Episode #90 - Kayla McCarthy (Popeye)

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

Steve Adams

Sports, Wilderness

4.8 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 7 June 2018

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kayla McCarthy, her father, and her mother set out to hike the Appalachian Trail in 2014. Only Kayla and her mother reached Katahdin as her father injured himself and had to leave the trail. As Kayla told her story I was struck by how much the dynamic of their hike had to change, with Kayla stepping up into a partnership with her mother, as opposed to being the daughter of a couple. The trail throws interesting conundrums at you as you hike and any observer of Kayla and Molly could see the partnership working well between these two strong women.

Many people keep a journal on the trail and Kayla wrote every day, sharing her journey with listeners here. Go to http://www.trailjournals.com/journal/entry/446790 to read her story and, like me, you'll be amused to learn that her father's trail name was Wrong Way Jalapeno. Even funnier was the fact that she refers to him also as WWJ. That just tickled me.

If you'ds like to see a selection of her pictures on the trail, she has those in a short video on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u22OIgC7DPs

David "Digger" DiGrigorio returns in If I Did It Again, surprising me with the change that he would make if he were to hit the AT again. Considering that he's been hiking almost non-stop since we met on the AT in 2014, a return for him seems likely.

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

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You are listening to the Hiking Radio Network, where we taught guests every week as he staggers from Georgia to Maine.
0:33.3	Hi and thanks very much for turning up again for episode number 90 of Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail, the ultimate midlife crisis.
0:42.8	Sponsored by Tratopia Adventure Foods.
0:45.9	The reason I gave the full name of the show today is because today's guests, Kayla McCarthy or Popeye, does not fall into the midlife crisis category.
0:54.0	Kayla is a young woman who I met on the trail in 2014, along with a lovely mum Molly.
0:59.5	The two of them were quite a team and impressed me so much with their determination and
1:03.1	teamwork that I recalled them in the context of the type of independent woman I was lucky
1:07.0	enough to meet on the trail.
1:09.5	Kayla's story even has a little bit of male chauvinism thrown in, so that's always good.
1:14.0	Kayla will be long shortly.
1:17.1	In, if I get it again, David Digger, DiGregorio joins us again.
1:24.1	Digger was also a member of the class of 2014 and almost unbelievably he doesn't appear to
1:28.8	have stopped walking since.
1:30.3	He tells us one or two things he might change if, indeed when he does it again and he also
1:35.4	touches upon an extraordinary hype that he took on last year with his 10-year-old daughter,
1:40.9	the indefatigable Rosie.
1:43.3	What an adventure they had. Digger will be on the show
1:45.9	again with Rosie to talk about that journey sometime in the future. We also have chapter two of
1:51.7	the year we seize the day when I will be reading the part written by the bloke in the story
1:55.6	Colin Bowles. After my niece Laura's great reading last week, I've got quite an act to follow.
2:01.8	Before we get to all of that though, it's dinner time.
2:04.8	Do you remember those cold, wet evenings on the trail?
	...

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.