About Me

Hey, I’m Callie. The gal behind Wild Grit!

I’m an author, filmmaker, mountain biker, outdoorswoman, and an off-grid homesteader. Wild Grit is my brand where I document my projects and adventures through writing and film.

The Backstory of Wild Grit

I started Wild Grit in 2018 when I was living out of my van and had just sold my 50% stake in The Lost Co., a bike shop in Bellingham, WA that I started from scratch with my ex-boyfriend. We had broken up, but tried to still work together, which (unsurprisingly) went south quickly. So he got the bike shop, I got the dog, and I took off on a road trip around the west coast, that I now refer to as “The Roadtrip of Sadness”. I didn’t want to leave, I had to out of self-respect. And selling my share in the shop felt so tragic - no price could match the effort and sacrifices I made to start it.

But there I was, living in a van and starting over. I decided Wild Grit would be my next venture. A youtube channel where I could document my adventures on the road trip and hopefully make enough money to scrape by as a #vanlife influencer.

And it actually went fairly well! I had a couple brand deals here and there, and I had a lot of fun working on it. I had a draft of a book written and I decided to use my momentum with Wild Grit to publish it. In summer of 2020 I released The Wild Mindset, and became a self-published author! I’m so proud of how it turned out and I’d love you to read it if you get a chance.

With my book released, I continued to occasionally make youtube videos but I felt pulled in a new direction. My journey as a bike shop owner didn’t feel complete. I really wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. So I decided to start over again, and create Grit Cycles, a service-focused bike shop in Bellingham, WA. I opened the shop in January 2020, with the help of a different ex-boyfriend. I focused on rebuilding suspension and doing deep overhauls on mountain bikes, and quickly had way too much work to handle. It was stressful, fun, and it fulfilled me in every way I hoped it could. My mission was complete! And then I realized a big issue…I didn’t actually want to run a bike shop. I just wanted to prove to myself I could do it. And so, in 2022, I shut it down.

Do I sound crazy yet? For sure. And I am! I own it. I’ve made so many mistakes. I create, then I destroy, then I rebuild, and re-destroy, over and over again. Following my gut has been a really, really hard process. And I can’t spend a single second caring about what people think about it all. Grit really is the best word to sum it up!

Closing Grit Cycles gave me more time to ride my bike and have fun. I’ve done some mountain biking photo work for brands like Patagonia as a stock athlete. I started doing side jobs and tree work to earn money. And I’ve been trying to be a bit more patient and hustle a little less hard - trying to actually enjoy the process instead of grinding.

In summer of 2024, Drew and I purchased an off-grid property, a joint dream of ours for as long as we can remember. It has giant trees, no neighbors, and we hope to someday build a house. Over the past year we’ve been working very hard on making what was once a brushy, overgrown parcel, live-able.

Today

It’s now 2024 and I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. The dust has settled and I’m now living how I’ve always dreamed of. It was quite the journey to get here and I hope that hearing about it feels more reassuring if you’re in the thick of it right now.

The best part is that I can now build Wild Grit into what I’ve hoped it could be. Check out the journal if you’d like to read frequent and detailed updates about life off-grid, projects I’m working on, and adventure accounts. Also, watch my Youtube channel for more videos!

What’s Next?

Wild Grit was always meant to be a place to document adventure and inspire others. My goal is to share more of the beautiful experiences I have, through both writing and film.