Today we’d like to introduce you to Tory Mather.
Hi Tory, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Growing up, my family not super outdoorsy. When the pandemic hit in 2020, I was living in Orange County, CA in a 600 square foot apartment. I felt so claustrophobic and started taking my dog for walks away from our crowded apartment on trails in the area. Turns out…I was hiking??
Fast forward eight months and a move to Cleveland, Ohio. I was working at a horribly toxic job and I was miserable. When I finally found another job, I had two weeks off in between to decompress. What do you do with two weeks off of work in the middle of a pandemic?
My friend told me about this hiking challenge that was 115 miles of hiking in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I had nothing better to do, so I signed up and did eight hikes in two weeks. In January. I completed the challenge in May and stopped hiking to focus on other things.
In 2021, I moved to Pittsburgh and injured myself. The only thing I was able to do was go for walks on my crutches. As someone whose entire identity and social network was built around working out, I really struggled with the isolation. We live close to Frick Park and being able to be surrounded by trees calmed down my frustration at not being able to move my body normally.
It seemed as if hiking kept coming back into my life when I really needed it – whether it was to escape from the uncertainty of the pandemic, to heal from a toxic work environment, or to get out there and make friends in a new city.
I was hooked for life and started my website, mytrailsaremany.com, to write about my outdoor adventures. In 2024, I started pitching publishers and got connected with Reedy Press who was restarting their Scenic Natural Wonders series. Scenic Natural Wonders of Pennsylvania was the first to be published in Spring 2026.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The process of writing a book was amazing, but also extremely challenging. I work full time in a corporate job, so had to fit writing around working 40+ hours a week in an office. I spent a lot of time traveling away from friends, family, and most importantly, my dog, while researching and writing the book. I also had to reshoot a bunch of photos to get more variety of seasons in the photos, which extended the writing process longer than I expected.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a writer and outdoor content creator. I wrote my book, but I also freelance write and write for my blog, mytrailsaremany.com. I also make videos about my adventures @torytalkstrails. I have a style that has been called “candid, witty, and refreshingly unpolished”. I share the good, the bad, and the ugly about adventuring outdoors and my adventures (and misadventures) along the way. I am proud of my book, Scenic Natural Wonders of Pennsylvania, and how I was able to weave in conservation messaging into a guidebook. Recently, I have really enjoyed creating videos for outdoor advocacy, including anti-pollution and anti-data center education and messaging.
How do you define success?
In content creation, I know many people define content creation based on how many followers they have. That is the opposite of how I define success. Instead of follower count, I define success by the action my community takes to stand up for the environment. Every person who messages me saying that they called their representative because of something I posted, every person who signs a petition, every person who learned something that they can teach their partner or children to increase the amount of people who care about conservation and preservation of land and natural spaces is success for me.
Pricing:
- My book is $27.00
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mytrailsaremany.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/torytalkstrails
- Youtube: https://YouTube.com/torytalkstrails
- Other: https://threads.com/torytalkstrails
