Morgan Sjogren is a 38-year-old environmental writer who has spent the last seven years living as a modern-day desert nomad, crafting a freelance journalism career while residing primarily in the remote wilderness of Utah’s Canyon Country. (morgansjogren.com)
After growing up in Southern California suburbia and spending her twenties pursuing a marketing career, Morgan left her more conventional life at age 30 to live full-time in the back of a Jeep, sustaining herself on dumpster-dived ingredients and gas station burritos. For the past seven years, she has made the Colorado Plateau her home, spending much of her time in solitude among the sandstone canyons and mesas, with just a fraction of her year in actual cities. She explains how nature became her true home rather than a playground, and how this relationship with the desert has shaped both her writing and her sense of purpose.We discuss her path from suburban trail runner to high desert hermit and how she cobbles together income through freelance writing, photography, public speaking, house cleaning, and modelling.
Morgan describes her two books—the dirtbag cookbook Outlandish and the historical narrative Path of Light—and how retracing 1920s expeditions through Glen Canyon helped her find both community and her current partner Aaron. She explains why she feels called to advocate for public lands through her writing, and how the desert has repeatedly shown her that even in apparent solitude, she is never truly alone. For Morgan, being “dirtbag rich” means having clean water, clean air, healthy ecosystems, and places that are open and welcoming to all people.
Full transcript: dirtbagrich.com/morgan
Recorded in June 2025.
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript. Typos and mistakes exist!
Blake Boles (00:02)
Morgan Sjogren, welcome to Dirtbag Rich.
Morgan (00:05)
Thanks for having me.
Blake Boles (00:07)
You wrote in a piece entitled At Home in the Desert that nature is not a playground to you, it’s your home. And something that your friend Steve Allen told you once is this is not backpacking, we are living in the desert. What does all this mean to you?
Morgan (00:27)
the Pandora’s box. mean, upfront, means literally what it says that, you know, there is no other home. The earth we live in, nature, and for me, that’s the desert is home and that’s the primary place to care for. It’s the primary place to go to when I need shelter or refuge. And it’s also my community, both the humans and the plants and animals and landscapes that I share the space with.
Blake Boles (01:01)
Which specific desert are we talking about? ⁓
Morgan (01:05)
Another, that’s a good question. Specifically right now, you know, the Colorado Plateau, Utah’s Canyon Country, Northern Arizona, the heart of Colorado River Country, these areas of sinuous sandstone canyons carved by the Colorado River. But it also extends out to the Mojave Desert where I grew up, the Great Basin Desert where I spent some of my 20s, and the Sonoran Desert where I often go in winter.
Blake Boles (01:34)
So this is the greater Great Basin area encompassing maybe five different states. And it’s pretty unpopulated. And when I look at like your Instagram, for example, there’s a lot of you being out in beautiful sandstone and it’s just empty. It’s just you, maybe your partner, Aaron, and it’s beautiful, but it’s also very empty. And I’m curious how much of your life is really spent in this direct relationship with nature and how much of it is actually more city life, more social. Yeah, what’s the ratio for you? How much of your time are you really out there in nature or is it just in small bursts?
Morgan (02:18)
You know, that’s always something that’s ebbing and flowing, but I will say that time in actual cities probably constitutes less than one to 3 % of my entire year. ⁓ And that’s usually by necessity, either to visit family or for a work or speaking related event. I currently reside in a very small town, one of the most rural towns in the continental United States, and I can leave the small house that I’m currently renting and be surrounded by millions of acres of wilderness and public land where there’s very few people. And so I would say, you know, the opportunities for solitude and communing with the natural world are the major part of every day.
And then there are times where I’m spending more time at home writing and getting work done and in this small community and nurturing those relationships and then there are times where I’m out and people don’t see me for weeks at a time.
Blake Boles (03:26)
And when you’re out, are you doing? How do you spend your time? I’m sure it’s season dependent, but maybe just an average of your past few years of being in the desert. How are you actually spending that time?
Morgan (03:42)
And this is where it really comes back to that concept of living in the desert because there’s not just one way that I experience being out, just like you wouldn’t spend your time at home doing just one thing. And so there are periods where I’ve spent 40 days out backpacking while working on a project, like my last book, Path of Light. There are times where I’m car camping and have a friend or my partner with me and we’re just drinking beers and… watching the stars, then there’s time where I go out alone and I write and I work on just projects where I need intense focus. then, know, day to day going out down a river or up on a mesa and walking around without any purpose and just spending the time out, spending the time in nature. That’s my, you know, people’s end of the day is Netflix or…
Blake Boles (04:33)
Hmm.
Morgan (04:38)
You know, having people over for dinner, go and make sure I spend time with nature every day, no matter how busy it is.
Blake Boles (04:44)
Hmm. You said you grew up in the Mojave Desert. Does that mean you grew up in Southern California?
Morgan (04:50)
Southern California on the edge of the Mojave Desert and the great inland empire of developed suburbia.
Blake Boles (05:00)
incredible name, the Inland Empire. Did you grow up in suburbia or did you have a more direct relationship to nature growing up?
Morgan (05:02)
Yes.
I was very much in suburbia, although I feel extremely lucky that a mile from my parents’ house there was this small sort of urban wilderness area with lots of trails and rolling hills and riparian nooks within these many canyons. at a young age, when I was nine, I decided that I wanted to try running and I fell in love with it and my parents supported this pursuit.
And by the time I was 12, they were letting me just take off and run through the hills alone. And so even though I had this very conventional suburban upbringing, which I increasingly was not fond of, I wanted to be out in wild places in both books and my time in this small wilderness area where I could also see the mountains looming above the city, those really opened up my eyes to what was possible. I really kind of…
became consumed by this idea of being out in nature as much as possible. Even in high school, I would sleep outside in the backyard. ⁓ I felt better when I was out. It felt more natural. I didn’t really care about my room. I wasn’t one of those kids who was just like, block me away in my room. It was like, leave me outside. Don’t make me come inside. Don’t make me wash the sand from the beach off my feet. I want to feel it in my, I want to feel it while I’m sleeping. I was that kid.
Blake Boles (06:11)
Hmm.
Don’t make me come inside.
Huh. Did you have a gateway into this level of nature connection? Was there a person or an experience or was it your family? Or did you really just develop this yourself?
Morgan (06:47)
I think a little bit of all of the above. You know, we weren’t the kind of family, we didn’t go camping or backpacking. I went to summer camp with friends. So that wasn’t the gateway. My parents really encouraged us into playing outside and endurance sports. You know, we all ran track and my brother was on swim team. So we were always, you know, playing sports outside and playing with our friends.
But really the nature connection, like I said, was really gleaned through these experiences where I was moving through this, to me, wild place and then going home and reading books that just opened my eyes to all these explorers and adventures, whether it was John Muir or Robinson Crusoe. My grandparents lived near the coast or at the coast. ⁓
I would also get out into the ocean, you or my siblings were playing with the sandcastle and the toys. I was way out in the waves and watching the fish and having dolphins circle me and, you know, it just made me understand that suburbia was not it. There is a wilder world. The real world is out there and I’m going there as soon as I can.
Blake Boles (07:58)
Hmm.
Hmm. There’s so many directions I want to take this. So you became a trail runner like by your 12th birthday. You were already running trails.
Morgan (08:13)
Yeah, I I ran my first race when I was nine with my mom. Yeah, and she, you know, I was so nervous, but then halfway through, she was slowing down. She’s like, go on without me. And so I took off and, know, I really feel like that was the kind of the olive branch of like independence. Like you can do these things on your own. It’s going to be okay. Your feet can carry you. that, you know, my mom really did. ⁓
Blake Boles (08:17)
What?
Hmm.
Morgan (08:39)
open that door for me or allow me to open that door for myself. Give me permission to go there.
Blake Boles (08:43)
Mm-hmm.
Did you have a traditional school K through 12 experience and go straight into college like most other kids?
Morgan (08:53)
Yeah, yeah. Traditional public school, ran track, received a track scholarship and that allowed me, you my parents kind of our deal was you’re going to community college, you know, and at home or if you get a scholarship, you can go away. And I earned a scholarship and was able to go to school down in San Diego County, which put me closer to the coast and opportunities to be closer to the sea and other natural areas, which I love.
Blake Boles (09:23)
What did you study?
Morgan (09:25)
I studied literature and writing.
Blake Boles (09:27)
So you already knew that you were interested in writing.
Morgan (09:30)
Yeah, I mean, I knew in kindergarten. And so that was like, sort of always a silly thing. mean, silly is not the right word. But you know, I’d be out running and my grandma would ride her bike with me sometimes. And, you know, I tell her, ⁓ I’m gonna be a writer, and I’m gonna travel the world and go on these adventures. And I’ll, I’ll live, know, in the beach in the winter and the mountains in the summer. And she’s like, that’s great. But she’s like, but what are you gonna really do for work? And I was like, no, that’s what I’m gonna really do. And I can’t
Blake Boles (09:32)
No grandma, I’m serious.
Morgan (10:00)
I’m serious and I can’t for the life of me like looking back now. I mean, it wasn’t, I don’t feel like I followed that dream. I just wonder how did I know?
Blake Boles (10:10)
Hmm. Good question. Yeah. What were a few of the books that pushed you in the direction of literature and writing it? You mentioned John Muir or Robinson Crusoe. Were there any other specific books that stand out as just like game changers for you in your young adulthood?
Morgan (10:13)
Yeah.
Um, you know, it sounds silly, but little house on the prairie was like when I was younger, classic. Yeah. And this, family living, you know, with nature, trying to, figure it out. Of course, now as an adult, I can see that this is also like a settler colonial family trying to take over indigenous land. But when you’re a kid, you’re like, oh my God, they like live outside. They have to build this house. Um, and I thought that was amazing. And as I got older.
Blake Boles (10:34)
It’s a classic for a reason.
Mm-hmm.
Morgan (10:57)
I fell in love with Jack Kerouac and ⁓ more controversial forms of literature that where people were pushing outside, specifically the Dharma Bums, that book really captured my heart and it’s probably still the foundational book for me if someone asks, what was the inspiration? That book’s always there with me.
Blake Boles (11:09)
Hmm. Yeah, I’m right there with you, Morgan. That was a way more significant book for me than On the Road or anything else that you wrote. ⁓ Where did life take you after college?
Morgan (11:27)
yeah, absolutely.
Ah, well, so, you know, after college, I was planning to become a teacher and I was signed up for a teaching program and a professor who was going to sign off on it told me, I don’t think you should do this. And I was like, what, what else am I going to do? He’s like, no, I think you just, I have this feeling you need to go live your life and go have some adventures and maybe write about them. And I kind of looked at him in horror.
because it was like, well, one, how do you know that’s what I wanna do? And two, like, how am I gonna stay alive? ⁓ But I ended up listening to him and walking out of my planning meeting for the school year and going straight to the beach and getting on my boogie board and doing some thinking. And so I just worked at a running store and I ran races for cash. So I ran marathons, I ran track races in Tijuana, Mexico. ⁓
I ended up becoming a certified yoga teacher, pick up some extra cash. So the dirtbag life was sort of born immediately. I was living in people’s garages. People would take me in and yeah.
Blake Boles (12:44)
I’m amazed that even back then that you could make enough money running to sustain yourself, even if you’re living super cheap. Like how did the economics line up for you in those years?
