And it was really cool to like build, you know,
all the while you're sitting here studying, you
know, the way that your hostel has been functioning
and seeing other hostels and you're sort of dreaming
up this like purpose -built hostel. And it was
so cool to bring it to fruition, you know, to
add all the details that you would want if you
were traveling. And in a hostel and to bring
this beautiful building and in the heart of our
teeny little town, everyone was super appreciative.
You know, it basically sits right above town.
So it's it's like every skyline of town. Hello,
friends and travelers. Thanks for listening.
You are riding along on the Hostile Road Trip
Podcast. Our mission is to spread awareness of
the true hostile experience in the Americas and
share stories from the fascinating hosts who
create those unique facilities. I'm your host,
Jimmy Black, joined alongside co -founder of
International Travelers House, Bobby Dyer. Each
session, we sit down with hostile operators or
travel influencers to hear about their road success,
discuss trending hostile topics. and close with
tips for travelers who are seeking to have the
ultimate experience when visiting each destination.
You can't afford to miss this trip. Now fasten
your seatbelts and let's hit the road. Alright,
welcome back to the Hostile Road Trip Podcast.
First episode recording of 2026. Really excited
to be here, joined with my... business partner
and co -founder of ITH Hostels, Robert Dyer.
Thanks for being here, Bobby. Yeah, great to
be here with you guys today. And then we have
the proud owner of the North Cascades Mountain
Hostel, Paul and Lisa. Welcome to the show. Yes.
Thanks. Thank you. Happy to be here. Liza. Liza,
I'm sorry. Liza. Liza. All right. Bye. Thank
you so much for being with us. And as I often
say, you know, one of the some of the more eccentric
people in the world are hostel owners. You know,
you kind of have an eclectic personality just
to be like, oh, I'd like to try that out. And
then I always, you know, I like to highlight
that journey a little bit before we talk about
your actual facility and what the experience
is at your hostel. Just a little bit about. your
journey and how first how did you find hostels
for the both of you like where what was your
first exposure to hosteling so for me i found
hostels i was uh traveling in new zealand um
and i used to work down in antarctica for multiple
seasons oh cool yeah so we flew out of um christ
church and of course if you've ever traveled
to new zealand it's um just covered with all
kinds of really cool hostels. And a lot of them
feel like those kind of mom and pop kind of hostels.
Yeah, the genuines. Just an old house and there
were some bunk beds in there. Yeah. Really cool
vibe and in a cool spot. So that's how I discovered
it. And I was like, what is this? This is such
a crazy cool community and what a neat way to
meet people. It felt like it kind of got you
lined out and centered for what you're going
to explore in this country or area. So, yeah,
that's when I kind of fell in love with hostels.
That's so cool, and I love to hear that you got
exposed to what I like to call a genuine backpacker
hostel, which is, in its essence, a house that
someone decided to turn some bedrooms into some
dorm rooms and become the ultimate host themselves.
We love hostels like that. That's the style of
hostels we run. And I love to hear people getting
exposed to those because that's how often you're
going to run your hostel. So that's so cool to
hear that you had that experience. But again,
it gets back to it. It's funny to hear you work
down in Antarctica. Not a normal experience,
but it's those type of people that are like,
oh, wow, this is this hostel. This looks pretty
cool. I could do this. It's unique people. It's
eccentric people, people with spots. And I love
about that. How about you, Liza? How did you
get into it? I got into it because of Paul. Oh,
so you were with Paul. Was that your first experience
in New Zealand, too? No, I wasn't actually with
Paul in those days. I met Paul. He'd already
been running this place. Oh, okay. Gotcha. Now
we're getting into kind of the founding story.
Paul created this place before I came along.
