FEAR NOT

In the last several years I have been attempting to overcome my fears.  I was the wimpy girl growing up who didn't want to try anything new.  My appetite for adventure revolved more around trying new food or nail polish colors rather than actual outdoor adventure.  I'm sure my fears were totally irrational.

In recent years my fear of guns, or shooting one I should say, has been eliminated.  I'd say owning two guns, hunting, and allot of target practice using about 40 different guns will get rid of that fear real fast.  It's a therapy for me now. 

My fear of water where I can't see the bottom is not completely gone, but things like joining a rowing team, getting my boater's certification, boat fishing, and fly fishing have helped reduce the fear.

My fear of being social?  Yes, I guess that one is gone.  I was the person who changed my college major to not have to take a public speaking class. No joke! I was unbelievably shy and would never consider going to a restaurant or a bar by myself. I was the wallflower at the party and to dance in front of people required mind numbing amounts of alcohol. To stand in front of a group to speak caused anxiety and panic. Today?  Bring it!

My fear of small closed in spaces?  Oooohhh.  Now there's a story to that one.  When I think of things like scuba diving, I picture myself being trapped inside a tight enclosed head mask submerged in water unable to get out.  I get anxious just thinking about it. 

Many years ago I was with a group of friends who went to Buckner's Cave, just outside of Bloomington,IN.  That part of Indiana, with it's rich limestone beds, has many caves and this one was quite a challenge.  The entry point to the cave started in an open sink hole, so I thought this would be "easy".  No, that was just the foyer.  The actual "door" to the cave was a tiny little hole in the ground that we had to get down on our bellies and squeeze into.  I had my first ever experience of what it felt like to hyper-ventilate.  I had to be talked through it. Once in, the crawling...or slithering....continued. For the next 3.5 hours it was some standing, lots of time crouched down, bent over, and twisting our bodies through wildly created natural cavern space.  We had flashlights and extra batteries.  There was no natural light to be had the entire time. 

I followed the group and enjoyed the "scenery".  We stopped to rest on occasion but for the most part we were moving (slowly) through this crazy cave.  At the end, when we all came out into the daylight again, it was exhilarating.  We had a 3 hour trip home to Illinois and we stopped for a bite to eat before the long trip.  It was then that the tiredness and soreness started to settle in. 

The next couple of days were some of the sorest of my life.  My body had twisted and contorted into positions it had not known.  My excitement about telling friends about it soon began to change to the panic of "what if?" because when I realized that if one of us had gotten hurt...the only way out of the cave was the exact same way we got into the cave. Ahhhhhh!!!!

The experience was great, but unfortunately my claustrophobia remains intact.

                                        

“You must do the things you think you cannot do.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Adventures and experiences make for stories to tell and write about. That’s what I do.

In the fall of 2014 I was on horseback riding a trail in Big Sky, Montana. It was by far the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. The sky was flawlessly blue and in a 360 degree landscape, there was no other sign of human existence. The trail guide was the epitome of an adventurer and outdoorswoman, a beautiful fun-loving blond cowgirl who moved to Montana looking for a cowboy to partner with who could keep up with her.  We talked and laughed about everything under the sun. I told her my story and eventually my idea. She stopped, turned herself around on her horse, faced me and said, “You have to do it. NO one else is doing it.” 

Not too many years prior to that I began pushing myself to overcome fears and do things I swore I would never do.  I hated running, so I started running half marathons. I was afraid of being in or near water where I couldn’t see the bottom. So, I took up rowing on a crew, paddling and got my boaters’ safety certification.  I had never held a gun and was afraid to shoot one.  So, I bought a gun, went target shooting and started turkey hunting. From then on I sought out people to take me fishing and hunting.  I found out firsthand how “misguided” I was trying to find reputable teachers.  I didn’t let it stop me then and don’t now.

In creating this business service, I was concerned that my lack of outdoors experience would work against me, but as it turns out, it’s to my advantage.  Between family, friends, and strangers, the acceptance to it has been 100% positive. People are enthusiastic, curious, and generally I can raise an eyebrow or two with the stories I tell.

In short, I work with guides on marketing and setting goals to make their business more successful and enjoyable for both the guides and their clients. 

This is only the first phase of Miss Guided Adventures. To fully accomplish my goals, it takes a team. I am looking for coaches, trainers, teammates, cheerleaders and fans in the crowd.  And right now, there’s no competition!

If you would like to learn more and be a part of a fun adventure, call or email me. NO texts please.   

 “Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.” ~Henry David Thoreau

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There is a story to Miss Guided Adventures, and a purpose as well.

