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
cancer thriver
Blissful takes her first hike on a trail after surgery for breast cancer and decides she prefers to be described as a "thriver" – or even "aliver" – rather than survivor.
- It's a hot, humid summer day at Lebanon Hills, a region carved by glaciers with kettles and eskers, plus the singing of numerous birds.
- Blissful's surgeon tells her it's time to put on a backpack and get back on trail, even though she's isn't completely healed.
- Illness humbles us and teaches us about our vulnerability and ultimate decline, and yet it opens us up to discover our superpowers, like moving forward to see what's next.
- It's the price we pay for being alive, but it offers us a chance to appreciate what we have even more.
MUSIC: Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano.
