I'd like to welcome to the podcast, fellow outdoor enthusiast, Ben Paladin Cox.

Ben, welcome to Papa Bear Hikes.

Thank you for having me.

Very much appreciate it.

Ben, you've done quite a bit at hiking.

You've been on the AT, you've been on the PCT.

And we've talked a lot about those trails on the podcast.

But something I always enjoy is not just other trails, but people who are willing to take

those steps to leave the country, really leaving our comfort

zone, going somewhere where people speak a different language and try something new. And you did that.

You went to Norway. Yes, sir. Finally. I had a chance. I originally wanted to do this many, many years

ago because my best friend in high school and I, we saved

up her money. And for our senior week, we actually went to Walt Disney World. And when we're

doing Epcot, we went to the Norway section and we were like, man, this is so cool. Wouldn't

it be fun to go here someday? I was like, yeah, it would. So,

fast forward all those years. And last year, probably around this time, I was just like,

it's time, it's time to do it. So I started saving up my money.

I have a family so I don't have a ton of money to splurge, but started saving up and I started

looking for flights and my parents for my birthday present, actually, they they helped me out with plane ticket and uh started

looking at different places i wanted to go different trails i wanted to hike and uh got got the old trusty

map out actually see yeah yep yes i still use maps because i i like GPS as much as everybody else but uh there's nothing

like actually looking at a at a physical map going all right how can i get from here to here

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