Heather Legler

Podcasts are usually done by people who are experts in their field. They know a lot, and they have a lot to say. I hosted a backpacking podcast called The First 40 Miles. However, I’m not an expert. I’m a beginner backpacker. I haven’t solo hiked the Pacific Crest Trail or sawed off a frost-bitten limb with a credit card. I have never eaten raw squirrel meat or slept under a blanket of pine needles and steaming bear dung. I haven’t been stranded for weeks in the woods with only a knife—and a camera crew.

But, I have discovered a simple love of hiking and backpacking. And it all happened in the first 40 miles. In 2014, my husband was preparing for his first weeklong backpacking trip in a long while. I became interested in everything he was learning. Then, a week before the trip, Josh’s trip leader pulled me aside at a wedding reception and asked, “Would you like to go?” Something sparked inside of me! I went from zero to ready in seven days. My first 40 miles was spent circumnavigating Mount Hood on the Timberline Trail.

I want to approach backpacking with creativity, because there are few things that require as much creative thinking, imagination, inventiveness, improvisation, insight, and intuition as the act of strapping 30 pounds to your back and disappearing into the thick woods.