Fishtrap Fireside

Sarah Petrillo

From a young age, Sarah Patrillo was groomed to be an outdoor educator. She spent the summers of her youth frolicking around the Wallowa Lake United Methodist campground while her mom ran family camps. Soon, her mom discovered that Sarah was a pretty great kid wrangler, and put her in charge of campfires, games, and taste-testing desserts in the camp kitchen. While at camp, she was lucky enough to attend Fishtrap Youth Workshops, which inspired some of her first creative writing. At the age of nineteen, she followed her love of the outdoors and became a river guide at Winding Waters River Expeditions. While on the river, she spent countless nights listening to guides tell fantastical (albeit somewhat exaggerated) tales of whitewater and adventure, and eventually began telling some of her own. She now works as an Experiential Education Program Coordinator at the University of Puget Sound, where she leads college students on outdoor adventures. On a given day, you can find her kayaking, skiing, or hiking around her home base in Snoqualmie, WA, where she continues to be inspired and utterly humbled by the rivers and mountains that surround her.