Episode #66 - Zach Davis (Badger)
Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Steve Adams
4.8 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 20 December 2017
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Zach Davis didn't hike a long-distance trail until 2011, yet he was intuitively aware of the need to prepare himself mentally for the hike. Establishing his "why" allowed him to be ready for the problems that he would inevitably encounter on the trail. The fact that he contracted West Nile Disease and carried it until the end of the trail is further testimony to his desire to fulfill his goal.
When Zach returned from the AT, he wrote his best-selling book, Appalachian Trials to assist other hikers in the hiker mindset. He was already a prolific blogger, but used his website to, first, sell more books and, second, to turn his hiking influence into a business.
Zach's commonsense approach to hiking resonates with Steve in their conversation. You can find Zach at any of these places.
The Trek: https://thetrek.co
Zach's Instagram: http://instagram/zrdavis/
The Trek Newsletter: http://bit.ly/TheTrekNewsletter
The Trek on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theTrek.co/
The Trek on Twitter: http://twitter.com/thetrek_
The Trek on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetrek.co/
Zach's Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Zach-Davis
With Trailtopia stepping up to support both this show and Bruce Matson's show, Returning to Katahdin: An Appalachian Trail Dream, I had a chat with Vince Robichaud about his love of both the outdoors and good food–a winning combination.
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. |
| 0:25.9 | Welcome back to Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail, sponsored by our friends at Trialopia. |
| 0:32.1 | We've got a pretty well-known guest today for episode number six. |
| 0:35.4 | Zach Davis hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2011 |
| 0:37.9 | and embraced the experience to such a degree |
| 0:40.1 | that his hike morphed into a career. |
| 0:43.1 | He wrote a particularly influential book |
| 0:45.1 | about the mental aspects of doing a long-distance hike |
| 0:47.6 | and it had become a bit of a staple in hiker libraries. |
| 0:51.0 | Of even more significance has been his website, |
| 0:53.3 | Thetrek.co. This is a site packed |
| 0:56.4 | with information, other hikers blogs and other hiking related stuff. We had a really good chat and |
| 1:02.4 | I was struck at how thoughtful Zach is. He'll be along in a minute. But before we get to |
| 1:07.0 | Zach, we've got this. Do you remember those cold, wet evenings on the trail? |
| 1:12.5 | When you pitched up at a shelter and there was nothing you would have rather had than a beautiful, |
| 1:17.2 | hot, home-cooked meal? Well, apart from actually going home, you could try out one of the |
| 1:22.6 | delicious meals from Trail Topia. Why not dig into their spectacular jambalaya with its authentic Creole flavour? |
| 1:29.7 | How about their beef stew? |
| 1:31.3 | Which is loaded with beef, potatoes, carers, |
| 1:33.8 | mushrooms, corn, green beans |
| 1:35.3 | and green bell pepper in a fantastic beef gravy. |
| 1:39.0 | Go on, try them. |
... |
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