Picking back up, Bluey traces the real origin of his AT dream back to childhood summer camp, where two counselors disappeared for a season to thru-hike the trail and came back changed men — planting a seed that took him over two decades to act on. He talks candidly about the conversation with his wife that preceded his decision to go, including her quietly handing him a Christmas gift that said more than words could: an expensive base layer, no note attached, her way of saying she'd support him even if she didn't want him to leave.

The conversation turns to identity on trail — how quickly hikers strip away titles, credentials, and performance, and how that "unfiltered" version of himself became something he had to find a way to live with once he came home. Bluey explains how the idea for the memoir wasn't part of the plan at all; it grew out of a handful of journal pages he started writing months after finishing the trail, eventually becoming the full manuscript in a matter of weeks once he started.

He shares two of the book's most memorable stories in greater depth: Chappy, the mysterious trail mentor who appeared on Day 3 at exactly the right moment and then vanished after Hiawassee (Bluey makes a direct on-air appeal for Chappy to get in touch), and the now-infamous Pennsylvania rock-tantrum that ended with a stranger handing him a bottle of cheap bourbon and exactly the kind of human connection he needed at his lowest point.

Midlife Hike This launches September 4th, the one-year anniversary of Bluey's summit of Katahdin, and is available for preorder now at MidlifeHikeThis.com.

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Guest Featured

• The writing of The Endurance Artist: what three years of reporting looks like from the inside
• What Jared found that surprised him most about Laz
• The Barkley as a cultural phenomenon: Netflix, the New York Times, the viral photographs
• Laz on his own fame, the quote Jared captured that appears nowhere else
• What the race means beyond sport, the philosophical argument of the book
• The difference between the Laz the public sees and the Laz Jared came to know

Jared on the moment he knew he had a book: the math problem, the quit, and the email, and realizing that Laz had put him through a version of the Barkley before he'd ever set foot in Frozen Head.

Series Context

Bonus Episode 05 of 06. The penultimate episode of The Source Material. Next episode: Barkley's Mad Genius - Doc and Laz, the final word.

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The Man at the Pool

Eric

The Pennsylvania Tantrum

Coming Home

Writing the Book

Trail Wisdom

• Midlife Hike This — Pre-order and Book Info: https://www.midlifehikethis.com
• Jeff "Bluey" Lewis — Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/midlifehikethis
• Midlife Hike This: Walking Away From a Life That Worked to Find What Really Mattered — Bluey's memoir. Pre-orders open now. Releases September 4, 2026.

• Email: mailto:hikertashradio@gmail.com
• Social: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok — search Hiker Trash Radio.

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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 episode covers Wesley "Mega Man" Tils.

Guest: Wesley "Mega Man" Tils — Triple Crowner, Fourth Crown Route originator, archaeologist, and the only known survivor of a sustained predatory grizzly bear encounter on the Continental Divide Trail.

Trail name origin: Earned on the Appalachian Trail while hiking southbound with a stress fracture, combining "Mega" (the slang term for southbound AT hikers, from the Maine-to-Georgia abbreviation) with his childhood love of the Mega Man video game series.

Trails and routes featured in this episode:

• Appalachian Trail (southbound, 2016)
• Pacific Crest Trail (northbound, 2017)
• Continental Divide Trail (northbound, 2018)
• Florida Trail (2022)
• Pacific Northwest Trail (attempted, 2019)
• The Fourth Crown Route — Wesley's own Mexico-to-Canada route combining the Arizona Trail, the Hayduke Trail, raw route-finding through Nevada and Utah, and the Idaho Centennial Trail (2023)
• Mojave Sonoran Trail (2026) — a roughly 600-mile, largely trail-less route through the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts; Wesley was the third person to complete it
• Hayduke Trail (2026)
• Walk for the Wild (upcoming) — an attempt to be the first person to walk from the easternmost point of the contiguous United States to the westernmost point, combining the Appalachian Trail, the Long Trail, the North Country Trail, and the Pacific Northwest Trail, with raw route-finding through North Dakota and Montana. Roughly 8,000 miles over an estimated 500 days.

Terms referenced:

• Triple Crown — completion of the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Continental Divide Trail.
• FKT — Fastest Known Time, an informal trail or route speed record open to anyone.
• Physiographic region — a geographic classification based on landform and geology rather than political boundaries. Wesley completed a long trail in all eight major physiographic regions of the lower 48.

Wesley's current work: Archaeological fieldwork, primarily in the Great Basin region, surveying for prehistoric artifacts — work that can result in legal protections preventing development, including mining, on culturally significant land.

Walk for the Wild: Wesley's upcoming 8,000-mile coast-to-coast route, intended to raise awareness for the protection of public wilderness lands amid ongoing closures and funding threats. He plans to direct all proceeds from an accompanying documentary to conservation organizations. Tentative departure: May 2026.