Then I met Paul. I'd stayed at maybe a few hostels
ever. You knew what they were. I knew what they
were. You still went for them. I love it. Especially
when you hear the story of how we met. Let's
separate to that. Paul had started the original
hostel in 2012 late 2012 early 2013 and um yeah
yeah it it was very much it was very much a gritty
new zealand style that we were mentioning earlier
where you identify an old house you throw You
take your $500 out of your bank account and buy
some material to make bunk beds. And voila, you
have a hostel. That's all it takes. If you build
it, they will come. Yeah, and so we, on the hillside
behind the hostel, we built some cabins behind
there. One was meant to be a cabin for me and,
you know, ultimately Liza. But then... we realized,
like, oh, we could rent this cabin out and make
some money off of this cabin. So when I met Paul,
it was 2017, winter of 2017. I was living in
Seattle, working in Seattle. I'm an accountant.
I was working as an accountant there. And coming
out, I was a big backcountry skier. So I was
coming out here, this place, Metau Valley, where
we are. kind of the ultimate backcountry ski
location although it's difficult to access because
you need to access most everything with a snowmobile
so i was coming out here to do that with friends
and that's how i met paul at a new year's party
17 18 so yeah 2018 and i was living in seattle
but um i met paul and i was like who's this joker
he's a good time and uh and i was living in a
suburban in the parking lot of the uh she was
living out of suburban in a parking lot that's
a true hospital owner and then hopping around
and staying in whatever cabin wasn't or sometimes
a bunk oh that's the best i love this yeah i
love it so that's what i stepped into And I ended
up moving, relocating from the west side kind
of earlier than expected and selling my condo.
Paul was like, oh, we can just rent out your
condo. We tried doing that and then got busted.
It turns out. The old homeowners association
got you. I was like, all right, I guess I'm moving
into the suburban then. Yeah. You got yourself
a keeper here, Paul. I like it. Yeah, it was
a pretty gritty experience at first with the
hostel. I mean, we, yeah. I came out in 2018,
got to see the whole hostel in its prime. 2019
was a great year for the hostel. So at this point,
just to clarify, it was just this old house with
two converted, the two bedrooms were converted
bunk rooms, about six to eight bunks in each.
Three cabins, a converted garage, another nice
cabin, and then a third one that he'd built.
He's a super scrappy dude, built these little
cabins. But the two out of three of those cabins
were dry cabins. They didn't have their own bathroom
or kitchen. Okay. Didn't have fresh water. They're
not dry as in we wouldn't let people drink in
there. Sure, sure. Yeah, yeah. I hear you. I
hear you. So we had... 12 people in the bunks
and then two the cabins from sorry the guests
from both of the cabins would all use the hostel
facilities and it was a funky little house with
just a one and a half baths and a tiny little
kitchen yeah and we kind of joked our third bathroom
was we live right is a small little kitschy town
um called winthrop it's a western themed western
town and they had a public restroom downtown
so we joked that that was our third bathroom
it was in town hall it was literally you just
walk down the hill 30 feet and it's right there
so if if we ever had any plumbing issues which
absolutely yeah our third bathroom is town hall
it's just down i like that On the check -in map,
I love it. This is so great, but I want to point
out and stop real quick just for any listeners
out there that are thinking about opening up
their own hostel. This is some magical stuff
you're hearing now, and it's what we experienced
as well. I find that so many potential hostel
owners get caught up with the, oh, I need to
make it this big, or it needs to be this perfect,
or it needs to be this size. that stops so many
people from getting in it's like they can't break
into that barrier because they're holding themselves
back and waiting for a unicorn when really all
you need is what we're talking about now is like
find that old house start working and getting
rooms open we had the same experience of we opened
up in a victorian like a 2500 square foot victorian
house built in 1886 It had so much character
and charm, but same type of situation you're
talking about. You made me laugh as you were
telling your story. Opening up rooms one by one,
using money from one room to open up another.
You'd make a room for yourself. You'd stay in
it. You'd realize, this is really nice now. I
could make a lot of money off this thing. Back
on the couch. It's that classic. Bobby and I
lived on a sailboat while we were opening up
our first hostel. I remember we'd get into the
house, and then we'd make a room for ourselves.
