Episode #15 - Clay Bonnyman Evans (Pony)
Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Steve Adams
4.8 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 29 December 2016
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Clay Bonnyman Evans, 55, is a writer who moved to the beaches of South Carolina in 2015 after spending his previous life in the mountain west and California. His three published books—a memoir about his years working as a cowboy, a children's holiday picture book, and the story of an iconic hardware store in Boulder, Colo.—are out of print, but you can find them on the Amazon Marketplace by searching his name. He blogs at claybonnymanevans.com, including the ongoing tale of his thru-hike, The Trail Is the Teacher. He'd be delighted to hear from any fellow hikers, so feel free to email him about anything at claybonnyman@gmail.com. I found Clay to be a really interesting guy to chat with. He started his hike in 2016 with the intention of just doing a long section hike. However, the trail got to him and he worked out his own way to achieve a thru-hike. We discuss a number of topics, but I was most interested in the way he brought up the fact that a sort of depression can descend upon you after your hike. As my wife, Diane, says, "you all seem to get some form of depression after the trail and have difficulty getting back to your lives." I'd really love to hear from any of you who feel that you can explain this phenomenon. Please remember to rate the show on iTunes. It will only take a moment and means so much to me. 
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail, the ultimate midlife crisis, |
| 0:16.4 | joined Stephen his guests every week as he staggers from Georgia to Maine. |
| 0:26.5 | Hi, welcome back and thanks for tuning in. |
| 0:29.9 | By the time you hear this, Christmas will be over, |
| 0:32.5 | and you'll have taken everything back to the store to get what you wanted in the first place. |
| 0:37.4 | I hope that your holiday was full of friends and family, laughter, booze and food, |
| 0:43.6 | as well as the occasional game or movie on the TV. |
| 0:46.8 | Whatever your Christmas was like, thanks for joining me for episode number 15. |
| 0:52.3 | This is a special time of year for all of us, and the Mighty Blue podcast is no exception. |
| 0:58.0 | Once again, friend of the show, Glenn the Geek, has suggested what I hope will be a new |
| 1:02.4 | favourite element of the show in 2017. |
| 1:05.9 | Glenn wrote to me to tell me that one of his listeners, and Glenn had kindly turned |
| 1:10.1 | some of them onto this podcast, |
| 1:12.2 | had asked if I could interview a prospective 2017 hiker and follow him or her on their journey |
| 1:18.6 | during the next year. Well, some of the next year. This is an ambitious departure for an inexperienced |
| 1:24.5 | podcaster like me, but I thought I'd give it a go. |
| 1:31.2 | I've been looking for the right candidate, I think that I've found him, or her. |
| 1:36.4 | This person contacted me last week, having heard the show, which is a good start, |
| 1:40.9 | requesting the logistics spreadsheet that Gris offered back in episode number six. |
| 1:47.4 | When that person explained that they were starting a through hike in 2017, something in their background determined to me that I may have found the right candidate. |
| 1:51.3 | So, next week I'll be introducing our very own 2017 through hiker in our first interview. |
| 1:58.6 | This will track all the other interviews and serve as an introduction |
... |
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