Episode 173 - Welcome back Shawn “Larry the Log” Mahoney, White Mountains hiking - Crescent and Randolph Mountains

[00:00:08] Here is the latest Higher Summits forecast brought to you by our friends at the Mount Washington Observatory.

[00:00:18] Weather above treeline in the White Mountains is often wildly different than at our trailheads.

[00:00:25] Before you hike, check the Higher Summits forecast at mountwashington.org.

[00:00:31] Weather observers working at the non-profit Mount Washington Observatory

[00:00:36] Write this elevation-based forecast every morning and afternoon.

[00:00:41] Search and Rescue teams, avalanche experts, and backcountry guides all rely on the Higher Summits forecast to anticipate weather conditions above treeline.

[00:00:51] You should too.

[00:00:53] Go to mountwashington.org or text FORECAST to 603-356-2137

[00:01:10] And here is your forecast for the weekend of November 2nd, 2025.

[00:01:16] So Friday, in the clouds with a chance of rain showers early, then a slight chance of afternoon snow showers.

[00:01:23] Possible snow accumulations of a trace to less than one inch.

[00:01:27] Starting in the lower 40s, then falling through the day to the upper 20s.

[00:01:31] Winds will be west, shifting northwest at 60-80 mph with gusts up to 95 mph, decreasing to 55-75 mph with gusts up to 85.

[00:01:44] And the wind chill?

[00:01:45] 0-10 above.

[00:01:46] Friday night, mostly in the clouds with a chance of snow showers.

[00:01:48] Friday night, mostly in the clouds under mostly cloudy skies.

[00:01:50] Slight chance of snow showers possible.

[00:01:52] Additional snow accumulations of a trace to less than one inch.

[00:01:56] With a low in the mid-teens.

[00:01:59] Winds will be northwest at 50-70 mph with gusts up to 85 mph early, 45-60 mph midnight, and then 40-55 mph later.

[00:02:11] With a wind chill?

[00:02:13] With a wind chill falling to 5-15 mph.

[00:02:15] And finally Saturday, in and out of the clouds, trending towards clearing early, under increasingly

[00:02:22] clear skies with a high around 20.

[00:02:25] Northwest winds at 35-50 mph with gusts up to 60 mph early, 20-35 mph midday, and 30-45 mph later.

[00:02:37] And finally the wind chill will be 5 below to 15 below.

[00:02:42] Yikes.

[00:02:43] Rising to 5 below to 5 above.

[00:03:20] Casting from the Woodpecker's studio in the great state of New Hampshire, welcome to the

[00:03:25] Sounds Like a Search and Rescue podcast, where we discuss all things related to hiking and

[00:03:31] search and rescue in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

[00:03:34] Here are your hosts, Mike and Stump.

[00:03:58] Welcome, welcome to episode 173.

[00:04:01] Congrats for making it.

[00:04:03] Another one in the can almost.

[00:04:06] Happy Halloween.

[00:04:07] In the can, yeah.

[00:04:08] It's Halloween night here, so it's spooky.

[00:04:10] We've been having some gremlins with the audio systems here too, so it makes sense.

[00:04:15] Yeah, what else is new?

[00:04:16] What else is new?

[00:04:17] This time of the night, the little kids are probably done with the Halloween-y stuff,

[00:04:22] and they're probably home all jacked up on sugar.

[00:04:25] The older kids are getting ready to start egging houses.

[00:04:29] Oh boy.

[00:04:30] Do you guys get kids?

[00:04:33] No, no, no.

[00:04:34] I mean, there's nobody up here.

[00:04:35] We get the occasional random hiker from Massachusetts driving by in their car 100 miles an hour, but

[00:04:42] that's about it.

[00:04:43] Oh wow, yeah.

[00:04:44] We live in a, definitely live in like a Halloween candy, like kids coming to the door neighborhood,

[00:04:50] which is cool.

[00:04:52] But like the first kids that came in, they were just like inappropriately too old to go trick-or-treating,

[00:04:58] and I was giving them the side eye, but you have to just, you have to keep your mouth shut and just say like,

[00:05:02] okay, you don't know the situation, so.

[00:05:04] Yes, you are.

[00:05:05] But they immediately, Mrs. Mike gets good candy, she gets the big candy bars.

[00:05:10] Oh wow.

[00:05:11] And the kids were already working her.

[00:05:12] They're like, oh, can we get two?

[00:05:15] And she's like, yeah, you can get two.

[00:05:17] And I'm like, we're going to run out of candy.

[00:05:19] Don't do that.

[00:05:20] Oh, that's funny.

[00:05:21] So what were you doing?

[00:05:22] Sitting inside waiting for them to ring the bell or sitting on the porch or?

[00:05:26] Yeah, so she just, she goes to the door.

[00:05:29] Like the kids are all gone.

[00:05:30] Like my two of them are away and then my oldest daughter who does live at home, she's away for the week.

[00:05:37] Anyway, so it's just the two of us.

[00:05:38] So yeah, she just kind of answers the door because I'm scary.

[00:05:43] The kids don't want to see me.

[00:05:44] Yeah, I was going to ask if that was a mask that you're wearing right now.

[00:05:47] But I'm put the laugh track in there.

[00:05:52] But yeah, but it was funny.

[00:05:54] So anyway, these older kids came to the door and they like asked my wife like, oh, can we have two pieces each?

[00:06:00] So she gave them two pieces each.

[00:06:01] And then so I'm cooking dinner and she's like eating dinner, but then getting up to every two seconds because kids are going to the door.

[00:06:08] And then right before I was coming down to record the same kids that came that were like the first ones, they came back like an hour later.

[00:06:18] And my wife is like, were you guys here already?

[00:06:21] And they all just like laughed and smiled and they're like, well, can we have two pieces?

[00:06:25] So the little brats got four pieces of candy from or four candy bars from us.

[00:06:30] But you know, huh?

[00:06:32] Generous, generous.

[00:06:34] Hopefully we won't get egged by them.

[00:06:36] Good times.

[00:06:37] Yeah, that's always a bummer.

[00:06:38] Yeah, it was good.

[00:06:40] But welcome to Episode 173 of the sounds like a search and rescue podcast.

[00:06:46] So this week we are joined by Sean Mahoney.

[00:06:49] So Sean is known as the guy who hikes with one of the biggest hiking celebrities in the region, Larry the log.

[00:06:55] So Sean, he's been hiking with his log for the last few years and he's just recently completed the Triple Crown.

[00:07:03] So he's the last time he came on, he had just finished up the Appalachian Trail.

[00:07:07] So he's done the PCT in 2023 and then the Continental Divide Trail in 2024 since he last joined us on Episode 79.

[00:07:17] So we'll catch up with him.

[00:07:19] And then in addition to Sean, we've got some weather predictions for the winter.

[00:07:23] We're going to talk about proper usage of whistles when you're in a safety situation.

[00:07:31] We're going to go over some road closures.

[00:07:33] A woman drops her phone in a crevice and ends up stuck upside down between two boulders for hours.

[00:07:40] This article was probably the most shared article I've ever gotten.

[00:07:44] I probably got this from about 50 people.

[00:07:46] So we'll go through this.

[00:07:49] And then there's a missing elderly couple in Maine.

[00:07:52] We got some gear reviews and then recent hikes on, oh geez, I'm going to screw this up.

[00:08:00] Is it Mount Crescent and then Randolph Mountain, I believe is the correct term on those.

[00:08:05] And then plus we'll get some local search and rescue news.

[00:08:07] So I'm Mike.

[00:08:08] And I'm Stomp.

[00:08:09] Let's get started.

[00:08:11] I'm Christina from Wild Raven Endurance Coaching.

[00:08:37] I work with athletes of all levels from hikers to triathletes, helping you reach your goals with personalized guidance.

[00:08:44] With years of experience hiking, mountain biking and trail running across New England,

[00:08:49] I also have a deep knowledge of the New Hampshire 4,000 footers and the surrounding trails.

[00:08:54] Whether you're a beginner hiker or a seasoned athlete, I'll guide you towards your goals, reducing injury risk and improving your performance through smart, tailored coaching.

[00:09:04] Are you looking to transition from hiking to mountain running?

[00:09:07] I'm here to make that journey easier too.

[00:09:10] My approach combines strength training, mindfulness and life balance on and off the trail.

[00:09:16] Let me help you find more joy in your sport while getting stronger and healthier along the way.

[00:09:22] Visit www.coaching.christinafulsik.com and start your adventure today.

[00:09:37] Let's get started.

[00:09:38] So Stomp, it's officially stick season.

[00:09:40] The leaves are all off the trees.

[00:09:43] That's right.

[00:09:44] Yeah.

[00:09:44] I think one more storm and the sticks will be in full effect.

[00:09:48] Yes.

[00:09:49] Yeah.

[00:09:49] It's a great time of the year.

[00:09:50] You can see it dramatically.

[00:09:52] Last week we had all the color.

[00:09:54] This morning on the kayak with Mr. Stomp, the color is gone essentially.

[00:09:58] It's actually right here in Thornton.

[00:10:00] So it's here.

[00:10:01] It's a lovely time of the year.

[00:10:04] Yeah.

[00:10:04] Yeah.

[00:10:05] It's, um, yeah.

[00:10:07] I mixed reviews for me just because I think, um, it's nice when the colors are popping, but

[00:10:12] it also like it, it, it harkens in the, um, the winter, winter hiking, which I get excited

[00:10:19] about.

[00:10:19] So.

[00:10:20] Yeah.

[00:10:20] It's great for bushwhackers too.

[00:10:21] They love it.

[00:10:22] Love being able to see half a mile straight through the woods.

[00:10:26] It's great for taking bearings and navigating.

[00:10:30] And, uh, Oh dude, I just ran across this daylight savings is this weekend too.

[00:10:36] Oh, yep.

[00:10:38] Yeah.

[00:10:39] So it's going to be, matter of fact, I posted on my, um, social media.

[00:10:43] Um, I call it headlamp season.

[00:10:46] So now when I get up and run, I get up and run, I usually leave at my house at six.

[00:10:50] And for most of the year, like I don't need a, I don't need any lights or anything cause

[00:10:54] it's the sun's rising.

[00:10:56] But now even if I wait till 630, I need a headlamp to get out there.

[00:11:01] So it's dark season.

[00:11:03] Yeah.

[00:11:03] Dark in the morning.

[00:11:04] I read, uh, in the news today that some senators are trying to resurrect that save, uh, sunshine

[00:11:09] bill again.

[00:11:10] Do you remember this?

[00:11:11] Like they're trying to get rid of daylight savings.

[00:11:12] Would that be good?

[00:11:14] So are we in daylight savings now or when we move the clocks back, we're in daylight savings?

[00:11:18] I couldn't tell you, but next, yeah, this Sunday it's jumping forward.

[00:11:23] So it's, we're gaining an hour if I remember correctly.

[00:11:27] But anyway, this bill would delete that whole adjustment every year.

[00:11:32] The two adjustments.

[00:11:32] So is it good or bad?

[00:11:34] Uh, there's arguments on both sides.

[00:11:37] There's the cardiac argument, the health argument, meaning, you know, you change, you disrupt

[00:11:43] somebody's sleep cycle, you increase the risk of cardiac events and things like that.

[00:11:46] Yeah.

[00:11:47] Then there's the child safety, you know, waiting for the buses.

[00:11:50] And then there's also the, uh, the farmer argument that they, they enjoy the light to farm.

[00:11:55] I don't know where the truth is with any of that, but, uh, this argument started many

[00:12:01] years ago and it's like going nowhere.

[00:12:04] So it's been interesting.

[00:12:05] Comes up every year.

[00:12:07] Yeah.

[00:12:07] Yeah.

[00:12:08] I mean, I don't know what to think.

[00:12:09] I think, um, I can deal with it.

[00:12:11] Um, it is kind of tough in November, December when it gets started.

[00:12:15] But honestly, like we go down to floor, I go down to Florida for a couple of weeks over

[00:12:18] the holidays.

[00:12:19] And that's nice because you're like father West in the time zone.

[00:12:23] So even in Florida, when we're down there, like it doesn't get dark until like five 36

[00:12:28] o'clock at night, which is nice because you're coming from up here where your father East in

[00:12:34] the time zone.

[00:12:34] So gotcha.

[00:12:36] Yeah.

[00:12:36] But anyway, um, but, uh, welcome back Stomp.

[00:12:40] I know we were off last week.

[00:12:41] I was in London.

[00:12:41] Have you ever been to London?

[00:12:43] You've been to London.

[00:12:44] No, I feel like you didn't hit London when you were in Europe.

[00:12:47] No, I stayed in central Europe and, uh, that was it.

[00:12:50] But I have family in London, but I've never gone.

[00:12:53] Nope.

[00:12:53] Never had a chance.

[00:12:55] Yes.

[00:12:55] It was really cool.

[00:12:57] Um, I enjoyed it quite a bit and like as a history buff, like it's just so much to sink your

[00:13:01] teeth into there.

[00:13:01] It's, um, I bet around here, like you see something like late 1600s, 1700s.

[00:13:08] You're like, Oh, that's old.

[00:13:09] But in Westminster Abbey, they had a door that was built in like 1050 or something.

[00:13:14] So it's just insane to be able to, and you go right up and touch it and look at it.

[00:13:18] Uh, so it's just insane to think about how ancient everything is there.

[00:13:22] Wow.

[00:13:23] That's really cool.

[00:13:24] So what did you do?

[00:13:26] We, um, so my daughter's there for school.

[00:13:29] So she was able to like tour us around, but, um, we hit, like we did one day where we went

[00:13:36] and did like big bend parliament.

[00:13:39] We went on this thing, the London eye, which is this big Ferris wheel that gives you full

[00:13:43] view of the city.

[00:13:44] And then we toured around Westminster Abbey, which is like where, um, Princess Diane and

[00:13:51] Prince Charles got married.

[00:13:52] You know, it's that iconic.

[00:13:53] Like, like, and there's a ton of like, like I, I, matter of fact, I think I was texting

[00:13:57] you.

[00:13:57] Didn't I text you?

[00:13:58] And I was like, I'm sitting on top of Charles Dickens, uh, tomb.

[00:14:02] So yeah, you can like sit next to Charles Dickens.

[00:14:05] So there's all these people buried there.

[00:14:07] So it's insane.

[00:14:08] And then, um, we went to some pubs.

[00:14:11] I had fish and chips and then, um, we saw Michael Jackson, the musical in the West End

[00:14:16] theater, which was fantastic.

[00:14:17] And then we went out to Windsor castle.

[00:14:20] So, um, it's just the history is just incredible.

[00:14:23] Yeah.

[00:14:24] Oh yeah.

[00:14:25] Huge.

[00:14:26] You see, you know, what freaked me out the most was every once in a while, like you'd hear

[00:14:30] like a little five or six year old kid and they have those like little posh English

[00:14:35] accents.

[00:14:36] Oh sure.

[00:14:37] It's just so off putting because she's like, oh my God, this, this kid speaks like more

[00:14:42] eloquently and in better demeanor than I could ever imagine.

[00:14:45] He's five years old.

[00:14:46] Yeah.

[00:14:47] That's so cool.

[00:14:48] Yeah.

[00:14:49] I saw the picture you posted with the, the, uh, the classic doctor who bus phone booth

[00:14:53] there.

[00:14:54] Yeah.

[00:14:56] Yeah.

[00:14:56] That's great.

[00:14:57] Do they have a lot of those around still or is that really everywhere?

[00:15:01] So it's public phones.

[00:15:04] It's still active.

[00:15:04] You know, I didn't go into any of them cause my daughter said that the homeless people pee

[00:15:08] in there.

[00:15:09] So I never actually went into any of them.

[00:15:11] Wow.

[00:15:11] I'm really curious about that.

[00:15:13] Yeah.

[00:15:14] Yeah.

[00:15:14] There were a couple that like that one there was just in, um, that was in the West End

[00:15:18] theater and that was like a functional phone, I believe.

[00:15:22] Yeah.

[00:15:22] Um, matter of fact, it had like a bunch of stickers where if you wanted to call, you could

[00:15:27] call up a, like a, you could get yourself a date, put it that way.

[00:15:31] Um, but they had, there are a couple of, um, there's a couple of those like phone booths

[00:15:40] by Westminster Abbey where people actually stand in line to get their photos taken with

[00:15:46] them.

[00:15:46] Yeah.

[00:15:47] But I'm like, why are you standing in the line?

[00:15:48] Like there's other, there's a ton of phone booths around where you could just get your

[00:15:52] pictures.

[00:15:53] So I just, that's, that one was just randomly on the street.

[00:15:55] Right.

[00:15:56] I was waiting for the picture of you crossing Abbey road, but that never came.

[00:15:59] We didn't get up there.

[00:16:00] Yeah.

[00:16:01] We didn't get up there.

[00:16:01] We went to Portobello market, which I think is up close by there, but, um, I had no interest

[00:16:06] on us.

[00:16:07] Is it a, is it a ways away?

[00:16:08] I mean, it's like a little, like, I believe I was looking at a map.

[00:16:12] We were south of Hyde park.

[00:16:14] We were out by a place called Gloucester road.

[00:16:17] Um, and Abbey road is like north of Hyde park.

[00:16:21] That's the crazy thing too, is every single like area.

[00:16:25] There's like a Gloucester, there's Salisbury, Redding.

[00:16:28] Oh, totally.

[00:16:29] The, all the names are the same.

[00:16:31] So yeah.

[00:16:32] New England.

[00:16:33] Yeah.

[00:16:33] The whole area.

[00:16:35] Yeah.

[00:16:35] So, um, but no, it was, it was fantastic.

[00:16:38] And you know, London, just the history is, is amazing.

[00:16:41] Yeah.

[00:16:42] Well, um, that's really cool.

[00:16:44] I, I put out a, uh, a flashback of Ken Bossian's, uh, BB while you were gone.

[00:16:50] So that, uh, great.

[00:16:51] That was well listened to.

[00:16:52] Yeah.

[00:16:52] People enjoyed that one.

[00:16:54] Awesome.

[00:16:54] A little flashback.

[00:16:56] Very good.

[00:16:57] Very good.

[00:16:57] All right, Stomp.

[00:16:58] So let's get down to the brass tacks here, as they say.

[00:17:02] Um, I wanted to just call out, there was something that, there was a lady that posted some commentary

[00:17:09] on a couple of groups and I, I caught it.

[00:17:12] So she had, she had flagged this article in, in a magazine about, um, just talking about

[00:17:19] whistles.

[00:17:19] And she was like, uh, she basically was just wanting to get the message out to people around,

[00:17:24] uh, making sure that your whistle is accessible, um, in case you get into trouble.

[00:17:29] And it got me thinking like essentially what I do with my, I have a big whistle.

[00:17:33] Like I used to be a wrestling high school wrestling ref.

[00:17:36] So I have about 10 of these whistles.

[00:17:38] So I just have one ref whistle in the bottom of my, um, first aid kit that I keep in my backpack.

[00:17:46] And sometimes it's in the bottom.

[00:17:47] Sometimes it's in the side.

[00:17:48] Sometimes it's on the top.

[00:17:49] It depends on how I put stuff back.

[00:17:51] Uh, but her, her point was essentially that you should have your whistle with you at all

[00:17:57] times and it should be easily reachable.

[00:18:00] And I certainly violate that rule because mine is not like, I have to have my backpack in order

[00:18:06] to get my whistle if I get into trouble.

[00:18:08] And there was a bunch of people that had said, well, well, there's built in whistles in the

[00:18:12] shoulder straps of most backpacks, which I have those in, in all my backpacks.

[00:18:17] So I guess I could use those as well.

[00:18:19] But I didn't know if you had an opinion on, on the whistle.

[00:18:23] And then I also didn't know if you like, have you ever been in a rescue where you had

[00:18:26] to rely on someone blowing a whistle to find them?

[00:18:30] Um, I mean, they're important to have, I suppose.

[00:18:33] Um, if you were, say you're a lost person that's been out there for three days and you're so weak

[00:18:40] that your, your voice just has no volume, then that whistle will save your life potentially.

[00:18:45] Yeah.

[00:18:46] Um, in searches in particular, there's been cases like the, um, the Arun Anand Musalak student case.

[00:18:55] If he had had a whistle, we may have heard him over the den of the, the Brooks.

[00:19:01] Mm-hmm.

[00:19:02] Because he claimed, I mean, it's possible that he just didn't hear anything because of the, the water roaring.

[00:19:08] So in those situations, a whistle could come in really handy.

[00:19:12] Other than that, um, I, I have a physical whistle on me, but I have, I just rely on my backpack strap.

[00:19:19] It's a chest strap whistle.

[00:19:20] It's like right below my chin.

[00:19:22] Yeah.

[00:19:23] Yeah.

[00:19:23] And the argument online was that those, those, um, those whistles from your chest strap are not

[00:19:30] going to be loud enough, especially like you give the example of your, by running water,

[00:19:34] you know, are those whistles that are built into your, your pack going to be loud enough

[00:19:39] for people to hear?

[00:19:40] Mm-hmm.

[00:19:40] And people were like, it's better than nothing.

[00:19:42] But, um, there was definitely, um, another set of people that were like, you have to have

[00:19:47] a whistle around your neck so that it's available at all times.

[00:19:50] I don't know so much if I'm like, I'm not so, I'm not so dogmatic about that.

[00:19:55] I think it's fine to have it in your backpack as well, you know, if you lose your backpack,

[00:19:59] you're screwed no matter what.

[00:20:00] But, um, I keep buying in my pack.

[00:20:03] Maybe if you're solo, I could see that argument.

[00:20:05] Yep.

[00:20:06] You know, cause, uh, you can, you have your compass around your neck, your, your manual compass.

[00:20:11] I do that.

[00:20:12] So I could see a whistle perhaps around your neck.

[00:20:15] Yeah.

[00:20:16] Yeah.

[00:20:17] I never really thought about it and it was, it was an interesting discussion.

[00:20:21] Um, there was definitely a camp of people that were like, you have to have it around

[00:20:23] your neck at all times and no matter what.

[00:20:26] And then there was a group of people that was sort of like, yeah, it's, it's important

[00:20:31] to have one, but you can, it's, it's an, it's an acceptable risk to keep it in your backpack

[00:20:37] and get it out when you need it, which I think I'm sort of more in that camp.

[00:20:41] Yeah.

[00:20:41] I just like to have it so you can blow it when you see a pair of flip-flops up on Franconia

[00:20:45] Ridge.

[00:20:46] Yes.

[00:20:47] Violation.

[00:20:47] Right.

[00:20:49] Penalty.

[00:20:50] Oh my God.

[00:20:51] Stop.

[00:20:51] That's the idea.

[00:20:52] I should, I should, um, instead of, uh, we're going to talk about this with, with Sean

[00:20:57] and I'm going to, I'm going to expose you and, and, and make sure he knows that you were

[00:21:02] mocking him with your pool noodle, but I could wear my referee shirt and a whistle going

[00:21:08] over Franconia Ridge and just start like penalizing people.

[00:21:12] Yeah, that's true.

[00:21:13] Absolutely.

[00:21:14] Yeah.

[00:21:14] Yeah.

[00:21:15] You'd be busy.

[00:21:16] Yeah.

[00:21:16] That would go over well.

[00:21:17] I'm sure.

[00:21:18] So everyone would say hike your own hike, Mike.

[00:21:22] Um, all right, Stomp.

[00:21:24] So the next thing we have here is, um, you pulled, you're very good at this.

[00:21:27] You do this every year.

[00:21:29] You pull the New Hampshire farmer's almanac and you get the weather forecast.

[00:21:33] Right.

[00:21:34] Because it's so accurate, right?

[00:21:37] We have it in rain in like six weeks.

[00:21:39] Oh yeah.

[00:21:40] So here's the latest.

[00:21:41] So the New Hampshire farmer's almanac is predicting wet and stormy winter with above

[00:21:45] normal precipitation and snowfall.

[00:21:48] Praying for that to be true.

[00:21:51] Coldest periods in mid December and late February, which sounds like a typical winter, right?

[00:21:57] Yeah.

[00:21:57] Um, and then above normal temperatures, rapid fire storms with little downtime in between.

[00:22:03] So I don't know.

[00:22:05] It's somewhat of a vague prediction here, but I'm hoping for the best.

[00:22:09] We need a good winter.

[00:22:12] At least for snowmobiling.

[00:22:13] Yeah, yeah.

[00:22:13] I'm rooting for the snowmobilers, um, to have a good winter because you guys have gotten

[00:22:17] kind of screwed over the last couple of years.

[00:22:19] Whew.

[00:22:20] Yeah, for sure.

[00:22:21] Skiers, not so much.

[00:22:22] The ski seasons have been okay.

[00:22:24] Yeah.

[00:22:25] Cause they can make, they can make snow and, um, you know, elevation.

[00:22:29] It's been a little bit better, but, um, we'll see.

[00:22:31] I don't know.

[00:22:32] It's been very low precipitation.

[00:22:34] I think we're in level one drought down here in Massachusetts.

[00:22:37] Matter of fact, there's been a bunch of brush fires.

[00:22:39] When, when we came back from London, when I was driving on route one, you could see,

[00:22:44] um, the brush fires in, there was brush fires in Beverly and Salem.

[00:22:48] Middleton's got a big one.

[00:22:49] I think they blew through about 170 acres of fire in Middleton.

[00:22:53] So it's, it's, it's been a little risky so we could use some rain.

[00:22:58] Yeah.

[00:22:59] Yeah.

[00:22:59] Yeah.

[00:23:00] Absolutely.

[00:23:01] Anyway.

[00:23:01] Um, but this is also a good time to remind people of that.

[00:23:05] The forest roads are starting to, um, shut down and our good friend Kimball from Trails,

[00:23:12] New Hampshire, uh, we're going to, we're going to put this link in the show notes so

[00:23:16] people can, can keep an eye on it.

[00:23:18] But essentially, you know, you can keep an eye on the forest roads through this, this

[00:23:23] link.

[00:23:24] And, uh, Kimball has the updates on, uh, what roads are closed and which roads are

[00:23:28] open.

[00:23:29] Yeah.

[00:23:29] So far everything's open.

[00:23:31] I was looking at, um, Capps Ridge, um, Jefferson Notch Road.

[00:23:35] That's usually the, one of the first to go, uh, but that's still open.

[00:23:39] So yeah, we still have a little bit of time left, but it's a great resource.

[00:23:43] Yeah.

[00:23:43] Yeah.

[00:23:44] It was 75 degrees.

[00:23:45] Um, today.

[00:23:48] Yeah.

[00:23:49] I think it's going to get cold over the weekend, but I don't think there's any

[00:23:52] precipitation, um, expected.

[00:23:55] So it's just going to be cold and clear.

[00:23:57] So I'll be getting out north somewhere.

[00:24:00] Hmm.

[00:24:01] Oh, absolutely.

[00:24:02] Yeah.

[00:24:02] Me too.

[00:24:02] Touch base.

[00:24:05] All right, Stomp.

[00:24:06] So, um, the next thing I wanted to go through this article here, I've gotten this article

[00:24:13] probably at least, I, I, I said 50 earlier, but I think I probably got this by at least

[00:24:18] 10 different people.

[00:24:19] So I think you got this from, um, Joe Caladasa.

[00:24:24] And then I got this also from our friend Al and, uh, and a, a million other people here.

[00:24:30] So this happened in Australia.

[00:24:33] There was a woman that would dropped her phone.

[00:24:35] I've actually had this happen to me, Stomp on, um, on Adams.

[00:24:38] I dropped my phone in a, in a space between two rocks and I had to like stretch my arm in

[00:24:44] there to get it.

[00:24:45] But, um, what happened is in, this is in new South Wales, Australia in the Hunter Valley

[00:24:52] region.

[00:24:53] A woman was taking photos and she slipped into a rock crevasse where she was stuck upside

[00:25:00] down as emergency responders tried to free her.

[00:25:03] So she found herself literally between a rock and a hard place caught between two boulders

[00:25:08] in a roughly 10 foot crevice on October 12th.

[00:25:13] Um, and there was a Facebook post that went out on this.

[00:25:17] So they did not, um, initially identify her, but eventually they did identify her as a 23

[00:25:23] year old lady by the name of Matilda Campbell.

[00:25:26] So, um, she even commented on the photo that was on Facebook where it was just her feet.

[00:25:33] And she's like, Oh, not my feet on display like that.

[00:25:36] Um, so she had a good sense of humor about it, but she, she describes herself as highly accident

[00:25:42] prone and vowed that no more rock exploration for me.

[00:25:46] So, um, the paramedics that got on the first responders said in my 10 years as a rescue paramedic,

[00:25:52] I've never encountered a job quite like this.

[00:25:55] Peter Watts, the specialist rescue paramedic who worked to free her said in her release,

[00:25:59] it was challenging, but incredibly rewarding.

[00:26:02] Um, her friends contacted the responder and emergency responders after unsuccessful attempts

[00:26:07] to free her.

[00:26:08] So she's upside down.

[00:26:09] So head down between two rocks, about 10 feet down and she can't move.

[00:26:15] And her friends are trying to free.

[00:26:17] I mean, absolute nightmare fuel for me.

[00:26:19] I would have a heart attack and die probably before that anyone could get there.

[00:26:22] Um, but they had limited phone reception.

[00:26:26] So they had to go find a location where they could call emergency services.

[00:26:30] Um, they were able to get there.

[00:26:33] Uh, the rescuers built a hardwood frame to ensure stability during the operation.

[00:26:37] And then they had to move several heavy boulders to create an access point.

[00:26:42] And then once they could access both of her feet, it took them about an hour to navigate

[00:26:47] her through like this tight S turn.

[00:26:49] Um, so they needed a specialized winch to move an 1100 pound boulder.

[00:26:57] And they said the woman was calm and collected despite being stuck upside down among the rocks.

[00:27:02] She was able to basically do anything they, they asked her to do within reason to get out.

[00:27:06] And she's now recovering, but holy Moses.

[00:27:11] Hmm.

[00:27:12] Yeah.

[00:27:12] That's terrifying.

[00:27:13] Yeah.

[00:27:14] I told you I've been watching these caver videos on YouTube.

[00:27:17] Oh, I can't.

[00:27:18] I can't.

[00:27:18] They're incredible.

[00:27:19] They're so scary.

[00:27:20] Oh, I hate them.

[00:27:21] I hate them.

[00:27:23] Terrible.

[00:27:23] But yeah, that's a close call.

[00:27:25] Can't imagine.

[00:27:26] Yeah.

[00:27:27] Yeah.

[00:27:27] Yeah.

[00:27:29] Yeah.

[00:27:34] She seems like a, um, she seems like, yeah, I'm looking at the photo right now.

[00:27:40] I mean, the way that this photo is essentially like, it is this like super narrow, um, crevice that you see anytime you would anywhere in the white, you would see this.

[00:27:55] And she just went straight in head first and her feet are just stuck between these, these two narrow boulders.

[00:28:02] And she's probably four feet down in order to just get to her feet.

[00:28:07] So it's a nightmare.

[00:28:10] Oh, I can just picture.

[00:28:11] I couldn't open up the, uh, the article for whatever reason.

[00:28:14] So I'm just living vicariously through your description.

[00:28:18] Yeah.

[00:28:18] Yeah.

[00:28:19] I'll, um, there's an archive version of, um, of the article.

[00:28:23] So I'll make sure that I use that link instead of the, the, there's a Washington Post link that you put in here, but it looks like it's, um, paywalled.

[00:28:31] So I'm going to edit that right now.

[00:28:33] Um, but yeah, that's, that's it.

[00:28:36] Stomp.

[00:28:36] So I think it's one of those things where when you lose concentration, you can get in, get yourself into these weird predicaments.

[00:28:42] So I always think about this when I'm, when I'm trail running, like, you know, you lose concentration, you get into a zone and you twist your ankle quickly.

[00:28:49] This is the same thing as you got to just remember not to get yourself in these situations.

[00:28:54] Uh, but speaking of situation stomp, we got another one here.

[00:28:59] Missing hiker 72 was found near her dead husband's body in Maine.

[00:29:04] Um, she was kept alive after her dog slept on her chest.

[00:29:09] So this is a sad story.

