Welcome to episode 165 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 while looking for your next hike or backpacking trip, it's easy to lose track of time reading

colorful, inspiring trip reports. We'll help you to decipher some uncommon words and

phrases that you may run across in your reading.

Then we'll review some dreamy socks that are getting a cult following among through hikers.

And we'll give you access to the secret government codebook to decipher trip reports.

It really is from the government.

All this and that's about it.

Today on the first 40 miles. A few weeks ago I was on

the Washington Trails Association website just kind of reading through some hikes trying to get

inspired and see what's out there and I got lost in the descriptive, beautiful poetic writing of some of these folks who write the trip reports for Washington Trails Association,

like this line from a report on the

Enchantments in Washington State, it says, in the Enchantments,

Nature has carved one of the and Crystal Blue Lakes strung together by a creek that tumbles and thunders between them.

You know there was a more boring way.

This person could have written this report, but they chose the road less traveled and really

brought you with them on this journey.

And the more boring way of describing the enchantments would fall short of

...