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
Life is Too Short to Waste on Speed
On the Teton Crest Trail in Wyoming, Blissful decides to go for an "SKT" (Slowest Known Time) and surprises abound.
1. John Muir (and Henry David Thoreau) hated the word "hike" and preferred to saunter, entering beautiful natural places with reverence.
2. Physiologists tell us that walking at a turtle's pace releases endocannabinoids a kind of "persistence high" that elicits a state of euphoria.
3. But most important, going slow and leaving plenty of time allows us to simply exist and enjoy – explore off-trail, enjoy sights like a bull moose, pikas, and wildflowers, and nab the best campsites!
Blissful will give her first TEDx talk this October in Manchester, New Hampshire! The subject is "Stepping into the Unknown." Get tickets here. Use coupon code "WILD" for a discount!
MUSIC: Introduccion y Allegro by Carlos Guastavino as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano.
