Diabetics Doing Through Hiking with Joey Chapman and Julian Tapia aka the Hangdog Days

[00:00:07] Rob Howe: Welcome to the Diabetics Doing Things podcast. We've been telling the amazing stories of type 1 diabetics all across the world since 2015, and we have over a thousand years of living with T1D on the podcast. The interviews range from incredible feats to everyday victories, and we celebrate them all just the same. Thanks for listening, and if you want to get involved even further, just send me an email at rob at diabeticsdoingthings.com. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Diabetics Doing Things. We are telling the amazing stories of type 1 diabetics from all across the world. And in a rare form on this podcast, I've got two guests with me today. Brothers, in fact, Joey Chapman and Julian Tapia. And that's just based on your Skype information. So if I got one of your last names incorrect, just please let me know.

[00:01:15] Julian Tapia: Not a good name. Yeah, no, no, no. We're half brothers. Okay, got it, got it, got it.

[00:01:19] Rob Howe: We grew up our whole lives together. So yeah, we're brothers. Perfect. Well, yeah, I totally understand that. I have a half-sister myself. So let's talk about this, guys. I want to do the introduction because, Joey, you are the type 1 diabetic of the duo. But you guys are going to be doing something pretty exciting. So before I dive into that, let's talk about who you guys are, where you're from, give us the introduction, and then talk about the diagnosis story. And I also want to hear from Julian on it because I'm sure his perspective was pretty unique during that time as well.

[00:01:55] Julian Tapia: Right on. Yeah, so I'm Julian. I'm Joey's older brother by six years. I live in Salt Lake City. We moved out here for the outdoors, for the mountains. Basically, just if I'm not at work, I'm outside doing things. I hit Joey up, and we had the idea to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. and he was all about it. Being the older brother during Joey's diagnosis when he was like 10 years old was pretty rough, seeing our family go through that. Man, it was tough, man. It was like a lifestyle change for a kid and everybody kind of had to help out and he really owned it right away, which was incredible to see, almost inspiration for even his older brother. So it was pretty cool to see. Yeah. Yeah, so I'm Joey. I live in Texas. Me and Julian are in different states. And yeah, I'm 21. I'm a student. I go to school in San Marcos. I'm studying Mass Comm. I live up here. I just try it. And same thing as Julian, like just have that knack for the outdoors, try and get out and try and push myself as much as possible. You know, if there's something that's challenging or something that's risky or like life-threatening you know um but doable and you know we're usually going after it

[00:03:15] Rob Howe: right i love it yeah so joe you were diagnosed when you were 10 uh what do you remember about that obviously like i was diagnosed at 16 and i still you know i remember life before but none of the real nuances do you remember what it was like before you had diabetes i kind of do yeah

[00:03:33] Joey Chapman: Yeah, by the time you're 10, I guess you have started to remember things or start to understand things about the world and piece it together, which is crazy because as we grow as diabetics, we learn – we meet other diabetics and we learn that everyone's diagnosed at all these different ages and it's like a totally different experience. So like 16 and 10, it's probably totally different worlds. um but 10 years old was it was uh you know like i said you're just starting to kind of form your ideas on the world and um like grow into boyhood and uh yeah i remember growing up as a as you know a normal childhood i had a family who loved me and a lot of brothers i'm the fifth boy bless my mother's soul um i'm the i'm the youngest of five boys and we all uh grew up in the same house just like roughhousing it playing football playing video games backyard olympics um yeah it was it was like really great and the normal you know eating like going to birthday parties and eating cakes and drinking soda and and kind of carefree about what you're doing um and then yeah you know just typical store like diagnosis story got really sick um and actually at a birthday party after eating cake. And yeah, I was sick for a few weeks and went to the doctor and they tested me for ketones. And he knew right away and was like, you need to go to the hospital. And I remember like having to start testing, having to start pricking my finger and not really knowing what it was about and just thinking it was like, you know, I'm sick. They're checking up, they're checking my vitals or whatever, you know, not knowing that it would be forever. And, um, there's the, there's this one point, this one moment that I remember like so vividly. And I've, I've told Julian over and over again, but like it was, it was a couple of days into it and walking to the food court through the hospital with my mom and, uh, we were going to get some food and I, and I had to sit down and count my carbs with her and test my blood sugar and, and draw up an insulin shot and um I asked her like is this is this how it's going to be forever like and she just kind of like that motherly she she knew it was a big like a huge moment for her and for me and she just kind of like looked at me and stopped and took a deep breath and was just like yeah this is this is going to be the routine from now on and it was a pretty intense moment for being 10 years old

