“Basically what we’re doing is trying to bridge this gap. We know the problems of climate change, we know the solutions, and what’s going to connect those two is community. It’s people.”
Welcome everyone to another episode of the It Matters To Me Podcast, a show that seeks out individuals dedicating their time and energy to non-profit causes that are bigger than themselves and the motivations behind that choice.
Today I have on the show, Dakota Jones, professional ultra-runner and Executive Director of Footprints, a 501-c-3 non-profit in the U.S. that exists as an incubator for climate action.
If you’re a particularly dedicated fan of the sport of trail-running, you might already know Dakota for some of his crazy fast times on courses like Hardrock or Transvulcania but what you might now know about him is his passion for addressing climate change.
Originally from Colorado, Dakota, took the ultra-running scene by storm starting in 2011 and has used that notoriety to become a vocal advocate for environmental justice.
The camps that Footprints put on are more than just a group of people getting together to run trails and simply talk about how they’d address climate change but instead is a chance for people who apply and are accepted into the program to put those words into action in their own communities.
Offering the benefit of mentors who know simply how to get things done, Footprints gives runners the chance to turn their ideas and passions into something tangible that will hopefully go on to protect the outdoor places they love.
Additional Links
Footprints (Website): https://runfootprints.org/about
Footprints Running Camp Video (Youtube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krWA8vni4F4&pp=ygUXZm9vdHByaW50cyBydW5uaW5nIGNhbXA%3D
Footprints (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/footprintsrunning/
Dakota Jones (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/thatdakotajones/
It Matters To Me (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/adamcasey/
Protect Our Winters (Website): https://protectourwinters.org/
Honnold Foundation (Website): https://www.honnoldfoundation.org/
Partners and Sponsors
Naked: https://nakedsportsinnovations.com/
Transcript
Adam Casey: Dakota, welcome to this show. It’s just an honor to have you, how are you doing?
Dakota Jones: Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, I’m doing really well. Yeah. I really appreciate you having me on.
Adam Casey: Well, You’re an ultra runner. You know, people can easily Google your name and see the things that you’ve done, and congratulations by the way, on your recent win, I think earlier this month at Transcon.
Adam Casey: But as far as you know, the work that you’re doing now with Footprints is definitely gonna be the highlight of our interview. But before we get into that, one way I really like to start the show is just basically by introducing the guest through a very, Kind of lighthearted question of if I knew you growing up, what kinds of stories would I tell about the Young Dakota Jones?
Dakota Jones: I think that you would probably tell stories about me, like falling over and getting hurt all the time. I was especially, I was really, really into BMX biking for like, 19 years of my life. And so I was constantly on my bike, always all over the place, riding up and downtown and like I got hurt all the time and I was always bleeding out of somewhere.
Dakota Jones: All my friends. I would like ruin everything, all my clothes and everything cuz I would like be bleeding outta my knees or my shin or my elbow or something all the time.
Adam Casey: Yeah. You know, it’s funny. So you grew up in Durango, Colorado, correct?
Dakota Jones: Well, I lived, I moved to Durango when I was 15 years old.
Dakota Jones: Before that I lived in Moab, Utah.
Adam Casey: It’s just as awesome of a place. But it’s funny because I actually just had Dale Garland on the show a few episodes ago and
Adam Casey: Worked out. When I’d worked out that I was interviewing you, I of course just sent him a text and was like, Hey, I’m interviewing Dakota. You got any good stories about him? Unfortunately, he would not tell me any good stories or he, he tried to he, he did a good job of not leading me down too bad of a path.
Adam Casey: But he did want me to ask you about how you got into trail running. And so I would love to for the listeners out there to kind of give an intro into, you’re not just an everyday trail runner, but I would love to know how you specifically got into trail running and kind of why, where that kind of led to you later in life
Dakota Jones: Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, it’s, I’m happy to talk about running, like I do this environmental stuff these days, but it’s like all built on this like platform of being a runner and like being a part of this running community. And so I, I, I think about running all the time, don’t worry. But yeah, I mean, Dale Garland, he’s a teacher at Durango High School where I went to three years of high school.
Dakota Jones: But he’s also the race director for Hardrock. For the Hardrock 100 I you probably heard of it. And so when I was 17, I think like right before my senior year of high school, I went up and I volunteered at Hardrock. And at the time I was like really into mountain sports, especially rock climbing and just climbing in general.
Dakota Jones: I like really wanted to be a climb climber and I’d read Alpinist magazine and I like really wanted to do that. But it’s quite hard to get into climbing probably for the better, you know, because you have to like get the right equipment, you have to use it correctly, you have to have partners and money.
Dakota Jones: It’s like, it’s challenging. And so then I spent a night at Hardrock volunteering and giving out like food and water at the 50 mile mark at 11,000 feet all night long. And I was like, this is like, this is exactly what I wanna do, you know? This is all the adventure I’ve been looking for and I don’t have to have all that stuff.
Dakota Jones: I can just like, I live here already, I can just go do it. And so I dove in headfirst
Adam Casey: And Hardrock, I believe. Was your first was that your first Ultra or maybe your first hundred?
Dakota Jones: Well, I, no, it was actually neither, just because Hardrock has, you have to like qualify for Hardrock, you know, and so you, you have to like, run a qualifying race.
Dakota Jones: And so I volunteered, I, I guess it was 2008. And then I immediately started doing ultra marathons by the end of that year. And then I ran my first 100 mile race in 2010. And then I ran my first Hardrock in 2011. So it was quite early for me.
Adam Casey: I say as if I, again, like I didn’t just talk to Dale and I do have all this research about Hardrock and I myself, I live in Denver and this year I’m just gonna go down to go get, go down to Silverton, just go hang out at Hardrock, like the week of the race.
Adam Casey: So it’s just such a fun, just such a fun community. I mean, just even in itself, in the trail running community Hardrock is just such a fun experience. And I’m so thankful to be so close to it because yeah, like I said, I’m just gonna go down and hang out for the week. And I think it’s just such a it’s just so unique and so different from some of the other races and not knocking any of the other ones like Leadville, but Hardrock is just one of those where it’s just, it just has a vibe to it that’s just so unmistakable.
Dakota Jones: Yeah. And that’s what drew me to it, like from the very beginning I was like, this is, I wanna have all this adventure, but also like, I want this vibe. I like the way the people are like, this is a small community. I like how everybody kind of, you know, it’s a race, but it’s not a race, it’s a run. We are pushing hard, but we’re also like out there together.
Dakota Jones: And it’s like we’re, we wanna support the community, we wanna support the longtime runners, we wanna invite new runners in. I mean, a lot of people have a lot of opinions about the entry process, but like Hardrock has worked really hard to create something super special. And to this day, like the values at Hardrock are a huge part of the values that I hold as I like go out into mountain sports.
Adam Casey: And what are those values? I mean, I, yeah, it’d be interesting to hear like what are, what are those values and how are they similar to the ones that you have now?
Dakota Jones: Well, I think that they, at Hardrock, they focus really hard on like making a family and a community. So they like want people who come to the race to feel like they’re a part of something, that they’re not just like paying money to have this, like to do something difficult, but they’re like doing something difficult.
