Episode 180 - Chezwik Tackles the (Continuous) Calendar Year Triple Crown

[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.

[00:00:30] Weather observers working at the non-profit Mount Washington Observatory 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.

[00:00:52] Go to mountwashington.org or text FORECAST to 603-356-2137

[00:01:08] And here's your forecast for the weekend of January 11th, 2025.

[00:01:16] Friday, in the clear under partly sunny skies with a high in the upper teens.

[00:01:21] Winds will be northwest at 50-70 mph with gusts up to 85 mph early, then decreasing to 30-45 mph.

[00:01:32] Windchill will be rising to 0-10 below.

[00:01:35] Friday night, in the clear under partly cloudy skies with a low in the upper teens.

[00:01:40] In the clear under partly cloudy skies with a low in the upper teens.

[00:01:42] A slight chance of snow late.

[00:01:43] A slight chance of snow late.

[00:01:45] Possible snow accumulations of a trace to 2 inches with a low in the mid teens.

[00:01:50] Winds will be northwest shifting southwest at 20-35 mph early, decreasing to 10-25 mph.

[00:01:59] And possibly becoming light and variable at times.

[00:02:02] Windchill will be rising to 5 above to 5 below.

[00:02:07] And then Saturday, in the clear.

[00:02:09] Trending towards in the clouds under mostly cloudy skies.

[00:02:13] Snow likely.

[00:02:14] Possible additional snow accumulations of 1-3 inches.

[00:02:19] Temps will be falling to around 10 degrees.

[00:02:22] And winds will be southwest shifting south at 10-25 mph.

[00:02:28] Increasing to 20-35 mph.

[00:02:31] And finally, the windchill.

[00:02:33] Falling to 5 below to 15 below.

[00:02:36] Happy New Years.

[00:02:38] Welcome back.

[00:02:39] Your studio in the great state of New Hampshire.

[00:03:21] Welcome to the Sounds Like a Search and Rescue podcast.

[00:03:24] Where we discuss all things related to hiking and search and rescue in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

[00:03:31] Here are your hosts, Mike and Stomp.

[00:03:34] Alright Stomp, welcome back to, welcome to 2025.

[00:03:59] Happy New Year.

[00:04:01] Happy New Year.

[00:04:02] Did you have a good Christmas and New Years?

[00:04:03] Yeah, pretty uneventful.

[00:04:05] Just stayed at home quite a bit.

[00:04:07] Smoking a couple hikes.

[00:04:09] Went to Indian Head for the old outdoor jacuzzi.

[00:04:12] Just like home body stuff.

[00:04:13] It was fun.

[00:04:14] How did you?

[00:04:15] Same, same.

[00:04:16] We were down in Florida.

[00:04:17] I had the whole family down there.

[00:04:18] So we had, I think, a lot of time in the sun.

[00:04:23] Some beach stuff.

[00:04:24] Some pool stuff.

[00:04:25] We played tennis.

[00:04:25] Played tennis a fair bit.

[00:04:27] Tennis is great.

[00:04:28] Yeah, Mrs. Mike likes tennis.

[00:04:29] So we had a good time there.

[00:04:31] And we were thinking about, we were, I was talking about getting pickleball paddles.

[00:04:36] Cause they have the tennis courts and pickleball courts down there.

[00:04:39] But we didn't do the pickleball.

[00:04:40] But I do enjoy tennis.

[00:04:42] I like playing that.

[00:04:43] So.

[00:04:43] It's awesome.

[00:04:45] Great dance.

[00:04:45] Good food.

[00:04:46] We did music bingo, which was fun.

[00:04:49] Basically you just get a bingo card and then when your song comes up, you just feel.

[00:04:53] So Megan, my youngest, she won one of the music bingos at this pub that we go to.

[00:04:58] And then we went to Disney one day, went to Epcot, which was, it was okay.

[00:05:02] It was crowded.

[00:05:04] I can imagine.

[00:05:05] Yeah.

[00:05:06] It was really like, I would recommend going to Disney the week between Christmas and New

[00:05:10] Year, but it was fun.

[00:05:11] It was fun.

[00:05:13] Now you had some weird weather down there, I think.

[00:05:16] Right?

[00:05:16] Wasn't it gray and cloudy, sort of gloomy?

[00:05:19] It was.

[00:05:20] There was supposed to be a rocket launch and then they rescheduled it.

[00:05:24] And then I think it went off the next night, but it was cloudy.

[00:05:28] So we didn't, we didn't see any rocket launches, which was okay.

[00:05:32] Yeah.

[00:05:32] But it was fine.

[00:05:33] I had, I did two days at the beach and then we did a few days at the pool.

[00:05:37] So it got to like mid seventies about.

[00:05:41] And then there was a couple of days where it was like sweatshirt weather.

[00:05:43] It was like in the sixties, but not bad.

[00:05:46] I'll take it over, over the weather we've had here.

[00:05:49] Yeah.

[00:05:49] Right on.

[00:05:50] I was thinking stump if you, if your house was like threatened by wildfire and you only

[00:05:56] had like five, 10 minutes to go, I'm just looking at these California fires.

[00:05:59] Yeah.

[00:05:59] Do you, or have you figured out, like I was looking around today and I was like, what

[00:06:03] am I going to take?

[00:06:05] Do you know what you're going to grab?

[00:06:07] Yeah.

[00:06:08] It would have to be the cats.

[00:06:09] I mean, if it was like within minutes, it would have to be the cats.

[00:06:12] If you could only take one cat, which cat would you take?

[00:06:17] I can't answer that.

[00:06:18] You know, I'll be murdered.

[00:06:20] That's a tough one.

[00:06:21] That's a real tough one.

[00:06:22] It's crazy.

[00:06:22] I saw like some people, um, there was one video of a couple and their dog, which I was

[00:06:27] like, all right, at least they're staying with the dog.

[00:06:29] But there was people that, you know, they weren't home and they're trying to get back to the house

[00:06:33] because they got their cats or their dogs at the house and they can't get to them.

[00:06:37] So it's just heartbreaking.

[00:06:39] Yeah.

[00:06:40] Hardcore.

[00:06:41] Yeah.

[00:06:41] It's a developing story too.

[00:06:43] Wow.

[00:06:44] Yeah.

[00:06:44] Yeah.

[00:06:44] It's terrible.

[00:06:45] But anyway, um, but I was thinking about it.

[00:06:47] I was looking at like my, um, hyper light backpack and I was like, I definitely grab

[00:06:51] that.

[00:06:52] I'd grab that and then try to fill it up with as much stuff as I could.

[00:06:54] But I would really like the stuff that I fill it up with would be less as important

[00:06:58] to me than my backpack.

[00:06:59] So.

[00:06:59] Well, here's the problem.

[00:07:00] Like if it was, if it was right now, which would probably not be the case cause it's winter

[00:07:04] up here, I'd have to think about just getting dressed.

[00:07:08] Like that takes a little bit of time too.

[00:07:11] True.

[00:07:11] Cause you go outside and it's freezing, but if it's warmer, yeah, definitely the cats.

[00:07:16] Yeah.

[00:07:17] It's crazy.

[00:07:17] I was talking to one of my friends, he lives in Redondo beach and that that's father south,

[00:07:21] but he was saying he's like the smoke and everything is just, everybody's nervous right

[00:07:25] now.

[00:07:25] So, um, thoughts and prayers to the folks of California.

[00:07:28] So hopefully, I mean, I'm neighborhoods are completely devastated.

[00:07:32] So hopefully they can get back on their feet, but it's just, it's sad.

[00:07:35] Yeah.

[00:07:37] All right, Stomp.

[00:07:38] So welcome to episode one 80 of the sounds like a search and rescue podcast.

[00:07:41] This is the first episode of 2025.

[00:07:44] Um, so this week we are joined by our friend Cheswick.

[00:07:48] So Cheswick has been on a couple of times and he's going to join us.

[00:07:52] He's got a new adventure that he's, he's focusing on.

[00:07:55] So he's going to embark on a calendar year, triple crown.

[00:07:59] So he's going to hit the triple crown.

[00:08:01] He is not bouncing around.

[00:08:03] He's going to do a continuous hike on all three trails.

[00:08:06] He'll give us more details when we talk to him, but it's a, it's an interesting discussion.

[00:08:10] So we're going to talk strategy and planning for this epic adventure, um, which will entail

[00:08:15] hiking all three of the, uh, the, the long trails in a single calendar year.

[00:08:20] All this plus we got some news on the Appalachian trail, got some stuff around Mount Washington.

[00:08:26] We've got some fun New Hampshire news stories.

[00:08:28] Um, slasher made the Boston globe.

[00:08:31] So we, I mean, we got a quote in an article there, uh, REI announces layoffs.

[00:08:36] Uh, we got a story about two men that died while hunting Sasquatch in Oregon.

[00:08:41] I think this was the, this article, I got this from more people than I have ever gotten

[00:08:45] any other article.

[00:08:46] Um, don't mess with the Sasquatch.

[00:08:49] Don't mess with the Sasquatch.

[00:08:51] So we're going to break down some trail etiquette.

[00:08:53] Uh, plus we're going to go over the rules for mountain biking.

[00:08:57] This topic has come up on social media.

[00:08:59] Um, so mountain biking in and around the white mountains stops, got some hiking gear review,

[00:09:04] and then we'll see.

[00:09:06] There's not much for search and rescue news, but we don't, we might get to some national

[00:09:09] stories and I think there's a couple of things going on.

[00:09:12] So I'm Mike.

[00:09:13] And I'm stomp.

[00:09:14] Let's get stomp.

[00:09:27] All right.

[00:09:28] So, um, let's hear from our friend Christina from wild Raven endurance coaching.

[00:09:32] Let's do it.

[00:09:39] I'm Christina from wild Raven endurance coaching.

[00:09:42] I work with athletes of all levels from hikers to triathletes, helping you reach your goals

[00:09:47] with personalized guidance.

[00:09:49] With years of experience, hiking mountain biking and trail running across New England.

[00:09:54] I also have a deep knowledge of the new Hampshire 4,000 footers and the surrounding trails, whether

[00:10:00] you're a beginner hiker or a seasoned athlete, I'll guide you towards your goals, reducing

[00:10:05] injury risk and improving your performance through smart tailored coaching.

[00:10:09] Are you looking to transition from hiking to mountain running?

[00:10:12] I'm here to make that journey easier too.

[00:10:15] My approach combines strength training, mindfulness and life balance on and off the trail.

[00:10:21] Let me help you find more joy in your sport while getting stronger and healthier along the

[00:10:26] way.

[00:10:27] Visit www.coaching.christinafulsick.com and start your adventure today.

[00:10:43] All right, stomp.

[00:10:43] We are back.

[00:10:44] We're back.

[00:10:46] Plowing straight ahead like a bulldozer.

[00:10:48] We're plowing straight ahead.

[00:10:50] So, I got some New Hampshire articles that I want to go through here.

[00:10:54] But before we get to that, I saw on the Appalachian Trail through hikers group for 2025, there's

[00:11:02] a hiker.

[00:11:02] So, I don't know if you know this stomp or not, but when you go to Springer Mountain

[00:11:07] and you start your through hike, you can check in and they'll give, they give the through hikers

[00:11:14] like a plastic tag with a number on it.

[00:11:17] And that's how they can, and then you attach the plastic tag to your backpack and people know

[00:11:22] like, all right, it's every year the color changes.

[00:11:26] So, it's not like an RFID that like...

[00:11:28] No, it's just like a key chain type of thing.

[00:11:32] It's like a plastic diamond thing.

[00:11:34] So, I saw on the Appalachian Trail through hikers group that a hiker today posted that they grabbed

[00:11:43] hiker tag number one.

[00:11:44] So, they all have numbers on them.

[00:11:46] That's pretty cool.

[00:11:47] Yeah.

[00:11:47] So, he's got number one for 2025.

[00:11:50] I guess he hit the trail on New Year's Day and he is, yeah, I guess his friend, I don't

[00:11:59] know, the trail name is Atypical Hiker and then the other guy's name is Andrew Miller.

[00:12:04] So, I don't know if he's gotten a trail name yet, but two...

[00:12:09] Number two.

[00:12:10] Two gentlemen, yeah, number two.

[00:12:11] I mean, that would be the trail name, number one, number two, but they are on the Appalachian

[00:12:17] Trail.

[00:12:18] I don't know what their plan is.

[00:12:20] They're going to freeze their asses off.

[00:12:21] I can tell you that right now.

[00:12:23] They better take it slow because if they get up here too early, it's going to be cold.

[00:12:28] Yeah.

[00:12:29] Yeah, that's true.

[00:12:30] Yeah, they'll be moving.

[00:12:30] It takes, what, like four months, roughly?

[00:12:33] I don't know.

[00:12:34] Yeah, around that.

[00:12:34] Three to four, depending.

[00:12:35] They look like they're older, Jenna.

[00:12:37] Well, I mean, one guy looks to be about our age.

[00:12:39] The other guy looks to be a little older.

[00:12:41] So, we'll see how they do.

[00:12:43] Yeah.

[00:12:44] Good luck.

[00:12:45] Good luck to them.

[00:12:46] So, 18th through hiker number one, yep.

[00:12:51] This is the time of the year too, Stomp, where people make like these announcement videos

[00:12:54] and you go on YouTube and they'll be like, my announcement video, here's why I'm hiking

[00:12:58] the Appalachian Trail.

[00:13:00] And they'll like, they tell their stories and it's like, okay, is this person going to make

[00:13:04] it like even up to Springer Mountain or are they going to quit on the stairs or are they

[00:13:07] going to go the whole way?

[00:13:10] Like, what have I done?

[00:13:12] No.

[00:13:12] Sometimes you'll watch these videos and you're kind of like, I don't think this person's

[00:13:16] going to make it.

[00:13:18] Yeah.

[00:13:18] But you never know.

[00:13:20] You never know.

[00:13:20] All right, Stomp.

[00:13:21] So, I've got some articles that I pulled here that are New Hampshire centric.

[00:13:26] There's a couple of reminders, but I wanted to start off with this one particular story

[00:13:30] because it is, oh damn it, I knew that this was going to happen to me.

[00:13:36] Crazy.

[00:13:36] It's, yeah, it's a wild story, but just give me a sec here.

[00:13:40] We may need to edit this out.

[00:13:41] It is a little wild.

[00:13:43] I read through it earlier and I'm like, what?

[00:13:45] Yeah, and you know what?

[00:13:47] The thing that kills me is the Conway Daily Sun, it kind of screws me over because I can

[00:13:54] see the article and then when I pull it up the second time, I can't get it.

[00:14:00] Oh, interesting.

[00:14:02] You should use that archive website.

[00:14:05] That's what I'm doing right now is I'm going to archive it, but let me archive it as I'm

[00:14:11] talking to you and then I'm going to try to describe it as best I can.

[00:14:14] Mm-hmm.

[00:14:15] Mm-hmm.

[00:14:17] So, there are two men who are living in a, they're living in, on a property in, I guess,

[00:14:31] Stark Road.

[00:14:32] So, actually, okay, I got the article now here.

[00:14:34] So, and they got into a dispute.

[00:14:40] So, there was a shooting.

[00:14:42] So, basically, one man shot another man in the stomach.

[00:14:46] The person who got arrested for shooting, his name is Devin Bino.

[00:14:50] He's 28 years old of Conway.

[00:14:53] He was indicted on felony charges of first and second degree assault, as well as two counts

[00:14:59] of criminal threatening for shooting a gentleman by the name of Michael Hamilton, who's 47.

[00:15:04] So, you got one guy that's 28, another guy that's 47.

[00:15:09] So, Michael Hamilton was shot in the stomach during a dispute that happened on August 28th.

[00:15:17] And apparently, the prosecution says that Bino, who's the younger man, became enraged after

[00:15:23] Hamilton dented his car.

[00:15:25] So, then he then shot Hamilton.

[00:15:27] But there's more to this story.

[00:15:28] So, just sit tight for a second.

[00:15:29] A little bit.

[00:15:30] A little bit.

[00:15:31] So, Bino's public defenders argued that he was acting in self-defense because Hamilton

[00:15:37] was charging at him and making threats.

[00:15:41] The defense team or the prosecutors, somebody brought this guy Hamilton onto the stand.

[00:15:47] Yeah, he was brought to the stand as a defense witness before the judge.

[00:15:52] So, the public defenders who were representing Bino brought Hamilton in and they gave the backstory.

[00:16:00] So, essentially, Hamilton and Bino are extended family members living on a property owned by, I guess, Bino's mother and stepfather.

[00:16:11] And the property's like 18 acres long, 18 acres.

[00:16:14] So, it's a big property.

[00:16:16] Bino had twice gone and confronted Hamilton because Hamilton lives on the property in what's called a tree fortress.

[00:16:24] So, Hamilton lives in this tree fortress where he forges his soul.

[00:16:30] Oh, yeah.

[00:16:31] Sure.

[00:16:32] Right?

[00:16:32] So, totally normal here.

[00:16:34] So, Hamilton refers to himself as the trash wizard of the White Mountains.

[00:16:38] Apparently, he burns all of his garbage at his tree fortress on this 18 acres.

[00:16:45] Now, Bino, I don't know what the deal is.

[00:16:47] So, it sounds like Bino and his mother and stepfather live in like a normal house somewhere.

[00:16:51] But Bino, the young guy, he didn't trust Hamilton due to his history of drug use.

[00:16:57] But, apparently, Hamilton no longer uses drugs.

[00:17:01] And the whole story is that Bino came down to confront Hamilton about damage that he believed that Hamilton had done to Bino's car.

[00:17:12] And Hamilton said the younger guy was upset.

[00:17:15] And Bino said that he wanted him to get out of the woods and grow up.

