Episode #288 - Christian Foster (Bear)
Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Steve Adams
4.8 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 16 September 2021
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We rarely feature A.T. Southbounders on the show, but this week's guest is halfway through his SOBO hike of the Appalachian Trail. Christian Foster, or Bear, is an insightful young man, gaining much from his hike. We discuss not only the journey but also the impact of the trail upon his general well-being.
Christian also introduces the perfect articulation of what it is we need on a long-distance hike. I'd never heard the words "cognitive flexibility" in conjunction with one another before, but his smart use of the expression sums up the essence of we all need to complete a hike of this nature. For somebody who'd never even heard of the Appalachian Trail a year ago, this recognition is extraordinary to me.
The only social media that Christian shared with me is one from Snapchat. Not sure if this will work for you, but it seems to make me want to sign in and I don't have a Snapchat account!!
https://www.snapchat.com/add/foster2326?share_id=NzgyNzJC&locale=en_US
Katie checked in from the airport–in Florida!! She's heading back to Maine after a few days of R&R with her family. She's rarin' to go, again.
We also had the chance to chat with Ryan McCormick, from Cedar Trail Gear–this month's sponsor! If you haven't checked it out yet, you can learn more at cedartrailgear.com. The picture below is of me with the 3-Point Multi Tool.
Winton Porter and his family re-located to the freezing Georgia Mountains. Just how freezing, we find out today.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You are listening to the Hiking Radio Network, where we taught the walk with shows by hikers |
| 0:05.3 | about hikers for everybody. Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail, the ultimate midlife crisis, joins Stephen his guests every week as he staggers from Georgia to Maine. |
| 0:33.6 | Welcome back to the show. You're listening to Marty Blue on the Appalachian Trail, |
| 0:38.3 | the ultimate midlife crisis, sponsored for September by Cedar Trail Gear. As love would |
| 0:44.7 | have it, I am Mighty Blue. And the show is all about celebrating the triumphs and sometimes the |
| 0:50.2 | tragedies of hikers, all of whom have done or about to do something they will never, ever |
| 0:56.6 | forget. |
| 0:58.1 | Luckily enough, this week on Facebook, I saw a comment from a woman responding to a post that |
| 1:02.9 | asked who was going to through hike the 18 next year. |
| 1:06.0 | A lady called Anita replied, 50% yes for me, either I buy a new car or I use the money for a trip. |
| 1:14.0 | Several of us replied, nobody suggested she buys a car. I said, Anita, a car will never change |
| 1:21.0 | your life. An 80 through hike most certainly will. And really it's those life-changing hiking |
| 1:26.2 | stories that we're bringing you. One such is of a young |
| 1:29.4 | man who is halfway through his southbound hike. Christian Foster or Bear was suggested to me before |
| 1:35.6 | he'd even started by his father. And yet there was something about the email that made me want to |
| 1:40.0 | follow up with him, so Christian will be along shortly. Oh and by the way, Anita, who I mentioned |
| 1:45.6 | earlier, responded, thanks fellas, I just needed the reassurance. So she'll be out there in |
| 1:50.7 | 2022. Go Anita. We catch up with Katie this week in a Florida airport. Now, you may recognize |
| 1:58.1 | a Florida airport as significantly off the trail but don't worry she's heading |
| 2:02.9 | back to Maine and she pushes back on me when I suggest that she may lose the rhythm she'd gained |
| 2:07.1 | recently we're going to hear from Katie after Christian and before we finish out the show |
| 2:12.2 | with Winton Porter's book passing through this week I had a short chat with Ryan McCormick |
... |
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