I always love chatting with the crazy hikers over at The Trail Show podcast. This month I joined them for episode 101 to talk about the Blue Mountains Trail.

If you haven’t listened to The Trail Show before, it’s more about beer than gear, more about hiking shenanigans than not, more about the goofy trail culture of hiking long trails than a buttoned-up show that’s all miles and not smiles.

My interview starts at 13:10:

Read about the history of the Blue Mountains Trail here and here.

Start reading about my section hike of the BMT here (Section 1, August 2020) (Section 2, October 2020)

Howdy hikers!

If some of you are looking for some good hiker gifting ideas, I got to share a couple of my favs with Backpacker Radio in their Ultimate Backpacker Holiday Gear Wish List. If you didn’t catch my podcast with them from this summer, head on over and give it a listen.

I have more suggestions that I’ll mention below, but for the podcast I could only pick 2! And preferably from brands that I’m not sponsored by, so I’ll cover a few of those below 🙂

#1 Gortex Socks

Why hike in freezing wet shoes?

#2 Purple Rain Adventure Skirts

You have to try one of these skirts (dudes love them too). This is how you will feel wearing one of Mandy’s skirts:

A few other of my favorite things:

TOAKS

This polished long-handled spoon is SO beautiful.

Six Moon Designs

The Silver Shadow Sun Umbrella is a blessing because sometimes you need to bring your shade with you (it works in rain and snow too).

Wander Woman Pee Rag

Drip drying sucks.

Photo from WanderWomanGear.com

Planetary Designs French Press mug

Life is too short to drink bad coffee. (with a couple other favs: Sawyer’s Mini water filter, and TOAKS woodburning stove)

Food for the Sole

Eat good…so much yum in my tum (on the TOAKS spoon!).

I really love all my gear, and instead of listing it all, head on over to my gear list and check it out!

I first met Zach (author of Appalachian Trials – and website which has since become The Trek) back in 2015 at the Winter OR Show. He was getting started on estabishing his thru-hiking media empire and I was with the Continental Divide Trail Coalition (CDTC) as their first hiking ambassador (before my 2015 CDT thru-hike), and to help them find partners to develop the trail.

hehe, I bet he didn’t think this photo would surface 🙂

Since then he started a podcast called Backpacker Radio, and has been asking me to participate. Our schedules aligned this summer when I went to the Outdoor Retailer show again, this time in Denver, and we sat down and went deep. Really deep, over 20 years into my history as a hiker and adventurer. It was a great conversation, and you can give it a listen here or here:

I had the opportunity to take part in another podcast recently and the episode was just posted yesterday. I talked with Emory from the By Land podcast about the Oregon Desert Trail, hiking philosophy, barriers to entry and a whole lot more.

I really enjoyed the conversation and think this captured a lot of unique angles on walking long distance, especially as Emory is a newer hiker, and I’ve been doing it so long sometimes I forget everyone is not as immersed in it as I am.

We talked about:

• Introduction to Renee and the Oregon Desert Trail
• Renee’s background prior to being the Trail Coordinator for the ODT
• What the Oregon Desert Trail offers and its history
• How the ODT compares to other trails in the US
• How Renee began backpacking and what made her start long distance backpacking
• How Thru Hiking has impacted Renee’s backcountry trips
• What Long Distance backpacking means to Renee
• How the ODT manages relationships with land owners to retain access to the trail
• Where and how to begin planning a hike of the ODT
• Renee’s thoughts on the future of hiking
• What Renee has learned about backpacking after all these years
• How Renee has changed since her first long distance trail
• The future of the Oregon Desert Trail
• How to find and support the ODT

Here are a couple of different ways to listen :

iTunes

Stitcher

Google Play

Podbean

Back in November my friend Boomer brought some food samples to a presentation Anish was giving in Bend about her Oregon Desert Trail hike. The food came from a new company that was started by a fellow Search and Rescue member of his, Julie Mosier. There were so many hikers around that night that I didn’t take a sample at that time, but a few months later ordered their sample pack….and…WOW.

I made the Food for the Sole cold-soak Peanut Super Slaw before a ski Kirk and I were heading out on this winter, and it was so good I literally licked the bag. SO GOOD. Now I do struggle to eat healthy on trails…my pack certainly contains a fair amount of processed sugar and flour, so as I worked my way through these vegan and gluten free samples, I was hooked. These are super tasty, and I am sure better for my body than

cheetos! These are dehydrated meals instead of freeze dried, which allows for a certain amount of texture and flavor to carry through the re-hydrating process. And as I’ve been doing so much desert hiking, I think the cold salads will really be a game changer during the heat of the day when I often don’t feel like eating something heavy like peanut butter or cheese.

