Amber Heuisler, or Wheezy, came to my attention recently on Facebook. Her proud boast of walking 200 miles on the AT may not seem to be so much of a cause for celebration but, as she explains, in my view it is an achievement on a par with my thru-hike last year. She is an…
This is a long show!! First off, we have Lily Gelfars, a listener who wanted to express her opinion regarding hiking in 2020. She brings some personal experience to her views, having decided to abandon her own 2020 hike on the Camino de Santiago. With a background that includes a SOBO hike of the Appalachian…
Brian Bell has shaped his life to enable him to spend as much time as he can in the outdoors. He looked for a local trail club to see if he could help, then volunteered more and more until he took responsibility as a trail overseer in Shenandoah National Park. Continuing to give back to…
I met Molly Rhoads in 2019 when she was hiking with my buddy, Nate Stockton. The two of them were a well-suited odd couple. Nate has retired from the military and is in his 40s, while Molly looks like a 20-year-old. They acted like siblings and enhanced my hike whenever I ran into them, which…
We’ve got a really well-traveled guest on the show today. Chris Pirrello has led a somewhat nomadic lifestyle, with a fourteen-month trip around the world at the start of the 21st Century, followed by years of hiking most of the long trails of America, including the Triple Crown. He even took a job in Antarctica…
We’ve got quite the show today, coming in at over 90 minutes. There’s something for everybody, with Keith Foskett, one of the best writers on hiking, sharing his stories and hikes with wit and introspection. We’ll be having his Balancing on Blue as our next book on the podcast, so it was great hearing about…
This week, we have JC Van Etten, or Catmando. Not only did JC recently win our six-book giveaway, but he was also part of the very tight “tramily” that Togs and Lucky referred to a few weeks ago. I wanted to hear JC’s side of the story and, as I’d anticipated, he brought his own…
I think that this is the longest show we’ve ever had!! Our main guests are Eric and Jessica Matos, or Toast and Jammz. They were introduced to me by Jester, from the Jester Section Hiker podcast and they have a strong hiking resume. We talk about both their hiking and their passion for leave no…
It’s an all-woman show today, with Marissa Neel, the Executioner, as our main guest. She has a very funny, brutally honest YouTube channel, and is exactly the same person in our conversation. Marissa shares plenty of witty insights and a stoic determination to get to the end. The story of her last night camping on…
Carolyn Walker and Gordon Yhap are now thru-hikers. When you hear their story, you may well wonder “How did they do it?” This conversation should shake up any pre-conceived ideas you may have about what it takes to hike the trail successfully. Gordon and Carolyn are an inspiration. Carolyn kept an online journal while on…