[00:06:05] Rob Howe: oh my gosh i can't even think about what it was like for her in that yeah yeah it's like a huge

[00:06:10] Joey Chapman: mom moment right oh yeah yeah well moms have those moments moms have to do that i know

[00:06:18] Rob Howe: that's a major one yeah your first beer yeah oh that's crazy man uh julian like what do you remember about that time you know you were you said you were six years older than joey so you're 16, you got your own kind of sets of problems at 16, like most 16 year olds, right? Younger brother gets, gets hit with this, you know, diagnosis. What, uh, and you know, you mentioned, and I think your perspective of Joey is much like mine. When I meet younger kids with diabetes, it's pretty amazing how much they own it and, uh, and really take care of themselves. I'm always in awe of it. Never, never gets old. What was that like kind of, you know, just seeing him do that. And, you know for you guys were there any other conversations that you guys had as a as a

[00:07:01] Julian Tapia: family as a group about it right yeah so right when joey got diagnosed i was actually taking finals in school so i remember being like up late at a friend's house studying and getting the call like hey joey was admitted to icu like he's really sick and us not knowing what it was it was like a scary moment you're stressed out because of school and things like that time goes on we find out what it is we found out Joey's you know T1D and I remember going to the hospital and seeing Joey and actually sitting down with nurses as like a like a family counseling like how our life was going to change we had any questions and I remember that being really powerful like we were all in there just kind of asking you know dumb questions like I remember some I mean I think it was me asking like so is it because Joey ate too much sugar like is that what it was you know just those misconceptions that always happen with diabetes, right? And so it was a shocking and like a learning experience. And it was, yeah, it was a threshold into a new lifestyle that we had to go into as a family. And like I said before, Joey owned it immediately. Like, I don't know, it's almost better that it happened to him. I don't know if I would have owned it the way that he did.

[00:08:11] Rob Howe: it's always interesting um you know a because sometimes we quickly forget how we none of us used to know anything about type 1 diabetes so you know we were just as sort of ignorant as everybody else uh so it's funny i whenever i talk to newly diagnosed people i always say there's no dumb questions because you know you want to make sure you ask everything um and you know the other the other part being you know just having those those family discussions where you kind of are Yeah, you're in this new territory where you sort of just have to say, okay, come what may. Here we are. We're a family. This is part of us now. Big team effort. I think for me specifically, without my family support, mom, dad, brother, sister, I give them a lot of credit for my success, especially early on with Type 1 because they were just like, okay, here we go. We're going to do this together.

[00:09:06] Joey Chapman: right and it's just a lifestyle change not only for the the person diagnosed but for the whole family i mean i remember going on road trips with the family you know immediately after and just like you know normally we stop at a fast food restaurant you know on the way but then change you know we had to find out like okay how is this going to affect joey's blood sugar like okay what's for dinner like everybody is now hypersensitive you know we all shared rooms as brothers uh when we were growing up and now mom's coming upstairs in the middle of the night to check joey's blood sugar and so things just changed but but i i mean like we still did that the my family was so good at making me feel normal throughout it like giving me that support system like i'm so grateful to have that because we we didn't skip going through the the like fast food you know we would do it because it's like this is what we would normally do and we're not gonna not do it just because of this like we're not gonna make joey feel this way you know and that was like i give a lot of thanks to you guys for for like encouraging me to keep doing that and like making me feel as normal about it as possible it's true though like we we didn't change too much it's just we became hypersensitive to what we were doing we didn't necessarily change what

[00:10:21] Rob Howe: we were doing you know yeah but the sensitivity is important you know um because those those issues are not even say issues just day-to-day life becomes a new you know math problem or a new you know unexpected obstacle that you're gonna have to leap over you know uh and just having that commitment from the group is it's super important man so yeah definitely don't discount it and you know i know there's a lot of uh parents and and siblings friends of other type ones that listen to this show don't underestimate how important that is those conversations even i remember some just talks with some of my bros like kind of just joking around right away like so are we gonna have to like shoot you with this shot bro like what is you know giving them the glucagon uh conversation you know and they're like oh i can't i can't wait to jab you with this thing

[00:11:10] Julian Tapia: like yeah we joke about that we were climbing a few months ago and we're like about to go out into the back country and joey just turns the group and is like hey if i become unresponsive stab me in the ass with this glucagon and everyone's like hey better better safety sorry man you got

[00:11:27] Rob Howe: to know you got to know what to do you know so speaking of the wilderness you guys talked a little bit about being uh outdoorsy and uh you know julian you kind of previewed and prefaced the the pct trip so i do want to talk a little bit about um or a lot really i want to talk you guys are taking a pretty important trip uh in the next few months together um and it's gonna go all the way across the u.s so uh tell us a little bit just give us some background for for people who are not uh you know hiking experts like myself i feel like every hike i've ever been on has ended just in catastrophic me getting lost or losing water just a terrible uh but yeah yeah it's gonna to happen yeah it's it's you know it's always fun and i always like it but you know i am the least qualified person to talk about it so uh give us the the rundown of what you guys are doing uh and then we'll kind of dig into some of the other cool factors about you know the uh the show and and the

[00:12:24] Julian Tapia: diabetic dirtbag and Hangdog Days nice yeah so the pacific crest trail is a long distance through hike it's a scenic trail national scenic trail that runs from mexico to canada on the west coast think of it as just like walking becomes your job you wake up every single day and you just we're gonna be walking north like that is our job 40 hours a week every day let's do this it can be broken down even smaller if you think about it as like a bunch of small backpacking trips so we will be hiking like five to seven days at a time and then hitchhiking into town going to resupply food uh you know take a shower and then get back to the trail and head north again so we'll be doing that just over and over and over and we'll be documenting it we'll be documenting diabetes in the outdoors podcasting filming a documentary and uh writing about it as

[00:13:16] Rob Howe: well so this this trail it like it connects all the way or is there's little like you mentioned hitchhiking back in but you could basically theoretically the trail goes all the way from Mexico to Canada. So where does it pass through? Walk us along the major checkpoints or something.

[00:13:34] Julian Tapia: Yeah. I guess I don't know them verbatim, but let's see. The first 700 miles is through the desert. You go up through the Sierras, which is like think of the John Muir Trail, Yosemite, things like that. You drop down and kind of pass Tahoe, Northern California. Then you walk through Oregon, kind of past Crater Lake, and then through Washington to Canada. I think of like the Cascades and yeah, that goes to the Cascades and it ends in Canada. But it's a massive walk. It's like 2,650 miles. Yeah, it's over on the eastern side of all of the California and Oregon and Washington. So it's up in the mountain ranges and not so much like towards the coast, so to speak.

[00:14:18] Rob Howe: And it's an established trail for sure. And pretty rough country most of the way, right? But beautiful, but in some cases, pretty rugged walking, right?

[00:14:30] Julian Tapia: Unforgiving, yeah. I mean, like he mentioned, the first 700 miles through the desert, it's very scarce of water and no protection from the sun, and you're just getting pelted on all day. And it's flat, it's flat and it's sandy, but it's just unsheltered, unforgiving. Yeah, a lot of rescues happen in the beginning of the Pacific Crest Trail because people underestimate how harsh and how exposed and unforgiving the desert actually is.

[00:15:01] Rob Howe: So as you guys are planning this journey, I do want to back up. I'm going to ask this question, but then I'm going to back up because this idea is super cool and very obviously ambitious and requires a lot of commitment. So I want to dive into a little bit of that. But how are you guys preparing different for that first 700 miles, knowing what you know that it is some of the most rugged, unforgiving part of the trip?

[00:15:30] Julian Tapia: Differently from people who are hiking without type 1 diabetes?

[00:15:35] Rob Howe: Maybe that, or just how are you guys approaching it specifically, just as you guys?

[00:15:41] Julian Tapia: Yeah, so the desert section, so the way that I see it is, we'll be doing a lot of our hiking in the morning and a lot of it in the evening and trying to find shelter kind of midday because it'll just be too hot and it'll wear us out too much um to be exposed you know at high noon um we'll also be carrying quite a bit of water from each water source so we'll be carrying i mean like minimum three or four liters uh a day and definitely covering some mileage like we it's almost like we have to cover mileage in the beginning uh just because we need to get to water sources so we like right off the bat it's like we got to hit 20 23 miles a day um just bam which can be pretty taxing on your body like right right out of the gate just start walking huge miles that's that's that's big right yeah and so like some of these water sources are very spread out some of them are closer together so i think we just need to be really uh knowledgeable about where our next water source is and you know whether we're going to have time to make miles up in the morning and in the evening and the cool parts of the days to enable to get to those sources and resupply with water. Exactly, yeah. And so I hiked the Appalachian Trail on the East Coast. In 20-mile days right out of the gate, that's a big bite to take right away. And, I mean, you're not just walking. You're walking, like we were talking about earlier, it's an unsupported hike, unassisted hike, and so we're carrying our whole lives on our backs, in our backpacks, so it's sleeping. it's bedding, it's shelter it's warmth, it's clothes, it's cooking food, water fuel everything in it for you Joey it's all your insulin and all of your medical supplies and then on top of that all of our camera gear it's going to be quite a hefty adventure