Dakota Jones: As part of this community of runners who understand the history of this place, understand the history of the race, then understand like each other as individuals. You know, we’re out there like sharing this experience. It’s kind of like more of a mountaineering attitude than like a racing attitude because we’re like in large ways relying on each other, even if it’s not quite the same as the way you rely on each other in a mountaineering setting.
Dakota Jones: It’s like we’re out there in like pretty intense circumstances, right? Like there’s, you’re going over a 14,000 foot peak in the middle of the night, like that’s not a joke. Right? So I, I think that they’ve done a really good job of, of like trying to protect that sense of camaraderie among the runners so that everybody who shows up feels like they’re a part of something and not just like paying for some experience.
Dakota Jones: And, and then I think, you know, Hardrock also has kept the race small intentionally so that they have that sense of wilderness that sense of, they give every runner the sense of discovery as we go out into the mountains. And they let us compete at the front of the race, but, It’s like no secret that that’s not the point of the race.
Dakota Jones: They call it a run. And so I think it’s a really good way of, like, it’s always hard to describe my relationship to competition because I’m competitive and I wanna run hard, but I also don’t ever want to sacrifice, like I would rather give up all competition and preserve like this sense of joy and discovery going into the mountains.
Dakota Jones: The sense of like possibility when you head up a trail. But I think at Hardrock is a good example of a, a place where you don’t have to make that decision between the two. Does that make sense? Yeah. And I think it’s
Adam Casey: a great example of that is just like the golden hour when you know people like, yeah, the number of people that are still out there cheering on the person who’s gonna come in dead last.
Adam Casey: And obviously, you know, I was there two years ago and was able to, be a, I was able to pace Mike Wardian for like a nine mile stretch, and I, I still just blown away at how fast somebody can be at like 70 miles into this run. But it was, but that same year was, I think the year that Francois had a new course record there.
Adam Casey: And it’s, it was awesome. I mean, I definitely didn’t see François walk across the finish line, but it was really cool to see like, just the people that are there to still just cheer on, you know, the person who’s coming in dead last. And again, Dale has some awesome stories about people that, you know, come in, you know, with like a minute despair and just like, even just the way he, he tells that story, you know, you’re just, you’re just rooting, rooting this person on.
Adam Casey: And I think that is just, you know, there’s just no better way to put it, but just like the vibe of Hardrock is just so unmistakable and something that is just very treasured and I’m super thankful for how they’re, they’re organizing it and keeping everything together. I agree. Yeah. So you talk about being adventurous and you know, exploring and, and what trail running kind of was able to do.
Adam Casey: But how did that, how did you progress into the runner that you are now from that first Hardrock, Hardrock experience and like, what kind of adventures would you say that you’ve had since then?
Dakota Jones: I mean, I, well
Adam Casey: A loaded question. I mean, as, as if you’ve only just run other race
Dakota Jones: Yeah. Like, I’ll do the best I can, but so like for one thing, one like silly little thing that I’m proud of is that I’ve run at least one ultra marathon officially every year since 2008.
Dakota Jones: So I’ve hit 15 years in a row now, and I think that that’s pretty cool. And I hope I get 15 more. And, but it’s also kind of hard for me to understand some sort of narrative arc to my life. You know, I didn’t like, it’s never quite as like linear as you want it to be.
Adam Casey: Yeah. It’s not like the Joseph Campbell arc where, you know, you set out on journey and you come back like a changed person, and then you’re just that same person.
Adam Casey: It’s like a, it’s a squiggly line up and down
Dakota Jones: You never know which part of that line, the part route you’re on at the time. But for me, like I basically, like I said, I got super inspired by Hardrock when I was there and I was like, this is the adventure that I want. And I just had this incredible sense of like, potential.
Dakota Jones: And I, I still can find that a lot and it’s been really fun to, to maintain that. But especially when you’re 17 and you’ve been looking for some kind of adventure and you realize that like you can go anywhere in the mountains and it’s just like that. You can climb this peak or that peak, you can go on these ridges.
Dakota Jones: And I had energy and I had food. Actually, I didn’t know about food at first. You know, a lot of people don’t, but you know, I, I just really. Wanted to get out there and do that. And I didn’t have like a race in mind or competition. I was just like, I wanna be like the people at Hardrock. And so some friends of mine who were like my dad’s friends basically took me on this one run in particular.
Dakota Jones: It was Eddie Young and Brett Gosney. And they took me on like this 20 mile loop in the San Juans. And basically that was my first real mountain run. I didn’t have any food. They gave me a gel, like, you know, I didn’t know anything about that. You never do. Nobody. You had somebody has to tell you basically, right?
Dakota Jones: And so anyway, it went really well. I had a great time. I felt good. And after that I would just like, started going big on my own and By big, I mean, I would like go out for like 10 or 12 hours on my own without having any idea what the hell I was doing. And I’d have like a big pack which got successively smaller and I had all kinds of adventures.
Dakota Jones: Like, I don’t know, I definitely bonked several times where I’d like run out of food and like fully like hypoglycemic with 15 miles to go just like so miserable, like super ex powerful experiences that are memorable but also like, I haven’t done that since because bonking is a bummer. Yeah, I dunno. It’s just like you gotta go through it.
Dakota Jones: And so I think the best way to get good at anything is to do it a lot. And I felt so excited about going in the mountains and so I was just doing it all the time. And then, yeah, like I ran my first ultra that, that November, this one in Moab of 50 K. The event is now transformed into the Moab Trail Marathon.
Dakota Jones: At the time there was a 50 K option. Yeah. And then, I don’t know, I just, it went well and it was like this kind of simultaneous thing where it’s like, I really love this discovery of the mountains and the trails and going all these places and seeing these new like wild places. But also I like competing And like, even in my first, where nobody was at and I didn’t know what I was doing, I was like pushing hard.
Dakota Jones: And I definitely like threw myself in and I was like reading all the blogs. Cuz back then people wrote blogs. There was no like, in, I don’t know if Instagram existed yet, maybe We had Facebook or something. Yeah. It’s funny, like talk about business stuff. Like I didn’t get a social media account until like 2013 or 14, but now it’s like you cannot exist as a trail runner or a professional athlete without it.
Dakota Jones: Right. It’s, but that’s another conversation.
Adam Casey: I , know, trust me, that’s something I, I like as I try to grow this podcast and I try to work on this, this is like, you know, I, I very much struggle, I struggle with social media in general and just like, it, it can just be so overwhelming. But yeah, I, as a runner and just someone who, you know, like on your, on your scale, it almost just feels like you’re investing just as much time in a training as you are into like, handling all of the different social media accounts that you have to have.
Dakota Jones: It could feel that way sometimes. I also just like, don’t make a whole lot of money, so I don’t worry. But yeah, I don’t know. Like that’s kind of how I started. I started, I just started running long distances all the time and I entered a bunch of races and I just like tried hard and you learn something on every run and maybe it’s not something that you like write down and you’re like, Ooh, I learned this one skill.
Dakota Jones: But it’s like, every little bit you’re getting better. You know? It’s like any kind of skill. You play the piano, it’s like every day you get a little bit more competent and over the years you figure it out.
Adam Casey: It’s funny. I actually, I just had So I, first off, kudos on running an ultra every year and people, you know, for people that and most people that listen to this podcast are gonna be pretty familiar with ultras and, and running.
