blissful hiker ❤︎ inspiring you to hike your own hike

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The Blissful Hiker flies to New Zealand, drives to the Meeting Place of the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean at Cape Reinga and within 36 hours, she begins to walk the Te Araroa towards Bluff.
In this episode:

1. The Blissful Hiker has her first encounter with authentic Kiwi "trail angel" hospitality.
2. She's taken up the winding, roller-coaster roads of Northland to Cape Reinga.
3. She learns security is just an illusion and we have to take risks to truly live.
4. She immediately begins hiking and just as immediately takes a wrong turn.
5. Rain, hail, hot sun, tides and the constant sound of waves are her companions for the first 100 kilometers.

MUSIC: The Horizon from Owhiro Bay by Gareth Farr (used by permission)
The Pee Rag by Stacia Bennett
The Show:

I found out what a pee rag is right around the same time I met Irene on Facebook. She’s a Kiwi from Hamilton, planning to walk the TA in sections. She planned to start from Cape Reinga on October 29, my start date.

I fly over puffy clouds above crystalline bays abutting sandy beaches fed by winding streams and estuaries. Hilly bright green pastures and dark bush see rain falling in the distance, and the ocean beyond that to infinity. If all goes as planned, to walk back to Auckland, will take me a month.

I’m out of my comfort zone, having reckoned with what really matters in my life and putting to the test risking security for something intangible. Helen Keller wrote “Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” Security is an illusion. You have to risk a bit of adventure to really live.

This part of the country is called Northland or the far, far, north. The sky clears above a wide track through flax and yucca, azure waves in long rows crashing beneath us as we rise up on high cliffs. We spot our first trail sign, a plastic orange triangle nailed onto a wooden post. It leads us away from the beach up onto a sandy bluff dotted with bright yellow lupine.
“I sure hope we’re not lost,” Irene says, just as I realize, we most surely are.

Irene and I were never really lost, just misguided.

Oyster Catchers peep at us as we pass, their eyes looking askance. Sponges, jellyfish and small piles of broken shells fan out at the water’s edge. It all seems a bit unreal, the route taking us under the curve of a rainbow towards another squall line and tonight’s destination.

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Two mountains bookend Blissful Hiker's walk of the Te Araroa in the Waikato Region of New Zealand's North Island – the Hakarimata Range and Mount Pirongia, and she discovers that a hiker is both spectator and participant.
In this episode:

1. Blissful walks over slippery roots and deep pools of mud to reach the Hakarimata Trig before running down hundreds of stairs.
2. It's an easy walk to Hamilton where Blissful meets Irene, her partner from the first days of the Te Araroa, then another easy walk to Whatawhata, where she uses up all the good weather and faces a big challenge in rain.
3. It's a long walk over farmland and up on the Kapamahunga Range, then on to the giant extinct volcano, Mount Pirongia.
4. In a storm, friends from around the world await at the Pahautea Hut on the summit, and she learns that she "actuates" her hike - and life - in every decision she makes.

MUSIC Introduccion y allegro by Carlos Guastavino as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano
available on iTunesKULA CLOTH "pee rag"! Intentionally designed for all the places you ‘go,’ the Kula Cloth is one of the most important pieces of gear a women should have attached to her pack.
read revieworder one for yourselfBACKCOUNTRY FOODIE A partner in healthy, ultralight and inexpensive thru-hiker meal planning, Backcountry Foodie is a game changer!

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Blissful Hiker organizes her gear for the Continental Divide Hike.

In this episode:

1. Blissful is taking a new Gossamer Gear ultralight "Gorilla" pack and "The One" tent on this thru-hike.
2. Also an Ursack XL Major to keep grizzlies from nosing into her food which was a compromise to get the bigger bag at 15 liters but not critter impermeable.
3. New aluminum LEKI Cross Trail trekking poles will hold her upright as well as her tent.
4. Really special on trail are merino tops from Ibex - two hoodies of different weights as well as a T-shirt. Merino manages temperatures, wicks moisture and never stinks!
5. Favorites of all long trails are Balega "Enduro" socks and La Sportiva Akyra trail runners as well as gel toe separators.
6. New additions to her personal items include the superb antimicrobial Kula Cloth pee rag as well as Leukotape, “a backpackers secret weapon."
7. Thanks to Sawyer, Blissful was able to make a gravity-feed water filtration system and save her arthritic hands from squeezing.
8. FULL GEAR LIST HERE!

MUSIC:Introduccion y allegro by Carlos Guastavino as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano.

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The Blissful Hiker is back on New Zealand's Te Araroa walking through the Waikato Region in the center of the North Island. She learns to face her fear – as well as ambivalence and irritation – and muscle through the bad parts so she can be open to surprise.
In this episode:

1. Blissful skips a trail detour and starts her hike in muddy wetlands and electric-fenced pastureland.
2. She arranges for a whole group to camp at Cathy's Pies and learns that whatever answers she's looking for on the trail, is likely already inside her.
3. Her hiking friends share many of her same feelings about the trail and remind her this is all building "character."
4. Once she moves past fear and gets her rhythm, she camps alone high up in the Hakarimata Range with an incredible sunset and a morepork (owl) for company.

MUSIC: Introduccion y allegro by Carlos Guastavino as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano
available on iTunesKULA CLOTH "pee rag"! Intentionally designed for all the places you ‘go,’ the Kula Cloth is one of the most important pieces of gear a women should have attached to her pack.
read revieworder one for yourself

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Blissful leaves Baxter State Park to enter the 100-mile Wilderness, learning that "everything changes" including the weather.

1. Blissful is waiting a pathology report from breast surgery, unsure if she will get the all-clear or have to manage a cancer diagnosis.
2. Her surgeon encourages just to start hiking while she waits and here she is.
3. Lured into the lovely idyllic summer weather at the start of hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT) Blissful gives away her plastic waterproof backpack liner to pack her gear in compression sacks that fail completely.
4. The walk out of Baxter State Park is flat and easy, the trail lined with wildflowers and filled with bird song.
5. At Abol Bridge, she meets other hikers and they look back at Katahdin as the air turns black, lightnings strikes the summit and it begins pouring rain.
6. Maine rain is different in humid, saturated air and she's almost immediately soaked through.
7. At the warning sign, three miles ahead of the first shelter at Hurd Brook, it begins to hail.
8. She sets her tent with new friends who offer dry clothes and to share their tent if she gets too cold, but somehow she sleeps well through the night in a lumpy and clammy down quilt.

MUSIC:Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

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