blissful hiker ❤︎ inspiring you to hike your own hike

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Blissful creates an audio narrative as an Artist-in-Residence at Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in Upper Peninsula, Michigan.  

1. During her artistic residency, she immersed herself in the vividly sonorous landscape , collecting sound as she hiked.
2.  Birds, falls and the wind spoke to her about spring’s message – a message of renewal and rebirth.
3. It's  such a fleeting moment, one so transitory, we could almost miss if we’re not listening carefully. 

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

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Blissful makes her first dangerous  ford over a swollen and dangerous river in flood from the non-stop rain.   

1. For a SOBO  – or southbounder – on the Appalachian Trail, it's often wise to pay for delivery of a cache of food to break up the 10-day hike of the 100 Mile Wilderness. 
2. Right after the cache, the trail gets harder, steeply uphill into real mountains, plus river fords. 
3. With an unusual amount of rain, the rivers are in spate and dangerous.
4. Blissful is alone and carefully crosses the Pleasant River – less pleasant, but doable especially with affixed ropes, yet there's no information on whether the ropes are safe. 
5. A Winter Wren congratulates her on a successful cross, and encourages a climb to Logan Brook right below White Cap Mountain, where a shelter awaits.

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

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When seeing two Pileated Woodpecker parents up close, Blissful learns that she is only passing through and to savor the moment while it lasts. 

1. It's an easy enough day on the Appalachian Trail (AT) though rainy without any views.
2. Blissful stops at a lovely campground on the banks of Lower Jo-Mary Lake surrounded by pink Lady Slippers, as delicate as crepe. 
3. These first days walking south through Maine have been hard and Blissful feels like an amateur muddling through. 
4. While she licks her wounds, two woodpeckers poke out of a snag, chittering to each other and seemingly planning who will head out for food and how will stay with the young; it's magical. 
5. The lesson that "we're only passing through" is made apparent as is that she will never pass this way again. 
6. And this realization makes her feel gratitude for being invited into this wild world.  

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

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In constant rain and cold, Blissful learns the power in facing her negative feelings and using them to spur her to action rather than resignation. 

1. The trail has yet to get hard on the Appalachian Trail (AT) but the rain is drenching.
2. Blissful can't stop in the cold and swarms of mosquitos even to eat, and is full of frustration but fellow hiker Ingrid catches up and gives her courage, suggesting they sleep inside the next shelter to stay dry. 
3. It's not far or difficult to the shelter at Nahmakanta Stream and she grabs a corner spot.
4. Wet and cold, she is reminded of the book Deep Survival  by Laurence Gonzales where he says, "“Stop denying and begin surviving. You don’t have to be elite or perfect, just get on with it and do the next right thing.” 
5. And this is exactly what she does, focusing her negative emotions to doing the next right thing - to stay as dry and warm as possible, and to keep moving ahead. 

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

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Blissful is ill-prepared for the constant damp, but discovering an inner fierceness to solve her problems and keep moving ahead. 

1. The summer of 2023 on the Appalachian Trail (AT) is the wettest in memory.
2. But this one day in Northern Maine is thankfully dry with big wind off Rainbow Lake where Blissful is able to dry out her gear. 
3. It's all easy trail lined with wildflowers from one shelter at Hurd Brook to the next at Rainbow Stream with a delightful site right above falls through a gorge. 
4. New friends of fellow hikers give Blissful courage and she makes it to the next site now with dried out gear – only to survive yet another night of soaking rain. 

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

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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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Blissful decides to put her feet on the Appalachian Trail, beginning from the north on Mount Katahdin in Maine. 

1. Those in the know will laugh when the Appalachian Trail (AT) is described as a "footpath" as it's more a rock climbing challenge.
2. And it's tough to get to the start, 100 miles from any airport, then a 4,000-foot climb in five miles up to the summit and Mile 0.
3. The weather calls for unseasonably hot weather, over 90 degrees, so it's a very early start.  
4. Planning two nights of camping at Katahdin Stream Campground, Blissful walks steeply up to spectacular views before hitting boulders requiring crawling, pressing, pulling and squeezing with only a few iron ladders to help. 
5. The tableland is easy walking, but exposed and hot with no wind and swarms of flies. 
6. At the top, Blissful meets a cohort of thru-hikers and carefully returns right before a loud thunder clap. 

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

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Blissful shares insights about setting flexible goals.

1. "Summit Fever" is one of the consequences of setting one single big goal and can cause us to fail every day, sometimes with tragic consequences. 
2. Rather than goals, setting systems can work in our favor because they are bite-sized goals more easily achieved.
3. Systems allow us to succeed more often.
4. And, allow us to change our minds and still succeed. 

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

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Blissful Hiker is honored to have been named an "Artist in Residence" by the Friends of the Porkies and will live in a remote cabin this spring to create audio narrative essays in Upper Peninsula Michigan in the Porcupine Mountains.  

In this episode, she revisits her fall backpack trip when she fell in love with the "Porkies." 

1.  Awakening to a spectacular sunrise on Lake of the Clouds,  Blissful walks into a the magical and primeval hemlock forest. 
2. She meets the Big Carp River and enchanted by its silvery cascades on volcanic rock. 
3.  A short walk along Lake Superior and she's back in forest following another river, the Little Carp where she camps next to a pool reflecting gold and red  fall colors. 
4. The next day she  climbs to the high point at Summit Peak, then down to  gorgeous Mirror Lake and finally a private site on a beaver pond filled with nature's sound including chipmunks, owls, beaver and a howling wolf. 

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

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Blissful Hiker is honored to have been named an "Artist in Residence" by the Friends of the Porkies and will live in a remote cabin this spring to create audio narrative essays in Upper Peninsula Michigan in the Porcupine Mountains.  

In this episode, she revisits her fall backpack trip when she fell in love with the "Porkies." 

In this episode:

1.  Blissful visits this magical place, a wilderness state park of 35,000 acres of primary stand hemlock amidst a massive volcanic uplift above Lake Superior. 
2. Her first day is along the escarpment above Lake of the Clouds to her stunning campsite with a large rock apron looking out to the astounding view. 
3. Birds and a wolf celebrate the setting sun and the stars coming out. 
4. As she crawls into her tent, an acorn bombardment spooks her reminding her that this is indeed a wilderness. 

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

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