57: The Thousand Miler | Melanie ‘Snowshoe’ Radzicki McManus

Melanie is a travel writer from Wisconsin who's adventures in trail racing and ultra marathons lead her to first, the Camino de Santiago, and then to the long distance trail in her own backyard, the Ice Age Trail. In 2013 she set the women's fast packing record on the Ice Age Trail and went on to write about her hike and some of the history of the IAT in her memoir Thousand-Miler: Adventures Hiking the Ice Age Trail, published by the Wisconsin Historical Press in 2017, which is how I came across Melanie a few months ago when I read her book. After digging into who Melanie was, I found out she was on a quest to hike all of the National Scenic Trails and of course had hiked the Florida Trail in 2017. It was a natural fit to have her on the podcast. Melanie completed the Florida Trail in 2017 in four large chunks and I appreciated her unique perspective of hiking the Florida Trail in this manner and I think you will to. We all approach our hikes of long distance trails in different manners and I enjoy hearing how other people manage to make it work for them!