Morgan (12:57)
I mean, it wasn’t great. I mean, working at the running shoe store part time really helped. Thankfully, there was an older gentleman at the running team that I was a part of who wanted company. And so he allowed me and my boyfriend at the time to live with him for free. And we helped him with chores and cooked for him. so really it did. It was supported by the fact that we didn’t have to pay rent. ⁓ But yeah, I mean,
Blake Boles (13:16)
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Morgan (13:26)
Somebody sold me their car for like, you know, 800 bucks, like, just living cheap.
Blake Boles (13:33)
Have you ever had a normal full-time job Morgan?
Morgan (13:37)
Sort of. So, you know, during that time, there was a professional triathlete who approached me and she said, hey, you know, you’re probably not going to want to just like work on your feet or maybe even run forever. You should probably, you know, try and find some other ways to build your resume. There’s this woman who has a marketing firm. I could put an ear in, you know, word in for you and maybe you could pick up some side work for her and, get off your feet so you can race better. And I was like, that sounds great. And so I go and have an interview with this woman and she asked me, ⁓ man, if she ever hears this, she’s gonna laugh. If I know how to write a press release and if I’d want to start with that. And I had no idea how to write a press release, but I wanted this job where it was like 15 hours a week. The pay was pretty good. I knew I could quit the running store if I took this job. And I said yes. And she’s like, great. So can you write, let’s just.
Let’s go for it. This will be your test job. I’ll pay you. But write this press release for this professional athlete by tomorrow afternoon. So I go home and I just start doing research of what the hell you do for a press release. Write it, turn it in. She’s like, you’ve got the job. So suddenly I’m working in marketing and PR for endurance sports and fitness brands.
Blake Boles (14:48)
Alright, and you’re working about 15 hours a week.
Morgan (15:00)
15 hours a week, but after a of a test period, she, I proved that I had the chops and asked me if I wanted to co-manage one of her accounts. I said yes. And by co-manage the accounts, was like, okay, you’re gonna leave the brand creation and website copy and instruction manual writing for this new product coming out. And I was like, well, I’m weighing over my head, but again, I get to, I can go to the beach and work on it. I can stay home. I can go run in the hills whenever I want. I just have to get it done. I’ll figure it out.
Blake Boles (15:33)
Hmm. How old are you at this point? More or less. ⁓ And I imagine you’re earning a lot more money than you ever had. ⁓
Morgan (15:37)
23.
Yeah, like finally, you know, just, mean, like, sustainable. Yeah, like, you know, I know where my next paycheck’s coming from, like, sigh of relief and, you know, working at the running store was really, and running all those races to make money was taxing, you know, I was getting more rest. I was just feeling better. That was a huge trade off as well.
Blake Boles (16:00)
Yeah.
And can you paint a picture of your trajectory of your work or career kind of from that point up through today? I know that’s kind of a big ask, but how has it evolved? How have you earned your keep? you, was that your moment of being the most conventional like in a normal job and then it broke into a million little pieces?
Morgan (16:28)
Yeah, I mean, so I actually stayed with the company for seven years. I took on more and more accounts. was also bringing in new clients. And so I had a, you know, I was able to like split, you know, the income from each account with my boss, which was not the norm for the other employees. And I eventually was the vice president of the company. And so I was making good money. was, you know, networking, was going to conferences, I was sitting in these corporate business meetings where I’d think to myself, like, if only these people knew that, like, this little dirtbag kid is, like, sneaking into the meetings and then they’d, ask me for my input and I’m like, shit, they actually care what I have to say. So there was always just like this dichotomy that I was, like, doing a real job but also, like, I was in a disguise. ⁓
But having the job allowed me to move from San Diego to Mammoth Lakes, California in the Eastern Sierra because I worked remotely, ⁓ which was a dream come true. all that time I had kept running. So I also started training with a professional team, a professional track team in Mammoth Lakes. And so I was kind of living a conventional but unconventional life where like, yeah, I’m running with Olympic athletes and professionals and I’m… got this professional career that I can manage at the same time and live in the mountains and spend my free time in the wilderness. was what I thought at the time. was like, this is my dream. But the more time I, it was, and you know what it was? And I was making good money, but there was a hitch in the system. And the more time I spent in the mountains and in the Great Basin and in Death Valley and in the Owens Valley, the more I wanted to be out.
Blake Boles (18:00)
That sounds very dreamy. Yeah.
Morgan (18:18)
When I was out in nature, whether it was backpacking or camping or just on an afternoon walk, I knew deep down that that was what I wanted for my life, that I wanted more time and even more freedom to be in the back country. I didn’t want to be chasing times around a track. I didn’t want to be sitting in a corporate business meeting. I wanted to be writing and I wanted to be out that there was so much more of the world I wanted to see. ⁓ And so.
Blake Boles (18:37)
Hmm.
Morgan (18:46)
Initially, I just started fighting ways to, ⁓ I would kind of work double time. So I would have the secret free time where I would go out and I wouldn’t tell my coach or my boss. I would just get an insane amount of work done, do a really good job. They’d be happy and they’d just kind of leave me alone. And I’d be out in the backcountry. You know, I’d be ice skating on an Alpine lake. I’d be backpacking. I’d be camped in Death Valley.
Blake Boles (19:05)
Mm-hmm.
Morgan (19:15)
Nobody would know.
Blake Boles (19:17)
So you’re sneaking away while you still have this somewhat normal full-time corporate job income, but you’re spending increasing amounts of time like genuinely being in the back country in wilderness. And the Eastern Sierra is like the best place to be headquartered to do those kinds of adventures. I know of no better place. Yeah.
Morgan (19:19)
You
Ugh.
Absolutely. It was incredible. Even though was like, I’m not really a sneaky person. It’s just what I had to do. Honestly, I was still an independent contractor even though I had this job. It was like, this is my job. I don’t get health insurance. This is my job benefit. That’s how I saw it. If I can get it done, I had a sign above my computer. said, get shit done, go have fun. So I maximized those benefits.
