A fascinating study opportunity

This is a spinoff from Steve Adams' outstanding thru-hiking podcast Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail.

Bruce Matson is gearing up to accomplish a long-held dream, hiking the ~2,190-mile AT, and Returning to Katahdin is Steve's attempt to document the entire process. It's also worth noting that Bruce plans to use his hike to raise $250,000 for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

Bruce, a highly accomplished attorney, is articulate and meticulous, while Steve is boisterous and funny and at times irreverent. It makes for surprising chemistry, and it's fun to listen to.

For me, the early episodes that detail Bruce's careful planning and attempt to anticipate anything that might come his way while on trail — just like any good attorney would — will be a fascinating opportunity to watch, in quasi-real-time, as a hiker comes to understand my hiking motto: The trail is the teacher.

While planning and anticipation are a critical and for most of us, fun, part of the thru-hiking experience, I learned very quickly that the moment you set foot on the trail, all the planning, the spreadsheets, the calorie and mileage calculations, and so on, tend to go out the window.

So I'm really looking forward, after listening to Bruce's prep for a few months, to see if he agrees with my unofficial motto or not.

For anyone interested in hiking the AT, the first few episodes of this podcast point to a very educational experience ahead.

~Pony (Colorado Trail '15; AT '16)