Hiker Trash Radio
Join Doc and his guests on Hiker Trash Radio, the outdoor adventure podcast that takes you on a myriad of trails. With interviews from thru hikers, skydivers, adventure athletes, big wall climbers, and more, each episode is packed with trail talk, gear tips, and hilarious misadventures. And if you thought the great outdoors was all sunshine and rainbows, think again! Tune in for tales of blistered feet, helicopter evacuations, and Type II Fun that will make you appreciate the comforts of home. Settle in and get ready to trade the city for the wilderness. It's time to embrace the suck!
The Cottage - Episode 5: Work Hard. Stay Curious.
The Cottage — Episode 5: "Work Hard. Stay Curious."
The series finale of The Cottage asks the question behind all the others: why do these people do what they do? Allgood on waiting for his life to require a walk of that magnitude. GVP on creating margin and slipping into soft focus. Bus on never giving up the walks that changed his life. And the realization that ties the whole series together: the cottage industry exists because people who carry less learned to do more, and they found the answers they needed on trail.
Featured Voices
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The Trail Name That Got Away - Bee Corrado (Part II)
About the Guest
Bianca "Bee" Corrado is a high school Spanish teacher, outdoor educator, and content creator from San Diego, California (currently relocating to New York). Under the handle @beeswildlife, she has built a community of over 100,000 followers by teaching beginners how to get into the backcountry safely and confidently: camp kitchen guides, gear reviews, Leave No Trace education, and trail safety for solo women. She documented her PCT thru-hike in real time across Instagram, YouTube, and Substack. Her first backpacking trip was with the Sierra Club at Stony Brook University in 2016; her first thru-hike was the John...I Actually Thought You Weren't Going to Make It - Bee Corrado (Part I)
About the Guest
Bianca "Bee" Corrado is a high school Spanish teacher, outdoor educator, and content creator from San Diego, California (currently relocating to New York). Under the handle @beeswildlife, she has built a community of over 100,000 followers by teaching beginners how to get into the backcountry safely and confidently — camp kitchen guides, gear reviews, Leave No Trace education, and trail safety for solo women. She documented her PCT thru-hike in real time across Instagram, YouTube, and Substack. Her first backpacking trip was with the Sierra Club at Stony Brook University in 2016; her first thru-hike was the John Mu...Dark Miles - Never Again with Zach Lawyer
Zach Lawyer grew up battling his inner demons. His brother was born with spina bifida, and Zach grew up carrying the guilt of a healthy body in a house where one wasn’t guaranteed. He started looking for an outlet early. Skateboarding found him before the drugs did. But it was hard to battle the self-sabotage.
He stole an iPod at 13. A neighbor traded him a quarter pound of weed for it. That was the launch of a dealing career that lasted over a decade, eventually eating the dealer. By his mid-twenties, Zach was using an eighth of...
Trail Stories - The Trail Name I Didn't Get (Fortunately!) with Bee Corrado
About the Guest
Bianca "Bee" Corrado is a high school Spanish teacher, outdoor educator, and content creator from San Diego, California (currently relocating to New York). Under the handle @beeswildlife, she has built a community of over 100,000 followers by teaching beginners how to get into the backcountry safely and confidently: camp kitchen guides, gear reviews, Leave No Trace education, and trail safety for solo women. She documented her PCT thru-hike in real time across Instagram, YouTube, and Substack. Her first backpacking trip was with the Sierra Club at Stony Brook University in 2016; her first thru-hike was the John...The Cottage - Episode 4: From Basement to Warehouse
The Cottage — Episode 4: "From Basement to Warehouse"
The makers from Episodes 1 through 3 don't exist in isolation: they're part of an ecosystem held together by a retailer in St. Paul, a connector who knows everyone, and the community events where cottage brands meet the hikers they serve. In this fourth episode of The Cottage, we zoom out to see how the pieces fit together. Lloyd Vogel and his warehouse full of 160 brands. Allgood's decades of relationships across the industry. Double D as the consumer who's becoming the next maker. And a philosophy — "there is no ideal base weight" — that t...
It Is Never Too Late to Rewrite Your Story - Joe Hardin (Part II)
About the Guest
Joe Hardin is a self-taught mechanical design engineer, ultra-endurance runner, race director, woodworker, and podcaster from Lebanon, Indiana. Seven years sober, he discovered running after getting a gym membership for his first sobriety birthday and found a flyer for a local turkey trot on the door. A Billy Yang video introduced him to trail running, and a friend's suggestion — "maybe you're just not cut out for 100 milers, maybe you should sign up for something longer" — led him to the Vol State 500K. He recently completed that race: 314 miles across Tennessee in July, self-supported, with no crew...Maybe You're Just Not Cut Out for 100 Milers - Joe Hardin (Part I)
About the Guest
Joe Hardin is a self-taught mechanical design engineer, ultra-endurance runner, race director, woodworker, and podcaster from Lebanon, Indiana. Seven years sober, he discovered running after getting a gym membership for his first sobriety birthday and found a flyer for a local turkey trot on the door. A Billy Yang video introduced him to trail running, and a friend's suggestion — "maybe you're just not cut out for 100 milers, maybe you should sign up for something longer" — led him to the Vol State 500K. He recently completed that race: 314 miles across Tennessee in July, self-supported, with no crew...Donovan "Iceman" Rice: First Great Colorado Route Thru-Hike
About the Guest
Donovan "Iceman" Rice is a Colorado hiker and route maker who designed the Great Colorado Route, a roughly 2,000-mile loop that links all 11 of Colorado's national forests, 29 wilderness areas, 13 fourteeners, 47 thirteeners, and three national parks. He began at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison on May 13 and finished 140 days later as the first person to thru-hike the route, posting a video about it every single day. He previously appeared on Hiker Trash Radio in April, days before his start, and Doc booked this follow-up on the spot at the end of that conversation. He...
Trail Stories - It Is Never Too Late to Rewrite Your Story with Joe Hardin
About the Guest
Joe Hardin is a self-taught mechanical design engineer, ultra-endurance runner, race director, woodworker, and podcaster from Lebanon, Indiana. Seven years sober, he discovered running after getting a gym membership for his first sobriety birthday and found a flyer for a local turkey trot on the door. A Billy Yang video introduced him to trail running, and a friend's suggestion — "maybe you're just not cut out for 100 milers, maybe you should sign up for something longer" — led him to the Vol State 500K. He recently completed that race: 314 miles across Tennessee in July, self-supported, with no crew...The Cottage - Episode 3: The Whiteboard and the Sewing Machine
The Cottage — Episode 3: "The Whiteboard and the Sewing Machine"
Behind every piece of cottage gear is a design process that looks nothing like what happens at a major outdoor brand. In this third episode of The Cottage, we go inside the process: Dan Durston thinking about tent geometry for hours on the PCT, Chef and his grandmother launching a fleece company from his living room, Gadget naming products after alpenglow puns while hiking solo, Mellow mailing pack prototypes back and forth to Vietnam, and Brice filling a whiteboard with ventilation frame sketches inspired by bridge engineering. None of...
Long Walks and Rabid Dogs - Cam "Swami" Honan (Part II)
About the Guest
Cam "Swami" Honan is an Australian long-distance hiker, writer, and founder of The Hiking Life (thehikinglife.com). Backpacker Magazine has called him the most traveled hiker on earth — 75,000+ miles across 68 countries. He completed the legendary 12 Long Walks: 12 consecutive thru-hikes, 14,000+ miles, 29 states, 4 Canadian provinces, 18 months, 2011–2012. Along the way he completed one of the fastest Triple Crowns on record (~236 days — PCT northbound, CDT southbound from Montana, AT southbound from Katahdin) — as a byproduct, not a goal. He is the author of the Wanderlust book series (6 volumes and counting) and Hiking and Backpacking for Dummies. His trail name, Swami, w...Long Walks and Rabid Dogs - Cam "Swami" Honan (Part I)
About the Guest
Cam "Swami" Honan is an Australian long-distance hiker, writer, and founder of The Hiking Life (thehikinglife.com). Backpacker Magazine has called him the most traveled hiker on earth: 75,000+ miles across 68 countries. He completed the legendary 12 Long Walks: 12 consecutive thru-hikes, 14,000+ miles, 29 states, 4 Canadian provinces, 18 months, 2011–2012. Along the way he completed one of the fastest Triple Crowns on record (~236 days: PCT northbound, CDT southbound from Montana, AT southbound from Katahdin) as a byproduct, not a goal. He is the author of the Wanderlust book series (six volumes and counting) and Hiking and Backpacking for Dummies. His trail na...The Barkley: A Love Story - Episode 3, "They Figured It Out"
The Barkley: A Love Story concludes. This is the episode the series has been building toward.
