Explore every episode of the podcast Hiker Trash Radio
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Hiker's History of the Appalachian Trail with Mills Kelly, Author and A.T. Historian (Virginia Outdoors Adventures Podcast) | 07 Sep 2026 | 00:35:47 | |
The Appalachian Trail is more than a footpath - it’s a living piece of American history. Stretching over 2,000 miles from Georgia to Maine, the A.T. winds through some of Virginia’s most beautiful and rugged landscapes. But have you ever wondered how this legendary trail came to be, and who the dreamers, builders, and hikers were that shaped it? We’re hiking through history with someone who knows the Appalachian Trail like few others do. My friend, Mills Kelly, is a historian, archivist, podcast host, lifelong hiker, and author of the new book, A Hiker’s History of the Appalachian Trail. His book captures the A.T.’s history, not just as a collection of facts and dates, but as a human story about purpose, adventure, and our search for meaning in the mountains. Mills shares fascinating stories from the trail’s early days and how it has changed over the past century. And when you think about how far we’ve come - from hikers in wool suits carrying canvas packs filled with fresh produce, to today’s ultralight gear and freeze-dried meals - it’s amazing to see how the trail has evolved right alongside us. Mills reminds us that the A.T. wasn’t built for heroic end-to-end treks, but for ordinary people to breathe easier and feel a little wilder for a few hours or a few days. That simple idea still shapes lives, towns, and trail culture across Virginia and beyond. The story of the Appalachian Trail is as much about the people and their experiences as it is about the path beneath their feet. So join us as we hike back through time on the world’s most iconic long-distance trail. Let’s Go! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| Trail Stories - Is This the Summer We Quit? | 05 Sep 2026 | 00:21:25 | |
About the Guests
Fab (from Berlin, Germany) and Fitch (from the UK) met in Australia a year ago on a group hike at Pages Pinnacle, Gold Coast — a Facebook meetup they both almost didn't attend. They are currently thru-hiking the HexaTrek, France's Grand Traverse: roughly 3,000 kilometers across the entire country, from the Rhine to the Atlantic. They are doing it with Billie — Fab's eight-year-old Australian kelpie cross cattle dog — on their first thru-hike as a couple. They are in Stage 4, about 1,500 kilometers in, and in the process of buying a 200-year-old farmhouse in Brittany. They post on Instagram as @FabandFitch.
Episode Highlights
How They Met — Pages Pinnacle
Day 62 — The Factory Pontoon The Hexadog — Designing a Thru-Hike Around a Dog Billie — Joy and Cost Fab's Origin Story — Walking After Loss The Couple on the HexaTrek What's Next — A 200-Year-Old Farmhouse in Brittany Links & Resources
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| The Route Makers - Episode 3: The Concrete Wilderness | 04 Sep 2026 | 00:21:20 | |
The first two episodes of this series took us into deserts you cross with a map and a compass, and Alaska tundra a week from the nearest road. This episode is about a different kind of empty space on the map — the one most of us walk past every day without seeing the line at all. Because the impulse to look at a place and imagine a route through it doesn't need a trailhead. It doesn't even need a wilderness. Sometimes all it needs is a city. Liz "Snorkel" Thomas — a Triple Crowner and, per Outside magazine, a living legend —took the entire framework of a thru-hike downtown, inventing "urban thru-hikes" like a250-mile route across Seattle and a 100-mile "brew-through" connecting Denver's breweries. Alexandra "Sunshine" Kenin, founder of Urban Hiker SF and author of three Urban Trails guidebooks, has hiked more than a thousand public staircases in a single city— and inherited the project from Adah Bakalinsky, the woman who mapped San Francisco's stairs by hand before Google Maps existed. Along the way: why walking on pavement can be harder on your body than a mountain trail, why a route through a city might deliver more genuine adventure than a wilderness, why San Francisco is full of staircases in the first place, and how the urban route-maker's deepest cause turns out to be the same one a desert route-maker arrived at from the opposite end of the country — that a person on foot deserves to be safe. This is the series' warmest chapter: proof that the wilderness maker and the city maker are doing the same thing, and that the best routes are the ones the most people can reach. Featured routes: Featured makers: Next time on The Route Makers — Episode 4: "The Eraser and the Gift," on what happensto a route after the map is drawn: the years of correcting, erasing, and handing it off towhoever comes next. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| Denali, Poopsicles, and the Diving Board - Chris "Rad" Carter (Part II) | 02 Sep 2026 | 00:38:30 | |
About the Guest
Chris "Rad" Carter is a Triple Crown thru-hiker (PCT, CDT + AT in a single calendar year), mountaineer, adventure filmmaker, and senior editor at Switchback Travel, where he runs the climbing, mountaineering, travel, and backpacking categories. Born in the United States and raised in Nairobi, Kenya by NGO parents, he came to America for college in 2014 and fell deeply in love with the country through his thru-hikes. In June 2025 he summited Denali — the highest peak in North America — as cameraman for Brandon's "Seek Your Summit" 50-highpoints record attempt. He is based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, recently married, and currently training for The Shield on El Capitan. His PCT documentary is called To Measure a Mile.
What's Covered in Part 2
The Seek Your Summit Project — Brandon's Record Attempt
Post-Trail Depression and the Why What He Got Wrong The Kenya Trail Project Best Switchback Trip — The Haute Route in Switzerland The Kyrgyzstan/Tajikistan Disaster — A Gear Review in Absentia The Roped Expedition Mindset vs. Solo Thru-Hiking Hiking Hack — Hypoxico Altitude Generator What's Next Off the Beaten Path — Two Reads Pay It Forward — PCTA Links & Resources
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| Denali, Poopsicles, and the Diving Board - Chris "Rad" Carter (Part I) | 02 Sep 2026 | 00:36:58 | |
About the Guest
Chris "Rad" Carter is a Triple Crown thru-hiker (PCT, CDT + AT in a single calendar year), mountaineer, adventure filmmaker, and senior editor at Switchback Travel, where he runs the climbing, mountaineering, travel, and backpacking categories. Born in the United States and raised in Nairobi, Kenya by NGO parents, he came to America for college in 2014 and fell deeply in love with the country through his thru-hikes. In June 2025 he summited Denali — the highest peak in North America — as cameraman for Brandon's "Seek Your Summit" 50-highpoints record attempt. He is based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, recently married, and currently training for The Shield on El Capitan. His PCT documentary is called To Measure a Mile.
What's Covered in Part 1
Trail Name — The Ass Tat
Trailblazer's Toolkit — Household Bleach The Hiking Poll — Score: 22 The Origin — Kenya, NGOs, and America Denali vs. the Trail — What's Different The Denali Poop System The Diving Board The Talkeetna Cemetery Links & Resources
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| Trail Stories - Top of the World with Chris "Rad" Carter | 29 Aug 2026 | 00:18:57 | |
About the Guest
Chris "Rad" Carter is a Triple Crown thru-hiker (PCT, CDT + AT in a single calendar year), mountaineer, adventure filmmaker, and senior editor at Switchback Travel, where he runs the climbing, mountaineering, travel, and backpacking categories. Born in the United States and raised in Nairobi, Kenya by NGO parents, he came to America for college in 2014 and fell deeply in love with the country through his thru-hikes. In June 2025 he summited Denali — the highest peak in North America — as cameraman for Brandon's "Seek Your Summit" 50-highpoints record attempt. He is based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, recently married, and currently training for The Shield on El Capitan. His PCT documentary is called To Measure a Mile.
