Episode #309 - Grant Breidenbach (Detour)
Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Steve Adams
4.8 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 10 February 2022
⏱️ 73 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Grant Breidenbach is our guest this week. Grant hiked the John Muir Trail in 2021, his longest backpacking trip to date. But, as you'll hear, his preparation and knowledge base is impressive from many perspectives. He is a consummate planner who considers the many factors that go into completing a long-distance hike.
He also has some insights into the weather patterns in the Sierras that culminated in a huge storm on his second day. His telling of that story is riveting.
Finally, Grant makes the case for bear canisters as a method of food storage to help protect bears.
Grant suggests the following two Facebook sites as valuable resources for the JMT https://www.facebook.com/groups/JohnMuirTrail
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2022jmt
If you'd like to learn more about Grant's preparations for the trail, and his attention to detail, check out his excellent website, at https://grantbreidenbach.wixsite.com/grantphotography. There, you'll see his pack breakdown, his food details, and his itinerary, along with a link to his Instagram account.
Also today, Dave Burge and Chuck Hayes–our first two Class of 2022 members–talk to me about their progress in the cold, early days of the year.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You are listening to the Hiking Radio Network, where we talk the walk with shows by hikers, |
| 0:05.5 | about hikers, for everybody. Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail, the ultimate midlife crisis, joined Steve and his guests every week as he staggers from Georgia to Maine. |
| 0:34.5 | Hi guys, wonderful to be back with you all. |
| 0:37.2 | This is Steve Adams on Mighty Blue and you're listening to Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail, |
| 0:40.7 | the ultimate midlife crisis. |
| 0:42.9 | And this week we're going to be leaving the AT behind for our main interview, |
| 0:46.1 | though, of course, we'll be back to the AT in two of our catch-up interviews |
| 0:50.1 | with the Mighty Blue Class of 22 through hiking group after this main interview. |
| 0:54.9 | Today's guest is Grant Bridenbach or Detour. |
| 0:58.3 | And again, one of our listeners, John Park, reached out to me and suggested I should contact Grant. |
| 1:02.9 | What a find he was. |
| 1:05.2 | I mean, the main reason for getting Grant on the show originally was to hear about his epic storm on the JMT. |
| 1:12.3 | Grant's already told much of that story on another podcast, but I soon discovered after talking |
| 1:16.7 | with him for a few minutes, Grant had so much more to share. In many ways, I'd call it a bit of a |
| 1:22.6 | master class when it comes to hike in the JMT, but well, you can make up your mind in a moment. |
| 1:27.7 | Then with just two of our class of 2022 hikers having started, we catch up with both of them. |
| 1:33.6 | First, after Grant, it's going to be Dave Burge. |
| 1:36.8 | If you remember, we left Dave in Hot Springs a week or so ago. |
| 1:40.7 | As you'd imagine, he's pushing on a bit of of a lick though when he spoke he was driving his car |
| 1:45.5 | find out what happened to him after grant finally today chuck haze is heading back out there |
| 1:51.4 | after a short break at home in fact if you're listening on thursday morning the day this is released |
| 1:56.2 | chuck will be on his way again braving the weather. Chuck will be on after Dave. |
... |
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