Episode #71 - 5th Tuesday Special (Backpack Shakedown with a Trail Dames Panel)

For our fifth-Tuesday-of-the-month podcast, we brought together a varied panel to discuss what they put in their packs.

Our three panelists:

Roxanne Schenk - I am married and, together my husband Lynn, I have 6 children, 12 grandchildren, and 3 (step) great-grandchildren.

I spent my career working in health care and retired early to help provide care for my aging mother and other family members. Hiking is my way of relieving my stress and the way I recharge.

On my second date with my husband, we went hiking. I joined Trail Dames in the spring of 2017 and became a hike leader in May 2019. My first backpacking trip was in November 2018.

Laura Seeger - Laura is 57 years old and works in the insurance industry. Of self-professed "average build and strength" she has been hiking her entire life. She had a brief, three-trip foray into the world of backpacking while in college and recently decided to pick it back up again about 5 years ago. She trains five days a week with a 35 lb pack and 2 dogs, and is always looking forward to her next trip.

Susan Eben - Susan is originally from Canada and was a self-proclaimed couch potato for most of her life. She works in Medical software development where she is a laboratory technologist by trade and also works in software development. She is an empty nester with a 23-year-old son and a house cat. Susan recently discovered hiking/camping/backpacking in the spring of 2020, and she says that it was absolutely something that nobody around her ever thought she would do. She absolutely fell in love with it and is now hooked. When she discovered backpacking, she read books, did research, listened to podcasts, and watched movies before starting to buy gear and jumping right in. She represents the newbies on our panel, but has garnered a LOT of experience in the few trips she has taken so far!