Episode Highlights
The Bleach Gang
From Kenya to the Triple Crown Denali — The Mountain in Context The Poop System The Diving Board The Autobahn Post-Trail Depression and What the Trails Are For Links & Resources
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| The Route Makers - Episode 2: The Proving Ground | 28 Aug 2026 | 00:24:09 | |
The Route Makers, Episode 2: "The Proving Ground" — Rue McKenrick, Kevin Koski, Wesley Tils, and Andrew Skurka on what it costs to prove a route no one has walked. Last episode, we watched five people look at a map and see a line that wasn't there. This episode is about what happens when the paper runs out — when a route stops being a plan and becomes a body on unmapped ground. Because a route isn't real when you draw it. It's real when someone walks the whole thing, corner to corner, and comes back to say it goes. The people who invent long-distance routes call that process "proving," and it's where they find out what their line actually costs. Wesley "Megaman" Tils invented a Mexico-to-Canada route as a thirtieth-birthday present to himself and met a −40 blizzard on day one. Andrew Skurka — who circumnavigated Alaska largely off-trail — describes the psychology of true wilderness, where "there's always a cloud." Kevin "The Animal" Koski's proving hike of his own Four Corners Loop went almost exactly to plan, until it didn't. And Rue McKenrick, who scouted the American Perimeter Trail alone over three years, is unflinchingly honest about the physical price of that undertaking — and about why he'd do it all again for the people who come behind him. This is the hardest, most honest episode of the series so far: the improvising when the map fails, the decisions no spreadsheet prepares you for, and the truth that the line on the map is never free. What these makers pay for it — and why they consider it worth paying — is the whole story. Featured routes: American Perimeter Trail · Four Corners Loop · the "Fourth Crown Route" (Mexico–Canada) · Great Western Loop · Alaska-Yukon Expedition Featured makers: Rue McKenrick · Kevin "The Animal" Koski · Wesley "Megaman" Tils · Andrew Skurka · Renee "She-Ra" Patrick This episode includes candid discussion of serious injury, physical hardship, and loss. Next time on The Route Makers — Episode 3: "The Concrete Wilderness," where the route-making impulse leaves the backcountry and heads downtown. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| Your Time is Limited - Jada "Flo" Lippincott (Part II) | 26 Aug 2026 | 00:43:57 | |
About the Guest
Jada "Flo" Lippincott is a 27-year-old thru-hiker, splitboarder, canyoneer, packrafter, and full-time truck dweller based in Big Sky, Montana. Originally from Fairfield, Iowa, she discovered the outdoors through a college exchange semester in Fairbanks, Alaska and found long-distance hiking after a catastrophic snowboarding accident that shattered her leg. Three days out of her walking boot, she boarded a plane to Arizona and started the Arizona Trail. She has since logged over 9,000 miles across the CDT, Arizona Trail, Grand Enchantment Trail, Great Divide Trail (Canada), Hayduke Trail, Colorado Trail, and Sierra High Route (partial), all while living out of a 2009 Toyota Tundra with her 50-pound shelter dog, Indy (trail name: Roadblock). She has a tattoo on her leg that reads: Your time is limited.
What's Covered in Part 2
Origin Story — Iowa, Motor Homes, and Negative 40
Finding Her People on the Arizona Trail CDT — The Breakup, Deep End, and Deep End Becoming a Triple Crowner The 'Yes Person' Philosophy Balancing Every Sport Roadblock's Grizzly Encounter The Great Divide Trail and the 1,000-Mile Hitchhike The Your Time Is Limited Tattoo The 2026 Season — and What Happened on the Sierra High Route Five Hiking Hacks Off the Beaten Path — Five Recommendations Pay It Forward — Three Causes The Crew Shoutout Links & Resources
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| Your Time is Limited - Jada "Flo" Lippincott (Part I) | 26 Aug 2026 | 00:39:43 | |
About the Guest
Jada "Flo" Lippincott is a 27-year-old thru-hiker, splitboarder, canyoneer, packrafter, and full-time truck dweller based in Big Sky, Montana. Originally from Fairfield, Iowa, she discovered the outdoors through a college exchange semester in Fairbanks, Alaska and found long-distance hiking after a catastrophic snowboarding accident that shattered her leg. Three days out of her walking boot, she boarded a plane to Arizona and started the Arizona Trail. She has since logged over 9,000 miles across the CDT, Arizona Trail, Grand Enchantment Trail, Great Divide Trail (Canada), Hayduke Trail, Colorado Trail, and Sierra High Route (partial), all while living out of a 2009 Toyota Tundra with her 50-pound shelter dog, Indy (trail name: Roadblock). She has a tattoo on her leg that reads: Your time is limited.
What's Covered in Part 1
Trail Name — There Goes Flo
Trailblazer's Toolkit — Trekking Poles + Foam Pad Roadblock — The Gear Dog The Hiking Poll — Score: 14 The Near-Death Moment — Colorado Hut Trip Running Out of Time at 27 The Hayduke Trail. Truck Life Links & Resources
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| Trail Stories - Your Time is Limited with Jada "Flo" Lippincott | 22 Aug 2026 | 00:22:17 | |
About the Guest
Jada "Flo" Lippincott is a 27-year-old thru-hiker, splitboarder, canyoneer, packrafter, and full-time truck dweller based in Big Sky, Montana. Originally from Fairfield, Iowa, she discovered the outdoors through a college exchange semester in Fairbanks, Alaska and found long-distance hiking after a catastrophic snowboarding accident that shattered her leg. Three days out of her walking boot, she boarded a plane to Arizona and started the Arizona Trail. She has since logged over 9,000 miles across the CDT, Arizona Trail, Grand Enchantment Trail, Great Divide Trail (Canada), Hayduke Trail, Colorado Trail, and Sierra High Route (partial), all while living out of a 2009 Toyota Tundra with her 50-pound shelter dog, Indy (trail name: Roadblock). She has a tattoo on her leg that reads: Your time is limited.
Episode Highlights
The Trail Name — There Goes Flo
The Origin — Iowa to Alaska to Trail The Broken Leg Origin Story The Frostbite Hut Trip Roadblock's Grizzly Encounter Your Time Is Limited Trail Wisdom — You Either Keep Moving or You Die Links & Resources
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| The Route Makers - Episode 1: The Map Moment | 21 Aug 2026 | 00:28:06 | |
The Route Makers, Episode 1: "The Map Moment" — Andrew Skurka, Rue McKenrick, Kevin Koski, and Donovan Rice on the birth of a long-distance route. Every trail feels permanent. The Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest, the Continental Divide — they seem as fixed as the mountains they cross. But every one of them began as a line in a single person's imagination. Somebody drew it. Somebody walked it first. And somebody gave up years of their life to make it real for everyone who came after. In the premiere of our new five-part documentary series, we meet the people still doing that today — and we start where every route starts: the map moment. The instant a maker looks at empty space and sees a line that isn't there. For Kevin "The Animal" Koski, a Navy nuclear engineer, it happened in his cubicle, staring at a green circle of high country in the western United States. For Rue McKenrick, it struck at the bottom of a ski hill in a snowstorm — a vision of a trail wrapping the entire perimeter of the country. For Andrew Skurka — Nat Geo Adventurer of the Year and a founding figure of modern route-making — it began at an Alaska roadside, and with a single question that closed a seven-thousand-mile loop: "why don't you just close the bottom?" Along the way we hear from Liz "Snorkel" Thomas on why trails are made over decades, not overnight; from Renee "She-Ra" Patrick, longtime Oregon Desert Trail coordinator, on the difference between a trail and a route — and why land managers struggle to manage "something that doesn't exist"; and from Donovan "Iceman" Rice, days before setting out to prove his own Great Colorado Route, on nerves, love letters, and why almost everything left to create is really just "stitching together things that other people have done." This episode is about the vision. What these makers see, why they see it, and the moment they decide it's their job to fill the empty space. What it costs them comes next. As this episode releases, Donovan Rice is more than fifty days into the Great Colorado Route and, by all reports, having the time of his life. We'll catch up with him before the series ends. Featured routes: Great Western Loop · American Perimeter Trail · Four Corners Loop · Great Colorado Route · Oregon Desert Trail · Sierra High Route Featured makers: Andrew Skurka · Rue McKenrick · Kevin "The Animal" Koski · Donovan "Iceman" Rice · Liz "Snorkel" Thomas · Renee "She-Ra" Patrick Next time on The Route Makers — Episode 2: "The Proving Ground." A route isn't real until someone walks the whole thing and comes back. What the line costs, in bodies, in years, and in the people waiting at home. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| The Full Range - Carolyn Highland (Part II) | 19 Aug 2026 | 00:34:38 | |
About the Guest
Carolyn Highland is a writer, outdoor educator, and endurance athlete based in Anchorage, Alaska. Her second essay collection, The Full Range: Essays from a Life Outside, is published by Rocky Mountain Books. Her first collection, Out Here, was published during COVID. She writes primarily about skiing and the outdoors for magazines including Backcountry Magazine, and has been keeping a journal since age seven. She taught fourth and seventh grade at an outdoor school in Truckee, California before moving to Anchorage, where she and her husband recently honeymooned by fastpacking the Alta Via 1 in the Dolomites.
What's Covered in Part 2
Running 50Ks and 40-Mile Loops Instead of Races
The Opening Essay — 48 Hours Ultras and Heartbreak — The Through-Line The Rae Lakes Run — Standing Up Alone Sam Wasn't My Person, But He Was My People Backcountry Skiing — The Winter Version The Full Range — What It Is and What She Wants Readers to Take Away The Mental Game Hiking Hack — Two Pieces Off the Beaten Path — Two Recommendations Honeymoon Note Pay It Forward — Protect Our Winters Links & Resources
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| The Full Range - Carolyn Highland (Part I) | 19 Aug 2026 | 00:34:24 | |
About the Guest
Carolyn Highland is a writer, outdoor educator, and endurance athlete based in Anchorage, Alaska. Her second essay collection, The Full Range: Essays from a Life Outside, is published by Rocky Mountain Books. Her first collection, Out Here, was published during COVID. She writes primarily about skiing and the outdoors for magazines including Backcountry Magazine, and has been keeping a journal since age seven. She taught fourth and seventh grade at an outdoor school in Truckee, California before moving to Anchorage, where she and her husband recently honeymooned by fastpacking the Alta Via 1 in the Dolomites.
What's Covered in Part 1
Trail Name — Carl
Trailblazer's Toolkit — Katadyn BeFree Filtered Soft Flask The Hiking Poll — Score: 68 The TRT Solo — Summer 2020 The NOLS Lesson — You Don't Always Have the Answer The Seventh-Grade Student-Led Trip The Move to Alaska Links & Resources
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| Dark Miles - The Longest Swim with Chris Carroll | 17 Aug 2026 | 00:18:46 | |
On January 8th, 2026, Chris Carroll was on a hotel balcony in St. Croix when the beach got loud. He heard someone yell for a lifeguard. He knew there were no lifeguards. He swam out. Chris is an emergency nurse, a former firefighter, and a waterman who has spent his entire life preparing to be useful when the moment came. It came on a Caribbean beach. He got to a drowning woman, assessed her injuries, and towed her back to shore through water that had turned bright crimson red. The whole thing took nine minutes. She didn’t survive. And what came after [the survivor guilt, the viral TikTok, the phone call from Arlene’s family, the monthly workout he calls Arlene] is what this episode is really about.
In this episode:
Connect with Hiker Trash Radio: Website: hikertrashradio.com Instagram: instagram.com/hikertrashradio Apply to be a Dark Miles guest: hikertrashradio.com/dark-miles Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| Trail Stories - The Full Range with Carolyn Highland | 15 Aug 2026 | 00:22:53 | |
About the Guest
Carolyn Highland is a writer, outdoor educator, and endurance athlete based in Anchorage, Alaska. Her second essay collection, The Full Range: Essays from a Life Outside, is published by Rocky Mountain Books. Her first collection, Out Here, was published during COVID. She writes primarily about skiing and the outdoors for magazines including Backcountry Magazine, and has been keeping a journal since age seven. She taught fourth and seventh grade at an outdoor school in Truckee, California before moving to Anchorage, where she and her husband recently honeymooned by fastpacking the Alta Via 1 in the Dolomites.
Links & Resources
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| The Big Year - Bonus Episode: "This is Gonna Hurt" | 14 Aug 2026 | 00:25:21 | |
Brandon Weis is from Ottawa, Ohio — farm country, flat, not a hiking family. He grew up playing football and basketball. His first experience in the mountains was a 2018 university group trip to the High Sierra, where he earned a trail name by carrying sixty to seventy pounds of group gear because he was the biggest one there. They called him Horsepower. Three years later — one pandemic canceled PCT permit later, hundreds of hours of research later, one Jeff Garmire book later — he stepped onto the Appalachian Trail in Georgia on January 13th, 2021. His stated reason: Garmire's account of completing the CYTC in nine months at age 20 didn't sound easy, but it didn't sound impossible. His parents, when told, sat quietly for a half-minute and then said: okay, well, good luck. This bonus episode of The Big Year follows what happened over the next nine-plus months. Day 17 frostbite in a North Carolina shelter that left him unconscious and woke him with the sun shining on him — and no particular desire to quit. A May Sierra snowstorm in summer gear with icicles growing off his face and a microspike saving him from a pile of rocks at Glenn Pass. A campfire in a Wyoming blizzard with eight other people trying to dry their socks as if that was going to do anything. A 600-foot vertical drop in the Wind River Range, a rock he couldn't reach, an action-movie maneuver back to the top, a 400-foot slide down a mountain face, and the Rage Against the Machine playlist that got him through the rest of the day. He finished October 25th, 2021. The 13th completer in history. A year later, he watched the 2022 class — the largest in CYTC history — attempt the same thing he had. He's not that fast, he says. He just walks for a long time, and he's really stubborn, and he doesn't take breaks. Bonus episode — Hiker Trash Radio / BLEAV Network The Big Year: A Calendar Year Triple Crown Documentary Series Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| No Limit - Lindsay Phenix (Part II) | 12 Aug 2026 | 00:34:36 | |
About the Guest
Lindsay Phenix is an elite ultra-marathoner, two-time Badwater 135 finisher, run coach, and podcast co-host based in Los Angeles, California. She has completed approximately 145 marathons and ultramarathons combined — including a serious stack of 100-mile finishes — and is a featured athlete in the Amazon Prime documentary on the Badwater 135 ultra. She also appeared on The Wheel on Discovery Channel, a survival show filmed in South America. She coaches remotely through Ornery Mule Racing and co-hosts The Dirt Trail Running Podcast.
What's Covered in Part 2
Dad — The Family Race Director
Height and Ultrarunning 145 Marathons and Ultramarathons Running as Identity Running Toward or Away From Something Most Common Coaching Mistake — Doing Too Much Pain Science — The 100-Miler vs. the Marathon Badwater Preparation — The Three Factors Hallucinations — Dolly Parton at the Cruel Jewel The Finish She's Proudest Of The Limit Question Hiking Hack — Clip-On Amazon Running Lights Off the Beaten Path — Meru Pay It Forward — Challenged Athletes Foundation What's Next — Not 200 Miles Links & Resources
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| No Limit - Lindsay Phenix (Part I) | 12 Aug 2026 | 00:39:40 | |
About the Guest
Lindsay Phenix is an elite ultra-marathoner, two-time Badwater 135 finisher, run coach, and podcast co-host based in Los Angeles, California. She has completed approximately 145 marathons and ultramarathons combined — including a serious stack of 100-mile finishes — and is a featured athlete in the Amazon Prime documentary on the Badwater 135 ultra. She also appeared on The Wheel on Discovery Channel, a survival show filmed in South America. She coaches remotely through Ornery Mule Racing and co-hosts The Dirt Trail Running Podcast.
What's Covered in Part 1
Trailblazer's Toolkit — Burt's Bees Peppermint Lip Balm
The Hiking Poll — Score: 41 Training for 100-Milers Badwater 135 — Last Wave Logistics The Amazon Prime Documentary Origin Story — Houston, the Lake, the Refrigerator Links & Resources
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| CDT Trail Correspondent Jared "Fisherman" Lampal - Check-In #2 | 10 Aug 2026 | 00:22:33 | |
CDT Trail Correspondent Jared "Fisherman" Lampal checks in from Montana as he closes in on the northern terminus of the CDT. Settle in and buckle up as Fisherman gives us the updates on Colorado and Wyoming, and what he anticipates from the final state. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| Trail Stories - No Limit with Lindsay Phenix | 08 Aug 2026 | 00:19:19 | |
About the Guest
Lindsay Phenix is an elite ultra-marathoner, two-time Badwater 135 finisher, run coach, and podcast co-host based in Los Angeles, California. She has completed approximately 145 marathons and ultramarathons combined — including a serious stack of 100-mile finishes — and is a featured athlete in the Amazon Prime documentary on the Badwater 135 ultra. She also appeared on The Wheel on Discovery Channel, a survival show filmed in South America. She coaches remotely through Ornery Mule Racing and co-hosts The Dirt Trail Running Podcast.
Episode Highlights
The Origin Story — Ten Loops Around the Lake
Ultramarathon Man — The Seed Training for 100-Milers Badwater 135 — Puke and Rally The Keys 100 — The Worst One Racing for the Podium vs. Racing to Finish No Limit Links & Resources
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| The Big Year: Episode 4 - The Limit | 07 Aug 2026 | 00:21:26 | |
On New Year's Eve, Madison Blagden and Philip Witmer finish at the southernmost point in the continental United States. Two hikers are there to watch them, about to attempt the same thing themselves, starting the next morning. The final episode of The Big Year follows the border-to-border Calendar Year Triple Crown: not Georgia to Maine, but Key West to Canada. 10,000 miles. 24 states. One year. Madison becomes the first woman in history to complete it, with a trail name earned in 2022 by going too hard and refusing to stop, and a nor'easter decision late in her year that costs her three weeks she didn't have to lose. Philip hikes Colorado and Wyoming as the farthest-north hiker on the Continental Divide Trail. For a month, he doesn't see another soul. The series closes on the question that's been underneath all of it: why? The answers, gathered across four episodes and 13 guests, land smaller than the mile counts and bigger than the records. One hiker says it's about how deep you can go into yourself. Another says, simpler still, that he's just chasing those moments. Guests:
Topics covered:
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| Carry the Damn First Aid Kit - Dave, aka Slowfoot (Part II) | 05 Aug 2026 | 00:36:13 | |
About the Guest
Dave — trail name SlowFoot — is a three-time Appalachian Trail thru-hiker, seven-time Long Trail thru-hiker (including three winter traversals), and among the first to complete both the Eastern Continental Trail and the International Appalachian Trail. He has logged over 30,000 miles across 30 years of hiking in the Eastern United States. A former Forest Service trail crew supervisor, caretaker at Upper Goose Pond Cabin, and wilderness EMT, he holds a master's degree in forestry from the University of Vermont and has worked for AMC, ATC, Forest Service, and the Green Mountain Club. He is the co-founder of Mountain Blaze Arts, a family gear company he runs with his wife from their home just outside the Hundred Mile Wilderness in Maine.
Links & Resources
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| Carry the Damn First Aid Kit - Dave, aka Slowfoot (Part I) | 05 Aug 2026 | 00:47:07 | |
About the Guest
Dave — trail name SlowFoot — is a three-time Appalachian Trail thru-hiker, seven-time Long Trail thru-hiker (including three winter traversals), and among the first to complete both the Eastern Continental Trail and the International Appalachian Trail. He has logged over 30,000 miles across 30 years of hiking in the Eastern United States. A former Forest Service trail crew supervisor, caretaker at Upper Goose Pond Cabin, and wilderness EMT, he holds a master's degree in forestry from the University of Vermont and has worked for AMC, ATC, Forest Service, and the Green Mountain Club. He is the co-founder of Mountain Blaze Arts, a family gear company he runs with his wife from their home just outside the Hundred Mile Wilderness in Maine.
