Episode #547 - Days 52-55 Appalachian Trail 2026
Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Steve Adams
4.8 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 18 May 2026
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A bit of a break for me this time. It is mid May, and that means Trail Days in Damascus. Dave Santi and his buddies picked me up from about 60 trail miles north of Damascus and brought me back to their Airbnb. What a treat!
So I was able to rest for much of the three days of the event AND buy some replacement shows. We'll see how much benefit I get from both of these things in the next couple of days.
along the way, I recorded conversations with Jeff Davis, a new hostel owner, and Ben Steere, or Big Red, a fellow hiker.
I'm using Polarsteps to record my AT thru-hike this year. If you'd like to follow my progress between episodes, as well as photos of my journey, please go to https://www.polarsteps.com/mightyblue and click on the follow button.
I used my hike in 2024 on the South West Coast Path in the UK 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!
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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, |
| 0:06.7 | about hikers for everybody. |
| 0:19.8 | Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail, the ultimate midlife crisis, joins Stephen his guests every week as he staggers from Georgia to Maine. |
| 0:35.9 | Hey guys, thanks for coming back to the podcast. |
| 0:38.8 | This is Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail, and I'm Mighty Blue and I'm on the Appalachian Trail. |
| 0:44.0 | This week we had trial days in Damascus, and I took the opportunity to go back to Damascus and take part in the parade. |
| 0:50.9 | It was also an opportunity to catch up with so many people. |
| 0:54.6 | And you hear in my reports that I've been kind of overwhelmed by the kindness of people |
| 1:00.1 | that I've met these past few days, many of them complete strangers. |
| 1:04.8 | And it's gratifying that whatever people say on Facebook, the trail remains the kindest place to be and and I'm just |
| 1:13.6 | overwhelmed by how how people have just taken to me in trail days and these three days of actually |
| 1:24.3 | being at or around trail days has been helpful in allowing me to heal a little |
| 1:29.0 | and rest a little, so it came at just the right time for me. |
| 1:33.1 | I'm recording this on Sunday evening |
| 1:34.8 | and we'll be back on trail tomorrow morning, |
| 1:37.5 | which is of course Monday. |
| 1:39.4 | I just hope that I haven't lost my legs though. |
| 1:41.9 | But before we hear what happened this week, |
| 1:43.8 | let's hear from our sponsor, Polo Steps. If you're heading out on a long height 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 |
| 2:01.2 | beautiful spinning 3D globe. And don't worry, the tracking feature uses about 4% of your battery |
| 2:06.4 | on a single charge, so it's not going to kill your phone when you're out there. You can |
| 2:10.2 | add photos and short journal entries as you go, so your map shows you where you were and your |
... |
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