Episode 234 - Welcome Dan "Row-Bot" Forget - Rowing Machine Hiker, Trail Updates, Franconia Ridge

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

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

[00:00:51] You should too. Go to mountwashington.org or text FORECAST to 603-356-2137. Hello listeners. Nick here with your forecast for the weekend May 30th, 2026.

[00:01:15] Friday, mostly in the clouds under mostly cloudy skies. A slight chance of snow showers early and a wintry mix likely in the afternoon. Possible additional snow and ice accumulations but traced to one inch. High in the mid-30s. Wind northwest shifting west at 40-55 mph with gusts up to 65 mph early, decreasing rapidly to 25-40 mph by midday and 15-30 mph later. Wind chill rising to 15-25 mph above. Friday night. In the clouds with a wintry mix transitioning to snow and snow.

[00:01:45] Fleet. A slight chance of thunderstorms. Possible additional snow and sleet accumulations of 2-4 inches. Low in the lower 20s. Wind southwest shifting counterclockwise to the east at 20-35 mph early, 30-45 mph around midnight, and 50-70 mph with gusts up to 85 mph later. Wind chill falling to 0-10 below. And Saturday. Mostly in the clouds under mostly cloudy skies with a chance of morning snow showers.

[00:02:10] Possible additional snow accumulations of a trace to 2 inches. High in the upper 20s. Wind east shifting north at 45-60 mph with gusts up to 75 mph, decreasing to 25-40 mph. Wind chill rising 0-10 above. So it looks like old man winter's coming back for a bit this weekend. Stay safe out there. Pretty variable forecast. Go crush some peaks. Happy hiking. Safe hiking. Have fun.

[00:03:11] The Woodpecker's 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.

[00:03:47] Is your last name Forge pronounced? I've heard every pronunciation in the book, especially going through school. I've heard Forget and Forge and Forge and Forget and Forget and Forget and everything in between. I was going to say, how many variations can there be for that? But you answered my question. I think it just depends on who anglicizes it and how much they do. Yeah. Forget. Forget. Alright, so welcome to episode 234. We have Dan Forge here.

[00:04:15] Speaking of Forget, I heard a lot of French speaking. I did the Franconia Ridge Traverse this weekend. I had a lot of people coming down south this weekend. Yeah, yeah. A lot of people. I was basically the only... Matter of fact, I had a long conversation with this guy about how they were rerouting the Franconia Ridge trail. And he kept sort of shaking his head at me. And I heard him later on talking French. And I was like, I don't think this guy understood a word I said. I had the same. I was out on hail this weekend and there was a guy coming up the trail. And I'm usually just like, oh, hey, how you doing?

[00:04:43] And the guy just kind of looked up and just kind of like... Just gave me a look and a glance and then looked down again. And I was like, how's it going? And he was just like nodded at me again. I was like, he seems kind of off, like put off. And then he was like, then he just kind of like didn't broken English. Like, hello. And I was like, oh yeah, you don't speak English. All right. Nick, we've never had a French Canadian hiker. We have to get a French Canadian hiker in to explain the ways. But it blows my mind that I would assume they all speak English, right? Maybe the guy probably just didn't want to talk to me. I mean, I wouldn't, I don't blame him. Yeah.

[00:05:13] He saw me. I was, I was carrying the erg. So he was probably like, this guy's a lunatic. I don't want to have anything to do with this guy. That's true. That's true. So, so for listeners, we are here with Dan Forge. His nickname or his Instagram is robot. So this is the guy we, we love gimmick hikers. The one thing we, I like dogs a little bit better, but a gimmick hiker, you're on the show immediately. So Dan does the, he's doing the 4,000 footers with his rowing machine. So we'll talk about that and I'll, I'll do the whole intro, but just in case you're wondering who that guy is.

[00:05:43] Yeah, I'm that guy. I am a normal hiker too, but this is just a little side quest that I've jumped on in the last couple of years. So. Right. Well, before we get into, we'll talk to Dan, we'll find all about that. We'll find all about this lunatic and his, his special project. But I did want to give a heads up, Nick breaking news in my area. Um, do you, you're young. So I have to, and Dan, you're probably younger too. So do you guys know this thing called takeovers? Have you heard of this? No, I don't think so. This is young hooligans.