Links & Resources
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| Appalachian Trail Correspondent Dana Wolf - Check-in from the Trail #1 | 03 Aug 2026 | 00:23:20 | |
Triple Crowner and HTR AT Trail Correspondent Dana "Sniper" Wolf checks in with Doc from the trail on her yo-yo hike of the trail. Settle in and buckle up as Sniper shares how it's going, the biggest surprises, and what has changed since her 2007 thru hike of the AT. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| Trail Stories - The Old World with SlowFoot | 01 Aug 2026 | 00:32:47 | |
About the Guest
Dave — trail name SlowFoot — is a three-time Appalachian Trail thru-hiker, seven-time Long Trail thru-hiker (including three winter traversals), and among the first to complete both the Eastern Continental Trail and the International Appalachian Trail. He has logged over 30,000 miles across 30 years of hiking in the Eastern United States. A former Forest Service trail crew supervisor, caretaker at Upper Goose Pond Cabin, and wilderness EMT, he holds a master's degree in forestry from the University of Vermont and has worked for AMC, ATC, Forest Service, and the Green Mountain Club. He is the co-founder of Mountain Blaze Arts, a family gear company he runs with his wife from their home just outside the Hundred Mile Wilderness in Maine.
Episode Highlights
Named by Earl Shaffer
The CCC Grandfather The Old Pack Weight Baltimore Jack — The Founder of Modern Trail Culture The ECT and the IAT 2013 — The Last One What He Misses Trail Wisdom — Take It Slow Links & Resources
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| The Big Year: Episode 3 - The Record | 31 Jul 2026 | 00:23:49 | |
Jeff Garmire completed the Calendar Year Triple Crown in 2016. When asked if there was a Fastest Known Time for it, he said it wasn't really a competitive thing, people just want to finish. Then he was asked directly whether anyone had hiked it faster than him. He said he thought he was among the faster ones. That's how the FKT era begins. Episode 3 of The Big Year follows two men who came for the number afterward: Billy Meredith, who aimed at a 236-day ghost record instead of the official 252-day FKT, started in May instead of January, and hiked south toward home; and Nick Gagnon, who lost a 2024 attempt to a helicopter evacuation in a remote stretch of the Continental Divide Trail and came back in 2025 to finish what he started. Billy brought a Fujifilm camera that slowed him down by several days, and says it may have kept him from quitting. Nick went self-supported and pure, every decision under the clock, ending his year with a 50.3-mile final day in the rain. Billy finished in 234 days. Nick broke it with 231. Guests:
Topics covered:
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| Vibe Drinking with the Beans Lady - Maria "Beans" Romfoe (Part II) | 29 Jul 2026 | 00:36:02 | |
Maria "Beans" Romfoe — AT and PCT thru-hiker, CDT finisher-minus-New-Mexico, and the internet's foremost beanfluencer — joins Doc for her first-ever podcast appearance. Beans traces the origin of her trail name from a can of Bush's Beans on an Alaskan summit through a viral sponsorship dare to her current partnership with Eight Trak Foods, the woman-owned organic bean company whose founder sends her hand-drawn care packages on trail ("She's my bean lady"). She defends the engineering of a nine-pound base weight built around canned goods, recalls the three family-sized cans of barbecue baked beans that snapped her pack frame in the Smokies, and reveals the one piece of gear she'd never leave behind: the can opener that has saved more than one trail-magic cooler full of inaccessible food. The Hiking Poll digs into the story that reshaped her Triple Crown: drinking unfiltered "poop water" in Colorado's cattle-grazed San Juans, the giardia that followed, and the most miserable six-mile evacuation of her life — followed by a 46-mile attempt to finish the CDT by Walmart bike that ended in tears at a Superfund site water source. (The bike went back for a full refund. She calls this "renting.") The back half goes deeper: growing up in Cudahy, Wisconsin in a not-especially-outdoorsy family; a year at the University of Alaska Southeast that lit the fuse; trail crew and conservation corps seasons that made a tent feel like home before her first thru-hike; and the things she strategically doesn't tell her mom until long after. Beans also gets refreshingly honest about solo female thru-hiking — the double standards, the "are you out here alone?" conversations, why menstruating through a thru-hike should earn hikers more credit rather than more doubt, and her simple request for the trail community: a woman talking to you is not flirting; let her tell you about the snake she saw like everyone else. Segments include the Trailblazer's Toolkit (Six Moon Designs), the Hiking Poll (Triple Crown Coffee — she scores a 21), the Hiking Hack (O.T.T.R.) featuring two highly specific foot hacks, Off the Beaten Path (Hilltop Packs) with a recommendation for Marty Stouffer's gloriously chaotic 1980s docuseries Wild America, and a Pay It Forward shoutout to the Greenwater Fire Department, local wildland firefighters, and the Pacific Northwest Trail Association's volunteer trail crews. Follow Beans on Instagram at @thebeansbabe. Follow Hiker Trash Radio on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, or write to HikerTrashRadio@gmail.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| Vibe Drinking with the Beans Lady - Maria "Beans" Romfoe (Part I) | 29 Jul 2026 | 00:39:29 | |
Maria "Beans" Romfoe — AT and PCT thru-hiker, CDT finisher-minus-New-Mexico, and the internet's foremost beanfluencer — joins Doc for her first-ever podcast appearance. Beans traces the origin of her trail name from a can of Bush's Beans on an Alaskan summit through a viral sponsorship dare to her current partnership with Eight Trak Foods, the woman-owned organic bean company whose founder sends her hand-drawn care packages on trail ("She's my bean lady"). She defends the engineering of a nine-pound base weight built around canned goods, recalls the three family-sized cans of barbecue baked beans that snapped her pack frame in the Smokies, and reveals the one piece of gear she'd never leave behind: the can opener that has saved more than one trail-magic cooler full of inaccessible food. The Hiking Poll digs into the story that reshaped her Triple Crown: drinking unfiltered "poop water" in Colorado's cattle-grazed San Juans, the giardia that followed, and the most miserable six-mile evacuation of her life — followed by a 46-mile attempt to finish the CDT by Walmart bike that ended in tears at a Superfund site water source. (The bike went back for a full refund. She calls this "renting.") The back half goes deeper: growing up in Cudahy, Wisconsin in a not-especially-outdoorsy family; a year at the University of Alaska Southeast that lit the fuse; trail crew and conservation corps seasons that made a tent feel like home before her first thru-hike; and the things she strategically doesn't tell her mom until long after. Beans also gets refreshingly honest about solo female thru-hiking — the double standards, the "are you out here alone?" conversations, why menstruating through a thru-hike should earn hikers more credit rather than more doubt, and her simple request for the trail community: a woman talking to you is not flirting; let her tell you about the snake she saw like everyone else. Segments include the Trailblazer's Toolkit (Six Moon Designs), the Hiking Poll (Triple Crown Coffee — she scores a 21), the Hiking Hack (O.T.T.R.) featuring two highly specific foot hacks, Off the Beaten Path (Hilltop Packs) with a recommendation for Marty Stouffer's gloriously chaotic 1980s docuseries Wild America, and a Pay It Forward shoutout to the Greenwater Fire Department, local wildland firefighters, and the Pacific Northwest Trail Association's volunteer trail crews. Follow Beans on Instagram at @thebeansbabe. Follow Hiker Trash Radio on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, or write to HikerTrashRadio@gmail.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| Trail Stories - "She Just Wants to Exist" with Maria "Beans" Romfoe | 25 Jul 2026 | 00:28:37 | |
About the Guest
Maria "Beans" Romfoe is an ABNM Triple Crown hiker — Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Continental Divide Trail minus New Mexico — a beanfluencer, and the sole representative of what she describes as the bean community on the internet. A Wisconsin native who found her way to Alaska and then Washington State through a trail crew and outdoor studies background, she has been hiking with cans of beans since her college days and is currently sponsored by Eight Trak Foods, a woman-owned organic bean company. She posts on Instagram as @thebeansbabeoutdoors and plans to finish the CDT in the fall.