Adam Casey: But for the, like, being able to run one every year, that’s, that’s, that’s special because for the past two years I’ve actually dealt with injuries and I’ve only been able to run one ultra a year. And so, and before, you know, it was, it definitely I had a, I have had a higher cadence to it, but even now, just like being able to run one every year, it’s like, yeah, okay, that’s a big deal for me.
Adam Casey: And I was actually able to, to do my first one of the year, just this past weekend I did I did a 50K down in Colorado Springs. And so kinda speaking to it, like learning those things, like I’ve been, ever since I got out of the military in 2016, I’ve been running ultras. But even just this past weekend, I, I.
Adam Casey: You know, like every runner’s out, every runner out there struggles with like nutrition plans and everything like that. Like, I actually learned the benefit of eating before a race this past weekend and and how well that it could actually make you feel. So, yeah, so I totally, I totally align with that whole like, you know, you just learning small things here and there and hopefully never stop learning.
Adam Casey: But yeah, it’s it’s just, it’s just so weird because it’s like one of those where if you’re talking to a friend and you’re telling them like for their first race, like, this is what you need to do, this is the advice, but yet it’s so hard to take that advice yourself for whatever reason. But that’s cool to hear that you’re yeah, that you had the same path, I guess.
Dakota Jones: Everybody has to go through all that stuff, I think.
Adam Casey: Now, so you were. You know, you, you, you got into the trail running scene, the ultra scene pretty young and, you know, definitely made a name for yourself at a young age. Do you, what kind of impact do you think that had? Like, do you think that you would still kind of be the same runner that you are today?
Adam Casey: /Have, had you gotten into it in your like late twenties versus like your early twenties?
Adam Casey: I mean, who knows? You know, I, I have no idea. I think that, you know, maybe you could make a case that, because I started doing this when I was like, ba I was a teenager, you know, maybe I like developed like some sort of cardiovascular muscular fitness that I’ve been able to benefit from ever since.
Adam Casey: But also just like a young man with a ton of energy, like I probably would’ve expended that energy in some manner if I wasn’t running ultra marathons. So who, who knows? I don’t know. You know, I just like, I, I knew that I, I wasn’t doing this to like, I don’t know, be the youngest guy. Like, I never wanted to be the youngest necessarily.
Adam Casey: It was kind of cool that I usually was, but I never, that wasn’t the goal. I just wanted to be out there doing this, these mountain sports. And so, you know, if I’d gotten into it later, maybe I’d have a different perspective on it. I think it’s probably impossible to say if I would be like, physically better or worse or something.
Adam Casey: But, you know, I, now that I’ve run 15 years at least of old trust, like I have a longer sort of perspective on this, but maybe, I don’t know, maybe if I hadn’t gotten into Ultras, I would’ve done some other cool thing that would give me a different perspective. You know, that’s a terrible answer for you. I’m sorry.
Adam Casey: No, it’s ok. It’s a, it’s, it’s a great answer for a, for a question that I probably could have asked in a totally better way. So that’s all, that’s it’s operator error if if anything, but yeah, no, I think it’s more just like the perspective, not the, the physical. Because again, like, you know, I didn’t get into really.
Adam Casey: Ultra running until really like late twenties, you know, after I’d had cancer, after I’d gone through the military and you know, before that I’d always just played team sport, like a lot of runners or people that I think trail running. You know, my running was always very
Dakota Jones: physical, right? Like the military team, sports, I mean, going through cancer.
Dakota Jones: That’s, that’s intense, man.
Adam Casey: And it’s one of those where it’s like, you know, being in, especially being in the Marines you know, carried very much carried that mentality of when I got out, like purposefully go through a suffer. Like it didn’t feel like you were doing it right unless you were suffering.
Adam Casey: And so, I don’t wanna call it immaturity, but you’re more mature now than you were back then. And I just was a little curious to see like if you think that you would’ve had a different trajectory personally, if you would maybe had the same values that you do now if you’d gotten into trail running at a little bit later of an age.
Dakota Jones: Yeah, possibly. I don’t know. You know, like when you talk about like the military attitude, I, I see you, you see that a lot, intro running. I think a lot of military people are like pretty pulled to ultra marathons for that reason, because you can go out and suffer in ultra marathons quite a lot. You know, for me, coming from this Hardrock perspective that was like com like the military perspective, I think is, is totally different.
Dakota Jones: And I think of that like, you know, David Goggins is a good example of like this military perspective and like, I wanna be very clear that David Goggins is way tougher than me listening to this. Like, I know you can, I really, really respect you for sure. Like, he’s so, he’s really, really impressive. But he has a very different perspective on why he does this.
Dakota Jones: You know, he’s trying to overcome his own limitations. Whereas like, I think that my goal is to do something hard for some other sort of Some other reasons, you know, these, like, I, I want, I’m like aesthetic reasons, basically. Like, I wanna run Hardrock because I wanna run this route through the mountains because that’s valuable to me based on like my values and my, the way that I view mountains and landscapes and, and people.
Dakota Jones: But you know, if I struggle on the way, hopefully I’ll be tough to overcome it. But, you know, I’m not gonna sign up for bad water tomorrow.
Adam Casey: Well, don’t worry. I will I’ll, I’ll, I’ll text David Goggins after this.
Dakota Jones: Let him know, man. He’s gonna be mad.
Adam Casey: Hey, Dakota’s. Cool. Don’t worry. Dakota’s cool. Well, yeah, so we’ve been, you know, we’ve been talking, we’ve been using the word values a lot and we’ve obviously kind of touched on the subject of like the mountains and the outdoors.
Adam Casey: And I think that one thing that’s not particular to trail running but is a special part of trail running is obviously being outside and being in these natural environments and kind of where you’re at today and where to really would love to talk to you more about is the work that you’re doing with footprints.
Adam Casey: And so I kind of wanna know and use this maybe as like a transition point of how did you go from being the trail runner that you were and that you still are. Like I said, you just had a great race earlier this month.
Adam Casey: Maybe introduce what Footprints is and the work that you’re doing now, and then hopefully kind of maybe like we can find a segue of how, as a runner you identified the work that you’re doing now to be so important and how you making that transition into that work. Yeah.
Dakota Jones: So Footprints is a running camp that I organize.
Dakota Jones: It’s actually a nonprofit that’s a lot more than just running camps now. But the idea is that you come to a running camp. We, we spend a week in the mountains together. We stay at a lodge. There’s about 15 of us. And everybody who’s there has a project for their community. So you get into the camp by just telling us about how you wanna address climate change in your community.
Dakota Jones: That can be anything from like, I wanna clean up this water source, I wanna clean up air pollution to like, I, you know, there’s this, you know, this disadvantaged community or the, these people who are suffering from poverty, you know, and these are people who are gonna be more affected by climate change. I wanna help them become more resilient.
Dakota Jones: So social environmental problems, you know, it’s all wrapped up in the same, same general issue. And so we want to help people basically. We want to show people that they already have the skills to address climate change. And we want to help them become leaders in their communities because a lot of us feel like we know what climate change is, we know it’s a big deal and it’s bad, but we’re completely like overwhelmed by how big it is and we don’t know what to do.
