer this was such a fun adventure with her and. Awesome to see her push herself at such a young age and then one more um Ryan he said we had a blast and it was a great experience to share with my son thanks to this group that really helped me with my physical prep.
Tayson: Yeah those are like that last part both of those last ones would really talk to you about the relationships of people they took out on trail right uh Brandon taking his daughter out we have a podcast on that if you want to hear more about that experience um so you can you can go back in the archives with Brandon Gillum I I always forget his last name exactly um but like Ryan you know taking his son out um we we internally value those type of comments so much in just that it's it's not just about getting Outdoors it's about the relationships whether that's you connecting with yourself or you connecting with with others um it was it was it was remarkable to see all the comments come in and I think through the build up.
Tayson: We didn't even realize how many people were going to be taking um others with them on trail that did and so when when people started posting about their trips it was really cool to see that content come in too um so the other other part where we got some feedback I guess was we do Live Events um in you know essentially we were doing Facebook lives right to to get people on talk through the program answer questions all of those types of things so that's the other way that we really focused on community and it was awesome to see people jump on ask questions we all I think we planned those for like 30 minutes it was all they're always an hour or more yeah like they all went over an hour because there were. So many good questions and things to cover um so we're gonna actually improve on those this year um with with the way that we're going to be able to interact with the community and make it more of a community live event instead of just a a bit more of a one-way uh mirror I guess you could say on that so it'll essentially be like a.
Tyler: Zoom call where if someone has something they want to share or ask uh they can raise their hand we can give them the floor and and they can speak right to the group rather than wait for us to find them in the comments yeah so.
Derek: That'll be really cool and that that starts tying it back to what we brought up earlier about you know if you're one of those people that a hundred miles sounds like way too much for you maybe um this is kind of where where things start to get really exciting if you ask me so how this works is you set your goals we're not going to tell you to go hike that you went to Highline Trail we're not going to go tell you you know you've got to have this much elevation you've got to do it exactly on these days there's a window about just a little over a month of when you can do your hikes sometime between those days but essentially this is about you this is about what you want to do what.
Derek: You want to accomplish and we're here like Tyler said to facilitate that and to help this training program with these live calls these live meetings um we will be here to help you every step of the way answer your questions we have a whole training framework that will help you know what you need to do each week leading up to your hikes in order to be in physical condition to be able to accomplish it and if you're still not wanting to do a hundred miles in one trip all the way through this year we're actually going to be able to have an option for you where you can get basically a cumulative 100 miles so stack multiple trips together within the time window still and still get 100 miles in that month window.
Tayson: Yes we've got the option this year um and again we're kind of inspired by just what many of you guys were doing out there in that beta group so this year we're going to offer the option to either do it non-stop meaning 100 miles straight or stacked which means stacking a few trips on top of each other to accomplish a cumulative 100 miles um are we making them are they choosing that upon sign up or is it is that like a.
Tyler: Yeah yeah they do choose it on the website uh when they sign up yeah we.
Tayson: Want you guys to get serious about about which method you want to do and and it all comes back into your own personal plans right um one of the nice things about doing it this year is last year we launched it a little bit later in the season whereas this year we're launching it um in January which means if you're like me and you're you're cutting weight pretty hard right now after the holidays and some of those you know setting some physical goals and stuff it's gonna line up very well with that and it can be something that you guys can keep your focus on all year and have an even bigger impact in in your life right because not only is it just about the event of doing 100 miles it's the training it's.
Tayson: The ShakeOut trips right so this is going to I think push you guys to prioritize getting outside and focusing on hopefully the things that matter to you I mean they matter to us at a really deep level and and if you resonate with that then then you're one of us right so um it's it's a great way way to get signed up and get started off on the right foot this year so let's let's go straight into the program itself and what it is what it offers we've already talked a little bit about yes it's hiking 100 miles you can do it non-stop or yeah non-stop or stacked obviously we've talked about a framework so we'll go into the deep the details of that is there anything at a high level.
Tyler: That we want I mean basically yeah I can just give you kind of how it how the whole thing works yeah so signups will be from the middle of January to the middle of February we definitely encourage everyone to check it out and and sign up if it is open to the public this year yeah that's the biggest thing is in beta we just had this going to the Live Ultralight members and uh we realized that we could we could give back a lot more by doing this for more and more people so if you sign up with us during this sign up month um you will get what we're calling the Swag Box and so that is going to come with a bunch of goodies um it's going to include our 100 mile framework. Book it's an actual physical book that you can read and write in and keep track of your stuff um then you also get some cool stuff from Outdoor Vitals from Onyx backcountry maps from Mountain Ops uh from squirrel's nut butter and then from some other brand partners that we're bringing into this as well and uh let me.
