Episode 134 - Fran and Jessica on Franconia Ridge, Flooding across the White Mountains

[00:00:03] Here is the latest Higher Summits Forecast brought to you by our friends at the Mt. Washington Observatory. Weather above treeline in the White Mountains is often wildly different than at our trailheads. Before you hike, check the Higher Summits Forecast at www.MtWashington.org.

[00:00:32] Weather observers working at the non-profit Mt. Washington Observatory write this elevation-based forecast every morning and afternoon. Search and Rescue teams, avalanche experts, and backcountry guides all rely on the Higher Summits Forecast to anticipate weather conditions above treeline. You should too.

[00:00:54] Go to www.MtWashington.org or text FORECAST to 603-356-2137. And here is your forecast for Friday, December 22nd and Saturday, December 23rd. You'll be able to check out the forecast at MtWashingtonObservatory.org over the next few weeks while Mike and I are on vacation.

[00:01:22] Be sure to do that. And also, they always advise you to read the discussion section up above the succinct forecast because there's all kinds of information that's cool. Such as this week, they mentioned that Friday there's a great chance of an inversion where

[00:01:37] there's going to be some really dramatic undercast. So be sure to check that out if you're up in the area. So Friday we have, let's see, in the clear under mostly sunny skies trending towards in and out of the clouds under partly cloudy skies.

[00:01:56] Temperature rising to the upper teens with winds northwest at 30-45 mph with gusts up to 50, decreasing to 15-30 mph and shifting southeast with a wind chill rising to 0-10 below zero. Friday night mostly in the clouds under mostly cloudy skies with a low rising to the lower 20s.

[00:02:19] Winds will be southeast at 15-30 mph with a wind chill rising to 5-15 above. And then Saturday, in and out of the clouds under mostly sunny skies. Temps in the mid 20s with winds southeast shifting east late at 15-30 mph and wind chill will be 5-15 above.

[00:02:42] So we'll see you in a couple weeks and enjoy your holidays. Broadcasting from the Woodpecker Studio in the great state of New Hampshire, welcome to the Sounds Like a Search and Rescue podcast where we discuss all things related to hiking

[00:03:32] and search and rescue in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Here are your hosts, Mike and Stump. Welcome to episode 134 of the Sounds Like a Search and Rescue podcast. This is the last episode of 2023.

[00:04:05] This week we bring you a fun story of two hikers, Jessica and Fran who experienced trouble on Franconia Ridge. This one is from the perspective that we don't often think about when we talk about hiking,

[00:04:16] the once a year hiker going out for a fun day of nature mostly unaware of how best to prepare for a challenging day in the mountains. This story turns out ok but it is a lesson in how small decisions can build up and create

[00:04:28] the potential for big problems. Plus we have an angry mother nature with road closures, washouts, raging rivers and major flooding across New Hampshire and Maine. The great flood of 2023 this week has wreaked havoc in the whites and beyond.

[00:04:42] All this in a volcano eruption in Iceland, wolves in Colorado, Lord of the Rings, a recent hike retraces the steps of Darvey Field in the Montabon range and we've got recent search and rescue news. So I'm Mike and I'm Stomp. Let's get the last show of 2023 started.

[00:05:32] This has been Peace from Hiking Buddies. We are a 501c3 nonprofit committed to reducing avoidable tragedies through education, impactful projects and fostering a community of support. You can find out more at hikingbuddies.org.

[00:05:45] We wanted to say thank you to those who have supported our mission and most importantly say thanks to those who speak up, who ask questions and who are willing to provide guidance and assistance on the trails when needed. You embody what it means to be a hiking buddy.

[00:05:58] And now for all my newer hikers out there, here's this episode's Hiking Buddies quick tip. Always leave a plan with someone before you head out for your hike. Let them know where, what time you expect to be back and what actions to take if you miss a check-in.

[00:06:24] It is absolutely imperative to make sure that someone knows where you are and what time you are expected to return. Welcome to episode 134. Welcome. Happy holidays. Merry Christmas. Are you staying dry? Oh yeah, right. Still drying out. Like we got some water in the basement actually. Yeah.

[00:07:00] Oh, you did? Yeah, we sure did. It happens very, very rarely, but this storm was just so overwhelming that it stepped through to the bottom basement below the stairs and what's really nasty, it came in where the litter boxes are and where all the litter is.

[00:07:17] So of course it mixed with the litter and just made a complete mess. So yeah, we got hit a little bit. Gross. Gross is right. Is the studio okay? Is Woodpecker studio affected? Yes. Yeah, I'm just surrounded by just nasty kitties that sort of stink. Really? Yeah.

[00:07:35] The studio is fine though. Yeah, we've had this problem once before, like three or four years ago. It wasn't as bad and it was the same situation, just heavy rains and it snuck in a little bit. Yeah. I've gotten water in my basement like twice.

[00:07:49] There was that Mother's Day storm in like the 2000s, I think, or maybe the 2010s. And then there was an ice storm and yeah, our basement flooded. I got a sump pump and then Jimmy Chaga was down here refinishing it and we got like another

[00:08:04] pump in my egress window. So yeah, I think most of that water just, I think the hydraulic pressure builds up when the water table gets to a certain point and you seep through the cracks. So you got to keep that water away from the house. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:08:18] Yeah, it's amazing. All right, stop. I got a new segment for us. I haven't run this by you. All right. I took my friends, our friends, Camilla and Lance. I went hiking with them. We're going to talk about that. Okay, cool.

[00:08:32] They gave me a present and I'm going to be able to utilize this present on the show, but I think I'm going to need you to go to our voiceover guy and see if he can do a voiceover intro for this. Okay. That shouldn't be a problem.

[00:08:47] So it'd be like Slashers Dad Joke of the Week. Oh, nice. So for the listeners, I'm holding up a book here for Stomp to look at. It's called 365 Days of Dad Jokes. Is this part of our outreach to the younger generations? It is. It is.

[00:09:09] We're going to admit our boomerism here. But no, Camilla and Lance, they had a good idea in this. So if you can get the voiceover guy to do the Slasher Dad Joke of the Week, we'll slip in some tech jokes every once in a while for Beth Lynn.

[00:09:24] So here's the first one. We argued all day about what to call a medieval soldier, but it was getting late so we decided to call it a knight. That's good. So you have to take a pen and cross it out. True.

[00:09:41] Yes, so we have 364 more shows to do to get through this. We're committed. Is that your New Year's resolution? I put this in the script, but we should talk about that briefly. I know you're not the New Year's resolution guy, right? Well, I've done a couple of them.

[00:09:58] Yeah. I've done a couple of them. But yeah, we'll talk about that, I guess. But just housekeeping Stomp, so for the listeners, this is going to be our last episode of the year and then we're going to take two weeks off. Is that right? Two weeks?

[00:10:13] Yeah, two weeks. So we're back on the week of the 8th, I think, right? January? Yeah, so nothing on the 29th of December and then nothing on January 5th. So I think that we'll be back on January 12th.

[00:10:27] Let me double check just so people don't yell at us. Correct. I think we're recording on the 9th, but we're not going to push it out until the 12th. Right, right, right. Yeah, it's going to be a good year. 2024. Yes. Coming right up. It is.

[00:10:44] All right, but before we get, you know, let's not get ahead of ourselves into next year. So today is December 21st. You know what happens at 1027 p.m. this evening, Stomp? Let's see. Winter? It is the official start.

[00:11:05] It's the winter solstice, which it's my understanding that by the 4000 footer hiking rules, as long as you, I think the rule is, is you can't set foot on a trail until 1027. And then after that, if you do any of the winter 4000 footers, they'll count. Hmm. They're just guidelines.

[00:11:27] They're just guidelines. So and then are you still committed? Are you still committed? You're going to do your winter 4000 footer? Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Now that you reminded me, I'll probably hit one this weekend. How many do you think you're going to get this winter season?

[00:11:43] I don't know, man. Maybe if I'm lucky 12 or 15. That's aggressive. Yeah, it is. But the ones I have to hit are all tacked together. So I think I could get some work done. Okay. Yeah, I think I really focused on the last three years or so.

[00:12:04] And I think I was averaging like eight to 10 per season. So I had to drive to, I'm not up there. I'm not up north when I, in the winter. So it's harder. I'm hoping to be done by January or early February because I've only got, I just got

[00:12:17] those two trips. I got to get out to Owls Head and then they got the Zealand Bond Traverse. Ooh, yeah. Count me in on that one. I definitely need those. That'd be great. Okay. By the way, can I just hit upon the forecast for a second?

[00:12:31] Did you hear the forecast yet? Or read it? Today's going to be a massive undercast inversion. So if you're able to get out and enjoy it, it might be spectacular on the higher summits. Ooh, yeah. Slashers hiking topic of the week. All right.

[00:13:00] Well, we might as well get into this. So the mother nature is pissed, the great flood of 2023. So I've been paying attention on social media and everything, but this is really bad. So how many inches of rain did you guys get in total?

[00:13:15] I honestly didn't keep track, but I'm assuming it was probably around four, at least three and a half. I would guess too. Oh yeah. I mean, the forecast was calling for that over the span of those 24 hours and looking

[00:13:26] at the results, I'm assuming it had to have been. Yeah. So it's just, I think that there was already a high water table and then this was enough to push it over. So the big floods, I mean, it made the news, made the national news.

[00:13:40] I mean, there's pictures. He was doing some drone pictures in Western Maine of one of those mill towns there that had gotten like completely flooded. And there's other, I think- Plymouth. North Conway, Plymouth. There's been a bunch of towns around New Hampshire, Maine that got whacked. Yeah.

[00:14:00] Really bad. Plymouth was pretty striking. Really? Were you driving around? Well, there's the exit. I forget what it is. It's either 25 or 26 that connects to Plymouth State University. And it generally hits high water during these events, but it was at least a quarter mile long.

[00:14:21] It went from the highway all the way over to the bridge that crosses the Pemy into downtown Plymouth. I've never seen it that high and that wide. Yeah. That was pretty spectacular. Yeah. And I think there was a couple of things on social media that blew up.

[00:14:38] Number one is there was a video that Andrew Drummond took. So Andrew is a big back country skier guy. I've seen him around. I'll link his Instagram, but he had taken some video of what I'm assuming is like the Ellis River into Jackson, New Hampshire.

[00:14:54] And that was absolutely raging. So that went viral. I think that got picked up by national news all over the place. Right. Right. Yep. There was another video and photo of the covered bridge gift shop in Bartlett. Okay.

[00:15:10] I know that is maybe, yeah, it was like the water was basically hitting the bottom of the bridge. It survived, but it was another half a foot or something. It might've gotten taken out. And then I believe as of now that 302 and Crawford Notch is a washout.

[00:15:29] So you can't get from Bartlett up into Twin Mountains. So if you need to get from Twin Mountain to Bartlett, you got to go around to route two and then 16 to get that way. So you can't get up through 302. Wow. That's a disaster. Yeah. That's incredible.

[00:15:47] I didn't know about that one. Yeah. So that's shut down. I'm assuming that'll be shut down for a while. And then West Side Road and North Conway was shut down for a while. I'm assuming that may be back up, but I don't know.

[00:15:59] The covered bridge on East Side Road was closed, I think as well in North Conway because the soccer was really overflowing. And then Sunday River had a big washout, I think into their entrance. So- That's right. Yeah. One of the ski schools. Yes.

[00:16:17] It looked like a landslide, but that was the after effect of all the mud and dirt. Yeah. So it's all over the place. What about your area? I think you had that the dam that's close by to you was touch and go for a while. Yeah.

[00:16:31] There was some rumor that got out there that it had failed, and that was fake news for sure. That is a hell of a tough dam. And basically it did back up though, and it flooded Route 49 at the dam by about three or four feet.

[00:16:46] So Campton Fire came down and they... I didn't even know these existed, but they pull these steel columns up on the road and then pile strong wood between these steel pilings. And it extends the dam out 30, 40 feet on either side. So it was really neat to see that.

[00:17:07] Four years, four or five years ago, it had spilled onto the road, but this year the road was completely covered. So we got diverted away from the bridge up Route 175 north, and then we had to go the back roads to get to our place.

[00:17:23] Most of the effects here were just high water. I don't really know of any property damage necessarily at this point other than things like closing down the entire stretch of that exit down in Plymouth.

[00:17:36] But I'm sure we'll find out over the next few weeks the amount of damage. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I saw a video today and I'll link it in the show notes that... I probably shouldn't laugh about this, but there was a video taken of the Anderskogen

[00:17:49] River in Lewiston, Maine, and a casket was floating by. So this lady's taking some video and she just happens to see a casket float by. So they don't know if it was a casket that was on earth or if it was just one that was

[00:18:04] ready to be used or something. Wow. Wow. Interesting. And just yesterday I posted on the story, there's a fundraiser for the family over on the eastern side of the state. Corey Outdoors posted it there. It's a fundraiser because they pretty much just lost their home.

[00:18:24] You may have seen footage of that. The entire backyard disappeared. Yes. Yeah. It was unbelievable. So you can check that out and you have some donation links within that post if anybody's interested. All right.

[00:18:36] And get that up on the Facebook page as well just in case people want to donate and help them out. I'm sure there's some other families and that's the sad part about this is that there was

[00:18:45] definitely a fair number of families that have flooded out and they're in low lying areas and it's just not a great way to go in a winter and Christmas season. Yep. Mother nature, going nuts. Yeah.

[00:18:59] And Stomp, I think I'm always interested in how people obtain their news and information in these like quickly changing or fast moving news events. So I think we used to rely on just the big local news channels to get all of our news.

[00:19:12] But like now with all the social media channels, there's all kinds of options for us to get more real time news. I just want to give a shout out to a Facebook page that is absolutely fantastic and they break a lot.

[00:19:26] Oh, they post a lot of breaking news around the North Conway area and the Facebook page is called Nick News and it's got four exclamation points. So it's Nick News, exclamation, exclamation, exclamation, exclamation. So definitely worth checking out.

[00:19:42] But a lot of the photos and the footage that I got was just people posting on that site. Excellent. Yeah. Local news. Yes. Can't beat it. Yep. And then one other reminder for people, we posted this on some of our socials, but this

[00:19:58] is again a reminder, get used to or get comfortable reading your river flow information on the websites that you can go to. And basically I typically will look at the East Branch of the Pemme River and look at

[00:20:15] how much cubic feet per square inch is being run or per second. And you want to see that around 6 to 800. Once it starts getting above that, it starts getting pretty dangerous. I think it was up at like 16,000, the reading this week.

[00:20:31] So you got to keep an eye on that before you want to get out and do any river crossings. Yeah. Do you know what it is currently? I don't. Two or three days after the fact? Yeah. I can pull it up as you're talking. Yeah.

[00:20:43] I can tell you that the Pemme is still really high. The rate of motion of the water seems to be calming down a bit, but the Pemme is approaching normality. But I'm so glad that there were no issues as far as I'm aware on the hiking trails this

[00:21:01] weekend. People were, or this week, people were smart and avoided the obvious pitfalls on some of these trails with crossings and brooks and whatnot. Yeah. So it looks like it peaked out at 15,300 cubic feet per second and it is now down to 980. So it drops pretty quickly. Yeah.

[00:21:32] Okay. So it was sort of hanging around like 150 to 200 for going back to, I think, yeah, the last month or so. It's been really low. So hopefully it'll freeze up soon enough and everything will settle down. Right. Oh yeah.

[00:21:54] That's speaking of freezing up, there are clearly no snowmobile tours this weekend because the snow is history. Yeah. That's true. That's true. All right, Stomp. So, you know, again, hoping everybody is okay and those folks that have had their homes affected,

[00:22:12] you know, we're thinking of you and, you know, it sucks. Mother nature's rough. Yeah. Tough time of the year for that. Yep. Moving on to Iceland, speaking to mother nature. So we had talked about Iceland was sort of percolating around volcano activity. So this finally let loose.

[00:22:29] So there's been a big explosion in Grindavik, Iceland, which is in the Southern Peninsula, a little bit Southwest of Reykjavik. So there's a power plant close by and it's about, I don't know, three, four miles away

[00:22:46] from that popular place where people go swimming with the hot springs and stuff. So there's air pollution warnings and, you know, people are a little bit nervous. They did have to evacuate a town. So keep an eye on that. Some pretty cool photos going to be posted though.

[00:23:03] Absolutely. Yeah. The videos are pretty stunning. Yep. And as these things tend to happen immediately after the eruption, a hiker went out there to go check it out and needed a helicopter rescue. Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame.

[00:23:23] Thank God they had one available that could get near enough. It's a risky flight. Yeah. Rumor has it it was a Massachusetts resident, but we don't know. Now, have you hiked in this area, Mike, or were you closer to Reykjavik?

[00:23:41] I was looking, so I had hiked southeast of Reykjavik. There's another power. So I was interested because they said it was close to a power plant. I had hiked near the, I think it's called the Heidelij power plant.

[00:23:56] And they had these power plants in Iceland that are situated on top of these fissures or whatever. And they obtain their power through, I think, this volcanic activity or whatever. And my brother and father went on a tour of this power plant.

[00:24:16] And I ended up going on a hike behind the power plant. So I hiked back in that area, but I did not go into the power plant or anything. I mean, the area I think that it's erupting is mostly, if you go there, it is primarily

[00:24:36] like all old volcanic rock. So there's been years and years, thousands of years of volcanoes erupting in that area. So it's not even that green. It's mostly just volcanic black rock in that southwest section.

[00:24:50] Where I was near the other power plant was much greener, but there was a lot of geysers and things like that. And hot springs, they would have them roped off. Because if you put your hand in them, you'd burn your skin off because of the acid.

[00:25:06] So you did have to be careful, but there was nobody around to warn you. You would hear things fizzing up from the ground and you just have to avoid them. Gotcha. Beautiful area. Well, hopefully everybody's all right over there.

[00:25:19] I did hear something about, you had mentioned the air pollution, but Reykjavik was in that line of pollution with the gases coming in that direction. Yeah. I mean, if the wind is going northeast, then it's going to go right over Reykjavik. So yeah.

[00:25:35] Anyway, I don't really know what the normal jet stream is. I would assume it goes west to east like we do, but maybe it's different. I don't know. Yeah. Not sure. All right, Snop. We'll get you to Iceland eventually. We'll work that trip out.

[00:25:54] So moving on to Colorado now, we've got a story here about Colorado had released five gray wolves that were, I guess, captured in Oregon. And they released them in Colorado and it's controversial. So they had released four juveniles, two females, two males, and then an adult male.

[00:26:16] So three males, three females, and they've got GPS tracking on them. Apparently there's a little bit of a delay on the GPS, so it's like within 12 hour period, but they can't get real time tracking on them.

[00:26:30] This was the result of a vote that went through where, I guess it made it to the ballot to on whether or not they should release these wolves in the Colorado. And it passed primarily based on votes from people that live in cities and suburbs. I saw that.

[00:26:47] The ranchers and the rural people are like, no, we have to deal with this. You don't have to deal with it. Very interesting. Yep. It's funny you mentioned that. I didn't know you were aware of that, but I saw a map that showed the vote distribution

[00:27:02] and it was all the cities, all the more liberal cities and whatnot. Yeah. So this tension for sure because the people that are, the ranchers and the people living in the rural areas have to worry about their pets and their livestock and even their own safety over time.

[00:27:18] I guess apparently they're going to release like maybe five or six at a time over the course of the next five to 10 years. And they've done this successfully, I think in Wyoming or Idaho, there was an article in

[00:27:30] the National Geographic about how the packs had reestablished themselves and it was a pretty interesting article. So I'm assuming Colorado will experience the same thing and it's going to impact the elk hunting and anytime you put a top of the food chain type predator like wolves into the

[00:27:49] environment, it's definitely going to impact the environment in a way that probably can't be completely understood until it happens. Yeah. We need an update on the grizzly bear release too. Yeah. That's another one that's on the list. So we'll keep an eye on that.

[00:28:07] They might as well just release mountain lions in New England now. Why not? Yes. Oh my goodness. Did you see the footage, by the way, of the wolverine that was caught on film? No. I'll have to dig that up for the next episode.

[00:28:21] I don't have the exact facts, but apparently an elusive creature, the mountain wolverine was captured on film or recording and it's just running across an alpine slope and it's incredible footage. So I'll do some more digging for the next show on that one. Yeah.

[00:28:40] Every time I think about wolverines, I just think of Napoleon Dynamite where he's in the locker room and he's like, I was in Alaska hunting wolverines with my uncle. Legendary movie. Oh God. Such a great movie. It is. Anyway.

[00:28:56] So we got wolves, we got wolverines, hippos in the Merrimack, that's next. Hippos, yeah. We got these hippos in the Merrimack. That'd be good. That'd be good. Yes. All right, Stomp. So you've got here New Year's resolutions for the podcast or in general.

[00:29:12] So I haven't thought about this, so why don't you go? Yeah. Well, I had a New Year's resolution for the podcast and it's essentially to get you set up for guests so we can divvy up the guest burden. And yeah, so that's the big thing.

[00:29:27] We'll get you set up with the gear and maybe even for the first of the year, you know, we'll get that rolling. I don't want people coming to my house. After today's segment there, you should invite more family members. That was a really good time as we'll see.

[00:29:44] Take your shoes off when you enter. Yeah. Do you make people take their shoes off or do they keep their shoes on when they come to your house? No, no, no. It doesn't matter. A little vacuuming takes care of any of that nonsense. All right.

[00:29:57] Mrs. Michael's side eye, I'm sure living with it, I guess. That's funny. Those are personal resolutions. I really don't have any at the moment. Yeah, it's a little too early. I know I threw this at you, but.

[00:30:11] I think I'm trying to remember the last couple of resolutions I've had. So one was, um, um, I was always going to put my clothes in the laundry, like not inside out. You know, because my wife, she'd be always mad at me.

[00:30:26] And then, um, yeah, it was laundry related. We'll have to go back and find out. Yeah. I think the other one I did, and I probably talked about this on the show, but like that. So I live with all women, right? I mean, you kind of know.

[00:30:39] So I just, I resolved like I was no longer going to pee standing up. Right? That's true. Well, that's not an issue for me. I've got a hip replacement, so I actually prefer sitting down nowadays. Yeah, yeah. Me too, actually. I'm used to it now, but.

[00:30:56] Too much information. Too much information. But yeah, like, cause I, they would always complain about like the seat up, the seat down, whatever. So I just was like, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna do with the same way that you all do it. Oh man, that's really funny.

[00:31:12] But yeah, but that's it. I think I'm just going to keep running. That's my new year's resolution. Oh yeah, me too. I've been hitting the hills, man. I'll tell you about it. Okay. Yeah. Hey, what's that sound?

[00:31:35] It must be time for the pop culture segment with Mike and Stomp. All right, so pop culture talk, Stomp. What do you got? Well, this was just the 20th anniversary of the Return of the King release. It was released on December 17th, 2003. Can you imagine 20 years ago?

[00:32:07] It was just such an epic trilogy and that movie in particular was just mind blowing at one. It swept the Oscars that year, if you remember. So just a little reminder there. I watched it that night when it was released and it was just like, whew, so great.

[00:32:23] So good. Yeah, I think those were the last movies that I actually went to opening night and like, well, I think I did that with The Hobbit too, but all three of those movies I went opening night and waited in line and did that whole thing.

[00:32:37] I don't think I've done that since for a movie. It reminds me, I actually saw Return of the King the night before, so Thursday night at midnight and I got home at 4.35 in the morning when the sun was coming up, totally exhausted. I'll never forget it.

[00:32:53] I'm so glad I did that though because I was just such a lunatic about that series. Great memories. Yeah. I remember like clapping and yeah, it was a whole thing. Oh hell yeah. It was mind blowing. So good. So good. So 20 years ago.

[00:33:09] 20 years, that just means we're getting old, Stomp. Yeah, yeah, sure is. But that one still stands the test of time. It looks like they made it just now. Yes. A couple other little things here. This just dropped today.

[00:33:21] This is our preview for Scorsese's Maestro and it was, oh actually Scorsese's part of it, but Mrs. Stomp is telling me that Bradley Cooper is involved in the production side of it and directing and Bradley Cooper is Leonard Bernstein who is just a legendary conductor.

[00:33:38] So that looks phenomenal. It looks like it may be an early win for the Oscars. A shoe in. So keep your eyes on that one. I'm going to watch it this weekend and see what it's like.

[00:33:49] Yeah, I would assume that Bradley Cooper is, oh did he win an Oscar for that one with Lady Gaga or he's probably in line to get an Oscar I would think at some point. Pretty sure he's been nominated but has not won. Yeah. Okay.

[00:34:07] And then finally, this movie The Creator. It was amazing. That is a rent right now. It's still in theaters but it was one of those big IMAX releases. It's pretty amazing. Industrial Light Magic by Lucasfilm did the effects and it's just this hodgepodge of every

[00:34:25] movie you can think of from Blade Runner to Avatar, Star Wars, you name it. Amazing. This director went out with a camera crew and just filmed for several months, just walking around filming Southeast Asia. So they did it in reverse.

[00:34:40] They had the footage and then they just basically built it backwards, added the effects and you have this incredibly beautiful movie. It's groundbreaking in my opinion. It's great. So you've been going to the movie theaters to see these movies? No, no. You have to get those.

[00:35:00] They're released in the theater and available online as well. This one just came online but it's still out in the theaters. Just this weird transition. So that one's available for, I don't know, several dollars to rent. Okay. Yeah.

[00:35:15] I did see, matter of fact, while we were talking about this, have you seen the Barbie movie yet? Nah, I can't do it. Mrs. Stomp's art. Come on, Stomp. She gave it a thumbs down herself. So I'm like, all right, I'm definitely not going to see it. Yeah.

[00:35:30] I liked it. You liked it? What did you like about it? I don't know. It was like, you know, very, you know, Ken was funny. I thought that was hilarious. And then, you know, there was some messages there. I don't really like whatever the messages were.

[00:35:43] They went over my head or under my head. I don't really know. But it was just, it was nice. You know what I liked about it the most is the girls were all excited. We were all able to sit down as a family and watch a movie.

[00:35:54] And I thought it was cool. And the scene where Ken like sings the song was just, was funny. But yeah, there was like a greater message around like trying to have it all.

[00:36:06] And the fact that you don't need to have it all, you can pick your own path. And it doesn't mean that you have to have it all, I think was kind of the message.

[00:36:16] But I think it's a bit of a Rorschach test around like, you know, it is what you think. It's whatever people think it was. Whatever people want it to be is what they come out of it. But I thought it was a good movie.

[00:36:30] I thought it made you think a little bit. So let me get this straight. So she goes into the modern day society, right? Is that what happens? Yeah. So she's living in Barbie world where like they're all boss babes and they're in charge of everything.

[00:36:42] And then the Kens are subservient. And then she goes into like the real world and realizes that the dynamic is sort of flipped and that men are more in a position of power than women.

[00:36:54] And yeah, and then I think she comes back and comes to find out that the Kens have all realized this as well because Ken went with her and he sort of tries to recreate what's in the real world.

[00:37:08] And ultimately the truth I think is somewhere in the middle. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. Well, it's a popular movie. What's the lead actress's name again? I forget her name. Yeah, she's pretty popular. Yeah, she looks like Barbie. Yeah, she does. Yeah. Yes. But anyway.

[00:37:28] But I'd check it out, Stomp. Open your mind a little bit. Yeah, I'll do my best. I'll do my best. I wonder if Ken has sweat problems. I don't know. He probably does. He looked kind of like he was glistening quite a bit throughout that film.

[00:37:40] Well, sweat can be extremely uncomfortable on the trails. Plus the sweat is a serious risk factor. As your clothes get wet, your core temperature can dramatically fluctuate. This can result in hypothermia, heat exhaustion and dehydration. We've got good news at Slasher Few.

[00:37:56] There's a piece of gear that solves the sweat problem. Valkluse's Ultralight Ventilation Backpack Frame. The frame is a backpack accessory that easily installs in your favorite pack size 15 liters to 65 liters and creates a ventilating airflow gap between you and your pack.

[00:38:13] It's also ultralight, weighing less than a pair of socks at just over three ounces. So whether you're hiking in hot or cold temps, the Ultralight Ventilation Backpack Frame is a real game changer when it comes to airflow and ventilation.

[00:38:24] So visit them at valklusegear.com to order your Ultralight Ventilation Frame today. Use promo code SLASHER to enjoy a $5 discount. Just let them know that Mike and Stomp sent you. Great stuff. I'm sure there are plenty of Valkluses wrapped up in packages right now going to different locations.

[00:38:46] Under the tree. Yes, under the tree. A couple reminders here. You can get your stickers, the Slasher stickers at Ski Fanatics off of Exit 28 in Campton or down at Spinner's Pizza Parlor off Dascom Road in Massachusetts in Andover.

[00:39:04] We also have advertising opportunities if anybody wants to plug their whatever it may be. And I just wanted to just do a quick shout out to EMS and Reckless Brewing. They're great supporters of the podcast and we thank you all for the support of the hiking

[00:39:24] community over the last few years and support of the podcast. So thank you very much. Merry Christmas to all. Donations. We have several. People have been so generous the last week and a half or so, Mike. It's really amazing. So S&A donated five coffees.

[00:39:45] Irene Scharf at SNESL donated five. Paul Noel of New Hampshire Wild donated four coffees. Judy C donated five coffees wishing us a Merry Christmas. Emily, whose IG handle is MLY Murphy, also donated five coffees. And we also have Mary B donating five.

[00:40:14] And then finally, Kevin, who donated five coffees. And Kevin makes note of the Pam Hollingsworth Search show that we did and he wrote that the ending blew him away and it was just a really standout episode for him. Wow, that's great.

[00:40:33] Yeah, that was a good episode, by the way. Yeah, yeah. That was a great story too. Interesting story. So thank you for all the donations. And then I just want to put in a little plug for anybody that wants to throw us like a

[00:40:49] five star review on Apple Podcast or wants to write only positive reviews. Don't write anything negative. We're too sensitive for that. But if you want to write a positive review and give us five stars on Apple Podcast, that would be great. We're empaths. We can't handle the negativity.

[00:41:09] Correct, correct. So don't give us any feedback. Just tell us we're great and give us the five star and that's it. Right. Don't make us drink more beer than we do already. Oh, speaking of beer. Yeah, what are you drinking, Stomp? Tonight I have this thing.

[00:41:28] It's a fluffy. Let's see what it is here. So it says fluffy, hazy IPA by the Night Shift Brewing, which is a company out of Massachusetts, I believe Everett. Right. Didn't I talk about them recently? About the AI beer? I think so. Yeah, yeah.

[00:41:47] They're all over the place. So if you go into any liquor store or beer store around at least my neck of the woods they're always on the shelves. Yeah, well, it's really good. This is a tasty beer. Enjoyable. What are you drinking? Tasty beer. Tasty beer.

[00:42:05] Yeah, well, I'm drinking an IPA. I'm drinking a Zero Gravity, which I think, isn't it Zero Gravity out of Burlington, Vermont? Is that that crew? I'm not familiar with them. Yeah, I think it is. I think it is. It's a Provisions India Peel Ale and it is 6.8% alcohol.

[00:42:23] All my treehouse brewing beer is gone. Okay, you really like that stuff, huh? Yeah, I do. I do. I think it's because it's the hip cool thing to do, Stomp. And I go out to Charlton.

[00:42:35] I know you had reminded me that I don't have to go that far. I don't have to go to Worcester, but I know they have a place in Tewksbury now, but I like to go out and visit the kiddo and get out there and go to treehouse.

[00:42:48] Yeah, well, that was actually a listener that sent that tip. Well, it's a good call. Yeah, totally. Looking out there, just looking out for you, Mike. I appreciate it and thanks, listener. I got to get over to the Tewksbury location for sure, but just haven't got there yet.

[00:43:07] I've been trying to take your approach to the beer thing, like when we first started just trying to get themes or thematic material or just something like that. So I've been branching away from my Burlington Beer Company and reckless stuff and trying random stuff.

[00:43:24] Look at you embracing new stuff. I'm proud of you. Right, but Barbie is like the end of the line. No, I can't do it. I'm going to, you need to watch Barbie. All right, that'll be my New Year's resolution. I'll give you a full report. That's true.

[00:43:42] That's true. Okay. All right, Stomp. Let's talk about where we've hiked recently. Yeah, that's a no-go for me. Have you gone anywhere? That's a no-go for me. I had to work last weekend and the remaining time I had, I've been spending time sort of

[00:43:57] collaborating with a listener and Nick hikes and plays guitar. That's his handle and we're just goofing around with some tunes and trading files back and forth and yeah, it's been fun. Awesome. Yeah. You should start like a hiking podcast themed EDM mix.

[00:44:18] I thought you were going to say just a hiking podcast. I think we're all set on the hiking podcast, bro. No, no, no, no. Sorry, because he is- In fact, he's in it.

[00:44:30] So I think I got to message him, but I think he's joining us for a hike after the new year. So if you grab onto that, you can join us too. Cool. Sounds good. Yeah, he has a great voice. Yeah.

[00:44:43] It's one of those, I can tell you what song it is. It's Hard Sun from the Into the Wild movie by Eddie Vedder. Oh yeah. Yeah. So we're doing a cover of that and it's been fun.

[00:44:54] We're trying to reverse engineer it ourselves with the vocals first and then build the music behind it and some old bandmates are contributing a little bit. So that's fun. It's just, you know, it's a good thing to mess around with.

[00:45:07] And you're able to do this all remotely and then put it together, pull it together? Yeah. That's interesting. So, oh, this is, it's great you asked that because I forgot about this point. You might find this interesting.

[00:45:18] So he sent me a vocal track and he literally put his headphones on, pressed play on his Spotify and sang along to the song as it was playing in his headphones. So it left it up to me to figure what tempo it was.

[00:45:32] And I did some research and, you know, different sites were saying 143 beats per minute, 150 beats per minute. It's some ballpark figure. I sort of got it close to 142, 143. Sure thing. I look, I found this one website, it said 142 and it had a picture of the actor on top

[00:45:54] of the bus with the 142 on the bus. Isn't that interesting? So I think, I'm guessing, but I'm assuming that Vedder may have said, Hey, let's just nail the tempo to the number on the bus, 142, because that is the right on the money tempo. Pretty neat. It's like, wow.

[00:46:17] It's Stomp's getting audio engineering nerd excited. Oh yeah. It's like, that's so clever if that's truly the case. Yeah, that is. Yeah. All right. Well, good luck. We want to hear the release. So we're looking forward to that.

[00:46:33] And then Stomp, this is the part of the show where we talk about notable hike or notable listener hikes of the week. Well, hold on a minute. What about your hike? You want to talk about your- Oh, that's right. I forgot about my hike.

[00:46:43] Yeah, let's hear about it because this is the location that I almost died on with you, right? In that area? Or what? Well, Mount Parker. So we did, so we did the, this is the Southern end of the Montalbán range. So this is, we did a traverse.

[00:47:02] So I was able to meet, I went with Jake and Peter and then Camilla and Lance joined up and then Steve from the Cape joined us as well. So we had a good crew. So we met at Davis Path.

[00:47:14] Originally we were thinking maybe we'll come out Resolution Stairs Crawford, but we bailed on that. And then we stashed two cars on River Road in Bartlett. So that's where me and you parked when we hiked Mount Parker.

[00:47:28] Remember we got like kind of plowed in because it was a snowstorm? So we dropped two cars there. Then we drove to Covered Bridge Road, which is the Covered Bridge gift shop past Attitas. We had to drive back.

[00:47:43] So then the neighborhood back there is where the trailhead is. So we started off in the Mount Stanton trailhead, which is like a, you know, I don't know, it's maybe not even 2000 feet of elevation.

[00:47:55] And then it's these like outlooks so that you can look right across and see Attitas. And it's got a couple of different cliffs as you go across the ridge. And then eventually you get to Mount Langdon.

[00:48:11] And I think I've read a couple of things around this, but there's a belief that Darby Field had, he had entered the mountains from this range. When he had done his famous hike on Mount Washington is that he followed this Montauban

[00:48:27] range and then came in likely from, you know, somehow he ended up on the backside of, he might've gone up like Jackson-Webster eventually. And then ended up in Lakes of the Cloud or whatever.

[00:48:43] But the reason I thought it was interesting is because when you get onto Mount Langdon, you can then, you enter this opening where you can actually see the entirety of the Mount Washington Valley from the south.

[00:48:57] And you can see like all the way up into Jackson-Webster cliffs, you can see isolation and then Monroe and Mount Washington. And it's a clear view. So he could have easily like just hit that spot and then he would have been able to map

[00:49:13] out exactly the route that he wanted to follow from there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It makes sense. That's definitely the key of how they pulled it all together back then. Yeah, yeah. So then you, you know, Mount Langdon and then you go over these, another peak called the

[00:49:27] Krippies and then you drop down into a coal and then reconnect with the Mount Parker Trail. So it's the top end of the Mount Parker Trail. And then you're right, that is a, that's a grind.

[00:49:39] So it's, I think, I want to say it's something along the lines of like 12 or 1300 feet of elevation gain from that trail junction when you get to it. And it's sort of like three steps.

[00:49:52] So you go up steep, flatten out, up steep again, and then they do that last 150 foot climb is a beast. Gotcha. Wow. Yeah. Cool. And then the summit of Parker, we didn't get a view.

[00:50:06] So I never got a view on that one, but this weekend was an amazing view. You could see everything like Bluebird Day. Gotcha. And then the next climb, what were you wearing for traction? Just beer boots. Oh, okay.

[00:50:20] I had my winter backpack, but I honestly could have gone lighter. I did, I was glad I had my boots because down in the coal, the coal, so it was like four up and downs.

[00:50:32] And when you got into those coals, like the snow was like, you know, a couple of inches slushy. And then we did put micro spikes on, I beer booted up Mount Parker, but coming down, when I got to the summit, I put my spikes on.

[00:50:48] We all put our spikes on and then wore it going down to about, you know, once we got to the lower section, we took them off, but your spikes were needed on the coming down. Gotcha. Cool. Yeah. New area.

[00:51:04] I got some red lining in and I'd never been in that area, but I definitely, you know, a lot of crowds, cool views, challenging up and downs, highly recommended. Obviously you need a car spot. The trailhead at Mount Stanton is difficult.

[00:51:20] There's only like one or two parking spots there. So if you can get dropped off, it's easier. How many miles altogether from start to car spot? How many miles roughly? It ended up being about 11 miles, I think. Yeah, that's a good day. Or 10 miles. 10 miles.

[00:51:36] And then we were thinking about going out to Crawford and Resolution and stairs, but that would have been like a 15, 16 mile day and none of us were down for that. Yeah. So next time. Excellent. Yeah. I'll get out. Put that on your list. Yeah.

[00:51:52] I'm hoping to get out this weekend. We'll see. With Christmas and all, it's a little tricky, but Saturday is the time. But anyway, on to the notable listener hike of the week.

[00:52:02] So if you want to tag Slasher on your adventure to be considered for hike of the week, go for it. Do so. We try to limit the posts for the sake of time during the show.

[00:52:12] We try to do 10 or so, but I think we can sneak all these in today. Ginger Beard Keene hit Mount Washington for Eric Todd Sweet's 150th ascent of the mountain. That's very cool. Dave shits in the wood. Woods in the wood. This is a great list.

[00:52:32] This is not all one day. So multiple attempts here. So Mount Tug, Cataloochee Mountain North, Mauglis, Mount Silly, Silly's Cave, Cataloochee Mountain, Ayers Pond, Avery's Ledge, Kittredge Hill, Lucius, Lookout South Peak, Goves, Goves Mountain and Bryant Mountain. So Dave's out there killing it.

[00:52:55] I would advise people to find his handle, which is basically Dave shits in the woods on Instagram because he does these really great expanded versions of what he does and explains a lot of the bushwhacking and things, which we can't cover here. It would take forever.

[00:53:13] But it's a lot of good information for anybody out there looking to do some of these bushwhacks and hikes in the region. Yeah, yeah. I love that he's doing these lesser known peaks.

[00:53:24] I do watch him and follow him and get some ideas on things that I could do in the future. Matter of fact, Stomp, you'd be proud. On the hike that we did on Mount Langdon, the trail does not go to the summit.

[00:53:36] It's like maybe 50 feet away from the true summit. And I stopped everyone and I was like, Stomp would insist that I go to the summit to make sure that I check to see if there's a canister there. And sure enough, I found myself a little herd path.

[00:53:52] And I said, there's a herd path there for there's going to be something there. So we got there. There was not a canister, but there was a little glass jar. Have you ever seen that set up? There was a glass jar with a band around the tree.

[00:54:05] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. So those lesser frequented peaks, sometimes we'll have the glass jars and they work. They work fine. Yeah, it worked. It was pretty tall. Like it was like over my head. And luckily Peter's a tall guy.

[00:54:20] So I was able to have him put it back. So I was like standing on my tippy toes reaching up to get it. Register discrimination. This is this is horrible, Mike. Yeah, I was like, no love for the short kings. Shame. Shame. Shame.

[00:54:35] Oh boy, we're going to have to re-reinvent all the registers. I wrote all our names and I put Slasher Podcast Crew. That's wicked cool. Finding registers really is a cool thing. It's very neat. Yes. Yeah. I mean, one person wrote like a whole book.

[00:54:57] They were like, oh, my day was so good. And like I saw a grouse and the whole thing. And it was all I was like reading it as it's kind of cool. When was the last date prior to yours?

[00:55:08] It was a little weird because it was only like random pieces of paper. So the little three ring binder thing like fell apart. So it was just like random pieces of paper.

[00:55:24] I mean, what I did is I just looked through to find a blank piece of paper, write mine on and I put the date. So the top page was like July, but I'm sure that there was later writings. I just didn't pick through them. Yeah.

[00:55:39] It's pretty neat when you hit a register and there's maybe like one other registration of a crew that hit it and then yours is the one before it and after it. Some of these places are just so hard to get to that nobody gets there too often.

[00:55:57] It's neat. Yeah. And if listeners don't know what we're talking about, essentially these mostly they're like the hundred highest or the 500 highest where there's no trails to some of these summits.

[00:56:09] What you'll find is like a PVC canister or a glass jar and they'll be like tied to the tree. The glass jar just had like a rope that was tied around the tree loosely to a jar and

[00:56:27] then you unscrew the jar and then there's a piece of paper in there with a pencil and you can write your information on there and say, I was here on this date. The bigger PVC canisters is more common, Stomp, right? I don't know if they're more common.

[00:56:42] That's a hard thing to guess. I'm not sure. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not really sure. I mean, they have bigger notebooks in them. Oh yeah. They're sturdy. They're more weather resistant. The glass jars don't tend to impede the weather from getting in. But yeah. Yeah.

[00:57:02] I mean, when you get into these really obscure bushwhacks, you can find all kinds of weird stuff. Yeah. I'd say it's a mix at this point, really. All right. Well, we went off on a tangent here on Dave Schitt's and the Woods adventures. No kidding, right?

[00:57:16] Eisa did Satchin Peak with Eric Todd Sweet. And we've talked about this before. This is like a 360 panorama cliff that is on the Acteon Ridge just southwest of Jennings Peak and just beyond Acteon. So they hit that. It's one of my favorite spots.

[00:57:37] It's my goal for that one is to camp on it some night because it really is a stunning view. Our favorite Littlefoot did Mount Washington for $200 out of the New Hampshire 48 grid. So Littlefoot is out there crushing peaks as usual. EC Banks. Yeah, Kim is moving.

[00:57:57] We got to get her and Kim and Mark on the show. Yeah. I don't know why we haven't already. We're going to do that. We'll figure that out. That's homework right there. So EC Banks, he's been a guest before. Hikes New Hampshire.

[00:58:12] The grid Eisenhower for $324 out of $576 for the grid. And that would be $24 out of $48 for December. Amazing. Gingerbeard Keene comes back again. I don't even know what that says. N-O-K-L-A. I don't know what that is. T25 finish on Kings Ravine and Shemin Desdames. Oh my God. I'm sorry.

[00:58:43] The listener who taught me how to say it, I've completely forgotten. Shemin Desdame. Shemin Desdame. Shemin Desdame. You have to put your index finger and your first finger against your thumb when you say it and shake your hand violently. So yeah, so that's pretty cool.

[00:59:03] A T25 finish in these conditions. That's wild. And I guess the other name is N-O-K-N-A-N-B-K. I may have misspelled that and I apologize. And then finally Nick Hikeson plays guitar and TFW 16, 16, 17 of the Fall 48. Oh Tom Field Willie. Duh. Oh my God. My shorthand's killing me tonight.

[00:59:29] So yeah, Tom Field Willie for 16, 16 and 17 of the Fall 48. Oh man, what's my problem? So just for the listener's soul, we have the script that we work off of and it's the font that we use.

[00:59:47] So our style guide is Arial font at size nine and we write out our acronyms and we make sure that if there's a little red squiggly line and the spelling's incorrect, we either do ignore or we fix the spelling error. Stomp is chaos. He's like, you know, complete.

[01:00:08] Arial 11.5. There's all these misspelling lines and shorthand. It's chaos. It's all underlined in red. It's like acronyms. Like how am I supposed to know what all this is? So I'm guessing that one should say 15, 16, 17. It says 16, 16 and 17. Oh, hopeless. That's my resolution right there. Tighten up my notes.

[01:00:36] As I've said before though, it's like I'm typing these on my phone and my fingers are just, they're just too damn big for this stupid little keyboard. So I type, make typos constantly. Is that what's going on? You see you're updating the script on your phone?

[01:00:50] On my phone. Yeah, because you know what's frustrating about Instagram? When these tags come in and they just disappear, the more tags that come in and posts and comments, it's impossible to find them.

[01:01:04] So when I see them, I try to grab them because I know I'll miss them or never see them again. So yeah, it's always on the fly. That explains it. You can't do anything of note on my phone. I have like a whole, I'm a laptop guy.

[01:01:20] Yeah, it's a nightmare. Thanks for the tags and keep on crushing peaks. Excellent. All right, Stomp. So I think we're going into, yeah, so we're going to move into our segment of the week here. So I did an interview with family members.

[01:01:37] So Uncle Fran, so Fran is Mrs. Mike's uncle. So therefore he's my uncle. And we'll talk about this during the episode. And then Jessica is Mrs. Mike's cousin. So I've known Jessica since she was young. I don't even know how old she was, maybe 10 or 11.

[01:01:56] So she was always the youngest cousin to me. And we'll talk about it during the segment. But I've been meaning to do a segment with them for a while. And the background on this is, so we're going to interview them about a trip that they took

[01:02:09] on Franconia Ridge. And we are, you know, the impetus for this is that I hiked with Jessica's husband, Beau. I did a Pammy loop with him last year. And he had reminded me of this story of Fran and Jessica.

[01:02:29] They had gone on this hike, just the two of them. And they were kind of unprepared for the conditions and physically not super prepared for it. So I wanted to sort of bring this story to contrast the thought plan of like, you know,

[01:02:46] we typically deal with experienced hikers or hikers that are engaged in doing a lot of research. And we don't think about like the people that are truly just going out there once a year to do a hike.

[01:02:57] And they, you know, they, it's, they don't really think through where they don't even know where to start. So I had started thinking about this, like it hit me, I think Stomp when you and Alvaro and I did that Pammy loop.

[01:03:07] And then I cut off, went down falling waters years ago. I remember seeing like all these unprepared hikers. And that's when it struck me. I was like, there's a whole population of people out there that like really, they don't even know like basic research.

[01:03:21] They're just, they're just getting, you know, they're traveling up to New Hampshire, getting a, like a guidebook or just somebody tells them like, oh, you should check out this hike and they don't do any research whatsoever.

[01:03:33] So this is a story about Fran and Joelle, Fran and Jessica getting into trouble on Franconia Ridge. And it's kind of a funny story. So I thought we'd use this as our final end of the year segment. Excellent. Yeah. Let's check it out.

[01:03:51] It's time for Slashers guest of the week. Very cool. Very cool. So we are recording here live. So Fran, are you excited for your first podcast? Following up my first Uber trip the other day. So this has been a week of firsts. Oh wow. I'm getting so modern.

[01:04:39] You're really getting, you're really getting to... That is good. That is good. All right. So I'll get to you in a second, Fran. And I'm going to just do a quick intro here. So I have Fran and Jessica here. So these are family members.

[01:04:58] So Jessica is the first cousin for Mrs. Mike and Fran is Mrs. Mike's uncle. So they've had to put up with me for years, I've been part of the family. But I wanted to get both of you on here.

[01:05:09] So there's been a recent trend going on, Jessica, on social media where these young ladies have been putting up like these collages of videos where they've sort of put a sad picture of themselves and they said, I wanted my boyfriend to take me whatever shopping or something

[01:05:27] like that, but he wouldn't. And then they take a picture and they say, but my dad would. I was thinking about that trend because this is a story that we're going to tell here tonight about a dad stepping in and basically doing what his daughter asked to do.

[01:05:45] But it turned into being a little bit of a dangerous situation here. But anyway, I wanted to sort of just have you both on here because a lot of times we'll have guests on that talk about their hiking adventures.

[01:06:02] And we always talk about safety and we talk about like search and rescue news and events that we don't often have anybody that's been like in a search and rescue situation. And I wanted to talk about it.

[01:06:16] But I mean, you guys have told me this story about a hike that you did on Franconia Ridge previously, probably about going back 10, 12 years. And I thought it would be good to share with the audience the perspective of people that

[01:06:28] aren't plugged into the hiking community, sort of don't have a lot of background and experience and just said like, I got this dumb idea. I'm going to go hike Franconia Ridge and see and have myself an adventure.

[01:06:40] So I figured Jess, you've told me the story over the campfire up in Maine before. So I thought it would be fun to have both of you to talk about. Yeah. Well, growing up, my dad always ran away for his birthdays and would take the solo trip

[01:06:54] by himself. And I wanted to start that tradition of going on birthday adventures. So that's why this trip was my idea. I'm sorry to say. All right. Well, we'll get into the details. But I think let's start with Fran.

[01:07:15] So Fran, this is the first time you've been on a podcast, but you have a broadcasting background. So I want to get into that in a little bit before we get into your background and broadcasting. Can you talk a little bit sort of about your background?

[01:07:28] Where did you grow up? What is your educational background? What do you do for work? Okay. I'll start with my growing up. I was born on a mountaintop in Tennessee. Come on. It's like the wilderness. It was the wilderness. It was called Revere, Massachusetts. Oh boy.

[01:07:45] There were lots of wild creatures there. And yeah, it was, yeah, it was really wild. of Boston, so it was really Boston and the houses were two inches away from each other, I was hiking and there's this adventurous part of me. I was a studious kind of kid,

[01:08:20] but I always wanted to be adventurous. My first girlfriend in the first grade when I was six years old lived on top of this hill in Revere. And we used to go on hikes on this hill with my Uncle Jimmy. You remember Uncle Jimmy? Yeah, I know him.

[01:08:40] Yeah, you know him very well. He used to take all the kids in the neighborhood on, he called them hikes. So this is where we had our proposal. This was a hiking show. And we would go up to Ridge Road

[01:08:51] on the top of, I don't know what mountain that was, but Reservoir. There's no mountains in Revere for you. It's a reservoir. It was, to us, it was the wilderness. It was the wilderness. And yeah, so I used to go up there by myself

[01:09:07] because I had cousins who didn't want to leave the block that we lived on. So I- All right, so even though you're locked in Revere and there's not a lot of outdoor opportunities, you did what you could do. I wanted to be adventurous.

[01:09:21] So yeah, so I went to school and then I, what else did I do? I eventually went on, like I do adventurous things, I'm telling you. So I've jumped out of an airplane, for example. Okay. That was a little bit of adventure. I bungee jumped.

[01:09:36] That was an adventure. And I went on a boat when I was around 22, maybe. I joined a school that was operating out of New York and they rented a Norwegian three-masted sailing ship. And we sailed, we flew to Norway and then we sailed around the Atlantic Ocean,

[01:10:01] crossed the ocean to South America. And this was like, you know, eight, 10 month trip. And then we had to climb the rigging and all that. And I loved it. I liked doing those kinds of adventurous things. So you were doing some adventures before.

[01:10:18] So where did you, when you left Revere, so what is your educational background? What did you do for work? Oh, I went to Boston College and then I went to, after that, I went to Temple University in Philadelphia and got a PhD in clinical psychology.

[01:10:38] I still practice a little bit. I talk to people. I'm still a clinical psychologist, yeah. What do you specialize in? I specialize in talking. Yes, well I know that. That's it. Yeah, that's about it. Yeah, and yeah, so I did specializing.

[01:10:59] I used to see a lot of kids. I don't see any kids anymore. Okay. Kids like that. So I have a question for you. So probably I think around 2014, 2015 was the initial generation of young people hit like high school, college age

[01:11:18] that had grown up with phones in their hands. I think as what we saw, you know, there's a lot of trends and studies that have been done that along with the being raised by phones, the level of anxiety and mental health issues with young people, especially young women

[01:11:33] had increased pretty significantly over the last probably 10 years or so. One of the things that we've always talked about on this show is the benefits of just being outside and hiking and getting in touch with nature, dropping off, getting rid of the devices and all that stuff.

[01:11:48] Can you talk a little bit about like your perspective on that? Yeah, I mean, I know pretty much I think what you're talking about. And I do think that the antidote, the antidote for all this craziness that we call modernity

[01:12:04] and all of the mental health issues surrounding that, the real antidote is nature. You go outdoors, get into nature. It's the beginning. I mean, we were built as humans, we were built to be in nature, to live in trees and caves and gallivant around.

[01:12:23] And we do a great disservice to ourselves and by not taking advantage of our opportunities to go back to nature, to go hiking, to go swimming, to be out there with nature. It's that connection, our souls with nature is the beginning of the life of intellect,

[01:12:46] the life of spirituality, the life of just being alive. We absolutely need to do that. And every year it seems we get further and further distant from that. And certainly the cell phone isn't, well, maybe it's helped. I mean, I don't know how many search and rescues

[01:13:06] have been initiated by cell phones. I don't know. Because the cell service isn't that great out in the wilderness, but. Yeah, well, it certainly is now the coverage has gotten a lot better up in the White Mountains. So we do see those initiated from cell phones.

[01:13:23] But yeah, you're right. I think that it is important to get outside. I just was curious about your perspective. Now, more important question, Fran, is do you, and this is for the audiences because they're probably curious. Do you have any recollection of when I started coming around

[01:13:38] and your thoughts when you initially met me? Did you think I was gonna make it? Did you think I was just gonna be sort of a short-term guy and you'd never see me again? I was checking you out to make sure you weren't a communist spy.

[01:13:48] Oh, yeah, that's true, true. And trying to steal my niece. But no, you were shy, but you were obviously a nice guy. And we've grown to love and appreciate you all the better after all these years, yeah. See that? That's a good endorsement there.

[01:14:12] And he can see through all the psychological nonsense. He knows I'm genuine. I don't fall for all that. Right, all right. So, Fran, one other thing that before we get into, Jess, I'll let you introduce yourself in a minute,

[01:14:23] but one other thing I have is for the audience. Uncle Fran does this thing that I feel like every family should have this. And if you don't have this and you're listening, you should be the person that does this. Fran is the guy in the family

[01:14:38] that sends the Christmas letter. And if you're not familiar with what the Christmas letter is, your family's not cool because you need to have one person that does the Christmas letter. So, Fran will send an annual letter that is basically a recap of the year.

[01:14:53] And what he does is he blends in sort of topical current event, his reaction to some current events. He gets into the politics. He gets in a little bit of entertainment. And then he'll get into sort of all the travels

[01:15:06] and adventures that the family has done over the years. And he'll mention like, okay, if I got a chance to visit with this family member or that family member. Can you talk a little bit about Fran? Well, when did you start that?

[01:15:18] What got you to become the guy in the family that does the Christmas letter? Well, probably Jessica got me started because it was like this was a chance to memorialize what we did as a family and chronicled her growing up and everything. And it's fun.

[01:15:43] Well, sometimes I get in trouble. I say something that people say, ah, you know, you're a jerk. They'll never read his letter again. It's, I'll never read your letter again. But I've learned to tone it down over the years and I do enjoy it tremendously. It's great fun.

[01:16:05] Yeah, no, we look forward to when it comes to mail. Like, oh my God, it's the Christmas letter. Everybody reads it and we have a good time. So little advice if your family doesn't have that tradition, it's a great, great tradition. And we appreciate Fran

[01:16:17] that you've been doing that for so many years. Now, Jessica, why don't you introduce yourself? You're the daughter. So I would always get in trouble with my dad who was always an adventure seeker. We'd go to Europe and my dad would always take pictures

[01:16:35] of me and say, get a little closer to the edge. And we'd be on a mountain and then my mom would look at the pictures and she'd squeal, oh my God, my baby. And so I love that kind of stuff.

[01:16:48] So he was always like the cool adventure buddy. And yeah, so most of my great adventures have been with my old dad. But I, yeah, I grew up in- Great, and then it, yeah. And you guys are based in Long Island and you may eventually make your way

[01:17:10] up to the Boston area, right Jess? Yeah, I went to Northeastern University and I love Boston. But I didn't really get to do much exploring the mountains around when I was in college. I was too busy, but yeah, explored them later after graduating.

[01:17:33] And do you have any recollection the first time you met me? I was a baby, yeah. So I didn't know. Are you like a little kid? I feel like. Yeah. Yeah. So I've always kind of been around from your perspective.

[01:17:44] I was in your wedding, which was a huge honor. And I loved that. So you got a lot of points, but you definitely have gotten way cooler since being a dad. Definitely. You think? Yeah, you're like an inspiration. Well. Cause you're like my dad, the cool adventure dad.

[01:18:04] No, that's good to know for sure. So then let's talk about this trip that you guys did on Franconia. So, Fran, if I'm understanding this, so you've got an adventurous streak, you've jumped out of planes, you've done some stuff on boats, you've like, you've explored the wilds

[01:18:22] of Revere, Massachusetts and live to tell about it. And Jess, he dragged you along on various different adventures in Europe and all over the place. Would you just, from your perspective, were either one of you like, people that were like researchers

[01:18:40] where you knew a lot about like gear and safety and all that stuff, or you mostly just winging it and doing day trips? You know what I think the funny thing is, I was after thinking about it, I think this was my first hike really, was this Franconia.

[01:18:56] And the only reason we went was because I have a good friend from Vermont who recently did the hike with his mom, who was my dad's age, and recommended it. So he said, oh, if your mom can do it, yeah, it's no problem.

[01:19:10] I'm gonna do that for my birthday hike. But what I didn't take into account was if you're from Vermont, you're half mountain goat. So even if you're an elderly woman, you could do anything. So this hike that you did, this goes back to what, 2012?

[01:19:28] Yeah, so it was my birthday trip. I wanted to start this tradition and I was gonna go with a friend who did more research than I did. But I said, I don't wanna do research, I wanna be surprised. And she said, I know it's a 30% chance of rain

[01:19:43] and she backed out. All right, so just to dig into this. So you planned this trip and from your perspective, you were just saying like, I'm not gonna do any research. I'm just gonna be surprised by the whole experience. Yeah. That's something else.

[01:20:04] So you had a friend who was supposed to go, but she said like, there's a little bit of rain and you're gonna back up. So then you had a plan B, you went to, did you go to friend to say like, hey, could you come with me?

[01:20:14] Cause I have no friends. Well, I said like, I don't know, I'm just gonna go by myself. And luckily that didn't happen. My dad said, no, I'll come with you. And I said, no, I'll. But this is the day before. Yeah, it was like one day, one day.

[01:20:31] I had like about four hours. Really? And were you in Long Island at the time, friend? Yeah. All right, so then her friend bailed out on her the day before, you're in Long Island, she calls you up as you said like, look, my friend won't come.

[01:20:49] And then you being the good dad, you said, you know what, I'll step in. And I had a long history of hiking, don't forget. Like 30 years ago. I've been hiking since I was like four years old. But our hikes lasted maybe 30 minutes. So your long history of hiking

[01:21:05] was the adventures you did in Revere, various stuff you might've done in Europe, but like only for like getting out of the car and walking the distance. Maybe we got out of the car and walked to the edge of the cliff. That was my idea.

[01:21:18] And yeah, and we were very well prepared. We put all of our gear together. So between the two of us, we had one headlamp, one hiking pole and two granola bars. And that's pretty good. So that's it. That was what you- Yeah, we had a backpack.

[01:21:34] I think there was some water. There was some water too. I think I was wearing, and I was dressed appropriately. I had a sweatshirt on and short pants. We'll get to what you're dressed in a minute here, Fran. So were you in Boston at the time, Jessica?

[01:21:50] Yes, yeah. All right, so you're in Boston, Fran. You got to drive up from Long Island. You meet her in Boston and then you drive up to New Hampshire. Yeah, I think that sounds right. We got up late at night and we set up a tent.

[01:22:04] We were going to camp too. After finishing the hike, we were going to sleep in our tent. It was going to be great. So you drove up the night before and did you set the tent up the night before? We set it up in the dark, I thought.

[01:22:20] I thought we didn't ever go in the tent. Well, no, we abandoned it, but we did set it up and we were planning to sleep in it, after nearly, you know, we didn't have a great time hiking. We said, screw that. We're going to take it down tomorrow.

[01:22:34] We're going to stay in a hotel. But so the night before though, did you end up sleeping in the car or did you just get out of the car and start hiking? No, I think we slept in the tent. We had a camping spot right at the Franconia,

[01:22:48] like the start of the trail. Yeah. Got it, so you did sleep in the tent one night and then you got up and went hiking. Yeah. And you know, we're not, neither of us are morning people or planners.

[01:22:59] So I think we left a little later than we wanted to, but we were still probably on the trail by 9.30. No, I think it was later than that. But anyway. Yeah, okay. We got a late start. Yeah, yeah, I get that vibe from you too.

[01:23:15] So just for the listeners, so Jessica and Fran, they were nice enough to send me a picture. So I just want to describe what I see here. So Jessica's got a vest on, she's got long sleeves, looks like she's got cotton pants on,

[01:23:28] so we're not going to judge her. And she has what I would call is, it's not a backpack, it would be a shoulder satchel. So it's a leather bag that you would see like, you'd like Mrs. Mike has these, it's very big, sort of like,

[01:23:42] it's like an extra large purse, I would say. Yeah. And that looks like my dad's bag. I think that's your bag, Dad, looking at the picture. I don't have this photo, so I can't tell. And then Fran has a shoulder bag.

[01:23:56] I would say you have two satchels that you're wearing. And then Fran, you've got cargo shorts on, you're looking good. You got the white socks, you got the old man socks on. But the concern I have with this picture

[01:24:06] is that those appear to be boat shoes that you're wearing. So, I mean, which would be good on the boat in Norway, but I don't think that those are going to be too safe on the slick rocks in Franconia. Yeah, I thought maybe there'd be a lake there,

[01:24:20] I don't know. Yeah, so anyway, so just, can you talk us through, like when you got on trail, can you talk about like the excitement you had and then describe sort of at what point did you realize that maybe I'm getting in over my head a little bit?

[01:24:35] Yeah, it was great. We were both really excited, but then I think we took the, what was it? Not the, we took the bridal path down and we took the falling water. So you went up falling waters. And that's a pretty treacherous hike.

[01:24:54] We took a lot of breaks and we, remember dad, there was a mother, daughter, grandmother. Absolutely, I was going to say. Yeah, so they were sitting on rocks waiting to be rescued by helicopter. Right, this was a woman who was probably older than me.

[01:25:12] She was up, this mom and their daughter. And it was just kind of foreshadowing, if you were talking to the drama of the play. This is foreshadowing, like these people need to be rescued. And it's like, uh-oh. So it did alert us to there's,

[01:25:31] there are dangers and there are risks involved here. But I looked at them and said, wow, they were not prepared losers. Yeah, you guys had your satchels, you were good to go. So you're saying you ran into like a mother and two kids that needed,

[01:25:46] they were waiting for a helicopter to come rescue them. It was a three generation, a mother and a daughter. It was a three generation grandmother, mother, daughter. So you guys are on your way up to falling waters, you're on the trail and at that point right there

[01:26:06] you realize like, wow, this is a risky endeavor that we've undertaken. Yes, but I did think, oh, she's old. Good thing I have my young hip dad. Yeah. He was young compared to the grandmother who needed care. Oh yeah, I was young compared to him.

[01:26:21] Not compared to the rest of the world, but to my grandmother. And it was warm. So I think I was wearing some kind of a sweatshirt, wasn't I? I don't have that. It was a fleece pullover you were wearing. All right, a fleece, that's right.

[01:26:38] But I think at one point I had to take her off, it was so hot. Yeah. But my fleece. I bet. Generally what I would guess happened, Fran, is that when you're going, it's a pretty steep trail.

[01:26:49] So my guess would be that even if it was not that hot, when you're wearing a fleece pullover and you're going uphill, like you're gonna be generating a lot of heat. So you probably wanna take that off. So you get on the trail at the beginning,

[01:27:04] you're like, this is fun, I'm excited. You run into those three people that are sort of in trouble. You start realizing like, oh wow, this could be a little bit of a challenge. Fran's getting hot. At what point did things stop getting fun

[01:27:19] and start getting like, wow, this is really tough? Well, yeah, then when you're at the summit, you're in- We made it to the summit. Yeah, and you're in cloud nine. I mean, it's like the best feeling in the world. You could do anything, you're invincible.

[01:27:35] You did the hard part. Yay, and so this is the advice for hikers. We celebrated way too early. So you got up to Little Haystack and you're like, this is the greatest thing ever. And the hikers are liars. They're like, oh, it's very flat once you get there.

[01:27:53] And we're like, what the hell? There's like three more mountains, peaks. So that was not flat. Okay, and then we found this awesome little, what was it, the cabin or the- The lodge. Yeah, yeah, so you got to Greenleaf Hut. So before you get to there,

[01:28:13] so I think what you're describing is that you got to Little Haystack, which is sort of like the initial peak. There's a lot of people hanging around there and it's very euphoric and you're like, okay, we made it. But then when you look across that ridge,

[01:28:25] you can see what would be in front of you would be Mount Lincoln, which is a not insignificant climb. And then beyond Mount Lincoln is another summit called Mont Lafayette. And while it does look like you can reach out and touch it,

[01:28:38] the reality is that you've got about a mile and a half to two miles worth of hiking up and down in exposed ridgeline. And gusts of wind. It was so windy that I was not expecting, like to the point where we felt like

[01:28:52] we were going to blow off the mountain. We had to share our hiking stick. Yeah, we only had one hiking stick. I think it was the left one. Yeah, yeah, and just for the listener's sake, the picture, so Jessica's rocking the hiking.

[01:29:06] So this is not like a hiking pole that you would traditionally, you'd have two of them. This is the Gandalf hiking stick that's left at the bottom of the trailhead. That's an actual stick. So you were both sharing that. It had character though, the hiking stick.

[01:29:24] It does, yeah, it does. And do you remember as you were going across the ridge, was there a lot of hikers? Was it a busy day? Do you remember? Oh, it was so busy. It was busy, busy, busy up until the lodge.

[01:29:36] Even at the lodge, I was like, oh my gosh, this is a party of people that we can all celebrate together how cool and great we are. So we hung out. Now before you get to the, so it's called the Greenleaf Hut. Before you got there though,

[01:29:52] was there any issues, Jessica, for you? Like was Fran holding up okay? Or did you have to, was there any concern that he may not make it? No, because we were going in a nice boat. We were sitting a lot on those big boulders

[01:30:07] on the falling river, falling waters. Let me offer a slight revision here and a correction because during, this is the flat, easy part of the hike, so they say. Well, everything is easy according to the hikers, but it was very flat,

[01:30:28] except that you had to climb up and down all these peaks. I mean, they weren't as big as that first hike uphill, but on one of them coming down from a slight peak, you know, I'm walking down these, stepping on these boulders and I'm thinking

[01:30:45] they were almost like giant steps, except I miscalculate how far the ground is from the top of the last step. And so on the last step of this downgrade, I jammed. This is after the lodge though, yeah. No, no, no, no. This is before the lodge.

[01:31:04] See, this is where you're misremembering. No, by the time we get to the lodge, so I jammed my knee and I said, oh, I hurt my knee, but it didn't bother me too much. Because we were so excited. And I said, we can continue. Yeah. What?

[01:31:20] Because we were so excited about. Yeah, so it didn't, so we kept going. But as we're approaching the lodge there, whatever it's the hut, you know, my knee starts hurting more and more. Oh, I didn't. And so then we go in the hut and.

[01:31:37] Did you ask the people at the hut if they had any like solution for your bad knee? I don't think so. At that time, I didn't think it was going to be the kind of problem it turned out to be.

[01:31:48] Well, I know what would happen at the hut was we were talking to hikers. How much farther do we have? They said, oh, the hard part's over. It's only about 40 minutes down from here. So we looked at our clocks and all right,

[01:32:00] well, we'll leave like 45 minutes to sunset. That's how it is. Oh, so you hung out at the hut and you basically said like, if it's gonna only gonna take us 45 minutes, we'll just wait. We'll hang out here at the hut and rest. And rested at the knee.

[01:32:14] Yeah, we had hot cocoa. Maybe you iced it. Like we were like taking it easy because we had such a short hike back. And you had one headlight. We had one headlight. You were good. And that's what the hikers asked. You have headlamps, right? We said, oh yeah.

[01:32:32] They said, oh, you're fine. Yeah, so you start making your way down. So there's a section of the trail. You guys won't be aware of this, but when you descend from Greenleaf Hut, there's a section of the trail right below that

[01:32:47] that has, it's like these three little humps. And I believe those are called the agonies. Like agony of defeat, the agonies. So I think, Fran, it sounds like to me that based on your knee situation, you were probably not only experiencing the agonies of the trail,

[01:33:04] but the agonies of pain in your own knee, right? Well, it got worse and worse. So that by the time we started out, again, it's still daylight when we start out. Well, sort of. It's moving towards dusk. But the motion now is downward.

[01:33:21] And so there's that pressure on my knee. It's my left knee. And it gets worse and worse and worse. And then I see a sign that says, do not feed the bear. And I'm thinking, what does that sign mean? Interpret that. What is the epistemological meaning of...

[01:33:54] Good thing we don't have any food to offer the bears. Oh yeah, so then that's the other question I had for you. So what was the water situation? So I'm assuming you had water starting off and then you can get water at the hut. So you probably refill,

[01:34:07] but did you have water bottles with you? Did you have enough to drain? We did. We had enough water, but the food situation was not good. Or the hiking pole. Or the hiking pole. Or the... Or the... But the water, we were good.

[01:34:24] You were okay with the water? Yeah, I don't remember being worried about the water. We didn't have a lot of it. But that problem vanished because then it started to rain. Well no, first the sunset and I said, oh good, we still have some sunlight.

[01:34:38] But something I didn't realize was like, hey, when the sun set, it's like instantly dark in the forest and you don't see the sky at all. And I was like, all right, this isn't good. And then it started raining and that really wasn't good.

[01:34:55] And then we went off trail accidentally. That wasn't good. A couple of times, yeah. And so I called my mom crying, we're lost right before my phone died. And then, so always tell someone where you are. So then she was a nervous wreck.

[01:35:13] And then the icing on the cake was I saw, look back, I gave my dad my headlamp and the hiking pole. And I look back and I just see his feet in the air. Like, oh my God, he fell. It's all slick, everything is slick.

[01:35:30] And we thought it was the bridal path. Dad thought, oh, it's gonna be like a horse trail, but it was still very rock slick. Either that or there's gonna be a bride like from a wedding. Yeah. And you're wearing boat shoes. So this is, yeah.

[01:35:45] And I thought, I can't carry him. So we just had to keep stopping and resting in the rain, just sitting on rocks. And it took like three hours to get down from the lodge or something. Got it. Yeah. Do you recall seeing any other hikers come by?

[01:36:01] No, there was one kid who was kind of like jogging up the mountain, as I recall. It was like, what is wrong with you, young man? But anyway, he kind of walked by, hey, how you doing? And like flew by us, cause he was in a hurry.

[01:36:16] But the sun was still up then. It was still, it was not dark yet. Well, it was, you know, but he was on, he was in a hurry to get to that lodge. He passed us, but none another soul did.

[01:36:28] Yeah, it seems like all the other hikers do not, they don't hike in the dark. So that was, that was good. I guess if you have the choice not to, you opt not to, very wise of them. And a lot of those hikers were,

[01:36:45] and you know, at that lodge, there were hikers there who were, they were younger than me, but I was old. So, but they were not kids. They would like, you know, probably 50 year olds. And I'm thinking, well, if these guys can do it, I can do it. Yes.

[01:37:04] Yeah, you get the ego kicking in. You get that. Yeah. Well, so eventually you make it back and then you've got your tent set up at, I'm assuming at Lafayette campground. But you just decided like, you know, Fran's knee is hurting. I don't feel great.

[01:37:18] Like, let's just get. No, I'm in agony. You were right about the three agonies there. This was the fourth agony. I'm in agony with this knee. I felt this kind of like throbbing, you know, pulsating, continuous pain in my knee.

[01:37:33] And it was so that I was slipping and sliding too. That was on the, and then the temperature dropped. Yes, that happens too. My fleece and my short pants. And I, you know, I expect, I'm expecting it to snow any minute. And it was, you know,

[01:37:49] so we weren't well prepared and we're wet from the rain. So please don't be wet, drenched. Yeah, drenched. So I think what I can recap here is that sort of like, there's the lack of preparation. There's the inexperience, you know, there's the selection of the hike

[01:38:10] where you sort of picked an aggressive hike. Probably the gear situation was not optimal. And then the decision making at the Greenleaf Hut to delay going down was probably not a great idea. And then when you get exposed to the rain,

[01:38:30] you don't have the gear to protect yourself. And then you're already injured. You're slowing yourself down. You only have one headlamp. So, but other than that, I think you guys were pretty locked in. We had a great time. Well, all of that, you didn't- We were building memories.

[01:38:45] We did make great memories. But you know, my dad didn't tell me any of that. I didn't know you really hurt your knee. He was just, you know, and then at the end of the hike, he said, I thought I was going to die out there,

[01:38:57] which he didn't mention once while we were hiking, which would have scared me. But the threat of the bears, you know, there was all these threats surrounding me. It was like, geez, this is, you know, it's New Hampshire. This is not even, you know, Revere.

[01:39:12] And I'm feeling so threatened by that. At any point in time, did you think, and obviously you didn't have the option because your phone died, but like at any point in time where you're like, I may need to call for help? All the time.

[01:39:23] But we didn't have the option. If there was a call box, yeah, I would've. That's why I think next time, I do say this, but I didn't put one on my backpack, but I wish I always had a whistle. Always a whistle's good, but then no one's around.

[01:39:40] How would- No one would hear your darn whistle lick. Yeah, that's if you go off trail and they're looking for you already, you use the whistle to call. All right, well, so this is an interesting, I wanted to bring the listeners

[01:39:53] into our campfire session to hear this story just because I think it's interesting because we honestly like, we'll hear these search and rescue stories and I'll have listeners reach, I'll run into them somewhere and we'll talk about these situations and people are like,

[01:40:08] I can't believe how these things happen. And I'll tell them, I'll say like, look, there's a lot of people that are not plugged in. They're not doing research. They're going out to hike one time in their life or one time a year,

[01:40:20] and they just go out for a fun time. And 99% of the time, these people make it through. It's not pretty, but they do make it through. So I thought that this story would be a good story to sort of share with the listeners to get that perspective.

[01:40:32] But I have a question for you. Sure. Do all hikers lie? Is this like a natural thing or what is that? Or is it toxic masculinity? So generally, like if you are going to ask, like how much longer do I have to go or is this hike hard?

[01:40:55] You're gonna get lied to. Everyone's gonna tell you like, oh, it's just around the corner or it's not too bad. You can't trust anybody. It's honestly like the judgment of what's bad for me or what's long for me is completely different from what it would be for you.

[01:41:09] So- Yeah, but if you come across a city slicker and you tell, you know, these people don't know what the hell they're doing. Are you going to tell them it's easy and don't worry about a thing? And maybe you should tell them like-

[01:41:23] Generally my move, so my move is I'll be like, somebody says like, oh, how much longer is it? I'll say like, I'll be like, oh, it's a pretty good distance. It's probably gonna be X thousand feet or whatever. And then I'll just be like,

[01:41:36] how are you guys feeling? You're up for it, right? And I'll give them the opening. But a lot of times people don't want to admit weakness. So they'll just be like, oh, I'm just going to keep going. Yeah, I know. It almost doesn't matter what,

[01:41:46] so it's not even worth asking people because everyone's gonna lie to you and you're not gonna listen to them anyway. That's true. Oh, that's true. You don't listen, yeah. But- But the other thing is when we're, by the time you get to the lodge,

[01:41:58] I did inquire, can we stay overnight here? And they said, no, we're booked solid. Yeah, yeah. We're all booked up. Well, cause you picked the most popular hike in the White Mountains. And it was that time of year when the weeds are starting to change.

[01:42:13] It was a pretty nice weekend. Yeah, so everything went wrong. Well, but it was an adventure. But I do, the thing I've learned is that now if I see, yeah, I've been in Long Island. So a lot of the hikes we do,

[01:42:30] you get a lot of city people, New York City, going to the nearest mountains outside of the city and they're wearing like flip flops, sometimes high heels. And I'm talking to them, oh, what the hell? You know, you should really rethink your shoes.

[01:42:46] So now I am trying to help. Sorry, sorry. Yes, yes. So I will say for the audience's purposes. So now Jessica, so Jessica's married to Beau. Beau was the guy that did a Pemi loop with me last year. So we didn't overnight. So he is a real expert.

[01:43:03] So he would never let Jessica get into a situation where she's going to get in trouble. He didn't hike, yeah. Yeah. You're saying you hiked just as much as him? No, he never hiked until we got together. Yeah, but I mean, he's surpassed you now though.

[01:43:21] Because, wow, wow, that is insulting. Well, he's definitely more prepared. In general in life, he's just, yeah. Well, I think that this has been instructional and I believe that the audience will appreciate the story and it was great catching up with both of you.

[01:43:43] I guess, Fran, just to close us out, you used to host a radio show, correct? Yeah, yeah, I did that. So that was a call-in radio show where you would give people advice? Is that what it was? Well, yeah, there was call, they were talking.

[01:43:56] Yeah, the name of the show was Talk To Me. Talk To You. Of a radio station in Atlantic City, New Jersey where I was living at the time. And yeah, it was a call-in show. So there was two, there was a psychologist, me, and a social worker.

[01:44:13] And we would answer questions or just make, like talk about holiday stress, things like that. About stress and going out and exercising. Grief. What? Grief. We also did different episodes on grief. So you've actually been in a real radio studio and done a show.

[01:44:36] What is your perspective on this whole podcasting thing? Like any schmuck can just set up a microphone and put on a show. What do you think? Can you believe that we're in a day and age where we can do this? Yeah, well, I'm impressed by that big microphone

[01:44:48] you have in front of you. Oh yeah, it's professional, right? Very professional. So that you've impressed me. I'm sold. Wow, well, again, I appreciate you both sharing your story and we're gonna drop out of this segment here

[01:45:04] and I'm gonna talk to Stomp a little bit and recap for us. But I'll make sure that I post the picture of your adventure to our audience once we release this. Okay, and I just want you to know that I would do it again. You would.

[01:45:19] With more research. You would. And a whistle. Okay, maybe we'll tell, you know what we'll do is we will take a less aggressive. So Jessica, we had gone up to, we'd taken the kids up to Black Cap, which was a shorter hike. Remember we parked,

[01:45:33] I don't know if you remember it was by Cannon Mountain, but Fran could absolutely do that. We could do a short hike there. So. Oh, great. Now I have severe PTSD from this hike. We still go for hikes with my family

[01:45:47] and last weekend, my son only wants to do mountain hikes, but on Long Island it's very flat. And so we went upstate for the day and I started panicking because Beau went off trail and I said, oh my God, we're gonna be up here in the dark.

[01:46:03] This is so bad. And he's like, it's 3.30. And I was panicking. The only thing worse than being stuck in a mountain with my old dad is two small kids to carry down a mountain. True, true. Well, when you come up to me and I'm taking you hiking,

[01:46:22] but we're leaving at 6.30 in the morning and we'll be done by like lunchtime, I promise. Yeah. Yeah, always give yourself ample time to do a hike. Excellent, all right. Thanks again. All right, thanks Mike. Thank you Mike. All right, Snop, so that is Fran and Jessica

[01:46:43] in all of their capers on Franconia Ridge. What do you think? That was really fun to listen to. It was funny. Yeah. I have a lot of connections and memories from the whole Revere area. And just to know that they cut their teeth

[01:46:57] on the Revere range is just fantastic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fran's like, yeah, I got hiking experience. Like, you know, Uncle Jimmy used to take us up there on the hills of Revere, so I got a lot of hiking experience. Right. Too funny.

[01:47:12] But you know, those hills are pretty monstrous. They'd be good training for say something like Mount Washington for the city dwellers. Right across the way you have the old soldiers home hill with the old, there used to be a water tower there.

[01:47:26] I don't know if they've taken that down, but from the Chelsea side, those hills are killer. Steep as hell. Yeah, anyway, so I'm just gonna say that yeah, anyway. That was great. But I will say like, and I don't know if I,

[01:47:40] I can't remember, it's been a while since I recorded this, but I will say like in Jessica's defense, like she's come a long way. Like she gets out, she's got two young boys now and we do hiking in the summer with them. They'll come up to Maine.

[01:47:52] And Bo is, you know, her husband is like a great, great guy and really killed it on the Pemi loop. So she's come a long way since then. But it was kind of a fun story because I just don't think that we really,

[01:48:06] we don't even think about like, how do you address the people that are out there that like don't even have, you know, they're not even at square one. They're just out there to have a good time and they don't even think about like what the,

[01:48:18] what gear is needed or anything like that. Well, I mean, A number one, the stewards. I think that's your first line of defense. And then, you know, the folks from the hiking buddies will always say, you're the first line

[01:48:30] when you see somebody on trail that's not quite ready. Yeah. Something else I thought of listening to this, like I've seen a lot of people. I wonder if the people that have zero clue about hiking that live down South and they're super fit

[01:48:46] are the ones that tend to get in trouble more than other folks. Because I've seen people up there that may fall into that category, which I'm just thinking about now, that have flip-flops on and they're just ripping it and just, I don't know, sort of interesting.

[01:49:02] Yeah, and I think I probably was like a little bit in that category back in like 2012, 2013. Like I, you know, accomplished runner, good shape. Right. You know, for me, you know, my first hike that I picked was Glen Boulder to Mount Washington and then down Tuckerman Ravine.

[01:49:18] So that wasn't, you know, that was an aggressive hike. But for me, I was like, well, you know, I can do 10 miles, 15 miles, no problem. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Interesting stuff. But that was a great interview. And I thank you both for joining.

[01:49:32] I got some photos, so I'll use those. I'll post the photos of the gear that they were wearing and Fran's boat shoes and their shoulder satchels and all the fun stuff that they wore. Okay. Sounds good. All right, so I think we're moving on to, is it Fieldstone?

[01:50:26] Yeah. We're doing right now? Yep. Excellent. Fieldstone Kombucha, New England's premium craft kombucha company. If you're in the heart of New England, you need to drink a New England style kombucha. Softer, less acidic and truly enjoyable. Our kombucha is naturally effervescent and boasts full bodied flavor.

[01:50:44] Fieldstone crafts the best seasonal flavors. When we tell you there's blueberries in our baby bandit flavor, it nearly turns your tongue blue. Women owned and operated, we brew in Rhode Island using whole locally sourced ingredients. Fieldstone Kombucha is the perfect replenishing drink

[01:51:02] after a day on the slopes or a trek in the woods. It's chock full of probiotics and healthy acids to keep you in top form. Find us at Biedermann's in Plymouth, Mad River Coffee House in Campton, the Concord Food Co-op and more.

[01:51:19] Check out our website for the full list of New Hampshire and New England wide locations. Use code slasher S-L-A-S-R on our website for 10% off an online order, shipped straight to your door. That's fieldstonekombuchaco.com. Excellent Stomp. So now is the part of the show

[01:51:42] where we talk about recent search and rescue news. So we don't have anything locally, luckily. Yep. Good news. Nobody, no rescues, but we've got some national stuff here. Yeah. Yeah. When if we leave the region, all of a sudden we're dealing with thousand foot drops and 12,000 foot drops

[01:52:03] and all kinds of weird stuff going on. It's an interesting cycle this time. Yeah. So this is, this is crazy. So this is in the Seattle area here. So this first story is a 30 year old hiker is found alive after tumbling more than 1200 feet

[01:52:23] down a ravine on Mount Eleanor in Olympic National Forest. So this is out in Washington. Yeah. So rescued and rushed to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after being found in the Olympic National Forest. He had a broken arm, symptoms of hypothermia and significant abrasions.

[01:52:44] He was hiking with his partner near the top of the mountain when he fell around 6 20 PM. Luckily he was found alive 1200 feet down a ravine. And I guess they were looking at the bottom of this large avalanche run out and they didn't find him initially

[01:53:06] near the top of the mountain. So they went down about 1200 feet and they were able to locate him. And then they lowered a crew member to the location and they were concerned with the risk of further avalanches or rock falls.

[01:53:24] So they were able to get a helicopter out there and hoist the patient back aboard the helicopter. So right after that, he got rid of, they got him right to the hospital. So they said that this was the 43rd mission for this particular rescue group.

[01:53:39] And this involved 33 rescues, six searches and then four medevac helicopter extractions in Olympia National Forest. So. There's one picture here that's really striking. It's a profile of a Navy helicopter and just below it, it's lighting up the terrain that they're working in

[01:54:00] and it looks pretty gnarly, really gnarly. Super close to a tree. Can you imagine if they hit that tree, that would not be good. Yeah, that's a good point. But I mean, steep drop-offs, just massive cliffs. Incredible. You know what's funny though?

[01:54:17] I can't stop looking at the Travis Kelsey picture on the right here of this Daily Mail article with his shirt off. Where is, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Who's a hairy fella? I'm joking, he's a hairy dude. Yeah. He could repel down this gully in his chest hair.

[01:54:36] Well, you know what he does? He does this thing where like, you should either shave it all or just let it go. Cause I think that he's got, what's going on here with Travis Kelsey is he's got, he's a hairy dude, but he shaved his hair

[01:54:51] up to his shoulders. Yeah. And he should just shave the whole thing. Like he should just shave it all off if he's gonna go that route. Cause it doesn't look natural. Yeah. He's got to go the full like Leonidas from 300 look there

[01:55:04] and just get rid of all the chest hair. Yeah. Yeah. Get the wax cause it looks, it just looks weird. Like either you got to embrace your back hair or just, or don't. Get the wax. And more in Search and Rescue News.

[01:55:19] See this is what you get when you pull a Daily Mail article here. So this is another hiker. So the theme of the week is thousand foot falls. So this brings us to Hawaii. So a hiker was rescued three days

[01:55:35] after nearly a thousand foot fall off a Hawaiian trail. I think we might've touched on this rescue previously, but this is more detail here. So this is a hiker from California that fell a thousand feet from the bottom of a mountain down a trail in Hawaii.

[01:55:49] He called it a miracle that he survived the three days and he never expected that a day of hiking would go the way it did. He conducted a press conference where he thanked the rescuers for saving his life. So 34 year old hiker, he was solo on December 4th

[01:56:05] when he fell from the Kaualua Summit trail, now the Pali Notches Trail. I guess first responders located him on December 3rd near the bottom of a waterfall. He said in the day he went missing, the peak was steep and the hike became more and more treacherous.

[01:56:24] Caroline told, my daughter told me that like, it's super muddy there and very slippery, all the trails. There's a lot of ropes and stuff that are set up tree to tree to hold onto in these sections. But this sounds like a guy that's very similar

[01:56:38] to what you were talking about, stomp around like physically capable, but bites off more than he can chew. So he said he was in good shape. He was able to navigate. He was looking down at Pali Highway and, you know, I guess he's a father.

[01:56:54] He's got two sons and a daughter. And at some point he just tripped and fell. And when he came to, he had no idea what happened, how long it had been. He had been out. He couldn't even remember if it was daytime or nighttime

[01:57:07] when he came to, so he must've hit his head. He started getting cold and then with a broken arm, he dragged himself along to move closer to a stream. And he was able to find some shelter from the wind behind two rocks.

[01:57:20] And then he just was drinking from the stream over the three days. And he said he made his peace with God. He wanted to live, so he wasn't giving up, but they had no, I guess they had no idea where he was.

[01:57:36] And they were able to, the rescues did start a search for him. They were able to use his last known geolocation. And then from there, they determined that his phone was somewhere near the summit trail. And eventually rescue personnel were flying in the area

[01:57:53] and they spotted him near the bottom of this waterfall. And he was waving his hands, so they were able to get him out of there. So lucky dude. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah, I love the picture of him too. He's got the Hawaiian shirt

[01:58:06] and the purple Hawaiian lay around his neck. It's wild. Yeah, very lucky. Yeah, it looks like a good shape. So I'm assuming like his physical condition probably helped. Yeah, you see his right eye is closed. So he must have maybe smashed his head right there

[01:58:22] or something like he's got a black eye, but yeah. Yeah, it's a nice story. Yep, and then this next one stop is a follow-up to the volcano eruption that I think took the lives of 23 hikers in Indonesia. So this was Mount Merapi.

[01:58:43] So they're still looking for 10 missing hikers, but they were able to find the final body, I guess. Oh, actually the search for 10 missing hikers resumed after they had paused and then they found the final body on Wednesday of this week.

[01:59:05] So there was 75 hikers in the area during the eruption. Most were evacuated and received treatments for burns. They do have a picture of one hiker that's like covered in ash and it looks like she's got some burns as well. But this is the deadliest eruption since 1979

[01:59:26] where 60 people had died. But yeah, so that's the last thing they've recovered, I guess all the bodies. Wow. Volcano ash spewed 10,000 feet in the air surrounding all the villages in the area. So scary. Yeah, it is scary. All right, we got one more here. One more, Stump.

[01:59:50] You want to do this one or you want me to do it? Yeah, sure. Yeah, I'll tackle it. So this comes to us from Colorado. Hiker rescued from Bar Trail during snowstorm on Wednesday. And the date on this is the 13th of December.

[02:00:06] So El Paso County Search and Rescue, EPCSAR, helped an injured hiker on Bar Trail during a snowstorm on the 13th. According to EPCSAR, I guess that's Ep-ca-sar, rescue crews responded during the snowstorm that hit Wednesday, helping a hiker that had been injured on the trail.

[02:00:27] Quote, rain, snow or 20 below isn't just our rescue run slogans, part of our mission, said a representative from the SAR team in reference to the poor conditions that they were battling that day for rescuing the hiker. Let's see, a hiker was well-prepared

[02:00:44] and was able to stay warm until the rescue team arrived. We've made note of that over and over again. Be ready to wait a long time for a rescue team if you should be in the position where you need to wait. Let's see, while hiking during adverse weather

[02:01:01] isn't generally advised, the SAR team urged outdoor enthusiasts to always venture out prepared. And I just sort of made a joke about this last line in the script about them having a three item hike safe list. So check this out, quote, accidents happen,

[02:01:22] so be sure to carry enough clothing, food and water should you have to sit outside for a few hours. So instead of the 10 essentials, they apparently have three. I don't know. I'm joking, I'm sure there's more. They probably only have so much space in the articles.

[02:01:41] Exactly, but there's not much detail to this story but that last line is pretty funny. So that's it for the search and rescue and that's it for 2023. Can you believe it? 130, what is this? I can't believe it Stomp. I can't believe that I put up with you.

[02:01:57] I should be given a medal of honor. A whole another year with you. Valor, medal of valor. With your large fonts and your misspellings and everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. So I don't know, just final closing thoughts here. I just want to thank all the listeners

[02:02:15] and I enjoy meeting with you every week, Mike. And it's fun, it never gets old and surprisingly there are topics every week that we can talk about and I think next year should be really interesting too. And thank you again, everybody. I feel the same way Stomp,

[02:02:33] I never get bored of making fun of you. It's always a great time. It builds character. It does and I think that I did the total here. So we've got 134 episodes if we figure there about two hours of an episode, that's 16,000 minutes of talking

[02:02:53] as well 270 hours of content that we put together in this dumb podcast. Right, so that means you and I have done double that doing editing and notes and all that nonsense. True, true, but thank you listeners and we will be back.

[02:03:11] We got a good episode I think coming up for the first of the year. We had a good surprise guest, which will be fun. Yeah, absolutely. Merry Christmas, happy holidays, happy Hanukkah and all the rest. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed the show,

[02:03:29] you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you wanna learn more about the topics covered in today's show, please check out the show notes and safety information at slasherpodcast.com. That's S-L-A-S-R podcast.com.

[02:03:53] You can also follow the show on Facebook and Instagram. We hope you'll join us next week for another great show. Until then, on behalf of Mike and Stomp, get out there and crush some mega peaks. Now covered in scratches, blisters and bug bites, Chris Staff wanted to complete

[02:04:13] his most challenging daylight ever. Fish and game officers say the hiker from Florida activated an emergency beacon yesterday morning. He was hiking along the Appalachian Trail when the weather started to get worse. Officials say the snow was piled up to three feet in some spots

[02:04:29] and there was a wind chill of minus one degree. And there's three words to describe this race. Do we all know what they are? Only one hill! Lieutenant James Neelan, New Hampshire Fish and Game. Lieutenant, thanks for being with us today. Thanks for having me.

[02:04:46] What are some of the most common mistakes you see people make when they're heading out on the trails to hike here in New Hampshire? It seems to me the most common is being unprepared and I think if they just simply visited hikesafe.com

[02:04:56] and got a list of the 10 essential items and had those in their packs, they probably would have no need to ever call us at all.