They'd be like, oh, great. They'd be like, oh,
no, actually, sorry, we're going to move back
on the sailboat. Head back because you're going
to sell that room now. The couch in our living
room was called the Big Lebowski Suite. All those
memories come back, but that's how you're going
to get started. It makes it so much easier. Because
of the unique element of the industry, that actually,
at its core, is the genuine backpacker hostel,
you know, that kind of hodgepodge, you know,
furnished from a thrift store. Nothing really
matches, but everything fills in together. You
know, I love that stuff. And I love to hear that
that's the path you took. And another shining
example of how that genuine mom and pop hostel,
you know, can work. So, all right. So you get
rocking and rolling right around the same time
we did. 2012 was when we opened. And as we experienced,
and I'm sure you did, the first five, six years
were a great run, and then boom. pandemic hits
and we're obviously like if you were to draw
up a business model for what would have been
the worst business model ever for that situation
it would be like oh wow we really are like a
death trap here you know like this is scary stuff
so everyone's got a different story every you
know different states had different rules how
did you navigate yeah because i mean it was like
twilight zone i was like oh my god So how did
you get out there? I mean, to begin with, I would
say we always, well, just a little bit of the
backstory a bit, you know, to the hostel leading
up to the COVID is that we were a fledgling business
anyway. I mean, I would say we teetered probably
more in the red than the black. So we were having
to scrap, you know, working. Several jobs and
everything. So when COVID hit, I was like, are
you kidding me? You know, we felt like we were
starting to hit our stride and people were finding
us and things like that. Then COVID hit. We're
like, oh, my gosh. So, you know, we ended up
turning the three cabins. Obviously, they were
private -ish, you know, and they still, you know,
to the cabins, you still had to come inside.
And then the two bunk rooms, we basically turned
them into two private rooms. And we're a town
like any of these small mountain towns where
there's a seasonal flow of workers, whether it's
like firefight, you know, wildlife or wildfire
firefighters or biology techs or people working
in the tourism industry. And so basically we
potted up. Yeah. Yeah. We basically turned this
into a pod and several seasonal workers that
were kind of. And they just posted up in the
cabins. So we had three people each in a cabin.
I think we had a couple people in each or one
person in each bunk room. So I think there was
like five of us. And we had a great time. We
just all stuck around and we did a cooking program
where each person picked a night that they would
cook at the hostel. Oh, I love it. There's like
a little family. Yeah, a little family and hung
out and got through it. It's enough to keep the
lights on. The good thing about the way that
we've always operated, we've changed now. We'll
get to it. We basically rebuilt the entire hostel.
So we have a slightly different operation now,
but we still have pretty low overhead. But especially
in those days, I mean, as long as we could make
our mortgage payment, we were doing okay. Absolutely.
Yeah, we lived here on site. So it's not like
we were also paying a rent for where we lived
also. Yeah. Did the transformation come from
your hostel after COVID? Because now you look
at it, it's so beautiful. It looks like you guys
did quite a bit of work. Tell us that story of
kind of the transformation of what it is today.
Actually, okay, I'll tell you kind of a funny
story that maybe I shouldn't actually. Put on
glass. But no, I think it's okay. Do it. Do it.
Safe space. During COVID, we got one of those
like emergency disaster loans. So it's a very
small rate loan. I think it was literally like
$30 ,000. And Paul had been, so up until then,
Paul had been, like when I first met him, Paul
had been saying, One of these days, I'm going
to tear this house down and build an entirely
new purpose -made hostel from scratch. And I
was like, what? To kind of maximize the property
and create volume. But he got this grant or this
$30 ,000 disaster loan. And he was like, that's
it. I'm going for it. That was the same money.
There you go. Yeah. Which is absolutely nothing
in the grand scheme of things and what it actually
took financially to pull off what we were doing.
Just to think that $30 ,000 was just enough to
inspire Paul. That money, that $30 ,000 is not
supposed to be used for creating a new business.
It's supposed to be used to get you through.