Dakota Jones: And since I felt like that a lot, I thought, well, I’m fine. The people who do know what to do, and I’m not an expert on this stuff, right? And so we put together these camps. You tell us what kind of project you wanna work on, and then we find the experts who know how to do that kind of work. So we work with scientists, we work with business leaders and nonprofit leaders and lawyers and economists, people like artists and musicians, people from all over the spectrum who have skills that can be used to help each of our campers turn their ideas into these like tangible, measurable projects that they go home and implement.
Dakota Jones: And the idea is that they don’t just go do a thing, but they go home and like get their town to do the thing with them. That’s how we take individual action to a collective scale. And so I think that last part take going from individual to collective action is the critical component of what we wanna focus on at Footprints.
Dakota Jones: And it’s basically the critical components of environmental action. On a large scale. And, and on my journey too, because I started out, I got pretty disillusioned with myself for several years because I was having all these amazing opportunities to fly around the world and run these races. And I thought, that’s great.
Dakota Jones: And I did it and I’m not, I don’t really regret it, but it’s like I felt like I was working really hard to make myself just a tiny bit better and I wasn’t doing much for other people in the world. I also saw this pretty big hypocrisy between like all the, like why I was going to these places to experience these amazing wild, fragile places.
Dakota Jones: Doing so in a way that damaged them. And so I still do that to some degree. I’m currently in Spain. But you know, like there’s, there’s better ways to approach this and there’s worse ways to approach this, but I think a lot of the ways that we approach this is by looking at individual actions. And this has been basically grounded in us from a lo for a long time.
Dakota Jones: And, you know, you can, I mean, there’s. I mean, BP paid this company, this marketing company in 2001 or something to develop the term carbon footprint and make, you know, car climate change our problem and not their problem. And so there’s a lot of like cultural pressure that we feel to blame each other and blame ourselves for something that we don’t really have much choice about.
Dakota Jones: And so what we wanna do with footprints is like show people that while we do live in an imperfect society, that forces us to, to use fossil fuels on a daily basis, it doesn’t always have to be that way. And right now we can use the energy that we have from imperfect sources to develop energy sources that are better and more sustainable.
Dakota Jones: And then we can do so in a way that supports communities and people and creates a more equitable future for everybody, you know? Because by supporting biodiversity, by supporting climate action, we’re supporting people, we’re supporting animals, plants, food systems. It’s, it’s a, it’s a holistic system. And so, Yeah, I guess that’s, that’s quite a lot.
Dakota Jones: Does that make any sense?
Adam Casey: It’s, again that was a really broad question purposefully because yeah, it just. I want, I wanna find like a few things to maybe go down to. One thing that I, that I, I would love to hear you hear you retell this story cuz you talked about, you know, you talked about, you know, runner and experiencing all these places, but the, the story I want you to retell is your 2018 Pikes Peak Marathon.
Adam Casey: Yeah. And what kind of, how you saw and what you did and why you did what you did. Cause I think it’s just an awesome story. So I’ll, I’ll, I’ll let, I’ll let you take over from there cause I don’t wanna spoil anything.
Dakota Jones: Yeah. Well, so my Pikes peak trip in 2018, I think that was kind of this bridge for me between individual action and collective action.
Dakota Jones: So that’s like where I started to understand that what I had been doing before that I had been starting to become more active in environmental issues and trying to like be better. What I had been doing up to that point was like I’m, I was trying to reduce my own impacts and try to set this example and basically try to, you know, basically be perfect.
Dakota Jones: Like, I can’t talk about climate change if I’m still contributing to it. Right. Well, okay. And so in 2018, I was living in Durango, Colorado, Southwest Colorado, and I rode about 250 miles over, I think four days up to Colorado Springs on my bicycle. And I camped along the way and then I rested like three or four days.
Dakota Jones: And then I ran the race and I, and I biked back home and it was one of the coolest trips I’ve ever done. I think bike touring is like the best way to travel in general, so it was fun, worthwhile just for that, you know, for me, I was trying to show that, like, set this example, it’s a big gesture, you know, like here, for me, I’m like, I wanna win the race, but if I have to, if I, I’m not gonna win the race if I can’t protect the mountains along the way.
Dakota Jones: And I think it resonated with people, you know, it was a strong message. We raised a bunch of money for Protect Our Winters, another nonprofit that I work with, and it was, it was really cool and really powerful. So, But you know, I tried to be honest with myself when I got back and I was like, what did I really accomplish with this?
Dakota Jones: And you know, when you think about it, like, I saved maybe two tanks of gas, which is truly negligible in the global scheme of things. And I, I bought food. I ate food that came from grocery stores, which had been like trucked there or flown there. And I wore f clothes that had been made in like Southeast Asia.
Dakota Jones: My bike was made out of steel, which involves coal and iron. And like, you know, there’s a lot of imperfections here. That doesn’t mean they’re not worth doing because again, we’re always going to be imperfect and it’s okay to be imperfect, but I thought like, hey, maybe I could like improve that a little.
Dakota Jones: But see, even those things that I just said, those imperfections, those are individual imperfections. The real problem, and I don’t know if problem’s the right word, but the real like shortcoming with this trip was that people can’t just leave their lives to ride their bike to every race they do. If you have a job, if you have kids, you know, if you have to take care of your parents, if you have some kind of insecurity or time issue for whatever reason, like normal people, basically, if you’re not a professional athlete with no family or kids, you can’t do what I did.
Dakota Jones: Right? And so it’s not a repeatable action that can like teach the world how to move into some post carbon future. And at the same time, I felt like because of my position as a climate or as a like a professional runner, I have this platform. It was not pointless for me to do that. I did make a gesture. I did have a larger reach than the general individual.
Dakota Jones: And so the whole takeaway from all of this, which are long time, a lot of time thinking about it and talking to smarter people was like, let’s just like find other people’s version of Pike’s Peak. My, like, the impact I might’ve had on the running world was small, but it was bigger than an individual impact.
Dakota Jones: And so let’s like work with people individually with their skills, their circumstances, and their connections and resources and like empower them to do their own version so that they can help their community in the same way. And you know, from, again, talking with a lot of smarter people than me, we like developed this idea of, of devel, of having a camp where we like work with people one-on-one to help them mobilize their communities based on what they already know how to do.
Adam Casey: The notoriety that you carry helps draw people to footprints and, you know, the online presence that it has. But I think the best way to ask this question is to give an example. So I, I myself s. Like before I joined the military, started a nonprofit back in St. Louis that helps low income students, you know, with partial, like it’s called like last dollar funding, where it’s like partial scholarships, like barely enough to probably cover half the books that they have to buy each semester.
Adam Casey: They’re so expensive. But one thing I’ve noticed since it’s inception until now, you know, in 2012 until now is like, it is so hard to get kids into this scholarship program. Like it’s one of those, it’s a situation where it’s like, take my money, please. Like, I’m trying to give you money, but it’s so hard sometimes.
Adam Casey: Or it was at first to get students to apply and to kind of grow just what the scholarships, you know, people’s awareness of the scholarship. And now I really rely on teachers within the St. Louis Public School Foundation network to kind of be a funnel and push kids to apply to this scholarship.
