Episode #11 - Gabe Burkhardt (Hermes or Sketch)
Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Steve Adams
4.8 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 1 December 2016
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Gabe Burkhardt has hiked on the Appalachian Trail three times: 2014, 2015, and 2016. He completed his thru-hike in 2016 but has covered more than 4,000 miles on the trail. When I hiked with Gabe, in 2014, he was known as Hermes, and his calm intensity left quite an impression upon those around him. Coming back to the trail with the intention of an entire thru-hike in 2016, he charted his course with a truly visceral blog, named Almost Unsalvageable. He has a bunch of his artwork on the site and I've included a couple of examples at my website, mightyblueontheat.com, in the show notes for this episode (for some reason, these pics don't get shown on iTunes or Stitcher). The first one is of Gabe on the sign at Katahdin, the second is a picture of the indispensable Miss Janet, while the third is a terrific representation of the AT sign, made from the equally indispensable Snickers!! 
You can also contact Gabe at gabeburkhardt@me.com and he'd be delighted to give you any assistance that he can. Don't forget to rate the show on iTunes and Stitcher with a review and a few kind words (or even what you really think!!) about the show.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail, the ultimate midlife crisis, join Stephen his guests every week as he staggers from Georgia to Maine. |
| 0:26.8 | Hi and thanks for joining me once more for my journey and my friend's journeys along the |
| 0:31.5 | Appalachian Trail. |
| 0:33.4 | We're on to episode number 11 and I continue to be encouraged by the kind words I received |
| 0:37.8 | through email and the occasional iTunes review. The podcast has even been spotted by |
| 0:44.0 | SBB Radio, which stands for Southern Branch Bluegrass Radio. It's a low-power FM |
| 0:50.7 | bluegrass station in Claxton, Tennessee. It's also available online. A listener to my podcast |
| 0:57.6 | and the owner of the show, Danny Hensley, called me recently and asked if he could play my show |
| 1:03.3 | on his radio network. I can't tell you how thrilled I am that I'm reaching beyond friends |
| 1:10.2 | and family for the show. I hope that speaks |
| 1:13.0 | to the power of the AT and the stories that my guests have shared with you all. If you like the show, |
| 1:18.7 | please let your friends and like-minded people know. A few weeks ago we had karate kidd as the guest. |
| 1:25.1 | He and his friends shared the link and my various social media posts |
| 1:28.6 | to their network of friends. In just over 24 hours there were nearly 1,200 downloads of that |
| 1:34.9 | and my other episodes. Today I'm featuring a guy I interviewed about six weeks ago, Gabe Burkart. |
| 1:43.0 | He hadn't long completed his through hike of the |
| 1:44.9 | trail when we spoke and everything was rather fresh and painful. Gabe is a self-effacing, |
| 1:50.9 | very introspective guy with some wonderful insights that he brings to our conversation. |
| 1:56.1 | That's what I'm trying to have here. A conversation. While I have more than a vague awareness of where my |
| 2:02.4 | interview is going, I try to make it as natural as if we were chatting over a beer. I hate those |
| 2:08.1 | TV interviews who, whatever the interviewer has said, just goes on to his or her next question |
| 2:14.2 | on a list. I'm fascinated, enchanted even by these people I'm talking to. |
... |
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