The Sentinel-Record - HER - Hot Springs
HER Adventure
Love of nature leads Kuhn to great outdoors
Alifelong love of nature has led Hot Springs native Mara Kuhn on many adventures into the great outdoors over the years, almost always with her camera at the ready and often with her dog, Caddie, by her side. What could have been a very private pursuit has become a more public affair as Kuhn began sharing her hiking and camping experiences first through her own blog, Right Kind of Lost, and then as an ambassador for an international group of like-minded female outdoor enthusiasts, Hike Like a Woman, based out of Laramie, Wyo.
“I just like being in nature. It’s very peaceful and calming, but I also like the challenge,” Kuhn said, noting it was reading outdoor photography magazines as a child that first inspired her to a career in photography. “I read an article about a photographer in the Amazon who got foot rot. I thought, ‘I want to do that.’ I’ll even take the foot rot. It just seemed so adventuresome. I wanted to work for National Geographic.”
Growing up, her father let her use his manual Minolta SLR and “I always loved taking pictures. I never really thought of it as a career.” After graduating Hot Springs High School in 2000, Kuhn was an art major at the University of Central Arkansas but transferred to Arkansas State University, graduating with a degree in photojournalism. She worked for over 14 years as a photographer at The Sentinel-Record and now works as communications manager for The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce.
Going on trips every chance she gets, Kuhn started posting about it on Facebook and “people were always asking me where I was going next and questions about my trip.” She said she always found great value in reading people’s trip reports, especially about hiking. “Can I do this trail? Is it too hard? I found it helpful and wanted to help other people.”
In September 2015, she launched her website, Right Kind of Lost, providing tips, pointers, trip reviews, essays on topics like “how depriving yourself of comforts make you appreciate them more,” she said. In a recent post, she detailed a Colorado trip which only cost her $450, including gas, breaking down exactly how she was able to do it so cheaply.
“That one really blew up,” she said, noting 19 people read it within 30 minutes. She has about 150 subscribers and puts out a weekly newsletter. “I use categories to make it easier for people, especially first-time visitors.”
Kuhn got involved with Hike Like a Woman after finding their website while doing research for her blog. She said she applied to be an ambassador after seeing a notice and not only got picked, but is now on staff as content manager.
She said the most valuable thing about HLAW is “the community. The
best friends I’ve met through the group,” including fellow members as far away as Alaska and Canada. “I’ve really bonded with them. Before I felt like there wasn’t anyone else like me, but now I’ve connected with these women who are a lot like me.”
Kuhn’s travels have taken her through multiple states and national parks, including Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, Montana, South Dakota, New Hampshire and Michigan.
On a recent trip, she hiked to the summit of Mount Elbert, Colo., which at 14,439 feet is the highest summit in the Rocky Mountains and a personal highest for her. “It was hard, really hard. It’s the equivalent of hiking Pinnacle Mountain four times. I had major doubts if I could do it.”
She said she was alone for the Elbert hike and “I really like that I did it by myself because then it’s all mine.” She frequently travels with a college friend, Lagena McBride, and Caddie “goes with me a lot. But you don’t have to go with someone. I wasted a lot of time waiting for someone to go with me, but I like doing it alone.”
Kuhn said being a woman and hiking “it is different. There are safety issues, but I don’t think it’s not safe. The two times I’ve feared for my life it wasn’t from animals, it was from crazy people. That’s why I like the backcountry because you don’t run into that. People who want to do harm are not going to hike deep into the woods.”
An important lesson she has learned is that “it’s OK to fail. You try to tackle a big hike and don’t meet your goal. That’s OK. You learn stuff even from your failures.”