Episode 145 - Vaucluse Gear, Summer Hiking Gear, Place Names, Evans Notch

[00:00:00] Here is the latest higher summits forecast brought to you by our friends at the Mount

[00:00:13] Washington Observatory.

[00:00:19] Weather above treeline in the white mountains is often wildly different than at our trail

[00:00:25] heads.

[00:00:26] Before you hike, check the higher summits forecast at MountWashington.org.

[00:00:32] Weather observers working at the nonprofit Mount Washington Observatory write this elevation-based

[00:00:38] forecast every morning and afternoon.

[00:00:42] Search and rescue teams, have a lunch experts and backcountry guides all rely on the higher

[00:00:47] summits forecast to anticipate weather conditions above treeline.

[00:00:52] Do shoot two.

[00:00:54] Go to MountWashington.org or text forecast to 603-356-2137.

[00:01:11] And here is your forecast for Friday March 29th and Saturday March 30th.

[00:01:18] Friday in the clouds with snow, possible snow accumulations of 2-4 inches, high in

[00:01:24] the upper teens, winds will be northwest at 40-55 mph, increasing to 60-75 mph with

[00:01:32] gusts up to 95 mph late and the wind chill will be falling to 5-15.

[00:01:40] Right a night in the clouds with snow, trending towards mostly in the clouds with a chance

[00:01:45] of snow showers late.

[00:01:48] The temp will be low single digits, winds will be northwest at 75-90 mph with gusts up

[00:01:57] to 105 mph, wind chill falling to 20-30-30.

[00:02:04] And Saturday mostly in the clouds under mostly clear skies with a high rising to the mid teens,

[00:02:11] winds will be northwest at 70-85 mph, decreasing to 55-70 mph with gusts up to 85 mph.

[00:02:41] Broadcasting from the Woodpecker Studio in the great state of New Hampshire, welcome to

[00:11:36] THE SPIRITS OF GREAT

[00:11:41] Rain or a slippery rock on a water crossing can get more than your boot sweat, keep sparr

[00:11:47] socks, matches, lighters, maps, medicine and powders in gallon size baggies if you don't

[00:11:54] own dry bags.

[00:11:55] It's inexpensive and works great!

[00:12:03] Oh, that's great huh?

[00:12:06] They did a nice job putting that together.

[00:12:08] They did, they did and I noticed,

[00:12:10] we do that little noise where we go,

[00:12:12] that's supposed to be like edited out.

[00:12:16] That's like the signal to be edited out,

[00:12:18] but last episode you kept it in and I was like,

[00:12:20] why is he keeping that in?

[00:12:22] Cause it's just so silly.

[00:12:23] Yeah, I was like, oh well,

[00:12:26] I'll just make a weird noise

[00:12:27] so stomped will know to edit it out

[00:12:29] and then he doesn't even edit it out.

[00:12:32] Yeah, it's a riot.

[00:12:33] I just like, oh that's really silly.

[00:12:35] Yeah and for the listeners,

[00:12:37] you can't see here but stomped is,

[00:12:39] he must not have beard tonight

[00:12:40] so he's drinking water but he's drinking auto.

[00:12:43] He's duct tape sock who's.

[00:12:44] That's right.

[00:12:47] Why do you have your duct tape sock who's he on?

[00:12:49] Uh, it's permanent.

[00:12:51] It's impossible to get that

[00:12:53] kuzi off of this Nell Jean bottle

[00:12:55] cause it's sort of tight at the top

[00:12:58] so you can't take it off.

[00:12:59] So yeah, how was it tight at the top?

[00:13:01] Did you just wrap it with tape?

[00:13:03] Yeah, it sort of compresses in on the curve at the top

[00:13:07] so it's pretty much permanent.

[00:13:11] Okay.

[00:13:12] Perfect little vessel for bacteria

[00:13:14] and mold to grow.

[00:13:15] I would think.

[00:13:16] Yeah, like,

[00:13:17] I don't know how to do it.

[00:13:18] The cleaning situation is there that's fine.

[00:13:20] That's fine.

[00:13:21] All right, stop.

[00:13:22] So happy Easter and events of Easter.

[00:13:25] So I'm kind of, I'm solo with,

[00:13:28] I got two kids so I think we're going to do Easter

[00:13:30] breakfast this year.

[00:13:31] Nice.

[00:13:32] We have to pick up Mrs. Mike at the airport

[00:13:33] so nothing, no big plans for us.

[00:13:35] When are you going for breakfast?

[00:13:37] Sunday morning?

[00:13:39] I'm cooking.

[00:13:40] I was gonna cook breakfast.

[00:13:41] I know I got you.

[00:13:42] Big breakfast for the girls.

[00:13:43] Yeah, no big plans here either.

[00:13:45] But yeah, no, nothing planned.

[00:13:48] But it's a nice time of the year.

[00:13:49] It's always, it's just spring.

[00:13:51] You know, it's the hallmark of spring.

[00:13:53] It's like, despite the fact that we had a giant snolt storm

[00:13:57] three days ago.

[00:13:58] Yeah, yeah, that's crazy.

[00:14:00] We'll talk about that a little bit.

[00:14:01] First we got some hiking drama stomp.

[00:14:03] I didn't even look at it.

[00:14:04] This must be late breaking.

[00:14:05] I didn't even see this on the script.

[00:14:12] We're about to serve up some tasty hiking drama.

[00:14:21] Yeah, so a listener, Sarah Urlewine sent this in for us

[00:14:26] for hiking drama and apparently a IG, Instagrammer

[00:14:33] with the title of blogger Latais is taking heat

[00:14:38] for designing hiking overalls.

[00:14:41] Hmm, what do you think about that?

[00:14:44] Do you have a biocic overalls?

[00:14:45] I do too.

[00:14:46] I think they're great.

[00:14:47] I haven't actually owned a pair in quite a long time,

[00:14:50] but I would wear those in a heartbeat.

[00:14:54] But really, I'm trying to find out

[00:14:55] the overalls.

[00:14:56] I'm trying to find them.

[00:14:58] Well, it's a design there.

[00:15:01] Oh, goodness, I'm still on airplane mode.

[00:15:05] It's a design that she was asking a question

[00:15:07] about how to tailor the ankle end of the overalls,

[00:15:10] whether you know, you know, cinchum in or having a wider

[00:15:14] and what's interesting is the comment section.

[00:15:18] People are just taking her to town

[00:15:20] because she's designing some overalls.

[00:15:23] I don't know.

[00:15:24] People live too much time on their hands

[00:15:26] with this social media stuff, I think.

[00:15:28] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:15:29] I mean, I get it.

[00:15:30] I mean, like I think just social media in general,

[00:15:33] people like to take...

[00:15:38] Oh, yeah.

[00:15:38] So all right.

[00:15:39] So I see the comments here.

[00:15:40] So it's like a bunch of like purist hikers

[00:15:43] that are like you don't know what you're doing

[00:15:45] and blah, blah, blah.

[00:15:46] So I don't know.

[00:15:47] We'll post it in the show.

[00:15:50] We'll post it in the show notes

[00:15:51] and people can decide.

[00:15:53] Yeah, exactly.

[00:15:55] Yeah, so I think she looks like a beautiful lady

[00:15:58] and I'd love to see her in hiking overalls.

[00:16:00] There you go.

[00:16:01] There you go.

[00:16:02] So I just find...

[00:16:04] Yeah, I feel like a lot of like hikers chicks

[00:16:07] like we are overalls that lead maybe not hiking

[00:16:09] but when they're not hiking.

[00:16:11] Oh, for sure.

[00:16:12] Yeah, it's a cool look.

[00:16:13] I wonder if the overalls would be some synthetic type

[00:16:16] of, you know, or maybe canvas or something.

[00:16:20] Yeah, appropriate for the hills as opposed to cotton.

[00:16:24] I'm surprised you don't wear a view of a war

[00:16:26] overalls when you're up doing painting stuff.

[00:16:30] No, I have worn suspenders though quite a bit

[00:16:34] and the goofy ones, goofy wide red ones

[00:16:36] with the...

[00:16:37] The A&A or suspenders guy.

[00:16:39] Yeah.

[00:16:40] I've seen you wear those.

[00:16:41] Yeah, as a matter of fact,

[00:16:42] I got turned onto that whole style

[00:16:44] by watching the AMC trail crews

[00:16:47] just working on the trails.

[00:16:49] A lot of those people would wear big giant suspenders

[00:16:51] and look super cool.

[00:16:52] I was like, hey, I gotta give me some of those.

[00:16:56] Yeah, yeah, I don't know.

[00:16:57] I don't think I could do it.

[00:16:58] You definitely like the suspender look on you make sense.

[00:17:01] For me, I'm too young and sprily looking

[00:17:04] for suspenders here more.

[00:17:06] The sand toldally.

[00:17:07] Yeah, the sand toldally.

[00:17:08] Yeah.

[00:17:09] Exactly.

[00:17:11] All right, so I'm moving on to Reddit.

[00:17:13] So I stole this offer Reddit for the White Mountain sub

[00:17:15] but I thought it was interesting.

[00:17:16] In 2023, the Pemmy Ranger District.

[00:17:20] So this is like...

[00:17:22] This is basically like Lincoln Woods up to...

[00:17:28] I think Crawford Path and then down across to Musilaki

[00:17:33] and up to like Twin Mountain in that area.

[00:17:36] That it's like the Western section of the White Mountains.

[00:17:39] The Pemmy Ranger District replaced 3,560 rolls

[00:17:44] of toilet paper at various trailhead.

[00:17:47] So this is like Lincoln Woods.

[00:17:49] I think the Franconia's that area.

[00:17:52] So that's 137.5 miles of toilet paper rolled up.

[00:17:58] And there's like a...

[00:17:59] From I-93X to 20 until it merges with I-91

[00:18:04] all the way to the Canadian border.

[00:18:07] So and that equals they pulled out 35,000 gallons

[00:18:11] of solid waste.

[00:18:12] They pumped out of the various toilets.

[00:18:16] And it's a little nasty.

[00:18:18] That's incredible.

[00:18:20] It's necessary stomp.

[00:18:21] Yeah, sure is.

[00:18:23] Now is that like an entire year or is it seasonal

[00:18:26] because I don't know some of these places

[00:18:27] maybe closed for the winters?

[00:18:29] Yeah, I think it's over the course of a year.

[00:18:31] It was like so somebody in Reddit posted it

[00:18:33] and I think that they had gotten it off

[00:18:35] of the Pemmy Ranger District Facebook page.

[00:18:38] They said that they had replaced 35,

[00:18:41] 3,560 rolls of toilet paper.

[00:18:44] So it's essentially like...

[00:18:46] I don't know what that is.

[00:18:48] That's like 10...

[00:18:50] 35?

[00:18:52] 35, 16.

[00:18:53] Rolls of toilet paper a week or something.

[00:18:56] So it's not bad.

[00:18:57] And yeah you've got like a lot of parts

[00:18:59] like some sections close down

[00:19:01] and then you've got like a lot of weekends

[00:19:02] where I imagine the weekends are probably worth.

[00:19:05] It's pretty busy.

[00:19:06] Yeah, that's mind blowing.

[00:19:09] That's a lot.

[00:19:10] Have you ever been into a trailhead toilet

[00:19:12] where there's no toilet paper?

[00:19:14] Oh plenty of times.

[00:19:15] You have.

[00:19:16] Absolutely.

[00:19:17] One that's notorious is the basin

[00:19:20] and secondarily lost river up at Beaver Brook.

[00:19:24] Those are notorious.

[00:19:25] Yeah they're always out.

[00:19:27] Yeah, yeah.

[00:19:28] I mean I always have toilet paper in my backpack

[00:19:30] so that's something I carry.

[00:19:32] So if I made it, it's no big deal.

[00:19:34] Yeah, interesting.

[00:19:35] It's a bummer.

[00:19:36] And no pun intended.

[00:19:37] Oh yeah.

[00:19:39] Oh, it's an answer.

[00:19:40] That's a good one.

[00:19:41] And then this was a good time.

[00:19:43] So this story reminded me

[00:19:45] stop of the infamous guy who crawled into the toilet pit

[00:19:49] up in Maine.

[00:19:50] Yeah, what's this?

[00:19:51] You remember the story?

[00:19:52] Vagely.

[00:19:53] What's the deal with that again?

[00:19:54] So this was, so this guy was 49 years old in 2009.

[00:19:59] So he's now 14, 15 years later

[00:20:03] he is now almost a retirement age.

[00:20:06] So 64 year old guy by the name of Gary Moody

[00:20:09] of Pitson Maine in 2005.

[00:20:13] Yeah.

[00:20:14] The forest service had arrested him

[00:20:20] where he was seen climbing out of a toilet

[00:20:23] at the time in 2005.

[00:20:26] He claimed that he was retrieving his wedding ring.

[00:20:32] And then in 2000, but they didn't believe him at the time

[00:20:36] but in 2009, a main man was caught peering up at a girl

[00:20:40] from below an outhouse toilet seat four years ago

[00:20:43] and stands accused of crawling into another pit toilet

[00:20:47] in the white mountain national forest in New Hampshire.

[00:20:50] So this happened on Memorial Day

[00:20:56] and a nine year old boy I guess saw him climbing

[00:21:00] out of the toilet at Hastings Campground.

[00:21:03] And then two other witnesses saw him walking away

[00:21:05] from the outhouse.

[00:21:06] So this guy's got a thing.

[00:21:08] That is so weird man.

[00:21:11] That's so weird.

[00:21:13] But that's, I mean, that's a thing is like

[00:21:14] so if you are going into one of these toilets

[00:21:17] make sure you bring your head lamp and look in

[00:21:19] see what's going on down there.

[00:21:22] Yeah, we should do that.

[00:21:24] I'm so glad at whatever these people are born with

[00:21:27] that are into that stuff.

[00:21:28] Like I'm so glad that I wasn't born with that.

[00:21:30] Yeah, yeah.

[00:21:32] So, oh God.

[00:21:37] Anyway, so I'm glad I'm making stomp laugh.

[00:21:39] He had a rough, rough night.

[00:21:40] He was the technical problem.

[00:21:42] So he's better now.

[00:21:43] So stomp what's up with all trail subscription price?

[00:21:46] You're, you know, like there's some volatility there.

[00:21:49] Yeah, I guess so.

[00:21:50] I noticed it myself.

[00:21:51] So on my Instagram, I would see the all trail

[00:21:54] advertisements scroll by and one day it would say,

[00:21:57] you know, $17.

[00:21:59] So next day it would say, you know, back to $34 and then $25.

[00:22:03] So I don't know what they're doing,

[00:22:04] but what would cause a company to do that?

[00:22:07] Are they in trouble or is there anything cool

[00:22:09] and they're just, I don't get it.

[00:22:11] So I posted a picture there.

[00:22:13] There's one of the comments are saying,

[00:22:15] yeah, you were just 1799 yesterday.

[00:22:17] What's going on?

[00:22:19] I don't get it.

[00:22:19] I don't know, maybe they do like different discounts

[00:22:22] but I will say like guy at GPS, which is what I use.

[00:22:25] I think it's like $59 annually.

[00:22:28] And I've been very happy with it

[00:22:30] and I think that it doesn't have maybe some

[00:22:33] of the social aspects of all trails

[00:22:34] that people like, you know, you can't really like,

[00:22:36] I guess you can, like people do it.

[00:22:38] I don't really pay much attention to it

[00:22:39] but you can like rate hikes and things like that

[00:22:43] but I don't really do any of the social stuff

[00:22:45] like guy or I like it's just like straightforward

[00:22:48] like the map, you can create your roots.

[00:22:51] It tells you where you are on trail

[00:22:53] and you download the map to your phone directly

[00:22:55] and it's all good.

[00:22:56] So for me personally, I recommend guy,

[00:22:58] if all trails wants to sponsor us,

[00:22:59] I may change my mind but otherwise,

[00:23:01] I'm going with guy at GPS.

[00:23:03] So do you get the sense that all trails

[00:23:05] is still in regular use out there?

[00:23:08] Oh yeah, I think by far like they have the best marketing

[00:23:11] out there and like they show up

[00:23:13] on the recommended apps and all that stuff.

[00:23:15] So I think that like guy at GPS,

[00:23:17] I think is for people that are sort of like really into it

[00:23:19] and you know, all trails just shows up

[00:23:23] whenever you're looking for like hiking route recommendations.

[00:23:26] So I think a lot of people use it

[00:23:27] and I also think it has like maybe better free features

[00:23:30] than guy does so that's why it probably is

[00:23:33] is appealing to people.

[00:23:34] Okay, well keep an eye on it.

[00:23:37] This little weird thing.

[00:23:38] I know a lot of people that use it and love it

[00:23:39] so I'm not knocking it

[00:23:41] I just never used it so I really can't say

[00:23:43] but although I've just heard some bad things about

[00:23:45] like people getting lost

[00:23:46] because it takes you around the likes

[00:23:48] and things like that.

[00:23:49] Sometimes.

[00:23:50] Yeah, I've heard that too.

[00:23:51] I think it also like if people do a hike enough

[00:23:55] like they go off trail and they do a hike

[00:23:57] then sometimes it can say that it's a trail

[00:23:59] and it's not really a trail.

[00:24:01] Correct, yeah, I've heard horror stories about that.

[00:24:04] Yeah.

[00:24:05] All right, it's not moving on.

[00:24:07] We've got some, you pulled a couple of articles about

[00:24:12] scary animals being moved closer to humans

[00:24:14] so the current presidential administration

[00:24:17] is accelerating plans to relocate grislies

[00:24:20] into rural Washington

[00:24:22] and the locals are not happy about it.

[00:24:23] We've covered this story in different forms

[00:24:26] over the last year or so

[00:24:30] but in the lower 48 most people do not live around

[00:24:34] these enormous grisly bears

[00:24:36] so there's a little bit of concern

[00:24:39] about life's from I guess people that are in Washington

[00:24:45] so it's called Great Land

[00:24:48] and the National Park Service

[00:24:51] published a final environmental impact statement

[00:24:54] evaluating its option for grisly bear management

[00:24:57] and they're designating grisly bears

[00:24:59] to be released into the US portion

[00:25:01] of the North Cascades ecosystem

[00:25:04] as an experimental population

[00:25:07] that would provide authorized agencies

[00:25:09] with greater management flexibility

[00:25:11] should conflict situations arise.

[00:25:14] So the locals are not happy about this

[00:25:17] and the response is that the status included

[00:25:20] in today's announcement may be the administration's

[00:25:22] attempt to placate the state

[00:25:23] but we continue to stand with the ranchers

[00:25:25] and rural families in Northwest Washington

[00:25:27] who do not want this proposal to move forward at all.

[00:25:31] Dropping new apex predators into rural America's backyards

[00:25:34] is not something the federal government

[00:25:36] should undertake without consensus.

[00:25:39] Yeah, yeah it goes into some arguments against it too.

[00:25:42] I mean they're big 600 pound beasts fast

[00:25:47] they can rip the door off your truck to get your cooler

[00:25:49] they can smell the contents of that cooler

[00:25:51] from the next time zone.

[00:25:54] Yeah, I mean it's pretty wild.

[00:25:57] Yeah this is one of these things where like it's sort of like

[00:26:00] okay from a distance it's like yeah we wanna expand

[00:26:02] the area that the grislies can live in

[00:26:07] and maybe expand their population a little bit

[00:26:09] but then you also like the rubber meets the road

[00:26:11] when you're talking about like people that have little kids

[00:26:14] and people that wanna enjoy the outdoors

[00:26:16] and you're putting in a basically like an apex predator

[00:26:22] that hasn't been in the area for years and years

[00:26:25] and who knows what unforeseen consequences may happen.

[00:26:28] Yeah, yeah everything would alter in the area

[00:26:31] to some degree.

[00:26:32] So interesting story.

[00:26:35] Yup and then speaking of apex predators

[00:26:38] and see everything so man is dead

[00:26:39] and the brother injured after a mountain lion attack

[00:26:42] in California so 21 year old guy died

[00:26:45] his 18 year old brother was injured after a mountain lion

[00:26:48] attacked them in northern California on last Saturday afternoon

[00:26:52] so it happened around 1 p.m 50 miles north east of Sacramento

[00:26:57] the 18 year old was able to call for help

[00:26:58] after being attacked while hunting for shed antlers

[00:27:01] with his brother.

[00:27:02] So these guys will probably pretty experience outdoors

[00:27:07] and if they would do in that type of activity

[00:27:09] and ultimately like the shares office found the mountain lion

[00:27:14] crouching near the 21 year old

[00:27:15] and they fired at the animal which caused it to flee the area

[00:27:20] they rushed to aid the man but share the shares office

[00:27:23] that he was deceased.

[00:27:25] So the 18 year old was sent to the hospital

[00:27:27] and expected to be okay and they were able to find

[00:27:31] the ultimately they were able to trap it

[00:27:33] and kill the animal so they said that this is

[00:27:39] the first fatal attack in 30 years in that particular area.

[00:27:44] So that's scary.

[00:27:47] Scary, very scary.

[00:27:50] All right.

[00:27:51] So one mountain lion taken on two young healthy guys.

[00:27:54] Right, oh yeah, easy peasy.

[00:27:57] Yeah they mean business for sure.

[00:27:59] Yep.

[00:28:00] All right, we're just leasing cats.

[00:28:03] Are you ready for slasher's ear review?

[00:28:19] And next up stop we got,

[00:28:21] we have a story again.

[00:28:23] We've been covering this a little bit so shout out

[00:28:25] to our friend James.

[00:28:26] James, you know he'll send me some stuff too.

[00:28:27] He's kind of like Al.

[00:28:29] He gave me, he's got a pretty good vibe

[00:28:31] to what we're into here.

[00:28:32] So he just sent this article from PC magazine,

[00:28:34] FCC approves rules to help satellite providers

[00:28:38] beam service to your phone.

[00:28:40] So essentially like this is the regulatory approval step

[00:28:45] that's needed to allow the satellite communication

[00:28:49] to connect with the mobile phone providers.

[00:28:53] What this is going to do is to build out the framework

[00:28:57] in order to make sure that the protocols

[00:29:00] between how the satellites connect to the cell towers

[00:29:04] and how the satellite providers are going to work

[00:29:09] with the wireless carriers.

[00:29:12] So the way this is shaping up right now

[00:29:13] is that SpaceX is partnering with T mobile

[00:29:17] to bring cellular starlink service to carriers,

[00:29:20] customers later this year.

[00:29:22] AT&T is working with a startup called AST Space Mobile.

[00:29:26] So AST Space Mobile was out of Texas.

[00:29:29] Their satellites are actually being,

[00:29:31] they pace SpaceX to send their satellites up.

[00:29:36] So they're going to be dedicated specifically

[00:29:38] to this technology around allowing for cell technology

[00:29:42] to connect to satellite.

[00:29:45] And then starlink obviously has a much larger footprint.

[00:29:49] So I don't know what Verizon's doing at this point,

[00:29:52] but essentially like the next step for them is

[00:29:55] they need to just wait for FCC approval

[00:29:57] to commercially launch their services.

[00:30:01] But the regulatory framework promises

[00:30:04] that it should streamline this process.

[00:30:07] It says that there is another step where they are,

[00:30:13] they're going to have to figure out how the satellite companies

[00:30:16] get access to the wireless radio signals.

[00:30:20] So they have to basically purchase part of the spectrum

[00:30:24] in order to make this work.

[00:30:26] Otherwise this is the big step.

[00:30:28] And then the rest of it is just,

[00:30:30] I think process implementation on how to make it happen.

[00:30:33] So this will be pretty good.

[00:30:34] So essentially I would say within the next two to three years,

[00:30:37] when you buy a new cell phone for all these major carriers

[00:30:40] you'll have the option to have satellite connection.

[00:30:44] I still think you're going to have to have a clear sky

[00:30:47] but I do think that we'll be living in a world

[00:30:49] pretty soon where cell connection

[00:30:53] will be an option pretty much anywhere in the world.

[00:30:56] And that's a good thing.

[00:30:57] I mean just it would really be fantastic

[00:31:01] to have that safety in your toolkit there

[00:31:04] if you get in trouble.

[00:31:06] It's like the worst thing ever,

[00:31:07] not having connection to the outside world

[00:31:10] when you're in trouble out there.

[00:31:12] Yeah, yeah, it'll be interesting to see how this disrupts

[00:31:15] like the garments of the world

[00:31:17] where personal locator beacons and things like that

[00:31:20] because I think the cell phone,

[00:31:21] the weakness with the cell phone is the battery life

[00:31:24] and the reliability.

