TrailCast - Podcasting on foot

trailcast-27-Apr-12-2006.mp3 (14 MB)

Well northbounder thru-hiker season on the Appalachian Trail is in full swing and it’s time to check in with Miss Janet, of the well-known hiker hostel, Miss Janet’s House. In my conversation with her, she talks about a typical day in her life during thru-hiker season and her observations on the current crop of thru-hikers.. I also speak with a thru-hiker hopeful, Six Pack, who was staying at Miss Janet’s house. Six pack talks about his previous hiking experience, his motivations for starting his long walk and describes the culture shock of fully entering the world of a thru-hiker.

trailcast-26-Apr-5-2006.mp3 (54:38 - 14 MB)

Susan Alcorn began hiking at the age of 48 with a hike up Mt. Whitney. Several years later, on a trip over Piute Pass she started thinking about how she wasn’t seeing many older women on the trails and soon started looking into it. She collected over three dozen interview with women from across the country.

"My goal was to write a book that would acknowledge the accomplishments of the women backpackers I had talked to, and to inspire and encourage others to venture into the wilderness."

Her second book, "Camino Chronicle: Walking to Santiago" is about a 400 mile hike she made with her husband, Ralph along the ancient pilgrimage trail across Northern Spain, the Camino de Santiago. The book features historical and cultural information about this trail along with a modern perspective of hiking it.

Her website, www.backpack45.com has information about these trails as well as her book.

trailcast-25-Mar-29-2006.mp3 (21 MB)

After three attempts and seven consecutive thru-hikes, Scott Williamson completed a Yo-Yo hike of the Pacific Crest Trail in November of 2004. Covering 5,300 miles in 197 days Scott averaged close to 40 miles a day, often battling waist-deep snow. Enduring the personal tragedies of losing his mother and friend, Kenny Gould, with whom he had originally planned this record hike, Scott pressed on through each attempt. Surviving a gunshot wound to his face by an attacker, while he was working at a store to help fund his hikes, only solidified his choice of a long distance hiker’s lifestyle and strengthened his resolve to pull of his Yo-Yo hike.

Scott has also hiked the Continental Divide trail and later completed his Triple Crown by hiking the Appalachian Trail in a huge way. He started with the Florida Trail, hiked the 450 miles of road separating it from Springer Mountain, then continued past Katahdin into Canada until he was stopped because of passport issues in Canada. And if once wasn’t enough, Scott will be attempting another Yo-Yo of the PCT this season..!

Scott is hoping to find sponsorship for this season’s hike. Any interested company or individual may contact him at duckface100@yahoo.com.

trailcast-24-Mar-22-2006.mp3 (17 MB)

Scott "Squatch" Herriott produced two documentaries about thru-hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail entitled, "Walk" and "Still Walking." In these films, Squatch follows the progress of these hikers– many of whom are notable repeat offenders such as Yogi and Billy Goat. His chronicle of these hikes is intimate and sincere and often hilarious as they share their good, bad and odd moments. Maintaining a professional and light-hearted approach, Squatch even manages to find time to discuss another passionate interest– Big Foot..!

trailcast-23-Mar-14-2006.mp3 (11.5 MB)

When Mathew "Leif" Olsen completed his Appalachian Trail thru-hike in 1998, he formed the initial idea for creating a website where other hikers could post their trail journals and photos. After his hike, he returned to Charlotte, NC to finish his last semester of school and began working on www.trailjournals.com. When his friend, Rick "ZipDrive" Ashley thru-hiked the AT in 1999 he kept the first online journal on the site. After "ZipDrive" completed his hike he became involved in the development of the site. A full-time hobby for ZipDrive and Leif, this free service serves up close to 119,000 journal entries and 130,000 trail photos, spanning over 1,360,606 miles of hiking detailed in over 4000 journal accounts– an amazing wealth of information written by those doing the hiking.

trailcast-22-Mar-07-2006.mp3 (14.3 MB)

In 2003, Amy Racina fell from a steep hillside during a solo hike in California’s Kings Canyon National Park.