We hear from the finishers: the 26 people in 40 years who have completed five loops in 60 hours. Jared Campbell, four-time finisher, on what the race selects for in a person. John Kelly, who grew up across the road from Frozen Head State Park and calls the Barkley his home course. Ihor Verys, who didn't like running six years before he finished first. John Fegyveresi, who applied from Antarctica and held the slowest known time for over a decade.
And then...
The Barkley: A Love Story - Episode 2, "The Edge of Possible"
The Barkley: A Love Story continues. In Episode Two, we go to Frozen Head State Park.
This episode is anchored by audio captured live at the 2025 Barkley Marathons: the conch blow, Laz's pre-race speech, the reading of the names of those no longer with us, taps, and the lighting of the cigarette. You hear the race begin. Then you hear what happens to the people who go out into those woods.
We hear from runners who trained for years and came up short. From crew members who waited at the gate for 16 hours with no...
The Barkley: A Love Story - Episode 1, "I Discovered It"
The Barkley Marathons has only been finished 26 times in 40 years. This is the first episode of a three-part audio documentary series from Hiker Trash Radio — The Barkley: A Love Story.
In Episode One, we go to the beginning. Who is Gary "Laz" Cantrell, the man who built the most obsessively followed race in endurance sport? We hear from Laz himself on how the Barkley was born, why it was designed the way it is, and what he sees when he looks at the people who come to run it. We also hear from Jared Beasley, the only au...
Trail Stories - There's a Fine Line Between Sad and Impressive with Cam "Swami" Honan
About the Guest
Cam "Swami" Honan is an Australian long-distance hiker, writer, and founder of The Hiking Life (thehikinglife.com). Backpacker Magazine has called him the most traveled hiker on earth: 75,000+ miles across 68 countries. He completed the legendary 12 Long Walks: 12 consecutive thru-hikes, 14,000+ miles, 29 states, 4 Canadian provinces, 18 months, 2011–2012. Along the way he completed one of the fastest Triple Crowns on record (~236 days — PCT northbound, CDT southbound from Montana, AT southbound from Katahdin) as a byproduct, not a goal. He is the author of the Wanderlust book series (6 volumes and counting) and Hiking and Backpacking for Dummies. His trail name, Swam...The Cottage - Episode 2: Quit Your Day Job
The Cottage — Episode 2: "Quit Your Day Job"
Four people walked away from careers that paid their bills to chase something that kept them awake at three in the morning. A commodity broker who was dying at his desk. A photographer who got fired on the day he expected a promotion. An IT consultant who could see thirty years of misery ahead. An art professor whose first thru-hike was a disaster — and who couldn't stop thinking about it afterward. In this second episode of The Cottage, we hear the stories behind the leap, and what it costs to bet...