Blake Boles (19:52)
Hmm. Yeah. So if my math is correct, if you did this for seven years, then sometime around age 30, you stopped doing this job.
Morgan (20:09)
Yes.
Blake Boles (20:10)
What happened?
Morgan (20:12)
⁓ Well, a series of events where I can say that the wild got into my head and my heart and I finally did what was right. I had been married during that time and that relationship was imploding ⁓ because of alcoholism and abuse and I finally decided that was not what I wanted for my life any longer. And so I left Mammoth, I left the team, I left my Jeep unannounced and I just took off and I didn’t know what I was going to do but I knew I had a Jeep in my backpacking gear and I was going to figure it out in the desert. That was kind of the only decided factor and I was going to keep doing my job because it was remote. But in that process I also had begun dabbling in freelance writing.
I realized that I understood the back end of that industry because of my time in the marketing firm. And so within a couple of months of leaving, I also quit my job and decided to just full-time freelance, which was really daunting because I lost all my money in the divorce process and ⁓ was not making a ton of income freelancing. But I was realizing I needed very little to survive and that, you know, if you’re gonna
Blake Boles (21:08)
Hmm.
Hmm.
Morgan (21:30)
make a change go all the way. And so I’d rather fully have the try and build my life up in the direction I wanted than try and straddle all these worlds and commitments like I was doing before.
Blake Boles (21:47)
Hmm. And is this the beginning of the modern phase of your life that you’ve been living for seven or eight years?
Morgan (21:54)
Yes.
Blake Boles (21:57)
And where have you been living? Have you had a home? When you left Mammoth, did you also leave the stability of a single place and become more of a nomad?
Morgan (22:08)
100%. Yeah, I was renting this old rickety little cabin in Mammoth and suddenly I’m living full time in the back of a Jeep where the seats have been ripped out and there’s a wooden platform ⁓ just for increased storage and I put a dog bed on it and lived on it and pretty much traveled wherever I either found a story assignment or had a friend or met a friend. And so 2017, I was completely untethered. was just out and that brought me all over the Four Corners region, Colorado, I ran races in Vermont and then drove across the country with someone I had just met and you know, just things like that.
Blake Boles (22:52)
Hmm. Was this your your peak dirtbag trail runner phase?
Morgan (22:57)
Yeah, absolutely. ended up by that summer, I ended up in Silverton, Colorado during the Hard Rock 100, which is when trail runners from all over the country gather in Silverton for the summer. It’s like just like a dirtbag runner’s circus. so I you know, much of the year I had spent a lot of time alone, mostly in in Bears Ears, working on reporting and a hiking guidebook out.
in remote parts of the desert, but for that summer I was just embraced by a community of people who were either part-time dirtbags or taking a summer off and it gave me a community. ⁓ Yeah, it was a special little moment in time.
Blake Boles (23:38)
Hmm. And this is what gave you the experiences that you wrote about in your first book, which is titled Outlandish. Right? Yeah. And can just describe a little bit more what’s in that book and what inspired you to write it and how the publishing worked.
Morgan (23:47)
Yes.
Yeah, so I mean the publishing works is really how it got started. The publisher approached me, which was sort of a miracle, and asked me what type of book I wanted to write. ⁓ Which is, you know, kind of, it is the stuff of dreams and like now I’m like, my gosh, like how do we bring back those times that it’s just not how things work. ⁓ But I told them that I had this sort of wild idea that, you know, I’ve been
Blake Boles (24:06)
my gosh. Stuff of dreams.
Morgan (24:21)
living really cheap and cobbling together these pretty unique meals from dumpsters and gas stations, but somehow eating really well, even though I was hardly making any money. And each burrito and each meal had a story, just pretty wild stories to go with it. And so I proposed this sort of hybrid dirtbag cookbook slash essay collection with lots of photos, and they loved it. I I threw it out and I’m like, there’s no way they’re not gonna, you
Blake Boles (24:50)
Hmm.
Morgan (24:51)
And they also made me an offer that at the time was game changing. It was like an amount of money I could certainly live off of for the year. And for context, the year I quit my marketing job and those paychecks stopped coming in, I started writing a hiking guidebook to Bearser’s National Monument and my advance was $1,500 and that’s what I lived on for half a year.
Blake Boles (25:17)
Well, yeah.
Morgan (25:19)
And so now I’ve got enough money to where it’s like, can make it. We’re not talking like a ton of money, with the context of that $1,500, it’s like, okay, now I can eat for 12 months. Exactly.
Blake Boles (25:34)
Yes, yes, it’s five figures, not four figures.
I left, ⁓ something I discovered on your Instagram talking about the book. You said I was filthy flat broke and dangerously adventurous to fuel myself. I forged out of dumpsters, pulled and cooked weeds off ski slopes and sourced ingredients from gas stations. I’m most curious about the gas station ingredients. we talking mustard packets or something more elaborate?
Morgan (26:03)
yeah, condiment packets, you you can get tortillas and beans and you’d be surprised. I started to keep track of which gas stations had, you know, potatoes and peppers. But then I’d use things like nacho cheese sauce. And it was definitely the most unglamorous period of eating in my life. actually, I mean, I grew, I was raised vegetarian and vegan. I’ve always been a really healthy eater. But I realized that the most important thing during that period was just
Blake Boles (26:24)
You
Morgan (26:32)
finding a way to fuel on a budget and make sure I was eating enough. And so that’s what I did.
Blake Boles (26:34)
Hmm.
And was it always in the context of a burrito?
Morgan (26:42)
No, but that was definitely a common thread because it’s just an easy way when you don’t have like plates and a dishwasher you just put it in a tortilla you either just eat it as you go or while you drive or put it in your backpack it’s still it you know I tried sandwiches once and like a mouse got in my jeep and ate through the bag and to me that was the sign it was like no it’s burritos
Blake Boles (26:53)
Yeah.
