Welcome! We are so excited to have you here. Each of our paths into the mountains look very different. Here is our story…

We’re Helen and Tim, a Texan and a Pennslyvanian that met while studying at The University of Texas at Austin at our student gym. Staying active was a part of our lives from the beginning.

We are currently based in the Pacific Northwest in the Portland, Oregon area. We left Texas 5 years ago to be closer to mother nature. We live 1.5 hours from both the mountains and the ocean. We started our adventure travel YouTube channel in September 2021.

In January 2023, we set off on a new chapter. We have quit our 9 to 5 jobs and are traveling full-time for the next 1 to 2 years. We plan to spend most of this time internationally with a goal to “See the World One Mountain at a Time.” The countries we want to visit most and that are on the top of our wish list include Norway, Japan, New Zealand, Nepal, Thailand, and Italy.

A large part of our travel journey is finding the Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) movement. Without the practice of budgeting, travel hacking, and saving for retirement, we wouldn’t be able to travel as often to the mountains both stateside and internationally. We credit the number of books, podcasts, and online resources to our financial independence journey. Learn more about FIRE and helpful resources that we have come across. We are proud to be about halfway towards our FIRE goal.

Helen was born in Taiwan and spent most of her life in Dallas, Texas. After finishing up film school in Austin, she packed up her car and moved to Los Angeles, where she was in actress in Hollywood, and also worked in the film, advertising, and fitness industries.

Moving out West, led to her to find a new love for surfing and hiking. She remembers her first backpacking experience, it was to stunning Zion National Park. She currently works full time in health research and communication and owns a photography business, Anchor and Pine Collective that gives 5% back to public lands.

Tim was born in a small town two hours outside of Pittsburgh. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and spent 5 years in the service, with 2 of those years deployed in Iraq. He grew up fishing, hunting, and camping, as well as found a deeper love for being outdoors when he started running marathons and triathlons during his time in Austin.

He remembers his first solo backpacking trip to the Guadalupe Mountains in West Texas. He spent the night under the starts without a tent and knew that backpacking was something he wanted to include in his lifestyle.

Tim moved to Dallas, Texas for physical therapy school and has been practicing as an orthopedic physical therapist since 2013. Most recently, he started PT Time with Tim, a free online at-home physical therapy guide and YouTube channel to teach others how to treat and prevent injuries.

We have dreams of early retirement and pursing our passion projects, but for now we plan to stay weekend warriors and use up all of our vacation time each year hiking in the U.S. and internationally.

We would love to hear from you, so feel free to contact us with any questions or if you would like to work with us. Check out our YouTube travel channel or catch us in real-time on Instagram @HelenandTimTravel.

Thanks for stopping by! See you on the trails!