THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity.

ERIN: Hello Nick

NICK: How’s it going Erin?

ERIN: It’s good, how are you doing?

NICK: Can’t complain, how are you doing?

ERIN: Fantastic I’m so excited to talk to you (Laughs)

NICK: I’m excited too, I’m a little nervous I’ve never been interviewed before, so hopefully its not too awkward

ERIN: No worries! You’re looking much more clean shaven and all put together than on your videos.

NICK: A little less homeless looking right now…

ERIN: Yeah, did you do the whole not shave, no haircut nothing for the entire trip or…?

NICK: Yeah and I pretty much started like a couple months before, I was like I’m gonna go full on feral child looking til the end of this thing.

ERIN: Fantastic

NICK: I miss the beard and the hair at times but it was a little more fun to look homeless on trail amongst trail people than in LA where you’re just like assume that people are just like oh that just another homeless man.

ERIN: Right, it’s more acceptable?

NICK: Exactly.

ERIN: So I watched all of your videos on your YouTube and saw the journey…

NICK: It was fun!

ERIN: Did you put them together after you came back or were you putting them together when you went along?

NICK: Pretty much I put those together during like my zero days or nero days or anytime I was in town I tried to edit them once a week and just kind of maintain that schedule. I think it helped out cause I know a lot of people who took a lot of the footage and finally edited it at the end of it and then you just have a www.hiking-thru.com 1 © Copyright Hiking Thru 2018

HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity. whole mountain of footage and you’re dealing with post trail depression and that only makes it worse. It was definitely a chore at times to get this done but I am definitely glad I did it then when it was fresh in my mind versus 4 months later when I’m “Week 1 what the hell was that all about?”

ERIN: (laughing) “I barely remember week one!”

NICK: Yeah!

*** CAMERA ***

ERIN: What were you shooting on, what were you editing on?

NICK: Um, I got the iPhone 7 Plus. It was pretty brand new at that point so I got the 256 GB one with just like a ton of storage and I was able to shoot on that then iMovie came on it, so I just used that to edit. I was able to shoot, edit and post all on one device which was definitely nice on trail in terms of keeping everything charged.

ERIN: Makes it simple…

NICK: Yeah and then I think I did like I used iCloud storage for backing up my footage but I’m still in the process of doing the media management for the whole trip just cause its just been sitting on my iPhone and its finally full, so I’m like, I gotta deal with this. It’s a slow going process but it’s alright.

ERIN: Wow! We’re talking over a year later! (Laughs)

NICK: Yeah procrastinated that a bit. I’m like I finally wanna shoot some more stuff. I pretty much didn’t shoot all this year; I was in a car accident in my van so I’m in the middle of solving all that legally and, so I kinda took a break from shooting. I’m ready to shoot again. I have no storage on my phone so it’s time to finally clear it out…

ERIN: Got it! So to put it into perspective for people who are listening, 2017 was a very bad fire year on the PCT.

NICK: Going into it was more hikes about the snow because we had all that big snow on the Sierras and a lot of people skipped up ahead and yoyo’d back or whatever, flip flopped. But we got through the Sierras and we thought it’d be a victory lap and then Canada and then Oregon went up in flames. Oregon was kinda a wash for us, I still have a lot of virgin miles in Oregon to cover, its not the worst problem to have though.

ERIN: True, true true. Now, how bad was the air quality up there with all of those fires. You did skipping around, but you also did do a lot of hiking out there.

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HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity.

NICK: Yeah the first couple days, our first fire experience was kind of cool; it was in Seiad Valley, we came around the corner and there was small fire in the valley and a big plane coming, dropping and everything and the air quality was fine but the wind wasn’t blowing toward us. Then once we got to Oregon, it was getting a little bad at the border crossing and I forgot where, a little bit after Ashville. Was it Ashville?

ERIN: Ashland.

NICK: Ashland; We were a little after Ashland and it was getting kind of smoky, also the same time as PCT day so we hitched up and when we came back, or actually when we’re hitching through Oregon we went through the heart of the smoke, driving, and saw how bad it was. We went to hitch back down to Crater Lake, which was where we were trying to make it to and it was horrible. It was like, you get sick and tired, it feels like it’s sunset or sunrise all day, which sounds cool but it gets kind of weird, your circadian rhythm’s like ‘What’s going on?’. Then worst smoke we walked through is probably in Washington; I mean, definitely some of my friends made fun of me, cause me and Grant, the kid that I hiked with, had no interest in really walking through the smoke and obviously we’re both big pot smokers so everyone’s like you’re fine with smoke and we’re like were very particular with the type of smoke we like. It wasn’t worth it for me, I was out there to definitely to enjoy myself as much as possible instead of trying to prove anything or set any records or anything like that, so I wasn’t really too concerned with the continuous footpath in the shortest amount of time which is appealing. I would like to do it eventually, but that wasn’t really the goal for that trip. So it was just kind of you know, lets skip ahead. We knew up in Cascade Locks, it wasn’t too smoky, so we just decided to hitch up to 45 miles before Mount Hood and skip all the smoke and we got through, I mean it was good thing we did. We got through the gorge area 3 days before it burned real bad; we got through Government Camp near Mount Rainier 2 days before it burned, so it felt like everything passing through was burning two days behind us so that was stressful, but we kind of had to roll with the punches.

ERIN: I kind of have two questions off of that; one of them is how much of trail do you have to go back and pick up again later, or would you like to pick up later? And then the second question is, did the fires and the skipping around mess with you mentally in terms of your hike and start is it this is it that?

NICK: I would say, yeah it was very frustrating to feel like you’re forced off the trail, especially when we had liked really tried to like, you know, toughen up and got through the Sierras in all the snow as it was. Yeah there definitely a lot of lame online chatter about what is a thru hike and what a long distance section hike. The pride and ego that’s involved in that. I think it would’ve been a bigger, I mean it definitely sucks to not be able to keep going. I think it would’ve affected me more if it was more of my goal. We all knew 2017 was going to be a weird challenge getting into it. But yeah, definitely I feel like people are definitely more prone to quit or leave early when they start flipping and skipping around because you lose a certain amount of the romanticism and like the suspension of disbelief in your head that this is an epic journey that can only happen on my feet and then you hitch up 40 miles in 30 minutes and like what what the hell?

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HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity.

ERIN: (Laughs)

NICK: That’s weird, I definitely would like to do the whole trail again and try to do it a little bit more and try to get continuous footpath. I mean if I was going to just clean up the rest of the hike I would probably do honestly like Lassen to the border

ERIN: Ok!

NICK: I got sick right after Lassen area so that’s kind of like the first little Swiss cheese holes and the second part of our hike and then between the smoke and then wanting to catch up with friends, it was a little bit less treading I don’t have any regrets on it. I mean a lot of people I say treat the trail like it’s their boss, where they have to put in the hours and its like you’re out here making your own decisions. If you want to go skip up like 40 miles because your buddy’s are there, skip up ahead. You are going to spend the next week of your life struggling to go faster and not really enjoying the moment. The hike is long. but its also short. Its supposed to be an enjoyable thing in my opinion and of course thru hikes always have challenges and discomforts, but overall it should be a good experience. Am I rambling too much?

ERIN: No, not at all!

NICK: Ok, I don’t know (Laughs)

ERIN: No, not at all. Like I said this is about hearing your stories from the trail and we’ll get into gear and tech and all that kind of stuff in a minute, but I love hearing stories from the trail and last year was a pretty epic year between the fires and the snow and the snow melt; the rivers were raging and it was a little crazy.

NICK: Yeah, definitely. There was a lot of trail hype going into the Sierras and a lot of people didn’t see it for themselves, they just skipped up ahead. It was probably good for most people. I wasn’t as nervous about the melts or the Sierras because my first ever trip was the John Muir Trail in 2015 and I did that solo as well, which probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do. But it worked out alright; I started early though. I think I started on May 22nd south bound, but it was 2015, so it was a low snow year. Every pass that I hit was covered in snow. I crossed one of the big drainages right by Muir Trail Ranch where there’s hot springs. It’s not one of the rivers where you cross on the PCT or the JMT, but there’s hot springs on the other side. I crossed a serious drainage and I just knew that, like you know, I’m 6’3”, 190 pounds, a lot bigger than most hikers so I should be ok. Grant’s a little smaller, probably only… I don’t know how tall Grant is, but he’s probably closer to 5’10 and closer to 130 pounds so he was a little bit more nervous. But if it’s too intense, where the trail crosses you just hike up or down you know a mile each way and usually there’s like talk Guthooks or whatever about look for this crossing there, this crossing here. But I loved the crossings… I like approach them like American ninja warrior, ‘Oh challenge time, here we go’ and then fall or get hurt. I didn’t make the smartest decisions probably all the time but it was fun! (Laughs)

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HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity.

ERIN: Now were you hiking with Grant the whole time?

NICK: Yeah, Grant and I were both planning on hiking with Styles, he’s a “egoodsyahknow” on Instagram, so we both talked to him a little bit online and he started a couple hours after us. Grant and I just happened to meet up at the Southern Terminus. He went in the wrong direction right off the bat and got lost and then he came back to the monument while I was up there hooting and hollering, shooting some video of the monument, so that was just kind of happenstance and then we just got along well and ended up doing the whole thing.

ERIN: Oh ok, so it wasn’t a planned thing it was as you say just happenstance? Oh, got it, ok!

NICK: I think it was mostly just like, we both like to push miles when we’re on trail but then we like to chill in town and we both you know, smoked a lot of weed so that helped bond us.

ERIN: Right, it was the community.

NICK: Yeah exactly, safety meetings all the time…

ERIN: Always… (Laughs). As you said, you’re 6’3”, 190 pounds, I mean stream crossings and things like that, or even animal encounters out there, I could see if you were truly solo, it could be a little nerve wracking. Did it help to know Grant with there or were you feeling pretty good about it?

NICK: I mean, you’re never really nervous while you’re walking, its only like in camp; we cowboy camped pretty much every night.

ERIN: Yeah, I saw that. (Laugh)

NICK: It’s definitely nicer to have someone around you just for the herd security mentality or whatever. But the trail is so popular that even if you are truly solo, you have to make a serious effort to hike alone or camp alone. I mean it’s possible, but you have to pick not popular spots. But in terms of animals, I’m not really scared of bears; they’re just kinda like our big squirrels on the PCT!

ERIN: (Laughs)

NICK: That I mean versus Grizzly Bears, they’re all like big scaredy cat black bears. I mean Mountain Lions are probably the only thing I’m really nervous about when I’m hiking by myself at night time in Southern California.

ERIN: Right!

NICK: At the same time, I surf and sharks are around… those are things you think about in the beginning but once you’re comfortable in the environment…you’re aware of it but you’re not too worried about it. www.hiking-thru.com 5 © Copyright Hiking Thru 2018

HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity.

I mean rattle snakes are the most realistic danger I feel like on trail in Southern California, they’re just chillin’ by the trail. Couple times, yeah.

ERIN: I thought I heard in your videos that you really didn’t have much snake encounters?

NICK: We didn’t on trail, I mean I’ve had a lot of snake encounters on the PCT but not during the thru hike. Just going and hanging out in the Deer Creek Hot Spring, I almost got hit by a rattle snake right where the trail meets the road, there’s just like a shady water area. I mean the one time I had issues with snakes, I think it was Belden and I remember I had gotten a hitch to a place to get milkshakes two miles down, but I was talking to the local lady and she said I’d love to do a hike but I’m scared of the snakes and I was like “I haven’t seen a snake in a thousand miles what are you talking about?” and then I camp at night on the banks and there’s that rattle snake chilling 4 feet away from me the whole night so…

ERIN: Oh, it stayed there the whole night?

NICK: Well, I ended up moving…

ERIN: Ahh, ok (Laughs)

NICK: Yeah, I stayed there two nights because I was waiting for a to arrive and the first night I stayed in that spot and was completely unaware of any issues. I’m sure that snake was there because I’m pretty sure that’s its spot and then the second night I was in the same spot and I got up like to take a pee, pretty much right where I was sleeping, which isn’t gross at all, but I felt like a presence or whatever so I turn and on my light and it’s like 2 feet coiled up, not aggressive or anything but obviously a hunting area. So I just tossed some sand at it from far away and it scurried off into a bush and I went back to sleep, which I’m not surprised about, being lazy. And then I’m like kind of asleep 15-20 min later I’m like I should check that spot again and I turn my light and it’s just right there and… it’s time to move!

ERIN: (Laughs) But you tried to hang onto your spot! (still laughing)

NICK: I was like “I don’t want to move”. Even though its cowboy , I was like it’s pretty easy for me to move all my stuff but you get pretty comfortable and lazy out there after a couple of months

Erin: You and Grant both I guess, out there were doing a lot of cowboy camping. Was that the plan for you at least and maybe for him as well or did it just sort of evolve as you got out there and you were like you know we really don’t need to put this thing up?

NICK: That was, I only ever had a tarp to begin with. And I’d done a fair amount of overnights in Southern California because I’m based out of LA, so that was always kind of the plan for me in Southern California and once we got through the Sierras still cowboy camping then we were like if we can do that we can pretty much do anything. We each bought like real cheap $40 Amazon Mylar Bivy before the Sierras, that helped a little bit. He had a to start off with. I think he got rid of it probably within the www.hiking-thru.com 6 © Copyright Hiking Thru 2018

HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity. first 400-500 miles just cause we were cowboying and his pack shrank so much from the first day, like a 45 Osprey with a tent and a bunch of shit hanging off it and by the end of it, just in a Pa’lante a teeny little pack. So it was fun to see his kit evolve. He went through 3 different packs trying to figure it out. So in terms of cowboy camping, it was always kind of my plan to start off with. But, yeah we just get real comfortable out there and it’s just so much nicer looking up to the stars and you can peel your head and you can see an amazing sunrise for a second and go back to bed for like 30 more minutes. It’s just a lot nicer

ERIN: You guys seem to do a lot of very early morning get up and start hiking thing.

NICK: That was totally Grant!

E: (Laughs) Ok…

NICK: Yeah, I would hear his air mattress. And it was “Oh here we go.” It was kind of like and we would just wake up, break camp and be hiking in probably within like 10 minutes and then after like 3 or 4 miles then we’d kind of do a little breakfast thing. But it was always just nice, it’s so nice to get 10 miles in by 10am or like 20 in before noon and it feels like you have the rest of the day. If you really want to push big miles you have that option and if you want to take a bit more relaxed and you know and have a nice siesta somewhere you can do that. I mean it’s the prettiest time to be hiking. It’s the most comfortable time to be hiking in the desert if its super hot. It’s definitely a good habit to get into and I’m not necessarily a morning person, but it’s a lot easier to do it and become a morning person on trail. I feel like sometimes, if you’re not rocking a 9-5 Monday thru Friday, you can wake up and be like what am I doing? But when you’re on trail, you wake up and you’re like “Oh, I’m hiking today” and you just know that you have to do it eventually, so better to start it sooner than later. And once you’re hiking, you know, its all good.

ERIN: Yeah, you were doing like in the desert wise or specifically you were doing some pretty big mileage at 20 mile days and so forth you’re racking up the mileage.

NICK: Definitely. We had like an idea of like I’m gonna go so fast at the beginning of the trip and you know Grant is like a cross country Ultra runner so he’s capable of big miles and then I was just hiking constantly before the PCT, not necessarily trying to train myself but like, so antsy to get out there and being close by it in LA there’s tons of stuff to do, so I was like in pretty decent hiking shape for it. Our big mile day we did like a 50 mile day coming into Acton that was not planned at all. I think there’s a couple of factors that played into that; one we just wanted to push miles generally, but we woke up and it was Saturday in the Angeles National Forest and we could trail magic breakfast at like 10am and then a trail magic lunch at like 1, so we had all the calories we could have and then some.

ERIN: (laughing)

NICK: Like plenty of beers along the way. I think I had six beers that day and then we got up to a point where it’s pretty much generally 30 miles downhill into Acton and I think we’d done 20 or so. I had a www.hiking-thru.com 7 © Copyright Hiking Thru 2018

HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity. hole in my air mattress and my girlfriend was going to pick us up in LA and take us back for a little bit, so it was like could just camp here and have a miserable night or we could just push through this 30 miles however long it takes. It’s all down hill and we could just get picked up in the middle of the night so we thought. We were smoking a joint, we thought it’d be cool to do a 50 that early.

ERIN: (Laughs)

NICK: And yeah, I think it was just like we had that mentality of like work hard and chill hard. So it works out well for trail.

Erin: Well, you guys seem to like, slow down a little bit once you get to the Sierras. Was that because of the snow and the hills and that kind of thing?

NICK: Yeah after the 50 miles, we took a double zero. And that was kind of like maybe not the best habit to fall into, but we were thinking because of the snow pack everyday that we give the Sierras to thaw out is a good thing. So we took 4 days off at Kennedy Meadows by accident. We were gonna leave after 2, but then our buddy Sal showed up and we just ended up getting vortexed there. I think Grant got sick a little before that weekend. I think in Ridegcrest or something for a couple of days. So that would just start slowing down the daily mileage in terms of taking all of the town days and then the Sierras slows you down in terms of the snow, the elevation. Mostly it’s the mountain passes like you can’t really do, or it’s not the best idea to do some of the snowy mountain passes late in the day when the snow has become mushy and melty through so. That kind of limits you. Try to hit your pass early and get to the next pass or just below it. Set yourself up for the next day. So unless it’s snow free, that’s kind of limits your Sierra mileage I feel like that was the main factor for us I think.

ERIN: You guys started around the middle of May I believe?

NICK: May 10th

Erin: May 10th. Was that the plan all along or was that based on the snow pack and wanting to give it more chance to melt or…?

NICK: So, originally I was going to start April 1st. It was like my thought process before the winter had hit but then we were getting like “the most epic winter” like “best snow ever” and I was like yeah whatever. More people are like kind of dreading it but once it was like going, I was like I want more snow cause I want the record if like, if we’re gonna do it, lets do it you know? If you know you’re walking on top of 10 feet or 15 feet, your walking on top of it so it doesn’t really matter. Also I’ve lived in California for almost 4 or 5 years, all drought years. All like mega drought, so it was just exciting that the state was gonna have water. I wasn’t that worried about it, but I definitely pushed back my start date to let the Sierras thaw out and I was definitely planning, trying to average like 30 miles a day. And so I was worried I was going to get there too early. That didn’t end up happening which is fine, definitely started later cause of the high snow pack.

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HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity.

ERIN: Did you make that decision before you got all your permits or did you make that decision after you had gotten your permits and had to change things or fiddle with them?

NICK: No because we got our permits. The permits were issued I think in January 2016. I think its November now. A little bit later, so we were already away, that the snow pack was huge by that point so when the permits were released I just went for May.

ERIN: Did you get the day that you wanted or did you have to give them a couple of different dates and then landed on something?

*** PACK ***

NICK: I got the day I wanted. I was just sitting in my office of that time, refreshing my computer like a panic attack. But I think the system went down because everyone overwhelmed it for the first 5 minutes. I was on the Facebook group and everyone was like freaking out, I think the permit day and then the getting my pack; getting my pack we more stressful than the permit day but it was kind of a similar thing cause I used the Pa'lante Simple Pack and it like. They released maybe 50 at the time and then they sell out in like 10 minutes and it was also another like refresh, refresh, refresh! Oh my god, I got it, thank god!

ERIN: (Laughs)

NICK: Yeah, those were two very stressful days. (Laughs)

ERIN: Ok, since you metion your pack… what was it it’s the Pa'lante?

NICK: Pa'lante Simple Pack, Pa'lante Packs. I think they’re just Pa'lante now. It’s John Zahorian and Andrew Bens’ company, I haven’t met Andy yet, I know John.

ERIN: Ok got it. During the trip you also got a second pack or you switched packs maybe?

NICK: Yeah so, they’re a new company; they’re an ultralight backpacking company, newish I guess at this point. I had the ULA Catalyst which is like a 65 litre pack for the John Muir Trail and I pretty much had rebought all my equipment like I went from a synthetic bag to a down quilt which saved a lot of space. I went from like a tarp to, or a tent to a tarp which saved a lot of space. So I was ready to downsize and I’d seen John’s pack on like a kind of day trip and I was like “Oh my god, I want that thing so badly”. So I probably over stuffed it a little bit when we started. There’s like a lot of user error I think to version 1, just cause there wasn’t a whole lot of stretch to the material and if you’re truly ultralight and weren’t over stuffing it there’s no issues, but a lot of people on thru hikes are putting that extra bag of, ya know sour patch kids or something so…

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HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity.

NICK: Between that I also like to run the down hills, so put a lot of wear and tear on it. So they sent me a new pack, the same design but trying out a different fabric half way through and they sent me a new pack for free and they hooked it up. I think their newer version, the B2, I think the material is 7 times as strong as the V1 so it’s a lot more user friendly but yeah, I love that pack. I still have it and I think they released a couple around of the Dyneema Gridstop 1, which is the second pack I got. So I’m very proud of the original Dyneema Pa’lante Simple.

ERIN: You have a classic edition. (laughing)

NICK: Yeah, right, totally.

ERIN: Now, the pack that you were using, because it’s the ultralight, it doesn’t really have a frame and did it have any stays in the back of it to keep its form or…?

NICK: No it was totally, what was it called? I forget the fabric, but it’s essentially like a long tube that rolls down and clips over and I think the main body is 32 litres and with all the side pockets. There’s a front pocket, 2 side pockets and a bottom pocket which is the best thing in the world makes it like 40litres. So you’re definitely limited on your space and that really makes you make choices about what you want versus what you need. It’s so much more comfortable walking then when I did the John Muir Trail and had a 65litre pack with stuff hanging off the edge of it. I’d be constantly finding a big rock just to lean back and take all the weight off my back. With the other pack, like my base weight no water, no is 7pounds. I can run downhill easily and its way more comfortable and it’s more oriented for comfort during the day versus comfort at night. Not that you have to be uncomfortable at night, but you’re not having no camp chairs or whatever.

*** SLEEPING ***

ERIN: Right. Speaking of comfort at night, did you have issues of getting cold? I watched your gear review at the end of the hike and you didn’t really carry with you the rain jacket and wind pants, rain pants and some of that other stuff would’ve helped with heat.

NICK: Yeah, I think the only times I was ever uncomfortable at night was maybe a night or two in the Sierras when we were camped by lakes. So you get all of that condensation from the moisture which makes everything that much colder. I definitely should’ve sent my Sierra stuff up to Northern Washington. I’d gotten way to used to late summer Northern California, Oregon-ish areas. Nothing too extreme, maybe another layer or two in Washington and then just picking better camping spots in the Sierra but nothing too bad.

ERIN: Ok what were you using for a sleeping bag or a bag?

N: umm, I have a 20 degree, Enlightened Equipment quilt. I think I got the Massdrop version of it. Massdrop is just a site that you buy, if a certain amount of people agree to buy a certain product, they www.hiking-thru.com 10 © Copyright Hiking Thru 2018

HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity. get a discount on it so I think I got like hydrophobic treated down so its not completely useless if it gets a little moisture on it. That’s one of my favorite pieces of equipment. I still have it. It’s super warm, it packs down to almost nothing. It’s pretty much the first thing I put in my bag and everything that goes on top compresses it down even more, that’s the biggest way to save space is getting a down sleeping bag or quilt. Quilt is less material. It kind of has an open back that kind of straps shut, but the idea behind that is that if you have a sleeping bag your lying on that back fill, so it compresses and it doesn’t really give you any warmth value. So if you just have a pad for that and a quilt goes around the pad and kind of works as a unit and saves you some space in your pack material wise. That was what allowed me to switch from a 65 litre pack to a 40 litre pack, it’s just saving the volume, because I’m sure if you’ve tried to pack down a synthetic bag and it doesn’t…

ERIN: It only goes so far…

NICK: Yeah.

Erin: Now you also took an inflatable pillow with you?

NICK: Yeah, I love my pillow. That’s like my favorite thing in the world.

ERIN: (Laughs)

NICK: I definitely got some shit for it. Just from people cause there’s always the bro-y ultralight like “Oh, you’re soft for having this and I’m like, I don’t care, I love my pillow. A lot of people try to like use their food bag as a pillow which is you know super safe.

ERIN: (Laughs)

NICK: Yeah, the pillow is like $60, but it never popped. Kinda feels like a pillow and it’s so nice to not have your head like this against the pad. I probably wouldn’t go without my pillow.

ERIN: You hear so many people talk about how bad their sleep is on the trail and I would say part of that is because of the pillow.

NICK: Its true, you definitely don’t sleep as well as when you have the big comfy bed. A lot of times, most people have the Thermarest yellow pad an either they’ll get a tiny hole or a leaky valve or something, so a lot of times you get 3 hours of sleep at a time and you have to like blow up your thing or you have to move or something. It is what it is. You definitely get more used to it and comfortable sleeping outside with what you have as you go along. It’s definitely a trial by error process; like do I sleep on my face, do I sleep on my side, should I actually try to sleep on my back? It feels weird to sleep on my back.

ERIN: (Laughs)

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HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity.

NICK: You know, you have to kind of play with it and see what works for you.

ERIN: Yeah, now you have one of the blow up airpads and I think you had gotten a hole at some point but otherwise it was good?

NICK: Yeah, so I got a hole early on in the desert. I think I just didn’t do a good job scoping out where I was laying down my ground sheet. But it was an easy patch to fix, you just submerge it under water, be it a bathtub in town or whatever. A lot of times if you don’t have something like that you can just wet down your pad and soap it up and you can see soap bubble from the area and most of the Thermarest or other brands I’m sure come with little patch kits when you buy it. I did get a bit of a leaking valve toward the end of it, which you know it is what it is. I hiked with like a closed foam or closed cell foam on the John Muir Trail and the inflatable stuff is just so much more comfortable. Even if you have you know slight deflating issues, they’re usually minor and you know it’s part of it, you deal with it.

ERIN: Did you ever think about possibly sort of re-supplying or replacing the mattress or the air pad?

Nick: I think I got mine on sale for like $80 but they’re usually $120-130. Its good enough to not necessitate going out and replacing it. I still have the same pad.

ERIN: (Laughs) You still have it?

NICK: Yeah, it’s good enough. I mean it’s kind of comfy if you blow it up all the way. I think I need to change my valve or something, but it gets way more comfortable as the night goes and eventually your hip touches and I’m like “I gotta blow this thing up a little bit more” but it takes 2 seconds.

ERIN: Ok, speaking of the re-supply or that kind of stuff, how was that process for you? I know you had some issues at one point sending things forward through the postal service and stuff, versus having resupply boxes come in from Homebase versus just resupplying in the towns or whatever, where you were stopping, like food and tech and…?

NICK: Yeah, the whole re-supply thing is like a double edge sword whether you want to re-supply boxes versus supplying in town. I would definitely recommend doing boxes if your vegan or have any dietary restrictions. But if you don’t, I would recommend not going the box re-supply route, except for maybe a couple of spots in the Sierras or there’s a couple towns like Sierra City doesn’t have much. If you do some research online there are certain towns that aren’t great, but you hear so many people that are relying on these boxes who have more of a rigid schedule cause they don’t want to get to a town on Friday night and have to wait til Monday morning for a box. You hear nightmares about that. That was the biggest reason I didn’t do it, but also the mark ups in some of the towns are expensive, but at the same time you can pay a small mark up or pay for the shipping. So you’re not really going to save yourself [much]. I would say 80% of the time just re-supply in town and then you know, there’s always trail chatter coming up on spots where “Oh there’s a 30mile waterless section here or there’s no food coming up for a while”. You’ll hear about it in town, so just talk with other people. There are certain www.hiking-thru.com 12 © Copyright Hiking Thru 2018

HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity. towns you’ll probably want to buy more food, make boxes and send ahead, but for the most part I got away with it without using boxes and when I did use boxes it can be a nightmare, so…you know…

ERIN: Getting there when you were supposed to. It getting there when it was supposed to…

NICK: And beating it by a day and then you’re already hiking with a group of people and no one wants to wait for your box. Boxes are just too much. Its more outside force planning which is, the best part of thru hiking is being able to make your own decisions in the moment and go with it.

ERIN: Right, like hitting Seattle on the spur of the moment and bouncing back.

NICK: Right, and you’re not worried about boxes. Like my buddy Jupiter who hurt his foot this year, but was going for the yoyo. He is like a box fiend but he has a very rigid schedule and that’s how he likes to operate so its definitely a preferential thing. If you’re a type A and the type of person who wants to plan literally every mile of your hike, which is fun. I mean it’s a fun past time, planning out trips that you might even never do its like “Oh I could do this, but I’ll put that on my to do list”. It’s approach and I feel like more people, newer hikers kind of take that approach of trying to plan out everything and then you hit the trail and that kind of all flies out the window for the most part for most people from what I saw. There’s the PCT and the AT and all these major established trails have not only blown up in popularity, they have such a support system built in. All the trail towns, locals know, you can jump into a PCT thru hike with not that much planning in terms of logistics and be ok. Obviously there’s physical dangers but just logistic wise, I don’t think that you really need to do that much planning any more.

*** FOOD ***

ERIN: Ok, which is good news/bad news depending upon your view point. What was your food, choices? Where were you going and do you feel like you were getting enough calories? You’re a bigger guy so…

NICK: Well, I definitely lost. I started the trail probably pushing 200 just cause I’m like, I don’t need to diet, this is all going to burn off on trail, but by the end of the trail I think I weighed 178 pounds…

ERIN: Oh wow!

NICK: Which is the first time I was under 180 since high school. So you know, a lot of that is not having access to bread and beer probably for me, all the time. But I would say food choices; I usually start the day with either carnation good start drink mix stuff, slam one of those, oatmeal, coffee, hot coco mix, kinda deal. And that would kind of, I would usually do that maybe 3 miles into our hike and then we’d push on and usually go for 3 more or 4 more hours til we do lunch. Lunch I really got into the little tear open tuna packets with mayo.

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HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity.

NICK: …for protein. And avocado and that like, really

ERIN: Good …

NICK: It was fantastic, that’s my favorite lunch. I always try to buy a ripe avocado and then a very unripe avocado to kind of last. Having something green is nice. Obviously you know snacks are really hard core throughout the whole thing in terms of beef jerky, sour patch kids…

ERIN: Summer sausages seem to be popular…

NICK: Summer sausages. So that was kind of like my dinner would always be a summer sausage and cheese. If we could get a fire going kind of melt that get it all heated up. More I would just buy big things of mayo and then dump mayo on that and that was usually pretty good. I would always try to have a little bit of hot choc and whiskey at night too which is nice, when ever I could plan that out.

ERIN: A comfort drink

NICK: Yeah exactly, a lot of people like to go stove less, but I love hot coffee. I think that warm meals and drinks are a big moral booster out there. So I definitely carried a little stove. But that’s definitely a real popular trend nowadays; “we’re going stove less and cold soaking in the Talenti ice-cream containers”. It’s not for me really. Another real popular trail meal is the ramen bomb, which is just ramen with mash potato or whatever thrown in on top of it. It’s always good. But never getting enough calories ever, always going ham in town and eating as many cheese burgers and what not. But that’s the beauty of it, you can re-discover your childhood, love of Macdonald’s or Twinkies…

ERIN: (laughing)

NICK: Or crap you know, but yeah…

ERIN: When you were on the trail did you have issues with morale? Where you were like I am so done with this now, I’m ready to go home or getting back on the trail after a zero day was difficult or…?

NICK: Yeah, I would say the closest I ever got to wanting to leave trail and go home was probably when I was sick in Mount Shasta and I think that was just from being so drained. I’m pretty sure I got Giardia, so I was vom… there were a lot of fluids coming out of everywhere.

ERIN: You were dehydrated.

NICK: Yeah very dehydrated, there we go. Very dehydrated. But not really understanding how the dehydration was affecting my outlook where “I’m just so drained I’m like. I don’t wanna be here, what am I doing?” It also felt like, I’ve never had giardia before, is this gonna feel like 2 weeks? I’m already www.hiking-thru.com 14 © Copyright Hiking Thru 2018

HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity. almost over 1000 miles into this thing, way longer than I’ve ever hiked before. An excuse to leave the trail without feeling like I failed or whatever”. But as soon as I got the IV of Zofram, which is anti-nausea and got fluids in me I was like “I feel great and want to be on trail”. So as long as I was feeling well, I’d always want to be on trail. I also got rid of like my apartment and like, liquidated my whole life in LA, so I knew that I would be like I could either stay on trail and keep it simple or get off trail and it’d get real complicated and I knew I’d regret it and I’d want to be back on trail as soon as I got bored. I would say that was the closest and toward the end of the hike you know, Washington is a nice pick me up at the end, just cause it’s so beautiful but you’re exhausted and you want to stay out there but you’re also ready to be done, but it’s once you get done with California everything feels short, cause that’s like 1700 miles; Oregon, that’s 400 miles; Washington, that’s nothing it feels like it moves pretty quick towards the end of it.

ERIN: So you didn’t really have to depend on mental fortitude in that respect or really push yourself to get back out once you got rehydrated and all of that kind of stuff and you didn’t really have issues with it otherwise?

NICK: I feel like I was more just itching to get back out. There was just more anxiety of like I really don’t want to fucking - oh sorry - I don’t know, I think that’s the first ‘F’ bomb I’ve dropped, which is pretty good

ERIN: It is!

NICK: I was like I really don’t wanna, just to have diarrhoea on trail and be miserable and be far away from help, but I took enough time off where I didn’t have any issues with that. Just being bored on trail, I think that the smoke was definitely more of an issue, like is this done? What’s going on, do we just skip ahead? Those decisions that are kind of forced on you can be a little confusing and you know, but we just kind of roll with it and you have an acceptance of stuff you can’t control and it is what it is…

ERIN: Yeah so I have actually two questions from that. They’re completely unrelated; the first one is you getting sick and giardia, what happened and what do you think happened?

NICK: Oh that was me just being an arrogant dickhead. You get really used to not filtering in the Sierra, cause anything above 10,000 feet you’re above tree line, there’s not a lot of animals, you’re pretty safe to drink it and I love like, putting a cup in the stream and just drinking it and feeling like a mountain man and feeling like “I am nature”.

ERIN: (Laughs)

NICK: I got to Northern California and you drop seriously in elevation, so there’s more animal poop everywhere. Who knows what it is…

ERIN: Cows?

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HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity.

NICK: Cows… there’s just a lot more stuff in the water and I was just like “I’m good without filtering, I know people who climbed and never filtered, I’m like them and I’m good”. And then had the reality check real hard and fast.

ERIN: Yeah!

NICK: I’m still not the best with, but whatever, I feel like I’m working on my hobo stomach.

ERIN: Something that will get you through anything. The other question I have is about the time. I think in total you took four months because of the skipping through Oregon, though it probably could’ve taken you up to 5 months or whatever; did you just take that time off of your job because I think you’re a first AD at this point?

NICK: Yeah, so I work freelance as a first AD and other minor production stuff in LA and I knew the after the John Muir Trail hike in 2015 I wanted to do the PCT so had two years of obsessive planning. I was really depressed when I wasn’t able to do it in 2016. So it’s pretty much like squirreling away, like instead of going to the movies or out to the bar or something, it’s like squirreling that money away for the hike. Also liquidating my life; I sold my car, my roommate left LA so I was able to sell everything in the apt like the couch, the fridge, like literally everything. So it was just a matter of getting a big enough nest egg. I still had to borrow maybe $1000 from my parents toward the end of the hike, because everyone’s ballin’ out of control on the first 700 miles

ERIN: (Laughs)

NICK: And then you’re like broke as hell for the rest of it… but yeah, I knew that I was gonna take that time, no matter what. I think the hiking probably started for me as a reaction to office life and like pictures on Instagram of like my friends on local mountains and I’m like “Oh you can just go there? That’s crazy!”. So I always knew that I didn’t really care about the ramifications from work and honestly they weren’t gonna be that bad because…

ERIN: You freelance.

NICK: I’m freelance. I got like 3 months on a project and the filming was also kind of an excuse for me, like I’m not totally taking time off I’m working on a project, so…

ERIN: I’m being creative…

NICK: Yeah exactly so that was nice, but I think I had it easier than most in terms of like coming back from trail like a lot of people are either younger or haven’t really started their career path or just getting done with college or doing this instead of college and there are a lot of people at the end of their careers, so it was nice to be able to be freelance to kind of like plug back in with my creative group of friends that I worked with so, it wasn’t as big of an issue for me.

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HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity.

ERIN: How much do you think it took you or cost you?

NICK: I don’t know exactly I haven’t done the math completely but I think it was probably $6500. It was like 4.5 months of living, if you take the cost of living over the time it doesn’t seem as bad.

ERIN: Yeah!

NICK: I probably could’ve saved money by utilizing more of like um… we stayed in a lot of motels and stuff. We both liked that just cause I needed the power and the space to edit and to focus. A lot of the trail towns have a hiker hangout spot that’s usually free or next to free, whether it’s a church lawn or backyard or whatever the trail angel of the area you are in. I could’ve utilized that more if I wanted to save more money. I don’t really regret spending the money that I did, it’s definitely nice to indulge yourself in town and kind of recharge yourself mentally and physically. And I could’ve definitely saved a lot of money not smoking as much weed, but I probably wouldn’t have done the hike if that was the case though.

ERIN: So the $6000 is that inclusive of the gear and all of that stuff or is that just literally time on the trail?

NICK: I think that’s just time on the trail. I think all the gear I pieced it together over like 2 years so it never I never really felt that hit of buying it all together.

ERIN: Right!

NICK: Yeah, I think I spent like $200 on my pack, $270 on my quilt, which were probably two of the bigger things, but I think those were two of my final things and I was just kind of like buying one big piece of gear a month just to keep it with everything in budget.

ERIN: Right.

NICK: But I think what it probably cost all together was maybe around $1000 between all the layers; I spent a lot of money on a Ghost Whisper Jacket, it’s a down hooded jacket which probably wasn’t as necessary as I thought.

ERIN: What would you have used instead?

NICK: I mean it was a great piece of gear, it was just expensive and not durable. I’d love to try everyone’s favourite, the Melanzana hoodie that’s impossible to get right now. It’s a company out of Leadville that the hiking community has gone bananas for. They used to sell them online, and they don’t they just have their store in Leadville, Colorado now.

ERIN: (Laughs)

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HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity.

NICK: It’s like now anyone who’s in Colorado… like I know my friends are like “Can you get me a hoodie and send it to me?” They’re pretty popular. (laughing)

ERIN: Wow! Ok, good to know if you’re ever in Leadville, Colorado (Laughs)

NICK: Everyone calls them Melie’s.

ERIN: Oh ok, now I’m making the connection… Ok, is there anything that you wish you had had with you that you didn’t or, I guess you probably got rid of anything you didn’t need as you went along?

NICK: Hmmm… I mean I’d love like a Zpack Hexamid tent, but I don’t want to drop like $700 on it and again I prefer cowboy camping. But, there’s definitely upgrades of gear that would be nice to have but like everything that’s top of the line is super crazy expensive in ultra light backpacking so…

ERIN: What you had worked?

NICK: I don’t think there’s anything in my mind that was sticking out that I would like to get or like to have that I didn’t.

ERIN: In your video you made a mention at some point… actually I think it was in your gear review that while you were hiking you were listening to a lot of podcasts and things like that, was just a standard to kind of keep you occupied or would you also do a lot of not listening to stuff and just hiking?

NICK: Yeah, so I definitely listen to a lot of podcasts, just in my daily life so it was kind of a habit that I keep up with but it’s nice to listen to longer form podcast or audiobooks or something while you’re hiking cause as beautiful as everything is, you kind of get into a moving meditation and so it’s nice to have something to stimulate my brain while I’m going through. I know a lot of people kind of have a pure attitude where they don’t want to listen to any music, they want to fully commune with nature which I didn’t get. I don’t know if I would say I get bored, but it’s kind of nice to have the option. It probably started because a lot of my hiking started more solo so there’s nothing better than if you’re camping by yourself and kind of freaked out to listen to a podcast.

ERIN: The world is out there.

NICK: Yeah, so I probably started the habit from hiking alone all the time, but yeah it’s nice to break up the monotony of birds chirping which is beautiful but…

ERIN: (Laughs) but how many birds can you actually listen to chirp?

NICK: Exactly!

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HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity.

ERIN: How connected is the trail at this point? I know you had a couple of pictures of people, like 15 people, stopped on the trail looking at their phones.

NICK: Oh connected like looking at their phones? Oh yeah totally connected. I mean there’s part of the Sierras that you’ll go like 10 days without service, which is nice. To have like places in the world this close to where you live, it’s one of my favourite parts of hiking. When I’m working and I’m on call, people call me all the time and I’m responsible to everyone on the set and it’s so nice to go somewhere where no one can call me if they want to. I can return calls when I get service. But I like that aspect of it, but in terms of the actual, connectivity on trail… I mean everyone likes to hate on social media and this or that, but it’s just ya know, it’s the day and age that we live in. I obviously like social media, but you know there are times where it gets almost like comical where you have four hikers doing an Instagram story of an overlook were it kind of feels like a tourist trap for a hot second, but at the same time everyone’s kind of aware and self deprecating for the most part. Yeah I can see it might bother someone; let’s say someone’s not carrying a phone, like there are people that don’t carry any technology I can see that being obnoxious to them. Trying to find a place to escape that but if you want that experience go hike the CDT southbound or something…

ERIN: You’re going to have to hike something less popular basically?

NICK: Yeah, I mean pretty much and that’s also whole big thing in the trail community but you know it’s like, everyone has the right to go out there and have access to the trail. As long as they’re practicing leave no trace. There’s plenty of options to find your solitary tech free, wonderland,

ERIN: To find your zen…

NICK: Yeah, exactly.

*** FEET ***

ERIN: What did you do for your feet?

Nick: Umm not much, Trail Runners. I’ve hiked the John Muir Trail in boots and I had balm salve that I wiped on my feet every night and I still got some blisters. But after that hike I switched to trail runners. Just find a pair that are real comfortable and then not much. I think I had a little bit of discomfort when I switched from the Lone Peaks to the Altras Superiors, but I was wearing a half size too small.

ERIN: Ok!

NICK: Yeah, but I think the most important thing before you hit the trail is to find a make and model of shoe that you like. Wear them a lot like, get your gait used to whatever that shoe is, then buy 5 or 6 www.hiking-thru.com 19 © Copyright Hiking Thru 2018

HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity. pairs. I hiked a lot before I started the trail so I didn’t have a lot of issues with my feet getting bigger. A lot of the time if people aren’t hiking a lot, certain muscles develop and a lot of people jump up half size or a full size. It might not be the best idea for less experienced hikers or people who aren’t hiking multiple times a week to buy the same size of shoe. But I mean it’s easy with like amazon prime or something…

ERIN: Between Amazon and REI?