Thank you, Mouse, for your lesson. In a more recent post on your sub stack, you talked about many of the ways that you make money today. And I counted the following ⁓ promoting gear, freelance writing, public speaking, the teaching of writing, like writing workshops and occasional house cleaning. Also, ⁓ what else have you done for money during this this period of
Morgan (27:06)
Yeah.
Blake Boles (27:32)
been on the road for the past seven or so years.
Morgan (27:35)
I have marked trail race courses. That was, you know, so like these hundred mile races and they’ll send you out with a backpack full of flags and you’ll mark like 20 miles of the course and then you’ll sweep 20 miles of the course. I once got paid to camp in a field of cows that were crying all night because they’d been separated from their calves. And I was just simply there to keep other people from camping on it before a race and
Blake Boles (27:59)
Hahaha
Morgan (28:04)
Another race paid me to camp on the course in a cave to make sure no one took the took the spot. Someone once paid to use my Jeep, which was just like falling apart. so like mid project, they were using it for, I had to drive it to a remote town to like fix the tire issue. ⁓ I had to do photo shoots all over the country. you know, some of the freelance writing assignments have also
Blake Boles (28:08)
Hahaha
Morgan (28:31)
⁓ sent me all over the world. I once had to go to Tahiti and Patagonia in the opposite order, back to back. In a two week, three week period, ran the Boston Marathon. I got paid to do that with a three weeks notice. So I had not been training. I had been mostly hunkered in my Jeep for the winter. And so I kind of had three weeks to convince my legs they could run a marathon.
Blake Boles (28:48)
Cool.
Hahaha
Well, so a lot of this sounds like it comes from you having positive relationships with race organizers and race directors. ⁓ Is freelance writing your main income in recent years?
Morgan (29:11)
Yes it-
Yeah, so I was going to say that and that there was abrupt shift probably after 20 the pandemic really shifted things and I shifted directions. You know, before that I was mostly writing about running and outdoor adventure and food and those types of things. And then I started to get really into Southwest history and started working on my most recent book Path of Light and freelancing doing environmental journalism and that is
fully where things have shifted ever since.
Blake Boles (29:48)
Yeah, yeah, when I discovered your writing online, ⁓ that it seems like you’d been doing that forever because you write really eloquently about conservation issues and history and people of the southwest. ⁓ What was the inspiration for for Path of Light? And maybe just talk briefly about the subject matter.
Morgan (30:06)
Yeah, so Path of Light is a book where I retraced a series of historic expeditions from 100 years ago throughout Glen Canyon and the Four Corners region. that idea came to me while I was living in my Jeep one winter out in the desert. And I was reading these history books to gain some sense of context. Like, who are the other people who weren’t from this area who were crazy enough to spend time here like me? That was kind of my…
Question, you I was also learning about the indigenous people who had always called these areas home and the generations of settlers But I also wanted to know like who else like came here on a whim and one of these people was Charles Bernheimer a wealthy businessman from Manhattan who started doing these expeditions every year during the 1920s and he would hire the region’s best guides and Indigenous guides and cowboys and put together these incredible trips and as I would read about them. I was like wait, I’m
Blake Boles (30:35)
Mm-hmm.
Morgan (31:04)
I’m camped where they’re camped or, you know, I hiked there yesterday. And so I was sort of intrigued that his journeys more than the others really paralleled a lot of my explorations. And I did some sleuthing and I was able to contact some descendants of his expeditions, ⁓ great, great grandchildren of guides or archaeologists who did overlapping studies of the areas that him and his team explored.
Blake Boles (31:28)
Mm-hmm.
Morgan (31:31)
And I just started getting really into it. I mean, at first there was no ⁓ destination in mind. was just, while living alone, this was the adventure I was on. Instead of training for a race, I was just like, well, I’m gonna go to this place and I’m gonna read this journal and then do this research afterwards so I understand where the hell I was and who’s been there before. ⁓ And I started writing articles about it for a regional magazine that no longer exists.
quickly sort of gaining a following and people really encouraging me to write more stories, including older historians from the region. And surprisingly, a lot of older white men who, as a cohort, they can sometimes be a little territorial and crusty about these things, especially newcomers, especially a young woman. And yet these guys were like, yes, this is what we need. We need different perspectives. We need new generation. How can we support you? And they sort of kind of
Blake Boles (32:06)
Hmm. Mm-hmm.
Hmm.
Morgan (32:28)
stepped in like my Wizard of Oz team of the Tin Man and the Scarecrow and started joining me on these trips. It consumed my life and I started realizing, now this is a book. I’ve been writing a book without realizing it. And so that’s where Path of Light went.
Blake Boles (32:33)
Wow.
Yeah.
I want to talk a little bit more about money, then circle back to your sense of purpose because I’m picking up on this. Did you receive a nice advance for that book too? Have you been able to live off? No. Okay.
Morgan (33:01)
No.
No, I would say that the advance for that book paid ⁓ about the same as the magazine article. But the opportunity to work with an independent publisher with such a credible and amazing community of authors was what I was after. And this book, Path of Light, is so rooted in
Blake Boles (33:10)
Ugh.
Morgan (33:28)
the Southwest, I knew I really needed to have a publisher that understood this area and was sensitive to its complicated history. was, you know, thinking about it now, maybe it would have been possible, but I felt pretty certain that this wasn’t a book I would want a New York publisher to deal with. I wanted this to be a book for people in the Southwest.
Blake Boles (33:32)
Mm-hmm.
Hmm. So that means not much money. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Morgan (33:52)
and that really honored it. Not much money, yeah.
But that came to fruition, you know? And I really feel good about that, that this wasn’t, it wasn’t altered to reach a mass audience. This is a book born from the desert, and this is a book that’s for the desert.
