Jess Day has walked some extraordinary trails. But before the Te Araroa, before becoming a full-time adventurer, there was the Cumbria Way.

It was Jess's first long-distance trail. She chose it because it felt like a manageable first step towards a much bigger goal: eventually walking the Cape Wrath Trail. She'd worked backwards from that ambition, breaking it down into tiny challenges – learning navigation, buying kit, trying her first wild camp – until she was ready to take on her first proper trail.

It didn't exactly go smoothly.

On the first night, Jess pushed on too far, climbed the Old Man of Coniston in fading light and ended up camping on a rocky, exposed slope in worsening weather. Exhausted and overwhelmed, she spent the night crying in her tent and wondering whether she was really cut out to be an adventurer.

The next morning, everything looked different.

In this episode, we talk about that first night, the swim that made Jess realise she was actually doing this, the unexpected joy of the final stretch into Carlisle, the knee injury she picked up along the way, and the strangers whose kindness introduced her to what she now calls "trail magic".

We also talk about food, kit, why Jess is perfectly happy to carry a heavier pack if it makes her happier, and what long-distance walking has taught her about everyday life.

Most of all, this is a story about what can happen when you do the thing you're frightened to do.

Because the Cumbria Way wasn't just Jess's first trail.

It was the beginning of everything.

In this episode:

• Jess's first night alone on the trail

• Why she chose the Cumbria Way

• The Old Man of Coniston

• Swimming on her first long-distance walk

• Stake Pass and Langstrath

• The unexpected joy of walking into Carlisle

• The kindness of strangers and "trail magic"

• Why Jess has stopped worrying about being an ultralight backpacker

• Food, comfort and the things worth carrying

• What Jess has taken from the trail into everyday life

• Why doing the scary thing can change your life

Three years ago, Eva Outram arrived in Jordan having just spent 23 days alone in the Canadian wilderness filming Alone. She was coming back to normal life and trying to work out what she wanted to do next.

Then she found herself walking through the deserts of Jordan.

Eva spent seven days on the Jordan Trail, starting in Wadi Rum and eventually reaching the Red Sea at Aqaba. Along the way there were enormous landscapes, deep sand, 36°C heat, cold nights, sandstorms, shooting stars, traditional food, mint tea and some unexpected warnings about snakes and scorpions.

But the trip became more than just another adventure. Being removed from everyday life gave Eva the space to think about what she wanted from her life and career.

Three years later, she's left the NHS, retrained in a range of outdoor skills and founded Wilder Horizons, a women-led adventure organisation.

In this episode we talk about:

• Waking up in Wadi Rum and feeling as though she'd landed on another planet
• What it's actually like to walk through the Jordanian desert
• Water, heat and walking through deep sand
• Getting caught in sandstorms
• Sleeping under some of the world's best night skies
• The people she met along the trail
• The simplicity of life on a long-distance trail
• Why walking can give you the distance to see your life differently
• The moment she decided to leave the NHS
• And the one moment from the Jordan Trail she'd go back and relive

About Eva

Eva is an outdoor instructor and founder of Wilder Horizons, a women-led not-for-profit adventure organisation offering bushcraft, nature connection and outdoor experiences for women.

Wilder Horizons

About Notes From Big Trails

Notes From Big Trails is a podcast about walking, adventure and the people who go looking for something beyond the everyday. Each episode follows someone who has taken on a big trail or adventure and explores what happened along the way.

If listening to this podcast has got you thinking of your next adventure, we'd love to help. Visit Big Trail Adventures to plan your next big trip.

The Bob Graham, Paddy Buckley and Charlie Ramsay Rounds are three of Britain's great mountain running challenges. Each is roughly 60 miles long, climbs thousands of metres and has traditionally been treated as a lifetime achievement in its own right.

James decided to run all three twice.

He completed the Double Bob Graham in the Lake District, the Double Paddy Buckley in Snowdonia and the Double Charlie Ramsay in the Scottish Highlands — all within six months, setting the fastest known time for each.

Across the three challenges, he covered more than 350 miles and climbed around 50,000 metres.

But the numbers only tell part of the story.

In this conversation, James explains what it feels like to be moving through the mountains for 40 or 50 hours, what happens to your mind after a second night without sleep, and why he sometimes sees Roman numerals and faces in the rocks.

We talk about the 60-plus-mile-an-hour winds that battered him on the Paddy Buckley, the moment he realised his 48-hour target was slipping away, and the support runner who drove across the country to help someone he'd never met before.

We also talk about the final ten minutes of the Double Ramsay, why James actually enjoys climbing when he's exhausted, and what keeps drawing him back to increasingly difficult challenges.

And, inevitably, we finish by talking about what's next.

James is planning to spend this winter attempting to complete a self-propelled Munro Round in around 50–60 days.

It seems that the Double Trilogy wasn't the end of the story after all.

In this episode:

• What the Bob Graham, Paddy Buckley and Charlie Ramsay Rounds involve
• Why James decided to double all three
• What 50 hours on the mountains actually feels like
• Sleep deprivation and hallucinations
• Running through extreme weather
• The importance of support runners
• The ten-minute finish on the Double Ramsay
• The mental side of ultra-distance running
• Why James loves these wild places
• His next challenge: a winter Munro Round