ON ADVENTURE PODCAST | EPISODE 69
Episode 69: No One Was Waiting at the Finish Line with Madison Blagden
Episode Description
What would it take to walk 10,000 miles in a single calendar year? Not across a lifetime. Not spread over a decade. One year.
Madison Blagden is a long-distance hiker and content creator from Massachusetts who went from a pre-med student with zero backpacking experience to one of the most prolific endurance hikers in the country. After completing the full PCT (2022), the Eastern Continental Trail from Key West to Newfoundland (2023), and the Continental Divide Trail (2024), she did all three Triple Crown trails back to back in 2025, border to border, logging over 10,000 miles in a single calendar year. She documented every step herself through daily YouTube videos, Instagram shorts, and blog posts, all edited on the road.
Starting in the Florida Keys in January, she pushed through Hurricane Helene damage on the AT, Sierra snowpack, desert heat, a debilitating hip injury in the White Mountains, and a flash flood that hit her tent in the middle of the night in the desert. The miles are extraordinary. But this conversation goes deeper than the miles.
We talk about what happens between the ears when the body wants to quit, the difference between healthy internal ambition and ego-driven achievement, how the most meaningful finish lines are the ones where nobody is waiting for you, what a flash flood teaches you about calm under pressure, the spiritual dimension of pushing past absolute exhaustion, and why you will never be 100 percent ready, and that is not a reason to wait.
Episode Highlights
• 00:00 Introduction: Walking 10,000 miles in one calendar year
• 02:00 Madison’s background: pre-med to PCT with no backpacking experience
• 04:00 Van life, COVID, and two years of traveling in a 19-foot RV
• 09:00 Comparing the AT, PCT, and CDT: terrain, culture, and difficulty
• 14:00 Hurricane Helene’s impact on the Appalachian Trail and trail recovery
• 19:00 Planning a 10,000-mile year: budget, timing, and keeping it flexible
• 24:00 How a 5,600-mile year sparked the idea to go even further
• 31:00 Funding the hike through daily content creation on the road
• 34:00 Healthy ambition vs. ego-driven achievement
• 39:00 Internal motivation: the David Goggins voice and the gentle encouragement
• 42:00 37 miles a day for nine weeks: the math behind finishing the CDT before snow
• 48:00 Hip injury in the White Mountains and the lesson in letting go
• 51:00 Flash flood survival and what it reveals about fight-or-flight
• 57:00 Nervous system training and calm under pressure
• 01:02:00 Surrendering control: giving it up to the trail and the universe
• 01:05:00 Spiritual experiences that emerge only at the edge of physical exhaustion
• 01:10:00 Coming off trail softer: how big accomplishments quiet the ego
• 01:15:00 Closing encouragement: you will never be 100 percent ready, so go
• 01:20:00 The expanding ceiling of human limits and what comes next for Madison
Connect with Madison Blagden
Instagram & YouTube: @madisonblagden
Website: madisonblagden.com
Substack: substack.com/@madisonblagden
The Trek: thetrek.co/author/madison-blagden
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Hosted by Josh Self, financial advisor and everyday explorer.
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