Oct 12, 2017
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.