Adam Casey: And so it, but it’s still, it’s, it’s unbelievable. If you looked at the numbers of kids that apply each year, it’s like a handful and where it’s like, Hey, I’m trying to give away money, but like, no one’s asking for it. And so how do you find people to come work with footprints and do you kind of experience that same thing where you’re, you have such a drive to.
Adam Casey: Support people that are on this mission for social justice or environmental justice, but yet it doesn’t seem like there’s that many people that are out there trying to actually achieve it.
Dakota Jones: I actually, no, it makes, it makes sense when you think of this, like you’re working with like these low income kids in, in St. Louis who don’t have a lot of opportunities and they’re probably not taught to think. To, to look for opportunities, right? Whereas Footprints is, as an organization working within a predominantly white, often highly educated, you know, predominantly male unfortunately like populous.
Dakota Jones: So people have money and time and energy and passion and you know, and they want to do this. And so we like have all this luxury to pour ourselves into these causes, right? And so that’s, I think, the difference there. And so I’ve been really fortunate to find that, like when we, we set it up and yeah, we have to blast this out on social media.
Dakota Jones: I lean heavily on people with huge followings to share around our, our, our like announcements and stuff. But we’ve been really fortunate that like there’s a lot of people in this community who have the opportunity to like, to want to care about this sort of thing and who want to pour themselves into it.
Dakota Jones: And so, you know, I think that, that, that also could be a shortcoming too. Like, we want to work with kids from like low income kids from St. Louis as well. But those kids aren’t going to even hear about footprints, let alone apply for, because it’s just, that’s, that’s the nature of our demographic at, at this point.
Dakota Jones: And I think that there’s a lot of work we need to do to, to make, to fix that. Cuz it’s a problem.
Dakota Jones: Yeah. It’s, it’s everything. It is just an ongoing learning process. And each year, I know I take away one, hopefully one lesson about how to improve it and how to have a, you know, within the small cohort of students that I, that I support, just like how do I help them actually achieve?
Dakota Jones: Yeah. Which is just the, the end goal is just a college education, let alone something as big as like climate impact or environmental impact and climate change. What, like talk me through what a typical, maybe not typical, but just talk me through the, the normal experience of when someone comes into the camp and what they kind of go through over the couple of days and just like, yeah, just gimme a lay of the land of what is, what that whole experience is like and then yeah, I’d love to hear maybe about like individual stories, but Yeah.
Dakota Jones: What’s the usual experience for someone once they’ve been accepted to a camp like this and what can they expect when they come into it?
Dakota Jones: Yeah, it’s, it’s an ongoing process. We’re updating it every year. But yeah, the idea is like you’ve applied and we we have to, we have to accept a few. I mean, we, we can’t accept everybody unfortunately.
Dakota Jones: But we try to find the ones that have the most opportunity for impact, we think. And then, you know, we don’t accept you. We like. Give you a lot of pointers and like, we try not to turn people away. Cause you know, if you apply, you obviously care a lot. It’s, it’s just a difficult part for us. But the people who are accepted, you know, we, it’s usually several months before the camp, so we try to like, create this pathway.
Dakota Jones: Like, here’s how it’s gonna look, here’s all the outline, here’s the schedule, here’s what you need to bring. And then we have a few calls with people because you know, people work with these mentors, that’s what we call them as like the, the educators at the camp. And so we want everybody to at least have an introduction to the mentors beforehand and kind of get to know each other a little bit.
Dakota Jones: So we’re, we have like two calls that we ask people to come to where they’re not too intense, but we like, kind of introduce ourselves, talk about the projects, and then that’s a way that we can start to find out what people are thinking for their projects. It gives hopefully the opportunity for people to like, learn about each other, get excited about the experience, but also then we can go back and be like, okay, well this person is working on this thing.
Dakota Jones: I know this person at this organization who does that. So we’re gonna like, set them up outside of the camp right now and get them supporting that person through the camp and afterwards. So we do a lot of work trying to create these connections for our campers, like outside of the camp experience itself.
Dakota Jones: But then you come to the camp and it’s like the pretty straightforward, like daily schedule. We get up in the morning, we have breakfast together, we go out for a run for a few hours, and the runs are not like super intense at all. Like you can run, we usually have like two or three groups. Usually there’s like a running group up front and then like a, like a, I don’t know, medium distance or pace running group and then usually a hiking group.
Dakota Jones: I think, I think the idea of it being a, the idea of it being a running camp freaks people out sometimes and I always try to be like, it’s not a competition, I promise. Everybody’s welcome. You can take a day off whatever you need. But getting out in the mountains I think is really powerful because it’s like, it’s a way for us to do something physical.
Dakota Jones: We think differently, we move around. I think it really, really benefits our like mentality and the way that we’re considering our projects. It helps people get to know each other really well, which just creates a lot of really positive memories too. And then we come back, have some lunch, a little downtime, and then like in the afternoon, that’s when we work on the projects.
Dakota Jones: So each, each afternoon it’s usually like we have a presentation from a mentor and then like a project activity and then a break, and then we repeat that. So another presentation, another project activity, and that takes four to five hours depending on how we do it. And you know, repeating that over.
Dakota Jones: It’s a seven day camp. And so basically we do that for six days, and then the last day we have more of like a kind of a presentation on ev everybody presents to the group and it’s sort of a celebration together. So the last day is a little bit different. So
Adam Casey: I think that’s super interesting how it seems like you, you recruit people to apply but then you wait to match them up with a mentor after you’ve heard their, their idea.
Adam Casey: Is that correct?
Dakota Jones: Yeah , exactly. And in the past we actually paired people one-on-one with mentors. So like, there were equal numbers of mentors and like, and, and campers, like actually more staff, cuz I was there but not a mentor. This year I think that we’re, so we’re changing that this year it’ll be now more like a three camper to one mentor ratio just because, you know, in the past we found it was just kind of unnecessary.
Dakota Jones: Like we, we do a project activity and like the mentor’s ready to help, right? But the camper needs to like do their own work, right? And it’s like you do a work and then you like ask questions, then do some work, have a discussion or whatever. But if, like, the mentor’s right there I feel like we’re stressing out the campers and under utilizing the mentors, you know?
Dakota Jones: And so we’re testing out like a different ratio now. And I, I think it’ll be a lot more intuitive, a lot more straightforward for people that way. But, but yeah, like we, we, and I guess in general, like we kind of, realistically we have to find the right mentors before we choose all the campers just because of the way scheduling works.
Dakota Jones: But we have a pretty big diversity of mentor skill sets and what we teach basically. It’s not like we’re teaching climate science, like that’s really worth learning and fantastic, but it’s like you can’t teach much of that in a week. We basically teach you like business skills. So we’re teaching you how to like, develop a strategy.
Dakota Jones: Like what exactly are you doing? What’s it, who’s it for? How are you gonna accomplish this? What’s the one thing that you’re gonna get out of it? What does success look like for you? You know, you have to define that very clearly. You create a timeline, like a proposed budget, things like that. And we do a lot of marketing practices so that, cuz, cuz you know, it’s like basically what we’re doing is trying to bridge this gap.
Dakota Jones: We, we know the problems of climate change, we know the solutions and the what’s going to connect those two is. Community, it’s people, right? It’s bringing people together. And so like our projects are trying to help people like build those networks that will connect the two.
