Episode #50 - Mike Skelton (Bearded Skelton)

Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis

Steve Adams

Wilderness, Sports

4.8 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 31 August 2017

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mike Skelton is another listener who wrote into the show and immediately intrigued me. I'd asked for a few examples of the transformative nature of hiking and Mike provided me some thoughtful notes and personal examples. He is a hiker who has spent a lot of time on both the Appalachian Trail and other trails of America. He gave me some useful advice on how to avoid altitude sickness but, as you now know, my body refused to cooperate when I got above about 9,500 feet. Mike is selfless in his desire to get others into the woods and he told me that he led a group to the Appalachian Trail recently. It was a thrill for me when he told me that they listened to my podcast on the drive to Springer. The picture above, on the left, is of that group, while the other is Mike with a bunch of buddies at Glacier National in 2014. The photo below is Mike on his last trip to the AT. You can connect with Mike on Twitter, where he goes under the name @beardedskelton, or email him directly at beardedskelton@gmail.com. This week, John Boyet turns his attention to tents. I wish somebody had warned me that I was going to be sharing my tent with my backpack, so my advice is always going to be this; choose a double if you can. Funnily enough, I think John agrees with me on this one. Ask John anything you'd like at john@trailwalkergear.com.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail, the ultimate midlife crisis, joined Stephen his guests every week as he staggers from Georgia to Maine.
0:28.0	Welcome back to the show and almost inexplicably to me, we've reached episode number 50.
0:35.3	When I started this little journey last September, I didn't really think about
0:39.2	where the podcast might lead me. I just knew that I had my story to tell and I presume that
0:44.4	others would have their own stories as well. I hadn't given much thought to the structure of the show,
0:49.7	yet it seemed to develop organically. When I speak with these people, I'm a fan of them,
0:54.7	reaching out to learn what the AT or other hiking trails means to them.
0:58.9	I'm genuinely interested in their experiences,
1:01.5	and I believe that our shared enthusiasm for walking in the woods
1:04.2	comes out in our conversations.
1:06.1	Certainly, your email suggests that we're on the right track.
1:10.3	When you like these conversations, many of you write and tell me, often sharing your perspective.
1:15.5	One such person was Mike Skelton, this week's guest.
1:19.4	Mike told me about a couple of transformative hiking experiences that impacted him greatly.
1:24.0	So I wanted him to share his story with you.
1:26.7	He's a very articulate guy with a clear
1:29.0	view of how the very act of hiking impacted his life and taught him life lessons. Mike will be coming
1:34.4	up soon. I should say that this has been recorded in July 2017 and will be released on August
1:41.1	31st. By now, I'll know if I've been or am about to be successful in my
1:47.9	John Muir Trail hike. And then I've winter on about preloading the episodes and now I've been
1:53.5	screwing up some of them and, well, you know, blah, blah, blah. By the way, it might hurry to get
1:58.8	all this done. I must have messed up somewhere last week for about 50 seconds when the audio kept repeating itself. At the way, in my hurry to get all this done, I must have messed up somewhere last week
	...

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