Shows / Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
An overweight, 61-year-old retiree, with zero hiking experience, decided to hike the entire 2,185.3 mile length of the Appalachian Trail in 2014. What could possibly go wrong? As his brother, Mike, commented, "It's a bit like taking up boxing and fighting Mike Tyson in your first bout." Join Steve and his guests as they discuss all aspects of the trail, from gear to Lyme Disease, then back to trail magic and injury.
Episodes
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #100 - Ken Hall (Lighterknot)
For our 100th episode and, indeed, for our 101st, I have two friends with whom I finished the trail. Next week, it will be Pat Coate, or Tee Bird. This week…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #99 - Stephanie White (Ultra Runner)
Stephanie White is new to hiking, yet she is already an Appalachian Trail thru-hiker. Her main discipline is the seemingly crazy sport of ultra running and…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #98 - Tom Kennedy (Doinit)
Tom Kennedy hasn't been a hiker all his life; indeed, he came to it relatively recently. He has found a way to foster his love of hiking and hikers by raising…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #97 - Cathryn Pugh (Sunshine)
Hiking the Appalachian Trail is a daunting undertaking for people with no medical issues. For those who rely upon their medication, the AT can be logistically…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #96 - Kim Shaffer (Echo)
There are many reasons to want to hike the Appalachian Trail. Few have the history of the trail literally in their blood in the way that Kim Shaffer does. The…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #95 - Anna and Branden Jones (Sweet Tea and Moose)
Anna Jones wrote to me a few months back to thank me for the various shows and our guests. Anna and Branden were planning a flip-flop, starting in May, so I…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #94 - Mike Piatt (Grinder)
Mike Piatt is a LASH, which is an acronym that Mike will explain in the show. He is shortly to complete his third full thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, done…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #93 - George Andrews (Tin Man)
George Andrews has a deep love of hikers and hiking so, when he retired, he wanted to involve himself in the community. He had always been keen to keep the…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #92 - Joel "Buddy" Wier III (Nami)
Buddy Wier is something of a late bloomer. He became interested in hiking after his retirement, accumulating gear though not immediately getting out to hike…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #91 - Linnea Van Manen (Shiver)
Linnea Van Manen struggled with Lyme Disease as a young girl and felt the effects through her teens. Lyme manifested itself by intense bouts of bursitis in her…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #90 - Kayla McCarthy (Popeye)
Kayla McCarthy, her father, and her mother set out to hike the Appalachian Trail in 2014. Only Kayla and her mother reached Katahdin as her father injured…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #89 - Tom Healy (Toasted Toad)
This week's guest, Tom Healy, is somebody who I hiked around for a while in 2014. He seemed so comfortable out in the woods that I assumed that he had been a…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #88 - Eli Best
This week, Eli Best tells me about the journey she took on the Camino De Santiago back in 2004. She had suffered a heart attack and organ failure several years…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #87 - Spencer Leebolt and Blaike Bateman (Pit Boss and Play By Play)
Spencer Leebolt and Blaike Bateman have almost reached the halfway mark on the Appalachian Trail. Spencer is Blaike's stepfather and, although he had…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #86 - Devan Horn (Shawty)
For a hiking show, Devan Horn wouldn't normally belong. Yet this extraordinary woman, a long-distance runner and rider, chose to hike the Colorado Trail while…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #85 - Art Donovan (CraftE)
A member of the Class of 2018, Art Donovan is fulfilling a dream that his mother had 50 years ago. With retirement came the desire to cross the AT off his…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #84 - James Smyle (Mayhem)
This weekend, April 28 and 29, the Flip Flop Festival will be held in the adjoining towns of Harpers Ferry and Bolivar, partly to celebrate the beginning of…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #83 - Mike Carbonneau (Strummystick)
Mike Carbonneau loves to play music on the trail. He is a section hiker who fell in love with hiking in his 50s. Since then, he has been taking on large…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #82 - Daniel White (The Blackalachian)
