How One Mom Went All-In On Her Passions and Reinvented Herself: With Katie Writer
In this episode of Mom to MORE®, Sharon sits down with Alaska bush pilot, aerial photographer, and journalist Katie Writer, who has spent more than two decades navigating remote Alaskan terrain while raising two children in the wilderness. She shares how extreme skiing first drew her north, how motherhood shaped her identity, and how documenting glaciers and climate change from the cockpit became her purpose.
Katie talks about raising children in a dry cabin (no indoor plumbing or running water!) , enduring long stretches of isolation, and realizing she needed more support and more of herself back. She reflects on the skills motherhood built such as preparation, intuition, and playfulness, and how those same qualities make her a better pilot and storyteller.
Tune in for a breathtaking look at resilience, reinvention, and what is possible when you trust your own path, both in the air and on the ground.
[00:00] Introduction
[02:36] Building a Life in the Wilderness From Colorado to Alaska
[05:04] Competing in the World Extreme Skiing Championships
[06:35] Choosing Motherhood After a Life of Adventure
[09:28] Raising Babies in a Dry Cabin in Remote Alaska
[11:14] The Moment Katie Realized Something Had to Change
[13:48] Starting Over and Rebuilding Life in Anchorage
[16:51] Navigating Life as a Bush Pilot and Mother
[20:50] Using Photography to Tell the Story of Climate Change
[24:41] The Unexpected Skills learned in motherhood
[27:47] Katie's Dream of Becoming a National Geographic Photographer
Meet my guest, Katie Writer:
Instagram/Facebook: @akktwriter and @cubrideswithkt
Photography & Prints: https://www.katiewritergallery.com/
Scenic Flights: https://cubflights.com/
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Want to interview Sharon? Connect here.
Inspired to start on your next chapter? Book a free 15 minute mentorship call here.
Follow @momtomore on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Substack. @Sharon Macey on LinkedIn.
Keep an eye out for episode #69 of the Mom to MORE® podcast with Krista Demcher, storytelling strategist who helps entrepreneurs sell authentically, taking the “sleaze” out of sales. Coming soon - you won’t want to miss it ♥
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Sharon Macey (01:04)
Welcome back to a new episode of Mom to More. Hey, before we dive in, please take a quick second to subscribe to Mom to More. It helps the show recognized by the Signal Awards as one of the podcast shaping culture.
to reach more moms who are ready for the next chapter. Okay, strap in literally and figuratively because what does it take to build a life and a career in one of the most remote places on earth, raising two kids in the Alaskan wilderness, often on your own, while navigating both the skies above and the life you're rebuilding below? It's a life that looks very different from mine. And I'm guessing...
from many of yours, but stay with me because what you'll hear isn't just about Alaska. It's about resilience, reinvention, and what's possible when you trust your own path.
My guest, Katie Ryder, is an Alaska bush pilot.
aerial photographer and journalist who has spent over two decades navigating some of the most remote terrain in the world. Originally drawn to Alaska through competitive skiing and mountaineering, she built a life in the wilderness, earning her pilot's license, raising two kids in a remote cabin without running water for a while, and eventually launching her own scenic flight and aerial photography business, Visionary Adventures. With more than 2,000 hours in the air,
Katie combines aviation, photography, and journalism to document the changing landscape of our world and is the creator and host of the Alaska Climate and Aviation Podcast. Her journey reflects both the beauty and the challenges of building a life off the beaten path, navigating isolation, reinvention, and the courage it takes to chart your own course, both in the air and on the ground. Well, welcome, Katie. I'm so thrilled to have you today.
Katie Writer (03:01)
gosh, what an intro. Thank you, Sharon. It's really a pleasure to be here.
Sharon Macey (03:05)
Thank you. Well, let's jump in. And I want to rewind for a second. So you didn't start in Alaska as a bush pilot. You were first drawn there through extreme skiing and mountaineering. Take us back. mean, like, what was it about Alaska that not only pulled you in for the first time, but then you made the decision to stay there?
Katie Writer (03:25)
I
grew up in Colorado, Denver, Colorado. So I was a, you know, kind of a suburb city girl, Littleton, and my family would always go up to the mountains on the weekends in Silverthorne, Colorado. And so I was always drawn to getting out of the city whenever I could. And it's there where I found a lot of peace and serenity and also the challenges that go along with skiing. so Alaska was something that popped into my real
knowledge of what true wilderness was in a field research course in college. So that class was announced in one of my freshman classes of geography at the University of Colorado in the Guggenheim building. And I saw the full tundra and the true vast wilderness of really, really remote regions.
But I had a lot of growing up to do and
getting the college degree and I kind of got sidetracked in California for a while. I was on my way to live in San Francisco and get a real job in the city because I had sort of a background where it sort of expected of me to go get a real job and I didn't know really what that meant.
Sharon Macey (04:33)
Well, and real
jobs can be defined in many ways as we know, but yeah, continue.
Katie Writer (04:37)
Yeah,
and
I got sidetracked in Lake Tahoe area, which led me to ski mountaineering. Lake Tahoe had kind of an epicenter for extreme skiing. was sort of like the late 1990s when Shane McConkey and Wendy Fisher, Lhotse Miriam, she was also organizer of really putting free skiing, or at the time was extreme skiing. It put it on kind of
the beginning of being on a world stage. So that skiing kind of helped me fulfill some of those adventurous pursuits and also being really free-spirited after college because everything up to that had seemed very,
like, I don't know, like you're just expected to do these things.
Sharon Macey (05:20)
Interesting. Okay, so then flash forward from our little rewind and you're in Alaska and you competed in the World Extreme
skiing competition. Was it Valdez? Yeah.
Katie Writer (05:29)
Yeah. It was, is the World
Extreme Skiing Championships. And those events were held in valleys on Thompson Pass, accessed through helicopters to some of the most rugged mountains of the Chugach range. that was shaped so much of the rest of the next chapter of my life, because that was sort of a carrot for a competitive skier. It was like the highest level that you could compete in that sport.
It was sort of like the Olympics for me, which I had always wanted to do as a kid, but I didn't manifest that dream. But this was sort of like a lot of training that went up to lead to that as an athlete.
being there in Valdez and meeting people from all around the world that were skiers was really exciting. And it really was sort of like exposing me to,
the skills that were required in Alaska, like crevasse rescue class.
avalanche training and
was like this network of really incredible people that really took skiing to a more adventurous level.
Sharon Macey (06:28)
I mean, I ski, but
were not even on the same wavelength.
Katie Writer (06:31)
Yeah.
Sharon Macey (06:31)
You're like
so much ahead of me, which is so impressive and incredible.
Okay, so you said that becoming a stay-at-home mom was a very conscious choice, but you had already built this adventurous and highly skilled life as a pilot, an instructor, skier, and guide. What led you to step into that role?
And arguably, you could say that the season of stay at home motherhood can be categorized as an extreme sport. Wouldn't you agree? Yeah.
Katie Writer (06:59)
Yeah, there's a lot
of a
that goes into that you know and what led me to that was
meeting the right person and also being at the right phase of my life where I was Open to that and ironically you know I had moved to Alaska in 2004 to be a flight instructor as you mentioned for float ratings in Telkeetna Which is where I had been to climb Denali? Possibly five years previous so it was kind of a full circle
Sharon Macey (07:22)
Wow.
Katie Writer (07:23)
of ending up there for my first job flying for a living. And it was there that I met my husband and we met at the pub at a Burger and Brew night. And it was definitely a unique encounter where within a couple months I was definitely like smitten by this guy. But he was
hunting guide, fishing guide. He was not really around. And I had a job at a float plane base. I'd see him.
going offline with somebody else and it was kind of a mystical character that probably drew in someone that was like not really available. And then also, you know, became the father of
Sharon Macey (07:59)
insight.
Katie Writer (08:00)
my children. So I think the question being a stay at home
mom,
it was required because we didn't have any family nearby.
