blissful hiker ❤︎ inspiring you to hike your own hike
Long-distance backpacker Alison "Blissful Hiker" Young has walked over 13,000 miles on six continents including New Zealand's Te Araroa, Europe's Pyrenean Haute Route, Africa's Drakensberg Traverse and the Pacific Crest Trail in the United States.
In a series of personal essays coupled with found sound, this podcast explores her journey of self-discovery as a middle-aged titanium-reinforced cancer thriver, 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
Aliveness
“The goal of life … is not happiness, peace, or fulfillment, but aliveness.” —Hubert Dreyfuss
1. Sometimes curiosity about what’s around the next corner is enough to keep us exploring and moving forward.
2. Life doesn’t end once you’ve done “enough.” It keeps unfolding.
3. I hike because I am curious and because I can.
4. Here's a mantra I'll take with me on my next hike of the Great Divide Trail:
You’re not hiking for records, for ego, or for others.
You’re hiking because you still can—and that’s everything.
Each step is a declaration: “My body is capable. My spirit is willing. I am still in motion.”
There may come a day when this kind of journey is no longer possible.
But that day is not today.
Today, you hike.
MUSIC: "Poema del Pastor Coya" by Angel Lasala as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano.