"I Had A Big Old Blank Canvas." - Watergirl (Part II)
About the Guest
Andrea "Watergirl" Zelinski is a writer, former political reporter, and two-trail thru-hiker based in North Carolina. She covered the Texas State Legislature for the Houston Chronicle and Austin-based outlets before hiking the Appalachian Trail during the COVID pandemic in 2020. The AT led her to abandon political journalism, pivot to travel writing as senior cruise editor for Travel Weekly — a job that took her on 36 trips across five continents in three years, including Antarctica — and then to leave that job too, in 2025, to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. She is currently working on a memoir about the..."I Had A Big Old Blank Canvas." - Watergirl (Part I)
About the Guest
Andrea "Watergirl" Zelinski is a writer, former political reporter, and two-trail thru-hiker based in North Carolina. She covered the Texas State Legislature for the Houston Chronicle and Austin-based outlets before hiking the Appalachian Trail during the COVID pandemic in 2020. The AT led her to abandon political journalism, pivot to travel writing as senior cruise editor for Travel Weekly — a job that took her on 36 trips across five continents in three years, including Antarctica — and then to leave that job too, in 2025, to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. She is currently working on a memoir about the...Dark Miles - Larry and the Long Way Back (with Shawn Mahoney)
About Shawn
Air Force veteran and former Air Force medic (medical technician) New Hampshire-based thru-hiker, endurance athlete, and fundraiser Triple Crown finisher (AT 2022, PCT 2023, CDT 2024) in three consecutive years Also completed Te Araroa (length of New Zealand, 2025) for Make-A-Wish New Zealand Has raised funds for veterans organizations, St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, Alzheimer's research, and cancer causes Has carried a log on every significant hike for 22-plus years About Larry What began as a military training tool (Shawn ran with weighted logs before boot camp) became something else after his 2019 hospitalization The log was named Larry by the...Trail Stories - Don't Rush Me with Andrea "Watergirl" Zelinski
About the Guest
Andrea "Watergirl" Zelinski is a writer, former political reporter, and two-trail thru-hiker based in North Carolina. She covered the Texas State Legislature for the Houston Chronicle and Austin-based outlets before hiking the Appalachian Trail during the COVID pandemic in 2020. The AT led her to abandon political journalism, pivot to travel writing as senior cruise editor for Travel Weekly — a job that took her on 36 trips across five continents in three years, including Antarctica — and then to leave that job too, in 2025, to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. She is currently working on a memoir about the...The Cottage - Episode 1: The G4 and the Yellow Pad
The Cottage — Episode 1: "The G4 and the Yellow Pad"
Glenn Van Peski made himself a lighter pack because he was tired of carrying 70 pounds into the backcountry. When other hikers started asking him to make one for them, he figured 50 would cover it. 86 orders arrived before the packs shipped, and what was supposed to be a small favor became Gossamer Gear — one of the most respected names in ultralight backpacking. In this first episode of The Cottage, we trace the full arc from Glenn's garage to the moment the company almost died, and the phone call from John...
Suck It Up, Buttercup - Carl Roberson (Part II)
About the Guest
Carl Roberson is a Delaware-based heavy equipment operator, Marine Corps veteran, author, and — in 1974 — the youngest person to complete a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail at age 14. He was adopted at six months old, summited the Grand Teton at 12, attended NOLS and trained under Scott Fischer at 13, and completed Georgia to Maine at 14 with a 37-pound Kelty pack, per-state guidebooks, no GPS, and a father who threatened to come pick him up if he stepped out of line. He later completed the Colorado Trail at 23, section-hiked Yellowstone and the Rockies throughout his teens, served in the...Suck It Up, Buttercup - Carl Roberson (Part I)
About the Guest
Carl Roberson is a Delaware-based heavy equipment operator, Marine Corps veteran, author, and, in 1974, the youngest person to complete a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail at age 14. He was adopted at six months old, summited the Grand Teton at 12, attended NOLS and trained under Scott Fischer at 13, and completed Georgia to Maine at 14 with a 37-pound Kelty pack, per-state guidebooks, no GPS, and a father who threatened to come pick him up if he stepped out of line. He later completed the Colorado Trail at 23, section-hiked Yellowstone and the Rockies throughout his teens, served in...Trail Stories - Suck It Up, Buttercup (with Carl Roberson)
About the Guest
Carl Roberson is a Delaware-based heavy equipment operator, Marine Corps veteran, author, and, in 1974, the youngest person to complete a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail at age 14. He was adopted at six months old, summited the Grand Teton at 12, attended NOLS and trained under Scott Fischer at 13, and completed Georgia to Maine at 14 with a 37-pound Kelty pack, per-state guidebooks, no GPS, and a father who threatened to come pick him up if he stepped out of line. He later completed the Colorado Trail at 23, section-hiked Yellowstone and the Rockies throughout his teens, served in...The Route Makers - Bonus Episode: Real Texas Romance
The series is complete: five makers, five routes, a line drawn around the country and through a city and straight through the hardest thing a person can face. But there was one more maker we couldn't leave out, because his trail is so new, and so unlike any of the others, that it needed its own dispatch.
Charlie "Freestyle" Gandy — fifth-generation Texan, former state legislator, and self-described artist — just finished walking the xTx: 1,500 miles across Texas, from the alligator-infested Sabine River on the Louisiana border to El Paso. He invented it two years ago on the Tahoe Rim...
Living in the Pain Cave - Kaylee Frederick (Part II)
About the Guest
Kaylee Frederick is a 21-year-old elite ultra-endurance athlete from Pennsylvania, currently studying biology and secondary education at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown (with a minor in chemistry, an ESL certification, and a STEM endorsement) while working four part-time jobs including forklift operator, assistant manager at a frozen custard shop, CrossFit coach, and tutor. At 18 she became the youngest person ever to finish the Badwater 135. She recently won the Eastern States 100 outright — first woman ever, first to break 24 hours, finishing 90+ minutes ahead of second place. She finished 12th female in the world at the 24-Hour Wo...Living in the Pain Cave - Kaylee Frederick (Part I)
About the Guest
Kaylee Frederick is a 21-year-old elite ultra-endurance athlete from Pennsylvania, currently studying biology and secondary education at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown (with a minor in chemistry, an ESL certification, and a STEM endorsement) while working four part-time jobs including forklift operator, assistant manager at a frozen custard shop, CrossFit coach, and tutor. At 18 she became the youngest person ever to finish the Badwater 135. She recently won the Eastern States 100 outright — first woman ever, first to break 24 hours, finishing 90+ minutes ahead of second place. She finished 12th female in the world at the 24-Hour Wo...CDT Trail Correspondent Jared "Fisherman" Lampal - The Post-Hike Debrief
Hiker Trash Radio | Trail Correspondent Series · 2026 Jared "Fisherman" Lampal | CDT Post-Hike Interview Mexico to Canada — The Full Debrief
Jared "Fisherman" Lampal set out from the southern terminus of the Continental Divide Trail on April 20th with a desk job on hold, a solar-powered Garmin watch, and a tattoo with two empty triangles on his arm. 141 days later, he touched the northern terminus monument at Waterton Lake in the pouring rain, surrounded by his finish-line crew, and holding a room-temperature IPA destined for a shoey. In this final episode of the 2026 CDT Trail Correspondent Series, Doc and Fisherman do...
Trail Stories - The Youngest at the Finish Line with Kaylee Frederick
About the Guest
Kaylee Frederick is a 21-year-old elite ultra-endurance athlete from Pennsylvania, currently studying biology and secondary education at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown (with a minor in chemistry, an ESL certification, and a STEM endorsement) while working four part-time jobs including forklift operator, assistant manager at a frozen custard shop, CrossFit coach, and tutor. At 18 she became the youngest person ever to finish the Badwater 135. She recently won the Eastern States 100 outright — first woman ever, first to break 24 hours, finishing 90+ minutes ahead of second place. She finished 12th female in the world at the 24-Hour Wo...The Route Makers - Episode 5: Adjustments on the Fly
For four episodes, this series followed people who look at a map and see a line that isn't there: across deserts, mountains, and cities. We saved this maker for last, because her story holds the final lesson.
We first met Renee Patrick, trail name She-Ra, in Episode One, at the height of her craft: the longtime coordinator of the Oregon Desert Trail, a professional route maker who thought about the difference between a trail and a route more deeply than almost anyone. She was planning the hardest routes of her life. The next time we spoke, everything...
