meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis

Episode #88 - Eli Best

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

Steve Adams

Sports, Wilderness

4.8599 Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2018

⏱️ 66 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, Eli Best tells me about the journey she took on the Camino De Santiago back in 2004. She had suffered a heart attack and organ failure several years before and the Camino was her way of testing herself in a life that had almost been written off. She shared the journey with an old friend of Steve's. Colin Bowles had moved to Australia as a teenager and found fame as an author while there, writing under the name of Colin Falconer.

Their journey together was transformative in many ways, many of which Eli believes, continue to this day. They wrote a book together three years after their journey and this book, The Year We Seized The Day, is going to be the new book read on the show from next week. It is a riveting read and we all hope that you enjoy the story told by both a woman and a man.

You can find the Paperback version of the book on Amazon, though the Kindle version doesn't appear to be currently available. They have a great little website for the book, with loads of pre-digital images now digitized for the site. They look great.

Eli's first book, Eli's Wings, is also available on Amazon, while Colin's website is also worth seeking out.

Jeff Alt returns to the show to tell us one or two things he'd change were he ever to repeat his 90s hike of the AT.

We hope that you take the opportunity to support our sponsor, Trailtopia, when you consider your next backpacking trip. Check out their wide variety of delicious meals.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You are listening to the Hiking Radio Network where we taught the walk with shows by hikers

0:05.2

about hikers for everybody. Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail, the ultimate midlife crisis,

0:23.4

joins Stephen his guests every week as he staggers from Georgia to Maine.

0:33.3

Hello again, thanks very much for coming back to Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail,

0:38.3

sponsored by our very good friends at Trialopia Adventure Foods.

0:43.2

We've got a mix of a show today featuring a trail other than the Appalachian Trail as the main interview,

0:49.0

while the AT is featured in...

0:50.9

If I get it again.

0:54.1

Let me step back and explain

0:55.8

As many of you know, I read a chapter from a book,

0:59.6

mainly my book so far, at the end of each episode.

1:02.9

This allows me to build up an entire audio book over a period of time.

1:06.8

People seem to like it, so I intend to continue the practice.

1:10.3

One of the issues I've run into over time has been the rights to actually read a book for the podcast.

1:15.4

Of course there were no issues with my own books, but the Earl Schaefer book, Walking with Spring,

1:20.1

involved several phone conversation and loads of emails before I was finally given permission

1:25.0

by whoever held the rights.

1:29.2

Even that wasn't initially straightforward.

1:34.9

Today is the last chapter of my own short third book and I've been thinking of how to replace it for some time.

1:36.8

I initially reached out to the author of a quite famous 80 book a while ago and since I

1:42.1

didn't hear from him I presumed my email had got into the cyber

1:45.0

vortex of his spam file. Well it turns out that it didn't and a couple of weeks back I got a charming

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

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.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.