Day Fire Podcast

This week Clint and Dawson sit down with Carey Lowery and talk adventure and bike racing with one of the most accomplished understated people we have had on the podcast; "and we have had many extraordinary folks on the show". Carey is a veteran that served 9 months during Operation Desert Storm (1990-1991) in Saudi Arabia and Iraq. When not racing her bike, attempting FKT's, doing adventure races or just having a long day in the mountains Carey is a Veterinarian in Athens Tennessee who is married and has a 21 year old daughter. Her racing resume is as long as some of her races. Here is two months worth as a sample. Tellico Highlands womens fkt, 12 Hours of the Hill of Truth race 1st, Marji Gesick 100 mile race first female single speeder, Flatlick 50 1st female, Gravel Worlds 2nd in the 50-59 category, 11th woman, and 75th overall. All this from Aug 30 to Oct 29. What a wonderful humble person who has a hammer like Thor. Thanks for listening! Find all our episodes at dayfirepodcast.com This podcast is pow

This week Clint and Dawson sit down with Katie Thornton. Katie is an avid angler and fly fishing guide based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. As a former Fishing Manager for Orvis, she began On the Fly Outings to share the art of fly fishing through excursions and guided instruction. There is nothing she has found more enriching than sharing the soulful art of fly fishing. She began fly fishing as a kid with her dad in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It was something special they could share and make memories on the water. There is nothing like the joy that bubbles up with a fish out in the middle of a beautiful trout stream. Katie returned home for years learning the waters of Tennessee from the smaller enchanting mountain streams to tailwaters like the South Holston, the Hiwassee, and the Clinch river. Katie's favorite fish is the native mountain brook trout that resides in the high elevation blue line streams. It’s usually a good hike to get to their waters far removed from people and roads. Katie states, "we live

This week Clint and Dawson have Tara Dower back on the podcast. Tara's list of FKT's and ultra runs podiums is becoming very long. Some of Tara's 2023 results; Run Rabbit Run, 100 mile hares 1st female; Hellbender 100 1st female; Ohio's Backyard Ultra overall 6th; Devil Dog 100 Ultra Dec 2022 1st overall. We talked with her about her July 2023 fkt on the Colorado Trail. Her supported results were 8d 21h 59m. Her journey is amazing and started with a partner Liz Derstine but shifted after 3 days to a solo attempt. This was a huge effort that required switching gears by Tara with Liz taking on a new role of support and rallying a few local runners to help crew and pace. You can follow Tara on instagram @ tata.dower. Thanks for listening! Find all our episodes at dayfirepodcast.com This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

This week Clint and Dawson sit down with Mary Cates. From track and field and cross country trails to 100 mile mountain races with a little television producing career sandwiched in between, Mary Cates has been a part of the running community most of her life. Most recently, she won the Yeti 100 Endurance run as first female and second place overall with a time of 17 hours. She’s currently a coach with over 100 athletes and she’s still racing on roads and trails all over the southeast. You can find out more about Mary and her coaching at UnRunning.com Thanks for listening! Find all our episodes at dayfirepodcast.com This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Clint and Dawson this week sit down with Heather Kelly. Heather was born and raised in Alaska, where she still calls home today.A two-time NCAA National Champion in women’s rowing and voted CRCA/Pocock All-American her senior year, she still considers herself an athlete and loves everything from CrossFit to weight training to long walks in the woods.While studying at Western Washington University she earned a degree in Evolutionary Nutrition and went on to study at the Institute for the Psychology of Eating to become a certified eating psychology coach. Heather believes we all have a relationship with food, and that it’s important to cultivate a healthy, satisfying relationship with our diet for long-term health. She is the founder and CEO of Heather’s Choice® which produces healthy, lightweight, packable meals and snacks for adventurers worldwide. Every product is handmade in their dedicated gluten-free kitchen in Anchorage, Alaska. The Heather’s Choice mission is to put good food in everyone’s pack, no matt

Clint and Dawson sit down with Shannon Keizer. Shannon had planned to hike the AT in 2020 with her daughter then Covid and her father in law passed away from cancer that May so the trip was put on hold. Shannon decided the best year to hike the trail was this year 2023 and even though her daughter could not join her she left in mid March and hiked the trail in under 170 days. Shannon lives just outside the Smoky Mountains National Park and whenever possible you can find her hiking in her "homewoods". Shannon has been happily married for 29 years, has three adult children and two grandsons. Shannon shares her AT story with us and also how her husband and family supported her on her AT journey. Shannon is an avid hiker who has hiked several long distance trails such as the John Muir and Benton MacKaye trails. Thanks for listening! Find all our episodes at dayfirepodcast.com This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

This week Clint and Dawson sit down with Lea Mulligan. Lea' s trail running results read like a highly successful 40 year old runner except she is 25 years old. Lea was born and raised in Chattanooga and has enjoyed exploring the woods since she was a little kid. She ran cross country since she was 8 years old and got introduced to the Ultra-Running world when she was in high school. Since she was young, Lea was inspired by her mom's running career and loved sweeping events with her as a teenager. Lea completed her first 50K, Run Amok, her senior year in highschool, and she has been hooked on trail running since then. After running cross country at Maryville College and exploring the Smokies for 4 years, She decided she wanted to be more competitive with trail running. Lea signed up for Pinhoti 100 in 2021 and loved every piece of the 100 distance ranging from the snacks to the wonderful community. Working as an elementary school teacher has allowed her to explore trails all over the US in the summertime, and

The week Clint and Dawson sit down with Jason Finnell and Josh Braun and take about their recent Caribou hunt out of Kotzebue, AK. Kotzebue is a city in the Northwest Arctic Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the borough's seat, by far its largest community and the economic and transportation hub of the subregion of Alaska encompassing the borough. They were also joined by Christian Jones who was not on the show. We talk about their transportation, the hunt itself, wolves, grizzly bears and delays with the bush plane picking them back up. Thanks for listening! Find all our episodes at dayfirepodcast.com This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

This week Clint and Dawson sit down with Tim Bell. Tim was a multi-time TN state champion in Track and Field (Decathlon and High Jump) and SEC High Jump Champion and 2 time NCAA All-American and Captain of University of Tennessee SEC and NCAA Championship Track Teams 2001 - 2002 (4 titles during that time period). Tim was an avid Rock Climber after college (that is what brought him to CHA - V12 and 5.13c) then started Road Cycling in 2010 (cat 5 to cat 2 in 3 months). Tim was run over by a car in 2012 (and got into MTB more seriously). After that he started commentating events in 2013 (River Gorge crits, etc). Tim has now commentated on Hincapie Gran Fondos in multiple locations from ME, to PA, to SC, and of course here in CHA... Seven Bridges Marathon, Chattanooga Marathon, Chattanooga Chase, Cam Run 5k and Magnum Mile, Asheville Turkey Trot, Stump Jump 50k and 10 miler, TN State Cyclocross championships, and a number of criteriums around the south. We will do another show with Tim soon. He has so many great

This week Clint and Dawson sit down with Russ Clune. Russ just completed his first book, "The Lifer". Russ shares parts of his book, discusses writing styles and shares stories of his travels and climbing from around the world. Russ is a rock climber living in the Shawangunk Mountains of New York. His articles have been published in multiple journals, including Climbing, Rock & Ice, Mountain, Alpinist, Der Bergsteiger, Iwa To Yuki, The Patagonia Catalog, and Urban Climber. Clune has been climbing for over forty-five years and was one of America’s best rock climbers during his peak in the 1980s; he is also one of the world’s most well-traveled rock climbers. Clune was part of the employee group that created the leading climbing-gear company, Black Diamond Equipment, where he worked for thirty years. He remains an active climber and continues to travel the globe seeking new adventures. Thanks for listening! Find all our episodes at dayfirepodcast.com This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

This week Dawson and Clint reach back into the Day Fire vault and share some of their favorite short stories with you! Some you may have forgotten and some you may have missed! Enjoy!  The 1st story is from episode #46 with Rob Robinson talking about climbing!  The 2nd story is from episode #100 with The Bargo Brothers! Story number 3 comes from episode #139 and Brad DeVaney talking about tire tread and Mars!  The 4th story is from episode #122 and Carl Roundtree talking about Burning Man!  Story 5 is from episode #134 with Jessica Howell-Edwards talking about The Cumberland Island.  Our last story is from episode #93 with the  Brad Miller who serves as the Elk Program Coordinator for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency!  Thanks for listening! Find all our episodes at dayfirepodcast.com This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

This week Clint and Dawson sit down with Luke Swab. Luke just completed the famed TNGA bike race where he took a 3rd place finish. Luke may have been the only person to ride the route in "Jorts"; haha. With over 56,000 feet (17,000 meters) of climbing, the TNGA is physically demanding, to say the least. But it’s not all about the challenge. The route is an incredibly beautiful stitchwork of roads and trails that explore the southern heel of Appalachian Mountains. It traverses a variety of landscapes that include pristine hardwood forest, fern-lined waterfalls, rocky ridges, and stands of pine. The TNGA is at times very remote and offers riders the opportunity be fully immersed in the Appalachian wilderness. Thanks for listening! Find all our episodes at dayfirepodcast.com This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

This week Clint and Dawson sit down with Tab Tollett. Tab started road cycling in the mid 90s on up until the mid-2000s. Picked up mountain biking and almost immediately signed up for the Leadville 100 mountain bike race with a great group of guys. He did the Leadville 100 three times with two being on a single speed. From that point he did several other mountain bike races and stage races in Tennessee, North Carolina Georgia and Colorado. Also twice he did the La Ruta de Los Conquistador stage race in Costa Rica. It was all fun and good as a mid pack racer with the occasional surprised good result. Working full time and trying to train 12-14 hours a week to be reasonably competitive in my age group grew tiring and became stressful. He felt guilty training all of the time so in his early 50’s he hung up the bike. Later, Tab was lucky enough to secure a position on the Rock Creek All Mountain Team! He found this super motivating! At age 53 he signed up for a trail race in the Tennessee mountains called the Fi

This week Clint and Dawson sit down with Luke Swab. Luke got his first dirt bike when he was 10, and when he was 12 he rode a Yamaha TW200 in Guyana South America. That started everything. He has ridden a motorcycle or moped in 35 different countries to date with traveling to 45 in total. Luke's first solo trip was in 2009 where he headed from Texas to the Panama canal. (He didn’t make it). The trip went viral on Advrider.com and people started sending money through Paypal to help fund the trip. In 2011 Luke rode from the southernmost point of Africa, Cape Agallius, to the northernmost point of Norway (Nordcape) Lots and Lots of breakdowns and logistical nightmares with border crossings. They had to sneak into Kenya and also Climbed Kilimanjaro. This story is "most of the podcast". Around 2016 Luke got hired by RoadRunner to do some blogging, which morphed into writing Magazine Articles, with them sending me to Japan for a two week trip. In 2019 Luke rode around Lake Superior with his Dad which was the m

This week Clint and Dawson sit down with Shannon Burke. Shannon founded Velo View Bike Tours in 2012 and originally offered tours all over the country before moving from Austin to Chattanooga in 2016 and narrowing his focus to the world-class cycling available in the Chattanooga tri-state region. In addition to providing custom tours in the region, Shannon produces the Cycle Sequatchie Century & 3 MtnChallenge bike ride in Dunlap, TN, (annually the first Saturday in October), and also runs Tennessee Gravel, which helps cyclists explore the gravel roads of the Cherokee National Forest through downloadable routes, bikepacking info, the Three Rivers Individual Time Trial Series, and the upcoming RELIANCE gravel grinder the last weekend in April 2024. If you are within driving distance to Chattanooga Tennessee you should come cycle this event. https://www.cyclesequatchie.com and check out this gravel two day race in 2024 in the Cherokee National Forest https://www.tennesseegravel.com/reliance Thanks for liste

This week Clint and Dawson sat down with Justin Shipp Founder and owner of Site Seven Custom Van Conversions. We talked about building a custom van for you. Considerations when designing the perfect build. How much space, showers, AC units, seating and where do all the toys go? We are also talking about things no one tells you about living out of a van. Trash, water, human waste O My, haha it's just part of it. Living or vacationing in a van this is a fun podcast. Site Seven is a custom van builder based in Chattanooga Tennessee. For more information go to https://www.sitesevencampers.com Thanks for listening! Find all our episodes at dayfirepodcast.com This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

This week Clint and Dawson sit down with Coree Woltering who is a Rock/Creek Outfitters staff and Northface runner. Coree, who’s known by some as one of the #cornfieldcowboys, was born and raised in Ottawa, Illinois. He began his running career in the 400m and 800m distances and had his sights on becoming a professional triathlete, qualifying for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships twice. But before long, he discovered ultrarunning and became mesmerized by the idea of running 100 miles in the mountains. Coree took his frontier to the next level in 2015, where he won every trail 50k he signed up for that year. In 2016, he averaged a 6:36 per mile to win the Tunnel Hill 50. At 30 years old, he set the fastest known time (FKT) in 1,200-mile Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin. And then followed that up with that Pinhoti Trail FKT in 2021. He ended up loving the trail so much that he moved to the south! Most recently, Coree finished Western States 100. When Coree is not running, he is probably sitting on his balcony drin

This week Clint and Dawson sit down with Matt Schweiker. Matt joined us on episode 203 sharing his bike packing race adventure from the Silk Road. This week Matt is back from the Tour Divide bike race. Matt had an amazing performance and recorded a 18 day finish/result. "The Tour Divide is an annual mountain biking ride traversing the length of the Rocky Mountains, from Canada to the Mexican border. Following the 2,745-mile (4,418 km) Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, it is an ultra-distance cycling ride that is an extreme test of endurance, self-reliance and mental toughness. The ride format is strictly self-supported, and it is not a stage race - the clock runs continuously from the start until riders cross the finish line." Matt is an experienced ultra athlete and Litespeed Ambassador with many adventures successfully accomplished; such as touring trips in Western China, New Zealand, Africa and South America. Matt moved to Chattanooga in 2019 and began bikepack racing. Completed TNGA in 2020, Colorado Trai

This week Clint and Dawson sit down with Rachel Durchslag. What motivates a person to leave the comforts of home and travel alone to hike the mountains of foreign lands? Find out as author Rachel Durchslag walks some of the most beautiful hikes in the world in search of adventure, meaning, and an expanded version of herself. We had a great time discussing her poignant, honest, and funny memoir-meets-travel guide, Rachel invites you to set foot with her on trails spanning the globe from Chile and Nepal to Jordan, Spain, and beyond. Join us and listen to Rachel share how she discovers solo travel in the great outdoors has the power to take you to your limit, test your resilience, and ultimately show you the person you’re capable of being. While I Walk includes comprehensive travel tips for each hike, as well as delicious recipes from the far-flung places Rachel has explored. This book is an invitation to any curious traveler to grab a pair of hiking boots, board a plane, and see what is waiting at the intersec

This week Clint and Dawson sit down with Jason Vance. Jason has been riding bicycles for 40 years. He began racing in the late 90’s while at Oregon, focusing on track cycling. After moving to Nevada to pursue graduate studies, He was introduced to MTB’ing by a colleague and would eventually abandon all skinny-tired aspirations. An academic position would bring him to Charleston SC; after navigating the hurdles of tenure (and addressing his neglected health), He fell in love with the rugged trails in Pisgah Forest. Through chance encounters, he stumbled upon the southeast ultra-endurance community in 2018, via Eric Wever’s Pisgah 36, Kim Jordan Murrell’s Dirty 130, and Karlos Rodriguez Bernart’s Cross Florida ITT. He soon found himself craving long miles across the beautiful forest roads and trails of western NC, Tennessee, Florida and Georgia -and any chance he is forced to take a 30 minute nap in the dirt. Currently, he is first to ride all of the ITT's in the Cherokee forest in 3 days. First to do all thre