About

A few things about me.

First, I’m a human. Picture me waving a hand with five anatomically correct fingers at you. I write the articles, plan the trips, and take the photos for the blog. I write about places I’ve visited, often multiple times, and you’ll never find AI-generated content on my site.

After bouncing around to a few different places (Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arizona), I moved to Portland, Oregon, in 2015. As soon as I saw the Cascade Mountains and the Oregon Coast, I never looked back. The Pacific Northwest has that kind of beauty that goes beyond the aesthetic and enters the spiritual. The more time I spend in the woods, the more it becomes the only place where things make sense.

Before starting Pines & Vines in 2022, I’d always had conventional jobs with traditional work schedules (scientist, nurse). It took me a long time to accept that my restless nature is ill-suited to routine and, I’m afraid, to convention. Two years of responding to COVID didn’t help. Chronic stress and isolation have this way of putting minor discomforts into a pressure cooker and turning them into something monstrous. I got to a point where my emotional range was limited to tired or irritated. Change was intimidating, but eventually it felt more like a life raft on a sinking ship than a choice. I looked for anything resembling a career skill that I could salvage from the wreckage. I’m a writer. It’s not something I studied, just something I am, like being right-handed. I love taking photos. It was a start. The rest, I’m learning. Keywords, SEO, Photoshop, plant identification, geology, social media, and so on. What strange times.

I know how valuable your free time is. Back when I had PTO, it was more precious to me than my salary, and I’m all too familiar with the stress of trying to fix burnout with weekend plans. Let me do the research for you. I’m always looking for new excursions, and my favorite destination is the one I haven’t visited yet. My goal with the blog is to provide the information you need for your next trip without the unnecessary filler. I used to write lab protocols, which has been, unexpectedly, a transferable skill.

I don’t gatekeep. I believe that everyone deserves access to nature, and I want to help you get out there. This isn’t just lip service. After being mangled in a bike accident years ago, I can’t walk very far. A 3-mile hike is harder for me today than a 15-mile one used to be. There’s no inspirational story here. It’s difficult and painful and humbling. But I still love spending time with rocks and streams and trees more than anything else. If you do, too, have a scroll through my posts and see if anything catches your eye. I bet there’s something here for you.