Trail Stories - The Old World with SlowFoot

In 1996, Dave was hiking the Appalachian Trail when Earl Shaffer — the man who made the first recorded thru-hike in 1948 — came up behind him, noted that he moved at his pace, and named him SlowFoot on the spot. They became close friends for years afterward. That is the caliber of credential this guest carries, and he carries it without fanfare, the same way he carries his 50-pound pack: because that's just what he does, and he doesn't see a reason to do it differently. With 30,000 miles across 30 years, three AT thru-hikes, seven Long Trail traversals including three in winter, and among the first completions of both the Eastern Continental Trail and the International Appalachian Trail, Dave is a living archive of a world most hikers will never know — the pre-internet, pre-trail-magic, carry-ten-days-of-food-or-starve version of American long-distance hiking. This episode covers the culture Baltimore Jack built, the campfire nights that no longer happen, and the moment in 2013 when a man stood on the roof of a shelter screaming at his wife on his cell phone and Dave decided he was done. He misses the people most of all. He knows where most of them are now. The full interview with SlowFoot drops Wednesday in two parts on the Hiker Trash Radio feed.