Episode 160 - Welcome Rhonda, Canobie Lake Park History, Squam Ridge Traverse, S. Baldface, Carters

[00:00:02] Here is the latest Higher Summits Forecast brought to you by our friends at the Mt. Washington Observatory. Weather above treeline in the White Mountains is often wildly different than at our trailheads. Before you hike, check the Higher Summits Forecast at www.MtWashington.org.

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

[00:00:54] Go to MtWashington.org or text FORECAST to 603-356-2137. And here is your forecast for the great Seek the Peak weekend. We're talking Friday, July 19th and Saturday, July 20th. Friday in the clear under mostly sunny skies with a low in the 50s.

[00:01:25] Winds will be west at 15-30 mph. Same thing for Friday night. Saturday in the clear under mostly sunny skies with a high in the low 50s. Winds west at 15-30 mph. It really just doesn't get better than that.

[00:01:45] Have an awesome weekend and we will see you at the show. Broadcasting from the Woodpecker Studio in the great state of New Hampshire, welcome to the Sounds Like a Search and Rescue podcast where we discuss all things related to hiking

[00:02:37] and search and rescue in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Here are your hosts, Mike and Stump. Here we go Stump. Here we go, another week. I got a problem. I'm not able to open my beer. There we go.

[00:03:15] Honestly if you just used your teeth it would have been over and done with. No, no, you haven't been doing that lately. Did you stop? Did Mr. Stump find out about this and tell you you can't afford $1,000 to get your tooth chip fixed?

[00:03:29] I haven't been drinking as much beer lately so it hasn't been an issue. You're going to do it tonight though, right Stump? Actually no, I don't have anything with me but we'll save that conversation for later.

[00:03:42] Rhonda, you're already starting off on a bad foot here, encouraging Stump to do that with his tooth. My one tooth. Oh, that's okay. All right, so we have Rhonda here. You can say hello Rhonda. Hello Rhonda. Oh, you can say hello to the audience.

[00:04:02] That was a good one. It's going to be a rough show. All right, we're starting off. It's interesting. All right, so I got breaking news for you guys though. This is Storyland news so I'm on top of it. I'm basically the resident Storyland expert here.

[00:04:20] Storyland is offering paid parking options for select spots. If you were going to Storyland with your little brats and you don't feel like walking under the tunnel or parking way far away, apparently if you're a seasoned pass holder you can already

[00:04:39] enjoy these preferred spots at no extra cost but I guess you can pay for special parking at the front of the park so that you don't have to deal with dragging your kids all over the place.

[00:04:54] I feel like I like the old school vibe of Storyland and I like the idea that it was like nobody was special when they were in the parking lot but whatever. That America's gone my friend. It's not like it's a gigantic parking lot anyway.

[00:05:09] It's like five, six rows. It's pretty big. When you got three kids, you know this, when you got a bunch of kids and you got to pack them up in the stroller and then walk.

[00:05:21] They have this tunnel that goes under Route 16 so you got to go under the, although the kids kind of like the tunnel. They get excited for that. Oh, the tunnel's cool. You got to push them up that ramp and that's like going up Huntington. Yeah, interesting.

[00:05:37] How much did it cost? Do you know what it costs? They did this quietly. So $10 per day for the most sought after spaces. Interesting. It's not exorbitant. No, no. And someone's giving them a hard time.

[00:05:55] They're like, oh, this is a dishonest way to implement a new parking system, blah, blah, blah. Look, they got to make a buck. Yeah, especially these days. Yeah, and they're pretty reasonable price wise. Like I remember going there and like thinking like, okay, well, they don't charge nearly

[00:06:09] as much as you'd expect for ice cream and snacks and stuff. So cut them a break. They ought to have like Live Nation take over and do some price gouging. You have people up front. A service charge on top of a service charge, right? Resale. Yeah.

[00:06:26] And while I am on the topic of Storyland, just a reminder, and I'll include this in the show notes. If you're 21 and over, which I think qualifies all three of us, there is a nostalgia night

[00:06:40] where if you're a kid at heart, you can go to Storyland and enjoy all the fun but add alcohol. So July 27th, August 10th, and August 24th are the nights that this is going to be available. So check it out. Sounds great. I'm sold. All right.

[00:06:58] I'm going to be struggling with my voice tonight. Just a warning stomp. Okay, no worries. So why don't you give me a break and actually let me do the show opening and then you can talk. So welcome to episode 160 of the Sounds Like A Search And Rescue podcast.

[00:07:15] This week, a hiker spotlight on our friend Rhonda Willett. Rhonda is a frequent hiker who has completed the 4,000 footers of New Hampshire and the New England 67. She's a wealth of experience and is very involved with The Hiking Buddy.

[00:07:28] So we'll talk to her about her background and we'll get some advice to share with listeners who may be newer to hiking in New Hampshire. Plus we've got new merchandise for sale. We've got a near tragedy on the PEMI from some tubers and Stomp was almost right on

[00:07:43] the scene there. Ruggles Mine, we've got an update on that. We've got shopping deals on hiking gear. We've got a history segment on Canobie Lake Park and then we've got recent search and rescue news. I think there was a rescue on Kearsars North and then on 19 Mile Trail.

[00:08:03] So lots going on. I'm Mike. And I'm Stomp. Let's get started. Let's get started. All right, so now we're going to move into... So Rhonda, we are going to move into our hiking buddy spot with your pal Andrew is going to share a little pearl of wisdom here.

[00:08:38] So Stomp, do we know what he's going to share with us tonight? I have yet to edit it. It's going to be a surprise for all of us. Okay, so let's go to Andrew. This has been Pease from Hiking Buddies.

[00:08:59] We are a 501c3 nonprofit committed to reducing avoidable tragedies through education, impactful projects and fostering a community of support. You can find out more at hikingbuddies.org. We wanted to say thank you to those who have supported our mission and most importantly

[00:09:14] say thanks to those who speak up, who ask questions and who are willing to provide guidance and assistance on the trails when needed. You embody what it means to be a hiking buddy. And now for all my newer hikers out there, here's this episode's hiking buddies quick tip.

[00:09:37] Choose your hike based on distance, difficulty and pace. Know the terrain and study the topography before hiking. Consider alternate routes for slides and scrambles. Hi, Christina with White Mountain Endurance Coaching. And I wanted to let you know that not only do I coach endurance athletes, I also coach

[00:10:12] hikers and mountaineers. I have plenty of experience in the White Mountains and would love to teach you how to start out whether you're a beginner, if you're more advanced, give you some more skills to transition

[00:10:22] from hiking to trail running, and most of all, teach you how to move safely in the mountains. So whatever your goals are, whatever your experiences, reach out coaching.christinapulsic.com. I'd love to help you. All right. Great tip, huh? That was a great tip.

[00:10:44] Wanda's looking at us like what is happening right now? Hi Andrew, he comes up with the best stuff. He does. Do you have you hiked with him a lot? Not a lot, but I have hiked with him. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:11:00] Now, has he been the organizer or were you the organizer? He hiked with me on my winter finish. He was part of that group. I had a big group. We did Lincoln and Lafayette for my winter finish, and he was there along with Julie Sicardo. Oh, nice.

[00:11:19] Multiple other buddies. Yeah, he's great. So he's as fun to hike with as I think he would be? Yes. I will say that it took Andrew three takes to do this one this week. Okay? A little behind the scenes.

[00:11:35] Was it because Lynn was telling him to do another take or was he just messing it up? On this one, it was related to certain words, the way he was pronouncing words, and Lynn was not correcting him but guiding him.

[00:11:49] We were trying to really fine tune some of the tips. Some of the tips were tricky to phrase correctly and to present, but this one took three takes. All right. You've got my curiosity up now. Will there be bloopers reel? Oh, sure. Yeah, there's some good ones.

[00:12:09] There's definitely some funny moments that we were just dying when they came over. It was hilarious. Yeah, that's actually a good idea. All right, Stomp. Breaking news again. There's new Slasher merchandise. This is your baby, so why don't you tell the listeners all about our new merch?

[00:12:32] Yeah, let's go. We've been teasing the new patches. They went into production a month ago and they're done. I have them in my little sweaty hands here. What we're going to do, we're going to be selling them by mail. We're going to do a limited mail run.

[00:12:54] At the moment, if you go to our Instagram, there's a Linktree link with a form that you can fill out with your mailing address and a link to the Slasher Venmo to purchase one to three patches, I believe, on the form.

[00:13:10] They are going to be going for $15 a pop for one patch. That covers the mail and the production and all that stuff. They weren't cheap. Let's just say that. These patches, they lined with gold, Stomp? Is that what's going on? Pretty much, yes.

[00:13:26] I blessed each and every single one of them personally. You did. They look very burly. They look thick. Oh, they're fantastic. Yeah. We just want to thank Evergreen Embroidery for their great work. Back to this.

[00:13:39] We have until August 2nd, you can order this one-time mail run and we'll get them out on the 3rd. You have two weeks to make your order. After that, you'll be able to get them at live shows for $10, which is reasonable.

[00:13:57] The patches are ready and they look killer. They're ready to go. We will have them today at the Tuckerman Brewery for the Seek2Peak event. What else? Anything else about that? No, I don't think so. What are the logistics around Seek2Peak?

[00:14:20] Seek2Peak, well, we will be there at 3-ish, ready to go. It's at the Tuckerman Brewery in Conway. There's going to be live music. The weather is going to be fantastic, so we'll be outside. There will be one main stage with a band that's performing.

[00:14:36] We'll be actually on the opposite side of the field under a tent with the OBS crew, the Mount Washington OBS crew. The show will be a regular recording that we'll release sometime in the future.

[00:14:48] We plan on interviewing guests and having a lot of laughs, so keep a lookout for us. Again, we'll have the patches there and the stickers available for anybody that wants to stop by and say hi. It's going to be a great time.

[00:14:59] This is the pre-hike Friday night event at Tuckerman. Then Saturday, of course, is the hike itself. It's a great fundraiser for the Mount Washington Observatory that we are fortunate enough to have a nice relationship with

[00:15:15] and are able to provide the forecast every week for our hiking crew here. Very vital service. Rhonda, you're going to be there too, right? I won't be there tonight. I'll be set up with hiking buddies at the vendors' expo on Saturday. On Saturday, got it. Okay, very good.

[00:15:40] Looking forward to meeting some folks and it should be fun. Yeah, absolutely. It should be fun. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. Alright, so moving on, we've got a couple of news articles here, but first, before we even get into this, this isn't even a news article.

[00:15:57] This is something that actually just happened while you happened to just be on the scene. Our friend Nick was able to help out on this, but there were some floaters on the PEMI that had to call 911 and you were kind of around. Yeah, it's interesting.

[00:16:13] We departed from the campsite off of Exit 28 in Campton. That's where we usually launch. It was a beautiful day. We ended up with a good friend, Nick. Nick, general contractor. If anybody's interested in his work, he's phenomenal. He does great work.

[00:16:29] But Nick and Christine joined us for a typical float. We'll go three miles down to the covered bridge, which is Exit 26, I want to say, down by the US Forest Service area there.

[00:16:45] As we're tubing down, there were a few rapids and there's this one section in particular that tends to get people in trouble. There was a crew of four women that were newbies to floating and inevitably they got stuck at this one spot.

[00:17:01] As we were approaching the spot, we noticed that two of them were just sort of motionless at the rock itself, one of the boulders. Not motionless in terms of deceased or anything, but just not moving. It's just such an unordinary place to be stuck.

[00:17:16] As we get closer, Mrs. Stomp and I passed it in our tubes, but thankfully Nick and Christine had their kayaks. Apparently one person got their foot stuck under a rock and they were unable to dislodge their foot. Their tube was apparently causing trouble as well.

[00:17:39] One of the women actually deflated the tube to try to... I don't know what they were trying to do, but they panicked. Thankfully Nick was there. He had life vests. They themselves, the four women, called 911 and Campton got the alert.

[00:17:56] It just basically says four people stuck tubing and whatever else. Were they asking for help when you guys went past them? When Mrs. Stomp and I passed, we got close enough and they said they needed help. As we got maybe 100 yards out...

[00:18:13] Mrs. Stomp's like, sorry, I passed you. It's a rapid. It's just a rapid that you can't really backtrack. I lost my opportunity to do anything. Nick and Christine had the kayaks. They could go upriver. Thankfully, Nick caught them out.

[00:18:29] It just does remind you that even though this is a very tame, gentle river with these modest rapids right now, it can be very dangerous when it's high water. You have to be careful because freak things can happen.

[00:18:42] I remember going with you guys a couple of times and every time I went, it was really calm. To the point where we had to stand up and walk quite a bit. Are you saying it was running a little hotter than that? It was a few inches higher.

[00:18:56] You didn't really drag your butt on any sections right now because we just had those big rainstorms over the last few days with the tornado warnings. There was a good amount of rain, so the river was a little higher than usual.

[00:19:09] Make sure that you're a capable swimmer. Bring a life jacket. Make sure your floaties are good to go. What are some reminders if you're going to float the Pemmy Stomp? Obviously, you need a car spot. You have to start upriver and then go downriver.

[00:19:22] You have to deal with the logistics of leaving a car someplace and then driving back up to another place. Where are the parking spots? Is that secret local information that you don't want to share? It's not really secret anymore. After COVID, those spots just blew up.

[00:19:38] You can make it as short as three miles, upwards to 12 miles if you want. There are multiple segments. There's the Campton to Covered Bridge. From Covered Bridge, you hit the Livermore Falls. After that, you have the whole Plymouth section.

[00:19:54] Then north, you have a whole bunch of sections from Lincoln and Woodstock that go south towards Campton and Thornton. One of the other put-ins would be at the Thornton Police Station. There's a bridge there where people can go in. There are multiple options.

[00:20:12] I suggest starting short with a three-miler. It takes a good three hours just to get through that. That's usually enough. Sunscreen is super important because you can get fried out there. Hats, you're just literally facing the sun for X amount of hours. Bring enough water. Bring a cooler.

[00:20:30] There are lots of different ways you can set up your floats. We typically have tubes and then a cooler float. There's water, food, everything else. Do you have your own tubes or do you have two tubes with a cooler in the middle that's connected?

[00:20:44] We do two with a cooler in the middle. There are options that are all connected. Mrs. Stomp doesn't want to be encumbered by you, by connecting. She wants to be able to disconnect if she needs to, right?

[00:20:55] No, I just don't want to be connected to somebody with a Shrek tube or a Disney tube. That's all. She's embarrassing you, I see. What are the safety measures? Do you bring a life jacket or are you strong enough of a swimmer

[00:21:08] with the floatie that you feel like you can survive? Right now, no float. I'm okay with that. I'm confident with my skills and the depth of the river. At places, it can be very deep.

[00:21:21] You definitely need to know how to swim, but at the moment, personally, I'm okay with that. What about rope swings and ledges to jump off of and all that fun stuff? Is there anything like that? Yeah, there are two or three.

[00:21:33] There's one immediately after you put in after the Campton Bridge. Then there's one about two miles down on the right, which has a nice swing. That's just this section. I really can't speak to the other portions of the river, but there are plenty.

[00:21:49] There are plenty along the way. Do you need to be worried about creatures? Is there any hippopotamus, crocodiles, beavers, water snakes, anything like that? Nope, nada. You're telling me there's no snakes in that river? No snakes. Plenty of ducks, plenty of fish. He's lying, Rhonda. Occasional crocodile.

[00:22:11] Have you done this before, Rhonda? Have you done the floating on the Pemi? No. Does it sound appealing to you based on the way he's describing it? Yes. It does? Yes. When I was a kid, I used to go down the White River.

[00:22:27] Maybe we'll have to get a hiking buddy's Pemi float going one of these days. That sounds awesome. That sounds like a plan. Floating the Pemi, if you want to do it. If you need information, just hit Stomp up on the Instagram.

[00:22:42] He can give you all the inside scoop. That was interesting. I wasn't expecting to go that deep into the whole floating the Pemi. I've done it a couple of times with you guys and it is fun.

[00:22:50] It's just logistically to get over that side is a little bit difficult. The Saco is a little easier for me. Of course, but in this weather, it's the best option. The humidity has been so brutal, dude. And the water.

[00:23:02] I actually dipped into the Emerald Pool and the water being so cold. It's so nice. Oh, yeah. It's absolutely refreshing. We're even at the point where the pond up in Maine is so warm. The pond up in Maine is probably 85 degrees, so it's not even refreshing.

[00:23:15] It's just nice, but it's not refreshing. You go into a moving body of water and it's ice cold. That hits nicely when this weather is so hot. Yeah, agreed. Well, it's supposed to cool down this week, thankfully. All right.

[00:23:32] This segment of the show, I want to give a trigger warning. We're going to talk about shootings and violence and guns and stuff like this. So if you don't want to hear this, just hit your 15 second fast forward button on the podcast.

[00:23:41] But last week, Stomp had pulled this article about a shooter in Yellowstone that had been stopped by the police. And for whatever reason, we got to yapping as we tend to do here. And I had skipped over the story.

[00:23:56] So I said to Stomp, I was like, oh, we missed this story. And in the meantime, another shooting story developed on Saturday night. They tried to assassinate Donald Trump. So I was like, all right, I got to put this back in.

[00:24:09] This seems to be like shooting is part of what's going on in the news right now. But anyway, Stomp's favorite newspaper, the Cowboy State Daily, Stomp wants to be a cowboy when he grows up. They had published this article.

[00:24:25] It hasn't gotten a lot of news, but it's a good article. They published this article. It hasn't gotten a lot of news because usually these shootings don't get news when they're stopped. But Yellowstone gunman was firing a semi-automatic weapon towards the dining area.

[00:24:37] He was a contract employee that was killed during a Fourth of July shootout with Rangers and had been firing his semi-automatic weapon towards a dining area when he was confronted by Rangers. So I don't know how Yellowstone is set up, but I can tell you with Yosemite,

[00:24:54] and I guess in the Grand Canyon, I've been to a few of these other places. My assumption is that it's the same setup where you get into the park and there's like a couple of approved dining areas that are usually run by Aramark

[00:25:08] or some other contractor where you can go in and have like, there's usually like a bar and then a nicer place where you can eat, but they're all sort of cafeteria vibe. So my guess is that it's sort of one of these places here.

[00:25:19] So essentially what happened is that this contract worker was killed in a shootout after taking a hostage on the Fourth of July. He's a 28-year-old guy from Florida. And I guess just after midnight, there was a 911 call that was received

[00:25:42] that a woman had been held against her will. Now, a lot of these workers at these national parks like will live in dormitory type environments in the park. So my guess is that maybe this guy had a relationship

[00:25:55] or he wanted to have a relationship and he ended up, I guess, holding this woman against her will. And she, I guess, had told rangers that previously this guy had threatened to kill her and others and had plans to carry out a mass shooting on Fourth of July.

[00:26:14] So the rangers responded, found his vehicle unoccupied, and they started looking for him. So by 8 a.m., they had been posted. So they were looking for him. And then apparently he walked towards this. Eventually he showed up and walked towards the service entrance

[00:26:32] of the facility where he was firing this rifle. There was about 200 people inside the building at the time. Several rangers engaged the assailant and they were able to shoot him. I guess in the lower extremities, but he didn't survive the shooting.

[00:26:48] So luckily they had had the preliminary report. They were all kind of waiting for him. And then sure enough, he showed up. And I mean, it could have been an absolute nightmare with 200 people in there. So it's a crazy story, but didn't really make much news

[00:27:04] just because they were able to, I guess, take him out before anybody else got injured. Yeah. Yeah. Keep your head on a swivel. It's scary in these places. I mean, it can happen anywhere. Yeah. It's scary. It's like, you know, you can't really prepare for it.

[00:27:22] But like the reality is, is like we're living in this world where mass shootings can happen anywhere. And you know, you have to... Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Crazy. Yeah. You got to be able to get down quick. Yeah. Like I said, just be self-aware.

[00:27:39] Head on a swivel. Watch your surroundings. I mean, the Trump thing is just outrageous. I don't think we should get deep into that story because it's changing every hour. It looks as though these Rangers in Yellowstone did a great job.

[00:27:52] I have my doubts about what happened at the rally. Yeah. We'll see. Yeah. That seems wacky. But anyway, just be aware out there. And you know, when you're in crowds, you just have to, I guess, pay attention. It shouldn't have to be that way, but unfortunately it is.

[00:28:08] Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, so this next one here, Stomp. I don't think you pulled the actual article, so I don't know if I have a lot of detail. It's just an Instagram. Apparently a Henderson, Nevada guy was hiking in the Peruvian mountains about a month ago

[00:28:28] and he basically spotted this dark shape in the snow. It was a glacial field. As they got closer, they could see that it was a climber. They could tell that the climber had been there quite a while. It turned out the guy's name was William Stamfel

[00:28:40] and he had been frozen in time for 22 years. So the guy that found him was, again, another American. And he said he noticed right off the bat that the climber had a wedding ring on. And he said,

[00:28:57] it hit me that this guy had a family, at least a wife, and they were expecting him home and he never came home. So the body was fully intact. He still had his boots on, a fanny pack with a driver's license.

[00:29:06] So they were able to immediately identify him and they got in touch with the family. And they also called the news. So it was kind of shocking for the family. 22 years later, they're getting a phone call. They had accepted that he had gone missing.

[00:29:22] But ultimately, I think the wife had said that she was glad that they found him and that he was always meant to come back. So I guess the spot that they found him is in Huscaran, which is the highest peak in the Peruvian Andes. It's a huge mountain.

[00:29:38] Not a lot of people climb it. And I guess he was an adventurer and he tried to climb it like two decades ago. And the wife said she still remembers the call in 2002 when they said he got hit by an avalanche

[00:29:54] and that there was a bunch of Americans on the route and that him and his hiking party were buried in the snow. And they did a week-long search. They couldn't find anything. So, yeah. So at least they have closure with the family. So that's a crazy story.

[00:30:10] Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, thankfully, they have his remains and they can have some closure. Yes. Great. Thank you, Patrick Lorsch. Yes. Nice work. Now moving on to some local stuff here, Stomp. So a microburst was confirmed in Milford, New Hampshire. I also read that there was a microburst

[00:30:29] and tornado confirmed in Lyme, New Hampshire, which is over by the dark. It's on the Department Skiway. So I don't know if this is the same cell of storms or not. It looks like it is, but did you feel anything? No.

[00:30:41] We had some boomers come through, but nothing this major. There was an EF1 tornado in Lyme, which is over by Hanover and Smarts Mountain, that area there, a little bit west of there. But I don't think it got into the mountains.

[00:30:53] But they said it traveled about two miles or so. Wow. Yeah. Trees fell onto cars, into yards. Home's roof was destroyed. So that was pretty potent. Were there any cows flying around? No. Ronda liked that one. Yes. You know what I'm telling you, that's Wizard of Oz.

[00:31:13] Oh yeah. All right. So next up here, Stomp, you pulled an article. I had pulled something about Ruggles Mine opening previously, but you pulled another article here. So what's the story? What's the latest update? Yeah, I guess it opened up in late June,

[00:31:33] but it is hitting the news once again because they're trying to promote it. But Ruggles is officially open to the public. The hours are Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, nine to five, basically, nine to three on Sunday. And you can collect minerals, hiking, sightseeing.

[00:31:47] I guess it's 30 bucks a person, and kids under 10 are free. So another great option if you're a rock collector. And it is a beautiful place. It's absolutely stunning in there. I remember as a kid going there and just being amazed at how incredible it is.

[00:32:04] So yeah, good stuff. Good option. So it's off Route 4 in Grafton, New Hampshire. And it says if you want to camp, well, I guess the mineral collecting is $30 per person. Kids under 10 are free. And you can mine up to a five-gallon bucket of rocks.

[00:32:21] And then camping is an option there too if you want to stay overnight. So it's $10 per person per night. Tents or self-contained RVs. There's a porta potty on site. There's no hookups for the RVs, but you know. Yeah, you know what else I heard?

[00:32:35] I heard that they do nighttime tours because some of the gems are luminescent and they actually glow at night. How cool would that be? That would be cool. Yeah, I'd love to go. All right. Rhonda, do you like to shop? Do I like to shop?

[00:32:53] Shop, shop, buy stuff. You do? Yes. Do you have a particular favorite thing to shop for? Are you a gear junkie or do you like to do home goods stuff like my wife likes to buy, like a bunch of stuff that hangs on the walls?

[00:33:07] I've become a gear junkie. Okay, all right, so good. We are going to talk about some shopping deals. So my friend Al, who we frequently talk about on the podcast had sent me over just a reminder that now is the time of the year

[00:33:21] to buy traction, snowshoes, micro spikes, all that stuff. You can get some good deals. I spotted, he said, Eastern Mountain Sports, they have a 60% off deal in North Conway. I'm sure that there's some other stores that are available too. Cthulhu micro spikes are going for $29.

[00:33:41] So I'm assuming stock is limited. Not bad at all. Yeah, because normally they're like $74.99, I think. Oh yeah, totally. Yep. The other thing that Al had given me a heads up on is that now is also the time of the year to get some good deals on snowshoes.

[00:33:59] Everybody waits until like, oh, it's November, December. I want a winter hike, I gotta get snowshoes. So REI right now has deals on Atlas snowshoes, which I have Atlas Heliums, which are pretty good. And then also MSR Evo Lightning Explorer are on sale right now on REI.

[00:34:17] And then I think that there's some other deals on Amazon Prime for lightning ascent. And then I think that there's some other deals on Amazon Prime for lightning ascent. As well for women's lightning ascent, which that's the high end MSR ones. So if you check around,

[00:34:30] you'll find some pretty good deals. And then stop. I also took a look on Amazon for some deals on backpacking gear because it's around Amazon Prime Day. So I was looking and they had, they have a lot of sleeping pads. They have a lot of sleeping pads

[00:34:46] in like the $30 to $40 range, which is a little bit more expensive than Amazon Prime. But they have a $30 to $40 range, which I think in that range, what you're going to end up getting is like a heavier sleeping pad. But I think if you're like a weekend warrior

[00:35:01] like I am where you go out like maybe a couple times a year, like maybe that's the move right there. Spend 30, 40 bucks on a sleeping pad. You don't need the biggest R value, but they've got a lot of deals there. They've got a lot of deals on pillows.

[00:35:15] You might want to explain the R value to the new listeners. Yeah, so when R value is like an insulation value. So I don't know what the scale is, but basically I think what you want to look for is like an R value of like,

[00:35:31] I think five or six is usually pretty good. The purpose of the sleeping pad is to keep you directly off the ground because the ground is going to be cold. And if you lie directly on the ground, the cold of the ground is going to transfer directly

[00:35:45] into your body, especially when it's cooler out. That will cool down your body more quickly. That has insulation that protects against you getting cold from the ground. So that R value, the higher it is, the more protection from the cold from the ground transferring to your body

[00:36:03] that will give. Thank you, Mike. You're welcome. Well done. Yeah, I feel like Bill Nye, the science guy. The R value. The R value. I also see some good deals on your backpack here. That's for $55. There's a camp pillow, which is $21. There's a hatchet stomp.

[00:36:31] Do you ever use a hatchet when you go hiking? No, but I have carried saws. Yeah. There's a hatchet that you'll never use. There's a lot of poop shovels. A lot of poop shovels. There's a poop shovel that you can get for $3.

[00:36:49] It looks like it's going to snap in half. I see a stainless steel knife and spork kit, which looks pretty good. That's for $16. Here's actually the best deal I saw. FrogTog's Ultralight Rain Poncho for $12. So that's a pretty good one there. Okay, that's not bad.

[00:37:10] That's a multi-purpose use tool. Exactly. The FrogTog is perfect because you can use it. Matter of fact, the poncho, you can use that. You can put that over. Matter of fact, Rhonda, I think that you guys did that when I saw you on the Garfield hike.

[00:37:29] I think you guys used ponchos as not only a rain cover but also to cover your backpacks, right? Yeah, the $1 plastic emergency ponchos. It fits right over you and your pack. Not quite as hot as a raincoat because you're just going to sweat in the raincoat anyway. Yeah.

[00:37:51] I wanted to make sure I kept my pack dry and that worked great. They're lightweight, carry multiples. Yeah, so you know the deal there. FrogTog's is an option a little bit more expensive than the cheap ones. They've got a $40 tarp kit for hammock people

[00:38:11] and then there's a lot of stuff to start fires with, Stomp. I don't know what the deal is there but they've got all of these butane lighters that can light this stuff up and they've got a lot of headlamps as well. Okay, cool.

[00:38:27] I'll include a link to all this in the show notes and then the last thing I've got on Gear Stomp is and I don't even know, we've got to talk to Brees but Valkloos, I got an email today saying that they've got into the ultralight backpack space.

[00:38:41] Oh, excellent. Okay, what's the scoop? They're offering two ultralight backpacks. One is a 38 liter and another is a 25 liter. So the 38 liter would be an ultralight backpacking and then the 25 liter would be like probably a day pack or if you wanted to go super ultralight

[00:39:04] but they're using Dyneema fabric which is that waterproof fabric that like Hyperlite and a couple of other companies that do the super ultralight so they're Dyneema. The 25 liter is basically positioned against the Hyperlite 22 liter. It's about $20 cheaper than the 22 liter. It's got bigger capacity.

[00:39:27] As far as I can tell, it looks like pretty comparable. The only difference is the Hyperlite does have like a waist belt and I can't tell if this has a waist belt. I don't think it does. I would argue for the 25 liter backpack it's a personal preference

[00:39:46] on whether or not you want to get a waist strap or not. Like I barely use mine on my ultimate direction one. Correct. Yeah, I have one too but I never use it. Yeah, I mean the bigger one yeah maybe you do want to get into it

[00:40:02] but that one does have a hip belt for the 38 liter one. So interesting. So we'll have to get him on and he can talk a little bit about these and the thing too is that from a weight perspective he's a little bit lighter than the Hyperlite

[00:40:16] in both categories from a weight perspective. Oh good for them, that's great. They make great products so can't go wrong. Yeah exactly. So it looks like everything's going to be made to order so turnaround time's going to be about two weeks made in the USA

[00:40:33] and again using the Dyneema fabric. Hey newsflash, I just got a text from Stosh from the ITL Catskills podcast. He's at Reckless as we speak. Oh is he? Awesome. Getting ready for his three day Pemi loop. Oh he's doing the Pemi loop.

[00:40:47] Man I would love to get out and connect with him. Yeah, he's doing the Huts. We get chatted. I might consider going up Caps Ridge Saturday because they'll be leaving Madison Huts Saturday morning heading south towards Jefferson so I might try to intersect him and say hi.

[00:41:03] We'll see. Is he doing a Pemi or is he doing a Prezi? Oh I'm sorry, yeah. Sorry, Prezi. They're all the same to me now, miserable. Yeah, yeah, I get that. Oh so that'll be perfect for him then

[00:41:17] because I feel like when he was talking about the Pemi loop he felt like it was a grind so I think that he'll like the presidential a little bit better if he's going to do two or three nights and he's going to do the Huts

[00:41:29] he'll have a lot of time to explore around. Yeah, that's super cool. Awesome. Yeah, if listeners don't know about that podcast he does a great job covering the Catskills of New York and has a great array of guests on so check it out. Excellent. All right, Stomp.

[00:41:47] And then one thing, I pulled this one forward from the regular Search and Rescue just because I just wanted to again give a heat warning although I think it is going to cool down a little bit but sad story out of Canyonlands National Park

[00:42:01] so Al had sent this over to me, Stomp and I think he pulled it as well. A father and daughter die after getting lost running out of water on scorching hike in Utah's Canyonlands National Park so this hit home to me a little bit.

[00:42:13] I mean the father and daughter are like the same age as me and Caroline and it's just a sad story but I guess they're from Wisconsin and 52-year-old Albino Herrera Espinoza and his daughter Beatrice Herrera were trekking around the Sink Line loop in Canyonlands National Park on Friday

[00:42:34] and lost their way. Unfortunately they ran out of water and this is an 8.1 mile long hike that's considered the most challenging trail. Temperatures were above 100 degrees and unfortunately they were stranded. They did send a desperate text to 911 but the park rangers and helicopter crew

[00:42:54] that were dispatched got to them too late so their bodies were found around 545 in the upheaval dome area and then there was another body discovered around 6 o'clock so they were separated somewhat but absolutely horrible story and terrible. So it's just like if you're going to be out there

[00:43:12] in hot weather like this just make sure that you've got plenty of water and that you know the terrain that you're getting into even just around here in the White Mountains there's plenty of water everywhere but there's some spots that are sketchy so you got to be careful.

[00:43:28] Yeah and that day that was on top of another 30 year old that died a few miles from the canyon lands and then other people as well that were suffering from heat related incidents. Crazy. Yeah, yeah it's terrible I mean it's nice that the father and daughter

[00:43:43] were out there experiencing nature but it is you know it's a dangerous game sometimes. We all know that hiking a mountain can be hard at times so here's a corny dad joke to help you get over it. Bum bum bum. Now's the time of the show

[00:44:04] where we do a dad joke why couldn't the pirate play cards? Hmm. I give up. Because he was sitting on the deck. Ha ha ha ha. Ah. Okay, okay. Alright that's a pretty good one. I like it, I like it. Yeah so. Alright.

[00:44:30] I do have another one here. Let's hear it. This one is compliments of our friend Tyler. So scientists have found that cows produce more milk when the farmer talks to them. Apparently it's a case of in one ear and out the other. Ha ha ha ha. Oh God.

[00:44:52] That is so bad. Thanks Tyler. Good stuff. Yeah he's a good dude. So. Alright so now Stomp is the speaking of Valclues we were just talking about them now's the time that we are going to do a little ad for them. Absolutely.

[00:45:14] So does your backpack not provide enough ventilation? Does your back sweat too much when backpacking? As you know sweat can be extremely uncomfortable on the trails. Plus sweat is a serious risk factor in both hot and cold climates. As your clothes get wet

[00:45:26] your core temperature can dramatically fluctuate and this can result in hypothermia heat exhaustion and dehydration. Let's not forget it's just very uncomfortable. Today's your lucky day because we have good news for you. There's a piece of gear that solves the sweat and ventilation problem

[00:45:44] making your backpack more comfortable. It's Valclues Gear's Ultralight Backpack Ventilation Frame. This ultralight frame is a backpack accessory that easily installs in your favorite pack size 15 liters to 45 liters and creates a ventilating air flow gap between you and your pack. It's also ultralight weighing around 3 ounces

[00:46:02] and it's basically like a pair of wool socks. So whether you're hiking in hot or cold temperatures consider the Ultralight Backpack Ventilation Frame from Valclues Gear. It's a real game changer regarding airflow and ventilation. You can visit them at valcluesgear.com to order the frame today

[00:46:16] and you also can get a discount if you type in slasher S-L-A-S-R at checkout for a $5 discount and let them know that Mike and Stomp sent you. Very good Stomp. My Valclues frame I pushed it to its breaking point breaking limits on the bald face circle

[00:46:34] this Friday night. It was like ridiculously insanely humid. So it held up pretty well though. I was sweating pretty much all over like there was nothing that could be done when I was below tree line and then as I was going up the ledges

[00:46:48] once the wind started hitting me it was actually kind of nice because it did give me a little bit of separation but yeah I think like that was a stress test for sure for everything because it was just so insanely hot. Yeah it's been awful lately. Alrighty.

[00:47:04] So we have some coffee donations actually we have one coffee donation which as you know you can donate to the podcast at the Slasher Buy Me A Coffee website which you can find off our Instagram LinkedIn page where you can also find the information for the patches.

[00:47:22] Donations help us pay for web hosting distribution and live events etc. And this week we have a donation of five coffees from at Mountain Mike. Very appreciated. I think he made some comment about like Dave didn't he? Oh yeah he made.

[00:47:40] I think he was commenting on Dave being really funny. Yeah I wonder if it's just an alt for Dave and he's just really Dave just hyping himself up to try to get more air time I don't know. Dave's been like posting some awesome pitches though

[00:47:54] like he's over in, was he in over on Scotland or Ireland or something? Well yeah he was. Now he's back. I think he's got his eyes on the Huntingtons now. Busy guy. Busy guy. Speaking of busy, the 48 Peaks team is always busy doing all kinds of stuff here

[00:48:16] hiking for Alzheimer's and stuff. So now is the time of the show where we're going to do a little ad for the 48 Peaks. Yes use your passion for hiking to help end Alzheimer's. In one collective effort 400 plus hikers will climb the Mount Everest to advance

[00:48:34] the care, support and research efforts of the Alzheimer's Association. Hike anytime this summer and help turn the White Mountains purple to end Alzheimer's. No fundraising minimums required but you can unlock fun prizes as you fundraise. So visit alt.org right slash 48 Peaks to learn more.

[00:48:56] Hey hold my beer. It's time to find out what's going on in the world of what Mike and Stomp are drinking on this week's beer talk. Frank and Stomp, this is the part of the show where we talk about what beer we are drinking or what water

[00:49:21] we're drinking or whatever we may be drinking. Yeah I got nothing. I got nothing. Mrs. Stomp let me down. She was on her way back and said she was going to grab I got my little fish stood and so was Ronda. So Ronda, my kids

[00:49:41] have these things here so explain to me the appeal of the Stanley thingy or that's not a big one though. That's a yeti that's a Yeti. OK so you want to yeah I like my ice water all the time. Yep. And then you gotta be here too.

[00:50:01] Yeah I have a Vermont hard seltzer company. like the label looks like very like 1970s disco roller skating type of vibe. Yeah it's very cool. Yes. I'm not much of a seltzer fan. My daughter-in-law had these and I really liked it.

[00:50:19] All right well you get a little razzle dazzle and I've got a Fiddlehead IPA which is basically my go-to at restaurants usually when I want to drink a beer so my wife got some at Trader Joe's and I'm making my way through them

[00:50:33] so very good. Now this is the part of the show where we talk about recent hikes so Stomp I know you've been out and I've been out so Rhonda have you gone anywhere recently? I have. Where'd you go? We did the Carters on Sunday. I did a

[00:50:51] buddy hike so there was 10 of us that met and did the car spot because we can't go through Camp Dodge now the cutoff. It's up 19 mile brook up to Carter Dome over to Hite because the views were amazing and then down and

[00:51:10] across south middle Carter down Imp and some of the faster people in the group you know went ahead we didn't do the car spot right so some of the faster ones were like we'll go down and we'll wait and we'll shuttle people back and forth

[00:51:25] to their cars. That's not bad. It was really cool really cool. It was very hot it was a tough day but we had a good time. And they can't so I in the winter I use

[00:51:35] this cutoff all the time but like this so the Camp Dodge like you can't you can't do it in the summer anymore they've cut they've shut that down. A couple years ago I remember hearing a lot of commotion about it I haven't

[00:51:46] heard that much this year but I didn't want to take a chance. Yeah no sense risking it and ruining it for everybody and all eventually they like put a fence up or something so. They did disguise it you know where they put a bunch of

[00:51:59] branches and trees and stuff across the path so to deter you from going down that way. Yeah yeah. So we did the we did the longer version and you know some of the buddies just shuttled us back and forth to our cars when we got there so.

[00:52:15] Yeah that's it's that's a tough fight because it's really like even though you're doing the car spot and whatnot it really doesn't save you much it's it it's still close to a sort of an out or a loop because you know it's a lot of

[00:52:28] up and down so it's tiring anyway you get the view from Mount Hite and then the rest of its kind of like you know you get some good views on on South Carter as well North Carter or whatever it is but it's a tough hike. Between

[00:52:42] Middle Carter and Leith is that what before you go down the Imp Trail there's some really nice openings and views so that's where it's at. Yeah yeah you get nice view of the presidentials there so yeah. Was there a particular reason why

[00:52:58] you chose, were you the organizer or did you just jump on the hike? No I was the organizer. Yeah. I'm working on my 48 in all four seasons. Okay all right so you're kind of like semi-grid and then obviously like the next thing will be

[00:53:10] like I've done all my four seasons I'm gonna grid so. Well I'm keeping track. Yeah. I'm I'm filling in my grid sheet. Yeah it's gonna happen so you just say you're gridding now it's okay I know yeah I feel like you have to be a certain

[00:53:23] distance or you have to be into it like over like 250 before you really commit to say I'm gridding so. It's okay well I'm getting there but. You're getting close so.

[00:53:32] Yeah yeah I'm doing good. Very good all right. I did Carter and Odom for summer so yeah and I needed all three for July so. That's a tough hike that is like the that is

[00:53:44] there's no doubt about especially when you add height onto it that is a lot of up-and-down so good good for you and the crew. It was really cool showing nine people someplace that they've never been before. Yeah and we'll talk about

[00:53:58] that when we get into your segment as well but but stop so squam traverse with Nobby did you do the whole thing or did you bail out part way? Yeah unlike us Mike we we completed it so we were planning on finishing his T25 so he has Madison

[00:54:14] Gulf, Spanx and six husbands left we're gonna backpack but because of the rain we bailed because it would have just been too slick and so we opted for something more south a little drier worked out pretty well we we did do the

[00:54:28] entire traverse which we've talked about before you and I made it from beer camp at the end of sandwich notch Road and made it down to Morgan Percival we did make it all the way to Mount Cotton so we left his car there and went north and

[00:54:43] then we went you know southwest straight through it was really interesting super hot a ton of bugs we were leapfrogging two females from Massachusetts and they were nice and just I mean it was just hot hot and bugs lots of blueberries we

[00:55:01] came up with a new phrase BPM's blueberries per mile oh yeah now's blueberries you can eat per mile made it over to Mount Squam pretty uneventful made it to Morgan Percival there were maybe I don't know half a

[00:55:14] dozen people on the summit of Percival and then as we were descending Morgan which by the way I didn't know you had to descend the ladders so I threw a hissy-fit on the way down the ladders you can bypass it though I was not aware

[00:55:32] of a bypass so we ended up going straight down the ladders but I was a big boy I was a big boy and one right down the ladder she would have thought that he was like getting dropped off and nor on the beach in Normandy

[00:55:44] climbing up the ladder when I did it with yeah it was terrifying as we were coming down Morgan to that junction that continues on to Mount Cotton we passed a school group or probably a camp group at this point of probably 20 young

[00:55:58] adolescents heading up to the ladders like good luck to chaperones good luck but I gotta say the uncharted territory from Mount Morgan to Mount Webster was absolutely beautiful just wide four foot wide flat trails no rocks just pine

[00:56:15] needles the whole way and then we passed a couple benches that mr. Stomp and I typically go to for foliage and then at this point Nobby looks me and goes hey do

[00:56:25] you have any water all right we had about we had about four miles left I think to get to cotton and it was hot as hell and I had maybe I don't know three

[00:56:36] quarters of a liter left so we divided up my water and I told him I wouldn't give him a shame drop but I changed my mind so we continue on and when you pass Webster you start descending quite a bit towards Mount Livermore and it's just

[00:56:55] like some of these famous traverses where you're exhausted and all of a sudden they save the worst for the end Mount Livermore and cotton are ass kickers so Livermore it had to be at least half a mile up very steep and then as you're

[00:57:12] descending towards cotton believe it or not there's like this small body of water so he had his filter and we were we were filtering perfect well we were filtering out of mud puddles the water actually tasted like dirt it was pretty nasty but

[00:57:26] it did the job yeah it sure did but thankfully he had the filter but we were fine I mean we had a couple miles left we would have been fine I'm just teasing and then Mount Cotton pretty cool uneventful there I mean that's like

[00:57:40] a thousand foot little bump but it's very rocky nice view at the end come to find out there are benches all along that traverse that they've put up for people to enjoy the view of the lake so great time very nice time I highly recommend

[00:57:54] it took us about five hours moving time and we were moving we were doing like two and a half miles an hour or so and then sitting around killing time on Morgan Percival get a little rest in the shade and I was introducing myself to

[00:58:09] people as Mike McLaughlin I would love to people and say I'm Mike McLaughlin I have a podcast that went over pretty well that's great I do that matter of fact when I do to if people call me I'm like yeah my name is stomp I'll usually

[00:58:23] say that and I'm rude to them too that's my new favorite thing to do on trail so anyway that's it no I'm pissed off stop no making fun of me so for me

[00:58:40] like I said I went on to I did self bald face I had Friday off for work we had like a mental health day wellness day so I took advantage of that and I had to

[00:58:53] like get my daughter's cars I had to get the oil change done because she's a she's a full-on adult but she can't like go to the car dealer oh that she can't

[00:59:03] get the car done so she sent me off so I would get I got up north late so I did an afternoon hike on the bald face I was gonna do the full bald face circle and

[00:59:11] then it was so insanely hot that I was just like forget this I'm not I was like immediately like but I got I started climbing and I was like yeah I'm just doing self and then coming down slippery brick and then going to the

[00:59:25] Emerald Pool so this is in my neighborhood so it's perfect like I went up to I went up to my father-in-law's and then dropped my stuff and then drove up to the parking lot and I do the parking lot was full I was like oh wow

[00:59:37] it would be a lot of people hiking everybody was at Emerald Pool they were the smart ones I was the only moron that went hiking so I didn't see anybody at all but bald face if you haven't been there like we talked about it a million

[00:59:49] times on the podcast my favorite hike awesome views it's a challenging ledge hike when you get to the there's a shelter you get to the shelter and you know you climb these ledges that are part of the I think terrifying 25 and

[01:00:04] it's a 52 with a view and then you get to the sub dome that has awesome views out to Evans notch and then down into down into like the car you can see the Carters you can see the double hit all those all those summits in Jackson

[01:00:19] Iron Mountain and Kearsar North and all that fun stuff and then you get up to salt bald face and then you get even better views of the Carters and then out to the presidentials and it was like one of those days where the cloth the puffy

[01:00:30] clouds were like high in the sky so it really made like for cool visual photographs so I got some great photos and the weather was so hot I had two liters with me and I had my filter I had two liters and then I had another 16

[01:00:46] ounce bottle so I had like two and a half liters with me in two liters of Gatorade because I liked flavor so I drank all those and then I decided to bail on

[01:00:56] the loop I went back down to the sub dome of bald face and then cut over to bald face knob and then down slippery brook and then once you get down slippery brook you you hit Chandler brook and I was out of water by then but there's all

[01:01:11] kinds of options when you get to Chandler brook to filter and the water was running pretty fast because it had rained the night before and surprisingly the ledges were wet when I got up there so okay water wasn't as big of a problem

[01:01:25] as it usually is on on the bald face and then when we went when I got back I went into Emerald Pool I dipped in there and it was like there's like only two or

[01:01:34] three people in there and then headed back out to the car and the next morning Caroline and Devin wanted a hike my daughter and her boyfriend so we went and did burnt meadow and we were miserable from the start to the end it was just

[01:01:46] miserable hot there was deer flies everywhere I use my deer fly patch though oh yeah I got about five or six of those deer fly so crazy this is so annoying yeah they are annoying and we were gonna my whole plan was I was gonna take

[01:02:01] her and Devin up the back slide and then there's these huge fields of blueberries that you can bushwhack through but I was just like I'm not they were miserable by the time we got to the slide of burnt meadow and then by then I was just like

[01:02:14] let's just do the loop and then we'll head back and there was a ton of blueberries up there and you normally I love that hike but it was just the weather was too hot wasn't fun yeah well back to the flies for a sec the peak

[01:02:26] activity for these buggers occurs in late June in July so I think we're gonna get over the worst of it shortly this is deer flies moon yes yes so we had that the the stick this the the tape on my hat work perfect I didn't even notice

[01:02:44] them that's great that's great unlike me for 13 miles going absolutely insane waving my arms everywhere every two seconds yeah I even kept the the paper that you so there's a paper that you peel off and then the sticky stuff is

[01:03:00] exposed yeah and then I had like six or seven of the bugs stuck to my tape and I just put though I just put the like the the non sticky tape back over it and

[01:03:11] then I put the hat back in my car and then this weekend I can just put it back on there'll be like six or seven dead flies still there but it's still use it but maybe my car will smell with dead flies I don't know that's interesting

[01:03:26] but by the end of the season you get like 50 flies on there yeah I'm just collecting dead flies sell them to the fishermen yes so to the fishermen you know what fishermen like in the morning stop coffee they like coffee oh wow

[01:03:43] that's interesting get a coffee there you go hey this podcast is supported by CS instant coffee makers of eco-friendly instant coffee it's perfect for anyone who loves the outdoors as much as we do great for backpacking day

[01:03:58] hiking camping and even at home learn more and get in touch at www.csinstant.coffee or email us at info at CS instant coffee and again those are fantastic packets love the flavor really strong surprisingly for a small little

[01:04:15] packet like that yeah you have some at your place I had a few sent over a complimentary from Ian and yeah I can have him send you a couple too I was going to save you some Mike but I think you were mean to me last week or

[01:04:30] something so I just used them for myself yeah I think I did not give you a two I gave you I missed you a two and you missed me a seven so I'll go like that

[01:04:42] well if you have some and you want to bring them to the so tomorrow that'd be great but if not no big deal I can reach out to Ian it's time for slashers notable hike of the week if you want to be considered

[01:04:58] for the hike of the week simply tag slasher on your social media post all right stop this is your favorite segment notable listener hike of the week yeah let's go so we have a bunch this week Diane started at Eagle Crag for 51 out

[01:05:17] of the 52 with a view list the little doe with a bow hiked Morgan and Percival speaking of Morgan and Percival Liz Faye's back at it hiking the Kinsman's via Mount Kinsman trail I made a little stop at ball peak a menthum

[01:05:33] hiked Mount Adams this is not our Mount Adams this was out west somewhere I'm pretty sure so nice work veterans on the 48 hiked North North and South bald face John Adrian 7 tackled Shelburne Mariah for the 52 with a view hiking feeds my

[01:05:56] soul tackled 40 and 41 for Monroe in Washington with Miles the dog her ever-present companion empath hiker did a solo out and back on the bonds nice work and the little doe with a bow comes back again hiking Coppel crown mountain

[01:06:16] I've never heard of that one I'm not sure what that is but it sounds interesting well this little bow with a little doe with a bow has come out of nowhere who is that person anyway I don't know I don't know okay very stealthy

[01:06:30] okay and then now let's see we have two more Jake skis 603 and D DePiro photography did a northern Prezzy southbound nice work and then finally Xbox our buddy at the cog boreal badass hiked Huntington Ravine so what do you

[01:06:48] think Mike any winners I do have a winner and I feel like hiking feeds my soul and our pal so Stacy and Miles looking Miles is a handsome boy yes he is and I feel like they always put in for notable hike and they don't get

[01:07:05] enough love so I am gonna give Stacy and Miles the the notable hike of the week because Stacy has crushed her 52 with the views and 48s but miles is like a 41 out of 48 in 39 out of 52 so he is crushing it right now so I'm gonna

[01:07:25] just give him a little bit of motivation and encouragement to finish up good job miles roof yeah he's like a boxer looking fella yeah yeah he looks a little bit like you stomp actually handsome well we're like a boxer I mean

[01:07:44] he's handsome for a dog but not for a human he looks like a like a well-behaved box I have a bias against bought like boxes are a little out of control a lot of the time miles seems like he's a well-behaved fella because he's so tired

[01:08:02] after all these damn hikes that's such a good name for a dog too it's like what miles yeah it's such a great I love when people name their dogs like old guys names let's dive into some White Mountains history shall we so stop last

[01:08:32] week we talked about a 74 year old man that went wild at Canobie Lake Park and he essentially got Nate he got drunk and then he took all his clothes off and horrified all of the people at the wave pool so it got me to thinking that I

[01:08:51] should do a little bit of a history segment on Canobie Lake Park it's not really hiking related but sometimes we just do things that we are interested in and we just want to do it for the sake of doing it so I'm doing yeah yeah local

[01:09:02] interest yeah have you have you been to Canobie Lake Park before stop I think you said you had right a million times love it as a kid we used to do the field trips yes big buses and as an adult I would take my daughters and mrs. Tomp

[01:09:17] and I would go a million times but yeah a million times yep best place same with us we would always do like a family trip at night and I remember going back in the early early days going and actually watching like entertainment where they

[01:09:31] had like the water skiers that would you know to be like 20 water skiers and they would do like a pyramid and stuff yeah the lake and then you would also go and see high diving they would like jump like 60 feet into this little tiny pool

[01:09:49] of water and stuff so I remember those yeah interesting you know my favorite thing is the extreme frisbee right there at the beginning of the the park when you first come in it's a pendulum and it doesn't go fully upside down but

[01:10:02] it's a frisbee that spins on a pendulum and it gets some serious geez it's incredible that's a good one yeah the the only issue I have with that one is it's often broke when true truth yeah true yeah but anyway so I just I thought

[01:10:24] it was interesting so my uncle is like an amusement park historian and you know he's not really focused on canopy but he's done he's written a couple of books on different amusement parks so I thought that I would do a little bit of

[01:10:34] digging here and give you guys a little bit of history about candy like Rhonda have you been to candy be like are you a amusement park fan are you a rollercoaster person I used to be an amusement park fan I haven't heard of this before

[01:10:47] though so you haven't heard of candy be Lake Park no this is how long have you lived in New England my whole life you've this is like so stop you know how like when you wonder about like okay people on a jury how can they not know

[01:11:05] about like a certain famous case there are some people like really don't know about stuff so it's it and so candy be Lake is in Salem New Hampshire Rhonda it is an amusement park it's like a iconic amusement parks for people that live in

[01:11:19] the North Shore area so and then Southern New Hampshire like she's too busy crushing it come on yes she's focused on the hike so that's right in that in a minute but anyway so some early history here so candy be Lake was

[01:11:35] created as a as a destination back when trolley cars were you know how like you had that you always had the battle of a format like okay there is it's gonna be

[01:11:46] VHS or is it gonna be beta so in the early 1900s it was sort of like this format battle between automobiles and trolley cars and trains and things like that no one really knew what was gonna overtake horses as the main form of

[01:12:02] transportation so around 1900 you had the greater Lowell area you had Lawrence Haverhill and Nashua were all connected through a trolley car system that was called Hudson Pelham and Salem Railways so these trolley cars were essentially

[01:12:18] like they went along the roads and they were electric trolleys that would go all over the place so it would allow you to get a lot more movement than you could have over your horse or walking or whatever and automobiles weren't a thing

[01:12:31] at that point they were they were very expensive and there wasn't many of them so the owners of the Hudson Hudson Pelham and Salem Railways created a destination in a place called Canobie Lake Park which is right by Canobie Lake

[01:12:47] in Salem New Hampshire and they created what's called a trolley park and they set up a little attraction to market it to the trolley service to residents of the area and it was primarily a botanical garden that offered picnic

[01:13:01] areas it offered canoeing there was some sporting events that you could you could play and then they had a circular swing and then they also built a penny arcade stop are you familiar with a penny arcade is oh sure yeah my favorite

[01:13:16] one is Salem Willows Salem Willows is another one yeah that's another place so I was looking up penny arcade song because I was curious about what sort of games they might have back then so essentially you would just insert a

[01:13:30] penny to access the games and I got a list here stop so there was one that was a submarine lung tester so you would insert a penny the penny would then allow you to access a tube which you could blow into which was filled with

[01:13:47] water and then there was little scuba diving people on strings and then more oxygen or the more you could blow into the water the higher up the little underwater divers would float and then it would like have a measurement and

[01:14:03] then based on how much you could blow in in a certain amount of time that was how you could judge how strong your lungs were interesting yeah sounds like it's something I'd love to have invented for Kovat you know what I mean that

[01:14:16] would have gone over well it's like an early vo2 max test exactly but without the sterility yes exactly the another game that they had here was a barbell lifter so you would insert a coin and then that would release a barbell that

[01:14:33] you would then be able to lift and there was a measurement in the form of a scale that would show how much resistance you could exert on the barbell so it was basically a strength testing machine yes yeah that's a classic they had various

[01:14:50] fortune-telling and palm reading games so these are those classic games where you'll see like the the traditional like gypsy palm reader or a guy that has like a turban and you would go in and put a penny in and then it would release a

[01:15:03] scroll of paper that would then have instructions on how you could read your fortunes in a palm or it would have an actual fortune that you could you could read very cool remember the Dancing Monkeys they had the day yeah I don't

[01:15:18] know if they had Dancing Monkeys that was like later on okay okay they had another one that was a lady perfume sprayer so you could you could pay to get perfume sprayed on you okay yeah they had a vibe this one's wild I'm

[01:15:34] gonna lick this one stop I should show you this one but it's a vibrating doctor machine so this is you put in a penny and then there's just like a rubber hose with a hand a rubber hand attached to it and the hand vibrates and it's supposed

[01:15:49] to and then there's a doctor that's like in the machine and you're supposed to grab the hand and supposed to be a doctor that gives you like a massage on your shoulders and supposed to make you feel better it looks horrible yeah

[01:16:04] they had a pneumatic punching machine so those classic punching machines that you can measure how much they would have grip strength measurement machines so you how much grip you could exert on a machine they would be able to measure

[01:16:17] and then they had very like those early quatroscopes which are early picture flipping devices so essentially like a circular motion with pictures and it looks it would simulate motion that's right okay yeah and then they had early

[01:16:32] phonographs as well so you could listen to music and then there were like scales where you could weigh yourself so that was essentially what a penny arcade was so that's what they had set up at Canobie Lake and that was what attracted a lot of

[01:16:43] people in the early days it was essentially like canoeing they had a swing set and then they had these penny arcade games I wouldn't be surprised if Canobie still has some of those around Barry I know I know Salem Willows does

[01:16:56] have some of those early early early ones what I was so I was reading a little bit about it and I think a lot of those machines that you'll see are they're basically like what are those called like remakes of classic machines

[01:17:10] so yeah it's pretty the ones that are actually the real deal that go back to that period are worth a lot of money and hard to find yeah yeah so anyway but so anyway so for the first 20 years or so everything was moving along fine it was

[01:17:26] a trolley park it was a destination obviously seasonal because you know you're is only a certain time of the year where you can run it before the snow comes in but by the 1920s it became apparent that the trolley business was

[01:17:38] not going to be viable the original railway had had by that time merged with some other lines to become the Massachusetts Northeast Street Railway company but by 1923 the railway had basically thrown in the towel due to

[01:17:54] competition from the automobile they held on for a few more years but by 1929 the line had completely shut down and they had done like a survey of I think Salem or Pelham or something like that and it was like only eight homes in the

[01:18:08] entire town that didn't have an automobile by 1929 so they were essentially saying like we can't make this work no one's gonna use the railway and no one was using the trolleys at that point so that led to the shutdown of

[01:18:22] Canobie Lake for a couple of years but by early 1932 there was a citizen of Lawrence that had been making some success he invented a electric machine that assisted in paving so he was an early inventor of like some of the

[01:18:40] paving system so he was a road builder he was able to purchase Canobie Lake Park for $17,000 at auction and he set about basically updating the Canobie Lake he converted it from a trolley park to a destination accessible by car they also built a classic roller coaster called Yankee

[01:19:06] Cannonball so at that time that was where like roller coaster boom was happening there was like 2,000 roller coasters built in the 1920s I think in that period. Is that the Cannonball that's still there? It's the same one

[01:19:19] Wow okay got it so that was built up and then he also added a ballroom so that he had you know destination acts like Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra that was a period of time where like the big bands were huge so they would have the big

[01:19:35] band so it was a Friday night entertainment place you could come take your date on the roller coaster must have been starting slowly to add some rides to it. Those are the days huh man those were the days so yeah again in

[01:19:48] Holland like his family they were successful contractors they paved most of the roads in the Merrimack Valley matter of fact even today in some parts of Lawrence you can find his company logo on some of the sidewalks that are paved that still exist in and around the city.

[01:20:07] See at that point he had I guess they had put in roller skating at some point as well so Patrick Holland he passed away in 1943 he left the park to his wife and family to run according to the Canobie Lake history page so I'm

[01:20:28] getting my sources from the history page of Canobie Lake and then a bunch of other sources. The park had struggled by the late 1950s they had had a fire there had been a hurricane there'd been a robbery and then there

[01:20:42] was a decline in the big band era of music because previously music entertainment was based on the big bands that played in the entertainment venue but by the late 50s big bands had declined in popularity as a new form of

[01:20:54] music was taking hold of the American public now known as rock and roll so a lot of changes the trolley gives way to the car the big band music gives way to rock and roll and by 1957 the Holland family decided to sell the park to three

[01:21:11] partners these partners had a lot of experience in the amusement but it's basically six people they sold it to because Nina Nini and Laura Bernie and his friends Lou Captel and Kaz Ulaki they both had wives so it's basically

[01:21:28] three couples Lou and Kaz were related through marriage there's they married sisters the three couples had been working together in New Jersey's Palisades Park which is an iconic amusement park that overlooked the Hudson

[01:21:41] River in New York City so I guess Lou's father one of the partners father had built the legendary River Beach lightning roller coaster did you ever see those on River Beach? Yeah I did. I remember as a kid yeah I mean with my family being in

[01:22:01] Chelsea I was I caught the tail end of that whole era amazing yeah arcades and everything yeah and he also was um involved in designing the overhead electrical configurations that you see in bumper cars so yeah so the three

[01:22:18] couples they scraped together $450,000 and bought the park from the Holland family and they immediately set out to improve the infrastructure of walking paths and upgrading buildings and eventually they were able to add more attractions including a swimming pool, ski ball, and typically they would

[01:22:36] do one or two new rides per year in the early days they actually purchased a couple of rides from Palisades Park when it closed in the 1960s the families eventually settled into just basically consistently adding new features every

[01:22:51] year and even through the 1960s they kept landing big entertainment acts including Sonny and Cher stomp so they landed Sonny and Cher in 1965 they had signed them to to play they were an unknown act in 1965 but they had

[01:23:08] recently released a little song by the called I Got You Babe. I Got You Babe blew up in the early summer of 1965 Sonny and Cher was already booked and committed to play at Canobie Lake just as the the height of their popularity

[01:23:23] blew up with I Got You Babe. Incredible. Yeah incredible around that same time as well the Beach Boys played at Canobie Lake in 1965 the Beach Boys entered the park from the front entrance and they were turned around because they didn't

[01:23:38] have tickets and they thought they were gonna have to cancel the show until one of the owners finally stepped in and said nope they're the Beach Boys let them in. So yeah so and as of today the Bernie family I believe continues to own

[01:23:54] Canobie Lake Park and it's become a New England icon it's sometimes referenced as the Dollywood of New England and you know a general multiple generations of kids and families have experienced Canobie Lake Park except for Rhonda

[01:24:08] apparently who's never heard of the place. I've been sheltered. Yeah well I think Rhonda your new assignment is you are to go to Canobie Lake Park and experience the park. You know another buddy hike. Yes you could organize a buddy hike I may have to take

[01:24:23] you. But Stomp I mean this is where I honed my skills of horrifying women back in the day when I was a young teenager trying to meet girls at the swimming pool and trying to meet them you know in the arcade and I repelled

[01:24:39] more young girls with my horrible personality than I can even count. Oh that's hard to believe they have the Turkish twist back then Mike? Turkish twist which is a ride if you're not familiar with it essentially you go into

[01:24:58] this cylinder and it spins around and you stick to the wall and it was famous for people throwing up like it was constantly closed because people were throwing up in the Turkish twist. I've done that one. You have done that okay.

[01:25:10] Yeah cuz I'm thinking that'd be a great first date ride. Yes the bottom drops down and you stick to the wall so you also had to be careful there's a sky ride which is essentially

[01:25:21] a ski lift and you have to be very careful because people spit on you as you're walking by so that's a rite of passage for young Merrimack Valley hoodlums. Oh my goodness. But that's the history of Canobie Lake Park a little

[01:25:41] New Hampshire history there Stomp what do you think? It's pretty awesome I had no clue but it is like it's one of the best places in the region to go to for amusements and just all kinds of stuff and of course we talked about recently

[01:25:54] the performers that mimic all these recent artists like Taylor Swift and One Direction. Oh yeah that's always phenomenal too. Yeah yeah amazing. Great time. So anyway so that is Canobie Lake Park I'll include a bunch of links

[01:26:09] in the show notes if you want to check out those Penny Arcade games or if you just want to read a little bit more about the Holland family or the Bernie family or anything else about Canobie Lake I'll include some links in the

[01:26:20] show notes. Thank You Mike. It's time for Slashers guest of the week Very Cool Very Cool All right Rhonda this is your moment this is your your segment are you ready to go? I'm ready. Okay you've been doing well but then you like your stock dropped

[01:27:08] when you said you didn't know Canobie Lake but your stock was up when you did the Carters so we'll have to see which what direction you go in. I hope I can

[01:27:17] tip the scale the right way. You can do it you got this. So why don't I start with the introduction so I don't even remember how we came to know each other I think that we probably met maybe at a reckless event to start off with but very

[01:27:29] quickly like as I started getting more social in the hiking scene getting involved with the hiking buddies and then getting to know like a lot of the frequent hikers and the whites like you just became a common face for me it was

[01:27:41] like not unusual I think the other thing is me and you were pursuing the winter 4000 footers around the same time period so I think we ran into each other a fair bit over the over the last couple of years so I don't remember the first

[01:27:53] time meeting you but I would say you know just generally became friends through different hiking events and it's great to get to know you and I think we just ran into each other a bunch of times and just said like let's let's get

[01:28:04] you on the podcast so you can share your story. Yeah. Awesome so why don't you start off by introducing yourself give a little bit of detail about your background and a little bit about how you get into hiking. So I'm Rhonda Willap

[01:28:19] I don't know what do you want to know I'm two kids two boys they're in their 30s and I work for University of Vermont Health Network. Nice. At one of the smaller locations Central Vermont Medical Center one of the doctor's

[01:28:39] offices I got into hiking I think it was 2006. Yeah. I got out of it and got back into it again. Nice with the way and when the boys were little you guys would you consider yourselves like outdoorsy family or anything like that or were you more you

[01:29:02] just you picked it up after the kids got a little older? My kids were older when I started hiking. We had a boat and so in the summertime we water skied and we fished and you know hung around the water and in the wintertime we had

[01:29:20] snowmobiles so yeah we're outdoorsy but not athletic necessarily. Got it and then in 06 when you started getting into it I think the way I read you sent me you were nice enough to send me over your essay for the 4000 footage so my

[01:29:33] recollection is is that you were you know it was like you and your husband and then another couple sort of got together and it was you you were doing the hiking but you were sort of skeptical to say like I don't know if

[01:29:45] I'm gonna be able to do all these and can you talk a little bit about those early days like you weren't organizing things like it was you were you were coming along but you were sort of like warning them like hey you know let's

[01:29:56] not get in over our heads here and can you talk a little bit about that experience back in the 2000s? Yeah yeah so my husband's friend started hiking the New Hampshire 48 and he kind of dragged my husband in on it and we were

[01:30:12] just dating at the time he's my second husband so he dragged my boyfriend at the time in on it and every once in a while they would invite their significant others to go and so the first hike they asked us to join them on

[01:30:29] was actually you know Crawford Path so first hike up Mount Pierce crossed you know Eisenhower, Monroe, down a Lake of the Clouds and down Ammonitic Ravine Trail. Well they kicked your ass on the first hike. We had to go to the

[01:30:49] MISBA hut too so we included that little stretch yes that was our first introduction and you know when on our way back to the car we were Patty and I were ready to kill him her husband kept saying just around the corner we're

[01:31:05] almost there. I never say that. Because I was thinking I'm like it when you're saying okay it's the Crawford Path I'm like okay that's right that's the right move go right up to Pierce and then bring them back down I'm gonna love it

[01:31:17] but then you're like oh we went to MISBA oh we went to Eisenhower oh we went down you know Ammonitic Ravine Trail so wow that's that's quite an introduction and then how did you feel after that you kept going obviously. Yeah so they were in hot

[01:31:33] pursuit of getting the New Hampshire 48 done and you know I was just I just went along once in a while didn't know where I was going what I was doing and you know

[01:31:42] they had to give me my space while I kind of got in my zone and could get warmed up so they talked about you know like the flume slide and different trails they talked about and Wildcat Ridge Trail those were things that I was

[01:31:58] never gonna do like nope not interested I had no interest in doing all 48 at that time. I enjoyed the hikes that we went on and and that was it I wasn't you

[01:32:11] know I was I was a chicken I was big chicken yeah so. But you did in that period of time in the 2000s you did you did knock off a number of 4,000 footers right? I think I did about 22 between 2006 and 2009-10. And they all completed their

[01:32:30] list but you you you kind of skipped some of the crazy hikes with them? Yeah yeah I skipped the crazy stuff and they went on and finished well my husband hasn't done Baxter so he still has the three in Baxter to do but other than

[01:32:46] that they went on to do all the main peaks and they did like crazy amount of peaks and miles in just a few days. So they got their bug and then you you sort

[01:32:58] of set it aside for a while like how many years did you set it aside when you when they finished? Yeah so basically they were all done there 48 and almost 67 and me and my husband Andy we just didn't you know we only hiked in the summertime

[01:33:17] and stuff and the next year we just didn't pick it back up again. We just you got the boat so you know yeah I get it like if you're gonna do the boat stuff

[01:33:25] or you near the water then it's easy to say like oh my I'm gonna go hiking and get you know bugs and all this other nonsense. Exactly it's it's a it's a it's a struggle trying to balance the two things. It was March of 2020 before I

[01:33:40] started hiking again it was that same friend of my husband's who stopped at the house one day. I was I've got a mountain in my backyard I think my dog out my snowshoe and stuff and I was on my way out the door when when he stopped

[01:33:56] and was just like hey what are you doing I'm going for a ride you know you want to go with me I don't know where I'm going like yeah sure so we went he asked

[01:34:05] me which ones I which peaks I hadn't done yet and we went to Jackson. So how far away is that how much of a ride is this from where you live? For me to get

[01:34:14] to like Twin Mountain it's about an hour. All right can this guy can't be trusted like I don't think he can be trusted because he's taking you on this crazy crazy hikes right? You don't even have any. Really? Oh yeah. He's just like

[01:34:29] you're he's like you're he's one of these guys that just throws people in the swimming pool it sounds like. Yeah yep. I mean I like him but you know just be warned. Well we got to the top of Jackson it's all ice I've never hiked in this

[01:34:44] ice and stuff before you know and he finds somebody's sunglasses and it's like I'm gonna hurry up and try to go catch them and left me to get off Jackson down the down the icy rocks by myself. Oh boy. But did you like did you

[01:35:02] get the bug at that point where you're like you know wow this is winter hiking I like this there's no rocks and roots to jump over? Exactly I was very impressed by the trail how easy it was with just the spikes on no rocks and roots and

[01:35:15] then when you can see the presidentials with snow covered it's incredible incredible so I couldn't walk for almost a week but within a few days I was trying to scheme out what my next hike was gonna be where I could go where I

[01:35:32] felt comfortable going or attempting because my husband had no interest in any winter hiking at that point so so yeah it definitely bit me really hard yeah and then so you how long did you do any solo hiking at that point or were

[01:35:49] you just kind of scrambling to try to find people to go with? I would find try to find somebody to go with me like for that following weekend I posted something on Facebook that I wanted to hike and who wanted to go with me and

[01:36:01] like a long-lost friend from 20 years ago was like we found out we lived near each other and she's like I'll go so I dragged her I haven't seen her in 20 years. I wanted to do Tom and Field but she wasn't having it we did

[01:36:20] Tom and back down again it was you know another very bright blue sky day very cold but the views that you can see from Tom were were amazing just stunning. So here you are you're in sort of winter you want to go hiking now you've got the

[01:36:38] bug your husband's not interested and you've got to figure out a strategy to say like it and I'm assuming like hiking solo was not something you had any interest in doing? Not at that point. Okay so before you got hooked up with the

[01:36:53] buddies it was essentially just networking through your own group of friends to try to find people to go? Right right and of course I was when COVID was just picking up so I really was only able to get in three hikes that

[01:37:07] March and New Hampshire pretty much shut down so I had to come back to stay at home and hiking and snowshoeing in my own playground over here. Got it and then eventually like you know COVID ends thank God or actually it didn't end but

[01:37:23] we at least I've got we were able to go back into the mountains like later on that year. Did you did you start summer hiking again or were you just like I'm now I'm gonna focus on winter only? Well winter was what I really fell in love

[01:37:37] with but I you can't just do that you've got a condition for it so summertime you know we did the water stuff and in the fall things started to lighten up a little bit and my husband did go over and we did the Osceola's in

[01:37:54] September so he has done a few of the hikes with me probably out of you know sympathy. At what point did you get connected with the hiking buddies and can you talk a little bit about the progression around you know some of the

[01:38:10] things you learned some of the you know good lessons bad lessons with with the group hiking and everything to do with the buddies? Yeah so by this point though I had decided that I was gonna work on my 48 I was gonna do my 48 so I

[01:38:24] was just picking them off a little bit at a time. I didn't get hooked up with I think my friend mentioned hiking buddies to me she's like my son's in this Facebook group hiking buddies you might really like it and so I did what

[01:38:39] everybody does I joined the group and I stalked them for you know months on end and don't join anything and just watch and you know just completely in awe of what these people are doing and it came down to it was May of 2021 I needed

[01:38:57] Owl's Head. I you know I've done a lot of research watched a lot of YouTube videos read a lot of books a lot of online resources and I knew there were bushwhacks and I knew I was gonna want to do the bushwhacks but I didn't know

[01:39:12] how well-traveled they were you know would I get lost and whatever and you know it's this 18 or 20 mile hike and I can't do that by myself and so there was a buddy hike to do Owl's Head and I just immediately joined it and this was

[01:39:30] really crazy for me to think I was gonna have to leave my house at like three o'clock in the morning to meet total strangers at Lincolnwood Trailhead in the dark to do a 20 mile hike on a Tuesday like I had to take the day off I

[01:39:44] had to it was just a really insane kind of thought for me to do it was wild and I was so excited about it and Melanie the woman that put on that buddy hike you know we're still friends today and we've continued to hike together over

[01:40:03] the years as long as well as a couple other people that were on that hike that day too so that was in May of 21 and I had I had the hard stuff left like tripyramids and wildcats and Madison Adams Jefferson so I really used the

[01:40:25] buddy hikes to get my my list done. Got it so you're collecting peaks and then you're also collecting connections with all these new people eventually you did you ended up getting like a little crew I think of people that you started hiking

[01:40:37] with more frequently which said that seems to tend to happen right with the hiking buddies like you you do the buddy hikes and then you meet people that you connect with and then you know it's like okay well I don't maybe I don't want to

[01:40:47] go with ten people I'm just gonna go with some people I know already and then it becomes like you know you get your little crew. Yeah yep yep at first there was a you know handful of different people from the hiking buddies that we

[01:41:00] would just make our own connections and decide what to do and not necessarily post hikes and you know as you know I met was fortunate enough to become friends with Littlefoot and Mark and Kim Lesniewski and they were amazing to hike

[01:41:22] with you know Littlefoot's got a slower pace which was perfect for me try to help me control sweating in the wintertime yeah and they're just so wonderful and giving and knowledgeable so that was that's been my crew for for

[01:41:41] quite a while. Yeah yeah and I've enjoyed I've run into you guys out there quite a bit and you know we definitely hit like the greatest winter hike day I think I could ever remember in my life when we did that Adams and Madison you guys were

[01:41:53] up there I remember like yelling across from we were going up some we were going up I think we were up Star Lake and then we could see them going up Madison we were like yell across from them and we were like oh can you believe this day

[01:42:08] you know you can hear like the sound carries right across so we could we were like Oh Littlefoot it was pretty cool I got some good photos of that day so yeah that was a gorgeous day yeah we met at the hut right yes and you had already

[01:42:23] done Madison and we still had Madison to do so you ended up seeing each other again over on Adams yes yeah so fun day for sure and then so eventually you move on so you finish your 48 and then you moved on to the the 67 and you went

[01:42:40] into Maine and in Vermont to get the remaining remaining 4,000 footers so is what was a lot easier for you were you closer to the Vermont summits actually it's probably a longer drive for me to get to the Vermont peaks than it is

[01:42:55] New Hampshire okay and I actually I did the Vermont peaks back in the 2006 to 2009 2010 time frame okay I've done them all once I've done Mansfield probably three times I don't really have an interest to do them just I love the

[01:43:16] whites and yeah what about mean I know it means always like it's you know long drives and you know tough tough climbing there for sure but did you did you find that mean was pretty reasonable to get done I did it took me a long time to

[01:43:32] wrap my head around where they are and how far they are and which ones can you do together and which ones can't you do together it was just it just couldn't wrap my head around it I was trying to study the maps and and do things because

[01:43:49] I decided that the winter before like okay I'm gonna work on my main peaks I'm gonna gonna do this and then in May of 23 somebody posted a buddy hike to do Saddleback and Horn on a weekend so I immediately signed up and I'm like this

[01:44:08] is great this will get me up there I don't have to really do much planning just know where the trailhead is and show up and I can get up there I can do some research I can scout around and that's exactly what I needed to to kick

[01:44:24] off my main expedition nice I gotta get those done at some point I'm just too lazy at this point I just it was so easy for me to just go back into the whites

[01:44:38] and do things so it's it's hard to get the motivation to just do the longer drives like that yeah yeah I think um they're harder to wrap your head around too so that you need to um that's a stumbling block to what about the gear

[01:44:59] so your gear progression did you over time get get your gear dialed in where you feel like you're comfortable and you're pretty much established or are you still tinkering around to figure out what works for you I'm mostly

[01:45:11] established I think you know I'm always looking at new backpacks and trying to find the right backpack but I think I've got it now. What do you use for backpack? In the wintertime or my backpacking I have the hyper late Southwest the bigger one yeah yeah

[01:45:28] 3400 or whatever yeah that's and then I just got I've been looking at it for years I don't know why I haven't gotten it the ultimate direction fast pack I think you have one too right twins you get the same gear Rhonda dialed in so I

[01:45:46] got the 30 yeah the fast pack 30 so that's what I'm using now and I love the pockets in the front and it's very comfortable it fits good it's got some pockets so there's some organization to it and I like that a lot and yeah as far

[01:46:06] as shoes and and clothes and things like that head head accessories I've got it dialed in winter as you know is a little bit more challenging but yeah yeah it's just bring everything in the kitchen sink for winter but for the

[01:46:22] summer stuff right now like I have I have my stuff pretty well dialed in at this point but same thing ultimate direction fast pack I get a 20 liter that I use and then as far as the the winter gear with like traction and stuff like that

[01:46:37] what do you what is snow shoes and spikes and things like that yeah I use the hill sounds spikes and I have the MSR lightning ascents for the snow shoes started out with tubs those are fine the binding wasn't all that comfortable on

[01:46:53] the ones I had the boa binding kind of pinched and I picked up the MSRs and I love them yeah yeah they are I like them as well and then so you're doing the summer grid essentially so you're doing four seasons grid so that's how you're

[01:47:11] keeping it fresh is there anything else that you do any advice for people that have been there done that the hiked a lot in the whites to how do you how do you mix it up and keep some variety going you know the lists keep me

[01:47:24] motivated I love checkmarks so it's junky yeah yeah I love the list that those keep me motivated I love being over there it's it's great for my mental health so I'm over there every weekend it's fun when you can show somebody

[01:47:45] places that they've never been before like I mentioned with the Carters I have a girlfriend from high school from near where I live that is working on her she's chipping away on her 48 and she's at 16 so we're doing them together we're

[01:48:03] not you know wait she doesn't get over there and anywhere near as much as I do but a few times a year she's gotten getting out there and I just love showing her places that she's never been and just knowing that our bodies can take us

[01:48:20] to these places is incredible but yeah I think that's the trick like that's what I'm finding with my daughter it's like okay you've done your list and all this stuff and you've done a lot but if you can just connect with someone else and

[01:48:32] just just go along for their ride then it stays fresh because you're doing if you're a list person and you like to check things off then you know you can help somebody else check their boxes and it's just as good to me yeah it's

[01:48:44] very rewarding yeah I find myself like I'm like not that I'm taking Caroline's all the wind out of her sails but I was like sort of like I'm looking at her list and saying like are we gonna get this this is not my list but I'm like

[01:48:57] okay I'm I'm helping yeah it's fun yeah so yeah we help each other with with our goals you know like with Littlefoot we've had a lot of goals that have lined up recently we're on different paths right now but we're just helping

[01:49:18] each other and encouraging each other I've Kim has been extremely helpful for me because there was hikes that I was you know very nervous about like Osceola in the wintertime I would not have done that alone and she knew that so we we

[01:49:40] made sure to I actually ended up doing Osceola twice this winter which was great so how'd you approach it no go ahead how'd you approach it clockwise counterclockwise the Osceola's yeah from it well actually I was gonna say

[01:50:00] out and back but it wasn't we went from the kink up the Greeley Ponds Trail okay what if we would have done an out and back but as steep as it is we decided to traverse across wild yeah somebody both times we traversed it across and then we

[01:50:21] had people waiting on the other end to pick us up but we're very fortunately we had really good snow conditions there was no ice it was snow it was fairly packed and the conditions were really good but yeah oh yeah Osceola's is so interesting

[01:50:38] because it's like one of the I mean I think East Osceola no matter what summer winter it's hard but like I do think like in this in the in the summer it's like one of the easier 4,000 footers you if you go up the Osceola side then go

[01:50:51] over and grab East and then go back but in the winter like that's one of the hardest harder hikes in more dangerous hikes like I can remember going down East Osceola and I was like I this may be so I started slipping I was like I

[01:51:04] may be all done yeah that's no joke yeah I didn't want to do it alone and yeah I get that I get that now what's the advice you have for people that are gonna use

[01:51:16] the hiking buddies and I know I've had Ben and Julie on it a bunch of other folks on the buddies but what is your take on you know what makes a good leader what makes a good you know picking the right hike the right pace

[01:51:27] all that fun stuff what are your I guess rules of thumb when it comes to doing these group hikes with new people that you don't know yeah well I am constantly learning with that when I post a hike you know I've got goals that I'm trying

[01:51:42] to get here but I also want people to be safe and knowledgeable I like to post my pace I'm I enjoy a slower pace hike I don't enjoy trying to keep up

[01:51:53] with people so when I post a hike and I say it's slower if they're faster that I don't feel bad you know you signed up to do this you can either go your own way

[01:52:03] or stick with us so pace is a is probably one of the biggest issues people all also say like I saw the isolation for tomorrow this is not the hike for you if it's your first 4k but I'll say new hiking buddies are welcome so and then

[01:52:26] at the parking lot I'm like so this is a deal we don't have to like stick together on top of each other but we're gonna stay together until we decide as a group that something's not working and there's a fast pace there's a slow pace

[01:52:42] we decide as a group that something's gonna happen you don't just go off on your own or we don't leave you behind so that's kind of my spiel in the parking lot to set everybody's expectations and it usually usually goes well but that's

[01:52:59] something I've learned over time yeah no that makes sense and I think that that alliance would like what I would assume plays out I mean I've hosted a couple of buddy hikes matter of fact I want to get one another one going soon but no all

[01:53:11] good advice and then Rhonda what do you get planned for the future you doing any backpacking you're gonna just continue to pursue your your seasonal grid or what else you got planned yeah I'm working on the seasons I've got four

[01:53:24] for summer left and I don't have any backpacking trips planned maybe in the fall I've got my gear so where I can stay out in the 20s or 30s degrees so I'd like to do some cooler backpacking trips maybe at the shelters or something

[01:53:40] yep yeah I don't have anything planned but yeah I'm filling in those grid sheets and checking off the seasons list yeah so I think listeners if you are out there hiking definitely keep an eye out because Rhonda seems to always be she's

[01:53:59] always seems to be around where I am so my guess is that you'll you'll see her out there stop anything I missed any questions for you no maybe listeners might be interested in getting a little behind the scenes hiking with Littlefoot

[01:54:12] maybe briefly what's that like oh she's she's so fun she's changed so much in the time that I've been hiking with her she's gotten so strong doing long days now but she finds little things that we might not see different mushrooms and

[01:54:36] different flora and things just that she sees and it gets so excited about that we might miss so to see things through her eyes is really fun we play a lot of trail game games on trail you know searching searching games or naming

[01:54:55] things and stuff like that we sing she's just a joy to be around song that never ends you ever sing that one why you going out to Owl's Head no it might

[01:55:10] be it might be a bad idea but look is that like 99 bottles of beer on the wall it sure is yeah so it could be a long day we did Owl's Head together for winter