People use it for a lot worse. It really got
his gears going. So he, he, I wasn't half owner
yet. You know, we were still just like dating
and hopping around different cabins, whatever.
But he went to an architect and started talking
to an architect about ideas. And I was going,
do you really want to tear this cute little house
down right in town? Historic, you know, can't
we just remodel on top of this existing place?
And he tried, talked to engineers and stuff.
Yeah, we tried various different things. All
the while, for multiple years, I had been approaching
various banks about trying to get a construction
loan. Of course, especially during COVID, it
was like banks were really tight. There's a really
cool fund here in the Valley, this private investment
network that was set up basically by locals here
in the Valley. part of their investment portfolio.
That's cool. Oh, I love it. So we went and pitched
our idea based on this new model, this new building.
And we found a donor, a loan shark, if you will.
And was willing to loan on our crazy idea because
any banks, you'd go to a bank and you have to
create a 10 -page business plan and all these
various things. And ultimately, they ask you,
how long have you been running a hostel? And
oftentimes, a lot of people, they just came up
with this idea. Well, you hadn't. We didn't have
solid... We had financials that could show that
we were growing and stuff. It's a risky business
for a bank to invest in. We were very lucky to
fall into this. It's an investment network of
people that also had seen us in the community.
He'd been running the hostel since 2012. We kind
of skipped along, but basically I was saying
that he had this vision of rebuilding the hostel
and basically figured out that... Engineering
-wise, it wasn't going to be feasible to remodel
the existing one. So after working with the architect
and coming up with the designs, basically, and
then finding the funding source, in 2022, we
demolished the hostel to the ground. Like, it
literally went... Wow. Just all that... 20 loads
to the dump. There it went. Original house just
leveled. Leveled. Yeah, we left the cabins. It
was a little bit sad. A little sad, but Paul
was done with that place. He was like, didn't
want to fix one more freaking thing. Right, plumbing,
electrical, all the issues. That's one of the
downsides to it. The house trying to handle that
load. And I thought that the idea of building
a new hostel from scratch was a crazy idea. But
what I also kind of blazed over really quickly
is that when Paul went to the architect, we had
an idea of another building, a smaller building.
Another cabin is what it was going to be like
to be rented out with a mother -in -law like
basement, daylight basement studio. And he built
that first. So in 2021. He built that with one
other buddy, this 1 ,000 -square -foot, three
-level building that we now live in that wasn't
initially planned to be built for us to live
in. But he did it. Him and his buddy built it
and finished it in 2022. And it's a beautiful
building here on site. And we're like, oh, let's
move in there. So we moved in there. And I basically
was like, you proved yourself, bud. You built
this amazing place. I didn't know you had that
in you. Him and one other guy built this amazing
design. Yeah. And so then we're like, OK, I think
we're I think we're ready to go for it. Like,
let's do the hostel now. He had the plans and
he still wanted to go ahead and do that whole
hostel with his one other buddy. And I was like,
uh, let's let's maybe not do that. Let's come
up with another. Yeah. With a little bit more
help, you know, because now we're talking about
a thirty five hundred square foot facility, state
of the art facility, you know. And so, yeah,
speak to how that came about. So, yeah, anyway,
I had been working in the building industry and
sort of making ties and networking with that.
And so I was able to be the GC or the general
contractor on it, which is awesome. Hundreds
of thousands of dollars. Huge. Yeah. And I worked
with my buddy's crew that I had been working
on. And basically we used his crew and we had
to frame this whole thing up. And then I kind
of took it from there. And we just, we banged
it out in like 15 months, 14 months. We tore
the place down. Me 23. No, sorry. Yeah, tore
it down in April 2023 and opened this place July
1st, 2024. Yeah. Yeah. And, Paul, isn't that
amazing? I mean, you couldn't do that on the
West Side in any, you know, metropolitan city
just with the permit process alone. Mm -hmm.
