Episode #84 - James Smyle (Mayhem)

Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis

Steve Adams

Sports, Wilderness

4.8 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2018

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This weekend, April 28 and 29, the Flip Flop Festival will be held in the adjoining towns of Harpers Ferry and Bolivar, partly to celebrate the beginning of the outdoor season in Harpers Ferry but, more significantly, it is actively promoting flip-flop hikes as a viable, responsible approach to hiking the Appalachian Trail.

James Smyle earned the name of Mayhem when he did his first thru-hike, back in the 90s, but the more laid back Mayhem went again in 2016, this time as a flip-flopper. He tells us about his hikes, though the conversation is geared towards his role as Chair of the Flip Flop Festival.

You should check out the festival at FlipFlopFestival.org

James and Steve discuss the attractions of this alternate route, comparing and contrasting the two hikes that James has taken. Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail is a strong proponent of the flip-flop as a concept but less happy about the name!! We encourage listeners to submit ideas for a change of name and will share the entries with James and the ATC.

Jessa and an old favorite–"If I did It Again"–return to the show, as Jessa reflects upon differences that she would make to her hike if she were to do it again.

Please support the other shows on the HikingRadioNetwork.com and make sure that you head across to Trailtopia.com when you next plan to hit the trail.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You are listening to the Hiking Radio Network where we talk the walk with shows by hikers
0:05.2	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.
0:33.1	Hello everybody and welcome back to a special flip-flop edition of Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail
0:39.3	sponsored by our very good friends at Trail Topia.
0:43.2	The annual Flipflop Festival is this coming weekend, Saturday and Sunday, the 28th and 29th of April.
0:50.3	And I really wanted to feature this ATC-inspired initiative, which is in effect an initiative to safeguard and preserve the trail for future generations.
0:59.5	This is episode number 84 and our guest today is James Smile, the chairperson of the festival.
1:06.4	I reached out to the wonderful Laurie Pottinger at the ATC for an appropriate guest and she immediately
1:11.7	responded with James. He and I got on really well, probably laughing more than we should for an
1:17.0	interview, but well, when you get on with somebody, that's what you do. In the course of our
1:21.4	conversation we came up with a bit of listener participation, so make sure you pay attention
1:25.7	to that. James will be here in a moment I'm also
1:30.1	reintroducing this little segment if I did it again yep if I did it again where I ask previous
1:38.4	guests how they might consider changing their hikes if they were ever going to get back on a long
1:42.9	distance hike.
1:49.5	Our first guest and the person other than me who has appeared on the show more than anybody else is Jessa Hackman or Addie. Jessa will be along after James.
1:55.2	But before we get to James, it's breakfast time.
1:58.6	When I was hiking, I'd wake up to my alarm, deflate my airpad and contemplate my blah breakfast.
2:06.0	Every morning I poured water into those different coloured paper bags, scrunched around the ingredients,
2:11.7	not one of which had any association with fruit, and then eat that soulless gunk.
2:17.7	I then find unhydrated powder and sugar in the crevices of the bag.
2:22.3	Trialopia's blueberry oatmeal is a bit of a novelty because it actually has real blueberries.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Steve Adams, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Steve Adams and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.