Adam Casey: So it, it sounds like it’s, so let’s say someone comes to you with like I have this great engineering idea, and I know you have a background in engineering, but I have this like, great idea idea that’s gonna like, help filter water.
Adam Casey: Like scientifically, this is, it’s going to, you know, you do just that. It’s gonna filter, filter water and provide drinkable, potable water to people in this community. So it seems like it’s less like, okay, hey, I’m gonna pair you with a scientist to refine this, you know, the actual engineering aspect of it.
Adam Casey: But it’s like, no, we’re gonna just, we’re gonna teach you how to market that. We’re gonna teach you how to actually communicate this to the community and to bring awareness to it. And so it’s less like a focus on the actual idea itself, because I feel like through the application process you’ve filtered out the ideas that.
Adam Casey: Are gonna have the most impact and now it’s just a focus. Okay. How do we then like propel those ideas forward through advocacy? Is that correct?
Dakota Jones: That’s totally it. Yeah, exactly. So it’s like you come up, you come to me and you say, I have this cheap and easy water filtering system. And we wanna turn it into a project.
Dakota Jones: Well, like our approach to this is that nobody is gonna get any benefit outta that process if nobody knows about it or if nobody can use it, right? And so what we want to do is help you talk to your community and convince like the town council or some local businesses or whatever, that this thing is gonna, is a big deal.
Dakota Jones: It’s cheap. It’s a, it’s easy and all you have to do is use it in this, this way, and it’s going to totally revolutionize the way that we like. Clean water in the town whatever it is, you know, we can like help people in this way. And so we’re going to work with you to develop that strategy to show people how valuable this can be for the community and to like, basically put an economic value on it.
Dakota Jones: Because realistically, like money is what talks. And so we’re gonna show, try to show the town council how the, we’re gonna get more tourism or we’re gonna get more, we’re gonna save money on municipal water or whatever because they’re using this process. Or businesses are going to save money or get more customers because of this.
Dakota Jones: Like, that’s how we’re going to implement the project. But along the way, we’re not gonna forget about the actual like, Thing itself. And so the way we do that is like, I will find, like, we’ll reach out. We have a huge network of people who want to help us. And so I’m gonna find the engineer or engineers or scientists or whatever who have like a lot of experience in water quality, like some chemical engineers who know how to filter water super well.
Dakota Jones: And I’m gonna connect you outside of the camp and like they’re going to be like your mentor. And we can like, facilitate discussions. We can facilitate resources. Like that’s very much a part of the project, but the actual camp is like how you’re going to implement the finished product, if that makes sense.
Adam Casey: Yeah. Well, what, what’s the kind of like follow through or follow up after a camp like this and is, is it an ongoing, you know, it, it seems like it’s an ongoing relationship between each participant and a mentor, but is, you know, once, once they leave the camp, they’re, you know, they’re on their own, I would say.
Adam Casey: And it’s like what’s, is there any kind of like. For lack of a better term, like accountability once they’ve left to then ensure that they’re actually following through with what you guys are telling them that, that they need to do.
Dakota Jones: Yeah, I think so. It’s, it’s a, that’s like one of the biggest difficulties, or not difficulties, but like, it’s something that we’re still always trying to improve on because it’s so easy to have all this inspiration and motivation when you’re at the camp and then you go home and you fall back in your old habits.
Dakota Jones: And so in order to like help people follow up their projects, we have a, a variety of ways to do that. Like we have a follow up program, so every three months we have someone who’s calling you and they’re checking in with you and they walk. Through with you, your through your own metrics of success, which you created at the camp.
Dakota Jones: So just talking about like, how are you accomplishing this? How’s that feeling? What do you need from us? What are the resources do you need? Like how has some, has something changed? You know? So we’re like trying to follow up periodically with that. We want to have like a, like a regular check-in. I, something I’m trying to work on is like, just everybody from the camp can have like a Zoom call once a month.
Dakota Jones: We get together. We could just chat and catch up like friends, but you could also be like, well, hey, I was working on this thing and I, I don’t know how to figure that out so I could be a opportunity to share resources that way. But then the one I’m most excited about is right now we’re like creating all these organizational partnerships with the idea being that like there are organizations that do.
Dakota Jones: A whole to do anything, right? There’s an organization for everything. And so we want to pair our campers up with experts from an organization that does that kind of work, the that is in this person’s project professionally. So, for example, we’ve started working with the Harold Foundation and they’re fantastic.
Dakota Jones: They do solar energy specifically for disadvantaged communities around the world. I’m so, so inspired by what they do. And what we want is to like have, like, let’s say we have a solar energy or even just a renewable energy project you know, outside of the camp, we’re gonna pair them up with Holl Foundation and then the Holl Foundation can provide targeted expertise that I, I just can’t provide.
Dakota Jones: And Harold Foundation could just mentor them through like discussing ideas or thoughts or concerns. They could also plug our campers into the projects that they’re. That they’re supporting monetarily so that then our campers could like, go somewhere and like start working on solar energy right away and get experience that way.
Dakota Jones: So this is the kind of thing that is just starting for us, but I think it’s gonna be a critical component for us moving forward.
Adam Casey: Yeah, I’m, I’m so glad you mentioned that because I would love to know more about any collaborations that you have. And I think one question, I kind of came into this, again, biased as a, as a runner of myself.
Adam Casey: But one kind of question I had coming into our, into, into this interview was, you know, it. I know that mountain climbers, those are, those people are huge advocates for climate change. I’ve you know, I feel like pe because all they do is they spend all their time like living in a sleeping bag on the side of a mountain.
Adam Casey: And so they’re huge advocates out there. But I wanted, wanted to know, like, what’s your opinion, or if you even had an opinion on how maybe other sports could improve at their own climate advocacy or their own mission in, in advocating for the great outdoors and if there was any collaboration between what you’re doing as a trail runner, but apparent in with other sports.
Adam Casey: But it seems like you’re, cause I’m assuming Alec, the Hunt Foundation is part of Alex Honnold, the mountain climbers with Mountaineers foundation. Foundation, yeah.
Dakota Jones: It’s his foundation. But I mean, I don’t know Alex Honnold personally, I don’t think he’s working in the office on the foundation.
Adam Casey: He’s not sitting at a desk all day.
Dakota Jones: But he’s done something amazing with that organization. Yeah, I admire him a lot. But I mean, I think to your, to your point, it’s like the reason we do trail running camps is not because trail running is particularly better poised than other sports to like address climate change. It’s because I’m a trail runner and because my community is trail runners and that’s who I know how to communicate with best right now.
Dakota Jones: But it doesn’t have, but it could be literally any shared interest. The point is like having this shared interest that provides context cuz that’s our initial points of connection with people. We come together and we’re like, oh, you’re a runner. I’m a runner. We talk about running for a bit and then you like expand those conversations.
Dakota Jones: You talk about your family, your goals, your, your dreams outside of running and you know, and this is how we build a much stronger community. But it starts with the one initial shared interest we have. So you, you know, we could have like a footprints video game camp. I don’t know. Right. Like why not? Which I would apply for by way.
Dakota Jones: That’d be fantastic. I, I’d be into it. You know, I’ve talked with, I think the first non-running camp we do would be mountain biking or just general biking. We’ve been trying to figure that out, but that’s definitely where Footprints is going, is trying to like, expand to other sports. And, and just in general, I wanna create a template that like would be free online.