NICK: Yeah, exactly the only problem with Amazon or something is that is everything is so cheap versus re-supplying when you have to do it in store, like I’m used to paying $70 for a pair of shoes on Amazon and then you go to a store and its $120. But you know sometimes you’re paying for convenience, a lack of a headache and less sore feet.

ERIN: Yeah, now you had to swap your shoes out or your shoe type out was that just because the shoes wore out faster than you were thinking they would or was that always going to have to be something you had to do?

NICK: That was always going to be something I had to do. I was wearing the previous season’s Lone Peak. I think it was the 2.5. There was like a big switch in the designs between the Altra Lone Peak 2.5, which is the 3.0. The Altra’s are really known for having a wide toe box and it was kinda condensed in those ones, so I loaded up. I bought as many pairs of the 2.5’s as I could and then I couldn’t find them any more, so seeing what other people were wearing and what was the cheapest option which, pretty much all came down to the cheapest option after that. Superiors were the easiest cheapest option for me to get. I probably went a half size too small for the last pair I that I wore on trail, but I’m wearing the same style. I think it’s Superior 3.0, that’s the shoe I’m hiking around in right now.

ERIN: And it’s no problem?

NICK: Yeah it works perfect so, yeah its just about finding your shoe…

Erin: As it always is, I think. (Laughs)

NICK: Yeah everyone’s a Cinderella!

ERIN: Yes, Princess and the Pea!

NICK: Yes, exactly. Yeah it’s true…

ERIN: Now I remember correctly the Altra shoes or trail shoes have clips for gators and you were using the Dirty Girl Gators I believe?

NICK: Yes! So I saw everyone rocking the Dirty Girl Gators in 2013 on the PCT, so I’m like “I have to get those, everyone has them” and I started using them. But I l kind of stopped using them pretty quickly www.hiking-thru.com 20 © Copyright Hiking Thru 2018

HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity. because I like to untie my shoes and take them off every time I take a break and the gaitors are nice to keep pebbles and sand and whatever out, but I didn’t notice a significant difference between using them and not and just the ease of taking them on and off. I ended up not using them, I think most of the Altra shoes have that like gator trap in the back and the velcro thing, which you know is nice. But you know I think it’s just another thing to be specific to and like, it’s cool but it’s not super necessary.

ERIN: Got it, what did you do for socks?

NICK: I wore Darn Tough; they’re like the oatmeal quarter inch cushion hiking socks or whatever. Injinji and Darn Tough are two of the most popular sock brands on trail from what I saw. Injinji are the toe socks. People like that because it helps prevent blister or so they say. I’ve never used them, but I’m sure they work great. People really love them, I’ve seen people walking in Injini in bedrock sandals, which is a new thing… Fun, fun stuff, trail fashion galore!

ERIN: Exactly!

NICK: But the Darn Tough’s are nice, just cause they have a lifetime warranty on their socks so a lot of places re-supply. If you have a hole in your sock, you can just turn it into the re-supplier and they give you a free pair.

ERIN: Oh, nice ok!

NICK: The whole resupply deal so, yeah Darn Tough’s are pretty great for that.

ERIN: I am assuming you only have a couple of pairs of socks with you in your packs?

NICK: Like two or three pairs at a time. I probably went through like four pairs of socks or something, they’re pretty tough.

ERIN: (Laughs) Hence the name. Were you washing them whenever you got to water sources and things like that or were you wearing them in town and washing them in town?

NICK: Yeah I wear ‘em into town; everyone pretty much does their laundry in bathtubs in motels. The Darn Toughs are definitely a little thicker so I felt like I had to hand wash ‘em inside, outside like two or three times for them to get all the grit and dirt out of them after walking for like a week in them. But it was just a matter of like, just getting real dirty on trail and then go into town. I don’t know how, I honestly think that anyone that like hosts hikers should have free laundry services just for their pipe’s sake cause every hiker washes their stuff in the bath tubs so I can’t imagine where all that dirt goes. Ya know?

ERIN: (Laughs) Yeah

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HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity.

NICK: Hikers you know, we’re good and bad in terms. I feel like I’m in transition here, but I was going to talk about hikers on trail or town people or how toward like the end, like if your in the herd the main pack of hikers there’s obviously been a fair amount of people that have come through town before you so a lot of these towns are really small and when hikers come through its obviously a huge financial boom. But its also like an invasion of locust, like we come in and take all the resources and it’s a bit overwhelming, so you can notice some hiker fatigue from town people. So I try to be on my best behaviour; If I’m in town I try to act like I’m in someone’s living room. You know you’re not just representing yourself. One bad hiker experience with a town can really do some serious damage.

ERIN: Yeah, turns people off to being helpful.

NICK: I don’t know how I transitioned into that…

ERIN: No, its actually good and it makes me ask the question, or begs the question; You know trail angels and trail magic? You know, because that’s sort of part of that entire experience…

NICK: Just generally talk about it?

ERIN: Yeah like, talk about it and you had certainly some experiences with it along the way.

NICK: Yeah trail angels are the coolest people in the world; trail magic is everything, like finding a soda in the middle of nowhere…

ERIN: (Laughs) it’s like your birthday and Christmas all put together…

Nick: It’s insane how much little things can be like the best thing in the world out there. A lot of the time all of the trail angels have some sort of a connection to the trail be it just physical location where they live. A lot of people are former thru hikers or have family members who have thru hiked. It’s kind of nice to see. It’s just really cool when you’re out there hiking to see. The first couple of times when you get that random crazy help from strangers is definitely one of the things that is very life affirming, where it’s like not everyone sucks. People are generally good and you just meet in the right context; I mean everyone goes out there for the landscapes but sticks around for the people cause all the hikers you’re meeting you’re having like a shared experience with them, like I’m doing this crazy thing with my life and so are you, we’re best friends!

ERIN: (Laughs) Right!

NICK: And then run into people that want to support you and who know what you’re doing and like “Oh my god, I love people. This is amazing” versus when you’re usually dealing with people unless they’re good family or friends, you’re like “What’s the gist here, what do you want from me?” Which is not the best way to approach people if you don’t want to be come cynical and hate them. Yeah, trail angels are awesome. I did a fair amount of trail angeling this year, I just took my van up the 2, which is just north of Los Angeles, where the trail goes past Baden Powell and all that area. I would make breakfast burritos www.hiking-thru.com 22 © Copyright Hiking Thru 2018

HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity. for people; come to Little Jimmy camp ground and its just so awesome to see people, like the hikers faces light up. Like originally, they’re like “why is this guy in the van yelling at me?”

ERIN: (Laughs)

NICK: “Oh you have soda and food for me? I love you.” I feel like its almost like speed dating where I’m like “Where are you from, what are you doing? I love you’re my best friend. Alright hit the trail.”

ERIN: And then the next one comes up…

NICK: It’s just fun. I was 2 miles from a camp ground, I would feed them all in the morning and then they’d go off and I felt like a mom sending her kids off to school and I’m like “They grow up so fast”. I mean its awesome and I saw those people for the first time down in Southern California and I helped out at the Anderson’s, Casa De Luna, which is my favorite trail angel place. They’ve been doing it, hosting hikers for 20 years. They do pancakes in the morning and taco salad at night. They call it hippy day-care. It’s the coolest place ever, so I would see people a couple weeks later working out there so I get to see, faces from a trail angel perspective you get to see the same faces cycle through and see the finishing photos of people posting all the time and its like “Oh they made it. Yay!”

