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      December 23, 2022

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      December 23, 2022

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      December 14, 2022

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      November 8, 2022

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      May 24, 2022

  • Home
Gaia GPS
  • 7-Day Free Trial Gaia GPS Premium
  • Out and Back Podcast
    • Gaia GPS

      Everything You Need to Know About Satellite Communicators

      December 1, 2022

      Adventures

      How to Avoid Another Deadly Avalanche Season

      January 21, 2022

      Gaia GPS

      The Best Advice We Received in 2021

      December 26, 2021

      Gaia GPS

      Avalanche Safety with Snow Science Expert Bruce Tremper

      November 30, 2021

      Gaia GPS

      Planning a Thru-Hike Next Year? Here’s What You…

      October 21, 2021

      Gaia GPS

      A Definitive Guide to the Best Camp Coffee

      September 30, 2021

      Gaia GPS

      Owls and UFOs with Ultralight Expert Mike Clelland

      September 9, 2021

  • Offroad Podcast
    • Gaia GPS

      Cook Marco Hernandez’s Mouthwatering Camp Meals

      January 25, 2023

      Gaia GPS

      Monique Song: How a City Girl Became the…

      April 7, 2022

      Gaia GPS

      TrailRecon Explains How to Become an Overlander Overnight

      March 9, 2022

      Adventures

      How to Stay Married on a Long-Distance Adventure

      February 9, 2022

      Adventures

      How to Go From ‘Desk to Glory’ in…

      January 12, 2022

      Gaia GPS

      The Best Advice We Received in 2021

      December 26, 2021

      Gaia GPS

      Gaia GPS’s Best New Overlanding Maps and Features…

      December 23, 2021

  • Adventures
    • User Stories
  • Activities
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    • Boating
    • Emergency Response
    • Fishing
    • Offroading
  • New Features
    • Gaia GPS

      Our Favorite New Maps and Features

      December 23, 2022

      Gaia GPS

      OpenSnow Weather Now Available at-a-Tap on the Map

      November 9, 2022

      Backcountry Skiing

      Find the Deepest, Lightest Powder with the Snow…

      November 8, 2022

      Gaia GPS

      New Edit Tools: Creating Your Own Routes Just…

      September 1, 2022

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      Top 10 Ways to Use Waypoints

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      Meet Map Packs: A Totally New Way to…

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      February 22, 2022

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      January 11, 2023

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      Our Favorite New Maps and Features

      December 23, 2022

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      Spy Avalanche Terrain with Higher Res Slope Angle…

      December 14, 2022

      Backcountry Skiing

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      November 8, 2022

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Map Points to “Yes” in a Marriage Proposal

by Abby Levene July 1, 2021
by Abby Levene July 1, 2021

How to listen: iTunes | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | RadioPublic | Breaker | Castbox

Maps are like love letters. They enable boldness, and they break down barriers to the impossible. This episode of the Out and Back podcast is indeed a love letter written on a map. In fact, a map in Gaia GPS played an integral role in putting a ring on a couple’s relationship.

Phoebe Novitsky knew there was something special about Ian Silberman from the first time they met at the dingy basement office of SOS Outreach in Denver, Colorado. The stars never quite aligned for these two expeditionary learning educators. Years later, Phoebe finally mustered the gumption to put her feelings out there. She sent Ian a text. He didn’t respond.

Turns out, Ian was gearing up to lead a 17-day backpacking adventure for this students. It was a rough trip. After Ian evacuated one student with a stomach bug, he noticed that text from Phoebe. The two struck up a text conversation that continued on for the rest of Ian’s trip, their words shrinking the many miles of wilderness separating them. They never looked back.

Phoebe and Ian smile with their arms around each other. They're wearing helmets, sunglasses, and button-down short-sleeved shirts and jorts. Ian has his hand on a bicycle saddle.

From taking a wrong turn on Colorado’s Grizzly Peak to bonking on an epic gravel ride, Ian and Phoebe quickly got to know each other through their trials and triumphs outside. And they developed an unbreakable bond in the process.

“When we are out together, there is always this understanding that the objective never takes priority over the other person,” Phoebe says on Out and Back. “At the end of the day, we are out there to do this thing together. And that is what is important. It’s not really about the destination.”

While it may not be about the destination, the landscape played a crucial role in forging Phoebe and Ian’s connection. The couple especially share a love of Buena Vista, Colorado and the surrounding Sawatch Mountains. Ian knew he wanted to incorporate geography into the proposal. He ended up taking it to the next level. Tune in to the episode to hear all about his ingenious plan.

So grab a box of tissues and sink into this heartwarming story of how maps (and particular Gaia GPS) helped Phoebe and Ian take a trip through time and space to put a ring on their relationship.

Follow along with Phoebe and Ian on Instagram. Learn how you can make your own memories in the map by using our new feature, emoji waypoints.

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Next Episode: Bike-packing through Japan with two toddlers

Jenny and Scott Jurek and their two kids smile for the camera on their bikes on a bike path in Japan.

Jenny and Scott Jurek planned on going to Japan for their honey moon…eight years ago. But life got in the way, including Jenny’s thriving career as a designer for Patagonia, their record-setting Appalachian Trial thru-hike, and the birth of their two children.

So in August of 2019, Jenny and Scott shipped their bikes across the world. And with their one- and three-year-olds in tow, they left their Boulder, Colorado home to embark on a month long bike-packing tour across the mountains, beaches and farmlands of Hokkaido, Japan. Carrying all of their own gear, the family covered 600 miles and camped in a new location every night.

Tune in to the next episode of Out and Back to get all the details about bike-packing in a foreign country with two toddlers. Jenny, who is of Japanese descent, describes the joy the family felt connecting with her ancestors’ homeland. The kids didn’t want to leave!

Jenny also keeps it real with her and Scott’s challenges of getting pregnant, including two miscarriages; how the AT injected new life into their relationship despite her sometimes harrowing task of driving around rural America by herself to support Scott on his run; and the struggle of balancing two young children with starting her own business.

While you’re waiting for this episode to drop, enjoy a short film Jenny and Scott made about their family trip. And follow Jenny on Instagram for an inside view into Jenny’s busy and beautiful life.

Last Episode: Emily Ford’s Winter Ice-Age Trail Thru-Hike

Emily and Diggins on the Ice Age Trail.

Despite its name, the Ice Age Trail mostly attracts thru-hikers during summer. Emily Ford forged right ahead and thru-hiked the 1,200 trail during the dead of winter anyway. After 69 days of post-holing down the trail, trudging along paved roads, and eating breakfast curled up in her sleeping bag, she also became the just second person and the first female to complete a winter thru-hike of Wisconsin’s long trail.

Emily did not set out to break any records or set any “firsts.” Her rationale for taking on the trail during the harshest time of year was simple. As a professional gardener at the Glensheen Mansion on the shore of Lake Superior, winter was when Emily had the time.

If you missed it, go back to episode 33 of Out and Back to hear all about Emily’s frigid trip. She wound up borrowing a lead mushing dog, Diggins, to keep her company on the trail. Hear the heartwarming tale of how Diggins ended up becoming a permanent member of Emily’s family.

Follow Emily on Instagram for updates on her adventures outside and gardening career.

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Abby Levene

Abby Levene is a writer, editor, and podcast producer for Gaia GPS. She's also a professional endurance athlete based in Boulder, Colorado. In her free time you can find her sweating in the mountains by foot, bike, and skis, or at home painting or curled up with a book.

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