Mairs started her own adventure company, Wild Women Expeditions in 1991, to bring more health and balance back into her life. Mairs spent a good part of her years growing up in a canoe. By the age of 20, she had already clocked nearly five months in total in canoe tripping. Mairs decided to do something that involved her love for the outdoors and canoeing. For the next 20 years, Mairs was a driving force behind changing a lot of attitudes and mindsets about women and the outdoors. She was an influential force in the lives of hundreds of people as WWE grew. Mairs sold the company in 2010, but kept the original base camp on the Spanish River.
Mairs now runs BAM North Productions, an adventure film company whose aim is to expand the diversity of voices and perspectives currently depicted within the adventure film genre. She has produced two films, with another on the horizon. Mairs may be from Toronto, but she has made northern Ontario her home. She loves the land with all her heart. Mairs took time out her busy schedule to chat with WNM about her life.
Q- What and/or who influenced you growing up in terms of getting outdoors?
A- I’d say my parents were instrumental in exposing me to natural spaces growing up. We lived near a park with a ravine which was explored daily with my Mum when I was in a baby buggy, and with my Dad on Sundays as I grew older. They sent me to summer camp where I was introduced to my future love: canoe tripping.
Q- What was it like doing such a career and life change leaving Toronto for Sudbury?
A- It was an immense change that, had I been older, I may have shied away from. However, my nature is to leap before I look and brush myself off on the other side ( laughs) I should say though, the first ten years I ran Wild Women Expeditions, I headed back to Toronto to make money in the winter to support myself and the company. It wasn’t until 2001, that I moved up here permanently and applied myself to outdoor adventure full time.
Q- You said you were burned out. How bad was it and why was it vital to bring more health and balance to your life?
A- Working in social work and especially as a feminist and anti-poverty activist, and being young, I hit some brick walls while working towards social change. I was also deeply affected by the lives and stories of the people I worked with - most on social assistance and with tremendous barriers and challenges. I’m thinking I didn’t necessarily have the perspective to not absorb it all and became very overwhelmed and discouraged. Trying to save the world and my own health was taking a toll.