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To a Future Trail Mail Club Member,

Welcome!! I’m Amanda, the creator of the Trail Mail Club, a community of women who want to connect with others who love the outdoors. In such a digital world, I wanted to create a space for women to disconnect from their phones while still connecting to a community that inspires each other to pursue the outdoor lifestyle that we all crave.

This idea came to me overtime as I noticed that I get excited when a piece of mail comes to my mailbox that has my actual name on it/came from another human. But these days, it really only happens when I’m getting a wedding invite or a thank you card. I used to love reading online newsletters, but my email is so flooded with daily emails that almost all have the incentive to try to sell me a product or have some other financial objective. So I had this idea… why not create a fun snail mail community who share the same passion for adventure as I do? And that’s how the Trail Mail Club was born.

This mail club is not about getting a monthly letter about me and my adventures, my goal is to be more of a… ‘trail guide’, finding stories, experiences, and advice to inspire you on your own adventures. I can’t promise perfect grammar or the most eloquent writing… and I basically can guarantee a few run-on sentences. But one thing I can guarantee is the trail mail club is written by me.. a 29 year old woman who loves getting outside and sharing my love for nature and all things outdoors. In each letter you can expect a letter from me, then a main news letter talking about outdoorsy topics related to the month's theme. There will also be some sort of inspirational quote, a fun location highlight, and lastly ‘Trail Talk’ which is a community corner with all things submitted by community members. A huge part of this group will be the submissions. Every month there will be different types of things you can submit to be featured in next month's letter:

  • Monthly Photo Submission- A fun prompted photo submission and member story based on the next months topic, the chosen photo will be print for everyone in the next edition!
  • Monthly Poll- to hear the opinions of the community!
  • Gear Recommendations- since a lot of outdoor gear is focused around men, I wanted to create a space for women to share their favorite gear for others to try!

And in the future I was hoping to add:

  • Member Stories/Member Spotlight, you can submit an adventure/story you had in the outdoors to inspire and share with the community!
  • When creating this vision I also thought it might be cool to also include members' artwork, poems, photography, etc with their info to connect and support them personally! So this might also happen in future months 

There’s no obligation to submit to any of these, if you want to be a more ‘silent’ member, we’re so happy to have you! But if you want to connect or share with the community for the next month, there will be a new submissions page accessible via QR code included in each letter.

This mail club will evolve based on the needs of everyone. I want to serve YOU and make sure we are creating something that is inspirational and beneficial to the community. So you can also share your thoughts & feedback anytime on the submissions page. Have a topic you want discussed? Let me know! 

When creating this vision, I knew one important aspect is to not have any ads/affiliate links etc. You won’t need to question if there are any other incentives for certain topics/discussions. Any gear or product mentioned in this letter was recommended by a fellow community member or something I use personally. There are no affiliate links or hidden marketing schemes in this letter and there never will be. My intentions here are to create a community in a fun and exciting way! The point of this community is to disconnect from the internet/online world that feels like it’s always trying to sell you something. The only thing I ask for is the monthly subscription to help pay for the labor & expenses related to putting the letter together, and I’m so grateful for your contribution and taking a chance on this idea!

So without further ado… if you feel like joining this community you can sign up with the link below! 

Hope to see you there,

Amanda

How the Trail Mail Club came to be

We live in such a digital world... everything is about being efficient. This rushed society has drawn me to slowing down and connecting to a more analog life. Phone free days, hand written notes, poetry, getting outside, art. Being an adventurous wedding photographer, I’ve always loved adventuring in the outdoors. Now more than ever I’ve gained even more gratitude for experiences with no service that allow me to disconnect from the internet and become fully immersed in nature. 

Being in my late 20s, most people my age are getting married or starting a family. All these celebrations made me realize one thing… I barely get any real mail anymore! When the occasional wedding invite peeks through the pile of junk mail, it’s so much more fun to open than a typical text or email. It reminds me of how my parents used to receive handwritten letters and getting their news from a paper. So I started to think.. why did we stop sending mail?

So that’s where the idea was born. A monthly mail club for women who love the outdoors.  Nothing too complex, just a way to inspire and share my love for adventure with women who feel the same. 

Even though we have the ability to be connected through apps now more than ever, I hear discussions about the lack of community people feel. The loss of third spaces, and people craving connection with others. So instead of Trail Mali Club solely being me talking to other people, the idea evolved into a way for everyone to hear from each other. The community section of the letter is a fun way to see what the community is up to, get some gear recs, and hear their stories. I plan to read members' feedback to see what they want to read, and evolve the mail based on that. I want this to be a safe space for everyone to connect, to feel inspired, to share their voice. 

So if you want a fun piece of inspiration & connection in your literal mailbox (not your digital one), join us! I’m excited to share this journey with you. 

About Me

I’m a 29 year old photographer who recently ‘retired’ from photographing adventure weddings and is falling back in love with just adventuring. I am based in a small city in northwest Washington, but I didn’t grow up ‘outdoorsy’. It was something I learned I loved once I graduated college and started to experiment with hobbies and interests. One thing I’ll never forget is the imposter syndrome when I first started hiking and getting outside. But with enough research and fake confidence, I learned that the biggest part of being ‘outdoorsy’ was just getting outside, and I want to encourage other women to do the same!