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
Arizona Trail: Superstition Mountains
Blissful sees her first cactus bloom and has a magical day of steep climbs and a little bit of thunder and rain.
In this episode:
- After a brilliant night camped by a stream, Blissful see…
Arizona Trail: Picket Post
Blissful meets a trail angel (who never knew he was a trail angel) and he advances her past the low desert to big mountains.
In this episode:
- It's a very hard day up and down on rocky tra…
Arizona Trail: Mount Lemmon
Blissful bumps into Holly "Hobbit" who steps right into the trail behind her for the steepest of all sky islands.
In this episode:
- We're warned that we'll need to use our hands on the e…
Arizona Trail: Hutch's Pools
Blissful heads into stunning Sycamore Canyon, where the mountains seems to part and reveal the final sky island.
In this episode:
- Blissful awakens as the moon sets, sleeping out in the o…
Arizona Trail: Mica Mountain
Blissful climbs up and over the glorious sky island Mica Mountain, finding the descent far more difficult than the ascent.
In this episode:
- It was a great decision to stop early in cool …
Arizona Trail: Saguaro National Park
Blissful is fueled by trail angels to climb steeply up into Saguaro National Park.
In this episode:
- In only a few miles in the early morning cool, Blissful arrives at Magic Camp for a fu…
Arizona Trail: angels of the desert
As Blissful crosses the desert between mountain ranges, she's cared for by five trail angels.
In this episode:
- After her amazing cowgirl camp looking out to the next mountain range, Blis…
Arizona Trail: a whippoorwill in the gloaming
Fueled by trail angel goodies, Blissful hikes to a spectacular cowgirl site looking towards her next climb in high mountains above the desert.
In this episode:
- Blissful starts her day at …
Arizona Trail: changing the rules
An exhausted and sore Blissful Hiker takes a "nero" in Patagonia, then changes her rules on accepting rides on the trail.
In this episode:
- Blissful awakes form cowgirl camping only seve…
Arizona Trail: Canelo Hills
Blissful Hiker hikes from cowgirl camp to cowgirl camp in the Canelo Hills on the Arizona Trail.
In this episode:
- Blissful awakes to mourning doves and begins Passage Two of the AZT on a…
Arizona Trail: camping like a (cow)girl
Blissful Hiker encounters icy snow on the Huachuca Mountains of the Arizona Trail, then sleeps out under the stars in the high desert.
In this episode:
- Blissful climbs nearly 4,000 feet…
Arizona Trail: touching the wall
Blissful begins the Arizona Trail which starts backwards, heading south for three very steep miles to the Mexican Border.
In this episode:
- Blissful flies to Tucson, takes a shuttle, hit…
Arizona Trail: Forty Days in the Desert
Blissful Hiker prepares to hike the Arizona Trail and realizes the solo walk aligns with the season of Lent.
In this episode:
- Blissful prepares for the hike organizing gear, making food…
Cape Wrath Trail: a determined bog trot to the Cape
Even though Blissful Hiker has to modify her thru-hike of the Cape Wrath Trail in Scotland due to wild weather, she makes it to the lonely lighthouse over trackless moorland.
In this epi…
Cape Wrath Trail: seals, mussels, otters and herons
Blissful Hiker lingers for an entire day at one of the most glorious bothies at Glencoul on the Cape Wrath Trail in Scotland.
In this episode:
- The trail is easy along Loch Glenhue on the…
Cape Wrath Trail: rainy autumn brilliance
Blissful Hiker takes two out-and-backs from Oykel Bridge on the Cape Wrath Trail and learns that hiking in rain can still be soulful in fall colors.
In this episode:
- It's rainy and bleak…
Cape Wrath Trail: sampler platter
Blissful Hiker hikes the Cape Wrath Trail and learns to accept everything that's thrown at her including rain and bog, but also selfish hikers.
In this episode:
- Blissful walks in easy tr…
Cape Wrath Trail: most remote bothy in Scotland
Blissful Hiker hikes the Cape Wrath Trail in a kind "sampler, platter" managing to fit in a hike to stunning Maol Bhuide.
In this episode:
- Blissful and her companion give the trail one mo…
Cape Wrath Trail: Ben Nevis as consolation prize
Blissful Hiker is forced by torrential rain to quit the Cape Wrath Trail but makes the most of it by bagging the highest mountain in the UK.
In this episode:
- Blissful and her companions …
Cape Wrath Trail: Knoydart
Blissful Hiker continues on the Cape Wrath Trail having the adventure of her life in Scotland's last wilderness, Knoydart.
In this episode:
- Rain thrashes the bothy an integral part now o…