All The Outdoor Things With My Subaru.

My love of the outdoors crosses many different avenues among the plethora of outdoor activities available out in the world. I love an epic and intense backpacking trip high in the mountains, but I also love a casual trip to the garden center where I can load up on plants and spend the rest of the day in my garden tinkering around. One of the best parts of living a life centered around the outdoors is all the cool gear that comes with it! It can be a rabbit hole of endless possibilities for any gear junkie and I am not immune to any of it, lol. Getting a new piece of gear you've been eyeing and saving for or purchasing something you see out at a store on a random Tuesday can feel like Christmas morning. Over the years you start to recognize the items that are really staple pieces you want to keep long term and the ones that were fun for a season but don't really fit into your life long term. And then there are the heritage pieces. The ones that become the backbone of your adventures and serve as the foundation that makes so much else possible. For me, that heritage piece of outdoor gear is my Subaru.

It all started with a 2018, cool gray khaki Crosstrek named, Subie. Original, I know. I loved every thing about her. She was adventure and new beginnings and so many other things all rolled into this one perfect car. She allowed me to get started in car camping when so many other overland type vehicles were out of my budget. She was a reliable and efficient car for a road trip across the country when I moved to Washington. And most of all, my 120 lbs great pyrenees Ranger fit perfectly in the back, snugly, but perfectly. We had many incredible outdoor adventures driving her around the PNW, an amazing adventure in Wyoming and she was there again to provide a safe and reliable home when Lily and I made the trip back to Texas, only this time without our beloved Ranger.

When Lily and I arrived back to Texas in early 2023, the plan was to visit family for a while and then get back on the road to adventure and find where our next home was going to be. As much as I loved Subie, I knew that if Lily and I were going to embrace this road warrior life style, we were going to need a little more space and something with a little more capability. So when on a week long camping trip, we happen to pass a Subaru dealership with an outback wilderness sitting in the lot, I couldn't help but stop and take a look. I of course had already watched a million videos on the wilderness edition lineup and knew everything about them, but I am a "gotta see it with my own two eyes before I buy it" type person. If I'm being honest, I knew before I saw it I was gong to buy one, lol. It was perfect...just what I wanted. The day I got home from the camping trip I went to my local Subaru dealership and put in my order. Like a lot of dealerships at the time, many vehicles were out of stock and the sales rep I worked with let me know it would be a few months before my car was ready. I don't know if it was good luck or just good timing but about a week later my sales rep called to let me know another customer had backed out of the order they'd placed and it just so happened to be the exact car I was waiting on. Within a week of test driving that first outback I was on my way to pick up the newest member of the family - Mable a brand spankin'n new 2023 Outback Wilderness!

I knew from the start Mable was going to be a perfect fit for us. We had the extra space we were looking for and the clearance and capabilities we needed for all the twists and turns life was about to send our way. We wasted no time and immediately headed out to west Texas for an inaugural camping trip and then I was off to the mountains in New Mexico for a summer job. We've since been back to west Texas for an amazing Big Bend adventure and spent quite a bit of time exploring the Ouachita Mountains. We've car camped, and slept in tents and treehouses. We've loaded her up with bags of soil and lumber from the garden center and taken simple morning drives to the farmers market. I know for some people it seems strange to name your car and consider them part of the family and maybe it is. But for me, naming things like my car or house is a way for me to show my gratitude for something that brings value to my life. A huge part of the purpose of my life, is living it in a way that allows me to enjoy and embrace all of my favorite outdoor activities. Mable provides the reliable and safe foundation for all of that to happen.

So as fun as it is to try out all the latest gear out there, don't forget to look for and embrace those long lasting items that become your most relied on pieces. The ones you never question to take. The ones that make the hard and unexpected days a little easier to navigate. The heritage pieces.

Thanks for reading,

Katie