I recorded a new conversation recently with Off Trail Podcast (scroll to the bottom to get to the recording).

The show’s host, Ryan “Constantine” Bunting is quite an impressive dude. He started hiking in 2016 on the Appalachian Trail, and went on to hike the PCT in 2017 and the CDT in 2018…since then has gone on to hike all 11 National Scenic Trails, culminating with a speed record on the 4,830 mile North Country Trail in 2021 and has hiked over 22,000 miles and counting.

I like how he described our conversation:

We begin the show with what it means to identify as a thru-hiker. Renee has been involved in the outdoor, backpacking, thru-hiking world for 20+ years now, and we dive into what it means to her to be a thru-hiker, and whether or not that definition has changed over the years.

We dive deeper into time itself and as she describes it, “Deep Time.” Is there a finite amount of time needed to reach this type of time and what are the conditions that it is found? Along the way we go through her time in the outdoors and her progression into who she has become today. We start with her initial thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail back in 2002, and how the fire that began there was never quenched. Travelling forward through a masters degree to her next thru-hike on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2006, we chat the thoughts when she reached the point many in the outdoors eventually reach, the question of, “How can I make hiking my life.”

We discuss the growth from a hiker into making hiking your life. We chat Wilderness First Responder courses, meeting other hikers involved in the industry, and following your curiosity.

We go into all things Blue Mountains Trail and Oregon Desert Trail. The trail systems are located in the state of Oregon, which Renee has an important role in the decisions of trail routing, conservation, and trail awareness. We discuss the missions of both trails, and how one goes about bringing the thought of conservation to the forefront of each hiker’s minds and most importantly actions. Is it the maps, the trail association, the individual’s responsibility, the preparation, the information along the way, what are the ways and how does it become a reality? We discuss what a trail means when sometimes the very point of a “trail” is to not become a “trail.”

We chat a pair of scissors and $5 per cut of hair “fundraising,” the immensity of time in 6 weeks to build 30′ of trail, and the beauty of alternates.

Listen today!