Episode #89 - Tom Healy (Toasted Toad)
Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Steve Adams
4.8 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 31 May 2018
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week's guest, Tom Healy, is somebody who I hiked around for a while in 2014. He seemed so comfortable out in the woods that I assumed that he had been a lifetime hiker. It turns out that, like me, this was his first long-distance hike. Since he completed the Appalachian Trail, Tom has spent more and more of his life hiking longer trails and regards it as his lifestyle.
As we spoke in this interview I found a few more similarities in our journey, but it was in the post-hike worlds that hiking became his new normal while I was pretty sure that I was one and done. That turned out not to be the case for me, but for Tom, it really accelerated to the extent that he expects to complete his Triple Crown this summer.
He loves to photograph his surroundings and I urge you all to check out his Instagram account, where you can find him at thealy416. If you'd like to follow his journey even closer, why not read his Trail Journals from the PCT and the CDT?
Tom would love to reconnect with old friends so look him up, not only on Instagram but also on Facebook at tom.healy.79677. He even shared his phone number if anybody wants to chat directly. Call him on 843-425-3033 but please call at a reasonable time!!
Bethany Varner came on for a brief chat about one or two things that she might change about her hike were she ever to go again.
We started our new book, The Year We Seized The Day, by Eli Best and Colin Bowles. It tells the story of two friends hiking the Camino in Spain and we get a glimpse into the hike from both their individual perspectives.
We hope that you take the opportunity to support our sponsor, Trailtopia, when you consider your next backpacking trip. Go to https://www.trailtopia.com/ to check out their wide variety of meals.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You are listening to the Hiking Radio Network, where we talk guests every week as he staggers from Georgia to Maine. |
| 0:32.9 | Hi, and welcome back to Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail, the Ultimate Midlife Crisis, sponsored |
| 0:38.1 | by Trialopia Adventure Foods, right to episode number 89, and you may have noticed that today |
| 0:44.6 | I use the tagline of the show, The Ultimate Midlife Crisis. When I set up the podcast, I wanted a tagline |
| 0:50.9 | that was appropriate to me hiking the trail in 2014. |
| 1:15.0 | A mid-law crisis? Was that it? Well, I'm sure that many of my friends thought it was, and an equal number thought I'd soon get over it and pack it in. Well, I didn't. And despite many of the doubters, I ended up six months later at the top of Katahdin, kind of wondering how on earth I got there. The reason I'm mentioning this today is that this week's guest, Tom Healy, or Toasted Toad, |
| 1:21.5 | was a fellow member of my class of 2014, and, like me, he was 61 years old, and again like me, |
| 1:23.5 | he was on his first ever long-distance hike. |
| 1:25.7 | Was it a mid-life crisis for him? |
| 1:27.2 | Did he ever go again? Unlike me, Tom has always been an |
| 1:30.2 | outdoors man and unlike me again, Tom headed for the Triple Crown. How he went about it is all |
| 1:35.7 | part of this week's story. Tom will be along soon. In this week's, if I get it again, |
| 1:43.8 | Bethany Varner returns to the show. |
| 1:46.4 | Bethany, or Snap, is a young woman who tore up the trail last year, |
| 1:50.3 | finishing in early July. |
| 1:52.4 | She even did the 100-mile wilderness in less than three days. |
| 1:56.1 | Yes, I know. |
| 1:57.9 | As you'd probably imagine, Bethany didn't see a lot. |
| 2:00.1 | She might change, but it was |
| 2:01.4 | lovely to catch up with her again. Last, but certainly not least, this week we begin another new |
| 2:06.5 | book, The Year We Sees the Day, written by last week's awesome guest, Ellie Best, and my old buddy, |
| 2:13.6 | Colin Bowles. It is a visceral view of the Camino de Santiago that will resonate with all long |
... |
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