Episode
There's No Suck to be Embraced - Bradford "Rafiki" Bartels (Part II)
- Podcast
- Hiker Trash Radio
- Published
- Sep 16, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1907
- Processing state
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Summary
In Part 2, Rafiki gets into the substance: the trail's political situation (he read 990 tax forms and called the opposition before deciding to hike), the most beautiful sections (the glaciated terrain in the Chugach and Talkeetnas, the Long Range Bomber Traverse, the crawl-walk-run feel of the whole route), and his unpopular opinion about thru-hiking culture — which happens to be a direct argument against the show's own closing line. He does not think there is any suck to be embraced. He thinks people over-fetishize the difficulty of something that is, fundamentally, a recreational activity you chose to do. He also thinks this framing is like a caffeine hit — short-term useful, long-term limiting — and that the better version of the conversation is: the more you play outside, the more being outside feels like play. He is retiring from thru-hiking. He wants dogs. He might mush them. He called Alaska the cream of the crop and means it. This is his love letter to the trail. If you haven't listened to Part 1 yet, start there — it dropped 10 minutes ago.