blissful hiker ❤︎ inspiring you to hike your own hike
Long-distance solo hiker Alison Young knows hard-core backpacking as few people do. With footprints on six continents and memories from trails like Te Araroa and the Pacific Crest, she is a member of a very small and prestigious group.
In a series of personal essays coupled with found sound and her own flute playing, this podcast explores her journey of self-discovery as a middle-aged woman, sharing the sometimes unglamorous but vital truth about empowerment, inspiring others to blaze their own trails in this journey we call life.
blissful hiker ❤︎ inspiring you to hike your own hike
Appalachian Trail: you're only passing through
When seeing two Pileated Woodpecker parents up close, Blissful learns that she is only passing through and to savor the moment while it lasts.
- It's an easy enough day on the Appalachian Trail (AT) though rainy without any views.
- Blissful stops at a lovely campground on the banks of Lower Jo-Mary Lake surrounded by pink Lady Slippers, as delicate as crepe.
- These first days walking south through Maine have been hard and Blissful feels like an amateur muddling through.
- While she licks her wounds, two woodpeckers poke out of a snag, chittering to each other and seemingly planning who will head out for food and how will stay with the young; it's magical.
- The lesson that "we're only passing through" is made apparent as is that she will never pass this way again.
- And this realization makes her feel gratitude for being invited into this wild world.
MUSIC: Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano
