Denali, Poopsicles, and the Diving Board - Chris "Rad" Carter (Part II)

In Part 2, Rad gets into the post-Triple Crown reckoning: the post-trail depression that hit harder than expected, five friends' weddings he missed while thru-hiking (including ones where he was supposed to be a groomsman), and his current view that the trails were designed by Muir and Roosevelt not to sustain serial thru-hiking as a lifestyle but to give people a love of wild spaces strong enough to protect them. He is trying to build a backpacking trail in Kenya's Aberdares National Park, partly to work out that philosophy in practice. This half also covers the best and worst trip he's had working for Switchback Travel: the Haute Route in Switzerland with his wife was jaw-dropping; the bikepacking trip through Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan with Darwin was a 6 AM to 11 PM shooting day every day — and involved losing a seat bag down a ravine that contained his tent, sleeping bag, down jacket, and booties, forcing him to finish the trip in a Russian military synthetic sleeping bag from a bazaar and a ladies' down vest from a corner shop, covered by a shower curtain. He did not write a review of the original brand. He is currently training for The Shield on El Capitan. The hypoxico altitude tent — a tented altitude simulator you sleep in at home — is his hiking hack.

If you haven't listened to Part 1 yet, start there — it dropped 10 minutes ago.