[00:06:12] They, they, they all get together online and they decide they're going to take an area over. So Hampton beach has an all points bulletin out. They're asking for every police department in the area to come to Hampton beach to clear these young hooligans that are all taking over Hampton beach. That's kind of like a flash mob of just like chaos. I'm just like, Oh, we're just going to take this territory. Yeah. And they're all fighting and yeah, it's, yeah, it's chaos. So did you guys do that when you were younger?

[00:06:42] I can't say that. I definitely remember going to Narragansett beach before on a day. Just, it made me think of this cause it was warm today and it's probably the same vibe cause the water's freezing. But I remember going to Narragansett in April once and like out surfing and there were people like in the water cause it was like 90 and like people, you just saw like all day people just going in and then like immediately getting out cause they realized the water's still like 48 degrees or 50 degrees. Not super pleasant. I'm sure it's colder up at Hampton beach. Yeah. So I don't know. It's chaos, but summer is here then cause it's good news. People getting arrested at Hampton.

[00:07:11] That's when the signs of summer. Yes. That's when you know, that's when you know it's really the summer solstice. Yeah, exactly. It's a good sign. But I guess they all got online and they organized and said like, we're going to have a takeover of Hampton beach. And then they all get up there and then inevitably like people start fighting and the police have to arrest everybody. So, uh, I mean they all skip school and stuff too. Nick, I don't think that these people involved in these takeovers care much about school at this point. Okay. Fair enough. Summer vacation beckons. Everyone's checked out.

[00:07:40] Yeah, I think so too. I think so too. But I was, I did put this on my list. So I was thinking about like quiet secret beaches and I figured I would ask you guys, Dan, do you have any like a go to beach areas in the Northeast that you go to like with no crowds? Uh, yeah, there's actually one spot. It's actually on the Merrimack river, um, down in Merrimack where I work. Um, just call it secret beach. It's known to a few people. It's kind of the area is getting a little built up now, so it's a little tougher to get to than it used to.

[00:08:08] But you just kind of like, if you know where to go through the woods and cross the railroad tracks, it's like a little spot on the river where there's like a few rapids and you can just pitch a tent sometimes just go jump in the water. Uh, this is Merrimack, New Hampshire. Okay. Yes. Merrimack, New Hampshire. Yeah. Merrimack, New Hampshire is where I live on that area and like, you can't get in the dangerous to go in the river cause the current so strong, but so secret, secret beach it's called. Yeah. You just, if you know it, it's secret beach. And it's, if you know, you know, like when you, to a Merrimack person, if you say, have you been to secret beach, you want to go to secret beach.

[00:08:37] If they know it's like, you know, that's a good one. Nick, do you have any secret places? Uh, like I want a place with like, if you spill it, people are going to send us an email saying you're an asshole for spilling it. I don't, I don't think there are any more secret beaches in like the Southeast mass, like Rhode Island area anymore. Um, my parents and used to go to East Matunic all the time down in like South Kingstown. It's kind of before Matunic and before you hit like, gosh, like East beach and some of the further end ones. Um, but I think that's pretty out now.

[00:09:07] I think that's no longer a secret. I think if you try to go there in the summer, it's, it's really crowded. Um, but yeah, I don't, I don't think there's any really secret one. There's definitely some different ones in Fairhaven. I've been to with Ash before that you have to be a resident to go to. Um, I like South shore beach a lot in little Compton, which now since they're one of the places they put, uh, sort of residents only in deal during COVID and they never lifted it. Yeah. So, uh, but I used to like South shore beach a ton. You can still go there like off season and stuff and check it out.

[00:09:34] But that's like in that whole seconded area, which is like, it's a, it's like the hidden area of Rhode Island. Nobody knows about, and it's really pretty. There's a lot of old money, I think down there and people that don't want anybody from other places going down there. So it's an interesting vibe. I want to be around people with old money. Oh yeah. That's that, that, that doesn't sound crowded. No, no. You just have to make sure you don't get, there used to be a surf spot. We'd go down over there and you had to definitely had to know somebody cause they would tell you, um, it was like a friend of a friend's uncle or some kind of deal. So yeah.

[00:10:00] Living around here, we know like some people that live on like Salisbury beach and, uh, that in Seabrook beach as well. So we can sometimes take advantage of that, but I don't really spend much time on the beaches, but I will tell you, don't tell anybody this. This is just between us and the listeners. If you want to go to a good place in Dan, you got the idea. It's you got to find like slow moving rivers that tends to be where let's like less crowded. So in Portsmouth, there's this place called Creek farm. Uh, and it's on the Piscataqua river and it is awesome.

