Episode 189 - Middle Sugarloaf Bushwhack, Entering New Hampshire advice for AT Thru Hikers

[00:00:35] At Thru Hikers 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.

[00:01:11] I am rolling. All right, welcome to episode 189. How you doing? Doing good. Mr. Stump and I were just out in the front yard soaking up the sun without any jackets or anything. It was beautiful. You guys get a lot of sun out there? I feel like you're in a very, like, cheapy, wooden area. The back deck only gets about an hour and a half every day, the way the house is positioned, but the front parking lot is great all day long. Yeah.

[00:01:39] It is. So yeah, I guess it's pretty wild. Oh yeah, sure. Soaking up the early spring, I guess, when people hear this episode, right? Right, right. I'm going to be in the bell maps this, so like April's the bell maps, ossipy type of vibes, and I think we're going to go hit the bell maps on Saturday, and I'm looking forward to the small pack. Okay. And probably still going to wear the boots, but pretty soon we'll be back in the trail runners.

[00:02:06] Yeah. Pretty soon. It's sort of sloppy out there right now. This is peak sloppiness. Right. It's going to rain on Friday, so yeah, it'll be a little squishy out there. Yeah. Right. A little treacherous. Cool. Exactly. Speaking of treacherous stomp, have you seen the movie Event Horizon? With Sam Neill? I believe so, yeah. It's a story of, and I was thinking about this, there's a couple of themes going on.

[00:02:36] So there was the people up on the International Space Station that was stuck up there for like eight or nine months, and Event Horizon is like a, it's a pretty common movie plot where you'll get like a spaceship crew that, you know, one of them or more of them will get either taken over by an alien or they'll slowly go crazy and then terrorize all the other. So it's basically like a big group of people in a small combined space. Yeah. Can you imagine?

[00:03:02] The reason I bring this up is that there's an actual real life situation going on right now that I just came across this article. There's a research crew that is dealing with a violent member of the crew in Antarctica. So this is a South African, I guess South Africa has a research facility in Antarctica where they had, they dropped off 10 researchers in, I think it was December they arrived. Because, you know, it's, it's a Southern hemisphere down there.

[00:03:32] So December is like their warm period. Yeah, right. So the 10 researchers went on a vessel from South Africa, Cape Town, I think it's like 2,600 miles away. And they went to Antarctica and then the ship was there for about a month. They were supplying and everything. And then the ship left. And apparently there was some concerns about this crew member, even as the ship was there, but the ship left, the 10 people. It turns out that one of the crew members has been getting violent. Okay.

[00:04:02] Physically attacked the crew chief and then also sexually assaulted one of the members. Sounds like they're eating food out of lead cans. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. And they're writing emails basically saying that they are, you know, they're like scared. They don't know how to handle it. Strange. His behavior. Let me just see. Regrettably, his behavior has reached a deeply disturbing level.

[00:04:30] Specifically, he physically assaulted, name withheld, a grave violation of personal safety and workplace norms. He threatened to kill another member of the crew and has created an environment of fear and intimidation. And the person who wrote the email back to South Africa said they remain deeply concerned about their safety, constantly wondering if they might be the next victim.

[00:04:56] He needs to take immediate action to ensure safety and the safety of all employees. So here's the problem, Stomp, is they can't get anybody out there. They're there until December. Yeah, right. Now, like in the movies, do they have somebody that has the police authority, police power? I would assume, right? I would think so. Interesting. But I don't know. I don't know how that works out.

[00:05:22] I mean, clearly, this person's feeling like this guy's still walking around in a threat. So whoever's in authority isn't using it. True, true. True. Yeah, because I remember Jen came on talking about McMurdo and there was definitely a police organization that managed issues like that. Yeah, like a much bigger, that's a much bigger facility. This is just 10 people.

[00:05:45] And the thing is, the closest other research facilities, I think Denmark and maybe one other country, are over 100 miles away. So it's not like they can even, and the weather conditions right there with the wind and the cold, it's not like they can just go wandering off and call for help. So, and if they try to get a rescue crew, it's very risky because of the weather conditions. Yeah, makes sense. Wow, that's crazy. Huh. They must have contact, clearly. Somebody's giving updates.

[00:06:13] Yeah, I guess they do have, yeah, they have, you know, internet and whatnot. So they're probably keeping it up to, probably keeping whoever's in charge up to speed on what's going on. But I would like, I would just wait till he's asleep and I would just have all nine of them just go like, um. Blanket party? Blanket party? What is that movie where the kids go wild in the island? Oh, um. With Piggy? Oh, yeah. Um, oh God. Oh, you had to ask.

[00:06:42] Anyway, I know what you're talking about. Yeah, I would just do that. I would just, I would just basically do that and beat the hell out of them. Lord of the Flies. I would just, yeah, I would just beat the hell out of them. I think there was a movie where a bunch of, like there was a bully and a bunch of the kids, they put soap in their, um. Their pillowcases and they tied him down when he was asleep and they hit him with the soap and the pillowcases. Oh, yeah.

[00:07:12] Yeah, I remember that scene actually. Yeah, that did the trick. Right. I don't know. Good luck to the South African crew in Antarctica. I am getting Jen back on the show, so we'll ask her her perspective on it. Oh, yeah. But I think McMurdo, it's a little bit different because it's like a full city, but this is just really an outburst. Well, what do you think about spending nine months in space? You saw that, huh? They finally recovered those astronauts? Yeah.

[00:07:38] Well, I'm assuming they prepare, yeah, they prepare the people that are going to be there a long time, but they were only supposed to be there for a week. And they ended up staying up there for nine months. Yeah. But yeah, that's crazy too. I can't wait to see the medical follow-up on how much bone loss happened, cardio, all of it. It's going to be fascinating. Yeah. Yeah, because they're talking about trying to get to Mars by 2031, but I don't know how that will work. If they're going to be in Mars, then I think it's at least a two...

[00:08:08] There's a six-month window every two years, I think, that they can get to Mars. So at minimum, they would be there for two years, and I don't know if there's a way to simulate gravity there. So yeah, that would be a big problem for the people that are going, unless they're just going and planning on doing a one-way trip. Yeah. Yeah. The Van Allen radiation belt. That's the big kicker. Anyway, yeah, deep dive. Yeah.

[00:08:35] Well, anyway, so we'll keep an eye on this one, and like I said, we're going to get Jen back on. She's going to do... I got a couple other topics to cover with her, but she can definitely comment on this. So, Stomp, welcome to episode 189. This week, Stomp and Dave shits in the woods, Bushwhack Middle Sugarloaf. The plan? Find the hardest route on the easiest mountain in the White Mountains. The execution was flawless. They took me along, so we recorded a short segment after the hike at the Woodstock studio.

[00:09:04] So, we're going to talk a little bit about bushwhacking, route finding, and strategy for going off trail. I actually learned a lot from these guys, and I thought it was really fascinating to watch them think through how to navigate off trail. Plus, the thru-hikers are making their way north. We'll go over a guide for thru-hikers so that they can prepare for their visits to New Hampshire. All this, plus recent search and rescue news, a guide to ferratas. Is that how you say it, Stomp? Via ferrata.

[00:09:32] Via ferrata, which is like a way to climb with ropes. Plus, we'll have dad jokes, notable hikers, and more. So, I'm Mike. And I'm Stomp. Blurp, blurp, blurp, blurp. Let's get started! All right, Stomp.

[00:09:59] Let's turn this over to our friend Christina from Wild Raven Endurance Coaching. 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,

[00:10:26] 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. 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.

[00:10:53] 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. And we're back. We are back. You doing any endurance activities lately? I have been.

[00:11:21] I've been doing the treadmill every morning. Oh, the dreadmill. The dreadmill. I've been doing elevation on the treadmill. Kind of like training for the Mount Washington Road Race, even though I'm not doing it. But I am going to get back outside, though, running pretty soon. Yeah, yeah. That'd be nice. What about you? You got back to hiking. I know that. Yeah, that's been doing the trick, thankfully. Feeling good. Feeling pretty decent. The biggest part is getting my cardio back. But it's coming back pretty quick. Yes.

[00:11:51] And you're choosing the right types of hikes to ease into it, I think. Yeah, I think so, too. Not too heavy on the mileage. No people, which is nice. Except for you and Dave. But I can give you guys a pass. Right, right. Even Sugarloaf, there wasn't that many people on there. But we'll talk about that later. But what about, did you get in a last winter hike before the close of the winter? I did, yeah.

[00:12:21] I just was going to do Washington up Cog with Nobby, but he bailed. He had something pop up out of the blue. So I was trying to find something challenging, but sort of out of the way without people. And I went over to the Holt Trail. So I tackled the Holt Trail yesterday. And it was a beautiful 50-degree day. No people. Got to the lodge. Thank God I had four-wheel drive. The mud season roads are back.

[00:12:51] It was great. Sheesh. You know, for those that have hiked it, I made it to the bridge, Bear Boot. After the bridge, about maybe three-quarters of a mile, past three brooks, I had to put on my snowshoes. And then from there, it was just this gigantic mix of snowshoes, crampons, spikes, the whole thing. Back and forth, back and forth. Pretty gnarly. It was cool. It was different. It was exactly what I expected.

[00:13:21] But the trickiest part was that last scramble. You haven't done this yet, have you, Mike? I haven't. The only time I did a cardigan was I did that, like, fire screw loop. Yeah. From the same spot, but I did, oh, I went over fire screw and then down. I bypassed Holt. Yeah, yeah. And I connected to it at the lower part. Okay, got it. Yeah. So there's one last scramble that's, like, a very steep, you know, I don't know, 60 degrees, whatever, short.

[00:13:46] It was completely covered in, like, trace snow and glare ice. And fortunately for me, I missed the trail and went off trail and came out on top of it by accident, which is handy. And then the rest of it, I bare booted down Manning. Manning is a complete mess, dude. It's thin monorail, mud, running water, the whole thing. So, but anyway, it was a good challenging time. It was nice doing something a little type two, you know?

[00:14:16] Wow. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Holt is becoming, like, a little bit of a tradition for you because I think you did that last year around, like, late winter, early spring. So that's good. I think a lot of people have questions about that one, like, what's the status? So it'll be good to, you know, you can give people a winter hiking report from there. And it's, you know, it's opened up. You can go for it. A little sketchy. That one's a dangerous one. It is. Oh, for me? Oh, for anybody? Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's exposed. A couple of those things are exposed.

