Maria "Beans" Romfoe — AT and PCT thru-hiker, CDT finisher-minus-New-Mexico, and the internet's foremost beanfluencer — joins Doc for her first-ever podcast appearance.

Beans traces the origin of her trail name from a can of Bush's Beans on an Alaskan summit through a viral sponsorship dare to her current partnership with Eight Trak Foods, the woman-owned organic bean company whose founder sends her hand-drawn care packages on trail ("She's my bean lady"). She defends the engineering of a nine-pound base weight built around canned goods, recalls the three family-sized cans of barbecue baked beans that snapped her pack frame in the Smokies, and reveals the one piece of gear she'd never leave behind: the can opener that has saved more than one trail-magic cooler full of inaccessible food.

The Hiking Poll digs into the story that reshaped her Triple Crown: drinking unfiltered "poop water" in Colorado's cattle-grazed San Juans, the giardia that followed, and the most miserable six-mile evacuation of her life — followed by a 46-mile attempt to finish the CDT by Walmart bike that ended in tears at a Superfund site water source. (The bike went back for a full refund. She calls this "renting.")

The back half goes deeper: growing up in Cudahy, Wisconsin in a not-especially-outdoorsy family; a year at the University of Alaska Southeast that lit the fuse; trail crew and conservation corps seasons that made a tent feel like home before her first thru-hike; and the things she strategically doesn't tell her mom until long after. Beans also gets refreshingly honest about solo female thru-hiking — the double standards, the "are you out here alone?" conversations, why menstruating through a thru-hike should earn hikers more credit rather than more doubt, and her simple request for the trail community: a woman talking to you is not flirting; let her tell you about the snake she saw like everyone else.

Segments include the Trailblazer's Toolkit (Six Moon Designs), the Hiking Poll (Triple Crown Coffee — she scores a 21), the Hiking Hack (O.T.T.R.) featuring two highly specific foot hacks, Off the Beaten Path (Hilltop Packs) with a recommendation for Marty Stouffer's gloriously chaotic 1980s docuseries Wild America, and a Pay It Forward shoutout to the Greenwater Fire Department, local wildland firefighters, and the Pacific Northwest Trail Association's volunteer trail crews.

Follow Beans on Instagram at @thebeansbabe. Follow Hiker Trash Radio on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, or write to [email protected].

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Maria "Beans" Romfoe — AT and PCT thru-hiker, CDT finisher-minus-New-Mexico, and the internet's foremost beanfluencer — joins Doc for her first-ever podcast appearance.

Beans traces the origin of her trail name from a can of Bush's Beans on an Alaskan summit through a viral sponsorship dare to her current partnership with Eight Trak Foods, the woman-owned organic bean company whose founder sends her hand-drawn care packages on trail ("She's my bean lady"). She defends the engineering of a nine-pound base weight built around canned goods, recalls the three family-sized cans of barbecue baked beans that snapped her pack frame in the Smokies, and reveals the one piece of gear she'd never leave behind: the can opener that has saved more than one trail-magic cooler full of inaccessible food.

The Hiking Poll digs into the story that reshaped her Triple Crown: drinking unfiltered "poop water" in Colorado's cattle-grazed San Juans, the giardia that followed, and the most miserable six-mile evacuation of her life — followed by a 46-mile attempt to finish the CDT by Walmart bike that ended in tears at a Superfund site water source. (The bike went back for a full refund. She calls this "renting.")

The back half goes deeper: growing up in Cudahy, Wisconsin in a not-especially-outdoorsy family; a year at the University of Alaska Southeast that lit the fuse; trail crew and conservation corps seasons that made a tent feel like home before her first thru-hike; and the things she strategically doesn't tell her mom until long after. Beans also gets refreshingly honest about solo female thru-hiking — the double standards, the "are you out here alone?" conversations, why menstruating through a thru-hike should earn hikers more credit rather than more doubt, and her simple request for the trail community: a woman talking to you is not flirting; let her tell you about the snake she saw like everyone else.

Segments include the Trailblazer's Toolkit (Six Moon Designs), the Hiking Poll (Triple Crown Coffee — she scores a 21), the Hiking Hack (O.T.T.R.) featuring two highly specific foot hacks, Off the Beaten Path (Hilltop Packs) with a recommendation for Marty Stouffer's gloriously chaotic 1980s docuseries Wild America, and a Pay It Forward shoutout to the Greenwater Fire Department, local wildland firefighters, and the Pacific Northwest Trail Association's volunteer trail crews.

Follow Beans on Instagram at @thebeansbabe. Follow Hiker Trash Radio on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, or write to [email protected].

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The Science of Carrying Cans

ABNM — All But New Mexico

The Walmart Bike

Solo Female Hiking

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The plan looks clean on paper. Then you start hiking.

