Send us Fan Mail

🎙️ For years, Christian O'Connor was what he calls a "hardliner gatekeeper", quietly discouraging people from the Arizona backcountry he grew up in. Then he became a guide.

Christian traces the path from a Montreal kid dropped into the Sonoran Desert at age five to founding Backpack Arizona, the only overnight backcountry guiding operation working the Tonto, Coconino, and Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests. We get into the 2011 Wallow Fire that hardened him, the shift that changed his mind ("they're gonna come anyway"), and why he now believes access is the best chance wild places have.

We also cover why he caps trips at four guests, "the return", that moment discomfort snaps you back into your own body and the biggest misconception about backpacking Arizona (hint: it isn't all saguaros, the Sky Islands climb past 10,000 feet). Christian also ranks the backcountry threats actually worth worrying about, and neither rattlesnakes nor bears take the top spot.

Plus: his brutal first backpacking trip: a yoga mat lashed to a Costco pack, eight unnecessary liters of water, and a machete. The pack photo he takes at every trailhead, the Coca-Cola that carried him out of a canyon, and news on the new Tonto permit opening year-round Superstitions trips this October.

Episode Links:
Backpacking Arizona Website
Backpacking Arizona on Instagram
Backpacking Arizona on Facebook

Follow us on Instagram, @Hikesandmics

This episode's music was created by Ketsa, follow him on Instagram @Ketsamusic

AllTrails+
I'm excited to share that I’m now a Trailheads Ambassador for AllTrails+! If you love exploring the outdoors, AllTrails+ is your ultimate adventure companion. Get offline maps, real-time wrong-turn alerts, and trail previews to help you hike smarter and safer. Plus, with 3D maps and deeper trail insights, planning your next trek has never been easier.

Try AllTrails+ free for 7 days, and when you sign up using my referral link, you’ll get 30% off your AllTrails+ membership!

Sign up here: AllTrails+ (promo is only redeemable via web and not the app)

Ursa Minor Outfitters - Inspired by the outdoors, Created by local artists

Go check them at www.ursaminoroutfitters.com and don’t forget to enter the promo code HikesMics10 at checkout to receive 10% off your order.

Send us Fan Mail

🎙️ Three years since his first episode, Justin "JustRoc" Rimon is back on Hikes and Mics. Host of the Just Trek Podcast, founder of the Just Trek Crew, and the guy whose Star Wars-themed group hike helped inspire Yakima Valley Trekkers — he returns to catch us up on the biggest chapters of the last three years.

Justin revisits Sandstone Peak, the accidental April 2017 sunset hike that pulled him off the dance floor and onto the trail, and how one mountain keeps generating the friendships and moments that built his community. We get into Guatemala — the four-year dream of Acatenango and the Fuego Ridge that finally clicked after a random trail conversation — including the overnight climb, the 13,000-foot summit push, and the moment the overcast skies opened up right as the guides said it was time to turn back. He also shares the story behind recording his most stunning video episode yet with crewmate Francis Ngo, live at Mount Rainier National Park during golden hour.

Then there's the Fool's Traverse: the 11-peak, 26-mile, 18-hour endurance challenge in the Mount Baldy area that Justin calls his toxic ex. Three attempts, three unfinished routes, and one philosophy that keeps winning out — people over peaks. Out of that weekend came an impromptu campground group pod at Manker Flats, proof of what "stay ready, rock steady" actually looks like in practice.

We close out with the launch of his Trails and Tribulations survival-story series, the growing pains of moving from audio-only to in-person video episodes, and his full naturalist era — corvid identification, spark birds, Nocs binoculars, and co-hosting birding events with the Bird Homies and LA Trail Killers.

A sequel episode packed with epic treks, hard-earned lessons, and a whole lot of community.

Episode Links:
Just Trek on Instagram
Just Trek Website

Follow us on Instagram, @Hikesandmics

This episode's music was created by Ketsa, follow him on Instagram @Ketsamusic

AllTrails+
I'm excited to share that I’m now a Trailheads Ambassador for AllTrails+! If you love exploring the outdoors, AllTrails+ is your ultimate adventure companion. Get offline maps, real-time wrong-turn alerts, and trail previews to help you hike smarter and safer. Plus, with 3D maps and deeper trail insights, planning your next trek has never been easier.

Try AllTrails+ free for 7 days, and when you sign up using my referral link, you’ll get 30% off your AllTrails+ membership!

Sign up here: AllTrails+ (promo is only redeemable via web and not the app)

Ursa Minor Outfitters - Inspired by the outdoors, Created by local artists

Go check them at www.ursaminoroutfitters.com and don’t forget to enter the promo code HikesMics10 at checkout to receive 10% off your order.

Send us Fan Mail

🎙️ Four years ago, Hikes and Mics started with a folding table, a mic, and total strangers at trailheads. Now, closing in on 200 episodes, the tables get turned — literally. For this anniversary special, my longtime guest and friend Tami (@tamionthetrail) takes over as host, interviewing me lakeside on the third night of a four-day trek on British Columbia's Berg Lake Trail.

I get into why I started this podcast in the first place — from missing the outdoors during a stint in Phoenix to recording strangers at trailheads before going virtual. Then it's my closest call yet: turning back a Mount Adams summit attempt in deteriorating snow, including a scary moment post-holing through the snowpack on the descent, and the months-long chase of cancelled permits that finally landed back-to-back nights at Whitehorn, Berg Lake, and Kinney Lake. Plus Union Creek Falls, the short waterfall hike that actually got me hooked on hiking, my slow shift to an ultralight setup, why Hawaiian shirts are now trail staples, and my now-infamous "Berg Lake Ramen Bomb" backpacking meal.

Tami and I also run a round of Season 15 This-or-That questions, with a few more to come, plus a bonus mailbag segment answering listener-submitted community questions.

Four years, one flipped mic, and a whole lot of trail talk.

🎧 Subscribe to Hikes and Mics and follow @hikesandmics for new episodes every week.

Episode Links:
Mount Robson Provincial Park

This episode was Produced by Tami while on the Berg Lake Trail, follow her on Instagram @tamionthetrail

This episode's music was created by Ketsa, follow him on Instagram @Ketsamusic

AllTrails+
I'm excited to share that I’m now a Trailheads Ambassador for AllTrails+! If you love exploring the outdoors, AllTrails+ is your ultimate adventure companion. Get offline maps, real-time wrong-turn alerts, and trail previews to help you hike smarter and safer. Plus, with 3D maps and deeper trail insights, planning your next trek has never been easier.

Try AllTrails+ free for 7 days, and when you sign up using my referral link, you’ll get 30% off your AllTrails+ membership!

Sign up here: AllTrails+ (promo is only redeemable via web and not the app)

Ursa Minor Outfitters - Inspired by the outdoors, Created by local artists

Go check them at www.ursaminoroutfitters.com and don’t forget to enter the promo code HikesMics10 at checkout to receive 10% off your order.