The Wild Solstice 🌞: Kim's 2024 Favorites

Hey League!

I hope you are all well and sane as the holidays approach! Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice, which is one of my favorite days of the year because we start gaining daylight every day afterwards. As beautiful as some of them are, I do get tired of seeing the sunset at 3:45 PM.

I’ve learned to embrace the darkness of this time of year by engaging in more creative and introspective activities. But now that we have some decent snow, snowshoeing and backcountry skiing are on tap!

I often do a book review at the end of the year. This year, I thought I would do a broader list of my favorite things from the past year. It always reminds me of 3rd grade when we had to write our own rendition of the song “My Favorite Things” from A Sound of Music.

Books

Fiction:

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.

This was one of those books I couldn’t wait to see what happened next, but also didn’t want it to end. While the story takes place in Appalachia, I think anyone who has lived in or has family in a rural area will likely relate to the struggles of the characters. The author paints an accurate dichotomy of the beauty and heartbreak of living close to the land and family in a world that sometimes seems to no longer value those things.

In my favorite quote, the character is talking about the difference between having grown up in a rural area and visiting a large city: “Sounds, I missed most of all. There was noise but nothing behind it. I couldn’t get used to the blankness where there should have been bird gossip morning and evening, crickets at night, the buzzsaw of cicadas in August. I often had to stop and ask myself what season it was. I never realized what was holding me to my place on the planet of earth: that soundtrack. That, and leaf colors and what’s blooming in the roadside ditches this week, wild sweet peas or purple ironweed or goldenrod. And stars. A sky dark as sleep, not this hazy pinkish business. For a lot of us, that’s medicine. Required for the daily reboot.”

Non-Fiction

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal a Hidden World Around Us by Ed Yong

This book has taken me a long time to read because it’s so packed with interesting information. It delves into the details of how the canine sense of smell works, how animals communicate using vibrations, how bees visualize their world, and how bats use their “sonar” among many other things. The most fascinating aspect for me is to compare what we know of other animals’ experiences to our own. There are so many things in the world we never see, hear, feel, smell, or taste. Aspects of the world that are completely hidden from us as we have shed our reliance on sensory systems in favor of our thinking brains. All of the things we are so sure of as a true experience of the world is, in reality, very limited.

Favorite quote:
“Our Umwelt [the world as we experience it] is still limited; it just doesn’t feel that way. To us, it feels all-encompassing. It is all that we know, and so we easily mistake it for all there is to know. This is an illusion, and one that every animal shares.”

Favorite Podcasts

Move Your DNA with Katy Bowman

This will always be at the top of my list. The things she finds to talk about in relation to how movement impacts and influences the body are amazing. She has an entire episode about coughing! I always learn something new and come away with increased appreciation for everything the human body does.

The Alone Podcast

I don’t watch a lot of TV but I do enjoy “Alone.” The podcast interviews contestants and digs into the details of what actually happens on the show, what they are allowed to do, what stuff is missing from the footage and so on. I enjoy the resourcefulness of the contestants and I wish the show covered more of that and allowed more of it. I think that is one of the greatest strengths of humans – our ability to imagine something different and bring it into being in creative ways.

Favorite Footwear

Shamma Sandals

The quest for the perfect “barefoot” shoe continues! I am still wearing Altra because they are one of the few that fit my caveman feet. Their Lone Peak is still my go-to because so many others now have stability control (which hurts my feet) and too much cushioning. I trip over my feet too easily with highly cushioned shoes when I have no ground feel.

Shamma sandals are my favorite all-around footwear. They have a huge variety of sole thickness and foot bed options, and I find their strap system to be one of the easiest to use and adjust on the fly. I wear these any time I am not on very technical terrain.
After trying many winter boot options over the years, I have gone back to mukluks. They are one of very few zero-drop winter boots that are warm enough for where I live. So many boots these days are made more with fashion in mind than function. I actually saw a pair of boots that advertised “grips on ice!” and “based on Scandinavian footwear” but the small print says *Not intended for wear in snowy or icy conditions* and the recommended temperature range was above freezing. Not very winter friendly, but they looked good with leggings I guess!

On the Facebook live for our Solstice Challenge, Hike Footwear and Barebarics got shoutouts from some of the wild kin, so I will be checking those out as well!

Favorite Workout Gear

WIld Gym Ruck

I am a bit biased but I truly believe our Wild Gym Ruck is the most comfortable rucking experience out there. It is more comfortable than my hiking daypack which is always shifting and moving around on me. Once I put on the Ruck, it stays put! Rucking continues to be my preferred way to get movement in. It’s just so convenient and hits so many important areas. As someone who is not a lover of cardio workouts, Rucking hills is a great way for me to get that in without getting bored.

Anything I can carry

My squirrel brain can be so easily distracted by new gadgets, new information, and new workouts! I can get bogged down in too much information and then it’s hard for me to make a decision on what I need to focus on. As a result, I’ve found that it’s most helpful to focus on movements that I use in everyday life. For me, that includes activities like foraging, gardening, hiking, and getting steps in every day. Carrying a variety of shapes, sizes, and weights while I move through my daily life is one of the ways I maximize my movement time. When I am on the phone, I often do carries with a kettlebell or a ruck plate. It’s super easy to change up a carry position (hanging at my side, up on a shoulder etc). We heat primarily with wood, so every day we have to re-stack wood from the shed. I’ll change up how many I carry, how I carry them, and what size the logs are. I carry bags of playsand up the icy hill to sprinkle on the glacier in our driveway.

Between carrying and rucking, I am focused on things that the human body has always excelled at and still play a big part in my daily life activities.

Notes

Whether I use my phone or a small notebook I always have with me, I’ve started taking notes of things I need to work on during my workouts. For example, on a winter hike recently, I found that my ability to do a lateral lunge while ducking under a tree isn’t as good as I need it to be. I noted to work on that movement as I strategize my upcoming workouts. I also need to work on deeper step-downs, so pistols are back on the menu after a long hiatus due to my hip replacement. I find I have an easier time designing my workouts when I can clearly define my “why” for doing them. For me, that focus is always my ability to be in the outdoors. Perhaps you always have a certain race in mind, a vacation you have coming up, or holidays spent with young kids (who seem to always push us to move in ways we haven’t in years!)

What were your favorites of the year? You don’t have to stick to my categories, maybe you had a favorite meal or motivational song or inspirational movie. I’d love to hear about it!

Wishing you a wonderful solstice as the sun makes its return. Enjoy the holidays and be ready to start off 2025 with a new Wild Gym challenge!

-Kim

The Wild Solstice 🌞: Kim's 2024 Favorites

Non-Fiction

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