Linda Bittle

Linda Bittle grew up (mostly) in rural Missouri where she developed a love of nature, books, and history. Being a responsible adult, she's held jobs as diverse as nurse's aide, hospital storeroom clerk, hospital nutrition services clerk, craft store salesperson, bookkeeper and business manager for several small businesses and a nationally known non-profit outdoor education school, daycare cook, and elementary school custodian.

Finding herself divorced in midlife, she decided to pursue her passions. She's a 2007 graduate of the Anake Program at Wilderness Awareness School in Duvall, Washington, and a 2009 graduate of their Wildlife Tracking Intensive. Her class project on domestic dog tracks led to an opportunity to speak at the 2011 International Society of Professional Trackers conference. In 2013, she earned a Level III certification in Track & Sign from CyberTracker Conservation. She is beginning to share that journey on her blog, This Is Not Where I Thought I Was Going. You can read it at https://lindabittle.com/

Linda is a Pro Staff member at ReelCamo Girl (https://reelcamogirl.com/), a Street Team member at The Grow Network (https://thegrownetwork.com/), and an Associate Member of Western Writers of America (https://westernwriters.org/).

She is a past board member and officer of the Duvall, WA Friends of the Library, and a former board member of the Council Valley Heritage Festival. She volunteers with women’s outdoor events and with youth programs at churches and other programs.

After living in western Washington and rural Idaho for 15 years, Linda has returned to her home state of Missouri to be near family. She shares her home in the Ozarks with 2 formerly stray cats – one of which moved with her from Idaho.

For fun she tracks animals, hikes on local trails, gardens, creates crafty things, practices kitchen table herbalism, writes, and reads at least 2 books a week. She teaches short classes on gratitude journaling, pine needle basket making, embroidery and sewing, making fruit cordials, making friends with the Instant Pot, and - of course - wildlife tracking.