With the trails now quieter than they've probably ever been at this time of year, it seems appropriate somehow that we should have a trail maintainer AND thru-hiker as our main guest this week. Paul Curtin hiked the AT in 2015 with his son, Kyle, and now gives back to the trail through his work with the Carolina Mountain Club.

Paul and Steve talk about Paul's hike and the very important lessons that he learned for his post-hike life. You can read more about the hike on his blog at this link - https://pckc.tumblr.com/

Then, Paul and Steve go on to chat about the work that Paul and the rest of his Carolina Mountain Club members do for the respective trails that they care for.

You can learn more about some of this work at the following links:

Overnight crew - https://youtu.be/sSjE-HKFmaY

Regular crew work - https://youtu.be/0pmb0yXkTLs

Carolina Mountain Club website - https://www.carolinamountainclub.org/index.cfm

CMC trail maintenance https://www.carolinamountainclub.org/index.cfm/do/pages.view/id/12/page/TRAIL-WORK

National Trail Day at Max Patch https://vimeo.com/341199743

Also on the show, sharing his passion for the Great Plains Trail, Clay Bonnymore Evans gives us news of this relatively fledgling trail that promises tons of solitude.

Website for Great Plains Trail Alliance - http://www.greatplainstrail.org/

Clay's website Wonderland (menu on top has a link to a long blog about his GPT hike) - https://claybonnymanevans.com/

People can always reach out to Clay through email at - claybonnyman@gmail.com

The photo above is of Bear Butte from the Centennial Trail, to give you a sense of what it's like. The butte is truly the "Katahdin" of the Centennial Trail, a spectacular place to finish or start.

Finally, on today's show, Grandma Gatewood crosses the Hudson River at the lowest point on the trail.

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