Episode #356 - Julia Widmar (Stretcher)
Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Steve Adams
4.8 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 12 January 2023
⏱️ 97 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We have one of our younger newly minted thru-hikers today. Julia Widmar was only 20 when she hit the trail last year, though she had learned so much in the previous five years as she looked forward to this journey of a lifetime.
Julia is an EMT nurse who was thoroughly prepared at Amicolola to take on the trail and, despite a three-week break in the middle, she pushed on to complete it in just over four months of trail time.
While she didn't blog or vlog herself, Julia wanted to share the blog and vlog of two of her trail friends who she met out there. Doubtless, Julia will be in some of those. For those of you who like to go down the YouTube rabbit hole, there's https://youtube.com/@ScritchsGoneWild, while trailnametales on Instagram tells the story of trail names. That's at https://www.instagram.com/trailnametales/
Chuck Faulkinberry is taking on the AT as a member of the Mighty Blue Class of 2023 by having a little twist to his hike. You can follow Chuck on his vlog, Polar Bear Treks, at https://www.youtube.com/@polarbeartreks
Doctor Lynne Savino returns to the show with some timely medical advice for our class–and others–heading onto the trail this year. She gives us her First Aid Kit list. I'll be adding this to the show notes NEXT week, so look out for that.
If you'd like to find out more about "Then The Hail Came," check out George's website at https://georgesteffanos.webador.com/. You can also find George's book on Amazon at this link. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QFG4ZR6
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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 |
| 0:05.3 | 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. |
| 0:33.4 | Hey guys, welcome back to the show. This is actually going to be quite a long show, but it's going to be different from probably, I don't know, 99% of all our podcasts in that I'm not really anything at the end. |
| 0:45.2 | George Stephanel says then the hail came will resume next week, but I'm afraid I didn't feel quite up to recording it today as I've been suffering with a severe respiratory infection and my voice |
| 0:54.9 | wasn't really hard for it. I'll tell you about the replacement in a moment and I'm sure you're |
| 0:59.2 | going to love it. First up, our guest is another successful and newly minted Appalachian Trail |
| 1:04.8 | Through Hiker, Julia Widmar or Stratcher. As you're going to hear, Julia is an extremely |
| 1:10.5 | confident and accomplished hiker |
| 1:12.0 | with the skills she needed to survive and thrive on the trail. She's still very young, |
| 1:16.9 | she turned 21 on the trail, yet she has the poise and I don't know, I suppose the calmness |
| 1:22.1 | to take the 80 in a stride. It's not as if she had an easy run either, yet she comes across |
| 1:27.0 | as a real coper, if you know what I mean. |
| 1:29.6 | Julia will be on in a moment. |
| 1:31.6 | Then another guy in our Mighty Blue Class of 2023. |
| 1:35.0 | I met Chuck Falkenbury at our Woods Hole weekend this past October. |
| 1:39.0 | And when he told me his plan, I was excited to have him on the show. |
| 1:42.9 | We are suddenly with a similar plan in last year's class. |
| 1:45.5 | That's a clue for you. |
| 1:46.7 | Chuck will be on after Julia. |
| 1:49.1 | I've been toying with the idea for a couple of weeks now to bring back a past guest, |
| 1:54.2 | one of it was very popular when we started featuring her on the show a few years ago. |
| 1:58.3 | In fact, several of you have asked me to bring it back on the show. |
... |
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