There's planning that goes involved, but there's also a lot of just being in the moment. And it's sort of like,
being able to navigate kids that are taking your constant attention. And, you know, I think that flying is like that too. And so I was really lucky because I had a daughter first, we had our daughter Ren, and then we had our son too.
years later so there was enough of a gap between the two kids. I never felt overwhelmed being a mom. I honestly loved it so much and even my older sisters were like, God, we never thought you were going to have kids because I was such an adventurous person and
I really was hoping to get a job up in Fairbanks as a pilot that was tracking wolves in the wilderness and it was tying in some of my
background as a geography major, so
I was really like checking the list, the boxes to get to that job, but then when I met the right person to have kids with, it was like, well, I guess I'm gonna put that on hold.
Sharon Macey (09:03)
Interesting. So adventurous. I love that. And I will point out,
you have two kids, a son and a daughter, and your daughter's graduating high school, right? Right. And your son, think, is 15? Right, right.
Katie Writer (09:11)
Yes, it's a. Yep, and he's going to turn 16.
He's getting his driver's license next month.
Sharon Macey (09:18)
that's great.
maybe being up in Alaska, he'd get his like snowmobile license. Yeah.
Katie Writer (09:22)
Yeah, you're right.
He has a motorbike and they give the kids a driver's permit at age 14 and so like we are literally getting his license at when soon as his birthday he's getting it.
Sharon Macey (09:34)
Okay,
he's ready, he's ready. Okay, so you were raising your babies in a dry cabin, right? With no running water for a while, you said you were hauling buckets. You mentioned that your husband had been away for long stretches. What did that really look like?
maybe that level of isolation day in and day out?
Katie Writer (09:52)
You know, it's just the summers really stick out in my mind because the property we lived on, we had a garden, we were definitely not like homesteading. And I might say, even though it's isolated for a lot of people in the world, it's on the road system and there's schools and stores an hour and a half away. it was really so special because the kids entertained themselves a lot. We didn't have a television, we still don't.
And we were just really based on being outdoors a lot. Some days the mosquitoes would be really bad, so you would go into town where maybe they weren't as bad.
the kids loved to be on the river, and as a family we did a lot of after,
the day of work had passed, we would go up river in a riverboat and go fishing. with the midnight sun, the beauty of summers is like
Sharon Macey (10:41)
you
Katie Writer (10:41)
the happy time because
It's like being energized
like for example, now we're in late March, the sun is coming back. We have a lot of months that are just dark and cold and it's
really tough on But then when the summer comes out, it's like very, like so awesome that you're like, I love Alaska, you know, and it makes up for all.
Sharon Macey (11:00)
That's great. All right. So you shared that there came a point when you realized that you needed more, more support, more partnership and more of yourself back. Your marriage ended and you had no family nearby, two kids and an Alaskan wilderness that sometimes doesn't make things super easy. You said something that really struck with me
that a woman needs to leave
when she is not valued. And I respect that enormously. What was that moment of clarity like for you? And what gave you the courage to act on it? And what did that very first chapter of rebuilding start to look like?
Katie Writer (11:38)
was devastating for one. you know, it just very much of that middle life time that I think I'm not the only one. A lot of marriages that have just maybe a loop partner, someone who's not really have
the similar family background and desire to build a partnership was a big thing. know, a lot of people mimic what their families did. my parents were married for 60 years and
Sharon Macey (12:04)
Hmm.
Katie Writer (12:05)
They were such a team
my mom was an interior decorator, my dad was a home builder, and it was very city. Not like big city, but it was just really different. And
maybe as you get older, you kind of start to morph into your parents more.
I was going through something deep in my life when my mother had Parkinson's
Sharon Macey (12:23)
Mm.
Katie Writer (12:23)
and
she was such a beautiful poised woman it was really difficult to see her struggling with the motor functions and all that and she and I were always very close
I think that was a reason why things even became more separate with the father of my children I was taking more time to travel to what we call the lower 48. My parents ended up retiring to California, but it just, was like there was no teamwork of like, my God, your family is going through something hard, how can I be there for you?
