Episode 190 - Welcome to IBTAT, Belknap Range Hike, Ossipee Range Hike, Rescue on the Twinway

[00:00:34] Welcome to the Woodpecker Studio in the great live free or die 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 and beyond. Here are your hosts and Nabi.

[00:00:56] You're not Stomp, you're Nabi. I almost said alright Stomp. Welcome to Episode 190. A poor man Stomp is with us. Welcome Nabi Hikes. How you doing? Alright, doing real good.

[00:01:23] Awesome, awesome. Well thanks for joining me and Stomp is being an international man of mystery. I guess we'll have to trudge through this episode with you as the co-host. So welcome aboard. Thank you, thank you. Fancy new microphone here and then I've never seen your house before so I get a little bit of background like it's very, it's very nice. You have a curio with it looks like something in the background. I don't know what that's all about.

[00:01:49] There's a lot of stomping and background noise in Nabi's world so I apologize ahead of time. Well, I have three dogs. I have three cats and it's usually a war in here so it's really, it's unusual for it to be nice and quiet. Okay, so Nabi is like Dr. Doolittle with all those animals. I've only met one of you. I've met one of your dogs. What's the dog that you hike with? Knox.

[00:02:13] Knoxie, that's right. Yeah, Nabi and Knoxie. So Knox is good. There's some videos of me and you on Mount Shakora with Knox. As a matter of fact, we're going to do a So You Wanted episode after this. Oh yeah, yeah. So yeah, Knox is good. That was a real windy time. Yeah, yeah. And then Knox also did my 4,000 footer finish too. Yep. Winter 4,000 footer on Mount Hills. Yeah, that was great. That was a good time.

[00:02:34] Awesome. All right. So before we do the intro, you have something to answer for. So I put this in my show notes. I saw today that somebody had posted on one of the Facebook groups that they got a, they parked in Lincoln Woods and they came back and there was an officer there that had written up an $80 fine for this person. I think I know this guy.

[00:02:57] The officer said, well, so the, the poster who said, he said, the, the officer was very nice, but he said, we're sick and tired of people not paying at the kiosk in the self-service parking lots. So, um, he said, this is going to be an $80 fine for you. You could have just paid $5 and saved yourself the headache. But the officer was nice enough to say, now I'm going to rip this up, but I want you to pay for your parking.

[00:03:26] So the guy said, he immediately like put $20 in the kiosk, apologized. And then he said he was going to post something on the Facebook page just as a reminder. So people know that the, the, um, those lots are being enforced. So the parking, which you usually think that you can just skip it and it's winter time and you can ignore it. Don't ignore it because you're going to get an $80 fine for $5 bill.

[00:03:51] And the reason I bring this up is because Nobby got a fine at the well-sticky parking lot. So. Yeah, we were, we were just busy and we're just, uh, trying to get on trail as fast as we could. And we had to go dump my car off first. And then, uh, uh, we dumped the car off, got into the other car and then went to, uh, Waterville to start the hike. And, uh, I guess we just forgot. Right. Right. It happens. It happens.

[00:04:18] There's only three other cars in the lot. And it was funny cause we were kind of distracted because they were, um, search and rescue vehicles. So we were kind of curious. Um, and I think farther on in the day, we, I think we, we made the, uh, conclusion that it was probably training with a Black Hawk cause we heard a Black Hawk in the area.

[00:04:43] Um, but yeah, it was a, it was a, I mean, I made a video of the hike and I stated in the video, uh, about, you know, make sure that, that you pay the $5. Yeah. The whole, the whole thing is, it's just a real important. And, and I was, I was curious with, um, uh, cause I've never, I know you can pot do like an annual, um, $30 for an annual thing to, for, for all the, uh, the parking.

[00:05:12] Um, do you buy that usually? I do. So I put in the show notes here that, um, there's a $30 parking pass that you can buy through the forest service. It's a recreation pass. And, um, you just basically just click on the link to the white mountain national forest annual passes. And then you can buy that. You can also purchase through a variety of local vendors as well.

[00:05:37] Um, so you can, uh, you can get those through, um, the, you know, there's a bunch of them. There's probably about 20 of them. REI and in any REI has them. Lahoots has them, uh, mountain wanderer has them. Um, and then there's a number of different mountain shops and, uh, AMC locations where you can buy them.

[00:05:58] So, um, I'll include this in the show notes so that people can make sure that they buy one. It's $30. It basically covers you for any of those $5 lots. So you're good to go. Yeah, that's a good idea. All right. So, Nobby, welcome to the Sounds Like a Search and Rescue podcast.

[00:06:15] This week, Mark Lindeberg, um, Nobby Hike sits in for Stomp as our co-host. Uh, later in this episode, we're going to be joined by the guest of the week, through hiker and photographer, I.B. Tatt, who is setting off to start his second round of Triple Crown through hikes, starting with the PCT. So we caught up with him, talked a little bit about his, uh, his life as a through hiker, uh, and, and got to know him a little bit. It was a fun conversation.

[00:06:40] Plus, um, a look back, uh, to 1971 through the eyes of a through hiker, making their way through the New Hampshire section of the Appalachian Trail, stumbled across this trail journal from a guy that hiked the AT in 1971. So we'll go through the first half of his trip to New Hampshire. Uh, plus Black Mountain Ski Area has a successful ski season with new owners.

[00:07:01] And, um, we went to a refresher. Six years have passed since Stefan Porris' Sue's car was found in Pinkham Notch, and there's been no sign of him since March 8th, 2019. So we'll revisit that case. Plus, we got recent hikes on the Belknaps, the Ossipies, the Grand Traverse, Nobby did with, uh, Stomp, and a close call rescue on the Twinway. So I'm Mike. And I'm Nobby. Let's get started. Let's get started.

[00:07:36] Let's get started. Very good. Very good. Um, all right. So we're going to start with our friend Christina. We're going to go into the White Mountain or Wild Raven Endurance Coaching. Uh, so let's have Christina go into, uh, that and then we'll be right back. Hi, 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.

[00:08:06] With years of experience hiking, mountain biking, and trail running across New England, I also have a deep knowledge of the New Hampshire 4,000 footers and the surrounding trails. Whether you're a beginner hiker or a seasoned athlete, I'll guide you towards your goals, reducing injury risk and improving your performance through smart, tailored coaching. Are you looking to transition from hiking to mountain running? I'm here to make that journey easier too.

[00:08:32] My approach combines strength training, mindfulness, and life balance on and off the trail. Let me help you find more joy in your sport while getting stronger and healthier along the way. Visit www.coaching.christinafulsick.com and start your adventure today.

[00:08:58] Excellent. All right, Nobby. So, um, that's good. You're going to hire Christina and get into shape this, this summer? Yeah, I think, uh, that might be a good idea. That's it. I, uh, I need to, uh, get a little better shape, I think. You're in pretty good shape though for an old guy. Yeah, I do a lot of dog walking. Yeah, I know. You got a lot of dog walks. You got a lot of dogs. So, all right. So I wanted to start off, uh, Nobby with a, uh, I stumbled across this on social media.

[00:09:26] There is a gentleman by the name of, let me make sure I get his name correct here, David O'Dell. So David O'Dell had posted on one of these social media groups about a through hike that he did in 1971. So I was not yet born at this point. He was doing a through hike. Young guy at the time, I'm assuming. And the cool thing about David is that he kept a journal of his entire trip. So you can actually read through the entire journal.

[00:09:55] I just pulled out some selected sections from, um, September of 1971 as he entered New Hampshire. And I'll link this in the show notes and people can check it out. You can read through the whole thing. I really like David's writing style because he's very short to the point. So every journal entry is like maybe like six to eight sentences tops. And he talks about where he started, where he finished, what the weather was like. And it talks a lot about food as well.

[00:10:24] But I picked up a couple of interesting tidbits and, um, I'm hoping that some listeners may be able to fill out some gaps here. So I'm going to go through, I think it took him about 12 days to get through. He's currently on, um, as, as I'm going to cover this knobby, he is currently on day 92 of his through hike.

[00:10:43] He's completed 1500 miles and he's got another, you know, I think 100 to go or so as he, as he enters the, um, state of New Hampshire. So pretty cool, right? Wow. 1971. Were you born in 1971, knobby? 69. You were born in 1969. So you're an old guy. Yeah. All right. I'm an old guy. So you, where were you living when you were two years old? I was two years old. I was living in West Palm Beach, Florida. West Palm Beach, Florida.

[00:11:13] Was that, were you born in Florida? Yeah. Yeah. I'm from Florida. Wow. I didn't know that. And, uh, lived in Florida till I was, we moved when I was about, uh, five or six, I think. Okay. And we moved up to, uh, Cocoa Beach. And so I went to, uh, um, kindergarten, Cocoa Beach, and then moved, you know, closer, uh, a couple of towns over for grade school and stuff like that. So you're a real Florida man.

[00:11:43] Yeah. A little bit. And when I was a kid, when did you, when did you move to New England? When I was 11, 11, my, my parents broke up and we got in the, and we moved up to Rhode Island and I, uh, went to middle school in Rhode Island. And, uh, I was in Rhode Island till high school. And then in the middle of high school, uh, we ended up moving to Connecticut. Okay. And, uh, so a little, a little bit everywhere. Wow.

[00:12:12] And do you remember as an 11 year old, do you remember how big of a culture shock it was moving from Florida to Rhode Island? I really don't remember it as a bad thing. Yeah. Um, because, uh, I remember it as more of a, more of an adventure, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Were you nervous about going to a new school? So that was something I never experienced. I stayed in the same town my whole life. So I never had to be the new kid at school. I always was jealous of the new kid.

[00:12:38] I thought that that was like the coolest thing ever is the new kid shows up and everybody's interested in them because you get a chance to like meet somebody new. It was a bit crazy because we ended up when we first moved away, um, out of Florida, we moved to Atlanta and I went to school for about half a year in Atlanta. And, um, it was a total culture shock.

[00:13:03] And, um, so I was, I was the minority in, in, uh, in Atlanta and, um, it was a really, really tough school I went to. And then after that, I ended up, um, you know, moving to Rhode Island after that, after about half a year of that, but it was really, uh, it was really interesting. But you, so you were okay though, even with the divorce and the bouncing around and everything else you did, did you, would you, did you immediately make a bunch of friends at school or were you like a quiet type of guy?

[00:13:33] Um, well, in Atlanta, it, I was, I was kind of the outsider in Atlanta. And so I had a couple friends, not, not very many. Uh, but when I moved to Rhode Island, it was a lot easier to make friends. And, um, I even made when I lived in Connecticut, um, I ended up finishing high school in Connecticut and then going back to URI to Rhode Island. Cause I already knew everyone there. So it worked out really good.

[00:14:03] It's like extended high school, right? Yeah, it was. Yeah. All right. Well, wow. So we get, get, this was an unplanned getting to know knobby segment. Now, did your, when your parents got divorced, did they both move up to New England or did one of them stay in Florida? No, one stayed in Florida. So like I'd say four times a year I was on an airplane flying down Florida when I was 11. So your dad stayed in Florida? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's a, uh, a big, uh, sailboat designer and builder.

[00:14:33] Oh, so he's got to be down there for work. Yeah. Yeah. He had a big boat plant. I'm going to, I'm going to ask you about your mom and dad a little bit when we talk about the Alzheimer's section there, but, um, we'll, we'll table this for now, but this was good. I, I didn't know any of this. I, I've been hiking with you forever and I care less about your backstory until we get on the podcast. Yeah. No, it's a, it was, it was a good, good, good childhood. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, I'm happy that you had a happy childhood, even with divorce and going through moving schools and everything.

