Episode #451 - Kim Shoop (Gator)
Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Steve Adams
4.8 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 19 September 2024
⏱️ 82 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We have a really accomplished young woman on the podcast today, with Kim Shoop, or Gator, sharing her story about section hiking the entire Triple Crown in just eight years.

She has a very self-deprecating way about her, yet she is clearly a determined person to be able to achieve multiple long hikes, having to start again and again to fulfill her dream.

Fully in love with backpacking, Kim also decided that the Palmetto Trail needed a bit more information than was publicly available, so she put together a website of her own to help out. You can find it at http://Blazzardk.wixsite.com/palmettotrail. Kim is also active on YouTube, with her channel, I Hike Marathons.

Another completion for a Mighty Blue Class of 24 member, with David Vose checking in on his way down from the summit of Katahdin. His picture below says it all.

Then, Sondra Lee, or Lemonade continues southward, leaving Virginia and chatting with me from Uncle Johnny's in Erwin, TN.
Our new book reading, Happy Hiking, by my friend, Emily Leonard is–of course–written from a woman's POV and a woman's voice. I hope you enjoy listening to my reading of it. If you'd like to buy the book, you can find it on Amazon at Happy Hiking: Falling in love on the Appalachian Trail, or on Emily's website, at Happy Hiking.
I used my recent hike in the UK on the South West Coast Path to help raise money for my absolute favorite charity, Parenting Matters, on whose board I've been privileged to serve for over a decade. You can learn more about the hike and the organization–and donate–by visiting Hike with Steve - Empowering Parents, One Step at a Time | Parenting Matters %. I hope you want to support this critical mission.
Don't forget. Our entire series of videos from our Woods Hole Weekend in 2022 is now FREE and available at my YouTube page at Woods Hole Weekend - Trailer. There, you'll find all sorts of tips and tricks that our guests took away from the weekend that helped them with their own hikes this year. Check it out.
I often ask listeners for ideas on who to interview, and I'm sure several of you say, "I could do that. I've got an awesome story to tell." You're the person we need to hear from. If you'd like to be interviewed on the podcast, just register as a guest on the link below, and I'll be in touch. Come on the show!
If you like what we're doing on the Hiking Radio Network, and want to see our shows continue, please consider supporting us with either a one-off or monthly donation. You'll find the donate button on each Hiking Radio Network page at Hiking Radio Network.
If you prefer NOT to use PayPal, you can now support us via check by mailing it to Mighty Blue Publishing, PO Box 6161, Sun City Center, FL 35751. Any support is gratefully received.
If you'd like to take advantage of my book offer (all three of my printed hiking books–with a personal message and signed by me–for $31, including postage to the United States) send a check payable to Mighty Blue Publishing at the address just above.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 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. |
| 0:34.0 | Hey guys, nice to be back with you all again this week. Today we're on to episode number 451 of the podcast, and I'm your host, Steve Mighty Blue |
| 0:41.8 | Adams. |
| 0:42.5 | Actually, before we start, I want to thank all of you who wrote to me regarding my request |
| 0:46.4 | for ideas and how I might change the podcast going forward. |
| 0:49.8 | I've read all the emails, and I've replied to most of them, but I will get to them |
| 0:53.8 | shortly. They have certainly informed my thoughts, and I think a structure is kind of forming that will achieve what I want to do and just as importantly what the majority of you want me to do. I'm going to leave it open for another week, so in case some of you still want to reach out to me, you can at steve atahkingradionnetwork.com. So let's get to this week's show. |
| 1:13.1 | Our main guest today is Kim Shoup, a seemingly unlikely hiker, yet one who has achieved a |
| 1:18.7 | remarkable feat in the past eight years. I think you're really going to enjoy Kim's birth, |
| 1:23.3 | I guess you could call it as a hiker. She's very inspirational and I'm sure she'll get |
| 1:27.3 | one or two of you |
| 1:27.9 | thinking, if she can do it, then I can. We'll hear from Kim in a moment. Then with our class of 24 |
| 1:34.0 | whittling down, we have another finisher today, Professor Milkshake, who called me yesterday morning |
| 1:38.5 | from the tablelands on his way down from Cataritan. After the professor, the lemonade shares her |
| 1:44.1 | joy at pushing through Virginia |
| 1:45.3 | and into Tennessee. We spoke with her this morning from Uncle John's. Then, in one of those |
| 1:51.0 | serendipitous moments we get from time to time, the second part of the latest chapter from |
| 1:55.5 | Emily Leonard's book, Happy Hiking, sees Emily and Irwin, also at Uncle John is, you can't make this stuff up, |
| 2:01.7 | I tell you. |
| 2:02.8 | So let's get going and meet Kim Schoop or Gader. |
| 2:08.9 | Our guest today is Kim Schoop or Gator. |
... |
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