[00:14:44] The last scramble is definitely the worst moment where you've got to be on the money, pure concentration. And once you're past that, you're good. But I felt comfortable the whole time, which is good. So it's a wild place. You know, there's a sign up there that says you cannot leave the trail and find another way up. And after yesterday, I believe it now, because there were scrambles that were, you know, maybe in drier weather, manageable.

[00:15:14] But the way the snow was and the ice, hell no. Not without traditional climbing gear. So they probably have a history of people that get up there, see the exposure, and then try to get off trail somehow to find another route. And they just tell them, like, yeah, it's not going to happen. Yeah, absolutely. Yep. 100%. Yep. Take it to the bank. So you're back to hiking then? You're fully back? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I've got a few days to play with this weekend. I don't know what I'm doing.

[00:15:42] But what's going on with you? I'm just, I think, like I said, on Saturday, I am getting out to the Belknaps. And I think that'll close out. I think we're going to do Belknap, Piper, and Gunstock, which I think closes me out. I think I may need Whiteface, too. I can't remember all the peaks, but it may be close. It'll get, I'm getting close to closing out the list. Cool. Yep. Sounds good. That'll be it for me.

[00:16:11] And then, Stomp, you, I think, did you wake up and see this blood moon? Yeah. Well, somebody woke me up. I was down to sleep, and I hear Mrs. Stomp out there going, oh my God, it's so pretty. And I just couldn't, I couldn't resist. So we ended up driving halfway down to Waterville, one of the parking areas on 49, and watched it for a while. It was actually really beautiful. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, so it was a really special moment.

[00:16:41] And hopefully people got to see it. Yeah, I know. I think that, yeah, a lot of people, I saw a lot of photos of it. So good for the people that woke up. It was a little late for me. Yeah, that was a draggy day for sure. Yes. All right, Stomp. So we got the, we talked about your last winter hiking. We talked about the blood moon. So that's on the 48. They've got, they got something going on in May, you wanted to plug?

[00:17:07] Yeah, they were hiking up Mount Waternamy, where we know that B-18 wreckage site is. There's a couple memorials up there. And May 24th, 8 a.m., they're meeting at the trailhead in Woodstock, and they're going to be hiking up to remember the fallen. So that should be a nice time. Yeah. And that was a B-18 bomber that crashed on January 14th, 1942. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

[00:17:36] We covered that ages ago. Long time ago. Quite a story. Long time ago. Yep. Walker Brook Road, and then, yeah, it's out there. It's not a super long hike. So I've never been there, Stomp. Have you been? I've been there three or four times. Yeah. It's quite the experience. All right. Yeah, I got to get this on my list. I got a long list, Stomp. Yeah. It's a beautiful hike.

[00:18:03] There's a nice cascade to the right as you're ascending. If you pay attention, you can see this beautiful falls. But it's fairly steep. I almost want to say it's unmaintained at this point, but who knows? I don't know if somebody has jurisdiction over that trail, but it's sort of a mess, too. It's very wet. It's a great time up there. It's beautiful. Pieces all over the place, man. It's unbelievable. Yeah, it's how the plane is on Mount Success, too.

[00:18:31] It's spread out all over the place, and it's really fascinating to go to those plane crash sites. Yeah, yeah. Have you been to the one on Mount Success? I haven't. No, I have not. Yeah, you gotta go check that out. One of these days. Oh, I wouldn't mind getting back up there again soon. Boy, that area's great. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Beyond the Mahoosics. That's the one area. I'm doing the trail adoption right now. That's the one area that there's... I think that they're still looking for coverage on trails, but they do...

[00:18:59] I think that the emails I saw coming over, they said that they've got a really big volunteer group and that they have most of the trails covered. I think the Mahoosic area was the only one that I think I saw that still needed some love. Hmm. Yeah. It's surprising, too, because I've heard that it's sort of the best kept secret, and because of that, a lot of various organizations actually do a good job maintaining those trails, but I guess maybe that's not the case.

[00:19:30] I don't know. I don't know if... My experience, when I've hiked over there, the trails are in really good condition, and yeah, they were... I mean, from like Mount Hayes up to Genshin Pond, and then coming over Carlo Cole, and then up Success, or Success to Carlo Cole, all very nice trails. Yeah, Goose Eye. A little boggy, and there's bog trails and bog bridges and stuff that probably need some

[00:19:58] loving, but a trail adopter is not going to do much work on that. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, but I'm looking forward to the trail adoption stuff. I think I've got like some Zoom conferences to go to in the next week or two to check out, to get more information, and then training is in June, so it should be fun. Yeah, you've got to keep us posted. Yeah. Let us know the process. I will, I will. And then Stomp, you had pulled...

[00:20:26] You were nice enough to pull a cool video from... Let me just see here. Where is Zane? The volume turned down. Where is Zane? Shout out to Where is Zane? On YouTube. On YouTube. And tell us about this video. Yeah, I stumbled... This came up on my YouTube feed a couple days back. It was posted about a month ago, which would take us right in the middle of winter. And these two young gentlemen decide to hike up four miles or so to Pinnacle Gully in Huntington Ravine.

[00:20:55] And they run into basically minus three base temps, 80 mile an hour gusts. They reach a point where they decide to bail one of their goggles. No redundancy in the goggles. They freeze up. So one of the climbers has no protection on his eyes. When they're returning back down, they're walking over like wind slab and off trail and coming close to cliffs. And it's a pretty hair-raising video.

[00:21:25] I guess we'll let the listeners judge as to whether or not this is a good idea. But it's a good watch. It's worth... I think you'll learn a lot by watching this video. And the best part about it is they did have the sense to turn around. You know, whether or not they should have been up in the first place is a whole other question. But thankfully, they made it out in one piece. Yeah, yeah. I still haven't gone on that side of the mountain in the winter. It looks gnarly, though.

[00:21:54] Like the end of the video looks very steep and scary. Oh, my God. Yeah, they made it out alive. Well, you know where that is, Mike. That's the slab that you did that reel on. Right, right, right. So I'm assuming they were coming right down that, if not over some of the other scrambles that you have to go up. It's intense. It's crazy steep there. So, yeah, it's definitely crazy steep. I mean, you have to hope that the snow's going to hold. If it doesn't hold... They could have triggered something. You're going for a ride. Yeah.

[00:22:24] Yeah. Absolutely. I don't think they... Somebody in the comments was saying that it was loading up that day and that they went a little bit late. But I don't know. I don't know enough about it to comment. Yeah. It got out alive. I don't think they had any avalanche type of protection or recovery tools on them. Right. But, yeah, interesting video. Sure is, Stomp. And then Stomp was talking to me on this hike that we did the other day about this Via Ferrata stuff.

[00:22:54] So why don't you explain what that is? Yeah, I think I may be a Johnny-come-lately, but maybe not. Via Ferrata in Italian means iron path. So in European countries, particularly Switzerland, China, New Zealand, you have climbs that consist of rebar steps and cables that you can latch into with carabiner harness system. And it lets... I don't want to say amateurs, but people that may not be as familiar with traditional climbing.

[00:23:24] It gives them the experience of climbing the most intense routes that I've seen in a long time. So I fell down this deep rabbit hole watching these videos. Did some more research. I provided a few links to ones that are in Switzerland that are very intense. But there's actually a Via Ferrata course in New Hampshire in Rumney at Polo Caves. And from what I understand, there may be one in the traditional Rumney climbing area as well.

[00:23:53] I can't confirm that, but I think that may be the case. There was one video I found of the Polo Caves Ferrata. And that was several years old. And I think they may have expanded upon it, but now I'm dying to see. I have to check it out myself. But I'm obsessed with this idea. It's such a cool concept. You know, you're in there pretty secure. Even if you slip, you're harnessed in. Apparently, the word is that there have been several fatalities, though.

[00:24:22] I'm not quite sure how that happened. But I think if you're doing the technique properly, the risk of that happening is probably pretty low. Yeah, yeah. I'm familiar with this stomp. Not so much like in New Hampshire or Switzerland, but there's a mountain in China. They call it like Mount Hua, H-U-A, or it's also known as Hua Shan. Yeah, yeah. And there's planks. And then, yeah, it's the same thing. They basically hook.

[00:24:50] You have two carabiners and you hook on to metal runners that you, and then you go on these planks. And it's insanely like, I mean, it's thousands of feet of a drop. And you're on these crappy old planks. And you're on there with a bunch of tourists that have, you know, suspect levels of fitness. And capability. So it's a little scary. I think at that location, yes. I've seen those videos, too. And it looks insane. It's like a conga line of people that have no idea what the hell they're doing. Yeah, yeah. Like this.

[00:25:19] I'm watching a video right now. This guy's in like a three-piece suit doing it. Oh, my God. Yeah, this looks a little different. And it's sort of a list club, too. When you get to the top of these things, there's a box with a QR scan. So you scan it, like check it off your list. It's pretty neat. Yeah, yeah. No, the ones in Switzerland look amazing. Yeah, daunting. We get a little bit of that. We have Beaverbrook going up Musilaki.

[00:25:47] That's a little bit of a via ferrate. Not really. They're not clipped in, but you've got the rebar there. I've never done it, but that's what I've heard. Yeah, that makes sense. Yes. Yeah, cool. All right. Well, we'll put these videos on. And I'm watching them right now. And my palms are already sweaty. Yeah, I'm thinking we need one around here, like Cathedral Ledge or someplace. There's got to be something that we can develop here. I don't know. Looking for input from listeners. Okay.

[00:26:17] Stomp, do you know? Are you ready for a dad joke? Always. Do you know when I won the world's best doppelganger competition? Do you know what a doppelganger is? Yeah, yeah. A lookalike somewhere in the world. Exactly. So when I won that world's best doppelganger competition, I was beside myself. That's awesome. Yes. Yeah. Stomp, I got one more for you.

[00:26:45] Why should you always knock on a refrigerator door before opening it? God, I have no idea. You want to knock on the door in case there's a salad dressing inside. You don't want to interrupt the salad dressing. Yeah, yeah. Keep the modesty of the salad. Those are good. Right. Those are good ones.

[00:27:18] Hey, what's that sound? It must be time for the pop culture segment with Mike and Stomp. All right, Stomp, now it's time to do a little pop culture stuff here. So you have a pop culture thing to talk about. Yeah, I mean, we're sort of overloaded with stuff, watching Severance and whatever else.

[00:27:48] What was it when you mentioned on HBO? Lotus? We're trying to... The White Lotus. Yeah, we're trying to make our way through that. Not bad, not bad. But I just watched Complete Unknown. It was one of the Oscar nominees. It was with Timothee Chalamet as Dylan. And I got to say, it was phenomenal. It was really, really nice. Instead of a cradle-to-grave type of movie, it was just that one moment in the early 60s

[00:28:13] that led up to the Newport Folk Festival where Dylan broke out his electric guitar and full band to the boos of the audience. It was a seminal moment in rock and roll and folk. So it was so well done. Like, definitely hats off. It was so great. Yeah. Good stuff. I haven't watched it just because I like... I just don't get Bob Dylan, so... Yeah, well, this will catch up. I understand the importance of that moment, but I just don't necessarily get him.

[00:28:42] But I probably should be a little bit more appreciative because he's written a bunch of songs that other artists have sang that are really good. Yeah, great stuff. Yeah. He was an enigma back then and he still is. Yes. Pretty interesting fella. Yeah. You know, there's a documentary about the making of We Are The World. Oh, that's right. That song that's lovely. And there's probably a 10 or 15 minute segment with Dylan trying to do his section. And he really insecure guy. Like, it was really interesting.

[00:29:11] He was like very nervous about doing his part. He couldn't sing in front of anybody else. Yeah, yeah. He... I forget who it was that he had to bring into like another part of the studio to just kind of hold... Not hold his hand, but just give him assurance. But he couldn't really sing in front of anybody else. It's so weird. And he was like, that wasn't that good. Oh my God. That's so weird. Yeah. Interesting. Huh. Yeah. We'll figure.

[00:29:41] All right, Stomp. So time for CS Coffee. Yes, that's right. CS Instant Coffee. Athlete ready. CS Instant Coffee. You can find this wonderful backpacking coffee. And for so much more at www.csinstant.coffee. Excellent. Excellent. And then stickers and swag. Yeah. Stickers and swag.

[00:30:09] You can always get your stickers at Ski Fanatics and any live shows that may be coming up in the future. Also at Spinner's Pizza Parler in Andover off Dascom Road. If you're interested in advertising with the podcast, just reach out to us at slasherpodcast at gmail.com or send us a direct message on the Instagram or Facebook. And no, it is the season now for some of the slasher hoodies and stuff and t-shirts.

[00:30:37] So you can go to the Bonfire Shop, which link can be found again on Instagram. We have a coffee donation. If you want to support the show, you can go to the Buy Me a Coffee website. And this week we have a donation of three coffees by Dr. MRN. And I hope I'm saying that correctly. Thank you very, very much for the donation. Beer Talk. Very good. We've got a Beer Talk, Stomp.

[00:31:05] Before we do Beer Talk, why don't we do show housekeeping? So just for the listeners, so you're aware. So next week we're going to take a week off of the regular show, but we do have additional content. Stomp was nice enough to record a version of So You Wanna. A show of So You Wanna. I ain't showing nothing. Featuring Welsh. Yeah, exactly. Featuring Welsh Sticky. So we'll have that for next week. So you learn everything you need to learn about Welsh Sticky. And then I'll be back.

[00:31:35] Stomp is not going to be back. I'm going to be back with, I think, a couple of weeks of guest co-hosts. And then we'll find out where in the world Stomp is at some point. Yes. But yeah, just a little bit of a prep. Yeah. Stomp's a busy guy. Just like Dylan and Enigma. Yeah. Mysterious. It should be good. But yeah, we'll... So Stomp's going to be incognito for a little while. Yeah, that's right.

[00:32:04] Oh, now you're going to get rumors started. You're going to... You'll be hiking though. I know that much. I actually have to go to the plastic surgery guy and get our whole facial done. So I'm going to have to be away for a couple of months. But when I come back, I'm going to be even more handsome. Right. Right. What would be... If you could get plastic surgery, what would be your choice? Oh, man. I'd want to come back as David Hasselhoff.

[00:32:35] Really? No. I'm joking. He's a little... He didn't age well. Oh, I haven't seen him in ages. Who would you want to look like? I don't... I mean, I don't know. I don't look like me. I mean, look, it's over. It's over. Like, there's nothing happening here. It's like, I'm married. I don't think Mrs. Mike is going anywhere. So I'm like, I'm in a good position. But I don't think I need to look... I'm never going to look any better. So I might as well not even try. You should ask her. Yeah, well, we'll see.

[00:33:05] I do watch those videos of the guy... You know what? Because I'm a bald guy, a little bit bald. And I'm fascinated with these guys that go to Turkey and they get the hair transplants. You ever watch those? There's a... Yeah. So I guess it's really inexpensive to go to Turkey to get a hair transplant if you're bald. Hmm. So they call this one flight, I think it goes from New York to Turkey, they call it the

[00:33:31] Turkish hairline because you'll go on to this Turkish airlines and there'll be like five or six of these guys that are coming back from surgery in Turkey. Perfect hair. And after you get it done, they're taking little pieces of hair and like implanting them all over the place. Oh, I get it. Apparently when they get the surgery, they have to like sit. They can't sleep. Laying down, they have to sit up. Hmm. And they all have like those massive little scars on their heads. Yeah.

[00:34:00] So I find that interesting. There is a place that does that around here in New England. I forget the name of it, but remember Howie Carr, that radio talk show host? He got it done. And it's the same process. We are just, you know, transplanting healthy vascular hair tissue or whatever. Same thing. But yeah, it's definitely not worth the effort. I follow some of these guys on TikTok and YouTube and I'm just like the misery.

[00:34:26] And it's the sad part is, is that they put, they put faith in the idea that, oh, as long as I have hair, I'm going to be more attractive. And I don't know if that's the case with a lot of these. I feel like they would be better off just shaving their head, growing a beard and then being more physically fit or being more active. Yeah. Right. No, I agree. Yep. And you have that whole industry pushing looks and this is how you should look, blah, blah, blah.

[00:34:56] I mean, God knows how much that influences people to do these things. I wonder what it would be like if that was eliminated. I mean, and guys have it easy. Like women, it's like a whole different level. I see even with my daughters. But, but yeah, I think the one thing I will say is I don't know. Like I, I lost my hair when I was in my forties. Maybe I would have a different perspective if I was in my twenties and I lost my hair. I don't know. Yeah. Possible.

[00:35:24] Anyway, but we really went off topics talking about hair transplants. Right. Hiking podcast. Hiking podcast. So, all right. So we're talking about bear hair. So Stomp, I have a little bit of a sip of sunshine from Lawson's. Got it. Good stuff. I've had one of those recently. It's good. Yeah, not bad. I went with the, the classic Storm Along Dry and it tastes, I think they go through cycles with their apples because this one tastes so bitter. It's interesting, but it's good.

[00:35:54] Yeah. I wonder if the, like it's better in the fall when the apples are fried. I don't know how that works. I would think so, but this one is sharp. Like it's almost like on the borderline of being bad. You know what I mean? I don't know. So, or too fermented maybe. Yeah. I got to say Dave brought the ciders for the hike and I never really had one. I thought they were fantastic. Which one did you have again? The shorter one? I had the 12 ounce one. I don't know what it is. Yeah. I forget too. Yeah.

[00:36:22] Well, yeah, we'll figure it out. Yeah. That was, that was fun. Yep. Speaking of that. Yeah. So speaking of that, so you already did your hike about the whole trail. So as a reminder, so Stomp and I and Dave got out to Middle Sugarloaf and Stomp, I think we cover this in the segment, but like you had, you've been scheming because you've been snowmobiling past this area for a while. Right. Yeah.

[00:36:48] It's, there's a snowmobile trail that was recently groomed that lets tours get up there now. So I was taking people under the cliffs of Middle Sugarloaf within a tenth of a mile and it's stunning. And there's a few ways that I noticed that could possibly cater to like a bushwhack and you two suckers were kind enough to join the adventure. It was a great time and we'll hear all about it.

[00:37:18] Yeah. Yeah. So after we finished the hike, we headed back down to Stomp's place and got into the Woodpecker studio and did a retrospective. So we're going to drop into that right now. You can listen to Stomp and Dave talk a little bit about their methodology for bushwhacking. And then we'll come out in about 20 minutes or so and then start back with the rest of the show. That's it. Enjoy.

[00:37:47] So you have to keep it a little closer. It's just weird not hearing, but I guess we are hearing so. Yeah. We just not hearing through a headphone. Right. Last time we did this, Navi was here and he was like, I had the headphone on him and he was like, Oh, I got to hate this. It was weird. You don't like the headphones. No, it's the microphone. He kept, he's like, got to get it closer. I'm like, I'm licking it. Like you can't get it. He's like, you got to get closer. I'm like. Oh God. All right. Cool. Live at the Woodpecker's studio North. We're live right now? Oh yeah.

[00:38:17] It's rolling. Oh, wow. Okay. I have no script. This is so awkward. This is awkward. What the hell are we doing? This is foreign territory for you. You all right? I feel like we have Dave shits in the woods with us for the listeners. The way, but the way we're set up right now, I feel like I'm interviewing you two. You're right. Yes. We're on one side. You guys are awfully close. It's like less than six feet. He told me to speak into the mic. Ah. But um. So we hiked, so we hiked North, North Sugarloaf? Middle. Middle. Middle.

[00:38:47] Yeah. Correct. Yeah. North would be that. Oh, that's right. Flift one. Yeah. I think it's more to the North. Okay. That's right. But this was an experience. So I haven't gone bushwhacking with you guys. So we did. So Stump, why don't you just explain the route that you created? So we basically did. I created it. The most difficult route on the easiest mountain that you can find. Yeah. That's a weird paradox. Yeah. So I have a habit of looking at cliffs and daydreaming as I'm driving and thinking,

[00:39:16] okay, if I had to climb that, how would I get up it? And um, I noticed that, like I do that with cannon cliffs. Like if I had to go up that, like what? Oh yeah. I'd thread that little line there. You followed the tree line. Yeah. I've seen that one. Same thing on. Coming into the notch. Yeah. Like Eagle Cliff. Yeah. Exactly. So on the snowmobile tours, we did, um, this, this route that goes up corridor 11 and then breaks off to this formerly expert snowmobile trail called, and, uh, it just occurred to me like, oh wow, that'd be fun.

[00:39:46] Um, just to try to find a way up the cliff side and the rest is history. Uh, I've been sitting on it for a month or two and then, uh, threw it out there and you guys are game. Now that the snowmobile season's over, it was safe. Yeah. Yep. And we did, we didn't avoid Zealand road. So we did have to start on Zealand road, but then you guys took me up the snowmobile trails, which was a different way. It's probably less monotonous than walking on the road. I would say so. Yeah. It was actually really nice.

[00:40:16] It felt more wooded. It felt not traily. It was wide open, but it felt like glare ice. Yeah. Wow. It was good traction test. Yeah. It was nice woods. It was like, it was nice, gradual climb. It was like, you felt more in the woods. You're on dirt, not pavement. You didn't see anybody really. Yeah. Just us. It was nice. Yeah. It was really nice. Actually prefer that way to go around. If I had to do Zealand again, I'd probably go that way just to walk it.

[00:40:46] It was nice. Yeah. I would say the highlight of going that way instead of going on the road was that you do get a direct view of middle sugar loaf. So you could see like, all right, this is where we're heading. Uh, and then you meander, you would eventually hit Zealand road again for a little period. You go past the trail head and then it's on to another snowmobile trail. Yeah. This quarter 11, which if you, if you took the traditional sugar loaf trail, middle sugar

[00:41:11] loaf trail up, you cross over that road, the fire road, which is quarter 11 in the winter, um, which leads all the way down with Lincoln. Can you guys explain? So I'm not a bushwhacker and you guys are, so you have bushwhacking brain and at a certain point you had to decide when to get off of the snowmobile trail and then make the decision on what the best approach was.

[00:41:38] And you said something about, you were looking into the woods and interpreting that you saw old logging skid marks or something like that. And you thought that that would be the best way to go in. And then I, I just nod my head and go, yes, I feel like bushwhacking is like a, um, it's, it's making educated guesses a little bit at a time. And that, that's, that's what I learned today. But can you talk a little bit about how you make those decisions? Yeah. I educated or just guesses, flat out guesses.

[00:42:08] Sometimes, you know, you do read their skid tracks. Skid marks are very different. Um, those happen when you slip on slabs or like, if you don't make it to the privy in time, you, there are a lot of skid marks. Did I say skid marks? Yeah. Yeah. That was really uncomfortable. You know, but I mean, you can follow skid marks. Um, they will take you very, very different places, but I'm a skid trail kind of guy. But, um, yeah, mortified. I'm just going to stick with it now.

[00:42:36] So you, skid marks are a big part of the adventure. So we did see what looked like a skid mark and it smelled like a skid mark. So we decided to take it, but no, when it looked like there was where like a logging area where they might've pulled the logs out where they drop them in a certain area and they pull it to where it's flatter. It's more of the height of land, I guess you'd say where the trucks can be level and they load up on even land. So you can kind of see those. And sometimes they'll even put bigger boulders in front of it because people will pick them

[00:43:06] up as extra snowmobile trails or ATVs. So the boulder it off. And a lot of times if you pick those up, you can wrap around the base of a mountain or a cliff and actually get good elevation as it goes up where they, where they logged and hauled things out. And that's what we thought we saw. And I think we did for a while until we hit that boulder field where they had fallen off the cliffs and the boulders. That would have been the end of that. There's no way they would have been down low. They had a good area.

[00:43:33] It was flat and they could have been pulling it with skids, but we kind of got to that. That's where I'll explain that. When we got to that crossroads where it was like, okay, we're at the boulders. Do we try to go up the talus and boulders or do we go around further or do we drop back down? I'd never really thought about that. Typically, bushwhacking, I'll avoid open roads and trails because of the ticks.

[00:44:01] But with the snowmobile track, it was, you know, it was different. I never thought about that. It's pretty good information. Typically, bushwhacking, I'll avoid open... Yeah. Looking at Google Earth, there was a swath of that one up somewhere, maybe to the eastern side of the cliffs. And that was the objective is to try to find that.

[00:44:27] And I think where we went in and followed that contour, roughly got us there, maybe? Maybe. Maybe. I think we started up that boulder a little early and we thought maybe we'd scrambled the boulders and then realized that might not have worked. And when we pushed past that, that's where I think you picked up the trees you were looking for. It didn't get open, but it got easier on the footing, I guess is the word I would say. I don't even have to swap out between snowshoes and spikes and then snowshoes and spikes. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:44:57] Talosfield is tough to wear snowshoes through that. But yeah. So back to the roads and the contour. Yeah. So back to the roads. Yeah. I mean, and I think there was the most interesting point for me was you guys were trying to make a decision between like 2,200 feet and there was this decision point where you could go left and start ascending. The risk there is that you're going to come to cliffs and not going to be, you're not going to be able to move anywhere.

[00:45:27] Or you could go down to the right a bit, but then the risk there is that you just basically get pushed so deep into the woods that you connect to the actual trail itself so far down that you've kind of missed your opportunity. But I feel like the decision you made to go up and connect with the lower cliffs was the right one. And I don't know how much that was science versus guesswork.

[00:45:57] The science is based on experience. So it's more of throw that out the window. It's more just reading it and being like, yeah, we know the trail is whatever, 100 feet or quarter mile the other way. And I think we said the goal was to go up. And the question was, like you said, how far up can we get before we hit more ledge and slab? Because we sailed mostly till we got the boulders. The boulders are fine, got a little piney, and then we hit that slab.

[00:46:24] And the slab was a little bit sketchy scrambling across that. And then we thought we'd slab the rest of the way and we didn't. And there was that middle where the slab ended and we had a little bit of boulders again. And it was, you flip a coin, what's going to happen on the other side? Is it more slab? Is it more pine? Are we home free? Versus we can old man this and be like, we know that's going to cut across. We know it's all hardwoods, which means it's open. There were smaller hardwoods, which would say it was logged, which means that you had enough

[00:46:53] footing to cut and haul. So we know we could have gone that way and hit a trail. It's actually reminiscent of the- And we just decided to have more fun and go up. Where you're threading the line of trees and the ledges. Once we got past that steeper 60, 70 degree ledge, and it started getting more gradual with the ledges, it was beautiful up to the summit. And I would say just as like somebody that doesn't do it as much as both of you do, it was interesting. I think at one point I said, I need a Google Translate for bushwhack language because you were sort of talking in your own language, which I thought was funny. We made it all up.

[00:47:23] But we were just saying stuff and they wink at each other and be like, I don't know. It doesn't even mean anything. I was impressed. Well, we even scattered at one point to your point that we reached that area, stomp it one way, I went another, and you were in the middle. And it was like, who knows? So when you say, how do you know? Like, you don't. I went low thinking to be flatter and easier. You were already split in the middle and stomp went around the other side. You had snowshoes on stomp, right? At that point. No, you're postholes. Let's talk about that.

[00:47:51] Because after that first ledge, Mike, you went in up to your waist. A couple steps in. That was wild. I got some pictures of that I'll post too. He was literally post. Yeah. My thought was like, I looked at the GPS a couple of hundred feet from the trail. We actually didn't end up connecting with the trail on the way up. We cut over to a slab. But my thought was that, okay, I can deal with a couple hundred feet of post-holing. Let me just keep. And I was holding in most of them, but it was every fifth one I would sink in. So I guess. Yeah.

[00:48:21] And you had gators though. Yeah. Because I hate gators. I just don't like them. They just get hot. They do. Yeah. They were. They were warming the way up, but I was grateful to have them on once we got off trail. You have the low gators today? No, I have the highs. Well, all gators are high with these legs. They could be. They're infants. Good point. Infant gators. They go up. The short kings are on this side of the table. That's right. Yeah. And the temp was like in the fifties.

[00:48:49] Finally get to the summit and the breeze was kicking in hard. That was probably like a steady 30 to 35 mile an hour. I think 75, 90. That was a very strong win. And there was nobody up there. That was so surprising. Yeah. The Zealand parking lot was packed, but everyone must have been going into the Pemi. Up to the hut, perhaps. They might've just been walking up. Yeah. Up to Zealand or up just for a walk or, but the wind was strong. We kept it comfortable. I got hit with a random hat. Yes. Sorry.

[00:49:19] My hat blew off. Right in the eye, but I'm all right. I'm fine. That was awesome. It was really strong. We just kind of walked around. The views up there are stunning. It's worth going up there alone if you take the trail. Yeah. It's like not 360, but it's like about 270 degrees of like walking along the ledges there. And you can see from the presidential range and then all the way looping around to the back, you can look down into Twin Mountain. So it's not a complete circle on the summit, but pretty close. And that was the other option.

[00:49:48] It was to go up to the call and then loop around the Twin Mountain side, which would be the Western side. And then try to find a way up that way. But we opted to go to the Eastern side facing the cliff. I think that way would have been easier and less fun. And we probably would have gotten pushed to the coal and come up the trail. And you think it would have been harder because of what? The spruce? I think it was just steeper rock. Oh, okay. Like we had slab on the side we came up. I think that was more cliff. Got it. And I don't know that we would have gotten around that.

[00:50:16] I think we would have just kept and pushed more to the coal where the trail was, picked it up and just followed that. And that would have been kind of uneventful. Huh. We had to do that stupid ladder twice. Cool stuff. And then can we talk about the ladder? No. The ladder. The ladder sucked. We have video evidence of that. So we can post that on. Disclaimer. Okay. Old men coming down the ladder. Yeah. I had the spikes on and I do work on roofs sometimes.

[00:50:43] And I've had the experience where I catch a heel and you're on a roof and you're gone. And so I'm very cautious and I'm very paranoid when there's anything on my feet that isn't flat. And then Mike was like practically shoving me down the stairs. Yeah, that's true. And he was like right on top of me like, hurry up. Sorry. It is. I will say like those stairs are, it's nerve wracking. I do. I've sized nine feet. So my feet aren't huge, but the ice and the snow, Dave is cooking something up with that

[00:51:13] comment, but there's ice and snow halfway on the stairs. So there's only a half a tread really to bite into, but I don't know. I just felt a little bit more comfortable. When the steps are over, you're walking like you rode a horse for 12 hours. Can you explain that one? Probably because my thighs were squeezed together. And I was like, you had an audience too. Yeah. No kidding. There was three people waiting to go up, which is, you know, you're going to fall when people are watching you. It's just inevitable. So I was coming down.

[00:51:42] Like it was some kind of musical opening where it was like when the shark bites sideways down it. And I just stuck the landing and it was like, just, you know, glad it was over. And it's funny because in the summer I would sail right down those. And even, you know, I'm just cautious with the snow. And like I said, with anything on my feet like that, I just, and people watching, I'm like, I know how this ends. Yeah. Yeah. So just to read, and then it was basically just a straight hike out on the, so the monorail is developing.

[00:52:10] If you step off of it a little bit, you will sink. We just basically. The trail was a nightmare. I actually enjoyed the bushwhack more than the trail. A hundred percent agree with that. That was just. Or even the, the snowmobile trail was beautiful with spikes on. It was ice, but like it grabbed and it was just a smooth walk. Yeah. And then once we get out to Zeeland road, I mean, that's completely cleared at this point. There's a couple of spots of ice down at the bottom, but it's, it's bare, bare road. It looks plowed. Yeah. And we tried to get through the snowmobile tunnel, but that was sort of flooded. Yeah.

[00:52:40] That was a no go right out of the gate. Yeah. A little bit of water. That's it. Five and a half miles. And you know, it was a bushwhack experience, but it was like a beginner bushwhack, I would say, maybe on the more tricky part. Cause it was certainly like, you know, we started with snowshoes, took the snowshoes off. We're going up steep sections. We're going on slabs where if you fall, you're going to be in trouble.

[00:53:03] And then we're breaking through like mossy rocks and going up to our, our hips, but it was only maybe about a half a mile, three quarters of a mile for that section, right? Maybe a mile. I'd say close to a mile as a guess, but I don't, it's so hard when you're zigzagging and you're going so slow. If you were a beginner bushwhacker, you should probably go with somebody that has done it before. If you're moderately experienced, then go for it. It's a good time. In these conditions.

[00:53:33] Yeah. I always look at bushwhacking as like a couple pieces with a big pieces, navigation. The navigation wasn't super hard cause you had trails everywhere. You could reconnect. You weren't going to get lost necessarily. And it was stick season. You can see pretty far. It helped a ton. You had to navigate in the sense that if you didn't want to run into the trail, you had to navigate, which is what we did. And then it's a question of terrain and the terrain got a little bit sketchy.

[00:53:59] Like I wouldn't, I wouldn't say if you, somebody to land on that slab who might not be comfortable with it, that could be a lot. Cause there was definitely a couple of scrambly slabs and a couple of areas where the big holes in the rocks were a bit much and some thicker pine, nothing super overwhelming, but with the snowshoes on the back catching everything, it was in post-holing. It was, it was a lot, but it wasn't like, yeah. You know? Yep. There you go. Yeah.

[00:54:27] That open rock, I think even though it was probably like three or four steps to get to a handhold, it's still like if something happened on that and you slipped, like you were going down pretty far. So it was a little nerve wracking. That's why you went first. That's why I went first. Cause you were absolutely below me. Yeah. And you were kicking snow on me the whole way up. But I will say like, um, middle sugarloaf is a great mountain for people that, you know, the bushwhack aside, like it's just a great mountain to go and hang out with, hang out. And it's, it's not that far of a hike.

[00:54:56] I think it's really not five and a half miles total from the parking lot off 302. So if you can drive up there, it's like nothing else. Oh yeah. Yeah. And the winter you got the road, but you take that away in the spring and summer and mile and a half, right? Yeah. Foliage season. I'd avoid in foliage season. It's chaos. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Unless you can go on an off day and sneak up there, the parking and just, it is a nightmare. But as far as if you can sneak out for a day and you want to be kind of alone during a

[00:55:24] weekday and, you know, springish early summer, beautiful views, good breeze, no bugs, probably good area. Cool. Oh, that's a nice recap. What's up? What's next on the agenda? I don't know. I don't know what I, I gotta, I gotta get back out for my daughter for her 4,000 footers. And then, um, there's, Dave said he wants to do a bunch of overnights in the summer. So, you know, hopefully I'll be doing the same.

[00:55:52] It's just tough to figure out timing on everything, but it's just good to get out and stomp. I'm proud of you to get back. You know, it's not easy to get back into your, your hiking legs after a couple of months. So no kidding. Right. No, legit. Like three months, no work for my legs. Just sitting on a machine. You throw in warm weather too, after it's been, you've been on the cold. Yeah. And then, you know. And then throwing a nice cider on top of it. Cider was, that was, well. Yeah. Yeah. We were on our second cider here. So I'm not a cider person.

[00:56:21] I'm an IPA, but Dave had brought six. Well, we brought one each and we had them on the summit and now we're having another one. Healthy option. Yes. You're a cider guy now. That's all you have to think. I like it. No, it's converted. It's better for you. Yeah. Yes. Is it more alcohol or less alcohol? I think it's pretty much the same. It's pretty much the same. Four or five percent, depending on what you get. I'm feeling a little tingly. Well, I roofied you, so that's right. Oh, wait, where am I? Is this still on?

[00:56:51] The last question of the day? Yes. Who's your favorite co-host? Oh, geez. Well, see, that was the problem. Like, that was, all right, I'm out with these two and I'm going to, by the end of the day, one will shine. And I can honestly say, neither shown. That's my brand. It was minus 50 points for each of them throughout the day. They lost more. I had to bring the ciders. Mike brought school pizza from school and didn't even share the square pizzas. That's true. Wouldn't share it with us. Hit behind a rock and ate it. And then came over with, like, cheese hanging off his face.

[00:57:20] Like, what are you guys doing? Yeah. Yeah. And you brought the 30-year-old bag of, like, processed ringdings and everything else. That was good. I brought thin mint. Girl Scout thin mints. You did offer them to us, too. I was like, you know what I mean? I even helped them cross the street when we were done. Well, I will say, Dave did. I appreciate the fact that you allowed us to stop at the common man rest area so that we could get sandwiches. Of course. Which was slammed, right? With skiers. Oh, northbound. Not just a restaurant.

[00:57:49] He was waiting to go to the men's room. Yeah. And he was waiting in line because there was, like, all the stalls were used. Oh, my God. And then some kid just came sauntering in and cut right in front of him. He caught me up. Well, there was a guy waiting, and I was looking at him, and I just pushed the door and it opened. And he looked at me. I'm like, well, you were here first. So go ahead. And then the end went open, and the kid just sailed right in. I'm like, that's why I go in the woods. Because I can never get in the damn stalls. Wow. It all makes sense. Yep.

[00:58:18] Well, this was fun. It's great being in the Woodpecker studio north here. Yeah. You've got your cup from Evie. Yes, I did. Thank you very much for that. It's very beautiful. And we got to see our kitty cats. Yep. Yep. Zylo, Daphne running around. Yes. Oh, she's over there by the deck door. She wants to get out so bad. Oh, boy. All right. Well, this was a good little segment. I think that anytime we're up north and we can get into the studio to just do a recap, it's worth it for us to do. Just do it fresh. Oh, yeah.

[00:58:48] Well, the wounds are fresh. There was blood drawn. Oh, yeah. Hell yeah. Scratches. Yeah. Yep. Not bad. Well, I will say that I will go back and do a bushwhack. I think it's... I like these shorter ones. I like the idea of that. I don't know if I'm up for the captain. So do I. They're all short. Yeah. Yeah. He is a cider drinking bushwhacker. It's official. Oh, my God. I'm going to start pooping in the woods and growing a beer, too, now. Slow down. Slow down. It's a process. You know, just...

[00:59:18] Don't just become a wood shitter. No. It's not... All right. Cool. Over and out. Yeah, we are backstomped, so... So you got the bushwhack and bug a little bit, I think, after that one. Yeah, it's a little bit of a puzzle thing, and I like that we were successful. It built a little bit of confidence in me, especially...

[00:59:45] You know where it really hit me was when I looked at the Strava flyby, and I saw that we sort of hit that perfect middle section between the two cliffs. Isn't that wild? I was like, oh, wow. Wow. We, like, didn't even... We did... I mean, I didn't do much. I just followed you guys, but you guys basically followed the contours of the land, and the land told you where to go. Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I do think that comes with a bit more experience, but if you're looking

[01:00:10] at the contours, looking for the blue patches 50 yards ahead, you can sort of feel where you're headed. But that worked out perfect. I was shocked. I really had no idea where we were. I thought we were even further to the east past that swath that you could see on Google Earth, but it worked out great. Right, yeah. And I even, like, was messaging you guys afterwards being like, you know, well, in the summer,

[01:00:36] we could have gone up the rock slide section and then tried to top out from there in a couple of different ways. So, yeah, you start thinking, and I understand how you can get obsessive about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a great day. Super, super nice. So warm. Yep, yeah. And we've got a little, we've got other plans with Dave in the future, so you'll be hearing a lot from him. I think he's going to be a regular part of the crew. Absolutely. He's a great resource for bushwhacking, too. I really respect him.

[01:01:05] Oh, yeah. Yeah. There are a few that compare to his knowledge and insight and history and everything. He's pretty solid. Yeah, yeah. I love it. Like, he just will break into some historical stuff, and it's really interesting. So, he's a fun guy. Absolutely. All right. So, hey, we have a 48 Peaks ad here. Use your passion for hiking to help end Alzheimer's.

[01:01:30] 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 Brewing. With raffles, food, and an amazing community. Hike that weekend or any day you want this summer. No fundraising minimums required, but those who raise $100 will receive the 2025 performance-grade

[01:01:58] purple t-shirt, which they just released. It looks really cool. Let's turn the White Mountains purple to end Alzheimer's. Visit alts.org right slash 48Peaks. That's the number 48 and then peaks to learn more. Yes. Yes. And the Slasher podcast team has been set up. I am going to put out a post on our Facebook and our Instagram.

[01:02:24] And if anybody is interested in joining our team, we are looking for people that are going to raise some good money. And then the plan is we are going to hike the day of the hiker celebration, which I think is either like June 20th or June 21st. I'll have to double check. And so Nobby Hikes is going to be my co-captain. So Nobby has had, you know, he lost both his parents to Alzheimer's last year.

[01:02:49] So I wanted him to basically be co-captain on the team with me. And Stomp, I don't know if you'll be able to join us, but if you can, that would be great. And then so Nobby's son, I think, is joining us. And then my daughter and her boyfriend will be joining us as well. And I think the plan is, is we're going to claim Madison. So we're going to do, it's going to be a hard hike. So just be aware if you're going to sign up, it's going to be a little bit of a challenging hike for us. So I think we're going to go up.

[01:03:19] I don't know what the exact route is that he has planned. I think it's like a loop, Valley Way, and then down another direction and back to Appalachia. So just be prepared. It'll be a strenuous hike. Yeah, say so. So hopefully the weather will be perfect. Yeah, exactly. It will have a plan B if the weather doesn't allow us to get up there. Right. All right, cool. Well, that'll be a notable hike, I'm sure.

[01:03:48] And this week we do have a couple notable hikes. So if you want to be considered for Slasher's Notable Hike of the Week, just tag us on one of the socials and we will do our best to put you in the list. This week is a little light. We have Summit Snack Attack, who seemingly did a solo Mount Katahdin, which is pretty darn impressive. You're more familiar with this place than I am.

[01:04:18] Did he do... What did he do? He went up Abol? I think he went up Abol, which is where I've gone up. I actually didn't look at his Instagram, so sorry, Andy. But if he did do Abol, I mean, just to get in there, he's got to basically pull a sled probably seven miles or something like that from the main gate. And then from there, he's got to hike up Abol, which is a steep trail. Doesn't get a lot of travel. I'm guessing he probably had to break trail the whole time and then come down.

[01:04:47] It's an incredible accomplishment to do that solo. Yeah. Yeah. No doubt about it. Yeah. So we have that coming in first. We have Marley Su Tu, who hiked Whiteface Passer Conaway. Laura Eli went up Bald Peak, which is on the western side of the Kinsmans. This is... We don't see too much about this one, but it's a really nice hike. You know, reasonable miles to a great sunset view.

[01:05:15] So this is Bald Peak via the Kinsman Mountain Trail. Nice, nice work. And then just coming in today, we have Duchess 3663, who hiked up Mount Wachusett. Another classic. So there you go. We have our four contenders. And only one can win. Yeah. And I would... Yeah.

[01:05:42] I mean, I would say the Summit Snack Attack definitely is the winner. And then shout out to Marley Su for Whiteface Passer Conaway. I think she's more than halfway through her winter 4,000 footers. So she'll... Nice. A couple more winters and she'll knock it out. That's great. And there was much rejoicing. And there was much rejoicing.

[01:06:12] Slasher's Hiking Topic of the Week. It was much rejoicing here, Stomp. So I pulled a little segment here for us. I was thinking about this. So it's like March Madness is the time of the year where I pick and choose all of the through hikers that I'm going to follow on YouTube and Instagram and give them, you know, a shout out.

[01:06:39] So I thought that any through hikers that listen, I could... We could put together a little segment for them about what to expect when they hit New Hampshire when they're doing their through hike. Excellent. So how do you find these people? Just chat rooms, social media? What are you thinking? I typically will go on to... I'm in the Appalachian Trail Class of 2025 Facebook group. And then somebody will post a link and say like, oh, check out my YouTube or something like that.

[01:07:09] And then sometimes I'll just go to YouTube and I'll do a search that says like day one Appalachian Trail 2025 and filter by like... And then I'll just look at people and I'll judge them. And I'll be like, this one's not going to make it. This one's not going to make it. That's great. Yeah. So I pick my little minions and then I keep an eye on them. You should start a league. This is great.

[01:07:38] You could start up a little fantasy league here. Yeah. A fantasy through hiker. That would be kind of funny actually. But yeah. So just a little bit about the New Hampshire section. So New Hampshire is 161 miles. So by the time you've reached New Hampshire, you'll have gone through, I believe, 11 states. So you'll be well prepared if you're coming northbound or for the miles.

[01:08:05] What you may not be well prepared for is the elevation that you're going to deal with because New Hampshire has, I think, two or three of the steepest mile sections on the Appalachian Trail. And I know that they have the steepest section, which is Wildcat Ridge, which you climb right after you exit Pinkham Notch. So after you've gone through the presidential range, you've got one steep climb left that

[01:08:32] you have to deal with to get through the New Hampshire section, which is Wildcat Ridge. That's right. So, but we're going to do this stomp just assuming that you're coming north to Salt. So they'll have gone through Massachusetts and Vermont. And then when you arrive in New Hampshire, you're going to arrive in a town called Hanover, New Hampshire, which is the home of Dartmouth University or Dartmouth College. Stomp, what do you know about Hanover?

[01:09:02] Not much. I know there's a search and rescue team out there and a hospital nearby. And once I dropped off some guy named Nobby when he was doing one of his crazy long routes. Right. But I'm very unfamiliar with it. Yeah, yeah. And I'm less familiar with this section too. I think that obviously it's a resupply town. You can get lodging there. It's got the college there. They're used to through hikers coming through.

[01:09:25] So I think that anything you need as far as hostel, hotel, resupply, you can get in the Hanover area. And then from there, you've got to think about a 20-mile hike or so to get maybe a little bit less, maybe about 12 through the Hanover section. There's a, you know, the trail winds through some local, I think, town forest areas. And then eventually you make your way to Dartmouth Skiway.

[01:09:54] And that is the start of where you really start to deal with some elevation. So the first mountain that you'll, the first big mountain that you'll really hit is called Smarts Mountain. And when you arrive to Dartmouth near Dartmouth Skiway and then you get to Smarts Mountain, when you get to the summit there, you've got a fire tower so you can get up there and look at some nice views. There's also a small cabin there that you can, you can stay overnight if you want, or you can tent out right by the cabin.

[01:10:24] So basically there's a fire tower, cabin, and then a camping area. And then there's an outdoor privy stomp as well. Handy. Year round or? Year round. And when I say outdoor privy, it's one of those privys that's like a toilet, but there's no, there's nothing around it. So you just sit on the toilet and open air and do your thing. Exposed. Exposed privy. High exposure. Yep. Yeah.

[01:10:51] So you certainly have a lot of options on Smarts Mountain for overnight stay. And then from there you'll have, I think it's probably like six or eight mile hike to get over to Mount Q. But what you'll do is you'll drop elevation on Smarts Mountain and then you'll go through, there's a bridge with river crossing, plenty of water, no problem getting water there.

[01:11:15] And then you'll come to the Hexacube shelter, which is between Smarts Mountain and Mount Cube. You can stay there. It's a unique shelter because it is a hexagon shape. So I think that's like, what is that, six or eight sides? I can't remember. Oh my God. Hex is what? Five or six, I believe. Yeah. Yeah. It's, I think it's six, six sides. It's a really big shelter. And then it's got some nice camping spots there. I've stayed there overnight with my friend Tom before.

[01:11:46] I ended up tenting. I didn't stay in the shelter, but, or the lean-to, but it's got a privy that has walls. It's got water source there. And yeah, it's a nice place to stay. Mm-hmm. Now you've got me looking up Latin phrases for numbers. Yeah. Hexa, Penta. I think Penta is five. I know that. Yeah. Okta is eight. So I think Hexagon is six. Yeah. I'll confirm. Keep on talking. Okay. Let me know. Let me know.

[01:12:16] So when you leave Hexagon Shelter, you are going to get to, you're going to climb up the ledges of Mount Q. If you leave early in the morning and you've got a cold day that starts to warm up quickly, you might get lucky and get some nice undercast views where you'll be above the clouds. That area in particular tends to attract the clouds lower in the valley.

[01:12:43] So when you get up to Mount Qube, the proper summit of Mount Qube will give you nice views. It's open ledges. And, you know, if you get there early in the day, you'll usually get some nice sun rising and warm yourself up. I do recommend that you do not skip the North Summit. So the Appalachian Trail goes past the North Summit, but you can just hop right over there. It's a little, maybe a couple hundred yards over to get to the North Summit. And then you've got views out to where you're, where you're looking to go, which is Mount Moosalock.

[01:13:14] So you can, you can sort of get a sense of where the trail's going to go from, from where you are on, on Mount Qube. One of those areas I'm dying to get out to. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. A good friend, C. Gothberg, Chris does all his work down and around there and up and through the, the valley. Just looks beautiful. Yeah. We should, we should hook up with him and do, do a little trip because smarts in Qube are gorgeous.

[01:13:40] So, but then once you clear Mount Qube, then you're going to head down into your first road crossing there, which is, I forget what the name of that road is. Maybe it's 25. So you got some options if you want to go into town from there, you can get to Plymouth, New Hampshire. You've got the Barn Door Hostel, which is close by there as well, if you want to get to it.

[01:14:04] And then there's, I think another second road crossing as you get into the Benton Forest. And then you also have Jeffersbrook Shelter there in that particular area. So typically like if you've resupplied in Hanover, you've made your way through to smarts in Qube. If you're ready to get to a resupply, then I think Plymouth is probably the most logical option for you. And then in Rumney, New Hampshire, which I think is close by, you've got the Barn Door Hostel.

[01:14:34] And I'm sure there's some other options for lodging and food, but in general, that's a good option is once you clear Qube, you can get in that town if you need to. Oh, sorry. I forget the name of the places, but there are a couple of really built up gas stations slash one-stop shops right there on 25 that you can also look at. Apple Lockers, I forget the name of the places, but there's one or two that are pretty good that are closer than having to travel to Plymouth. Right. Yeah.

[01:15:03] And I suspect that a lot of people keep going and they actually clear Musilake before they get into town. But essentially, so you've got that option if you want to, but once you get to past Mount Cube, you head down past Jeffersbrook. You can stay there for the night. Eventually, you get into Benton Forest, which then gets you to the bottom of the Glencliff Trail. And again, another option if you want, before you hit the Glencliff Trail, you can get to

[01:15:33] Plymouth and in the hostels there as well. But assuming that you want to skip that over, head up the Glencliff Trail, that's basically getting you to Mount Musilake. And I feel like as a through hiker, once you get on Musilake, that's when it's really, you're there. This is New Hampshire. You're in the moment. You're in the White Mountains. Sometimes you've accomplished something. 100%. Yep.

[01:16:02] When you get up to the top of Glencliff, you've got an option. There is a little self-summit on Musilake that I think that it's worth taking. It will tell you that it's like a tenth of a mile to get up there. The sign lies. It's more like a, I think maybe like two tenths of a mile or a quarter mile. And I definitely, if it's a nice day, it's worth doing that little side adventure. Maybe by the time you've gone to Musilake and you've seen everything and done everything, you don't care as much. But I like that little south peak there.

[01:16:32] And then you'll make your way across the, what is it? What would you call it? The plateau of Musilake? I guess you could call it a call in a sense. But yeah, it's a nice long ridge walk, plateau, straight up to the summit. It's beautiful. Right. It's lengthy. It is lengthy. It is lengthy. And then you'll be able to see out to Franconia Ridge and you'll be able to, on a good day, maybe even spot the presidentials, I think, from Musilake.

[01:16:59] And yeah, I'll give you a real good view of where you're headed. And then from there, you're going to dip back under treeline and you'll get into what is called Beaverbrook Trail. And on Beaverbrook Trail, this is one of the steeper sections where you'll be going down. Beaverbrook has a shelter, so you can sleep overnight there if you want to prepare for going into town. One last time you sleep in the Beaverbrook shelter.