[00:17:19] And there was a whole thing here.

[00:17:20] So, apparently, they had an initial dust up.

[00:17:24] And then, I guess what ended up happening at this point is that Hamilton said he got mad.

[00:17:31] He said he wanted to go whoop his ass.

[00:17:33] And he called Bino a chicken and suggested that he stop living on his mother's property.

[00:17:39] So, basically, Bino doesn't like Hamilton because he's like, you're living in a tree fort where it's burning trash.

[00:17:44] Up to no good.

[00:17:46] And then, Hamilton turns around and makes fun of Bino because he's still living with his mother and father on the property.

[00:17:52] It's awesome.

[00:17:52] It's great stuff.

[00:17:53] It is.

[00:17:54] But, is it self-defense?

[00:17:55] What happens next?

[00:17:57] Well, okay.

[00:17:58] So, here we go.

[00:17:58] So, Hamilton said that Bino warned him to stay back when they confronted each other and not go past a certain rock on the ground.

[00:18:06] All right.

[00:18:06] So, this is the red line situation, Stomp.

[00:18:09] So, Hamilton...

[00:18:10] Western.

[00:18:11] I'm going to ask you a question, Stomp.

[00:18:13] Do you think that the trash wizard paid attention to the rock line or do you think that he went over the rock line?

[00:18:20] Well, he sounded like he was in tune to nature.

[00:18:22] Yeah.

[00:18:22] I think he might have...

[00:18:23] Yeah.

[00:18:24] He went over the...

[00:18:24] He done it purposely.

[00:18:25] The rock line did nothing.

[00:18:26] Yeah.

[00:18:28] Hamilton says...

[00:18:29] He's on the stand talking about this.

[00:18:31] Hamilton's like, I froggy jumped and he pulled the trigger.

[00:18:33] And then he said that the bullet didn't hurt him.

[00:18:36] I literally had lost my sense of self and was pissed off to the point that I didn't care if you had a gun.

[00:18:42] I don't care about your boundaries.

[00:18:44] Which, if you're living in a tree fortress burning trash, I feel like that makes sense.

[00:18:49] Yeah.

[00:18:50] Hamilton added later that he might have also been making animal noises because he was emotional.

[00:18:54] So, he's barking like a dog.

[00:18:56] And then Bino's mother testified that Hamilton appeared crazed and that Hamilton is known to carry knives.

[00:19:02] So, I feel like this is a self-defense.

[00:19:05] This is a great story.

[00:19:06] This will keep people that want to potentially move to New Hampshire away.

[00:19:10] This is good.

[00:19:10] I like it.

[00:19:11] I'm not even close to done yet.

[00:19:15] So, Hamilton said he apologized to...

[00:19:18] So, Bino shoots him and Hamilton basically said, sorry that you had to shoot me.

[00:19:22] I want to hug you, not fight you.

[00:19:24] But you won't let me.

[00:19:27] I don't know.

[00:19:28] So, basically, Bino shoots him.

[00:19:31] Yeah.

[00:19:32] Wow.

[00:19:32] So, Hamilton's basically on the stand.

[00:19:34] He's like, I feel like Bino should be released on bail.

[00:19:37] The public defender is saying that if he's released, Bino would live at his grandparents' house in Sweden, Maine.

[00:19:43] And that his grandfather would be willing to post bail for him.

[00:19:47] So, I think this Hamilton guy basically just...

[00:19:50] Like, Bino lost his mind over this crazy guy.

[00:19:53] But it's basically just two people that lost control.

[00:19:56] It was an incident that never should have happened.

[00:19:59] And they're saying, like, given these new details that Hamilton is sharing, that they should reconsider holding on to Bino in jail.

[00:20:12] So...

[00:20:14] But I guess later in the day, however, the judge came back and issued a written order denying bail.

[00:20:19] He said, upon consideration of all the evidence, the court finds that the state has met its burden of demonstrating the defendant's dangers.

[00:20:25] I mean, it's a tricky situation because this Hamilton guy, God forbid they let Bino out and then he kills this Hamilton guy.

[00:20:32] It's a mess.

[00:20:34] Yeah.

[00:20:35] Well, just remember, I mean, if you're ever facing a pistol, froggy jump always works.

[00:20:40] Well, here's the thing too, is that Mr. Hamilton exhibited his gunshot wounds during testimony.

[00:20:45] So, the entry wound was observed in the midline of the abdomen between the sternum and the umbilical.

[00:20:50] And the exit wound was seen in his back within one to two inches of the spine.

[00:20:55] So, this guy got shot completely through his stomach and it came out the back.

[00:20:59] Yeah.

[00:21:00] Close to the spine too.

[00:21:02] It could have been a paraplegic, quadriplegic.

[00:21:04] Yeah.

[00:21:05] They're very, very wild.

[00:21:06] Wow.

[00:21:07] But like the picture of the guy, I'll put this link in the show notes, but the guy...

[00:21:11] I mean, this guy looks...

[00:21:12] Hamilton looks exactly like the type of guy that you would think lives in a tree fortress and burns trash.

[00:21:22] New Hampshire's best.

[00:21:24] This is my favorite story of 2025 so far.

[00:21:27] Yeah, it's wild.

[00:21:28] I scanned it early.

[00:21:30] I'm like, oh my goodness.

[00:21:31] This is pure podcast gold.

[00:21:34] Yeah, yeah.

[00:21:35] Thank you for Nick News for posting that one.

[00:21:38] I don't always check the Conway Sun this time of the year, but it's good.

[00:21:43] All right.

[00:21:43] So, a couple of just housekeeping things here, Stomp.

[00:21:45] So, we want to remind the listeners.

[00:21:46] Mount Washington Road Race registration is opening up.

[00:21:51] So, bypass and charity entries are on January 15th and then the lottery opens up on February 10th.

[00:21:56] And the race will be held on June 14th, 2025.

[00:22:00] Cool.

[00:22:00] And Stomp, I think I'm going to put in for the lottery this year.

[00:22:02] Yeah, go for it.

[00:22:03] That's great.

[00:22:04] I'm so excited about it.

[00:22:06] A lot of people have come up to me and said, yeah, I'm running.

[00:22:08] I'm signing up.

[00:22:09] Awesome.

[00:22:10] I'm hoping to DJ again.

[00:22:12] I haven't talked to anybody, but yeah, we'll see.

[00:22:14] Higher Stomp back.

[00:22:17] It was great.

[00:22:18] That was a great time.

[00:22:20] Awesome.

[00:22:20] And then in other Mount Washington news, there was an avalanche on Hillman's Highway.

[00:22:24] So, Tuckerman, this is old and older news at this point.

[00:22:26] This was like probably like right around Christmas time, but there is, we just wanted to give

[00:22:32] people a heads up, you know, if you're going to go into Tarkerman, just be careful because

[00:22:34] the, you know, pay attention to the avalanche warnings that are posted at, at Pinkham Notch.

[00:22:39] And then there's also Stomp, you said that the Mount Washington Avalanche Center has an

[00:22:44] Instagram page and also an app that, that you can download that will give you general avalanche

[00:22:49] information as well as specific forecast information real time in the presidential range, right?

[00:22:56] Yeah, it's fantastic.

[00:22:57] This came out like a week after that event, I believe it's called AVI, A-V-Y.

[00:23:01] I downloaded it and gave it a scan through.

[00:23:04] When you download it, you just plug in your region and I picked presidential range and it

[00:23:09] gives you a GPS map and it gives you crowdsourced information, observations, the weather forecast.

[00:23:16] So it's really pretty tight.

[00:23:18] It's a great app.

[00:23:20] So check it out.

[00:23:21] It's a free download on the, in the app stores.

[00:23:26] Excellent.

[00:23:27] Excellent.

[00:23:27] Good Stomp.

[00:23:28] And then we'll share this out of the show notes.

[00:23:30] I think we did post this on our social media as well, but the Slasher podcast-

[00:23:33] We're about to serve up some tasty hiking drama.

[00:23:36] The question of Boston Globe.

[00:23:37] So we got, somebody had reached out to me, a reporter reached out.

[00:23:40] She had been doing some research about metrics and numbers of rescues and somehow she came across

[00:23:46] our website and then I was able to give her some info on the media reported search and rescue.

[00:23:52] So we had a nice chat and then she ended up talking with Ty Gagne and then James Osborne from the, you know, the last Traverse story.

[00:24:02] So it's a pretty good article.

[00:24:03] I think they did a good job just sort of breaking down the state of search and rescue in New Hampshire.

[00:24:07] So we'll, we'll share this in the show notes, but it was kind of fun working with, you know, getting, getting some time with the Boston Globe reporter.

[00:24:14] I was always curious how those reporters operate.

[00:24:16] So it was interesting.

[00:24:17] Did you say, do you know who I am?

[00:24:19] No, no, not at all.

[00:24:22] At first I had to double check.

[00:24:23] They reached out over Instagram, which was interesting.

[00:24:26] Oh, that's cool.

[00:24:27] Yeah.

[00:24:27] That's really cool.

[00:24:28] And by the way, this link, we'll give you the link, but it's up on the webpage.

[00:24:32] So I, I did a little work on the webpage over the, the holiday break and I added a press, a press page.

[00:24:38] So this is on the press page as things come in.

[00:24:41] We'll just add them on that page and you can check them out.

[00:24:44] But yeah, nice work, Mike.

[00:24:45] That's super cool.

[00:24:47] Yeah, it was fun.

[00:24:48] It was fun.

[00:24:48] So we'll, like I said, we'll put that in the show notes.

[00:24:51] And then the next story we have here is a nice update.

[00:24:55] Uh, the Gorham town forest is going to expand by about a thousand acres.

[00:25:00] I think they've got a little over a thousand acres and they are going to, they're basically purchasing property that goes from like Bangor street, which is where the trailhead for the Carter Mariah trail parking is, um, all the way over to Rattle river.

[00:25:18] And then the connection over to, uh, the Mahoosic notch trail.

[00:25:22] So they're, they're basically getting like a whole swath of three or four separate pieces of property.

[00:25:28] They're purchasing, um, in order to, um, I guess they are, um, they're, they're going to, I guess, protect the area from Rattle river over to the Mahoosic notch.

[00:25:45] And, um, they're also going to firm up the parking situation on Bangor street.

[00:25:49] Have you been over there stomping that, that, that trailhead where you get to Mariah from the north?

[00:25:56] Uh, yeah, actually.

[00:25:58] Yeah.

[00:25:58] But it was for a different occasion, like a search and rescue thing.

[00:26:03] But, um, yeah, I'm familiar with it.

[00:26:05] Um, yeah, it's a, it's a little like, it's also like, I don't know, I get the vibe that like maybe the, the people, so it's, it's like a residential street.

[00:26:15] And there is a, there's a parking lot that's a little bit down the street from it.

[00:26:23] And then like, so you go up the, my recollection is you sort of go off on this.

[00:26:28] Um, I don't know if it's a, if it's a cross country ski trail or if it's just a weird road, like a dirt road that you go on and then it connects you to the trails a little way up.

[00:26:41] And then you go up, you can hike Mariah.

[00:26:43] And then when you come back, if you stay on the trail, you get out on a trailhead where it just sort of ends at a person's house, but there's not really any parking there.

[00:26:53] Mm hmm.

[00:26:54] Yeah.

[00:26:54] Yeah.

[00:26:54] It's tight for sure.

[00:26:55] I just get the vibe that like, I don't know, I just didn't get a very welcoming vibe from that, like, um, from the, uh, the, the house that lived there.

[00:27:04] I don't know.

[00:27:04] Maybe there's not very nice people, but I just got a weird vibe from it.

[00:27:07] Like in, uh, Waterville, you had a park at some guy's house to go onto the, uh, snows mountain trail.

[00:27:13] Same vibe.

[00:27:14] It's a little weird.

[00:27:15] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:27:16] So I think what they're doing is they're gonna, um, they're, they're, they're purchased the parking area.

[00:27:21] They're going to be able to work out a parking area on Bangor street.

[00:27:25] Maybe that will just like avoid that end of the road thing and just connect to the trail somewhere else.

[00:27:29] But I don't know exactly how it's going to work out, but essentially they paid, um, they paid over a million dollars.

[00:27:37] So they basically got 600,000 from the forest service community force and open space conservation program.

[00:27:45] They got 300,000 from the New Hampshire land and community heritage program.

[00:27:50] The town of Gorham provided about 175,000.

[00:27:54] And then they got 465,000 from private donors, including the Nelson and Louise, uh, Tillotson fund, um, of New Hampshire.

[00:28:03] So, uh, the Randolph area conservation opportunity fund as well.

[00:28:07] Um, and then some anonymous funding.

[00:28:10] So you're talking about 1.6 million to purchase the, uh, the thousand plus acres, which is great.

[00:28:17] Yeah.

[00:28:18] Yeah.

[00:28:19] Yeah.

[00:28:20] And the Gorm town forest, it's officially known as the Paul T.

[00:28:22] Doherty Memorial forest.

[00:28:24] And it was established in 1936 to protect the town's drinking water.

[00:28:28] And it's one of the oldest town forest in the state.

[00:28:30] So the acquisition brings the town forest up to 6,787 acres total.

[00:28:39] So pretty good.

[00:28:40] Yeah.

[00:28:41] That's really good.

[00:28:42] Yeah.

[00:28:42] Yeah.

[00:28:42] It's good to see that happening.

[00:28:44] Yeah.

[00:28:44] They're doing really well with their, uh, their town forest and, and expanding the, uh, the,

[00:28:49] you know, the, the conservation land.

[00:28:51] So it's good for them.

[00:28:52] Beautiful up there.

[00:28:54] All right.

[00:28:55] Stomp.

[00:28:55] Um, and then the next one here you have, you've got something in here about supporting a local business,

[00:29:00] special shout out to sweet pea.

[00:29:01] What is this all about?

[00:29:02] Something about.

[00:29:03] Yes.

[00:29:04] Sweet pea.

[00:29:04] Sweet pea is super cool.

[00:29:06] So we met, uh, this couple, um, couple of weeks back and.

[00:29:11] Let's see their name, Alison Craig and Gary Thorpe.

[00:29:14] And back in 21, they opened up a small, um, I guess the word would be.

[00:29:21] Yeah.

[00:29:22] I don't know what it is.

[00:29:23] Just a flower flower market, I suppose.

[00:29:25] So it's a specialty flower farm and, um, they're really nice couple, but they were saying

[00:29:30] that the, the market out there is just really tough and challenging.

[00:29:33] So they deal with a lot of, um, sweet peas, hydrangeas, sunflowers, dahlias, peonies, and you name it.

[00:29:42] Um, but they were really sweet, but they're, um, looking for a little support here.

[00:29:47] So if you are in the need for some of these flowers, give them, give them a call.

[00:29:52] It's a, they're out of Plymouth, New Hampshire and numbers 7, 8, 1, 2, 4, 0, 1, 8.

[00:30:00] Sweet pea specialty flower farm.

[00:30:02] So all you brides, you're getting married, like get, call these people up and get your flowers from them.

[00:30:08] A hundred percent.

[00:30:09] Yeah.

[00:30:09] They do good work too.

[00:30:10] Awesome.

[00:30:11] Um, and then Stomp, one other thing I want to give a shout out to Redline Guiding and our

[00:30:15] friend Mike Cherum.

[00:30:16] So Mike is advertising a once in a lifetime opportunity here, maybe, maybe once a year,

[00:30:22] lifetime, but they are, um, they're putting together an Everest base camp trip.

[00:30:27] So they're going to, um.

[00:30:28] Um, oh wow.

[00:30:28] Yeah.

[00:30:29] So if you want to join, um, Redline Guiding, I'm assuming Mike's going on this.

[00:30:33] Um, but if you want to, uh, to join them, um, they're going from October 23rd to November 6th

[00:30:41] and it'll be 12 days of trekking plus three days in country.

[00:30:44] So you're talking about 70 miles or so and about 16,000 feet of elevation gain.

[00:30:52] And, um, he's got the pricing here.

[00:30:57] Um, and, um, guide fees, porter fees, in country travel, tea house accommodations, two overnights

[00:31:03] in Kathmandu, one overnight in Lukla with males, rescue insurance, optional hike to Kalapatar,

[00:31:09] and then memories to last a lifetime.

[00:31:12] So, um, they've got all the breakdown for the gear and everything.

[00:31:17] Even if you're not going on this, it's worth checking out because Mike's got a lot of good

[00:31:19] information on here.

[00:31:21] So, um, definitely check it out.

[00:31:24] This is something that's been on my bucket list for a while and, uh, I'm tempted, but

[00:31:29] I don't know if this year is the year for me, but, um, good opportunity.

[00:31:33] So I'll link this if anybody's interested, they can, they can reach out to Redline Guiding

[00:31:36] and get more info.

[00:31:38] Yeah.

[00:31:39] That'd be a great trip, huh?

[00:31:40] Oh, it'd be so exciting, Stomp.

[00:31:42] I'd love to go, but, um, we'll see.

[00:31:45] And then, um, I think here, Stomp, you did, we won't spend too much time on this, but you,

[00:31:50] you found a cool video about trail marker trees.

[00:31:53] So I see these things all over the place.

[00:31:55] Um, so if you're interested, these trail marker trees, they're basically bent trees.

[00:32:00] And, um, the story is like a lot of like Native Americans or like early pioneers would create

[00:32:06] these bent trees so that they'd be trail markers.

[00:32:09] I read that like some people claim that like, you know, the people think that these are trail

[00:32:13] marker trees.

[00:32:13] Sometimes these little saplings will bend over another tree will fall on top of them and

[00:32:18] then they'll end up growing bigger and getting rid of the, the fall tree.

[00:32:21] So sometimes they're naturally made too.

[00:32:23] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:32:24] They make a good case.

[00:32:25] So this is really interesting video to watch.

[00:32:27] Okay.

[00:32:28] And, uh, when you watch the video, you'll start seeing the trees everywhere.

[00:32:32] Right.

[00:32:33] Yep.

[00:32:34] I've seen quite a few of them.

[00:32:36] But they do aim, they do aim in particular directions that you either came from or want

[00:32:40] to go, which is just pay attention to it.

[00:32:43] It starts to add up.

[00:32:44] Sort of funny.

[00:32:45] Yeah.

[00:32:45] Yeah.

[00:32:46] Yeah.

[00:32:46] The channel is Watch Jojo.

[00:32:47] So we'll, uh, we'll link to this so people can check it out.

[00:32:50] And then, um, moving on to some national news here.

[00:32:54] Stomp, I'll probably skip some of these.

[00:32:56] Um, REI announces layoffs and shuts down Experiences products.

[00:33:00] So, um, this is an article, um, our friend of the show, Al had sent this over to us.

[00:33:06] So thanks, Al.

[00:33:07] Uh, REI is eliminating its outdoor classes, events, and tours this month as it looks to prune

[00:33:13] unprofitable parts of its business while struggling to break even.

[00:33:17] Uh, in addition to this, they're going to be laying off 180 full-time employees and 248

[00:33:22] part-time employees.

[00:33:25] This is based on an email that the CEO of REI, his name is Eric Arts, sent to employees on

[00:33:31] Wednesday.

[00:33:31] So 67 Washington-based workers will be impacted.

[00:33:35] Um, Art says that they didn't do anything wrong.

[00:33:38] They've worked really hard at this business.

[00:33:40] Um, you know, he's personally participated in a lot of those trips and they're phenomenal.

[00:33:45] It's always been a loss leader for them.

[00:33:47] And they, they've just ultimately decided that they can't continue to support the Experiences,

[00:33:53] um, side of the business because they, they basically fund it through the profits that

[00:33:58] they make on the retail side.

[00:34:00] Um, and it's just not sustainable anymore.

[00:34:02] So, um, at this point they've been navigating troubled financials for the past few years.

[00:34:08] They lost 311 million in 2023.

[00:34:11] And they've got a goal of breaking even in, um, the 2024 results aren't final, but, uh,

[00:34:18] uh, Arts believes that they're close to breaking even, but it's not, um, it's not finalized

[00:34:23] their, their, their finances yet.

[00:34:25] So it's been a bit of a rollercoaster with them with COVID, but the, um, the goal to get

[00:34:31] rid of the outdoor classes and events is that they'll push the money into their primary

[00:34:35] businesses and outdoor retailers.

[00:34:37] So kind of sad, you know, it's nice community based.

[00:34:40] I would assume a lot of the employees enjoy the Experiences side as well, but they got

[00:34:45] them, they got to make money.

[00:34:46] Yeah.

[00:34:47] The key paragraph here is that it's, um, supply chain issues, inventory glut and reduced discretionary

[00:34:54] customer spending.

[00:34:55] So it's another casualty of the economy.

[00:34:58] Yeah.

[00:34:58] And honestly, like I do feel like with the hiking gear, like I don't buy that much gear

[00:35:02] anymore.

[00:35:02] Like I got everything and I, you know, you buy a backpack, you're going to have it for

[00:35:06] years.

[00:35:07] You buy, um, a sleeping bag.

[00:35:09] You're going to have it for years.

[00:35:11] Even like the sleeping pads.

[00:35:12] Like I buy little things now, but like the big ticket stuff, I'm not buying as much anymore.

[00:35:17] You got too much gear.

[00:35:18] Yeah.

[00:35:19] You got to make it last, you know?

[00:35:21] Yeah.

[00:35:21] Um, so there, there is some union, um, workers at the REI.

[00:35:26] So the Seattle local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which represents

[00:35:30] some REI workers gave a statement that said that, uh, the decision is just more evidence

[00:35:35] that the company's moved away from its co-op roots.

[00:35:38] REI management is putting profits over the very employees who make the company a leader

[00:35:43] in the industry, said, um, UFCW 3000 Secretary Treasurer Joe Mizrahi.

[00:35:51] So, um, REI is planning on investing in better technology for its supply chain and online store,

[00:35:57] according to the message to the employees.

[00:35:59] So I suspect what that means is that like, you're going to see less selection and, uh,

[00:36:05] they'll try to negotiate with suppliers on, um, larger bulk discounts.

[00:36:08] So you might not see as many different types of, um, products and retailers for clothing

[00:36:15] and, and, and other things.

[00:36:17] Yeah.

[00:36:19] It's all business stuff.

[00:36:21] Yep.

[00:36:22] Got to make that profit.

[00:36:23] Got to make the profit.

[00:36:24] So anyway, moving on here.

[00:36:26] Um, I think, um, I think, um, I think, um, I think, um, I think, um, I think, um,

[00:36:29] Sasquatch.

[00:36:30] We're going to do the Sasquatch.

[00:36:32] We'll hold, first we'll do this.

[00:36:33] So father of five is killed in a freak hunting accident involving an apex predator.

[00:36:38] So in Virginia, father of five tragically died after a bear fell out of a tree and struck

[00:36:43] him in what appeared to be a hunting ax.

[00:36:46] How much the bear, this is a black bear.

[00:36:48] So this probably weighed like at least 300 pounds, right?

[00:36:52] Three, three, probably much more, much more than that.

[00:36:56] Okay.

[00:36:57] Yeah.

[00:36:57] Look it up quick while you're chatting.

[00:36:58] Yeah.

[00:36:59] So the black bear, it, um, this guy's 58 years old, Lester Harvey.

[00:37:04] He was with a group of fellow hunters, including his son, when a black bear fell out of a tree

[00:37:08] and hit him around 950 in the morning on a Monday morning, December 9th.

[00:37:13] This happened in Lunenburg.

[00:37:15] Yeah.

[00:37:15] Lunenburg County.

[00:37:17] Um, the hunting group chased the apex predator.

[00:37:20] I feel like a black bear is not an apex predator.

[00:37:25] No, who wrote the story?

[00:37:26] This is a daily meal.

[00:37:28] So there you go.

[00:37:29] Like they, they don't know what they're talking about, but anyway, it's daily meal.

[00:37:33] You know, I like the daily meal.

[00:37:35] Sometimes sometimes they get the details that no one else has, but this one, they don't

[00:37:39] know what an apex predator is.

[00:37:40] So, um, they, they chased the bear up a tree before shooting at the suspended animal, which

[00:37:49] then fell onto Harvey who was standing about 10 feet from the bottom.

[00:37:52] Awesome.

[00:37:53] One of his fellow huntsmen then performed life-saving aid to Harvey before he was trained.

[00:37:59] Can you imagine the scene?

[00:38:01] Like you got a dead bear that fell on your friend and then you've got to do like, um,

[00:38:07] but unfortunately the 58 year old father succumbed to his injuries days later.

[00:38:11] Um, with, after the emergency services team was able to get there and he was pronounced

[00:38:15] dead on December 13th.

[00:38:17] Um, there's no, the wildlife Virginia department of wildlife said they're not currently seeking

[00:38:24] any charges related to this incident.

[00:38:25] It was just a freak accident.

[00:38:27] Hmm.

[00:38:28] They weigh 300 to 500 pounds.

[00:38:31] Yeah.

[00:38:32] And that would be a shock.

[00:38:34] That would be a big one.

[00:38:36] I mean, they have a picture.

[00:38:37] I don't know if this is a picture of, um, well, yeah, I guess the, the family gave a

[00:38:42] picture of them with another dead bear and yeah, that thing looks like it weighs at least

[00:38:46] 300 pounds.

[00:38:47] So he was described as a friend to all who never met a stranger.

[00:38:54] Ah, and his son said he was doing what he loved most.

[00:38:58] So, I mean, that's a unique way to die.

[00:39:02] Crushed by a bear.

[00:39:03] Mm hmm.

[00:39:04] Yep.

[00:39:06] All right.

[00:39:06] And then last but not least, and then we'll move on to hiking drama stomp.

[00:39:11] Um, I did not read this particular article, but these two guys were on a search for Sasquatch

[00:39:17] and they died in a Washington forest.

[00:39:20] Mm hmm.

[00:39:21] So two Portland men searching for Sasquatch, uh, and they've been missing since early Christmas

[00:39:26] morning, were found dead in the Gifford Pinoche National Forest, likely from exposure and being

[00:39:31] ill-prepared 59 year old and 37 year old man.

[00:39:35] They began around 1am on Christmas day.

[00:39:38] The search for the 59 year old and 37 year old began 1am on Christmas day after a family

[00:39:44] member reported them missing.

[00:39:45] Mm hmm.

[00:39:46] Authorities, um, said camera footage spotted the car near Willard, Washington.

[00:39:53] And then for the next three days over difficult terrain and harsh weather conditions, 60 volunteer

[00:39:58] search and rescue personnel looked for the pier on the ground and by ear and their, their

[00:40:02] bodies were found in a heavily wooded area of the forest.

[00:40:05] And the official said both deaths appeared to be due to exposure based on weather conditions

[00:40:10] and ill-preparedness.

[00:40:13] So the names of the men have not been released, but apparently they were on, they were on the

[00:40:18] search for Sasquatch.

[00:40:19] So I feel like the people that look for Sasquatch often would probably just like pull up to a

[00:40:27] road and just kind of go in just a little ways.

[00:40:30] I don't think like avid outdoorsman, anybody that's an avid outdoorsman sort of like, it's

[00:40:35] probably not going to be out hunting Sasquatch, but I don't know.

[00:40:38] Yeah.

[00:40:38] Who knows?

[00:40:39] Be careful out there, Sasquatch hunters.

[00:40:42] Come on.

[00:40:44] I mean, I actually would rather die of exposure than die of like getting attacked by a Sasquatch.

[00:40:52] By the way, did you see the, uh, the AI enhanced Sasquatch picture from one of the old videos

[00:40:58] back in the seventies?

[00:40:59] No, no, I know.

[00:41:00] I know that video you're talking about.

[00:41:02] Yeah.

[00:41:03] AI took an image from those, one of those videos and enhanced it.

[00:41:07] And it looks like a damn prehistoric caveman.

[00:41:11] It's really interesting.

[00:41:13] Everybody thinks that that's just a fake video, but AI throwing a little kink in the

[00:41:19] works.

[00:41:19] Let's, let's say.

[00:41:21] Wow.

[00:41:22] Hey, Stomp, just breaking news as we're talking here.

[00:41:26] Um, I just got a text from my friend who is in Los Angeles and he's saying that, um, all

[00:41:33] of Los Angeles County has been asked to evacuate.

[00:41:36] Oh, damn.

[00:41:37] Which is insane.

[00:41:39] So keep an eye on that one.

[00:41:40] No kidding.

[00:41:40] That's massive.

[00:41:42] Yeah.

[00:41:43] I mean, it's ridiculous.

[00:41:44] That's huge.

[00:41:45] So.

[00:41:46] Yeah.

[00:41:47] Wow.

[00:41:49] Incredible.

[00:41:51] Yeah.

[00:41:51] Not good.

[00:41:51] Not good.

[00:41:52] Keep an eye on.

[00:41:53] I'm hoping my friend is okay.

[00:41:55] Um, yeah.

[00:41:56] Oh, I guess it was sent on accident.

[00:41:59] So they sent it, they sent a notice for everyone to evacuate, but it was a mistake.

[00:42:03] Oh, that's, that's competence.

[00:42:06] Yeah.

[00:42:06] Just what, just what you need.

[00:42:08] Wow.

[00:42:10] Anyway.

[00:42:10] All right.

[00:42:11] I'll, we'll talk about the fire next week after I talked to my friend.

[00:42:14] Um, the government's fake news.

[00:42:16] Yeah.

[00:42:18] Slashers peddling fake news.

[00:42:20] No, no, no.

[00:42:21] I guess it's, it's, it's, it's live.

[00:42:23] So I guess they sent it out and then it took them about 20 minutes to send back an update.

[00:42:26] So.

[00:42:31] Mm.

[00:42:32] Mm.

[00:42:32] Mm.

[00:42:32] Mm.

[00:42:32] We're about to serve up some tasty hiking drama.

[00:42:41] A little bit of hiking drama here.

[00:42:43] Um, there was some social media stuff.

[00:42:46] There was somebody that had posted a video, um, showing some mountain bike work.

[00:42:50] So, um, we had gotten pinged by a couple of people asking us if we knew anything about

[00:42:54] like what the rules are around mountain bike.

[00:42:57] And so we tried to do a little bit of research, but before that stomp, you pulled some stuff

[00:43:01] around trail etiquette and just general information.

[00:43:03] So why don't you start with that?

[00:43:05] Yeah.

[00:43:05] I, I won't cover it all, but a great resource, um, comes from New Hampshire state parks.org,

[00:43:12] which lays out the etiquette for hikers, mountain bikers, equestrians, um, OHR, V-ers and you

[00:43:19] name it.

[00:43:20] So it's a great place to start.

[00:43:22] Um, they dig a little deeper and you can look at information such as where bicycle riding

[00:43:29] is not permitted.

[00:43:30] A couple of examples would be Cardigan Mountain State Park, Crawford Notch State Park.

[00:43:35] The list goes on and on, Monadnock State Park.

[00:43:38] Um, and then also there's another list that you can look into from the USDA forest service

[00:43:44] where you can ride your bike or not.

[00:43:47] Um, and they do dive into bootleg trails because mountain bikers will often come across trails

[00:43:53] in the U S forest service, uh, regions that may look official, but they're not.

[00:43:58] And you have to know what is official and what isn't.

[00:44:01] Um, and then there's the issue of private land.

[00:44:04] Okay.

[00:44:05] So I think some of the drama that popped up recently involved some private land and you

[00:44:10] have to know the difference between some of these state parks, federal parks and, um, private

[00:44:16] land such as Mount Monadnock, which is owned by Dartmouth apparently.

[00:44:21] So, uh, according to Dartmouth, uh, their rules, you cannot use a bike on their property.

[00:44:30] So you just have to do your research before you go ripping out there.

[00:44:36] Yeah.

[00:44:36] Yeah.

[00:44:37] It's, um, it's crazy.

[00:44:39] I was looking at the details of the, like you said, the white mountain national forest.

[00:44:44] So you can't go anywhere near the Appalachian trail.

[00:44:46] Um, no wilderness, no wilderness.

[00:44:52] And, uh, but that means like I've seen people on bald face.

[00:44:55] That's legit.

[00:44:56] That's legit.

[00:44:57] You can do that.

[00:45:00] As long as it's not on that list.

[00:45:02] Yeah.

[00:45:03] And then I think, um, do you see people on well sticky, right?

[00:45:06] That's legit too, right?

[00:45:08] Uh, apparently.

[00:45:09] Yep.

[00:45:09] Yeah.

[00:45:10] Apparently.

[00:45:10] So it is surprising some of the areas that you can, uh, you can run.

[00:45:14] But again, going back to etiquette, um, hikers have the right of way.

[00:45:19] So if you are on a bike, you have to yield to the hikers.

[00:45:23] And that's generally not the case from what I've seen in my experience, uh, coming across

[00:45:28] bikers on mountain trails.

[00:45:30] Yeah.

[00:45:30] Just be aware of that.

[00:45:31] The etiquette section here that we'll list is really cool to, uh, just inform yourself

[00:45:36] of what's expected.

[00:45:40] Yeah.

[00:45:40] Yeah.

[00:45:40] It says faster users yield the right of way to slower users.

[00:45:45] Mm.

[00:45:45] Um, all users yield the right of way to horses and mushers.

[00:45:51] So I didn't know that.

[00:45:53] Mm.

[00:45:53] Right.

[00:45:54] Um, users should be in single file when in groups and approaching other users.

[00:46:00] And, um, yeah, be courteous to all other users, regardless of their sport, speed or skill

[00:46:07] level.

[00:46:08] Uh huh.

[00:46:09] Um, stay to the right and pass on the left when safe and appropriate.

[00:46:14] Yeah.

[00:46:15] And what, one that isn't listed there is the ascending parties have the right of way as well.

[00:46:21] Yeah.

[00:46:21] Yeah.

[00:46:21] Yeah.

[00:46:21] So, and that's sort of not intuitive is people think that like going downhill would have the

[00:46:26] right of way because of the momentum, but it's actually the uphill hiker that has the, um, the

[00:46:31] right of way.

[00:46:32] Right.

[00:46:33] Right.

[00:46:34] So, although a lot, sometimes like the, the, the way I handle this too is like, if I'm hiking up and I want to just let somebody pass, I always just use the same joke over and over again.

[00:46:43] I'd be like, Oh, you give me the excuse to take a break.

[00:46:46] You can come on down.

[00:46:46] So you can do that if you're going uphill and you don't feel like you're going to be, um, you know, you're going to be comfortable, like rushing past them and you're going to slow them down.

[00:46:57] So anyway, good stuff.

[00:47:01] Good stuff.

[00:47:02] Yeah.

[00:47:02] And always say like, you gotta, you gotta figure out your, uh, hi, how are you?

[00:47:06] Or you go, how's it going?

[00:47:07] Or nice weather today.

[00:47:09] Or you gotta get, you gotta, you gotta get your move down when you meet.

[00:47:16] All right.

[00:47:17] Coming in hot.

[00:47:18] All right.

[00:47:18] So we're moving on here.

[00:47:19] So we covered, let's just recap what we covered here.

[00:47:21] We did the intro.

[00:47:22] We talked about, uh, New Year's.

[00:47:24] We talked about New Hampshire stories.

[00:47:26] We talked about a couple of national stories.

[00:47:28] We did hiking drama, mountain bike stuff.

[00:47:30] Now we're going to move on to gear talk here.

[00:47:33] Stomp.

[00:47:33] So, um,

[00:47:35] ready for slashers.

[00:47:50] Dave shits in the woods.

[00:47:52] Like he talks about metal tie wraps.

[00:47:54] So these are zip ties that are metal.

[00:47:56] I invented this.

[00:47:57] I've been doing this for years.

[00:47:59] So I don't know who Dave shits in the woods thinks he is.

[00:48:02] Or metal tie wraps.

[00:48:03] Metal tie wrap.

[00:48:04] I have metal zip tie things that I've been using for gear repair for like,

[00:48:09] I've had those in my backpack for years.

[00:48:11] I invented that.

[00:48:12] He ripped you off.

[00:48:13] Wow.

[00:48:14] Yeah.

[00:48:14] Who is he?

[00:48:15] Classic, huh?

[00:48:16] I told him, I said, I saw he imitated me at the beginning of, uh,

[00:48:20] the special episode, the very special episode at the end of the year.

[00:48:24] Yeah.

[00:48:25] Hello.

[00:48:25] What did he say?

[00:48:27] All right.

[00:48:27] All right.

[00:48:29] Um, but no, but Dave's spot on when it comes to this.

[00:48:32] So, um, zip ties, I always have like a, uh, a bunch of plastic zip ties and I also keep

[00:48:37] metal zip ties.

[00:48:39] Um, in particular for winter gear, it's really good to have them.

[00:48:42] A hundred percent.

[00:48:43] If you've got to, yeah.

[00:48:44] If you've got to repair a, um, micro spikes or you have to repair, um, snowshoes, like the

[00:48:50] metal zip ties are perfect.

[00:48:52] Hmm.

[00:48:53] Yeah.

[00:48:53] I'm swapping out my plastic.

[00:48:55] I mean, metal's the way to go.

[00:48:56] So they're just so much stronger and they're pliable.

[00:48:59] They're, they're flexible.

[00:49:00] So it just doesn't make sense to keep plastic anymore for me.

[00:49:03] The only thing that you just need to be careful about with the metal zip ties is that, um, if

[00:49:08] you're going to use them and they're going to be rubbing up against boots or anything that,

[00:49:14] um, leather or clothing or anything like that is they can't, I mean, they're sharper.

[00:49:18] So you have to keep that in mind.

[00:49:20] So you have to, if you have like, um, duct tape or any sort of, um, tape where you can,

[00:49:28] you know, if there's a point where it's going to be continuously rubbing on, um, metal zip

[00:49:33] ties, you need to make sure that you duct tape around it or do something.

[00:49:36] So you do have to keep that in mind.

[00:49:37] That's the one thing was sometimes the plastic zip ties are a little bit better because they

[00:49:41] don't, they don't cut as much.

[00:49:43] Yeah.

[00:49:43] Right.

[00:49:44] Right.

[00:49:44] So just keep that in mind, especially like a micro spikes.

[00:49:47] Like if you're going to fix your micro spike and then it's going to be rubbing up against

[00:49:51] your, uh, your boots, you gotta be careful with the metal ones.

[00:49:54] You gotta make sure that you have some sort of, um, buffer that's, that's so they're not

[00:49:59] directly like ripping at the leather or something.

[00:50:01] Yeah.

[00:50:02] Like a spruce for a bag or something.

[00:50:04] Yeah.

[00:50:04] Whatever.

[00:50:05] Like, you know, even if you just wrap an extra sock or a, or a, um, a glove or something

[00:50:10] to protect your boots, whatever you gotta do.

[00:50:12] Yeah.

[00:50:14] All right.

[00:50:15] And then, um, you want to do this stove here, Stomp?

[00:50:19] I didn't, I didn't pull these.

[00:50:20] So maybe you can do the BioLite camp stove.

[00:50:22] Yeah, just mention it quickly.

[00:50:23] BioLite makes some really nice gear.

[00:50:25] There's a link here for a camp stove too.

[00:50:28] It's electric, electricity generating wood camp stove.

[00:50:31] So, um, the specs are awesome.

[00:50:33] It's, it, it delivers like 3,200 milliamps.

[00:50:37] Uh, you can boil in four and a half minutes, uh, USB, uh, solar charging.

[00:50:43] I mean, it's really great.

[00:50:45] They, they make some great stuff and it burns on biomass, which is, you know, twigs, sticks,

[00:50:49] whatever you can find.

[00:50:50] So they make some really cool modern and, uh, sustainable equipment for backpacking.

[00:50:56] So check that out.

[00:50:59] Excellent.

[00:51:00] Um, and then quantum navigation.

[00:51:02] What is this stuff?

[00:51:04] Hmm.

[00:51:04] Yeah.

[00:51:05] Well, I, uh, I've been doing some digging into quantum physics and this is breaking news.

[00:51:10] There is probably going to come a day really soon where you're not going to have to rely on your GPS and you're going to have a, uh, self-contained unit on your body, uh, that does not have a subscription.

[00:51:22] And you won't rely on something in space to send you information.

[00:51:27] Um, so long story short, the atom is the building block of matter and they're super sensitive to any interference or movement.

[00:51:39] Whenever something interrupts an atom, it sends a wave of energy.

[00:51:44] And typically in science, they use interferometers to capture the waves and the movement of the, uh, the energy waves that they release.

[00:51:53] So these interferometers have been like the size of refrigerators, but this new company is made, uh, basically a silicon phototonic chip, which is taking the six or seven lasers that are required to capture this data.

[00:52:07] And they're shrinking it down to a user, uh, commercially viable option for navigation.

[00:52:14] So as opposed to using the global navigation satellite system, um, now you're just going to have this, hopefully soon a little device that is going to measure with hyper accuracy, your location, angular velocity, you name it.

[00:52:29] It's really exciting.

[00:52:31] Um, I mean, GPS has issues there.

[00:52:34] There, everybody thinks that, Oh, I've got a GPS unit, so I'm good to go.

[00:52:38] But there are times where you may not get a signal.

[00:52:41] There's jamming issues, which is this basically white noise from stronger signals that overlap, uh, or spoofing, which can be another signal that sent is sent to interfere, which can throw you off track.

[00:52:52] So it just won't happen with this.

[00:52:55] Um, a good analogy would be the pebble in a pond.

[00:52:58] You drop the pebble waves go out and they come back and then they start interacting with each other.

[00:53:04] That's exactly what these units are going to be doing.

[00:53:06] So it's really cool thing to look into.

[00:53:09] Um, it's fascinating.

[00:53:10] Absolutely fascinating.

[00:53:13] Um, Stomp, if they can do this, I was told I would have a flying car by the time I got to be this age and I have no flying car.

[00:53:20] So why, why, why can they do this?

[00:53:22] And I don't have a flying car.

[00:53:25] Yeah.

[00:53:25] Well, they're out there.

[00:53:26] China's making them.

[00:53:27] I think Elon's making them, right?

[00:53:29] I want one.

[00:53:30] I want one.

[00:53:31] Things are moving fast.

[00:53:32] Yeah.

[00:53:33] The quantum computer.

[00:53:34] Yeah.

[00:53:34] I read about this qubits and the whole thing.

[00:53:37] I don't know.

[00:53:38] It's wild.

[00:53:39] It's, but things are moving too quick.

[00:53:40] I don't, everybody needs to slow down, slow down, calm down.

[00:53:44] There's too much going on here.

[00:53:46] We got AI.

[00:53:47] There's like drones in the sky.

[00:53:49] It's just too much.

[00:53:50] Oh my God.

[00:53:51] It's too much.

[00:53:52] And speaking of AI, there was that article that we won't get to, but all it takes is

[00:53:57] AI for like two hours of hearing you talk to completely replicate your personality.

[00:54:03] The ramifications for a podcast with the whole, I just saw that Indiana Jones movie.

[00:54:08] They, they use a CGI for him in the younger years.

[00:54:12] He could barely tell the difference.

[00:54:14] It's unbelievable.

[00:54:16] Yeah.

[00:54:16] I mean, eventually we're going to load our stuff into an AI and just phone it in.

[00:54:20] Press upload.

[00:54:22] I don't feel like recording tonight just to have AI do it.

[00:54:26] Anyway.

[00:54:27] Here's the next 20 seasons of Slasher.

[00:54:28] There's just too much going on, Stomp.

[00:54:30] It's too busy.

[00:54:31] All right.

[00:54:31] So moving on to buy me a coffee.

[00:54:34] We got a bunch of coffees here.

[00:54:36] So thank you to everybody.

[00:54:38] Yeah.

[00:54:38] Duck tape donated five.

[00:54:40] Thanking us for all we do with the pod and wishing us well in 25.

[00:54:44] Chris donated three.

[00:54:45] Appreciate in the pod.

[00:54:47] A good friend, Cindy Hessian donated five coffees.

[00:54:51] Mary B also donated five.

[00:54:53] And then Adam, Alex M, excuse me, donated four, wishing us a happy new year as well.

[00:54:59] Very good.

[00:55:01] All right, Stomp.

[00:55:02] This is the part of the show where we talk about what we're drinking for beer.

[00:55:04] I drank way too many beers over the New Year's and Christmas holiday break.

[00:55:10] So I'm not drinking anything but water tonight.

[00:55:12] So I apologize.

[00:55:14] No problem.

[00:55:14] I've got a storm along here.

[00:55:16] I took a pass on the German box of beer that I have in the back here, but I'm drinking

[00:55:21] a storm along mass appeal coming in at, let's see, 5.5%.

[00:55:27] Just still on this cider kick.

[00:55:28] I love it.

[00:55:29] It's really good stuff.

[00:55:31] Yeah.

[00:55:32] My father-in-law brought all of the beer that he had up in Maine down to Florida.

[00:55:37] So when I got there, there was like some reckless beers in there and some Tuckerman

[00:55:43] brewing beer.

[00:55:44] So it was pretty, it was like, I was New Hampshire beer in Florida, which was nice.

[00:55:48] Yeah.

[00:55:48] Wow.

[00:55:49] That's great.

[00:55:50] Yeah.

[00:55:50] I've been cutting back on the beer a bit.

[00:55:53] Yeah, I know.

[00:55:53] I'm getting a little like, I'm back.

[00:55:55] I lost all that weight a couple of years ago.

[00:55:57] I'm back up to like about 165 or so.

[00:55:59] So I'm creeping back up to my old, you know, my 170 is my limit and then I start dropping

[00:56:03] pounds again.

[00:56:04] But a recent hike stomp, I haven't gone anywhere.

[00:56:06] I am getting out this weekend.

[00:56:07] I'm going to do an overnight on Zeeland Hut, which will be fun with a crew of a crew of

[00:56:14] folks.

[00:56:15] And then, but that's it.

[00:56:16] I've been taking nice walks on the beach in Vero Beach, but that's all I got.

[00:56:20] I haven't done any hiking since.

[00:56:23] Yeah.

[00:56:24] Yeah.

[00:56:24] That's all good.

[00:56:25] We, I got out with Dave and Nabi, as you know, and got out to the Lost Pass as far as

[00:56:29] we could.

[00:56:31] Don't need to recap that one, but I just went out and did Cone Mountain, which is in my backyard.

[00:56:35] It's a short little thing.

[00:56:36] It's on the southern flank of Dickey.

[00:56:39] And it was after the rain.

[00:56:41] So I was shocked.

[00:56:42] I bare booted the entire thing.

[00:56:44] The only ice that I saw was on the Brown Ash Swamp bike trail, which is the intersection

[00:56:49] where Dickey starts to head up.

[00:56:51] You go straight on Brown Ash, come up to the two small ponds, ascended the whole way up.

[00:56:57] Literally just no snow anywhere.

[00:56:59] Um, on the way down, I was tempted to put on spikes, but I didn't.

[00:57:04] And so it was an out and back.

[00:57:05] Sometimes I've gone down to Cone Pond itself, but I just went up and then back.

[00:57:09] Um, beautiful view as usual.

[00:57:11] Uh, that Cairn is still probably one of the most unique Cairns in the whites.

[00:57:16] So that's about it.

[00:57:18] Nice little time out there in the cold weather too.

[00:57:20] It was chilly.

[00:57:21] Ooh.

[00:57:22] Yeah.

[00:57:23] Yeah.

[00:57:23] I'm excited to get back out there for sure.

[00:57:25] So, but that's good.

[00:57:26] I'm glad you got out.

[00:57:27] Um, all right.

[00:57:28] Stop now.

[00:57:29] Um, moving on to a sponsor here.

[00:57:32] So it's time for CS coffee.

[00:57:33] Yeah.

[00:57:34] Thank you.

[00:57:34] CS coffee.

[00:57:35] Um, athlete ready.

[00:57:37] CS instant coffee.

[00:57:39] You can find their great coffee, um, at www.cs instant.coffee.

[00:57:47] And, uh, we actually got, uh, a pile of notable hikes while we were on vacation here.

[00:57:53] So if you want to tag slasher on your adventure to be considered for the hike of the week,

[00:57:57] uh, do so.

[00:57:58] And, uh, this week we have Mike hikes and bikes, uh, tackling 45 and 48 and 10 out of 48 for the W48.

[00:58:07] And I did not write down what he hiked.

[00:58:09] So that's great.

[00:58:11] Oh, that's awesome.

[00:58:13] I owe you one, Mike.

[00:58:16] Marley Sue too.

[00:58:17] Checked off Adams and Madison for winter with a great undercast.

[00:58:22] Uh, Danny VD V.

[00:58:25] Uh, hiked Camel's hump.

[00:58:26] That beautiful pictures for that hike.

[00:58:28] That looks like a great area to get out to.

[00:58:31] Uh, PC hiker hiked the Carters going up 19 mile and down Imp Trail.

[00:58:38] That's a cool varied loop that you don't see too often either.

[00:58:41] Yes.

[00:58:42] Yeah, that's a good one.

[00:58:43] And then finally, Eric Hansen, uh, 42 E Hansen 42, a recent, uh, guest of ours, uh,

[00:58:50] uh, one all the way up to Baxter and tackled Katahdin Hamlin Peak, uh, for a total of 24.6 miles, 5,837 elevation gain over 13 and a half hours.

[00:59:04] That's, uh, that's always a challenge logistically and, and weather wise up there.

[00:59:08] That's a pretty awesome adventure.

[00:59:10] Yeah.

[00:59:11] Yeah.

[00:59:11] And I got one, somebody tagged us on the, the, the Facebook here.

[00:59:14] Um, so shout out to Jennifer Belkis Goukazian.

[00:59:19] Goukazian.

[00:59:20] Ah, yes.

[00:59:21] Um, so she did, um, Mount Isolation up Glen Boulder and then Rocky Branch Stomp.

[00:59:28] So that was our, uh, that was our, our first hike together.

[00:59:32] Hmm.

[00:59:32] So yeah.

[00:59:34] Yeah.

[00:59:34] That's right.

[00:59:35] Up Glen Boulder and down, uh, uh, Rocky Branch.

[00:59:38] So this was six out of 48 for her winter.

[00:59:40] And she said she broke trail starting around Glen Peak up to Davis path over to isolation and then the top part of the isolation trail.

[00:59:49] So yeah, that's a, that's a day for sure.

[00:59:52] Mm.

[00:59:53] Um, and then I feel like somebody else did on Facebook, but that's, uh, that's all I got right now.

[00:59:58] So anyway, no likes.

[00:59:59] Thank you for tagging us.

[01:00:01] Tag, tag the Instagram.

[01:00:03] I can't keep up with Facebook.

[01:00:04] I'm horrible.

[01:00:06] So who wins?

[01:00:07] Who gets that one?

[01:00:08] Oh, um, I would say Eric will, you know, the Baxter thing is good.

[01:00:13] And there was much rejoicing.

[01:00:18] Yeah.

[01:00:18] So I would say shout out to Marley.

[01:00:20] I'm sorry, Marley.

[01:00:22] You get second place.

[01:00:23] And Mike, Mike hikes and bikes.

[01:00:25] He did everything.

[01:00:26] He hikes and bikes.

[01:00:26] Yeah.

[01:00:26] Well, he's close.

[01:00:28] Finish your 48, Mike, and then come back to us.

[01:00:31] We'll, we'll, we'll, we'll get three more to go.

[01:00:32] And we'll give you the hike of the week.

[01:00:36] All right, stop.

[01:00:37] So now we've got, um, we're going to do this.

[01:00:39] We did a segment with Cheswick here.

[01:00:41] So, um, for people that aren't familiar, so Cheswick's been on the show a couple of times.

[01:00:45] He had previously shared with us the, um, Eastern continental trail, which I think is

[01:00:52] like an extended version of like, it's a Appalachian trail, but it goes all the way

[01:00:55] up to Quebec.

[01:00:56] It goes from Key West all the way up to Quebec.

[01:00:57] And then he had also done the great Western loop.

[01:01:00] So he had, he's been on a couple of episodes with us.

[01:01:03] Fascinating, really interesting, um, person.

[01:01:08] He's a local New Hampshire guy and he's doing these crazy, insane, um, long distance hikes.

[01:01:15] And, you know, it's really interesting to sort of get into his brain to see how he thinks

[01:01:19] and, um, what his approach and, and, uh, is to these long distance hikes.

[01:01:23] So it's just, it's really impressive.

[01:01:25] So we'll, we'll drop into that and then we'll come out the other side and, um, you know, hopefully

[01:01:30] you'll enjoy this.

[01:01:31] So I sure did.

[01:01:33] Mm-hmm.

[01:01:34] Bigel.

[01:01:35] Bigel.

[01:01:35] Bigel.

[01:01:36] Bigel.

[01:01:36] Bigel.

[01:01:51] Bigel.

[01:01:52] Bigel.

[01:02:06] All right, Cheswick.

[01:02:07] Welcome back.

[01:02:08] Thanks for having me.

[01:02:09] Good to see you guys.

[01:02:10] Good to see you.

[01:02:11] Yeah.

[01:02:11] Good to see you.

[01:02:12] Good to see you.

[01:02:12] Good to see you.

[01:02:12] Look good.

[01:02:13] We'll get, we'll get you out of here before the, uh, the Penn State.

[01:02:16] We're a game game.

[01:02:17] We promise.

[01:02:17] All right.

[01:02:19] Do you pay when you're out on the trail, do you pay attention to sports and you, you, um, you keep

[01:02:24] an eye on that stuff or you just completely like done with it?

[01:02:26] I mean, if, uh, if somebody like, if I'm talking to somebody on the phone and they mentioned,

[01:02:32] you know, there was a big game or something coming up, the timing works out in town and

[01:02:37] I'm having to stay in a hotel or something.

[01:02:40] I'll watch it.

[01:02:41] But, um, yeah, it's not, it's definitely not a top priority.

[01:02:46] Um, you don't have draft Kings on your phone putting in bets.

[01:02:50] No, distracting.

[01:02:52] No, man.

[01:02:53] Yeah.

[01:02:54] Nothing like that.

[01:02:55] They should do draft Kings for me.

[01:02:56] He's like, is he going to be able to finish one of these things without getting hurt?

[01:03:00] Yeah.

[01:03:01] That's a good point.

[01:03:02] What's the, what's the over under on Cheswick's hike?

[01:03:06] Exactly.

[01:03:06] Exactly.

[01:03:07] So, so for listeners that aren't familiar with you, so you've been on a couple of times,

[01:03:10] you've done some crazy hikes.

[01:03:11] So you've done the, um, you have to help me with the names of the, the extended trail.

[01:03:17] So you've done the international Appalachian trail.

[01:03:21] Is that what it is?

[01:03:22] Like the extent you'd basically connected, um, the extended Appalachian trail previously,

[01:03:27] and then you've done the great Western loop.

[01:03:30] Yeah.

[01:03:30] Right.

[01:03:30] Right.

[01:03:30] Well, like the first hike was the Eastern Connell trail.

[01:03:34] So that's, uh, so that's Key West, uh, to gas Bay, Quebec.

[01:03:38] So that's, uh, the key West road walk and the Florida trail and the Alabama road walk.

[01:03:44] And then the Alabama Penhody trail to the Georgia Penhody trail to the Benton Mackay.

[01:03:51] And then to the Appalachian and then pass Katah.

[01:03:55] And yeah, it's the international Appalachian trail goes to the gas Bay.

[01:03:59] That was a 40, 4,800 mile hike.

[01:04:04] Yeah.

[01:04:04] So you, babe, you're sort of your background is, uh, not just doing like the, um, the traditional

[01:04:11] long trails, but you've added like more spice to them, which, and I've asked you this before,

[01:04:16] but like you get to Katahdin and then you've still got like another, you know, hundreds and

[01:04:20] hundreds of miles to go.

[01:04:21] Um, how do you process that?

[01:04:24] Do you, cause for me, I would be like, Oh, I'm going to made it this way.

[01:04:26] I'm going to, uh, it's going to be hard to keep going.

[01:04:29] But like, you, you don't really look at it that way.

[01:04:31] You just were like, this is another stop along the way.

[01:04:33] Yeah.

[01:04:33] I mean, the only way to do these trails, you know, you got to look at the entire trail

[01:04:38] as the trail, you know?

[01:04:40] So I didn't look at like, okay, I finished the AT.

[01:04:44] Awesome.

[01:04:44] You know, I mean, it was a good feeling, but you know, for me, the Eastern continental

[01:04:48] trail at that time, that was 2015, you know, that ended in gas Bay.

[01:04:53] So for me, yeah, I've finished this section of my trail, but the hardest thing,

[01:04:59] the hardest part was, you know, all the, all my buddies and everybody that I had hiked with

[01:05:02] a lot on the AT, they were taken off, you know?

[01:05:05] So that, that was hard, but you know, I had hiked 1800 miles to get to the AT by myself.

[01:05:13] So, you know, you get, you just got to get used to the hiking alone.

[01:05:17] So for me, it wasn't, you know, wasn't a big deal.

[01:05:20] I'm being back by myself again.

[01:05:23] Um, I think at the time I remember, well, first of all, I remember when I got to the

[01:05:28] top of the guitar and I was pretty hung over, I was like, Oh, great.

[01:05:33] This is cool.

[01:05:35] Um, but then, um, then I had to figure out how I was going to get into Canada because,

[01:05:41] you know, um, I'm not a felon, but I don't have a clean criminal record and you're not

[01:05:46] allowed into Canada.

[01:05:47] So I had to figure out how I was going to sneak into Canada.

[01:05:50] So that was my biggest worry at that point was how I was, how I was going to do that.

[01:05:55] And, uh, I did, but it was, it was rough.

[01:05:59] It was sketchy.

[01:06:00] Do you, uh, what's, what's the, if you got caught going into Canada, um, what's the, essentially

[01:06:07] they're going to, they're going to, they'd put you in, they'd put you in a hold and sell

[01:06:10] for a little while and then send you back over the border.

[01:06:12] Right.

[01:06:13] That that's about the biggest risk.

[01:06:14] Three hots and a cut baby.

[01:06:17] Um, I don't know what they were going to do.

[01:06:19] Honestly, I, you know, uh, every, when I was sneaking over, you know, it was like around

[01:06:26] right when the sun was setting, I went up over Mars Hill ski mountain.

[01:06:30] And so for that entire night, every time I saw a car, I just dive over the guardrail

[01:06:34] and just wait it out.

[01:06:36] Um, and I did get stopped by a cop a few days later, but I just pretended I was so excited

[01:06:40] to see a human that I kind of freaked him out and he kind of just left me alone.

[01:06:44] But, um, yeah, I'm even, and people had said to me, just say, you know, where's

[01:06:49] where you started hiking from?

[01:06:51] And they'll, they'll probably go easy on him.

[01:06:53] Like, they're not going to care that I started hiking from Florida.

[01:06:55] They're going to care that this, you know, this hick from New Hampshire decided to sneak

[01:06:59] into their country and they're going to be pissed.

[01:07:01] And so, you know, at that point I didn't really care.

[01:07:04] I was like, I'm just going to roll the dice and see.

[01:07:07] And yeah, they probably would have probably held me for a couple of days, but yeah, I mean,

[01:07:15] I think I have some fraternity brothers from college that got held a couple of days in

[01:07:18] Montreal and they, they get out.

[01:07:20] So yeah, I mean, Canada is great.

[01:07:22] You know, they probably give you poutine in the jail cell.

[01:07:26] Maybe have a smoke, have a smoked meat sandwich for lunch or something.

[01:07:30] But, uh, yeah, I mean, I, but the thing was, honestly, I had gone so long and so far at that

[01:07:35] point that I really didn't give a shit.

[01:07:37] I was like, if they're going to catch me, they're going to catch me, but I'm not turning

[01:07:39] around, um, over this.

[01:07:42] I got to, I got to go for it.

[01:07:44] And then, um, so that, you know, so that was 2015 and that was my first through hike.

[01:07:52] Um, and so, you know, I attempted the PCT in 2017, but I was coming off a broken leg.

[01:08:00] Uh, pink blazed hard on that trail, met a girl.

[01:08:05] It didn't work out.

[01:08:07] She threw me a right hook and mammoth.

[01:08:09] And then with all the forest fires and the snowpack, uh, I just didn't even finish.

[01:08:14] So I was like a half-assed attempt at the PCT.

[01:08:16] So then coming into, you know, then I needed a few years just to like reevaluate everything.

[01:08:20] And then that first attempt to the great Western loop was, was extremely difficult.

[01:08:26] And yeah, I broke my foot 47 or 4,800 miles in and then took the next six months getting

[01:08:33] prepared and then went back and then, and then did it and set the record.

[01:08:37] I remember this story.

[01:08:37] Yeah.

[01:08:38] You visited us after you were injured.

[01:08:43] Yeah.

[01:08:44] Or the right hook, but we, I definitely remember recovering the injury.

[01:08:47] I don't think we ever, we definitely never covered the pink blazing though.

[01:08:51] There's been multiple injuries.

[01:08:53] Yeah.

[01:08:53] We remember the broken foot from the first attempt of the loop.

[01:08:56] Yeah.

[01:08:58] 2017, I was living in Stowe, Vermont and I was, uh, leaving Burt's bar, which is like

[01:09:03] the, I don't know, the dive bar of the access road up to Stowe.

[01:09:08] And, uh, I got pretty shit face and I was leaving the bar.

[01:09:11] I remember I had, I was bartending at one of the ski lodges there and you had to wear

[01:09:15] black shoes and the cheapest pair of black shoes I could find was like a pair of DC skateboarder

[01:09:20] shoes.

[01:09:21] So they had no tread, you know, just like flat skateboarder shoe.

[01:09:24] So anyway, I'm leaving the bar like 11 o'clock at night.

[01:09:27] I got a girl on each arm and I'm thinking, all right, here we go.

[01:09:32] This is going to be sweet.

[01:09:33] Uh, her house is right across the, across the road here.

[01:09:36] And I took like three steps to the parking lot and I slipped and their arms like caught

[01:09:42] me.

[01:09:42] And I somehow like snapped my leg.

[01:09:45] And I was like, Oh, that's not good.

[01:09:47] So I ended up like working for a couple of weeks, just thinking I tore something, found

[01:09:51] out it was a broken leg.

[01:09:52] So anyway, I got on the trail, I think middle of makes it was a high snow year and re-injured

[01:09:59] it stuck in big bear for three weeks.

[01:10:01] Ended up meeting a girl at the same, uh, hostel there.

[01:10:05] Um, the spicy Mexican, what was her name?

[01:10:09] Oh, Rosemary Garcia.

[01:10:11] Yeah.

[01:10:11] And anyway, so we ended up having a little on and off fling.

[01:10:16] She didn't like me talking to other chicks and, uh, ended up kind of ditching her in

[01:10:20] the Sierras and she caught me in mammoth.

[01:10:23] I remember I was walking across the road and all of a sudden I just see this right hook

[01:10:26] just come around and just, and, uh, yeah, that was it.

[01:10:32] And then, you know, the fires just.

[01:10:33] You, in your opinion, in your opinion, when it comes to like dating and romance on the

[01:10:39] trail, have you seen success stories or is it, you know, obviously this is like very

[01:10:47] person specific, but, um, do you feel like it's just very difficult to meet and date somebody

[01:10:52] on a through hike?

[01:10:53] I mean, you have to imagine like at least, you know, you've got to have somebody that's

[01:10:56] kind of the same pace as you and then all the personality stuff's got to match too.

[01:11:00] Yeah.

[01:11:00] I mean, first of all, we call it pink blazing because you're, you know, even if you're hiking

[01:11:05] a lot faster, you're going to change your hike, the fit their hiking style.

[01:11:11] And, um, I've seen it work and I've seen it not work.

[01:11:14] I've seen people meet on the trail, get together, finish that hike.

[01:11:19] Everything's all, you know, rainbows and bubble gum.

[01:11:21] And then they go and do another long through hike.

[01:11:23] And by the end of that second hike, they want to rip each other's heads off.

[01:11:26] Um, I've seen a situation where people decided to do the eight for their honeymoon and 200

[01:11:34] miles in, they want to rip each other's heads off.

[01:11:37] So, you know, word to the wise do a through hike with the person, see if you can stand each

[01:11:42] other.

[01:11:42] And if you still don't want to kill each other by the end, then you get married.

[01:11:46] Don't do it.

[01:11:47] And then go on a through hike.

[01:11:48] Cause you know, when you're hiking with test somebody for an extended period of time is a

[01:11:53] true test.

[01:11:53] Cause it's like, you're learning more about that person in three months than you'll learn

[01:11:59] in three years, all their little ticks, all their little quirks, you know?

[01:12:04] And, you know, do you still like the chick when, you know, she doesn't shave her legs for

[01:12:09] three weeks?

[01:12:09] Do you still like the dude and he smells like a bag of smashed assholes?

[01:12:12] You know, so you learn all of these things and, uh, and so yeah, sometimes it works and

[01:12:18] sometimes it doesn't.

[01:12:20] Um, but you know, stomp annoys me after an hour.

[01:12:22] Yeah.

[01:12:24] Yeah.

[01:12:25] I see the pictures of you guys on Insta chat, you know, you guys are just doing day hikes.

[01:12:28] You look like you want to kill each other.

[01:12:31] All right.

[01:12:32] Well, good advice.

[01:12:34] Yeah.

[01:12:34] I think it's, it's not probably the most optimal way to date for sure.

[01:12:38] Um, but now, so we wanted to just cover with you.

[01:12:41] So you're going to hold on.

[01:12:43] Wait, before you've done these, hold on, wait, hold on, wait.

[01:12:45] So word to the wise though, if you're looking for a way out, do a through.

[01:12:51] And then, you know, yeah, they'll end up starting to hate you.

[01:12:56] And then it's like an amicable breakup, you know, like a couple hundred miles in.

[01:13:01] So there's the other side of it.

[01:13:03] That's great.

[01:13:03] All right.

[01:13:04] That's true.

[01:13:04] I guess you could do that.

[01:13:05] That would be the move is like, you get to the point where you annoy somebody and then

[01:13:09] maybe you fake an injury.

[01:13:10] And then that's where you really find out.

[01:13:12] Like if they say like, all right, well, you're going to go off trail.

[01:13:15] I'm going to keep going.

[01:13:16] Then it's a, it's a smooth breakup.

[01:13:18] As a matter of fact, that happened, that happened last year.

[01:13:21] This girl that I had met on the loop the second time, she started doing the, she did the Eastern

[01:13:27] Continental Trail last year.

[01:13:28] Her boyfriend wanted to quit in New York.

[01:13:30] So he took off back to Colorado.

[01:13:32] She called me up and said, I think I want to quit.

[01:13:35] I said, just make it to me.

[01:13:36] And we had a great time helping her through the rest of the AT.

[01:13:39] So sometimes it works out in your favor.

[01:13:44] Well, you know, we'll see if you, you're not going to have time for any romance this time around.

[01:13:48] So you're doing a calendar year, um, triple crown here.

[01:13:54] So essentially this means that you're going to take, um, all three long trails.

[01:13:59] So the, the PCT, the Continental Divide and the Appalachian Trail, you're going to do all three of those in a single calendar year.

[01:14:07] What, uh, what made you decide to do this?

[01:14:09] Well, I mean, I was able to do the loop in under 200 days.

[01:14:15] And then I saw that this kid did the calendar year, triple crown self-supported in 234 and some odd hours.

[01:14:28] Um, 134 days and eight hours, I think.

[01:14:31] And so he beat Jeff Garmeyer, um, who had the record at like two 52, but then this kid kind of like flip-flopped around because in, uh, 23, the Sierras got just record snowfall and no one could make it through.

[01:14:48] So he planned it out so that he would start, um, on the border of Mexico on the PCT and hike to Tehachapi, which is I think around 500 something miles into the PCT.

[01:15:04] And then he got an Uber to LAX and then flew over to the CDT and then did a section of that.

[01:15:11] And then, um, flew north to the border of Canada and then hike south on the CDT and then flew back over and hike north, um, from Tehachapi on the PCT.

[01:15:22] And then he came over to Katahdin and southbound.

[01:15:25] And people do that on the calendar year, triple crown as they flip-flop around.

[01:15:30] They do that now because I think it was, um, a niche, um, Heather Anderson.

[01:15:36] She got the supported calendar year, triple crown, maybe like a decade ago by flip-flopping and they gave it to her.

[01:15:45] And so people just started doing it that way.

[01:15:48] Um, so essentially you're cherry picking sections of trail to avoid snowpack.

[01:15:54] And to me, other than doing a continuous loop, like what I did, the only other pure way to do one of these things is to do each trail continuous before you moved on.

[01:16:06] And that's how Jeff Garmeyer did it.

[01:16:08] And then this kid comes along and he flip-flops and jumps around and then they give him the record.

[01:16:13] So I was like, you know, he did do it faster, but he wasn't pushing through all that snow like Garmeyer had to do.

[01:16:20] So I, I kind of don't agree with them giving it to him.

[01:16:24] I feel like there should be a separate category for flip-floppers.

[01:16:27] And now you have so many people doing the calendar year, triple crown with no intention of doing each trail straight through.

[01:16:34] I was like, you know what?

[01:16:35] I'm going to go back.

[01:16:36] I want to beat this kid's record and I'm going to do it straight through because that's the way it was intended to be done.

[01:16:41] And that's the way it should be done.

[01:16:43] And so that was my goal.

[01:16:45] And, you know, I, this year I did the PCT in 75 days and that was great because I didn't want to do anything over 80.

[01:16:54] I'd never broken 80 before on it.

[01:16:56] And so I was feeling pretty good by the time I broke my, or separated my shoulder.

[01:17:02] So, but yeah, that's, that's what it is.

[01:17:05] You know, you do each one continuous before you moved on and no one really does that anymore.

[01:17:11] They all flip-flop.

[01:17:12] Yeah.

[01:17:12] I mean, I get it.

[01:17:14] I understand why they flip-flop and bounce around just because you've got to optimize the time.

[01:17:18] And it's not like you really have, I mean, do you have a full 12 months to play with realistically?

[01:17:25] Probably not.

[01:17:26] Like you've got windows in all of those trails.

[01:17:28] So you don't really have all that time to play with.

[01:17:33] Like you got to get moving when the weather windows are okay.

[01:17:35] Well, you can do the desert sections.

[01:17:37] You know, you can do the Southern part of the Appalachian trail.

[01:17:42] So you can do, you know, from the border of Mexico to basically Kennedy Meadows, if you wanted to in, in those winter months, you know, you know, like October to December.

[01:17:58] And you could do the border of Mexico through New Mexico up to the San Juan.

[01:18:04] So you, you do have pieces that you can do in those winter months.

[01:18:08] You do have to worry about, you know, water.

[01:18:11] And obviously it does get cold in the desert all the time, but it is manageable.

[01:18:15] But what you're seeing a lot more now are people starting the AT to do it right around now.

[01:18:21] And what they're going to do is they're going to hike up to like Connecticut.

[01:18:26] And this is what I thought you, this is what I thought your strategy may be.

[01:18:29] I didn't realize you were going to do these continuously, but I figured exactly what you're talking about.

[01:18:33] As you start, you know, northbound and then bounce over to one of the other trails.

[01:18:36] Yeah.

[01:18:37] So, well, this year or last year, the goal was, so I did the PCT first.

[01:18:43] And so I started May 2nd and I did that north straight through and then flew over or trained over and did.

[01:18:52] I was going to do the CDT southbound.

[01:18:55] And then I was going to fly up and do Katahdin south to Georgia.

[01:18:59] So if I do that again this year, that's going to be the same way that I do it.

[01:19:04] But I'm thinking I'd like to maybe start middle of March and do the AT northbound first.

[01:19:09] So, so much of doing a straight through, not only do you have to carry, you know, like for me, my average was 35 a day on the PCT this last time.

[01:19:18] So 35 average is what I want.

[01:19:20] And so I do the AT in a sub 65 days northbound.

[01:19:27] So by the time, you know, so it'd be like March 14th, April.

[01:19:31] So like right around the second into the third week of May, I'd be finishing the AT.

[01:19:37] So then I fly over and do the PCT second starting right around the third week of May and do that north, you know, so that's the goal.

[01:19:47] So like right sub 230 days is is the goal.

[01:19:51] So I guess the whole point is the reason why the calendar year triple crown used to be such a small number and so elusive was because it forced you to do those big, mild days and that that heavy pace per day.

[01:20:04] And now you're getting people that aren't willing to push themselves to that level.

[01:20:08] But they know if they cherry pick and flip flop around, they can still accomplish it.

[01:20:14] They just don't have to push themselves because you can flip flop and yeah, you can do it.

[01:20:21] But the reason why people never did it before it's breakthrough is because they couldn't do over 30 a day.

[01:20:28] So that's that's that's what I'm trying to do.

[01:20:30] And it's and it's self-supported, so I can't have anybody sending me packages.

[01:20:35] I can't have a friend of mine like pick me up at a road and drive me into town.

[01:20:40] Can't stay at a friend's house.

[01:20:41] So everything that I'm doing on this hike, it's I can send boxes initially, but everything has to be available to all through hikers so I can accept trail magic.

[01:20:52] So like trail magic's cool.

[01:20:53] Like you can do that.

[01:20:54] Real magic's cool.

[01:20:55] Low standard hotels, hostels, that's all available to all other hikers, but nothing personal to me.

[01:21:01] So you guys couldn't like fly out to, you know, wherever and say, hey, we'll give you a ride into town.

[01:21:08] We'll buy you lunch and then we'll drive you back to trail.

[01:21:11] Like I couldn't couldn't accept that.

[01:21:12] It adds like another level of difficulty, kind of.

[01:21:16] But I've done it so much now that.

[01:21:19] I almost prefer just going into towns every three to five days and just buying all my stuff and just getting back on trail.

[01:21:28] And you don't have to worry about post office hours and, you know, is that box going to be there?

[01:21:33] And it takes a lot of those other things off the table that you got to worry about.

[01:21:38] Yeah.

[01:21:38] And you do have an advantage from the perspective of like you've been on these trails like multiple times.

[01:21:44] So, well, the AT I think is, I mean, obviously you've been up and down the AT in sections in New England, but maybe not all the other.

[01:21:52] But at least you've been on these trails before.

[01:21:54] So logistically, you know what's going to work, right?

[01:21:57] Yeah.

[01:21:58] Like this will be my fifth PCT.

[01:22:01] And the PCT is, I wouldn't say it's more difficult than the other ones.

[01:22:08] It's just the most unpredictable.

[01:22:10] You know, it's so much about timing.

[01:22:13] A lot of people that do the Appalachian Trail is like their first through hike.

[01:22:18] Then they get on the PCT.

[01:22:19] They have the same kind of mindset when they want to go out there as they had on the AT.

[01:22:24] And you can't.

[01:22:26] The AT is basically predictable as far as the weather patterns and the snowpack throughout the year, throughout the hiking season.

[01:22:34] But on the PCT, you don't know where those fires are going to pop up.

[01:22:38] They're always going to pop up.

[01:22:39] You just don't know when.

[01:22:40] You don't know how the river crossings are going to be when you get into the Sierras.

[01:22:43] You don't know what the snowpack is going to be like.

[01:22:46] So it throws off a lot of stuff.

[01:22:48] So I meet a lot of people doing the PCT and they're, you know, in these big trail families and they're taking 10, doing 10 mile days and multiple rest days.

[01:22:58] And it's like, no, man, you got to push hard to get through the Sierra and like up to Washington.

[01:23:05] Because if you don't, you're going to be dealing with all of these things.

[01:23:08] And that's why a lot of people, they'll say they finish, but they probably skipped a couple hundred miles because they didn't push themselves when they needed to.

[01:23:19] Wow.

[01:23:20] And the, so logistically then you're, you're proposing Appalachian Trail first, then PCT.

[01:23:29] And then did you say the continental divide you'll go southbound?

[01:23:34] Southbound, yeah.

[01:23:35] So once I tag the, the Northern Terminus of the PCT, I got to hike 30 miles south back to Hearts Pass, get a ride from Hearts Pass into Mazoma.

[01:23:47] From there, I got to get a ride into a town called Wenatchee, hop on the Amtrak from Wenatchee.

[01:23:53] That brings you right into Glacier.

[01:23:55] And then I got to go into Glacier and then I got to pay like a hundred bucks to get a taxi up into Glacier.

[01:24:02] And they'll bring me all the way to the Northern Terminus.

[01:24:04] And then I'll start southbound there.

[01:24:06] So if I do it with the AT as my first one, my biggest issue once I get onto the CDT is just making it through the San Juans before it starts to really heavily snow.

[01:24:18] Because if you look at the map of the CDT, once you get into Southern Colorado, you can take this thing called the, well, the trail goes out west and then it comes and loops back inland, back east.

[01:24:35] And that's the actual CDT.

[01:24:39] But there's a cutoff that people take.

[01:24:42] It's called the Creed Cutoff, brings you to a town called Creed.

[01:24:45] And it cuts out like this huge chunk of CDT.

[01:24:49] And you miss that entire range of the San Juans.

[01:24:53] And you'll find that a lot of people doing the CDT will do the Creed Cutoff because they've hiked too slow before.

[01:25:01] They don't want to deal with that.

[01:25:02] But for me, you know, I'm trying to beat a record that's 7,515 miles.

[01:25:08] So I need to hit that number or more.

[01:25:11] And if I do the Creed Cutoff, I won't have enough miles by the time I finish.

[01:25:16] And I can't say that I beat the record if I didn't, you know, if I cut out a couple hundred.

[01:25:22] Got it.

[01:25:23] What are you doing for training?

[01:25:25] Anything?

[01:25:25] Smoking butts?

[01:25:27] Smoking a half pack a day.

[01:25:33] Listen, I'm reading a book.

[01:25:34] I'm reading a book on quitting.

[01:25:36] It's like I read the first half really fast.

[01:25:39] And the guy that wrote the book smoked five packs a day.

[01:25:42] And in the book, like the first page, he says, don't quit smoking while you read this because by the end of it, you're not going to want to smoke again.

[01:25:49] We have a 95% success rate.

[01:25:51] So I read the first half really fast.

[01:25:52] And I was like, oh, shit.

[01:25:53] If I read this thing really quick, I'm not going to smoke anymore.

[01:25:56] So then I like just started reading like one page every week.

[01:25:59] So I'm like, I got like 100 pages to go.

[01:26:02] But do you stop smoking when you do your through?

[01:26:06] Like, do you get to the point where it's just like the resupplies and stuff like you don't, you stop smoking or do you smoke through the hike the whole time?

[01:26:13] Smoke more on the hike.

[01:26:15] I smoke.

[01:26:15] I smoke.

[01:26:17] More on the hike.

[01:26:18] I don't stop.

[01:26:21] You know, I just light it and go.

[01:26:23] And it's really funny because sometimes you'll see, you know, these people hiking like in a line like up a mountain.

[01:26:31] And I'll light a cigarette and just like blow right by him.

[01:26:35] And the cigarettes just hanging out of my mouth.

[01:26:36] And I always can hear him.

[01:26:37] Can you believe he's smoking right now?

[01:26:39] Oh, my God.

[01:26:40] He's smoking.

[01:26:40] Right.

[01:26:42] Because I got up to Grace Peak.

[01:26:43] I got up to Grace Peak in the Rockies, dude.

[01:26:46] And, you know, that's a 14,000 footer.

[01:26:50] And I lit a cigarette, took a gummy at the top.

[01:26:54] And this dude was sitting there.

[01:26:55] He's like, how does your brain feel right now, bro?

[01:26:58] And I'm like, pretty good.

[01:27:00] I'll see you later.

[01:27:03] Wow.

[01:27:04] And then I ran out of water.

[01:27:06] Do you do any cardio training or anything?

[01:27:07] Yeah.

[01:27:08] I go to the gym.

[01:27:09] I go to the gym.

[01:27:10] You do.

[01:27:10] But like, it's more about, well, because I separated my shoulder.

[01:27:15] So I got like a three, four separation in there and something popped out.

[01:27:18] I got like a tear.

[01:27:21] I'm doing a lot of work on my traps.

[01:27:24] So I'm doing those like, like a 40 pound weight in each arm.

[01:27:27] I'm shrugging my shoulders.

[01:27:28] Because if I get my traps strong, those shoulder muscles, then the pack straps are actually going to sit on that.

[01:27:34] It's not going to be like on my clavicle.

[01:27:37] So that's, that's one strengthening exercise I'm doing.

[01:27:41] And the other one is just my quads.

[01:27:43] And just, you know, you get your quads strong.

[01:27:45] That takes a lot of pressure off your knees.

[01:27:47] And, you know, for the AT, well, any of these hikes that I do, honestly, the first 10 days are miserable.

[01:27:54] Like my knees are just screaming.

[01:27:56] And then eventually they start to come into it.

[01:27:58] But that's, that's something I'm trying to avoid this time.

[01:28:02] Just getting that strong enough.

[01:28:04] You've done this long enough where, you know, sort of the deal with like anything can, any injuries can pop up.

[01:28:12] So there's no guarantee on this.

[01:28:13] But do you think like if you do, and obviously we don't want to get injured, but if you do get injured for some reason, will you, you try to run it back?

[01:28:19] Is this basically like, if it takes you more than one year to do this, are you going to try it again?

[01:28:24] I mean, it's just the weirdest thing to get used to.

[01:28:28] I don't think you ever do.

[01:28:29] But, you know, I got, I went 4,700 miles on the first attempt of the loop, you know, and then did it six months later.

[01:28:37] This time I did about 2,800 miles on the, on this calendar year, Triple Crown.

[01:28:43] So I'm used to getting injured on the trails.

[01:28:48] This time I was helicopter evac'd.

[01:28:50] So that was, that's something I can check off the list.

[01:28:55] But, yeah, that was crazy.

[01:28:57] Yeah.

[01:28:58] Cause they, they couldn't land the helicopter.

[01:28:59] So, and I was in the Bob Marshall wilderness, it's like 13 miles from nearest road.

[01:29:03] They're like, well, we'll send a helicopter.

[01:29:05] And they couldn't land.

[01:29:06] So the guy like comes like a hundred feet down on a line.

[01:29:09] And then he like comes over to me, like checks my shoulder.

[01:29:11] It goes, ew.

[01:29:12] So he just like puts like a, like makeshift sling.

[01:29:14] And then just puts a harness on me and hooks me up, gives the thumbs up and boom game over.

[01:29:20] So, you know, you're always on a through hike.

[01:29:24] You exist at like a five, six on a pain level of one to 10.

[01:29:30] You're never a hundred percent, you know, but it's just soreness and just aching pain,

[01:29:36] you know?

[01:29:37] So you just get used to that.

[01:29:39] That's why I don't like to take rest days.

[01:29:41] Like I didn't take a rest day this on this last thing.

[01:29:44] What's your diet?

[01:29:44] Because I don't want to get soft on trail.

[01:29:47] Uh, no, no, it's about 3,500 calories, 3,500 to 4,000.

[01:29:53] I run out of food a lot.

[01:29:55] Cause the last thing I want to do is have food when I get into town, because, um, that means

[01:29:59] that I carried extra weight.

[01:30:02] So, well, you know, ideally it's like run out of food, like five miles before I get to a

[01:30:08] town.

[01:30:09] Um, but it's, it's whatever I can get my hands on.

[01:30:13] I mean, you have a, you get a really good insight into the obesity crisis in this country

[01:30:17] because a lot of places that I have to resupply at are these convenience stores and these convenience

[01:30:23] stores, man, they don't have anything, you know, like in the regular world, I love having

[01:30:29] a frigging slim gym or a bag of chips, but sometimes on the trail, I'm just jonesing for a banana

[01:30:35] or an orange and you get into these, you know, seven 11s and there is not a single shred of

[01:30:41] healthy food in there.

[01:30:43] So after a while, I just get so burnt out by eating that like highly processed, you know,

[01:30:49] garbage.

[01:30:50] Um, it's really, there's a lot of calories, but they're empty calories.

[01:30:54] Um, but I, I mean, I can never eat enough, you know, and when I do the big carries, like

[01:30:59] when I go from Kennedy Meadows to Mammoth, you know, that's, that's 200 miles plus the

[01:31:06] side trail of like another 12.

[01:31:09] So you're doing like 212 miles, try and do that around six days.

[01:31:14] And, um, I'll run out of food on that section.

[01:31:18] I always do.

[01:31:19] And, um, yeah, there's just, there's just a few long stretches.

[01:31:22] It's just, I'd rather just, you know, ration my food and stay on trail and keep going because,

[01:31:29] you know, the AT is so set up logistically for food pickups.

[01:31:36] Like the trails close to so many towns, everybody knows what you're doing on there.

[01:31:41] You know, you're hitching a couple of miles, you know, East or West, but when you're out

[01:31:45] in the, uh, PCT, you know, in the Sierras, you know, you're hiking like nine miles up and

[01:31:51] over Kerasage pass, you get to a parking lot and then you got to find somebody in that parking

[01:31:57] lot that happens to be going down to the road.

[01:31:59] And that's an eight mile dirt road.

[01:32:01] And then if you want to go into a big town called Bishop, it's like a 40 mile hitch, you

[01:32:06] know?

[01:32:06] So you, you're losing an entire day to do that one resupply.

[01:32:10] So when you're going for a record, you have to minimize the amount of times you do those

[01:32:15] because that's one whole day I could have put going up the trail.

[01:32:20] So, so I just run out of food and I never really get too worried when I run out of food.

[01:32:25] You know, maybe I'll see a hiker that's just doing like, you know, a few days and those

[01:32:29] people always have Osprey packs on and they always carry way too much food.

[01:32:33] So you always know that they're going to have it.

[01:32:34] And, uh, you know, so it's when I run out of water, that's when I get worried.

[01:32:40] Are you filtering, you know, cause water, no, I filtered.

[01:32:46] I filtered once this time and it was just like a sketchy part of the desert, but I carry

[01:32:52] bleach with me.

[01:32:53] I just do two drops of bleach in, in my thing.

[01:32:56] Um, and when I do filter, like when I do like the cattle troughs of the desert and the CDT,

[01:33:02] I bring, I'll do get a Sawyer squeeze for that.

[01:33:05] But from, to me, you know, the Sawyers are just good about just filtering out like the

[01:33:08] particles.

[01:33:10] But as far as like drinking that stuff with a Sawyer, I don't know.

[01:33:16] There was a bad situation this year, uh, just past Mount San Yacinco, um, where about 15

[01:33:24] hikers got wicked sick.

[01:33:26] They got like diarrhea, puking.

[01:33:29] They got into big bear.

[01:33:30] The town got sick.

[01:33:31] I think we covered this, Mike.

[01:33:33] All filtered.

[01:33:34] Was it E. coli?

[01:33:35] I got there.

[01:33:36] Like it happened to be a red algae.

[01:33:38] I think is what it was.

[01:33:40] It's something.

[01:33:40] But I, I met this Brazilian dude, uh, named Bruno.

[01:33:45] I met him like a couple hundred, like 300 miles later.

[01:33:47] And I asked him about it.

[01:33:49] He was like, dude, I was with that group when it happened and he didn't need water at the

[01:33:54] time, but they all did.

[01:33:55] And he said, they all filtered with their precious Sawyers.

[01:33:58] You know, they sit down and squeeze it all in.

[01:34:01] You know?

[01:34:02] Well, I'm feeling attacked right now.

[01:34:03] I'm feeling attacked right now.

[01:34:06] Yeah.

[01:34:07] Hey, we're day hikers.

[01:34:08] Leave us alone.

[01:34:09] Well, you don't need a filter.

[01:34:10] You don't need a filter up here.

[01:34:12] What do you guys, hi?

[01:34:13] Anyway, so, so he's telling me, right?

[01:34:15] So he's telling me, okay, so they all filtered, right?

[01:34:18] And then that night, they're all at this campsite because it was only like 15 miles to

[01:34:23] Big Bear.

[01:34:23] So they're planning on staying there and then going into Big Bear the next day.

[01:34:26] He said he was sitting next to a dude who also didn't need water at that spot.

[01:34:32] And so they're sitting and he said it was straight out of a movie.

[01:34:37] This group over to the left, like three or four of them, they just start shitting and

[01:34:40] puking like uncontrollably.

[01:34:42] And then in the middle, another group of two or three, same thing.

[01:34:45] And to the right, another group, same thing.

[01:34:47] It was just like this whole, like straight out of a movie, like almost like stand by me

[01:34:52] in the pie contest situation.

[01:34:55] The blueberry pie scene.

[01:34:56] Yeah, the blueberry pie scene.

[01:34:57] And he said it was insane.

[01:34:59] And then they all got into Big Bear and they kind of carried it into Big Bear.

[01:35:04] And then people that lived in Big Bear started getting sick too.

[01:35:06] So it all turned out to be like red algae.

[01:35:08] So the Sawyer, you know, I don't know, man, like the O-rings always break on them.

[01:35:15] And the water, if it's flowing water, I don't even bother.

[01:35:22] If it's standing water, yeah, it's sketchy.

[01:35:25] If there's particles in it, I like to use the Sawyer just to get that stuff out.

[01:35:29] But just a couple of drops of bleach, shake it up, let it, you know, wait five minutes.

[01:35:33] You're good to go.

[01:35:34] And that kills everything.

[01:35:36] That kills everything.

[01:35:38] And it saves me on time too.

[01:35:40] If you need to filter, you know, a couple, three liters, you know, you're sitting there

[01:35:44] for 20 minutes doing it.

[01:35:46] And to me, 20 minutes is a mile, you know, so.

[01:35:51] So that's your secret sauce, it sounds like, is like you're not taking any days off.

[01:35:56] You continuously move.

[01:35:58] So normally like a through hiker is going to take a zero day or they're going to take a

[01:36:02] half a day in town and then basically just camp right outside of town and then get going.

[01:36:07] But you're not doing that.

[01:36:07] You're just, you're going in town, doing your thing and then continuing on, right?

[01:36:12] Yeah.

[01:36:12] My, my ideal resupply is to do everything I need to do and still pull a 30 mile a day.

[01:36:19] It's very hard to do that.

[01:36:21] I always try and do it.

[01:36:21] So, you know, and you have to do things simultaneously.

[01:36:24] So when I get into town, I'm going to eat right away.

[01:36:29] And then while I'm taking a shower, I'm washing my clothes.

[01:36:34] And while my clothes are drying, I'm shopping, you know, and then I'm updating my website.

[01:36:39] So I'm doing all of these things and, and charging all my stuff, which is the first thing

[01:36:44] that I do before anything is get that, get that stuff on a charge.

[01:36:47] So hopefully I can get that stuff done in three to four hours and then still pull a big mile

[01:36:53] a day.

[01:36:54] So that's what I try and do, but I don't take, I don't ever plan zero days because I want

[01:36:59] to bank them so that if I need to take one for whatever reason, I've already got that

[01:37:03] in the bank.

[01:37:05] But, you know, cause people always ask me like, oh, you're doing 40 mile days.

[01:37:09] So like, what are you running up the trail?

[01:37:10] And it's like, no, I'm not running.

[01:37:11] I'm starting about five, five 30 in the morning.

[01:37:13] I'll take about one and a half hours worth of breaks throughout the course of the day.

[01:37:18] Nothing's really planned.

[01:37:19] And I'll be finishing it by around nine 30, 10 o'clock at night.

[01:37:24] And I don't have a stove.

[01:37:26] So I don't have to bother cooking.

[01:37:27] I just cold soak everything because cooking takes more time.

[01:37:30] I'd rather just be sleeping when I'm sleeping five hours a night.

[01:37:35] So the goal is, you know, be on the trail about five, five 30.

[01:37:39] And I like to have 10 miles in by 10.

[01:37:41] And then I want to have somewhere between 16 and 18 by noon.

[01:37:46] And then, you know, there's another ideally 10 hours of hiking left for the day.

[01:37:53] And that can put me right around the 40 mile mark, give or take.

[01:37:59] Okay.

[01:38:00] Me and Stomp are like, we're in our 50s.

[01:38:03] We're getting a little bit older.

[01:38:04] I get the sense you're a little bit younger than us.

[01:38:06] So I will tell you that there was a period when I hit my 40s where I started feeling like the drop off physically.

[01:38:13] Yeah.

[01:38:13] You know, I started, I couldn't run as fast and all that stuff.

[01:38:16] So do you feel like you're still in the window where you're in your physical prime?

[01:38:19] Or do you sense that, you know, the decline is coming eventually?

[01:38:25] Yeah, the decline is going to, I mean, you know, I've got 21,000 trail miles now.

[01:38:30] And I've had my right knees reconstruction, left ACL, shoulder reconstruction, broken foot.

[01:38:41] And I've had like a lot of injuries.

[01:38:44] So it's just the price you pay for pounding your body.

[01:38:49] You know, like this is serious work.

[01:38:51] I mean, a marathon and a half on average every day for six to seven months up and over mountains in snowpack, you know, tripping, falling, slipping.

[01:39:02] I mean, it's going to take a toll.

[01:39:05] But at the same time, it's like when people told Tom Brady he'd never win another Super Bowl because he was old.

[01:39:12] Okay.

[01:39:12] He wasn't as fast.

[01:39:14] Well, let's be honest.

[01:39:15] He never was fast.

[01:39:16] But he was smarter.

[01:39:19] So, like, I understand through hiking and logistics so well that I don't need to be in my physical prime.

[01:39:29] I just need to understand what I need to do to get to my next resupply point.

[01:39:34] You know, how many miles I need to do every day.

[01:39:37] You know, on this hike, I think I was at, I think, a 31 average when I made it to Truckee.

[01:39:45] And it took me up until three days before the end of the PCT to get to that 35 average.

[01:39:52] So, I had to push really hard, which meant that I was going till midnight a few times.

[01:39:57] You know, right before Mount Hood, I think I pulled a 48.

[01:40:00] But I knew that that was going to be a cruiser section of trail.

[01:40:03] So, I just knew that.

[01:40:05] Well, that's it.

[01:40:05] That's the other thing, too, is, like, there's institutional knowledge when you've gone to a place and you've been there.

[01:40:12] Like you said, like, even if you went to a completely new trail, like if you went to Iceland or Spain, like, you know through hiking.

[01:40:19] But it's an added advantage because you know the ins and outs intimately of the trails you're going on.

[01:40:26] So, you can figure out, like, okay, today's a day where I can actually do 45 instead of 35 because it's a flatter section.

[01:40:32] And I know where my water is going to be.

[01:40:34] Yeah.

[01:40:35] I mean, I'm always shooting for 40.

[01:40:37] I mean, every day that's the goal is to hit 40.

[01:40:40] And I know how many hours that takes.

[01:40:44] I know, you know, what my time needs to be.

[01:40:48] And now, you know, like if I go hiking with friends now, not that anyone ever asks to hike with me.

[01:40:53] I would.

[01:40:54] So, stomp.

[01:40:55] Stomp.

[01:40:56] Throw it out there.

[01:40:57] Nobody ever asks.

[01:40:58] But anyway, it's hard for me because they just – well, you know, people want to get to the top of this mountain.

[01:41:06] Like, okay, let's take some pictures for InstaChat and, you know, let's hang out.

[01:41:10] And even if it's just a day hike, I'm still like I'm in that mindset like go, go, go.

[01:41:15] Like it never leaves me.

[01:41:18] So, that's something I'm working on.

[01:41:21] But, yeah, I don't do a lot of hiking in the off season just because once everyone's, you know, ready to, you know, pack it in after 10 miles, I'm like, what do you mean?

[01:41:33] I'm just getting warmed up, you know?

[01:41:35] Let's do another – just do another 10.

[01:41:36] Maybe for you – yeah, like maybe for you, like the physical decline is never going to happen.

[01:41:41] Like you'll always be in the movement.

[01:41:42] Maybe like the sign of aging will be where you'll sort of be like I'm okay just going out and doing like a shorter hike and I'm not going to rush.

[01:41:50] Yeah.

[01:41:50] Who knows?

[01:41:50] We'll see.

[01:41:51] We'll see what happens when you get done with this one.

[01:41:52] Well, if I hike with a couple old guys in their 50s, maybe that'll get me to understand that eventually –

[01:41:57] Right.

[01:41:58] I'm going to have to blow it down a little bit.

[01:42:02] That's true.

[01:42:03] That's true.

[01:42:04] Well, we'll have to get you out there in our pace for sure.

[01:42:08] But so as far as the gear goes – so I remember you said you used Nashville – so you used a 40-liter pack, Nashville pack.

[01:42:14] Is you using the same one now?

[01:42:15] Well, no.

[01:42:16] I changed it up.

[01:42:18] Oh, and just a little sidebar.

[01:42:20] I'm sorry I didn't have a – do a podcast with you guys before I left for this last one.

[01:42:26] But I was really suspect on my knee and I didn't want to do a bunch of podcasts and then get 100 miles in and have to quit.

[01:42:33] I'd feel like a frigging joker.

[01:42:35] So that's why I didn't do any interviews.

[01:42:37] Just wanted you to know that.

[01:42:39] Anyway, this is one of my favorite ones to do.

[01:42:42] You guys are great.

[01:42:43] Appreciate it.

[01:42:44] Oh, thanks.

[01:42:44] Yeah, no problem.

[01:42:45] Yeah, man.

[01:42:46] So, so.

[01:42:48] So, stop.

[01:42:49] Oh, look.

[01:42:50] He took the towel off.

[01:42:52] He all warmed up now.

[01:42:54] It's all these compliments getting me heated up.

[01:42:58] Oh, Jesus.

[01:43:00] I'm not hiking in front of you if we're going to go for one.

[01:43:04] Listen, there's no pink blazing on this show, please.

[01:43:06] Yeah, no brown blazing either, buddy.

[01:43:11] So, I didn't – I went with – we did like this hybrid prototype with these two companies.

[01:43:19] So, there's another pack company out there called Yard Gear.

[01:43:24] And it's like Y-A-A-R.

[01:43:27] Hold on.

[01:43:28] Y-A-R.

[01:43:29] Yard Gear.

[01:43:30] Okay.

[01:43:31] And this dude named Adam, he's out of Tennessee.

[01:43:34] And he's making bomber packs.

[01:43:37] Like, the bodies of these things are just absolute bomber.

[01:43:41] So, what we did was we did a Yard Gear body with a Nashville strap system.

[01:43:47] Because Nashville is making, like, the best strap systems.

[01:43:52] You know, heads and tails better than anyone.

[01:43:54] They got the most pockets, the most versatile, the most comfortable.

[01:43:57] So, we did the strap system in Nashville.

[01:43:59] And once they – we figured that out, then we sent the – they sent the strap system over to Adam.

[01:44:05] And then he made me this bomber body.

[01:44:09] And the idea is to get this pack to last the whole 7,500 miles.

[01:44:15] You know, that's the goal.

[01:44:18] So, it was a really rugged pack.

[01:44:20] It worked out great.

[01:44:22] You know, nothing lasts on a through hike of this magnitude.

[01:44:26] The only things that really last are probably your sleeping bag and your tent.

[01:44:33] Because those are just days.

[01:44:35] They're not, you know, getting – it doesn't matter about mileage.

[01:44:38] It's just the amount of days.

[01:44:40] So, you know, use the same – what is it?

[01:44:46] What's that company out of Florida?

[01:44:52] Ultiplex.

[01:44:54] Ultiplex is the tent, and it's – I can't remember.

[01:45:00] Well, it'll come back to me.

[01:45:01] But anyway, so I use the same tent.

[01:45:02] I use that pack combination.

[01:45:06] Sleeping bag, I still use – you know, I use a zero degree.

[01:45:11] And I'll have like a silver or a silk lining.

[01:45:15] And that keeps me a little bit warmer.

[01:45:18] But I find that anything from like a zero to 10 degree is perfect for a through hike.

[01:45:24] And I've used a 20 degree quilt before and froze.

[01:45:29] So, all that's the same.

[01:45:32] You know, my electronics.

[01:45:35] I always use wired headphones.

[01:45:37] So, it's one less thing.

[01:45:39] I got to charge.

[01:45:41] So, there's that.

[01:45:43] I use a headlamp that has a USB.

[01:45:48] And so, yeah, I mean, my base weight is –

[01:45:51] Will you sleep in shelters if you –

[01:45:53] On the AT.

[01:45:53] Or do you avoid them?

[01:45:54] I avoid them for the first like 300, 400 miles.

[01:45:59] I'll avoid the shelters on the AT because you got to avoid the bubble.

[01:46:04] You know, I don't go into the privies.

[01:46:07] I won't sleep in the shelters.

[01:46:08] I won't touch the notebooks and the pens.

[01:46:11] I won't touch any of that because the dirtiest thing on the AT are the people.

[01:46:16] And that's when Noro starts to spread.

[01:46:19] So, you know, my advice for anyone doing the AT is like avoid that stuff initially until you –

[01:46:25] Until it thins out the herd.

[01:46:27] You know, because a quarter of these people are going to quit within the first couple hundred miles.

[01:46:31] So, you just got to wait that out.

[01:46:34] And I know it's exciting.

[01:46:35] Like, yeah, I'm on the AT and you sleep in a shelter.

[01:46:38] It's like people are burping and farting and rustling around.

[01:46:41] You don't even sleep good in those things anyway.

[01:46:43] But, you know, you just – you got to be very aware of the amount of foot traffic on the AT.

[01:46:52] The PCT, you know, they allow 50 permits a day.

[01:46:56] So, they kind of spread it out a little bit better.

[01:47:01] But there's no shelters on that trail.

[01:47:03] So, yeah, I will sleep in them.

[01:47:06] But it's going to be probably once I get ahead of everybody.

[01:47:10] That's the goal.

[01:47:13] All right.

[01:47:13] Well, we'll keep an eye on the snowpack out west.

[01:47:15] So far, I don't think it's that bad.

[01:47:17] I mean, but it's very early.

[01:47:18] It's hard to tell.

[01:47:20] And then here in New Hampshire, obviously, there's not much.

[01:47:22] So, really, you could get – you could get a nice favorable year going out the AT if there's no – if the snow stays low.

[01:47:31] I mean, this year or this last year, the snowpack in the Sierras was average.

[01:47:39] You know, remember in 2017, the pink blazing year, there was as much snow in the Sierras on July 4th as there was this year in April.

[01:47:57] So, not even, like in the end of May.

[01:48:01] And then in 21 and 22, it was super low.

[01:48:04] So, it was like two to five miles of snowpack before and after each mountain pass.

[01:48:10] This year, it was like 10 miles before and after each mountain pass.

[01:48:15] So, when you're hiking through those snow cups, those sun cups, you know, it just – you're just slogging away and just slows you down.

[01:48:22] So, so far on postholer.com, which is what I look at for snowpack or snowfall levels, Oregon right now has a huge amount.

[01:48:36] Like, their graph is showing a lot right now, but it's still early.

[01:48:43] So, that's – Pacific Northwest may because it's La Nina year or whatever.

[01:48:49] Pacific Northwest could get hammered.

[01:48:52] And so, that's where the idea to start the AT first came from is, well, if we don't get a lot of snow on the East Coast, I'll just knock out the AT in a couple months and then go over there.

[01:49:02] So, by the time I get to the Sierras in an average snow year, it'll be easier to get through.

[01:49:07] And then by the time I get up north into Oregon and Washington, that snowpack that was really high will have dissipated significantly.

[01:49:16] The downside with that, however, is the fires.

[01:49:21] The fires are going to show up.

[01:49:23] I just don't know when because nobody hiked the PCT faster than me this year.

[01:49:28] And I missed a fire by a day and a half.

[01:49:36] So, I got through this one section, Rainey Pass, outside of Mazama.

[01:49:41] And I got up.

[01:49:43] And the next day, lightning strike, fire, that section was shut down.

[01:49:47] And that was a 75-day PCT 35 average.

[01:49:51] So, that was a May 2nd start.

[01:49:55] So, now I'm looking at rolling the dice a little bit by starting the PCT in the third week of May, hoping that the snowmelt dies down.

[01:50:04] But at the same time, rolling the dice with the fires.

[01:50:07] So, when you do these long ones and you're going for these records, the start date is crucial.

[01:50:14] It's crucial in timing.

[01:50:16] You know, I'm not going to be able to, because I don't believe in it, doing a certain length of a trail and then going, oh, well, there's a fire or there's too much snow.

[01:50:25] I'm going to skip over.

[01:50:27] I'm going to do the whole thing straight through regardless.

[01:50:29] If I have to do, you know, a 100-mile road walk to avoid a fire, and that's all my only option, I've got to do that.

[01:50:35] So, for me, you know, it's all about timing.

[01:50:39] And I just hope that I hit it.

[01:50:41] But like I said, you know, the PCT is so unpredictable, you just, you don't know what's going to happen.

[01:50:47] Well, we'll be cheering you on.

[01:50:49] This is interesting.

[01:50:50] So, I didn't read, so I'm actually going to update the name of this because we just had the calendar year, Triple Crown.

[01:50:54] So, we're going to call this the Continuous Calendar Year Triple Crown, just so that it's clear.

[01:51:00] Self-supported.

[01:51:02] Yeah, it's pretty awesome.

[01:51:02] Self-supported, yeah.

[01:51:03] Self-supported.

[01:51:04] So, we'll clarify that.

[01:51:05] It's pretty good.

[01:51:06] This is good.

