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.

Hey guys, thanks for coming back to the podcast.

You're listening to Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail and I am Mighty Blue and I am currently on the Appalachian Trail.

I'm actually in Irwin, Tennessee as I record this, so I'm nearly 350 miles into the hike.

Considering that I went home after my first

down trail I'm pretty pleased with the progress I've made since I returned and to be

honest with you when I went home I didn't think I'd be coming back because I thought I was done

I just wasn't able to do it but I think I've shown in the last few weeks that I'm able to do

this and I'm making the sort of progress I want few weeks that I'm able to do this,

and I'm making the sort of progress I want to be making.

I'm up to 14 mile days, and I can see a 15, 16 mile day.

I think I'm planning one in the next few days when I leave Irwin.

So, you know, the miles are increasing.

I'm handling it, I think, better and better up hill. My feet are

giving me real jip, though. They're all bruised at the front, and I'm taking a bit of a

pasting going downhill. But we'll just have to see how that works. In the last podcast, you

left me on Saturday night at Little Laurel Shelter after a short day,

which I kind of bowed out of because I thought the rain was going to hit us.

And it turned out I was right.

The rain hit us all day long and I spent the night in the shelter.

But I knew that I had a 14 mile day the following day if I was going to make my plan work. So that's where we're going to pick up today. Before we hear how that went, let's hear from our sponsor, Polar Steps. If you're heading out on a long hike this year, which I am, I've got something I think you're going to love. It's called Polar Steps. It's a travel tracking app that's going to become a favorite with hikers. You set your start date, let it run quietly in the background, and it maps your entire journey automatically, all on your own beautiful spinning 3D globe. And don't worry, the tracking feature uses about 4% of your battery on a single charge, so it's not going to kill your phone when you're out there. You can have photos and short journal entries as you go. So your map shows you where you were and your words remind you of what that day actually felt like. There's a light social layer too. Family and friends can follow along or you can keep it completely private. As every hiker says, hike your own hike. And when you're done, you can relive the whole thing in the app

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