[01:17:26] And then it's probably about a couple of miles to get down to the next road crossing, which I think is 112, right, Stomp? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And then... It's the kank. It's the kank, yeah. Yeah, so at that point, you are... Your options for getting into trail towns, you've got a bunch. So you're close to the Notch Hostel, which is a great place to stay, well-known hostel in that area there. I think it's right down the street from Beaverbrook, if I'm not...

[01:17:55] If I'm... Yeah, it's in Woodstock. Woodstock, all right, yeah. So it's pretty close. And then you've got Woodstock and Lincoln that are trail towns, so you can go into Lincoln. There's a ton of hotels in there, a ton of shops. There's Lahoots if you need to resupply, and you've got plenty of good food places. I would definitely check out Black Mountain Burger if I were you.

[01:18:20] And that's typically, I think, handover to Lincoln is what I would guess to be like the five-day trip for most people. Yeah. Sounds reasonable. Yep. And then from there, once you've gone into Lincoln or you've stayed at the Notch Hostel or whatnot, you're ready to get back to hiking and you're going to hit the Kinsman Ridge and stomp.

[01:18:42] This is where I need to rely on you to give a description of Kinsman Ridge up to like Lonesome Lake. So I don't know that area as well. So if you could do the honors and break that section down, that'd be great. Yeah, sure. Sure. So on the other side of the Kangamangus, when you come down from Beaverbrook, the AT continues on to the Kinsman Ridge Trail,

[01:19:08] which is a long, somewhat more remote, difficult-to-access stretch of trail that ranges, I think, 13 miles from Lost River to Lonesome Lake Hut. And along the way, it's a lot of puds, ups and downs. You will cross over Mount Wolf, which is on the 500 highest and several other lists. And then you hit the South Kinsman and North Kinsman.

[01:19:37] And again, at these points from Wolf to say South Kinsman, it's fairly remote. I know a lot of thru-hikers have slack-packed that section if they can arrange to have somebody meet them at Lonesome or Lafayette Campground, or Liberty Springs, for that matter, to be more precise for the AT. Right. Yeah, it's pretty grueling. It's lengthy and grueling. It's a long day.

[01:20:04] In terms of shelters, I think there is one shelter on route, somewhere in the vicinity of Mount Wolf. Yeah, Eliza Brook shelter. Okay. All right. Yeah, that's the one. So you'll probably break up your day there. Maybe you'll go to Dilly Cliffs and start a fire. I don't know. Don't do that. A little dig. A little dig. And yeah, that's about all I got for you. You do not continue on to Cannon.

[01:20:29] You're going to be dropping down from the Kinsmans to Lafayette Campground, or Liberty Springs, that is, and continuing on from there. Right, yeah. And then also, just I'd be remiss if I didn't remind people. So you've got Eliza Brook shelter, but then you also have Kinsman Pond campsite, which is a lean-to and a water source. And then this is also where you hit your first AMC hut, which is Lonesome Lake. Yeah, I forgot about the hut there below the peak.

[01:20:59] Right, yeah. It's gorgeous. Yeah, it's beautiful there. That's a great place to stop. So you get a lot of options as far as shelters and places to stay. Personally, you know, my recollection on the hut system is you can either, you can reserve your huts, hut stays. I think if you're going to hit a hut on a weekend, it may be difficult to get a single spot.

[01:21:23] But, you know, if you time it out and you get a pretty good sense of what day you're going to be there, then, you know, you can reserve ahead of time. If you aren't going to reserve and you're going to do the through hiker process, then my understanding is that the hut system, they have a process where you can't just get there at like 10 o'clock in the morning and wait around. They don't want you hanging out, I don't think.

[01:21:48] But like essentially there's a certain time of the day where you can check in and then they'll say like, all right, we're going to allow for two, three people to do work for stay. And then I think they can sleep on the floor, the hut somewhere or whatever. So it's not a guarantee that you'll have a spot unless you have a reservation. It's expensive. I think it's like a hundred bucks or something or a little bit more than that for a stay over the summer. But it does come with food and, you know, the huts are pretty nice.

[01:22:17] So it's your call and there's going to be like six or seven huts that we'll talk about that you can stay at as you go across it. But the huts are definitely, I think you should stay in at least one night or two nights with a hut when you're doing a through hike. Now, where does the route traditionally go? Do you come down Lonesome Lake Trail or do you go down Cascade Brook to shave off miles to get to Liberty Springs? I can't remember. That's a good question on whether or not it goes.

[01:22:45] Yeah, because Liberty, the Liberty Trail up to the Liberty Shelter is part of the AT, correct? Correct. Yeah. Yeah. So I think it is Cascade and that... That would be the shortest. Yeah, exactly. I'm pulling up my... Which you can still access from the hut easily. Easily. So yeah, it does get a little tricky in there.

[01:23:08] But essentially, once you clear that section, that's another option for you to take into town if you didn't get into town there. And it is Cascade Brook is the Appalachian Trail, by the way. Okay. But that's another section. Once you get down Cascade Brooks, before you get to Liberty Springs, you can get back into Lincoln or you can go to Franconia if you want. You can call for a ride there. And that's another option for you to resupply.

[01:23:36] And that also, like you said, that's why a lot of people will slack pack. So if you're staying at the Notch Hostel or somewhere in Lincoln, typically, I'm assuming they might offer some slack packing options for people. So yeah, that's cool. Yep. And then from there, you're getting into the really cool stuff now, like Moosalock and Kinsman is great. But once you hit Liberty Springs, then you're doing the climb up to Franconia Ridge.

[01:24:06] So Liberty Springs is a short hike up... Well, it's not a short hike, but it's a semi-short hike up to Liberty Springs Campground, which is, I think, about halfway up the mountain. And then from there, you can get up to Franconia Ridge. You're going to head northbound. And then you'll eventually get to what we call the Franconia Ridge, which is Little Haystack, Mount Lincoln, and then Mount Lafayette. Mm-hmm.

[01:24:36] Yeah. And known as one of the most picturesque parts of the Appalachian Trail. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's beautiful. Yeah. And that campsite has, what, access for hammocks, platforms. Hammocks. Yeah. Liberty Springs hammocks, platforms. Yeah. And beers. Exactly. It's got, yeah, it's got beer. It's got a beer box. Typically, most of the campsites, when you get in there, they'll have beer boxes. And so you don't have to worry about a hang.

[01:25:06] And they'll have water sources as well. Remember that story from Dave last week hiking? Refresh my memory. The guy trying to, he was, some guy was taking his bag, his beer bag down on a trip. He's like, what the hell are you doing? It's a beer bag. Oh, yes. I forgot all the time. It's like somebody left their pack here. Oh, boy. And then next up, what do you have to do? You have to head over to Garfield, correct?

[01:25:30] Well, Franconia Ridge and then this Greenleaf Hut that you can drop down to. But that's a bit of, I don't know if I'd drop down if I was a through hiker, honestly. I would head to Garfield Pond and then Garfield Ridge Shelter. And then you've got Gale Head Hut there. So that's basically, you're on the Pemi Loop section of the hike at this point where you'll go up. There's a lot of pointless up and downs, although they're, I would say they're purposeful up and downs because you get some nice views.

[01:26:00] And then you'll eventually hit, you've got Garfield Ridge Shelter, which is a nice campground. Again, same deal with all of these shelters and campgrounds. You've got shelters, you've got tents, platforms, and you've got hammock areas where you can hang. Then you get to the Gale Head Hut, which is a nice hut that overlooks a little valley. Typically, it's a little foggy in there. But again, another great option to stay with the AMC.

[01:26:28] And then Stomp. I think when you exit the Gale Head Hut, you're then getting into the Zeeland area and Ethan Pond area. But you've got to go up South Twin, which is a stiff climb. So you really start getting your legs going up South Twin. Then you're going to go over Mount Giot. And then eventually make your way past Zeeland to Zeeland Hut. Hmm.

[01:26:54] And then you'll really start dropping elevation to get to Ethan Pond Shelter. And eventually you'll make your way to Route 302. This is another option for you to think about getting into trail towns like Bartlett and North Conway. You can also go north up to Twin Mountain or get to the Highland Center at AMC. So there's a lot of resupply options when you get to 302 after you clear Zeeland Hut and Ethan Pond Shelter. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I'm just going to rewind for two seconds and just put the disclaimer.

[01:27:25] From Lafayette to Gale Head, a lot of us call it the Gates of Hell. Right. Like Mordor. It's one of the toughest sections hands down in the whites. It's a ball buster for sure. Just be ready for that. No doubt. I mean, the climb up to Garfield is like an underrated tough climb. And then you got up and downs to get over to Gale Head. And then you got the up to get to South Twin.

[01:27:54] And then to get over to Gio, it is an up and down. So it's a lot of grinding. A hundred percent. Yep. But like I said, 302, it's a little bit of a drive. But you've got a lot of options. You go to South, you go to Bartlett and North Conway. North is Highland Center and Twin Mountain. A lot of resupply options. If you want to get fancy, you can say the Omni Hotel, which is super expensive, but it's really picturesque right below Mount Washington. Yeah.

[01:28:22] Imagine a thru-hiker showing up there all stinky. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure it happens. Soaking the hot tub that Bill Clinton soaked in. True, true. So they've since washed it out. So once you cross 302, then you get up to Webster Cliff, which is, again, another one of the steeper sections. And then from Webster Cliff, I mean, this is an absolute grind, a couple of miles to get up it.

[01:28:46] Then you're going to get into Mount Jackson, and then you'll hit the Mispa Hut in the Mispa Tent area, where now you're entering the Southern Presidential Range. And from the Mispa Hut, Mispa Tent area, you'll get over to Mount Pierce. And then once you get to Mount Pierce, that'll be your first glimpse of, like, really good close view of Mount Washington. Mm-hmm. Yeah, directly in your face. Right. Like, boom. Yeah.

[01:29:15] And then you'll follow Mount Pierce over to Mount Eisenhower, and then you'll go over Mount Franklin, and then Monroe. And then eventually, right below Mount Monroe, you'll get to another AMC hut, which is the Mispa Hut. Now, as you enter this section here, your options for overnight stays are very limited. You really only have lakes.

[01:29:34] And then beyond that, you've really got to plan on staying at lakes and then clearing Washington and Jefferson and getting over to Adams and Madison for overnight accommodations. Yeah. That sort of ties into a question I had. So if you're an AT through hiker, by this point, I'm assuming you're doing probably 20 miles a day. So maybe you missed this whole thing, and you're beyond the prezzies. Who knows?

[01:30:05] I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. I think that what I've heard is like, yeah, they're doing 20 miles a day, but once they hit the whites, maybe they're not doing as much because of the elevation. Yeah. It depends on pacing and everything else, yeah. Exactly. But I think from timing it out, yeah, you've got to figure out like when you get to Mispa Hut, really your only other option to stay after a lot of climbing is lakes or the cloud.

[01:30:32] You can get to Mispa and then get over to the Randolph Mountain Club on Adams, some of their options and tent sites, but I don't know how many people do that. Now, does the AT rules, do they force you to go over the summits or can you skirt around them? You know how each summit on the prezzies has a spur that loops around? I think officially the Appalachian Trail does not go over the Mount Washington Summit.

[01:31:00] People can check me on that if I got that wrong, but I believe that it does not go over the Mount Washington Summit. I think it bypasses it technically, but most people go there. What about the smaller summits? You know you have an option. You can go around or up and over. Yeah, it goes over Pierce. It does not go over Eisenhower. It does not go over Mount Franklin. And it actually does not go over Monroe. It bypasses Monroe.

[01:31:28] And then it bypasses Washington as well. And it misses Jefferson too, and it misses Adams. Interesting. Yeah. So it goes below it. Well, that would save some time. Yeah, but I feel like you bag all those peaks when you're there. Right. Unless you're like running into winter. Right. Like you got to get to Katahdin. Yeah, exactly. Unless you're in a rush. But once you get into Mount Adams and you get to Mount Madison, you got a bunch of different options there.

[01:31:58] You've got the Randolph Mountain Club has a couple of cabins. They've got Gray Knob and they've got the Crag Camp, which you're going to drop down a little bit. Then you've got the, they've got a couple of lean-tos. I forget the names of the Randolph Mountain lean-tos now. I apologize for RMC Club. But I'll put those in the show notes. And then also you have Valley Way tent site and then Madison Springs hut that you can stay at.

[01:32:28] And then wrapping up the Prezzies. Wrapping up the Prezzies. Then you're going to make your way down the, you're going to go, I think. Let me just double check this and see if we- Wasn't it Osgood? It's Osgood Trail, but I'm just curious if it goes over Madison or not. Trying to remember. You mentioned Madison Gulf there, but I, oh, into Madison Gulf, but not down Madison Gulf Trail. Yeah, correct. Yeah. So the Appalachian Trail does go over Mount Madison.

[01:32:57] And then, yeah, you take the Osgood Trail down. And then once you get to the bottom of the Osgood Trail, there is an Osgood tent site. And then from there, you're going to take the bridge over to Madison Gulf. And then Madison Gulf takes you to the Mount Washington Auto Road. You're going to cross over the auto road and make your way down Old Jackson. And then from there, you're going to be in Pinkham Notch, which is an AMC location where you can resupply.

[01:33:27] Again, you can go into Gorham, New Hampshire from that point, or you can get in North Conway or Jackson. Easy to get a ride from Pinkham Notch to wherever you want to go. There's three or four towns where you can resupply or take a little break. And then from there, you are going to go up the Wildcat Ridge, so the steepest mile on the Appalachian Trail.

[01:33:49] You'll go over five summits on Mount Wildcat or Wildcat Mountain and then make your way down into Carter Notch. And there's a hut right there, so this is the last and final hut option for you is Carter Notch Hut. This is the smallest and oldest hut, I believe, in the hut system. And maybe it's the second oldest, I can't remember, but Carter Notch Hut, great place to stop at.

[01:34:16] And then from there, you're going to climb up Carter Dome, another steep climb. And then you're going to make your way across the Carter Range and then into the Mariahs and then finish up coming down. And there's a couple of different shelters there. There's the Imp Shelter and Rattle River is the next one. And then once you get down the Rattle River Trail, you've got a Rattle River Shelter.

[01:34:44] And then from there, you're back out to Route 2. And then again, you've got an option to go back into Gorham if you want to, or you can head right into the Mahoosic Range. And from there, I think, I don't know at what point you reach Maine, but essentially you're going to go into the Centennial Trail. You're going to hit Mount Hayes, and then you're going to get to Cascade Mountain, and then Genshin Pond.

[01:35:12] And at a certain point, you're going to clear into Maine. And that's all I got stomped. Sounds, I'm exhausted just listening to that. Yeah. Like, I've hiked most of these. I did the Wildcat to Mariah Traverse a number of times. And that's just no joke, man. It's a lot of work. Yeah. It's nice hearing that the shelters are spaced out so that if you're burnt, you know, it's basically a day in between each one if you're taking your time.

[01:35:42] Right. But you do have options. Right, yeah. And I think that the last thing I'll say is that, like, you get, see, Genshin Pond Shelter is like your last shelter, I believe. And then you will hit Mount Success. And then the one thing I'll call out is that the way to end your trip on New Hampshire is make sure right below the summit of Mount Success, you should take that little detour and check out the plane crash site. Which is at about 3,400 feet.

[01:36:09] So it's about 160 feet below the summit. Before you hit the summit, there's that plane crash site and it's well worth checking out. Hmm. Fairly intact? Fairly intact. There's two main sets. So the fuselage is pretty much intact. It's fully, you can go inside of it. And then there's a couple of wings, I think, that are fully intact as well that you can do a walk on. Wow. That's cool.

[01:36:38] So, but that's it. That was great. Through hikers. So hopefully you'll listen to this and you'll follow our guide around and hopefully this is informational for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Send us a message if you need any more pointers.

[01:37:29] All right, so let's go with, we're going a little long here. So why don't we go with the two local search and rescue events here. So on, we have two rescues in New Hampshire. Tuesday, March 11th at 305, Fish and Game officers got notified from a Garmin inReach that had been activated on Franconia Ridge near Mount Lincoln. The inReach owner had come across an injured hiker and activated.

[01:37:56] He must have been so excited in some ways, obviously nervous for the people, but excited that he could trigger his Garmin. Love-hate relationship. Right. Right. So. Oh boy. But this was a lower leg injury. They were making their way down. It worked. They were making their way down the Falling Waters Trail. So it sounds like they, yeah, it sounds like they were able to keep moving, which is good.

[01:38:22] So the injured party had suffered low leg injury, making their way down the Falling Waters Trail. So conservation officers were monitoring the group's progress. And once it became clear that it was slowing down and would not make it out without assistance, a rescue was initiated. So the Pemi Valley Search and Rescue Team responded and were able to transport the victim to the trailhead. 57-year-old gentleman from Wells, Maine, injured his leg between Lincoln and Lafayette.

[01:38:52] And the hiker was well prepared for a winter hike, they said. So shout out to him for being well prepared. Mm-hmm. Yep. Hands off. Hats off to the Search and Rescue Team, too. Right. Exactly. It's nothing more terrifying than coming down the Cascade section of Falling Waters. I bet. I can't wait until they reroute that. I mean, it sucks for us because we're going to lose content for the show, but it'll be good for everybody. Yeah. Oh, my goodness.

[01:39:21] Imagine they reroute that and all of a sudden, like, Search and Rescue volume goes down to zero. That would be nice, I guess. It would be. That would be. This next one takes us to March 16th and Mount 17th. So, rescuers worked diligently to assist a hiker down off of Mount Moriah after she got stuck in dangerous conditions along the Carter-Mariah Trail. So, this is, yeah, 6.45 p.m.

[01:39:51] They got the call and a distressed hiker was mired in snow and being pelted by rain about three miles into the woods. So, this would have been, oh, boy. This was on Sunday, Stomp. So, we got out on Saturday. So, it was raining out. I wouldn't want, could you imagine if it was raining where we were? Oh, this is scary. Yeah.

[01:40:14] The hiker explained that during her hours of hiking that day, the deep snow on the trail had become increasingly soft, causing her to sink even in snowshoes. She had fallen many times, gotten soaked, and was dealing with an increasingly painful leg injury. She had little gear left, but had used most of what she had, and everything was becoming soaked in the steady rain that was falling.

[01:40:37] So, yeah, that's, you got to bring out like a liner bag inside your pack to have that ready to protect everything that you have. So, you don't want it to get wet. So, four conservation officers and 11 volunteers from Andrews Scrogg and Valley Search and Rescue Team responded. They got to the trail, Stony Brook Trail, at 9 p.m., and they went through the soft snow towards the hiker. The first crew located the hiker at 1115. And they gave first aid.

[01:41:07] They gave warm, dry clothing. And after being warmed up, the hiker was able to hike back with assistance back to Route 16. Steady rain was falling. The snow was melting. Rescuers ended up having to spend significant time setting up ropes and figuring out how to cross brooks that had swollen. Oh, man. It's a torrent level. Yeah. Yeah. It happens. I mean, we had such a melt. Holy moly. Right. Right. Right. So, I guess they got her out at 418.

[01:41:38] That's a long night. Yeah. Yeah. So, avid hiker, but a novice when it comes to hiking in spring conditions. So, yeah. It's like, you know, stop. I gave you a hard time. I was like, oh, you know, we're doing the hardest hike on the easiest mountain. But that's the way you want to roll this time of the year, I think. Yeah. That's a good call. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, with the recent forecast, you got to know what you're crossing for Brooks. And knowing that the warm attempts are going to really rise the waters.

[01:42:09] Yeah. I mean, it's just my opinion, people. But, like, in my view, and I get it. Like, I would go out. Like, I would try something bigger. But for me, it's April. I'm sticking in the bell naps. I'm sticking in the ossipies. I'm going to stick in, like, yeah, southern facing summits and peaks. Yeah. That's the way to go. Yeah, I agree. That's a long night. It's a long night stopping. This was a long show.

[01:42:38] So we're going to say good night to the people. Good night. Good night and good luck. And we'll talk to you soon. Later. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed the show, you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[01:43:02] 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. 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.

[01:43:32] 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. 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?

[01:44:01] Holy one! Lieutenant James Neeland from New Hampshire Fish and Game. Lieutenant, thanks for being with us today. Thanks for having me. What are some of the most common mistakes you see people make when they're heading out on the trails to hike here in New Hampshire? Seems to me the most common is being unprepared. I think if they just simply visited hikesafe.com and got a list of the ten essential items and had those in their packs, they probably would have no need to ever call us at all. I know! Good for you all!