Episode Highlights
The Bean Empire
The Science of Carrying Cans ABNM — All But New Mexico The Walmart Bike Solo Female Hiking Links & Resources
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| The Big Year: Episode 2 - The Year | 24 Jul 2026 | 00:34:24 | |
The plan looks clean on paper. Then you start hiking. Episode 2 of The Big Year follows the year through all three trails. The Aqueduct in the Mojave, hiked at night for four nights straight. A wildfire in Northern California that sends one hiker sprinting five miles downhill with a 30-pound pack while his partner waits at a parking lot, initially mistaking the chaos for trail magic. Two months of snowshoeing in Colorado that leave a hiker with frostbite and the growing sense that the year might never end. A Sierra bridge crossed at 1:30 in the morning, hours before it's scheduled to be demolished. And then there are the people, the unexpected ones. A relationship that starts over satellite texts at a high mountain lake. A trail family that shows up exactly when one hiker needs company most. And on Katahdin, at sunrise, on the first day the mountain opens for the season: two friends finishing their first trail, knowing they have two more to go. Guests:
Topics covered:
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| Dark Miles - If I Slow Down with Casey "Vegas" Huffman | 22 Jul 2026 | 00:21:47 | |
Casey “Vegas the Pied Piper” Huffman thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2023 and the Pacific Crest Trail in 2025, and six weeks after telling Hiker Trash Radio that nothing would stop his 2027 Continental Divide Trail Triple Crown finish, an unclipped auto-belay in a Las Vegas climbing gym left him with two broken ankles and a shattered sense of self. Drawing on three appearances across 18 months, this Dark Miles episode traces the full arc: the medicated childhood and the yes/no tattoos on his palms, the “letter from Hogwarts” at Annapolis Rock, the AT hike he privately treated as a Hail Mary, the winter in Florida where depression turned catatonic and his parents invoked the Baker Act, and the comeback that began with a slow walk through the Maryland section of the AT, the very place his story started. It ends with a finished Tahoe Rim Trail, a first 5K run an hour before our final interview, the Superior Hiking Trail this October, and the CDT in 2027. If you’re struggling, you don’t have to do it alone. In the U.S., call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Follow Vegas on Instagram and YouTube at @vegasthepiedpiper. New episodes of Hiker Trash Radio drop weekly. Find us on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, or write to HikerTrashRadio@gmail.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| When the Wand Breaks - Casey "Vegas" Huffman | 18 Jul 2026 | 00:46:57 | |
️ In This Episode, We Discuss:
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| The Big Year: Episode 1 - The Call | 17 Jul 2026 | 00:20:04 | |
The Calendar Year Triple Crown doesn't recruit. It gets into people — through a sign above a bar, through a podcast episode, through the quiet math a hiker does at the end of a long day when they realize they want more of this, not less. Episode 1 of The Big Year opens with Billy Meredith describing the moment he quit his office job to hike the Appalachian Trail — the hardest thing he'd ever done and the most amazing thing he'd ever done, at the same time. Three weeks into that hike, in a bar in Duncannon, Pennsylvania, he reads a sign honoring the first woman to complete the Calendar Year Triple Crown. He can't shake it. Four years later, he's standing at the Mexican border about to find out what that sign cost him. The episode follows the idea outward from there: to Sammy Potter and Jackson Parell, two Stanford students who spend a month alone on the Appalachian Trail before naming themselves Buzz and Woody in a winter shelter; to Carson Oliver, who gets asked a single unsettling question the night before Katahdin; and to Jeff Garmire, who completed the CYTC at 20 years old and became, for the better part of a decade, the number everyone else measured themselves against. Guests:
Topics covered:
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| The Full Traverse - Mr. Fabulous is Everyone | 15 Jul 2026 | 00:40:04 | |
The Full Traverse is Hiker Trash Radio's narrative documentary series, drawing from years of conversations with a single guest to tell their complete story. This episode: Derick "Fab" Lugo — author, speaker, and Triple Crowner. From zero experience in 2012 to the Appalachian Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, the Long Trail, and the Pacific Crest Trail. Derick's books:
Also featuring Derick's writing:
Derick's podcast: Unlikely Stories, produced with the Appalachian Mountain Club — 12 episodes featuring different voices of the outdoors, including the first African to summit Everest and record-setting AT hiker Jennifer Pharr Davis. Trails featured in this episode:
People mentioned:
Book tour: Derick is on the road through spring and summer 2026, starting in Colorado, running up and down the East Coast, and working west. Dates at his website. Follow Derick:
The Full Traverse is produced by Hiker Trash Radio, a member of the BLEAV Podcast Network. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| The Full Traverse - Mountains Don't Care with Ben "Ginger Ballz" Vaughan | 13 Jul 2026 | 00:28:05 | |
The Full Traverse is HTR's long-form narrative format, drawing from multiple years of conversations with a single guest to tell the complete story. This is Episode 3. Guest: Ben Vaughan, trail name Ginger Ballz — Navy Lieutenant Commander (retired), Triple Crowner, Hayduke thru-hiker, dog musher, Iditarod trainer, whitewater raft guide, and operations manager for Dallas Seavey's kennel operation. Trail name origin: Earned on the AT hiking with a younger trail family who progressed from "Old Man" to "Old Man Ginger Balls" to "OMGB" to "Ginger Balls" over the course of approximately zero trail days. He accepts this. The story he prefers: a young woman from another country told him he was called that because he was brave and strong. He said yes, exactly. Trails and routes featured in this episode:
Key people:
The Iditarod: 1,049 miles, Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. Considered one of the toughest endurance races in the world — the challenge falls primarily on the musher, not the dogs. The winning time is approximately nine days. Dogs run because they want to; the musher's job is navigation, dog care, and not letting go of the sled. Ben's Alaska operation:
McCarthy, Alaska: Pop. ~30 year-round, 300+ seasonal workers. Located in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park — the largest national park in the United States, roughly seven times the size of Yellowstone. Accessible by 60-mile dirt road. No grocery store. The site of Ben's summer 2024 whitewater raft guide work with McCarthy River Tours. Warrior Expeditions: Veterans organization that supports outdoor wilderness expeditions for vets with at least one combat tour. Provides gear and logistical support. Ben encountered them on the AT and hiked the PCT with a Warrior Expeditions cohort in 2019. Mentioned briefly: highly recommended for any veteran looking for a trail-based transition. Follow Ben: Instagram: @hiking_ginger_b The Full Traverse is produced by Hiker Trash Radio, a member of the BLEAV Podcast Network. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| The Full Traverse - Thoughts on a Zero Day with Eddie "Bard" Janicki | 11 Jul 2026 | 00:24:40 | |
