Into The Wild – The Hike or Die Interview with Tom Griffin!

Hi there Travel Tarters, I’ve got an interview today with Tom Griffin (otherwise known as Tom Dog!) who runs the hiking site, Hike or Die. Tom loves hiking up a storm on whatever patch of dirt he can lay his boots on, and has trekked thousands of kilometres in all sorts of places.

In fact, when I talk to him about hiking, I feel like leaving the fluorescent prison called the office immediately to lose myself in some wide open spaces for while, but not for too long so that I’m eaten by a bear like Christopher McCandless was as portrayed in the movie “Into The Wild“ because he ate some dodgy berries thanks of his poor botanical skills!

You can catch up with Hike or Die on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and Instagram for some great hiking tips and advice!

Have a look at one of his cool videos which shows what the site is all about.

 

Anyway, here is our chat!

Into The Wild With Tom from Hike or Die!

The Travel Tart: Hey Tom, thanks for the opportunity to chat. I’ve done my very best to ensure that people Googling stuff about hiking reach this article, but just in case some punters accidentally stumble across it even though they were looking at cat videos or adult movies, tell the world about yourself and the Hike or Die website.

Tom Griffin: Likewise mate. Thanks for having me. We’re pretty light on cat videos to be honest but I guess you could draw some similarities to adult movies. We’re always getting dirty and often finding ourselves in positions that are sometimes less than ideal. (laughs) Hike or Die is all about inspiring people to get outdoors. I want people to get into the wilderness, create their own adventures, see some amazing sights and challenge themselves at the same time. So we try and provide advice in any way we can. Videos, photos, gear reviews and articles. Whatever it takes. Everything is forged from our own mistakes and I’m very honest about that. It’s kind of like a “we’ve made all the mistakes so you don’t have to” kind of deal. At the end of the day, a lot of people from all over the world tell me how much they enjoy our video productions and articles so as long as that’s still the case, I’ll keep making them.

The Travel Tart: I love the title of your website, Hike or Die. I’m guessing that because you keep adding articles to it, you’ve obviously stayed on the hike side of the ledger! But have there been some hiking incidents that have left you wearing the brown underpants for a long time?

Tom Griffin: Thanks mate. It’s interesting because Hike or Die was literally born from the title of a message that I sent to a few mates when we were organising a hike. It was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek stab at the “Skate or Die” movement of the 80s but it ended up sticking like sh*t to a blanket. Despite the hiking biased name, we actually get into a lot of other things like canoeing, bush craft and survival type stuff too.

In regards to “incidents”, yeah, there’s plenty of those. The trick is to buy brown underpants from the start. (laughs) A couple of hairy moments that immediately come to mind would be outrunning a bushfire that woke us at 4am, getting attacked by a highly venomous Red Belly Black snake when I tried to shoo it away from where I was filming and more recently, canoeing across a huge lake with my dad during rain squalls with extremely high wind conditions in a canoe built for flat water. The first two required fresh underwear purchases afterwards but thankfully the canoeing put me through a spin-cycle anyway so I guess that was kind of a silver lining right?

The Travel Tart: I think the best indication of a challenging hike is the smell test. Which hike made you think you needed to spray yourself with about 10 gallons of deodorant after finishing up?

Tom Griffin: I should have shares in deodorant. Seriously. I can barely put up with myself sometimes I smell so much. (laughs) I think the survival challenge we did probably left me the smelliest for sure. We had some crazy idea about going into the wilderness for 4 days and only taking two muesli bars and our little survival kits. That was a real test. Probably one of the toughest things I’ve ever done both mentally and physically. It was the stinkiest too. We did a lot of physical work building a shelter and collecting firewood all in the same set of clothes the whole four days. When it was eventually time to leave, my clothes could have almost got up and walked out on their own.

The Travel Tart: Let’s just say that you and Bear Grylls are on a plane that crashes into the Pacific Ocean a.k.a. Tom Hanks in Castaway. You both have to hike up to the top of the mountain to see where your next meal is coming from. Who’s going to reach the top first? I’m guessing it’s you because Bear would be too busy with his own product placement shots to camera!

Tom Griffin: That’s sounding pretty romantic so far. (laughs) He’d definitely beat me to the top though because I’d be busy making sure that we couldn’t get off that island in too much of a hurry. Burning the raft or something. (laughs) I’d want to be on that island as long as possible to soak up as much knowledge as I could. He cops a lot of flack but you can’t take away the skills he has. Anyway, Bear Grylls actually replied to a tweet of mine once so I haven’t got a bad thing to say about him. (laughs) That’s a true story.

The Travel Tart: And I know that you would make something out of Wilson the Volleyball as a survival strategy instead of developing strange feelings for him! Anyway, one thing that you definitely need on a long hike are rations so that you don’t starve to death on a long walk, whilst at the same time, not wanting to drag half of your cupboard around with you. What’s the worst tasting ration you’ve ever tasted on a hike? Bonus points if it’s come from a can.

Tom Griffin: I’m one of these OCD kind of hikers who tests absolutely everything before I take it out in the field including food. I’m happy to say I’ve never tasted anything that bad. Now, If you had asked what’s the worst thing I’ve tried to eat while hiking, then that’s a different story. I found some Wild Ginger once and thought “hey that’s cool, I’m gonna cook that”. So I dug up a tuber, peeled it, wrapped it in aluminum foil and then threw it in the fire for a while. It came out tasting like something between a piece of coconut husk and an old dry stick that was accidentally rubbed against a piece of ginger just long enough to give it a weird smell. Anyway, I didn’t go back for seconds.

The Travel Tart: I love traveling solo because of how it forces you out of your comfort zone because no one else is going to do your crap for you, plus I love the independence! I’m guessing it’s the same with hiking. What’s the best thing you love about hiking solo?

Tom Griffin: I totally agree. I love hiking with others but over the last couple of years I seem to be doing a lot more trips by myself. Sometimes I don’t see another person for a few days. That is a very weird feeling and I end up talking to myself way too much for it to be normal. In answer to your question though, the best part is learning to enjoy your own company and make your own decisions without the help of others. Turns out I’ve actually got a lot in common with myself. (laughs) If you want the long answer to that question though, I wrote a whole article on on exactly that topic just recently called “4 Reasons why you should plan your own solo adventure“.

The Travel Tart: My most useful hiking tip is that when coming back into Australia from overseas, is to leave your boots dirty so that the quarantine service will clean them for you for free! Okay, you probably think that’s pretty shonky, but what’s the best hiking tip you’ve ever heard?

Tom Griffin: Someone actually said to me before a hike once: “Don’t die”. (laughs) I thought that was the best hiking tip ever. Apart from that I’d probably say clean your cooking pots the second you have finished using them. It sounds like a pretty boring tip but trust me, I’ve seen people scrubbing for hours before they can pack away or use their pot again. The trick is to bring some water to the boil while you are eating and then let it soak that until you are done. It’ll come off real easy after that and you won’t have curry flavoured coffee for the next three days of hiking.

The Travel Tart: Hiking can present a number of dangers depending on where you’re going. What’s the biggest threat to hikers? Snakes, the weather, cliffs, other people, or drop bears?

Tom Griffin: I think these days it’s probably people falling backwards off a cliff while taking epic selfies. (laughs) Second to that, it’s definitely hypothermia. That’s almost always from being unprepared and not thinking beyond the weather conditions at the time you set out. Mother Nature can turn on the weather changes whenever she chooses. Drop Bears in comparison aren’t as much of a problem. They always grunt just before they drop so it’s just a matter of timing your side-step. There’s a tip you won’t read in any hiking manual. (laughs)

The Travel Tart: And finally, where was the place where you thought, hell yeah, I love this hiking s*^&?

Tom Griffin: Two places come to mind actually. Firstly, Yosemite National Park in the U.S. It was the first place I’d ever visited where I felt so tiny and insignificant. I was dwarfed by enormous Sequoia trees that had seen hundreds of summers and mountains that had seen thousands more. The other was more recently while I was solo-hiking The Overland Track in Tasmania, Australia. One hundred kilometres of sweeping landscape views, untouched rugged mountains and valleys forged by ice flows and delicate undergrowth that was teeming with wildlife. Half way into the first day I already knew I was in a very special part of the world and that it was a privilege to even be there.

The Travel Tart: Thanks Tom, and happy hiking!

Tom Griffin: My pleasure. It’s been great chatting with you.