You are listening to the Hiking Radio Network, where we talk the walk with shows by hikers

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

Hello, hello, hello. Yes, we made it to 500. This is indeed episode number 500 of Mighty Blue on the Applachian Trail, the ultimate midlife crisis. And as ever, I'm your host, Steve Adams or Mighty Blue. And for those of you who have listened to our show from the beginning, as well as those of you have joined us later, my first thank you is to you, my listeners. Obviously, this wouldn't be worth doing if all I was doing was talking to thin air, but I'm not. I know there are quite a few of you out there who listen to all our guests and who tell me that they get a lot from those guests. Several of you have even told me in the past that my show is the reason that you've gone on to attempt and in many cases complete an Applachshan Trail through hike. I've got to say, that just fills up my heart. It really does. Now, I thought long and hard about who to invite on the show today to celebrate with us on such an occasion and I was able to get the person I wanted. If you've been listening for some time, you'll know that I've had Jessica Mills, as was, now Jessica Hawkins, on the show several

times. In fact, another podcast on the Hiking Radio Network is Jessica's complete 2018 through hike

of the Continental Divide Trail, and that still gets downloads, even though we did it seven years ago.

In fact, one day last month, we had nearly 50 downloads for the last episode.

So if you haven't heard it, you might want to check it out after you've listened to today's show. Now, I normally have a pre-recording call with our guests, but I decided to think about the questions I'd ask Jessica without that initial call. I think I know well enough from our previous conversations to trust that I'll get the questions right. So I went with it.

We'll find out shortly how that went. Even though it's the 500th episode, I'm keeping our structure the same as usual. So we'll be catching up with our Mighty Blue Class of 2025 members

today with Beth and Andrew who are in Massachusetts, followed by Dave, who has left the White

mountains and is into Maine his last state.

They're going to be on after Jessica.

But I have a few other things to tell you about you in the show,

and I guess I can tell you one of them now,

as well as to remind you of another that I think I've already mentioned in a previous show.

Actually, I'll get that one out of the way first.

This year, at the older gathering in Abingdon,

which is from October the 10th of the 13th,

I've been invited to take the Saturday evening keynote slot and put on a live podcast.

Never tried it before? It may be awful, but I'm going to give it a shot.

I've even hired my friend Austin Wallace to come and film it, so it'll be released on YouTube,

as well, of course, here as podcast number, whatever it is by that time. I'm looking forward to it as Dana will be with me as well, because we're taking much of October off to drive up the East Coast and see some of the fall colours and plenty of places along the way. I'll also show us some of the AT, though we haven't planned it out yet. Anyway, if you're anywhere near Abingdon

on the Saturday night in October, come along and see how it goes. It'll be nice to see you.

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