“With no warning, a hillside gave way beneath me, and I plummeted 60 feet into a granite boulder. I was amazed to find myself alive when I hit the ground. My nose was smashed. A tooth had snapped off. Multiple scrapes and bruises covered my body. A bone stuck through the skin below my right knee, flesh shredded around it. My legs were useless. I could not move either one so much as an inch.”

25 miles from the nearest trail-head and not expected for another 6 days, Amy began crawling through and up the deep ravine in which she fell hoping to make herself visible should a hiker happen by in the seldom-hiked the Tehipite Valley backcountry. On the third day of dragging herself along the ravine a passing hiker and his companions heard her faint cries for help. 24 hours later she was located by rescue helicopters and airlifted to a hospital. She discovered later that had her rescue come just hours later, she would have been dead. Amy has recently published a book about her ordeal, Angels in the Wilderness.

trailcast-21-Feb-28-2006.mp3 (15 MB)

Ken and Marcia Powers began serious long distance hiking after retirement. Since 1999 they have hiked over 13,000 miles, thru-hiking the Pacific Crest, Continental Divide and Appalachian Trails and recently became the first people to thru-hike the American Discovery Trail– a 6,800 mile long trail crossing the Belly of the US. Averaging 20 miles a day, Ken and Marcia faced interesting resupply and navigation challenges along a route not used to accomodating thru-hikers and had encounter with quicksand..!

trailcast-20-Feb-20-2006.mp3 (17.5 MB)

Brian Frankle’s hand-made packs always seem to score high praise in online forums and trail journals. Lightweight and durable, these packs are made in the garage shop of his company, ULA Equipment, directly overseen by Brian. His philosophy is to offer unique equipment and not duplicate similar designs. Brian does not produce new models each year, and shuns the concept of designing new models just to sell more packs. Brian’s vision of his company is tightly focused. ULA Equipment does not try to operate as a general outfitter. "I choose not to sell Titanium Stakes, Catenary Tarps, Alcohol Stoves or Guyline on my site…in my opinion there are plenty of others who do a great job" Brian has also recently become the first person to thru-hike the Hayduke Trail, an 800 mile desert route that stretches across the Colorado Plateau from Arches National Park to Zion National Park. An advanced route, Brian faced some interesting challenges including a river crossing of the "Dirty Devil" using an impromptu raft made out of two pieces of driftwood, his trekking poles and sleeping pad..!

trailcast-19-Feb-13-2006.mp3 (15 MB)

Over twice the length of the Appalachian Trail, the North Country Scenic Trail stretches between New York and North Dakota, meandering its way around and along the Great Lakes.. Andrew Skurka spent most of his Atlantic to Pacific Sea-to-Sea route hike on this trail. Only a handful of hikers have thru-hiked this trail, or become "end-to-enders". Joan Young has hiked well over half of the trail. Author of a recently published book about her experiences on this trail, Joan also maintains the Trail’s official web site. In our conversation, Joan talks about the Trail’s history and how it distinguishes itself from other long trails.

trailcast-18-Feb-06-2006.mp3 (20 MB)

On October 27, 2001 Brian Robinson completed his hike of the Triple Crown in a single calendar year– the first to do so.. While thru-hiking the PCT, Brian began formulating ideas for a completely different hike, a PCT yo-yo instead of a Triple crown in a single season. It wasn’t until a good deal after his PCT hike that he made the decision to attempt a calendar year Triple Crown. In our conversation Brian talks about the logistics involved in hiking these three long trails in a single season and his experiences during his ground-breaking walk of 7,371 miles in 300 days. You may also be surprised to know that Brian’s dad is the inventor of the famous DIY hiker alcohol stove– the Cat Stove.

trailcast-17-Jan-30-2006.mp3 (16 MB)

Every time I read a trail journal or follow a gear discussion on a hiking forum,
Western Mountaineering sleeping bags always generate extremely favorable mention. Most seem to agree that these bags are built quite a bit warmer than rated. Though not cheap, my WM bag is the jewel in my pack– my insurance policy against a miserable night– along with my tarp it’s the one thing I rely upon with my life on the trail… In this program, I speak with Gary Schaezlein, owner and co-founder of Western Mountaineering.

