Today we sit down with the one and only Trashalope! We catch up as he most recently finished the Continental Divide Trail 10 days prior to this recording, thus completing his Triple Crown. We begin the show be discussing the concept of trail names, and as growth from hiking as a hobby to hiking as a lifestyle changes the way one feels about trail names. We spend the obligatory time talking all things McDonalds, per our sponsorship contract, a minimum of 10 minutes must be discussed per episode. (Joke, not sponsored.) We do however talk McDoubles, the McDonalds Challenge, marinating in MSG, and preserving the body through preservatives. We dive deeper into Trashalope’s background into hiking beginning with half of the AT in 2018 where a fractured tibia would stop his hike for a few months. We then talk his trajectory into being consumed by thru-hiking as a lifestyle, coming back to the AT a few months later, doing the PCT, CT, BMT, FT, and CDT. We discuss the feelings of hiking and the growth of the feelings through the years of what keeps him coming back and keeps him fueled to pursue these trails. We touch on his background in cross country, digging to the bottom of his physical/mental well of strength, and the “simplicity” inside of a thru-hike. We then get into the meat of the show and talk all things “Burn Out.” A question that we spend more than 30 minutes trying to unpack, answer, and feel our way through together. Starting with the question of “Why” and how the longer one hikes, the more this one question begins to be asked more and more. For Trashalope he traces this back to his completion of the AT in 2021 and the Florida Trail in 2022, when he began wondering his deeper reasoning for why. As he puts it, it took him 9,000 miles of hiking to get to the core of the question. We follow our collective stream of thoughts down the line, and try to figure out what this feeling actually means. Finding an answer along the way, or possibly just digging the hole deeper for this circular thought we continue to unpack what burn out means. We discuss how a thru-hike can be all about exploration but how at a certain point it can also limit exploration. We chat about seeking new challenges and the desire to learn something new once again. We chat levels of competency and while a skill also can become “too easy.” Do we answer the question, or just find more? Who is to say, what we can say however is it was an absolute joy working through these thoughts together with Trashalope. Favorite Quotes: “11,000 miles later I am at least competent in thru-hiking”. “You leave a little bit of yourself on trail.” “Even though trails wear different masks, they have the same root, exploration of self.” “I got a bag full of cheeseburgers and olive oil, let’s go!” “I want to feel like I’m new to something, feel the joy of learning something new again.” To learn more about Trashalope Instagram: @trail.Trashalope
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