[01:55:24] and like February and best Owl's Head trip ever we bare booted all the way out to the Brutus bushwhack put the snowshoes on up and down and bare booted back out again best conditions ever awesome excellent all right Rhonda well thank

[01:55:43] you for joining us and you can you can stick around where we do our search and rescue news here so there was one tip I wanted to tell you well I thought you were gonna ask me if I've learned anything from listening to your podcast

[01:55:59] we're so Rhonda have you learned anything from listening to the slasher podcast I've you know I've learned a lot I've learned a lot yeah but the the one freshest newest thing that sticks out in my mind is when I was butt sledding down

[01:56:15] South Hancock this winter mm-hmm there was a little can of something on the side of the trail oh yes and so you know leave no trace I'm like I got to pick it

[01:56:28] up and you know what is it I'm like and I realized it's some sort of spray some sort of like bear spray or something and I remember what happened to stomp I'm like screw this I'm not taking it with me yeah not only have I hiked the PEMI

[01:56:53] with a pool noodle I've hiked the PEMI with bear spray all over my body so that's good so we saved Rhonda so you know hopefully the next person that picked it up that they didn't explode on them but do you by the way do you

[01:57:11] have a favorite slasher co-host I'm gonna go with Lynn okay that's actually that's a safe answer I can't argue that one oh yeah understood understood that's a good thing you see Rhonda is a even though you don't know what canopy lake

[01:57:32] is you're still a very smart lady I made up for it yeah yeah I'm gonna send you a link to canopy lake and you're gonna have to do the research so yes exactly

[01:57:43] so we'll take you there so but stop this is the part of the show where we do we have another advertiser we have fieldstone kombucha here yes we do and I need to pull that up hold on one second

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[01:58:51] Laconia Latas Cafe in Waterville Valley the Concord food co-op and Granite State food co-op in Concord as well and many other places check out the website for the full list of New Hampshire and New England wide locations and again you

[01:59:06] can use slasher code for the checkout for a 10% discount on an online order shipped straight to your door that's fieldstone kombucha co.com Oh Very good, Stomp. Very good. So moving on to some national news. This is an interesting story. So again, another heat-related story here.

[02:00:16] So a blind hiker and his dog were rescued after the man suffered heat exhaustion on an Oregon trail. So U.S. Coast Guard's North Bend air crew rescued a blind hiker and his dog as the owner faced heat exhaustion.

[02:00:31] According to a social media post on the Coast Guard's Pacific Northwest District, the 55-year-old man joined a friend for a hike in southwest Oregon on July 3rd or July 4th. The Coast Guard said the man initially showed signs of heat exhaustion on July 6th.

[02:00:50] So like I said, we're doing a backpacking trip. So his friend got concerned and left him to call first responders at Gold Beach because there's no cell connection. And apparently the Oregon Department of Emergency Development and the Josephine County Sheriff's

[02:01:07] Office worked alongside the Bureau of Land Management to arrange the legally blind hiker's rescue in the remote area. So a BLM ranger and sheriff began their search around 5 a.m. on Monday. So I don't know exactly what that date is.

[02:01:23] So I think the 4th of July was on a Thursday. So this would have been like Friday, Saturday. So he was like five days into it at this point. But they were able to locate him on that Monday morning around 9 a.m. at mile nine of the

[02:01:40] Rogue River Trail. He couldn't walk and the train was too rough for a wheel litter. So the Coast Guard deployed a rescue swimmer before hoisting the man and his dog. And then the two were transported to Kranz Pass. So scary.

[02:01:53] His friend left to try to find help, but then they couldn't get back to him. So it must have been scary as hell for the guy. He's blind. He's got his dog. He doesn't know where he's going. So that's crazy. Yeah, interestingly, they hoisted the dog.

[02:02:04] I wonder how that went. Yeah, it's a big dog too. In the picture, it looks like a big sort of, looks like a boxer pitbull mix. Yeah. I mean, dogs have to get used to helicopters just to begin with when they train for search and rescue.

[02:02:20] They try to expose them while the Blackhawk has landed, bring them into the thing while it's fired up. Just to throw a dog into a big machine like that is terrifying, probably for a pup. Yeah. Yeah.

[02:02:32] So yeah, imagine like it's one of those dogs that needs to be tranquilized because of fireworks or something. Oh, geez. Yeah. So anyway. All right. So moving on to local here. This is interesting stuff. This is the second time I've noticed fishing game calls Kyrsarge North Mount Kyrsarge.

[02:02:50] So I have to do some research to figure out if that's the official name or not. I thought it was Kyrsarge North. Let me see. Oh, interesting. What they say is on Wednesday... Wait a minute. This is from June Stomp. Did you make a mistake on this one?

[02:03:08] No. No, I'm pretty certain that's recent. If I pull it up here, maybe it's an error. Looking at the fishing game website, it is posted... Yeah. Yes, it's posted for July 11th. That's weird. So maybe they just did a typo for June. It's probably July 11th.

[02:03:32] So shortly after 4 p.m., Fishing Game was notified of a hiker that was injured on the Kyrsarge North Trail on Mount Kyrsarge. So it's a little weird to me, but I'll have to do some research on that. Oh, hold on a minute.

[02:03:46] Yeah, they're saying that Lakes Region went out to this. Is it the one that's down by... It's North Conway. Yeah, it's off of Hurricane Mountain Road. There's another Kyrsarge. There's another one down south. Correct. I understand that, but this is in the...

[02:04:03] They're saying that it was on the Kyrsarge North Trail on Mount Kyrsarge. There's no Kyrsarge North Trail on the Kyrsarge that's down south. Gotcha, gotcha. Oh yeah, and it mentions Bartlett Jackson. Yeah, yeah, that's true too. So it's gotta be up there. So it's weird.

[02:04:21] I'll have to do some research to see if it's something I don't know, but I think this is a typo on the mountain name. But the hiker was a 20-year-old female from the UK.

[02:04:32] She was hiking with a group when she injured her ankle about a mile and a half from the trailhead. So that's okay. It's still a pain in the neck. You're just hitting the ledges at that point because it's a 3.1-mile hike to get to the

[02:04:46] summit, so you're almost halfway through. You're just getting to the ledges in that area, so it's a little bit of a haul to get back down. Group members applied first aid, but the injury did not allow her to make progress on her own.

[02:05:01] So a call comes in at 4 o'clock. Lakes Region Search and Rescue and Bartlett Jackson Ambulance Service were able to get to her around 7.30. Oh no, they were able to get to her before that, and she arrived back at the trailhead

[02:05:16] shortly before 7.30, and then she was driven to the scene by her own vehicle. So it happens. It sounds like just an ankle injury. She got a memory there. I saved a guy's life on Keosar's North last summer, by the way, Stomp. Really? When? Was this your...

[02:05:37] Yeah, it was last year. I saved his life. His shoe was falling apart, so I had to go into my... Tight wraps. Yeah, I had to get zip ties and duct tape. I basically saved the guy's life. Basically.

[02:05:49] And then the guy's telling me, he's like, well, I was a thru-hiker. I did the Appalachian Trail, and I know... He's trying to give me his resume, and I'm like, dude, I'm fixing your rotten old shoe with a zip tie and duct tape, so come on. That's hilarious.

[02:06:04] I did not tell him that I have a podcast either. Sure, sure you did. Anyway, so July... This is on 19 Mile, Brooke. On Saturday, July 3rd... Wait a minute, Bronda, weren't you guys on this trail on that day? Sunday. 19 Mile, Brooke? Yeah, we were there on Sunday.

[02:06:24] Oh, you were there Sunday. Okay, well, I was going to say, you should have saved this guy. I know, I would have. Or hurt this lady, yeah. I would have. Yeah, okay, all right. Well, that's good to know. It's a lady, actually.

[02:06:36] So Saturday, July 13th, a Connecticut woman set out to hike 19 Mile, Brooke Trail. Her plan was to hike 19 Mile to Carter Dome and then grab Mount Height. After summiting Height, she hiked to Carter Dome and began to hike down the Carter Maria

[02:06:53] Trail when she injured her leg on a steep terrain. Fishing Game was notified at 1230 that day, and then Good Samaritans were able to help the injured hiker down the Carter Dome Trail to the AMC Carter Notch Hut. Oh my God, that must have been a fun hike down.

[02:07:11] Oh man. That's like three-tenths of a mile, but it's steep, so it took almost four hours for the injured hiker to get there. The AMC hut crew provided a bunk... Again, this is another scenario where people bask the AMC, but then they're stepping in

[02:07:26] to help an injured hiker. So she stayed overnight, so she hadn't overnight. They were able to let her stay. In the early morning hours, Fishing Game contacted the injured hiker to figure out

[02:07:38] whether or not they'd have to help her out, and it was determined that a carryout was required to get the hiker down. So AMC members, conservation officers, and Andrew Scoggin Valley Search and Rescue began

[02:07:55] staging around nine o'clock at the trailhead, and the rescue team reached the injured hiker at around 10... So Rhonda, you guys could have helped out. You were coming up the trail just as they were bringing her down. No kidding. Yeah, so you might have just missed it.

[02:08:13] Rescue team reached the trailhead at 235, and the hiker again was from Connecticut. The husband was at the trailhead waiting to drive her back to Connecticut. So all's well that ends well. I bet we got to that junction before they...

[02:08:31] Coming down from the hut, we didn't go to the hut. We took the Carter Dome Trail. Right, yeah. So they were probably coming down as you were. You were heading up there. Yeah. But I'm sure you guys would have dropped everything to help out. Of course. Yeah.

[02:08:48] That .3 is so notorious. I've done it a number of times. It's epic. Oh my God. Remember going up that stomp when we did that winter hike in the blizzard? That was crazy. Yeah. Oh yeah, absolutely insane. You almost got me killed. It's gnarly. Yeah.

[02:08:59] In the winter, that trail is a challenge to say the least. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. You know my friend that took me to Jackson? Yeah. So him and I hiked Carter Dome, and he said he'd wait for me at the next intersection.

[02:09:06] And I was like, I'm not going to wait for you. I'm going to wait for you. And I was like, I'm not going to wait for you. And he was like, I'm not going to wait for you. And he didn't.

[02:09:23] And so he went left and I went straight to the hut. And so I climbed that up by myself in January. What's his name? Joe? I got to meet this guy. He sounds like a character. Yeah. So January, I hiked that inexperienced section alone. Oh boy.

[02:09:45] Well, friends don't let friends hike that section alone for sure, but we'll forgive him. So Stomp, anything you want to add before we wrap up for the night? No, just psyched to see everybody at the Seek to Peak this afternoon and yeah, looking forward to it. Yeah. Okay.

[02:10:04] With that, we'll wrap it up. And again, remember if you're floating down the Pemi, do not bring a Mickey Mouse or a unicorn floaty and try to tie up with Stomp because he will not allow it. That is right. It's a good way to end the show.

[02:10:20] I'll see you guys at the expo. Yes. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed the show, you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you want to see more of us, you can check out our podcast series, The Podcast

[02:10:26] Show. You can also follow the show on Facebook and Instagram. We hope you'll join us next week for another great show. Until then, on behalf of Mike and Stomp, get out there and crush some mega peaks.

[02:11:05] Now covered in scratches, blisters, and bug bites, Chris Staff wanted to complete his most challenging day hike ever. Fish and Game officers say the hiker from Florida activated an emergency beacon yesterday morning. He was hiking along the Appalachian Trail when the weather started to get worse.

[02:11:24] Officials say the snow was piled up to three feet in some spots and there was a wind chill of minus one degree. There's three words to describe this race. Do we all know what they are? Only one hill!

[02:11:33] This is Lieutenant James Neelan from New Hampshire Fish and Game. Lieutenant, thanks for being with us today. Thanks for having me. What are some of the most common mistakes you see people make when they're heading out on the trails to hike here in New Hampshire?

[02:11:38] It seems to me the most common is being in the middle of the snow. I'm not sure if that's a good idea. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

[02:11:50] It has to be a bad idea, I think. I think it's more important to be prepared than being unprepared. I think if they just simply visited Hikesafe.com and got a list of the ten essential items

[02:11:56] and had those in their packs, they probably would have no need to ever call us at all.