Blake Boles (33:59)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Hmm. Okay. Nevermind. We’re going to talk about purpose now, Morgan, and I’ll circle back to money. ⁓ it sounds like you have always been really clear about what’s important to you. Like from a young age, being out in nature, moving through, ⁓ wild places, you know, literally running through them. ⁓ you figured out you want to do writing. ⁓ it sounds like you, you had this kind of interesting detour into a slightly more conventional life.
Morgan (34:15)
Hehehehe
Yeah.
Blake Boles (34:38)
the marketing and publicity work, but then you found your way back to writing and specifically writing about places and adventures and being thrifty. And I guess I’m curious to know, have there ever been periods in your life where you feel a bit more directionless and a bit lost, not in the glorious, lost in the wilderness that you like to put yourself into, but like just not sure what you’re doing or why you’re doing it anymore.
Morgan (35:08)
Yes, 100%. Especially, know, when I was working on Outlandish, was just having, most of time I was just having so much fun and I was, you know, 30 and it was just like, oh my gosh, like one thing leads to another and it was just like going for the wild ride. But then I started to pretty much get exhausted by the physical demands of what I was doing. And that’s where that slower winter and learning about the expeditions came in. But
you know, surprisingly, even though path of light gave me such incredible direction by following those expeditions and the amazing people that came into my life, I also felt so distanced from any semblance of, I guess, a normal life. felt really disconnected. like, I know this is my path and my pursuit, but like, how does this connect to like anything but being a hermit in the desert? And so I felt really lost, like,
Blake Boles (36:03)
Hmm.
Morgan (36:04)
Where does this go from here? I’m not making enough money to change anything about my life. I’m really happy in the desert, but that also makes me a freak. And you know, I don’t have these normal things where I’m meeting coworkers for drinks on the weekend. I’m just like way out in this place that nobody’s ever heard of. So it was sort of like this really ⁓ introspective and existential time where I both loved what I was doing, but I was terrified by it.
Blake Boles (36:34)
And how does the story end or how does it continue? I’m very curious. You have me hooked?
Morgan (36:39)
Well, yeah, I mean, you know, there was this quote from one of the explorers, John Wetherill, who is in the book, you know, and in the 1920s, he says, you know, I’m not going to get it right. at first, the first year, fast, fascinated with the desert and you want to spend all your time there. Then the desert terrifies you. You realize it could kill you. And then you start to realize that the desert takes care of you and that you’re home.
And I definitely went through that whole process with the desert. toward the end of writing the book, went through a bunch of other, I went through a nasty breakup and all of these things that further, if it’s even possible to further sever me from a traditional life, it happened. And it was just kind of like, okay, here I am in the desert. I lost my uncle who was really close to me and one of my biggest supporters.
And like, I’m just really out here. I better just start living like my life is out here and like start paying attention to what I need versus like trying to like, again, straddle two different worlds. So I made lots of time for people who also love spending time in the desert. And these were, you know, mostly older retired folks in their sixties and seventies. And I made sure to go backpacking with them and hang out with them whenever possible and, you know, seek out community.
within these remote spaces whenever I could. And when I opened myself up to that, I started actually having less solitary time and more time around other people, which was really meaningful because I definitely needed that. You can spend too much time alone. Even though I knew in the desert I wasn’t alone, which is what made me, it’s kind of weird that that time in the desert made me realize I needed to be in community more. Because I knew the plants were alive. I knew I wasn’t alone. There was wildlife around me all the time.
Blake Boles (38:12)
Hmm.
Hmm.
Morgan (38:32)
and I needed to open myself up to other people, safe people, healthy people to be around. And as I did that, I realized, you know, maybe I don’t want to spend the whole summer alone in Bears Ears. And so I decided to drive, you know, to a small rural town in Canyon Country where there’s a good pizza shop and take care of myself and rent a small cabin for three nights and have some shelter and just, you know, treat myself, you know, big aspirations I had.
⁓ And in that process, I instantly that night met this man named Aaron, who’s now my partner. And he, you know, he asked me if I wanted to go hiking with him and we haven’t stopped walking together ever since. ⁓ My life has truly changed, but the change came from the desert, you know, reminding me that community and opening myself up to the…
Blake Boles (39:17)
Hahaha
Morgan (39:29)
creatures and people and habitat I want to be surrounded by that that is vital to sustaining my life in the desert. It can’t just be me in the desert.
Blake Boles (39:37)
Yeah. Yeah. It’s interesting that when you realized it, can’t just be you then the natural community there were these older, sounds like mostly retired men who were also in love with and women, okay. ⁓ who were in love with the desert and who would be very happy to share time with you, a woman in her thirties. and, and that sort of eventually led you back to, I guess what, what most people assume one.
Morgan (39:49)
in women. Yeah.
Blake Boles (40:06)
in their thirties should be doing, which is like looking for someone else around to kind of your, your same age bracket. ⁓ I, this leads me to this bigger question, Morgan, like in what ways do you feel like you don’t fit into society into like the normal realm of human interaction and what’s expected of you and what your age cohort does. And I’m curious how durable that this difference is. How long have you felt different? ⁓ just go for it.
Morgan (40:35)
I I think from this conversation, it’s pretty clear that I’ve always felt different and I’ve always ⁓ felt strongly about following my Dharma, my path, if you will, and really listening to my instincts. And sometimes my instincts have led me to some dangerous places, but I’ve learned a lot from those experiences. I’ve never really, school was really hard because they sort of make you follow a conventional path. And I felt a lot of friction there, but really ever since I left college,
Blake Boles (41:00)
Yeah.