[00:15:03] Well, that, that I would have been traumatized. It makes it tough. Yeah. I would have been traumatized. So, um, it was, oh, I got one more question. So when you moved to Rhode Island, did your mom start working? Was that an adjustment or was she always a working mom? Um, she was always a working mom. And when she moved to Rhode Island, it was because she had a job and she worked, um, for a big, uh, boat plant there in Rhode Island. Yeah. And so she was always working in, which was a good thing and a bad thing.

[00:15:32] I was, I always, I was always alone. So, cause she was always at work and, you know, I probably had a little bit too much time on my hands. Yeah. Yeah. The eighties were an interesting time. I feel like a lot of us were sort of like on our own a lot. But, uh, if people don't understand, like before, I think the late seventies is when it became more common for people to get divorced. And then in the early eighties, people getting divorced left and right. It was like, uh, uh, every week you'd find out some friends, family got divorced and, and it was a, it was a mess.

[00:16:00] So yeah, it was a really a time of change. I remember, um, cause I was always on an airplane cause my mom felt bad. So I was always on an airplane going to Florida to see my dad. And I remember one time I was in changing planes in Newark and I was 11. And so I was getting really, really mad because everyone was taller than me. And I couldn't see the, uh, the, the screens that said which gate I needed to go to. Yeah.

[00:16:26] And so, uh, I eventually got there, but I was a little bit on the scared side because, uh, you know, you only have so much time to get there. Yeah. Yeah. Can you imagine doing a layover as an 11 year old in 1983? Are you kidding me? Back then, back then they, now they, they guard you, you know, and they bring you to, to each gate. Back then they didn't. No, no. Oh, wow. All right. Nobby. Well, this, this was great getting to know Nobby.

[00:16:55] Let's get back to David O'Dell's Appalachian trail journey. Really got off on a tangent. So, um, so David O'Dell, he wrote this, uh, journal, journal in 1971. Um, we're on day 92, but we're going to cover the first day of his trip, which was into, uh, Dartmouth. So he had left the, um, he had dealt with a thunderstorm overnight and he was sleeping out in the open.

[00:17:22] So, um, he had to basically lay under a tree and cover up, but he made his way into, um, he made his way into Dartmouth and Hanover. He did run into a South Bounder who would come down from Abel Bridge in Maine and was going to go to the long trail North and Salt. So he was able to talk to them a little bit.

[00:17:47] I think it was a lady, but eventually he got into Hanover, decided that, uh, he would grab some bread and chocolate and a quart of milk and rolls. And he got a new flashlight. And then he left town around 3 30 headed for what's known as the Harris cabin, uh, which is now known as the class of 66. So Dartmouth outing club or outdoors club, they have a bunch of different facilities that they own that, um, members of the Dartmouth community can rent.

[00:18:17] So Harris cabin is now renamed the class of 66 lodge. I don't know back then if it was just open to anybody. It seems like now you need to reserve these, these cabins. They have about, I don't know. Looks like they've got about 15 or 20 of these cabins spread out all over the place. But anyway, he ended up passing through Hanover and then he made his way to Harris cabin for the night and, um, slept there pretty, pretty mellow night. Night, day two was interesting.

[00:18:45] So he left Harris cabin, made his way up to, um, smarts mountain bypass that, um, hexacute. And the Mount Cube shelter was not there in between smarts and cube. So he made his way up to the summit of Mount Cube and actually stayed in the Mount Cube shelter, which, um, was in existence in 1971.

[00:19:12] I believe that the Mount Cube shelter is actually was taken down in 1972, Nobby. So he was one of the last years to, um, to get there. He said smart, um, smarts was kind of misty, windy, and cold. He had a pretty good climb and then, uh, made his way up to Mount Cube shelter. And, uh, he said the shelter had a bunch of extra peanut butter, jelly beans, tuna, pudding.

[00:19:39] So he found some extra, um, food in there and he's going to plan on mixing tuna with his chicken supreme dinner. And he's, he's hoping that the weather's going to clear up. So that's pretty cool. So Mount Cube is, doesn't have that shelter anymore, but I wonder, I feel like I've, I've saw remnants of something up there when I was there. So pretty interesting. And then the next day he goes from Mount Cube over to Moosaloc. And he's on the way. He's, he gets some trail magic.

[00:20:07] Some people that were fishing gave him a hot dog up here and some chocolate for, for trail magic. So even back then people were giving food out, which is cool. And then he made his way up to the summit of Moosaloc and he stayed on the summit cabin, which if you go up to Moosaloc, there is a foundation there. Uh, so the summit cabin existed until 1978.

[00:20:33] So he stayed up there, um, that night and slept up there. He didn't go down to Beaverbrook or anything. And, uh, the foundation, the, the, the cabin existed until 1978. They took it down and in 1978, they did attempt to take the foundation out with a jackhammer, but they had no success. So the foundation just is up there now, which is interesting. And then he makes his way on day four down Moosaloc up to Kinsman Ridge.

[00:21:02] Uh, he says he runs into an older couple here along with a strange guy who keeps talking all the time. He describes how he's wearing a flannel shirt for most of the trip. So that was sort of the, the go-to gear was a flannel shirt when they're out there hiking. Can you imagine wearing a flannel shirt going up, um, the Kinsman Ridge trail? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:21:24] I, I, I remember last time I went up Kinsman Ridge, I didn't have enough water when I left, uh, when I went across the road from, uh, Beaver. And, uh, and I didn't have, I only had like one, one liter of water, I think. And that was a huge mistake because there's not much water up there. Yeah. Yeah. Not too many options. So he does describe, um, he's on the shelter in Kinsman Ridge. I don't know where, like the, or probably the closer shelters to me, like Wolf in that area.

[00:21:53] But he describes day five as his toughest day on trail. He fell multiple times. His boots were falling apart. He finally made his way down, uh, and got a ride into North Woodstock where he describes going to, uh, a ski shop that is no longer open. And as far as I can tell, the name of the ski shop is Ski Meister Ski Shop. And I'm actually interested to see if any listeners from the Woodstock area are familiar with this place.

[00:22:21] I did some research on Ski Meister Ski Shop and apparently it existed in an old movie theater or an old theater location and was pretty popular amongst climbers and, um, hikers back in the, back in the seventies. And David Odell describes that it was some kind of a minister or a priest that lived in the back of the shop. He describes his name as Father Dunphy.

[00:22:49] I did some research, couldn't find anything about Father Dunphy, but as far as I could tell, Father Dunphy lived in a shack behind Ski Meister Ski Shop and would help out through hikers. So he describes that he gave him steak and a big meal and he stayed over there that night. The, the people that worked at Ski Meister Ski Shop were nice enough to give him, uh, boots that were valued at $15. They sold them to him at $5. And then he got some other gear there as well.

[00:23:18] They were really interested in the fact that he had been doing this through hike. So they hooked him up. He stayed over. And then Father Dunphy, um, had driven him back to the trail and then they had planned to meet again in Gorham when he got through the, uh, the presidentials. But at that point, um, on day six, he made his way over Franconia Ridge on one of the nicest weather days on trail and then stayed on, um, at the Giot campsite. So pretty cool six days.

[00:23:48] Wow. Yeah. So this will be to, to be continued on the next episode. We'll go through days six through 12, I think, as he makes it through the Mahoosics. But David O'Dell, um, 1971 Appalachian Trail through hike journal. Really interesting. I may even reach out to him to see if he wants to chat about it a little bit. Cause I find this stuff fascinating, especially the fact that like he stayed at all of these places that, you know, the Mount Cube shelter, the Moosalock winter cabin, none of these exist anymore.

[00:24:17] So it's, it's interesting to hear how he talks about it. Yeah. Back then the, the, uh, the amount of people that probably did the AT were very small. Oh yeah. I've had to be less than 50 people a year. I would think. Yeah. Anyway. So that is the story of David O'Dell though. Let's move on to another story here, which is, um, the Black Mountain ski area, uh, which is in Jackson, New Hampshire. Nobby, have you ever skied at Black Mountain? No, I haven't. All right.

[00:24:47] Well, this is the oldest ski area in New Hampshire. And matter of fact, this is where my kids learned to ski. Um, I always have sort of a soft spot in my heart for the, um, the, the Black Mountain and in this particular area here. So this is, uh, basically a story of a small business that ended up buying Black Mountain last year.

[00:25:09] And they're kind of using it as a lab for, um, a ski mountain consult, uh, consultancy called, uh, Entebene Systems. So the company built systems that put lift ticket sales, less, less than reservations and equipment rentals online while collecting detailed data to inform decisions such as where to make more snow and how much. So they use data to enable the management of ski resorts.

[00:25:34] And they're using, um, Black Mountain as a bit of a, like an experimental place to analyze everything from the most popular time to sell food in the lodge to how many runs a season pass holder makes. And they also have built out an alternative pass to the, uh, the two most common ski passes, which is the Epic and the Icon multi-resort passes.

[00:25:57] They, um, bought a company called Indie Pass, which allows skiers to ski for two days each at 230 independent ski areas, including Black Mountain. Um, so if you want to check it out, instead of just going right to Epic and Icon passes, you can check out this Indie Pass to see if it makes sense. Um, it goes on to tell the story. So the owner, the new owner is a, um, businessman by the name of Eric Morgensen.

[00:26:25] And Morgensen says that, you know, he's got a deep background in skiing. He had said that, um, you know, he wants to analyze basically everything that goes on to make sure that they're optimizing. Um, the business. And he had said that, um, you know, he, he was aware of Black Mountain because they were an early participant, participant in the Indie Pass program.

[00:26:48] And when Morgensen learned that it was in danger of closing, he was reminded of, I guess, some of his old ski resorts that he worked at. And he ended up buying Black Mountain to transform it into, um, a cooperative and a better, better environment. So it's, you know, I think it's a good turnaround story. I remember doing stories like maybe two, three years ago where there was questions about whether or not Black Mountain would survive. And I think that early signs certainly look, uh, look positive here.

[00:27:17] So I would definitely tell listeners, check it out. Lift tickets at Black Mountain are between like 59 and 99. Uh, the season passes around $450. So definitely worth checking out if you're looking for a new place to ski this, uh, this next season coming up. I know we're leaving winter at this point, so it's a little bit late, but think about it for next year. You have a ski Black Mountain, Rob? Did I ask you that? Yeah, you asked me that.

[00:27:41] Um, I used to ski when I was younger a lot and, uh, I never, I've never even heard of Black Mountain. Yeah, it's right by, um, it's, it's basically like by doublehead in that area there. So if you go into like 16A or you go off of 16, it's, it's right on the, right below the doublehead area. It used to be on the 52 with the view list, but the summit's grown in a bit. Wow.

[00:28:10] So anyway, I will include that in the show notes here. And then, Nobby, the next story we have is the story of a 52-year-old man that was rescued from the Twinway Trail in Lincoln. So, uh, we talked about this. As a matter of fact, I talked about this rescue with, with Stomp, and I talked about it with my friend Nick when we were hiking. Um, Nick from the PUDS podcast, I talked a little bit about it with him as well.

[00:28:37] So, so this happened on Friday, March 21st. So this was like, I think a week after that, my, uh, the, I had gone out with a crew to the Bonds and West Bond. I didn't make it at West Bond, but the other guys did. So we were in that area and, um, that, that, the group that went on, I, I kind of broke away on Mount Bond and just waited for them just because I had some cramps. But those guys went into West Bond. They experienced significant issues with spruce traps, deep snow, wind-driven snow.

[00:29:06] So the Twinway area from West Bond, Spur Trail, Guilleaut, all the way over to like South Twin experiences significant wind-blown snow. So essentially you could break that trail out all day long and chances are like snow is going to load up over there and, and, and you deal with wind-blown snow. So I think that's what happened in this situation. Have you been there? Have you been out in that area in the winter? Um, I haven't really done that much winter stuff.

[00:29:34] Um, I don't think I've been, I've never been, uh, to the Bonds. Okay. One thing I wanted to, I haven't been to, uh, Washington in the winter either. I was going to try to do that this winter, but, uh, this didn't work out. Yeah. We're going to get you out there. We'll get, get you out there. But anyway, for this story, so Friday, March 21st at 8 45 AM.

[00:29:57] So early in the morning, conservation officers were made aware of a hiker in distress off the Twinway trail between Mount Guilleaut and South Twin Mountain. No cell service in that area. The hiker was still able to text 911 from his iPhone reporting that he had lost the trail and was in deep snow without snowshoes. The solo hiker reported that his phone was going dead and that he was able to set up a shelter, but would need navigational assistance to find the trail.

[00:30:24] The hiker was located in a remote section of the Pemi wilderness, and it was determined the best access would be from Gale River Road in Bethlehem. Even though it's a six and a half mile hike. I'll talk a little bit about why that's the best access, um, in a minute. But conservation officers and volunteers from Pemi Valley Search and Rescue responded to the area. A call was made to the New Hampshire Army National Guard to see if they'd be able to transport the rescuers closer to the area or locate the hiker and fly them off the mountain.

[00:30:52] But the weather at the time would not allow for flights into the White Mountain, so not good. Two conservation officers and two Pemi SAR volunteers started off from Gale River Road. By 1 p.m., the New Hampshire Army National Guard was able to fly to Cannon, where they were staged, hoping for the clouds to lift. By 4 p.m., the Army National Guard returned to Concord as the weather had not improved above 3,000 feet. At 5.20, the first rescuers were alive. So this guy called at 8.45.

[00:31:21] He didn't get there until 5.20 were the first rescuers. Um, the hiker was located a short distance south of the Twinway Trail. His gear was packed and he was provided with snowshoes. And at 5.45 p.m., the group started the six and a half mile hike back to Gale River. At 10.05, the rescue team arrived back at Gale River Road with the uninjured hiker who was identified as a 52-year-old man from Acton, Massachusetts.

[00:31:47] So the hiker was prepared for a two-day excursion, had a tent, sleeping bag, extra clothes, traction devices, food, water, and the 10 essentials, and a hike safeguard. The only thing he lacked was a pair of snowshoes. He had done some research on his hike and had read trail reports that tracking, traction devices were necessary, but snowshoes were not needed. This was true for the majority of the hike until he reached the area of Mount Guillot where he encountered waist-deep snow.

[00:32:12] He took shelter for the night on the 20th just west of Mount Guillot and started towards Gale Head on the morning of the 21st. So shortly after starting, he lost the trail and was floundering in waist-deep snow, eventually losing the trail. Knowing that he'd need help and with his cell phone going dead, he made the text to 911. The hiker was extremely grateful for the assistance and appreciated that they came out and got him

[00:32:36] and then also wanted to give a shout-out to the New Hampshire Army National Guard, even though they couldn't get a weather window, but they were ready to go. So lucky, you know, he had all the gear he needed except for snowshoes, but I think people need to remember that regardless of what the trail reports say, when you are in that area, and I'd say that area equals essentially anything from Bonncliffe to the south,

[00:33:05] Z-Cliff to the east, and then South Twin to the west of that area, like that entire area, Z-Cliff to Guillot, South Twin to Guillot, and then Bonncliffe to Guillot, every one of those areas, regardless of if they've been broken out a day before, you should just assume that they're going to get windblown snow back on them and bring you snowshoes in snowy conditions.

[00:33:34] So it's a lesson learned for him. I don't think people really realize, unless they've been out there before, how significant the windblown snow can be and how quickly it can blow in. And that's one of the most remote sections in New Hampshire also. Yeah, absolutely. And I'll give you an example. So I turned around on Bond, and those guys went forward to West Bond. When they were coming back, so that means there was six people that had broken trail.

[00:34:04] When they had come back around and were heading back down to Bonncliffe, there was no sign of a trail being broke. My God. How heavy was the wind? I mean, the wind when I was there wasn't that bad. It just picked up. So if you get a 20, 25 mile an hour wind, it's going to move things around pretty quickly. Yeah, that's scary. In particular, the area right below Guillot on the Twinway just loads up very quickly.

[00:34:33] And it's longer than people think. I don't know what the distance is, but I think Guillot to South Twin has got to be over a mile. And a lot of it's open and exposed area. So it's just a very tricky and dangerous area. Anything else to add about that, Nobby? No, I think that area is just a very dangerous area.

[00:34:59] And it's had a history of bad things happening in that area. Right. Yeah. I mean, there was the fatality with Chris Roma a couple years ago, maybe a year and a half, two years ago. So it's just, yeah, it is a dangerous area. Same thing with him. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, it gets loaded up in there and it's just, it's just a tough area. And, you know, I think generally it sounds like this hiker was really well prepared with shelter so he could wait it out.

[00:35:25] So good for him, but it also good for him for knowing that he was out of his element and calling. And I think that the coming in from Guillot River, it's a tough situation for him. So he's got no good options because he could go back to Guillot and wait it out, but he's, to get out of there, he either has to go out to Lincoln Woods via the Bonds, which he might run into the same issue. Or he's got to go up Guillot again and get out via Zeeland, which is not a good option because that's going to be all windblown snow.

[00:35:52] Or you can try to power your way up South Twin and then from there you get out. So I think generally South Twin out to Guillot River is probably the best option. Yeah. Anyway, but all right. So moving on, Mr. Nobby, I had a, I had a reminder here. Stefan Porthu was a 25-year-old young man who went missing on Friday, March 8th, 2019.

[00:36:22] Stefan and his father, Sofon, had gotten into some kind of an argument. Stefan leaves the house that morning and is not seen again ever, unfortunately.

[00:36:38] So on Friday, March 8th, there was some reports in the afternoon that somebody had seen a hiker that matched Sue's description, but very unsure about that, that eyewitness there. So there's also reports the next day on March 9th that there was a hiker matching his description near the Mount Washington Auto Road.

[00:37:04] On Sunday, March 10th, there was a cell phone ping from Sue's cell phone in Westford, Mass. So you've got some reports of him in New Hampshire at the time, but the cell phone data says that he was in Westford, Mass on the 10th. The family finally reports him missing on March 10th. And then fast forward to March 16th, 2019, his vehicle was found in Pinkham Notch.

[00:37:32] So those earlier reports about being seen in and around Mount Washington, those were reported to have happened on March 9th and 8th, but they weren't actually brought to fishing game until a later date. So vehicle was found on Pinkham Notch about eight days after he went missing. Fishing game puts out a press release indicating that they had been doing searches for Stefan in the area,

[00:38:00] but that they had decided to suspend the search. On March 18th, there was an article that reported friends and family indicated that they found sporting goods store receipts in the vehicle in Pinkham Notch. It indicated he had purchased gear to hike. Prior to this, there was no indication that Sue had ever really done any significant hiking in the details about what he actually purchased were pretty sparse. So I don't know. I don't know what to think about this one. 50%, he could be in the woods.

[00:38:29] 50%, this could be some weird foul play thing where they dump the car and Pinkham Notch. But I just want to get the message out there and make sure that people keep this young man in mind. There is a Facebook page that would put out a post on his birthday and on the anniversary of him missing. They didn't even put out a message or anything this year. So I don't want this kid to be forgotten. I don't know what happened to him, but I like closure. Yeah, so Stefan Portsu.

[00:38:58] Whether he's on the mountain or he's not, it'd be good if people keep this kid in mind. So I'll link in the show notes a little bit more detail about Stefan's case. And if anybody knows anything, I would advise contacting the Lowell Police Department. I'm assuming they're helping with the case there.

[00:39:21] And then last but not least here for stories, I just want to give a plug here, Nabi, for the Hiking Buddies. They are hosting an event on Monday, April 7th, which is starting at 2 p.m. And it's called Shoulder Season Preparedness with Joe Lentini.

[00:39:45] So Joe Lentini is a legend in the White Mountain hiking and climbing location. So he's a former, I guess, manager or leader in the Eastern Mountain Climbing School. He was involved in the executive board for the Mountain Rescue Service. Tons of knowledge, 50 years of experience within the hiking community.

[00:40:13] So if you want to learn about shoulder season preparedness with Joe Lentini, I will put this in the show notes and then you can sign up to join through the Facebook link on the Hiking Buddies site. So enjoy. That'll be a good chance to learn a lot about preparedness from a very smart guy. We all know that hiking a mountain can be hard at times. So here's a corny dad joke to help you get over it.

[00:40:43] Ba-dum-bum. Excellent. All right, Nobby. This is the part of the show where I do a dad joke. Do you like dad jokes? I love dad jokes. Okay. Let me just... Oh, here's a good one. What do snowmen wear on their heads? Ice caps. What's invisible and smells like carrots?

[00:41:16] Rabbit farts. I don't really get that one. I don't really get that one. All right. This is the part of the show, Nobby, where we talk about pop culture. Anything? Are you watching any good TV shows? Are you thinking about anything pop culture related? I really don't watch that much TV. But when I do, I usually watch... Have you watched that show, Reacher? No. No. You ever see that?

[00:41:45] He's a wanderer called Reacher. He's a wanderer. And it's been on for three seasons. And it's a really good show. You should check it out. Yeah. All right. All right. Yeah. I'll check that out. I think the only thing I've been watching recently is White Lotus with Mrs. Mike, which is a good show on HBO Max. So we've been watching that. I'm looking forward to the season finale next week. But it's good.

[00:42:14] It's a good type of show where you can speculate about what's going to happen. And it's a very character-driven show. That was cool. Yep. All right, Nobby. This is the part of the show where we give a shout-out to one of our sponsors. So this is 48 Peaks Alzheimer's. So use your passion for hiking to help end Alzheimer's. Join 400-plus hikers as they climb New Hampshire's 4,000-footers or create their own challenge to support the mission of the Alzheimer's Association.

[00:42:42] 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 minimum required. But those who raise $100 will receive the 2025 performance-grade purple t-shirt. Let's turn the White Mountains purple to end Alzheimer's. Visit alz.org slash 48Peaks to learn more.

[00:43:11] And Nobby, this may be a good time for us to talk about our own slasher podcast, 48 Peaks team. So me and you are going to be the co-captains this year. And where are we going to hike? You got to pick the route. What's the route? It's going to be a great trip. It's going to be a great trip. Well, I'm looking at it right now. We're doing Mount Madison.

[00:43:37] And so I think we're going to be, and I'm open for suggestion on this. We could go up the airline. I like that. I generally like that for good weather. Yeah. Up airline. And then we could get a little bit crazy. And we could go down like maybe the Watson Path or something like that. Watson Path has stuff like waterfalls and stuff on it towards the end that I think people would enjoy.

[00:44:07] But the whole trip, though, is nice because they have the Madison Spring Hut that we could go hang out a little bit in and talk. We're not talking. But it's not an easy hike. It's going to be a fairly hard hike, but not impossible. Yeah, yeah. This will be an advanced hike for sure. So I think that you're talking probably 10 or so miles and then a lot of elevation gain, probably over 3,000 feet of elevation gain.

[00:44:37] But we are, this week in the show notes, I will put a link to our team. We've already got a couple of people, Nobby, that have reached out. We've got one listener from New Jersey that had reached out and wanted to sign up and join the team and hike with us. So I'm excited about that. But we'll work on finalizing the team website, and then we'll put the link out. And then anybody that wants to join us for a hike, or even if you just want to join our

[00:45:03] team and help raise money, if you are kind of skeeved out about the distance and the challenging, I guess, nature of this particular hike, if you want to join us for just the first half and just go to the hut and wait it out there, that's also an option for you. So just keep that in mind. But generally, yeah, we're going to be cruising a little bit on this one. And then we do want to get down so that we can then get to, our plan is to hike the

[00:45:32] day of the event and then get to Tarkerman Brewing, you know, I don't know what time, five o'clock or something like that. Yeah, it's about 7.4 miles. But it is, you know, a presidential, so it's not anything easy. Yeah, and if the weather's not great, then we'll switch it up. You know, there's Pine Mountain, there's IMP. Make it worse. Yeah, there's a bunch of different options that we can do. We could do Rattle River via Mariah or to Mariah or something like that.

[00:46:01] But depending on if the weather's no good, but hopefully we'll be. Yeah, if it's windy, we don't want to be doing this. Exactly, yeah. We'll keep an eye on the weather and use common sense when it comes to it. But anyway, keep an eye out for that and you can join. And then we're going to see, hopefully Stomp will be joining us. I know my daughter and her boyfriend will be joining us. I think you said your son's going to be joining. And then we'll have a number of different friends and listeners that are going to join up. But while we're on the subject, Nobby, you want to talk a little bit about,

[00:46:28] so you were hiking in some ways to support you in memory of your parents because you had a rough year last year. You lost both your parents, but in part to Alzheimer's. And you had to deal with this. And I remember I'd go hiking with you and then you'd be going off to help out with your mom or your dad. It was a tough year in general for you. So do you want to talk a little bit about sort of what you experienced and what's motivating you to want to be the co-captain this year on the team?

[00:46:57] Well, it's a really tough problem. And Alzheimer's and dementia and stuff like that, very difficult when your parents come down. I feel lucky that I never reached the point where my parents didn't know who I was. And my mom, her short term just disappeared throughout probably about a year.

[00:47:22] The last year, she just didn't have any memory of what happened yesterday. Right. And it was tough. I tried to support her as much as I could. Got down there to see her as much as I could. But it was really funny because my parents divorced a long time ago when I was young. And they both died basically of the same thing. Right. And so that really scared me. Within a short period of time, too.

[00:47:52] Yeah. One died in... My mom died in March and my dad died in May. And so it also scares me because obviously I would love to see this problem solved and to find a cure for this. And so I'm very, very supportive of this. And I really don't wish this on any of my worst enemies.

[00:48:21] I mean, this was a really tough thing. And I don't want people to have a time like I did. Right. Right. Yeah. And it was tough. So we did the hike last year. We did Gale Head. And it was raw for you, I think, that it was like a month after your dad had passed, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, we had a moment there where you had talked a little bit about what you were going through in real time. I know you've got a year to kind of separate from that grief a little bit, but it never goes away.

[00:48:49] And, you know, I'm happy that we're able to at least do a little bit to give back and hopefully raise some money to help find a cure for this thing. Yeah, that's great. Excellent. And then you're pretty good to hike with. I would say you're medium level annoying to hike with, but not full. Well, that's good. That's good. So, yeah. So I'm willing to do it for you in memory of your parents, your knobs.

[00:49:18] No, I'm just kidding. It'll be good. It'll be good. So, all right. So now it's a part of the show where Stop usually does this, Nobby, but I have to do this because I think that you need to gain a little bit more experience before you do this part. But I'm going to talk about getting free stickers. So if you want Slasher stickers, you can get those at Ski Fanatics and Spinner's Pizza Pala. So check out either one of those and you can get stickers.

[00:49:45] If you're interested in advertising with Slasher, check out our web page and you can email us at slasherpodcast at gmail.com. And then if you want to get Slasher swag, you can check out our bonfire shop. Choose between our super popular hoodies, classic or V-neck tees and more. The color selection is great and they are priced to move. Help spread the word about Slasher and represent today. Also, coffee donations.

[00:50:13] If you want to show your support for the podcast, donate at Slasher's Buy Me a Coffee site. Donations help us pay for web hosting, distribution and live events. So keep that in mind. And then we want to give a shout out to Jim Caraba who had donated three coffees. So thank you very much, Jim. And we appreciate the support there.

[00:50:47] Hey, hold my beer. It's time to find out what Mike and Stomp are drinking on this week's Beer Talk. And yeah, now's the part of the show, Nabi, where we talk about what we're drinking. Did you end up bringing a beer with you tonight? Yes, I did. I'm drinking a Dogfish 90 Minute Imperial IPA.

[00:51:18] What made you choose that? Well, I ended up actually winning a bunch of beers at one dinner that I was at. And so I got to try a lot of different stuff. But this is pretty good. I mean, I'm not real great on the IPAs. But this tastes a little bit more full.

[00:51:49] Excellent. Well, it's a nice fancy bottle you got there. And I'm drinking out of a can tonight. I've got Lawson's Sip of Sunshine IPA. So yeah, I've been making my way through these for the last couple of weeks. Wow. Good stuff. Shout out to them. And then Nabi now is the part of the show where we talk about recent hikes. Nice.

[00:52:10] So you got out with Stomp and Dave of Dave Shits in the Woods fame and did the Grand Traverse. So I think you guys are going to do... Oh, I think you guys already did maybe record a So You Want a deep dive on this one. But do you want to give a very brief summary of your experience on the Grand Traverse? What are the conditions like? And what did you think of the hike? Well, actually, we did it, I think, a couple of years ago around the same exact time.

[00:52:41] And the Grand Traverse, when we did it before, was very, very... I made a video of it. And all you could hear is the crunching as we're walking with the video. But this time, the day before, it snowed like four inches. So it was absolutely silent.

[00:53:02] And it really made the snowshoe trek so much better because areas that were probably showing rock and stuff like that were just all covered with the four inches of snow. And so as far as the snow conditions were, it was perfect. And then can you describe the route to listeners? So this is the Grand Traverse. So this is not an official trail.

[00:53:31] This is a bushwhack that goes... This trail back in like 1900s was a logging trail, I think. And it was abandoned probably about in the 1930s. And that's why it's just so... Basically, you're just bushwhacking. It starts at... There's a cell tower at the top of Waterville Mountain.

[00:53:59] And at the... Is it Tecumseh or Waterville Mountain? Mount Tecumseh, right? Yeah. Tecumseh is off on the side. But this is kind of at the top of Waterville Valley. Okay. Waterville Valley. Okay. And if you go to the right side of the building and you look into the woods, you can see where it says GT. You look for the GT on the tree. And it's just pure bushwhacking with snowshoes this time.

[00:54:29] And it wasn't too bad. And I think it was... We ended up probably going for about... It was a seven-hour trip, I think. And it was fairly open, except for... Basically, you go from the top of near Tecumseh to a mountain called Green Mountain.

[00:54:57] And after Green Mountain, it becomes a little bit tough and thick. And it's real important that you stay to the left side. The whole trip is along the top of a ridge line. So if you're ever bushwhacking across the Grand Traverse, you basically just... If you're lost and you don't... Because there are certain marks on trees. But if you can't find any trees, you basically just need to stay on top of the ridge. Okay.

[00:55:27] And after Green Mountain, though, you need to stay more to the left side. Because that's where there is a trail that makes it a lot easier. This time when we did it, we didn't find that trail. And it was a little bit harder until we found it. But then from there, it's pretty easy... A lot easier going towards Welch-Dickey. Excellent.

[00:55:55] And then you guys, you recorded a So You Want an episode on it. So we'll have that out, I think, in the next couple of weeks anyway, right? Yeah, that'll be great. Excellent. Excellent. All right. So I did get out. I did a couple of hikes under my belt since we last recorded here, Nobby. So I got out and did a 12-mile hike on the Belknap Range. So I did the northern part of the range. And I thought that I was finishing up the Belknap list, but I realized I never got over to Mount

[00:56:23] Rand, which is on the other side of Mount Clem. So I got to go back and do that. So I did not finish. I have 11 of 12. But we were able to get out to what I thought was the nicer part of the Belknap. So I certainly like Mount Major and straight back in that area, but it was not as spectacular as the section that we hiked. So I was joined by a good crew.

[00:56:45] I think we had Paul, Peter, Jake, Nick, and I'm trying to remember who else was in the crew here. Yeah. So we had an overall good crew of people. And yeah, I'm just flipping through my list here. So yeah, it was a good crew of people.

[00:57:09] And what we did was from a route perspective, we parked on Carriage Road, and then we went up to Mount Piper. So I had never been on Mount Piper. And they have a nice little rock throne up there that you can sit on, which I thought was kind of cool. It's kind of like the Kinsmans have that, like the South Kinsman has that little throne they built. It's like a chair, but it's built over rocks. So Piper was awesome. Open ledges, super cool.

[00:57:36] Then we hiked over to Whiteface, which has a nice kind of open field, meadow view that looks out to the, I think the west in New Hampshire. And you could see out to like Monadnock and Kearsars and all these other mountains. Then we went back up to Piper. And then we did an out and back to Mount Sweat or Sweat Mountain. And again, that's got a lower ledge that has some really cool views out to like Alton Bay. I think you can see on the back end, which was cool.

[00:58:05] Then we went back from Sweat, hiked back over to Piper. I actually ran into a friend of mine, Chris. Shout out to Chris. Hello. She was doing the Mount Piper. I don't know what else she was doing, but I had hiked with her on one of the Alzheimer's hiked a couple of years ago. So it was great to run into her. And then we made our way from Piper over to Belknap, which is a fire tower. And you climb up of the fire tower and you get nice views, 360 views. That was cool.

[00:58:35] And then we finished up on Gunstock. We thought we were going to time it so that we could get a beer at Gunstock on the summit because there's still skiing going on. But we got there right at three o'clock because we wasted so much time just sitting on the summits enjoying the views that we didn't get there on time. So they had closed so we didn't get a beer on the summit. But we did. We hiked back down to the car. So it was about 12 miles, hiked back down to the car, went over to Gunstock parking lot

[00:59:01] and had a beer and burger at the lodge area and then wrapped up the day. So it was a fun hike. It was pretty challenging too. It was like five. It was seven climbs. You said 12 miles? Not huge climbs, but they're like four to four to five. 12 miles. Yeah. Four to 500 foot climbs every time. So you rack up a pretty good amount of elevation. I think it was like 2,500, 2,800 feet worth of climbing. Nice. And then the next week I had a Friday off.

[00:59:29] So I was able to get out with my friend Tom and Paul to the Ossipi Range. And we did a 13-mile hike from Castle in the Clouds. And we did a loop hike, which was up to Turtleback Mountain, then to Black Snout. So those have views out to Black Snout has views out to the lakes region, spectacular views. And then you climb up the backside to the north on Mount Shaw.

[00:59:56] And that has spectacular views of the White Mountains. Basically, you can see the Sandwich Range. You can see out to Mount Washington and the whole of the different notches. You can see Franconia Notch. You can see Carter Notches directly in front of you. It's just a spectacular view. And it was a clear day. Trail conditions on the bell maps, just going back to that. Completely bare booted. There was a little bit of ice. No snowshoes. No spikes. Nothing needed. Complete bare booting.

[01:00:24] And then Ossipi Range was also bare booting. I did bring my spikes with me, but we didn't need them. There was maybe a couple of inches of snow on the ground. There was snow coming in the next day, so I'm assuming it might have changed up there. But for the most part, it was bare rock, mud, and then a little bit of snow, maybe two, three inches of snow in the parts that were in higher elevations that were facing the south that weren't getting hit by sun. Great. But some good miles this last couple of weeks in Aubie. Yeah. Awesome.

[01:00:55] Excellent. All right. So we just want to give a shout out now. Time for another sponsor here. CS Coffee. Athlete ready. CS Instant Coffee. Check them out at www.csinstant.coffee. www.csinstant.coffee. Excellent. All right, Nobby. So now we're moving on to our guest of the week. So you had reached out to me and said, Mike, we got to get this guy on the podcast.

[01:01:23] So talk a little bit about IBTAT and how you came to be connected to him and then got me to do a segment with him. Now, I've been watching him for years. Okay. And you go on to YouTube and you punch in, you know, AT through hikers. And he came up and he really had a really, he's got a funny personality where he's just really fun to watch. And he's got a funny little things he says.

[01:01:53] He says a good morning with his coffee. Fairly funny thing he says every morning. And he has a lot of cool things like I've watched him so long. And one thing that I'm really impressed with, because I make videos also. And one thing I'm really impressed with is that he makes a video. The way he works it out is there's like a video every day. So every day before work, I would watch his video.

[01:02:23] And they're short videos. They're probably just, you know, 15, 20 minute videos. But very impressive because it's just every day he has it all knocked out perfect so that one is released. Which is impressive because when you think about it, you know, he's on trail for four days. And then he comes into town just uploading all those videos.

[01:02:48] I can't even imagine how he tracks down a Wi-Fi spot and then is able to do that. It's just, it's amazing. Yeah, we'll get into it with him right now. But I appreciate you making the connection. And like I said, we got a chance to sit down with IBTAT. So let's move into that segment now and then we'll come out on the other side.

[01:03:29] It's time for Slasher's Guest of the Week. Very cool. Very cool. All right. I'm hitting record. All right. IBTAT, you are here. You do a lot of podcasts, right? You feeling the pressure? Are you okay? I'm good. Yeah, man. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome.

[01:03:59] So I appreciate you taking the time to connect here. So I wanted to just grab you because, you know, so for the listeners, IBTAT, he's got an awesome YouTube channel. He's got a great presence on Instagram through Hiker. So we wanted to just connect with him before you head out on your next adventure. But why don't we just start off with, if you could just introduce yourself, give a little bit of background about maybe your early life, how you got into outdoor adventures.

[01:04:28] And then we'll talk a little bit about, you know, some of your current plans. Sure. As many of you know, we all go by aliases on trail or trail names. My trail name is IBTAT, which if you don't know, it stands for I've Been to a Town. It's a long, it's a story from a line from the movie Jeremiah Johnson, if you're familiar. But as far as my background goes, grew up in Michigan, outdoorsy kid, grew up hunting and fishing since I was probably six years old.

[01:04:57] So I've been no stranger to the woods, the whole through hiking and hiking in general kind of came later in life. I went down a dark, dark path once I turned about 17, drinking my ass off, basically turning into an alcoholic really quick, multiple rehab stays and all that. And then when I got sober, was in 2013, went cold turkey and I had a huge void in my life after having been drinking my ass off for about 15 years.

[01:05:27] Didn't really know what to do with my life. So, you know, I decided to buy a backpack and a mountain bike. I happened to be living on Montana at the time and to start hoofing around the mountains as a way to learn how to live life again. Being removed from that whole scene of being in the bars and drinking every day, it allowed me to clear my head being in the woods.

[01:05:49] And then it slowly just progressed from there, turned into a weekend warrior, which turned into section hiking on the AT, which with my addictive personality, I suppose, it was an easy transition through hiking and doing the long distance trails. So, I guess it was kind of by chance, but it was a long drawn out process of getting sober and learning how to live life again, basically.

[01:06:11] And Mother Nature, you know, she is a way of healing and I'm still working through a lot of shit, but she's definitely helped me in this process of healing. Right, right. And that's actually, we've had, you know, multiple guests on that sort of, not the same story, but similar stories. And, you know, they find, you know, sometimes I think, I don't know, I mean, I've got a lot of folks that in my family that have dealt with alcoholism.

[01:06:34] And I think whatever it takes to get through that darkness, even if it is, you know, replacing one focus with another, you know, you're basically taking like a much more positive focus with hiking and through hiking and, you know, being constructive and healthy. So, that's a good thing for sure. Have you, do you ever get involved with helping other people out that are trying to find sobriety or are you just worried about kind of your own lane?

[01:07:03] Well, I started my YouTube channel as a way to document my own journey of sobriety and what I actually have done with my life since I decided to get sober. I didn't plan on even a single person watching the videos. It was just me. I started out filming myself going on weekend trips on the AT just to, you know, for something to do out there and be able to look back at what I've done. And then, you know, it just kind of caught on and people started listening to my story because I had no filter.

[01:07:30] I was explaining, you know, what I had been through before I started hiking and people caught on to that. And I don't, you know, the more I've done this over the years, I understand that it is a platform that I can reach a lot of people that may be struggling with addiction. And if my story helps them, that's awesome. But I don't go out of my way to preach sobriety or saying this is the only way to get sober. I just happen to tell my story.

[01:07:56] And if it connects with somebody out there that happens to be struggling, then that's awesome. So I just, I try to be an open book as much as possible when I'm on trail vlogging. And if it connects with somebody, that's awesome. Right. And then when you, so you had this transition, you're still doing the weekend warrior stuff. I'm assuming you're working, saving money. You're kind of locked into that sort of lifestyle where it's like, oh, let's look forward to the weekends. That's pretty much where I am.

[01:08:24] You know, most of us are, but you've been able to transition into actually doing this with a longer, I guess, with a little longer focus, doing the through hikes and doing it multiple times. Have you been able to fully transition into content creator to the point where you can support yourself and focus on through hiking as a career or as a life? Not up to this point. You know, it's, like I said, I never planned on making money doing this.

[01:08:53] You know, getting into photography, that's helped. I do make some money when I'm out there. I would say, you know, I make enough to dirtbag. But I've always come back to a job the last seven years. The main reason being I had a bassa hound to come home to. He was my baby boy. He was another big part of me getting sober to begin with. I adopted my bassa hound Roscoe the week after I got sober. So he was a big part of that transition into sobriety. I've always had him to take care of.

[01:09:21] He's always been by my side since day number one. So I always came back and got work in between trails to be with him. He recently just passed away from cancer back on Halloween night this past year. So, you know, obviously that was a dramatic thing to go through and still is. Still processing it. But I guess the silver lining in that situation is now I want to go full bore into content creation. There's nothing really holding me back anymore.

[01:09:48] Coming back to the quote unquote real world and getting a normal nine to five job. I do make enough when I'm out there to dirtbag and continue putting out content every day. Videos as well as photos. So this is in the last seven years, really, this is the first opportunity I've had. And if I want to transition to full time, this is the time to do it. So I'm strongly considering doing it full time. You know, as a thru hiker, it comes down to my body holding together.

[01:10:16] You know, if it was up to me mentally, I would just hike year round. But, you know, I'm getting up in age now. I'm 44. So I'm no spring chicken. And so as long as my body holds together, I will continue doing it. There's a billion trails out there to do. I'll follow the seasons, go to South America in the wintertime, wherever, come back to the States, hike spring, summer, fall. So that is the plan going forward starting this year is to do it full time as long as my body holds together. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah.

[01:10:44] And I was looking at some of the, so Roscoe P. Waggle Tales is the Instagram. I'll link this for the listeners so they can see some awesome photography on him. Did you ever get him out on the trails at all? Oh, yeah. He, I got him while I was, like I said, I was living in Montana when I adopted him. He was, he was going on all my day hikes in Montana. We ended up moving over to the East Coast to North Carolina together. And that's when I was introduced to the Appalachian Trail.

[01:11:13] And he, me and him sectioned hiked a lot of the southern portion of the AT through Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee. He was on all those trips with me. When I did my through hike of the AT in 2018, you know, he came out on trail with me for a couple days. And he did back-to-back 20-mile days with me, believe it or not, as a bassah out with those little legs. It was pretty impressive. So, he had been on the trail with me since he was a puppy. So, he kind of had trail legs, even for a bassah hound.

[01:11:41] So, yeah, he was my hiking partner when I was off of these through hikes, for sure. Yeah, yeah. People don't realize that, like, so bassah hounds, you think, like, all right, they can only really, and I think it depends on the dog. You got to, obviously, you have to work up to it. But in New Hampshire, there was a bassah hound named Oscar that was like a famous hiking dog that did all of the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire. And I met him one time.

[01:12:07] And it was so funny because Oscar was absolutely jacked for a bassah hound. But people underestimate what those dogs are capable of. So, obviously, every dog is different. Like I said, he had been hiking since he was a puppy. So, he had trail legs built up. Every dog is going to be different. Some people might ask, well, why don't you go through hiking with your dog if he can do 20 miles? You know, I've seen plenty of people through hiking with dogs before and even working dogs. And nothing against them, but personally, I would never put my dog through that kind of pain.

[01:12:37] I've seen a lot of those dogs, even working dogs out on the trail, and their pads are all jacked up. And on these long-distance trails, you're going in some of these podunk towns with, you know, as a hiker, you're limited to resupplying a gas station sometimes. Obviously, they're not going to carry good dog food. So, a lot of those dogs were malnourished out there. So, that's why I never brought him out on a long-distance trail with me. He wouldn't be able to do it anyway, and I would be going really slow to let him have time to rest.

[01:13:05] But, you know, I would just – I'd never put him through that kind of thing. Right. Yeah. Dogs will follow their owners anywhere, even to their peril. So, but that's cool. But I'll definitely link the photos for Roscoe. And yeah, it's always tough. I mean, I lost my dog years ago, and I'm still not over it. So, I get that for sure. But, so just switching – I meant to hit you with this like right away, but – so, we're a New England-based podcast and like mostly New Hampshire and the White Mountains.

[01:13:33] So, you did the AT in probably about six, seven years ago. So, before you get – I wanted to ask you about New Hampshire a little bit. But before we get into that, what was the story or the origin story around you saying like, all right, I'm going to really commit to doing a legit through hike beginning to end? How did that come about? It came up on a weekend trip in North Carolina, a place called Max Patch on the AT.

[01:14:01] It's just a big, bald 360-degree view if you're familiar. I used to go up there quite often and just camp in my tent and go home for the night. Like, well, one of these weekend trips, I was out there. It was in the spring, and two through hikers came up and camped next to me. I really didn't know about this whole through hiking thing. Obviously, I knew of the AT, but I didn't really grasp the concept that people were doing this every single year, and it was really a big deal. So, I shared camp with these two through hikers that night, and I said, what are you guys up to?

[01:14:30] They said, we're walking to Maine. I just kind of got wide at him, like, what? This trail goes all the way to Maine? And it kind of blew my mind. So, I went home from that trip, and I started nerding out and reading about the AT, and then I found out about the PCT and the CDT and all these long-distance trails you can do. And it was almost like a switch flipped in my head. It's like, damn, dude, let's do all of them.

[01:14:56] From day number one, it was like, I want to go hike the AT, and then we'll go back and do a normal job and all this. From day number one, I wanted to do all three of them. So, like I said before, I had sectioned like much of the southern portion of the AT in 2017. But then once I came back from that trip, talking to those guys, I was like, screw it. I'm going to be a triple crowner. So, I went home, got all my gear dialed in, and was out on the AT for my through hik the following spring.

[01:15:25] And did you, thinking back before you got to like the whites in New Hampshire and Maine, what was the recollection from your perspective around like, all right, I've really got to get in shape because when I get up north, it's going to be a whole different ballgame? Or were you like, I'm going to be prepared no matter. I've seen enough. I've been out west. I can do this. It was almost, it was unknown territory to me. I'd never, on the AT, I'd never hiked above Damascus, Virginia.

[01:15:53] And North Georgia, those mountains are no joke as well. Whether you're starting in Maine or you're starting in Georgia, your legs are going to get rocked no matter where you start. Both of those terminuses are pretty rough. But I figured, I was excited for one of being up there and you hear about Maine and New Hampshire and the whites and all this.

[01:16:13] And, you know, as I was going up the trail, I wouldn't say I was nervous, but when I started meeting southbounders that year on the trail and they had already gone through Maine and they'd gone through New Hampshire and they're, you know, how southbounders are. They'll talk it up more and more and more and starting messes with your head a little bit. So, the farther north I got on my trail is kind of like not nervous, but I was like, okay, I don't know what, how my body's going to handle being up there. I never hiked above tree line and that kind of weather before. So, you know, I figured I'd take it as a learning process and take it as it comes.

[01:16:42] But, yeah, those southbounders kind of put the fear of God into me because I was a noob at the time. And I just didn't know what to expect, but I was excited and I guess a little bit nervous too. Yeah, yeah. And I watched your videos of going back to that hike and you definitely got some awesome days. Like you got clear views on Franconia and then Washington was a little started off sketchy, but then you got some awesome views on the whites. Do you remember like when you were in New Hampshire?

[01:17:10] So, you did a resupply in Lincoln from what I could tell and then you made your way through out to Gorham. What stands out to you in that part of the hike? Yeah, I did have pretty good weather. There was a few days that I got, it was a whiteout, didn't get any views, but I lucked out in Washington. I stayed there at the Lakes of the Cloud Hut there at the base of Washington. And, you know, I stayed in the dungeon down there.

[01:17:37] It was $10, otherwise I was sweeping the floor up in the hut and I, as a dirty through hiker, had walked that far. I'm like, I'm not going to pay to camp. You have to pay $10 to stay in the dungeon. But I do remember that being a cold night down there. It was a typical Mount Washington weather that morning. It was pretty cloudy. It was a whiteout going up Mount Washington. But once I got up to the top and got off the backside, the clouds parted for me and I got pretty good weather coming down. Franconia, what he said, was amazing. That whole stretch of trail was absolutely beautiful.

[01:18:07] I did get roasted, I remember. Got pretty burnt going over a few of those peaks because you're fully exposed of a tree line. But, yeah, going north of that, then it became a whiteout. Basically, it rained a lot and didn't get many views. But the main, obviously, being up in Washington was epic. You hear so many stories about it. And then that whole Franconia Ridge section was just drop dead beautiful.

[01:18:33] It's something, if you've never been up there, you can't really put it into words how beautiful that place is. Right. I mean, the whole presidential range in general is amazing. Yeah, yeah. It's, I would imagine it's, you know, I talk to a lot of thru-hikers and they do say it's quite a highlight. Now, with your, so you did go on after the AT and you did, you completed the Triple Crown, Continental Divide and PCT.

[01:18:59] During the course of the thru-hike, did you, I always ask people, I'm always curious, like, were you a, like a shelter guy with a big group of friends? Or were you more of a solo guy that would set up on your own and did that change over time from the AT hike to the other thru-hikes that you did? On all three trails, I was always a solo hiker. The only time I've gotten, you know, it wasn't about the tramway thing.

[01:19:28] You see people rolling 10 deep on the AT pretty frequently. If you get in with a group and that's the experience you want, more power to you. Go have a blast out there. That's what the trails are for. Me, I've been an introvert my entire life. And especially, you know, like I said, going through my journey of sobriety, that was my therapy time. I needed that time out there by myself to hash out some things in my own head. So I've always hiked alone.

[01:19:53] That being said, I do get in with groups when it calls for it, meaning, you know, if it's too sketch, basically. For example, in the PCT through the Sierra Nevada, you know, I've said time and time again, none of these trails are worth my life. And my ego is not big enough to where I need to swallow my pride and say, hey, look, this is too sketchy to do it by myself. I got in with a partner for the Sierra Nevada. Same thing with the San Juans. I ended up getting with the trail family in the San Juans on the CDT just for safety reasons.

[01:20:23] So I will continue to do that. But I love that alone time. I love being inside my own head for six months straight. It's one of my favorite parts of through hiking. So I'll continue to hike solo. Right, right. And that makes sense. It's similar to like in, so in the whites, like, again, I'm a weekend warrior type of guy. But like, it's the same idea when we get into winter hiking here. For a long time, I would do solo winter hikes. But once you started getting out farther and farther into the Pemi and these other areas,

[01:20:50] you want to start grabbing some people and going together because it's just a safety thing. Like, you don't want to be stuck in cold conditions and snow conditions with like all by yourself. Especially if you get the opportunity to be with multiple people. It's just kind of a safer way to approach it. 100%. Yeah. You hear stories all the time. I hear stories all the time about the whites, guys who went up there in the winter and getting stranded. Same thing happens out here in Colorado in the San Juans every year. Right.

[01:21:19] So, you cannot, you have to, you have to be out there with a partner. It's just, it's just the smart thing to do. You know, don't rely on your garment and say, well, I got this thing with me. All I got to do is hit that house button and everything's going to be good in the world. No, have some, have a partner that you can rely on each other and get through that stuff and come home safe to your family. That's, that's number one. Right, right.

[01:21:42] And then in your experience, like being out in the CDT and the PCT, it's once you get within a couple hundred miles of that area, you're probably looking to make some connections. And it's probably not that hard to find people that are going through at the same time, right? Yeah. PCT as well as the CDT. Um, and I, I, on the PCT, the first pass you go over, I believe is Kearsarge pass in the Sierra Nevada. Um, I was at camp.

[01:22:08] I planned on getting into somebody, but I hadn't really met a group yet that I'd vibe with. I happened to be at camp that first night in the Sierra Nevada and a guy from Israel came up and camped next to me and we got to talking. He had never done anything like that before either. So we kind of formed a, formed a pack there and said, all right, well, let's do this together and we'll learn from each other. So, um, that happened on the PCT on the CDT and the San Juans. It kind of happened by chance. Luckily, um, I, I had taken a glissade.

[01:22:37] I'd done a glissade early on in the Southern San Juans. Um, stupid mistake by my part, but I went down a glissade first thing in the morning. It was basically a straight ice shoot and I slid about 300 feet down the mountain. And, um, I, a boulder stopped me halfway down the mountain and there was another group of hikers down that mountain. And they like, holy shit, dude, what the hell did you just do? And then we kind of stuck from, from there on out. Um, so that one kind of happened by chance, but yeah, I'm like, Hey, I'm butt sledding. Leave me alone.

[01:23:07] Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Wow. And then over time, so you developed, um, were you, you, you were doing the content, um, creation, um, during the Appalachian trail. How is your, um, content creation, videoing, photography, all that stuff. How has that evolved over the years?

[01:23:29] Um, I like to think I've gotten better over the years when I started on the AT, like I said, it was just for a video journal for myself to look back on when I'm an old, when I'm an old man. Um, uh, halfway through the AT, I wouldn't say halfway, but actually when I got to around New Hampshire, Northern Vermont, I started falling in love with making videos. I just had a little point and shoot camera. That's all I was using. And I got, I fell in love with taking photos when I was out there and that kind of just evolved the following year.

[01:23:56] I invested in some camera year, got a full frame camera and, uh, really started diving into photography and learning my camera and the settings and composition and everything else. I went full bore into it. So it's just progressed year in, year out since I've been doing this. And then I like to think my videos have gotten better, but it's one of those parts of my hike that I actually enjoy. I mean, it's, it is a lot of work doing it. Um, but you know, I can see a lot of people make the argument, well, you're supposed to be out there in the nature.

[01:24:24] Just turn your cell phone off to leave the cameras at home and then just enjoy the moment. And I get that. But for me, it immerses me more into what I'm doing. And I concentrate more on my surroundings because I'm making content. And I noticed little things along the trail that I will specifically stop and film because it'll make a good video. Um, whether or not that's taking away from a hike, I don't believe it is, but I can see the argument. Why you shouldn't be out there with all this technology. But for me, I absolutely love it and I will continue to do so. Right, right.

[01:24:53] And your photography, I'll link your Instagram photography page too. Um, one thing that stands out to me, and I don't know if this has evolved over time and you've done, like, you've done some stuff globally. Like, you've done the Scottish National Trail and the Cunxleden Trail in Sweden as well. But my view, just stylistically, like, you have a certain style. I don't know how to describe it. But I feel like you do a lot of stuff at the golden hour. I don't know if that's sunset or sunrise.

[01:25:19] But it seems like you're setting up when the sun's low in the sky and you've got a lot of orange hue in your, your, at least your nature in your, um, hiking photography. There's a little bit of a difference in the wildlife stuff you do. But is that something you've developed over time? Or is that just something from a timing perspective? Like, you just like to get on it early in the morning? Yeah, when I'm on trail, you're, especially on, well, on all three, really, you have to push miles for the day. I mean, you're under a weather window. You have to get to Canada.

[01:25:49] You have to get to Maine before winter. So, that is always in the back of your head. The only way to push 15 to 20 miles a day is to get going early. And for my style of video, I constantly stop, set up my camera, walk past the camera, pick it up. I do this 15, 20 times a day. So, if I did not get an early start, you know, it takes me 8 to 10 hours to do those 20 miles. Otherwise, I'd be doing a lot of night hiking. And the earlier, the better to get going.

[01:26:16] And besides that, like you said, golden hour is the best time to photograph as well as film because the light is just better. So, yeah, I, I, I do listen to my body when I'm out on trail. It's not like I don't set my alarm out there. But you just get in a routine for doing it for six months where you're up before the sunrise, typically without an alarm. You eat breakfast, you pack up, and you go. Me, I'm filming from the time I wake up to the time I get the camp. So, you know, for my style of video, it's almost a necessity that I get going early.

[01:26:45] Otherwise, it would take me 12, 13 hours to do 20 miles. You know, I still have that luxury. Yeah. And then you've, I mean, the hiking stuff and the nature photography when you're out on trail is awesome. But you have like another side of you where you do wildlife photography. And I'm assuming you do a lot of that in Colorado. But it's not even just wildlife. But you also have a niche where you, you do insect photography, which I feel like that's not a common thing.

[01:27:12] But the thing that stands out to me, and I never, never really thought about this, but I was looking through some of your stuff is the variety of colors among insects is like so much wider than, I mean, wildlife, you see it too. But like the colors on the insects pop incredibly. So how do you get like close-ups and is it special equipment or are you using pretty standard photography equipment for it?

[01:27:33] Well, first of all, I mean, insect photography, I got into it almost by, not by say, by necessity, but, you know, I haven't owned a car in like 10 years. So getting out, even living here in Colorado and Denver, getting out to the mountains is damn near impossible for me. So being on foot, even when I'm in town, I'm limited to where I can get to. So I'm like, well, I want to take photos, but I can't get to the mountains. So I bought a macro lens. A macro lens is, it's amazing.

[01:28:03] I could literally, if you go on my Instagram sales, insect photos, all of those photos were taken 10 feet from my apartment door. Like it's one of those genres of photography to where, as long as you've got a garden nearby or a patch of grass, your backyard, go out there and you can get lost for hours in like a 10 by 10 foot section. And just take thousands of images of these insects. It's a very frustrating form of photography.

[01:28:30] The focal plane on those lenses, you're talking millimeters. So to get those shots, you're either using a flash and a diffuser, which I did many times, or you're on a tripod. Because if you move that camera even the slightest, your image is going to be out of focus. I'm no expert on it. I got into a couple of years ago and I do love it. It's one of those things where you can just go out for a couple hours and get some amazing photos. It just makes the world really small. On the other side of that wildlife photography, I absolutely love this.

[01:28:59] That came from my childhood really and being a hunter and a fisherman. I loved being around those animals. So to be able to sit in the woods for hours. When I lived in Estes Park, Colorado, there's tons of elk and coyotes and owls and everything else. I befriended a great horned owl out there for four weeks and just sitting out there and observing him for hours on end. And I absolutely love that form of photography.

[01:29:28] It's one of those things where when I'm finally done with all the strewoogging business and my body can't handle it anymore, I'll pick up my wildlife lens and just go sit in the woods and watch birds and deer and elk and everything else. I absolutely love doing that. It's just so peaceful sitting in the woods for like eight, nine hours. You might not get a photo, but at the end of the day, you just spent your whole day in the woods just listening and watching nature. It's something special for sure. Yeah, yeah.

[01:29:57] And with the insects, did you – so once you started getting a few good shots, like you must have – I mean, that would be addicting, especially if you can just do it right outside your house. But did you find that with that lens that you're talking about, did it take you a long time to dial that in to get to the point where you could really get the focus on the insects to the point where you came up with a good photo? It takes a lot of patience, yeah.

[01:30:23] I watched an insane amount of videos from guys who do this for a living in macro photography. It's a whole – it's its own world, like landscape and wildlife. It's its own genre. And those guys, they're pretty impressive what they do.

[01:30:39] But once I learn the basic settings of my camera and what it takes to actually get a shot like that, then it's just patience and being out there and being – I would sit down next to a flower and just wait for one, two hours, take hundreds of photos of the same bee, and maybe one's in focus and one isn't. And they do a thing called focus stacking in macro photography where you see those images online or on Instagram or wherever, and the entire eye is completely in focus.

[01:31:08] The whole insect is in focus. That one single photo you see on Instagram is a merged together photo of hundreds of single images. So basically, because the focal plane is millimeters, these guys are firing off hundreds of shots and moving their camera as they're photographing to get little layers of that photo. And then they merge them all together so that the whole insect is in focus.

[01:31:31] So if you notice a lot of my photos, I really just have the eyes in focus because I never really did any of that focus plane work. But it's interesting. I'd like to get into it again in the future, but one thing at a time. I can't take multiple lenses on these through hikes. It's too much weight. So as much as I would like to take my wildlife lens and my macro lens and everything else, I just can't carry everything in my back. So I stick to landscape when I'm through hiking. Yeah, no, that makes sense. That makes sense.

[01:31:59] And then as far as gear goes, I'm assuming you've evolved over time. I actually – I watched one of your recent videos about gear, and I like your philosophy. And I think that it's a good reminder because people stress out about it too much. No matter – it doesn't matter what your gear is as long as it gets you to where you're going. So, you know, I use – I'm a hyper light guy too, so I use a backpack. So I try to err on the side of getting light equipment, but I'm not stressing about like being at ultra light. You know, I like creature comforts and stuff like that too.

[01:32:27] So – and then you – if you're bringing photography equipment, you don't have a choice. You're going to carry some weight, but can you just expand a little bit on your sort of philosophy or your thoughts around gear in general? Yeah, I think – like you said, I think people put too much emphasis on it. Yes, gear matters to an extent, especially on these long-distance trails. You're carrying that weight for six months over 2,000 miles. So obviously, the heavier you are, the more your body is going to take a toll. So you have to take that into consideration.

[01:32:57] But what I tell people is, you know, first of all, having hiked 9,000 miles, I've seen every single piece of gear under the sun on these three hikes. And it's all – it all works. You have to – the biggest thing you can do if you want to plan one of these long-distance hikes is go out and do some shakedown hikes, they call them. Do some section hikes, you know, a weekend. Do a week at a time. Learn your gear and how it works. And if that works for you, then it's going to work for the majority of the trail.

[01:33:26] If you can do a week with that gear on one of these trails, you can do a through hike because all a through hike is is an extension of a week trip at a time. You know, you go out and do a week. You come in town. You get a meal and a shower, and you go back out and do another week. Gear will break down no matter what you have. You know, I have all the expensive ultralight Z-Packs and Hyperlite. That gear takes a beating on these long-distance trails, and by the end, it's pretty much trashed.

[01:33:53] You know, and that's, quote-unquote, the best gear you can buy, but it still gets beat up. I've also seen hundreds of Osprey packs out there and Gregory's and all these full-on, you know, awesome suspension backpacks. It all works. Stop stressing too much about it. The one thing you can do is get out and do some shakedown hikes with the gear that you do have. If you, like, think to yourself, well, this is too light. I don't want to carry this any longer, then maybe invest in some lighter weight gear.

[01:34:21] But don't stress about is this piece of gear going to last a through hike because more than likely it will. These companies know what they're doing, especially these established companies like Osprey and Hyperlite and Z-Packs. They've been doing this for years and years and years. This gear is tested to last. So don't stress about it too hard. Just get out and shakedown hike your gear and take it from there. I've changed out stuff quite a bit. I mean, my basic setup has been the same for the last seven years. But, you know, I upgrade things here and there. I learn as I go.

[01:34:51] If it don't work, then try something else. So, you know, people get caught up watching all these YouTube videos of these influencers and through hikers thinking this is the end-all be-all of gear. And this guy wore it or this gal used this piece of gear. So that means it's the best. That's all bullshit in my opinion. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that the trick is, is if you're really trying to do research, like there, I always go to the Trek. Like they have that survey every year that tells you what, you know, what specific gear everyone's using.

[01:35:20] But also like you can watch a few videos and get an idea of what people are using. But there's all kinds of options there. So I do like that philosophy. It's like there's no wrong gear. It's just make the decision that works best for you. And, you know, you can ultimately swap things up. But I'll link your gear video so that people can check it out. And then in the near term, so you're at the point where, so you don't have necessarily any too many commitments. Then you feel like you can go back and do another, you're going to do another round of the Triple Crown.

[01:35:49] Is that what your plan is in the near term? Yeah, that's the plan. If I decide to go full bore like I want to, we'll do the Triple Crown trails again and then find a trail that I can do in the wintertime in between. So in the near term, PCT is going to be the first go around for the second Triple Crown. So I fly out to San Diego in about four weeks. So I'll start late April on the PCT this year. And if I have the money and my body's up to it, then I'll find a trail to do next winter.

[01:36:19] I'll take a month or two off after the PCT and then find another trail. I'm looking at the TA or, you know, the Florida Trail. I always said I would never do, but it's one of those few trails I can do in the wintertime. So I'll find something to do next winter and then hop back on the CDT in 2026. And then I'm going to save the AT for last. I think that would be a good coming full circle because the AT was my first through hike. I want to do that one last to wrap up my second Triple Crown. Awesome.

[01:36:47] And then given that you've been doing this for seven or eight years, any big changes that you've seen in the, like, through hiking community? Or obviously there's, you know, we get a little bit of visibility on the podcast too. So there's pluses and minuses of having some visibility out there and being known. But anything from your perspective, like looking back at, like, when you started and you were relatively, like, just learning this thing versus where you are now? Any big changes or for the better or for the worse from your perspective?

[01:37:16] I mean, for better or worse, the crowds on these, you know, you have people like me to blame putting this stuff out on YouTube. It's gotten – it's become more aware, you know, and it's just the trails are taking a beating for sure. You get a trail like the AT and you have 6,000 people attempting that trail every year and it's just getting busier and busier every single year. You see these guys, you know, especially starting out in Georgia, the first week on trail, there's 30 hikers at every shelter. That's a lot for these trails to take.

[01:37:47] And it's sad to see people in the whole leave no trace practices. I absolutely cannot stand seeing some of these hikers destroy the trucks. These are the places I love. I need these for my sanity and my mental state. So, you know, the more of these trails getting trashed by people, it's just going to ruin for everybody else in the long run.

[01:38:11] You see, you know, people – I hate to pick on the Appalachian Trail, but historically speaking, that is the quote-unquote party trail. So you get people out there just destroying shelters and leaving trash everywhere and drinking their ass off and going into these hostels. And, you know, a lot of these hostels are getting closed down because people are being idiots. You have to respect the trail.

[01:38:33] And if you want this to be around for future generations, you have to understand that this is not your time to do whatever the hell you want. You have to respect Mother Nature and respect the trail and follow the laws and follow the rules and just clean up after yourself. That's the one downside of this whole through-racking thing getting more popular is just the trails are taking a beating. And it's not just the AT. It's the PCT as well. There's thousands and thousands of people that do that trail every year too.

[01:38:59] So, yeah, we need to all team up and understand that Mother Nature is there for all of us. And if we don't take care of it, then it's not going to be there for future generations. Right, right. I mean, that's why – I always joke about that. We'll talk about it. Like, one of these days, some big celebrity is going to – they're going to hook on to through-hiking. And it's – we're in our little bubble right now. We got influences. But, like, the Kardashians are going to get out on the Appalachian Trail and really ruin it for everybody. But, yeah, it's a good point.

[01:39:29] I was supposed to be bikepacking or something like that. Right, right. So, but, no, it's a good point. It's a good reminder. I don't know. I feel like we don't see – in New England, like, I feel like it's not – maybe it's just, like, all that stuff is shaken out by the time they get up north. So, we don't have that many – you know, every once in a while, we'll see somebody that's, like – everyone will get up in arms about somebody that's, like, marking up a trail sign that says the AT. Because, honestly, like, in the whites, like, our trail signs are not set up for through-hikers.

[01:39:57] They're set up for, like, the low – and they're not the greatest sometimes from a through-hiker perspective. So, they'll mark them up and everyone will get up in arms on that. But, generally, I don't know. Maybe it's just because all that stuff is – you know, the novelty is worn off by the time they get up into, like, Vermont or Massachusetts. And most of the people that are there are, like – they're just – they're going to finish their hikes and they're not there to party as much. So, I don't know. Yeah, most of the riff-raff has gone – has quit by the time they get up to New Hampshire, for sure.

[01:40:27] Damascus, Virginia, trial days is a big dropping off point for a lot of people. You know what I mean? So – and I noticed on my through-hike, once I got about Damascus, then the crowds got a hell of a lot less. And the solitude was there again. And I think I went four days through Maine without seeing another through-hiker. We could have been a half a mile apart, but we never saw each other. Right. But in the southern portion of the AT, you just don't get that time to yourself out there. So, yeah, most of the riff-raff is gone by the time we get up to northern Vermont, New Hampshire area. Yeah, yeah.

[01:40:57] It's probably the same in California. But – so, you said – what do you say? You're 44. So, I'm 53. So, I'm going to give you a little bit of advice. I'll tell you. Like, you hit 45. The late 40s, you start dropping off a little bit. So, you got to – at least I did anyway. My speed actually dropped off. Not my distance. I could still do the distance, but I wasn't able to crank out the mileage as much.

[01:41:22] But I found that as long as you just stay consistent and you don't push yourself too hard, like, you can pretty much stay injury-free. So, do you have, like, any history on injuries or have you been pretty good about balancing, like, you know, I got to get my distance, but I got to do it in a way that's not going to make me get injured? Yeah, I have a bad ankle. Yeah, I have a bad ankle that I've been dealing with since I started the AT, really. I had a – Okay. Went back when I was a weekend warrior in North Carolina. There's a place called the Linville Gorge in Western North Carolina.

[01:41:51] They call it the Grand Canyon of the East Coast. Amazing backpacking out there. I did a lot of weekend trips out in that area. And one particular trip, I had gone down into the gorge. And it was during the fall with a lot of leaves on the ground, and I didn't see a root underneath and slipped, and I heard a pop in my ankle. Kind of laid there for a minute, got up, and I could put pressure on. I'm like, cool. I got away with something. I survived that.

[01:42:16] So, I took, like, four or five more steps, and I heard another pop, and I just collapsed on the ground. By that time, I was already almost to the bottom of the gorge. So, I said, screw it. I'll get down to the river, and we'll kind of reassess how my ankle is. Well, got down to the river, camped there that night, woke up the next day, and my ankle had swollen up to the size of a softball, and I couldn't get my shoe back on. So, basically, just went hand over fist out of that gorge. It took me four and a half hours.

[01:42:43] I kind of, you know, used my trekking pole as a cane, but that got too painful. So, a lot of the times, I was just kind of, like, pulling one, you know, hand over fist kind of deal to get up some of those steeper sections. And then, like an idiot, I got back home finally and went to the doctor. They wrapped it up. I had a third-degree ankle sprain. They said, like, all right, take a few months off. Go let this thing heal. Well, my ego got the better of me. That's three weeks. A few months is equal to three weeks. That's right.

[01:43:14] Yeah. I went hiking on it the next week, and, you know, eventually somewhat healed, but it's one of those old injuries that's come back to haunt me. So, since I started through, like, an 18, any time I – this seems like the magical number is 20 miles. Every time I hit 20 for the day, that ankle starts throbbing, and I start limping pretty hard. So, I just have to keep that in the back of my head, and I can't push my body too hard. So, it's going to turn into something a lot worse that is going to force me to get off the trail quicker than I want to.

[01:43:41] So, yeah, we just – as we get older, we have more aches and pains and scars and everything else. So, you just listen to your body and take days off when you need to. It's about all you can do. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It's just – like you said, you just listen to your body, and you don't – hopefully, you get experience enough where you just don't push yourself past that red line.

[01:44:04] But with the PCT, I haven't really – I was talking to someone that was going out on the PCT probably a couple of months ago, and we, you know, always talk about, like, timing out the Sierras and seeing what the snowpack looks like. I don't really – I haven't really been paying as much attention to it. But what is the snowpack looking like this year, and do you think you're going to be dealing with some heavy snowpack when you get up to the Sierras? I really haven't been obsessing about it.

[01:44:30] I have checked – I checked it a few weeks ago just to get an idea what it's doing up there. When I did check it, it's about average this year. Back when I did it in 2019, it was a couple hundred percent above average. In 2019, it was a really rough year going through the Sierra. But this year doesn't look as bad. They could get hit with a late storm. Who knows? But having gone through that stretch during a high snow year, I know what to be prepared for.

[01:44:56] So I think, you know, having that experience under my belt, I'll be doing it a lot safer and a lot smarter this time around just knowing what I'm about to go through. So I'm not going to stress about it too much. You just take it as it comes. A lot of this stuff on these through hikes, especially the PCT, is out of your hands. One being the snowpack because you have to get your permit so early you can't plan out, well, this is going to be a high snow year, so I'll not get my permit. You have to apply for this permit months in advance. So there's that.

[01:45:25] And then on the opposite end of things is the forest fires. That's out of your hand too. So you just take it as it comes. There's years where you can't complete the trail. Mother Nature dictates that. Yeah, that's something that's way out of your hands. So you just hike the miles that are open and take it as it comes. That's about all you can do. Yeah. And are you okay with if you've got to bounce around a little bit or are you one of those folks that really wants to just do it truly north to south? Having done it once before, I'll bounce around.

[01:45:53] You know, if this was my first go around, I wouldn't consider it a through hike in my own head if I didn't go from point A to point B. But now that I've already done the trail, if I get up to NorCal and it's under fire and there's 200, 300 miles of trail close or the Sierra Nevada gets demolished by snow in the next couple weeks, then whatever. We'll come back and do it another year. I'll go find another trail.

[01:46:17] So having done them all before, I'm not too stressed about finishing this time around. Obviously, that is the goal. I also wouldn't be going out and doing a through hike. I just go do a week long, go do the JMT or something like that. But there's something special about walking from a southern terminus to a northern terminus. I love the long distance grind of these long hikes. So obviously, that is the goal.

[01:46:42] But if the cars aren't in my favor this year, then so be it. We'll come back and do it another year. Awesome. Awesome. Well, we'll be following along. We'll be looking forward to all the content coming up on the YouTube page. What's the delay on the YouTube videos typically when you're out there? About a week and a half, generally.

[01:47:03] I usually give myself at least that cushion because, you know, while going into the PCT this year, the last time I was hung out in Kennedy Meadows, it's a dropping off point before you go into the Sierra. I was there for like four or five days. So that's four or five days that I'm not filming. And then I always give myself a little cushion in case I got to take a couple zeros due to injury or getting sick or something like that. So there'll be about a week and a half delay in the videos.

[01:47:29] But the reason, the main reason I do that is so that when they do start coming out, I have content built up and everybody will get a daily video every single day for the next six months. So there's no gap in waiting. Oh, where the hell is he at? Did he get injured? We haven't had a video today. So I want to have that content built up so they do come out every single day. Awesome. Yeah, no, I enjoy that. I like that style the best because I do.

[01:47:54] I ebb and flow a little bit on who I follow for through hikes, but I do like that like every day, you know, short videos, just see where they are and keep track of people. So it's fun to follow along. Yeah, people almost treat it like a Netflix show, a series in a way. I get that comment quite a bit. It's almost like you're watching your favorite character on a Netflix show and, you know, what's going on? Or yeah, what's happened? Blah, blah, blah. It's pretty funny. Exactly. That'll be how people get into it.

[01:48:21] That's what you can do when you, when in between the through hikes, you can sign up for one of those shows like a live or one of those survival shows on Netflix. That'll be good. It's funny you mentioned that because I actually got, I put in an audition tape for one of those. I was hiking and it was in, it was in between of one of my overseas hikes. I can't remember where I was at. I think it was in Maryland somewhere. I can't remember, somewhere in the East Coast. And yeah, I was hiking the Allegheny Gap Trail, I think. And a guy reached out to me through a DM.

[01:48:51] He was a producer or something for one of these reality shows. And he had asked me to put in an audition tape. It was one of these survivor type shows. You go over to Australia on a desert island and you got to play all these games and shit. I put my audition tape in. I guess I wasn't good enough to be on the show. I think they were just trying to get different characters and they needed like a mountain man type looking person. Then they probably picked somebody else. But it's funny you did bring that up because that actually did happen to me. I was going to go on that show. I figured in a worst case scenario, I'll get a free trip to Australia.

[01:49:21] Exactly. Exactly. I do think like a reality show about through hiking, kind of like how they do like Northwood's law here. Like they follow along. Like it'd be kind of interesting to do that. But, you know, who knows? We'll see what the future holds. But I appreciate you sitting in with us. And before we break, do you want to just give some plugs out? Like how can we follow along? And then if the listeners want to throw you some money to support you through hike, how can they go about doing that? Sure.

[01:49:50] Like I said, daily videos will start coming out probably the first week of May or so. The YouTube is Saved by Mountains spelled out. My Instagram is also Saved by Mountains, but the mountains is abbreviated MTNS. If you just search Saved by Mountains, I'll come up. As a photographer, I love taking photos as much as I do videos. So the Instagram photos will come out consistently of the whole trail. And then you'll get the daily vlogs on YouTube. I have a guy here in Colorado that's currently making a website for me.

[01:50:17] I don't have it up yet, but I'll be all the links to support. And as long as my website, when that comes out, they're all linked in the description box of every one of my videos. So if you want to support my hike through Patreon, PayPal, whatever, all those links will be below each one of my videos. Awesome. Yeah. And we'll throw those links up on our show notes so people can check them out. And then, like I said, we'll follow along and keep us updated. We'll check in every once in a while to see how you're doing over the Instagram. And again, thank you so much for joining us this week.

[01:50:48] Yeah. I appreciate the time, brother. Yeah. And we'll see you in what? 2027. We'll see you in New Hampshire. I'll be up there. Awesome. All right, Nobby. So yeah, that was fun talking to IBTAT. Good guy. He seems like he is ready to get off and get out to the PCT. So yeah, thanks for hooking me up with him and coming up with the idea. No, he's a great guy.

[01:51:17] And I'm really looking forward to talking to him again in the future. When he comes through, you got to have him on. We'll see. We'll see. A couple of years, he's not going to be doing the AT for, I think, two more years. So yeah, we'll see. But definitely say hi to him when he comes through, for sure. Great guy. Awesome. Awesome. So all right, well, we're almost at the end of the show here. The only thing I wanted to wrap up with was that there was one other search and rescue event. This is a pretty easy one. This is on March 23rd.

[01:51:47] Three hikers in the Madam Sherry Forest. So this is in Hinsdale, New Hampshire. I think they just got a little bit lost. So a 72-year-old, 86-year-old, and an 18-year-old from Norway had gotten lost on the trail they were following, and they became disoriented. So they had called 911 around 3.15, and a conservation officer was able to reach them around 6 o'clock

[01:52:14] and then made it to the trailhead by 6.35 or so. So not too bad. They were able to make their way out. But yeah, time of the year. We're going to see more people get lost and more rescues, Nobby. Yeah. Hopefully it's not us, right? We'll see. Excellent. All right. Well, this was great. This was fun. I appreciate you stepping in for the Stomp Man. What do you think? Did you enjoy yourself? Was this hard?

[01:52:43] Did you find that it was everything you thought it was going to be? No, it was everything I thought it was going to be. I've been on the show a couple times in the past, but it's not easy doing your job. I'm really impressed with you doing this every week. But I'm really, really grateful that you invited me and it was fun. Yeah, it was fun. We learned all about your early childhood more than I ever wanted to know. It's good getting to know it.

[01:53:12] So we'll definitely have you back on for sure. And then we're actually going to record an episode of So You Wanna after this. So you'll hear even more of Nobby later in the future. Great. Great stuff. Thanks. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed the show, you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[01:53:42] 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 Stump, get out there and crush some mega peaks.

[01:54:12] 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 who they are? Oh, yeah!

[01:54:44] Lieutenant James Neeland, 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 10 essential items and had those in their packs, they probably would have no need to ever call us at all.