Episode 184 - The Valentines Day Episode, Mt. Washington rescue, Mike and Stomp are Romance experts, Hiking Word Origins

[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.

[00:00:31] Weather observers working at the non-profit Mt. Washington Observatory write this elevation-based forecast every morning and afternoon. Search and rescue teams, avalanche experts, and backcountry guides all rely on the Higher Summits forecast to anticipate weather conditions above treeline. You should too.

[00:00:53] Go to MtWashington.org or text FORECAST to 603-356-2137 And here is your forecast for the weekend of Saturday, February 8th, 2025.

[00:01:17] Friday will be in the clouds with a chance of snow showers, possible snow accumulations of a traced 2 inches. High falling to around 5 below with winds west shifting northwest at 75-95 mph with gusts up to 120 mph, then decreasing to 60-80 mph with gusts up to 100 mph. The wind chill with those winds will be 40 below to 50 below.

[00:01:46] That is nasty. Friday night in the clouds with a slight chance of snow showers, and the clouds with a slight chance of snow showers trending towards in and out of the clouds and partly cloudy skies late. Possible snow accumulations of a traced 2 inches. The low will be around 5 below. Winds will be northwest at 60-80, decreasing to 50-70 with gusts up to 85 mph.

[00:02:10] With another enormous wind chill of 40 below to 50 below. Saturday will be in and out of the clouds under partly cloudy skies with a slight chance of snow showers, mainly early. Trending to in the clear under partly cloudy skies late. Possible snow accumulations of a traced 1 inch.

[00:02:33] The high will be rising to around 0 degrees with winds northwest shifting west at 50-70 mph with gusts up to 85 mph, then decreasing to 35-50 mph. Wind chill will be a balmy 20 below to 30 below. So, dress warm. Winter's still here. And have fun.

[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 Stomp.

[00:03:58] Alright Stomp, we're doing it live. We're doing it live. A little early. A little early. Episode 184. A little early. Stomp is sick folks. Yeah.

[00:04:27] Do you know what you have? Do you have the flu? Do you have the norovirus? Do you have COVID? Do you have like a, just a regular cold? What is the diagnosis? Well, it happened last Friday. So I've been dealing with this for about a week now. And it started right where my right nasal passage connects to my throat. I felt like a brick wall there. And then the next day, it just blew up into an upper respiratory thing. Lost a couple days guide and work. It's been a nightmare. Really? But yeah. Oh yeah. I've been... What's your temperature? Normal.

[00:04:57] Oh, completely normal. Yeah. I usually get walloped with an upper respiratory once a year and it just puts me out for a week. So this is my time. But I'm finally back to work. Alright. Yeah. It's been rough. Well Stomp, I appreciate you powering through for the listeners. Right. Yeah. I don't appreciate you, but you appreciate them. Yeah. Unfortunately, I don't have a cough button, so you'll have to put up with that. Okay. That's not asking much. That's fine. Do you have any secret remedies that you recommend?

[00:05:27] Oh. For me, I'm always like, it's like room temperature ginger ale and saltine crackers is my go-to. It's funny you ask, because I have an almond milk and like, it's sort of like a liqueur, so it's like a cold toddy. Okay. Because I needed something for my voice. So yeah, that's my trick right now. Okay. I don't know what you call that. It sounds very hippie-ish, but okay. I like it. Right.

[00:05:55] 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. Whether you're a beginner hiker or a seasoned athlete, I'll guide you towards your goals, reducing injury risk, and improving your performance through smart, tailored coaching.

[00:06:25] 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. Visit www.coaching.christinafulsick.com and start your adventure today.

[00:06:57] All right, Stomp. So I guess breaking news here. We always around this time of the year, although I wasn't paying attention as much as I should have, but it was Groundhog Day the other day. What day is Groundhog Day? Oh, that's right. I think that was last week sometime. I forget the exact time, but Puxatawney Phil made his appearance. I got it. And what do you think the outcome was? Well, before we do that, can you explain? So Puxatawney Phil, doesn't he live in like, what is it called?

[00:07:26] Gobbler's Knob or something like that in Pennsylvania? Right. Yeah, that's right. Is that what it is? Yes. The event snuck right by me too. I'm usually attentive to that, but yeah, Gobbler's Knob? Is that what it is? The whole thing is crazy. I don't know if that's... Yeah, I love it. I love it. So I'm looking at it here. Unlike previous years, I think this call is pretty accurate based upon what I'm seeing out my window. Yeah. It is Gobbler's Knob.

[00:07:56] All right. So I was correct. So basically there's a Groundhog. I don't think it's the same Groundhog. So I think of over the years Puxatawney Phil, which is the name of the Groundhog, you know, I'm sure they replace him. Hmm. But then like, um, everybody gathers in this town in Pennsylvania and it's Groundhog Day and then they say, what is the rule, Stomp? What is the rule to determine the winter's end? Um, if, isn't it, if he sees his shadow, it's another six weeks of winter?

[00:08:26] I think so. Yeah. But that's the outcome anyway, this time around. So we have a longer winter according to this little rodent. Okay. All right. Well, thanks Puxatawney Phil. Um, so, um, Groundhog Day, I've always thought of that as a, it's a classic movie, but it's, it's, it's, it's a romantic movie Stomp a little bit. Um, are you in a romantic mood today? It's coming up on Valentine's Day. So this is our, this, for the listeners, this is our Valentine's Day episode.

[00:08:55] So he, you better be romantic. Oh my God. That's right. This falls on. Yeah, that's right. Oh, sure. I'm a, I'm always romance. I'm, I'm dripping romance as you can tell. You do. You are. I'm like a media. I would say I'm a medium to low romance person. Right. I've got a fire going downstairs, so I'm going to return to the romance after we're done. Okay. Yeah. I just have like, um, uh, baseboard heat. So I guess I'm like, you're missing out. Yeah.

[00:09:24] I don't have a fire. So good. So good. But that fires help with romance. Yeah. Yeah. I do feel like for the lady listeners, um, well, first of all, Stomp and I are off the market. So you either like you, I would say they'd miss it. Good point. I would say they more like dodged a bullet. This is the better way to put it. Um, but I would think that like, so if you're a listener of the show and you're a single lady, I feel like this is the time of the year to take like a solo trip.

[00:09:54] If you're live, say you're living in Boston, right? And you're working in some big business job or whatever, but you from New Hampshire, but you haven't been back for a while. So maybe you got to come back, check on an ill family member or something. You drive back up to Campton to your little, you know, your little parents house with the, with the farm. Maybe they have a horse. Just maybe. And you know, maybe your car happens to break down on the way there and you run into an

[00:10:21] old high school flame and they happen to be able to fix the car, but they got to order a part and it's going to take a week to get the part for the car. So you're stuck at home with your parents and you learn to reconnect. This sounds like your Waterville story. It's sort of like the Waterville Valley story. So I may be working on a new script here, but I do feel like this is the time of the year for all the ladies to like do, you know, live their Hallmark movie life up here. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's true. Whatever happened to that story of yours?

[00:10:50] I don't know. I have a script somewhere in my Google drive. That one was, that was a good one, but no, this is more of a traditional one where the girl, you know, breaks, you know, she's in the big city life. She breaks down and then she either runs, usually it's either a car mechanic or it's like the local veterinarian. And they always have like two kids, but the wife has tragically died and they're looking for a new mother for the kids or whatever. So yeah, like bridges, bridges of Grafton County. Right.

[00:11:21] Right. Anyway, if you do have a Hallmark story that you've lived and you've met your husband that way, let us know. But Stump, I did want to ask you, can you give us a list of your most romantic hikes and activities in New Hampshire, in the White Mountains? Most romantic. Hmm. Yes. You said that you were- Like that I've been on or would suggest for somebody? Just that you recommend, yeah. Well, here's what I recommend to people on my sled tours.

[00:11:50] The best sunset spot in New England, in my opinion, is the .7 miles up that perch on Capps Ridge. Obviously, it doesn't fall into Valentine's Day, but if you're ever looking for a great sunset, that is probably the best spot in the whites for a little bit of effort. You park right at Capps Ridge, hike up a tad, and then you can look completely west and see the best sunset ever. Yeah, yeah.

[00:12:20] That's a good one. I'm not sure, actually, because it's a lot of bang for a very little amount of work. Oh, yeah. You're already up at 3,000 feet at the trailhead, and then you probably head up another 1,000 before you hit that little rocky outcropping. It's a great spot. Yeah, that's a good call. I pulled the list. I've got a couple here. You can do a romantic hike to Lonesome Lake, I think.

[00:12:48] If you do a late afternoon hike to Lonesome Lake and you circle around the lake to where the hut is, don't go in the hut because everyone's stinky and smelly in there. Oh, you could have hot chocolate in there, but then right as the sun is coming down, you can kind of watch the sun on a clear day. You can watch the sun sort of go down over Lincoln and Lafayette, and it's a nice view with Lonesome Lake covered up in the snow. So, yeah. That's fantastic.

[00:13:16] A cozy getaway on the Omni Mount Washington Resort. Yeah, yeah. Open up your wallet. Open up your wallet for that one. Yeah, that's an expensive one. You know, maybe you get the spa package with your loved one. Yep. Couple massage. Couple massage. You can actually soak in a jacuzzi that Bill Clinton soaked in. I mean, that's worth the money right there. Who knows what soaking in there with Bill. You could also do a weekend getaway in Jackson, New Hampshire.

[00:13:45] I've done this very romantic Neslnook, skating in Neslnook with hot chocolate. Yeah, yeah. With a bridge. Oh, yeah. For sure. Oh, man. Jackson's awesome. Eagle Mountain House is another great one. If you're- Eagle Mountain House, that's a good place to stay. Yeah. Go over to Neslnook. Take a sleigh ride with the horses and then get your hot chocolate and then go skating under the bridge. Yeah, yeah. So many options. It's ridiculous. Yeah.

[00:14:11] This one is dedicated to our friend Jimmy Chaga who used to go into Indian Head Resort. Oh, yeah. Use the heated pool. Yeah. You can take your loved one and- Indian Head is- is really awesome. It's not bad at all. It's always an adventure. You can meet some really cool people in that jacuzzi too. Worldwide. We've met a bunch of Germans. We've met locals. I mean, it's a funny mix in there. Yeah, yeah.

[00:14:40] There's nothing better than like, you know, you fill out your romantic weekend with a bunch of Germans in a hot tub. Right. Hello, Klaus. It's a crazy place. And then I had- I've never been here. I think, matter of fact, Jimmy Chaga has been here. Adventure Suites in North Conway. Oh, yeah. Jimmy has done that. I've never been there. I hesitate, I guess. But, yeah. So each room is a different adventure, right? Yeah, they have a Halloween room.

[00:15:09] I think I saw videos of that, which is hilarious. Wow. They survived the pandemic. Yeah. Try to put some romantic music behind this segment that we just did here. Got it. Maybe some Celine Dion. Yeah, then we'll be sued for copyright. Do you have a favorite artist? Favorite artist for romance? For romance.

[00:15:39] I would have to go with classical. Debussy, Claude Lune, things of that nature. Piano music. I don't know what you're talking about. How about Barry White? Stop. Oh, sexy. Sexy music. Oh, I see where you're going. That'll work. Yeah, sure. Sure. Right, right. Well, speaking of copy, you just mentioned copyright violation. So we will do something that's not copyright violated.

[00:16:04] But there's a fun spat going on between WMVW, which is the Mount Washington radio station, and then Conway Daily Sun or Fighting Stomp. No, come on. No, come on. This would be like if me and you started beefing with Nick and Josh from the Puds Podcast. Really? So what's the deal with this? So the Daily Sun.

[00:16:27] First of all, I want to make sure that I give credit to the source of this article, which is the Laconia Daily Sun. All right. And before we get into this story, I want to assure the Laconia Daily Sun that we will be paying them for this article for use. We'll be using cranberries and then well wishes and good tidings to pay them.

[00:16:48] But the reason I say this is because the Conway Daily Sun has asked WMVW to stop reading its news on the air. So much like how we, if anybody, hopefully no one's listening from the Conway Daily Sun because occasionally I summarize an article.

[00:17:11] But basically what's going on is that the WMVW has been requested by, they've been demanded by the publisher of the Conway Daily Sun to stop having their DJs read the Sun's news on the air. Oh, wow. So Keith Murray, who took over the local radio group in December, said that the law allows the radio station to summarize other outlets news and that it's a win-win for the radio station and the other outlets.

[00:17:41] Murray said he respects the Sun and that he gives credit where credit is due. All we really have to do by law is credit the newspaper or credit the source, whether it's Channel 9 or the TV stations in Maine or the Portland Herald or whatever. Hmm. Makes sense. The Sun has shot back. Yeah. They've said the Sun doesn't take WMVW's music. Why should it be allowed to take our news? Hmm.

[00:18:10] And the Sun, they say everyone knows that the newspapers are incredibly challenged these days and news is our only product, so we want to protect it. Interesting. I guess he sent a letter, the Sun sent a letter via lawyer to WMVW as a cease and desist, and the letter warned that they're not using due care with airing content based on the Sun reporting after being told not to. Hmm.

[00:18:39] That means that the individual who is the GM for the station would not have liability protection in the event his news presenter summarized a defamatory story in the Sun. Interesting. Hmm. And then the Sun goes on to say, we'll gladly sell stories to Murray if he's unwilling to pay for them, but he's unwilling to pay for them. Yeah. It's a tough market for sure. A lot of these newspapers are struggling. Yeah, yeah.

[00:19:08] And I guess there was a deal like 25 years ago that the Sun struck with the Mount Washington Radio Group owner that allowed the radio station to read the Sun's news. But Murray said that the permission was revoked just as the new owner came in shortly after the death of the previous owner's son.

[00:19:30] So once he took, once the new owner of the radio station took over in December of 2024, they want to renegotiate. So the Sun's basically saying, yeah, I took the opportunity with the new owner. And the Sun is also saying, you know, maybe he can hire his own news reporters for the radio station. So a lot of drama back and forth. Wow. Who gave you this story? I saw it on Nick News. Oh, Nick News.

[00:20:00] I remember you talking about that place. Credit to Nick News. So yeah, I love Nick News. Somebody posted on Nick News. Excuse me. Yeah. Which is a Facebook group. Oh, it is. Oh, that's probably why I haven't seen it. Right. You go on there. Don't bother. There's nothing good going on on Facebook. Yeah. Boomer Book. Boomer Book. Boomer Book. Everyone's losing their mind right now. All right. So we've done the romantic hikes. We've talked about the fight between Conway Daily Sun and WMVW. Yeah.

[00:20:29] Both of which I love, by the way. But we've got some New Hampshire stuff that we want to go through. Some news articles that we're summarizing here. So there was a third earthquake that happened. And this was a 2.0 earthquake centered off the coast of New Hampshire. Stomp. Did you feel this one? I did not feel. I haven't felt any of them. I didn't feel that 4.0. You didn't? No. I haven't felt any. You felt the first one. Okay.

[00:21:00] I felt the first one for sure. I didn't feel this one. Three in a row is a little unusual. That's an uptick. I just saw yesterday, by the way, that Santorini had a large earthquake. That's interesting because Santorini is an old volcano that's been dormant. So that is a little troubling. So something's going on. The firminant. Rumbling stuff. Firminant is rumbling. We're overdue for the big one, I think. Yeah.

[00:21:30] I'm glad I'm up high in the mountains. You are, yeah. You know who else was up high in the mountains on, I think, Saturday or Sunday was two hikers stomp up on Mount Washington late in the day. Oh, yeah, yeah. I heard about this one. You want to cover that now? Yeah, might as well. Yeah. We'll do it in the beginning. It's an interesting one. Usually we do the stuff at the end, but we can do a little bit on this one. So this was over a press release from the Hampshire Fishing Game. So when did this happen?

[00:21:58] This was February 4th. Yeah, a couple days back. Were they out there on a Monday? Is that when this was? No, Sunday evening. Sunday evening it was. So, yes, Sunday evening, two hikers from Massachusetts. These are two experienced hikers. So these are like their background. They've hiked with AMC groups in the past and very experienced all season hikers. Matter of fact, they had done Mount Washington like the month before.

[00:22:28] And I'll get into that. But they were hiking on Sunday. I think they were running about an hour behind. And Fishing Game said that they got a call from the hikers. I think the call came in. It doesn't say on this particular one. I didn't pull the actual fishing game. But essentially there was like a 630 call, I believe, came in.

[00:22:56] And they were able to speak to the hikers over the phone. I guess they were able to get the GPS coordinates to find the trail again. So essentially they were able to get the GPS from 911. They were then able to direct the hikers to the trail. They were about 30 feet off the trail. So where it looks like they ended up getting stuck is at about 5,000 feet. So they were coming down from Mount Washington.

[00:23:23] And then there's a decision point you got to make where you're along the cog. You depart the cog, basically going to like the northwest to make your way onto the Jewel Trail, which then diverts from the summit of Mount Clay and heads down. That's a tricky area between about what, probably about 5,400 feet down to maybe 4,700, 4,600 feet stop where, you know,

[00:23:53] Yeah, they were pretty high up. It's wide open, but then it funnels in and then it opens up again. It's not an easy place to navigate. Right. Yeah. Absolutely. So, you know, not that I don't know the situation on this one, but my advice to people, you know, in that situation, if you're running behind and you've got to make that decision and you're afraid of sort of, I guess the wind picked up pretty quickly and maybe unexpectedly for them.

[00:24:22] But to me, I'm sticking with the cog. I'm going down the cog that way. Oh, yeah. Plan B. It's a nice plan B, but I think they were so far away from the cog at that point they couldn't double back. Oh. So, essentially, so they called at 6, 30, 6 o'clock. This is stumped. Just brought my tissues up. She's a doll. Wow. Yep. Give her a nice bouquet of flowers for balance eyes. Now you get to hear me blow my nose every five minutes. Yeah.

[00:24:51] Hit the mute button, please. So, 8, 30 fishing game begins a full-blown rescue operation. So, at this point, the hikers are dealing with whiteout conditions, chest-deep snow. They're running into spruce traps. Apparently, based on an article I read on The Globe, one of the issues they had was that they were falling into spruce traps, and their snowshoes were getting trapped in there.

[00:25:15] So, one of the issues you have with these spruce traps is that this kind of open area between them and the snow, so you step in and you go in pretty deep, and then when snow falls in behind you, when you've got to pull your snowshoe out, essentially all the weight of that snow is coming up on your snowshoe, and then you also don't have great leverage because you've got one leg that's up in the air, and then another leg that's down low, so it's very difficult to get leverage without having, like,

[00:25:45] multiple people there to help lift you out. So, apparently, both women in their 50s, presumably in pretty good shape, but even still not easy to get out of a spruce trap, and they had one situation where they were stuck for 20 minutes working their way out of a spruce trap. So, very quickly, you're going to start getting wet, and you're going to be in big trouble. So, by 8.30 p.m., fishing game goes into full-blown rescue operation. Temperatures of the summer were at negative 2.

[00:26:12] You're talking winds of 50 to 60 miles an hour, so down to 5,000 feet. They're probably dealing with 25, 30 minus windchill, I would guess, and then windblown snow. So, the crews had to use GPS navigation to find their way. Essentially, what they did is they took the Mount Washington State Park snowcat up to the summit. They got there just before midnight with nine rescuers. So, I don't know, maybe they were talking with the COG, too, to try to figure out if that was an option.

[00:26:42] It sounds like the temperature and the conditions might have been sketchy for the COG at this point, but they didn't say anything about the COG, but I'm just guessing here. But, essentially, the crews had to use navigation to find their way. They were breaking trail through deep windblown snow to reach the last known location of the two hikers. The hikers, by that time, had essentially just bundled up. They had some gear. They were able to get into some sort of a bivvy, I think it was, or maybe a sleeping bag,

[00:27:11] and they were alive and incoherent. The biggest problem that they ran into was that they had frozen hands, and they couldn't get their hands warm. They were trying to get hand warmers going and all kinds of stuff, but they weren't moving, so the hands were pretty cold. So, the rescuers did find the hikers alive and coherent at 2 a.m. So, you're talking 8.30, or 6.30 to 2 a.m. So, you're talking like eight hours or so. I always talk about this stomp.

[00:27:40] Like, that's why you bring a sit pad. You bring an emergency bivvy. If it's super cold conditions, I bring a sleeping bag. You need enough to hunker down in crazy conditions to last for 12 hours so that the rescuers can get to you. So, they did everything they needed to do. Yeah. So, check this out. So, with the minus 2 degrees, and the fishing game report says 60-mile-an-hour winds

[00:28:04] with gusts higher, the wind chill would have been minus 37 degrees. Yeah. And the problem with that section of the mountain is that you're directly facing into the wind most of the time. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. 100%. There's some scrub. There's some spruce and some scrub on the upper jewel trail, so maybe they could hide out of the wind. I don't know exactly where they were. It's been a while. I usually go down the cog, so I haven't been on the jewel in a while,

[00:28:33] but I don't know where. I think the way that that trail's set up is you go into some trees, you open up again, you go into some more trees, and then you open up one more time, and then eventually you're under the tree, but they couldn't find the trail to get to where they needed to be. Yeah. I suppose, and I have no idea of whether they had this or not, but in that situation, you want to have a GPS locked to your eyeballs with a track,

[00:29:03] a prior track, so that you're not going to drift. That's a complicated trail in good weather. Right. From the junction of Clay down the top third, I remember that being very confusing in good weather. So, yeah, wow. Same. Interesting. And the Globe did have an article that detailed it a little bit more.

[00:29:31] So, one of the hikers, she said their snowshoes became stuck in a spruce trap. It took 20 minutes to get out of that. After that happened, she had it happen multiple times, so they got to the point where they were literally crawling on their bellies to try to get to the next point, just struggling so much. It took them about an hour to pull the trigger to say, like, yeah, this isn't working. So, they were pretty close to the trail when they called. So, they were trying to direct them to say, like, look, you're close to the trail.

[00:30:01] You can get out. By 8.30 or so, they realized it wasn't working. And they did get to the trail a few times, but they couldn't follow it because it was just getting erased. And basically, they just determined that they were going to huddle up in the snow to keep warm. So, they were stuck around 5,000 feet. They were wearing gloves with liners, but they still lost the use of their hands. She's trying to get the emergency blanket and extra hand warmers, but she couldn't get,

[00:30:30] I guess she couldn't open the container because her hands were frozen. So, they got whacked with wind for about six hours, and it was terrifying. They said that, like, she was one of the people interviewed, she said, I was afraid my friend was going to pass away. I think what they were doing, based on what they were talking about, is that they did multiple summits. I don't know if they did Monroe. They were probably pushing it a little late for my taste, personally, but it is what it is, I guess. Why? You don't want to be up on the...

[00:30:59] Yeah, you're adverse to late hikes. That's never bothered me, really. But the one thing that happens is the temp drops, for sure. Yeah. I just, like, I prefer to start early and just be done by... I get uncomfortable... I actually don't love it if I'm, like, any later than, like, 3.30 or so, 4 o'clock. Mm, yeah. There's something magic about nighttime hiking, though, in, you know, manageable conditions. It's nice. Yeah, I get that.

[00:31:29] I just, I prefer to do it in the morning. I don't know. I just get skeeved out by afternoon stuff if it's, like, especially, like, I don't know. I just haven't done a lot of it, so maybe it's a fear of the unknown, but I just... Yeah. To me, just my opinion, and, you know, it sounds like they did everything they needed. I just, for my taste, I just prefer to be off the mountain a little early. Mm-hmm. No. But they did everything they had to do. They had a hike safe card.

[00:31:55] They were able to hunker down, and they ultimately, like, had the... Everything they needed to stay alive for that period for the rescuers to get to them. And it sounds like they made a good decision on when to call, too. They gave it a shot for an hour, and then the rescuers got there. So good for them. Yep. Yep. They ended up getting down to the cog around 4.15. So once the rescuers found them, they were able to make their way pretty quick. Sheesh. Yep.

[00:32:24] Being able to weather it out is the name of the game. That's it. That's it, Stomp. All right. So good work for the rescue team. I mean, that's ballsy nine of you getting out there in those conditions. That's crazy. So shout out to the rescue team, and hopefully the two folks that were out there recover quickly. It sounds like they had some frostbite issues. Yeah. Good outcome. Good outcome. Well, here's a bad outcome here.

[00:32:54] So, Stomp, we've talked about Maura Murray, and she's still – this is the missing UMass student that had gone on a weekend trip on her own, hadn't really left details of where she was going. Got in a car accident in Haverhill, New Hampshire on February 9th, 2004. So that's almost 21 years ago. So there's been no sign of her. A lot of theories. Some people think that she disappeared and is living a new life in Canada.

[00:33:23] Some people think she was abducted. Some people think that – She's buried at the base saloon. She's buried in the woods somewhere. Yeah, yeah. So many different theories. Yeah, yeah. She was a Division I track runner. She was a former West Point athlete, so she could move pretty quickly. But single car accident on 112 in North Haverhill. So police have, I guess, just done a quick update. There's a bunch of theories here.

[00:33:51] There's a bunch of online stuff that you can go down. They have searched a basement of a hoax but found no credible evidence of her remains being in there. So they have released a new age progression photo. She looks a little bit like Amy Schumer. She does. Stomp. A young Amy Schumer is what the age progression is. Yeah, 100%. Yep. So, yeah.

[00:34:19] Actually, it's the 20th anniversary of – oh, no, no. It's the 21st anniversary. So she would be 41 years old. And we'll post this on the show notes. And, you know, hopefully whatever happened, you know, the family – I know Fred Murray, he's a hiker. He's one of us. And he's done everything he can do to search for his daughter up in New Hampshire. And he sounds like a really good guy. The sister Julie Murray has got a podcast.

[00:34:47] She's very out there about trying to find her sister. So hopefully for the sake of the family, they find closure. Yeah. That's an interesting age progression. I mean, it looks very similar, to be honest with you. It does. Yeah. It does, yeah. Yeah. From then to now. Yeah, yeah. She looks similar, but also like I said, people can give me their opinion. I think she looks like a sort of like a young Amy Schumer, which is a comedian. Yeah.

[00:35:15] Anyway, but in more missing news stomp, there is – I've been following the story a little bit. I never really pulled it for the show because I figured it's – I don't know. I think this one may be just a runaway. But there is a 13-year-old that walked away from her home in the woods in New Sweden, Maine. This happened in September of 2024. So we're talking about four or five months ago at this point.

[00:35:46] The teenager does have a history of walking off. She did it a couple times, but never for this long. And New Sweden, Maine, stomp is in the far north. So there's a Sweden, Maine that's in western Maine close to sort of Bridgestone in that area. But New Sweden is way up north close to Canada. And it sounds like – Migration? The father and mother and the grandfather live on like some kind of a homestead.

[00:36:15] The kids are homeschooled, kind of isolated. So there's six children and the parents – and I guess the parents were off applying for work somewhere. And they said goodbye. They left the kids with the grandfather. The 13-year-old got into an argument with one of her other sisters over who was supposed to be doing chores. She got upset and took a walk back into the woods behind the house. I guess it's pretty common for her to do that.

[00:36:43] They're well aware of the area. And they heard a car come by, didn't think anything of it. And then the sister disappeared. Her name is Stephanie Domron. And yeah, she hasn't been seen since. So they don't know if maybe she got picked up by somebody or whether, you know, she ran away or whether maybe she's still in the woods. They did do extensive search behind the house. They did grid searches and things like that. So they haven't had any luck.

[00:37:11] The parents have been speaking with Dateline online. It says the parents have changed their story a couple of times. So who knows what's going on there? The FBI is involved. The local police are involved. And they're basically saying they're not ruling anything out from runaway to far away. There's a $15,000 reward for information leading to the safe return of Stephanie and or information leading to the arrest and prosecution of anyone involved in her disappearance. Well, that's heartbreaking. Yes.

[00:37:42] Yes. Yeah. It's not the weather. I mean, if she was just out there exposed, that's not good either. Yeah. The police in the article had said that she, you know, the search was going okay, but that like snow had made it difficult. And they're basically like, they can't search anymore. Yeah. Awful. So anyway, so let's see a 13 year old, the new Sweden Maine stomp. This article got me thinking stomp.

[00:38:09] There's a lot of weird town names in Maine. I don't know if you, if you know that or not. Do you ever go to them? I feel like you're not a, a Maine person. Like you've been, like you've been the last time you've been to Maine. Oh goodness. Probably York, Maine back in the day doing some surfing, but that's about it. I used to, yeah, that's about it. I went to, um, what's that ski place way the hell up there? Saddleback? Sunday River? Sunday River maybe. Isn't it Saddleback? Saddleback maybe? No, it's, it's. I think that sounds right. Yeah.

[00:38:39] It was like a T-bar back in the day, back in the 80s. Yeah. It was a long time ago. Uh, but yeah, not, not too much. It's a mystery to me. Okay. Yeah. Well, I'm, I'm here stomp to, to, to do all things Maine for the show. Yeah. No kidding. Yeah. You've been around up there, huh? Yeah. Yeah. Well, the thing about Maine is so for, I was thinking about town names. So, um, I was doing some digging around because New Sweden, Maine, like it's very calm.

[00:39:06] There's a ton of like different, um, town names. There's like a Poland, Maine. There's a Norway, Maine, all kinds of stuff. So I was like, I, I basically did some research to understand why names of towns in Maine were the way, the way they are. So it was a couple of themes here. So there was a few towns that are named based on, um, settlers wanting to express their independence and admiration for foreign nations that had supported the U.S.

[00:39:33] Um, in and around the Revolutionary War. Mm-hmm. So, um, I guess Paris, Rome, and Poland, Maine were named based on, uh, appreciation for some of our allies in the Revolutionary War. Okay. So it sounds like France, Italy, and Poland supported us over the U.K. or the, the British. So that's nice. Yep. That would make sense. Um, there's even Brunswick, Maine is named after, um, another ally, which is the German

[00:40:03] Duchy of Brunswick, whose troops fought for the U.S. during the Revolutionary War. So Brunswick, Maine is named in honor of the German Duchy. Mm-hmm. So, which I'm assuming that's like a state or something. Um, there's also some influence for classical and European culture. So you have, um, an Athens, Maine, you have a Corinth, Maine, and a Carthage, Maine. Hmm.

[00:40:29] And they also have, um, European country names such as Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and then the capital of Russia, which is Moscow, which reflect the heritage of immigrants, um, and some admiration for European history. Yeah. And then you've got some arbitrary names like China, Maine, which they think it was originally called Bloomville, but later renamed. And, uh, they think that it may even be like kind of a joke. Mm. That, uh, that they named a China, Maine. Yeah.

[00:40:59] That's a big melting pot up there in Maine, isn't it? It is. A lot of quirky names making it very unique, Stomp. Mm-hmm. All right. Uh, so next up, Stomp, we have, um, our friend, John Huck, the Huckster. He had, uh, sent me this. There is a free option to go. So the Boston Outdoor Expo is coming on March 1st and 2nd. Oh. Oh.

[00:41:27] And, um, there are, this is at the Boston Convention Center and Exhibition Hall. I think this is in conjunction with the Boston Run Show. So if you're a runner or an outdoorsy person, then, uh, March 1st and 2nd, you can go to the Boston Convention Center. And, um, I'm going to put this link in the show notes, but if you enter social and use

[00:41:51] the code social, you can actually get free tickets to go to the Boston Outdoor Expo. Nice. That's always a good time. And there's going to be a, yeah, there's going to be a bunch of exhibitors. I don't think I've ever gone to this. I may even go. I might ask Mrs. Mike if she wants to go with me on a romantic date. Oh, there you go. Stoking up the romance. You have to take her out to dinner. Right. I have to take her to dinner in Boston. So, yeah. So they have, um, Arcteric is one of the sponsors.

[00:42:20] They've got the Granite Outdoor Alliance in New Hampshire, Outdoor Recreation Industry, Maine Outdoor Brands, um, YOLO Sports, Vermont Outdoor Business Alliance. Mm-hmm. And then there's a bunch of exhibitors here, Stomp. I'm just trying to see. Why aren't we exhibiting here? Yeah, exactly. I think, uh, we've actually broached that topic in the past. It wouldn't be a bad idea at some point. Yeah, yeah. There's, um, ooh, there's RV Rentals and Sales Place.

[00:42:48] There is Hike for Mental Health. There are, let me just see if I see anybody else familiar here, Maine Outdoor Brands. We talked about that. Mount Washington Observatory is going to be there. Mm-hmm. Mount Abram will be there. Nordica. North Shore Cycle. Northeast Campground Association. Outsider Life. Mm-hmm. Uh, yeah, a bunch of cool exhibitors here.

[00:43:16] And then we also have, there's a speaker list, Stomp. And I actually spotted Friend of the Show is one of the speakers. So Sarah LaCourse is going to be one of the speakers there. And then they've got, looks like a bunch of celebrity outdoor people. Um, Chris Burdish, Conrad Anker, Sarah Kuhn. So a lot of these folks are, I guess, pretty well-regarded outdoors people. Mm-hmm. Uh, definitely worth checking out. Oh, yeah. It's, it's nice. Yeah, they seem to do a really good job. Chris Burdish is like a big wave surfer. Mm-hmm.

[00:43:47] So you'll like that, Stomp. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Oh, I miss surfing. It's a good time. Right. We talked about Moscow main Stomp. I'm going to talk about Moscow the dog next. Moscow the dog? Is this a new- We're going on to national stories. Oh, national. Okay. What's going on with Moscow? National stories.