And so the way I turned it into a positive thing
is I, with the help of my family, I purchased a house in Anchorage, which was a city that was two and a half hours away, and it was only a half an hour or 40 minutes from a ski area. And if I might say, I think skiing has saved my life many times of helping me get through things that were really hard or.
Getting to
Sharon Macey (13:14)
Right.
Katie Writer (13:14)
know myself at a time, maybe in college when I was insecure and having to take that next step, you know, I think we go to sports sometimes
the physicality, helps us work through the difficult emotions. so getting to share a new space with my kids that was a totally new chapter was really,
really wonderful. in a way, it's still hard because
I'd still obviously go back to that old home and I'm just watching improvements being made now and it's like, I can't say how difficult it's been. It's just been incredibly difficult.
you know, I guess I wanted to be a role model for my daughter to show her that she can make a change in her life if she ever did not feel valued.
a lot of people say, they'll stay together for the marriage or for the children. For me, it was opposite of like, I need to get out of this relationship for the children because I don't want to model.
this for them and think that that's acceptable.
Sharon Macey (14:16)
but you're
being like mama bear in that regard, right? Protecting the kids. So thank you for that. Katie, we are gonna take a quick break. And when we return, we are diving deeper into this multi-hyphenated next chapter of your life.
We'll be right back.
Hey,
we are back with Katie Ryder. Okay, Katie, so you've described the independence required to be a bush pilot in Alaska as a metaphor for your life. Like never knowing if what's around the bend is a thunderstorm or a peaceful lake. I'm willing to bet that flying has taught you something about navigating uncertainty that no therapist or book ever could. So I'd love for you to talk about that.
Katie Writer (15:46)
Well, it's really true. I've been in the airplane with my kids before trying to get us all out of a remote cabin and coming around the corner and seeing this huge merging thunderstorm and just being like, we have a problem here.
Sharon Macey (16:00)
Let's turn around, yeah.
Katie Writer (16:02)
And then we ended up landing on a lake and the wind was blowing the little tiny bush plane. It's a little tiny airplane.
And my kids were quite young and they both fit together in the back seat. I just remember my son getting out, you know, being kind of on to the adventure, but then being like, look at all these great hiking trails around here. I'm like, yeah, bears make really nice trails. And he jumped right back in the airplane and it was getting ready to be possibly camping out the night just in that spot. And so I think being a mom requires you to be prepared. And I think that being a bush pilot,
I am extra prepared by being a mom and you say like mama bear. Well, I have everything I needed. First thing I did was put some pistol bullets in my 44 and be ready for that. Second thing, yeah, where's
Sharon Macey (16:48)
For the wildlife, yeah, absolutely.
Katie Writer (16:50)
the headlamps? Kids, put your warmer layer on. We might be here for a while. I always carry in my airplane what, you you can only fit so much, but I would always, you know, have a sleeping bag for everybody on board and the ability to survive a night or two, extra food.
You just have this mentality flying around here. You're always ready to
Sharon Macey (17:09)
Yeah.
Katie Writer (17:09)
spend the night out.
Sharon Macey (17:11)
You are so prepared. I'm really impressed.
OK, so you had alluded to it right at very beginning. Walk our listeners through what it actually feels like to fly in this gorgeous Alaskan wilderness.
Katie Writer (17:24)
Well, once you take off, the one thing that people notice is you might take off on a lake and all of a sudden you're above the landscape and there's no roads. And it's really unique up here where it's wilderness. It's big glacier fed rivers that have multiple braids and different colors from the glacier silt. And there's just a sense of being in a really small bush plane. Like it's so small that it fits you like a glove.
So you're really feeling like you're flying. so I get to take people and it's like you're not in a jet that's climbing up and it's straight and it's like, it's like you're fluid like a skier would be going down the slope.
it rocks you into this feeling of security because I feel like I'm always really safe and
I feel like it gives people a reset of completely physically in their being that's just, you know, we talk one on one because it's,
very personable in a super cub and sometimes,
you might see a pair of moose of mother and a baby crossing the river and they might hear the airplane and then kind of stop and kind of wonder, you know. And so
Sharon Macey (18:29)
Yeah.
