Exploring the Cascadia Bioregion with The Kilted Hiker

The Cascadia Bioregion is not a line on a map. It’s a living, breathing place—defined by watersheds, mountains, forests, coastlines, and the quiet connections between them. From the moss-covered rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula to the alpine ridges of the North Cascades, Cascadia is shaped less by borders and more by flow: of rivers, weather, seasons, and stories.

The Kilted Hiker was created as a way to explore and share this place with intention.

At its heart, The Kilted Hiker is about slowing down enough to notice where you are. It’s about walking a trail not just to reach a destination, but to understand the landscape beneath your boots—how it formed, how it changes, and how we fit into it. Cascadia invites that kind of relationship. It rewards curiosity and respect in equal measure.

Exploring the Cascadia Bioregion means moving through wildly different ecosystems in a relatively small geographic area. Old-growth forests give way to river valleys. Volcanic peaks loom over islands and inland seas. Tides, snowpack, fire, and rain all shape how life moves here. Through The Kilted Hiker, these transitions become part of the story—each hike, paddle, meal, and camp a small chapter in a much larger narrative.

The Kilted Hiker isn’t about conquering terrain or ticking boxes. It’s about presence. About learning the rhythms of the land and letting them set the pace. That might mean a long day hike through subalpine meadows, a quiet morning along a tidal shoreline, or a simple camp meal cooked slowly as light fades from the mountains.

This blog exists as a journal of that exploration. Through The Kilted Hiker, I’ll be sharing trail experiences, regional history, food inspired by the landscape, and reflections on what it means to travel thoughtfully through Cascadia. Some posts will be practical, others personal—but all of them are rooted in this bioregion and the sense of place it fosters.

Cascadia isn’t something you “finish” exploring. It’s something you return to, again and again, in different seasons and different states of mind. The Kilted Hiker is an invitation to do just that—to step outside, follow the contours of the land, and engage with the Cascadia Bioregion one trail, one river, one story at a time.

Welcome to the journey.