Restless Meanderer’s 2024 Year in Review

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Welcome fellow meanderers!

Thank you for reading my 2024 year in review. This is a quick update for my readers (and myself) to see what I’ve been up to in the past year. My blog doesn’t nearly cover all of my adventures and travels.

I love looking back on these posts to see how far I’ve come and how much I’ve accomplished. Additionally, I hope to provide honest and realistic statistics about blogging. Lastly, writing these posts gives me time to think about future goals for myself and my blog!

If you follow along with my blog, you’ll see I had very few posts in 2024. This is because any free time I had I was busy planning my wedding! I married my husband Ben in late October and it was the most beautiful day ever, but that did take most of our attention during the year.

In addition, I had to return to the office full time for a large portion of the year. Working 10 hour days an hour away from home, I became pretty drained. The last thing I wanted to do on a weekend morning was open a laptop back up and use my brain.

That said, I am SO excited to share some of the things I accomplished last year! I didn’t go on many vacations but I crushed my hiking goals and I am so stoked about it. There were a lot of little adventures close to home to keep me occupied.

Blog Stats 2024

Besides my 2023 year in review post, you might have noticed I only put up three new posts on the blog last year: Fulton Chain Trifecta, Castle in the Clouds, and 7 Things to do in Pittsburg, NH for Outdoor Enthusiasts.

The 4 new posts I shared had a total of 8,176 words with 5,833 of the words belonging to posts that are specifically SEO targeted. This brought the word count present on my targeted posts up to 64,095 words which is still ok for my little blog.

From my 2024 year in review, I noticed my blog traffic saw a huge jump this year with 14,000 users! That is 10,000 more than last year! This is so encouraging as it shows how high performing posts can keep the awareness up for the blog. The most users Restless Meanderer saw in one month was 1,900 back in July.

I checked the blog’s domain authority, which has increased to 13 (woohoo!), but I would like to do some research into further increasing this number. This largely comes from developing connections through backlinks but the platform I was using for this is no longer active.

The most popular posts on the blog after checking my 2024 year in review were: Mt Willard, Epsom NH, and Mt Agassiz. Some posts that are packed full of great info but could use a little more love are: 7 Things to do in North Conway on Your First Visit, Winter Hiking Mt Pemigewasset, and Blueberry Mountain.

Financially, I had my first two payouts from Amazon Associates! They were very very small (totaling $21.09) but that was exciting to see haha. I would still like to get away from using Amazon and focus more on the companies supported through RockPorch (check out my RockPorch gear links), but it is a good starting point for a small blog. I will be setting 5% of profits aside from anything that comes in to contribute to charities that align with my passions.

For costs for the blog, I did have to renew my domain registration, pay for domain privacy and protection, and pay for hosting through Bluehost. In total these cost $396.63 so for transparency, the cost to create and run this blog the last four years has totaled $583.69.

Goals for 2025

In 2025, I would love to revisit my writing and work on posts that spark my creativity. I love sharing my experiences on hiking trails but I would enjoy trying more travel writing as well. This way I can not only work on different skills, but help readers find locations to visit and share more about my favorite adventures outside the mountains.

Outside of my blog I would like to do more camping, improve my fitness activities outside of the gym, and go on a couple trips to new places. Traveling and exploring always help me clear my head and get excited about what’s next. In terms of my non-outdoorsy hobbies, I am always looking to improve my knitting skills and am really excited to work on some of my own designs!

As always, if there is a particular hiking review you’d like to see from the Northeast or if you’re interested in an area in New England, please reach out and I will help if I can! Sometimes it can help to push certain posts in front of others.

Check my New York, New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont pages for hikes I’ve posted about so far.

Personal 2024 Year in Review  

Of course my top adventure of the year was getting married! A lot of time and effort went into wedding planning, but Ben and I had the most beautiful day surrounded by our loved ones. We already wish everyone could come back and visit us in New Hampshire again.

I had a slower hiking and travel year but I was still able to visit some new places with friends and through work. It was very exciting to visit my sister down in North Carolina since she moved down there early 2024 and bought a house with her fiancé! One of my goals for 2025 will be to continue to find ways to visit family and friends.

Hiking Review

See below for all the hikes I was able to do in 2024. Again, married late October and straight into the holidays. So you know I was itching to get outside once January came!

Highlights from this list include: Of COURSE the W Trek in Torres del Paine, Patagonia down in Chile. Pretty much the coolest thing I’ve ever done. Every single day was STUNNING and such an amazing experience. I’d also never done a trip like that with friends before and it was awesome to be with my girlfriends on a backpacking trip!

Coming in at a very close second is my trio hike in Maine of Abraham, Spaulding, and Sugarloaf. This hike was my final hike of my NE111 challenge- all the 4,000 footers in the Northeast. I am so freaking proud of myself for accomplishing this goal!

Maine’s Cutler Coast is breathtaking and I am so happy I had the opportunity to hike the Fairy Head Loop this year. Cutler coast has been on my list for years and even though I didn’t get to camp, it was an amazing day hike. The ocean views, secluded rock beaches, and vibrant colors made me want to stay at each remote campsite I passed. Would definitely love to return.

Honorary mention of Baxter State Park since it is such a gorgeous area. I wasn’t able to get to Baxter Peak again, but I did hike Hamlin Peak and then went up North and South Brother the next day. Roaring Brook campground was the perfect place to spend the weekend for these hikes!

Very Maine heavy highlight reel for the year!

Life Review

Some more items that made my highlights reel from my 2024 year in review! This list contains a little bit of everything.

Looking back through this 2024 year in review and everything that happened last year reminds me how grateful I am for the people and opportunities in my life. The world feels very crazy and unstable right now so I’m glad I was able to take the time to revisit all the good from the past year.

I am always available for questions regarding my posts and love connecting with like minded hikers, travelers, and explorers! My social media links are at the bottom of this page so feel free to connect!

Wishing you all the strength to keep tackling 2025 and may great opportunities come your way.

Sara