S2 Ep25. Unexpected Connections and Intentional Presence: Outdoor Hygiene, Mountain Music & Daily Movement with Anastasia Allison

Join host Aderonke Bademosi Wilson for an inspiring and heartwarming episode as she welcomes Anastasia Allison, an entrepreneur, musician, dancer and passionate lover of the outdoors. In this uplifting conversation, Anastasia opens up about her extraordinary journey, weaving together innovation, resilience and a deep connection to nature.

The episode begins with a dive into Anastasia’s entrepreneurial spirit and her creation of Kula Cloth, an innovative antimicrobial pee cloth designed specifically for outdoor enthusiasts who squat to pee. 

Drawing on her experience as a park ranger and backpacking instructor, Anastasia saw an opportunity to improve hygiene on the trail while reducing toilet paper waste in delicate alpine environments. She shares the story of how this eco-friendly, reusable product came to life, how it works and how it unexpectedly gained traction during the 2020 toilet paper shortage. Her journey reflects clever problem-solving and a passion for protecting the wild places she loves.

From there, Aderonke and Anastasia transition into the breathtaking world of the Musical Mountaineers, a project born from Anastasia’s lifelong love of music. Having played violin since the age of four, Anastasia now brings her music to some of the most awe-inspiring places on earth, remote mountain summits at sunrise. 

Alongside pianist Rose, she performs impromptu wilderness concerts that blend music with nature’s beauty, raising funds for national parks and trail conservation. Their story is a reminder of how unexpected collaborations and quiet acts of creativity can echo far beyond the mountains.

Movement is another powerful thread in Anastasia’s life. Since January 1, 2021, she has committed to dancing every single day, a joyful ritual that has transformed her outlook and fostered a vibrant online community. Through her daily Zoom dance program, Anastasia brings together 25 to 50 participants from around the globe, blending meditation and music to uplift spirits and promote connection. She reflects on how the simple act of dancing has become a source of healing, expression and unity.

As the episode unfolds, Anastasia shares a few delightful and unexpected facts about herself: she can ride unicycles, including towering five-foot-tall ones, was (almost) in the 1980s movie Betsy’s Wedding, and once majored in Latin, able to translate classical Roman texts. These fun facts add an interesting layer to her multifaceted personality and underscore her zest for life’s curiosities.

Before signing off, Aderonke and Anastasia highlight an event: the Musical Mountaineers’ benefit concert on June 14th at the Northwest Stream Center in Mill Creek, Washington. The concert will support stream restoration efforts and promises to be a magical evening of music and purpose.

Tune in for a heartfelt conversation that celebrates creativity, adventure, and the profound power of daily rituals to transform our lives. Whether you’re a hiker, a musician, a dancer or simply someone looking for inspiration, this episode offers a beautiful reminder that small steps can lead to extraordinary journeys.

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Transcript

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (00:01.473):
Welcome to another edition of ABWilson's Heart of the Matter, a podcast that uses overwhelmingly positive questions to learn about our guests, where every episode uncovers extraordinary stories of triumph, growth, and empowerment. Hi, I'm Aderonke Bademosi Wilson, and my guest on today's show is Anastasia Allison. Anastasia is an entrepreneur, musician, and dancer. Welcome to the show.

Anastasia Allison (00:33.88):
Thank you so much for having me, Aderonke. I'm so excited to be here.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (00:38.335):
And I want to explore your descriptors. Let's start with entrepreneur. Tell me about that.

Anastasia Allison (00:46.36):
Yeah, so I'm the founder of a small outdoor gear company called Kula Cloth. Kula Cloth is an antimicrobial pee cloth for anybody who squats when they pee. I'm a former park ranger and backpacking instructor who actually forgot toilet paper on my very first backpacking trip outside and realized how disconnected I felt on that trip as a result of not really knowing how to handle my hygiene. And I felt uncomfortable even asking the question of the older gentleman who was leading our trip. And so I started teaching backpacking many years later and then had the idea for a product that would make hygiene a little bit more approachable for folks and also help reduce the amount of toilet paper litter that people leave outside in our beautiful alpine areas. So I started that company seven years ago and that's my full-time job now.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (02:00.163):
So, and I looked on your website to understand just a little, because I couldn't envision it, right? I couldn't envision how this works. So I do get it. I read it and I understand. Explain to the listeners who may not know what outdoor hygiene looks like, how your cloth works.

Anastasia Allison (02:19.245):
Yeah. So when we're outside on a hike or kayaking, bicycling, horseback riding, whatever it might be, we often have to use the bathroom. And a lot of times we're in places where there is no toilet paper because there's no bathroom. So we're just finding a place on the side of the trail maybe to pee. And particularly if you are outside for any length of time, especially if you are somebody who squats down to pee, if there is any residual moisture after you pee, it can turn into things over time like chafing or discomfort or infection or even worse. So using a pee cloth is for pee only. I always have to tell folks that it's for pee only. It's basically just a way to dry off after you pee on a special antimicrobial fabric. It prevents folks from having to bring a ton of toilet paper on a hike. Then most importantly, it prevents folks from leaving toilet paper behind in these really fragile places that can get pretty overrun with toilet paper.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (03:41.593):
So is it reusable in that trip or is it a one and done and then you get another one and then you wash them afterwards? How does that work?

Anastasia Allison (03:51.412):
It is reusable all day long. So you would use it again and again throughout the day. It's not as gross as it sounds. You use it again and again throughout the day. And then when you get home at night or if you're on a backpacking trip, you would just wash it out in the evening and hang it up to dry.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (04:10.157):
Hmm, that sounds really handy and very respectful of nature.

Anastasia Allison (04:15.554):
Yeah, and it's also really great for folks who have sensitive septic systems or, you know, going to a concert and there's no porta-potty or there's a porta-potty but no toilet paper. So we have a lot of folks, you know, during COVID here in the United States, we had this big toilet paper shortage where people were really scrambling and we had thousands of people using their Kula Cloth at home to help them conserve toilet paper. And when they realized how much it was saving them, they've just continued to use it ever since.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (04:53.401):
Thank you. And so you created this, you designed this from your experience of forgetting toilet tissue.

Anastasia Allison (04:56.15):
I did.

Anastasia Allison (05:02.24):
Yes, I originally just started out with a regular old scrap of fabric that I was using. And one night I was out on a backpacking trip of my own in the Wind River Range in Wyoming. And it was this spectacular sunset. And as a joke, I was taking a photograph of my own kind of ugly pee cloth, sort of positioned on my hiking pole. And this was going to be a joke that I was going to send to a friend. And as I was taking this photograph, it was like this idea for turning this into a real product just popped into my mind. And I remember thinking, wait, why isn't that a real piece of gear? You know, I have all this kind of expensive hiking gear that helps me get outside more safely and comfortably. But the one piece of gear that's actually coming into contact with a sensitive part of my body, it just looks like I pulled it out of a rag bin at a mechanic shop or something. And that was kind of the spark. I didn't go for it right away because honestly I was too scared and didn't know what to do. It took me about a year to kind of come back to that idea and I'm pretty glad I did.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (06:24.853):
Hmm. Well, it sounds wonderful. So thank you. Thank you for sharing your journey on how you created what has become by the sound of it an essential piece of outdoor hiking gear.

Anastasia Allison (06:40.268):
Yeah, it really has. It's pretty cool.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (06:43.479):
You've also described yourself as a musician. Tell me about your music.

Anastasia Allison (06:48.15):
I started playing violin when I was four years old, inspired by my grandmother, who's also a violinist. And I played all through my childhood into college. And when I was 12 years old, I started volunteering for the National Park Service and I would perform music outside. And it was usually really simple music, but I noticed that a lot of these sort of simple tunes really connected with people in a deep way and that there was also something about being outside and listening to music that seemed to have more of an impact on folks. But I also had a very traditional upbringing where I sort of thought, well, there's only certain things you can do as a musician. There's be a music teacher or be a virtuoso who plays in concert halls or be in an orchestra. And I didn't see myself doing any one of those things. And so I sort of thought, well, you know, I guess I'm not cut out to be a musician. I'm not good enough for it. And I moved to Washington state in 2004 to become a park ranger. And as a park ranger, I would patrol the campground with my violin to soothe my rowdy campers. And it's just always been a part of everything that I did. And in 2017, I had another little flash of inspiration one night. I guess I was in the midst of a bit of a personal journey and looking for something, I guess I'll say looking for something else. And I didn't know what that was. And one night I just had this idea that I should go play my violin on the summit of a mountain. So I posted an ad for myself on Craigslist saying that I was an elopement violinist who performed on mountains and nobody, nobody ever contacted me because I don't know, you know, who's going to hire a strange violinist to go on a hike with them from Craigslist? And through, you know, the universe works in funny ways. And a few months later, I ended up meeting a woman named Rose, who's a pianist and Rose unbeknownst to me, had a dream of bringing a piano out into the mountains. And so together we hatched this idea to climb a mountain at sunrise to perform an unannounced concert for nobody. And that was the birth of what is now called the Musical Mountaineers. And Rose and I have performed unannounced concerts for nobody in well over 40 to 50 locations in the wilderness here in Washington and in a few other states. And because of doing that, we've also been invited to perform on stage at major concert halls that I never would have imagined I would have the opportunity to play on. But all the concerts we've done have raised money for national parks or trails. And it feels really good to have my music give back.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (10:15.107):
So when you have your concerts, for nobody, your unannounced concerts for nobody, do people show up? Like, can they hear the music from a distance and then follow the sound? Does that ever happen?