Morgan (41:04)
There has been no conventional path and it’s been this ⁓ confluence of feeling really great because I know this is what I need to do and really hard because society does not, there is not the same ⁓ support for choosing different. There’s no guidebook, there is no trail. It is wilderness exploration for life as well as being in the back country. And so that comes with the same like, fuck, what am I doing?
those ups and downs and fears and is there gonna be water that you feel in the desert? I feel this in my day-to-day life too. And it has definitely taken some time and maturity, would say, especially the last three years, I’ve gotten better at making peace with that and sort of recognizing that these challenges and things that are scary about it are not signs that this is something wrong, it’s just the way it is. These are the challenges and hurdles of the life that I’m living. And I’m actually,
Blake Boles (41:40)
Hmm.
Hmm.
Morgan (42:03)
really well adapted at navigating them in the way that I’m not so good at navigating like a busy parking lot or traffic or flashing lights and loud noises of a city or places where it costs lots of money as an entrance fee or wearing certain clothes for status or sitting in corporate meetings. I think back to that 20 year old sitting in the meeting like, do they know who’s in this meeting? And that’s because I didn’t belong.
Blake Boles (42:31)
Hmm.
Morgan (42:33)
I mean, I’m sure I had the ideas and the intellect to hold my own, but that’s not where I belong. ⁓ So yeah, just, and when I’m out in nature, all of that goes away and I’m not thinking about where I don’t fit in. I’m listening to the world around me. I’m a part of something that all slips away.
Blake Boles (42:39)
Hmm.
Hmm. Beautifully said. ⁓ When you have moments of struggle when, when it’s not that easy to keep living this way, or when you start to second guess yourself, ⁓ have you noticed a pattern as to when that happens or when you feel the most down about trying to live so differently?
Morgan (43:16)
I mean it definitely follows patterns of stress. If I get stressed in one area of my life it can, you know, create a deck of cards effect and suddenly I’m stressing about more things than usual. It also can be stressful if I hit a hiccup with a project or a rejection, you know. And again, I’m getting better with dealing with this as I look at my last eight years of life and realize that, you know, no one
stumbling block ruins the whole thing. There’s going to be ups and downs. There’s still this part of me that like one day it’s just going to end and you’re not going to have any writing assignments. You’re not going to have any work and then what are you going to do? But I’m learning to trust that that’s not going to happen. I’m pretty have pretty strong capability of finding work and ways to keep myself busy. And when I don’t have work, I’m really good at going into the back country and not spending money.
Blake Boles (43:49)
Hmm.
Morgan (44:15)
I guess the doubts start to creep in is how long am I gonna be able to keep this up? But then again, I think about anyone who’s in a career and the world we’re living in now, and nobody really knows how long they’re gonna be able to keep their job up. And some people have really fabulous retirement plans, but a lot of people don’t. And so I think I’m just living like face to face with these uncertainties that affect so many people.
Blake Boles (44:20)
Hmm.
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Morgan (44:45)
I’m just not stuffing them down. just, I’m in it. I’m in that terrain all the time. And so I try and tell myself, I mean, that it’s the best I can that this is how I prepare. It’s not, know, preparing for the future isn’t something where I set things up and I haven’t figured out. It’s that adaptability, that dance that I’m gonna carry with me into whatever’s ahead.
Blake Boles (44:48)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Hmm.
Hmm.
⁓ good friend of mine who lives in Western Colorado took me backpacking a few Springs ago in an area you might be familiar with the water pocket fold. And, ⁓ we, there was no running water at that time. ⁓ and so we were getting water out of, of just little basins out of little, little holes in the ground. And hopefully it wasn’t like too stinky and would filter it twice. And I was genuinely nervous.
Morgan (45:21)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Blake Boles (45:41)
On that trip. Cause I’ve, I’ve never relied on, on finding water in that way. And, and we would run out of water and it would, the sun would still be pretty high and he’d say, don’t worry, we’re going to find some. And we did, there was always water, but there were these periods where I was like, I don’t want to be dying of dehydration out here. And I imagine that might, might be what it’s like being a freelance writer. Like you’re wandering through the sandstone, you’ve run out of water and you’re like, I’m pretty confident that there’s gonna be a little divot full of water around the next corner, but I don’t know for sure, depends on many factors. This is me returning to the subject of money. And I’m curious of how you conceive of like the sustainable ⁓ path forward with being able to fund your life.
How you think about it on both sides of the equation of earning money and spending money. And yeah, how you feel confident about the future for yourself.
Morgan (46:50)
I mean, I guess I’m confident in my ability to take care of myself and so much of that has been ⁓ honed and sharpened living out in the desert where, you know, I realized that the most important thing in life is finding that next pothole of water. I mean, that never goes away. I’m always a little paranoid about water, but I’m also very trusting in finding it. And so when I start thinking about things like money, it’s like, yeah, but like if the economy collapses, I know where the potholes are.
So there is a foundational level where I’m like, that’s the bare minimum and I know I can do it, I need to to take care of myself. But it is really daunting in the financial realm and the life I’m living, I think you were saying this before the interview, mean, a couple of years ago, was like, oh yeah, this is definitely not a phase, which I always knew. But now I’m like old enough at age 38 where I’m like, this is my life. All right, so.
Blake Boles (47:41)
Mm.
Morgan (47:43)
⁓ We’re on this ride, this is what it is. I’m not gonna just, well that was nice and fun, now I’m gonna go get a corporate job. At this point, I’m too far in, that will kill me. ⁓ I spend two days in a city like Tucson and I’m completely rattled and overwhelmed and need to go out to the desert to recalibrate. That’s not my path in life. ⁓
Blake Boles (47:55)
Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.
Hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Morgan (48:11)
And so to return to your question, yeah, there is no certainty and the, as I’m sure you’re well aware, the political and economic climate in the United States adds another layer to this uncertainty. Whereas if I was dealing with these things pre 2020, it would be challenging, but I had a pretty clear vision of what could be done. And now even some of the most simple root of merit, rudimentary ways to kind of build a dirt bag future, even like a retirement shack, are completely out of my league and many Americans league.