Katie Writer (18:30)
you're interacting, you're close to the ground, you're over the treetops,
Wren and I and my daughter were out last month and we saw a pair of wolves on the frozen river trotting with their giant shadows, kind of showing where they were. And it turns out there was a moose nearby and it wouldn't surprise me that they were on a hunt for that moose. So you're just right out of where we live, you see these things. And that in itself is, it just puts you as a human on the scale of like, we're just so.
small in the scale of the wilderness and I have such a passion
Sharon Macey (19:06)
Yeah.
Katie Writer (19:06)
for the natural world and that's really what drew me to be a bush pilot and want to have a scenic flight business is because I feel like if people like I can make a difference in their life by showing this to them that they might be more proactive on issues that require a vote on how to take better care of our environment.
Sharon Macey (19:27)
Right, and I love that.
continuing on talking about your aerial photography, you have documented glaciers and rivers and climate change from the cockpit, which is so cool. When did you realize that this was bigger than flying and that this was really your voice and your purpose?
Katie Writer (19:45)
Well, Sharon, thanks for bringing that out because
it's like the educated part of myself that got a college degree, that studied geography in college, it felt like I was going to go out into the world and make a change. And then there I was in the world just kind of surviving,
getting kids through school. And then I was like, God, I just want to make a difference. And so I started taking photos of the glacier, the Toe of the Ruth Glacier. And it's funny, I even have a mug that's a glacier.
Sharon Macey (20:10)
There you go. For those
of you on YouTube, you're seeing it. Okay.
Katie Writer (20:14)
I was working as a news journalist for a local radio station in a little town and all the stories that I was interviewing scientists were I was absolutely passionate about. So that led to me creating a series about climate change in a news series which led to then writing an article that was published in AOPPA.
it's an Association for General Aviation.
The story came out in that and I put a whole year into writing this story.
so it was really a ton of work. I had to convince them that someone that wasn't one of their writers to publish the story, but it ended up getting an award from the Alaska Press Club as one of the best magazine feature stories.
it helped because being at home with all these like expectations of my soul path,
was hard. felt like, you know, being that their dad was a hunting guide and he would be gone, I really was required to be at home or only take on some of these really
Sharon Macey (21:09)
Right.
Katie Writer (21:09)
part-time jobs.
Sharon Macey (21:10)
But also doing something like that, clearly you researched it, you put in a ton of time and effort into it, but to be recognized for that, that must have been just felt so empowering and super proud. And congratulations for that. That's huge.
Katie Writer (21:24)
Thank you so much, Sharon. You know how it feels when you a little recognition. It kind of keeps you going,
Sharon Macey (21:30)
Nah.
Katie Writer (21:30)
and then you want to do more with it,
Sharon Macey (21:32)
That's so true.
But you also have a podcast, right? So your podcast is called the Alaska Climate and Aviation Podcast, which sits at this really fascinating intersection of science and aviation and storytelling. And I've listened to it, and you've got these mountain guides who you're talking to. It's really fascinating. How did a geography major with a super cub a bush pilot with two kids become one of Alaska's top educational podcasters?
Katie Writer (21:59)
it's
just feeling the need to be making a difference in the world and just
being a storyteller, I think that the environmental story is a really important one. Living in Alaska, we see these changes at a further accelerated rate. We have a really challenged situation in our country where people aren't really
believing in climate change. And so I find that photographs are telling the story and I'm seeing it. And even people that might not have a chance to be in an airplane aren't gonna get a chance to see it. And so by having the visuals from the airplane and then the interviews with scientists and then I would use audios to interview for my, you know, the scientists for my journalism. And then I was like, I have all this great tape. How can I?
use this to a greater audience, I'll make a podcast. And it led to that. And the podcast started during the pandemic and it was when everyone was at home and I just did it and home office,
Sharon Macey (22:57)
So many things started during the pandemic, yeah.