My Father died in 1992 from complications with Multiple Myeloma, cancer of the bone marrow.  My Dad was the symbol of strength and courage. He played hockey in college, worked on the Manhattan Project as a Boston University graduate while waiting for his Armed Air Forces service to begin where he flew a bomber in WWII. He fathered 8 children with my Mother and the guy who was an athlete, loved sailing, was a master gardener, and did everything he could to provide for his large family succumbed to a cancer that crumpled his spine.  Throughout his illness, he managed a sense of humor, a positive outlook, and he got strong enough for a brief period before his death  to swim, bike, walk, and skate again.

I dedicate this adventure to my parents and will donate 10% of proceeds on services and products to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS).

Lures 4 Cures: Partnering with lure manufacturers to design custom lure colors to sell as a fundraiser for LLS.  10% of every sale will go to LLS.

Heart Felt Fishes: A community project with local artists to design and market collectors’ gift items and décor, with 10% of the proceeds going to select charities.

Miss Guided Apparel: T-shirts, running, cycling, and fishing jerseys, and other apparel in fun designs. 10% of the proceeds will be donated to LLS.

In addition to training for a triathlon, I am committing to LLS’s Team in Training and will be doing a marathon either in 2016 or 2017.  In that time frame I also plan to Ride the Rockies with my brother as a fundraiser for MS.

   Kris Neilson, Wausau, WI

   608-575-6903

   missguidedkris@gmail.com  

Fishing for Complements

Moonlight Landing 1162 Halfmoon Lake Drive ~ Mosinee, WI

Moonlight Landing is a great little bar and restaurant with a beautiful view, good food, nice people, and wide variety in menu options.  

I had visited the place earlier in 2015 while on a musky fishing trip with one of the guides from Hooksetters Guide Service.  It was under different ownership and a different name.

After moving to the Wausau, WI area in October of 2015 I came to find this place located on Halfmoon Lake after the new year when the ice fishing had finally started to be a viable option during the mild start to winter.  There were not more than 8 people in the place, but it was a slow weekday anyway.  I sat quietly at a table overlooking the frozen sun covered lake without the disturbance of anyone around me.  I like people watching, but I was more than content to be alone this time.  

Lisa and Don Moon became the owners of Moonlight Landing in September 2015, a very nice couple who have been there each of the 3 times I have visited now.  The bar and restaurant is warm and welcoming, clean and you just can't beat the scenery overlooking a beautiful spot on Halfmoon. I am not a food critic, I write about experiences and adventures.  It was a relaxing experience.

I was captivated by the bright warmth of the sun through the window, the sparkle of the sun off the ice, the shimmer on the snow, and the natural beauty that was taking my attention away from my electronic addictions and allowing me to focus on the present.  It was a reminder that fishing is one of the very few things I do that allows me that place in the present.  Typically, I am distracted by everything else in the world except what is going on right now.  Unless I am near water or in the woods or almost anywhere outside where human presence is minimal.

To be in the present is something I have to tell myself to do.  It takes concentration and effort. I used to suffer the insanity in that, but I have learned to find the creativity and pleasure in it.  When I fish, when I hunt, there is no other place I am except in the present.  It is why I have become so passionate about my desire to fish and hunt. They cure my anxieties and keep me present.

Thanks to Don and Lisa for running a nice little place.

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.  ~John Muir

What is Miss Guided Adventures?

Directing people to let experience be their guide in finding the guide who won’t misguide them. Sound confusing?

Miss Guided Adventures was founded based on my experience of being a woman who didn’t know how to fish running a fishing lure business in a male dominated industry.  I was a fish out of water in the worst way and needed guidance. 

I was surprised by how much searching I had to do to find the best guides in the business. In a state where fishing contributes tens of millions of dollars to the state’s economy, I couldn’t find a decent online resource to guide me in the right direction. I made some expensive mistakes and discovered how being so misguided was to my advantage.  It set a course for filling a big void in the industry.

Miss Guided Adventures will be the resource for finding the right guide and the best experience for fishing in Wisconsin.

Fishing has given me many “ah-ha” moments. The experiences I’ve had and the people I’ve met have set the course for what I want to do when I grow up. I want to fish.

A few things to expect from MGA:

Blogs, dogs, fish frys, recipes, stories, sassiness, silliness,  tee shirts, klutziness, kayaking, paddleboarding, hunting, fishing, shooting, writing, reading, food, drinks, lures, charities, kids, and whatever else misguides me.

Who Is This Guide???

In the summer of 2012 my (then) husband and I hired a fishing guide on Petenwell Lake in Central Wisconsin to take us and teach us fishing.  This was after we had bought into a musky lure business, two people who had barely held a fishing rod in our lives and we were about to run a fishing lure business.  I worked my day job with the guy who started Nauti Lures LLC and because of our business background we were confident we could establish a good sales and marketing platform for the small niche business. 

I had a desire to learn to fish, my husband knew he should learn as an owner in the business, but his passions for the outdoors were more in the arena of soccer, skiing, and pond hockey.  In other words, being an outdoors man was not in his wheelhouse.  On the other hand, I was hooked and I was ready to embrace this wide open new world I was experiencing in the outdoors in addition to my swimming, yoga, cycling, running, and various endeavors.

I don't remember the day very well, which should be your first sign that this was anything but a memorable experience.  I have no recollection of what this guide's name is.  We found his name online doing a common everyday "google" search for fishing guides in Juneau County, near our hunting and camping land.  He gave us his business card at the end of this day and I still could not tell you his name.  We held rods in our hands and did some casting, but neither of us got any kind of education besides the fact that this goofball driving the boat sure knew how to complain about other guides quite a bit.  He had no interest in teaching.  We just paid him a lot of money to be his fishing partners for the day.

Our day of fishing, other than Todd landing a decent sized small mouth was a joke.  A $350 joke + a courtesy tip.  That stung.

Miss Guided Adventures, that's exactly what I went on....allot of misguided adventures and that's exactly how the business came to be.  As a middle aged adult woman I decided to take on the outdoors and for the last 5 years have tripped and stumbled and taken the wrong paths, paid allot of money to incompetent guides, and have some crazy stories to tell about my misadventures.  On the other hand, I have been out with phenomenal guides as well.

My goal is to direct people to the guide and the area that suits them best, to enhance the quality of guides in the business, and to build up the reputation of the professionals who guide for a living and for passion in Wisconsin fishing.  There are tens of millions of dollars pumped into this state every year in the fishing "business".  We have some of the best manufacturers of products such as St. Croix Rods , Suick, Mepp's, etc. and yet we have no type of professional standard by which any guide has to meet.  You pay your $40 to the DNR and you, too can call yourself a guide.

I may never be a tournament angler or anything more than a weekend warrior, but I am going to keep trying.  For some reason, the outdoors keeps calling and despite the obstacles I've had to overcome, I keep hurdling them and keep coming back for more. 

(My first article was published in OnWisconsin Outdoors recently describing my experiences as a woman who barely fished running a musky lure company.) 

ADVENTURES WITH KRIS

Four years ago I was working a retail sales position in Madison.  The job itself was fine (it was a JOB, not a career).  I had left retail management after 20+ years of stress for a sales position and was relieved to be able to not have the pressure of management on my plate anymore.  I was done with the mental and physical stress my body had gone through working in places that required me to use my back as much as my brain.  I had lost almost 3/4" of my height from compression on my spine.  I was lifting up to 80 pounds of weight at a time, hundreds of times a day, no joke.  My physical pain became mental pain. 

The money was actually better than I had made in a management position and I thought I had found a place to settle in for many more years.  Unfortunately, after the honeymoon phase of working a new job with new people wore off I became very aware of the dysfunction that goes with it.  You soon find out that your social life becomes one of two things:

1) You spend your days off (which were primarily on weekdays) with people you work with because they too work almost every weekend. Your friendships are forced and not genuine in some cases.

2) You spend your days off alone, with no real social culture to be a part of and just existing but not really living.

Though I enjoyed my paycheck, I did not enjoy the sacrifices I had to make to get that paycheck and that may have been the true starting point for Miss Guided Adventures.  I hardly ever saw my friends, my relationships were strained, I felt disconnected from Madison and all it has to offer.  The culture at my workplace was dysfunctional because everyone else there had the same experience I was having, but I decided to do something about it.

I started my Thursday Adventure Club.  I ran it through Facebook and invited people to go places with me on my days off and do things.  It ran a few months and I had fun.  It was when I really started posting my adventure pictures on Facebook and writing about them.  Prior to then I wasn't the Facebook addict I am now.  It's a marketing tool, just remember that.  It's social and it's business.  It's a cyber game of Connect The Dots for me.

My friend Katie (pictured above) and I went snowshoeing in Mount Horeb.  It was agorgeous, sunny, cold day and we both have big engines....it was a ton of fun and she claimed I tried to kill her.

My friend Stef played hooky from work and came out skating with me on Vilas Pond.  Another beautiful winters' day and a lot of fun.

People would talk about it, ask me about it, and it was when I really started connecting to my adventurous side.  I went to new towns, did new things, ate at new places, tried new brew pubs, etc.  It was the start of a change in me that eventually made it's way to being Miss Guided.

More to follow in the months to come....

Thanks for reading...

Kris