Discovering Your Inner Outdoorsperson with Cory Maria Dack

“You deserve this. You are worthy of this. You belong here.”

That is how Outdoor Adventure Guide, Cory Maria Dack, responds when I ask her what she wishes she had learned about the outdoors earlier in life. 

“That is also the number one message that I want to spread to other queer folks, fat bodied folks, immigrants, poor folks, brown folks,” she continues. “You might not see anyone here that looks like you, but you belong here. Don’t ever let anyone convince you otherwise.”

Bubbling, inspirational monologues like this one are par for the course in a conversation with Dack, who has been an outdoor adventure guide for the last twenty years. She has a knack for candidly describing a problem and immediately offering a little hope alongside a solution for that problem. Our conversation got deep, but mostly we covered her background and some recommendations for newbies who want to be more outdoorsy. 

Dack didn’t grow up taking family canoe trips or going to summer camp. In fact, it wasn’t until her early twenties, when one of Dack’s friends convinced her to work at a summer camp with her, that Dack did much in the outdoors at all. Working at the summer camp was both a dream come true and a huge adjustment. Not having access to daily showers was tough. Dack remembers taking campers on one-night “camping trips” in a nearby field and thinking to herself, “Wow I am really roughing it.” In comparison to the multi-week back country trips she leads now “roughing it” was a stretch. “I could see the main buildings in the distance,” Dack laughs. 

Some of the other staff members took campers out on canoeing trips like the ones Dack guides today, but that initially felt impossible for her. Paddling every day, sleeping in tents every night, and using a map and compass to navigate was intimidating. But Camp Vermilion leadership saw her intrinsic leadership and community building skills and pushed her to try. “They told me, ‘We can teach anyone the technical skills. What we can’t teach are the human skills: how to build community, make good decisions, how to empower children. You already have all of that. We can train you on everything else,” Dack pauses. “That changed the course of my life.”

It might have changed her life, but that first trip was far from easy. “I cried every single day on that trip,” says Dack. “But I told myself: ‘Cory Maria, you can do anything for one summer.’ And here I am seventeen summers later.” 

Much of the difficulty that Dack faced as an outdoors guide was related to the micro-aggressions she experienced as a fat bodied woman of color in these spaces. Those experiences fueled her desire to become and then stay a guide for almost two decades. “I wanted to make sure that no one else feels as unwelcome as I felt. Especially as a person of color. I faced so much racism and misogyny [and the] fat phobia is rampant in this career.”

Luckily the culture in outdoor spaces has been changing – in large part because of Dack and people like her. “I am so grateful we have affinity groups now because I felt like I was screaming into a void then. There were no other fat people, no other brown people, very few queer people. Now there are.”

There is a diverse array of affinity groups today and they can make a huge difference in fostering a sense of community and belonging in outdoor spaces. “Find affinity groups. Whether it’s for being brown or a fat bodied person or a queer or trans person – a lot even offer intersectionality. Find one you feel safest in so you have a safe environment to cultivate learning.” 

These groups can be found online and in person. “I work for Wilderness Inquiry and you can look for trips I’m leading there,” says Dack. “Camp Menogyn through the YMCA is great. BIPOC Outdoors Twin Cities. BIPOC Outdoors Twin Ports. Some of my dearest friends are running those groups.”

If you’re not ready to join a group or go on a trip outside the metro, Dack insists that there is plenty to see and experience within the city limits. “Start small…I always have people find the water,” says Cory. “In Minnesota, we’re so lucky. We might not have giant mountains but Water Is Life.” She lists several local lakes and waterways – including “the cute little one at Loring Park” before moving on to the big ones. 

“Minnesota borders the largest lake in the entire world: Mama Superior, Gitchigammi!”  she says. “And in the Twin Cities we’re located right on the Mississippi River, near Bdote! It’s the main artery of the whole continental United States.”

Whether you go big with Lake Superior or stick closer to home, being near water is powerful. “Having healing time in nature can happen in the middle of a giant city. There are green spaces all over and those spaces are just as sacred and holy as going to Yellowstone. If your big outside adventure is walking around the Chain of Lakes, heck yes!  I’m happy for you. You’re seeing green. You’re seeing blue. That is healing. That is powerful.”

Finding the right gear can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to break the bank. “Find local things. Facebook Marketplace is the new Craigslist. You can get great stuff at outlets. And definitely borrow stuff before you buy it.” 

Specialized outdoor clothing is nice, but budget friendly basics can be just as good. “I hike in my yoga shorts and tank top from Target,” says Dack. “I upgrade to high quality rain gear and footwear…I dabbled in discount rain gear and you just get soaked.”

Dack’s top recommendation for outdoor clothing is REI, partially for the helpful staff and partially because of its inclusive sizing. “I’m a fat bodied person… I’m not the largest of sizes, but even I can’t fit in anything from North Face, Arc’teryx, Fjallraven. REI has gotten really good – it carries up to 4XL in stores. Everybody and every BODY deserves to go on a canoe trip and to have rain gear that fits them.”

If you want to go on a trip specifically with Dack, you can follow her on Instagram @corymaria13 and look her up on the Wilderness Inquiry website. She has also done several amazing, in-depth podcast interviews about her 130+ day source to sea winter canoe trip down the entire Mississippi River. A quick google of her name will bring you to those.

Here’s hoping we see you outside sometime soon. Maybe at the Chain of Lakes. Maybe in the Boundary Waters. Definitely somewhere that you belong.