Episode 183 - White Mountain Recent Hikes - Mt. Tom, Mt. Field, Mt. Avalon and Mt. Isolation - NH Events, Name Changes

[00:00:08] Here is the latest Higher Summits forecast brought to you by our friends at the Mt. Washington Observatory. Weather above treeline in the White Mountains is often wildly different than at our trailheads. Before you hike, check the Higher Summits forecast at MtWashington.org. Weather observers working at the non-profit Mt. Washington Observatory

[00:00:36] Write this elevation-based forecast every morning and afternoon. Search and Rescue teams, avalanche experts, and backcountry guides all rely on the Higher Summits forecast to anticipate weather conditions above treeline. You should too. Go to MtWashington.org or text FORECAST to 603-356-2137

[00:01:03] Okay, so here is your forecast for Sunday, February 2nd. There is an alert for a windchill advisory in effect until 10am Eastern Standard Time Sunday. So it's going to be really cold. Let's see what they're saying here.

[00:01:29] Sunday in the clear under mostly cloudy skies with a slight chance of late afternoon snow showers. Possible snow accumulations of a trace to less than 1 inch with a high around 5 above. Winds will be west shifting southwest at 15-30 mph, 25-40 mph midday, and 40-55 mph with gusts up to 60 mph.

[00:01:54] The windchill will be rising to 15 below to 25 below. Sunday night mostly in the clouds under cloudy skies with snow. Additional snow accumulations of 2-4 inches. Low will be starting around 5 above then rising through the night to lower teens. Winds will be southwest shifting west at 40-55 mph, increasing to 50-70 mph with gusts up to 80.

[00:02:22] The windchill, 15 below to 25 below, rising to 10 below to 20 below. And might as well throw in Monday for anybody that's still out there. So mostly in the clouds under mostly cloudy skies, a slight chance of snow showers. Possible additional accumulations of a trace to 1 inch with a high around 20 above.

[00:02:44] Winds will be west at 45-60 mph with gusts to 70 mph early, 60-80 mph with gusts to 95 mph to midday. Decreasing to 50-70 mph with gusts to 85 mph late in the windchill. For Monday we'll be rising to 0-10 below.

[00:03:42] Pecker's studio in the great state of New Hampshire. Welcome to the Sounds Like a Search and Rescue podcast. Where we discuss all things related to hiking and search and rescue in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Here are your hosts, Mike and Stump.

[00:03:58] I have that thing that goes back and forth, click, click, click when I start my record button. Oh really?

[00:04:28] It drives me crazy. What is that called? A metronome? Oh, the metronome, yeah. A metronome, yeah. Why do they, what is that for? Why do I have that on my software? That is for musicians that want to record a piece of music to a beat so that they can add programmed rhythms and things like that. It just synchronizes everybody to the same rhythm. Alright, wow.

[00:04:52] If the manager of GarageBand software is listening to this, if you could create a way to make that so it doesn't turn on automatically, that would be great. Is that what, are you using GarageBand? I use GarageBand now, yeah. I used to use Audacity software, so inside baseball for the listeners. I used to use Audacity, now we use GarageBand. Yeah. Um, stop, so it's, it's Saturday night. Weird.

[00:05:19] I should be watching reality TV with Mrs. Mike, although Mrs. Mike is out with her girls. Oh nice. So she's, she's out, um, with her high school friends. Yeah. So I'm solo. But I should be watching reality TV with Mrs. Mike. You should be. And instead, because of you, I'm stuck recording the show at eight o'clock at night on a Saturday and I've been hiking all day. Okay. This is so crazy. So explain yourself. This is so crazy. Well, I just got back an hour ago. We just squeezed in severance episode three.

[00:05:49] It's killer. It's so good. Oh, I don't, but yeah. I don't have Apple plus. That's a stick. That's a, that's an issue in, in the Mr. and Mrs. Mike house. She, she wants it. Cause all of her friends talk about all the Apple plus shows, but I'm too cheap. They're pretty good. They're definitely doing a great job. I mean, certainly better than like HBO at the moment. HBO is sort of, I don't even know why we have it on subscription at this point, but. Well, I've been watching the penguin. I like that. Oh, that's, that was great. Colin Farrell is amazing. Yes.

[00:06:19] I could believe, I was like, who is playing this guy? And I'm like, Colin Farrell. I'm like, what makeup do they have on this guy? Isn't it wild? Did you finish this season yet? No, no. I'm like two episodes in. So, but anyway, the penguin for listeners, if you're not familiar, it's on HBO and it's like a, it's kind of like a mob show, but it's about the penguin who is like a, a villain in the Batman universe. Right. And they, they like slow roll the whole connection with Batman, like heavily slow rolled.

[00:06:49] Right. Yeah. I'm like sitting there like what's, what's going on here? But anyway, so we were supposed to drop a show on Friday morning. Now we're not be able to drop a show until Sunday morning. And my understanding is, is that this is the fault of some rental snowmobile people. Explain yourself. So we generally record Thursday nights, 6 30 PM at 5 PM. I was dressed up like the bell with a ball, ready to go.

[00:07:17] We, we get back to the cabin and there's texts coming into the manager saying, um, we're lost. We have no idea where we are. So there were three sleds with six people in the middle of nowhere. And the only detail they could give us was that they were on a train track, which is not a good thing because a lot of the train tracks right now are pretty thin, marginal. Um, so there were two places they could have been. There was the, um, the, the rail bed that parallels Appalachia. Hikers will know that. What is that route?

[00:07:47] Two? Yeah. That is the, yeah, that's the, oh geez. I can't remember the name of that trail. Yeah. Anyway. So that, that was one option or there's another one that starts at Fabian's and goes into Twin Mountain, then directly north to Cherry, uh, uh, Pond to Cherry, Cherry Pond. And, um, so we just got on the sleds and, um, ended up, oh my God, I'm such an amateur when it comes to this stuff.

[00:08:16] Like these, the manager is like, all right, we're gonna, I'm gonna show you some new things here. We get on the train tracks and you could see the rails. Yeah. So we basically had to put the, the skis in between the tracks and rip it for at least 10, 10 miles. Terrifying. This is the presidential real trail. That's, that's that trail that connects like it goes from, um, like Israel Ridge, Casual, it goes all the way down to Appalachia. Yeah. So we found these people ultimately.

[00:08:45] Um, but I'm telling you, it was terrifying. This, the manager, I mean, all the, all the people that have the old schoolers that run this place are just such great riders. Uh, it was absolutely terrifying. We're doing like 50 down these closed rail beds. I was like, oh man, I aged 10 years. Don't you have our GPS on the machines? Uh, nope. Nope. They have GPS to track the machines, but we rely on just, you know, uh, cell service

[00:09:11] and, um, whatever that this tour had lost their maps. The end that they had not downloaded the sled NH map that comes out every year, which is GPS driven. Um, but anyway, we, we had a good idea where they were and we found them. Did they have a, so like you, you take people out and like you're in front or whatever, and then they follow you. Was this group all by themselves? You can do that as well. You can go off with no leader. Correct. Yeah.

[00:09:38] Generally we won't do it unless you've had experience on sleds before. Okay. And these, when we were taking them back, which is another interesting point because the, when we talked to them on the phone, the kids said, oh, our GPS says we're 10 minutes out. 10 minutes on GPS by car ended up being like 60 minutes getting them back by actual snowmobile trail. Uh, so it's a whole different ball game. They were, they were 10 minutes out as the crow flies, but, um, yeah, unbelievable.

[00:10:07] So yeah. I mean, if you're going to go out, you got to get that sled NH map. That helps a lot. Um, but it was interesting. So yeah, that's why we're late. Sorry. Stomp. I think you need to figure out where your priorities lay. Yeah. Right. Big tips. That's my priorities. Did they give you, do these people give you like a big, big tip or something afterwards or how does that work? Yeah. Well, yeah, we gave them a little pressure and said it was one of those, you know, generally

[00:10:36] we charge people for being late. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, if you, if you slip as a tip, uh, you know, do you have a, do you have like a move? Like I've, I do these, like I do these Caribbean trips and all the time and it's always like, I don't know. It's always like, I always appreciate the people that do like, they just come out and make it a lot easier for you. And they're like, here's a bucket and you can leave me a tip or whatever. Like I hate the ones where they don't say anything, but you kind of know you're supposed

[00:11:06] to leave a tip, but you don't know how much to leave. And like, it's a, uh, what you, what is your move with the customers about so that you make sure that you get a nice tip? Well, there are signs up at the place all over the place, you know, gratuity is accepted. Um, we do have business cards with a direct Venmo to my personal Venmo. Okay. And we've noticed that with the economy, people are not tipping as much, which is sort of weird because you're paying X amount of hundreds of dollars to rent snowmobiles and nobody can tip you.

[00:11:35] It's like, it's so cheesy. Right, right. Uh, but tips have been off. It could be that the, yeah, well. And Venmo is a nice excuse like, oh yeah, I'll do it later. And they never do. Um, but today was a good day actually for tips. So it comes and goes. It depends. I stopped some coffees. You snowmobilers don't be cheap, but it's great. You know why I think the forecast coming up nine inches forecast for next week. We have five inches coming over the next three days.

[00:12:05] This is the re this is a real winter. I love it. Oh, that's good. Yeah. Yeah. And like what we're seeing is that, um, at least the people that hike, I know you don't hike anymore, but I hike. So what we're seeing is like above 3000 feet. Yeah. Like there's legit. It's, it's deep. Like we were cutting, we were busting trail today. I'll talk about that. I'm excited. I've been busting trail all day snopping because of these snowmobiles not knowing how to operate the GPS. I got, I got to stay awake somehow. Right.

[00:12:36] So, uh, we had a couple of people on tour today that were doing the, uh, the 48, the winter 48 and they were so thrilled to get to Caps Ridge and like, Oh, we did that in the summer. Um, that is a remote one to get to. That's a commitment in the winter to get to, you know, walk up Jefferson notch and whatever else, but, uh, yeah, good times. So anyway, that's why we're here Saturday night, freezing to death. I exhausted. Yeah.

[00:13:03] Well, I mean, I'll give it a pass this time, but like, that's it. This is not, if, if it comes between like them dying out there and you doing the podcast, they die, they die. Maybe I can dial in while I'm the snowmobile is not the hikers, the hikers, you go, go save them. So, right. Oh boy. Yeah. Well in other news stomp, I survived an earthquake this week. Oh, damn. That's right. So did my uncle.

[00:13:32] My uncle lives on Seabrook and he said his trailer home was rattling. Yeah. I was sitting right here where I am in the, in the woodpecker studio South, which is in my basement. And, um, I was on a conference call, which I do basically all day lately. And all of a sudden I hear this rumbling and I'm like, this is a truck. I'm like, what's going on? Is this the first I thought it was a truck. Then I was like, is it like a fighter jet going over the house? Hmm.

[00:14:01] And, um, it was like a rumbling for like, it was probably like seven seconds, but I'm going to say 15 to make it more dramatic. Um, but it was like a rumbling. Yeah. And I ran upstairs and I went out to the front cause I was like, what kind of truck is making that noise. And then all of a sudden, like all my, um, I've got this crew of guys that I'm friends with in my hometown. We call it the dad bods chat group. The dad bods chat group started like popping off and everyone's like, did you feel that? Huh?

[00:14:30] And then I realized it was an earthquake. And then I went into like rescue mode. I went, I will look at my neighbors, making sure that they were okay. And like, nobody cared. Everybody go out into the street and look up at the sky. Yeah. Yeah. What's going on here? It was like a little rumble. And then like, I went back down onto my car. First of all, I had to leave the conference call. I was like, we just had an earthquake. I got to go upstairs. Um, I was like, I think we have an earthquake. And then, um, I get back on my conference call and I got a bunch of people from Costa Rica

[00:14:59] and they're like, they're like, we get that every day. So basically like an earthquake, it's sort of like, um, people in Florida freaking out over snow and telling us like, oh my God, the snow. And we'd be like, yeah, who cares? Mm-hmm . Yeah. I got that from the Costa Rica people. Yeah. It makes sense. I mean, a 4.2 for around here is pretty dramatic though. That's pretty large. Well, it was, it ended up being a 3.8, unfortunately. Oh really? Huh. Yeah. They downgraded it. Interesting. Wonder how they get those original numbers.

[00:15:31] I don't know. I don't know. Maybe like they, who knows? Maybe they like, um, I know in, in my kids' middle school, the science class has one of those things, the Richter scale things. Mm-hmm . To measure it. So maybe originally like there was like not calibrated measurements that went out and then they did a, like a real assessment closer to where it happened. Hmm.

[00:16:01] I don't know. Stop. Do I look like a, like a, like a geologist or whatever it is that figures out earthquakes? Do you remember my text too? I thought that was pretty clever. I said, get to higher ground a tsunami's coming. Oh, that's right. That's right. Yeah. JK. Yes, exactly. Um, all right. Well, welcome to episode one 83 of the sounds like a search and rescue podcast. This week I did not have time to write up the show opener, so I'm going to wing it,

[00:16:30] stomp. Wow. Improv. So, um, this week we're going to deep dive on a, on recent hikes on the, um, Tom field and Avalon range. So we're going to do a detailed summary about that hike in case you're interested. And then we're also going to do a hike, a review on Mount isolation, uh, via Rocky Branch. And then we took engine Hill and then what's called ISO express. I bet you've never taken that stop.

[00:17:01] No. No, I've heard of engine Hill. I was actually going to ask you about that, but yeah. You took me the long way when we did it last time. The straight way, right? Yeah. You took me the, the, the traditional route, which is longer. Um, plus we've got, um, extreme cold weather happening in New Hampshire. We've got Bobcats. We've got, uh, updates on some events that are happening in the Mount Washington Observatory and 48 peaks.

[00:17:30] The pond hockey classic is going on. I'm assuming our friends, Jimmy Chaga and Casey may be involved in that. Yeah. I bet. Um, Stomp has some winter event, other winter event reminders. And he's also doing some DJing gigs this summer. Um, REI has a new CEO. Um, the PCT is, there's something going on with the PCT and through hikers. I think that they can't get into Canada or something. We'll, we'll talk about that. Yeah.

[00:18:00] Um, Denali is being renamed Mount McKinley. I'm against this stomp. I like Denali and I'll, I'll, I'll talk about that. So, um, and then we're going to talk a little bit about, um, a government contractor that is running the recreation.gov and getting all the money. I want, I want some of that money. Um, a veteran hiker got a minor injury and ended up having to get a double amputation. So we're going to talk about that.

[00:18:29] Um, I get a lot of questions about electric hand warmers that I have. Uh, so we're going to talk about that. Um, I spotted a dad joke in the wild stomp. Impossible. I did in pink them notch in the basement. You know, when you go and you pee, I'm not going to give it away, but I spotted a dad joke in the wild. And it's a tie into the red line guiding. So we'll talk about that. And then, um, yeah. And I think that's it.

[00:18:56] We got notable hikes and then we had a one search and rescue of an injured hiker on Mount Belknap. So that's it. A little bit of light show. We don't have any guest stomp. We've been doing a lot of guests lately, but, uh, anyway, I'm Mike and I'm stomp. Let's get started. Shall we? Let's get started. Very good. So first up here, we originally had this as breaking news. News, but it's not breaking news anymore.

[00:19:22] It's been like four days, but stomp wanted to talk about the American Airlines flight that collided with the U.S. Army Blackhawk. This happened on, I think Thursday. A terrible tragedy. Uh, probably I think about 14 or 15 people from the Boston area from the U.S. or for you involved in Boston figure skating club, um, were involved in this action and a terrible action. I think my takeaway on this is that, you know, there's a lot of politics and BS on this.

[00:19:50] I don't think that we should get into that cause we don't know anything about that stuff. But what I can say is that it's pretty clear that the helicopter was flying at an elevation that was above what I think is the authorized sailing of 200 feet. I think they were above 300 feet or around that. So that I think probably contributed to the accident.

[00:20:16] And I also think that like there was an airplane taking off at the same time there was an airplane landing and it sounds like there may have been confusion between, um, the helicopter pilot, what they were supposed to look at. And it's just terrible tragedy, but first accident, first major accident in 20 years in, um, in flying.

[00:20:38] So I saw, I remember I was in New York when the, um, TWA as a TW, it was that flight that, um, kind of blew up over, uh, Long Island. Yeah. I remember that. I think it was maybe a TWA flight, but I had to fly out like the next day and I was freaking out. It was scary. Yeah, I know. Everybody's sweating it. Yeah. It's crazy. But, uh, terrible story. I don't know if you have any thoughts.

[00:21:04] The thing I heard was the, the, the two minute long audio, which is absolutely bizarre. They're trying to, to page the, the Blackhawk and this, this no response for two minutes. It's just absolutely bizarre. So yeah, fog of war type of situation. I wanted to just chat about it because we have so much Blackhawk activity up here in New Hampshire. It just gives you a little insight into, uh, how dangerous it is to actually get into these things.

[00:21:32] And, uh, you know, it's sad all around. Yeah. Yeah. And Reagan airport in particular is like a nightmare to fly in and out of. And I, I mean, I don't know much about aviation, but like from my perspective, I mean, I've flown in and out of DCA, like probably a dozen times, maybe even more. Yeah. Um, back when I was poor stomp. Now I only do nonstop flights, but I used to be poor. Yeah. Or more poor. And I would have to do layovers.

[00:22:00] And a lot of times, I think it was Delta or maybe American. One of them, I always ended up having to layovers and Reagan, right? I'd have to like change planes. And it was a nightmare. Yeah. You like, you come in, you bang like a one 80, and then you go in over the Potomac. Right. And like, there's just a lot going on there and it's a short runway. And it's just like a, well, you wadi is a little bit worse, but like Reagan is terrible. Yeah. You've got all the diplomats flying in and around. You've got the military flying in and around. It's insane.

[00:22:30] But the communication is so heavy there too. So the whole thing is weird about, hopefully we'll find out some more info. I think, I think that the, like the, I think the helicopter pilot was just flying a little too high. So that's what I don't know. Like, is it a big deal between 200 and 300 feet from a Blackhawk pilot's perspective? Or is that not a big deal to me? It seems like, like if you're supposed to be under 200 feet, then that seems like a big deal. But I don't even know if that would have made a difference in this case.

[00:22:59] Maybe we still would have clipped the plane. I don't know. Well, I remember when we had the guest on talking about the Blackhawk that they would write out their plans. So it's not ad hoc. They don't just jump in and go. They have a plan written down before they even turn the engine on and go. And sometimes these plans are set up days in advance. So something, something, somebody or something happened that's very unusual.

[00:23:28] Yeah. Well, we'll see what happens. It's wild. Keep an eye on it, Stomp, and let us know what comes of it. Yeah. All right. So now we've got other breaking news here. We have an, are we ready to make this announcement stomp of a, of a, like a evolution of the show? Sure. Yeah, let's do it. Okay. It's got to break sometime. So, okay. Can you put in like the breaking, can you, you know that like, um, the, um, what is that? Like Morse code and it's like breaking news.

