blissful hiker ❤︎ inspiring you to hike your own hike
Long-distance backpacker Alison "Blissful Hiker" Young has walked over 13,000 miles on six continents including New Zealand's Te Araroa, Europe's Pyrenean Haute Route, Africa's Drakensberg Traverse and the Pacific Crest Trail in the United States.
In a series of personal essays coupled with found sound, this podcast explores her journey of self-discovery as a middle-aged titanium-reinforced cancer thriver, sharing the sometimes unglamorous but vital truth about empowerment, inspiring others to blaze their own trails in this journey we call life.
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 14 minutes
- Episodes
- 150
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2025
Good Luck, Bad Luck
When Blissful is diagnosed with breast cancer, she undergoes a bilateral mastectomy to save her life and secure her future.
- A friend tells Blissful she has it easy because she has a part…
Breast Cancer Trail: Bye, Bye Boobs
Blissful begins her cancer journey looking back at her life as a woman.
- Blissful spends the days before a bilateral mastectomy gathering together a team of supportive women who have bee…
Appalachian Trail: going home
Blissful wraps up her hike of the Appalachian Trail in Maine to head home for cancer treatment.
- The two days between Monson and Caratunk are rain-free and magical with a winter wren, he…
Appalachian Trail: Magic at Moxie Bald Pond
Appalachian Trail: gratitude for hiker and creature alike
The trail is hard in rain, mud and cold, but Blissful gets the boost she needs from hiker and creature.
- It's mountainous now in the 100-mile Wilderness, revealing only misty views of d…
Appalachian Trail: White Cap Mountain
Blissful crosses a high, exposed peak in fog and rain then discovers she needs to go further than she thought.
- Hiking south on the Appalachian Trail, it's the first high mountains sin…
Artist-in-Residence | Porcupine Mountains Wilderness
Blissful creates an audio narrative as an Artist-in-Residence at Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in Upper Peninsula, Michigan.
- During her artistic residency, she immersed her…
Appalachian Trail: A River Runs Through It
Blissful makes her first dangerous ford over a swollen and dangerous river in flood from the non-stop rain.
- For a SOBO – or southbounder – on the Appalachian Trail, it's often wise …
Appalachian Trail: you're only passing through
When seeing two Pileated Woodpecker parents up close, Blissful learns that she is only passing through and to savor the moment while it lasts.
- It's an easy enough day on the Appalachian…
Appalachian Trail: do the next right thing
Appalachian Trail: one fine day
Blissful is ill-prepared for the constant damp, but discovering an inner fierceness to solve her problems and keep moving ahead.
- The summer of 2023 on the Appalachian Trail (AT) is the …
Appalachian Trail: nature could care less
Blissful leaves Baxter State Park to enter the 100-mile Wilderness, learning that "everything changes" including the weather.
- Blissful is waiting a pathology report from breast surgery, …
Appalachian Trail: Mount Katahdin
Blissful decides to put her feet on the Appalachian Trail, beginning from the north on Mount Katahdin in Maine.
- Those in the know will laugh when the Appalachian Trail (AT) is described…
Set Your Sights Low
Blissful shares insights about setting flexible goals.
- "Summit Fever" is one of the consequences of setting one single big goal and can cause us to fail every day, sometimes with tragic …
Porcupine Mountains Wilderness Part 2
Blissful Hiker is honored to have been named an "Artist in Residence" by the Friends of the Porkies and will live in a remote cabin this spring to create audio narrative essays in Upper…
Porcupine Mountains Wilderness Part 1
Blissful Hiker is honored to have been named an "Artist in Residence" by the Friends of the Porkies and will live in a remote cabin this spring to create audio narrative essays in Upper…
Ten Things I Learned While Long Distance Backpacking Vol. 3
This week, Blissful Hiker completes the list of ten lessons from the trail that are helping her now.
In this episode:
7) :38 Everything changes “If you don’t like something, change it. I…
Ten Things I Learned While Long Distance Backpacking Vol. 2
This week, Blissful Hiker shares some lessons from the trail that are helping her now.
In this episode:
:38 Let the day unfold “I think that’s what I love about my life. There’s no mania…
Ten Things I Learned While Long Distance Backpacking Vol. 1
This week, Blissful Hiker shares some lessons from the trail that are helping her now.
In this episode:
1:30 Take Risks “The most hopeful thing you are doing is taking these months to …
injury stops forward motion but not joy
One year ago Blissful Hiker set her feet on the Arizona Trail and planned to return to walk the final 100 miles, but an injury interrupted the trip.
In this episode:
- This time of year is…