Sounds of the Trail

It's getting to be that time of year again - the end of summer thru-hiking season. Our first hikers are completing their journeys - today we get to hear from two of them, Homework and Juan Durer. Lessons learned, summits summitted, and the feeling of the end. There's a lot of heart in this episode - take a quiet half hour and make sure you listen through to the end of the podcast, I think you'll be glad you did.

What's so great about the outdoors anyway? It's worth one more podcast at least, so we re-visit the topic in today's episode. The best part of being outdoors, true love, and a community too good to leave behind - it's just cool to be in the forest.

Are thru-hikes a spirit quest? Or just a long walk? Sometimes spirituality on the trail is the goal, sometimes it just happens to us anyways. We have two great interviews today with hikers of different stripes who've both found things worth believing out on the trail. We're especially pleased to have a Triple Crown hiker on the show - this is a guy who's done his miles! Today's podcast's special guests are Scarecrow and Pace.

It's time for a little catching up! In this week's podcast, we spend a bunch of time with Homework, to find out where he is on the Continental Divide Trail. In between updates we try to figure out what's so great about the outdoors anyhow. Special guests Smiles and Umgawa

Mt Whitney marriage proposals, injuries, and goats as wedding guests... this episode has it all! But one conversation that often gets left out of trail talk is the stickier subject of race in the thru-hiking community. Well, today we talk about that too. The subject of hikers of color has been making the rounds on the online community, so we took the chance to address it head-on, with the firm belief that nothing helps understanding more than sitting down and listening to each other. Don't...

Your most important piece of hiking equipment? It's your meat suit, that ol' body of yours that's doing the work to get from place to place. In today's episode we talk about the effects of thru-hiking on our bodies... and our minds, because that's part of our body too. We also have two interviews with former combat veterans hiking with Warrior Expeditions, who talk about how thru-hiking is affecting them. Special guests: Yours Truly, Push, Bare Bones, Slim Jim, Helton, and Sage. Music...

Being on trail is a great way to get to know... yourself. From the gross to the profound, our correspondents and fellow hikers discuss what they've learned so far from their time as thru-hikers. Big thanks to Audible for supporting our podcast! Get a free 30 day trial at audible.com/hikertalk. Special guests: Magic Mike, El Tejano, Rafiki, and 2%. Check out El Tejano's blog here.

With just one life to live, why spend it walking around the country, being hot, cold, thirsty, hungry, and tired? In today's podcast, we ask some hikers what is the best part of their thru-hiking day - the part that makes it worthwhile - and they tell us what keeps their spirits up despite the blisters and the hemorrhoids (ouch!). Our trail correspondents are starting to pick up trail names, so you'll hear some new names with the voices you've already been introduced to. I'm working on an...

Thru-hiking season has officially begun! All our correspondents are out on trail, finally finding out what trail life is all about, and what they didn't know before they started. This podcast fills us in on the reality vs the expectations. Special guests: Mishap, Shortcut, Spoony, Knees, Bacon, Fruit Snax, Boyardee, and Splinter.

Sounds of the Trail is back for the summer thru-hiking season! In this podcast episode we introduce some of our new correspondents who will be attempting thru-hikes of the Appalachian Trail in 2016. We get to hear about their reasons for thru-hiking, some of their hopes, and some of their fears. Is that a random twinge of the the knee or is it...? Next week we'll be hearing from our Pacific Crest Trail and Continental Divide Trail hikers as they get started. Thanks to Smiley 501, John...

In this episode we get to hear from two hikers at two different points in their thru-hikes - the Before and the After. Special guests Sandpiper and Buff. We also include some very dubious info on water treatment - I personally recommend a filter. Music by: Baby Gramps I'm getting back on the AZT this afternoon, but I'll be back in May to officially launch our second season! - Gizmo

Today's podcast is all about the real stars of our show - the trails themselves. We talk about our 2016 lineup - the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail - discuss hiking family histories, and get to hear from the Triple Crown hiker Wired one more time for some trail stories. Music by: Baby Gramps Other sounds are from Freesound.org and include: Les Paul Rock by guitarelement Boom4 by noisecollector 1234567_guitar by growingup (Used under CC-BY 3.0...

One guy, with one goal - to ski 2.5 million vertical feet in one year. That is, 2.5 million feet UPHILL. To make this happen, Aaron Rice is planning on skiing 10 hours a day, every day, for an entire year. Kimchi sits down with Aaron and his friend Joey Campanelli to talk about what it takes to do something like this, and why skiing uphill every day for 10 hours a day is something that anybody would even want to do. This subject is a little bit of a break from our usual hiker talk - we...

Where does it all begin? How do you grow up to become a thru-hiker? We get to hear from Rock Ocean as he interviews Kimchi and Par 3, from Gizmo, and even from Gizmo’s mom as we explore our origins as thru-hikers. Also, we have a big announcement – Sounds of the Trail is looking […]

Sounds of the Trail is transitioning to an off-season format. In this week’s podcast we shift our focus to the third trail in the Triple Crown, the Continental Divide Trail, and get inspired by some youtube videos. Special Guests Liz and Bryan (along with Bumblebee Tuna and Toni the Tiger). During the hiking off-season Sounds […]

We finally get to do a recap with both Kimchi and Par 3 on finishing the trail. We discuss the end of the time on the trail, their best moments, and what it means to be a thru-hiker. Music by: Baby Gramps

It’s the end of A season, but it’s not quite the end of THE season, at least not for a few hardy hikers or for Sounds of the Trail. Not many northbounders are still braving the mountain passes, but we ran into a few still heading for Maine. Special guests Smokey Bear, Homegrown, and Bailey […]

Thru-hikes are a hugely physical undertaking that take a lot of time and a lot of money – or at least the ability to forego earning money. A lot of people ask – how do you make a thru-hike happen? We have no magical secrets to share – but we do have some thru-hikers share […]

This week’s podcast revolves around one Maine thing – the people and places of Maine. We get to hear from thru-hikers, trail angels, and trail Maine-tainers (heh heh) working with the Maine Appalachian Trail Club. Special Guests are Pain Wizard, Scout, and the MATC. What have YOU done to support your trails today? Check out […]

In our continuing attempts to be neither educational nor informative, we have an entire podcast episode about thru-hiking gear that fails to provide any real useful information. What kind of gear do you need to thru-hike? Depends on who you ask. Special guest Chia Pet and many others. Music by: Baby Gramps