[01:51:06] So, Stomp was going to come out and give you a bag of McDonald's, but he can't do that.

[01:51:11] What do you mean?

[01:51:11] I need the calories.

[01:51:12] Give him a pack of cigarettes.

[01:51:13] Hey, you guys know how –

[01:51:16] Oh, yeah.

[01:51:18] I used to have a buddy of mine from Florida mail me cartons because they're so cheap in Florida.

[01:51:24] And, you know, a pack of cigarettes in California are like, you know, 16, 17 bucks in some places.

[01:51:30] So, he'd send me a carton and then I'd just break them up.

[01:51:33] And then – so, yeah.

[01:51:35] We'll see.

[01:51:36] I've never not done a through hike without smoking.

[01:51:39] So, that's going to be a whole other challenge.

[01:51:42] So, is your website still live and active?

[01:51:47] Oh, yeah, dude.

[01:51:49] We've upgraded it since the last time.

[01:51:52] We've got –

[01:51:53] Chezwick tracks, right?

[01:51:55] Yeah.

[01:51:55] And now there's a link on there for my Garmin inReach.

[01:51:59] Okay.

[01:51:59] Which shows like – and that will ping every hour.

[01:52:02] Right.

[01:52:03] Because to – and I never did this, but I actually do have like all of the pings from when I did the loop.

[01:52:11] I just never submitted it to the FKT website.

[01:52:13] So, they still have Garmin at 208 days as the record holder on that because I never submitted it.

[01:52:20] But anyway, when you go on my website, you can click on that and you can see where I am within an hour.

[01:52:26] Okay.

[01:52:27] That's pretty cool.

[01:52:28] You're still an advocate for clean water using the Waterboys?

[01:52:35] Yep.

[01:52:36] Still doing that.

[01:52:37] That's great.

[01:52:37] Still doing that.

[01:52:38] I haven't landed a sponsor yet.

[01:52:40] This will do it.

[01:52:45] Hey, man.

[01:52:45] You know, I got that EMS sponsor because of you guys.

[01:52:48] Oh, cool.

[01:52:48] So, that was pretty rad.

[01:52:50] Yeah.

[01:52:50] Then they went bankrupt.

[01:52:51] Yeah, that was cool.

[01:52:56] No REI.

[01:52:57] I thought it was next.

[01:52:59] I remember after I did the interview with you guys, some woman from the company reached out and goes,

[01:53:07] Oh, I heard your interview and it was really cool.

[01:53:10] And if you need any gear, just write a list and let me know.

[01:53:13] And I'm thinking, are you sure?

[01:53:15] Oh, yeah.

[01:53:15] That's probably Ellen.

[01:53:17] That might have been Ellen.

[01:53:18] Yeah.

[01:53:19] She's a great, great person.

[01:53:21] Yeah.

[01:53:21] That's awesome.

[01:53:22] Well, EMS is still going on in North Conway, right?

[01:53:26] Yeah.

[01:53:26] Yeah.

[01:53:26] They're around.

[01:53:27] Yeah.

[01:53:27] They're still around.

[01:53:28] So, yeah.

[01:53:31] They got North Conway and I think they have one in Newmarket as well.

[01:53:35] So, they're still hanging on, which is good.

[01:53:37] I like EMS for sure.

[01:53:38] Well, there's a chance I might do a presentation before I leave for this week.

[01:53:44] So, if I do, I'll let you guys know.

[01:53:46] Yeah, please do.

[01:53:46] We'll plug it.

[01:53:47] You can shoot down.

[01:53:48] I'll meet you in person.

[01:53:49] Oh, yeah.

[01:53:51] All right.

[01:53:51] Yeah.

[01:53:51] We got to feel bad.

[01:53:53] Like, Stomp hasn't invited you on a hike.

[01:53:55] I figured, like, you had that cover.

[01:53:57] But we'll definitely get together at some point.

[01:54:01] And then, like, we'll keep an eye on all of your adventures.

[01:54:05] And, you know, this thing is, like, logistically, like you said, you've got it down.

[01:54:08] But, like, there's got a lot of things got to come in to pull.

[01:54:11] You know, they got to land perfectly.

[01:54:12] You know, no injuries.

[01:54:13] The weather has to be good.

[01:54:16] No wildfires.

[01:54:17] No snow conditions.

[01:54:18] So, it's going to be interesting.

[01:54:19] It's a lot of luck, for sure.

[01:54:21] It's a lot of luck, you know.

[01:54:24] And, you know, what we could do, Stomp, is we could hike the 48, 4,000 footers again.

[01:54:29] It's just that when we get to the last one, you're not allowed to cry when we finish.

[01:54:36] I never forgot that.

[01:54:37] Have you done the 4,000 footers, right?

[01:54:40] Have you?

[01:54:41] Yeah.

[01:54:42] Yeah.

[01:54:43] Because remember when we did the interview after I did the loop and you were like, did you get emotional?

[01:54:47] Did you cry?

[01:54:48] I'm like, what are you talking about?

[01:54:48] I didn't cry.

[01:54:49] And then you start laughing.

[01:54:50] Like, what's the funny?

[01:54:51] Like, oh, well, Stomp cried when he finished the 48.

[01:54:53] I'm like, oh.

[01:54:56] Soy boy.

[01:54:57] That's all right.

[01:54:58] Soy boy.

[01:54:59] Yeah.

[01:55:00] I never cried, but I did get a little, I got a little emotional with the winter 4,000 footers.

[01:55:04] I mean, you gotta, I mean, look, you know, we're in our 50s now, so we've, we're evolved a little bit more.

[01:55:09] But like, you know, you get, you do at some point when you do an accomplishment and, you know, obviously like the 4,000 footers doesn't compare to what you're doing, but it's still like you put your heart and soul into things.

[01:55:20] And everybody has their own sort of goals.

[01:55:23] And, you know, at some point you do reflect a little bit, but yeah, you did that.

[01:55:27] He's a big, he's not a big baby.

[01:55:29] Well, you know, I'm just glad to see you again because last time we talked, you said you were going to do like Mount Jacks or something with some rookies.

[01:55:37] And, uh, I was like, well, now that sounds like a search and rescue.

[01:55:40] Oh yeah.

[01:55:41] It does.

[01:55:42] It does.

[01:55:43] Yeah.

[01:55:43] We did actually.

[01:55:44] We had a good time.

[01:55:45] We're trying to avoid the search and rescue.

[01:55:47] Taking them on.

[01:55:49] Hey, I had, I had a search and rescue happen to me.

[01:55:51] So, you know, I can't, I can't give anyone shit anymore.

[01:55:54] You know, when they took, so when they grabbed you on the helicopter, um,

[01:55:59] were you, how, how far did they have to pull you up off the ground or did they land in precarious?

[01:56:05] No, they couldn't, they couldn't land.

[01:56:06] So the dude hooked me up to him and then they hoisted me like a hundred feet up jungle.

[01:56:10] And they just like threw me into the back.

[01:56:12] Yeah.

[01:56:13] And they like asked me, they said, um, cause I called nine one one and I was in this, I had service amazingly enough, but where I was located, I was 13 miles from the nearest road.

[01:56:22] And they were like, well, we can't get an ambulance to you.

[01:56:25] And I, my shoulder was gone.

[01:56:27] And I was like, there's no way I can, I can go.

[01:56:29] I was thinking about like ditching my pack and just taking like a bottle of water in my phone and just going backwards.

[01:56:34] But, um, they said, we can send you a helicopter.

[01:56:36] And I'm thinking, oh, great.

[01:56:38] That's going to be like 10 G's.

[01:56:39] Oh yeah.

[01:56:40] I was just going to ask.

[01:56:41] And so I'm thinking about it.

[01:56:42] Yeah.

[01:56:43] It was like 10 grand.

[01:56:43] I'm thinking, how bad is this?

[01:56:45] And it was like, so bad.

[01:56:47] I like, I was hunched over like Igor, man.

[01:56:49] Like I couldn't, I couldn't even walk without a pack.

[01:56:52] It was so bad.

[01:56:53] And, uh, so anyway, they, they show up, throw me in the back of the helicopter, put me on oxygen, asked if I could smoke a cigarette.

[01:57:02] So that wouldn't be a good idea, which I get.

[01:57:04] What's that comment?

[01:57:08] The fireball in the sky.

[01:57:10] So yeah, exactly.

[01:57:13] So as we're flying back, the dude's like, Hey, how you doing right now?

[01:57:17] I'm like, man, this is the most expensive fucking shuttle ride I've ever gotten off the trail.

[01:57:22] And he looks at me, shakes his head and he goes, Nope.

[01:57:25] I'm like, what do you mean?

[01:57:26] No.

[01:57:26] He goes, Hey man, we're a nonprofit.

[01:57:28] This is free.

[01:57:29] I was like, really?

[01:57:31] All right.

[01:57:32] So like, uh, yeah, they, they bring me back.

[01:57:35] I think to Kalispell was where they brought me and land on the tarmac.

[01:57:40] And, uh, there's an ambulance waiting and they threw me on the gurney, shot me up with some fentanyl and I was feeling pretty good.

[01:57:48] And then the ambulance charged you 10 grand.

[01:57:53] 1800.

[01:57:54] I knew it.

[01:57:55] 1800.

[01:57:56] Yeah.

[01:57:57] 1800.

[01:57:58] But you know, that's Kalispell, Montana.

[01:58:00] Good luck getting that money.

[01:58:02] Oh man.

[01:58:04] So, uh, and so, so yeah, so I just spent three days in Kalispell.

[01:58:08] I'm like, well, maybe this will get better, but if it doesn't, I'm just going to call it.

[01:58:11] And it didn't end.

[01:58:13] Yeah.

[01:58:13] That, that was the end of it.

[01:58:15] But, um, yeah, we'll see.

[01:58:17] We'll see how it all goes.

[01:58:18] I mean, I don't know how the AT is going to look on the, on the Southern part.

[01:58:22] Cause you know, Hurricane Aline, you know, devastated a lot of towns and stuff, but I know that those

[01:58:29] towns need the revenue for the hikers.

[01:58:31] So, um, from what I understand, you know, a lot of the trail didn't get too beat up.

[01:58:36] Um, a lot of the roads did obviously, but I think, uh, I think they're going to be good

[01:58:41] to go.

[01:58:41] So, um, fingers crossed on, on that whole section and, um, yeah, we'll just, we'll see

[01:58:47] how it goes.

[01:58:49] Yeah.

[01:58:49] We appreciate you coming on again and giving us an update.

[01:58:52] So, um, you know, we'll, we'll definitely keep an eye.

[01:58:54] We'll put some, uh, I wrote down all of the gear folks, so I'll, I'll make sure that we

[01:58:58] get links out for them and then, um, we'll follow along on, on the website.

[01:59:03] We'll get that out to the listeners and, uh, we'll try to give updates as you go along.

[01:59:07] We'll keep an eye on your Garmin info for, for, uh, for the whole trip.

[01:59:10] Cool.

[01:59:11] Cool.

[01:59:11] All right, guys.

[01:59:12] Well, thanks for having me.

[01:59:13] What are you going for the game tonight?

[01:59:14] You get Penn state or Notre Dame?

[01:59:15] You know, my dad's a Notre Dame dude.

[01:59:17] So I'm going to go probably Notre Dame because you kind of have to be smart when you go to

[01:59:23] that school.

[01:59:23] It's not like one of those factory colleges like Alabama, where they just bring them

[01:59:27] in and bring them to the NFL.

[01:59:28] You gotta, you gotta hold like a 2.0 GPA.

[01:59:31] So, um, we'll go for them.

[01:59:33] And then, you know, I can't stand the Buckeyes.

[01:59:36] So I gotta go for the Longhorns tomorrow night.

[01:59:38] And, uh, okay.

[01:59:39] Yeah.

[01:59:39] I think that's, I think those are good picks.

[01:59:41] I think Penn state is, they, they have a way of snatching defeat from victory.

[01:59:45] So I think that that Notre Dame is a good pick.

[01:59:47] Yeah, definitely.

[01:59:48] Definitely.

[01:59:49] Cool.

[01:59:50] All right, boys.

[01:59:50] All right, Cheswick.

[01:59:51] Thanks again.

[01:59:52] And, uh, we will, uh, we'll catch up with you.

[01:59:54] We'll do a recap when you're finished.

[01:59:55] Yeah.

[01:59:55] Shoot me a text or whatever.

[01:59:57] If you want to go for a hike, I'll go for a hike.

[02:00:01] Are you, uh, are you snow, snowmobile guiding at all or no?

[02:00:05] Oh yeah.

[02:00:06] I'm doing that.

[02:00:07] Oh, you are.

[02:00:08] Are you down in Bartlett?

[02:00:08] I'm down in Bartlett.

[02:00:09] Yeah.

[02:00:09] I'm doing the snowmobile guiding thing.

[02:00:11] Oh, good.

[02:00:11] Good.

[02:00:11] Yeah.

[02:00:12] Yeah.

[02:00:12] We're still waiting for, um, Breton to open up, but it's been a nightmare.

[02:00:16] Yeah.

[02:00:16] So I'm doing that and then, um, I'm bartending at the Red Parker pub in Glen Friday and Saturday

[02:00:22] nights.

[02:00:23] It's working out.

[02:00:24] Right on.

[02:00:25] Yeah.

[02:00:25] Cool.

[02:00:25] Awesome.

[02:00:26] Good, good, good.

[02:00:27] All right, boys.

[02:00:27] Well, thank you for being the first guest of 2025.

[02:00:30] Holy shit.

[02:00:31] Look at that.

[02:00:32] Didn't even realize it.

[02:00:34] Cool.

[02:00:35] Bye boys.

[02:00:35] Thank you.

[02:00:36] Thanks.

[02:00:36] We'll see you.

[02:00:37] Later.

[02:00:44] Art Stomp Cheswick never, never disappoints.

[02:00:47] He's a great guy.

[02:00:48] Yeah.

[02:00:49] I was going to challenge him.

[02:00:50] Like he should do the whole 7,000 miles with a cigarette in his mouth, like in his lips

[02:00:54] and not drop it.

[02:00:55] Right.

[02:00:56] Yeah.

[02:00:56] No, it's 8,000, almost 8,000 miles.

[02:00:58] Oh, what's another thousand miles?

[02:01:01] Yeah.

[02:01:01] Yeah.

[02:01:01] It's crazy.

[02:01:02] But yeah, I mean, he's, he's been there, done that.

[02:01:04] So it'll be impressed.

[02:01:05] It'll be very interesting to watch.

[02:01:07] He said, like he says, you know, there's a lot of luck, um, needs to fall into place here,

[02:01:11] but I think he can certainly do it.

[02:01:14] Yep.

[02:01:15] Um, but that's it, Stomp.

[02:01:16] I think we've, we've run out of time.

[02:01:18] Um, so we were going to do some search and rescue things, but we'll, we'll push those

[02:01:21] to next week.

[02:01:22] Sounds good.

[02:01:24] Happy new year's and, uh, we'll be back.

[02:01:26] All right.

[02:01:26] Glad to be in 2025 and we will see you next week.

[02:01:30] Later.

[02:01:30] Thank you for listening.

[02:01:35] If you enjoyed the show, you can subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, pod bean, YouTube,

[02:01:42] or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[02:01:45] If you want to learn more about the topics covered in today's show, please check out

[02:01:49] the show notes and safety information at slasher podcast.com.

[02:01:54] That's S L A S R podcast.com.

[02:01:59] You can also follow the show on Facebook and Instagram.

[02:02:03] We hope you'll join us next week for another great show until then on behalf of Mike and

[02:02:08] Stomp, get out there and crush some mega peace.

[02:02:15] Now covered in scratches, blisters, and bug bites.

[02:02:18] Chris staff wanted to complete his most challenging day hike ever.

[02:02:22] Fish and game officers say the hiker from Florida activated an emergency beacon yesterday morning.

[02:02:28] He was hiking along the Appalachian trail when the weather started to get worse.

[02:02:33] Officials say the snow was piled up to three feet in some spots and there was a wind chill

[02:02:38] of minus one degree.

[02:02:40] And there's three words describe this race.

[02:02:43] Do we all know what they are?

[02:02:44] I'm going to hold it.

[02:02:47] Lieutenant James Dielen, New Hampshire Fish and Game.

[02:02:49] Lucinda, thanks for being with us today.

[02:02:51] Thanks for having me.

[02:02:53] What are some of the most common mistakes you see people make when they're heading out on

[02:02:56] the trails to hike here in New Hampshire?

[02:02:57] Seems to me the most common is being unprepared.

[02:02:59] I think if they just simply visited hikesafe.com and got a list of the 10 essential items and

[02:03:05] had those in their packs, they probably would have no need to ever call us at all.

[02:03:25] Hi, I'm Chris Gethard and I'm very excited to tell you about Beautiful Anonymous, a podcast

[02:03:28] where I talk to random people on the phone.

[02:03:31] I tweet out a phone number.

[02:03:32] Thousands of people try to call.

[02:03:34] You talk to one of them.

[02:03:34] They stay anonymous.

[02:03:35] I can't hang up.

[02:03:36] That's all the rules.

[02:03:37] I never know what's going to happen.

[02:03:39] We get serious ones.

[02:03:40] I've talked with meth dealers on their way to prison.

[02:03:42] I've talked to people who survived mass shootings.

[02:03:44] Crazy funny ones.

[02:03:46] I talk to a guy with a goose laugh.

[02:03:47] Somebody who dresses up as a pirate on the weekends.

[02:03:49] I never know what's going to happen.

[02:03:51] It's a great show.

[02:03:52] Subscribe today.

[02:03:53] Beautiful Anonymous.

[02:03:54] I'm going to all learn what I'm going to do this.