blissful hiker ❤︎ inspiring you to hike your own hike

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As Blissful crosses the desert between mountain ranges, she's cared for by five trail angels. 

In this episode:

1. After her amazing cowgirl camp looking out to the next mountain range, Blissful walks on winding bike trails meeting lots of happy bikers in long rows. 
2. It's hot and water is limited beginning with "The Lake" where she's serenaded by hundreds of birds. 
3. She picks up two liters of water at a designated locker, but not enough, though she's saved by a biker and some walkers offering a beer.
4. At Colossal Cave, another angel offers a bike so she can retrieve her package high up on a cliff and even provides tent stakes after she loses her own.

MUSIC: Introduccion  y allegro by Carlos Guastavino as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

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Fueled by trail angel goodies, Blissful hikes to a spectacular cowgirl site looking towards her next climb in high mountains above the desert.

In this episode:

1. Blissful starts her day at her own private sky island looking at huge mountains.
2. The day's hike is long, up and down, but easy and she moves while she can in good weather and on strong legs. 
3. A trail angel leaves several coolers filled with candy, fruit, cheese and beer! 
4. Along the way, she meets a few hikers but mostly walks alone.
5. At the very end, it's an act of faith to find a tiny flat spot at a pass, just big enough for her sleeping pad and bag, where she's sung to sleep by a whippoorwill. 

MUSIC: Introduccion  y allegro by Carlos Guastavino as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

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An exhausted and sore Blissful Hiker takes a "nero" in Patagonia, then changes her rules on accepting rides on the trail. 
 
In this episode:

1. Blissful awakes form cowgirl camping only seven hilly miles outside Patagonia, where she takes her first half-day off called a "nero" since it's not a full day like a "zero" and sleeps in a cozy bed. 
2. It's a long road out of town that starts on black top, that turns to dirt and finally boulder-filled straight up into the Santa Rita Mountains. 
3. She gets bit by an ant and develops a red, hot rash on the back of her thigh, then accepts a ride on the rocky road from a rancher, who helps her up the mountain. 
4. A jeep train comes through and gives her another ride - maybe in all, it  totals one mile, but takes her past the worst of slippery rock. 
5. Over a saddle below Mount Wrightson, she enters a beautiful new world of tall ponderosa pine and rolling hills where she finds a magical campsite on a sky island on top of a sky island. 

MUSIC: Introduccion  y allegro by Carlos Guastavino as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

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Blissful Hiker hikes from cowgirl camp to cowgirl camp in the Canelo Hills on the Arizona Trail.
 
In this episode:

1. Blissful awakes to mourning doves and begins Passage Two of the AZT on a roller coaster of hills, finally running into other hikers.
2. Happily she didn't camp near the creek that feeds Parker Lake because it's always colder in canyons near water. 
3. It's easy walking even a long way between water sources with beautiful views of hills and mountains like waves in the distance. 
4. The first water source is Middle Tank, a muddy man-made cow pond, though the water tastes good once filtered. 
5. It's up and over a saddle, on loose rock to a locker with "public water," then right back up and into a dry section.
6. It's two more water sources fed by windmills amongst cows and finally a beautiful campsite under falling stars with yipping coyote. 

MUSIC: Pastoral Calchaqui by Hector Gallac as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

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Blissful Hiker encounters icy snow on the Huachuca Mountains of the Arizona Trail, then sleeps out under the stars in the high desert. 
 
In this episode:

1. Blissful climbs nearly 4,000 feet over Miller Peak and carefully crosses a sharp ridge with a steep fall line. 
2. At Bathtub Spring (literally a bathtub) she collects water and eats lunch in the sun. 
3. It's more up and down, before finally steeply down Sunnyside Canyon following a horse poop path through a riverbed with good pools for water collection. 
4. Above man-made Parker Lake, she camps all alone without a tent under the stars, owls singing her to sleep. 

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

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Blissful begins the Arizona Trail which starts backwards, heading south for three very steep miles to the Mexican Border.
 
In this episode:

1. Blissful flies to Tucson, takes a shuttle, hitches a ride then starts the Arizona Trail immediately taking a wrong turn to a view.
2. On the right trail, it's a slippery path of ball-bearing stones to a remnant of border wall like a shark fin against a destroyed landscape. 
3. Heading back up, she's cheered on by tourists and given beta by another hiker for an ideal camp spot on a peninsula jutting into the sky just before the sky turns orange, darkness falling and her first night filled with stars. 

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

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Blissful Hiker prepares to hike the Arizona Trail and realizes the solo walk aligns with the season of Lent. 
 
In this episode:

1. Blissful prepares for the hike organizing gear, making food, sending resupply and studying maps. 
2. Fortunately, the trail to the southern terminus at the Mexican border has been reopened just in time after being closed to build the wall. 
3. Lent means spring, a time of waiting and hoping. The trail happens on the "shoulder season" while spring unfolds. 
4. Religiously, it's a time to contemplate that we are but dust, and to dust we'll return.
5. A long walk helps bring the hiker closer to the spirit, letting go of control and worry and trusting in the "peace that transcends all understanding."

MUSIC: Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala  and Milongs sin palabras by Astor Pizzolla as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

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Even though Blissful Hiker has to modify her thru-hike of the Cape Wrath Trail in Scotland due to wild weather, she makes it to the lonely lighthouse over trackless moorland.

In this episode:

1. Blissful and her hiking partner pack for extra nights and give the last section to Sandwood Bay and the lighthouse at Cape Wrath a try, with three dangerous river crossings in between.
2. It's tough walking on boggy, peaty moorland, but they decide to skip the first bothy and head on in big wind and rain, only seeing one person all day. 
3. The Ozone Cafe is empty but the door is open and they have to filter water from a root-beer colored stream.
4. The wind moans all night and the mist returns, but it's clear for the return. 
5. Blissful has to stop to manage her SVT (Supra-venticular Tachycardia) but it's all straight forward and only begins to rain heavily at the end bringing the hike to a wet, soggy close. 

MUSIC: Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala , Milongs sin palabras by Astor Pizzolla as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

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Blissful Hiker lingers for an entire day at one of the most glorious bothies at Glencoul on the Cape Wrath Trail in Scotland. 

In this episode:

1. The trail is easy along Loch Glenhue on the Duke of Wellington's estate and it's all in bright sunshine. 
2. Blissful passes a stalker in tweeds, horses and large mussel farms. 
3. The first bothy is empty, but they continue over a boggy head in rain again to one of the most brilliant views yet looking steeply down to Glencoul, set on a peninsula with a U-shaped glen beyond full of waterfalls and wild landscape. 
4. They share the bothy with another hiker and decide to stay an extra day to explore.
5. Seals, otters, herons and cormorants visit in a cove where Blissful harvests mussels for a feast. 
6. On a cold night, they build a fire cutting up an old water-logged plank.
7. Returning, they find leftover gas canisters in the first bothy plus some wine for a toast. 

MUSIC: Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala , Pastorale Calchaqui by Hector Gallac and Allegro by Carlos Guastavino as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

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Blissful Hiker takes two out-and-backs from Oykel Bridge on the Cape Wrath Trail and learns that hiking in rain can still be soulful in fall colors. 

In this episode:

1. It's rainy and bleak out to Knockdamph Bothy where Blissful meets the trail she walked to Glenn Douchery the previous day.
2. The bothy is spooky and run-down, plus someone's already there, so they head back to Duag Bridge or "Schoolhouse" bothy, light and airy, cozy and, most important, empty. 
3. The following day is and easy walk but all in rain up the Oykel River where she discovers all the fishing huts along the way open and welcoming.

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

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