Episode #56 - Jay Parker (Beans)

I met Beans in my first couple of days on the trail. We shared a particularly funny evening in a bar in North Carolina and I found him to be a very funny, free-spirited kind of guy. He joined quite a large group of hikers who stayed together for several hundred miles. I would often turn up at a shelter in those early weeks to find them all having a lot of fun as a trail family. As these things do, the family split up over time and I ran into Beans once more, somewhere in Virginia. I last saw him in Port Clinton, where I noticed that he was distinctly quieter and more thoughtful. He still made me laugh, but his growing introspection was apparent. In our conversation, he was quietly intense as he considered everything carefully. I even had to edit quite a few of the pauses, from both of us, in order to maintain the flow. Despite that, it was great to catch up with one of my trail friends as he works through what the trail meant to him. You can read Beans' blog at northboundatthruhike and connect with him on Instagram under the name of j.bird1 . In this week's Doc Spot, Lynne Savino gives us some great advice on the type of things we should consider for our first aid kit on the trail. The third interview this week is with Rawmin Ehyai, from Gregory. I took the Gregory Baltoro 65 backpack on my trip and, as I have with other pieces of equipment that I took with me, I wanted to know more about my pack.