Blake Boles (48:54)
Are you talking about the cost of housing or something else? Yeah.
Morgan (48:56)
Yes, yes.
And that’s directly affected by political decisions and the state of the economy and inflation and things that are just beyond my control. And so it comes back to that sense of like, no matter how hard I work or how, I’m incredibly thrifty. Especially when I first moved into my Jeep and I had no money.
Blake Boles (49:09)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Morgan (49:22)
I had to find a way to live without money and that has carried forward. so, you know, so much of my financial plan is, you know, how little money can I spend? But that only works to a point as the cost of goods and housing ⁓ continue to skyrocket.
Blake Boles (49:31)
Mm-hmm.
Are you able to live like this because you have any sort of like hidden security net, know, family money or like your partner making this possible? Or is this all a life that you could continue to lead if there was no one else, no, family, no nothing else to fall back on?
Morgan (50:04)
I mean, it’s just me, yeah, this is, you know, and I say it with a caveat that like life is never just you. I mean, if everything were to collapse, I know my parents would let me come home and stay with them and I wouldn’t starve, but I have proven whether it’s eating out of dumpsters or hiding in the canes, that’s not what I want to do with my life. But my parents do love me and would take me in, you know, and I have my partner, Aaron.
Blake Boles (50:12)
Yeah.
Morgan (50:33)
He works for a local outfitter and cafe and also cleans houses. ⁓ So we both have very blue collar incomes and we share the load of what our expenses are. So we support each other, but financially we’re both completely independent in the same space. ⁓ So yeah, if everyone goes away, this is how I’m taking care of myself. Yeah. But to me, having the…
Blake Boles (50:58)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Morgan (51:03)
⁓ emotional support, the people who are understanding of how I’m living and I would say primarily, know, Aaron, who also feels so much more at home in nature and lives a very simple, frugal life and works really hard but lives for that time outdoors, not for the work we’re doing. That’s what’s really made this sustainable for me is sharing that with someone else.
Blake Boles (51:26)
Hmm.
And it sounds like you’ve done a really good job of fulfilling your own relationship, with nature, doing that in relationship with, someone else. What about the bigger purpose of your, work, your writing, ⁓ what you post online? How do you, do you think about your kind of larger contribution to the world? I won’t.
say like your legacy or something heavy handed like that. But to what extent do you feel this need to be a voice for something bigger than like your own relationship to nature?
Morgan (52:06)
Yeah, I mean, I think because of how much that nature and the relationship I have with it, how much it is, you know, the bedrock of my life, I must give something back, you know, I have to have a reciprocal relationship with it. And, you know, at this moment in history, the natural world, the environment, public land, clean water, especially in the United States right now is under threat. And so I have felt since, you know,
2017 when I first moved into my Jeep that in exchange for being able to go out on the land and you know, basically live I need to do what I can through my writing through speaking through advocacy through online presence to help protect and defend those areas and that’s been an entire, you know, it’s maybe a separate conversation about the different ways that that’s possible and what that means but at the core
That is what’s guiding what I do. My living situation, everything I own can go away. My primary care is for the natural world, because that’s what makes any of this possible, not money. ⁓ Dirtbag rich to me is you have clean water, you have clean air, you have healthy landscapes and ecosystems and places that are open and welcome for all people to come.
Blake Boles (53:16)
Hmm.
Hmm.
Hmm. Mm-hmm.
Morgan (53:32)
and benefit from and where people are respecting the wildlife and respecting the indigenous homelands. To me, that’s the richest we all could ever aspire to be.
Blake Boles (53:45)
Hmm. ⁓ maybe we can close with, with a story. ⁓ you’ve described your, your time in the Eastern Sierra in the Great Basin, Canyon country. I’m wondering if there’s a moment from, doesn’t even have to be recently in your life. Just at any point that really like stands out to you and maybe symbolizes this relationship with nature.
that feels so important to you. So it could be like a beautiful moment or something you might call like transcendent, just a kind of moment that reminds you why you decide over and over again to live this way, something symbolic. Do you have a story to share?
Morgan (54:33)
that’s really tough. think in the big picture, it’s just all the times that I’ve thought I’m going out into the wilderness alone and sometimes that’s a fun choice and other times it’s like, this is just where my life is and the different ways that the natural world around me has affirmed that I’m not alone. Whether it’s a name carved in the wall of stone that person eventually literally becomes my friend or
a coyote walking me back to camp or waking up and seeing mountain lion tracks around my sleeping bag or deciding to follow the storm in a new direction and meeting the love of my life. think these just moments again and again where the desert has shown me you’re not alone.
Blake Boles (55:17)
Hmm.
Morgan (55:25)
reminds me of why I need to remain committed to giving back to the desert.
Blake Boles (55:30)
Hmm.
Hmm. Sounds like a accumulation of many small moments that turns into something big.
Morgan (55:35)
yeah, couldn’t,
it’s just when spending so much time out, it’s impossible to pick any one moment. I mean, I can’t even pick any one moment from each of my different experiences. It’s just, really is, I have very few memories of, I lived in this house or that house. this is, life is lived out there.
Blake Boles (55:48)
Yeah.
Morgan, if people want to read what you write or hear what you have to say, what is the best way for them to follow you online?
Morgan (56:09)
I write on Substack at Wild Words ⁓ about once a week when I’m not out, which that sometimes dwindles. I’m also the author of Path of Light, a walk through colliding legacies of Glen Canyon that’s through Torrey House Press and ⁓ really gets into sort of the desert as a guiding light and how those experiences retracing expeditions led me to the path I’m on now.
Blake Boles (56:38)
Morgan, it’s been a pleasure. It’s really nice to meet you.
Morgan (56:41)
Nice to meet you too. Thanks for the conversation.