2019.01.15 Mirror
When a relationship ends, it can be really hard.
Whether you think it was for the best or not, you feel sad and find yourself with lots of time spare because of the void they've left.
One woman decided to use that time to start doing something new after a string of unsuccessful relationships - and took up naked hiking.
Megan Marie started posing nude pics of herself in stunning locations to make her former lovers "jealous", but soon found herself falling in love with the unusual outdoor hobby.
Starting in 2016, the 35-year-old veterinary clinic manager from Kansas City, Missouri, now takes regular trips out into the wilderness, trekking through national parks completely nude with her trusty canine sidekick Wembley.
She's now generated more than 20,000 followers, and she uses her platform to discuss topics as varied as hiking safety and mental health.
Explaining her decision to start stripping off, Megan, from Kansas City in Missouri, US, said: "I was going through a bit of a rough patch and had had a few disappointing relationships that didn't really go anywhere.
"I suppose I was searching for something – freedom or independence – and I wanted to do something that would be cool enough to make my exes jealous."
She first began hiking (with clothes on) following the breakdown of a relationship in 2015.
This, coupled with a New Year's resolution for 2015 she had made with her sister Erin, 34, to go camping together more, pushed her to embark on a two-week 2,500-mile road-trip from Colorado to San Francisco.
Setting off in late May, the pair slept in a tent every night, and ate only dehydrated food packs.
"I was really nervous before going, thinking about all the things that might go wrong," Megan explained.
"But we had such a blast, and afterwards I felt a rush of pride and excitement at having completed something that before had been so nerve-racking."
From there, several more trips with Erin to various national parks around the country followed, and Megan recorded their adventures by posting shots of the scenic landscapes to her
Instagram page.
Then, after a friend jokingly suggested that she should take a photo of herself in the buff, Megan rose to the challenge, posting her first nude picture from her two-week trip to California in July 2016, taken by her sister Erin of her facing out onto a beach at Big Sur, California.
"I was pretty nervous about doing that," she recalled. "It isn't something I've ever done before and I really worried about what people would think."
To her delight the picture was liked hundreds of times.
Encouraged by the positive response and requests for more from her followers, she soon uploaded other cheeky snaps and it became a regular, weekly thing during the summer months.
As her follower count began to increase, she decided to use the attention she was getting for good, and began posting about important issues, including mental health.
"The trips have helped me tremendously with my own mental health, having suffered myself from depression," she said.
"I tried for ages to build up some sort of a following on Instagram with wildlife and landscape pictures, then as soon as I start posting pictures of my butt it just takes off.
"Of course, I know that it's an account full of bottom photos, but I feel that now I have such a following I should use that in a positive way to talk to people about important things."
Now two and a half years on and more than 50 bare-bottomed photos later, Megan has become an assiduous documenter of her rambles in the wilds, which she makes with her dog Wembley, a schnauzer.
To capture each picture, she will find her way to a quiet area with no one around, take her clothes off and pose as the camera – held either by Erin or on a tripod mount – captures her.
"I really enjoy the excitement of being out in the open air without any clothes on and the adrenaline of seeing what I can get away with," continued Megan, who says she tries to avoid being seen by other hikers by stripping off for no more than 15 minutes at a time.
"But it's not at all in a sexual or erotic way, as I know some people must assume."
She added: "I know a lot of people struggle to separate nudity and sex, but for me it has never really been about that."
Not everyone is as comfortable with Megan's disrobing, however.
Describing her parents' reaction, she said: "When I told them they seemed quite disappointed in me and since then we haven’t talked about it."
Still, undeterred, Megan has vowed to continue posting for the foreseeable future, both for her own enjoyment and as a way of maintaining contact with the thousands of people who follow her naked jaunts.
"I'd be lying if I said that there wasn't a part of me that enjoyed the attention of it all," she said.
"But it makes me feel equally good to think that I have a platform from which I can communicate with people. It just so happens to be the case that that is through pictures of my naked butt."
As for Megan's love life, she is currently in the early stages of a new relationship with a man she met on a dating app.
"Within a month of our first date, I managed to convince him to come with me on a hiking trip in Utah, where he took a picture of me doing a nude handstand," she said.
"He's really accepting of my hikes and loves the fact that I put my a** out there – both literally and figuratively."