trailcast-16-Jan-23-2006.mp3 (15 MB)

Jackie McDonnell, trail-named Yogi, publishes a popular guidebook for the Pacific Crest Trail. Her guidebook is designed to assist an aspiring thru-hiker and covers every topic imaginable. Jackie, a Triple Crown hiker, is also planning on publishing a Guidebook for the Continental Divide Trail. In our conversation, Jackie talks about her publishing projects, and experiences on PCT, CDT and AT and speaks about the differences between these three long trails..

trailcast-15-Jan-16-2006.mp3 (16.5 MB)

Jonathan Ley produces maps of the Continental Divide Trail.  He has thru-hiked the CDT as well as the Pacific Crest Trail.  Mat Hazley, who recently finished the triple crown in a calandar year, used Jonathan’s Maps.  In our conversation, Johathan speaks about his experiences on these trails and his CDT trail mapping project.

trailcast-14-Jan-08-2006.mp3 (20.6 MB)

Part 2 of my conversation with Jack Tarlin.

trailcast-13-Jan-01-2006.mp3 (20.5 MB)

If you have ever read an Appalachian Trail journal, or lurked on any of the active hiking forums, chances are good that you have read about Jack Tarlin. You may have seen his picture on the refrigerator of a hiker hostel, cooking lasagna, or heard about him from a hiking buddy. Originally from Boston, It would probably be more accurate to say that Baltimore Jack is from the Appalachian Trail, as that has where he has been almost consistently during the thru-hiking seasons for close to a decade. I am once again joined by Miss Janet in this conversation with Jack, as he speaks about his experiences on the AT.

This is part 1 of a 2 part interview…

trailcast-12-Dec-25-2005.mp3 (21.9 MB)

Merry Christmas..! Mat Hazley (trail-name Squeaky) is attempting to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, Continental Divide Trail, and Appalachian Trail in a single calendar year. I spoke with him last Sunday at Miss Janet’s hiker hostel in Erwin, 338 miles from Springer Mountain. He estimated thirteen days to get there, as he routinely hikes 40 to 45 miles a day. A big thanks to Miss Janet for lining up this conversation..!

trailcast-11-Dec-17-2005.mp3 (22.8 MB)

It’s been a few months since I’ve published a program, but Trailcast is back, and rolling. In this program, I spoke with Jan Leitschuh. She thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2003– one of the wettest seasons on record for the AT. Jan’s trail journal is amazingly popular, as her hit counter, showing close to 400,000 hits, can attest.
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trailcast-10-Aug-23-2005.mp3 (18.2 MB)

Andrew Skurka, just recently finished a hike across the U.S. from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. In my conversation with him, he talks about this amazing hike, and the intense planning involved in connecting a series of existing trails into a continuous walk between oceans.
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trailcast-09-Aug-01-2005.mp3 (20.3 MB)

Last Summer, Nate Olive and Sarah Janes completed the first continuous hike of the West Coast Trail. Relying heavily upon tide tables, and topographic maps, Nate and Sarah faced unique challenges, such as the ever-changing tide lines, and “sneaker waves,” which can wash a person off the beach. They are in the process of finishing a book about their hike entitled “Dancing the Tidal Line” with hand-drawn illustrations by Sarah.

• http://www.thawookie.com/

trailcast-08-Jul-13-2005.mp3 (12.6 MB)

I spoke with “Spoonie Love”, a northbound AT thru-hiker, several months ago when I first started Trailcast.  She was staying at Miss Janet’s hostel in Erwin, TN.  Hikers on that part of the trail were seeing some late season snow storms, making a strong impression on Spoonie.   Out of an attempt to balance the Trailcast programs with conversations about trails other than the Appalachian Trail, I sadly ended up putting this interview on the back burner.  Spoonie gave a great interview and I apologize for the delay in getting this conversation published.

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