[00:17:33] Rob Howe: it is and I think I want to make sure that we all sort of understand the stakes right and you know how big of an undertaking it is. So backing up a little bit, uh, when did you guys know, and maybe where did the idea come from that you guys were going to do this? Um, and, and then, you know, as that evolved, you know, the documentary, doing the podcast, doing the different programs, like, uh, doing the hike unassisted, right. Uh, in terms of medical supplies, like you guys are going to have everything with you. Um, you know, where did, where'd that idea come from and how, you know, how long have you guys been planning it?

[00:18:09] Joey Chapman: we've been we've been talking about it for like almost a year now i think and what happened is julian came to me and another brother of mine we're actually hiking with another brother so

[00:18:21] Rob Howe: there'll be three of us yeah all right we're just we're leaving him out of the podcast because he

[00:18:26] Joey Chapman: he's in he's in trouble or he's just not he's he's in my a he's okay got it he's a hard man to find

[00:18:31] Rob Howe: these days um all right well yeah look up at the stars for him and just wave after wave to him

[00:18:38] Joey Chapman: after this he's out there shouts out to andrew um i'm sorry yeah um i'm getting distracted distracted

[00:18:48] Rob Howe: no no it's fine so you uh you guys were talking about this with you and you're doing this with your other brother yeah that's right julian came up with the the idea and and you know pitched it

[00:18:57] Joey Chapman: to you guys yeah julian came to us and was like hey i you know so julian had hiked the at before a couple years ago and and he was scheming and and was planning his next one and it was going to be the the pct and he came to us and just pitched the idea to us kind of nonchalantly and was like hey you guys should consider tagging along and um you know we're like duh that sounds amazing that sounds incredible like opportunity of a lifetime with you know with a man who's done it before and and is experienced and will be able to like keep us straight um and yeah so we've been And so initially it was like the first thing that I thought was like, well, yes, let's do it. But then when it started sinking in, it was like, I don't know if that's like really a good idea with the condition of type 1 diabetes. And so we spent a lot of time kind of grappling with that.

[00:19:55] Rob Howe: Right, because there are things like, you know, the first leg of the hike is super hot. So, you know, keeping your supplies cool and, you know, under, you know, protected. And then also just like the innate, you know, what if, you know, low blood sugar is out in the out, you know, while you guys are walking in between stops, you know? So what were some of the, you know, initial thoughts and like fixes that you guys are working through, you know, for Joey's sort of on the trail treatment?

[00:20:27] Joey Chapman: I think it's ongoing. It's really ongoing. And we're, and I think a lot of it will take as we go, once we start the hike, kind of learn and adjust um we've done a few like overnight trips before multi-day trips before and like you mentioned the low blood sugars um yeah i'm i don't know if it's just me or other diabetics experience this but when i'm hiking and especially through elevation changes with a with a heavy pack my blood sugar cannot stay up it just it just plummets and so that's like a huge one that we're going to have to look look out for yeah and the crux is is like we can't carry 10 juice boxes a week because that's too much way too much weight just going to make it much harder yeah yeah those those backpacking trips that we've been on before were mega learning experiences for us because we had no idea we're getting into and at let's see at times it got like you know pretty serious situations you know joey's out of food and we've got a day and a half left on the trail like whoa we're out here now we need to start rationing food and like somebody else has got to give him food because we just didn't calculate right it's like i literally have to eat all my food because my to keep my sugars up and then right next thing you know you don't have

[00:21:43] Rob Howe: dinner you don't have breakfast yeah it's uh you know it's those challenges right uh and you know But that's, I mean, living on the trail unassisted as a type 1, I think, you know, those are those things that, you know, every day is going to be different. And, you know, Joey, you mentioned, you know, extended exercise, being out in the warm weather, you know, carrying a heavy pack, walking a long way. Yeah, like, you know, your body is performing at a pretty high level at that point, makes you more insulin sensitive. So, you know, your normal ratios are going to be thrown off. it's uh you know it's it's and it's interesting i mean it's a but it's a challenge so you also are going to have to you know every day is an experiment uh even when you're not on the pct but out there it's just you know every every extra juice box adds another layer of complexity right

[00:22:36] Julian Tapia: exactly exactly and but that's like one of the huge reasons why we decided we had to do it because for a moment there it was like diabetes was going to shut us down and when we thought about that we were like dude hell no excuse me but like that can't you know like we were talking about earlier when like we were little it's like we wouldn't not go to Dairy Queen um because of of type 1 diabetes it's like we went to Dairy Queen and we experienced a really high blood sugar from a blizzard you know and but we learned and so So like, for example, this instance, it was like, we can't do this hike because of type 1 diabetes. And we sat there and we're like, when has that ever stopped us before?

[00:23:21] Rob Howe: Yeah.

[00:23:22] Julian Tapia: When should we let it stop us?

[00:23:25] Rob Howe: Those moments are so critical. I think throughout your life with type 1, but especially, you know, not early on, it's important. I think I've heard some people who are older and like adults when they were diagnosed or I interviewed a guy, Oren Liebermann, who's a CNN correspondent. He and his wife were like traveling around the world and were in like Nepal when he got diagnosed. And they were on this year long trip and they decided right after he got diagnosed, he had this terrible diagnosis experience and had like come back to the US. they decided that they were just going to go and go back get back on the road because if they didn't that would just set the wrong precedent for the rest of his life right yeah so and i think that's you know a little bit what you guys are going through you know it's it's one thing to think about okay yeah maybe there will be some challenges and now and now because of those we

[00:24:16] Julian Tapia: have to do it absolutely i think the the biggest tagline for me is that you know diabetes will not make the decision. Like if you want to do something, do it. Yeah. No, I can't, I can't agree more. And

[00:24:31] Rob Howe: I think for me, that was a huge part of what, you know, made my early years or, you know, formed my, my life kind of right off the bat with type 1. Uh, I wanted to play basketball. I asked the doctor point blank, like, can I play basketball? And she was like, you know what, you can do whatever you want to do as long as you take care of yourself along the way. And that was kind of all I needed.

[00:24:53] Julian Tapia: yeah man i mean i don't know i can't speak for you guys but i've had people since we've been doing this kind of uh series mom's emailing me like hey i didn't realize my son could do something like that and my response is like your son can do whatever he wants if it's just managed properly you know and that's i mean i'm not diabetic but that's kind of how i see it for joey like he does what he wants you know he just manages it he makes it happen yeah it's wild because a lot of people whenever they're diagnosed don't get the same support like nobody gets the same support and so a lot of people don't know a lot of people are afraid a lot of people just are nervous like you know if you're diagnosed when you're 25 and you know say you've been drinking alcohol uh for five for four years now and all of a sudden like you don't know if you can go out and have a drink with your friends anymore you're like and and i think for kids they get a better support

[00:25:44] Rob Howe: system. I'm not totally sure, but, but I feel like, you know, I think there's a, you know, and again, yeah, you're right. It's not, I don't have a clinical definition, but there's a lot of support for young, young people with diabetes and rightfully so like that's a huge, they, they probably need more support, but you know, I definitely feel for the people who are our age, you know, in their early twenties, late twenties, thirties, forties, who, you know, don't, their doctor just gave them a prescription and said, good luck. And they're looking for whatever, whatever support, whatever resources they can, they can find. What'd you say? Yeah.

[00:26:19] Julian Tapia: Sorry. We met those guys and it's interesting to talk to him about that. Like a completely different world and like taking on a new, new lifestyle at that age is just, it's a whole new game. It's a whole new struggle. It's interesting.

[00:26:31] Rob Howe: Yeah. We just, I met a girl. Sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. I met a girl who she was diagnosed, I think at like 17 or 18, like still a kid, you know, but her mom was, you know, was a just primary care physician. She lived in a small town and she gave, the doctor just gave her a DVD in Spanish and she didn't even speak Spanish. Just they gave her a Spanish DVD to teach her how to treat, to treat her diabetes. And like, you know, I'm not saying that that's the standard or that that's every day, but that's, and it's a similar experience for a lot, a lot of people. So yeah, these types of stories, like, you know, Going and hiking the PCT trail or the PCT, these are important for people because they're going to ask those questions. Can I go on an extended backpacking trip? Hey, Mom, I want to go on a backpacking trip. So what's Mom do? She gets on the internet. She searches. And what does she find? She's going to find you guys. So I think it's those types of things and really kind of embodying that beyond type 1, live beyond type experience are super important. And I think I could, you know, that's why when you guys, you know, when you guys messaged me, I was like, yeah, I need to have, I need to not only have these guys on before the hike, but I got to have you guys on after too, because I know there are going to be some, some great stories of, of achievement. And I, and also just like times when you guys were all tired, kind of back against the walls and making great decisions, you know, making decisions for, for the best of the group. But I also want to know that like, Hey, you know what, there was a, we had an issue to overcome with diabetes on the trail and we did it and we kept going. and you know it didn't stop us and we you know we were prepared for it yeah and it's we'll hit you up midway how about that in tahoe or something like that you know i love that let's make it happen

[00:28:17] Joey Chapman: yeah and but rob it's almost like we have to expect something something bad to happen yeah you know because like bad things happen to us when we're here in our natural and our habitat and when we have all the resources with us and so so it's like when we're out in the wilderness and we're you know 60 miles from town and you gotta you know and you run out of your you use your last sight your last sight comes out or um you know we'll have to make those decisions you're right and and we will overcome them and there are already so many struggles you're gonna we're gonna go through as through hikers in general that i'm gonna go through like i'm gonna go through just so many ups and downs as just a a through hiker joey has an another layer of that being type 1 diabetic something extra to manage and so it's just going to be a whole nother layer of just things to to take care of and things that can go askew things that can go wrong so it's going to be it'll be a challenge it'll be a team effort for sure um but man yeah you're right we're going to run into some challenges for sure i mean you were hospitalized just uh what like a month ago and that brought up some some you know some questions for us yeah yeah what happened so i have actually never i hadn't been hospitalized because of diabetes like almost my entire life of having diabetes i've been really fortunate and i've been taking really good care but um i caught some kind of stomach virus the stomach bug and i just started throwing up and couldn't keep any food down and it all started happening right after i had a big dinner with a lot of carbs and gave a lot of insulin and i just started throwing up all of my food and i had all of this insulin on board and I couldn't keep anything down and and so I drank a bunch of juice boxes you know I was in the 20s and I just started drinking juice boxes and just started throwing them up and it was like very nerve-wracking um and I called my mother frustrating too

[00:30:16] Rob Howe: what's that I said yeah probably frustrating too I imagine just like oh yeah you bet

[00:30:21] Joey Chapman: I don't know I don't think I can drink another grape juice box again it's like Like, you know, four of them down, four of them out. And, you know, I really didn't want to go to the ER. It was like if this was happening to me and I didn't have a blood sugar problem, I would have just toughened it up and waited it out and waited for the bug to get over the bug. But it was like you got to do something because you're crashing. And I remember talking to my mom and being like, Mom, this is what's going on. You know, my roommates are here. They can take me to the hospital if I need to. I don't want to go. I have the glucagon shot. Like, I'll give myself a glucagon if I need to. And she was just like, no, that's a bad idea. Like, you should go. And I was just feeling so shitty. It was like, okay, let's do it. And it's just something as simple as a stomach bug that can cause vomiting. And that's like we were talking about it afterwards. Like, that's something that's so real and very prevalent to thru-hikers on the trail. yeah it's gonna happen like you're gonna get a stomach bug you're gonna get noro you're gonna get giardia i mean think about we're we're out there not we're just we're through hikers we're not gonna be taking showers every day like the water that we're drinking yeah we're gonna be taking water from cow troughs if we need to you know what i mean like we'll be drinking shitty water uh and if you get a stomach bug like we'll just need to figure it out real quick what what we did learn um what we're going to try to combat that with is going to be like honey packets yeah packets of honey because honey is so it's got so many carbs it's like um the amount of carbs in a juice box like 15 or 17 a normal size juice box is like the same that you would find in a tablespoon of honey and which is usually the packets come in a tablespoon so and those are super lightweight so it'll be perfect just throw the bag full of those things easy to carry yeah really easy to

[00:32:19] Rob Howe: get i'm sure like if you guys are in town and needed to re-up on some just grab them at the

[00:32:24] Julian Tapia: at the restaurant you know sometimes we'll be even like just resupplying like i mean i've resupplied at just gas stations and if that's all you have then that's all you have and like i'm sure they sell little like nut packets or honey packets or pop tarts you know that's what you have for the week um so yeah just trying to find those those little things that can bring you up quick and need to keep down yeah yeah and hopefully honey won't be so like buoyant or or like it won't like if you are throwing up hopefully you can keep honey down yeah keep our fingers crossed yeah

[00:32:57] Rob Howe: yeah maybe the stickiness will so i don't know i'm not a smaller amount really is what i'm thinking totally stickiness yeah what uh what are you guys looking forward to the most would you say about the hike like what's your and you guys can answer separately but i and you know um this is obviously like a pretty astonishing thing so yeah so this is a peak moment for you guys right i mean even though you know julian you're a through hiker you've done this type of trip before but this is

[00:33:28] Julian Tapia: one of the big ones yeah for sure so something that i've just been really looking forward to is one experiencing this with my brothers and walking from i mean you get to you get to experience life in slow motion up the west coast it's amazing seeing cultures change meeting people you've got no real agenda other than just to walk and it's a great lifestyle for people to live and to try out but the thing i'm looking forward to most is all the time you have to yourself to think and just walk because what happens when you're in that state is you think all the thoughts you've processed everything that's in your mind everything that's bothering you anything that's just bugging you. And so whenever you do that, you literally, at least for me, experience that be here now moment, you finally understand like what it means to be in the moment, you just have the thoughts of like, oh, rock, oh, leaf, oh, tree, oh, river, oh, I'm thirsty. So you truly get that experience, because you're not deluded with everyday, just thought process and things like that, you finally get to just like a pure state it's really nice yeah what uh i mean i i've been i've

[00:34:44] Rob Howe: been doing a meditation practice for the last you know a little a little over a year trying to go to a uh trying to get a 10-day silence retreat on the books for the year but uh you know i imagine you know that the uh you know after walking all that way and just yeah just having those very present thoughts even if it's and like it's not this nirvana moment sometimes right it's just rock tree i'm breathing i'm you know sun on my face it's so simple and you appreciate it it's like

[00:35:13] Joey Chapman: you sit down in the afternoon and like eat an apple and you're like holy shit that was the best apple i've ever had in my life yeah wow uh joey what about you man so i'm kind of on a different uh playing field as julian because julian's through hiked and julian knows what I mean, the PCT will be different than the AT, but he kind of knows what to expect, and he's going to know how to enjoy it. I feel like I'm going to be – I don't really know what to expect other than what I've read and what I've talked to with Julian about. But what I can imagine will be the best part about it is probably the same thing that Julian said, is being able to just kind of escape from this hectic routine lifestyle that we're in right now and be able to step back and just live a simpler one. Just kind of slim down and be simple for five months. and uh you know that's something that i've never you know almost a year ago didn't think would ever happen and so it's it's really surreal to be in this situation and um i'm looking forward to being able to kind of like i'm in this position in my life where i'm finishing up school right now i'll be graduating i'll be looking for a job um i really enjoy working with cameras and telling stories. And so what we want to do is we're going to shoot a documentary or try to. And so I really look forward to spending that time to kind of think and focus in on some major goals of mine, like 10-year plans, 15, 20-year plans, and take this time where my life is simple and we're doing that we're walking it's like tree rock river um think um i'm looking forward to having all this time to think and kind of craft out uh my future as we take and you know are we taking five months off from life no man we're clocking into life yeah i was gonna say you're really just like

[00:37:18] Rob Howe: you're just taking it one day at a time instead of worrying about you know the future i suppose

[00:37:23] Joey Chapman: right these experiences truly strip people down to their like most vulnerable self and a lot of times that can be scary and uh it it's what happens you do get stripped down and then you build yourself right back up you kind of go through shit that's hard i mean and you experience things that are raw you know it's like wow this sucks one thing julian that yeah one thing that you told me about uh how you feel after completing the at and i think this is something the appalachian trail this is something that i look forward to um when we complete the pct is uh you were like i look at every challenge in life now like it's minuscule because i've achieved the like the impossible you know i achieved this this this huge challenge and i got over the hump or you know whatever And so I look forward to hitting these speed bumps and overcoming them and not quitting and making it to the end and then feeling that kind of high, just being on that high afterwards. I want to say it's like the hardest thing you've ever done in your life and the easiest thing you've ever done in your life at the same time. I mean, it's a wild experience. I'm stoked. It's going to be great. It's going to be fun.

[00:38:42] Rob Howe: Yeah, man, I'm really looking forward to it. And just hearing you guys talk about it, obviously, it gets me excited for the journey, man. I'm really excited to follow you guys along. In Hangdog Days and the diabetic dirtbags, you guys don't look like dirtbags right now, but I imagine there will be some times in this documentary where we're going to see you at your very vulnerable, unshowered state, which will be pretty fun to see, I imagine.

[00:39:10] Julian Tapia: Right, yeah. So the dirtbag kind of just – we created this idea, the diabetic dirtbag, where it's just kind of pushing people with type 1 diabetes to get outdoors. And so what a dirtbag is is someone who kind of scrapes by and, I don't know, maybe lives out of the van and is not part of the system and pretty much just kind of lives the life that they want to live. Yeah, regardless of what society thinks. right and so the idea is just kind of push people with type 1 diabetes to get outside and find their inner dirtbag and uh so that's a that's a podcast we do um yeah man go ahead and plug it dude plug

[00:39:51] Rob Howe: it that's what that's why we're here we're gonna we're gonna you know i'm gonna include it all in the show notes and link everybody to it so um i know you guys are gonna be doing episodes while you're on the road um so where do we go where do we find the diabetic dirtbag episodes

[00:40:06] Julian Tapia: so you can find uh the Diabetic Dirtbag on Hangdog Days it's a segment off of Hangdog Days so hangdogdays.com or you can find us on any uh podcasting platform that's itunes uh stitcher tune in any android app we're on more or less all of them um yeah hang dog day is just a storytelling media platform we you know we podcast we do video we do photos and uh audio obviously uh we you know adventure travel and outdoor we'll be documenting diabetes in the outdoors and telling the story about it so follow along well of course at Hangdog Days is our instagram

[00:40:45] Rob Howe: that's right uh and i i for one i'm like really looking forward to to hearing the journey and following along so um you know be be on the lookout for some comments and messages from me whenever you guys are checking in from the road. As we kind of wrap up, and I mean, we're going to get you guys on in the middle and then again at the end. So, I mean, you're going to have, we're going to have a couple hours of conversations by the time this thing's all done. I do ask one question on every episode. So I'm going to ask, here's what I'm going to do just to hold us accountable. I'm going to ask Joey the question on this one. And then I'm going to ask Julian on the next one. And then your other brother, I'm going to ask on the last one. So that's, that's the way we're going to keep this thing accountable. Uh, sound like a plan to you guys. That's fair. All right. So, uh, Joey, the question is if, uh, the context is important. Imagine like you're in an airport, uh, you're at the gate to your flight. Uh, and for whatever reason you got to be on that plane, whatever's on the other end of the plane, you got to be there. Um, but you run into somebody who's either been recently diagnosed or struggling with uh with type 1 what's the one thing that you tell them in that 30 seconds before they shut the door to your kid 30 seconds starts now 30 seconds starts now you're

[00:42:03] Joey Chapman: on the clock um struggling recently diagnosed um if i'm getting on a plane i'm probably going to utah on some epic climbing trip with my brother so i'm probably on like some super stoked high and getting outdoors um probably tell them that there's like the there's definitely a light at the end of the tunnel and where we are right now with with technology it's like we can't be happier as type 1 diabetics like let's use what we got and um i mean it's a bummer for sure don't get me wrong it's a bummer and i feel you i'm right there with you but uh but i mean if you have dreams like don't let diabetes make the decision to not follow your dreams man you nailed it i love it

[00:42:51] Rob Howe: that's so good and then you just zip on that plane and go climb some mountains or wherever

[00:42:56] Joey Chapman: you're going to later yeah tossing my grape juice box because i'm not drinking that one anyways

[00:43:03] Rob Howe: great that's uh that's going to be your next thing is you're going to just uh find all these grape juice boxes and donate them to people all over the country because you don't want to. Hey, we'll send you a box of grape juice. Hey. Well, man, fellas, it was great to meet you guys. I'm super stoked for your trip. I can't wait to hear about all the adventures. I'm going to follow you guys on all of the different channels, check in on the podcast as well. So when is the date that you guys actually hit the road? What's the start date?

[00:43:37] Joey Chapman: man it looks like we're gonna be kicking off may 4th okay may the 4th be with you exactly yeah yeah so we're lucky day we're gonna we're gonna take off and yeah it'll be it'll be crazy for me i'll be finishing up all my final exams and i'll move out of my house and move into a storage unit and plane and find myself in the desert with my bros I love it

[00:44:04] Rob Howe: it's going to be good May 4th we will be for sure going to post this podcast before May 4th so that we get you guys as many people to follow along as possible but yeah I just did want to thank you guys again for coming on and taking the time taking your time on a Friday night I know there's plenty of other stuff you guys could be doing so thanks for all that you do and we're going to be following along

[00:44:28] Julian Tapia: yeah thanks for having us Rob

[00:44:30] Joey Chapman: you're the man Rob thanks a lot man