Catch Me Outside Podcast

26/04/2023

Hello! It’s your host, Meg.

You may have noticed things have been a bit quiet over here at Catch Me Outside. I published the most recent episode, the show’s one-year anniversary episode, in January, and then went silent.

I owed my listeners an explanation earlier than this, but the long and short of it is that working full-time, training and prepping for my PCT hike kind of overtook other creative projects, like the podcast, so I took a break. Don’t worry, the show will be back.

It’s been a fantasy of mine to hike the Pacific Crest Trail for about nine years — since before my first full-time reporting gig. I’m planning to cover roughly 1,700 miles (2,735 kilometres) over about three months.

However far I make it, whatever ground I cover, when I start walking north from the Mexico-U.S. border this week, I’ll consider this a big box checked.

And you can believe I’ll be recording some dispatches from the trail for you, as well as posting regular updates on here.

📷

20/01/2023

Catch Me Outside turned one year old on January 14, 2022! One of my favourite things about producing this show is getting to live vicariously through all the brave, curious and adventurous people I interview. In the past year, guests have taken us to the tundra of the Northwest Territories, the peak...

06/01/2023

You probably know by now that Catch Me Outside is hitting the this spring, but do you know what went into getting a permit?

In this crossover episode with , I talk to host Dan Deveau about permit day, the emotional rollercoaster ride that was getting my permit and what my hopes are for my hike.

If you’re planning to apply for the upcoming round of PCT permits or you’re looking for another great Canadian-made outdoor podcast to listen to, this PCT permit crossover episode with A Long Walk North is for you.

04/01/2023

You probably know by now that Catch Me Outside is hitting the Pacific Crest Trail this spring. What you might not know is what went into getting my long-distance permit for the hike. You may or may not also know about another Canadian outdoor podcast called A Long Walk North. It's a podcast about PC...

03/01/2023

December’s Patreon bonus episode went live a few days ago!

Sandra Riches is the executive director of the B.C. chapter of AdventureSmart, a national program dedicated to helping Canadians and visitors to Canada be safe and informed before they go adventuring in the outdoors.
Adventuresmart.ca shares crucial safety and survival information related to hiking, camping, caving, orienteering, climbing, trail running, mountain biking, hunting and hoseback riding, plus a whole host of water and winter activities.
The AdventureSmart app allows people to create detailed outdoor safety plans to share with their friends and loved ones before they head out.

Sandra's been involved with AdventureSmart since 2004. She’s also worked as a park ranger and a project manager with the British Columbia Search & Rescue Association, so she knows a lot about what can go wrong in the outdoors.

In December’s bonus episode, she talks about how AdventureSmart works and shares some search and rescue statistics that might make you think twice about heading into the woods without the ten essentials.

31/12/2022

The December bonus episode of Catch Me Outside is live! All you need yo do to listen is sign up as a monthly patron of Catch Me Outside at the Trail Angel level on Patreon.com. Woohoo!

Official Post from Megan DeLaire

21/12/2022

Do you wonder how to plan tasty, lightweight and nutritious meals for backcountry trips and thru-hikes? If so, then this episode is for you.

Nutrition can make or break a thru-hike.

So for today’s episode, I interview Aaron Owens Mayhew, founder of .

Backcountry Foodie is a leading source for ultralight backpacking recipes and meal planning resources, and Aaron is a registered dietician and ultralight long-distance backpacker. 

Aaron founded Backcountry Foodie in 2017 while preparing homemade, lightweight meals for her thru-hike attempt of the PCT, and has since section and thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, the Oregon Coast Trail, the Colorado Trail and the Condor trail.

In this episode, she shares advice for beginner and casual backpackers, as well as her best meal planning and nutritional advice for before and during a long-distance hike.

Check out the Backcountry Foodie website at the link in profile.

21/12/2022

Food is the fuel that allows adventurers to hike, climb, paddle, swim, cycle and, well, adventure. It’s more than just calories. It contains the vitamins and minerals that help our muscles repair themselves, our bones stay strong and our eyes stay sharp. It helps keep us warm during chilly nights ...

13/12/2022

Well, it looks like Catch Me Outside is officially going on tour next spring…to the !

I’ve had this in the works for some time, as many of you probably know, and I’m still thinking of how the podcast will look while I’m on the trail from mid-April to August (I’m only planning to hike Campo to Ashland, OR in 2023, then finish in 2024) but suffice it to say you’ll all be hearing lots about my hike as it’s happening.

Also suffice it to say that we’ll be delivering lots of long-distance-hike-friendly content in the coming months, starting with an interview with about hiking nutrition, dropping next Tuesday.

Woohoooooo!

08/12/2022

Swimpacking is an adventure sport that involves swimming in open water with a drybag that contains everything a backpacker would normally keep in their pack, like food, clothes, shelter and other gear.

Swimpacking trips are usually combined with hiking or biking, and allow participants to travel by land and water to places they couldn’t otherwise access, like old growth forests and other remote wilderness gems.

Ilya Kapralov has been swimpacking in British Columbia since 2018. He’s even helped start a small but growing community of new swim packers, mostly in Vancouver. Ilya’s trips in 2018, 2019 and 2020 with his friend Martin Cermac were all documented by Cermac in a two-part Youtube series called The Swimpacking Diaries. Ilya has swimpacked in lakes, rivers and even coastal waters throughout Vancouver Island and B.C.’s lower mainland. He’s kept company with seals and glided over many blooms of jellyfish.

On episode 26 of Catch Me Outside, Ilya talks about his adventures and the ins and outs of this growing sport.

See link in profile to watch The Swimpacker Diaries.

Photos provided by Ilya Kapralov 📷

06/12/2022

What would it look like if mermaids took up backcountry camping? It would probably look kind of like swimpacking. Swimpacking is an adventure sport that involves swimming in open water with a drybag that contains everything a backpacker would normally keep in their pack, like food, clothes, shelter....

21/11/2022

Have you ever lost the trail, or become disoriented on a lake or come to a crossroads and panicked over whether to turn left or right? Maybe you once underestimated the length or difficulty of a hike and had to find your way out of the woods in the dark? You're not alone.

According to the Government of Canada, search and rescue personnel provide assistance to more than 20,000 people in Canada each year.

In the latest episode of Catch Me Outside, released last Tuesday, listener tells his story of getting lost in Killarney Provincial Park after dark.

Then Tom Girrior of Yellowknife Search and Rescue shares some insights into lost person behaviour as well as some advice that should help outdoor adventurers avoid getting lost, or at least improve their odds of being found. Tom has worked in the industry for 15 years and, as training director for Yellowknife SAR, has trained countless SAR volunteers.

If you haven’t already heard last week’s episode, here’s your reminder to go listen!

Photos courtesy of , and

16/11/2022

Welp. All the permits were gone an hour before my appointed time to apply yesterday. RIP. 🪦

On to plans B, C and D!

16/11/2022

Everyone who spends time in the outdoors will lose their way at some point. According to the Government of Canada, search and rescue personnel provide assistance to more than 20,000 people in Canada each year. In this episode of Catch Me Outside, a listener tells his story of getting lost in Killarn...

03/11/2022

Aaaaaaaaaand the first Patreon bonus episode is live!

Sign up on Patreon to support the podcast as a hiker or trail angel to gain access to bonus Catch Me Outside content. Or sign up as a weekend warrior for a postcard and access to the Catch Me Outside Podcast Discord channel.

Bonus bonus: This was actually supposed to be October's episode but I was a little late to get the full Patreon benefits up and running, so there will be two bonus episodes this month.

https://www.patreon.com/catchmeoutsidepodcast

Official Post from Megan DeLaire

01/11/2022

Episode 24 is out!

It’s all about Black history on the Bruce Trail, and Zwena Gray’s (.zee) thru-hike of the 900-km Ontario trail with her friend Sima this spring!

📷 Nai Xun

01/11/2022

Today, not only are we talking about Canada’s longest and oldest continuous hiking trail, which stretches for 900 km from Niagara Falls north to Georgian Bay, but I’m also joined by Zwena Gray, the first modern Black woman to thru-hike the trail. I say modern, because the trail has extensive Bla...

01/11/2022

Each postcard image is a photo taken by or of a location in Canada.

I’m so excited to start sending these babies out.

01/11/2022

Catch Me Outside postcards for Patreon members are here!!!! Sending these beauties out today.

Each photo was taken by either or and features a location in Canada.

Each person to support the podcast by becoming a Patreon member (regardless of the membership tier) will receive one of these postcards, along with a hand-written thank you note and a description of the place where the photo was taken.

I’m so proud of these. Thanks for sharing your images, Ian!

25/10/2022

A bit late, sure, but episode 23 is out!!!!

This episode, feat. .explores is for all the casual backpackers and weekend warriors out there dreaming of taking on a long-distance hike.

Jessica, AKA Fr❄️sty, did that in 2020.

Before she hiked more than half of the Pacific Crest Trail that year, she gained years of backpacking experience on shorter trails in Canada. She had ingrained habits and favourite pieces of gear.

On the PCT, she quickly learned on the PCT about the differences between, backpacking and long-distance hiking: physical, mental and in terms of gear needs.

On the trail, some old habits and cherished pieces of gear gave way to new ways of doing things and lighter gear. Some things stayed the same. Since 2020, Jessica has applied many of the lessons she learned on the PCT during subsequent hikes in Canada.

On today’s episode, Jessica talks about the expectations she had going into the PCT, the new skills she developed on the trail and the habits she picked up from other long-distance hikers.

Photos courtesy of .explores

📍The Pacific Crest Trail passes through the traditional territories of dozens of Indigenous Peoples, including the Western Shoshone, the Kumeyaay, the Serrano, Washoe and others. To study an interactive map of the territories along the PCT, visit native-land.ca.

25/10/2022

This is one for the weekend warriors who want to try long-distance hiking. There are lots of people each year who complete long-distance hikes with zero prior backpacking experience. They start with little to no practical backpacking knowledge, but with a clean slate, so to speak. Then there are peo...

04/10/2022

This week, we’re joined by Alex Tran for a conversation about a couple not-so-rosy aspects of the outdoor gear industry, including plastic waste, the use of so-called “forever chemicals” and popular gear manufacturers’ side gigs selling tear gas and combat uniforms.

Alex is a backpacker, bike packer and gear head who’s been going on outdoor adventures for almost 20 years. We’ve had lots of conversations about the ethics of the outdoor gear industry in the months since I started the podcast, and I feel like Alex is a pretty conscientious person. 

We tried to keep the discussion nuanced and avoid putting things in binary terms.

We also both acknowledged before recording that some of the core problems at the base of all these issues are white supremacy, capitalism, imperialism and patriarchy, and while we lightly touch on some of these during the episode, we ultimately decided to keep the scope of the conversation pretty narrowly focused on the three topics I mentioned above. 

Don’t worry though, there are plenty of hot takes.

Photo creds:
1) Me
2) Natural Resources Defense Council
3) Outdoor Research website

lol

04/10/2022

What do you know about the potentially endocrine-disrupting “forever chemicals” in your favourite waterproof gear and garments? Or about your favourite outdoor gear manufacturers’ side gigs selling bullets and combat uniforms? We’re joined on this episode by friend of the pod Alex Tran to un...

25/09/2022

Here are some highlights from and .wanders’ hike of the , which they chat about in episode 21.

1/2) Candice (Trail name: Sweet Tooth) made cocktails out of raspberry wine she carried out in a soft flask, vodka and lime juice, topped with a lime slice, and drank them out of a backcountry wine glass, complete with cocktail umbrellas. The cocktail umbrellas also doubled as pegs for the crib board Candice hand made and carried on the hike. In the evenings, Candice and Greg (Trail name: Three Hills) would find a spot at their camp sites to sit down, have a drink and play crib.

2/3) Greg managed to FORGET HIS TRAIL RUNNERS AT HOME and had to buy a random pair of running shoes from a Fields department store right before taking a float plane to Nootka Island. The shoes (called “Troopers”) actually held up and survived the hike.

5) They camped on beaches, similarly to the and the .

6) They saw the skeletons of whales and old ships. See my last post for a shipwreck photo. The story of their “short detour” to go see the shipwreck is a whole thing itself.

📷 Photos from Candice and Greg

21/09/2022

This week’s episode is all about the on Nootka Island (Yuquat), .

It’s 37 kilometres long, but before you sniff at the length, know this: it’s an intense slog through obstacle-filled forests and over many, many stretches of pea-gravel covered beaches. What it lacks in distance it more than makes up for in difficulty.

It’s a linear trail, and getting to and from its trailheads requires hikers to charter a float plane and a water taxi.

, aka Three Hills and .wanders, aka Sweet Tooth, give a rundown of their hike, including the highlights, the lowlights, getting caught unawares by the tide, forgetting trail runners at home, unforgettable views and wildlife encounters.

PS. I make a minor announcement at the end of the intro that states "September 1" when I really mean "October 1."

📍The Nootka Trail is situated on the territory of Mowachaht/Muchalat First Nation. From yuquot.ca:

“Mowachaht trace their ancestors to Yuquot (“Where-the-wind-blows-from-all-directions”), the centre of our government and of our spiritual and ceremonial world. It is the longest continuously occupied site on the west coast of Vancouver Island. It is one of the largest and deepest archaeological deposits in British Columbia.”

📷 Photos from Greg and Candice

20/09/2022

Located on the West Coast of Nootka Island in British Columbia, is a remote backpacking trail called, fittingly enough, the Nootka Trail. It’s 37 kilometres long, but before you sniff at the length, know this: it’s an intense slog through obstacle-filled forests and over many, many stretches of ...

20/09/2022

New episode dropping tomorrow, all about the Nootka Trail, feat. and .wanders’s time on it.

07/09/2022

A bunch of you were so gracious as to send in your favourite camping recipes and funny food stories when I put a call out for them last month.

So for this episode, my ride-or-die and occasional co-host is back to help me read everything you sent. 

Buckle up for stories of spite beans, fly bannock, incinerated potatoes, exploding ravioli, sponge poisoning, charred weiners, and a whole lotta p**p. Plus recipes! 

Thank you to everyone who sent in a story or recipe! That includes you, Honoré, Alex, Preston, Canice, Jessica, Julia, Eliot, Sheridan, Jordan and two Reddit users whose stories I threw in because they were too good not to include! Hopefully I’m not missing anyone.

See episode 20’s show notes in your podcast platform of choice for recipes!

Photos show:

1) A pot and stove boiling away at the top of Walt Hill, on the Sunshine Coast Trail in B.C.

2) Eliot’s partner Dani about to dig into some delicious kimchi stew. Photo from Eliot. 📷

3) Eliot’s campfire bannock! Photo also from Eliot! 📷

06/09/2022

It's been a goal to record an episode around listener submissions for awhile, and a bunch of you were so gracious as to send in your favourite camping recipes and funny food stories last month. So for this episode, my ride-or-die and occasional co-host Ian is back to help read everything you sent. B...

01/09/2022

👋👋👋👋 Hello to everyone who’s liked and followed the page recently. I love chatting/engaging with listeners, so please feel free to comment, post, whatever.

Thanks for listening and following along! The next episode comes out Tuesday and will feature a bunch of funny listener stories about backcountry food fiascos. 🍞🪰🥔🔥 🫘🤢🚽🧻

Happy trails!
Meg