Welcome to episode 58 of the first 40 miles.

If you're new to backpacking, or if you're hopelessly in love with someone who wants you to love

backpacking, then this podcast is for you. We'll talk about the essentials, how to lighten your load

and how to make the most of your time on the trail. I'm your host Heather Legler.

And I'm Josh Legler.

And this is the first 40 miles.

Today on the first 40 miles,

if you've ever listened to the Christmas story from the Bible

and felt some connection

we'll share some good reasons why you may feel that way. On the summit gear review

we'll show you a simple way to deal with the moody weather of December.

For the backpack hack of the week, find out where we dig up all our best backpacking stories.

And we'll wrap up the show with a little Christmas Uletide.

All this and that's about it today on the first 40 miles.

In our family Josh is usually the one that gets our family outside. He's

the one that plans the adventures. He's the one that pours over maps and looks up things online and

finds the best trails for our family in fact he's also kind of the what do you call it the motivator the person also kind of the, what do you call it, the motivator, the person who kind of says,

come on, come on, let's go, let's just spend a couple hours outside.

And he gets all the kids, if not excited, then at least willing to go outside.

So my question for you, Josh, is, what are our family's hiking plans for Christmas Day? I know you've got something bubbling up, some kind of plan,

because we talked about it in a recent episode, you know, getting out on Christmas Day because you feel kind of cooped up after a while.

Yeah, I'm still figuring out the plans.

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