Follow Wesley: Instagram: @vagrant_viking93 YouTube: Wild Wes

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Guest Featured

• Laz on the design philosophy of the Barkley with uncertainty as the core principle
• The Name Game: Laz's one-sentence portraits of the finishers in his own words
• What Laz sees when he watches the race each year and what he's still looking for
• The race's future: what happens when the edge of the possible keeps moving
• Laz on the fame: the BBC, the Netflix documentary, the viral photographs
• The question Doc has been building toward for three years: why does everyone keep coming back?

Laz on Jasmine Paris: 'From the very first, from when the cigarette was lit, she left with no margin for error. And she came back with no margin for error. If that performance isn't the best I've witnessed in my life, I'm not sure where the best lies.'

Series Context

Bonus Episode 06 of 06. The final episode of The Source Material and the conclusion of The Barkley: A Love Story - a nine-week audio documentary series from Hiker Trash Radio.

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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:

• Pacific Crest Trail (northbound, 2018) — with best friend Eric and Eric's brother Marshall. 40-pound starting pack including a guitar and a hatchet that did not survive the first week.
• Continental Divide Trail (northbound, 2020) — during the pandemic; approximately 10–12 other northbounders encountered the entire trip. Met Ginger Ballz at Toaster House in Pie Town, New Mexico. Considered his best trail; the one he looks back on with the most pride.
• Appalachian Trail (northbound, 2022) — completed in fall 2022. Described as the least wild of the three; never felt the "I'm really out here doing it" feeling that the CDT provided consistently. Confirmed personal suspicions that the AT would be his least favorite going in.

Notable CDT moments referenced in this episode:

• San Juan Mountains snow traverse, Colorado — post-holed to the waist, pack caught on the hole, sheer drop below; crawled the rest on all fours
• Colorado river crossing — washed-out bridge; threw pack and phone across, swam approximately 15–20 feet through cold snowmelt

Personal context (2025):

• Married; wife is Mrs. Janicki (formerly his girlfriend who visited him in the CDT at Yellowstone and experienced an August snowstorm)
• Purchased house in Seattle
• Dog: Berkeley, Australian Shepherd mix
• Baby expected

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:

• Eric — college best friend who got Eddie into thru-hiking; brother Marshall is also a Triple Crowner
• Ginger Ballz (Ben Vaughan) — CDT trail companion, shared multiple Full Traverse episode; now working for Dallas Seavey's Iditarod operation. Eddie describes him as "one of the best guys I've ever met."

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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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:

• Appalachian Trail (northbound, 2018)
• Pacific Crest Trail (northbound, 2019) — including frostbite in the Sierra during a high snow year
• Continental Divide Trail (northbound, 2020) — during the pandemic
• Hayduke Trail (2021) — 800 miles through Utah and Arizona via six national parks; no trail markers; roughly 10–15 completions per year
• Vermont's Long Trail (October 2021) — hiked with Scrapbook; 273 miles; Ben fell approximately 30 times
• Superior Hiking Trail (2021)

Key people:

• Scrapbook (Garrett Hernandez) — Ben's trail family member from day one on the AT, who had already completed the CDT and PCT at age 19. Has appeared on HTR separately. Now a backcountry firefighter.
• Dallas Seavey — Ben's employer since 2022. Five-time Iditarod winner, son of a three-time winner, grandson of one of the race's founders. Generally considered the most accomplished musher in Iditarod history.

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:

• Summer: Glacier dog mushing tours for tourists at 5,000 feet, helicopter access only, five staff, fifty dogs, no cell signal
• Winter: Racing dog training for Iditarod and other competitions at the kennel in Talkeetna and South Kenai
• Company: AK Sled Dog Tours / Dallas Seavey Kennel

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 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:

• The Unlikely Thru-Hiker (2019) — his AT memoir. Made-up curse words included; safe to read to your kids.
• A Fabulous Thru Hike (Mountaineers Books, 2026) — his CDT memoir, out now. Available wherever books are sold; ordering through his website supports him most directly while he's on tour.

Also featuring Derick's writing:

• Campfire Stories, Volume II — includes his first published fiction, a spooky short called "Vertigo"
• Stories from the Trail — includes "Trail Brothers," about hiking from New York City to Bear Mountain with his brother (also an ATC short film of the same name)

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:

• Appalachian Trail (2012)
• Long Trail, Vermont (2021 attempt; 2023 completion with Christine Reed)
• Continental Divide Trail (2022)
• Pacific Crest Trail (2025)

People mentioned:

• Christine "Lady Unicorn" Reed — author of Alone in Wonderland; Fab's Long Trail hiking partner and subject of her own Full Traverse episode
• Nature, Buck Wild, and Pirate — Fab's CDT trail family
• J.R. Harris — explorer and author of Way Out There, Fab's hero and fellow New Yorker
• Cutie — remembered with love by the CDT class of 2022

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:

• Instagram / Facebook / TikTok: @dericklugo (that's D-E-R-I-C-K — he will notice if you spell it wrong)
• Website: dericklugo.com — signed copies available

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

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