[00:29:11] So.

[00:29:11] Yeah.

[00:29:11] It's an amazing story though.

[00:29:13] I mean, this, this comes from us from, uh, October 21st, just recently up in Maine.

[00:29:18] Yeah.

[00:29:18] Pretty recently.

[00:29:19] There's some photos in here.

[00:29:21] So husband and wife are in, uh, uh, Alexander it's Washington County means.

[00:29:26] So I don't even know where that is.

[00:29:28] Uh, but basically husband and wife's in their eighties.

[00:29:30] Oh, she's 72 and he's 82.

[00:29:33] Holy moly.

[00:29:34] Yeah.

[00:29:35] It's, it's crazy.

[00:29:36] So, um, essentially like they were out for a walk and she was rescued on a Thursday.

[00:29:50] So, um, let me just go through this and get through the, uh, the details for a second here.

[00:29:57] So essentially they had gone out for a walk together.

[00:30:01] Um, the husband fell and couldn't get back up at some point after the couple had decided

[00:30:07] to go off trail a little bit.

[00:30:09] They had left their cell phones at home.

[00:30:12] Um, but they ended up just getting lost and couldn't find, um, their way home.

[00:30:19] And, you know, the wife was a little bit more physically capable than the husband.

[00:30:23] So they made the decision for him to sit tight and for her to go and try and try to find help.

[00:30:29] And by that time, I think one of the neighbors had alerted the police because they noticed

[00:30:35] that a package had been left on the front porch and it was unlike them to leave the package,

[00:30:40] um, for that long.

[00:30:42] So the neighbor called police and then one of the couples, there was two dogs with them.

[00:30:47] One of the dogs came home and then, um, wow.

[00:30:52] Interesting.

[00:30:53] Yeah.

[00:30:53] Essentially.

[00:30:54] I think it was four days that went by stop since.

[00:30:56] Yeah.

[00:30:57] That's four days in temps in the twenties, like 28 degrees.

[00:31:02] Yeah.

[00:31:02] Essentially.

[00:31:03] So the husband died.

[00:31:04] The wife had tried to go for help.

[00:31:06] I think she was maybe about 200 feet or 200 yards from the husband's body when they found her.

[00:31:11] Yeah.

[00:31:11] Um, she had given up hope of being found alive, um, until she heard helicopters flying overhead.

[00:31:17] Um, and eventually she was discovered, uh, her body temperature was at 90.7 degrees.

[00:31:26] So, um, and apparently like one of the dogs had slept with her to keep her as warm as possible.

[00:31:34] So, um, quite a miracle.

[00:31:36] Um, so the dog slept on her chest to keep her warm.

[00:31:40] And, uh, that's probably what saved her.

[00:31:42] So yeah, man's best friend wins again.

[00:31:45] Beautiful story.

[00:31:46] Yeah.

[00:31:47] Coming out of Maine.

[00:31:48] Yeah.

[00:31:49] So the dog that stayed with her gets the bed, the dog that took off and went home on the floor.

[00:31:56] Yeah.

[00:31:56] And I just want to tell Mrs. Stomp, neither of our cats would ever do that for us.

[00:32:05] No, they couldn't be bothered.

[00:32:07] Cats would be like, see ya.

[00:32:08] Yeah.

[00:32:09] No, they wouldn't be bothered.

[00:32:10] Are you kidding me?

[00:32:11] So, um, yeah, but sad story.

[00:32:13] The husband passed away.

[00:32:15] Um, but it's a miracle though.

[00:32:17] It's yeah.

[00:32:19] These stories happen quite a bit.

[00:32:21] There's another one in Ossipy Stomp where a, um, there's a,

[00:32:25] a missing woman and she was last seen on September 27th at 11 AM walking in the area of Bay Point Road

[00:32:36] on Ossipy Lake wearing gray sweatpants and a sweater.

[00:32:41] And, um, I guess she's the aunt of a former Conway Daily Sun photographer.

[00:32:46] Um, the couple, it was a husband and wife.

[00:32:49] They'd been married for about 10 years or so.

[00:32:51] Uh, she's 66.

[00:32:53] I don't know how old the husband is.

[00:32:55] It doesn't say here, but, um, they're from Florida.

[00:32:59] They were up vacationing.

[00:33:00] I think the husband has some connection to the area.

[00:33:04] Um, so she went missing.

[00:33:08] Um, they've been doing a search for her over the weekend that included helicopters, boats, divers, and canine.

[00:33:16] The husband said they've been married for about 10 years for the past five years or so.

[00:33:21] They've lived in Nokomis, Florida, which is outside of Sarasota.

[00:33:25] They were staying at his family's cottage on Bay Point Road.

[00:33:30] Um, Carol, who was the person that's gone missing?

[00:33:32] She'd been there once before.

[00:33:34] I guess she's a friendly person.

[00:33:35] She's got a little bit of early onset dementia.

[00:33:38] So, there is that issue there.

[00:33:41] Um, you know, he, the husband's been posting flyers.

[00:33:45] He put her a reward for her for a couple thousand dollars.

[00:33:49] Um, family members again said she had dementia.

[00:33:52] She's got some memory issues and, um, she's on medication.

[00:33:56] The last time she took her medication was the Friday before she left.

[00:34:01] Apparently, she did go wandering.

[00:34:04] This is a little weird.

[00:34:05] So, in December of 2023, she went to a friend's house for three months.

[00:34:11] Nobody knew where she was, but eventually she indicated to the police that she was safe,

[00:34:15] and she promised she would never do that again.

[00:34:17] So, she has disappeared randomly and gone to, like, friend's houses and stuff.

[00:34:21] So, maybe that's what's going on here, but it seems a little odd.

[00:34:25] Wow.

[00:34:25] So, interesting.

[00:34:27] And, uh, what's, what's the, uh, award for?

[00:34:32] I think the reward is for, um, yeah, if you find her, if you find her, you get a couple thousand dollars from the husband.

[00:34:39] All right.

[00:34:40] All right.

[00:34:41] So, I mean, worst case scenario, she's, you know, close to a body of water.

[00:34:45] That makes me nervous, but maybe she went back to her friend's house like she did before.

[00:34:50] So, she likes to swim.

[00:34:52] Hmm.

[00:34:52] Hmm.

[00:34:54] Well.

[00:34:54] It's not good.

[00:34:55] We'll see.

[00:34:56] Not good.

[00:34:57] Yeah, it's not.

[00:34:58] So, anyway, but, uh.

[00:35:00] Okay.

[00:35:00] All right.

[00:35:01] And then the next thing here, Stomp, I wanted to, um, I'm going to include this in the show notes,

[00:35:05] and I'll put this in the social media for people to check out.

[00:35:07] There's a podcast called Trail Talk, which is the high, uh, high point podcast.

[00:35:14] So, this is about people that, that hike the high points in the U.S.

[00:35:19] And, um, I don't know if you remember, remember the rescue of the guy who broke his leg on,

[00:35:26] um, the Osgood Trail on Mount Madison.

[00:35:29] He was like a through hiker and it was a big long carry out.

[00:35:32] It was like a 12 hour carry out to get him out.

[00:35:35] Mm-hmm.

[00:35:35] So, um, he was on this podcast and, uh, Al, our friend Al had pointed me to it.

[00:35:41] It's pretty interesting.

[00:35:42] So, I'll put a link in the show notes.

[00:35:44] Um, and he talks sort of about how he, so he's a high pointer.

[00:35:48] So, he's done 49 out of 50 state high points.

[00:35:52] Yeah.

[00:35:52] So, he's done in Alaska and California.

[00:35:54] He's only got Katahdin left, I think.

[00:35:56] Oh, wow.

[00:35:56] And he, he's done through hiking and stuff.

[00:35:59] So, he was a pretty experienced guy.

[00:36:00] I think he's out of Colorado.

[00:36:01] That's great.

[00:36:02] And he tells the story about what happened and essentially like he broke his leg or his,

[00:36:08] twisted his ankle severely.

[00:36:10] And luckily, like within 20 minutes, a, um, a medical student, a Harvard medical student

[00:36:17] came upon him and was able to help triage him.

[00:36:21] I think he got injured around 2.30, 3 o'clock.

[00:36:23] He had a spot device.

[00:36:25] So, he was able to call for a rescue.

[00:36:26] The good Samaritan, um, Harvard medical student was there with another hiker to help triage.

[00:36:33] They had to cut his boot off.

[00:36:35] They were able to cut his boot off with like one of those tiny, I think he said it was like

[00:36:39] a, a small like scissors from a Swiss army knife type of thing.

[00:36:44] Yeah.

[00:36:44] I believe that's what he said.

[00:36:45] They were able to cut it off so that it wasn't as painful taking it off.

[00:36:48] And then, um, Andrew Scoggin search, Andrew Scoggin Valley search and rescue and, and a bunch

[00:36:54] of other search and rescue and, and, uh, conservation offers showed up and, and carried him out.

[00:37:00] But, um, he, he had a good philosophy about it.

[00:37:02] He's very well prepared.

[00:37:03] He was basically like, um, you know, don't pack for the weather, pack for an accident.

[00:37:09] So, he really, he had like sleeping bags and, um, and plenty of clothes to stay warm.

[00:37:15] He said, basically he could have stayed up there for three, four days if he needed to.

[00:37:19] That's an interesting phrase.

[00:37:20] I'm not quite sure if I agree with that.

[00:37:23] Yeah.

[00:37:23] The way he put it was, it was interesting.

[00:37:25] He said his uncle's a motorcycle rider and he's like, you don't, you don't dress for the

[00:37:30] ride.

[00:37:31] You dress for the accident.

[00:37:32] Meaning that you see those motorcycle drivers where they've got their leather outfits on and

[00:37:37] all that stuff.

[00:37:37] Like they're dressed for safety and that's kind of what he, he said he, he carries.

[00:37:43] So interesting.

[00:37:44] Yeah.

[00:37:44] I could see that two degrees.

[00:37:46] I mean, he's basically going heavy like you go.

[00:37:49] Yeah.

[00:37:49] It's, it's a balance though.

[00:37:51] I think with hiking.

[00:37:52] Yeah, exactly.

[00:37:53] But it's, it's, it's an interesting video and he's a pretty well-spoken guy.

[00:37:57] We don't typically chase like down people that have gotten involved in, you know, somebody

[00:38:01] reaches out to us and wants to come on, we're happy to do it, but we don't really make a

[00:38:05] practice of like trying to follow up with people that have been in rescues.

[00:38:08] So it was just interesting to hear.

[00:38:10] It's a pretty recent story for him.

[00:38:12] Yeah.

[00:38:12] Yeah.

[00:38:13] Yeah.

[00:38:13] You need a new co-host.

[00:38:16] So you can get more of these people in.

[00:38:19] Yeah, exactly.

[00:38:21] So anyway, but I'll put that in the show notes here and then Stomp, you've got an article

[00:38:26] here.

[00:38:26] I didn't, I don't even read this one.

[00:38:28] So the heart screenings offered after students' death.

[00:38:30] Pretty interesting story.

[00:38:32] This comes from overseas.

[00:38:33] So there was a young hiker, Clarissa Nichols, collapsed and died while hiking from an undiagnosed

[00:38:45] arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy while hiking in France.

[00:38:48] And there's been a campaign started called Clarissa's campaign for Cambridge hearts.

[00:38:55] And they've raised over 55,000 pounds, which Mike, what does that equate to since you've

[00:39:01] just been to the UK?

[00:39:04] It's, I think it's 77 cents to a pound.

[00:39:09] So basically add to how much total did they raise again?

[00:39:12] Uh, 55,000 pounds.

[00:39:15] So it's probably about 70,000 US dollars.

[00:39:19] That's great.

[00:39:20] There you go.

[00:39:21] Yeah.

[00:39:21] So they, they've raised these funds to provide ECG screenings for other people that may have

[00:39:31] undiagnosed issues.

[00:39:32] So it's a pretty interesting story.

[00:39:34] Yeah.

[00:39:35] Yeah.

[00:39:35] I mean, the young people with the cardiomyopathy is always a scary thing.

[00:39:38] You know, you hear about that, like these basketball players or soccer players that just dropped

[00:39:42] out of a heart attack and it's like, Oh yeah.

[00:39:45] It's like hitting the lottery.

[00:39:46] But I do think, um, older people, um, especially men in your fifties, you know, we do see a

[00:39:52] lot of like fifties and 60 year old men that have heart attacks on hiking.

[00:39:56] Um, the life scan, I think is what my, my doctor recommends is that you get the life scan where

[00:40:01] they can do the scanning of your, um, carotid arteries and all that stuff to make sure that

[00:40:07] there's no, um, have you done that?

[00:40:08] No blockage.

[00:40:09] Yeah.

[00:40:10] I did it, um, one time, a couple of years ago.

[00:40:13] I got to get another one.

[00:40:14] Yeah.

[00:40:14] It might not be a bad idea.

[00:40:15] Yeah.

[00:40:16] Yeah.

[00:40:16] It's not super expensive.

[00:40:17] I think it, I don't think it's covered by insurance.

[00:40:19] It's like $400 or something and they do them all over the place.

[00:40:22] But life scan, I'll take a look in the, I'll add like links.

[00:40:25] They're always available and they do in different clinics and I'll put a link in the show notes

[00:40:29] if people want to check it out.

[00:40:31] But it's worth it if you're in your fifties.

[00:40:33] Absolutely.

[00:40:34] I mean, that's heartbreaking though for a young kid like that.

[00:40:36] Ugh.

[00:40:37] Yeah.

[00:40:38] Yeah.

[00:40:38] Yeah.

[00:40:38] It's, it's brutal.

[00:40:40] Um, speaking of heart attacks, the cold turkey plunge is coming up.

[00:40:46] Yeah.

[00:40:46] I'm not doing this stuff.

[00:40:47] Like, so Stomp sent this over to me and he was like, should we do a slasher team?

[00:40:50] And I was like immediately, no, but I'm not, I didn't feel like texting you.

[00:40:53] So I'm just going to tell you right now, I'm not doing it.

[00:40:55] No, I know, I know.

[00:40:57] I know.

[00:40:57] This is a yearly thing.

[00:40:58] This is the 12th annual cold turkey plunge and it's a benefit for a Waterville Valley

[00:41:02] adaptive sports.

[00:41:04] And, uh, it's on Saturday, November 30th.

[00:41:07] Registration's at 1130.

[00:41:08] You can sign up at this link that we'll provide you, but, uh, Mrs. Stomp has done it.

[00:41:14] It's a hell of a blast and I'd be tempted to do it if anybody hits us up and wants to

[00:41:20] start a team.

[00:41:21] Yeah.

[00:41:21] I don't, I don't see you doing it, Mike, but, uh, I'm sort of, sort of interested this

[00:41:27] year.

[00:41:28] Yeah.

[00:41:28] Freezing for a reason.

[00:41:29] I like it.

[00:41:31] That's right.

[00:41:32] But if you, if you did it and you wanted to use like some of the, um, coffee money for

[00:41:36] a donation or something like that, be cool.

[00:41:38] It's good.

[00:41:39] Hey, that'd be cool.

[00:41:39] Good cause.

[00:41:40] Yeah.

[00:41:40] Everybody dresses up and it's a riot.

[00:41:42] It's a great time.

[00:41:44] Yeah.

[00:41:44] It looks fun.

[00:41:45] So yeah.

[00:41:46] Anyway, we'll see.

[00:41:47] Report back to us.

[00:41:49] Yeah.

[00:41:49] Okay.

[00:41:51] Full conditions, a little update.

[00:41:53] There will be raffles, numerous raffles at the full condition show at Reckless Brewing,

[00:41:59] the Pine House on November 16th.

[00:42:01] So just to let you know, I think they're going to be sold for five bucks a pop and you'll

[00:42:05] be able to provide, uh, you know, cash or do a, like a QR Venmo type of thing, uh, while

[00:42:11] you're there.

[00:42:11] And all the proceeds benefit the New Hampshire Outdoor Council.

[00:42:14] Uh, there'll be, you know, signed tie Gagney books, Vaucluse gear frames, uh, numerous

[00:42:21] vendors, um, will be providing raffle, uh, swag.

[00:42:26] So just to let you know about that, we're really looking forward to that.

[00:42:29] It's going to be a great time.

[00:42:31] Yeah.

[00:42:31] Very good.

[00:42:32] Yeah.

[00:42:32] Very good.

[00:42:32] Now, stop.

[00:42:33] This is the part of the show where we're going to do a gear review.

[00:42:40] Are you ready for Slasher's gear review?

[00:42:51] Oh my God.

[00:42:53] This is a special gear review for people that are terrified about hiking at night or in the

[00:42:59] dark.

[00:43:00] I saw this flashlight.

[00:43:02] It was proclaimed to be the brightest flashlight clocking in at 200,000 lumens.

[00:43:09] And it's unbelievable.

[00:43:10] It only costs $750.

[00:43:14] So there are video demonstrations where the person turns it on and literally lights up an entire

[00:43:22] city from about half a mile away.

[00:43:26] I've seen these.

[00:43:27] I see it.

[00:43:27] I think like there's a guy across the lake from my father-in-law that had one of these

[00:43:31] one time.

[00:43:32] Cause I was like, why is there a, I'm like, it looked like, um, you know, those used car

[00:43:37] lots where they have the, the, the, the, the big lights that go back and forth in the sky.

[00:43:42] It looked like that.

[00:43:43] Oh, totally.

[00:43:46] It's not exactly ultra light.

[00:43:47] Yeah.

[00:43:48] So they do have a range though.

[00:43:50] So you can have it on that bright, you know, illuminating, you know, you seen from space

[00:43:55] level, uh, and it lasts for about maybe half an hour.

[00:43:58] And then the lower levels last for upwards of eight hours plus, but yeah.

[00:44:03] Interesting.

[00:44:04] Yeah.

[00:44:06] Stocking stuffer.

[00:44:07] Very good.

[00:44:08] Okay.

[00:44:10] We all know that hiking a mountain can be hard at times.

[00:44:14] So here's a corny dad joke to help you get over it.

[00:44:19] But I'm bummed.

[00:44:22] This is the part of the show where we do a dad joke.

[00:44:24] We're doing a Halloween edition stomp.

[00:44:26] Oh yeah.

[00:44:26] What you got?

[00:44:27] Anything good?

[00:44:28] Um, why did the witch go hiking?

[00:44:32] Um, I give up.

[00:44:35] To get a spellbinding view.

[00:44:38] Ha ha ha ha.

[00:44:40] It's so bad.

[00:44:42] Why did the skeleton refuse to hike with the group?

[00:44:46] Uh, the group.

[00:44:48] Um, I have no idea.

[00:44:50] He had no body to carry his backpack.

[00:44:53] Ha ha ha.

[00:44:55] All right.

[00:44:56] Those are good.

[00:44:57] Those are good.

[00:44:57] So, um, thank you, chat GPT for the hiking Halloween themed dad jokes.

[00:45:03] Ha ha ha ha.

[00:45:04] When you're in a pinch.

[00:45:06] Chat GPT.

[00:45:08] Yeah.

[00:45:09] Yeah.

[00:45:09] So those are good.

[00:45:10] So we'll get back to our regularly scheduled dad jokes next week.

[00:45:19] Hey, what's that sound?

[00:45:21] It must be time for the pop culture segment with Mike and stop.

[00:45:30] Pop culture.

[00:45:32] Just a quick little hit here.

[00:45:33] Ty Gagney has released a post on Instagram announcing the name and book cover for his forthcoming book.

[00:45:41] And the title is the lions of winter survival and sacrifice on Mount Washington.

[00:45:49] We were blessed to, uh, have a early stab at it.

[00:45:53] And it's an incredible book.

[00:45:54] And Ty will be with us to chat on November 16th at reckless.

[00:45:58] So check it out.

[00:46:00] It's going to be awesome.

[00:46:01] Yeah.

[00:46:02] Yeah.

[00:46:02] I'm excited for this.

[00:46:03] I'm excited to be able to talk about it soon enough.

[00:46:05] So it's, it's an, it's going to be an awesome book.

[00:46:08] People are going to love it.

[00:46:09] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:46:12] Very good.

[00:46:12] Stop.

[00:46:13] So, um, with my, with my travels back and forth between London and the U S I've been in them.

[00:46:20] Now we've got the time change coming up.

[00:46:23] I've been, um, relying on a lot of coffee drinking in order to keep me awake.

[00:46:29] So, um, that ties well into our first sponsor.

[00:46:34] That's right.

[00:46:35] Did you bring CS coffee with you?

[00:46:37] I, I tried to, you got stopped at the, uh, TSA screening.

[00:46:45] Come with me.

[00:46:45] I didn't that fact I did.

[00:46:46] I, I, um, really well, no, in Boston it was fine, but in London, they're like so hard

[00:46:52] ass about like the liquor, the, there you're, I had my shave and my travel shaving cream.

[00:46:57] And I had my other like small thing.

[00:46:59] And apparently in London, they make you put them in a plastic bag and you have to take them

[00:47:04] out of your luggage and bring them through security.

[00:47:06] I never did that before.

[00:47:08] So they stopped me.

[00:47:09] Wow.

[00:47:10] And, um,

[00:47:12] Mrs. Mike had everything organized.

[00:47:14] So she was giving me a bunch of crap.

[00:47:15] So then they stopped me.

[00:47:16] They had to look through my carry on.

[00:47:18] And the guy was so disappointed to me.

[00:47:20] He's like, didn't you see the sign for the, you know, that you have to put these in a plastic bag.

[00:47:25] And I said, yeah, but I didn't think that these mattered.

[00:47:28] They weren't liquid.

[00:47:28] They're foam.

[00:47:31] It doesn't count.

[00:47:33] Wow.

[00:47:33] Interesting.

[00:47:34] Well, back to the coffee.

[00:47:36] So, uh, yeah, it's a shame you didn't have any, but I'm sure the coffee over there was

[00:47:40] pretty good.

[00:47:41] Yeah, it was.

[00:47:42] CS instant coffee though.

[00:47:45] Is that what sponsor do more weight less?

[00:47:49] CS instant coffee.

[00:47:51] Some of the best instant coffee for your hiking, backpacking trip.

[00:47:56] Check them out at CS instant.coffee.

[00:48:00] Uh, just a quick update here.

[00:48:01] We will have stickers, patches, all kinds of good stuff at the November 16th live show at Reckless.

[00:48:09] And just a reminder, you can get your slasher hoodies off of the bonfire shop.

[00:48:14] We will provide you those links.

[00:48:16] Um, we have another sponsor here, Voklus Gear.

[00:48:21] Voklus is killing it.

[00:48:23] They're expanding and, uh, they're flying off the racks here.

[00:48:26] So does your backpack not provide enough ventilation?

[00:48:29] Does your back sweat too much when backpacking?

[00:48:32] As you know, sweat can be extremely uncomfortable on the trails.

[00:48:36] Plus sweat is a serious risk factor in both hot and cold climates.

[00:48:40] As your clothes get wet, your core temperature can dramatically fluctuate,

[00:48:44] resulting in hypothermia, heat exhaustion, and dehydration.

[00:48:48] Let's not forget, just very uncomfortable.

[00:48:52] Today's your lucky day, because we have good news for you.

[00:48:55] There's a piece of gear that solves the sweat and ventilation problem,

[00:48:58] making your backpack more comfortable.

[00:49:01] Voklus Gear's Ultralight Backpack Ventilation Frame.

[00:49:04] This Ultralight Frame is a backpack accessory that easily installs in your favorite pack,

[00:49:11] size 15 liters to 45 liters, and creates a ventilating airflow gap between you and your pack.

[00:49:16] It's also ultralight, weighing around 3 ounces.

[00:49:20] That's equivalent to a pair of wool socks.

[00:49:23] So whether backpacking or hiking in hot or cold temps,

[00:49:26] the Ultralight Backpack Ventilation Frame from Voklus is a real game changer

[00:49:32] regarding airflow and ventilation.

[00:49:34] Visit Voklusgear.com to order an ultralight ventilation frame today.

[00:49:40] Use promo code SLASER, S-L-A-S-R, to enjoy a $5 discount.

[00:49:46] And let them know that Mike and Stomp sent you.

[00:49:56] Hey, hold my beer.

[00:49:58] It's time to find out what Mike and Stomp are drinking.

[00:50:01] On this week's Beer Talk.

[00:50:10] Now it's the part of the show where we talk about whether we are drinking a beer or not.

[00:50:15] Yeah, I see you drinking some water there, but I've broken the seal.

[00:50:21] And I'm having a cider, a Stormalong Cider.

[00:50:25] Stormalong Cider? Where's that from?

[00:50:27] Yeah. They're out of Lemonster.

[00:50:29] But this is the end of the most miserable failure of a sober October I've ever experienced.

[00:50:38] Tell me about it.

[00:50:40] I was drinking like Mai Tais.

[00:50:43] I was drinking Long Island iced teas in London.

[00:50:48] I was like, oh well.

[00:50:49] It was one point where Mrs. Stomp licks me and goes,

[00:50:52] you're doing the exact opposite of sober October.

[00:50:58] That was hilarious.

[00:51:00] Oh well, maybe next year.

[00:51:02] Yeah, we failed.

[00:51:03] So, anyway.

[00:51:05] But tonight I am drinking water.

[00:51:07] I'm being well behaved just because, I don't know, I was drinking water.

[00:51:10] I've been sick, so I've been getting over a little sickness.

[00:51:13] But apparently that didn't stop me from drinking Mai Tais and Long Island iced teas.

[00:51:18] Have you been out hiking at all, Stomp, since we had our last show?

[00:51:23] I've just been doing my Welch Dickey thing.

[00:51:26] You know, every second I've had, I've been out on the kayak trying to see the foliage from the water,

[00:51:31] and it's been really nice.

[00:51:32] But today was the last day, Halloween day.

[00:51:35] We were out on Perch Pond enjoying the views.

[00:51:39] It was so warm.

[00:51:40] Couldn't miss it.

[00:51:41] But yeah, I'll be back out probably.

[00:51:44] Future plans, let's see.

[00:51:46] Saturday, yes, somewhere.

[00:51:48] I'm not sure where.

[00:51:49] And then Sunday, someplace with Mrs. Stomp.

[00:51:51] So, yet to be determined.

[00:51:53] How about you?

[00:51:54] You've been out a bit.

[00:51:56] Yeah, I got out before I went traveling.

[00:51:59] I got the Alzheimer's crew back together.

[00:52:03] So I had, I had, and I had Dave, Dave and Liz, and then Nick and Paul, and then my friend Jay joined us.

[00:52:16] So we went out for a, a nice hike with, with the crew.

[00:52:23] So, fun times.

[00:52:26] And we did, over by, there's this, this hike in the, it's a Randolph Mountain Club's trail systems.

[00:52:34] And it's over by the Ice Gulch, but it's Mount Crescent.

[00:52:40] And then it loops around to Mount Randolph.

[00:52:45] So it's a nice little, you know what it reminds me of is over by like Mount Stanton and Mount Langdon.

[00:52:51] It's sort of like a low, the lower lying mountains.

[00:52:55] Okay.

[00:52:55] Fair amount of ups and downs.

[00:52:58] You know, so Nick joined us, so it was appropriate because we had our Pointless Up and Downs.

[00:53:02] So Nick from the Pointless Up and Downs podcast.

[00:53:04] Right.

[00:53:04] So we had a fair amount of puds, but a bunch of good views.

[00:53:08] You got like a southern lookout where you can see, you know, you have a direct view of Mount Adams and King Ravine and Madison.

[00:53:18] And it's like a straight on view when you're on.

[00:53:22] And then when you get on the backside of Mount Crescent, you get a straight on view of the Kilkenny Ridge.

[00:53:27] Like the perfect view of like from Cabot all the way to Rogers Ledge.

[00:53:32] It's like a perfect view of Kilkenny.

[00:53:35] Yeah.

[00:53:37] And then you go over, you follow that over to Mount Randolph.

[00:53:44] And then you go over to Mount Stomp, but there's a, there's a trail, there's trails over there, Stomp.

[00:53:48] You had talked about this before.

[00:53:53] I forget what these are called.

[00:53:56] Remember there was the, those prisoners of war during World War II.

[00:54:02] Oh, that was in Stark.

[00:54:04] In Stark.

[00:54:05] Yeah.

[00:54:05] So the four soldiers path.

[00:54:08] So this trail system connects with the pond of safety, which is where I think those guys hit out before they were eventually captured.

[00:54:18] Civil war.

[00:54:19] It was civil war stuff, not World War II.

[00:54:21] Oh, okay.

[00:54:23] So is that right?

[00:54:23] Yeah, I think that's right.

[00:54:25] So yeah, the pond of safety and the four soldiers.

[00:54:28] So it was kind of cool.

[00:54:29] Dave was talking a little bit about it.

[00:54:30] He knows more of that history than I do.

[00:54:32] I got to read up on it.

[00:54:33] But, but then you get over to Mount Randolph.

[00:54:35] There's a couple of views over there.

[00:54:37] And then at the end of the hike, there's this section called Lookout Ledge, which is like right overlooking Route 2, right below like Appalachia parking lot, and then right into King Ravine.

[00:54:50] And we just hung out there.

[00:54:52] And Paul got attacked by a bunch of ladybugs, but otherwise it was, it was pretty, pretty fun.

[00:54:57] But great day.

[00:54:58] Foliage was still hanging on.

[00:54:59] It was, it was falling down a little bit, but what a great loop.

[00:55:04] It was about six, seven mile loop.

[00:55:05] And we probably took seven hours to hike it.

[00:55:08] We had probably 20 minute breaks like five or six times.

[00:55:12] Hmm.

[00:55:13] That's a, that's not book time.

[00:55:15] That's a, that's pretty slow.

[00:55:16] We were poking along.

[00:55:18] We were poking along.

[00:55:18] And then I had my, my zipper was down.

[00:55:20] So I wore hiking pants and my zipper was down and nobody told me.

[00:55:27] You're a fly?

[00:55:27] Dave was like talking about it for like probably an hour.

[00:55:31] He was just talking about how zippers are down and everybody knew about it except for me.

[00:55:35] And then I realized that they were talking about me having my zipper down.

[00:55:40] There's no easy way.

[00:55:41] And then I had to pretend I was like, well, I did it on purpose as a joke.

[00:55:44] You can't be direct.

[00:55:45] There's no easy way to tell somebody their flies down.

[00:55:48] You have to be indirect about it.

[00:55:51] But it wasn't a joke.

[00:55:53] Wow.

[00:55:54] That's harsh.

[00:55:56] Thank God you didn't run into a listener.

[00:55:58] I don't know.

[00:55:58] Did you just do something to your volume?

[00:55:59] No, no, I haven't touched it.

[00:56:01] Okay.

[00:56:01] Now you're back.

[00:56:03] Oh, got more gremlins going on here.

[00:56:07] More gremlins here.

[00:56:08] But anyways, but yeah, I highly recommend it.

[00:56:10] It's a great trail system.

[00:56:13] Um, it's not on any list or anything.

[00:56:15] So I think it's, it's, it's pretty quiet that we didn't see anybody else out there.

[00:56:18] So highly recommend this place.

[00:56:20] Not too far north.

[00:56:22] Nope, not at all.

[00:56:23] Yeah.

[00:56:24] Um, all right, Thompson.

[00:56:26] Now, um, I guess we don't have to do notable listener hiker of the week because we're going

[00:56:32] to cover that during the next segment.

[00:56:35] So, um, we only got one, but it's really not that notable.

[00:56:40] No, it's from Dave.

[00:56:41] It's from Davey Chitt.

[00:56:42] So we're not, we don't care.

[00:56:46] I mean, it was, it was East scar, but I don't know.

[00:56:50] That's not really that difficult for a bushwhack.

[00:56:53] Come on.

[00:56:54] Yeah.

[00:56:54] Well, we're going to give Diane Jones Newbery the notable hike of the week, but we'll,

[00:56:58] we'll get into that during, um, um, this next segment.

[00:57:02] So we had a chance to sit down with, um, with Sean Mahoney.

[00:57:05] So Sean is known as the guy that carries Larry, the log around.

[00:57:09] He's been all over the country, um, raising money for various, um, good causes.

[00:57:14] And we were able to get a chance to sit down with him and chat it up and see what he's

[00:57:18] been up to.

[00:57:18] So let's get into that segment now, and then we'll come out the other side and wrap up

[00:57:22] with some recent search and rescue news.

[00:57:44] It's time for slashers guest of the week.

[00:57:47] Very cool.

[00:57:49] Very cool.

[00:58:00] All right.

[00:58:01] It's, it's Halloween.

[00:58:03] We got the gremlins going here, but Sean, welcome back to, uh, New England.

[00:58:06] How long have you been back since you finished up your, your last through hike?

[00:58:09] A little over a month, a month in one week.

[00:58:11] And thank you for having me back again, by the way.

[00:58:14] Yeah.

[00:58:14] Yeah.

[00:58:15] No problem.

[00:58:15] No problem.

[00:58:16] We have sorting out the audio here.

[00:58:18] So I feel like you're extra Jack now.

[00:58:20] Do you feel like, like these through hikes, do you just get in insane shape?

[00:58:23] No, you lose a lot of weight.

[00:58:25] It's all cardio since I've been back.

[00:58:26] I've been lifting, but I'm trying to get ready.

[00:58:28] I'm training for a, uh, 24 hour tough mudder and it's coming up next, next week,

[00:58:34] the ninth through the 10th.

[00:58:36] It goes in Florida, 24 hours, as many laps you can do.

[00:58:39] So I've been lifting differently, but when I'm on trail, it's all cardio.

[00:58:43] There's no lifting.

[00:58:44] So I lose a lot of muscle.

[00:58:46] I actually usually go from one 80 to about like one 60 or one 85 to one 65, but I feel

[00:58:52] fine.

[00:58:52] I lose that weight and I'm good.

[00:58:54] That's a big drop.

[00:58:55] Yeah.

[00:58:56] Yeah.

[00:58:56] When you come back and you gain that muscle like pretty quickly once you get back into

[00:58:59] lifting.

[00:59:00] Yeah.

[00:59:00] It comes right back and the shoulders bounce back cause having the log on the shoulders

[00:59:05] really just flattens it.

[00:59:07] It doesn't do anything good for the shoulders.

[00:59:09] So when I come back, I try to do a lot of shoulder exercises and put, put some weight

[00:59:14] back on.

[00:59:16] Wow.

[00:59:17] Wow.

[00:59:17] Now any, uh, any problem adjusting back to like a normal, normal life after getting off

[00:59:21] trail?

[00:59:23] No, but you missed the trail right away.

[00:59:26] And then, uh, but I already have the next one in mind.

[00:59:28] So hopefully it won't be too long until I hit the trail again.

[00:59:32] Jeez.

[00:59:33] That's, uh, that's ambitious.

[00:59:35] So, all right.

[00:59:35] So for the audience, like, so you were on, um, like about a hundred episodes ago, like

[00:59:40] episode 79, I think when we last talked to you, you, um, had finished the Appalachian

[00:59:45] trail.

[00:59:45] And so for the listeners that are listening, so, um, Sean, obviously he's pretty well known

[00:59:50] at this point.

[00:59:50] So he carries a, how big is, how, how heavy is Larry?

[00:59:54] Like 30 pounds?

[00:59:54] They're all, I made them all the same size.

[00:59:57] So typically the logs would be 20 or 30 pounds when I was training.

[01:00:00] But when I did a through hike, I did the lower end.

[01:00:02] So it was, they're all 20 pounds.

[01:00:04] Exactly.

[01:00:05] Okay.

[01:00:06] So do you, uh, do you, do you like the baseball players?

[01:00:09] Do you like drill a hole in the middle of the cork, your, uh, cork, your log?

[01:00:13] No, no.

[01:00:14] I don't touch Larry after that.

[01:00:15] Everyone's like, Oh, you should let me carve into, I'm like not doing that either.

[01:00:18] It'll, it'll drop some weight off it, you know?

[01:00:21] Yeah.

[01:00:21] Yeah, exactly.

[01:00:23] All right.

[01:00:23] So they're 20 pounds.

[01:00:24] So you carry these things.

[01:00:25] And then can you refresh our memory?

[01:00:27] What was the, uh, so you obviously in the hiking, you had military background and, um,

[01:00:33] you want to do the Appalachian trail.

[01:00:35] And before that you had started hiking with, with the log and you named it Larry.

[01:00:39] So what, what was the, what's the origin story again on Larry?

[01:00:42] So kind of the recap, uh, so training with the log itself goes back 20 years before the

[01:00:50] military.

[01:00:50] Cause I didn't do any sports in middle school or high school.

[01:00:53] And I was nervous that I would be singled out in any way in basics.

[01:00:56] So I started not just running, but running with weight.

[01:00:59] And I tried to invest, um, the rucksack and I eventually landed on the log.

[01:01:04] No, I just went in for air force medic, but I never put it down when I was stationed in England.

[01:01:09] I just kind of kept doing it.

[01:01:11] And then fast forward to when COVID hit, I signed up for my second 24 hour Tough Mudder

[01:01:19] got canceled.

[01:01:20] So it was for 2021.

[01:01:21] And while I was training, I started hiking with it, got hooked.

[01:01:26] And I did all the Northeast high peaks, 115 of them in 13 weeks.

[01:01:31] And that's where it kind of gained momentum and WMUR did a chronicle on it.

[01:01:36] And then they asked what's next.

[01:01:37] And I said, probably the Appalachian trail.

[01:01:40] And, um, that had a good turnout with raising $10,000 for veterans.

[01:01:46] They had a, uh, Larry, the logger beer brewed in Larry's name.

[01:01:50] So then I went into doing the PCT.

[01:01:52] I figured, you know, the, the AT was for veterans.

[01:01:55] I thought children next.

[01:01:57] And I did a St. Jude's children's hospital.

[01:01:59] And then for the CDT elderly, my grandmother, she had Alzheimer's.

[01:02:04] So I figured veterans, children, elderly, you know, dementia, stuff like that.

[01:02:09] And, uh, in total, it was a little over $15,000 that it raised.

[01:02:13] And it was kind of just spread organically word of mouth.

[01:02:16] And I didn't do a YouTube.

[01:02:18] I don't have a YouTube or a Tik Tok or a podcast.

[01:02:21] It's just kind of like spread.

[01:02:22] And then it was kind of wild to be on some of these trails.

[01:02:25] And I've run into the same people that have seen me on the AT are now seeing me on the CDT or the PCT.

[01:02:32] And, um, there's, there's one hiker who had, who signed all three.

[01:02:37] Uh, his name was, I think he's the only one to sign all three, but shout out to 10 man.

[01:02:43] He's a good name.

[01:02:43] Cool name.

[01:02:45] Well, so Sean, I, listen, I've always been a big supporter of yours and like a lot of respect for what you do, but I, I don't know if you were paying attention or not, but when you were out on the trail, Stomp was mocking you.

[01:02:59] And, and actually like, he went out and did a pimmie loop with, uh, with a, with a noodle to mock you.

[01:03:08] And I was like, this is disrespectful. So if you want to have it out with him right now, I mean, I thought that was, I don't know.

[01:03:14] I loved that. I loved when people send me, even if they send me a twig or they'll send me like these photos of them in the woods or even just picking it up.

[01:03:23] I mean, they got some huge tree and act like they carried it the whole way, but it's, it's fun.

[01:03:26] I love when people kind of just, I take it as, you know, respect and, and I appreciate it.

[01:03:32] Oh yeah. Hell yeah.

[01:03:33] I mean, the pool noodle, that's a good step. That's a step in the right direction.

[01:03:36] Yeah. We need to increase the pool noodles or the weight of them. But I mean, that's good to do so far.

[01:03:42] Yeah. I mean, you start off with two ounces and then eventually you'll get to 20 pounds.

[01:03:45] You'll get there. Right.

[01:03:46] You get two ounces to four ounces, you know, just go up from there.

[01:03:51] How was the penny with it?

[01:03:53] Oh, it was, it was fun. It was, um, it was probably very challenging.

[01:03:59] Definitely a lot of curiosity by passing hikers. Like I, I don't think I passed one person that didn't ask me.

[01:04:06] They'd come up casually and go, um, is that a pool noodle? Like they were really cautious about talking to me. It was hilarious.

[01:04:14] Yeah. It was a good time.

[01:04:16] Yeah.

[01:04:16] I, I, I got that on the CDT people in a, in a distance, I could see him hiking.

[01:04:23] And once it got closer, they were like, you know, we were all had a bet within, you know, between us.

[01:04:27] Like it's either gotta be a fishing pole, a tent or a log.

[01:04:32] They're like, it's a log who carries a log.

[01:04:34] We, we all lost the bet. We thought it was a fishing pole or a pole.

[01:04:37] It's so great.

[01:04:38] Yeah.

[01:04:39] Like, no, it's a log, you know, it'll catch up.

[01:04:42] And when you, so when you, um, actually I just had a question going back to basic training.

[01:04:46] So you started doing this for basic training.

[01:04:48] Did you, when you did basic, do you remember like, were you able to like keep up with everything?

[01:04:53] Cause I know like I, I have some friends who their kids are like starting to go into the military and like we're warning them.

[01:05:00] Like you gotta get in good shape and you, you gotta be ready to go. Cause basic training is going to be legit.

[01:05:04] Do you remember like when you arrived, were you, did you fit in pretty well?

[01:05:08] Were you able to keep up with everything?

[01:05:10] I was conditioned more because of the log.

[01:05:13] So when I got there and I was running with less weight, I mean, it just made it a lot easier.

[01:05:16] So I was never the fastest.

[01:05:18] I was never the slowest.

[01:05:19] I was right in that middle, exactly where I wanted to be, you know, and I don't want to be singled out in any way.

[01:05:24] There was never, you know, running with added weight.

[01:05:26] I'm never going to be the fastest at anything with that thing.

[01:05:29] But obviously when I run without it, it's, it's a lot easier.

[01:05:34] So.

[01:05:34] Yeah.

[01:05:35] When you're in basic, you want to try to stay invisible, right?

[01:05:37] You middle of the pack.

[01:05:39] So that's good.

[01:05:40] And then when, now when you get into hiking and you've got the log, like there's no way for you to stay invisible.

[01:05:44] So you did the AT, you definitely like got on people's radars.

[01:05:48] When you did the, when you went out to do the PCT, I think you hadn't done that the last time we talked to you.

[01:05:54] What was the early stages of the PCT?

[01:05:57] Was it, were people like familiar with you or did you have to get to know someone?

[01:06:03] Did you end up staying kind of by yourself or how did the early stages of the PCT work out?

[01:06:07] I started off early.

[01:06:09] It was the first week of March and it was a high snow year.

[01:06:12] So most of the time I wasn't running into a lot of hikers until, you know, I flipped after I flipped.

[01:06:20] It was like a couple months in, but people heard that I was hiking with it or hostels that were up the way.

[01:06:27] You know, as soon as I got into town, they're like, we heard about you or, you know, this person or that hiker was talking about you.

[01:06:33] And they kind of hear it word of mouth, but I've gone into grocery stores and it's not even hikers.

[01:06:38] It's people that already know about it, which is kind of wild.

[01:06:43] Yeah.

[01:06:44] And then you have with the log, you have people, now you have people signing it when you run into them and stuff, which is good because they sign your log instead of marking up all the shelters, which is nice.

[01:06:55] Right.

[01:06:56] And it's just, it's a great way to connect with other people.

[01:06:58] I thought of it and not, yeah, that's probably the one thing that I'm very happy that I thought of because it's kind of cool to look back now and see all three with hundreds of trail signatures.

[01:07:08] And even people that aren't hikers, people that are doing trail angels or doing trail magic or even just regular people.

[01:07:16] Some people just ask if they can sign it and I don't mind.

[01:07:20] Yeah.

[01:07:20] Yeah.

[01:07:20] And then with the PCT, what would you, how would you describe the difference between the Pacific Crest Trail compared to the Appalachian Trail?

[01:07:28] It's so I went in a high snow year, so it's hard for me to talk about anything that doesn't involve that high snow.

[01:07:35] But for the most part, it's meant for hard packed animals.

[01:07:38] So it's, you know, a low grade for incline and whereas the AT, you're climbing a lot more.

[01:07:45] And then the terrain is probably obviously harder in New Hampshire and Maine.

[01:07:49] But the PCT is very gradual, a lot of switchbacks and views all the time.

[01:07:55] I loved the PCT, but it was just the snow that made it very difficult.

[01:07:59] Yeah.

[01:08:00] And how much bouncing around did you have to do?

[01:08:02] I flipped one, two, three times.

[01:08:08] It was, it was tough.

[01:08:09] So to put in perspective that the AT I did in just under four months, the PCT took six and a half.

[01:08:16] And typically the PCT is easier.

[01:08:19] It's just, if I were to do it again another year, maybe it would be faster, but the high, the snow just really slows, slows you down.

[01:08:25] And then the CDT, that's the longest.

[01:08:28] And I did it in four months and three weeks.

[01:08:32] Just the PCT took that much longer because of the snow and the flipping.

[01:08:37] Yeah.

[01:08:37] And did you find that the snow, the higher summits when you've got snow on them, were you generally pretty well prepared just because you'd been winter hiking in the Northeast?

[01:08:48] Or is it a totally different animal out there?

[01:08:50] Totally different animal.

[01:08:51] It helped that I hiked some of the whites in the winter.

[01:08:54] But once you go over some of those high areas, the high passes, you get to them and you can be as confident, extremely confident you get there.

[01:09:06] And you have to go up and over this steep pass.

[01:09:08] And it's, I'm top heavy and I only have an ice axe.

[01:09:11] So the ice axe has to be on the side of the slope.

[01:09:14] Well, the opposite arm that you're holding the log is going to get tired and get the pins and needles.

[01:09:19] And you have to switch.

[01:09:19] So now your ice axe is across your body.

[01:09:21] You can't walk.

[01:09:23] So you've got to, you know, just stand there for a few minutes while it's either snowing or windy or whatever.

[01:09:28] And you're already in a sink or swim.

[01:09:30] You can't just turn around and walk back.

[01:09:32] So you just got to wait for this arm to get tired, switch back and slowly go up and over this.

[01:09:36] And a lot of those were just a sink or swim situation.

[01:09:39] You can't just get to a spot and then turn around and hike back to the town.

[01:09:44] So high river crossings or these snow traverses, it's a lot of them were like sink or swim.

[01:09:52] Do you ever have to tie Larry to like your waist and just drag the log in certain areas?

[01:09:57] I've thought about it.

[01:09:58] But people even suggest putting it on the backpack because I have a Hyperlite and it has the wire strap.

[01:10:04] But the thing with that is if you can imagine, it's behind my neck.

[01:10:07] It's pulling on my shoulders that much more.

[01:10:10] And now my hands are free and I don't hike with pulls.

[01:10:12] So I tried it for like two seconds.

[01:10:15] The second your center of gravity gets a little off, you're going to go one direction or the other anyway.

[01:10:20] Plus you've got like downed trees and bushwhacking.

[01:10:22] You'd be so wide.

[01:10:23] You'd be turning, hitting it on everything.

[01:10:25] Yeah.

[01:10:26] That'd be a good system to use like when you get to the shelter and you want to clear some hikers out of the way.

[01:10:31] Just run through the hill.

[01:10:32] Social distance.

[01:10:33] Yeah.

[01:10:33] Just keep turning.

[01:10:35] Does the log float?

[01:10:37] It does.

[01:10:38] And I know that because I got swept one time.

[01:10:41] And I was like, Larry.

[01:10:42] And I like, luckily I got Larry and like hit it towards the side and it washed up.

[01:10:46] But it was close.

[01:10:48] Wow.

[01:10:49] It was in Colorado.

[01:10:51] That was wild.

[01:10:53] And what was the time gap between, so you did the PCT win in like 2013 and then the CD, 2023 and then the CDT this year?

[01:11:03] So it was consecutive years.

[01:11:05] So the AT-22, PCT-23, CDT-24 this year.

[01:11:11] All right.

[01:11:11] How was the planning for the Continental Divide Trail?

[01:11:14] So I would say like the AT and the PCT from my understanding are relatively social.

[01:11:19] Like you have decent crowds there all the time.

[01:11:21] And the Continental Divide is a little bit different where I think it's a little bit more isolated.

[01:11:26] Not as many people out there.

[01:11:29] Is that what you experienced?

[01:11:31] That's what I heard.

[01:11:31] And I didn't watch too much on it, but that was one of the big things that I heard.

[01:11:36] And it holds true.

[01:11:38] It's less people.

[01:11:39] But I feel like there was always people around me that I was hiking with.

[01:11:43] And then once you get to Colorado, you can either go into the San Juans, which is the main red line.

[01:11:49] Some go off and there's multiple routes.

[01:11:52] So once I got there and went into the San Juans, I feel like I lost a lot of people.

[01:11:57] But then you catch back up in some of these towns where it comes back together again.

[01:12:01] It's just the CDT.

[01:12:02] Not only is there less people, but there's multiple routes you can take, which count.

[01:12:06] It's not just one set route like the AT or the PCT.

[01:12:10] So you can do the alternate routes.

[01:12:12] And you meet people in town, and then you catch back up to people.

[01:12:16] And I feel like there wasn't a time that I was alone, unlike the PCT.

[01:12:22] When I first flipped, there was no one up there with me by Syed Valley.

[01:12:26] Everyone flipped just over the Sierras.

[01:12:28] And I was the only one going way up to Northern California hiking southbound.

[01:12:32] I didn't see anyone for a long time.

[01:12:34] And that was mentally, that was probably the toughest.

[01:12:37] Yeah.

[01:12:38] Do you stop talking to yourself and doing like, how do you say it?

[01:12:42] You talk to Larry.

[01:12:43] Yeah, yeah.

[01:12:43] Oh, boy.

[01:12:45] Do you, after like a certain amount of time, do you eventually like draw a face on Larry?

[01:12:50] And just to help with the conversation?

[01:12:52] No, no.

[01:12:53] I should, though.

[01:12:55] I've had a bunch of suggestions putting like googly eyes on it and like a wig and stuff.

[01:12:59] But it might get too weird after that, you know?

[01:13:03] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[01:13:04] I've had people ask that, like, do you put it in the tent with you?

[01:13:08] I'm like, no, I don't sleep in the tent with the log.

[01:13:10] Like, it's a log.

[01:13:10] It's outside.

[01:13:12] But I do treat it.

[01:13:14] Other than that, I do treat it with like so much care.

[01:13:16] I'll go into Walmart to resupply.

[01:13:19] And I'll push it in the carriage because I don't want to leave it outside.

[01:13:21] Not that I don't trust people.

[01:13:23] But on the AT, I would go in.

[01:13:25] And as I was coming out, someone like the trail family would be like, oh, there was some kid like picking it up.

[01:13:30] And, you know, I'm sure he was just checking it out.

[01:13:32] Like kids are intrigued by it.

[01:13:33] Oh, it's got signature.

[01:13:34] But I've also had them put it back down and then it dropped and cracked.

[01:13:38] So I'm like, I really got to keep it kind of with me.

[01:13:40] Go into restaurants if I'm eating in town or resupplying.

[01:13:43] I usually push it in a cart.

[01:13:45] Most people have fun with it anyways.

[01:13:47] Yeah, yeah.

[01:13:48] What's the move?

[01:13:48] So when you go into like, so you're going to the Chinese buffet and you go to the hostess and you're like, all right, I'm seating for one.

[01:13:55] And do they ever look at the log and say like, what's up?

[01:13:59] What's up?

[01:13:59] Yeah.

[01:14:00] Yeah.

[01:14:00] But it's cool.

[01:14:01] Some of these like breweries, they'll ask.

[01:14:02] And, you know, sometimes I'm just talking about it.

[01:14:05] I've had towns where there's been someone in there who's asked about it or they're listening to me talk about it.

[01:14:11] And I usually tell them a little bit about what I'm doing and what I'm doing it for.

[01:14:14] And I see, you know, they're like, that gentleman just paid for your bill.

[01:14:17] I'm like, like, not that I'm saying it for that reason.

[01:14:20] They're asking about it, but it's, it's usually a positive response wherever I bring it anyways.

[01:14:26] It's usually a joke that I'm bringing in with me, but there's never been a brewery that's like, can you leave it outside?

[01:14:31] You know, whereas two hikers, sometimes you leave your backpack outside, but you can, they allowed the log to come in.

[01:14:38] I was like, yes.

[01:14:39] That's nice.

[01:14:40] Yeah.

[01:14:40] So I would definitely let the log come in.

[01:14:42] And then logistically, so I don't know, I don't know if we should give people like the behind the scenes here.

[01:14:48] I feel like we're breaking like, breaking like behind, like the, we're exposing pro wrestling here.

[01:14:54] But like Larry, there's more than one Larry.

[01:14:57] Oh, yes.

[01:14:57] There's multiple logs.

[01:14:59] So can you talk a little bit about like how you swap out the logs and what generally how that works?

[01:15:04] So when I first, when I first started hiking and I did the 111, I didn't have any signatures on it.

[01:15:10] When I started through hiking, I used that same exact log.

[01:15:14] And when I had people sign it, I thought there's no way to go on the PCT with it.

[01:15:18] It has all the signatures on it.

[01:15:20] The more I use it, the more they're going to rub off.

[01:15:21] So I thought, oh, this grab and I had multiple.

[01:15:24] I usually have multiple logs.

[01:15:26] So you can have, you know, different weights, 20, 25, 30.

[01:15:29] That's how I wanted to train.

[01:15:30] I would have three or four logs.

[01:15:32] But I just made one of the heavier logs, sanded it down and just made it another 20 pound log.

[01:15:37] And then I, once I got all the signatures on that, each log was for each trail.

[01:15:42] And then for the CDT, I got a new log, all the different signatures.

[01:15:45] And now I have the next log for the next through hike.

[01:15:51] So how many logs total have you gone through?

[01:15:53] Four, five?

[01:15:54] Well, I've gone throughout the years.

[01:15:56] I've had a ton of logs.

[01:15:58] I've had three when I was stationed in England.

[01:16:00] And I didn't bring those back.

[01:16:01] I didn't fly them back.

[01:16:03] And then when I first got back, I had a couple.

[01:16:06] But the three that I kept obviously have a lot more meaning now with all the signatures and the through hikes.

[01:16:13] I'll keep those.

[01:16:14] And now I have a fourth.

[01:16:15] I have five now.

[01:16:18] One's for training.

[01:16:18] The next one is the one I'm going to use for, I'll probably do the Arizona trail.

[01:16:24] Okay.

[01:16:25] Next year.

[01:16:26] Wow.

[01:16:27] And with the Continental Divide trail, did you jump around on that one?

[01:16:32] I think my understanding is that one is, it's common to jump around, but you can do it like one straight shot, right?

[01:16:38] You can do it one straight shot.

[01:16:39] So that's what I was talking about with the San Juans where a lot of people would branch off because that's when you start hitting elevation.

[01:16:45] And I hit snow.

[01:16:46] So, but I think the high snow year on the PCT, as bad as that was, the silver lining was that I got a lot of practice of being comfortable in the snow with that thing.

[01:16:57] And I feel like the San Juans, it had a few spots where you're hugging the side and you got a good drop off.

[01:17:03] But I mean, it wasn't anything that, anything like the Pacific Crest Trail.

[01:17:07] So honestly, after you get through a little bit of the San Juans, it kind of gets a little easier.

[01:17:12] I forget if it was around like Lake City or something like that.

[01:17:15] But then you send the gear back.

[01:17:17] And then after that, it gets warmer and it really wasn't bad.

[01:17:21] It was a regular to low snow year in Colorado.

[01:17:26] And when you finish the Continental Divide, then you're officially a triple crowner, which there's not many of those.

[01:17:32] Is there like a special recognition for triple crowners?

[01:17:35] Is there anybody waiting for you at the end to give you like an award or are you put in for like a special patch?

[01:17:42] Yeah, you got to put in for it.

[01:17:43] But it's like the patches for doing the Adirondack Mountains or the Whites or the 111.

[01:17:50] So I don't know if this is 100% true, but I've heard that there's been more people in space than have done all three trails.

[01:17:59] Because since last year, registered wise, there's been 665 people that have done all three trails.

[01:18:06] The CDT is just now starting to become more and more popular.

[01:18:09] Because people usually start off with the Pacific Crest Trail or the AT and then they learn about doing all three.

[01:18:17] And either people take a couple years off.

[01:18:20] Some people try to do consecutive years.

[01:18:21] Or you have those people that try to do all three calendar year, which is insane.

[01:18:27] But yeah.

[01:18:29] Yeah.

[01:18:30] Wow.

[01:18:30] Well, that's impressive.

[01:18:31] Did you – now that you've sort of thought through it, do you have like a particular trail that you would – like how would you rank the three trails?

[01:18:41] It's tough because you go from views or the people that you meet or the hard climbs.

[01:18:47] There's a lot of factors that take place.

[01:18:49] Like if I – I think the PCT would have been my favorite if I didn't have to jump around and see all the snow.

[01:18:56] I won't know unless I hike it again.

[01:18:58] The fact that I could go straight shot through the CDT, that probably was my favorite.

[01:19:04] The AT I was able to as well, but the CDT was amazing.

[01:19:09] It had views of the PCT and climbs like the AT.

[01:19:12] I'll put it that way.

[01:19:12] So it had the best of everything.

[01:19:15] Okay.

[01:19:16] And did you switch up your gear at all or are you pretty much dialed in for the last two long through hikes?

[01:19:22] So I'm dialed in with the CDT when I started the CDT because I had all the winter gear I could have needed from the Pacific Crest drill.

[01:19:32] And I had just the gear anyways from the AT.

[01:19:35] But the CDT, you do have to switch it kind of in the beginning and then at the very end because it's like a short window.

[01:19:42] By the time you get to Glacier National Park, it's going to be cold again.

[01:19:45] Like the day before we got to the terminus, it was hailing on us.

[01:19:51] And this was September 20th.

[01:19:56] And then before that, I had people that were starting southbound that were getting it in June.

[01:20:01] So it's a small window to try to get through Glacier as well.

[01:20:05] Same with Colorado if it's a high air snowy.

[01:20:08] So the AT, everyone says it's the green tunnel, which that's what I would say it's true.

[01:20:13] You still have some great views, but they're few and far between compared to like the Pacific Crest drill.

[01:20:17] You've got a lot of views.

[01:20:19] And a lot of switchbacks.

[01:20:20] It's more gradual.

[01:20:21] But the CDT, you're going through more desolate areas.

[01:20:24] You're going through Yellowstone and through Wyoming, some of these smaller towns.

[01:20:31] And then in New Mexico, your cow troughs is where you're filtering water.

[01:20:35] So it's a little different.

[01:20:36] You get a little bit of everything on the CDT.

[01:20:40] Wow.

[01:20:40] And as far as your regular gear, so you've got a Hyperlite backpack.

[01:20:47] What do you use for a tent?

[01:20:49] So I had the Big Agnes Fly Creek, which lasted on the AT and the PCT.

[01:20:55] But on the PCT, at the very end on Sonora Pass, it snapped.

[01:21:00] And there was a few things that were wrong with it.

[01:21:02] So I switched it up.

[01:21:02] But I still had the Big Agnes Tiger Wall.

[01:21:07] One person.

[01:21:09] Those Big Agnes, those are not the hiking pole tents.

[01:21:14] Those are the – they actually have the frame.

[01:21:16] They have the frame.

[01:21:17] Yeah.

[01:21:17] It would be smart to get one that has poles, and then I would have poles, right?

[01:21:21] But I've always just stuck with what worked for me.

[01:21:24] And then if I ever needed something through like a high water crossing, I would just find

[01:21:28] a branch and then just use that.

[01:21:31] I like the tent setup.

[01:21:32] It was nice.

[01:21:34] Yeah.

[01:21:34] And then your sleeping bag and sleeping pad, what do you use?

[01:21:37] So do the Nemo, the air mattress, and then I do – let's see.

[01:21:43] I have a 30 degree and a 15.

[01:21:46] And I use the 15 the whole time.

[01:21:49] Okay.

[01:21:50] Don't really switch it out.

[01:21:52] Yeah.

[01:21:52] And then are you like an early morning getting out or are you somebody that likes to sleep in?

[01:21:58] No.

[01:21:59] Early, early, early.

[01:22:00] I found that I was pretty unique in how early I started.

[01:22:03] I would actually set my alarm for 3 a.m.

[01:22:06] And then by the time you get on trail, it takes about an hour or so, 4 a.m.

[01:22:10] And then I would have a few hours of hiking.

[01:22:12] I would get every sunrise.

[01:22:14] But I would have like five miles in by that point.

[01:22:16] And then if I saw someone at 8 a.m., after four hours of hiking, just a regular two and

[01:22:21] a half mile per hour pace, I could see them and they think I woke up, just came around

[01:22:25] the corner.

[01:22:25] I'm already 10 miles into my hike at 8 and it's not even hot out yet.

[01:22:30] So usually during the hottest part of the day at 2 p.m., I have 22 miles in and I can

[01:22:36] call it or try to put on bigger miles, which I usually try to put on bigger miles.

[01:22:42] And did you tend to hang out by the shelters or would you camp away from the shelters in

[01:22:46] general?

[01:22:46] So the CDT doesn't have shelters like the AT, but they do have camp spots and you just

[01:22:54] go to those or you just find us.

[01:22:56] But it wasn't hard to find a spot on the CDT, just like the PCT.

[01:23:00] There's a lot of spots.

[01:23:01] Whereas the AT has those shelters every six to eight miles, which is nice.

[01:23:06] Well, that's impressive.

[01:23:10] So what's next for you?

[01:23:11] Are you, I know you're doing this, this Tough Mudder thing, but like you got any of the

[01:23:15] long trail adventures planned?

[01:23:17] So after hiking these, you meet a lot of people that know about other trails.

[01:23:22] There's like the long trail, Florida trail, Colorado trail, Arizona trail.

[01:23:26] I would like to do the Arizona trail.

[01:23:29] I think it's like 800 miles and I could use a little bit heavier logs.

[01:23:33] So the triple crown logs will all be 20 pounds, but I actually wanted to kind of go up in weight.

[01:23:38] When I did the AT and I did 20 pounds, I was able to do it, you know, in those four months.

[01:23:42] It was tough, but I kind of wanted to go a little bit heavier.

[01:23:46] Luckily I didn't with the PCT and the high snow year, but I think if it's not going to

[01:23:50] be two, 3000 mile trails and it's only 800, I might go with like a 25 to 30 pound log.

[01:23:58] So if you get a 25, 30 pound log and then you've got, what do you, what do you carry in?

[01:24:02] Like a third, a 12 pound base weight.

[01:24:04] And then you've got a little bit of water.

[01:24:05] So your, your pack's probably about 20 pounds with food and everything.

[01:24:08] I think when I went through Logan, I had some food, no water, but I had some food and snacks.

[01:24:15] I forget how many days, but it was 20 pounds.

[01:24:18] I just remember the bag being 20 pounds and the log being 20 pounds.

[01:24:21] So then you had water, maybe a little bit more food.

[01:24:24] Maybe I only had like three days worth of food in it, but.

[01:24:28] No, when, when you go to the airport, you've got to check, you've got to basically check the,

[01:24:32] um, the log, like it's a bag.

[01:24:34] I'm wondering what the conversation is with the guys that are handling the bag.

[01:24:39] Are you looking out the window to see if they're messing with Larry?

[01:24:42] So when I, the first time on the AT, I'm like, I thought about it.

[01:24:46] I'm like, I can't just walk into the airport with this thing on my shoulders.

[01:24:49] People are going to look at me sideways.

[01:24:50] So I'm like, are you going to get arrested?

[01:24:52] Right.

[01:24:52] They're going to think it's like a weapon or something.

[01:24:54] So I'm freaking out.

[01:24:55] I'm like, what do I do?

[01:24:55] Do I call up the airport?

[01:24:57] Tell them I'm coming in with that?

[01:24:58] I'm like, you know, I'm just calm.

[01:24:59] How do you even have that conversation?

[01:25:01] How do you start it off?

[01:25:01] So I basically just wrapped a bunch of bubble wrap and you couldn't really see it after

[01:25:06] that.

[01:25:06] And then I just really take, Oh, it's the, you know, I told him what it was.

[01:25:10] I was like, it's just a log, but you know, and explain it to him like, Oh, that's fine.

[01:25:14] But I would always do bubble wrap just in case the baggage handlers would throw them.

[01:25:18] And, you know, cause the thing is like, if it cracks or anything, it's tough to arrive

[01:25:23] there and need wood glue or clamps or screws or whatever.

[01:25:26] So I would, yeah, I even had a discussion with them at the front before they sent it

[01:25:31] back.

[01:25:32] They put a bunch of fragile stickers on it.

[01:25:34] So shout out to, to them.

[01:25:37] Southwest.

[01:25:37] Now, do you have, do you have a contingency plan in case the, the, um, that version of

[01:25:42] Larry cracks or something?

[01:25:43] Do you have like people at home that can get a new log sent out or can call around a Home

[01:25:48] Depot to hook you up?

[01:25:49] No, honestly, I thought about it and like, what I would have to do is go back to whatever

[01:25:54] town is behind me.

[01:25:56] Cause I can't just hide without it.

[01:25:57] I would go back to the last town and I would have to either get someone to help me with

[01:26:03] like a chainsaw or an ax and let me cut down a tree.

[01:26:05] And hopefully it's not one of these spots that doesn't have any, cause I would need to

[01:26:09] do something, but I don't think I had any backup in plan just in case.

[01:26:13] I didn't even want to think worst case scenario.

[01:26:16] Yeah.

[01:26:17] Yeah.

[01:26:17] You should harvest your, um, future Larry's on Mount Hill and eventually, um, and just

[01:26:23] do a lot of hiking.

[01:26:24] We can open up a view there.

[01:26:26] We should.

[01:26:27] That'd be awesome.

[01:26:30] I'm just kidding for a service if you're listening.

[01:26:32] So, um, all right.

[01:26:35] So then, uh, this tough mudder that you have coming up, like, are you competitive with these

[01:26:39] things or is it just, just for fun?

[01:26:40] I'm competitive with myself.

[01:26:42] I had a goal last time of doing 50 miles in the 24 hours because it's a five mile lap.

[01:26:48] And within that five miles, you have the 20 obstacles.

[01:26:52] So even if you do the penalty, you have to run a little extra.

[01:26:54] It doesn't count.

[01:26:55] It's all increments of five miles.

[01:26:57] Um, and you just do it all throughout the night.

[01:26:59] And I wanted 10 laps, 50 miles, because you get this other colored bib that will say 50 miles.

[01:27:05] And I got it last time.

[01:27:06] Um, I haven't been able to run.

[01:27:09] The one thing I have is probably my trail legs and, and going up in higher elevation and

[01:27:14] keep my heart rate up.

[01:27:15] But we'll see.

[01:27:15] I'm, I feel like I'm still in pretty good shape a couple of years later.

[01:27:19] I'm going to try to get near the 50 miles.

[01:27:22] We'll see.

[01:27:23] Wow.

[01:27:24] So, and do you think you'll continue to do, um, these, these types of, um, uh, endurance

[01:27:29] races or the extreme racing?

[01:27:30] Yeah.

[01:27:31] That's right up my alley.

[01:27:32] I like this kind of stuff.

[01:27:34] Yeah.

[01:27:35] Is it, do you do it?

[01:27:36] Do you just go to these things by yourself or do you have a crew of friends that you do

[01:27:39] it with?

[01:27:39] You can have a pit crew.

[01:27:41] Um, the last few times I had two, first one I did, I had two of my air force buddies.

[01:27:46] And then the second one was my cousin, one of my air force buddies.

[01:27:50] And then this one, it's kind of cool.

[01:27:53] Cause my, the person who's going is my cousin.

[01:27:55] So he's my real family.

[01:27:58] Um, Morbley, who was my military family.

[01:28:00] And now mash who I met on the continental divide trail, who I considered tramly.

[01:28:05] He's going to be there.

[01:28:06] So that's trail family, military family and real family.

[01:28:10] So I'll have a group of three.

[01:28:11] They're helping me out.

[01:28:12] It should be nice.

[01:28:13] Hopefully these guys all get along, you know, sometimes you mix friend groups.

[01:28:16] It gets a little weird.

[01:28:17] So the, so the military buddy and my cousin did the last one together and I got the 50 miles.

[01:28:22] So they already know each other.

[01:28:24] And mash is, I mean, he's real, real nice guy.

[01:28:26] I can see them getting along just fine.

[01:28:28] Um, well, that's good.

[01:28:30] That's great.

[01:28:31] Um, so this is all good stuff here.

[01:28:35] Um, but you, you've also been doing some stuff when you got back into New Hampshire.

[01:28:38] So I think, did you finish the 52 with a view list?

[01:28:41] Yes.

[01:28:42] I finished on Shelburne Mariah when I first got back.

[01:28:46] Yeah.

[01:28:46] Yeah.

[01:28:46] I knew this, um, because just, I wanted to, um, give a shout out here.

[01:28:52] So we got a notable hike that, um, we didn't include in our notable hike section, but, um,

[01:29:01] Diane Jones Newbery, she completed her 52 with a view on Shelburne Mariah with her husband,

[01:29:07] Tom and her friend, Sandy.

[01:29:08] And she sent us a note.

[01:29:10] She's like, we saw Larry the log when we finished.

[01:29:12] And then she's got a picture with, uh, with you and Larry and her husband and friends.

[01:29:17] So she was so excited.

[01:29:18] So we didn't, we didn't do the notable hike last show.

[01:29:22] We wanted to wait cause we knew you were coming on, but yeah, it's a good picture.

[01:29:26] So I'll send it over to you.

[01:29:27] I have that one.

[01:29:28] So they came up from the other side, really like five minutes after I got up there too.

[01:29:33] And I was up there with, you know, I think three or four, four other people.

[01:29:36] And as soon as I was at the car and I saw them coming up and they're like, oh yeah, we're

[01:29:41] finishing too.

[01:29:42] And they, they showed me the 52 at the view sign and they're all, I had all their stuff

[01:29:46] out for that celebratory picture.

[01:29:47] I'm like, this is awesome.

[01:29:48] I'm just, I'm finishing too.

[01:29:50] So it's nice meeting, seeing people up there out of coincidence.

[01:29:54] Yeah.

[01:29:55] Yeah.

[01:29:55] It's good.

[01:29:55] That's a good one to finish on.

[01:29:57] That's probably, that's like a sneaky, like that one flies onto the radar, but like the

[01:30:00] views on Shelburne Mariah are fantastic.

[01:30:03] I've only done, I came up from Rattle River.

[01:30:05] I do want to go up the other way.

[01:30:07] Which way did you come, come up for?

[01:30:08] Rattle River, which is funny because if you're on the AT, you could go out and hit it.

[01:30:14] I didn't know it was a 52 at the view and it, but it's right there.

[01:30:18] You have to go over middle Mariah, but it's not, you know, it's fairly close before Rattle

[01:30:22] River.

[01:30:22] If you just go a little bit.

[01:30:23] And then, so I didn't know about it.

[01:30:25] And I tried to hit it two different times before I left on the Continental Divide Trail and

[01:30:31] it was winter conditions.

[01:30:32] I tried going up Rattle River and I tried going up the other trail.

[01:30:36] Oh no, no.

[01:30:36] I went up Mariah and thought maybe up at that Ridgeland I can just go over.

[01:30:40] It would have been, it was fresh power.

[01:30:42] There was nothing.

[01:30:42] So I tried multiple times.

[01:30:44] I remember being annoyed thinking I couldn't finish the 52 at the view before I triple crowned,

[01:30:48] but it actually worked out.

[01:30:50] Whereas I triple crowned and then kind of got to celebrate another thing off the list with

[01:30:53] the 52 at the view and celebrate New Hampshire.

[01:30:55] Cause as soon as I got back, I could go hike it.

[01:30:58] So I'm glad I got to finish in New Hampshire.

[01:31:01] Yeah.

[01:31:01] Do you have anything left as far as list wise in New Hampshire at this point?

[01:31:06] I'm sure I knocked a lot of them off the hundred highest.

[01:31:09] I know there's that list and terrifying 25.

[01:31:12] I'd like to take Larry on that.

[01:31:13] I've already done a few of them just by hiking some of these peaks, but I like the challenge.

[01:31:19] So maybe the, the terrifying 25.

[01:31:22] Yeah.

[01:31:23] That'd be good to get into the great Gulf and the King ravine and all those, those trails.

[01:31:27] Larry would like that.

[01:31:28] I bet.

[01:31:28] Oh yeah.

[01:31:29] Um, all right.

[01:31:30] So I would be, I'll get killed if I don't ask this question, but, um, how are you, how

[01:31:34] are you able to do this?

[01:31:36] Um, all this hiking in, in balance work and, and, and, and regular, regular life stuff.

[01:31:43] So, I mean, I'm a different breed when it comes to saving and investing my money.

[01:31:48] I, I had a studio apartment or like a one bedroom with like water and gas included.

[01:31:54] And I don't even have Netflix.

[01:31:55] I was trading so much for the, that world's toughest mudder.

[01:31:59] And then after that, it was the AT a PC.

[01:32:01] So it was, I really had the car payment, which now that car has paid off.

[01:32:06] It's a Honda Civic does like 36 miles to the gallon.

[01:32:09] Uh, I just minimal bills.

[01:32:11] Let's put it that way.

[01:32:12] I don't have children.

[01:32:13] And it was really just all my money and energy going towards training if I wasn't working.

[01:32:21] And that was it.

[01:32:23] Got it.

[01:32:23] So making a little bit, so you're not, you're not living an extravagant lifestyle and you

[01:32:27] can, you get the flexibility to sort of work and not work.

[01:32:30] I don't drink.

[01:32:31] So I don't go to bars.

[01:32:32] I don't go out to eat.

[01:32:33] I have meal prep.

[01:32:33] So it's like a lot of stuff I'm doing in like bulk or saving money.

[01:32:37] I've always been pretty good with that kind of stuff though.

[01:32:40] I'm pretty disciplined when it comes to that.

[01:32:42] I'm either trading something and then everything else kind of goes to the wayside when I'm,

[01:32:46] I get like just hyper-focused on these like training and these big, big hikes.

[01:32:54] Wow.

[01:32:54] Well, I definitely know that, um, you know, you pop up on social media.

[01:32:59] I enjoyed watching, looking at all your photos on the Continental Divide this year.

[01:33:03] You're pretty good about keeping up on that stuff, but it's, it's awesome accomplishment

[01:33:07] and you've come a long way just in like the year and a half or so since we talked.

[01:33:11] So, um, congratulations and definitely stay in touch.

[01:33:16] I think that there'll be more good, good stuff with Larry.

[01:33:19] I gotta meet, I gotta, we gotta meet up at some point.

[01:33:21] Absolutely.

[01:33:22] We'll get, we'll get out there.

[01:33:23] Maybe you do a winter, you do a single season winter 4,000 footer.

[01:33:26] I'll do it.

[01:33:27] Let's go.

[01:33:28] Cool.

[01:33:29] Anything else you, you want to plug for, um, social media or anything you're fundraising

[01:33:33] for?

[01:33:34] So I was hoping to maybe do this world's toughest mudder where people could donate X amount per

[01:33:40] lap or something, but I would need the help, but with either a QR code or have that somehow

[01:33:44] structured where it's like a direct link.

[01:33:46] So all my, anything that I fundraise for, if I can just do like direct link or maybe,

[01:33:51] if it's public, people can see, this is a big thing for me.

[01:33:53] I like to put all the, you know, allocated to the right areas, but yeah, maybe if I can

[01:33:58] get a QR code or someone could help me out with that or we can look into it.

[01:34:02] But, um, to raise money for search and rescue, I would love to, it'd be a missed opportunity

[01:34:07] to do a world's toughest mudder.

[01:34:09] Maybe people that are interested or motivated or inspired by what I do, maybe do like 10 cents

[01:34:14] a lap or a mile or whatever.

[01:34:15] And, you know, you go straight to the cause.

[01:34:19] Yeah.

[01:34:19] Yeah.

[01:34:19] If you have like a URL or something, we can, we can generate a QR code or something, or if

[01:34:24] there's any, if there's a link, we can share it in our show notes, you know, we can, we

[01:34:27] can take that offline and share that with the listeners.

[01:34:30] And, um, you know, any, anything we could do to help raise money for a good cause is always,

[01:34:34] we're always down for that.

[01:34:35] Yeah.

[01:34:36] Do search and rescue.

[01:34:37] We'll just do a QR code.

[01:34:38] I usually just tape it to the log and then people are able to scan the log and they kind

[01:34:42] of see what I'm raising money for and what I'm all about.

[01:34:46] Awesome.

[01:34:47] Yeah.

[01:34:48] Yeah.

[01:34:48] That's cool.

[01:34:49] Um, but yeah, it was good catching up with you and, uh, appreciate you being patient with

[01:34:53] the technical challenges, but I think we got everything sorted out.

[01:34:57] Awesome.

[01:34:58] Thank you for having me again.

[01:35:03] All right, Stomp, that guy, uh, he's, he's full of energy, huh?

[01:35:07] I love when he said, yeah, I'm always a little top heavy.

[01:35:10] I'm like, I think I know why.

[01:35:12] Yeah.

[01:35:12] You would think so.

[01:35:13] You would think so.

[01:35:14] So, uh, he's funny.

[01:35:17] I, I was, I forgot to ask him.

[01:35:19] I want to make one of those stupid jokes about, are you ready for your Mike Tyson fight?

[01:35:24] Cause he looks just like Jake Paul.

[01:35:27] Yeah, he does actually.

[01:35:28] Yeah.

[01:35:28] He's in good shape, man.

[01:35:30] Oh yeah.

[01:35:30] He's in killer shape.

[01:35:31] I wonder why.

[01:35:34] Yeah.

[01:35:35] Well, I mean, through hiking definitely does that for you, but, uh, pretty hardcore stuff.

[01:35:39] So, um, stop.

[01:35:40] Now's the part of the show where we're going to do our recent, um, search and rescue news

[01:35:44] here.

[01:35:45] So the first one is a, uh, Vermont story.

[01:35:49] Matter of fact, I got this sent to me by Al, our friend, Al, I appreciate him.

[01:35:53] He's sort of like an unofficial researcher for us, but he, he, he asked if this might've

[01:35:58] been me that was falling because the subject told bad jokes the entire way.

[01:36:02] Um, he, he was being carried out, um, of the, the area.

[01:36:07] So this happened in, this is Stowe, Vermont.

[01:36:10] So, um, somebody fell down Bingham Falls.

[01:36:13] And, um, this one was particularly grim because the water and weather combination was cold enough

[01:36:19] to be very dangerous.

[01:36:19] So the subject, um, explored the terrain above the falls when he slipped and fell about 10

[01:36:24] feet into a shallow area.

[01:36:26] He was lucky to escape with just a leg injury, but he had hypothermia to contend with by the

[01:36:31] time the rescuers got there.

[01:36:33] So Stowe EMS was first on the scene and, um, they were able to bring in a litter.

[01:36:39] Um, they splinted the injury and wielded trauma shears to remove his wet clothes before wrapping

[01:36:46] him in a heated blanket and what they call their hypo bag.

[01:36:49] Which is this big thick sleeping bag that fully encases the subject inside the litter.

[01:36:55] Um, I guess this is a pretty common area.

[01:36:58] Bingham is, is, is an area where they do a lot of these extractions.

[01:37:02] So they had a rope system dialed in, um, which was able to get him up this steep uphill climb.

[01:37:08] And it was pretty done pretty rapidly just cause they've done this before.

[01:37:11] That's when the subject was starting to tell bad jokes the entire way onto the ambulance,

[01:37:16] which was oddly reassuring based on the, you know, the right up here.

[01:37:21] So maybe it was just a distraction mechanism.

[01:37:24] Yeah.

[01:37:25] Yeah, exactly.

[01:37:26] So I guess he, well, this was all going on.

[01:37:29] He lost his car keys.

[01:37:32] So they had to fish for his car keys.

