Trail Tales - Thru-Hiking & Backpacking

Since we last spoke in Episode 24 of Trail Tales, Philip Carcia has gone on to offically take the fastest known time for the White Mountain Grid. Philip hiked each of the 48 4000-foot peaks in New Hampshire's White Mountains in each month... for an entire year. To finish off the project, he completed a White Mountain Direttissima, essentially thru-hiking the 48 peaks in one shot, finishing in just...

Nick Scaramuzzo is a seasoned Northeast hiker, having peak-bagged in Vermont, the Adirondacks, and the Catskills, just to name a few places. In our chat we discuss the Catskills 3500-footer club and how the "rules" of the hiking list vary slightly from the more popular Adirondack 46 and White Mountain 48. We also talk about his upcoming thru-hike of the John Muir Trail, and some of his preparation...

Baker Bokorney is back for round 3! Baker is an experienced thru-hiker, having hiked the Appalachian Trail, Florida Trail, and half the Arizona Trail in 2018. We decided to have some fun with this episode, and go over our hiking and backpacking grievances. Towards the end, Baker gets into some grievances specific to Trail Tales (in addition to being the most frequent guest, he is also a listener o...

Growing up within reach of the White Mountains, Dave Moore was exposed to the world of hiking and backpacking from a young age, and eventually went on to complete the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail! But not only is he a Triple Crowner, he has hiked many other smaller trails as well! For this episode, we focus mostly on the Continental Divide Trail (CDT...

Jake Pickering thru-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in 2016, and headed back into the woods again in 2018. The second time around he thru-hiked the Great Divide Trail in Western Canada, which is a relatively unknown trail compared to more popular hikes like the Appalachian Trail and PCT. In this episode we learn about how a Wikipedia article exposed him to the world of long-distance hiking, and all...

Alton Eckel and her dog Cole have been ripping miles in the White Mountains and elsewhere for nearly 10 years now. We jump all over the place in this week's episode, talking about her thru-hike of the Cohos Trail in New Hampshire, how amazing of a hiking partner her dog Cole is, and how the pair were the first to complete the Northeast Ultra 8. That is just the tip of the iceberg however; tune in...

Shawn Crawford, known as Sintax77 on YouTube, began sharing his backpacking and hiking adventures with the world in 2011, and hasn't looked back since. He has created one of the most successful backpacking channels on the internet, and continues to release high quality documentations of his journey's in the backcountry.  We jump around a ton in this episode, covering topics such as the White Mount...

Austin Davis caught the hiking bug in 2018, completing a yo-yo hike of the Pacific Crest Trail, before heading to South America in an effort to continue his adventures. In 2019, he thru-hiked the Te Araroa in New Zealand, and the Arizona Trail. That's a ton of hiking.  In our chat, we talk in depth about his PCT yo-yo, water sources on the Arizona Trail (which still disgust me), and do an info-ses...

Effie Drew joins Trail Tales to talk about two main topics: her thru-paddle (you read that correctly) of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, and hiking with dogs! She has done the Appalachian Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, and much of the Pacific Crest Trail, and in 2018 her partner and her decided to give their legs a quick break and take to the water. They paddled the entire 740-mile Northern...

The ever-sarcastic Baker Bokorney is back! Baker thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, Florida Trail, and half of the Arizona Trail in 2018. We dedicate this entire episode to BACKPACKING GEAR, going through each of our packs from top to bottom. Some of the brands we discuss are ULA, ZPacks, and Hammock Gear. Both of us have ultralight setups (although Baker's is lighter than mine) and give some scatt...

On this episode, my good buddy from the Appalachian Trail and former guest Mitchell Larby and I basically run through our entire thru hike of the Foothills Trail. We break down each day and definitely go into some side rants as well. The Foothills Trail is a fantastic trail for somebody to hike in preparation for the Appalachian Trail, with tons of great waterfalls, rivers, and beautiful campsites...

Kristen Gardella has hiked a ton of long distance trails, including the Appalachian Trail and the North South Trail in Rhode Island. In this episode we chat about what it was like to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail in 1999, and how the gear and trail culture has changed since then. She also shares the basic information about the North South Trail, and sheds some light on this relatively unknown tr...