Anastasia Allison (10:29.75):
Rarely. I could probably count on maybe one or two hands the number of people who have found us. And that's by design. We don't want to cause a scene because a lot of people go into the wilderness for a sense of quiet. And so we're really intentional about picking locations where we know that there's not going to be many people, if any at all. And we also usually end up hiking in the middle of the night so that we can arrive at a location at sunrise. And so usually we are hiking down before people are even making it up to the trailhead. We have had a couple folks spot us before, but the original goal of the Musical Mountaineers was never for it to become a show or a spectacle. It was more of just this offering just because. And we've stayed pretty true to that. And now when we've performed in some of the larger concert halls, what we have done, we have a friend who's a cinematographer and he has filmed some of our beautiful concerts in the backcountry. And so we will perform on stage while this really beautiful video of us is up on the giant screen behind us. And that gives people the experience of being out there.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (11:58.105):
Do you have any concerts coming up that people might want to know about in public spaces?

Anastasia Allison (12:01.55):
We do actually. We have one on June 14th and that is in Mill Creek, Washington at the Northwest Stream Center and it is a benefit concert. So all of the money just goes right back into the stream center to help their programs with stream restoration.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (12:29.409):
And your last descriptor, dancer. Tell me about that.

Anastasia Allison (12:33.682):
That's kind of a fun one. On January 1st of 2021, I started dancing and I've never stopped. Actually today, I believe is my 1,611th day of consecutive dancing. It kind of started as an experiment, you know, to see what happened. If I dance a little bit every single day, what would happen? And it really changed my life in so many ways. In fact, we now have through Kula Cloth, my company, we now have a daily dance program on Zoom where people show up every single solitary morning at 6:30 AM to dance just to... just to dance and to see what happens if you dance a little bit every day. And so for me, it's very meditative. It's not about like, I need to get these moves right. It's just about having fun. And I guess if I could distill it down to one sentence, it's that every day deserves dancing. And I mean, I've danced on days that are difficult, danced on days that are great, and it always makes me feel better. I feel like the world would be a better place if more people danced more often.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (13:58.539):
And how many people tend to show up for the Zoom daily dancing?

Anastasia Allison (14:03.214):
There are anywhere from 25 to 50 people who show up every single morning and dance. And then we also send out a recording. So there are folks who actually live in different parts of the world where the time zone just doesn't line up for them. And so there are people who will dance on their own to the recording of us dancing.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (14:30.733):
Hmm, wow. That is, it sounds fun. It sounds, and how long does it last? 10 minutes, half an hour?

Anastasia Allison (14:37.41):
Well, it's about a half an hour. Yeah. So we actually start with a meditation, about a 10-minute long meditation. And then we do about 20 to 25 minutes of dancing and all of the playlists have different themes, different genres of music. I mean, we've danced to everything from polka to a mariachi band to punk to heavy metal, pop, Japanese pop. I mean, we dance to pretty much everything.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (15:08.843):
And say the date again that you started.

Anastasia Allison (15:11.502):
I personally started on January 1st of 2021. That's wild. Every single day I have danced. At least to some, at least to one song is sort of like my...

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (15:19.065):
Mmm, and every day since then.

Anastasia Allison (15:31.352):
Like I always find a way to at least dance to one song. I've danced in some interesting places, in airports, on the side of the road, at gas stations, rest areas...

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (15:44.131):
Hmm, very cool, very cool. And so Anastasia, please share three interesting things about yourself that our listeners may not know and your friends will be surprised to learn.

Anastasia Allison (15:57.644):
Well, I know how to ride a unicycle. I learned how to ride the unicycle when I was, I believe about 12 years old. And my best friend growing up and I, we both had unicycles and not only did we have normal sized unicycles, but we actually had five-foot tall unicycles as well. I used to ride around the neighborhood and when people would sort of stare and gawk at us, I remember thinking to myself, they're probably staring because they think we're so cool. Now as an adult, I'm like, I don't know if that's exactly what they were thinking. They might've been thinking those kids are a little off, but. So I do, I know how to ride the unicycle. Another interesting fact is that I was an extra in a movie when I was eight years old. I had the opportunity to be an extra in a movie called Betsy's Wedding, which is a movie from the 80s with Molly Ringwald in it. And what was really funny is that the movie, I believe it was rated PG-13 and my parents were pretty strict growing up. So I was not allowed to... I was not allowed to watch the movie, even though I was in it. I got paid $28 to be in it. It was like the richest I've ever felt in my entire life. I mean, which is really interesting to me to think about that. But I just remember going to this movie and there was just this huge spread of food. I mean, they treated us little kids like celebrities. It was the coolest experience. And there was this huge spread of food. And I just remember it was full of like full-size candy bars. And as a little kid, I was, you know, whoa, just, I could have any of them. I think I got sick on cake. And the funny thing is that I didn't watch that movie until literally last year. I didn't watch the movie until last year. And I am sad to say that I couldn't even find my scene. So I think they cut it. After all that, I think they cut my scene. And then the third thing is that in college, I was actually a Latin major, which decidedly has nothing to do with being a park ranger or selling pee cloths. But I took Latin, upper level Latin classes and could translate books like the Aeneid and lots of Roman love poetry. So I'm a great person to take with you to Rome if you ever want to go because I could probably translate a lot of the verbiage on the statues there.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (19:13.547):
I have to say I loved Latin in high school. I loved it. And I don't know what drew me to it, but I loved it. All I can tell you is a little about Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius.