This event was recorded on September 6, 2023 at Explore Booksellers, in partnership with Aspen Public Radio.
In Footprint of a Heart, Shayla "Kiddo" Paradeis ventures off the path of musical theater and moves from Manhattan to Montana. Sculpting a life outdoors as a long-distance hiker, she walks over 18,000 miles between 4-month treks known as thru-hikes including the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest, and Continental Divide. All without a smart phone.
Kiddo shares the trailside moments of five long journeys. Venturing through barren deserts, windy ridges, thick woods, estuaries, swarms of bugs, knee deep mud, and every kind of precipitation imaginable. Each step exposing the true north of a walk in the woods: The need to connect.