Yeah. We listened to a few other of these podcasts
they're talking about. the dude that built the
deck up in Whistler, for example, and just all
the hoops he had to jump through just to make
a deck. Just to make a deck, yeah. Oh, yeah,
we've been caught on a few of those. And this
guy, he's also like, Paul is, in case you haven't
caught on yet, he's like a big... people person
you know and he is the master of developing relationships
which is networking it right yeah who do you
know in the city office who do you know in the
zoning department yeah oh right somebody's like
best buds with the you know with this town you
know going he will go in the building inspectors
and be like okay we're ready to um take this
off they'd come up the next afternoon and we're
good to go like no waiting so we were able to
kind of like expedite the whole thing and and
it was really cool to like build you know all
the while you're sitting here studying you know
the way that your hostel's been functioning seeing
other hostels and you're sort of dreaming up
this like purpose -built hostel and it was so
cool to bring it to fruition you know yeah to
Add all the details that you would want if you
were traveling in a hostel. And to bring this
beautiful building in the heart of our teeny
little town. Everyone was super appreciative.
You know, it basically sits right above town.
It's like the skyline of town. You have the community
icon now. Yeah, so it's cool. And it's like,
you know, of course. with the hostel it's like
one of the reasons i mean obviously you're wanting
to create this business but i feel like many
owners are also wanting to create this like community
resource you know yes yes like a place where
like hangouts can happen music jams can happen
yeah yeah meetings can happen slideshows you
know all those time we've become kind of a go
-to for like um Throw in a gathering in town,
centralized for everybody, and it's a great space
for hosting large groups. It's a great space
for... We're not too big here, so if we... I
guess, what am I trying to say? If we were really
smart and savvy, we would have built a new hostel
that was two or three times the size. But that's
not what we did. We're pretty... intimate their
whole hostel itself only has seven private rooms
it also has seven bathrooms basically and um
the three products it's got but that includes
the bathrooms for the um there's two bunk rooms
still you know so there's two bunk rooms up in
the corner that basically that's what the old
hostel used to be just two bunk rooms so we've
got that and then seven more private rooms a
giant living space and kitchen um yeah um So
it's like, and then also still three cabins.
I love it. What's the total number you would
say you would have? Feasible for like 32 if you
had two people in every clean bed. There's 34.
I love that. You know, this is so cool to hear.
You're such a great example for aspiring hostel
owners of you ticked so many boxes along your
journey. You know, you started off bootstrapping
it. You went small. You worked your way into
this older building, but then you had that great
opportunity, which is so rare within our industry,
where the operator, after operating for a couple
of years, gets the sense of what they need and
what they would want. gets the opportunity to
build something to suit for purpose and now dial
it in based off of that experience. Because a
lot of times you find people that might have
investment money who aren't hostile people that
are building this hostile to suit, but they don't
really know exactly what they're doing because
they haven't had the experience you've had of
running it and living on site. So you've got
that beautiful journey there of starting small.
running through it like that and then building
your own custom to suit because that's one of
the classic disadvantages that you have this
old building like oh if this was just another
foot wider i could fit another bunk in or if
this window was just if this was just over there
you know that is so that's one of the uh downsides
to operating in some of those older quirky buildings
but what you did i think that's the perfect journey
like if you could lay out for someone Here's
the perfect hostel owner journey. Try to find
something that is small that you can grow into,
hopefully something you can purchase so you own
the property, and then eventually down the road
that you could do exactly what you did and eventually
build a suit, and now you're cruising. So that's
just awesome. Great example and great template
for people out there. have you know use you as
a model for that journey uh and also i love the
size like you said when people get to that bill
to sue a lot of times the bankers the bottom
line the greed starts to set and you're like
well i could really stuff them in here now and
for us that was a big thing years ago we made
that decision of like, we really want to focus
and specialize in genuine backpacker hostels
that have that intimate feel. And we always say
that the sweet spot is like 30 to 50. And, you
know, it gives you enough people inside to have
a vibe and to have energy. But then it also doesn't
put you above that point where you don't know
everyone's name or you don't have a connection
with everyone. It's easy for people to get lost
into the system. You know, yeah. Go ahead. It
seems like when you get to a certain size, it
seems like when you get over a certain size,
you kind of lose. It's almost like the anonymity
comes back in, you know, where there's enough
people there that people can just kind of, you
know, whereas we're, and that can be nice for
some people. Sure. Yeah. It could be by choice.