I was so interested in helping to spread the word about this new company that I’ve decided to come on as their first Brand Ambassador! I’m stoked to eat these meals on all my various adventures this year (trail work, hiking & packrafting trips, Sunshine Coast Trail Thru-hike, and anything else I might get up to this year). Did I tell you I’m planning on hiking the Sunshine Coast Trail this summer with NEMO??

If you are interested in checking out Food for the Sole I’d recommend starting with their sample pack of all 7 meals they make, and I’m pretty sure you will make another order shortly after. 🙂

Oh and use SHERAHIKES code for 20% off!

Following my Reddit AMA session a few weeks ago, Cody Owen of the podcast Nature’s Call, asked me to record an episode with him.

We talked about the Oregon Desert Trail, growing up in Wisconsin, the Peace Corps, and more!

Check it out…

For those who Reddit, I’ll be doing an AMA on the ultralight subreddit next Tuesday, 12pm eastern time, 9am pacific.

AMA stands for Ask Me Anything, and for a few hours I’ll be online answering any questions that come up!

Oh, and I started a new Instagram account for the Oregon Desert Trail.

Hope you all are planning some good adventures this year…

So I also uploaded this 25 minute video about my hike of the Arizona Trail.

This hike came after I had moved to Bend and had worked leading wilderness therapy trips for over a year already. This hike was my first route, as much of the AZT back then was dirt roads, some pavement, and some unmarked wondering. It was fairly well signed though, and in fact became a National Scenic Trail when I was hiking. When I got to Orcale and picked up a copy of the local paper I saw Obama had designated the Arizona Trail that week. Now, I’m not one for omens, but I thought that led to a nice theme for the hike.

Although I hiked alone most of the time, I was joined at the start by my bestie, NEMO. NEMO and I met on the PCT in 2006 and became fast friends. We’ve hiked together a few times since, and are currently planning something for this summer (!!!!!!!!!) I had made friends with a couple from Tuscon the summer before when I dispensed some trail magic on the PCT near Bend, and wouldn’t you know it, Slo-Ride and Shanke-n-bake had already hiked the Arizona Trail.

NEMO and I launched from Mexico with their help and crossed paths with a few other hikers out that year (Snappy & Puff Puff – and dog Buckaroo, Roni from Israel, and Mother Natures Son). But after the first week when NEMO had to go home, I wanted my solitude so took off for parts unknown (to me).

Here is my journal.

This is much more contemplative video, and a bit slow at times, but for 25 minutes, it might be better than scrolling through the dregs of whatever feed is near by. Maybe?

Lots of trail friends and new friends made on this trip, and illustrates one of the things I love most about hiking long trails: meeting awesome people.

Northbound Arizona Trail thru hike Spring 2009 from Renee Patrick on Vimeo.

I’ve always made little videos and compilations of the hikes and adventures I’ve had over the years. As a result I have a you tube channel, vimeo channel, and lots of stuff on DVD…do you remember DVDs? Those disk-like things on which you would burn a video…maybe half an hour to an hour of photos, videos, and music…

30 MINUTES?

People really made videos that long?

Yep. We did. My PCT video is 45 minutes, this Colorado Trail one is about 30, my Arizona Trail one is maybe 40? It seems these days hikers make 3-5 minute videos because no one has the attention span to watch longer…myself included.

But, I dug into some of the old DVDs I made of hikes, and am going to start uploading some of them.

This little trip down memory lane was over 10 years ago when I hiked northbound from Durango to Denver in the fall of 2007. I had moved to Durango in February that year to go through a crew leader development training program, an Americorps gig run by the Southwest Conservation Corps (SCC). I spent months cutting trees, building large log and rock retaining walls, and fixing damaged trail in places like Mesa Verde, Canyon of the Ancients,the Great Sand Dunes, and the San Juan Mountains.

It was the only logical next step to hike the 500-mile Colorado Trail when our work for the year finished. That put me at a mid-August departure from Durango. The timing was great. The weather held out and I thought I was going to die only once when I camped on the divide and over 12,000′ near Stony Pass. That night a lightning storm moved in and I was very exposed. I didn’t sleep a wink, but when I woke and hiked a few miles to Stony Pass, I met some of my SCC crew friends working on the Continental Divide Trail. Woop! (I would return 8 years later to hike the CDT).

Most of the time I felt like the only person left on earth.

I loved hiking alone after months of people around ALL THE TIME. I was strong after a summer of moving dirt and rocks, and it was very empowering to spend that time in the incredible landscape of Colorado. I climbed a few 14ers, read a couple of books, and got giardia only once.

I was tired towards the end and looking forward to the next thing…which happened to be moving to Bend to lead wilderness therapy trips.

I kept a daily journal here.

This video also has the soundtrack my 2007. Enjoy!

Solo Northbound Fall Colorado Trail Thru-hike 2007 from Renee Patrick on Vimeo.