Katie Writer (23:00)
right? Like that. I still do. And it's very simple,
I find it's almost shocking to me that people actually have heard about it when I'm on the chairlift. yeah, the Alaska climate and aviation podcast. And I just have to chuckle because it's so grassroots of a
Mom
doing something in her home office.
Sharon Macey (23:15)
But that's so cool that, you know, random person on ski lift has heard of your show.
That's fantastic. OK, so we're jumping back into mom skills here for a moment. What skills did motherhood specifically hardwire into you that make you a better pilot, a better interviewer, a better storyteller, a better woman today?
Katie Writer (23:36)
Well, being prepared. I
Sharon Macey (23:39)
Mm.
Katie Writer (23:39)
think that researching the subject that I'm going to interview, for example, being prepared in the airplane to take the kids out into the wilderness, being prepared for getting the kids ready for college,
having a plan and, you know, having that desire to be five steps ahead. And it can be a problem sometimes for some people. Like you're always having to think about things so far ahead. However,
That's what pilots need to do because they're thinking of when they fly out, can they get back? A mountaineer is like, can I climb the mountain? Am I going to make it back? And some of the playfulness that is in both of those, I think, is what being a mom fun, because I think being playful and doing activities with the kids, which has been taking them flying, taking them with the pack raft in the back of the airplane, where they can now scoot out and go fishing, or taking them skiing with me, like having fun.
is something that I like to give credit to my own mother because she was fun.
Sharon Macey (24:35)
And I love your definition of fun, because as I said in the intro, it's so different from my life, but it's so, for me, outside of the box and so exciting and like really not knowing what's around the corner and just having that level of adventure,
shared with your kids, I think is just beautiful.
Katie, what you most want the woman listening right now? Maybe she's sitting in her minivan, maybe she's questioning her life, maybe holding onto a dream that she hasn't yet acted on to take away from your story and how should she live her wildest dreams?
Katie Writer (25:13)
Wow,
that is a really good question. Yes,
Sharon Macey (25:18)
kind of advice from where you sit.
Katie Writer (25:21)
I honestly have a practice of lighting candles and meditating and calling upon my highest,
craziest, wildest dreams to come through to me when I'm having these meditations. And it's really incredible because journaling and writing them down
after having these meditations is been one of the best practices I've done my entire life. So women that are maybe in transition can go personally and light a candle and journal and write down like even no matter what stage it is in their life, whether they're 20, 30, 50 or even 60, it's so nice to have the privacy of your own thoughts
and keep it sacred, like keep it to yourself.
And then sometimes I'll write a little, those wild dreams on a piece of paper and I'll keep it in a pocket. And this is something that was taught to be by one of my mentors she's been a wonderful guide in that. And so I will share with you too that I am still challenged by every phase. It has not been easy. Right now I am in the next phase of starting a scenic flight business and I'm crunching the numbers as a business person and I'm wondering
Sharon Macey (26:33)
Right.
Katie Writer (26:33)
how is this going to be profitable?
I might say I'm not scared shitless, but.
Sharon Macey (26:39)
But maybe kind of sort of, yeah. Okay.
Katie Writer (26:42)
like how am I going to pull this off? I think I felt that for every endeavor that I started.
a pilot, that was the wildest crazy hair I've ever had and then that happened, right? And then right now, you know what my wildest crazy hair dream is, is to be able to be a National Geographic photographer, photojournalist, that I can go up and be hired with my airplane by National Geo to go and document some of these
incredible national parks here in Alaska. That's my next wild hair dream that I really hope I can manifest.