Dakota Jones: So if you do anything, you’re in a paddle ball or like whatever you just like want to put on this camp. Like I want you to come and have like a 10 page document that’s like, this is how we do what we do and how you can do the same thing. And that wouldn’t like, lose us money because in it would, it would accomplish our mission of more people doing climate work.
Dakota Jones: And, you know, we’re still gonna have super kick ass camps with amazing people and so we’re not, you know, I, I just wanna help. Yeah.
Adam Casey: It’s funny I say this with an extreme asterisk and a caveat that I’m not trying to claim to be any one of significance in this arena, but over the last two years I’ve gotten into BASE jumping and it’s, I love it.
Adam Casey: Like I’m might go jumping antenna later today. Definitely afraid every time I jump. But it is, it’s unbelievable for so many reasons. But before I got into base jumping, definitely had a, a stigma I think of attached to the base jumper, you know, how I saw them and, you know, not negative in the sense of like, oh, they’re bad people, but, you know, you definitely think of like, oh, you’re just a dirt bag base jumper, like dread box.
Adam Casey: You know, just like, who cares? I’m just gonna jump off whatever shit I wanna jump off of, kind of thing. But what I’ve really, one thing I’ve really learned to love and appreciate about the community of base jumpers is just how much they care about the impact that they have. And the idea of leave no trace, not just because we don’t wanna get caught.
Adam Casey: You know, in places where we should be, but it’s also just this massive respect for the outdoors and a great example of that is the BASE jumpers that I know in Moab, and I’m actually heading out to Moab this weekend for some jumping. And it’s just nice. I think that that is a, a great community that is underutilized when it comes to anything outdoors related because of how deeply, you know, they care about maintaining such beautiful exits like just around the world.
Adam Casey: And so, yeah, I think that that’s you know, I I I’m scaling footprints for you right now.
Dakota Jones: Fantastic. Yeah.
Dakota Jones: The BASE jumping community is, is a unique group of people and you gotta be super passionate about what you do to dive into that. And so I think that’s a fantastic option for a camp.
Adam Casey: If, you want any introductions, I know, I know a few good dudes in that, in that area that I think would love to, to help out.
Adam Casey: And when it comes to like particular projects, are there any that come to mind? And I don’t want to do this in a sense of like, oh, this one was better than others, and they’re all great. I just put that out there. Anyone who’s making any sort of effort, like kudos fucking to them. But when it comes to any past projects, is there anyone, if you don’t mind sharing that comes to mind where you’re like, yeah, that one, that one’s we’re gonna be talking about that in like five years and that one’s gonna, or that’s already had such strong momentum that that’s a great kind of example to use for footprints moving forward in the impact that you guys have.
Dakota Jones: Yeah, I mean, every project has been really cool because of like, there’s been a pretty large diversity of projects and as you say, it’s like, I don’t wanna imply that any of them are better than others, but the one that comes to mind right off the bat, just because I’ve been, it’s, it’s the most recent active, is from a former camper named Abby Sullivan.
Dakota Jones: She’s from upstate New York in Canon, Dewin, New York. And she came to our first camp in 2021 and she’s an engineer and she has studied some of the water quality in this lake. And the lake is experiencing a series of algae blooms which basically make the surface water of the lake. Completely hypoxic.
Dakota Jones: So there’s no, it’s, it’s toxic and, and no fish can live in there and you can’t swim and it’s really bad. And so this is a function of climate change, warming with temperatures, fertilizer use, and surrounding farms like Lakeshore of elements. There’s several factors. But she had like studied this come kind of from a scientific perspective and it was really cool because she had this fantastic data to show.
Dakota Jones: But it was like, how do you use that data in a usable, in a, like a meaningful way? And so, through a series of actions, we basically tried to help her create a project where she’s gonna show the tourism board of Canada, New York, and like the city council that letting this happen is going to lose tourism and lose tourist dollars.
Dakota Jones: And like it’s going to have a pretty serious economic effect on the area. And so, as of like on, I think it’s August 20th, this summer, she’s going to be hosting a race. It’s called a, it’s the cango mile and it’s gonna be right down Main Street. And they’re gonna have a big party at the end. And every bus business is gonna be there and there’s gonna be a ton of people.
Dakota Jones: And every business is gonna benefit from this. Everybody who signs up is going to like a large portion of their, like basically all the proceeds are gonna go. Sorry. A large portion of the proceeds from their signup are gonna go to local organizations doing work on this problem, which is fantastic because you don’t always need to start your own organization to fix a problem.
Dakota Jones: The best thing to do is find the ones that are already doing it and help them. And so what she, what Abby, and, and now she’s working with another partner named Dr. Ryan McClure. There, they’ve basically developed not only the race itself to get people together for this, but they’ve developed a huge amount of messaging around why they’re doing this and like what the problem is, how it’s being addressed, and how they, how people can get more involved.
Dakota Jones: So it’s a fantastic way of using running and sports to like address this environmental problem.
Adam Casey: Yeah, it, I didn’t wanna put you on the spot, like choose your favorite child kinda thing, but it’s but yeah, but I think it is important to highlight individuals, you know, in individuals that are. So doing just exactly what she’s doing.
Adam Casey: And I think that that’s, that is really cool. And I love I love that idea. Kinda as we kind of, kind of wind things down and, and I hate this when it’s like, I find, I feel like I find that that really good flow part of the interview you know, I wish I could start off like as strong as I feel like we’re going right now, but one kinda as we’re kind of winding down, you know, one question that I wanna ask is, you know, you, what you’re offering these people is this mentorship.
Adam Casey: You’re offering them this like pathway to progress their idea and to continue evolving their idea. But I would kind of wonder like, is there, is there the same process for you? Like, do you have a mentor that you are working with to help you? Cuz I, what I see is, I see footprints is its own idea inside a larger.
Adam Casey: Footprints, you know, running camp. And is there anyone that you’re working with in particular that’s helping you now grow footprints into something larger? Or is there anyone that you look up to that’s, that’s, you know, doing it in a way that you think like, okay, that’s my goal. Like that’s my metric that I’m measuring success by.
Dakota Jones: Yeah, it’s, that’s exactly right. Like, that’s how I think about Footprints is like, this is my project. And, and we do that in every way, like when we’re at camp and we are having, we introduce like, here’s the activity we’re gonna do for this project, for your projects. Like all, like almost every activity we do, we model it by having footprints be like the project in the model.
Dakota Jones: So I get to do a little bit of like the camps myself every time, which is always helpful. In a larger sense though, like, you’re right, this is what I’m trying to do for my projects is trying to leverage my basically platform as a runner to, to address climate change and to empower people to feel like they’re able to address climate change.
Dakota Jones: And I, I don’t know if I have any single mentor, like the, the nature of Footprints has been, I think what’s made it successful is that there’s so many people involved and it’s like there’s so many smart people from so many different backgrounds and everybody just wants to help. I’ve probably learned the most from Nate Bender.
Dakota Jones: He’s my business partner at Footprints. And he has a ton of experience in marketing and communications and business practices. He just got his second master’s degree like a week and a half ago. He’s just really smart. He’s super thoughtful and good at communicating and he has a lot of skills that I don’t have.