[01:37:34] Um, and some of the rescuers, I guess, were digging around the water and were able to find

[01:37:41] the keys, hook them and retrieve them, which saved the guy a pretty big headache.

[01:37:47] Um, so he did, I guess his, his phone was, uh, also in the drink.

[01:37:55] So, um, there was other people there, I guess that were able to call to get a rescue.

[01:38:00] Otherwise this guy would have been in big, big trouble.

[01:38:02] You're a right proper Brit now talking like that.

[01:38:06] Yeah.

[01:38:07] In the drink.

[01:38:08] Yeah.

[01:38:08] In the drink.

[01:38:09] Um, yeah, I don't know.

[01:38:11] Maybe the guy that did the right up here is a, um, is a Brit who knows, but yeah, definitely

[01:38:17] a risky situation for this guy.

[01:38:19] And he's lucky that the people were around to call.

[01:38:23] They do write a little bit here about hypothermia, um, with some fundamentals.

[01:38:30] So uncontrolled shivering is a symptom of mild hypothermia and is serious, but also kind

[01:38:36] of good news because it means the body still has enough energy to generate heat.

[01:38:40] Getting the subject off the cold ground, removing wet clothing and bundling into dry layers with

[01:38:46] heated packs in the armpit and groin, but not directly against the skin is the way to go.

[01:38:53] Provide sugary snacks and drinks.

[01:38:55] Those calories preserve the body's ability to shiver and then walk them out and light a

[01:39:01] fire if the subject can't walk and a rescue is a long way off.

[01:39:05] Um, when shivering stops with the progression into moderate hypothermia, things get more

[01:39:10] serious and you have a medical emergency that requires 9-1-1 altered mental state is a key

[01:39:16] sign of dangerous decline.

[01:39:18] You'll see confusion, clumsiness, and lethargy.

[01:39:21] Same treatment rules above apply with the extra slow and gentle handling and no drinks or snacks

[01:39:27] as the altered mental status might impair their ability to swallow.

[01:39:31] That's interesting stuff because when, when the one time that I had somebody with me that was in

[01:39:35] situation, what brought them out of it was the warm liquids and drinking.

[01:39:39] So, so yeah, I don't know about the no drinking piece of it, but I, I would, I would, I would

[01:39:46] roll the dice and take the risk on that one.

[01:39:51] So anyway, but, uh, this guy was lucky.

[01:39:54] Absolutely.

[01:39:55] Absolutely.

[01:39:56] All right.

[01:39:57] Uh, next one up here.

[01:39:58] Stomp is an injured hiker on Mount Robert.

[01:40:01] So Mount Robert's in the Ossipi range.

[01:40:04] Um, nice little, there's a popular hike this time of the year cause you get some nice views

[01:40:08] into the lakes region with the foliage.

[01:40:11] So this was on Wednesday, October 16th, one o'clock fishing game notified of a hiker that

[01:40:17] was injured on Mount Robert's trail in the area of Castle in the clouds.

[01:40:21] It's 61 year old hiker from Decada, Georgia.

[01:40:25] Um, she was hiking with two friends when she injured her ankle and was unable to continue

[01:40:29] hiking.

[01:40:30] Um, she's about a mile and a half from the trail.

[01:40:32] It says she's probably up on those ledges.

[01:40:34] Um, the nice thing about that location stomp is that it's got a nice wide, um, carriage

[01:40:43] trail that follows along a horse farm.

[01:40:46] And my guess is that they could get, uh, like a UTV vehicle pretty far up on this one.

[01:40:53] So let's keep reading and see if that's the case.

[01:40:56] So conservation offers along with Moulton Borough Fire and Rescue, Tufton Borough Fire and

[01:41:01] Rescue, Stewart's Ambulance and Lakes Region Search and Rescue responded.

[01:41:06] Um, the hiker was treated, packaged in a litter and carried to a waiting UTV, which transported

[01:41:11] her the remaining distance to the trailhead.

[01:41:13] She arrived back in the trailhead around four o'clock.

[01:41:16] So one o'clock call, uh, she's a mile and a half away from the trailhead and she got

[01:41:21] back to the trailhead by four and then she was able to get in an ambulance and take in

[01:41:25] the Lakes Region General Hospital in Laconia.

[01:41:28] So yeah, quick turnaround.

[01:41:30] Yeah.

[01:41:31] Yeah.

[01:41:31] That's a good, I mean, all things considered, that's a good area to need a rescue because

[01:41:35] those, those carriage trails are wide and they can get, um, UTVs up there.

[01:41:39] I've been meaning to get out there.

[01:41:41] It seems like you can bang out several of those, uh, even on a day, if not a weekend.

[01:41:47] Oh yeah.

[01:41:48] No problem doing a loop around like Mount Roberts and then going back over to Mount Shaw and

[01:41:53] then Black Snout.

[01:41:54] And there's a couple of other summits over there.

[01:41:56] So it's a longest day, but it's not, it's not, um...

[01:42:00] You can loop the whole thing?

[01:42:01] You can loop the whole thing, no problem.

[01:42:04] And you can run, um, because you, you climb up Mount Roberts and then it's pretty flat going

[01:42:10] over from Roberts.

[01:42:12] Um, it's a gradual sort of decline to get back down to the coal between Roberts and Shaw

[01:42:18] and then you just go back up Shaw, but it's, there's nothing super steep.

[01:42:21] So you can even run, um, uphill pretty easily.

[01:42:25] Okay.

[01:42:25] I'll get out there soon.

[01:42:26] I've been eyeing it.

[01:42:28] Yeah.

[01:42:28] It's wide trails too.

[01:42:30] I like them.

[01:42:30] Okay.

[01:42:32] Uh, this next one here was on Sunday, October 20th at 3 PM.

[01:42:37] Fishing games notified of an injured hiker on the Ammonusic ravine trail.

[01:42:42] So this is two and a half miles up, uh, which would mean two and a half miles on the ammo

[01:42:48] trail stomp.

[01:42:49] That's probably like...

[01:42:50] That's up there.

[01:42:52] That's up there like a little bit below lakes of the cloud.

[01:42:55] I think lakes of the clouds, maybe three and a half miles.

[01:42:57] So I don't know what's on the steep part.

[01:42:59] Um, 39 year old hiker from Haverhill, Matt.

[01:43:01] My neck of the woods was hiking down the trail.

[01:43:05] Yeah.

[01:43:06] When she slipped and fell and suffered a lower leg injury.

[01:43:09] So she wasn't able to bear weight on it.

[01:43:10] Um, androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue, Pemisar and Mountain Rescue responded to the call along

[01:43:18] with fish and game conservation officers.

[01:43:20] Um, so, um, they hiked up the base station cog parking lot.

[01:43:25] Um, and then they hiked up from the base station cog parking lot.

[01:43:31] So the cog parking lot saves you about, I don't know, a quarter mile or so, maybe a little bit

[01:43:36] more from coming in from the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, parking lot.

[01:44:07] Yeah.

[01:44:09] That's tough.

[01:44:09] Tough terrain.

[01:44:10] Ammo's pretty gnarly.

[01:44:13] Yeah.

[01:44:13] Manusik is.

[01:44:14] Yeah.

[01:44:14] I mean, I generally don't go on there until the winter, but it's steep there.

[01:44:18] So I think she was in the steep part.

[01:44:19] It sounds like steep and wet.

[01:44:22] Yep.

[01:44:23] Um, all right, stomp.

[01:44:25] Um, this next one takes us to Mount Chakora.

[01:44:31] So, um, this is the Piper trail.

[01:44:34] So my opinion, like going up the Piper trail side is better from a response perspective than

[01:44:41] Champney falls because you've got better cell connection on this side.

[01:44:45] But, um, so Saturday, October 19th, 1130 AM fishing games notified that a hiker suffering

[01:44:53] a medical emergency on the Piper trail, nearly two miles from the trail head.

[01:44:57] When the incident took place, um, members of his family and passing hikers with medical

[01:45:03] experience assisted him.

[01:45:05] So the hiker lost consciousness several times and ultimately CPR was, um, performed for over

[01:45:12] an hour, but unfortunately the life-saving effort was not successful.

[01:45:16] Um, the hiker was 58 years old, a resident of Montreal name is being withheld.

[01:45:21] So unfortunately this hiker did, uh, did pass and, um, you know, was with family members

[01:45:27] when it happened.

[01:45:27] So it does happen.

[01:45:28] Unfortunately, we talked about this earlier around the fact that, you know, men in their

[01:45:33] fifties, you definitely want to, I don't know if this is a heart attack or not, but

[01:45:37] likely, and it's, it's always a good idea to make sure that your, your cardio health is,

[01:45:43] is being checked for you doing strenuous exercise.

[01:45:47] Yeah.

[01:45:48] Good old Piper.

[01:45:49] I can't recall Piper.

[01:45:50] I did that ages ago, but it's been a long time.

[01:45:53] Yeah.

[01:45:54] It's the main trail up.

[01:45:55] Um, you know, you basically go along the drainage, uh, the main drainage, and then, uh,

[01:46:02] eventually you, you make your way to the right, climb up to the lower ledges, um, to the left

[01:46:09] of the drainage or to the right of the drainage.

[01:46:13] And then eventually you make your way up to the sub peak, cut across the drainage, and

[01:46:18] then you're on the, the summit cone of, of Chikora.

[01:46:21] So it's a very well-traveled, not surprising at all that they ran into somebody that had medical

[01:46:26] experience.

[01:46:27] If you get in trouble in Piper, chances are that there's going to be people coming around

[01:46:31] on a weekend day.

[01:46:34] So, okay.

[01:46:36] Um, and then this last one is an injured hiker on the Tri-Pyramid.

[01:46:41] So this is a 33 year old hiker in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 2.30 PM on October 28th.

[01:46:48] So this is this weekend, um, fishing games notified of an injured hiker on the Tri-Pyramid

[01:46:53] trail.

[01:46:55] Um, 33 year old hiker had fallen and injured a leg while descending the North slide.

[01:47:00] That is a, that's a bold maneuver there.

[01:47:03] So an extremely steep and dangerous section of the trail.

[01:47:07] Um, I did that once, but it was super dry.

[01:47:10] It was exhilarating.

[01:47:12] So you went down the North slide.

[01:47:13] I did.

[01:47:14] Yeah.

[01:47:14] Yeah.

[01:47:15] Yeah.

[01:47:15] Back in the heyday when I was doing all that crazy stuff.

[01:47:18] Um, when it's dry and you, yeah, it's not a big deal.

[01:47:22] So I wouldn't recommend it in general, but.

[01:47:27] Yeah.

[01:47:27] Me and, um, this guy, George Somerset, that, uh, he's a gritter.

[01:47:30] Um, a good guy.

[01:47:32] I saw him.

[01:47:32] Matter of fact, I saw him in, in his girlfriend and parking lot, the great Gulf.

[01:47:37] I hadn't seen him in a while, but he's great hiker.

[01:47:39] Great guy.

[01:47:39] We had done a winter hike on the tri pyramids.

[01:47:43] We came up from, um, I forget, um, Sabadee falls or something.

[01:47:48] We came up around the backside and I had in my mind, I was like, I'm going to hike down

[01:47:52] the North slide just a little bit to get to a view.

[01:47:56] Right.

[01:47:57] In winter.

[01:47:58] And I was like, that should be pretty easy.

[01:47:59] And then when me and George got to the North slide, I started making my way down and I

[01:48:04] made it down maybe 25, 30 feet, but it was so steep and so sketchy.

[01:48:10] I was like, there's no way I'm going any farther than this.

[01:48:15] So, but it was winter, snow covered.

[01:48:18] So.

[01:48:18] Yeah.

[01:48:19] Gnarly.

[01:48:20] I wouldn't mess with it in the winter.

[01:48:22] Hell no.

[01:48:22] Yeah.

[01:48:23] Yeah.

[01:48:23] Anyway.

[01:48:24] But so she was descending the North slide.

[01:48:26] We don't know why.

[01:48:27] Um, the call came, came in at two 30.

[01:48:31] Already conservation officers were able to access the, the, the trail by driving out

[01:48:38] the, the Livermore road for three and a half miles.

[01:48:41] And they reached her location at around four 50, approximately three quarters of a mile

[01:48:48] from the Livermore road trailhead.

[01:48:51] So she wasn't that far up it.

[01:48:53] Um, the hiker whose injury did not prevent her from hiking, but made it more complicated

[01:48:57] had been attempting to descend the slide and had traveled about a hundred yards since her

[01:49:03] fall.

[01:49:04] The conditions made the trail extremely hazardous with a light dusting of snow on bare rock slabs.

[01:49:10] Using traction devices, such as microspikes would have been futile because of the lack

[01:49:15] of accumulated snow or ice.

[01:49:16] Um, so the hiker and the conservation officer worked down through the thick trees that line

[01:49:22] the slide as a precaution against falls.

[01:49:26] And then eventually the, the, the group made it down around seven o'clock without any further

[01:49:31] issues.

[01:49:32] So it's a good thing they can drive out on that road on Livermore and get pretty far down

[01:49:36] there with a vehicle.

[01:49:37] So it saves them from having a hike in, but, um, you know, it's, it's just a sketchy, dangerous

[01:49:44] thing.

[01:49:44] So the hiker had experienced hiking and had spent summers working in the White Mountains.

[01:49:48] She was prepared with winter equipment, including microspikes, but the conditions on the North

[01:49:53] slide still resulted in a serious fall.

[01:49:56] And, you know, microspikes wouldn't have helped in the situation anyway, because there's

[01:49:59] nothing to bite into.

[01:50:01] That's terrifying.

[01:50:02] It's so steep there, man.

[01:50:04] Yeah.

[01:50:05] I don't know what it was, what the deal was, what the thought was there.

[01:50:08] Um, you know, I mean, my advice for people is don't go down the North, North Tri-Pyramid

[01:50:12] slide ever, unless you're stomping and it's dry.

[01:50:17] Yeah.

[01:50:17] That was, that was a rare occurrence.

[01:50:20] It was dry as a bone.

[01:50:22] And in those situations, it would be like coming down Welch for me.

[01:50:26] You know, it was like, it's familiar terrain, but in general, if there's 1% precipitation,

[01:50:34] or moisture in the air, forget it.

[01:50:36] It's not a good idea.

[01:50:37] Yep.

[01:50:38] Yeah.

[01:50:39] All right, Stomp, that is going to do it.

[01:50:41] So, um, 173 is in the can and we'll see everybody next week.

[01:50:45] All right.

[01:50:46] Enjoy.

[01:50:47] Later.

[01:50:47] Ciao.

[01:50:50] Thank you for listening.

[01:50:52] If you enjoyed the show, you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, YouTube,

[01:50:59] or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[01:51:02] If you want to learn more about the topics covered in today's show, please check out the

[01:51:07] show notes and safety information at slasherpodcast.com.

[01:51:12] That's S-L-A-S-R podcast.com.

[01:51:17] You can also follow the show on Facebook and Instagram.

[01:51:20] We hope you'll join us next week for another great show.

[01:51:23] Until then, on behalf of Mike and Stomp, get out there and crush some mega peaks.

[01:51:32] Now covered in scratches, blisters, and bug bites, Chris Staff wanted to complete his most

[01:51:37] challenging day hike ever.

[01:51:40] Fish and game officers say the hiker from Florida activated an emergency beacon yesterday

[01:51:45] morning.

[01:51:46] He was hiking along the Appalachian Trail when the weather started to get worse.

[01:51:50] Officials say the snow was piled up to three feet in some spots, and there was a wind chill

[01:51:55] of minus one degree.

[01:51:57] Well, there's three words to describe this race.

[01:52:00] Do we all know who they are?

[01:52:01] The only one!

[01:52:04] Lieutenant James Neeland, New Hampshire Fish and Game.

[01:52:07] Lucinda, thanks for being with us today.

[01:52:09] Thanks for having me.

[01:52:10] What are some of the most common mistakes you see people make when they're heading out on

[01:52:13] the trails to hike here in New Hampshire?

[01:52:15] It seems to me the most common is being unprepared.

[01:52:17] I think if they just simply visited hikesafe.com and got a list of the 10 essential items and

[01:52:22] had those in their packs, they probably would have no need to ever call us at all.