Lily and Aaron are life partners who started a guiding company. We’ve been traveling the country and working outdoor jobs every season for the past 4 years. Now we’re settled in the Adirondacks in upstate New York where we forage our food, guide environmental education walks, and lead trips in the backcountry.
About Us
We are Lily and Aaron, life partners living in the Adirondack State Park.
For 3 years, we have worked as traveling whitewater raft guides, snowboard instructors, and environmental educators. When we purchased our land in New York, we realized that we had the expertise to begin our own company so Pickle Knoll Outdoors was born. Now we use our experiences to guide in our home mountains, the Adirondacks.
When we started our relationship, we spent two years traveling the country in an 18 foot van named Tina. We were whitewater raft guides in North Carolina and New York, organic farmers in New Zealand and Rhode Island, and snowboard instructors in Montana, Vermont, and New Mexico.
Although we both love being outside, meeting new people, and exploring interesting landscapes, we grew tired of moving every six months. In 2021, we sold Tina and bought Pickle Knoll, a plot of forest outside North Creek, New York. We chose the name Pickle Knoll because we both love pickles and the area forms a small hill. Our love for our land and the area we live in motivated us to create Pickle Knoll Outdoors, so we can introduce more people to our spectacular home.
Now we’re working toward a series of goals: building an off the grid cabin to live in, developing Pickle Knoll Outdoors, starting a homestead, and having fun while doing it. During the spring, summer, and fall, you can find us in New York. Then for winter we go out west to enjoy the fluffy snow and blue skies.
Wilderness First Responder
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AED and CPR
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New York State Raft Guides
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American Association of Snowboard Instructors Certified
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100+ Days in the Backcountry
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Wilderness First Responder • AED and CPR • New York State Raft Guides • American Association of Snowboard Instructors Certified • 100+ Days in the Backcountry •
Meet the Guides
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Aaron is an avid forager, plant identifier, and building experimenter. He spent the first ten years of his life exploring the corn fields of rural Pennsylvania before moving to lakes of New Hampshire. Once in New Hampshire, Aaron found himself drawn to the woods. He spent hours alone building forts, skinny dipping in ponds, and learning about plant species. After a year at the University of the South: Sewanee, he left to work toward bigger dreams. Since buying land in the Adirondacks his hours are full of drafting permits, cutting wood, and framing walls. When he isn’t working on his homestead, he’s meandering off trail in search of interesting fungi.
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Lily is a lover of many things, like identifying bird calls, touching moss, and feeling the sun on her skin. She grew up in Los Angeles amongst dry heat and little vegetation then moved to upstate New York to attend Skidmore College. During her time at Skidmore, she spent every weekend hiking, snowboarding, climbing, and swimming in the Adirondack State Park. Lily graduated with a degree in Environmental Studies and Sciences after she found her calling in environmental education. Since then she has taught in classroom settings, after school programs, on chairlifts, in whitewater rafts, and at summer camps. For Lily, Pickle Knoll Outdoors is a dream becoming a reality.