Dakota Jones: And so like, he helped me develop a business plan and a strategic plan and a, a brand book and just has so many ideas that have made footprints successful. And so like, I guess I get all this credit cuz Footprints was my idea technically, but I. He, Nate is absolutely a co-founder of this as an organization.
Dakota Jones: And I mean, on, on top of that, like I work really closely with Protect our Winters, like as an activist, as an athlete, as well as like through Footprints. And so I have a friend there named Jake Black, who’s the programs director, and he is just been so amazing. I, for, since I met him like five or six years ago, he has supported me in like my journey to become a climate activist and figure out how I can best make use of my position.
Dakota Jones: He’s been a mentor at both camps. He’s always been there for me. It’s been really, really amazing to learn from him. But you could say the same for everybody at Powell. Like I could just list so many names like Lindsay Burgo and, and Tory Udall and Mario Melina. I don’t know, it’s like, I’m so grateful for those relationships.
Dakota Jones: I’ve recently started to, we, we, we’ve joined 1% for the Planet. It’s a pretty cool nonprofit and their executive director has reached out. Her name’s Kate Williams and she’s been a really cool sounding board cuz she has a ton of experience in the environmental, nonprofit world. And so she’s been answering a lot of my questions.
Adam Casey: It’s important to have that again, for me from my, in my own charity. Like I, I always joke, like I took one business class in college and I failed it, and so I had to retake it. And so this whole having this nonprofit, everything is new to me and it’s like, you know, it’s, it but it’s, it’s been really helpful having people to just bounce ideas off of and just be able to say like, Hey, like what is, you know, Is it worth investing this resource in putting on like an annual fund run?
Adam Casey: Or is it better just to spend my time, like, no, just, just connecting with local businesses and securing kind of annual contributions, however small that they might be. And it’s just, you know, that’s just the nature of the beast is like, you don’t know what you don’t know. And so I think it’s really important no matter what you’re doing in life, and especially when it’s something like this that you’re so passionate about, is, is finding other people that can help you direct your energy and attention in the right way.
Adam Casey: As virtuous as it is. Like if it’s just misguided attention, like then that’s just wasted. It’s better to have someone tell you like, nope, that’s stupid. Just let’s do it this way. And so, yeah, role models love them.
Dakota Jones: Yeah, exactly.
Dakota Jones: And, and running is often seen as an individual sport and we like value people for their individual accomplishments, but Footprints is successful because I ask for help.
Dakota Jones: And, and I want that to be the, the culture that we create in outdoor sports in general.
Adam Casey: I think that’s, that’s gonna be the tagline of this episode, asking for help. Yeah. So hard, so hard. Well, Dakota, you know, just really enjoyed so much of this, and I, and I risk show you this. What I keep looking down at it, by the way, is my, I have this like, list of notes and all these questions that I wanna ask you, but clearly I, I, I, you do won’t have the time.
Adam Casey: Maybe, maybe we can do like a two-parter one day and have you a back on Yeah. And kind of do a follow up. But one, the, the last question I want kind of wanna ask you before we do kind of send things off is, is how can people get involved? You know, we’ve, we’ve, we’ve talked a little bit about the collective action and how important that is as a community, but run of the mill person, you know, how, how can I sign off from this interview and s beyond maybe, and, and if the answer is donating, like, That’s the answer.
Adam Casey: Like again, I understand that from my own nonprofit, like finances run things, but if, is there anything in particular that an individual like me can do maybe after they’ve listened to this to kind of help support the work that you’re doing that’s outside of donating?
Dakota Jones: Yeah. I mean, to that point, that’s a great I often option, yes, please donate money to footprints.
Dakota Jones: We can always use that. But the thing is like Footprints focuses on helping a small number of people in a really big way in over the next few years, we hope to be able to help like a large number of people with the necessary, with the understanding that it’s necessarily going to be smaller. You know, it’s kind of like a normal.
Dakota Jones: Curve and statistics. But right now, if you wanna get involved, I’d say you should find like local organizations and ask them to help. That’s the best thing you can do, is like research, like the things that you care about and in your community and like go out and do trail work or find some organization that’s doing work and just off offer to volunteer once a month.
Dakota Jones: That can be huge for them in like a general scale within the outdoor industry. Help get involved with Protect Our Winters, protect our Winters, is doing really, really good work to provide like super clear steps for individuals to become politically active for the climate. And that doesn’t mean just being Democrat, it means like, Calling your representatives.
Dakota Jones: It means supporting the right policies and legislation. It’s like protect our winters is incredibly effective and they’re all over the country. It’s really, really cool. With Footprints, you know, we’re hoping to have several events. We’re gonna have an event at Western States this year. We’re gonna be at Al PLO Sports the Wednesday before the race.
Dakota Jones: So if you’re out there, come, come check this out. But yeah, basically I, I think that like, I really like seeing people get involved with their communities and with organizations working at the community scale. Because if you try to change the whole country or the whole world all at once, you can’t see your impact.
Dakota Jones: When you help your community, you see the positive impact you’re having on places, you know, people, you know. So that, that like, gives you that encouragement to keep trying. I hope that’s, I don’t know if that’s a great answer, but I hope it helps.
Adam Casey: You’re, you’re selling yourself short, man. I mean, all of these have be great answers.
Adam Casey: This is yeah, this is, that’s definitely good advice and I will make sure to include in the show notes, any links to the, to POW, Protect Our Winters and, and kind of some of these organizations that we’ve been talking about, because I know that that’s, there’s, there’s a great cohort of people.
Adam Casey: I mean, I get it again on my own part from people wanting to help out with my charity. It’s just like, yeah. I, I wish I could tell you that the best thing to do is other, you know, other than donating, I wish I had like a greater avenue for people to help out. But I know that there’s a lot of desire for people, you know, to volunteer, to give to causes as best they can.
Adam Casey: Sometimes it’s not through money, and I think, you know, yeah. If they can go volunteer helping clean up a trail or just get involved in the community a little bit more. I think that’s totally actionable advice and I appreciate you giving that. Well, Dakota, damnit, this has been an awesome conversation.
Dakota Jones: Really. I appreciate on here, Adam.
Adam Casey: I know it’s, it’s, it’s, again, it’s, it’s one of those thingss where I just, I, it’s like, it’s, it’s very similar to how I run. Very slow in the beginning. Not that I’m fast ever, but it takes a little bit to kinda, to get warmed up. But I do, yeah, I’ve really just enjoyed this so, so much and, you know, maybe, maybe I’ll put you on the spot and commit you to, to coming back on in, in a however short amount of time or long enough amount of time to maybe follow up on some of these things that we’ve been talking about.
Adam Casey: And hopefully I can talk, ask you about how that Footprints satellite office in BASE jumping is doing.
Dakota Jones: I think we’re gonna help with that one, but I’d love to help it, you know, after our camp, we’re having our camp in September, so maybe after that give us some recaps.
Adam Casey: Alright, well, Dakota, it, this this is, this has just been, this has been an awesome, awesome conversation and I just can’t thank you enough for your time, man.
Adam Casey: I, I cannot wait to talk to you again soon.
Dakota Jones: Yeah. Well, I really appreciate it. This has been super fun.
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