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The son of a friend of an acquaintance helps ground Blissful and on her way continuing north towards the Grand Canyon, putting the bed bug nightmare in the rearview mirror. 

In this episode:

1. Sam drives Blissful past the "Arizona Snow Bowl" still deep in snow, to meet dry trail on a high plateau.
2. All alone, it's easy hiking, but dry and windy like Mongolia as Humphrey's Peak – the fairytale mountain – recedes. 
3. It's all large ranches today but too early for animals outside.
4. Though a "Wildlife Waterer" provides clean, clear water
5. Blissful longs to slow down, but still walks a big 21-mile day looking for a camp spot, holding out for a spectacular one with stone benches. 
6. Once crawling in, she discovers to her delight that her gear is completely bug free. 

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

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Blissful is covered in itchy, oozing, painful bites and realizes her gear is infested by bedbugs picked up on her last zero at the motel. 

In this episode:

1. It's a short walk under the interstate and along the "Urban Trail" to Flagstaff with views of snow-frosted Humphrey's Peak. 
2. In town, once people see the swollen bites on her face, she's shunned. 
3. After sending an all-call to trail angels and the hikers on the AZT, it only brings shaming and useless links to websites when all she needs is a change of clothes and a means to wash her gear in a town where she's a stranger. 
4. So, it's up to her to manage the nightmare.
5. Most of this is done by walking  on long, hot urban roads, including a visit to the doctor for four different medicines to control the infected bites. 
6. It leaves her unbearably lonely. 
7. But help comes in the end - with food and a meal – and after three tough days, she heads back to trail. 

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

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Unbeknownst to him, a camper becomes trail angel and helps Blissful find a perfect campsite after a long day of relentless forest and a glimpse of a fairytale mountain.

In this episode:

1. The ponderosa pine forest of the Mogollon Rim goes on though signs appear to describe life of lumberjacks from the past, burning 9,000 calories per day and working for food.
2. Blissful is losing weight herself and hungry all the time.
3. She's mostly alone all day except for meeting Waldo with his tiny pack. 
4. A fairytale mountain comes into view covered in snow, or are those clouds?
5. Distracted, Blissful misses that the snow has disappeared and that means no water for drinking.
6. But she's saved twice with a wee puddle and a flooded river.
7. Finally views appear, the large white tubes of the Lowell Observatory’s Navy Precision Optical Interferometer and a camper offers not only a beer, but advice on a perfect campsite. 

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

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Blissful wakes to a soaking wet tent, gets lost and walks through deep snow and mud, but trail-angel beer and a lovely hiking partner make it a joy. 

In this episode:

1. It's a new day, a better one, where Blissful can place her feet in someone's else's posthole through deep drifts. 
2. Walking with Joey, they come to a road where a trail angel offers a few beers to quench the constant thru-hiker thirst and Joey philosophizes on how we're always in the right spot at the right time, so why walk fast. 
3. A wrong turn is easily fixed and then the two part, where Blissful gets a good meal at Mormon Lake.
4. Camping is at a bend in a stream, where all feels right alone with just owls, ducks and frogs. 

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

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Blissful becomes so frustrated trying to walk through the deep, sticky mud, she creates a game to keep moving forward – and is rewarded with a surprise..

In this episode:

1. Blissful walks on a frustrating trail of mud making high-heels of her shoes and clinging to her walking sticks. 
2. Panicky and frustrated, Blissful realizes anyone can do anything for one hour, so she sets her timer to sixty minutes as a kind of game, a challenge to to focus her walk.
3. It gives her power, patience and the ability to stay present.
4. And at the end of the day, she's surprised by a lovely trail taking her to a triple waterfall at twin streams where she sets her tent to a frog chorus. 

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

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Blissful climbs up the Mogollon Rim and it’s filled with pines, snow, and melting snow.

In this episode:

1. Blissful is reminded that if you sleep right next to a river, your tent will be soaking wet.
2. It's an easy rise through deeply shaded Ponderosa Pine next to the rushing East Verde River, the same one crossed in the deserty Mazatzals. 
3. After a rocky rise, the Mogollon Rim is revealed, frozen footprints through snowy drifts lead the way across icy streams. 
4. Soon, it's up and out of this lovely canyon to a flat walk through deep water and mud, a miserable messy walk to a quiet spot under pines, after a bit of trail magic. 

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

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After Blissful takes a forced break due to snowy weather, it's a sparkly day of gorgeous skies and sticky mud. 

In this episode:

1. Blissful rides with a trail angel and three hikers to the Early Bird Cafe where someone pays for her breakfast. 
2. Her second hitch moves on before the door is closed, but gets her to the Highline Trail in Ponderosa Pine.
3. The air is clear and fresh, sparkling with big clouds creating shadows on the vast forest-covered mountains. 
4. The mud gives way to pine needles and red rock under the red rock Mogollon Rim.
5. She's surrounded by birds all the way past streams, finally meeting the East Verde River, the same from a few days ago, where she camps. 

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

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Blissful discovers more rocks than she thought possible on the Arizona Trail.

In this episode:

1. It's a beautiful morning with an orange sky, but straight up to weird skull-looking limestone, then pumice. 
2. The trail is hard and repetitive, not steep, just rocky and relentless.
3. The trail is remote and feels lonely, harder than walking alone before. 
4. Making things more difficult are the slippery basketball-sized rocks on a road – and a young, fast hiker.
5. But Frauke and Dennis hike with her up a lovely shortcut to a road, where a car shows up to take them down to town. 
6. The bad weather arrives after she shops and gets a room at a motel to wait it out. 

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

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Blissful works here way through the Mazatzals, overwhelmed by the enormous, staggering and disorienting size and remoteness. 

In this episode:

1. Things begin on the aptly named Rocky Ridge opening to huge views that overwhelm, even causing a bit a panic. 
2. There's plenty of water and plenty of steep ups and downs to Bull Frog Ridge. 
3. Blissful makes the mistake of skipping water at Brush Spring and it's an endless, steep climb mostly down to the East Verde River, a glorious oasis where she meets Dennis and Frauke again. 
4. Uphill, they discuss what makes them happy – so many things, like friends, flowers, water, views and being strong. 
5. They camp near each other under a velvet sky of diamond-like stars. 

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

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Blissful hikes mostly alone in the Mazatzals with huge distances between water sources and is treated to a glorious sunset from my tent.

In this episode:

1. Blissful hikes in stunning and steep mountains of sandstone from the period known as the Great Unconformity, a gap of missing geologic time. 
2. Steep walking takes hikers from one exceptional water source to the next. 
3. The views are superb into dark red rock and land slips of baseball-sized boulders. 
4. All day, a "bug burka" (a mesh head net) is required for the swarming gnats. 
5. One special spot is Chilson Spring, fresh water collected by a pipe into a metal box.
6. The campsite is just a wide spot on the trail near Hopi Spring with a view of a stunning sunset over all the mountains already climbed. 

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

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