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Best Mates Backpacking with Mick and Gayle Blackburn

Mick and Gayle at Forrester Pass, PCT 2012

How long have you been a couple? We met at work in 1999, became a couple in 2000 and got married in 2003. Were you both backpackers before you met? Neither of us was a backpacker before we met. In fact, Mick wasn’t even a walker, whereas I’d grown up with walking parents who’d taken me and my sister out …

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Long Distance Hiking as a Couple with Jane and Dennis Blanchard

Mt-Washington, 1975

Dennis and I have been together for 42 years. He introduced me to backpacking in 1974 with our first climb of Mount Washington in New Hampshire. When hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT), Dennis started using the moniker K1, short for his amateur radio call sign, K1YPP. On my first long-distance hiking trip in 2011, I became K-Fun. (My call sign …

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How to Get a Job After a Thru-Hike

Rainbow Stream Lean-To, 100 Mile Wilderness, Maine Appalachian Trail

If you’ve just completed a thru-hike on the Appalachian Trail, the CDT or the PCT, or you’re planning one for next year, finding a new job after your hike, might be easier than you think. As a former hiring manager with a big staff, I was always impressed by job applicants who’d taken time off to pursue a long hike …

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