Tayson: Just let me say one thing there just one of those items going in the box is going to be the altitude Sun hoodie which is a 50 hoodie um that piece alone covers basically the cost of the entire registration so this box we we are putting a lot of value into it just in the book and the.
Tyler: Altitude alone so yeah the framework itself could easily be sold as a 75 to 150 dollar course if that was the direction we wanted to take it so there's a ton of valuable info in there but what happens is we're going to ship this uh Swag Box like the first week of March and when you get it you're not allowed to open it you have to wait who.
Tayson: Who listened to that last year really I.
Tyler: Think we had it I think we had a good amount of people who opened it during our live kickoff event and that's the.
Derek: Goal for this time Tyler's just sad.
Tyler: Christmas is over yeah yeah uh no that's the goal this time you you get the box you wait until March 17th which I think is our our kickoff and uh you can unbox it with us we'll introduce you to all the cool stuff that you're getting and that marks kind of the start of this journey that you're gonna go on with us and so from the middle of March to the middle of June you'll be following a training plan that is outlined in the 100 mile framework uh that you customize to yourself and uh during that time um everyone will be training together and so every couple of weeks we'll do these live conference calls with with all the participants and we'll just talk about how things are going we'll we'll um answer questions about.
Tyler: The framework we'll answer questions about issues we'll open up the floor to all the participants so that they can answer questions peer-to-peer and we just want to build the community and so you'll have those live conference calls you'll also have access to the close Facebook group to share how your training is going ask questions and share all of that and once you have completed the training by the middle of June you will be prepared to do your 100 Mile Challenge and so the trip window is going to go from the middle of June to the end of July and the reason we have a window for this Hundred Mile Challenge trip is because we want it to feel like we're all doing this trip together it's it's kind of The Best of Both Worlds like.
Tyler: We get to do something together but we're not creating a ton of impact in one single area in our national parks or in our in our Wilderness and so everyone goes out and does their own trip their dream trip that they've planned using the framework and training for and then at the end of July we'll come back together in one last conference call and we'll see how it goes and for those who who either do multiple trips in that five-week window and Stack Up 100 miles over a couple of backpacking trips or those who do the non-stop they will get finishers hats and pins to kind of show just a badge of honor of taking part in this whole event with us.
Tayson: Yeah it's it's kind of comical because this morning I signed up for the toucher Ultra race again um so for those of you that listen to those podcasts or watch those videos I'm gonna I'm gonna attempt it again um and I I say it's funny because essentially we're putting on an event we're sending you swag we're giving you the hat if you finish on that event I got a t-shirt right and then I got a like a little uh wooden little uh kind of like a finisher's pin right Medallion thing Medallion and I paid 230 on the early bird registration of this thing um which made me box just spaghetti that they give you I don't think I think I have to pay 13 to get the spaghetti right but nothing against our vipa we.
Tayson: Love you guys you put on a phenomenal event really you're paying for you know some of those Aid stations and some of the safety and fallback of that event but um this really is like a an awesome awesome opportunity I think and and it's and it's priced extremely well I wanted to go back to talk just for a second though and make sure that people understand some of this framework we're not telling all of you to go out and Hike 100 miles in a week and have anyone ready to hike 100 miles in three months you will set your own Baseline in this training plan right in the beginning you will go set your own Baseline and figure things out and then from there we have guides that take you step by step to accomplish.
Tayson: Your goal and what's what we feel like is a full reality for you in the three months of training and preparation time and then and then the window that we give you so just I just wanted to call that out but inside of this framework I don't want to give away everything but we but we do cover everything in inside of here um everything from like a full training plan to hydration and food to gear prep and and ShakeOut trips and pitfalls you know and and what what's the optimal training for this kind of stuff and what what stuff like how do you work through injuries and there is all sorts of phenomenal information in here that's extremely valuable and that we have learned through a lot of our own hard-fought experience on the trail.
Tayson: That we don't feel like you guys need to you know uh experience the same pitfalls maybe we have or read I mean one of the books that that I read and draw a lot of inspiration when even crafting this was like a 30-something hour book um you know about running and hiking trails and so we've we've really made this an extremely actionable book to look through and to to utilize and it's if you were to go and like Tyler said learn all this information on your own you could pay hundreds of dollars in coaching you could buy book after book and then not to mention just all of the miles that that we put on a trail so it's it's a cheat code per se that's going to give you the the best possible method. Of executing your bucket list dream hike so this this framework really.
