As a young kid, Paula Martin enjoyed exploring the outdoors, especially at her grandparents' cabin in the deep woods of Tioga State Forest. Much to her grandparents dismay, she would find injured animals and bring them back to help them. This included a fox and baby skunks. This didn't change as an adult. She still loves animals and trained dogs for a few decades, all the while still wandering through the woods.

At one point, Paula lived full time with her partner in her grandparents' cabin for 13 years, heating with wood and living among the bears, deer, turkey, bobcats, and many other creatures with her rescued dogs. All she had to do for an adventure there was walk out her front door. Then in 2017, the backpacking bug hit and she decided to do the Appalachian trail. To understand her equipment, she hiked and backpacked the Mid-State Trail in Pennsylvania, a 530 km trail (one of the few US trails that uses the metric system).

At 65, after completing the Mid-State, Paula started the Appalachian Trail in 2018, completing 1900 miles. This year, she completed the Benton MacKaye Trail and her last 300 miles of the Appalachian trail. And Paula recently moved to the Smokies in Tennessee for a longer hiking season.

Guest Links- YouTube link for Windeagle Martin - https://youtube.com/channel/UCDr0wrOfqyUiTKWrdWX9Yhg

Connect with Anna, aka Mud Butt, at [email protected]

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Music provided for this Podcast by The Burns Sisters "Dance Upon This Earth" https://www.theburnssisters.com