A place in my own space. Yeah, but we've also
been to some large hostels that felt a little
bit institutional, institution -y, you know.
I definitely was, like you said, traveling around
and seeing kind of what you don't want, you know.
Like, I knew that we were going to be building
a brand new building here. It was going to have
this new, clean, or this new vibe. And I was,
like, in the design. process like what are things
that we can do to bring back elements of what
people loved about the whole hostel which which
is that they walked in and it felt like home
you know because the larger big hostels that
i've been to yes they're nice and modern and
um sterile but you walk in and you don't feel
to feel like home you know it almost so we i
was like let's Get some, a lot of nice warm wood.
All of the furniture is going to be thrifted,
you know, kind of keep that. It's almost all
the same furniture that we had in the old hostel.
And, you know, yeah, just little things here
and there to kind of keep that intimate homey
vibe. Not too modern. That was what we were kind
of going for. Yeah, it's so true and definitely
something for people to keep in mind as a lot
of times investors or people are like, oh, you
need at least 100 beds to make this work. Well,
that's not true if you're willing to embrace
the old school model of, well, I'm going to live
on site here, so I don't have another mortgage.
This is my mortgage payment. We're going to work
it ourselves. So now you can actually operate
that smaller hostel at a lot higher quality.
Sometimes with a lot better margins than the
bigger one, because as we've found, the larger
the hostel, the more you have to embrace. corporate
style policies and procedures to keep it under
control because it's so big so the textbook business
act like school model be like all right these
are the things you need to create these are the
positions you need to create and then all of
a sudden you're running a small corporate style
business and it just is like trying to put a
square peg in a round hole it doesn't work for
the hostel and then i see all the time these
very nice beautiful buildings 150 200 beds And
they've got all this staff and all these policy
procedures like it's a hotel. And the owner is
asking me, why isn't it working? And I'm like,
oh, brother, you can't spend your way out of
this one. You're going the wrong way. So what
you did, I think, is the perfect model. And then
another thing I want to highlight on to make
sure I get it in before we wrap up is you mentioned
the community element. For so many years, and
still to this day, hostels have a horrible stigma
in the U .S. It's one of the reasons the industry
is so unsaturated. One of the main reasons we
do this podcast is to help people get the word
out there and try to inspire other hostel owners
to open up so that we can build our network out
in this country because of a lot of bad stigmas
of it being like a homeless shelter or a flop
house or those horrible movies they made where
you're going to get murdered in your sleep. So
there's a lot of bad... PR out there. And we
need to work at getting the good, positive, beautiful
stories out there about this industry. But one
of the things you mentioned is embracing the
community, trying to become a community center
for events, for gatherings, including the community
with your hostile events. I think more and more
of us need to attack the issue in that manner.
Go right at it. straight ahead. Because in my
experience, when you do that, so many people
come in and they're like, wow, I had such a different
perception of what hostels were. And now that
I've been in here, I'm changed. I'm won over.
I've been convinced. We get that all the time.
Yes, good. We get that all the time. Yeah, I
feel that is so true that we get a lot of people,
probably based on price point, that they're willing
to venture in and find us. And then this is their
first experience. And they're like, this was
so much cooler and nicer. And we got to talk
to people. We got to share stories. And they're
a convert. Yes. It puts a big smile on our face.
Yes. We always say one of the things that warms
our heart the most is when we... Because we live
right next door, we walk in, and there's four
or five strangers sharing a meal together, and
they've gone out hiking or skiing together, and
you're like, this is why we did this. Yeah, yeah.
