Episode #511 - The ALDHA Gathering - October 2025
Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Steve Adams
4.8 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2025
⏱️ 90 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Very limited notes this month, mainly because I'm away and rushing to get this out on Wednesday evening!!
It was an honor to be chosen to present the Saturday evening keynote speech at ALDHA last weekend. I picked my own guests–and subjects–and the event was not only well-attended but also well-received.
First up was Mills Kelly, the well-known AT historian and podcast host of the Green Tunnel. Mills shared a story of how close we came to losing our beloved AT shelters back in the 70s.
After Mills, Casey Huffman, or Vegas, exemplified community on trail in his own distinctive, articulate, and thoughtful way. He has become a friend since we met on my podcast, and that friendship shone through on the night.
Following Casey, I shared a few life lessons I've taken from the trail, before we met Mary Julian, or Pinkie. Mary section hiked the Appalachian Trail over three years, with some unlucky interruptions along the way. She is now a proud member of the ALDHA board.
Then, Dennis Newton, the outgoing ALDHA co-ordinator joined the show as I surprised him by calling him on stage. It was such a surprise that I didn't even get a photo of him!!
I'm delighted that I was asked, and I'm delighted that it is over!!!
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, |
| 0:24.1 | joins Steve and his guests every week as he staggers from Georgia to Maine. |
| 0:33.4 | I'm Steve Adams, and my radio voice, as you can tell, is in English and I don't provide |
| 0:39.0 | subtitles, unfortunately, so I hope you can understand me. |
| 0:42.4 | I try to do this podcast where I introduce as many different guests I possibly fan |
| 0:48.1 | and in this particular podcast, I've got four people I intend to speak to. |
| 0:53.7 | One doesn't know it yet, but there are three others who have agreed to do this. |
| 0:58.0 | And I'm looking forward to meeting each of them. |
| 1:01.0 | And I always look for different subjects. |
| 1:03.0 | And one of the subjects I want to talk about today is shelters. |
| 1:07.0 | Another one is the community of the trail. |
| 1:10.0 | And one of my friends has come along to do that and you won't believe this guy. |
| 1:14.6 | He's great. |
| 1:16.6 | And another one is about section hiking and the other one will be a surprise and that will be towards the end. |
| 1:23.6 | So we'll see how that goes. |
| 1:25.6 | So I normally start with music on the show, |
| 1:29.8 | but that's not gonna be there here right now. |
| 1:31.9 | So we're just gonna get straight into it. |
| 1:33.7 | I want to meet our first guest, |
| 1:37.2 | who is Mills Kelly, was gonna talk to us about shelters. |
| 1:43.3 | This looks a very natural conversation, isn't it? |
... |
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