Ep. 490: Backpacking Legend - Andrew Skurka
Adventure Sports Podcast
Curt Linville
4.6 • 579 Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2019
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Andrew is essentially a "professional backpacker" who is best known for his long-distance backpacking trips, many of which are firsts.
For instance, his 6,875-mile Great Western Loop, his 7,778-mile Sea-to-Sea Rou, e and his 4,679-mile "loop" of Alaska on foot, raft, and ski. He also has completed a plethora of shorter adventurers that would be on anyone's bucket list.
He's been considered the John Muir and Henry David Thoreau of Generation Y, was Backpacker Magazine Person of the Year, and National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, among other awards.
However, today's episode is not specifically about those adventures, but about what life has been like after those achievements. How has he built a sustainable career from backpacking? What future adventures is he planning? Listen in to find out.
Instagram: @andrewskurka
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | on a six-month-long trip, if you miscalculate by half a day how much food you need |
| 0:10.4 | to have sent to a certain location, you're going to be really upset with yourself. |
| 0:14.0 | So, like, you can't make mistakes like that. |
| 0:19.6 | This is the Adventure Sports podcast where we talk to athletes, adventurers, and business owners from around the world of adventure sports. |
| 0:27.8 | Whether you're climbing Mount Everest, starting a bike shop, or getting up off your couch to take your kids hiking for the first time, we want you to have the motivation and inspiration you need to chase that |
| 0:38.5 | next adventure. |
| 0:40.0 | The Adventure Sports podcast is brought to you by Camp Crate, the leaders in fully planned |
| 0:45.2 | self-guided backpacking adventures, as well as backpacking gear rental. |
| 0:49.9 | You can check them out at campcrate.net. |
| 0:53.3 | Thank you. You can check them out at campcrate.net. |
| 1:07.7 | Welcome to this week's life outside the box episode. |
| 1:09.3 | We've got a treat for you, man. |
| 1:15.4 | We got backpacking legend backpacking royalty if there was such a thing andrew skirka i don't know if it can be overstated just how big of an influence this guy |
| 1:24.1 | has had on the backpacking community. He was doing his huge trips before |
| 1:29.7 | social media was huge in the sense of like Instagram posts and even when Facebook was still |
| 1:37.1 | gaining a lot of momentum. So this guy has been considered. He is the Generation Y version of Henry David Thoreau or John Muir. He's the |
| 1:48.3 | 2005 person of the year by Backpacker Magazine. He is, I mean, his accolades are crazy. He's been |
| 1:56.4 | Men's Journal, Adventure, Hall of Fame. He made the Outside 100 list. He's an adventure of the year by |
| 2:02.6 | National Geographic. I mean, his trips are crazy. Some of the things he's done, let's see, |
| 2:08.3 | let's see, he's done the AT with the Appalachian Trail. In 2007, he did the Great Western Loop, |
| 2:13.3 | which is basically doing the Continental Divide Trail and the PCT in a big loop. |
| 2:19.0 | So between each terminus of the trail, he connected the trails with other, or he connected |
... |
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