[00:31:26] I think these garment devices are much more reliable

[00:31:28] when it comes to batteries

[00:31:30] and weather and things like that.

[00:31:32] So yeah, no doubt.

[00:31:35] So anyway, cool, but that's good news.

[00:31:38] So I have an update regarding the...

[00:31:42] We've talked about this before but there's a...

[00:31:45] There's a...

[00:31:47] Some updates related to place names

[00:31:49] so we've talked about like...

[00:31:51] There was a group that wanted to change

[00:31:52] Mount Washington's name to Agia Cook.

[00:31:56] Agia Cook?

[00:31:59] Agia Goodjoke.

[00:32:01] Yeah, yeah, whatever.

[00:32:02] So they wanted to change the name back.

[00:32:04] So but there's a bigger thing going on at the federal level.

[00:32:07] So there's the board of geographic names

[00:32:09] is the agency that's responsible for updating

[00:32:14] and changing geographic place names.

[00:32:17] And they tend to move pretty slowly.

[00:32:19] There's a process that you have to go through,

[00:32:21] at the state level and then they'll bring it

[00:32:23] to the board of geographic names

[00:32:25] and then the biggest ones they've done recently

[00:32:27] is essentially like there was an initiative

[00:32:31] to wipe out the word squaw from any place name.

[00:32:34] So they've done that.

[00:32:36] But there's a subcommittee

[00:32:39] called the Reconciliation and Place Names subcommittee

[00:32:43] that was signed into law by the Bureau of Land Management.

[00:32:49] I think that was a Department of Interior.

[00:32:51] Interior basically set this up with the ideas

[00:32:54] that they're gonna accelerate recommendations

[00:32:56] to the board of geographic names

[00:32:58] in order to update any places that have derogatory names.

[00:33:02] So squaw is the example right now.

[00:33:06] So they've had a couple of meetings,

[00:33:09] the most recent meeting they had was in November

[00:33:11] which was in Hawaii.

[00:33:13] And I just noticed that they dropped a bunch of new documents.

[00:33:16] They uploaded the minutes of those meetings

[00:33:18] and then they uploaded a bunch of new documents.

[00:33:20] So I went through this to just get the highlights here.

[00:33:23] So they spent three days on this conference

[00:33:27] and they focused a lot the first day on the history of Hawaii.

[00:33:30] There was a lot of talks about making sure

[00:33:31] that they're engaging with the communities

[00:33:34] that are involved in the place names,

[00:33:36] especially the communities that feel like

[00:33:38] they've been injured by the derogatory place name.

[00:33:41] So a lot about Native Americans

[00:33:43] and making sure that their voices have heard

[00:33:46] and they've sort of like talked about how this is gonna be

[00:33:48] like an ongoing process in evolving.

[00:33:53] And you know, there was some interesting tidbits about Hawaii.

[00:33:57] So they had a couple of historian guys on that were talking

[00:33:59] about like even in the 90s in Hawaii

[00:34:03] they had to write names in places

[00:34:05] that had like, you know, like traditional names

[00:34:08] and they wanted to rename them into native names.

[00:34:11] They didn't even have words to name them.

[00:34:13] So they actually had to make up new native words

[00:34:16] to name these place names even up until like the 1990s

[00:34:20] which I thought was interesting

[00:34:21] because you would think they'd be able to kind of go back

[00:34:23] but they made up a bunch of new names in Hawaii.

[00:34:26] So I thought that was interesting.

[00:34:28] The other thing that they talked about

[00:34:30] is they're going in two paths with this stop.

[00:34:32] So one is going to be a focus on derogatory words.

[00:34:35] So words that are clearly historically

[00:34:37] like can be perceived as being like pejorative towards

[00:34:40] a certain group or offensive to people.

[00:34:43] And then the other path that they've started to talk about

[00:34:48] is looking at the idea of place names

[00:34:53] that might be tied to like military and settler led violence

[00:34:58] aggression against them, indigenous Indians,

[00:35:02] sanctioned capture, transport and enslavement

[00:35:05] of African people as well as related beliefs

[00:35:08] and social policies that reinforce them

[00:35:10] such as anything to do with like pass white supremacy,

[00:35:14] Jim Crow laws, Japanese American incarceration,

[00:35:18] illegal deportation of Mexican citizens

[00:35:21] and many other injustices.

[00:35:23] So I think that it's like that you got this one bucket

[00:35:26] of pejorative words which I think is really easy

[00:35:29] to sort of get wrapped around

[00:35:30] and I'll give you some examples of those in a minute.

[00:35:32] Then you've got this other bucket of sort of

[00:35:35] like let's solve all these historical injustices

[00:35:38] which I think gets into a little bit more difficulty.

[00:35:41] So I'll talk about that in a minute

[00:35:42] but the easier piece of this is the derogatory place names

[00:35:48] and some examples they have is like there's some places

[00:35:50] like Dead Indian Creek, Dead Mexican River

[00:35:55] any words with red man in it, half breed

[00:35:59] any words with bitch, variations of like the word black

[00:36:06] cannibal, Chinaman, Savage, Gypsy, Eskimo,

[00:36:11] Crazy Horse, Scalp, Tramp, Wild Boy, Wild Indian.

[00:36:15] So there are all these different places

[00:36:16] that have those words in them.

[00:36:19] So what they're doing is looking at sort of the background

[00:36:21] on those and making recommendations

[00:36:23] on renaming those and trying to work with like stakeholders

[00:36:27] to figure out like okay well this place used

[00:36:29] to be called Gypsy, something or other

[00:36:31] and now we got to figure out what do we rename it.

[00:36:33] So it seems like a huge headache and a bit of a process

[00:36:38] but that's basically what they talked about.

[00:36:44] The only actual concrete action that came out of this

[00:36:48] was that they sent a single recommendation

[00:36:51] to that they're gonna bring up to the main committee

[00:36:54] to bring to the board of geographic names

[00:36:57] based on the word that's a shortened version of Raccoon.

[00:37:01] You know what I'm talking about?

[00:37:01] Like I don't wanna say it here, I don't know.

[00:37:03] But basically the shortened version of the word Raccoon

[00:37:06] can be used as a racial epitat

[00:37:08] and what they're doing is recommending that place names

[00:37:12] that have that word be replaced

[00:37:15] with the full spelling of Raccoon

[00:37:18] and then but accepting cases with a word

[00:37:21] is actually referencing a surname.

[00:37:23] So there's actually places where it's named that

[00:37:25] because that's the person's last name.

[00:37:28] In those cases they're going to recommend

[00:37:30] that they add the person's first name

[00:37:32] so that it's like the full name instead of the name by itself.

[00:37:38] So that's basically what the,

[00:37:41] so three days in Hawaii and that's the one thing

[00:37:44] that they came up with that they're sure about

[00:37:46] and then everything else is like we gotta keep talking about it.

[00:37:52] But there was also some public comments

[00:37:54] that I thought were interesting.

[00:37:56] So there's a coalition for outdoor renaming and education.

[00:37:59] I may reach out to these people

[00:38:00] and see if they wanna come on.

[00:38:02] Okay.

[00:38:03] They had put in a public comment that again,

[00:38:05] going back to that second piece that I talked about

[00:38:08] where you've got the two paths,

[00:38:09] you've got the derogatory names

[00:38:11] and then you've got the let's fix the historical injustices

[00:38:15] that we perceive happened.

[00:38:17] And this is where it gets into like,

[00:38:19] let's rename out Washington, let's rename the presidential,

[00:38:22] let that type of view.

[00:38:24] So the coalition for outdoor renaming

[00:38:26] said that they feel strongly

[00:38:28] that commemorative place names

[00:38:29] that honor individuals who have perpetrated violence

[00:38:33] and caused harm should be included in the work of the committee.

[00:38:39] So these names condone the violence

[00:38:41] and the harm perpetrated by the individuals being honored

[00:38:44] and make people feel uncomfortable

[00:38:45] and excluded from these places.

[00:38:47] Addressing derogatory commemorative names

[00:38:51] should be included in the committee's work

[00:38:55] and then they volunteer,

[00:38:56] they said we're happy to assist in conducting

[00:38:58] the research and identifying these names.

[00:39:01] So they got their list ready to go.

[00:39:03] So I think this is worth checking out

[00:39:05] because this could be disruptive over time

[00:39:07] because what you could find out is that

[00:39:10] once they get through the derogatory names

[00:39:13] that they start going after historical places,

[00:39:15] one person's view of like somebody

[00:39:17] that did a historical injustice versus another person's view

[00:39:21] maybe completely different.

[00:39:22] So this could make for some good hiking drama for us stop.

[00:39:26] Yeah, keep an eye on it.

[00:39:28] Yeah, fascinating.

[00:39:29] I know the stuff drives you crazy

[00:39:30] but I find it interesting.

[00:39:33] It's interesting if it's done in a fair and honest manner

[00:39:39] without destroying and eradicating

[00:39:41] the history involved with it

[00:39:43] and that's the problem I think.

[00:39:45] You know, you're just obliterating

[00:39:47] some of these historical instances

[00:39:50] that can actually teach us lessons for the future.

[00:39:54] Yeah, and it's interesting for me

[00:39:55] because I like to see how the bread is made sometimes

[00:39:58] and it's interesting to sort of read the minutes,

[00:40:00] go through how everything is,

[00:40:03] it's like a three day meeting in Hawaii

[00:40:05] with like 40, 50 people attending

[00:40:07] and the one thing that comes out of it

[00:40:09] is just sort of a resolution to update

[00:40:12] the pejorative word that's used for Raccoon

[00:40:16] and then they've got to talk about everything else

[00:40:17] but they all get a nice trip out of it.

[00:40:19] Yeah, taxpayer funded, right?

[00:40:22] I'm assuming I can't wait to pay for that one.

[00:40:25] Right, that's right.

[00:40:27] I just think there are bigger issues in the world

[00:40:30] at the moment but that's okay, we'll let them have their fun.

[00:40:33] Not in our world, stop.

[00:40:35] Yeah, you gotta pay attention to this for the listeners.

[00:40:38] So moving on, so solar eclipse news here, stop.

[00:40:41] We got everything you need to know about April 8th.

[00:40:45] It's just a follow up on our last discussion about that.

[00:40:48] It is coming up close, but this sort of cool.

[00:40:52] It does sort of explain the path of totality.

[00:40:56] Looks like Lancaster's gonna be huge,

[00:40:58] Stuartstown, Coldbrook, Errol, Pittsburgh

[00:41:01] and it also goes into where you can go to look

[00:41:05] where you can find eyeglasses

[00:41:10] but I suppose you could do that too

[00:41:11] but what kind of eyeglasses you should be wearing for this?

[00:41:15] So you don't burn out your eyeballs

[00:41:16] and that actually goes into times too.

[00:41:19] So partial clips beginning at 2.16 PM, et cetera, et cetera.

[00:41:24] Pretty cool, it's coming up quick.

[00:41:25] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:41:26] I saw some articles somebody

[00:41:28] that said like they're asking people to stay

[00:41:29] on the highways and not the back roads.

[00:41:33] I saw somebody who had said that right now

[00:41:34] it's trending towards like 80% likelihood

[00:41:37] that it's gonna be like overcast skies.

[00:41:39] So who knows?

[00:41:41] That's what I said like weeks ago.

[00:41:43] I mean just the pattern we've been in

[00:41:44] has just been wild for cloud overcast

[00:41:47] and whatever.

[00:41:49] Anyhow, it's just gross.

[00:41:50] Crazy.

[00:41:51] Crazy.

[00:41:52] So all right, Stomp.

[00:41:55] And then you said that there potentially was like a boom

[00:41:58] in Conway and then maybe an earthquake in Gilford,

[00:42:01] is that what's happening?

[00:42:02] Yeah, apparently there was a earthquake

[00:42:06] in Gilford measuring 2.2

[00:42:09] but at the same time or proximate to that,

[00:42:11] there was reports of this boom

[00:42:13] or multiple booms that happened in Conway.

[00:42:16] And I just find it interesting.

[00:42:18] I'm not sure 100%.

[00:42:19] I tried to see if it was connected

[00:42:21] but generally you can anticipate somewhat

[00:42:25] of a colorless war maybe?

[00:42:28] I don't know, but it's a ripple effect.

[00:42:30] So if you have a quake in one area

[00:42:32] you can certainly have impact elsewhere.

[00:42:36] And some of these fault lines in Hampshire

[00:42:39] do sort of go that direction north south.

[00:42:41] So I don't, I was just curious.

[00:42:44] I've not heard anything in terms of people reporting rumblings

[00:42:49] or anything like that but just this odd boom that happened.

[00:42:54] So yeah, it seems like it's been pretty consistent

[00:42:57] that we've had these little tremors for the last few years

[00:43:02] so I wonder maybe the big ones come and stop.

[00:43:05] I don't know, not sure.

[00:43:07] That's fun to think about.

[00:43:09] It sure is, hopefully I won't be around

[00:43:11] but speaking of the big one massive avalanche

[00:43:14] on Mount Washington.

[00:43:15] Yeah, so this weekend we had some big snow

[00:43:21] and then on Tuesday March 20th

[00:43:24] there was an avalanche that crashed

[00:43:25] through Tarkam and Raveen tossing like trees dozens of feet

[00:43:30] and somebody had videotape like the aftermath

[00:43:34] and noted that it was a pretty powerful one.

[00:43:36] So the destruction and distribution of tree debris

[00:43:43] from the powder cloud produced a lot of destruction here.

[00:43:49] It said trees with only 20 yards.

[00:43:51] You the side of the avalanche degree

[00:43:52] and 40 yards downhill.

[00:43:54] So yeah, pretty interesting.

[00:43:57] Yeah, yeah.

[00:43:58] And if you're a huge football fan like me,

[00:44:00] you know what yards are?

[00:44:02] You know, 20 yards, 40 yards.

[00:44:04] Yeah, it's talking my language.

[00:44:05] You know, you threw me off when you said

[00:44:09] a huge football fan here confused.

[00:44:13] That would be a joke.

[00:44:14] Yeah, all right.

[00:44:16] And now speaking of a joke,

[00:44:17] I played a little joke on you

[00:44:19] with the Instagram page here, stomps.

[00:44:21] So like I said, I don't really go

[00:44:23] on the Instagram that often but occasionally I do

[00:44:25] and I think I screw stomps up.

[00:44:26] So I'm gonna stay away from it moving forward.

[00:44:29] Now I just have to be a little bit more aware of it

[00:44:31] but I think that may be the issue

[00:44:33] because I do get these letters or messages, letters

[00:44:37] from certain listeners saying,

[00:44:39] hey, did you get my message or whatever?

[00:44:41] I'm like new or they just come across as not highlighted

[00:44:47] meaning that you would probably seen them already.

[00:44:48] So they just don't catch my attention.

[00:44:52] It is what it is.

[00:44:54] Yes, yep, yeah, a little funny.

[00:44:57] And a whole stop.

[00:44:58] I have this, like this keeps coming up on my Facebook feed.

[00:45:01] So I don't know this guy but I've seen his name

[00:45:03] around quite a bit.

[00:45:04] There's a hiker named Chase Hall.

[00:45:06] Do you know Chase Hall?

[00:45:07] Doesn't ring a bell.

[00:45:09] Nope, he's a gritter and he's finishing his grid

[00:45:14] this weekend.

[00:45:15] Oh no, actually he's finishing it like next month

[00:45:18] on Mount Jefferson.

[00:45:20] So kudos to him.

[00:45:22] Congratulations.

[00:45:23] That's a big accomplishment.

[00:45:25] I feel like there's been a lot of people

[00:45:26] finishing their grid lately.

[00:45:27] I think this is like the fourth of fifth person

[00:45:29] that's finishing it up.

[00:45:31] Yeah, and for listen is that don't know the grid is

[00:45:35] hiking all 48, 4,000 footers in every month of the year.

[00:45:41] They don't have to be done in order.

[00:45:43] You can just spread them out as you see fit

[00:45:45] but yeah, that's quite an accomplishment.

[00:45:47] So it ends up being what?

[00:45:48] 576 hikes.

[00:45:50] 576 hikes will chase all congratulations to you.

[00:45:54] Yeah, that's awesome.

[00:45:55] Massive accomplishment.

[00:45:57] Yeah.

[00:45:59] But yeah, anyway, did I interrupt you on the Instagram

[00:46:02] or I just promised I'll stay away from it?

[00:46:04] No.

[00:46:05] That's all good.

[00:46:06] I'll just have to pay more attention.

[00:46:08] Okay, so Harry Potter expressed the spend service.

[00:46:13] What is this stuff?

[00:46:14] I didn't even know what I didn't even know.

[00:46:15] I mean, I've been on the hotter.

[00:46:16] I've been on the real road at the universal

[00:46:18] but I didn't know this was a real one.

[00:46:20] Yeah, isn't it funny?

[00:46:21] It was the actual train that they modeled in the movie.

[00:46:24] So apparently this is in dire straits

[00:46:29] and it's health and safety concerns

[00:46:32] and they're trying to slam the doors on this 1950 carriage.

[00:46:37] You remember it from the movie, right?

[00:46:39] I brought it.

[00:46:40] I posted this because you're playing that game still, right?

[00:46:43] Or have you beat the boss?

[00:46:46] I haven't beat the final boss yet.

[00:46:48] I've been doing side quests all the more.

[00:46:51] Yeah, yeah.

[00:46:52] I think I have like two more quests to do

[00:46:54] before I get to the final boss

[00:46:56] which his name is Ran Rock in this one.

[00:46:59] He's a goblin.

[00:47:01] Interesting, interesting.

[00:47:03] All right, well, you go my friend there.

[00:47:06] It may be over.

[00:47:08] This iconic train may be toast.

[00:47:10] Well, that's too bad.

[00:47:11] That's too bad.

[00:47:12] Okay.

[00:47:13] Slashers hiking topic of the week.

[00:47:26] All right, stop.

[00:47:27] So we're gonna do a little mini segment here

[00:47:29] on summer hiking tips.

[00:47:31] So we've got a segment coming up with Bryce in a minute.

[00:47:34] So I just wanna get a little mini segment out of the way.

[00:47:36] So summer hiking tips.

[00:47:39] Okay.

[00:47:39] All right.

[00:47:40] So summer hiking tips.

[00:47:41] So a couple of things that you gotta,

[00:47:43] I gotta get rid of some of the stuff in my pack

[00:47:46] and add some new ones.

[00:47:47] So I just wanna remind the listeners,

[00:47:48] so you need to get a water filter.

[00:47:51] So I recommend practicing starting your hike

[00:47:54] with minimal water.

[00:47:56] Do a little research ahead of time.

[00:47:58] Take a look at the map.

[00:47:59] See if you've got like a drainage or a river

[00:48:01] that you're gonna hike next to.

[00:48:03] Look for those water spots.

[00:48:05] Go online, ask your friends.

[00:48:08] Whatever you need to do to get that info.

[00:48:14] And then what you wanna do is start with no water

[00:48:17] and then get to the point where you sort of like

[00:48:20] the last spot where you can get a water source

[00:48:23] and then use your water filter in practice

[00:48:26] basically starting your hikes with minimal water

[00:48:28] and then filling up on those water spots.

[00:48:32] So okay, I think that's a good thing to do.

[00:48:34] So you can start light and then that way

[00:48:37] you kinda get used to sort of integrating that.

[00:48:40] I like that too because that's kinda like the equivalent

[00:48:42] of taking off your heavy gear and winter hike after you start

[00:48:48] sweating, this is like the same idea.

[00:48:50] It's like all right, a mile in,

[00:48:52] you're gonna get your water.

[00:48:53] Right? Okay, yeah.

[00:48:55] Yep, so start light and then it also just like,

[00:48:58] I feel like the water drinking out of like the cold spring

[00:49:01] is way better than just filling up water at home

[00:49:04] and getting it.

[00:49:05] So yeah, absolutely.

[00:49:07] Nothing like it.

[00:49:07] Yeah, just the water hits differently.

[00:49:10] So I also recommend that you get a bandana

[00:49:13] or some sort of a rag where you attach it here,

[00:49:16] you show the strap and that way,

[00:49:19] you've got your volkluc gear to deal with your back sweat

[00:49:22] but you've got your bandana to deal with your brow sweat.

[00:49:27] You know, the bandana is definitely helpful for that.

[00:49:29] The other is get the bug spray, the bug net,

[00:49:33] the deer fly tape for your hat.

[00:49:35] So I have like a little thing of,

[00:49:38] I forget what it is, like an orange product.

[00:49:40] It's like a two ounce bug spray

[00:49:42] and then I also have the bug net.

[00:49:44] I prefer to wear a hat with the bug net

[00:49:46] so like a baseball hat

[00:49:47] and then the bug net gives you a little bit of clearance

[00:49:49] on your face and then for deer fly season

[00:49:52] I have those sticky tape things that I put

[00:49:54] on the top of my hat.

[00:49:55] So I mentioned the file clues frame.

[00:50:00] So like I always have that on my back pack.

[00:50:02] I'm not sweating on my back.

[00:50:04] And then trail runners.

[00:50:06] So right now there's some pretty good seals

[00:50:08] on trail runners so I recommend

[00:50:10] if you're doing a lot of hiking,

[00:50:12] if you get a good deal,

[00:50:13] like I use Brooks Cascadia

[00:50:15] they're usually like $135 a pair.

[00:50:18] I just saw them on sale for like $67

[00:50:20] so I bought like two or three pairs of them.

[00:50:23] Yeah, so I just have them in boxes and use them

[00:50:26] and then permatherin for ticks

[00:50:29] so treat all your gear for ticks

[00:50:32] and then I also recommend a good pair of sunglasses

[00:50:36] and then a rain cover for your pack.

[00:50:39] So those are some of the things

[00:50:41] I was just digging through my gear tonight

[00:50:42] and I was looking to say like,

[00:50:43] alright these are all the things that I could add.

[00:50:47] Rain covers my new pack has one

[00:50:49] that I've yet to try it out yet.

[00:50:51] I'll let you know how it works.

[00:50:54] Yeah and I typically like try to avoid hiking

[00:50:56] in the rain when I can

[00:50:57] but sometimes I'll hike in the rain

[00:50:58] and I got caught out even with this ultimate

[00:51:01] direction fast pack which is pretty light.

[00:51:04] I got caught out in the rain

[00:51:05] and it started getting wet

[00:51:06] like it gets ridiculously heavy

[00:51:09] so having that rain cover can be good

[00:51:16] but that's it, what else did I miss?

[00:51:17] Anything, Storm?

[00:51:19] Oh, let's see, did you add sunscreen?

[00:51:24] I didn't add that so that's a good one.

[00:51:27] I don't typically use that stuff anyway.

[00:51:30] I'd rather just wear proper clothing or hat

[00:51:34] just to keep the sun off me

[00:51:36] but that's something that can come in handy.

[00:51:38] Yeah, yeah, pretty good, yeah it's a good start.

[00:51:42] For me it's super important.

[00:51:44] Yeah, yeah I agree.

[00:51:46] I think the water filter one is the big one

[00:51:48] is like do yourself a favor start light

[00:51:51] you know get really comfortable

[00:51:53] about like figuring out your water source

[00:51:56] and just knowing that when you hit your water source

[00:51:59] perfectly and you start light

[00:52:02] and then you fill up with that cold river water

[00:52:08] it feels good, it feels like you're a real outdoorsy person.

[00:52:13] Cute you.

[00:52:15] Right, right, all right so then the next thing I had here

[00:52:18] Stomp was I wanted to just remind people about Evans Not

[00:52:22] so Evans Notches like the farthest eastern section

[00:52:25] of the White Mountains that goes into

[00:52:28] a little section goes into Maine.

[00:52:30] It's 113 so you get there,

[00:52:32] you drive through like Fryberg and then

[00:52:36] you come up 113 and

[00:52:39] that entire road there is like an amazing drive

[00:52:41] it's like a one lane, a two-brain road

[00:52:44] that cuts to Evans Notches

[00:52:47] and it's like a really beautiful area

[00:52:50] so the recommended hikes that I tell people in Evans Notches

[00:52:53] so you've got the bald face loop

[00:52:55] which we've always talked about a bunch of times

[00:52:57] that's a great area connected in and around

[00:53:00] the bald faces, you've got Eagle Crag

[00:53:03] you've got Eastman Mountain as well

[00:53:06] so you can actually do like three different hikes over there

[00:53:08] or you can combine them all into one mega hike, mega hike

[00:53:12] there's also the Emerald Pool

[00:53:13] and then Chandler Gorge that you can connect with

[00:53:17] when you're going over the bald faces

[00:53:18] so you know that's like two, three hikes put together

[00:53:22] however you want and then I recommend the Royces

[00:53:27] so East and West Royce that's a great hike

[00:53:31] really like you're never gonna see anybody out there

[00:53:33] which is good so if you wanna be alone

[00:53:35] or you wanna not see a lot of crowds

[00:53:37] then the Royces are perfect

[00:53:39] then you get Blueberry Mountain

[00:53:41] and then my personal second favorite

[00:53:43] behind the bald faces is Caribou Mountain

[00:53:46] which is a really unique place

[00:53:47] so Caribou Mountains in Maine technically

[00:53:50] and it's got these like ledges that go on forever

[00:53:54] it's very much like sort of Shelburn, Mariah

[00:53:58] or like Carter ledges you're going up a bunch of core

[00:54:02] it just like continues on these different ledges

[00:54:04] that have sort of three separating them

[00:54:06] but it's mostly you feel like your bug tree line

[00:54:08] the whole time.

[00:54:10] Yeah that's beautiful

[00:54:11] yeah that was a nice time

[00:54:12] I gotta take you up there

[00:54:13] you haven't been up to Caribou have you?

[00:54:16] I have not, I've done the bald faces

[00:54:17] but the others I have not liked

[00:54:21] yeah I gotta get that's my mission

[00:54:22] I gotta get stop up to Evan's notch

[00:54:24] yeah sounds great

[00:54:27] yeah I'm down

[00:54:29] we all know that hiking a mountain can be hard at times

[00:54:32] so here's a corny dad joke to help you get over it

[00:54:37] but I'm bum

[00:54:42] alright stop so this is the part of the show

[00:54:44] where we do a dad joke

[00:54:50] what you got

[00:54:51] why did the Clydesdale give the pony a glass of water?

[00:54:59] I give up

[00:55:00] because he was a little horse

[00:55:04] get it the Clydesdale's a big horse

[00:55:05] the pony's a little horse

[00:55:07] gives it a glass of water

[00:55:09] did not done

[00:55:10] I love your explanations

[00:55:12] like okay

[00:55:12] yeah yeah I have to make sure that everybody understands

[00:55:15] so

[00:55:18] that's great

[00:55:30] hey what's that sound?

[00:55:32] it must be time for the pop culture segment

[00:55:35] with Mike and stop

[00:55:43] all right now this is the part of the show

[00:55:47] where we talk about pop culture here

[00:55:49] stop so the only thing I got going on here

[00:55:51] is I'm still on my Harry Potter kick

[00:55:52] but also I've been watching three-body problem

[00:55:55] and for the listeners

[00:55:56] I watched the show it's on Netflix

[00:55:59] and I was like immediately as I got a tech

[00:56:01] stomp

[00:56:01] I was three shows in

[00:56:03] and then I texted him I was like hey

[00:56:04] stomp you get to check out this show

[00:56:06] and he's like I'm watching it right now

[00:56:07] so great lines think alike

[00:56:10] yeah it's pretty cool

[00:56:11] yeah Mrs. Nopin I watch it

[00:56:13] we're on the for with the tail end of the first or second

[00:56:16] but yeah it's very very interesting

[00:56:19] yeah I can't put it together

[00:56:21] I mean it's mixing up so many different topics

[00:56:24] yeah it gets a little clearer after the fourth episode

[00:56:27] it's like very clear

[00:56:28] it's like it's not what you think it is initially

[00:56:31] it's not like this political thriller

[00:56:33] it's a true sci-fi type of show

[00:56:36] oh it's great

[00:56:37] so far so good

[00:56:38] yeah I'd recommend it

[00:56:40] all right stomp time to do a sponsor here

[00:56:43] Valclus gear

[00:56:45] Valclus gear a very special guest tonight

[00:56:47] so does your backpack not provide enough ventilation

[00:56:51] does your back sweat too much when backpacking

[00:56:53] as you know sweat can be extremely uncomfortable on the trails

[00:56:57] plus sweat is a serious risk factor

[00:57:00] in both hot and cold climates

[00:57:02] as your clothes get wet your core temperature

[00:57:04] can dramatically fluctuate

[00:57:06] this can result in hypothermia

[00:57:08] heat exhaustion

[00:57:09] and dehydration

[00:57:11] let's not forget very uncomfortable

[00:57:13] today is your lucky day because we have good news for you

[00:57:17] there's a piece of gear that solves the sweat and ventilation problem

[00:57:20] making your backpack more comfortable

[00:57:23] Valclus gear is ultra light backpack ventilation frame

[00:57:26] this ultra light frame

[00:57:28] is a backpack accessory that easily installs in your favorite pack sizes

[00:57:33] 15 liters to 45 liters

[00:57:35] and creates a ventilating airflow gap between you and your pack

[00:57:39] it's also ultra light weighing around three ounces

[00:57:42] that's equivalent to a pair of wool socks

[00:57:45] with our hiking and hot or cold temps

[00:57:47] the ultra light backpack ventilation frame from Valclus gear

[00:57:51] is a real game change regarding airflow and ventilation

[00:57:54] so visit valclusgear.com to order an ultra light ventilation frame today

[00:58:00] use promo code slasher SLASR to enjoy a $5 discount

[00:58:04] plus let them know that my can stop sent you

[00:58:08] and uh

[00:58:10] you can just a reminder you can get your free stickers at ski fanatics off exit 28

[00:58:14] in campton or down off of daskem road in Massachusetts root 93

[00:58:19] and and over at spinner's pizza parlor

[00:58:22] um direct message us if anybody would like to advertise with slasher

[00:58:28] we have a whole bunch of different options for you

[00:58:30] and if you want to support the podcast in a different way

[00:58:33] you can always buy us a coffee at the slasher

[00:58:36] buy me a coffee site which just helps us pay the bills every month

[00:58:42] very good very good stuff though this is the part of the show where

[00:58:46] we talk about what beer we're drinking so what do you got going on

[00:58:50] i get nothing i'm drinking liquid ivy at the moment

[00:58:53] yeah you are you are you start let you down

[00:58:55] that's okay um you will let me down some other way anyway so

[00:58:58] this matter um i'm drinking reckless brewing i've got a

[00:59:02] pretentious hopper uh 7 percent new England IPA it's pretty good

[00:59:09] well with all the uh you know feces talk earlier pretentious hopper that's

[00:59:14] that's that's good make sense i think they're going

[00:59:18] i don't think that's a reference in the but i think it's a it is a frog in the front

[00:59:22] so i think it's like a oh it's like an aristocratic frog

[00:59:26] not that type of hopper it's just different hopper got it that's different hopper

[00:59:31] steve from reckless is going to yell at you yeah i'm sure he is

[00:59:36] so uh all right and then this is the part of the show where we normally talk about

[00:59:40] recent hikes but we haven't been on any recent hikes because i'm the only one that actually

[00:59:43] hikes around here and i didn't get out last weekend so

[00:59:47] yes and uh i was snowed in so i got nothing in i saw those pictures man i saw some of the

[00:59:56] pictures you posted like that it looked like you were like to shovel the the taco out for a while

[01:00:02] yeah my ticoma look like a Ford F-150 it looked like it was four feet taller

[01:00:09] it was ridiculous we got a good two and a half feet of snow i think yeah yeah um the only crazy

[01:00:15] thing here is that we usually get plowed out and they didn't show up until about three p.m.

[01:00:20] on sunday really um yeah it was crazy so while the mass mass people that come up

[01:00:27] and utilize these condominiums up here at times they were all stuck it was a riot watching

[01:00:31] trying to get out of here oh that's well i know my friend Jonathan so i talk about Jonathan

[01:00:37] and Tom a lot so Jonathan had messaged me and he was like i'm going up to uh cragg

[01:00:43] camp up in the rmc huts this weekend so i think they went up on friday to stay over friday night

[01:00:50] is that when the snow happened was a friday night or saturday uh late friday and two saturday morning

[01:00:57] and straight through you know sunday morning basically yeah i don't know what the timing was um

[01:01:02] yeah maybe it was friday and they um they were i can't remember but the like the pictures

[01:01:09] that he posted about that so i was like i was like yeah i'm not doing that in the snow storm

[01:01:13] i like to stick around i was like it's gonna be a rough day so um the pictures he posted were just

[01:01:19] brutal like them breaking trail and i think he said it took him like an hour to go like a mile on

[01:01:26] this one section but then when they got back their minivan was completely snowed in oh man

[01:01:33] did they get out or what he said online i didn't talk to him but he i saw he posted online

[01:01:38] he said that they parked close to the exit because they figured that they were going to have some

[01:01:42] challenges like getting out so they were starting to shovel themselves out and a good samaritan

[01:01:47] plow driver came by and actually plowed them plowed them out which they were eternally grateful for

[01:01:54] oh yeah i can imagine yeah so but yeah they was buried at apple h which is not fun

[01:02:00] sometimes i get the feeling that some of these uh plow guys that block people in doing

[01:02:09] on purpose well i don't know he's a friday by guy. Well, there's this guy that was um you know

[01:02:15] a good samaritan so sure sure thanks to him

[01:02:25] it's time for slasher's notable hike of the week if you want to be considered for the hike of the

[01:02:31] week simply tag slasher on your social media post

[01:02:37] um all right stop we got some notable hikes here yeah let's go so we had a problem here because

[01:02:43] we only have like five or six and Dave shits in the woods is two of them so now it's like no

[01:02:48] how do i like this what's the story i mean i already know what i'm gonna do here so

[01:02:53] all right so if you want a tag slasher to be considered for the hike of the week

[01:02:58] do someone on our instagram page and uh we will consider you for the hike of the week

[01:03:04] so this week we have uh d delay uh who hiked velvet rocks trail which is northbound at

[01:03:13] e not exactly sure where but there was very very stunning for pictures

[01:03:18] davis shits in the woods tagged us for mount misery

[01:03:23] me and hill towns mountain and then also tagged us the second time for night's hill rose hill east and west

[01:03:33] lizfe i ten miles in miaca state park in florida do you know where this is mike

[01:03:42] uh i don't know okay all right all right i'm giving her the notable hike though

[01:03:55] why for hiking in florida because like you know you deserve a medal of honor for hiking in that

[01:04:01] place it's like smelly and miserable and gross yeah crocodiles and all that yeah exactly this

[01:04:07] looks pretty though i'm looking at it online it looks actually really nice okay so a couple more so

[01:04:13] cocoa gorm the wave in arizona as number 17 of the 52 hike challenge that this person's been

[01:04:24] undertaking so very nice very nice okay and then and then finally davis shits in the woods

[01:04:30] height green mountain in clearmont parker mountain and far hill okay davis out there killing it

[01:04:38] as usual so yeah so davis has three out of five

[01:04:44] this emissions are given it to Liz um i will say they'll like shout out to green mountain and clear

[01:04:54] mont so i think that's the one that i'm thinking of where it's the uh yeah it's the tower that overlooks

[01:05:00] oint lake ocipia i believe it's a pretty cool that's a pretty cool mountain it's kind of over

[01:05:05] overlooked a little bit but it's got like a nice trail system and it's got a cool like a fire tower

[01:05:11] on top right right all right sounds good so what i think is going on here is davis trying the volume

[01:05:20] effect he's going for high volume in terms of tags and he's probably direct messaging

[01:05:27] everybody telling them not to tag us anymore so that's true what he needs to do is go on

[01:05:34] he needs to go on a hike with somebody else and then we give them the notable hike and then he

[01:05:41] comes out at a later date and says he was actually with them yeah that's probably a good tag

[01:05:47] that would be a good move yeah go over he can go like somebody will go to mount Everest and

[01:05:54] dav could go with them and then we'll give it to them and dav can be like i was there too

[01:06:00] awesome all right so stop now we're gonna go into a um a segment here with our friend brice from

[01:06:06] foul clue skier so brice is here to give us a little bit of an update on all the doings and i'm kind

[01:06:10] of interested like he's sort of a good example of a um of a like a hiking gear company that's

[01:06:17] going through like some decent growth and he's gonna talk a little bit about like the growing

[01:06:22] pains and like talk about some of the new product offerings and just give us a basic update so

[01:06:26] it's interesting like you know that the idea of getting i i always think about like oh this idea

[01:06:31] for a gear or something like that it's not as easy as people think so brice is gonna give us like

[01:06:35] a sort of a background on what he's been up to and um you know we'll learn a little bit about

[01:06:40] like some future plans for him and then uh we'll we'll we'll hop out on the other side and finish

[01:06:46] up with search and rescue news all right let's check her out

[01:07:09] it's time for slasher's guest of the week very cool very cool

[01:07:17] all right so uh so brice we've uh you've moved inside now that uh we've gotten a little bit of a

[01:07:29] tour of the uh the area here so i'm jealous you're in a beautiful spot but um we did want you to just

[01:07:36] um why did you introduce yourself for the listeners again so obviously we talk about vockluse

[01:07:41] gear and um you know the ventilation frame and everything quite a lot but why don't you just

[01:07:46] introduce yourself for everybody as a reminder absolutely so i'm the the the president of

[01:07:53] vokus backpack ventilation gear um i'm out here in arizona and um i i found you guys off of

[01:08:00] instagram a little over a year ago and uh we we we connected i guess we we have the

[01:08:06] the same interests of enjoying the outdoors but at the same time wondering if from there's a

[01:08:11] better way to to backpack um with maybe a little bit more ventilation um as everybody probably

[01:08:18] knows you know external frames have been around for quite a while however it doesn't seem that

[01:08:25] there's really been any innovation in this space so um uh a few years ago i i thought you know

[01:08:30] is there a more effective and lighter way to to create a an external frame that maximizes

[01:08:38] ventilation for your favorite backpack and um through iteration after iteration uh i came up with

[01:08:45] what i call just simply the ultra light backpack ventilation frame so no uh the pretty simple name

[01:08:51] and then came across you guys and um was delighted to to to be a sponsor uh last year and again excited

[01:08:58] to be a sponsor this year to uh to raise awareness i guess uh i guess uh my company and the product

[01:09:05] uh but also uh recognizing that uh ventilation is an issue both in cold and warm weather so you

[01:09:11] guys are up in the cold uh you're dealing with hypothermia i'm here in the in in the south dealing

[01:09:17] with dehydration so that's um it's it's definitely something that's uh taking interest of a lot

[01:09:23] of people because um you know i'm excited to say that you know uh last year was um you know

[01:09:30] a great year for for voklu's gear backpack ventilation frame and this year is is becoming even more

[01:09:36] successful so i'm just happy that everybody out there is interested in uh what we're trying to do

[01:09:43] here and and that simply uh increased the ventilation of on your favorite backpack so that

[01:09:48] way you can enjoy the outdoors a lot more awesome and so i have a question we're going to get into

[01:09:52] the details of some of the products um evolution and and news around vol clues but uh one question

[01:09:58] i have is now that you've like gotten embedded with us crazy new wangliners and you know we're not as

[01:10:02] mean as as people sort of make us out to be like are you do you have any plans to come to new

[01:10:07] wanglin anytime are you gonna actually check out our mountains at some point

[01:10:12] it as soon as the i did the snow melts and you've got a bit warmer weather i've probably

[01:10:17] probably be something of interest yeah so uh out here in um in scenic the the uh i i definitely

[01:10:24] enjoy warmer weather um every on again i do go up the flagstaff to to to ski and enjoy the snow but

[01:10:32] not much for uh for for the frigid cold but yes it is it is on my list of things to do because um

[01:10:39] obviously being a sponsor with you guys um i get a lot of sales up there and i get a lot of

[01:10:44] followers on instagram and facebook uh i've met a lot of great people albeit it's on social media

[01:10:51] but definitely it's on the list of things to do yeah yeah we gotta get you up here and uh we'll

[01:10:55] get you in a nice uh you can you can do a stress test and we'll get you on a nice august day

[01:11:00] we'll take you up on the fringonia notch you'll be covered in sweat and bugs but not on your back

[01:11:06] only only on your frok um so it'll be good and then do you with all the work you're doing do you

[01:11:12] ever get any time to actually get out and i'm assuming you do some hiking yourself to test the

[01:11:17] test the product and whatnot but have you done any any big hikes recently?

[01:11:22] so what i try and do is um go out and hike with people to test the frame um i found that

[01:11:30] one of the obviously when you're you're creating a gear piece of equipment and you're trying to

[01:11:37] to obviously sell it and promote it i find myself more and more uh in front of a computer or in

[01:11:43] in in meeting rooms etc and it's kind of taking me away from the outdoors and i thought well that

[01:11:48] you know this is this is contrary to to what i'm trying to do is um i got into this because i do

[01:11:54] like the outdoors so what i do do is is i try and hike at least two or three times a week uh

[01:12:01] finding people here locally in um in phoenix who'd like to test the ventilation frame so um

[01:12:07] very regularly you'll you'll see me on the trails either in the uh in the mictaille preserve

[01:12:12] if you're familiar with phoenix or the phoenix mountain preserve which is kind of more central to

[01:12:18] phoenix or up in that decayed creek area um there's just a lot of great places to hike when you think

[01:12:24] desert uh there's a whole lot more i was definitely um ignorant before i moved out here i'm not

[01:12:30] originally from here but there's a whole lot to do so i'm out on the trails quite regularly

[01:12:35] uh getting people to test the frame and um it it's one of the best parts of um what i do

[01:12:40] yeah i will say i do get like a uh a fear amount of questions like people will ask me

[01:12:45] and i'll be at a break or something i'll take it off and people like oh what is that thing

[01:12:49] and i'll i'll explain to them and i actually i have my rig that i uh i got set up so for me

[01:12:57] i use it on my um my day pack it's a 25 liter ultimate direction fast pack so when i've got this

[01:13:05] thing set up with my snow shoes right now um but you can see i've got the older model here

[01:13:12] you've you've since like kind of evolved this where it's a little bit lighter and

[01:13:16] and there's less i guess material on it but i i like this i find that it's like super comfortable

[01:13:21] i never really notice it honestly on my on my back itself it's uh but the only time i do notice

[01:13:28] it is when i'm hiking sometimes and i get like a cold breeze and i can feel it on my back and my

[01:13:33] back does get a little bit cold but that's what that's the way i know that i'm like all right well

[01:13:37] this thing's working because it's keeping me dry well that's good to hear that's good to hear

[01:13:43] true yeah so it's not uh not bad i my daughter's got one too and we've been really happy with it

[01:13:49] but in price i think you you mentioned you've gotten some attention from um different places like

[01:13:55] you said gear junkie has flagged your your product is one of its recommended products for 2024

[01:14:00] yeah absolutely so did the the started a year kind of hit the ground running quicker than we

[01:14:07] anticipated um so we would you know what we had planned you know slow instead he gets you to

[01:14:11] top of the mountain but um in January out of the blue gear junkie uh rentus is one of the

[01:14:18] what they call it their their best up and coming gear up and coming gears of 2024

[01:14:24] and so and you know i was familiar with gear junkie and obviously i was following them and i knew

[01:14:28] that a big presence but uh it's not until you you you you get a little bit of uh you know in

[01:14:34] you know well we did not ask them for it we had no idea that they were going to do this but

[01:14:38] it kind of hit us in a in a with a really big wave of um of of of orders and we hadn't anticipated

[01:14:45] that i thought it would be so you know slow in study until until the summer and and we've got

[01:14:51] to work um extensively in the background now if there's any customer out there they've probably

[01:14:57] recognized you know longer to longer delays than normal uh and it's just in a my sincerest apologies

[01:15:03] to all all all all my customers out there uh i'm very grateful i've i've recognized how

[01:15:08] how how kind people are uh with and and their understanding because um you know i i was speaking on

[01:15:14] the phone without with a lady uh yesterday uh she was she's out in Georgia and that she's been

[01:15:20] waiting uh take us some of the colors keep running out and some of the colors don't and it's

[01:15:27] it's it's a bit crazy but she's very nice she's been waiting for about two months and i said you

[01:15:31] know we're just around the corner and i've been telling that to my customers quite a while but

[01:15:36] we've had to get into a new facility we've had to to to to get new frames uh more quickly than

[01:15:41] anticipated uh we've had to increase the team uh it's it's um you know this is not my little violin

[01:15:48] you know you know you know saying you know it's really difficult it's a lot of fun but i've

[01:15:52] recognized that well this is um this is more challenging than anticipated but at the other day

[01:15:58] it's a lot of fun because uh we get uh regularly customers emailing us back with pictures saying you

[01:16:05] know uh thank you so much this is great to exactly what i needed i get to keep my favorite backpack

[01:16:09] i get to install this frame uh the ventilation is improved and i'm having a better time so all of the

[01:16:16] the the the the the anxiety you know kind of uh it gets gets reduced what when i get an email like that

[01:16:22] and your product so do you you do 3d printing is it done here in the us or you get it overseas

[01:16:29] great question so the the version that you have it was 3d printed and that was

[01:16:35] that actually took us about 17 to 19 hours to to make um and so that's why when people

[01:16:41] every now and again i get i get a comment on social media saying oh i'll just 3d printed i'm like well

[01:16:45] it's gonna take you it's gonna take you some time to do it 3d printing is great technology but

[01:16:51] it really still is um slow but there's no way that you can obviously make a whole lot with 3d printing

[01:16:57] but it helped us refine our design and so now we we're actually doing in what's called injection molding

[01:17:04] so pretty much anything and everything that you have uh that's a plastic good uh the the the frame

[01:17:09] is made out of a high density polyethylene which is a fancy word of saying it's the same material that

[01:17:15] milk jugs are made out of so it's it's um it's FDA approved if you were out in the in the woods and

[01:17:23] you didn't have any food and you were you were on the you know your last line you technically could

[01:17:27] chew and eat the frame if you wanted i tell people i don't recommend it but it is it is FDA approved

[01:17:35] it's uh and its injection molded out here in Tennessee well out here it's out there in Tennessee so

[01:17:41] we really try and make everything um you us made and so obviously that takes a little bit of extra time

[01:17:47] to put all the pieces together because you know it's it is much easier to just say we know we're

[01:17:53] gonna we're gonna outsource this to somewhere else and and that's one of the reasons why uh this

[01:17:57] is kind of taking so long with you know the the the big wave of um of of of of of orders and what

[01:18:05] gear junkie did and we're very grateful but piecing i really want to do everything in the United States

[01:18:11] and it's just really um you have you have to really hunt for people and it's it's it's it's it's

[01:18:16] not to say that it's it's it's on you can't do it but it does take a little bit more time but

[01:18:21] at the other day i'm i'm meeting some great people here all around the United States i have

[01:18:25] people in Tennessee i've got people in Utah um i've got people in Colorado um i've got people up in

[01:18:32] in Wisconsin and um you know it just takes a little bit of time to find them but thanks

[01:18:37] to the internet you can and it's just putting all these pieces together

[01:18:41] have you ever thought about it and i don't even i'm assuming this show's still around but have

[01:18:45] you i feel like you're ready for shark tank if you wanted to go on hi sharks what's that

[01:18:51] have you ever been like hi sharks have you ever been on the hike in your back is all sweaty

[01:18:55] just gotta be a better way um i you know it's it's i really like the show it's very inspiring

[01:19:02] and i've thought about it and i've kind of wondered what if i were on the show which shark would

[01:19:06] i want to do business with and that's kind of like the uh you know the the the the the thing that

[01:19:11] i'm thinking about but i i thought about it i don't know if i'm going through or not but it's

[01:19:15] simply out there yeah um but uh we we we've definitely launched and i can say that we're um

[01:19:21] we're in a good space yeah i guess the next so the next frontier for you would be to get like more

[01:19:26] of a presence in retail stores i would guess right um that is something we're looking at the um

[01:19:33] out here in phoenix i've connected with the great thing with what when you're on the trails you know

[01:19:39] you're always meeting people and uh you know everyone's everyone's technically talking shop so we're

[01:19:44] talking gear and and through my hikes i was able to connect with um a business owner who does have

[01:19:51] some gear shops out here in phoenix and so i'm working with him to uh to start putting on

[01:19:56] displacement of my frames and well well we'll see how that goes because the retail space is a little

[01:20:00] bit different uh then the e-commerce because you have to start thinking about packaging you gotta

[01:20:05] think about uh product placement all that stuff and uh it's definitely you know it's again

[01:20:10] slow and easy wins the race and so i'm gonna you know start out here in phoenix and see what

[01:20:15] that brings you out there right so then you've from a product perspective uh you know primarily it's

[01:20:20] the it's the ventilation frame and you've evolved that so i have the first generation which was 3D

[01:20:26] printed you've moved to a lighter version i think i don't know how much mine mine ways but i think

[01:20:31] the new version weighs what like 3.3 ounces or something correct this one weighs 1 2.3 ounces which

[01:20:39] is one fifth of a pound your frame it weighs a little bit less than one pound so um i used to think

[01:20:46] that was light but then a lot of the feedback from from customers of the the gen 1 was like you know

[01:20:50] make it lighter make it lighter make it lighter yeah and so that's what we've done and um that's

[01:20:56] it's it's really good i mean it's the lightest on the market that there are a few other frames out

[01:21:00] but um they um again it i guess it all depends on what your definition of ventilation is

[01:21:08] and so when i look at the the other products on the market i don't really think that they're providing

[01:21:13] enough ventilation so that that was one of the big things that i was trying to uh

[01:21:17] the figure out i mean the spacing i think you've got it figured out it's like you can't see you

[01:21:22] can't space so for the listeners that don't have this product it's probably spaced out about an

[01:21:27] inch or so and you can't you don't want to space it out too much because then you're going to get a

[01:21:31] weird leverage on the weight of the backpack but um but it's definitely enough where the wind can

[01:21:35] flow through there and keep your back dry so um you know i i think that you've you've hit the sweet

[01:21:42] spot and i think as far as the weight goes you're always going to get that with hikers like they're

[01:21:45] going to demand like oh it has to be ultra light at 3.3 ounces like there's no argument no one can

[01:21:51] say like oh this is going to add so much weight is not worth it uh you know a pound sometimes you

[01:21:55] could get that argument for me i don't care but like some people um would definitely be more of a

[01:22:00] focus on the weight but at 3.3 ounces it's not that argument goes away

[01:22:07] again there's there's plenty of people that say that this is a great weight this is super light

[01:22:11] again it's if i compare it to other um frames out there um this is the lightest one on the market

[01:22:18] but you know obviously people have come back and said you know make it lighter now consider it

[01:22:22] so you know i like a i like a challenge so again slow and steady wins the race i'm going to get

[01:22:27] to the top of this peak and i've got a few again it's all thanks to to my customers um there

[01:22:35] i love the the feedback the the constructive criticism even the criticism and that we're

[01:22:41] we're looking at figuring out how to you've made it even lighter um and how to make it more

[01:22:46] some different functionalities as well because um some people are using it for different things

[01:22:51] that like you know some people use it to to to kind of like as a level you know if they will have

[01:22:55] their little cooking stove where they want to sit somewhere or they want to use it to sleep as a pillow

[01:23:00] or they want to use it as a rack to dry things there's a lot of different things

[01:23:04] that you can do with a piece of equipment um that's you know it's it's pretty much the size of your back

[01:23:11] it's made out of you know a heavy duty plastic but at the same time it's flexible and it's soft so

[01:23:17] um you know the question is like how many different ways can we use this so that way it's

[01:23:21] multi-functional and that way you've got you know a piece of kit you know in your backpack or on

[01:23:25] your backpack that weighs you know uh less than 3.3 ounces you know as we keep shaming things off but

[01:23:31] has it can you be used for 10 20 different things yeah yeah no it's it's great and then uh can you

[01:23:37] talk a little bit about some of the new um features i think you've got some you know potentially

[01:23:43] some new color options and then some new product ideas around the uh the ventilation frame

[01:23:49] absolutely so right now we've got um we have the optionals of colors for black, white, green

[01:23:57] and gray and we're going to be releasing blue in about two weeks so there'll be um i did a poll

[01:24:05] to my to customers i thought i thought a tan or some people call it like a coyote would be very

[01:24:11] popular but um that one was probably ranked third or fourth so we're gonna eventually we're

[01:24:16] gonna get there because people do ask it but we're gonna have a blue and you can mix and match the

[01:24:20] colors and so what we'll have the um the colors available i mean apart from blue everything is

[01:24:27] available now and then one of the other big requests was that you know i designed the frame for

[01:24:34] pretty much your your typical day packer or or or a commuter who is probably you know only

[01:24:40] going to be using the backpack for you know one to three hours and probably doesn't have more than

[01:24:45] 20 pounds in their backpack but what i have found is that there's plenty of people out there that

[01:24:50] for whatever reason you know are carrying 30 40 50 pounds of weight uh in their pack now obviously

[01:24:56] if you're through hiking or if you're hunting um or you're doing some different activities um

[01:25:01] you're gonna need additional weight so those people have come back to me and said you know i like

[01:25:06] the frame but if you can make it more comfortable because i got a lot of weight in my pack or even

[01:25:11] uh bike riders or people who are rucking or jogging at some um in some manner they've asked as well

[01:25:19] like you know i'm i'm bouncing up and down can you make it lighter i mean uh softer and more comfortable

[01:25:25] is not to say that the frame now isn't comfortable but i mean the second that you you you add any type

[01:25:31] of mesh or foam it's gonna it's gonna negatively impact the the ventilation and the airflow so that's

[01:25:37] why i specifically designed it to be as comfortable as possible without any mesh or foam but i

[01:25:43] added good enough i guess response to say people who are with the heavier loads and the the more

[01:25:50] rigorous activity saying if you could make it softer um you know i would really really appreciate it

[01:25:55] because i've got my backpack on me for a longer period of time that i anticipated or i thought of

[01:26:00] using it for or have heavier weight and so we are releasing a mesh sleeve um hopefully knocking on

[01:26:08] all the wood that i can find while i'm hiking uh probably i would say mid-may and so i'm working with

[01:26:15] um a lovely company out in Utah that's gonna help me do this so again it's everything is is is

[01:26:22] us based um it's it's sometimes not to be a broken record sometimes it's challenging to find

[01:26:28] uh some some companies or manufacturers that can do this so that way it's cost effective for um

[01:26:34] for for customers because you know there's a lot of gear out there you know i'm trying to

[01:26:39] to work out a price point to where this is accessible for everybody so the mesh sleeve is the next

[01:26:44] thing that's coming out and then not to speak for another two minutes but then we we are looking

[01:26:49] for a lighter weight frame i don't know when that's gonna be released probably uh i'm gonna you i'm

[01:26:55] gonna have to push that out to 2025 um and then and then even a backpack with the frame on it so there's

[01:27:01] a lot of things going on um i really recommend just people you know going on our website obviously

[01:27:06] vocloosgear.com uh falls on social media um there's just a lot of different things and there's

[01:27:13] things that customers have asked me to do that are very very interesting that i would have never

[01:27:17] thought of about how to multi-function even to have it as a um as kind of like a fanny pack um so

[01:27:23] there's a lot of things in the pipeline but um it's uh again one step you know get you to the top

[01:27:30] yeah yeah it's tough as a new business to uh sometimes if you grow too fast you can get yourself

[01:27:36] in trouble so um i think that you know we'll continue to pound the drum and encourage everyone

[01:27:42] to buy the frame and then we'll we will look forward to any new product innovations that you have so

[01:27:50] um how do we so you mentioned the website before but like can you walk us through if people

[01:27:55] want to order this what they would uh what they would do it definitely go to vocloosgear.com that's

[01:28:01] spelled v-a-u-c-l-u-s-e gear.com and vocloos is just a name of a region in southern french

[01:28:10] france um i'm part french and so when i was thinking of um uh you know what do i want to name this

[01:28:16] um i thought to you know i guess have a you know a tip of the hat to this part of france where um

[01:28:23] when you're in france you spend a lot of time outside because it's really nice weather especially

[01:28:28] out there so um i for for the longest time i was always going out hiking walking eating outside

[01:28:34] you do everything outside so uh that's the website i'm sure if people go to um you know the

[01:28:39] slasher podcast you know my link is gonna be down there uh obviously in these show notes but um

[01:28:44] you know you guys do a really great job and i want to just say thank you uh for for you guys you

[01:28:49] know you know you you guys you know i get plenty of customers i always try to ask people where do

[01:28:55] you hear from us or what did you hear about us and there's plenty of people saying well the slasher

[01:28:59] podcast mentioned you and uh i thought to check you out so um very very very very very grateful

[01:29:05] that you guys to for what you guys do as well because um i get great feedback from customers they

[01:29:10] say obviously that they they they love the the podcast and you know i listen as well and uh you guys

[01:29:15] are doing a fantastic job uh just kind of um you know mixing it up between you know the the um obviously

[01:29:23] promoting a product talking about different hikes out in the um in the northwest but also giving

[01:29:28] some great advice as well um for um you know how to stay safe out there but also making a little bit

[01:29:34] uh or not a little a lot very entertaining as well so greatly appreciate what you guys are doing

[01:29:39] yeah no it's great uh and let me ask you this question so price if if we were on a like a um

[01:29:44] a deserted island and you could only stick like you could only pick mic or stop like which one would

[01:29:49] you pick to be on like the deserted island with you oh boy oh boy oh boy that's i did it

[01:29:57] it's almost like a question if you found where where they do interviews and they say if you were

[01:30:02] shrunk down into like one inch and you found yourself inside of a a blender you know how what

[01:30:07] would you do this right there's no correct answer i don't know i don't know if there's a right answer

[01:30:11] or i don't know how creative i can do well i'll tell you um uh the hint is the right answers mic but

[01:30:16] we'll we'll we'll let you out of that one so but uh but this is good so stop any now why

[01:30:22] i want one of the cats that's all yeah that's a good call that yeah that's a good call stop any other

[01:30:30] any other questions from rice uh before we i think you you got you got a roll on right price

[01:30:34] you urin so don't you hopefully you got a nice dinner tonight somewhere with the with the view of

[01:30:38] the red rocks yeah absolutely absolutely yeah now we appreciate it um i love the gear i use it all

[01:30:49] the time on my uh all-to-light pack for my running and um it's been great yeah so keep up the good

[01:30:55] work you know wait to see all the new products coming down the line and we will definitely have that

[01:31:00] and one last thing to to all the listeners there is a promo code just use slasher uh s-l-a-s-e-s-r slasher

[01:31:09] and it's um i believe it's it's it's five dollars so that pretty much if you get one frame that's

[01:31:13] pretty much gonna cover uh that's gonna do like free shipping for you so you've got that

[01:31:18] and then obviously for for for customers if people are thinking well i'll just wait and

[01:31:23] so you know the sleeve comes out or another thing comes out it is i really recommend people don't

[01:31:27] wait because what i do is when you're on the email list you know i'm not spamming people saying

[01:31:32] you know i'm not sending emails every week but i do send emails telling customers of one a new

[01:31:39] product is released and so they get the kind of a behind-the-scenes discount code because obviously

[01:31:45] you know you know the objective is to keep making better gear but the only way that i can make

[01:31:49] better gear is to have customers you know order the current gear and test it out and give me feedback

[01:31:55] and so it's kind of my way of saying saying since and so the last few times that i've released new gear

[01:32:01] i provide pretty pretty healthy and generous discounts so if anybody's thinking you know well

[01:32:06] do i get this now or later i would recommend just get it now because you know we've got the new color

[01:32:12] coming out uh we've got the the sleeve coming out and then we've got the the lighter frame that

[01:32:16] will eventually come out so um and i'm and i even give free t-shirts for reviews and critical

[01:32:22] feedback as well so i really try and make it the most for for people to you know to to be part of

[01:32:29] this journey for with us because it's you know we definitely we're not an osprey we're not a dooder

[01:32:35] you know we're not a hyper light but you know where we're we're slow instead you know it's great

[01:32:39] that gear junkie said hey guys check these people out and you know we've also been had a partnership

[01:32:46] now with garage uh grown gear but uh it's the only way that that we've gotten to where we are today

[01:32:52] is thanks to all of our customers so a big thanks to everybody out there for uh for making this

[01:32:58] possible really really appreciate awesome and then brace one of the question before we let you go

[01:33:01] is um the expected um delivery time so if we order now are we still looking at like a two month

[01:33:08] weight or is it going to be delivered sooner than that? That is a great great question so black

[01:33:15] frames get shipped pretty much immediately with between one and two days green frames as well

[01:33:20] we've had a little bit of a hiccup uh with with white and gray just because we we ran out quicker

[01:33:26] than we anticipated but everything is going to be greenlit ready to go uh April fifths April fifth

[01:33:32] is i spoke to my team uh yesterday and i tried to figure out well when are all the pieces going

[01:33:37] to get together so that way there's no more uh one week two week two month delay and so

[01:33:43] April fifth is the big uh launch date of everything is going to be ready to go now with that said there

[01:33:48] was a current promo running now so you know if you again if you're thinking about well i'll just wait

[01:33:52] until April fifths so there's there's no weight period but i try and um um um i guess he gives some

[01:33:59] type of uh uh thanks to people who ordered you know uh amidst all of this uh you know all of these um

[01:34:08] craziness that we've been dealing with so there is a promo code now so if you if you don't mind waiting

[01:34:13] for a few things um you can get a discount and those discounts you know more than likely aren't

[01:34:19] going to be there um on April fifth it's my way of saying thanks to everybody for for for for

[01:34:24] dealing with my uh long with anticipated weights and changes ups and downs again it's where we're not

[01:34:30] trying to do anything you know this is where we're we're building we're building we're building as

[01:34:36] we're moving forward so again big thanks to all of our customers out there um but everything's

[01:34:41] in the way where you go April fifth but everything is available now um and black black as always

[01:34:46] that used to be the one of the most difficult colors to get out there but now that that one is

[01:34:51] almost instantaneous so if you like black and you want a frame uh you can get it now.

[01:34:56] Got it good to know um yeah i have to imagine for you it's like stressful you have to basically

[01:35:01] project out what the inventory build up needs to be and um and then in time that out and it's it's

[01:35:08] it i would imagine that right now it's more of an art than um then a science and then you get

[01:35:13] you're getting better at it once you get more sense of demand but it's it's it's probably a bumpy

[01:35:17] road the first year or two when you're figuring this all out. Exactly and i don't have an MBA and i'm

[01:35:24] not uh you know i don't have really business degrees or acumen but i'm learning as i'm going along

[01:35:29] um i'm an electrical engineer by education so getting into the wonderful world of manufacturing

[01:35:36] is kind of um it's exciting because it's a challenge uh kind of like you know when you when you're going

[01:35:40] on um a trail and have been on and you know there's uh you know there's some you know there's

[01:35:46] gonna be some difficult parts to it. It's looking back it's all exciting so i kind of dive into

[01:35:52] this stuff knowing that there's gonna be some some some some difficult challenges but again it's

[01:35:58] it's the people that really make the difference it's i've recognized that you know i don't have all

[01:36:02] the answers and there's people that can help me and it's trying to get a great team together

[01:36:07] and that's what i've been able to do over the past few months um it's just it's it's a wonderful

[01:36:13] wonderful opportunity so um yeah i can't you know if anybody wants to start a business let's it's

[01:36:20] it's not for the faint of heart but uh you know a lot of things in life aren't for the faint of heart so

[01:36:25] if it's and i'm happy to help anybody if they've been i've connected with a few other hikers out there

[01:36:31] who have had some interesting ideas for for for gear and equipment and they've wondered oh how do

[01:36:36] i get this started you know how do i how do i get a prototype how do i know of the market

[01:36:40] we'll like it you know you can always reach out there my contact details are on the website

[01:36:45] uh you can even direct message me on on social media but i'm you know i'm an open book i

[01:36:49] got to where i am today um thanks to a lot of generous people and um that's

[01:36:55] that's i'm just very grateful so thank you and again thank you guys for all that you do

[01:37:00] and spreading the word yeah no it's great too uh it's been great to get to know you and watch the

[01:37:05] the success and um hopefully you can uh you can wrap this up and go enjoy yourself from one of those

[01:37:11] those excellent restaurants in downtown Sedona you can have some wine and enjoy the red rocks

[01:37:18] sounds perfect thank you guys appreciate it yeah happy easter happy easter as well

[01:37:24] okay

[01:37:30] all right stop yeah i really think bray should go on to um shark tank i'd love to see i feel like

[01:37:35] that would be a good product for them yeah do you think i haven't seen this show in a long time

[01:37:40] i haven't eaten it still like i definitely like yeah i think it's still out there i don't know um

[01:37:45] what the status is but i i think that he's got a cool story and i think it's a product that makes

[01:37:50] a whole lot of sense i mean i'm a big fan i definitely use it quite a lot so it's yeah

[01:37:56] yeah i mean too and it's interesting like the growing pains that he's been going through about um

[01:38:01] you know slow and steady for sure but like keeping the manufacturing in the us not easy

[01:38:08] oh sure absolutely and he's mixing up his whole process shifting away from the modeling to

[01:38:15] a different type of development for the product that's pretty cool yeah yeah so

[01:38:19] 3d modeling yeah exactly so fun fun talk here stop um so i think we're gonna do search and

[01:38:25] rescue news and then wrap it up but um we've got a one more sponsor here 48 peaks yeah i'm

[01:38:31] excited about this coming up soon 48 peaks all timers use your passion for hiking to help

[01:38:38] end all timers in one collective effort 400 plus hikers will climb to hampsha's 4,000 footers

[01:38:44] or create their own challenge to support the mission of the Alzheimer's association

[01:38:49] the annual hiker celebration will take place saturday june 8th at reckless brewing company with

[01:38:55] raffles food and an amazing community hike that weekend or any day you want no fundraising

[01:39:02] minimums required but those who raise $100 will receive this year's performance grade purple t-shirt

[01:39:09] let's turn the white mountains purple to end Alzheimer's visit alts.org right slash 48 peaks and

[01:39:17] that's the number 48 peaks to learn more cool very good stuff coming up a lot of activity like i

[01:39:27] said summer's coming yeah sure is i can't wait to go to breakfast and party with them

[01:39:36] yeah so let's come up june 8

[01:39:57] all right so we got two stories locally here stomps so um divers search

[01:40:22] Connecticut river in Dalton for missing Vermont man so this doesn't sound good um so fishing game

[01:40:29] sonar rov team and dive team search a stretch of the Connecticut river in Dalton on Thursday

[01:40:36] March 21st for missing man had reportedly gone into the river during the morning of saturday

[01:40:42] March 16th initial call came in that morning at approximately 330 that prompted rescue response

[01:40:49] from Vermont state police s six county sheriff loonanburg fire department Dalton fire department

[01:40:56] whitefield fire department and fishing game no luck locating anybody so it wasn't until monday march 18th

[01:41:04] at s six county sheriff's office received a missing person report for a uh 52-year-old gentleman

[01:41:11] from loonanburg Vermont along with additional information that he might have gone to the river in the

[01:41:15] early morning of march 16th so the sonar rov team spent the day on Tuesday March 19th scanning

[01:41:27] the river using side scans sonar in a remote operated vehicle so they did not locate any evidence

[01:41:35] that indicate that someone was in the river however additional info received by s six county

[01:41:39] sheriff's office later that day let officials to believe those more likely than not that madison

[01:41:45] was in that the victim was in the river this prompted a full-scale search and by wednesday

[01:41:51] March 20th they had spent multiple hours underwater searching the section of the river with the

[01:41:56] highest probability but no luck and then on March 21st diving operations continued with additional

[01:42:06] resources from for mont state police both groups conducted multiple dives for hours even with freezing

[01:42:13] temperatures um but at this point the search has been suspended as the primary search area has been

[01:42:18] exhausted by use of sonar and diver so terrible terrible but i'm assuming at some point like if he

[01:42:26] is in the river like um the body will come to the surface and somebody will identify it yeah that's

[01:42:33] that's horrible yeah a few of those recently yeah i mean people have have a way of finding

[01:42:39] themselves in bodies of water and unfortunately it's just um you know who knows that the

[01:42:43] background is there yeah yeah um next one injured hiker carried off a mount major so there seems

[01:42:51] like a pretty standard uh situation this time of the year so around five p.m. on Tuesday March 26th

[01:42:58] fishing game was notified of an injured hiker on the blue trail on mount major so local fire

[01:43:04] department as well as lakes reach and search and rescue responded in their six by six utility

[01:43:09] utility vehicle so anyway that hikes that area the one thing about mount major that i guess is

[01:43:14] is fortunate is that it is pretty easy to get like these side-by-side vehicles up into that

[01:43:20] that particular area or at least get up of like a half a mile a mile away yeah so um injured hiker

[01:43:26] 28-year-old from Nashua was transported to the trailhead parking area and evaluated um i guess he

[01:43:35] the the hiker had stated that he began climbing the blue trail to the summit of mount major

[01:43:39] and encountered icy and slippery conditions decided to turn around because he wasn't equipped

[01:43:44] to continue and then he slipped on a branch and suffered a lower leg injury and then called police

[01:43:49] for assistance so um yeah i'm sure that the snow i'm affect i was gonna go down and hike i was gonna

[01:43:55] go up to hike the bell maps this week last weekend and then with all the snow that came in i was kind

[01:44:00] of like yeah i'm just gonna stick around got ya where's the blue trail is that the most popular one

[01:44:07] i think that that's the main trail that goes up so when you go to um when you hike mount major

[01:44:15] and you go to the main parking lot there is primary yeah the primary parking lot it's the the

[01:44:20] right hand trail as you go up i believe okay i'm typing furiously it's been a it's been a little

[01:44:29] while since i've been over there but um i know the one the primary one that overlooks the lakes and

[01:44:35] it has that like tenth of a mile section of ledge that's really nice yeah then it gets steep at

[01:44:41] the very very end yeah this is yeah the blue trail is like the main trail up that goes to the right

[01:44:46] and then it it you take a hard left and then that's when you start getting those ledges and then

[01:44:53] eventually you get up to the main the main summit okay and the bolder loop trail is the one where

[01:44:59] you go to the left and the blue trail is actually part of the belknapp range trail isn't it

[01:45:07] isn't that the start of the belknapp range trail yeah the bell nap stump that's how you pronounce

[01:45:12] the bell nap thanks yeah um they call it the mount major trail so i don't know if there's like a

[01:45:20] single trail that goes there eventually fluid ends up happening is this connects with the the

[01:45:26] bell nap range trail but it's not got you yeah i think that the bell nap actually starts pass mount

[01:45:33] measure as you go into um straight back hey cool well it's been so cute word lately in terms of

[01:45:41] search rescue which is great yeah yeah it's been good and then i mean everything's been good

[01:45:46] stop except for like our tech issues you know your camera seems a little dremeliny my recording seems

[01:45:51] a little dremeliny but we'll get through it yeah we'll get there we'll keep on plugging away all right

[01:45:56] do we have anything good next week um next week i believe we are let me confirm this but i think

[01:46:03] we're dealing with the steward the actual steward from the Harvard cabin oh great who is down in

[01:46:11] australia fighting fires and um we made contact with him is is funny story actually his dad

[01:46:18] reached out to us after that story was released and um sort of made the connection happen so

[01:46:24] logistically we'll see if we can pull it off because he's a world away and uh yeah we'll see

[01:46:29] if we can make it happen but that's on the books and of course we have 48 peak salt timers coming

[01:46:35] in soon too uh to give us the lowdown on their summer that's planned so that'd be great excellent

[01:46:42] sounds good stop and um we'll see you listeners on the um next week i guess all righty until then

[01:46:56] thank you for listening if you enjoyed the show you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts Spotify

[01:47:02] podbean youtube or wherever you listen to podcasts if you want to learn more about the topics

[01:47:10] covered in today's show please check out the show notes and safety information at slasherpodcast.com

[01:47:17] that's s-l-a-s-r podcast.com you can also follow the show on facebook and instagram we hope you'll

[01:47:26] join us next week for another great show until then on behalf of like and stop get out there

[01:47:33] and crush some mega eats now covered in scratches blisters and bug bites

[01:47:41] christav wanted to complete his most challenging day hike ever fishing game officers say the hiker

[01:47:46] from florida activated an emergency vacay yesterday morning he was hiking along the appellation

[01:47:53] trail when the weather started to get worse officials say the snow was piled up to three feet in

[01:47:58] some spots and there was a wind shell of minus one degree

[01:48:09] ten of james nealant your hamster fishing game those end of things we're being with us today

[01:48:13] thanks to have them what are some of the most common mistakes you see people make when they're

[01:48:18] heading out on the trails to hike here in New Hampshire seems to me the most common as being

[01:48:21] unprepared i think if they just simply visited hikesafe.com and got a list of the ten essential

[01:48:27] items that had those in their packs they probably would have no need to ever call us at all