[00:44:16] So this is thanks to our friend Al out of the Denver Gazette. So this dog's name was Moscow. And it took a 200-foot plunge off a waterfall while hiking with its owner. So full send, full send Stomp. Mm-hmm. Wow. Did he survive? Lucky Pups somehow survived. Wow, that's impressive. Yes, it was hiking. Oh, no, it was a California trail, but it's the Denver Gazette that gave the article.

[00:44:42] So El Dorado County Sheriff's Office said they were called to assist a canine rescue after a request for emergency assistance around 10 a.m. on January 25th. The hiker had placed the call to report his dog, Moscow, had fallen over the Cascade Falls. So apparently, the owner was obviously concerned about the dog. The dog was injured, but luckily there was some ice climbers down below. Imagine ice climbing and you get hit in the head by a dog. Yeah, especially a large dog.

[00:45:12] Didn't we do a story about someone getting hit in the head with an animal? Mm-hmm. I don't recall. I feel like we did. Excuse me. So anyway, I guess the dog fell. He was able to get triaged by some ice climbers. And I guess they were able to get a rescue team out to them.

[00:45:39] They got a harness and they were able to carry it out. So they recommend, they talked about an emergency dog carrier named Fido Pro, which is a new one to me, so I'll check that out in the show notes. But we have our pack-a-paws here. We always recommend that, but whatever works for you. I remember what this- Moscow, I guess, is alive and being cared for now. I remember what the story was. A bear fell out of a tree and landed on somebody. Remember that? That's right. Killed them. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:46:10] Yeah. Crazy. Yes. Yep. Anyway. All right, Stomp. There's a lot of political talk, Stomp. We don't do politics here, but one of the things that people get bothered about politics is there's a lot of red tape and bureaucracy and difficulty getting things done. That's right. What I'm talking about. Yeah. Yeah. Not enough money laundering. We need more of that. Yep.

[00:46:34] There's a lot of boards that you got to go through in order to build things. So this was happening in the Czech Republic. It was an issue with some flooding and the politicians and the project planners of this area were trying to obtain building permits from local authorities in charge of the land in order to build a dam.

[00:47:03] And they continued to like run into red tape and bureaucracy. And it was going to cost them millions of crowns, which I don't know how much that's worth. Hmm. And they were going to have to retain like a lot of water in order to make this dam that they were planning. So they've been dealing with planning this dam for years apparently.

[00:47:28] Um, and finally they were essentially like, you know, we don't know if we're going to be able to get this done because it's just not efficient. And finally they just gave up. And lo and behold, a couple of beavers just decided they were going to build the dam on their own. And they did it over the course of like one night. And now the place where they were going to build the dam is completely blocked off because these beavers just got to work and took care of something for free in a day that would have cost like 30 million crowns in Czechoslovakian money,

[00:47:57] which I think is probably about this equivalent of two apples and a potato stump. But still the beavers did it themselves. That's amazing. Yes. Oh, nature always wins. Nature always wins. Right. So it's wild. Right. So, um, one, two, three. All right. Here it is in American dollars, U.S. dollars. It's $1.2 million.

[00:48:25] These beavers saved them at $1.2 million. Pretty cheap. Pretty cheap for a dam. Pretty cheap for a dam. Ready for slashers? Your review. This is your moment. This is your contribution to the show.

[00:48:54] This is your contribution to the script here. Before I die. Two full lines for you, Stomp. Yeah, here it comes. Step aside and let you do your thing. Let me see if I can catch my breath. All right. So, I've been using a lot of different sites developing this script for this new show we're preparing to launch. And I don't know if we've ever talked about this one, but Hiking Project is pretty darn cool.

[00:49:19] It took me quite a while to find a site that actually lists max grade, average grade, things of that nature. So, if you're curious about some odd information for your hike, definitely check out hikingproject.com. It's a really neat site. And man, you can just type in any trail and it captures trails pretty much worldwide. Very, very impressive. Have you ever used that hiking project? I haven't. Not familiar with it. Yeah.

[00:49:50] Yeah, I'll check it out. Yeah. So, researching for that new script there that we're making, I did some digging and it popped up the information I was looking. It's pretty much the only place I found grade and average steepness and things like that. So, I'm sure TrailsNH has something similar, but this is another option for the toolkit.

[00:50:10] And then, my second contribution, an acquaintance sent this over and it's an app that you download to either your iPhone or your Android and it's called AirFlare. And it's pretty interesting. They claim that without service, you can actually still use it as a beacon. I'm still digging into this to see if it works, but here's the quick of it.

[00:50:40] Deployed when location return does not return a subject's coordinates, i.e. you're out of cell service, this feature that you download into your phone enables a search team to deploy technology in the field to search for a specific phone belonging to whoever has the app. So, you have to download AirFlare. There's a cost. It's installed in your phone.

[00:51:03] And then, apparently, something is provided to search teams that will find your phone and even wake up the phone if you're unconscious. So, there's a lot of information in here. There's a ton of features it has when you have service. But, again, they're claiming that you can use it as a beacon if you don't have service. So, something to look into. It's very interesting. Well, I do know, I pay attention to, like, space news. I'm just kind of a nerd that way.

[00:51:32] But, I do know last week SpaceX launched 20 new satellites on a Falcon 9 mission out of California. And part of the launch, the payload on that was 13 satellites with direct-to-cell capability. Okay. I think that these ones are set up for the shell that's being built for T-Mobile.

[00:51:56] But, I do expect that, eventually, your cell phone will have the capability for satellite connectivity. I do know with my phone right now, I have the option to use a satellite connection when I'm out of service. So, it will be, I think, in probably the next two years or so, every new phone and every satellite carrier will have a satellite option for you.

[00:52:21] I don't know if they'll all be Starlink, but I'm assuming that's pretty much the only ones that realistically have the broadband-like speed that you can utilize. But, maybe there's some other solutions out there. I don't know. Yeah. Well, this one's active. Apparently, they're using it at a ski place in Vermont. They were actually signs up saying, hey, you know, take this if you're going back country, blah, blah, blah. So, yeah. Not bad. Not bad.

[00:52:50] All right, Stomp, do you want to do a dad joke? Always. You got a Valentine's Day edition? I don't, actually. But, this one goes from our friend Tyler. So, Tyler's a good man. So, he asked the, he sent me a joke. He said, what do you call a hippie's wife? Hippie's wife. I have no idea. What do you call a hippie's wife? The answer is Mississippi. Mississippi. I like it. Mrs. Hippie.

[00:53:20] That's good. Yes. All right. So, thank you, Tyler, for that one. Good stuff. That's a good one. So, dun-dun-dun. Dun-dun-dun-dun. We don't have any pop culture talk here, Stomp. So, this is the, we now, this is, it's going to get warm out soon enough. And we're going to be working to raise funds for the Alzheimer's Association and our friends at 48 Peaks. So, do you want to update the listeners on what we're doing with 48 Peaks? 48 Peaks is back with us again to warm us up for their event.

[00:53:50] And you can use your passion for hiking to help end Alzheimer's. Join 400 plus hikers as they climb New Hampshire's 4,000 footers or create their own challenge to support the mission of the Alzheimer's Association. The annual hiker celebration will take place Saturday, June 21st at Tuckerman Brewery with raffles, food, and an amazing community. Hike that weekend or any day you want this summer.

[00:54:19] No fundraising minimums required, but those who raise $100 will receive the 2025 performance grade purple t-shirt. Let's turn the White Mountains purple to end Alzheimer's. Visit alts.org right slash 48peaks. That's alz.org right slash the number 48 and the word peaks. Thank you very much. Very good. I'm going to be running a team stomp again.

[00:54:49] Are you planning on it? Yes. Yep. All right, great. I'm going to build my team. And if anybody's interested, reach out to me. Don't reach out unless you're willing to raise a lot of money. Yeah, no kidding. That's going to be a good time. I don't want to be embarrassed by like a low contribution. Low contributor. Anybody. It doesn't matter. You can contribute. Any amount of money is appreciated.

[00:55:14] I'm joking around, but definitely if you're interested, reach out to me through Instagram. Instagram only. Don't do Facebook. No one pays attention to it. Just stomp on the Instagram. He's a good man. So we have some coffee donations this week. If you want to donate to the pod, you can do so at our Buy Me a Coffee site. Let's see. We have Sarah Zhang donated one coffee. She's a new listener.

[00:55:43] Thanks for listening, Sarah. I'm glad you're enjoying the show. And then Shandy is back and she donated one coffee. What's her dog's name? I forget the dog's name, but oh, well, I'm getting old. I can't remember. Wait, it's on the tip of my tongue. Now it's going to drive me crazy. Oh, my God. I cannot. I'll come back to that one. Let's see. What else do we have here?

