GraniteGals

Alex, Sage, and Trish discuss finishing the Grid, and what hiking the 4Ks has meant to them over the years.

Phoebe Seltzer is an ultra runner with White Mountain FKT records, and she is an avid hiker and skier. In this episode, Phoebe talks to Alex and Sage about her experiences in the mountains and answers some questions about four-season trail running logistics.We’re proud to be in Feedspot’s 2021 Top 25 Outdoor Women’s Podcasts.

Retired music teacher and White Mountain hiker Karen Ann talks to the girls about her adventures hiking the NH4Ks, the 52WAV, and the Belknaps. https://logcabininthepines.comGraniteGals is proud to be included in Feedspot’s 2021 Top 25 Outdoor Women’s Podcasts

Strength and nutrition coach Sarah LaCourse talks to Alex and Sage about her enjoyment of and experiences in the White Mountains.

Stephanie Cawley is a trans woman who is a nurse and an avid White Mountain hiker. In this episode, we speak about hiking the 4Ks and Stephanie's experiences on the trails.A note: we had some phone connection issues in this episode. We did the best we could to make everything clear and for the most part all is well, but there are still some small parts of our conversation that are not as clear as we'd like. Hopefully, we can interview Stephanie in person after COVID and talk some more (and avoid telephone connection issues).

Michele Hernandez Bayliss is an avid all-season hiker of the highest peaks in the northeast. Her accomplishments include (but are not limited to) the NE111 and the Terrifying 25. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Bayliss about her love of winter hiking, her adventures on the northeast’s most difficult mountain ranges, her non-hiking hobbies, and more.

Alex and Sage have a fun conversation with Jen Clark, the creator of the new podcast, Guides Gone Wild, and the owner of the Evans Notch Lodge in Gilead, Maine. Jen is an avid northeast hiker who enjoys sharing the trails with her teens. She and her family have also hiked in many National Parks. Listen as Jen talks about her adventures, animal encounters, and more.

Join Alex and Sage as they talk with Azra Palo, a librarian who hikes the Whites. Azra talks about dealing with exercise-induced asthma while pursuing the 4Ks, her adventures with a porcupine, her favorite non-hiking related book, and more.

Nicole Hamel is a Travel Nurse who hikes the Whites whenever she is in the New Hampshire area. She recently finished the Terrifying 25, and she has also hiked NH’s 48 Four Thousand Footers. Nicole has a lot of experience hiking outside the Whites too; in this interview, we discuss Nicole’s trekking adventures in Iceland, Panama, and other parts of the USA. Nicole hopes to Triple Crown in the next few years; thank you, Nicole, for all the important work you do - we wish you well and hope to see you again when you’re back up in New Hampshire.

In this episode, Mia Heacock, White Mountain hiker and climber, talks about her love of adventure and the joy she finds leading an active outdoor lifestyle. Mia also discusses Indonesian Three Magnolias, the nonprofit organization which seeks to improve the quality of life and education of women and children in West Java, Indonesia (https://www.indonesianthreemagnolias.org/).

There's a new hiking list for kids under the age of 13. It's called 13 Before 13; Alex describes it in this episode and two girls who are hiking it, Alice Marcotte and Ella Harris, talk about their experiences.

Aubrey Voelker, an Animal Care Associate at Squam Lakes Natural Science Center in Holderness, NH, talks to Alex and Sage about her love of hiking the Whites, the fun she has taking care of otters and other species, and why “abandoned” baby animals found outside should be left alone (they haven’t been abandoned!). This was a great interview. :)

Serena Ryan, owner and manager of The Notch Hostel, talks to the girls about hiking in the USA and the origins of her popular White Mountain establishment.

Hello everyone! We hope everyone is staying safe and well during this pandemic. We took a break from doing the podcast for a few months as we both became very busy with our schoolwork and extracurricular activities. We are glad we now have an opportunity to continue the interviews. We look forward to releasing more episodes over the next few months. Last week, we interviewed Megan Hemmer, an avid hiker who lives in Maryland but who frequents the White Mountains of New Hampshire. She often hikes with her dogs and cat, many of her dogs have completed the NH48. It was a pleasure speaking with Megan, learning how she hikes with her furkids, and hearing about some of her adventures. (This interview was done by telephone).

Well, we tried something different the past couple of months that didn’t quite work out. We wanted to record ourselves while we hiked. That’s a departure from the usual format of this podcast, but we wanted to try something new. We learned that recording while hiking does not, for us, make for a good podcast episode. We forget to record half the time, and when we do, you can barely hear us over the crunching of our footsteps. It also feels unnatural to take out a recording device right in the middle of our natural conversations. So this was an interesting thing to attempt, but we are going to go back to our usual format. Here’s some of what we have if you’re interested. It’s short and noisy.

We had such a fun time speaking with Alyssa, the Mountain Model! Alyssa is an accomplished hiker and a Registered Esthetic Nurse who models on mountains for Instagram. Alyssa discusses her job, modeling, hiking, the importance of sunscreen, and much more in this lively and enjoyable interview.Please note that there is a faint reverb on some of the audio that we could not erase. Please forgive this imperfection on our part.

Alida is twelve years old and hikes with her family. She can often be found on trails in the Whites; she and her family are currently section-hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Have a great summer! We'll be back in late August 2019.

Jill talks to the girls about her love of hiking, and about hiking with her young son, Carter. Jill recently facilitated then-six-year-old Carter's quest for the NH 4000 Footers.

*Our two-year anniversary episode is a blast from the past -- enjoy this encore presentation of our interview with Sue Johnston.* Alex and Sage Herr talk with Sue Johnston about her many hiking adventures, including her recent NH Grid in one calendar year, her experience doing the fastest supported hike of the John Muir Trail, her pursuit of the 50 state highpoints, and her thru-hike of the Cohos Trail. We also learn about her memorable bear encounters...and much more.

Susan Reenan is a Rhode Island middle school teacher and an avid hiker of mountain ranges all over the United States. She is currently working on, and almost finished with, multiple lists including the Colorado 14ers, the Northeast Winter 111, and the New England Winter 67. We spoke with Susan over the phone, and the recording is in mono vs stereo. We apologize for the sound quality of our voices; Susan sounds great, but sometimes we (Alex and Sage) are a bit hard to hear.

This episode features Katie Callahan, the GIS coordinator for New Hampshire Fish and Game.  Katie talks to the girls about the wonderful variety of experiences she enjoys within the realm of her work, her love of the outdoors, interesting animal encounters, and more.  

11-year-old Ella is almost finished her first round of the NH48. In this episode, Ella talks about her adventures and shares her love of all things outdoors, and the girls find they have common tastes in reading material.

Anish just finished her record-breaking hike of the Triple Crown (the Appalachian Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, and the Pacific Crest Trail) in less than one calendar year (close to eight months!). In this telephone conversation, she talks to us about hiking in general, reflections on her most recent feat, being stalked by a mountain lion, surprising momma grizzlies, and more. Look for her upcoming memoir THIRST (coming this spring).We used a new recording device for this telephone conversation; unfortunately, our voices don't have the best quality, but Anish's voice is loud and clear.

Donna Dearborn is an author and adventurer who has hiked all over the world. The Vermont native speaks to Alex and Sage about her experiences hiking in the northeast and in various other parts of the world, and of the many northeast hiking lists she's completed. She also talks about her book, Every Sunday: A Father and Daughter's Enduring Connection (available on Amazon).

Alex and Sage interview Katie Bernard, the 15-year-old blogger (48summits.com) who is making her way through her first round of New Hampshire's Four Thousand Footers.

Arlette Laan speaks with Alex and Sage about her experiences on many of the National Scenic Trails (she is a Triple Crown-er), her doll making business, her love of hiking in general, and more.

This episode was recorded in Karen’s high school, so there is a bit of background noise.

This episode was set to be released three weeks ago, but alas, the computer normally used to edit podcast episodes suffered a fatal accident. Data could not be retrieved from the laptop from local experts. There are usually back-ups of everything that is worked on, but in this particular instance, the episode had not been saved elsewhere. Sage re-edited the entire episode this past week.

This was a fun interview with Gale Straub of She Explores, the popular podcast featuring female adventurers around the world. Gale hiked the Wildcats with us, then hung out with us in our car while we did this interview.

Whitney "Tip Toe" talks to the girls about her adventures hiking the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, the White Mountain Hut-to-Hut, the NE67, the NH48, plus she discusses her love of redlining, her encounters with animals and people, and much more. This is a wonderful conversation with a strong female explorer.