ERIN: Right!

NICK: It’s the coolest, its just cool to stay connected. It’s just part of the whole trail community, the best community in the world.

ERIN: This day and age we’re so insular, and when you’re out on the trail you’re sort of putting your life in somebody else’s hands and being “Help me! Help me get from here to there, help me find food, help me get across the stream”

NICK: I feel like it’s not as much like “Help me!”, it’s like “I need to do this” and there are just people there that want to help me. So like hikers, look out for each other, especially to come into the Sierras. It’s just nice to know that you’re being seen and heard by people, which a lot of people can, with all the technology, which can be put in front of them… its nice to have real interactions and like, you become best friends with people in days out on trail and maintain those. That’s the upside of social media, you can maintain these in a sense, maintain relationships across social media. I know people all over the country; cool young people who like to do outdoor stuff all over the country. “Oh all I need to do is drive to Colorado, drive to Yosemite”. I have got friends that work in all the national parks which,

ERIN: Oh wow, you got your hook up in Leadville? (Laughs)

NICK: (Laughs) One of my buddy’s, I think Grant is still In Colorado… he’s been living out of his truck doing Ultra marathons and bagging like 14-ers and making me feel old and .

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HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity.

ERIN: (Laughs) Did you end up with kind of a trail family because you were with a lot of the same group of people all the way up or did it sort of work through California and when you get to Oregon it got messed up?

NICK: Yeah, Grant’s definitely trail family numero uno. Just cause we did the whole thing together. We would hike with different groups of people for maybe a week or two at time and then for whatever pace reason or whatever, you kind of drift apart, which is not hard. Everyone knows, we’re all kind of on our own trip if we happen to pass by each other.

ERIN: yeah

NICK: Great! But you don’t need to have the responsibility of like “Oh I need to wait for this person or that” and yeah that’s the best part, its nice to have at least one or two people to be consistent. And you treat it like a real tight relationship and with other people in town or on trail and you don’t see them for a month and then for fire reasons or flipping or whatever you cross paths and you get like the best reunion ever! I think the best trail family experience we had was coming out of just past Mount Adam’s there’s a huge group of south bounders who had flipped up to the terminus coming south bound. I think there were like ten of us still going north bound who had congealed together for the first time in 500 miles

ERIN: (Laughs)

NICK: Then we came together and like there’s all of a sudden 25 good friends. Everyone knows everyone. One person in our group and one person in their group had practiced ukulele harmonica songs together so they played a song for us with this mountain back drop and it was just so crazy. One of the guys in our group going north bound, one of the guys in their group going south bound, and they just cross up to put on this show for all of us and we just keep going. I feel like that was the best PCT moment. It’s all about the people, the culture and you also have like Mount Adam’s sitting back there and you’re just in it… its good stuff! (Laughs)

ERIN: It was that moment that consolidated everything.

NICK: It was almost like, if I saw this in a movie I’d be like this isn’t real!

ERIN: (Laughs) It would never happen that way…

NIC: Yeah, it was pretty cool!

ERIN: So, I kind of just wanted to full circle and just make sure there wasn’t anything gear wise or tech wise or something that we’ve missed talking about.

NICK: I think only other thing I would want to talk about is like, I talked about how awesome the culture on trail is. Sometimes that culture can get kinda toxic and poisonous when it transfers onto online www.hiking-thru.com 24 © Copyright Hiking Thru 2018

HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity. forums and there’s just like a lot of young bros on trail, which you know I love my bros, I’m not hating on them. But there can be some ego, chest pumping and at the end of the day no one gives a shit about your hike except for you. Your hike or whatever, it really doesn’t matter to anyone but you how you approach it or how many miles you did or you know. Iit shouldn’t be a competitive thing, unless you’re going for a record which I totally respect people that do that, cause it’s insane when you know what goes into it. But, just for average, for hiking people. Don’t take yourself too seriously, you’re out there to have fun, don’t compare yourself to anyone else’s hike and if someone’s being an asshole, just slow down or speed up and just don’t worry about it. I don’t know, there’s a hug kerfuffle online during the off, its always the off season…

ERIN: (Laughs)

NICK: It’s like people get this and start typing out venom online and I don’t know, don’t get caught into that if you want to get into the thru hiking community in life, because that’s the biggest cancer in the community right now.

ERIN: Everybody has or certain people have very strong opinions about what is and isn’t a legitimate thru hike and then they sort of poison the well for everyone else’s experience…

NICK: …and its like even the people, those people who have very strong opinion on like, ‘what specifically is a thru hike?’, my opinion on them is like ‘you’re not wrong you’re just an asshole’, its like ‘I get it, you don’t need to put anyone else down’, if someone wants to claim something that’s not true. Whatever. The whole Stacey Kozel thing is a little bit extreme. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that story?

ERIN: No I’m not.

NICK: So, in 2017 there’s a thru hiker Stacey Kozel and she has some form of disability where she doesn’t have full use of her legs but she has exo-skeleton support things that helped her walk and she claimed to do and a full thru hike and it was later proven that she kind of made up the whole thing. So, that’s kind of an extreme version, but like if you’re out there doing it, I don’t know, just don’t be an asshole don’t worry about it and try and enjoy yourself. Cause… no one cares! (Laughs)

ERIN: Respect everybody’s journey.

NICK: Yeah, exactly!

E: Cool cool, thank you so much Nick. Where can people find you, where would you like people to find you?

NICK: I’ve got my YouTube channel “Nick Went Hiking”, which just has PCT videos and some of the local smaller trips on it as well. I also have posted on Amazon if you search “Nick Went Hiking”.

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HIKING THRU PODCAST Episode #2: Nick Johnson aka J-Man Hosted by: Erin Egan Episode link: www.hiking-thru/episodes/nick-johnson-aka-j-man This transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity.

ERIN: On Amazon?

NICK: It’s on Amazon Prime Video.

ERIN: Cool!

NICK: You can watch it there and you can watch on YouTube. I post a bunch of stupid stuff on Instagram all the time, also @nickwenthiking, yeah that’s pretty much it!

ERIN: And what’s next for you?

NICK: Right now I’m just in LA working on as many film productions as possible. I’m kinda toying around with a lot of ideas, I really want to do the summit of the Cascade Volcanos if possible next year. I also wanna hike the AT next year and I also wanna get my van out to Hawaii and just live in Hawaii, but I won’t be able to do all those things, but hopefully one of them. But for now, going to Yosemite this weekend so that’ll be fun.

ERIN: That will be fun, it’ll be beautiful up there.

NICK: Hopefully another big thru hike next year, but if all the stars align in terms of finances and all that jazz, but yeah if I have the cash I’d be out there right now.

ERIN: Out there Hawaii or out there thru hiking?

NICK: I’d probably try to go do, my buddies are doing the Hayduke Trail soon. I wanna do lowest to highest from Badwater Basin to Whitney. Just a lot of little trips. I wanna do the Arizona Trail, I just wish I had a bijillion dollars and I could just hike for the rest of my life.

ERIN: a bijillion dollars and all the time in the world.

NICK: Well if I had a bijillion I get all the time in the world but…

ERIN: (Laughs) but in the meantime, its all about the decisions…

NICK: Yep, can’t win every battle, yeah we’ll figure it out

ERIN: Yep

NICK: Just save up my money and keep my options open.

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