Sharon Macey (27:13)
and I believe that you can and that you will, what I got out of what you just said about your sort of advice for the woman who's like at a crossroads is that you have taken some pretty extreme chances in your life. And oftentimes we don't know where that is going to take us, but you sort of have to trust because it's part of your vision for yourself. So trust that.
where you're going and the steps you're taking to get there and the little risks that you're taking to do that, that it all feeds into making this happen in your own unique way. So I think that's really interesting advice. I hadn't heard that before. I like the idea of meditating and really just like blue-skying what you want your future to look like, right? And then trying to, if I want to achieve X, right? How do I reverse engineer it?
taking it back to what do I do now? So thank you for that. I think that's beautiful. All right, it's also pretty cool to me that the sport that first brought you to Alaska is now something that you share with your son at a national level. Do you wake up and think, wow, this has all come full circle? And what does that feel like? As a mom, now you're coaching your son. He's skiing crazy good on the national level.
Katie Writer (28:33)
It's incredible.
it's sort of like we do some things that are part of our family heritage. And I've come from a family of athletes. My father was an avid tennis player and loved sports. And so I think it's so wonderful that at age 57,
that I get to be able to be my son's ski coach at these.
competitions and in my daughter too is really a talented skier. it feels like,
the sports have saved me through tough times again and again. And sharing this with my kids, knowing that we'll have this lifelong sport that we can do together.
Sharon Macey (29:12)
There's that sense of adventure, which I think will just sort of like live on through the generation. So I think that's really cool. Thank you for that.
Katie, unfortunately, our time is drawing to a close.
One of the questions that ask all of the amazing women that I have the privilege of interviewing is,
Since this is the Momtimore Podcast, Katie Ryder, what is your more?
Katie Writer (29:35)
it's
finding happiness with this next phase because the emptiness thing is real and it's so important that the more to me is like, okay, well, wasn't I on that pursuit of flying and doing scientific research in an airplane of tracking wolves? And so I think that
The support we get from women is so incredible. And there's so many amazing role models in business. When women that I find I get a lot of courage from and seeing what you're doing is part of that too. So thank
Sharon Macey (30:07)
Thank you.
Katie Writer (30:07)
you for that. But I think that going back to finding out what floats my boat and what finds the flight. And I think that
finding a way for my business to connect with National Geographic, with scientists who trust me in telling their story and getting into a bigger outlet of the time it would require that I couldn't have done when I had kids at home, but to go out on adventures again and to be out in the field, to get out my camping gear and have more days in a tent this summer than I've had in a long time.
Sharon Macey (30:42)
I think that's beautiful. Thank you.
just from chatting with you, I really get the sense and seeing your photography, which is so gorgeous. And we're going to tell everyone where they can find you, but that you've already put that out there, right? So you're manifesting the National Geographic thing. So I'm out there hoping it is totally going to happen for you. Okay, Katie, please tell people where they can find you online and folks, everything is going to be in the show notes.
Katie Writer (31:08)
Great, well you can find my website for photography, can find prints of even some of my artwork is like this, that's katyridergallery.com. And then I also have my flying business is cubflights.com. If you want to come and book a flight with me, you can come up and do that. Fly into Anchorage and I will
Sharon Macey (31:26)
Yeah.
Katie Writer (31:27)
put you on my calendar. I also have social media, it's at AK and then K-T-W-R-I-T-E-R.
for Instagram as well as Facebook. there you can see a lot of my stories that I share of
videos of flying in the wilderness.
Sharon Macey (31:42)
and folks, those videos, incredible, absolutely incredible. So check it out for sure. Katie, I am so thrilled we got this together. Your story is so unique and just so different from, I'd say, I don't know, 95 % of the women that I speak with. but this has just been a real breath of fresh air. You're in a different part of the United States. You are doing things that are totally outside of my bandwidth. So I really appreciate.
your spirit and your energy and your sense of adventure. I really like that. So
Thank you for your time today.
Katie Writer (32:19)
Well, thank you, Sharon, so much for having me. I'm so honored to be here. I hope my message can inspire some women, whether the adventure is booking a flight to Alaska or getting out more on their hikes in their own national parks near their homes, but just to keep it out and getting their feet in the dirt and feeling more grounded in what is outside of them versus what they feel like they look like in the mirror. think sometimes our greatest mirror is nature and how it makes us feel.
Sharon Macey (32:47)
That's a beautiful way to end. Thank you so much.