[00:56:13] All right. Beer talk it is. I got nothing stomp. Nothing, huh? Yeah. I'm just sucking down a little cold toddy. You got me going early today, so I'm not really. That's true. That's true. Doing much. How about hiking? You've been hiking much?

[00:56:30] Well, I have been, but with all of the timing on this, I'm up to date on my hike. So I did isolation was my last hike and I recovered that last episode. And then I'm not doing anything this weekend. And I am painting my ceiling stomp. I got to pay the price. Oh, wait a minute. What ceiling? That one right above your head? The ones that are above your head. Yeah. Not this one. Upstairs. Oh, okay. That's a nightmare.

[00:57:00] Ceilings is such a nightmare. I mean, are you covering everything? I don't think so. No. Well, have fun. Stomp. I paint so much that I don't have to do that anymore. Okay. That's awesome. My wife's got a three-year cycle with every room in the house. I also forgot to do the show opener. I forgot to do the like this week and all that stuff.

[00:57:29] So we might as well just say like I'm Mike. You might as well just do it right now. No. It's too late now. We already covered everything, but we can do I'm Mike. And I'm sick stomp. Let's get started. Yes, let's continue on. So recent hikes. I will say that I was thinking about, I posted a picture on our Instagram story and when I

[00:57:54] was on the summit of Mount Tom, I looked over at a tree and the tree, when you looked at it, now I'll post this picture again on the Instagram. But when I looked over at this tree, it looked like a lady was walking in front of me in one of those like Victorian dresses. I saw that. Yeah. Did you see that? Did you agree? I saw your contrast left to right. Right. Yeah. Pretty neat. So I was like, oh, this is kind of weird.

[00:58:23] And then even like, I think somebody else had commented on it. So it just got me thinking of like Nancy Barton who, you know, Nancy Pond is named after her. And it's Tom is a little bit north of where it is, but I feel like she had her ghost very likely goes up and down Crawford Notch because, you know, the story of Nancy Barton, we've talked about it before. But it basically, it's a tragic tale stomp of a young lady in love, chasing after her

[00:58:53] love after he broke her heart and she died in the woods. So it's a perfect Valentine's Day story. Yeah. Are you sure it wasn't Caroline Stickney? Did you remember her? Nancy Barton stomp. Okay. Okay. No, I don't remember that one. I'll tell you after. Okay. That's another romantic story. This is my moment stomp. Okay. So this tragic tale of Nancy Barton begins in 1878. The young Nancy worked for Colonel Joseph Whipple as a servant on the farm in Jefferson, New Hampshire.

[00:59:22] So north of Crawford Notch. Nancy, young Nancy fell in love with one of the farmhands as they often do, Jim Swindell. It wasn't long before the 16-year-old Nancy was proposed to by Jim and they decided to build a life together in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Much like any person that grows up in northern New Hampshire, they got to move south in order to build their life apparently. Nancy gave her entire life savings to Jim for safekeeping.

[00:59:51] Don't, ladies, do not do that. Don't give, you know, once you're married, okay, but don't give your fiance all your money. Yeah. Never a good idea. Right. So, but she figures, okay, I'm going to get married. No big deal. Well, unfortunately, Colonel Whipple, who I think is the, I feel like he's the bad guy in the entire story. He had other plans. The story comes from outdoors.org.

[01:00:18] The colonel was a fair supporter of the American cause of independence and he thought that Jim would make an excellent soldier for the Revolutionary War efforts. He convinced the young man, young Jim, to head off to war with him and Jim ended up using all of Nancy's life savings to purchase the uniform for the army. So that's all she had for life savings. Don't, that's not much. Portsmouth is expensive. Sure is. Damn.

[01:00:47] They're not going to buy a house in Portsmouth with just like enough money to buy an army uniform. Hmm. Days are different back then. I turned to buying houses in Portsmouth for a million dollars right now. Oh yeah. Holy moly. So anyway, Nancy basically like she did, she gets swindled by this lay about Jim. He's running off to do the, who God knows what. So anyway, Jim and the colonel take off and Nancy finds out about this and completely flips her lid. She's in Jefferson.

[01:01:16] She's like, no, this is crazy. So she, she chases after Jim, but unfortunately back then, basically you've got to go from Jefferson through Crawford Notch to get to Bartlett and North Conway to like some form of like civilization. So she's wearing a dress. She's running through the woods. It's extremely cold weather. She's unprepared, no food, no water. She figured it would be a short trip.

[01:01:45] She would catch up with her lover and he would realize the mistake that he made and change his mind. And then they would live happily ever after in Portsmouth. Oh, there we go. Even though they were broke ass broke. But Jim has a nice uniform to get married in. So she's going 20 miles in this long dress with no hiking shoes through the woods, but she's in love with this man. So it's worth it.

[01:02:12] So after 20 miles of trot into the snow, she came across a sign of an old fire and she thought, Nancy's a little delusional. This fire could be anybody. Right. She's like, I know it's got to be my man. So she's like, okay, this is a good sign. So she decides to plow on. At some point, her dress got wet and she sat down in a rock near a brook to rest and she ended up freezing to death. Oh my God.

[01:02:39] The search party then was sent out to find her body and they found her body near what is now called Nancy Brook and they buried her there. And there's now a trail system over there that's named Nancy Pond and there's Nancy Brook Trail or whatever. I don't know what it's called, but essentially that's how you can get up the backside of Kerrigane. Yeah. Or you can get into like the east side of the Pemi, whatever you want to do. Wow. Horrible story. So now hikers in the area, hundreds of years later, they hear laughter, they hear screams

[01:03:09] in the area and they think it's Nancy's ghost. So I guess apparently after Jim found out about Nancy's death, he had a complete psychotic break and died in a crazy hospital. So nothing good has happened with Nancy. But essentially, I think I saw the ghost of Nancy Barton when I was hiking on Mount Tomstall. Yeah. Well, I guess so. Yeah. It's very possible. Anyway. But back to Caroline Stickney. Back to Caroline Stickney.

[01:03:37] You recall she's from the Omni Hotel. So Caroline was one of the early owners. And if you really want to get romantic, get her original room because when you wake up in the morning, her ghost is often said to be sitting at the foot of the bed when you wake up to say hi. Oh. Caroline Stickney. I've heard that story before. Yeah. She's nearby too. Right down the road from Crawford. All right. Well, this isn't a Halloween show, Stomp. This is a Valentine's Day.

[01:04:05] Well, I was trying to make it romantic. That's true. That's true. So you're going to keep me up at night. You know what else keeps me up at night, Stomp? CS Coffee. Coffee. Hell yeah. CS Coffee keeps me up. Hell yeah. It does its job. Absolutely. CS Instant Coffee. Athlete Ready. CS Instant Coffee. You can get that delicious coffee at www.csinstant.coffee.

[01:04:33] I love their new ads that they're putting up on Instagram and whatnot. They're really cool. Yeah, they look awesome. Yeah, absolutely. So what's next? I don't know. Let's see. What is next? Oh. It's your favorite Stomp. The notable hike. Stomp's really off tonight with this injury. The notable hike. My injury. My lungitis. That's what it is. Right. Yes. Notable listener hike of the week. This is going to be a fun one.

[01:05:02] So listen, you can tag Slasher on your adventure to be considered for Slasher's hike of the week. This week we have Liz Fay who hiked up in the Sugar Hill, Franconia area. Garnet Hill and Bronson Hill. Those are two little guys, but they're cute. Very pretty. Nice open woods. Zach Camo tagged us for Tom and Field for number 11 and 12 for the New Hampshire 48.

[01:05:30] I'm not sure if that's regular season or winter. And then I have a good friend Nick in nature tagged us for your adventure on Z Cliff, Zealand, South Hail and Hail. And then finally we have Summit Snack Attack, our other good friend here who hiked Mount Crawford for the 52 with a view list. Good stuff. I'm going to give it to Summit Snack Attack because I love the 52 with a view and then I'm coming to visit you.

[01:06:00] I'm coming down the cog in two weeks. Oh yeah? Yeah. Oh cool. So get ready. Oh, the butt sledding is going to be mint. I got a, we got tagged for a butt sled video down Tecumseh the other day and it does look mint. And by the way, the forecast has been amazing. This is a real winter. We, right, right. Yeah. So we've got like five inches here today and I think we're going to get a foot over the weekend. So hopefully you guys are getting the same. Oh yeah.

[01:06:29] Every, every other day we're getting three, three to five inches for the next two weeks. It's fantastic. Again, vacation's coming. Exactly. So, all right, stop. So we've done a little bit of history. We've got a couple of history things here. We talked about town names in Maine and then we talked about Nancy Barton. Um, but I wanted to do like, it's not really history, but I wanted to do a fun little segment here that, uh, I thought would be interesting for the listeners. It's a word origin.

[01:06:55] I always like to understand when words became popular, what their origins are, the whole history behind words. So I thought I would take some of the words that are commonly used by us around hiking and, um, hear them on the show quite a bit. And I thought I would do some research. And the way that I did this is I took a look at the, there's this thing called Ngram, which is a search of Google books and you can, you can put a search term in there and it'll tell

[01:07:25] you when it first started showing up in books. And then it'll also give you the context of what the, you know, you can basically open up the books and read how that word was used. And then in that way you can basically narrow down when a word became part of the common nomenclature of hiking stomp. Okay, cool. What's... Do you know what nomenclature means? Nomenclature. Uh, yeah, it's just the terminology around a topic such as hiking, all the terms that sort of encompass hiking.

[01:07:55] You're very smart, Stomp. So what's, uh... So I will basically, I just put in a bunch of terms and then I did research in... In a number of different areas. So Stomp, the first term I did is like, I was thinking of our friend, Dave Schitt's in the woods. And he's, what is he known for? Oh, I can't say. It's explicit. What's he, when it comes to hiking, what is he known for? Good yucks.

[01:08:25] What do you, what do you like to do, Stomp? Oh, bushwhacking? Bushwhack. So I was like, let me look up the origin of the word bushwhack. When did it start to become popular? What, how was it used? So, um... Bushwhacking actually has an interesting history and it's got multiple meanings. Yeah.

[01:08:51] Bushwhack, the first, the first origin, the first use of the word bushwhack I could find went back pretty deep going back to like, um... The early 1800s, there was a character in a book named Billy Bushwhack. That was just his name. But basically the term bushwhack is a combination of bush, meaning dense vegetation, vegetation and whack, which means to hit, strike, or cut through. Mm-hmm.

[01:09:17] So it, it, it, it, it's, it's typically described as forging a path through thick underbrush, essentially hacking one's way through the wilderness. Mm-hmm. But, um, before that stomp, there was, uh, during the American Civil War, the word was typically used to refer to irregular guerrilla fighters. Right, during the confederate. Especially in, um... Confederacy. Yeah, especially in Missouri and Kansas. Mm-hmm.

[01:09:47] So, um, they would use hit and run task tactics. Correct. For, uh, the, from the cover of forest and terrain. So basically soldiers would say like, you know, we're going to get bushwhacked, meaning that like a guerrilla group would, would go ahead and attack them. And it was also used in terms of just like regular soldiers when they might be hanging out with each other. If they thought that someone was going to like sneak attack them in a, in a fight within,

[01:10:13] you know, soldiers sometimes fight, you know, you'd hear it, you would, I would read a couple of passages where people would talk about like, he's too afraid to bushwhack me. Mm-hmm. Meaning he's, he's too afraid to sneak attack me. Mm-hmm. So, um, also they would use the term bushwhackers for unofficial combatants engaged in ambushes and raids, sometimes for personal gain rather than military objectives. Mm-hmm.

[01:10:43] So, uh, post, post war from the late 1800s into the early 1900s, the most common use for bushwhack continued to be any form of ambush or a sneak attack, not just in military context. So basically a lot of these soldiers brought it back to the cities and anybody that was talking about like being attacked or mugged or whatever, instead of being mugged, you would be bushwhacked. Okay. So it started, the term started to return, oh, sorry.

[01:11:12] Multiple meanings. Right. Yeah. But it started to return to its outdoor roots in the late 1900s and early, um, yeah, basically like the later 1900s and it became commonly used to describe off-trail hiking and navigating through dense wilderness. So today bushwhacking is primarily used in outdoor recreation to describe that off-trail travel, um, involving navigating through dense woods, brush and rugged terrain.

[01:11:41] Um, it can also be used to take, um, a difficult or unconventional path in life or work. So you can say like, oh, I bushwhacked my way through that project if you want to. Yeah. Um, there's also a term in Australia, the bush refers to remote rural areas and bushwhacking can sometimes just mean simply surviving in the wilderness. Hmm. Did you, uh, happen to look up any on the urban dictionary? I've got a couple of good ones. I did.

[01:12:11] Check this out. This is good. So two quick ones. Bushwhack. To hinder someone's progress by recounting a very long tale of which the listener is very often disinterested, especially when returning from holiday. I love it. It's so funny. Urban dictionary is the best. All right. So I pulled like, um, five or six other term stomp and I like, they progressively got more interesting. I'll say it that way.

[01:12:41] So, so, so have patience listeners. We're going to get to some good stuff here. So Cairn or Cairn, how do you pronounce Cairn? Cairn. Cairn. So this is the big rock piles that we use to navigate above treeline. So this was the first search I did and I was like, well, let's see what this is. So this one, the graph goes back to the very early 1800s and was heavily used in books about, um, the history and early surveyors.

[01:13:06] So they talked about Cairns being used from the perspective of surveyors, um, keeping track of their lines of surveys. Uh, but it basically, there's been no deviation. Cairns have always meant rock piles that are used to navigate or otherwise, um, show people direction. So that, there was nothing really interesting there. So I apologize for that one stop. It was kind of a dud. Yeah. Straightforward. The next one I got into was switchback.

[01:13:36] So switchback appears in, um, all the way back to the 1820s was the first appearance that you get. And apparently switchback was mostly tied to, um, a railway in Pennsylvania that was opened in the 1820s, which was called switchback railway. And it's unclear to me whether or not the switchback railway actually had the back and forth switchbacks that we think of from a trail building perspective, but essentially switchback

[01:14:06] was mostly in print based on the real war railroad that was in Pennsylvania. Um, up until the 1860s and 1870s, primarily referencing the railway, um, switchback kind of goes dark for a while, but it starts to show up frequently in the 1920s and 1930s, more so in reference to trail building and road building.

[01:14:31] So, um, it continues to be like from up until that time, there's a lot of references to railways, but once the 1920s and 1930s start hitting, a lot of the books are more about trail building and, uh, referencing the use of switchbacks. It comes up a little bit in mining books as well. Yeah. Yeah. Really just becomes like traditional common use that we would think of in around the 1920s, 1930s. Interesting. Yeah. It's interesting about the, the, the train aspect of switchback.

[01:15:01] Cause you think a roundhouse, they have a roundhouse over in Conway, which you might want to check out a legit roundhouse. So that's the same thing as a switchback. I've seen it many times. Right. So a switchback must've been different than a roundhouse though, but. Or maybe they had roundhouses at the end of each of the switchbacks and that's how they are. I don't know exactly how it would work. Yeah. I mean, a Wikipedia definition for a switchback means you're changing direction. So how would you do that without a roundhouse?

[01:15:28] Well, maybe, I don't think, I'm wondering, did they have multiple roundhouses at the end of each track that they could rotate them back up? Yeah. Not a complete 180, but more of a, you know, a 90 degree angle. Yeah. It's very interesting. Huh. Cool. Yeah. Or more than the 90 degree angle, but 120 degree angles. Yeah. And anyway, all right. Next one I put in the, the, the, I did the research stop on is post hauling. Okay.

[01:15:58] So post hauling really did not show up in any literature until the 1920s. And it was almost exclusively used for referencing for digging holes in fence and wall building. Mm-hmm. As time went on. Makes sense. From the 1930s to the 1960s and into the 70s, it was, it continued to be referenced for digging

[01:16:23] holes for fence and wall posts, but it also was used on archeological digs in reference to building probing holes for sites. Mm-hmm. So they would, instead of them doing like a, drilling a hole, they would post hole into an archeological dig site in order to see what was in that hole. So it was basically any action where you would digging a deep, narrow, small hole. Okay.

[01:16:51] It wasn't until the 1980s stomp that it started to appear in print in relation to hiking and backcountry skiing. So in the early 80s, there was, you start to see references in skiing magazines and hiking magazines about post hauling. Okay. That's odd. Yeah. Surprising, right? Yeah. It doesn't make any sense. So what's the connection?

[01:17:17] It's just when it became common for it to be used in relation to hiking. Oh, okay. So you're creating a hole and your leg is the post? I see. I see. Well, hiking, in relation to hiking, post holing, stop, are you telling me you don't know what post holing means in relation to hiking? No, I'm not saying that at all. I'm just trying to make the connection with the original history of it. Yeah, I don't know. It just, it, it.

[01:17:47] And I'm still trying to. Hiking just took it over. And I'm still trying to figure out how switchbacks work. Jesus stomp. Take, take your, take your Benadryl. Feel better soon. Anyway. So the next one here is microspikes. Oh, okay. What's going on with that? Microspikes. So I was like, well, maybe there was microspikes before, but there actually was not microspikes before 2006, 2007. That was not a thing.

[01:18:16] So microspike does show up in print in the 1960s, almost exclusively referenced in biology books. Up until, so in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, anytime microspike or microspike shows up in terms, it's always biology related. Mm-hmm.

[01:18:45] Surgical? Surgical. A surgical device, yeah. So even through the 90s, microspikes were almost always referenced in biology books. The first reference of microspikes in relation to traction devices was in the mid-2000s, in 2006, 2007, when a company called Cotula marketed them. And I was actually able to pull an old advertisement from, I believe this is Backpacker Magazine.

[01:19:14] This is March 2008. And they have traction devices, the Cotula microspikes. They are, they call this, they say cascade concrete, the heavy wet snow that typically falls in the northwest, often turns hard and slippery come spring. Enter the microspikes, the perfect choice when full crampons are overkill and rubber tread won't cut it.

[01:19:43] The binding snaps onto any shoe and steel chains in a 3-inch spike bite into the slopes up to about 25 degrees. They cost $59 and they were 13 ounces and they look very, very similar to what we think of today. Hmm. So, that's pretty good. That's cool. Microspike guy or a Hillsound guy? I am a microspike guy. Really?

[01:20:13] Yep. People are one or the other, it seems. Yeah, yeah. I think I just haven't really switched over. I've been happy with mine. I've been more of a snowshoe guy lately. Hmm. But these old magazines are fun to look through, Stomp. They have a sleeping bag, which is a synthetic Orion North Face sleeping bag. Mm-hmm. That's 2 pounds, 8 ounces, and it's $179. And it's a 20-degree bag rated.

[01:20:44] And there's also a Black Diamond Oasis tent, which is 5 pounds, 11 ounces, and it's $330. This is back in 2008. So, this looks like a one-person tent. Well, no, two-person tent. So, prices haven't really changed much, Stomp. Yeah, it seems that way.

[01:21:07] There's a mid-layer outdoor research pullover for $90, a fleece quarter zip pullover that's $90. So, yeah, prices haven't really changed much. Black Diamond gloves are $20. That's changed. Here's crazy. A Patagonia down jacket is $200. In 2008. So, in 2008, yep.

[01:21:36] And then a 15-degree sleeping bag is like $355 amount in hardware. Phantom 15, $355. So, I feel like prices haven't changed that much, Stomp. What is inside these bags, though? Like Thinsulate, or is it down? I mean, what's going on there? Do you know? This, the Mountain Hardware Phantom 15 is 800 fill down. Wow. And it is 1 pound, 15 ounces.

[01:22:05] So, this is like a high-end, nice sleeping bag. I bet that would be... $355. Probably double today for that level of down. I don't know. I don't know. I haven't priced them out. So, the Patagonia jacket is 800 fill down. For $200, you probably get the same jacket around the same price, I would think. Now, I know why all these companies are going out of business, Mike. They're not upping their prices. Yeah. Yeah. So, crazy.

[01:22:34] Anyway, we got off track here, but Microspikes 2007 stumped trail magic. The word trail magic. When do you think that that became in common use? 1969. Woodstock? Yeah, similar. Similar. So, it's not present in a lot of book samples until the late 80s, early 90s.

[01:22:54] So, some sources indicate that trail magic was used pretty commonly in the 1970s and 1980s. I was able to find an old advertisement in the back of a backpacker magazine from the early 90s advertising a VHS movie called Trail Magic Walkumentary. So, this is kind of cool. Like, there's old classifieds in the back of magazines.

[01:23:21] You could actually order a VHS movie about the Appalachian Trail where somebody must have done a VHS movie about, like, what it was like to hike the Appalachian Trail. So, for $38, you could mail in your money and then get a VHS tape back from the classifieds. So, but in print, the trail magic wasn't really referenced until the mid-90s.

[01:23:49] And it often didn't describe what we think of as trail magic as, like, food setups. It just described the feeling of freedom being on the trail. So, basically, like, you know, just the fact that you're stepping on the trail gives you this inner feeling of trail magic. But it's since evolved into, like, good luck and good things happening to you. And now it's more evolved into, like, just, like, food pantries that are set up on the side of the road.

[01:24:16] So, trail magic has evolved a little bit in what it used to mean and what it now means. Very interesting. So, but by 1995, it became very easy to find many references across magazines and Appalachian Trail guides. So, all right, I got two more, Stomp, and then we're going to finish up the show. So, ultralight is another term that I looked up. Okay. So, this one was interesting.

[01:24:40] So, this goes back to, the term ultralight goes back to the 1950s, 1960s, almost exclusively referencing aircraft. Right? Oh, sure. Which makes sense to me, right? Yeah, it makes sense. By the 1970s, the term starts to appear in outdoor magazines, but not related to hiking and backpacking.

[01:25:00] It becomes a very common term referencing for fishing, in particular fishing rods, and then the technique of using light bait that doesn't immediately sink to the bottom. So, ultralight fishing was essentially, you would use super light bait, and the bait would initially float on the surface of the water and then slowly float down. So, you would have a different type of fish. I'm assuming like maybe for trout fishing, you know, it's sort of a hybrid.

[01:25:27] Instead of fly fishing, you're using that ultralight bait. So, it would float on top of the water. So, it shows up frequently in Field and Stream magazine, which that was a favorite magazine of mine when I was a kid. I would get Field and Stream, and I would get Boys Life magazine. Were you ever a Boy Scout? I was a Cub Scout. Oh, Cub. Nice. Nice job. I washed out after Weeblow Stomp. I couldn't handle it. Oh, boy.

[01:25:57] Anyway, were you a Boy Scout? No. No. Nope. You give off an Eagle Scout vibe. No, I never got into any of that stuff. I don't know why. Okay, well. Who knows? Anyway, so, but anyway, so ultralight is, you know, you're talking about aircraft, you're talking about fishing. In the 1980s, it sort of had another evolution where it became very popular with like craft airplanes that hobbyists could build themselves. Okay.

[01:26:24] And continues to this day, like ultralight aircraft became very popular. But by the year 2000, 2001, you start to see books referencing ultralight backpacking. And the reason for this is that a gentleman by the name of Ray Jardine wrote a book in 1990 called Beyond Backpacking, where he described what we now think of in the modern terms as ultralight backpacking. And this idea that, you know, ultralight backpacking.

[01:26:55] Ultralight backpacking really didn't become something that was common until 2000. Yeah, interesting. Yes. Ultralight. Last but not least, search and rescue stomp. The term search and rescue goes back to the 1860s. And the Swiss Alps had search and rescue teams and search and rescue as a reference back in the 1860s.

[01:27:20] It was commonly used in mountain areas as well as the Maritines and ocean-fearing vessels would do search and rescues. And then it was common to also have fire brigades would be involved in search and rescue in the World War II era.

[01:27:37] Where it became most common and sort of, I think, put into the common nomenclature was in the military during World War II, there were dedicated search and rescue teams that would go out and find soldiers and missing civilians. And by, you know, when these soldiers came home from World War II, by the 1950s, civilian search and rescue became commonplace.

[01:28:00] And ever since then, the term search and rescue has been in existence and typically references both civilian and government-related organizations. Wow. You did your homework today. I'm very proud. I did. I did. It's pretty good, huh? Not bad. So if any listeners want me to do some digging on other terms, I'm happy to do that. Just make sure they're appropriate. Don't send me pink blazing or anything silly like that. Oh, my God.

[01:28:30] Sorry. Okay. So we're going to cut this because Stomp's going to go to bed and rest up. If you are the Conway Daily Sun and you're listening to this, I just want you to understand that I have not used any of your articles. Don't come at me. That's right. That's right. And we got permission to use the Mount Washington Observatory forecast. Right. And we credit them every time. We do. So thank you and good night. Good night.

[01:29:02] Thank you for listening. 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 slasherpodcast.com. That's S-L-A-S-R podcast.com. You can also follow the show on Facebook and Instagram.

[01:29:32] We hope you'll join us next week for another great show. Until then, on behalf of Mike and Stomp, get out there and crush some mega peaks. 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.

[01:30:02] Officials say the snow was piled up to three feet in some spots and there was a wind chill of minus one degree. Well, there's three words to describe this race. Do we all know what they are? Holy words! Lieutenant 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? It seems to me the most common is being unprepared.

[01:30:28] 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.