Backpack Digital

Letting the path ahead of you lead the way is a degree of control that some people struggle to let go of. Amie and Matt Leichtfuss encourage this degree of trial-and-error, though. On any adventure, letting the details reveal themselves as your journey unfolds can bring the most authentic experiences a traveler can experience. In telling their story, Michoacán: Don't Go There (You'll Die), they prove just how valuable that can be. Traveling with their dog, six surfboards, and a travel vlog, Amie and Matt let trial-and-error dictate their path, the details revealing themselves each step of the way. 

In their story, Michoacán: Don't Go There (You'll Die), Amie and Matt tell of a time when they were traveling over a long bridge when they first saw the sign: Bienvenidos a Michoacán. Michoacán is a Mexican area known for its heavy drug activity; because of this, it is often avoided by travelers. Amie and Matt, however, wanted to experience the area for themselves, as they are not ones to let anyone stop them from doing anything. Inspired by In Search of Captain Zero , they were looking for some good waves. They started to run out of fuel, though, which wracked their nerves; they hadn’t found a station to stop at, so they pushed on through the jungle. 

They saw something on the road ahead that completely threw them for a loop and began to terrify them, but what would actually happen was something they could never have anticipated. Can I Go on a Road Trip with My Dog and My Travel Vlog? Amie and Matt Leichtfuss are from The Traveling Together Journal, a travel vlog which some of you may have seen on YouTube. The two of them are travel bloggers, travel vloggers, surfers, and amateur engineers. They are presently in Central America, because they saved up to do a big road trip together with their dog. They started in Maui, then to California for a full-size pickup to drive all the way to Panama - along with their six surfboards, their masseuse table, their spearguns, and a collection of other odd objects. They travel with Jaeger, their mixed lab dog, who has been an interesting addition and brought them to a strange little Mexican town when he needed a veterinarian. 

Powering them on their voyage is solar power, which provides them with the power to keep their refrigerator running, to run a fan at night, and to run LED lights. Their idea of trial-and-error, which helped them hotwire their solar power, sustains them throughout their trip. Making Travel Decisions and Starting Your Journey Deciding on a trip is not an easy task. It was overwhelming for Amie and Matt to think of everything they would want to do and everywhere they would want to go before they left, so, instead, they decided to play it day-by-day.

Get in Touch with Hayden on Instagram: @backpackdigital

Are you enough? The answer, no matter how you feel in any particular moment, is always a resounding “yes.” Rachel Rudwall believes that every person is “enough” to start an adventure, that stories are born from the unexpected, and that childlike wonder has a place in the life of a traveler. Her optimistic outlook on life and her love of worldwide connections are a breath of fresh air in the travel world. With a travel story from Cuba and a bright personality, Rachel gives us a story and an interview to jumpstart our own travels. Secret Havana Rachel brings a travel story all the way from Havana, from the moment she realized that the whole world would open up to her the moment she recognized that other people existed. She was walking down the street in Cuba when she was struck by the impulse to tell a woman she liked her hat. After acting on this impulse, their conversation soon evolved into this stranger taking them to see some sweet street art. 

On the way, they encounter a festival, amazing music, a celebration of a symbol of the revolution. This leads into a store, then to a ramshackle Havana building to buy a special item from a strange apartment. Their host told them all about her life, and helped them to explore the deepest parts of her world. Rachel’s experience never would have happened if she hadn’t commented on a stranger’s hat. Rachel believes you will never truly know someone or have a genuine experience unless you truly get to know the people. The Power of Storytelling Every experience is either a good experience, or a good story later on. Rachel and Hayden discuss not being able to predict what any journey will bring you, and Rachel adds on how she likes to be surprised, moved, taught, and connected to others in her travels. They talk about the different archetypes of travelers, and how confidence and vulnerability, working in tandem, can bring about the greatest experiences of all. 

Rachel’s spirit for adventure began and was fostered in the midwestern United States, where mountains and oceans only existed on television and children like her found pleasure in the little journeys she took. She thinks it’s important to bring that childlike wonder and curiosity into your everyday adult life, rather than over-thinking and limiting yourself from exploring unplanned, pure experiences. She tells Hayden that stories are born from bad or unexpected things happening to you as a traveler; stories, she says, give us everything that might be a building blood for our lives. Storytelling enables us to see where we exist in our own lives, and in the universe. When you explore what is natural and real and inherent to life, you choose to leave behind what is familiar and instead have to listen to what your body tells you, because that animal instinct is all the familiarity you have left. The risk, however, is worth it; after all, what’s the worst that could happen? You Are Enough: Do I Have the Potential to Travel? 

Get in Touch with Hayden on Instagram: @backpackdigital

Kinga loves sharks, so she went to Isla Mujeres, where whale sharks gather periodically in an afuera. She sailed the rough seas to the afuera, where she encountered one of the greatest scenes of her life. She could see the whale sharks’ dorsal fins, the manta rays swimming with them, and so she jumped into the water with her GoPro. The manta rays spun around her; the whale sharks swam around; she felt as though she was swimming in shark soup. Just then, the GoPro died, and Kinga had to be innovative on fixing her problem in order to document the experience. Between her GoPro, her phone, and her own two eyes, Kinga had to find a way to keep her memory for the rest of her life. What she discovered, though, was how to be properly present in her moment as it happened, leading to her best-ever travel experience - all while she was swimming in shark soup. 

Get in Touch with Hayden on Instagram: @backpackdigital

What does it mean to explore your senses? What does a sense do for a person when they travel? Can you bottle your experiences and bring them home with you? Kinga Philipps, an adventurer currently living in Malibu with a passion for all things aquatic, discusses these points and more with Hayden. The host of The Wild Side with Kinga Philipps on the Travel Channel, Kinga talks mystery, senses, history, and sharks, the last of which she touches on with love and anger. Why Do Humans Travel? Kinga believes that people love mystery, and that they are fascinated by what they cannot explain. Humans, she says, pursue what they cannot fully understand. Things that have terrified people over the ages have also intrigued and fascinated them, luring them in and making them try things they never would otherwise. 

This drive to go into the unknown is what pushes Kinga to challenge herself and to trigger personal growth through herself through travel. Her parents ingrained in her a spirit of adventure and of seeking something new, which became her driving force in adulthood. Through changing up her routines, following her own compass, and living by a Jack London credo, Kinga brings new experiences to herself every day, which are the greatest moments of her life. Exploring Your Senses and Memories Exploring your senses when you travel grounds you in the moment. It gives you a solid experience as a traveler, because your senses make something inherently magical go off inside of you. 

Hayden and Kinga search for a name for the feeling of being in a strange place, coming into your five senses, and realizing how present you are. Kinga offers tips to trigger your own memories, like bringing a scent along with you from home so that you can train yourself to attach memories to scents. Senses were designed to keep humans alive, but they can also bring you back to your greatest moments when you experience them again in the future. Places have an energy that fills you when you’re there; you can jump into other lives, have new experiences, build your memories, and bring them back later, when it’s all said and done. Unique senses can bring memories crashing back. Advocating for Sharks and Worldwide Animal Welfare Kinga is a member of and advocate for Shark Allies, an organization designed to protect our oceans and the sharks that live in them. 

Shark Allies founder and Kinga’s mentor, Stefanie Brendl, is a shark expert that Kinga met by bidding on her on eBay and taking her to lunch, which evolved into creating “action buttons” on shark conservation. Kinga discusses how shark fins are used unnecessarily as a status symbol, how brutally the fins are taken, and how she and Shark Allies fight to stop this from happening. In a fit of anger, she and Hayden want people to do their research and be aware; Kinga believes that people, at their core, are good, and want to do good. Kinga tells the audience that the experience of going out, stepping out of routine, and having magical moments is vital to travel. 

Get in Touch with Hayden on Instagram: @backpackdigital

In this season four  finale of the Travel Stories Podcast, Hayden is joined by Nicole (his writer) and Cody (his composer) to look back over the season, share outtakes, and talk about the upcoming fifth season. They weave through every episode and discuss what they thought about the guests and the stories, bringing in recaps and flashbacks to the highlights of each episode. You’ll remember this season featured Tom Butler, Sarah Miduski, Tania Aebi, Nate Buchanan, Britany Felix, Frank Salas, Leon Logothetis, Ladan Jiracek, Justin Walter, Cody Crabb, and Mike Corey. The gang shares their favorite episodes and moments from this season. In their rambling discussions, the gang talks about the same themes that they see cropping up in every episodes, and the vein they see running through all the themes and episodes this season. 

They talk about what traveling means to them, then start devolving into a conversation about expectations versus reality, making experiences positive or negative, and how this plays into travel. They discuss traveling with children and travel aesthetics. The gang has fun together, bantering and joking around, as well as dragging each other and wholeheartedly (and savagely) mocking one another. The team also discusses the unreality of thinking they have actual listeners and actual fans. In their conversation, they revisit past guests and fans, like Billy from last season and what he’s been up to. Hayden brings some outtakes to share, as well - such as one where Hayden and Nicole roast Cody when his connection dropped during an episode. Their big finish features discussing what’s coming up in season five. 

Coming up next season we have a name change: we are becoming Backpack Digital. Our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram handles, as well as our website name, are all changing to backpackdigital to reflect this. We’re also expanding to include more than just podcasts. We have more inspiring travel-related content coming your way, so stay tuned! The podcast itself is changing, as well: the intro is changing, we’re getting new artwork, and the format is going to be split up. We’ll break up the interview and the story into two separate episodes for easy listening. We’re also releasing a book during season five: Nicole’s novel Venus , a novel about two young women who go on an adventure, searching for an escape and for a way to discover who they are as people. Along the way, they figure out who they are, they fall in love, and they learn that the journey is sometimes better than the destination. If you stay tuned all the way until the end of the episode, you can find some bonus outtakes of Hayden being a mushmouth. 

We look forward to bringing you forward to season five come late March. Have a good break! 

Get in Touch with Hayden on Instagram: @backpackdigital

Once upon a time, a wise old Jedi claimed that “fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering.” He stopped after suffering, though, so we have to wonder: what does suffering lead to? Is there a chance that suffering can lead to new possibilities? From suffering, there are opportunities for growth, for change, and for evolution. Suffering can be the catalyst for so many qualities necessary in a travel, and, sometimes, all that you need to do to obtain those qualities is to “rough it” when traveling. Tom Butler makes his triumphant return to discuss the benefits of “roughing it,” as well as his time in China. 

Tom returns to Hayden to talk about his life since he last visited in season three, as well as how he has begun to settle down with his family, which includes his three-year-old daughter and will soon include another child, coming this summer. He talks about how the logistics of traveling have had to shift since he has started adding children to his family, since the travel bug has not been dissuaded regardless of how many kids he has. Tom also discusses how to manage your budget and finances when you travel. The highlight of Tom’s episode is in his story, based in China and given the alluring title of: “On the Right Track.” 

He talks about his journey with his family from Shiyan to Beijing, how they decided to stop over in Pingyao, but also decided to take the most overpacked train directly following Chinese New Year. What followed was a lesson in not overbooking trains, and in trusting those around you when something goes wrong. Tom also discusses with Hayden cultural divides, differences from location to location, and how even the slightest deviation from your usual routine can count as a travel experience. They also continue their thread of how “toughing it” can make an experience that much more powerful and interesting to go through and learn from, as well as how to follow your own flexibility when scheduling and spending on a trip. When it comes right down to it, though, you will never know if you don’t give it a shot; “do or do not - there is no try.” 

Get in Touch with Hayden on Instagram: @backpackdigital

Knowing that you’re able to travel - able to afford it, able to hop on a plane and end up halfway across the world only hours later - can grant you a kind of appreciation you never realized before. Living in a place where travel is possible, where going on unprecedented journeys is possible, where listening to travel story podcasts is possible, is the ideal travel situation. How can you live a life of possibility, and how can you utilize the life of possibility that you have been given? Sarah Miduski of Obligatory Traveler joins Hayden to talk about life, health, and the pursuit of graciousness in travel. Sarah is a self-proclaimed “fangirl” of the show as well as a blogger, writer, and storyteller at Obligatory Traveler. She has three chronic illnesses, a rare heart condition, and an unwavering sense of adventure and wanderlust. 

She joins Hayden to talk about breaking into writing, branding herself, and how she handles her chronic health issues in regards to her travel desires. She reconciles her “medical mess,” as she calls it, with her adventures. Hayden discusses with Sarah the importance of hindsight and looking back on your travels once you have experience to look back with. Sarah also talks about her list of where she wants to go and what she wants to do, which she has on her website. She talks about her epiphany surrounding her own mortality in her youth, and talks about how her realization of her mortality led her to her life of travel. Sarah shares her story, a Panama-based tale that she has ambiguously titled ‘Unexpected Wildlife.’ She spins a yarn about the time she was desperately searching for a sloth on her trip, but instead encountered an entirely different kind of fauna in the forest. She tried to escape unscathed, but, unfortunately, she saw way more than she ever intended to see that day. Luckily, she did live through the encounter, and took from it an important lesson: always expect the unexpected. 

In the modern traveler’s life, it is expected that they live a life that they ought to be grateful for. Travelers can tap into the idea of gratitude to access a deeper level to their journey, as well as utilizing this gratitude in their traveling. Hayden and Sarah discuss the theory of the “space between,” meaning the space between stimulus and response, with positives and negatives, as well as control when traveling. Travelers have an obligation to themselves to express gratitude for their situations, and to access their gratitude for their adventures. 

Get in Touch with Hayden on Instagram: @backpackdigital

Solitude, uncertainty, and unpredictable storms (both physical and metaphorical) are circumstances that every single human being experiences during their lifetime. When you have only yourself and a steadfast belief in luck to rely on, it can be difficult to throw yourself into a situation. If you keep moving forward, though, even the impossible can become possible - and this is especially true when you decide to trust in others and let them help you along your path. Tania Aebi is a living example of the truth behind this. In the late 1980s, starting at age eighteen, Tania Aebi successfully completed a solo circumnavigation of the entire world, making her the first American woman and the youngest person at the time to sail all the way around the world. 

She wrote the book Maiden Voyage about her experiences, and visits the Travel Stories Podcast to share her stories. She and Hayden discuss her life-changing journey, the methods to her madness, and the importance of her father’s influence in her life. In between tales about Tania’s world-traveling cats and their wives, Tania also tells Hayden about the role that preparation needs to take in getting ready to travel. They discuss luck, too, and how you can never know what will happen to you until you take the first step and give something a try. She discusses her “day by day,” “mile by mile” approach to travel, getting from one location to the next. She also talks about her roots and the home she has made in Vermont. Tania also shares her own travel story, of which she had many to choose from, expertly called “The Fisherman.” 

She discusses how she had been struggling as she came into port at Sri Lanka, but that the bad luck turned when a fishing boat with two guys approached her. Wary, as this could go one of two ways, Tania accepted the help, and trusted in human nature and in these two individuals to help her. Years later, she received something she had never anticipated as a result of that meeting. She now recalls these encounters as how strong human connections can be, and how important it is to trust in one another. 

Traveling around the world is a massive undertaking. However, with a few cats, a couple fishermen in loincloths, a belief in human connections, and faith in luck, Tania Aebi was able to pull off exactly that. 1:25 - Hayden introduces Tania Aebi, the first American woman and the youngest person to sail around the world, as well as an accomplished author. 3:32 - Hayden and Tania discuss her epic journey, and her method of taking the trip “mile by mile.” Tania also talks about the influence of her father on her traveling, as well as the importance of the faith he had in her and the role of preparation in her journey.

Get in Touch with Hayden on Instagram: @backpackdigital

Learning how to trust is something only you can teach yourself how to do. It can be one of the most important things that you will encounter during travel, but encounter it you must. Who do you trust in this world, though? Can you trust someone you’ve only known for a matter of seconds? How can you trust that you’re going to make the right decision? Hayden introduces Nate Buchanan of Kara and Nate to help him answer these questions and more. Nate Buchanan is famously from the travel vlog Kara and Nate, being one half of the titular pair - the other half being his wife, Kara. The two of them are looking to travel to 100 countries by 2019. In addition to this, Nate is also an expert in travel hacking. 

In this episode, Hayden and Nate discuss to plan or not to plan, as well as the importance of being a bucket list maker. They also talk about how Nate became a travel vlogger, and how important accountability and documentation are to his lifestyle and to travel. Nate’s story is based in the Philippines, and which he has titled, spectacularly and simply titled: ‘The Cave.’ In it, he features the island of Siargao, the concept of motorbikes, an adventure under the sea, and, of course, the titular cave itself. Adventure is lurking around every corner; as Nate proves, you just have to be willing to trust yourself, those around you, and the adventure itself in order to access the deepest reaches of it. Much like Nate and Kara accessed the deepest reaches of the cave. 

Hayden, of course, takes advantage of the motorbike portion of the story to weave a tale or two of his own, from his journeys on motorbikes to his adventures in Saigon. Hayden brings up trust in travel, too, and how to know you can trust your own decisions, which Nate relates to his own gut feelings. Nate also shares some travel hacks, as well as what travel hacking is and how even the simplest and least informed of travelers can travel hack. Trusting in yourself and others is a leap, not a baby step. It takes time to reach the point of being able to trust yourself to trust others and to trust your own gut. A long road though it may be, Kara, Nate, and Hayden are all living proof that it is a doable and, when achieved, worthwhile task. Trust in them. Trust in yourself. Trust in travel. 

Get in Touch with Hayden on Instagram: @backpackdigital

Charlotte Ahern joins Hayden from her current home base in Vancouver to talk travel, life, Justin Bieber and Terminator 2. They deep dive into some of the more interesting aspects of life, such as why it's a good thing to be rebellious, living somewhere full time and whether it's a good idea to sometimes  not  take the road less traveled.  Charlotte Ahern also brings her story, entitled 'Cheating Death in Lao', documenting the time she had a crystallising epiphany about life and death alike. Sometimes we don't appreciate what we have until it almost gets taken from us, something Charlotte Ahern knows very well. 

Get in Touch with Hayden on Instagram: @backpackdigital