The Full Traverse is HTR's long-form narrative format, drawing from multiple years of conversations with a single guest to tell the complete story. This is Episode 4. Guest: Eddie Janicki, trail name Bard — Triple Crowner, civil engineer, amateur musician, and the only known person to hike the full PCT with a guitar. Trail name origin: Given two days into the PCT in 2018 by a fellow hiker after Eddie arrived on trail carrying a guitar, a harmonica on a neck stand, and various other items that did not survive the first week. The trail name One Man Band was floated and rejected (too long). Bard was accepted. He has since encountered other Bards on trail, which he says makes him like the name less — but he kept it. The album: Thoughts on a Zero Day by Eddie Janicki. Available on Spotify. Twelve tracks recorded over approximately two months in the fall/winter of 2022, between finishing the AT and returning to work. Songs include "Deli Deli" (positive AT experience), "Rain Dodging" (negative AT experience), and older material dating to 2014–2015. Lo-fi home recording. Trail-related throughout. Trails completed:
Notable CDT moments referenced in this episode:
Personal context (2025):
The Enchantments: A wilderness area near Leavenworth, Washington, in the North Cascades. Highly permit-controlled due to demand. Features numerous alpine lakes at elevation. Eddie completed a 19-mile traverse in a single day in 2025 with his twin brother Luke and his cousin Joe. Peru trip (2025): Eddie and his wife visited Cusco and hiked to Machu Picchu via the Inca Trail route. Acclimatized at 11,500 feet in Cusco before beginning the hike. Reached the first ruin site Wiñay Wayna approximately four miles in; crested the Sun Gate for the first view of Machu Picchu. Described as the most historically immersive hiking experience of his life. Twin brother: Luke Janicki — identical twin, highly athletic, has hiked short sections of all three long trails with Eddie. Ran marathons. Not a thru-hike aspirant as of this recording. Friends referenced:
Follow Eddie: Instagram: @EddieJanicky Music: Search Thoughts on a Zero Day by Eddie Janicki on Spotify The Full Traverse is produced by Hiker Trash Radio, a member of the BLEAV Podcast Network. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| The Source Material: Episode 6 - Barkley's Mad Genius | 10 Jul 2026 | 01:00:23 | |
Guest Featured Lazarus Lake (Gary Cantrell) Creator of the Barkley Marathons and the Backyard Ultra in direct conversation with Doc Key Themes
Laz on Jasmine Paris: 'From the very first, from when the cigarette was lit, she left with no margin for error. And she came back with no margin for error. If that performance isn't the best I've witnessed in my life, I'm not sure where the best lies.' Series Context Bonus Episode 06 of 06. The final episode of The Source Material and the conclusion of The Barkley: A Love Story - a nine-week audio documentary series from Hiker Trash Radio. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| Walking Away From a Life That Worked - Jeff "Bluey" Lewis (Part II) | 08 Jul 2026 | 00:41:02 | |
Picking back up, Bluey traces the real origin of his AT dream back to childhood summer camp, where two counselors disappeared for a season to thru-hike the trail and came back changed men — planting a seed that took him over two decades to act on. He talks candidly about the conversation with his wife that preceded his decision to go, including her quietly handing him a Christmas gift that said more than words could: an expensive base layer, no note attached, her way of saying she'd support him even if she didn't want him to leave. The conversation turns to identity on trail — how quickly hikers strip away titles, credentials, and performance, and how that "unfiltered" version of himself became something he had to find a way to live with once he came home. Bluey explains how the idea for the memoir wasn't part of the plan at all; it grew out of a handful of journal pages he started writing months after finishing the trail, eventually becoming the full manuscript in a matter of weeks once he started. He shares two of the book's most memorable stories in greater depth: Chappy, the mysterious trail mentor who appeared on Day 3 at exactly the right moment and then vanished after Hiawassee (Bluey makes a direct on-air appeal for Chappy to get in touch), and the now-infamous Pennsylvania rock-tantrum that ended with a stranger handing him a bottle of cheap bourbon and exactly the kind of human connection he needed at his lowest point. Midlife Hike This launches September 4th, the one-year anniversary of Bluey's summit of Katahdin, and is available for preorder now at MidlifeHikeThis.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| Walking Away From a Life That Worked - Jeff "Bluey" Lewis (Part I) | 08 Jul 2026 | 00:41:17 | |
Jeff "Bluey" Lewis joins Hiker Trash Radio to talk about walking away from over 16 years in nonprofit leadership and business strategy at age 40 to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail in 2025 — all 2,198 miles of it, Georgia to Maine, in five months. The experience became the basis for his upcoming memoir, Midlife Hike This: Walking Away from a Life That Worked to Find What Really Mattered. Bluey explains the origin of his trail name — a rock-paper-scissors bet gone wrong with an eight-year-old at an outfitter in Franklin, North Carolina — and why he's stuck with it for life, win or lose. He talks gear: the trekking poles he refused to use for the first 340-plus miles of the trail until his knees gave him no choice, and the leaky water bladder that quietly ruined everything in his pack before he figured out the problem. The conversation moves into the heart of his story — the moment in Orlando, watching colleagues file into a conference, when he saw a version of his own future he didn't want and decided to change course. He talks at length about his best friend Eric, whose sudden death from cancer at 43 became the foundation for the book's central idea: consulting your "Dead Self" before making big decisions. Bluey also opens up about his biggest on-trail mistake (not training before a 2,200-mile hike), the hiking partner whose knee injury ended his hike entirely, the philosophy of "packing your fears," and the brutal reality of post-trail depression and reintegration after the hike ended. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| The Full Traverse - Hike or Die with Wesley "Megaman" Tils | 06 Jul 2026 | 00:32:22 | |
The Full Traverse is HTR's long-form narrative format, drawing from multiple years of conversations with a single guest to tell the complete story. This episode covers Wesley "Mega Man" Tils. Guest: Wesley "Mega Man" Tils — Triple Crowner, Fourth Crown Route originator, archaeologist, and the only known survivor of a sustained predatory grizzly bear encounter on the Continental Divide Trail. Trail name origin: Earned on the Appalachian Trail while hiking southbound with a stress fracture, combining "Mega" (the slang term for southbound AT hikers, from the Maine-to-Georgia abbreviation) with his childhood love of the Mega Man video game series. Trails and routes featured in this episode:
Terms referenced:
Wesley's current work: Archaeological fieldwork, primarily in the Great Basin region, surveying for prehistoric artifacts — work that can result in legal protections preventing development, including mining, on culturally significant land. Walk for the Wild: Wesley's upcoming 8,000-mile coast-to-coast route, intended to raise awareness for the protection of public wilderness lands amid ongoing closures and funding threats. He plans to direct all proceeds from an accompanying documentary to conservation organizations. Tentative departure: May 2026. Follow Wesley: Instagram: @vagrant_viking93 YouTube: Wild Wes Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| Trail Stories - What Would Your Dead Self Say? | 04 Jul 2026 | 00:28:13 | |
About the Guest
Jeff "Bluey" Lewis spent 16 years in nonprofit leadership and business strategy before resigning at 40 to hike the Appalachian Trail, Georgia to Maine, in 2025 — 2,198 miles in five months. The hike became the foundation for his memoir, Midlife Hike This: Walking Away From a Life That Worked to Find What Really Mattered, releasing September 4, 2026 — the anniversary of his Katahdin summit. He lives in Baltimore.