Derek: Has some awesome stuff if you've never heard of The Sweat test I mean it sounds gross because it is not only if you if you join the challenge not only will you get to learn what the heck the sweat test is you'll get to experience it which I will promise you will make your life much better in in a lot of different aspects there's some really cool stuff that we've included in the framework and it's really going to help really anyone improve their health like like Jason mentioned you know we've all got to decide you know where we're at now and you've got to set that for yourself what's what's your your base numbers where are you starting but no matter where you're starting all this stuff will be helpful and will help you improve. And reach your goals and and.
Tayson: We've even learned from last year right like like we've learned on the trail so some of that stuff you know it's got built into the framework things that we've learned from from running my first Ultra or or anything like that or going and doing a collective hike but also coming back into um the next big part of this which is those live interactive coaching or q a calls whatever you want to call them um those are a big commitment for us like we have to set all the equipment up it takes an hour plus of our our core team's time to to get on those but we can share detailed information through there and and take those conversations wherever we need and this year we're going to do those through Zoom to allow you guys.
Tayson: To ask us on video what your questions are and we can have more of a conversation than we've ever had and it can really be more of a interactive coaching call than a you know hey submit questions beforehand and we'll answer them or ask them in the chat and we'll answer them this these are going to be really really interesting and we'll be able to bring on guests and ask other people to to share some of this you know through our own networks and so there's there's going to be some real opportunities there to to have high high level um interactive calls and again like Tyler said we thought that these would be really straightforward take us 15 to 30 minutes but what we found is that almost calls they got longer and longer more.
Tayson: And more questions were being asked and more and more value was being added um just to this program so that's another major part of this program anything to add from either the framework or conference calling okay um so we talked about the swag we talked about the framework we talked about um I we need to get away from calling it swag too because like for instance that hoodie it's not swag that thing is going to be very functional it is it's going to be it's gonna be your best friend while you're training and executing this challenge but um is there anything that we skipped over that that our valuable details for this event.
Tyler: I just kind of look at this like um in a lot of other sports you learn from the people that you do the sport with whether it's a team sport or a more competitive sport I used to race mountain bikes a lot and when I would go sign up for mountain bike race there would always just be this really neat sense of community of seeing all these different people come into one place to celebrate the sport and to see um what they can learn and how well they can do it you know and you don't get that with hiking normally you get it with trail running if you run trail races but this isn't a trail running event this is a hiking event where we want to build the community but also still at the. Same time allow you to enjoy that peace and quiet of doing your own hike so it's a it's a really unique opportunity to um to learn from the community while still enjoy your peaceful outdoor time yourself.
Tayson: Yeah I think that this event turned out better than than we ever could have hoped um the value that was created the stories that were shared um let's just be honest like I'm talking right now to a camera and a microphone and um it's not that that's lonely but we're helping thousands of people at Outdoor Vitals every year you know uplevel their backpacking we're helping them get Performance Products that Inspire them and they can have a ton of confidence in but I don't I don't get to hear or see that back as much as I would like to right I'd love to be able to see and Shake every one of your hands and know you personally um but what was so awesome about this particular event was it broke down so many of those.
Tayson: Barriers it broke it down so that um you know inside that Facebook group we could have really intimate posts about what we're doing and it and and get real feedback of us feeling like we were having a real difference in people because look product is is our our method product is what you know we sell product it's what pays the bills it's what allows us to to do this every day um but it's not necessarily our why like product enables us to do our why product um you know Empower like like it enables us like from a business to run but it also enables us to get Outdoors right and the better the product the more comfortable you are out there the more confident you are out there the more likely you'll make it happen.
Tayson: More often so it is a part of this but but us facilitating people getting outdoors and improving their own life throughout your experiences and relationships um is our why and we got that in feedback um through last year's event and it's why we're doubling down on this and and running it the way that we are trying to make it completely approachable to anyone who wants to take part in this um because I think the impact was was so worth it it was it was just I mean I don't know how else to say it was just it was a bigger impact than we thought that we would have um even with the amount of people we LED in that beta group um we still made a massive impact and so this year my hope is.
Tayson: Um yeah I could tell you to go like buy one of our products where we make money but um my hope my real hope is that you you'd buy this this you'd sign up you'd get registered right now and and take part in this because I think it will have a bigger impact honestly on you than going and buying our newest vario jacket or whatever it might be um it's it's it's so incredibly powerful the feedback was phenomenal and I'm I'm excited to kick off another year any any last thoughts Derek I feel like you've got something to say over here no.
Derek: I just want to bring it back to my why which I think really should be everybody's which is you know do it you'll look back and you'll say I'm glad I did and for that reason alone just accomplishing your own goals this is worth every bit of effort you're going to put in this is worth you know the really minimal amount of money you'll put into register uh it's really going to be something you'll look back on and remember and quite possibly with friends and family if if you're going to be hiking with them.
Tayson: Yeah.
Tyler: There's too many amazing places to not get out and see something awesome every year and uh so I don't know where are we doing our hundred miles at Colorado it sounds like.
Tayson: The top of the list right now is is Colorado um I'd love to get out there and do a section of the CT or the CDT um you know I've been in the San Juan mountains a bit the last couple years and absolutely love them but I mean all throughout their this beautiful beautiful country so maybe we'll set it like a year-on-year goal of even like doing the the Colorado Trail as a as a team where we'll do it for three years in a row or or if we need to four years in a row to to finish that 480 miles something like that so um that's top of the list right now we've we've uh we've still got to figure out the logistics of that but I'm super inspired to get out there in.
Tayson: That High Country and and see some crazy amazing mountain ranges but you know there's there's I mean for me like I'm a I'm kind of a western hiker I guess you could say we have done some on the at and it was it was phenomenal as well and I'd love to go back and do some more sections there either in the Smokies or the whites um oh man I mean we've been so many places Wind Rivers that would be amazing Sawtooth mountain ranges um you know I'd love to get and go do the John Muir Trail I may have to just do that like non-stop so I don't have to do the permitting side of it which would be um which may kill me you know my record I'll just no I mean we we.
Tayson: I've interviewed guys like uh Aurelius Sanchez right like he he had the FKT for the longest time um they don't I mean I think he's he like laid down on the trail for a couple minutes um I don't know you can't stop for lunch here you can't stop for a midnight uh snack and close your eyes you know uh no but there's so many amazing places to hike um that that I'm we were very excited to see we actually changed the dates this year to Aid a little bit and those that are hiking in the the south eastern part of the United States so you don't have to hike in August you don't have to hike in August to make this happen um a little better weather for you guys but but also if you're.
Tayson: Like us and you get to the High Country you'll have the the window to be able to get into the High Country and not battle as many snow passes so I think we got the the range for the execution of the trip also right this year um but yeah I'm I'm really excited to go do some long distance hiking um hopefully in in Colorado and all of all of their awesome Backcountry so there's I mean there's not many places I I in my opinion where I've been um there's not many places that you can stand on a peak or or even a pass and look around and just see like nothing but like 13 and 14 000 foot Peaks all around you um it's a it's a pretty phenomenal place so I can't wait to.
Tayson: To go back there and and bring bring you guys with me this time so you've heard me talk about it a bit so you get to come come see it for yourself but yeah okay we'll go ahead and wrap this up um appreciate you guys time coming on and talking everyone through this program we're really excited to launch this again we're very thankful for everyone who's listening that was in our beta group last year that contributed they commented um and that really inspired us to do this again we hope you'll join us again um and we're also really excited to open this up now to the public so that everyone can join invite your friends you know family members whatever get them get them on the same training program as you get them doing the.
Tayson: Same thing so that when you go out on the trail you know you're not just just killing them on the trail like it happens all the time you're only as strong as your weakest link so think ahead make big plans and we're going to help you execute them we're gonna be hiking alongside you we're gonna be sharing our experiences um alongside you and it's going to be a very fun and what I would say is probably the best DIY event um that you could you could take part of so um with that really appreciate you guys coming on the podcast if you have not rated the podcast you know what to do go give us the rating it really helps us get seen this podcast is growing really thankful for that it allows us to.
Tayson: Have a bigger platform to share our message to the world um so really appreciate everyone who's left reviews for us or shared this podcast that also is going to help us immensely but if you've got additional questions for us um we did just do a q a but if as always if you've got questions you can email those into Live Ultralight podcast at gmail that's going to forward to one of our work emails here um or jump over to YouTube where we have this podcast growing um very well over there right now um where you can just leave a comment directly on the video which which we're filming slash recording right now um and then we can kind of have a two-way conversation there too in the comments section so really appreciate everyone who's listening. Hope you guys are getting out there even though it's winter I hope you guys are um prioritizing your timeout sore outside and and your connections there and with that we'll uh we'll see you down the trail.
