I was expecting blisters and some swelling and maybe some lost toenails and that kind of thing,

but my feet, it turns out, have way more attitude than I've ever thought. Welcome to Back Packer Radio, presented by the Trek.

This is our seventh episode of our Trail Correspondence Series.

I am your host, Zach Badger Davis,

and the theme of today's episode is all about surprises.

Thruhiking is nothing if not an exercise in rolling with the punches.

You can dedicate endless hours to reading hiker blogs, watching their YouTube videos, and listening

to podcasts, much like this one, in an attempt to eliminate the element of uncertainty.

But the truth is, everyone's experience is going to be different.

You don't know what hand you'll get dealt in terms of the surrounding hikers,

weather, injuries, gear failures, and so on.

Something will catch you off guard. And that is the theme of today's

episode. So in an effort to keep these surprises, well, a surprise, I'm going to shut my

mouth and let our hikers take the mic.

Before I do, I just want to say that this is going to be a two-part episode.

In today's show, you'll hear from our Appalachian Trail hikers, the next episode you'll hear from the rest. Okay, here they about this experience so far has surprised me? I definitely would have to say just how challenging the trail has been.

I mean everything from little boulders to big boulders to not being able to find the next

blaze to 34 degrees one day 89 degrees the next day. Yeah so the extremes of the trail muddy

rocky up down I mean there's just been muddy, rocky, up, down.

I mean, there's just been nothing consistent,

nothing.

And I think that's kind of surprised me

...