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
Art of the State (Parks): Spring at Lake Itasca
“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” —Margaret Atwood
Part one in the series highlights a night of near-solitude at Lake Itasca State Park. The moment is a reflection on spring’s renewal and the fragile, hard-won legacy of preservation that allows this landscape to remain alive and vibrant today.
1. Camping alone at Floating Bog Bay amid the rich smell of earth, Alison listens as frogs, birds, and insects erupt in raucous celebration.
2. The episode traces the long, uncertain journey to identify Lake Itasca as the headwaters of the Mississippi River.
3. And highlights how spring's return to this beautiful place depended on a single vote that preserved the land from logging and development.
Alison Young is a fiscal year 2025 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature; and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