Episode 2 of The Big Year follows the year through all three trails. The Aqueduct in the Mojave, hiked at night for four nights straight. A wildfire in Northern California that sends one hiker sprinting five miles downhill with a 30-pound pack while his partner waits at a parking lot, initially mistaking the chaos for trail magic. Two months of snowshoeing in Colorado that leave a hiker with frostbite and the growing sense that the year might never end. A Sierra bridge crossed at 1:30 in the morning, hours before it's scheduled to be demolished.

And then there are the people, the unexpected ones. A relationship that starts over satellite texts at a high mountain lake. A trail family that shows up exactly when one hiker needs company most. And on Katahdin, at sunrise, on the first day the mountain opens for the season: two friends finishing their first trail, knowing they have two more to go.

Guests:

Topics covered:

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Casey “Vegas the Pied Piper” Huffman thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2023 and the Pacific Crest Trail in 2025, and six weeks after telling Hiker Trash Radio that nothing would stop his 2027 Continental Divide Trail Triple Crown finish, an unclipped auto-belay in a Las Vegas climbing gym left him with two broken ankles and a shattered sense of self.

Drawing on three appearances across 18 months, this Dark Miles episode traces the full arc: the medicated childhood and the yes/no tattoos on his palms, the “letter from Hogwarts” at Annapolis Rock, the AT hike he privately treated as a Hail Mary, the winter in Florida where depression turned catatonic and his parents invoked the Baker Act, and the comeback that began with a slow walk through the Maryland section of the AT, the very place his story started. It ends with a finished Tahoe Rim Trail, a first 5K run an hour before our final interview, the Superior Hiking Trail this October, and the CDT in 2027.

If you’re struggling, you don’t have to do it alone. In the U.S., call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Follow Vegas on Instagram and YouTube at @vegasthepiedpiper. New episodes of Hiker Trash Radio drop weekly.  Find us on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, or write to [email protected].

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The Coworker's Lodge Floor: Why Vegas is recording from a room that smells suspiciously good, surrounded by floral decor in Silver Gate, Montana.

The Tahoe Rim Trail Victory Lap: A full trip report of Vegas's 9-to-10 day TRT run counterclockwise (the "SOBO" way) alongside AT and PCT legends Million Bucks, GT, and Swampy.

The Excitement Gauge: How an "emergency trail crap" became the ultimate indicator of a beautiful mountain pass experience.

The "Beefcake Vegas" Downfall: The split-second auto-belay mistake at a Las Vegas climbing gym on December 15, 2025, that resulted in plates, screws, and a very sudden halt to a 30-mile-a-day lifestyle.

The Mental Valley: An incredibly candid and important conversation about identity loss, catatonic depression, and the agonizing process of having your physical salvation taken away.

The Dumbledore Protection & Hogwarts Reset: Navigating his comeback hike on the Maryland section of the AT, and why returning to where you "got your Hogwarts letter" is the ultimate mental reset.

UFC Weigh-Ins & Cherry Pies: The strategic, slow-and-steady pacing Vegas used to absolutely dismantle his buddy Oz in Damascus at the Trail Days pie-eating contest.

Guiding Year-Round: Vegas's journey to becoming a certified summer hiking guide in Yellowstone and the Beartooth Mountains to fund his relentless trail addiction.

Looking to the Horizon: Heading north to SOBO the Superior Hiking Trail in October, eyeing a massive CDT push, and a wild pact with trail buddies to conquer a calendar-year Triple Crown in their late 30s.

FarOut Guides

Garage Grown Gear

Hilltop Packs

Jolly Gear

Otter (O.T.T.R.)

Six Moon Designs

Triple Crown Coffee

Vaer Watches

Instagram: @vegasthepiedpiper

YouTube: Vegas The Pied Piper

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The Calendar Year Triple Crown doesn't recruit. It gets into people — through a sign above a bar, through a podcast episode, through the quiet math a hiker does at the end of a long day when they realize they want more of this, not less.

Episode 1 of The Big Year opens with Billy Meredith describing the moment he quit his office job to hike the Appalachian Trail — the hardest thing he'd ever done and the most amazing thing he'd ever done, at the same time. Three weeks into that hike, in a bar in Duncannon, Pennsylvania, he reads a sign honoring the first woman to complete the Calendar Year Triple Crown. He can't shake it. Four years later, he's standing at the Mexican border about to find out what that sign cost him.

The episode follows the idea outward from there: to Sammy Potter and Jackson Parell, two Stanford students who spend a month alone on the Appalachian Trail before naming themselves Buzz and Woody in a winter shelter; to Carson Oliver, who gets asked a single unsettling question the night before Katahdin; and to Jeff Garmire, who completed the CYTC at 20 years old and became, for the better part of a decade, the number everyone else measured themselves against.