It's hostel magic, what it is. It's a beautiful
thing. Our mission statement is spreading peace
through knowledge of culture. When we were working
at USA Hostels years ago, before we started.
That was what captured me. I saw all these different
races, religions, cultures, all in the kitchen
together, eating at the dinner table, laughing.
I was like, this is what United Nations spends
billions of dollars trying to do. And here we
are, just casually falling into it every night,
just breaking down these barriers. And I love
that hostile element where you're talking about
when you get that person, especially an American,
who tries it for the first time, and then when
they are... checking out they're like wow this
was such a great experience i'm never staying
in a hotel again and you're like fuck yeah got
another one you know and then that's for the
better of all of us you know oh yeah that's why
we've got to get more of these uh genuine backpacker
style hostels like yourselves you know out there
and operating so hopefully listeners out there
can you know use this story to the advantage
now uh you've had you've got such a great story
That's taking a lot of our time up. But before
we wrap up, just to hear a little bit more about
your actual hostel and the town you're in. I
saw that you were on the PCT, Pacific Crestville.
I'm actually at our Big Bear Hostel, which is
on the PCT. We're at mile 266. Oh, nice. Yeah,
so that's a big part of our business. I love
the PCT hikers. So tell us a bit about your town.
So someone comes to the hostel. We've heard a
bit about the facility and the layout. How many
people can stay? But what is, like, a general
guest experience in your town throughout the
seasons? Yeah, so our town, I think I alluded
to it a little bit before, we're sort of this
unique tourist town that was started back in
the 70s to try to bring people into these, like,
repressed logging mining towns. And so they created
this theme town. So we're a western town. It
almost looks like a little mini Jackson Hole,
if you will. There's like wooden boardwalks and
facades and all this stuff. Down the road from
us is another town called Leavenworth, and they
are the Bavarian town. Oh, okay. So you can do
this loop, basically, that takes you through
North Cascade National Park, through Winthrop,
down to Leavenworth, and it's called the Cascade
Loop. So that brings a lot of your sort of like
general travelers, if you will. over along with
the national park as well and we're right on
the east side of the national park so you know
for international travelers you know they'll
zone in on the national park and and looking
for accommodation and we're one of the more prolific
towns i guess that has accommodations we're a
big recreation town we're known for being a western
town but it's starting to become even more known
as a big recreation town So we sit, like I said,
just on the east side of the North Cascades.
And during the summer, you can drive through
the North Cascades National Park to get to it.
So from Seattle, it's only about three hours,
three and a half hours to get here from Seattle
through the park. There's incredible hiking.
So we get tons of people that are coming out
to hike. And yes, the PC2 cruises through there.
And we're actually, Mazama is closer to the trail.
That's the northernmost town. before you get
to the Canadian terminus. So people will often
come here either waiting to start going southbound
or, you know, come post up for a while before
they do the last stretch of Canada and back.
So it's actually kind of a good spot because
we get those northbound and southbound. A lot
of times with PCT hikers, they don't allow, I
think, I don't think they allow you to cross
the border anymore. So you have to basically
call it yo -yo back. Yeah. I've heard about that.
Yeah. And so the yo -yo back and, you know, I
mean. a good hostel and has a good vibe, it starts
turning into a little bit of a hotel California.
Yeah. Five nights, right? Yeah. We have so many
friends in this community that stayed here at
the hostel, whether it's because they had the
PCT and stayed at the hostel and loved it, or
they came out for another reason, stayed at the
hostel and just never left. So many people. So
many of the friends in our community say the
hostel was their first intro to this valley.
