About Me

Hi, my name is Mandy Bartel, aka Mega Chill. I was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba but mostly grew up in Minnesota. My dad is Canadian and my mom is American, which makes me dual citizen! I come a large family of 9 kids, and my early days were filled with homeschooling and exploring with my family. We would take frequent road trips to Mexico, Canada and all over the USA, we loved going on family camping trips.

Right out of highschool I moved in with a friend in Canada to be a live in nanny. After that I moved back to Minnesota to get a regular job and started working so I could eat and pay for an apartment with some of my sisters. I moved from one job to another trying to fill the feeling for adventure in me never knowing what was missing. I was completely oblivious to the world of long distance hiking until one lazy night in late 2018… 

It all started when I decided to watch a different sort of movie than I usually do. I slid in the disc to the player and the DVD player whirled to life, color came on the screen and what began playing would change my life forever. It was “Wild”, starring Reese Witherspoon. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s about a young women who decides to hike the Pacific Crest Trail(PCT), it shows all the struggles she goes through as she hikes thru California. After seeing it I began researching other long distance hikes and found out that there are three main trails in the USA. The Appalachian Trail(AT), Pacific Crest Trail(PCT), and the Continental Divide Trail(CDT) each one has its own pros and cons. As I researched I decided the AT would be the best fit for me and went to work planning my first thru hike ever. It was so much more work than I anticipated, everyone had a different idea about what you did or didn’t need in your pack and when you should start, which direction you should go and if it was necessary to bring a bear canister or not. 

After months of preparation, I had my pack ready and as much money as I could save in the 6 months of planning. My sister and I were ready to hit the trail, June 2019. On the first day of hiking we realized we had done absolutely no physical preparation at all and were trying to go from couch potatoes to hiking mountains in Maine’s wilderness. It was indescribably difficult, the first day we barely got 4 miles down the relatively flat trail and called it a day. But slowly and surely we climbed mountain after mountain and by the time we hit Virginia we were easily completing a marathon a day. When we started our packs weighed more than 40 pounds loaded down with so much stuff we didn’t need, and by the end our packs only weighed about 20 pounds. 

After completing the Appalachian Trail, I came home excited for what was next and hoping to complete the triple crown. Got my old job back at the local bakery/coffee shop and began trying to save up for my next adventure. But then COVID…. I lost my “nonessential” job and was living off unemployment pay for close to a year. While thinking of what I could do next, I decided to make a large change in my life and moved to Vancouver Canada. While I was there I adopted my first puppy, a Hungarian Vizsla. At 12 weeks old he only weighed in at 10pounds, he was so small and full of life. The year went by in a flash and my roommate was planning to to get married and move out. I couldn’t find another room in my price range that allowed dogs and so I was forced to move back with family in Minnesota. 

At some point I saw a beautiful coonhound pup that was looking for a new home away from where she was being abused. I fell in love with her and took her into my life. I never dreamed about how much work a hound would be to train, and as a puppy with her big beautiful puppy eyes I gave into just about everything and before I knew it, I had a full grown very stubborn hound on my hands.