Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail, the ultimate midlife crisis, joined Stephen his guests every week as he staggers from Georgia to Maine.

Hi again and welcome to episode number three. If you're listening, I can only assume that you

enjoyed the first two episodes or at least decided to give me another chance. Redemption can be a wonderful thing and I'm

grateful for that. So far I've tried to give you some idea of the importance of keeping down your

pack weight. Last week, Bearbag told us how light you can go with his 15 pound pack including food

and water. Mind you, that was an exception as opposed to a rule from what I

saw on the trial. I rarely came across somebody who carried less than 20 pounds, while between 30 and

£30 and £40 seemed to be the norm. At least that's what I saw. I started with £42, though that was a

reflection of my inexperience more than anything

else.

If I had been able to shove any more in, I probably would have done so.

When I was forced to return home from a week or so from Virginia, I managed to lose

seven pounds from my pack fairly easily.

I think that if I ever did hike the AT or any similar trail again, I'd be able to cut that further,

hopefully to about 30 pounds. It is extraordinary how quickly you realize how little you need when you're

hiking. Mind you, I have to say that I lost so much weight so darn quickly that I rarely found my

pack to be too much of a burden once I'd lugged it onto my shoulders at the

beginning of the day. That said dropping it at the end of the day became something of a highlight

for me. I've been stacking up these first few episodes in order to get ahead of the game so

while you're hearing this in early October I completed it a week or so back. Consequently I've

only had feedback from the pilot episode,

all of which has been positive.

...