blissful hiker ❤︎ inspiring you to hike your own hike
Long-distance backpacker Alison “Blissful Hiker” Young has logged more than 14,000 miles across six continents, tackling iconic routes such as New Zealand’s Te Araroa, Europe’s Pyrenean Haute Route, South Africa’s Drakensberg Traverse, Nepal’s Great Himalayan Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail in the United States.
An award-winning professional musician and syndicated American Public Media host, Alison approaches storytelling through a deeply attuned ear. Her series of intimate personal essays — coupled with field recordings gathered on trail — trace a path of self-discovery as a middle-aged, titanium-reinforced cancer thriver. They reveal the often unglamorous but essential truths of empowerment, inviting listeners to find the courage to blaze their own trails on the journey we call life.
blissful hiker ❤︎ inspiring you to hike your own hike
Appalachian Trail: A River Runs Through It
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Blissful makes her first dangerous ford over a swollen and dangerous river in flood from the non-stop rain.
- For a SOBO – or southbounder – on the Appalachian Trail, it's often wise to pay for delivery of a cache of food to break up the 10-day hike of the 100 Mile Wilderness.
- Right after the cache, the trail gets harder, steeply uphill into real mountains, plus river fords.
- With an unusual amount of rain, the rivers are in spate and dangerous.
- Blissful is alone and carefully crosses the Pleasant River – less pleasant, but doable especially with affixed ropes, yet there's no information on whether the ropes are safe.
- A Winter Wren congratulates her on a successful cross, and encourages a climb to Logan Brook right below White Cap Mountain, where a shelter awaits.
MUSIC: Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano
