Gretchen Gosnell
Backpacking Instructor
Gretchen on the trail in Minnesota.
Gretchen is passionate about backpacking, hiking, and encouraging others to get out there and enjoy nature. In particular, she loves to plan trips and to help make the dream a reality for those interested in backpacking, but who don’t know how to start.
Her favorite trail is the Feldtmann Lake Loop on Isle Royale, but she gets in plenty of mileage on other trails, with over 500 miles under her boots in 2021. She also loves hiking challenges, completing the 52 Hike Challenge, Ice Age Trail Mammoth Challenge, and the North Country Trail 100-Mile Challenge. Gretchen gives back, by doing volunteer trail work with the Boundary Waters Advisory Committee.
Her trail nickname is "Squirrel," because she stops to point things out all along the way. Plus, she always has time to make friends with a squirrel and considers trees to be "her people!"
In addition to backpacking, Gretchen loves foraging, geocaching, photography, kayaking, rendezvousing, and bushcraft. She is a Mother, a Wilderness First Responder, and is also a Studio Manager/Chaos Coordinator at Block Portrait Studios. She also manages her own blog, Rewilding Wanderer.
