Set Your Boundaries (and Push the Shower): Serena Ryan of The Notch Hostel
Guides Gone Wild
English - November 19, 2020 10:00 - 46 minutes - 30.3 MBWilderness Sports Society & Culture Places & Travel Homepage Download Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Even if you’re not in the hospitality or travel or restaurant business, you can appreciate what a craptastic year 2020 has been for these industries.
While I’m pretty ambivalent about the impact COVID has had on the Hiltons and Marriotts of the world, I’ve been super bummed to see some of the small businesses I know personally, or admire from afar, struggle, and in some cases throw in the towel, as a result of market conditions they had no way of predicting or preparing for.
So I’m super-duper stoked to bring you today’s conversation with Serena Ryan, the owner and queen bee of The Notch Hostel in North Woodstock, NH, just a few miles off the Appalachian Trail.
Serena is living the dream of many of us - she became an avid hiker in her early 20s, criss-crossing the White Mountains almost every weekend. And after spending several days killing it on a trip to Mt. Rainier, she basically decided to blow up her Boston life and open a hostel in the Whites, so she could live and work in the area she loved without having to wait for retirement.
Well, as you can imagine, the happy ending had a few hairpin turns, and dare I say, nasty-fiery-train-wreck moments along the way. But here we are in 2020, months into a global pandemic, and Serena is still at it. Her unique combination of passion, grit, determination, and respect for the power of a good shower has created a homey oasis for AT thru hikers and White Mountain enthusiasts for over five years.
Serena and I talk about The Notch Hostel experience, the challenges of hospitality in a pandemic, and the need for clear boundaries when work and home life are one and the same. We get a little raw discussing some of the life-changing speed bumps Serena faced along the way. And we land on some silver linings that this crazy year has brought, despite its challenges.
I hope you’ll check out the NotchHostel.com site - even if you’re not ready to book a bunk, there’s a fantastic merch store, tons of trip reports, and great resources for planning a hike or bike in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
You can also follow Serena's hostel (and other) adventures on Instagram.
Some other cool links from our conversation: