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

Fast-packing the Tour du Mont Blanc — twice

The Tour du Mont Blanc is one of Europe's classic long-distance trails, taking you through France, Italy and Switzerland around the Mont Blanc massif.

Beth Langley has done it twice — both times in four days.

The first time was in 2022, when she took on the TMB solo as a personal challenge. The second was in 2025, when she returned with her boyfriend Arthur to recce the route for the UTMB race.

In this episode, we get into what it actually feels like to fast-pack the TMB rather than hike it over the more typical 10–12 days.

Beth explains how she splits her time between power-hiking the climbs and running the descents, what it's like to spend up to 12 hours a day moving through the mountains, and how you keep yourself moving when you've still got a big climb ahead and your legs are already tired.

We also talk about the unexpected pleasures of the TMB — including some excellent refuge food — and the joys of discovering that a second T-shirt is apparently unnecessary.

But the conversation takes a more interesting turn when we compare Beth's two trips.

Doing the TMB solo gave her a particular sense of achievement and self-reliance. She talks about how knowing she had set herself a difficult challenge and completed it gave her confidence that carried back into everyday life, including through the harder moments of her PhD.

We also discuss the difference between racing and having an adventure, why the TMB is more accessible than its reputation might suggest, and why Beth would happily go back for a third time.

• What fast-packing the TMB actually looks like

• Power-hiking the climbs and running the descents

• Four days and some very long days on the trail

• Why the TMB isn't just for ultra runners

• The best views — and the moments that make you stop

• What Beth learned from doing the route solo

• The difference between fast-packing and racing

• Why doing something difficult on your own can build confidence

• French mountain food and the question of whether you really need a second T-shirt

• Would Beth do the TMB for a third time?

If this episode leaves you thinking, I want to do that, you don't necessarily need to start with the Alps. Beth's advice is simple: get out into the mountains in the UK first. The Lake District and Scotland are a pretty good playground.

Plan your own adventure at bigtrailadventures.com.

What would happen if you set off alone to walk the entire length of Europe?

Kit Birks found out.

She spent 343 days walking from Nordkapp in northern Norway to Gavdos, the southernmost point of Greece, covering more than 5,000 miles. She spent 308 days walking completely alone, often carrying around 20–23kg and sometimes going for days without seeing another person.

But the walk wasn't simply an attempt to complete an enormous endurance challenge. Kit was using it to raise awareness of suicide prevention, drawing on her own experiences of mental illness, addiction and recovery. She wanted to turn advocacy into activism and use an adventure big enough to get people talking.

In this episode, Kit talks about the reality of life on the trail: waking up alone in the Arctic, walking 20 miles a day, dealing with swollen rivers and knee-deep snow, and carrying a pack that could weigh 23kg.

She also talks openly about loneliness and solitude, the terrifying moments when being alone became genuinely dangerous, and the point in Austria when her mental health deteriorated so badly that she stopped for three weeks and realised she needed help. Asking for that help, she says, was one of the bravest things she has ever done.

And then there are the people she met along the way — strangers who offered food, water, shelter and companionship, including a German couple who drove to meet her and walked with her through Slovenia and Croatia with their four dogs.

Kit also explains why she believes getting outside can help when you're struggling with your mental health. For her, walking doesn't magically cure anything. It gives the brain space to slow down and notice something beyond the negative thoughts — a bird, leaves moving in the wind, or simply the beauty of the world around you.

It's an extraordinary story about walking across a continent. But ultimately, it's a conversation about fear, recovery, loneliness, resilience, kindness and what happens when an adventure becomes bigger than the person who set out to do it.

See more from Kit at https://www.instagram.com/kitbirks/ and support Stride Beyond Silence here.

To find out how to do your own solo adventure, head to https://bigtrailadventures.com/solo-friendly

Lisa Herbert took on Wainwright's Coast to Coast as a seven-day trail run.

In this conversation we talk about why solo adventures can become life-changing, how grief reshaped Lisa's relationship with running, and why spending several days on a trail helped her find a sense of peace she'd struggled to find elsewhere.

We also discuss:

• Why she chose the Coast to Coast as training for a 100-mile ultra.
• Running almost 200 miles in seven days.
• The brutal weather crossing the Lake District.
• Losing a trekking pole in a mountain stream.
• Why she never once wished she was back at work.
• The unexpected conversations with strangers along the trail.
• Why fitness isn't the biggest factor in completing a long-distance trail.
• What it really feels like to take on a big adventure alone.

If you're considering walking or running the Coast to Coast yourself, Big Trail Adventures creates personalised self-guided itineraries, organises accommodation, luggage transfers and navigation, and helps you build a trip that matches the pace you want to travel.

Find out more at bigtrailadventures.com.

What makes someone decide to run 400 miles around the Cornish coast?

For Elsey Davis, the answer wasn't simply to chase a Fastest Known Time.

After her mum was diagnosed with young-onset Alzheimer's, she found herself looking for a way to channel grief into something positive. The result was an extraordinary six-day journey around the entire Cornish coastline, raising money, raising awareness, and discovering that some adventures change far more than your fitness.

In this episode we talk about the planning behind the challenge, how her body coped with six consecutive days of huge mileage, why the inland section proved tougher than the coast, and the emotional finish alongside her mum at Land's End.

It's a conversation about resilience, purpose and the remarkable things people can achieve when they have a powerful reason to keep moving.

The overnight camp at the Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon must be one of the best places in the world. The shared stories from the day bring everyone together in a way that you don’t really experience in other areas of your life - getting lost in the cloud, the various degrees of ankle pain from contouring around hills and doing battle with tussocks, the happy realisation that there’s life beyond footpaths.

It all adds up to the joy of spending time outside.

We talk about:

• The best food to eat between Saunders days
• The difference that route choice can make on the hill
• The joy found in partners on the trail
• How the Saunders has become a family tradition that spans entire generations and ages.
• Love and loss and how people find connection on the hills.

Follow & Support

If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the podcast and leave a rating or review on your podcast platform of choice.

Get out on your own adventure - find out more at bigtrailadventures.com.