[00:23:58] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Can you, if you could put that in this section, that'd be cool. I can do that. All right. Um, so yeah, we're not going to change this, this show, but we are going to launch a new slasher show, uh, which is going to be called. So you wanna. And the premise of it is, is so you want to hike like stop. We're going to keep it brief on this. We usually don't keep it pre built. We're going to try to do 10 to 15 minute shows, maybe even quicker, just with a basic breakdown of like you.

[00:24:27] So you want to hike Mount Washington via Ammanusik and we're just going to tell people how to get to the trailhead, what the hike is like. All the, what you should consider all the details and then what trails you can go down. And then, um, just some tips for, you know, maybe here's a good spot to take a picture or whatever. And then that way we're going to have another, eventually we'll have another feed. That's going to be the sounds like a search and rescue podcast.

[00:24:54] So you wanna feed and you're going to be able to look it up and say like, all right, I'm going to hike isolation this week. And I'm going to look and see, there's a 10 minute episode where Mike and Stomp are like guests. We're going to have guests on experts. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, it's going to be cool. So it'd be fun. It'd be like an audio version of the, uh, AMC guide, but a little, little different. A lot more info. And eventually, eventually we're going to try to use AI to imitate us and you'll never even know.

[00:25:24] That would be nice. Exactly. So anyway, so sounds like a search and rescue. So you wanna, so you wanna, so you wanna, and you'll be glad to know by the way that our favorite voice actor is participating in the intro and outro. Very exciting. Very nice. Exciting. All right. All right. Um, so we've got a list of New Hampshire stuff going on right now. All right. So it's cold. First up. Yeah. So talk about cold.

[00:25:54] It's cold. Tonight, there's a warning. It's supposed to be minus 20 plus degrees base temperature. Tomorrow morning is going to be like minus one. Oh, it's rough. So it's supposed to warm up though over the next few days, but minus 28 wind chill. Can you imagine? Oof. I, I, I, stop. I don't have to imagine. I literally like, I, I, I, I'm the one that hikes around here. I just experienced minus 28 degree wind chill today.

[00:26:24] Right. And I'm doing 50 miles an hour. You can imagine. I can experience. Oh, yeah. Well, when you're doing 50, this is another interesting point about the snowmobiling. People show up and they have no clue about clothing. They show up with boots that they think are going to be warm. But when you're moving that fast in these cold temps, the wind just gets right through every little tiny seam. So you got to definitely be ready for this weather. Holy moly.

[00:26:51] There was an interesting post on the 4,000 footer Facebook page this week about, um, somebody had posted about using a hunting boots. I didn't even know this, but there's hunting boots that have 900 grams of thinsulate. Did you know this? Wow. That's a lot. That's cool. Like, uh, the mucks, the mucks. I don't know what they are, but it was interesting because basically there was a guy advocating

[00:27:19] for, you know, you should use these and my feet stay super warm. And he was actually right about one thing. He's like, you do not need to wear heavy socks with these and you can keep your circulation. And then plus with the thinsulate, it will keep, you know, it keep everything warm. Mm. And, um, so he's right about that. I generally, but I think the, what the commenters and I didn't know anything about these boots, so I wasn't able to comment or anything.

[00:27:46] Not, I usually don't even comment, but, um, once in a while I'll hit a like button, but that's it. I see the commenters are basically saying like those boots are no good for high. There's no traction and that they're too heavy or something. So I don't know that maybe they would work for snowmobiling. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe my feet sweat just naturally. Like I can't go too heavy with the, uh, insulation or I'd be causing a different problem. But yeah, the clothing's out there. Excuse me.

[00:28:15] Stomp is an extremely sweaty person. I am. I really am. It's troubling. See, this is my weather. This is my summer. I don't sweat so much. So I feel like it's normal. Normal temps. You know, those, those types of dog breeds where people send them out in the backyard and they get covered in snow and then the neighbors will call the police. But then the police come and you explain like, no, this is like a Bernie's mountain dog. And they'd like to be in there. Whatever. This is their wheelhouse. Yes.

[00:28:45] Um, all right, stop this bin, but all I have here is, um, under New Hampshire stuff, Bobcat sighting times two. Yeah. Yeah. I saw two Bobcats in two separate locations last week. Wow. I had no idea. The, the, the stubby tail cats, they're about the size of a medium sized dog. And in, on both instances, they were about 10 feet away from me before they jumped into the woods. Absolutely beautiful.

[00:29:10] I've never seen them before, but they are here alive and well. So, Stomp, if you had to fight a Bobcat, who do you think that you could win? Or do you think that you would lose? Absolutely terrifying thought. Cause I can't even, I can't even fight Zylo. He gets his claws in you and you're just like, let go, let go. You're bleeding to death. Like I can't even imagine. These things are big. Do you, do you have to cut their claws? Oh, they're good. Yeah, we do.

[00:29:40] How do you do that? Uh, you have to wrap them up in a towel basically so that their other three limbs are immobilized and then you can just grab their free paw and clip them quick. Uh, Mr. Stomp is a pro at it. Um, you can clip them too short and then puncture into a, uh, like an artery or a vein. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The, the Kurian or whatever that is. Yeah. My dog, we had one of the, we had an issue with that. Yeah. It's translucent though. So you can see where it starts in the nail. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:30:10] I think we did that to my dog by mistake one time and he was always difficult with his nails. Yeah. So, okay. Well, anyway, Stomp saw bobcats and then he doesn't think that he could take them in a fight. Stomp, do you have an opinion on, um, there's always the debate about like whether or not there are mountain lions in New Hampshire. Right. I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I can't make heads or tails out of what I've heard for information.

[00:30:37] And I really don't have any inside, you know, baseball from fishing game officers or anything like that. Okay. Yeah. How about you? Um, Sasquatch, yes, but I'm always down for a good like conspiracy and, uh, I, so I want to believe, but I don't know. I don't think there's any evidence. I do know that there was a mountain lion that got hit by a car in Connecticut like 15 years ago. So it's possible that they could come up through wherever they are in South Dakota or something. So.

[00:31:08] Right. But anyway, it would be cool. It would be cool if we've got a mountain lion in New Hampshire. Mm hmm. Stomp, are you a hockey player? No, I'm not. Nope. You skate. I can skate when I have to. Can you skate backwards? Yes. Yeah. Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. Are you a skater? I was a, uh, I never played hockey.

[00:31:38] Um, I used to, I think when I was younger, younger, like my cousin and like all their friends, they played hockey and we used to go to birthday parties and they would go to the skating rink and I couldn't skate. So I was like that kid on the side, you know, I had weak ankles. I was a little guy. I was a little guy. And I, yeah, I would kind of hang onto the boards, but eventually I grew up and I, my ankles got strong and I started skating in high school, like just pond hockey and I would

[00:32:08] go play. But now I am very, like, I'm very good skater stomp. Did you ever use the, uh, the plastic gallon, um, boxes? Like you stack them up. No, no, my kids did. Three, four high. My girls did. That was awesome. They would do the milk crates. Yeah. Mrs. Tom had to do that once and she was a grown woman. How embarrassing. Shame. Shame. Anyway. So, um, I certainly like, so I can skate, I can skate backwards. Um, I can shoot the duck. I have no idea what that means.

[00:32:38] What the hell is that? You don't know what that means? No. You don't know what that means? You like, let's see if I can describe this. So if any listeners know, shoot the duck, um, please like comment on this week's episode, but yeah, you have to like, basically you like, you stick one leg straight out and then you fall down on top of one foot. Okay. So you're kind of like, um, yeah, so you're sitting on your skate and then sticking one leg forward. That's called shoot the duck. Okay.

[00:33:07] It's a roller skating thing, but I could do it on ice skates too. Yeah. That makes sense. Okay. I don't think I could do it now. I think I'd probably tear tear an ACL. So anyway, but, uh, the reason we're talking about hockey is that the 16th annual New England Pawn Hockey Classic. It's gonna be a cold one. Um, yeah, it's going on this weekend. So, um, it'll be over by the time we release this, but, um, have a good shout out to everyone that went, uh, no, it's, it's, it goes until Sunday.

[00:33:35] Uh, but there's over 275 teams competing in 500 plus games across 26 ranks. Yeah. Um, so this brings the sport back to the basics. So it looks like a good party. I think it's in, what is it an Alton day? Uh, I, it's usually in Meredith, right? Oh, it's in Meredith. I believe so. I, but they finally have snow, which is great or ice that is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you can see, um, you can look at the tournaments.

[00:34:06] They have a 60 plus open division. They've got, uh, I don't know. Hockey's always got these weird, like they have a twig division, a duster division. They've got a shinny. I don't know what all these mean. Ooh, I looking at some of the team names. They have a team name called the dangle berries. Oh, nice. There's the outlaw Josie whalers. Huh?

[00:34:32] The Boston cream pies, the ice holes. Of course. Yeah. Classic. Jager bombs. Yep. I can pick out the attendees now. Oh, the, the mass holes. There's a mass hole team. That must be Jimmy Chaga. That must be Jimmy. Probably. So yeah. So if you can, we'll put this in the show notes so you can check this out, but yeah, the, just like go onto the tournament, like the team names and you can see here. Oh, let me see.

[00:35:01] The predators are four and oh in their division. So. Coors lightning. The angry lightning. Coors lightning. That's pretty good. That's awesome. That's the only way the pawn hockey classics. Stomp. If we, if it's the slasher podcast had to spawn, be a, be a pawn hockey team, what would our name be? Oh, damn. Hmm. That's a tough one.

[00:35:31] How do you listeners like, you know, put a comment on the Instagram listeners. And if anybody comes up with a good slasher theme name, we'll give you a shout out. I don't know. How do you combine hockey and hiking into one team name? It's a tough one. I don't know. I don't know. But okay. Okay. Moving on. We got a couple of events here. Stomp. So do you want to, you want to share these events? Yeah. Let's see. We have a, an event coming up for the Mount Washington Observatory.

[00:36:00] Ty Gagney, our good friend is going to be presenting and signing books on February 8th at 4.30 PM to 5.30 PM. And this is for our beloved Massachusetts listeners. So apparently this is in the Meditech Auditorium, 7 Blue Hill River Road in Canton, Massachusetts.

[00:36:25] So Ty's going to be crossing the border and heading down to Massachusetts to sign books and present. Reservations are definitely a good idea. And that's coming right up. It's a nice little thing for the Southerners. Let's see what else we have here.

[00:36:49] We have a 48 Peaks winter event reminder as well that was sent to us. And this is Saturday, February 8th. And another event in Massachusetts. Can you believe this? This is so great. So from Massachusetts is getting a lot of love. Yeah, for sure. So from 2 to 4 PM, public lands, Framingham, Massachusetts, you can join them. It's free.

[00:37:17] And there's, we will give you the registration link. So you're joining Alzheimer's Association and the public lands for the, this winter hiking safety event. So you're learning about winter hiking safety tips, the 10 essentials for your winter pack and more. So that sounds super cool. Man, mass is getting the love for sure. This is great. And then what's next? That's it. Oh yeah.

[00:37:43] I just signed up to do a few DJ gigs for Aravipa this summer. So if you're running, come on, come on by and say hi, but I will be doing the White Lake Ultras on May 3rd. Race the cog June 28th. Even if you're not running, you have to come and see this. This is one of the best events of the summer. The runners actually race the cog up the access road to the summit. It's absolutely the coolest thing ever.

[00:38:12] And let's see Jigger Johnson later in the summer, August 16th and 17th. And that's down in Waterville Valley. So it's good to be doing a few tunes here and there. Yeah. Yep. Cutting back though. Cutting back. Okay. All right. Yeah. I know you're a very busy guy, Stomp. Yeah. Try to be. Keeps me out of trouble. So yeah, it does. It does. All right. So, um, and thanks for covering those cause I'm busy working hard over here, updating

[00:38:42] the Instagram story with photos of actual hikes. That's your new year's resolution. Right? Nice job. Nice job. Thank you. So yeah, I'm post, I'm actually doing like, I do the stories. Now I've become an Instagram expert. And then now I do posts of all the hikes. Next up reels. Oh, I could, I was thinking about making a reel tonight because we, I videotaped our friend Nick from the PUDS podcast. I videotaped him.

[00:39:12] Um, he was breaking trail and it was, it was tough. Huh? What would you title that reel? Nick breaking trail. Yeah. Breaking, breaking trail. Current conditions. Right. Yep. What music would you add to it? Um, I don't know, Stomp. That's a good question. I, I, it's too much, too many decisions. Yeah.

[00:39:41] Reels, a reels away to too much, too much. Yeah. Yeah. Let me, yeah. Let me just be consistent on one thing first. Um, all right, Stomp. So national news here. Um, REI has announced that they are hiring a new CEO. So let me just see. Let me look here.

[00:40:05] So Eric arts is the current CEO and, uh, he announced on January 22nd, he announced to his employees that he's going to retire at the end of March. And, uh, the board is pleased to announce Mary Beth Lawton, who was a former REI board director has accepted their invitation to become REI's next president and CEO. So her first day with the co-op will be on February 3rd.

[00:40:35] So I think that's Monday or Tuesday. Um, she's going to join initially as president, giving her time to focus on getting to know our people and our membership before stepping into the responsibility of CEO and the day to day running of the co-op on March 31st. Stomp, if you were the CEO and you had to start a new job, what would be the like first thing that you do? Do you, do you know how to be a CEO? Uh, CEO.

[00:41:02] I mean, if you're, if you're running a failing company, I probably have to cut costs ASAP. Stomp. So I'd hire you. I'd hire you to hire the hatchet men that would cut the budget to shreds. I feel like maybe they've already done that, but no, you go on a listening tour, Stomp. You have to go on that when you're a new CEO, you have to go on a listening tour and listen. Yeah. You talk to everybody.

[00:41:32] This is why everything is going poorly. Go, you, you find out the strengths and the weaknesses and the opportunities. Yeah. Well, I think REI has sort of figured that out. Haven't they? They are, they're already axing some of their outdoor programs. So I think they saw the weak, weak links in there getting rid of those links. If I remember correctly. Yeah. But yeah, you're right. Listening is an important thing. I don't know much. I honestly don't know much about REI. I like REI. I like all these retailers for sure.

[00:42:00] But so Mary Beth Lawton, she grew up outside Chicago. So that's, that's one strike against her. Cause like, I feel like Chicago is not an outdoorsy type of place. But she's currently living in Portland. So then that maybe she made up for it. So she's got two teenage children and two dogs. The dogs names are Bodie and Stella. Those are cool names. Bodie Miller. And she's going to be, yeah.

[00:42:29] She's going to be based in the REI office in Issaquah, Washington. When she's not visiting stores, distribution facilities and spending time with employees, members, partners, and advocates for the outdoor. So she's going to be listening stomp. And her background was that she led Nike's global retail and digital direct to consumer business.

[00:42:50] And she was previously CEO of Athleta, which is one of Mrs. Mike's favorite, favorite stores, Athleta. She led the company through a period of significant revenue growth. And previous to that, she ran Sephora North America. That's another store that Mrs. Mike and my daughters really like. Sephora. I think that's makeup. Mm-hmm. Is it? So then-

[00:43:20] Are these stores open still in malls? Yeah. Yeah. Athleta and Sephora. Those are big, so the kids tell me. Can I get an update on Liberty Tree Mall? Is that still open in Danvers? I can give you an update on Liberty Tree Mall, Stomp. So I went to see- So first of all, I'm an expert in Liberty Tree Mall because that's where I used to sleep over my Grammy's house when I was a young buck. She lived in a mobile home park, Stomp.

[00:43:48] We grew up hard in my- She grew- Grammy and Grampy lived in the mobile home park off of 114 in Danvers. Hardcore. That's hardcore. I would sleep over on Friday night. She would make Franks and beans. Wow. And we would watch- I'm reminiscing here. Lawrence Welk. We would watch Lawrence Welk. Yes. Yes. Thank you. I did the same thing. Same thing. And then in the morning, we would watch Handlepin Bowling and then Grammy and Grampy would

[00:44:15] take us to Ann and Hope's because Grammy was a seamstress. Oh. So she had her bit- So we would go to Ann and Hope and get all of her like yarn and all that stuff. I remember that section was killer. Yep. And then we would go to the coffee shop that was attached to Ann and Hope's and have coffee and donuts. If I was- And if I was really lucky, she would take me to the pet store and I could look at the dogs.

[00:44:40] And then when I got a little older, if I was really, really lucky, I would get to go to Aladdin's Castle. My cousin- Play video games. My cousin used to be the manager there. Oh my God. We need to get him on the show immediately. Yeah, that would be really cool in Arcade Edition because that was when those arcades were just so popular. I used to spend my hours in there. Oh my gosh. The Aladdin's Castle? Yeah. Aladdin's.

[00:45:08] You and I probably crossed paths many times. Probably. We were probably standing in line to play Dragon's Lair. 100%. Oh, 100%. You know how much money I probably blew on that game? I got to the end many times. Really? That's impressive. That's a lot of money. I would think so. I never got anywhere with that game. But yeah, so Liberty Tree Mall. I don't know how this is a hiking podcast people, but we're talking about Liberty Tree Mall. So I went there to go see Wicked like a couple of weeks ago and it's like- That theater is great. It's a sad shell of itself. Oh, I bet. It's like a ghost.

[00:45:39] Yeah. They have a like, they do have this like weird, I thought it was an, I thought it was a, I thought it was a tech company or something. Yeah. But it's, but then I looked and I was like, there was a coffee bar there and then I think it's a cult. I don't know what it is. It's some kind of a church. Interesting. At first I was like, oh, I want to go check this out. And then I realized it was some kind of a church and I said, I'm not going anywhere near that place.

[00:46:07] Well, North Shore Mall has a Catholic chapel in the basement. They do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So the Liberty Tree Mall is sad. It doesn't have, it basically has like two stores in the food court. That's it. There's no, and none of them are like chains anymore. So McDonald's is gone and all that other stuff. It's fascinating. And then it's got like, there's only like one wing that actually has any stores at this point.

[00:46:36] So there's no, what was that store that used to sell the posters and Spencer's, Spencer's gift like that? And there's no Spencer's anymore. I just don't understand how they survive. I mean, I think they were at the height of the game in 1985, 87 maybe. And then from there it just started getting crazy. But I would go to Massachusetts, believe it or not, to go to this mall just to see what it's like. Cause it's such a mind trip.

[00:47:06] Yeah. Yeah. It's depressing. Anyway. But anyway, so we got a couple of other national stores. So anyway, good luck to the new CEO of REI. We got a little off track here, stomp on that one, but good luck to her. And I think REI hopefully if you, so Mary Beth, if you're listening to me, what I would advice I would give you about REI is to try to get back to your roots a little bit. Like let's get a little bit more variety in our, our products.

[00:47:36] It seems like everything is code of pack Paxi or whatever. Like the whole store is Cody Paxi or whatever that is. So yeah. Yeah. So switch it up a little bit. Anyway. Um, all right. So this next one, Dave. Back to hiking. Yeah. Dave shits in the woods, our friend, our advisor. I think he's like our assistant manager of the podcast at this point. He had sent us this, that there's a travel advisory from the Pacific coast trail.

[00:48:02] So travel across the U S and Canada border is no longer allowed on the Pacific crest trail. So Canada border services agency has reviewed the Canada PCT entry permit program and has decided to discontinue it. So there's a lot of tension right now between Canada and the U S I feel like. So travel across the U S and Canada border on the Pacific crest trail is now prohibited. That's right. I, this is disappointing news that said we can appreciate the hikers.

[00:48:33] And the fact that this policy is consistent with the U S policy, which does not allow for entry into the U S via the PCT hikers and equestrians should turn around after reaching the Northern terminus. We asked that everybody travels with the utmost respect for. Is there like a, is there a person like right there that's going to stop you or do you, is it just at the moment I would say, yeah. Yeah. The climate is a hundred percent different now. Okay.

[00:49:01] So people wishing to visit Canada will need to enter the country at a port of entry. So good luck. Yeah. It seems like something that can be managed ahead of time. If you're, if you're planning a trip, then you can contact the border patrol or one of the ports of entry and say, Hey, what do I need to do? Because I'm going to be coming through blah, blah, blah. But yeah, it's just the whole new, uh, restoration of the ports of entry.

[00:49:27] Is the, the purpose to go to Canada from the PCT is that, is there just a closer town where you can get like a, uh, uh, food or like a ride back to where you need to go? Is that why they go to Canada or is it? Well, I think that the trail sort of meanders between BC and Washington state. So you're come, you're coming in and out of two sovereign countries. So yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. It's very interesting. So just be aware.

[00:49:58] Yeah. And if you want to sneak across, sneak across folks. Yeah. It says here, there's a 13 kilometer extension into Canada that some hikers include into their expedition. Hmm. Okay. Proceed at your own risk. Yeah. Right. Okay. Um, Um, stuff. Very good. And then on the Southern border, I think we did a story previously. Like, it sounds like things are a little bit dangerous down there. So if you do where CT, CDT, or P PCT, just be careful.

[00:50:28] Um, and then stomp, you pulled an article here that, uh, we've talked about this before. So there was an executive order. Uh, Jesus. I mean, these things, I can't, I can't keep track stomp. So, um, uh, renaming. Uh, so the executive order saying that we're going to rename Mount McKinley. So it says, President William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States led our nation to victory

[00:50:57] in the Spanish American war. Stomp. I feel like if you look at like all the wars that the U S have fought, maybe I'm like, maybe I'm just, it's just too old. But like, I feel like the Spanish American war was like not one of the big, big ones. Was it? I have no idea. I feel like that's like a minor war. I'm not much of a historian. Anyway, under his leadership, this is McKinley.

[00:51:21] The U S enjoyed rapid economic growth and prosperity, including an expansion of territory gains for the nation. President McKinley championed tariffs to protect the U S manufacturing. I don't know what this is like, he was assassinated in an attack. I didn't know that. Uh, so he should be honored.

[00:51:41] So in 1917, I guess they officially named, um, the highest peak in North America after him. But then in 2015, they stripped the McKinley name from the federal nomenclature. And, uh, now I guess what the secretary of interior is going to reinstate the name Mount McKinley and update the geographic name information system.

[00:52:10] Uh, this is going to go to court. Dude. So yeah. I mean, to boil this down, we've talked about how under the last administration, the U S board on geographic names was on a rampage, just changing everything. Um, so now you have a new administration and they've appointed new board members. So there's, there's a different balance within this board. So they're interestingly enough, um, they want to change it back to McKinley, but they're

[00:52:38] working with the native tribes to, uh, make sure that the land itself around Denali Park, Park, uh, finds. Wow. That was a, you really like, that was a mass. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. I, yeah, that's sort of weird for me. So they're, they're trying to strike a balance between, uh, the naming of certain locations based upon our history, uh, for the country and the, the indigenous. So it's sort of interesting.

[00:53:04] It just, the point being that it's just the political ebb and flow that we witness with these things. So. Yeah. And I think, so for me personally, I just like, I like, I, for whatever reason I feel like, um, you know, Denali seems to work for me. I don't know why. It's a cool name. Yeah. It's a cool name. So I'd say, keep it. I don't know this McKinley. Like I let the look him up, but like, we can give, we can give him a river or something.

[00:53:30] Um, but as far as the naming thing goes. So when the previous administration came in, they did an executive order where they, um, convened a reconciliation and place names committee that would advise the geographic, um, what is it called? The geographic, um, names information system or the geographic name, like whoever the, the committee is there.

[00:54:00] So basically they had a special committee that was like 25, 30 people. And they did like a, they first, they went after derogatory name. So there's a bunch of names that are in the geographic names information system that, that are considered derogatory. They're words that like you would typically assign with like Rachel racial epithets. So they've, they did do good work when it comes to that. And they've, they've made recommendations to change all of those.

[00:54:24] They were working on expanding their purview to historic figures, which that's where it kind of gets dicey a little bit. And that's where I always kind of keep my radar up about the presidential range. Uh, because I don't think any of those guys were perfect as far as like the, the way that they live back then, if you apply it to the rules of today. So anyway, they did a lot of work with the reconciliation and place names, but now obviously that's gone.

[00:54:51] And now we have a new administration that is, um, at least in the early stages, trying to change, um, Denali back to Mount McKinley. And then I think they're trying to change like the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Um, so we'll have to keep an eye to see if there's any other weird place name things, but it's kind of interesting just to see how this ebbs and flows and how like, you know, your vote matters people. So get out there and vote if you care about this stuff. Yeah. A hundred percent.

[00:55:19] But I like the fact that there's balance to this because whether you're, um, indigenous, indigenous or not, we're so far removed from some of these ancient historical events. You have to find balance. Uh, that's the key. You can't be divisive, divisive about some of these decisions. So we'll see. I don't know though. It's okay. Every, every four years stopped. There's like a new sheriff in town. I know it's wild. Anyway.

[00:55:47] Uh, but here's some interesting facts about Denali. It's North America's highest peak at 20,310 feet. It's in Alaska. Um, there's only one 92 mile long road from the entrance. The park was created in 1917 by Congress to protect sheep, I guess, from over hunting. $6 million acres. Massive. One road. Huge. What's up with the one road?

[00:56:17] One road. So hikers use a transit bus for day hikes or a camper bus for backpacking and camping during the summer months beginning in May, the bus schedules robust. Um, I guess you can hike with a ranger for free. And then, um, there's a bunch of tours for like well-prepared or adventurous hikers. And, uh, you can sign up for hikes at the Denali Visitor Center. So you can go onto the website, which is the national parkservice.gov and, uh, and sign up.

[00:56:47] So, uh, that's cool. And then another story we pulled here is, um, stomp. I don't know if somebody shared this with you, but there's a, there's this, um, recreation.gov, which I think you can go on. And, um, that's where, like, I know I go on that to purchase. Like I think recreation.gov is where I could buy my parking pass for the white mountain on an annual basis. And, uh, apparently this, this government website is run by Booz Allen. So I'm familiar with Booz Allen.

[00:57:16] They're a big government contractor. Um, so, but I guess there's some controversy about why they're like fully running the recreation.gov. And then they also collect all of the money. Um, and most of the, I guess, rec.gov, like they handle the national parks. And then there was some lawsuit that because, um, they were charging like a $2 fee in order

[00:57:41] for you to access, um, uh, the website in order for you to buy your park passes. Uh, somebody had sued some electrical engineer figured out that for, uh, for that $2 fee, which they collect over and over and over again, that they never actually got the authorization through like a public comment and an announcement process. So he sued and a federal, federal court agreed with the guy and, uh, they had to stop charging the $2 fee or something.

[00:58:11] So, um, anyway, it's a little bit interesting that like, so when you go on rec.gov, Booz Allen is basically running it, but that's super common stomp. I don't know if this is a big deal, big deal. Like everything's outsourced to government contractors. I suppose. I mean, they were never, they never submitted a bill. They, they get, they got full reign to set the fees. So we're paying this massive company to access the national parks.

[00:58:38] And they give a, uh, an example, Vermillion National Park, where you have, uh, 60, 60 permits to get in there for a day, for instance. And 500 people may try to get those permits. So they're getting fees off of the people that don't even get the permit and they're setting the rates, which can be up upwards of seven to nine bucks to get in. So, I mean, it's grifting.

[00:59:08] It's legal grifting at the very least, but it is what it is. So if I understand this, like, so there's a, like a, a recreation fee and then in order for you to, uh, so they don't, you only have certain amount of, say you get 64 daily visits. You can, you can sign up for a lottery to get in. Right. But you've got to pay a fee of $7 to be in the lottery and only like four to 10% of the people actually get into the lottery.

[00:59:38] So you have to do this over and over again. And there, that's the beef. Right. Essentially like they're running like a, uh, an illegal lottery system and they're charging you like in my, it's ticket master. The way it should work is that you should put your credit card down and then they charge you if you actually win the lottery and everybody else gets no charge. Right. Which isn't happening. It's wild. It's so crazy. As opposed to like just saying, okay, it's going to cost us a hundred thousand to make your website.

[01:00:07] They're just raking in the box. It's crazy. All right. I'm Christina from wild Raven endurance coaching. I work with athletes of all levels from hikers to triathletes, helping you reach your goals with personalized guidance. With years of experience, hiking, mountain biking, and trail running across New England. I also have a deep knowledge of the New Hampshire 4,000 footers and the surrounding trails.

[01:00:37] Whether you're a beginner hiker or a seasoned athlete, I'll guide you towards your goals, reducing injury risk and improving your performance through smart tailored coaching. Are you looking to transition from hiking to mountain running? I'm here to make that journey easier too. My approach combines strength training, mindfulness, and life balance on and off the trail. Let me help you find more joy in your sport while getting stronger and healthier along the way.

[01:01:05] Visit www.coaching.christinafulsick.com and start your adventure today. Let's talk about hand warmers, shall we? No, no. We have one other thing. So our friend Al, who often gives me interesting and informative articles. Who is Al? We should get Al in soon. Yeah, I need to, actually I'm going to invite him on.

[01:01:34] He got on. Yeah. We're going to talk about, he's a, I need to talk to him and see what he wants to do for a topic, but we're going to have him on. Interesting. So veteran hiker explains how minor injury led to double amputation. So this gentleman, Max Armstrong, he's an experienced adventurer who's weathered all manners of injury. He's a 40 year old hiker and he did the, I don't know if it was the CDT or the PCT in

[01:02:03] 151 days in 2016. So he's an experienced hiker. On December 2nd, Armstrong was on a relaxing camping excursion with a group of friends. When he was cooking dinner, he burned himself on the skillet. He was just transferring the skillet from the campfire to the table and he burned a portion of his thumb in the process. It was just a little burn. He didn't think anything of it at the time.

[01:02:29] But by December 4th, the little burn had not begun to heal and Armstrong's ankle had begun to swell. He rationalized the swelling saying it probably happened while he was getting out of the camper wrong. I just thought I twisted it. But when his friends told him he was talking crazy in his sleep, he knew he had to go to the emergency room. So on December 2nd, he burns himself. December 4th, he's talking crazy in his sleep.

[01:02:52] So once he arrives, the doctors diagnosed Armstrong with sepsis, which is likely the result of strep A bacteria infecting his burn. By the end of the night, I was in a medically induced coma. A few days after that, Armstrong developed toxic shock syndrome. At this point, his body really quickly started to eat away itself. The doctors informed Armstrong and his wife and family that they should consider the possibility he wasn't going to make it. He woke up on December 13th.

[01:03:22] His feet were black and felt as though they'd been crushed. The doctors casually floated the idea of amputation and passing. So he was aware of the possibility. At first, I was like, no, there's no way they're taking my feet, he said. But even attempting to walk in early physical therapy sessions was so painful that he started to come around to recognize that the feet weren't going to be an option to keep. So they had to make the tough choice. They were black and the veins were cooked.

[01:03:51] So they just looked like they'd never be able to be used again. So it was a tough choice, but he came to terms with it. And on December 23rd, he had surgery to amputate both of his legs before the, below the knees. Um, the blood infection also resulted in blood clots. So he's got a GoFundMe page and luckily the doctors have managed to help lessen the size of the clots and minimize the chances of additional health complications. So, holy crap. Wow. But he said there's no question in his mind that he will be hiking in the mountains by this

[01:04:21] time next year. I really do feel like this journey was an opportunity for me to prove to others that, um, things can be overcome. I dream most about just hiking around my house with my dogs, just going on a long walk. So, Max, if you listen to the show for whatever reason, you know, thoughts and prayers are with you and hopefully you, you get up that mountain. Wow. That's incredible. And it's a lesson like, you know, if you, anything weird happens when you have a cut like that, like just go, go to the doctor. Don't hold off. Yeah.

[01:04:50] Interesting though, that it was a burn of all things, which you think might sterilize. On his thumb. Yeah. Yeah. Fascinating. It's best if you just stay inside and sit on the couch like me. Yep. Wrap yourself in bubble wrap. Um, all right. So these electric hand warmers. So, um, people have been asking me about them. So I got them on Amazon. I'm going to post them on the show notes.

[01:05:15] They are in, they're called AI hand warmers rechargeable two pack. They're a 6,000 ma h electric hand warmers. They're supposed to last for 20 hours. My experience with them is that on the first level of power, like they'll last for three hours or so, three, four hours, keeping it warm. What I've been using them for is to just hang out next to my phone and it keeps my phone warm. Actually today was an interesting situation.

[01:05:45] So I had both of them on my phone. And then when I take my phone, I took the glove off of my phone and I took the glove off my hand and then I took the phone out and my phone was warm. So I was able to hold onto my phone with my hand in like minus 25 degree windshield. And I probably got an extra like minute cause my hand wasn't as cold right away. And I was able to take some photos. Hmm. How is it on the fingers? It's fine if I just wrap my, my hand around it.

[01:06:14] Hmm. It's, it's like a little, like a, it looks like a beeper. Wow. Basically. And, uh, it was good. I was hiking with some less experienced winter hikers, um, the last couple of weekends and like one of them had cold hands and I was able to give him my electric hand warmers and they warmed them right up. So yeah, I recommend them. I actually think they're really useful. I've been using them all, all winter and I'm a huge fan. Yeah. I've been having an issue with my fingers, um, in this weather.

[01:06:43] You know, there'll be times where it just gets really numb and I got to shake them out and actually swap out to polypropylene polyester gloves, which warm them up again. But this, this weather has been a challenge. Right. Right. Um, so yeah, I recommend them. I like them. Um, and, uh, I think that if you have challenges, the thing I like about them the best is that you can hit them on like the third level and they really fire up extremely hot.

[01:07:13] So if you have like a, an emergency situation where somebody is really not able to get the warmth back in their hands, they're a lot stronger than the chemical hand warmers that you use. Hmm. Cool. Cool. Well, anyway, that's, that's the electric hand warmers. And then stop this at the part of the show where we do a dad joke. All right, let's hear it. So I was very excited. I was, um, getting ready to meet up with some friends to hike the wildcats a couple of weekends ago.

[01:07:41] And I went, as I often do, I use the opportunity in the early mornings to stop off at Pinkham Notch. And I go downstairs into that little like, um, warmup setup area there. And then I go to the bathroom and then, um, you know, head out afterwards. So I did that. And as I went into that area, very rarely do I ever see anyone in there, but this was a, a busy morning. I think that there was a group of red line guide.

[01:08:09] Um, there was a group with red line guiding that was going up to the observatory overnight, I believe. Wow. Cool. And then there was another group that was like, it looked like they were getting ready to climb Huntington. So I think it was a red line guiding guy may have been another guide, but he made an announcement as I was walking through, he made an announcement and he said, okay, folks, last chance to you use the bathroom.

[01:08:38] And if you don't use it, otherwise you will have to use the facility trees outside. So the facility trees, meaning you have to pee outside. Right. Yeah. So I was like, that's a good dad joke. Yeah. We, we say that with, uh, the, the tours. Oh, you say that too? Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes it happens. Yep. So you can use the facilities now, or you can use the facility trees.

[01:09:08] But a bump. Exactly. And I was so excited because I was like, I just heard a dad joke in the wild. They come to you when you least expect them. That's right. Do you know, um, I often have to use the facility trees after I drink coffee stomp. Oh, really? What kind of coffee are you drinking? It stirs me up. CS coffee. Oh, wow. They're awesome. Athlete ready. Apparently. Right. That's right. Athlete ready. CS instant coffee.

[01:09:39] www.csinstant.coffee. Dude, this is like the longest episode ever. We came into this saying, oh, this would be quick. Well, we'll be done soon. I think. Not that we're rushing, but we could talk all night. We could. We could. So I'm going to hit the wall in a minute. But anyway, so speaking of coffee, um, coffee donation stomp. Yes. Uh, why don't you do your plugs? All right.

[01:10:03] So I, I sort of went poking around the, uh, buy me a coffee site and I set up a, a member site if anybody is interested. So you can actually become a monthly supporter of the podcast if anybody's interested. So if you do make a donation at the slasher buy me a coffee, which you can find off of the Instagram link tree, there was a small little box that you, that you can tick to become a monthly supporter.

[01:10:31] So dig a little deeper and, um, you can get some details about that, but, uh, yeah. Um, any support will help for sure. Yeah. If you can, if you can donate more coffee stomp can actually like buy more to not do this snowmobiling stuff and then we can be focused on the podcast. Right. Very good. Um, all right. This is the part of the show where we, um, talk about beer stomp. I am drinking a beer.

[01:10:59] So, um, I went hiking today with a group of friends and, um, our friends, Jakester and Julie, um, they were going to go with us, but then Jake wasn't feeling well and they decided not to, but they were driving by the trailhead where we were and Jakester left three beers on the, um, the dashboard of the Mike mobile. Huh? And I'm now drinking one of them, which is a whole lot of haze IPA from Smutty Nose. That's awfully nice. Yeah. That was great. Very thoughtful.

[01:11:28] I wasn't ready to have the beer in the parking lot cause I was pretty cold, but I was like, I'm going to take it back and I'm going to drink it during the show and give Jake and Julie a shout out. Yeah. Yeah. You've been cutting back on the beer. Are you trying to get in shape or something there? Something. Something. Yeah. I'm flying solo over here. Mrs. Stomp is not drinking either, but, uh, just a classic storm along for me. A little cider. Um, tasty. It's really nice.

[01:12:00] Last night we, um, just to let you know, we went out to visit one of my daughters out in Keene. She's a teacher out there and, uh, went to this cool restaurant called 21 and, um, I had some weird, like, um, it was like a gin and tonic, but it was a blood orange gin and tonic, which is very different. So that was nice. But, uh, yeah, cutting back on the beer and all that stuff. I, I'm starting to look like Odysseus on a Greek island.

[01:12:30] That's been starving to death, which is good. That's good. All right. Well, um, why don't we go with notable, uh, listener hikes? Matter of fact, before you, before you start giving the list, I do want to, um, tell a fun story. So, um, I ran into listener Spence on, um, my way up to Mount Tom last weekend. Do you know how I know about that? I, did I tell you? No, you posted on Instagram. Oh, I did. That's right.

[01:12:59] That's right. So he, and maybe not everyone sees it, but he has unlocked the, um, the method to get, to win every time. So he, he told me, he saw me on trail and he's like, Hey Mike, can you introduce himself? He's like, I'm a listener. And, uh, he told me, he's like, I've won the notable listener hike of the week for out of four times. And he's like, I, you know, tell Dave that I've, uh, I've unlocked the secret.

[01:13:27] I think Spence may have jinxed himself because there's somebody up here on the list. That's pretty notable. Okay. All right. You see that last one? You see that last one? That's pretty cool. But anyway, let me, let me, let me tee this up. Okay. So if you want to be a notable listener hike of the week for slasher, just tag us on Instagram and, uh, we will consider your hike for slasher's hike of the week.

[01:13:53] So we have first off Dan VDV hiked Lincoln and Lafayette for number 36 and 37 for the winter 48. Nice job. A bomb Graham tagged us a few times hiking cannon and then also finished the winter 48 on cannon. Also met the New Hampshire wild crew on his, Oh, the NH wild crew on his finish. Cool. Yeah. So just a heads up on this one.

[01:14:22] So Adrian or a bomb, he was, um, he was breaking. So first of all, he finishes winter 4,000 footer on cannon. He met the New Hampshire wild crew. He also met the slasher, um, PUDS podcast crew. When we did the Zealand hike, he was coming down lending hand as we were heading up. So he helped us break trail. So shout out to, uh, to a bomb Graham. That's cool. Yeah. He's, uh, always tagging us and stuff.

[01:14:52] Uh, our boy, Dave does whatever in the woods, uh, did province road, mountain jewel hill in Romney and, uh, also went down south to Manetnock for a rare Dave shits in the woods. Five out of five rating, which doesn't happen often. Yes. Liz Fay tagged us for bald mountain in Campton, which is a really, really neat hike. It's a loop.

[01:15:19] Um, and it offers a view of, uh, cardigan to the south west. And that's, it's just awesome. I maybe clocks in at two and a half, three at the most. And then finally, just coming in about an hour ago, we got tagged for a hike with Zach Camo and Nick, Nick seven who, uh, did Jackson for their very first winter 4k. So this is pretty cool list.

[01:15:47] That is only one wins. Only one win stop. Well, what do you want to do a second place, third place? I may have to do a co-winner here. So, so definitely a bomb Graham is winning for sure. And then, um, I'd like to give it to Liz, but I'm a little bit nervous that Dave might've been hiking with her. And then I don't want to actually accidentally give it to her and then find out that Dave was with her.

[01:16:17] I don't know. I think they might've been separate on that one. All right. Well then I will give it to a bomb. Nice for sure. Because he finished, um, his winter 48. And then, uh, I want to give it to Zach and Nick, Nick too, because it's their first winter hike. So I want to motivate them to keep going. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. And yeah. Not to diminish Dan doing Lincoln Lafayette for 36, 37.

[01:16:43] I mean, we'll get to him when he finishes his, pick it up, Dan, you got another month to go. Uh, but yeah, we'll go with a bomb Graham and, uh, Zach and Nick, Nick. Right on. That's awesome. Sorry, Liz. Congratulations. There was much rejoicing. It was much rejoicing. All right. So now this is our segment of the week here, so it's not much, but I, we did want to give a recap. So I did two hikes in the last two weeks. So last weekend I went up with my daughter and her boyfriend and then, uh, our friend Steve

[01:17:12] and from the Cape and then, uh, Mark Lindenberg, Nobby Hikes joined us. And then, um, we also have my, my coworker Felipe joined us. So we had a great crew. Caroline needed Mount Tom because like years ago we hiked Willie and Tom. Um, we hiked, um, Willie field and then we, we got to the junction of Tom and she wasn't feeling well. So we just went down and we said we'd come back and get Tom.

[01:17:40] So that last week was the day that we went and we got Mount Tom. And then because we were up there, we decided that we were going to climb to Mount field and then go down and get some views on Mount Avalon. So essentially like we get to the parking lot where you want to park in the trailhead is, um, at the Highland center. You just park right on the road by the train depot. And then, um, there are picnic tables and a couple of places where you can sit down.

[01:18:08] Um, my daughter Caroline hadn't gone winter hiking. This was her first winter hike in a year stomp and she put her gators on upside down and backwards. Oh, interesting. So you can insert the shame drop. Yeah. You can insert the shame drop right there. So we, once we got that squared away, I was like, what is happening here? And then we got that squared away and then I got them on snowshoes. We started climbing up. I don't even know what is that AZ trail or whatever it is. So we're heading to Mount Tom.

[01:18:37] Um, Caroline was not feeling the snowshoes. So, um, there was a lot of like taken layers off, putting layers on. Like I was with like, yeah, there was a lot going on there. And then we, we decided that we were going to take the snowshoes off because they didn't feel comfortable with them. Um, so I proceeded with snowshoes and then I think, I think maybe I was the only one that had snowshoes on because it was, it was packed down. There was no need for them. Yeah.

[01:19:07] Um, but I kept my snowshoes on. Everybody else had micro spikes. Um, it's a pretty, pretty mellow climb. I guess there's some sections where it's, it's steep. Hmm. Um, so, but I ran into Spence, was talking to him for a little while. And then we got up towards the, once you get above about 3,400 feet, it gets really like the snow is sticking to the trees. It's deeper.

[01:19:33] There's a different, you can tell that there's a significant difference when you get above that, like 3,000 to 3,400 foot level. Sure. Um, but it was nice enough I ran into our friend Rebecca. Mm-hmm. Um, so socked in hikes. Yep. So I, you know, it was nice to see her and we were chatting for a while. Everybody went up ahead and I was talking to her for like five, 10 minutes, catching up. She's doing another red lining. So she's getting out, she gets out there every day. Round number two.

[01:20:02] Uh, I think three, round three for her. And she's, she's got a great TikTok channel too. So she's doing TikToks and she's updating, um, pretty, pretty much daily. But yeah, it was good to see her. So shout out to Rebecca. And, um, yeah, so we got to Mount Tom. There's not a lot of views there, Stomp. Yeah. Sometimes you can get a view out to like white wall in that area there, but the snow wasn't, wasn't very deep. So. Okay. There was really no view from Mount Tom, but it was like, it was a cool summit.

[01:20:30] You know, there's a lot going on there to look at with the trees and everything. Mm-hmm. Um, and then we made our way over to Mount field. And, uh, that's where it got a little tricky because there was some, um, we had to get heavier clothes on and some of the newer hikers that I was with were having trouble with like just managing the gloves and getting their gear and everything, but we got everybody settled.

[01:20:55] And that's where I actually use those electric hand warmers to help out speed up people warm, get warming their hands up. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, overall it was good. The field is nice. You've got, the thing I like about Mount field is that you've got a, um, the final climb. And then when you look back at that final climb, there's like a, a, like a, a forest that you look out to and then you can see Mount Tom and that's a good photo spot for people. Yeah.

[01:21:25] So I'm going to get to that in a minute, but, um, on Mount field there was a gray J's. So we did a little hello to the gray J's and they were looking for food. And I think what else is my daughter may or may not have had her Disney princess moment there. I heard you say that in the video. That's wicked funny. Yeah. Mrs. Stomp laughed too. Yes. Yeah. So she had a Disney princess moment. And then, you know, we headed down to from there you take, um, I forget what the trail

[01:21:53] is, but you basically go down from Mount field to Mount Avalon, which is a 52 with a view. So field and Tom are 4,000 footers. Avalon is a 52 with a view. Um, and it's basically above Mount Willard. So you go, it's a gentle hike down from field. There was a couple of butt sledding opportunities there that we did. And then we got to Mount Avalon. The final ascent on Mount Avalon is like maybe about 80 feet of a very steep climb.

[01:22:23] Mm-hmm. So we had to do that. And then essentially the, the view on Avalon is very similar to like Willard and, uh, Webster. You, you, you look like right down the, um, Pinkham, no, not Pinkham Notch. Crawford. Um, Crawford Notch. You look right down Crawford Notch. So Avalon was great and it wasn't too windy. We were pretty comfortable. So we stayed up there for about 10 minutes.

[01:22:47] And then from Avalon, we butt sledded down the, the initial shoot right from below and then hiked a little bit, like maybe about a quarter mile to a half a mile. And then it started getting steep and we were able to do extended butt sleds down, um, the, the trail from Avalon. And then we reconnected with the, I think it's the AZ trail. Yeah. And then we were, we just blew out of there. So it was a pretty, pretty easy, you know, all things considered the climb up to Tom was harder than I expected, but not terrible.

[01:23:17] And, uh, I think that everybody did well, you know, Devin and Caroline and Felipe hadn't been out on winter hikes in a while. So it was like they were getting acclimated, but they did great. Mm hmm. That sounds fun. That's a nice, nice little loop. It's a great loop. And there was a ton of people there. Yeah. Out there too. Oh, that's why people don't go. I had somebody on tour today. Not a ton of people, but there was a decent number of people. Yeah.

[01:23:44] Somebody on tour today was like, oh man, I don't do the 48 anymore. It's just too many people. Like, I hear you. I hear you. Yeah. Yeah. It was okay. I, I, I, I am from, and then, um, part two, my next day. Next hike was, uh, actually today. Um, Nick. So if Nick from the PUDS podcast, I've been hiking with him quite a bit this winter. So we did wildcat. I think that was like 43 and 44 for him. So now he, he only has isolation in the bonds left.

[01:24:14] So he was like, I think I'm going to go for isolation. So we had been planning this all week, but we were going back and forth. Cause we didn't, I didn't love the weather. Nobody loved the weather today. We were kind of thinking like, you know, is it going to be okay? It wasn't bad. It wasn't bad. It was, it was a rough ride up cause it was snowing in Massachusetts and it was snowing really heavily through Tamworth when I got, when I got up today. Right. Um, but yeah, we originally, I had thrown out the idea of like Glenn Boulder down, but there

[01:24:43] was no way we would do in that in these conditions. Cause it was going to be like, I think 80 mile an hour winds up in Mount Washington. So I think Glenn Boulder would have been pretty, pretty rough when we got up to Bootspur and Davis path. So yeah, we just decided that we were going to do, um, um, Rocky, what was it? Rocky branch. Is that the name of that trail that we went up? Uh, the connection over to isolation. Yeah, no, it's, it's Rocky branch trail.

[01:25:09] So, um, so yeah, we went up, um, Rocky branch and, um, I'd say, it's a pretty steady climb. It's about, um, you go from 1200 feet up to about 2900 feet and then it flattens out. And then for a winter hike, we basically, we took engine hill bushwhack and then that connects with another bushwhack, which is called ISO express.

[01:25:40] So, um, Rocky branch is the trail. Did I say Rocky hill before? No, no, you got it. I said Rocky branch. All right. So anyway, we were on Rocky branch up until about 3000 feet. Then you get to the, um, engine hill bushwhack, which there's a tree there that has a T carved into it. Mm. It's like a letter T that's carved into it. So then, um, we had this one guy that was behind us originally, his name is Matt and he's a gridder.

[01:26:10] And we were talking to him and he went in front of us. So we were able to follow his trail through the engine hill bushwhack cause it was not broken out. And oh, no, part of it was broken out, but then like the second half was not broken out, but he was struggling to kind of find his way on the trail. So it was me, Nick, um, Paul, Deanna and Steve.

[01:26:37] So there was a group of five of us. And, um, we were basically just sort of taking turns. And I think me and Nick ended up like in the front at the bushwhack part where we had to break trail. So I think you go engine hill, you go up a little bit and then you go down. Um, and then you reconnect with Rocky branch trail for maybe a quarter mile.

[01:27:02] And then you go to the left, you go do river crossing on the Saco and then up into this open forest. So the engine hill is like open forest, but it's also choose your own adventure. So there's no set trail. It's like wherever the people go is where you follow. So, um, and then when you go across the river and you start on the ISO express, essentially

[01:27:27] the ISO express is a direct route up the open forest to the Davis path, right below the, um, the trail that connects to go up to isolation. Um, and you essentially, what you do is you follow the drainage on, um, on that trail. And I don't know the name of the, the drainage there. I'm going to take a look at it, but it's a, it was, um, a pretty straightforward hike.

[01:27:55] It wasn't that hard, but it was, um, I don't know what it was about this hike stop. It was just a lot of like up and down. Mm-hmm. Um, that was, uh, it was a bit of a struggle for me today. Getting old. I guess, I guess. Um, but yeah, they don't have really, I'm trying to see if they have the name of the drainage.

[01:28:17] So if you look at the, if you go off of the trail here, it basically goes into the woods before the, it's on the isolation trail. Yeah. And then you take a left off of that in the drainage that goes almost a little bit to the north of Mount Isolation. Okay. And you just follow that all the way up. Um, and then you come out a little bit north of the Mount Isolation summit and then just head south a little bit. And we popped up on the summit.

[01:28:47] It was probably, I don't know, like zero degrees. And then the wind was whipping at like 20, 25 miles an hour. So I don't know what the wind chill was, but we were fully geared up and we only stayed on the summit for about five, 10 minutes, not even 10 minutes, five minutes max. Mm-hmm . And took some pictures and then got the hell out of there. And then, um, came back down the ISO express. It was broken out. We saw two other groups that were coming up behind us. They were like, Oh, thank you for showing us the way or whatever. And then we headed back.

[01:29:16] And then I really struggled going back over engine hill because it was just a lot of like uphill climb that I wasn't, I just didn't feel like doing. Mm-hmm . And you go basically from, I think about 3000 feet up to 3,200 feet, but it's just a steady, annoying climb. Yeah. And then you dip back down when you reconnect with the Rocky Branch Trail. Um, but yeah, it was a, um, it was a tough hike from East Domp.

[01:29:43] I don't know what it was about today, but it was just a, just a long, I think it was about 12 miles. Could be the weather. And, um, yeah, it was cold. It was cold. We were all kind of hurting today. What comes to mind here is that we rarely talk about what is south, uh, of the Rocky Branch shelter and also the Davis path. Mm-hmm . Like after Mount Isolation, we never talk about Davis path, Mount Davis.

[01:30:10] If anybody's out there and they, they want to tag us on their adventure, please do so because that's a whole area that we really never tackle. Yeah. Yeah. There's, uh, there's Mount Desolation, Mount Davis. Oh yeah. Um, incredible area. I mean, I've been out to like Mount Parker and S and I've been to stairs and resolution, but I've never really connected those. Um, and it's vast out there. It is. It's vast. There's like six summits out there. Yeah.

[01:30:40] Beautiful. Beautiful. The Montalban range is really what it's called. So that is the challenge for the listeners. If that's the area that I got to connect. And then also the dry river is the other one stomp that I've never, I haven't really done much on. Mm-hmm . This is the year. Yeah. But it was good. I mean, it was fun. It was good, good company. And, um, Nick was at 45 for his winter 4,000 footer.

[01:31:10] And then Deanna did issues at 37 for her 4,000 footer list. Yeah. And Paul was at 35. So everybody's kind of making their way through the list. Mm-hmm . That's great. Which was good. So yeah. Well, dude, sometimes you crush it. Sometimes you don't. That's right. Um, and then last but not least stomp, we've got an injured hiker. This happened on Saturday, January 25th.

[01:31:37] A 67 year old hiker from Belmont, New Hampshire was hiking with two family members. She slipped on some ice on the Red Trail on Mount Belknap. I haven't done this one. I've got to close out the, the Belknaps, uh, probably this, this spring at some point, but I haven't done the Mount Belknap. So, um, the hiker, she injured her ankle while descending the trail, trying to bear some weight on it, was unable to do so. So the group placed a call for help.

[01:32:05] So they got rescues from Guilford and Alton fire departments responding along with Lakes Region search and rescue. She's about two miles from the trailhead. So the rescuers were able to stabilize the injury, place her on a litter. And then she was carried to the trail to a waiting side by side. Stomp, is there any decision point where, um, you would carry versus, um, sled somebody out? Or is it always a carry when it comes to like, uh, winter injuries?

[01:32:32] Oh, if you can slide somebody on firm, you know, a snowshoe packed trail, that's always much better than carrying. Got it. Got it. Yeah. The old sked. Sked's the plastic taco. Yeah. And they did say the hiker, um, they were well-prepared. They had a bivy sack, warm clothes and a hike safeguard. So good for them. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[01:32:55] Well, matter of fact, Stomp, I will say, well, for the listeners, this hike in isolation, I, I, another decision point for me, when I look at, um, like distance-wise, if I know I'm going to be like, all right, I'm, I'm going over three miles from the trailhead. So at some point you're five, six miles in, if I'm going over three miles in the trailhead and then I've got zero degrees or five degree temperatures and the windshield is going to be even colder. Yeah. That's when I'm bringing my, I always have my sit pad with my sleeping bag with me, but that's where I'm bringing a sleeping bag.

[01:33:25] You know, I have a bivy, but I also have a sleeping bag just in case somebody gets injured and they're going to be immobilized. I'm, I'm, I'm carrying that extra weight. Yeah. So maybe that's the other issue is that I, maybe I was heavy today and, but I, I, it's a non-negotiable for me if it's, if it's that cold and we're going to be that far from the trailhead, I'm bringing a sleeping bag. Yeah. I think people need to start looking into the bothy bag solution as well. If you're with a group of people, it's a, it's a great instant shelter and is long lasting.

[01:33:56] Yes. So, all right, Stomp, well, I am no longer long lasting. I'm going to go to bed, but we will get this out on Sunday morning and we will be back next week on time on Friday morning. God willing. Yes. Amen. Thank you for listening.

[01:34:16] If you enjoyed the show, you can subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you want to learn more about the topics covered in today's show, please check out the show notes and safety information at slasher podcast.com. That's S L A S R podcast.com. You can also follow the show on Facebook and Instagram.

[01:34:44] We hope you'll join us next week for another great show until then on behalf of Mike and Stomp, get out there and crush some mega peace. Now covered in scratches, blisters, and bug bites. Chris staff wanted to complete his most challenging day hike ever. Fish and game officers say the hiker from Florida activated an emergency beacon yesterday morning. He was hiking along the Appalachian Trail when the weather started to get worse.

[01:35:15] Officials say the snow was piled up to three feet in some spots and there was a wind chill of minus one degree. And there's three words to describe this race. Do we all know what they are? All you want? I'm President James Neeland from New Hampshire Fish and Game. Lucinda, thanks for being with us today. Thanks for having me. What are some of the most common mistakes you see people make when they're heading out on the trails to hike here in New Hampshire? Seems to me the most common is being unprepared.

[01:35:41] I think if they just simply visited hikesafe.com and got a list of the 10 essential items and had those in their packs, they probably would have no need to ever call us at all.