Girl Gotta Hike The Podcast

GGH the podcast episode 13 is here! Lucky 13, whoop whoop!

And my oh my, this episode is chock full of hiking advice and all of it about thru-hiking — yaaaaay! As long time listeners may already know, host Melissa "Click"! Goodwin thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2011 and it was on that trail, where the first seeds for what would eventually become Girl Gotta Hike were planted. The connections she made and the camaraderie she felt with her fellow hikers was so joyous and so incredible — she’s grateful that it has extended well beyond that one trip. The notion of a taking off on a long trek or a journey of self-discovery, enabled by one’s own feet, is something so palpable to so many people, but not many know where to start. So back in December Melissa put out a request to her Girl Gotta Hike followers on Instagram to “Ask a Lady Thru-hiker” anything, and they replied with some amazing questions about logistics, safety on trail, gear and about how to keep on keepin’ on when you’re tired and sore, which is something we could all benefit from, especially after the year we just endured.

To help Melissa answer everything and bring some west coast hiking perspective into the mix, she invited over good friends and fellow Brooklynites, Lauren “Woodchuck” de la Vega and Kelley “NoSeeUm” Blosser. Having thru hiked both the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail, Lauren has nearly 5000 trail miles under her feet to date, and Kelley, a regular on the Girl Gotta Hike roster, has recently re-discovered her love for backpacking. She’s also an aspiring PCT thru-hiker so she came armed with a list of questions of her own.

They talk a ton of trail and tell some hilarious tales for more than 3 hours, so best listening practices would be to pop in your earbuds and take this episode out on a walk with you or to grab a favorite beverage or three, kick back, relax and laugh along with the ladies.

SHOW NOTES / USEFUL LINKS:

Gossamer Gear Discount — use code “GIRLGOTTAHIKEGOSSAMER” for a 1-time 15% off discount on all core products at GossamerGear.com

Lauren “Woodchuck” instagram

Lauren’s Thru-hiker blog posts on The Trek

Kelley “NoSeeUm” Blosser instagram

Kelley’s post about a trip on the Arizona Trail

Advice about thru-hiking from three female trail-besties + one supportive male friend.
Welcome to the brand spankin’ new Girl Gotta Hike Podcast! I’ve been wanting to try out this format for a while & finally got the chance to with the help of a few of my near and dear trail-besties! We recently gathered together for a hiking and photography project in Vermont and what better time to break out the mic and talk some trail than after a much longer and snowier Spring hiking day than expected?! The Appalachian Trail is what brought us all together, so naturally, that’s what we chose to chat about. I asked my fellow thru-hikers about the most common questions they get asked when people find out they voluntarily chose to live outside for six months and dug down to the deeper question – why in the world do we all continue to like hiking so much?!

Major thanks to trail-besties extraordinaire, Sarah “Harvest” Jones Decker and Emma “Sprout” Hileman and a very special welcome to new trail family member Jake “Shaggy” McCambley, for being such willing participants of this podcast experiment. (AT family is awesome!) Also please, do yourselves a favor and check out the musical stylings of my dear friend Eric Sanderson, whose music is featured.
(Originally recorded in April, 2019)

Episode 14 is all about the incredible and amazing Eco Artist, Mariah Reading of the great state of Maine! Back in February, Melissa headed north, where the two of them set out on not one, but two amazing adventures in one day – first an icy 5-mile walk and talk around Long Pond in Acadia National Park, over on the quiet side Mount Desert Island, and second, a minutes-long Wim Hof inspired dip in the frigid Atlantic Ocean. Yes, really!

On the walk we learn all about Mariah’s experiences painting lansdcapes on found trash as artist in residence at Zion, Denali and Acadia National Parks and while visiting other amazing and far-flung places like Antarctica! The appreciation she gained for Nature’s beauty while being immersed within these parks creating art, has now inspired her to work at a greater capacity within the National Park System as an Interpretive Park Ranger. In this role she teaches park visitors about the local ecology, geology and the vast cultural history of the indigenous peoples of each specific place.

As an Eco Artist, Mariah is dedicated to being as zero waste as possible, and over the course of their hike, we learn a ton about Mariah’s process of making her beautiful work, as well as the multitudes of creative ways she reuses and repurposes materials to create them with.

This episode has it all, including some hot tips on cold water swimming, and tons and tons of geologic facts about Maine. So dive on in, it’s a fun one!
SHOW NOTES / USEFUL LINKS:

Gossamer Gear Discount — use code “GIRLGOTTAHIKEGOSSAMER” for a 1-time, 15% off discount on all core products at GossamerGear.com

Where to find Mariah Reading:

Instagram

Mariah Reading Art – website

Facebook

Indigenous Peoples:

Wabanaki Confederacy

Passamaquoddy

Mescalero Apache Tribe

State and National Parks:

Acadia National Park

Baxter State Park

Catalina Island Conservancy

Denali National Park

Nature Bridge

Guadaloupe National Park

Voyageurs National Park

Yosemite National Park

Other Artists & references:

Heidi Annalise – Altoid Tin Artist

The Acadia Family Center

Lou Bolin – body painter

Jenny Browne – Texas Poet Laureate

Cold Tits Warm Hearts

Celia Garland – Artist, Naturalist, Storyteller from Antarctica

Hudson River Artists

Alexa Meade – body painter

Windover Art Center

Wim Hof

Sean Yoro – LA based, Hawaiian born artist, also known as Hula

In part one of a two-part special, Melissa talks with Brooke Mellen, a Forest Therapy guide and founder of Cultured Forest, an Art and Nature connection company here in New York City. Brooke promotes wellness in the outdoors by leading guided mindfulness walks where she introduces participants to the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, also known as Forest Bathing, where participants take in forest atmosphere. Forest Bathing requires that you slow down and focus in on connecting with nature, not just pass through it as a means to get to a destination. We talk about the disconnect us city-dwellers often feel from nature, and how travel escapes and art have helped her mitigate that. Brooke initially found herself drawn to shinrin-yoku in part as a way to escape the rigors of a high stress corporate job, but found the health benefits that resulted were so significant, she was compelled to travel to Japan and around the world in order to learn from other Forest Bathing practitioners. She created Cultured Forest in order to teach other overwhelmed New Yorkers about the healing powers of nature.

In the next episode,(#8), you’ll get to hear what it’s like to actually be on a shinrin-yoku walk with Brooke. Back in early March of 2020, just before New York City went into social isolation mode to help combat the spread of Covid-19, Brooke took Melissa on a guided mindfulness walk on The High Line and she brought along her field recorder. For those who are unfamiliar, The High Line is a 1.4 mile long elevated greenway built on a former railway on the west side of Manhattan and which has been transformed into one of NYC’s most popular public outdoor destinations.
Major thanks to Brooke for sharing her story of building a company as a way to combat stress and connect deeper with nature, with art, and with like-minded souls. It certainly makes for some crowded streets, but it’s the connection between people that is one of my favorite things about living amongst the masses in New York City.
If you want to find out more about the Cultured Forest community, or bathe in the forest with Brooke yourself, head over to her website at culturedforest.com, or check out her Instagram @culturedforest.

Show Notes / Useful links:

Cultured Forest events page

The High Line in NYC

Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness by Dr. Qing Li

The Achemist’s Kitchen in NYC

Phytoncides

Shinrin-yoku

Hinoki cypress

Akasawa Natural Recreational Forest

Oivallusvaara in Finland

INFTA - International Nature and Forest Therapy Alliance in Australia

The Body Keeps The Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D.

Somatic therapy

“Immerse Yourself in a Forest for Better Health” New York State DEC