There's No Suck to be Embraced - Bradford "Rafiki" Bartels (Part II)
About the Guest
Bradford "Rafiki" Bartels is a Marine Corps veteran, backcountry guide, and the first person to thru-hike the Alaska Long Trail — a roughly 500-mile route from Seward to Fairbanks, currently under development by Alaska Trails. Born in Soldotna, Alaska, he grew up bouncing around the East Coast and served at 29 Palms before finding his way to the outdoors through volunteer work and a friend's advice to try trail runners instead of boots. He has done an AT section hike, explored the Pacific Northwest Scenic Trail, and worked as a backpacking guide on the West Coast. He is...There's No Suck to be Embraced - Bradford "Rafiki" Bartels (Part I)
About the Guest
Bradford "Rafiki" Bartels is a Marine Corps veteran, backcountry guide, and the first person to thru-hike the Alaska Long Trail — a roughly 500-mile route from Seward to Fairbanks, currently under development by Alaska Trails. Born in Soldotna, Alaska, he grew up bouncing around the East Coast and served at 29 Palms before finding his way to the outdoors through volunteer work and a friend's advice to try trail runners instead of boots. He has done an AT section hike, explored the Pacific Northwest Scenic Trail, and worked as a backpacking guide on the West Coast. He is...Trail Stories - There's No Suck to Be Embraced with Bradford "Rafiki" Bartels
About the Guest
Bradford "Rafiki" Bartels is a Marine Corps veteran, backcountry guide, and the first person to thru-hike the Alaska Long Trail — a roughly 500-mile route from Seward to Fairbanks, currently under development by Alaska Trails. Born in Soldotna, Alaska, he grew up bouncing around the East Coast and served at 29 Palms before finding his way to the outdoors through volunteer work and a friend's advice to try trail runners instead of boots. He has done an AT section hike, explored the Pacific Northwest Scenic Trail, and worked as a backpacking guide on the West Coast. He is...The Route Makers - Episode 4: The Eraser and the Gift
In Dinosaur National Monument, Kevin Koski once scaled a thirty-foot sandstone cliff because his own map told him there was a way up. There wasn't — not a safe one. He survived it, and then he did the thing that separates a person who walks routes from a person who makes them: he took it off his map, so nobody else would follow him into it.
Because a route doesn't end when the maker finishes walking it. That's when the real work starts — the years of correcting, erasing, second-guessing, and handing off. A trail is not a monument you...
Hexatrek with a Dog - Fab, Fitch, and Billie (Part II)
About the Guests
Fab (from Berlin, Germany) and Fitch (from the UK) met in Australia a year ago on a group hike at Pages Pinnacle, Gold Coast — a Facebook meetup they both almost didn't attend. They are currently thru-hiking the HexaTrek, France's Grand Traverse: roughly 3,000 kilometers across the entire country, from Wissembourg to Hendaye at the Atlantic Coast. They are doing it with Billie — Fab's eight-year-old Australian kelpie cross cattle dog — on their first thru-hike as a couple. They are in Stage 4, about 1,500 kilometers in, and in the process of buying a 200-year-old farmhouse in Brittany. They post on Ins...Hexatrek with a Dog - Fab, Fitch, and Billie (Part I)
About the Guests
Fab (from Berlin, Germany) and Fitch (from the UK) met in Australia a year ago on a group hike at Pages Pinnacle, Gold Coast — a Facebook meetup they both almost didn't attend. They are currently thru-hiking the HexaTrek, France's Grand Traverse: roughly 3,000 kilometers across the entire country, from Wissembourg to Hendaye at the Atlantic Coast. They are doing it with Billie — Fab's eight-year-old Australian kelpie cross cattle dog — on their first thru-hike as a couple. They are in Stage 4, about 1,500 kilometers in, and in the process of buying a 200-year-old farmhouse in Brittany. They post on Ins...A Hiker's History of the Appalachian Trail with Mills Kelly, Author and A.T. Historian (Virginia Outdoors Adventures Podcast)
The Appalachian Trail is more than a footpath - it’s a living piece of American history. Stretching over 2,000 miles from Georgia to Maine, the A.T. winds through some of Virginia’s most beautiful and rugged landscapes. But have you ever wondered how this legendary trail came to be, and who the dreamers, builders, and hikers were that shaped it?
We’re hiking through history with someone who knows the Appalachian Trail like few others do. My friend, Mills Kelly, is a historian, archivist, podcast host, lifelong hiker, and author of the new book, A Hiker’s Histor...
Trail Stories - Is This the Summer We Quit?