Episode Highlights
The Trail Name
The Man at the Pool Eric The Pennsylvania Tantrum Coming Home Writing the Book Trail Wisdom Links & Resources
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| The Source Material: Episode 5 - Whistling in the Dark | 03 Jul 2026 | 00:53:50 | |
Guest Featured Jared Beasley Journalist and author of The Endurance Artist: Lazarus Lake, the Barkley, and a Race With No End (Simon & Schuster) Key Themes
Jared on the moment he knew he had a book: the math problem, the quit, and the email, and realizing that Laz had put him through a version of the Barkley before he'd ever set foot in Frozen Head. Series Context Bonus Episode 05 of 06. The penultimate episode of The Source Material. Next episode: Barkley's Mad Genius - Doc and Laz, the final word. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| The Four Corners Loop - Kevin Koski (Part II) | 01 Jul 2026 | 00:40:45 | |
About the Guest
Kevin Koski — The Animal — is a nuclear engineer for the U.S. Navy and the creator of the Four Corners Loop, a roughly 2,400-mile self-designed route through the American Southwest. He has hiked the CDT (2004), the PCT (2014), and over 11,000 miles of trail across Washington State. He retires from the Navy next February at 51 and plans to hike the Arizona Trail to celebrate.
What's Covered in Part 2
The Sabbatical Philosophy
Proving the Loop — Permit, Interruption, Return Fourteen and a Half Liters The 54-Mile Stretch and the Owl Biologists The Smoked Trout The 30-Foot Cliff Wolves, Bears, and an American Serengeti Bigfoot Status: Inconclusive The Book Pay It Forward — Washington Trails Association & Mountain Rescue Links & Resources
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| The Four Corners Loop - Kevin Koski (Part I) | 01 Jul 2026 | 00:39:05 | |
About the Guest
Kevin Koski — trail name The Animal — is a CDT (2004) and PCT (2014) veteran, a nuclear engineer for the U.S. Navy, and the creator of the Four Corners Loop (FCL), an approximately 2,400-mile, self-designed circular route connecting wild public lands across New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. He has logged over 11,000 miles of trail in Washington State alone and is a volunteer with Olympic Mountain Rescue. He retires from the Navy next February and plans to hike the Arizona Trail as a retirement gift to himself.
What's Covered in Part 1
The Trail Name
The Trailblazers Toolkit — Two Strange Addictions The Hiking Poll — Score: 23 A Career Nobody Expected Links & Resources
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| The Big Year - Trailer | 29 Jun 2026 | 00:03:00 | |
Three trails. One year. Fewer than 30 people in history have done it. The Big Year: A Calendar Year Triple Crown Documentary is a four-part narrative audio series coming soon to Hiker Trash Radio. It starts with a sign in a bar in Duncannon. It ends on New Year's Eve in Key West, with two hikers finishing and two more waiting to start. In between: the longest snow year on record in the Sierra. A helicopter evacuation at 3,000 miles in. A wildfire. A cardiac ICU. A tent that slid downhill on the first night. 10,070 miles and no injury at the finish. And the question behind all of it: why? #HikerTrashRadio #CalendarYearTripleCrown #CYTC #TheBigYear #TripleCrown Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| Trail Stories - The Circle on the Map with Kevin "The Animal" Koski | 27 Jun 2026 | 00:25:31 | |
About the Guest
Kevin Koski, trail name The Animal, is a nuclear engineer for the U.S. Navy, a CDT (2004) and PCT (2014) veteran, and the creator of the Four Corners Loop: a self-designed, approximately 2,400-mile circular route connecting public lands across New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. He has logged over 11,000 miles of trail in Washington State and volunteers with Olympic Mountain Rescue. He retires from the Navy next February at 51.
Episode Highlights
The Circle on the Map
14.5 Liters Strange Addictions Wolves, Bears, and a 30-Foot Cliff A Pause for His Mother Trail Wisdom Links & Resources
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| The Source Material: Episode 4 - The Endurance Artist | 26 Jun 2026 | 00:25:47 | |
Guest Featured Jared Beasley Journalist and author - The Endurance Artist: Lazarus Lake, the Barkley, and a Race With No End (Simon & Schuster) Key Themes
'He was given a 1% chance to live. And when you live thinking that any moment could be the finish line, you live as if there is no finish line.' Series Context Bonus Episode 04 of 06. The first of two Jared Beasley conversations. Next episode: Whistling in the Dark - the studio interview. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||
| Accidental Influencer - Madeline Hyrse (Part II) | 24 Jun 2026 | 00:36:04 | |
About the Guest
Madeline Hryse recently completed four years of continuous nomadic travel — three years backpacking through Asia, one year cycling solo and with company from southern China to Sweden. She is newly sponsored by Tumbleweed Bikes and will spend this summer cycling the Continental Divide from Canada to Mexico, after a shorter welcome-home trip through the Sierras.
What's Covered in Part 2
The Accidental Influencer
South Korea — The Grandma Era Asia, Up Close — Family and Culture The Tibetan Border Story The Crankset Disaster On Fear — Short-Term vs. Long-Term What Four Years Taught Her About People Hygiene on the Road — The Segment Nobody Else Asks For What's Next Off the Beaten Path — The Road from Karakol Pay It Forward — Leave No Trace Links & Resources
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| Accidental Influencer - Madeline Hyrse (Part I) | 24 Jun 2026 | 00:36:55 | |
About the Guest
Madeline Hryse has been nomadic for over four years — the first three spent backpacking through Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, the fourth spent cycling solo and with company from southern China to Sweden, through Central Asia and Europe. She grew up in Southern California with a mountaineer father who built bikes in his backyard. She recently returned home to Orange County and is sponsored by Tumbleweed Bikes for her next ride: the Continental Divide, Canada to Mexico.
What's Covered in Part 1
The Trailblazer's Toolkit — A Good Tent
The Cost of Four Years The Hiking Poll — Score: 31 A Day in the Life — Solo vs. Company From Walking to Wheels Links & Resources
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| The Big Year - Teaser | 22 Jun 2026 | 00:01:00 | |
Three trails. One year. Fewer than 30 people in history have done it. The Big Year: A Calendar Year Triple Crown Documentary is a four-part narrative audio series coming It starts with a sign in a bar in Duncannon. It ends on New Year's Eve in Key West, with In between: The longest snow year on record in the Sierra. A helicopter evacuation at 3,000 miles in. A wildfire. A cardiac ICU. A tent that slid downhill on the first night. 10,070 miles and no injury at the finish. And the question behind all of it: why? #HikerTrashRadio #CalendarYearTripleCrown #CYTC #TheBigYear #PodcastDocumentary Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. | |||