Daniel White is something of a rarity on the Appalachian Trail. Black people are unrepresented on hiking trails and Daniel provides us with, perhaps, some of…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #81 - Ben Montgomery
With so many future histories being made right now on the Appalachian Trail, Ben Montgomery brings us the story behind the story of Grandma Gatewood. Ben is a…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #80 - Ben Barbante (Juan Durer)
Juan Durer has certainly earned his trail name. Once he had decided that living for now was far better than waiting for retirement, he has been a man on a…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #79 - Maria Wishart (Wheezy Pee)
For Maria Wishart, hiking the Appalachian Trail became part of her life and, when she could no longer drive the distances required to get her AT "fix," her…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #78 - Curt Ebert (Disciple)
Curt Ebert was the pastor in his local church when the call came to hike the Appalachian Trail. The remarkable circumstances surrounding that call are…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #77 - Bill King (Field Trip)
Bill King has had his mind on an Appalachian Trail thru-hike since he listened to a presentation from another thru-hiker. He is a retired school teacher and…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #76 - Laurie Potteiger (Mountain Laurel)
Laurie Potteiger came to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy to help them out prior to her attempted thru-hike in the 1980s. When her hike was over, Laurie…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #75 - Anna Huthmaker (Mud Butt)
Anna Huthmaker was one of my more surprising guests. Her story is inspirational on many levels, not least that she took to hiking when substantially overweight…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #74 - Jack Jones (Quadzilla)
Jack Jones flip-flopped the Appalachian Trail in 2016, sharing part of his time with two previous guests, Kelly Anderson and Edwin Thullen. He found the…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #73 - Ryan Linn (Guthook)
Ryan Linn has hiked both the Appalachian Trail (in 2007) and the Pacific Crest Trail (in 2010). He gained a true appreciation of the outdoors after college…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #72 - Paul Magnanti (Paul Mags)
Paul Mags is a man who simply loves being outdoors. He has hiked many trails, completing the Triple Crown of the AT, the PCT, and the CDT, in 2006. He is often…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #71 - Matt Philippi (Jersey)
Matt Philippi is not currently looking to do a thru-hike of the AT. For Matt, biting off sections is a satisfying way to de-stress from his job. He contacted…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #70 - Jack Masters (Vagabond Jack)
Jack Masters is a member of the Class of 2018. While he's been interested in the possibility of hiking the appalachian Trail, a year ago it didn't seem likely…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #69 - JD and Amanda Anttonen (Yak and Walks With Fire)
I met JD Anttonen on the Appalachian Trail in 2014 and, as one often did, we shared the odd meal in a shelter and ran into one another from time to time. He…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #68 - Damien and Renee Tougas (The Von Trapp Family)
Damien and Renee Tougas have always made sure that their children were able to experience the outdoors. So it seemed a fairly natural fit to take the entire…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #67 - Nate and Sharon Harrington (The Hiking Vikings)
We first met Nate and Sharon at Trail Days in Damascus earlier in 2017. I was initially fascinated by the signs of Katahdin that Nate was selling, but he had…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #66 - Zach Davis (Badger)
Zach Davis didn't hike a long-distance trail until 2011, yet he was intuitively aware of the need to prepare himself mentally for the hike. Establishing his…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #65 - Julie Gayheart (Jester)
Julie Gayheart is a very active section hiker, having completed a 12-year thru-hike in 2017, while within 800 miles of a second thru-hike spread over a number…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #64 - Jim Kern
Meet Jim Kern, a veteran of the hiking world, yet on a mission to CLOSE THE GAPS on America's trails. He has hiked all over the world, yet his passion is here…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #63 - Kyle Rohrig (The Mayor)
Kyle Rohrig was one of the first people I wanted to interview on my podcast, so it is somehow fitting that it has taken me more than 60 episodes to finally get…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #62 - Jessica Mills (Dixie)
Jessica Mills has become something of a YouTube sensation, with her Appalachian Trail videos securing a base of support during her 2015 thru-hike. However…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #61 - Judy Mikesell
A thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail isn't everybody's idea of the best way to spend time in the woods. Judy Mikesell became interested in the trail through…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #60 - Stacey Bucklin (Stylez)
I'm back with my class of 2014 again. This week, we have another of those powerful, independent women, Stacey Bucklin, or Stylez. Stacey had wanted to do the…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #59 - Silas Schroeder (Pepper)
The Appalachian Trail is a test for hikers at any stage in life and many people hike their own hikes vicariously through their family members. One of our…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #58 - Jeffrey Gray (Loner)
From the Class of 2012, this week's guest is Jeffrey "Loner" Gray. Jeffrey gave himself the name Loner, yet he soon discovered the extraordinary friendships…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #57 - Derrick, Bekah, and Ellie Quirin (Sherpa, Kanga, and Roo)
You probably read about the couple who decided to attempt a thru-hike this summer with their 12-month old daughter, Ellie. I was skeptical myself when I read…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #56 - Jay Parker (Beans)
I met Beans in my first couple of days on the trail. We shared a particularly funny evening in a bar in North Carolina and I found him to be a very funny…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #55 - Greg and Jen Seymour (Sunsets and Chica)
Having lived for several years in Costa Rica, Greg and Jen Seymour were searching for an adventure. They chose a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in 2017 and…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #54 - The Catch-Up Show (Tough Girl, BC, and Kickstarter)
We've followed several hikers this year, with Jessa covered pretty much the whole of the way. For this week's show, I decided to find out what had happened to…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #53 - Jeff Alt (Wrong Foot)
When Jeff Alt set out to fulfil a long-held dream and hike the Appalachian Trail in 1998, he could have had no idea that his walk would eventually become the…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #52 - Jessa Hackman (Attie)
For our 52nd episode–which commemorates the fact that we've been podcasting for precisely a year–I caught up with Jessa Hackman, otherwise known as Attie…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #51 - Daryl Fleischer (Road Trip)
Daryl Fleischer is aware that his thru-hike, hopefully with his lovely wife, is several years in his future. He has work and family responsibilities, like many…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #50 - Mike Skelton (Bearded Skelton)
Mike Skelton is another listener who wrote into the show and immediately intrigued me. I'd asked for a few examples of the transformative nature of hiking and…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #49 - Lynne Savino (Caboose)
Lynne Savino wrote to me and gave me some funny examples of the differences between a section hiker and a thru-hiker. I have a lot of respect for section…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #48 - Edwin Thullen (Bear)
When Edwin Thullen decided to hike the Appalachian Trail he had several challenges to overcome. His sheer size made gear acquisition a formidable process, but…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #47 - Bethany Varner (Snap)
Bethany Varner completed her hike on July 1 this year. She had zero overnight backpacking experience, yet she adapted so well to the challenge that she was…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #46 - Robby and Meredith King (Doc and Tunes)
When Robby King and his daughter, Meredith decided to hike the Appalachian Trail, his wife Nancy decided that she could support them far better by driving an…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #45 - Tim McGann (Tadhg)
This week's guest is another from the Class of 2014; Tim McGann, or Tadhg. He shares his story with us and provides the perfect example of how the trail always…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #44 - Jan Leitschuh (Liteshoe)
Jan Leitschuh, at the time more comfortable on a horse than hiking through the woods, found herself contemplating a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #43 - Chrissy Funk (C-Funk)
Chrissy is a woman who came to the trail in search of herself. She had endured a difficult personal life and fallen out of love with the person she had become…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #42 - David DeGregorio (Digger)
Digger was one of the guys I met during my 2014 journey and, as often happened, this short acquaintance proved to assist me in my own hike. Once he'd completed…
- Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Episode #41 - Craig McPherson (Spielberg)
I was introduced to Craig McPherson by a listener. He sent me a link to Craig's final video, one that served to represent a summary of his hike of the…