In this interview, Alex speaks with Monk (Bella Dalzell), who is the young and strong daughter of Jen Lemire (the subject of Alex's most recent interview). Monk talks about hiking with her mom, her experiences with gray jays, how she sometimes likes to wear her pizza headpiece on the trails, and much more.

This is a fun interview with Alex and Jen Lemire, aka MurdaPanda. Jen hikes the Whites year-round and is currently pursuing the NH Grid. She delights in hiking with her daughter, Monk (Alex's next interview), wearing scary panda masks on the trail, and performing impressive summit jumps. Follow Jen on Instagram at XPandaX (pandamoniumonthetrails) and thesummitjumper.

Sage interviews her Girl Scout Leader, Jen Adams. Jen is a four-season hiker who enjoys sharing her love of the outdoors with the next generation. Note: Alex is away from the podcast this week due to having to study for five imminent midterm exams. She looks forward to rejoining Sage in the next episode of GraniteGals.

Nancy Griswold speaks of her love of the White Mountains and how she uses them as inspiration and subjects for her plein air paintings. Check out Nancy's work at Fine Art America or on her Facebook Page (Nancy Griswold - Fine Artist).

Alexandra and Sage Herr have a great discussion via Skype with world hiker Alexandra Garcia about hiking in the Whites, difficult pursuits, food, and more.

A fun and casual conversation between PSU's Mary Ann McGarry (Department of Environmental Science and Policy) and Alex and Sage Herr. Topics of conversation include conservation, hiking, Bicknell's Thrush, the joy of doing Owls Head in winter, and much more.

Professor of Physics and Astronomer Linda French discusses hiking the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

77-year-old Allmuth "Curly" Perzel, Triple Crowner, world trekker, and recent redlining finisher, discusses her love of hiking, the adventures of redlining, the time she was benighted on Caps Ridge Trail, and much more.

Alexandra and Sage interview Zoey Ceriello-sachetta, a seven-year-old hiker who will likely finish the Four Thousand Footers in summer 2018. Zoey discusses her love of hiking, her favorite mountains, her hatred of snakes, why she'd choose invisibility over flying, and much more.

Rachel Kowalsky is an avid hiker who has hiked New Hampshire's Four Thousand Footers, Vermont's Long Trail, and sections of the Appalachian Trail. Her avid hiking continues in spite and because of her diagnosis with Hashimoto's Disease and, more recently, rheumatoid arthritis. In this episode, Rachel discusses her love of hiking, her adorable and trail-hardy dog Isis, and her recent determination to do another round of the 4Ks in the name of rheumatoid arthritis.

We hiked the Cohos Trail over the last couple of weeks so we have not been able to interview anyone recently. We will be back to posting interviews in a fortnight.

Sage interviews Liz Wyman, a mountain guide and four-season hiker in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Liz Wyman discusses guiding, animal encounters, how her knowledge in botany positively affects her hiking experience, and more.

In this episode, four-season hiker Tammy Daugherty talks about surviving breast cancer, hiking with her daughter, her plans for the The Grid, sexism when it comes to hiking, and much more. Since Alex was at camp, Sage interviewed Tammy and edited this episode on her own.

Experienced four-season hiker Allison Driscoll talks about the Trail to 4K Challenge, her adventures hiking the John Muir Trail, her experiences hiking NH's White Mountains, and much more.

The girls interview their mom, Trish Herr, author of UP: A Mother and Daughter's Peakbagging Adventure, and record-keeper (the blog TrishAlexSage) of all the girls' hikes dating back to 2008

Highlights include learning how the NH Women's Hiking Group got started and how Paula's wife almost stepped on a bear cub (!).

Samantha talks about her favorite and least favorite 4Ks, the ups and downs of working on the Northeast's highest summit, her time with Backpacker Magazine's 2014 Get Out More Women's Tour, the rewarding experience of being a Search and Rescue Volunteer, and more.

In this interview, we discuss everything from Pam's favorite 4K to her experiences on Rainier to her enjoyment guiding groups both in the White Mountains and overseas.

Alex and Sage Herr talk with Sue Johnston about her many hiking adventures, including her recent NH Grid in one calendar year, her experience doing the fastest supported hike of the John Muir Trail, her pursuit of the 50 state highpoints, and her thru-hike of the Cohos Trail. We also learn about her memorable bear encounters...and much more.