That's great. I was going to say, though, in
the winter, that pass over the North Cascades
closes. So then to get here in the winter, from
Seattle, you go over Snoqualmie or Stevens Pass
and then north up the Columbia River and then
back west. And then we're nestled up. We're like
the end of the road. Yeah, we basically become
the end of the road. And what people get rewarded
by is we have the biggest network of cross -country
ski trails in North America. Yeah, and it stays
cold and the sun comes out a lot. So it's a long
journey out from Seattle to get here. But people
do come all the way out here for the amazing
network of cross -country ski trails. Thanks,
Metauk Trails. And the gorgeous weather. I mean,
right now it's, you know, it's... Ideally, it's
in the 20s, but today it's in like the high 30s
or 40s, which is a little warmer than we like
it. But gorgeous. It's usually cold and sunny
and gorgeous. And we also have an amazing new
rink here. And that's been another draw in the
winter. People come out. We started playing hockey.
So we get a lot of hockey. We get a lot of hockey
tournaments that come out here. And it's literally.
where our location is you can hear the puck against
the board so it's it's it's really fun it's an
outdoor rink and you you're looking at the mountains
the whole time and we so we get hockey teams
that will come rent the whole place out and um
yeah fun too so it's it's it's really this mecca
i mean in the summer there's like alpine alpine
climbing and rock climbing and whitewater rafting,
and kind of reminds me of one of the hostels
you had mentioned in North Conway, where it's
just like this epicenter of all these various
outdoor activities, which I can imagine is probably
like your Big Bear one. Yeah, similar. Yep, similar
seasons, the outdoor events and activities. That's
awesome. That sounds like an awesome town to
visit and an even better hostel to stay at. Oh,
can I say one more little thing? Yeah. Yeah,
please. We are at the point of our hostile journey,
growth journey. We're looking for that unicorn,
our manager. We've been hearing about these amazing
hostile managers on your podcast and we're like,
that's what we need. That's our next step. So
I just wanted to put that little plug out there.
Absolutely. Wow, that sounds cool. Maybe I want
to go run that place. Yeah, no. And on that note,
We're going to be taking over the hostilemanagement
.com page and we're going to be revamping the
hostile job section within that web page to really
focus on getting more quality hostile managers.
that hostile owners can confidently use that
site as world packers and work away and things
like that. They can often get you nice exchange
members, but we want to really cater that hostile
jobs on hostile management to just be for quality
onsite managers. So stay tuned for that, but
definitely a good plug and a great experience
for someone to be had up there now. So in closing.
What would be any advice or words of inspiration
you might give to an aspiring hostel owner who's
about to start their journey? I mean, I guess
for me, once I sort of invested and fell in love
with the idea of starting the hostel. um there
was kind of no turning back as in i would do
whatever it takes you know whether it's sleep
in my suburban work three jobs you know because
i really like the idea of being a small business
owner an entrepreneur having this like cool business
that creates amazing community vibes um so stick
with it you know it can be hard i feel like the
industry uh you know the The financial industry,
all the various mechanisms to start a business,
you know, oftentimes don't look kindly upon hostels.
But know that if you stick with it, you know,
it can come true. Stay crappy and find yourself
an accountant. It's so true, though. One time
a banker told me, he's like, there's... hotels,
there's bars, and then there's you. And he's
like, you're this whole new category of I'm not
lending to. Right. Right. I know. Definitely
the redheaded stepchildren. So you have to embrace
that and, you know, and go with it. But that
is that is sound advice to anyone getting to
it is like you really got to be willing to jump
in with both feet and be willing to commit to
that attitude of whatever it takes. You know,
living. Yeah. Yeah. You know, be ready to do
anything. And it also still working other jobs
while you're doing it. You know, a lot of the
people that I've. had experience with over the
years, including ourselves, that was a big key
element to our success in the beginning. We didn't
go under because we still kept our bartending
and waiting jobs and serving tables, whatever
it took to make the ends meet in the beginning.
So that's definitely great advice. But Paul,
Liza, thank you so much for joining us. Awesome
episode. So much great stuff there for people
to learn from and be inspired by in the North
Cascades Mountain Hostel. I'm going to put that
on my bucket list to visit one day. But thank
you so much for joining the show. And we wish
you all the best in 2026. Awesome. Thanks so
much, guys. It's been fun. Thank you so much.