Sarah Williams joins Trail Tales to talk about her 2017 thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail and her podcast Tough Girl Challenges. We get into the logistics that non-U.S-Citizens must deal with in order to do a safe, successful thru-hike, and we also talk at length about Sarah's choice to quit her corporate job and become a full-time influencer and content creator.  Like what you hear? Want to talk...

Philip Carcia is attempting to beat the fastest-known-time to complete the White Mountain Grid- hiking all 48 four thousand foot peaks in a single year. We talk all about what made him decide to commit to this insane project, and many of the struggles and successes he has had along the way. Philip has also completed the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, and many other trails around the c...

Keith Wingad joins the show this week to talk about his thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in 2017! He is a veteran of the United States Military and talks about how his experience affected his thru-hike, and how he made it his mission to hike as an inspiration to veterans and doctors who treat them. We also talk about what it's like to thru-hike as an older hiker.  Like what you hear? Want to tal...

The one and only, IBTAT joins the show this week to chat all things Appalachian Trail, Art Loeb Trail, and Pacific Crest Trail. We talk about why his vlog was so successful, his experience thru-hiking the Art Loeb Trail in North Carolina, and of course, his upcoming plans to thru-hike the PCT! Those topics are only the tip of the iceberg, IBTAT and I really jumped all over the place with this one....

Kimberly " Catwoman " Morse thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2018, and has also completed the Adirondack 46 High Peaks. In this episode we chat about how she took time off in the middle of her career to complete the 2,000 mile trek, our favorite and least favorite High Peaks in the Adirondacks, and how she was bit by a cat (which she eventually rescued) while at a road crossing in Pennsylvania....

Ramblin' Rosie joins the show this week! She thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail during 2018, and shares all about it on episode twenty. We talk about how she completed the Four State Challenge, hiking in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania all in the span of 24 hours! We also cover some important tips for keeping yourself healthy at the start of a thru-hike, and she talks about compl...

This week thru-hiker Mikey Brenkus, our guest all the way back from episode four, joins the show to talk about his ranking of the states on the Appalachian Trail. We go through our ranks one-by-one, and discuss why we ranked each state the way we did. Our standard for the rankings was very loose, arbitrarily factoring in difficulty, scenery, and our experiences in each state. Is Pennsylvania reall...

The one and only Jennifer Mabus , also known as The Whimsical Woman joins the show to talk about her thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail. Seemingly on a whim, she set out to make the walk from Mexico to Canada in 2018. We talk about why her vlog was so successful, the post-trail adjustment period that we both went through after our hikes, and the craziness that ensued when she was stalked by a mo...

Alex Fogt had a crazy 2018, thru-hiking not only the Pacific Crest Trail, but the Florida Trail as well. We talk about how this skate-rat brought a board with him on his Florida Trail thru-hike and skated hundreds of the paved miles on the FLT. We also talk about his best and worst experiences on both trails, and attempt to define what the popular term "hiker trash" actually means.   Like what you...

This week I'm joined by Aaron Ibey , who is a professional photographer and thru-hiker, having hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2016. He worked for the Appalachian Mountain Club as a ridgerunner in 2018, and talks all about what that job entails, as well as some tips for taking better hiking photos on your smartphone. He ends the episode by telling an insane story from his 2016 thru-hike, where he e...

On a bit of a departure from normal episodes, trail runner and 46 Climbs co-founder Kolby Ziemendorf joins the program this week! We talk about his attempt to hike all 46 of the Adirondack High Peaks in one week to raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention . Turns out, a trouble-some bear may or may not have thrown a wrench into those plans. We also chat about how that hike tu...

Russell Corfman joins Trail Tales for episode 14, woo! Russell thru-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in 2018, making him the show's first (but certainly not last) PCT guest. He answer's many of my questions about hiking the PCT, including how the permit system works, how to not die when hiking the desert, and what gear he picked up when he entered the Sierra's. Check out his You-tube channel, Russell...

Jessica Pu joins Trail Tales! She is the fiance of episode 8's guest, Baker Bokorney , and they both successfully completed a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in the summer of 2018. Jessica and I jump around to a few different topics related to our thru-hikes;  if thru-hikers ever get stung by bees (the answer is yes), which section nearly made Jessica quit, and some advice for couples who wish...