Trail Correspondents Episode #15: Diversity on the Trail

Backpacker Radio

Zach Davis

Hikertrash, Thruhiking, Continentaldividetrail, Julianachauncey, Thruhiker, Backpacker, Thetrek, Pacificcresttrail, Appalachiantrail, Wilderness, Hiking, Sports, Zachdavis, Backpacking

4.7 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 26 October 2018

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Diversity on the trail is a heavy, but important subject. It's impossible to do this subject justice in the span of an hour long podcast, but it's a conversation worth having nonetheless. Our correspondents share their thoughts about the diversity -or lack thereof- that they've encountered on trail. Our hikers also ponder ways the community can encourage under-represented groups to get onto the trail.

Admittedly- our correspondents largely follow the demographics of the thru-hiking community at large- which is to say young and white. Though one of our hikers is visiting from across the pond and another is gay- and we've got more female correspondents than male when the trail skews the other way. But in terms of racial diversity, there's none. We were fortunate to get the input of Elsye "Chardonnay" Walker, who's one of the few (if not the only) black woman to hike the triple crown. She shares her take on these same questions, which offers some interesting contrast to the other stances offered in this episode.

Lastly, we get an update from Jeffrey "Legend" Garmire, who's on the tail end of his Great Western Loop journey, a 6,875-mile footpath across the western half of the USA. The path, popularized by Andrew Skurka, links five existing trails, including the Pacific Crest Trail, Pacific Northwest Trail, Continental Divide Trail, Grand Enchantment Trail, & Arizona Trail, as well as some route finding through the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts.

In today's show, we hear from:

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Episode produced by Pauly Boy Shallcross. Check out his coffee roaster, Old Man Murph's. Music via.

Transcript

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0:00.0	If there's anybody out there who believes that there are barriers to them getting on trail,
0:05.0	remember those barriers are just like the mountains on the trail. They are not insurmountable.
0:12.0	You can make it happen and there are people out there just
0:17.5	waiting to meet you and hike with you. Welcome to Backpacker Radio, presented by the trek. This is episode number 15 of our Trail Correspondence
0:45.0	series. Today's episode was inspired by an email that we received with the
0:49.9	following question. Hey backpacker radio this is Ch. This is Jiaggov all the hell, I'm from Brazil.
0:55.0	And there's a couple of questions I'd like to ask you.
0:58.0	The first one came to me actually when I was listening to episode 9 when you guys interviewed Hey Girl and she made a comment about
1:05.8	diversity on the IT and ever since I've been wondering about diversity if you
1:12.4	see if you're a correspondence have seen many black people
1:16.3	hiking those long distance trails I have been following many PCT years on
1:21.2	Instagram and on YouTube and I don't remember seeing any black people that they meet and so I was just wondering if it's just a matter of maybe I'm not looking property or something like that.
1:36.0	And if you remember something like that, if you remember seeing these people out there.
1:41.0	And the second question is just because it's still a little bit unclear.
1:46.9	Zach, have you hiked the IT? That's it guys. Thank you. Keep up the good work. The podcast is amazing. It's very entertaining and I'll see you guys out.
1:58.0	Drink. Diversity on the trail is a heavy subject that can have a lot of variance depending on the demographic or
2:05.4	psychographic that you're evaluating.
2:08.0	Our correspondence shared their overarching thoughts about the diversity, or lack thereof, that they've witnessed on trail.
2:14.0	Our hikers also ponder ways the community can encourage underrepresented groups
2:19.0	onto the trail.
2:20.0	Admittedly, our correspondence largely follow the demographics of the through hiking community at large, which is to say young and white.
2:27.5	Though one of our hikers is visiting from across the pond and another is gay, and we've got more female correspondence than male. the So we reached out to Elsie Walker, also known as Chardonnay, who's one of the few, if not the only,
	...

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