Women Hikers

Recently, a new hiking friend pointed out that we referenced "Dads involved in scouting" in the intro to our podcast. She wanted us to know that we left out the Women involved in scouting. In an attempt to make up for our blunder, this show includes only ...

Planning An AT Hike

We are a few months away from a week on the Appalachian Trail, so we are beginning to talk about it now. In the upcoming weeks, we'll plan our meals and gather and prep all the food. We are also going to make several adjustments with our gear, ...

The Len Foote Hike Inn

Golden has been talking with Dane about Dane's and Connie's mental preparations for their AT through-hike, and he shared some of their conversations. We talked a little about my preparations for an upcoming Cub Scout trip to Huntsville where we'll camp for two nights in a state park and ...

Golden Looks 14

This week we were on location at Golden's office going through email again. We've had several more campsite photos come in. Several with hammocks and tarps. Also Katz shared an amazing picture that he took of a mountain's reflection in a lake. They are all shown ...

A Guest At The Table

We are out front in the rain this week, and we are glad to have it! The rain reminded us of an outdoors motto from Dane & Connie - "Just Do It! Don't let the weather get in the way of getting out and enjoying nature." Matthew from

Our Recent Family Travels

Sorry, this episode of SouthEastern Backpackers has absolutely nothing to do with backpacking or outdoors. Golden and his daughter were at Disney last week, and me and my family were in Nashville and Chicago. Since we had missed our regular Thursday meeting last week, we were just catching ...

Updates From The Field

We are a little late this week. Both of us have been out of town. We have a backlog of recorded conversations, and I fully expected to have an opportunity to edit and upload one while I was away; it never happened. I hope to be back ...

Trail Burritos

We seem to be developing a regular show segment, as once again we spent a lot of time discussing emails we have recently received. Other hikers email us stories about excellent trips they've been on or adventures they are putting together, and the material is just too good to ...

Catching Up On Emails

All we did this week was discuss backpacking emails that have come in. We've had several recently, so our conversation was all over the place. Much unlike all our other shows which stay strictly to the subject at hand! John (Old Fogey) included a picture of ...

Trekking Poles

We started our adult hiking with trekking poles and loved them. They were a must going in and out of the Grand Canyon, but we haven't touched them in years now. We've lightened our packs a lot and found the poles to be unnecessary for the trails we ...

Video From Our Conecuh Hike

Packing in eggs is easy. A farmer friend told me that new eggs will stay fresh for several weeks unrefrigerated. Keeping them from breaking in your pack is the tricky part! As long as they make to camp they will be the best scrambled eggs & sausage ...

Expert Hikers, Heat and Llamas

We have been off schedule lately, so this week we had to play catch up on Memorial Day. We sat out in front of Golden's new office and talked a little about backpacking when we finally stopped talking about Memorial Day and the work he's done on his office. ...

Conecuh Hike Review

Golden and I missed our regular Thursday night meeting this week, so I had to dig up some audio so we could post a show. This is a conversation we had just after our last hiking trip. In it, we reviewed our experience on the Conecuh Trail a ...

Funny Picture!

I saw this on a forum and I just couldn't help but share it.

Car Camping

Not finding ourselves on any trails lately we've both been able to do the next best thing; car camping! Some families at the school that Golden's daughter attends went on a camping trip, and my 5-year-olds' preschool class camped out on a farm owned by one of the families. ...

Upper Midwest Backpackers!

Last week we talked some about what our good friend Shug carries in his pack and where he packs it. We didn't know what some of his gear was so he made a video illustrating some of the gear he is using and the problems he has solved with ...

What Else Is In Your Pack?

We had a little response to the last podcast, What Is In Your Pack. Britt sent in these pictures. The boys in his Scout troop call his pack "The Fridge". I don't know what is in it, or how much it weighs, but I would be ...

What Is In Your Pack?

This week we decided on a topic, stayed on it and put together a serious show. Another hiker suggested we talk about what we put in our packs and where we put it in our pack. We covered most of the items we carry and where we put ...

No Particular Topic Whatsoever

With our real lives getting a little busier, we didn't have a chance to properly prepare for our regular camping discussion this week (yes, believe it or not, we actually do "prepare"). This discussion is what happens when we have no particular subject to stay focused on. Instead ...

Icy Camping on the AT

This week Golden and I reminisced about a surprise ice storm that slipped in one night while we were backpacking on the Appalachian Trail. We put our tent on the top of a ridge and didn't have the rain fly drawn down well so the chilly night winds blew ...