Guests:

Topics covered:

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The Full Traverse is Hiker Trash Radio's narrative documentary series, drawing from years of conversations with a single guest to tell their complete story.

This episode: Derick "Fab" Lugo — author, speaker, and Triple Crowner. From zero experience in 2012 to the Appalachian Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, the Long Trail, and the Pacific Crest Trail.

Derick's books:

Also featuring Derick's writing:

Derick's podcast: Unlikely Stories, produced with the Appalachian Mountain Club — 12 episodes featuring different voices of the outdoors, including the first African to summit Everest and record-setting AT hiker Jennifer Pharr Davis.

Trails featured in this episode:

People mentioned:

Book tour: Derick is on the road through spring and summer 2026, starting in Colorado, running up and down the East Coast, and working west. Dates at his website.

Follow Derick:

The Full Traverse is produced by Hiker Trash Radio, a member of the BLEAV Podcast Network.

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The Full Traverse is HTR's long-form narrative format, drawing from multiple years of conversations with a single guest to tell the complete story. This is Episode 3.

Guest: Ben Vaughan, trail name Ginger Ballz — Navy Lieutenant Commander (retired), Triple Crowner, Hayduke thru-hiker, dog musher, Iditarod trainer, whitewater raft guide, and operations manager for Dallas Seavey's kennel operation.

Trail name origin: Earned on the AT hiking with a younger trail family who progressed from "Old Man" to "Old Man Ginger Balls" to "OMGB" to "Ginger Balls" over the course of approximately zero trail days. He accepts this. The story he prefers: a young woman from another country told him he was called that because he was brave and strong. He said yes, exactly.

Trails and routes featured in this episode:

Key people:

The Iditarod: 1,049 miles, Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. Considered one of the toughest endurance races in the world — the challenge falls primarily on the musher, not the dogs. The winning time is approximately nine days. Dogs run because they want to; the musher's job is navigation, dog care, and not letting go of the sled.

Ben's Alaska operation:

McCarthy, Alaska: Pop. ~30 year-round, 300+ seasonal workers. Located in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park — the largest national park in the United States, roughly seven times the size of Yellowstone. Accessible by 60-mile dirt road. No grocery store. The site of Ben's summer 2024 whitewater raft guide work with McCarthy River Tours.

Warrior Expeditions: Veterans organization that supports outdoor wilderness expeditions for vets with at least one combat tour. Provides gear and logistical support. Ben encountered them on the AT and hiked the PCT with a Warrior Expeditions cohort in 2019. Mentioned briefly: highly recommended for any veteran looking for a trail-based transition.

Follow Ben: Instagram: @hiking_ginger_b

The Full Traverse is produced by Hiker Trash Radio, a member of the BLEAV Podcast Network.

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The Full Traverse is HTR's long-form narrative format, drawing from multiple years of conversations with a single guest to tell the complete story. This is Episode 4.

Guest: Eddie Janicki, trail name Bard — Triple Crowner, civil engineer, amateur musician, and the only known person to hike the full PCT with a guitar.

Trail name origin: Given two days into the PCT in 2018 by a fellow hiker after Eddie arrived on trail carrying a guitar, a harmonica on a neck stand, and various other items that did not survive the first week. The trail name One Man Band was floated and rejected (too long). Bard was accepted. He has since encountered other Bards on trail, which he says makes him like the name less — but he kept it.

The album: Thoughts on a Zero Day by Eddie Janicki. Available on Spotify. Twelve tracks recorded over approximately two months in the fall/winter of 2022, between finishing the AT and returning to work. Songs include "Deli Deli" (positive AT experience), "Rain Dodging" (negative AT experience), and older material dating to 2014–2015. Lo-fi home recording. Trail-related throughout.

Trails completed:

Notable CDT moments referenced in this episode:

Personal context (2025):

The Enchantments: A wilderness area near Leavenworth, Washington, in the North Cascades. Highly permit-controlled due to demand. Features numerous alpine lakes at elevation. Eddie completed a 19-mile traverse in a single day in 2025 with his twin brother Luke and his cousin Joe.

Peru trip (2025): Eddie and his wife visited Cusco and hiked to Machu Picchu via the Inca Trail route. Acclimatized at 11,500 feet in Cusco before beginning the hike. Reached the first ruin site Wiñay Wayna approximately four miles in; crested the Sun Gate for the first view of Machu Picchu. Described as the most historically immersive hiking experience of his life.

Twin brother: Luke Janicki — identical twin, highly athletic, has hiked short sections of all three long trails with Eddie. Ran marathons. Not a thru-hike aspirant as of this recording.

Friends referenced:

Follow Eddie: Instagram: @EddieJanicky Music: Search Thoughts on a Zero Day by Eddie Janicki on Spotify

The Full Traverse is produced by Hiker Trash Radio, a member of the BLEAV Podcast Network.

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