The Two Outliers Story
Two Outliers is a hiking and outdoor adventure travel blog focused on providing detailed information and specific guides for hikes and outdoor adventures across the world.
Two Outliers was created by Matt and Sarah, an American couple who loves to share detailed information about their experiences so that others can feel empowered to see the world and live life outside the norm.
Having traveled extensively across the United States and Canada, much of our blog is focused on these two vast, diverse, and spectacular countries. Currently, we are traveling around the world and are building out our international content as well.
Everything we’ve written about, we’ve done ourselves. Every picture we post is taken by us.
We don’t accept guest posts, sponsored content, or paid trips. We give our honest opinion about everything we do and provide all the bits of information that you won’t find on bigger, more corporate websites.
We’re just two people who love to travel and to be outside who want to help other people explore the world!
Why Two Outliers
We struggled for months on what we should name our blog. Truthfully, neither of us is super creative so it was quite the challenge! Eventually, Sarah floated the idea of working her love of statistics into the name (side bar: Sarah is a huge math nerd and has a Masters Degree in Statistics).
We always knew that we were in search of a life outside the norm (another statistics term) and it dawned on us that any data point (or person) who strays from the norm is an “outlier”. Et voila, Two Outliers was born.
Oh and if it isn’t obvious, the “Two” in “Two Outliers” refers to the two of us – Matt and Sarah!
Fun fact | Our logo, which appears to be three mountains, is also a subtle nod to a normal distribution (another statistics thing, don’t ask me what it is) and our preferred spot outside that “normal” distribution.
What we focus on
Our primary focus on Two Outliers is to provide detailed yet succinct guides to hikes and other outdoor adventures across the globe. We love to hike, backpack, camp, and really anything outdoors and the information we post reflects those passions.
On Two Outliers, you can find plenty of information on specific hikes, as well as detailed information about camping, backpacking, and all sorts of outdoor adventures.
We lived nomadically in the US for three years and road tripped across the country three times. You’ll find plenty of road trip tips and secrets in addition to all of our outdoor-focused content!
Our Story
The birth of Two Outliers is not a simple story, but rather the culmination of a series of events that no one could have ever predicted. Growing up, neither of us envisioned that we’d end up building a successful hiking and outdoor adventure travel blog. Heck, neither of us really hiked or traveled growing up!
So how did we end up here? That’s a great question!
We started down the “normal” path
For most of our lives, we were headed down what we like to call the “normal life path.” We met while studying at university and soon after graduating, each began life in the corporate world of long commutes, dreary cubicles, boxed lunches, fluorescent lights, pointless meetings, and endless unread emails.
We adopted our beloved cat, Fitzgerald, moved into our first apartment in the city, and spent our weeks simply wishing for the weekend.
And honestly, we liked the normal path for a while. We had stable jobs, successful careers, and life was good! But then, as we all know, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything.
Then a global pandemic changed everything…
In the blink of an eye, our office jobs turned to home office jobs and the security and stability we thought we had no longer seemed so secure or stable. After a year of staring at each other from the safe confines of our tiny apartment, we slowly started to question what we wanted our lives to look like.
Is this it? Is this what the next 40 years of our life is going to be?
Just working for the weekend and two weeks of paid vacation each year? It all seemed so backwards. We wanted to get out there and see the world!
Packing our lives into a Subaru Forester
And out of that frustration, Two Outliers began. We decided that we’d move out of our apartment, sell our belongings, pack up Fitzgerald and anything else that could fit in our Jeep and hit the road.
Soon enough, we were camping in Death Valley, hiking to the top of Half Dome, rock climbing in Joshua Tree, and hiking our way across Idaho.
We fell in love with living nomadically, hiking, backpacking, rock climbing and everything outdoors. Since our first road trip, we’ve journeyed across the US two more times and visited 41 of the 50 US states.
We also road tripped across large parts of Canada, and are currently traveling around the world for 15 months.
Two Outliers was born!
After struggling to find easy-to-digest yet detailed information about many of the hikes and adventures we planned to do, we grew frustrated and decided to take matters into our own hands and the idea behind Two Outliers began.
Wanting to create a place where visitors could go to find the information they need without all the fluff, sponsored content, and unhelpful details, we decided that Two Outliers could fill an important niche in the hiking and outdoor adventure travel world.
At the end of the day, we are two hikers, travelers, and outdoor lovers who love sharing our insights and experiences so that other people can enjoy the beauty of the world too. Join us and live life outside the norm!
Our International Travel Plans
For as long as each of us can remember, we’ve dreamed of traveling the world. Frankly, our shared case of wanderlust is part of what drew us to each other to begin with.
For a while, we were satisfied with taking one or two international trips each year but we soon realized that if we kept up that pace of travel, we’d never be able to see everything we wanted! Even more so, one week in a country just never felt like enough time!
And so, we had a crazy idea.
What if we could save up enough money to leave our jobs and travel around the world for a year?
It sounded insane at the time but then we started doing the math and it suddenly felt…maybe…possible.
After multiple years of researching, planning, saving, re-planning, and booking, we are finally traveling around the world!
Of course, everything is subject change but we are planning to visit the following countries during our around the world trip:
- Indonesia
- Philippines
- New Zealand
- Australia
- Thailand
- Vietnam
- Cambodia
- Laos
- Nepal
- India
- South Africa
- Jordan
- Egypt
- Greece
- Germany
- Austria
- Slovenia
- Croatia
- Norway
- Peru
- Bolivia
- Chile
- Argentina
We can’t wait to share more about all of our epic travels with you!
About Sarah
A statistics nerd, photography junkie, runner, animal lover, Sarah is the heart and soul of Two Outliers. Sarah grew up near Richmond, VA, and while she has always loved to travel, it was her first visit to Switzerland in 2018 that ignited her case of wanderlust and she has been constantly seeking the next adventure ever since.
Organized, analytical, and detail-oriented, she is the primary planner on the team and loves putting together a minute-by-minute travel itinerary. A self-proclaimed nerd, Sarah has a Master’s degree in Statistics and moonlights as a Data Scientist when she isn’t working on Two Outliers. Sarah is the photographer behind Two Outliers and is obsessed with capturing every possible sunrise and sunset with her camera.
She is a coffee and beer snob, a three-time marathon runner, addicted to Pad Thai and loves planning a trip maybe as much as the trip itself. She enjoys cooking over the campfire, snuggling with Fitzgerald, and glass of red wine in the backcountry more than anything else.
About Matt
Matt is the right-side of the Two Outlier’s brain and the primary writer on the team. While Sarah is figuring out the most cost-effective way to get from point A to point B, Matt is probably mapping out where they are going to eat each night of the trip.
Matt grew up outside Boston, MA and still thinks a fresh Maine lobster is the best meal in the world. As an avid foodie, he would rather starve than eat at a chain restaurant or tourist trap. He is often reminding Sarah that not every minute of the itinerary needs to be filled with an activity and that free time for rest and exploration is a good thing!
Passionate about helping others, Matt has a Master’s degree in Public Health and previously worked as a policy analyst in the field of organ transplantation. He is also a beer snob (but will drink any cup of coffee) and three-time marathon runner. When not traveling, Matt loves Boston sports, watching movies, and of course, hanging out with Fitzgerald.
Get in touch
Have questions or comments? Adventures to share? We’d love to hear from you!
twooutliers (at) gmail (dot) com
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