Camping on the Conecuh Trail

We spent our last night on the Conecuh Trail at a recreation area at Open Lake. They had a very nice shelter which shielded us from the wind while we cooked our lunch, trail pizza. We got the recipe from the guys at Hike It All. ...

The Grand Canyon

Whenever we talk about our trips to The Grand Canyon, we put ourselves in the mood to go back. It's a big trip to arrange and a hard hike to make, but it's an amazing experience. The Canyon has come up a little in previous conversations, but it's ...

More Water Info From Ya’ll

Golden and I have handled and processed our water a few different ways. You could've heard about that on the "Water, Water Everywhere" podcast. Since we all have to "clean" our water on hikes and there are many different ways to process water, we heard from several ...

S’mores and the Conecuh Trail

Finally we got in a little hiking. This podcast is part of the conversation from our last night on the trail. We hiked around on the Conecuh Trail for two days and then wandered into the Open Pond Campground. We set up camp in their primitive camping ...

Electronics On The Trail

When I go on a trip I always tell my wife she won't hear from me till I'm done and driving home. If I'm in a tent 30 miles into a hike and there's a tragedy at home, I can't get back any faster. So I'd just rather not ...

Backpacking for Oktoberfest

We've got a lot of response on our water podcast. We will do more on water soon. Keep letting us know how you process water. There's a lot of good ideas running around - lets keep passing them along. We started ...

More Good Water Ideas

One of our podcast listeners, who has become a new hiking friend, sent us this video. Shug listened to our last show on our history of water treatment and has some great additional information to share. The filter he demonstrates is under ...

Water, Water Everywhere!

When starting out for a three- or four-day weekend on the trail, we can't carry all the water we are going to need. I guess maybe we could, but it sure would be heavy! I recently started using a water filter / purifier which I love. I ...

Golden’s Mother Dropped By

Golden's mother was in town for a visit but spending time with his mom didn't override our regular Thursday cigar time and podcast chat. Part way through the recording she joined us in the smoking lounge (the back deck). The recorder continued to run for the rest of ...

16oz Nalgene

Available at Paragon Sports While getting packed for an upcoming hike I decided to leave my 16oz Nalgene behind. This may be a mistake. That bottle has many uses and has been ...

Backpacks And Features

A listener of the podcast was recently viewing our Photo Albums and noticed that we were currently using ULA backpacks. He was in the market for a pack and got in touch with me. He had several questions about the models we were using. He and I ...

Food We Take Again And Again

Getting ready for another hike the hardest thing to think of and get ready is always food! With many years of trips behind us we've settled on some favorites that join us nearly every time. As always we bounce around too much but we were able to hit ...

Stoves We’ve Used

'Ya know, now that I've listened to this podcast, I've made a realization. It's not like we wore out a stove. It's not like we out-grew a stove, and it's not like a stove wouldn't do something so we had to get another one. No. It's ...

A Little Of Our Experiences On The Pinhoti Trail

A recent email with questions about the Pinhoti caused us to talk a little about some of our Pinhoti experiences. We included some of our difficulties obtaining maps and locating the trail with the only maps we could get. There's a little information about water sources that we ...

Part 2 of Hiking Shoes

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We picked up our conversation on shoes we've used on backpacking trips. We left off with Off Road Crocs and regular Crocs last time, so that is where we pick up this time. We talked a little about what we've done to relieve ...

Hiking Shoes, Part 1

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After a brief discussion about our December backpacking trip, we talked about shoes we have used on the trail. We started with our beginnings, big heavy boots. We use lighter weight shoes now. We touched on Crocs, sandals, walking through streams, getting soaked in the rain ...

GPS Units for Backpacking

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We borrowed a GPS unit and carried it on one of our hikes. It was fun to use and we had a good time making notations of water, campsites and so forth. The trail we were on didn't have any published information about stuff like that and if ...

Part 2 of Planning A Backpacking Trip

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The first half of our conversation on planning a backpacking trip is posted here. This, the second half, continues with shuttle services, self shuttling, and loop hikes. We cover a little on maps and guide books. Since Golden is considering a GPS, we touch on that ...

Planning A Backpacking Trip

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Golden and I were on his back porch last night smokin cigars and talking about our upcoming backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail. We are in the planning stages right now. What section we will do, who is coming along, how many miles we are going to hike, ...

The Wildlife Trail

After telling my wife about our recent backpacking trip, she made the observation that we have seen much more wildlife on the Pinhoti Trail than we have on the Appalachian Trail. She was certainly right about the ...