[00:10:29] It's like, it's overseen by the society for the protection of New Hampshire forests. And it's like never crowded. And like you drive through this neighborhood and you tell it's like old money, Nick. Like that, and then there's plenty of parking over there and then you can walk along the Piscataqua river and you can just like, there's little inlets you can go in. You can set up a beach chair. There's these two, they're like these old farm buildings that you can just hang out in or not in, but around. It's like, it's a lawn. It's not even a sandy beach.

[00:10:57] You just put your lawn chair out and you can go swimming. You could do stand up paddle boarding, kayaking. It's pretty sweet. It's called Creek farm in Portsmouth. Cool. Rivers are a cool vibe. I like rivers when it's really warm and stuff. Yeah. It's awesome. Cool to join. But people crazy going to Hampton beach this time of the year. Yeah. Anyway, so this is a hiking podcast guys. So let's block it in. Welcome to episode 234 of the sounds like a search and rescue podcast. This week we welcome Dan robot.

[00:11:25] It's, and it w it's not robot as in like, um, R O B O T it's row as in, because he's a rower and then dash bot. So it's play on, play on words there. Right Dan? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's just like I'm a roaming robot basically. Yeah. It's pretty nifty. So Dan for Jay is an avid outdoorsman, hiker and rower. Who is that what you call yourselves? Rowers or do you call yourself crewers? Yeah. Rower. Or sculler. Oh, scull. Okay.

[00:11:54] So he's a rower who, uh, he combines his love of rowing with hiking and is currently pursuing the New Hampshire 4,000 footer list with the added challenge of carrying his rowing machine up every 4,000 footer and completing a 2,000 meter rowing session on the summit. So like we said that we'd like nothing better than a good gimmick hiker. So, uh, we'll talk to Dan about, uh, this project and we'll also talk vintage. We're going to talk about vintage campers. Dan, I did some research on you.

[00:12:23] We're going to talk about beer. Creeped on you. The kind you drink. Yeah. Yeah. And then, um, I've got some New Hampshire trivia too, Dan. So. Oh boy. Am I getting quizzed? You're going to get quizzed. You and Nick are going to get quizzed. And then, uh, we've got a Dave Schitts in the woods, Appalachian trail update. We've got some summer trail reminders. Uh, we're going to teach you how not to get hurt or die on the trail. So we'll talk about the Lincoln woods trail closure, the falling woods trail redirect water crossing reminders.

[00:12:52] Uh, cause it's still running hot out there. We've got some public service announcements from the forest service. We've got a heartwarming father's day story, Nick. Uh, and then we've got a music minute from Nick that I get. I, I did a little research on this one beforehand and I think it's going to, it's going to disappoint everybody. It's not going to be as good as last week, but we're just humor Nick. We've got a recent hike on Franconia Ridge and then we've got notable hikes, even though I gave out the notable hike this week in person, Nick. So it's already been decided.

[00:13:20] That seems fitting, granted knowing who you crossed. Right. Right. So I'm, I'm Mike. And I'm Nick. Let's get started. Let's get started. Let's get started. So Dan, you listen to the podcast before? Uh, yeah. Yeah. I've been listening to a couple of years now, I think. Yeah. Is it weird like sitting in and listening to how the, uh, how the bread is made? Yeah.

[00:13:49] It's just like getting the behind the scenes and the prep work and all the technical stuff and making sure everything, there's no snafus. Right. Right. So you were, you were two minutes late. You had a little technical snafu, but not too bad. So we won't, we won't think poorly of you. It was my first time doing it. So to be only two minutes late, I'll take that as a win. I'm impressed. To not ruin the whole show. Then we've got to win in my book. We've gone much longer than two minutes trying to get people's audio working. That's for sure. So. Perfect. It isn't that I'm doing all right. So, and there's also, you got to get Alzheimer's connection too, right Dan?

[00:14:20] Uh, yeah, yeah. That's actually, I've heard about the Alzheimer's association through the podcast. Um, and your guys is mentioning of it in the past. Um, and I've lost a grandmother to Alzheimer's, which was my personal connection to it. And I've seen it firsthand. So, uh, when I wanted to make the project about something bigger than just myself, um, it was an easy choice to make for me to link up with them. Awesome. So yeah, we love the Alzheimer's association. We had them on last week. And then, um, we, we typically will start to show with a, with a plug about the 48 peaks event, right? Nick. Yep.

[00:14:49] So use your passion for hiking and Alzheimer's join 400 plus hikers as they climb New Hampshire's 4,000 footers or create their own challenge to support the mission of the Alzheimer's association. The annual hiker celebration will be Saturday, June 13th at ledge brewing with raffles, food and an amazing community. Hike that weekend or any day you want this summer, no fundraising minimums. But those who raise $125 will receive the annual performance grade t-shirt and a ticket to the hiker celebration. Let's turn the white mountains purple to end alls. Visit alls.org slash 48 peaks to learn more.

[00:15:19] And if you're interested in joining the slasher podcast, 48 peaks team on June 13th, we'll be hiking Mount Adams and, uh, yeah, it's getting down there. So make your move if you want to join us. Yeah. And I got a text out to the crew and I'm still looking for a couple of people to respond back to me. I got to track them down, but I think for the most part we're getting organized. Yeah. Which it seems like it's about 80% of the people we'd normally hike with. Yeah. Anyways. Yeah, exactly. Turns out. Which is fine. We're looking to diversify.

[00:15:47] So if you want to, you want to hike with us, please do. A couple of new faces here. And then, uh, after, after our hikes, we always like to cool off with a nice beer and some food. So, uh, our friends, reckless brewing company are always a great option for hikers to go check out after their hike. So Nick, what, what do we know about reckless? So for those who spend their days navigating the granite peaks and unpredictable weather of the white mountains, the trail doesn't truly end at the parking lot. It ends at reckless brewing company located in the heart of Bethlehem. Reckless serves as the unofficial headquarters for the tired, the muddy and the bold.

[00:16:17] It's where trail stories are swapped over a massive menu of mountain sized meals and pints of craft beer brewed for the North country soul. When the hike is over and the gear is stowed reckless is where the adventure truly settles in reckless brewing company, the finish line for every white mountain trick. Very good. And then, uh, also want to put in a plug for the rec rec rec rec rec rec is, um, organizing a rec fest, which is a summer outdoor festival. That's Friday, July 31st and Saturday, August 1st.

[00:16:43] This is a hiking, biking, climbing, fishing, running, whatever you want. Uh, they have it all and they're calling all outdoor enthusiasts to come party with them. So, um, this is a base camp style festival that's geared to highlight the local lifestyle business and guides of North of the North country featuring a Friday night kickoff with live music vendor village gear swap raffle and an exclusive screening of best day ever followed by a Saturday loaded with guided excursions through the white mountains and an evening musical fest musical festival.

[00:17:13] So I'm looking forward to this, Nick. I think I'm going to be able to free up and go. Yeah, it should be a good time. Um, yes, it should. Yes, it should. So, um, Dan, I, I, I don't, I know you listen to the show some time. There's a running theme that Nick has not been exposed to like some basic things. So I wanted to ask him to get him on the record publicly if he's ever been in a rowboat before. Yes, I have been on a rowboat and I had a canoe and kayaks growing up. So I'm pretty familiar.

[00:17:43] I'm not, I'm never did competitive rowing like Dan does. So my nickname never got to the point that I was a robot. So not that serious about it, but yes, I did grow up with a, have been a rowboat before grew up with a canoe and the canoe we had was very unstable. It seemed like, like I got into other people's canoes afterwards and I'm like, wow, our canoe sucked. Like we used to go on clamming and stuff. We'd go paddle the islands, like nitty gritt and stuff and different salt ponds. Um, and go out and go call hogging or clamming.

[00:18:08] And it was like, I remember as like a six or seven year old being like no sudden movements or like that thing was going over. So, uh, I like kayaks a lot more. Yeah. Yeah. We have a couple of canoes up in Maine, like one of them, Nick, you've been up there. The red canoe is, is extra tippy. So I always would like to, anybody that I knew was a little inexperienced, I would always put them in the red one to see them tip over. So. That's nice of you. No warning whatsoever. So. Like, oh yeah, you want that red one. It's definitely the fastest one. Yes. Exactly.

[00:18:39] That's great for beginners. Exactly. So anyway, well, okay. So let's get started. We pulled a couple of new stories. I think these are, these look like stomp news stories here. So stomp was supposed to join us. Wasn't he? He was, he still potentially could, but I believe he had a previous obligation with his other side gig. Right. Right. So he's, he's out there with important people, not worrying about us. So anyway, he did find this little news story. So a hiker, Dan, have you ever found anything fun on trail?

[00:19:08] Anything interesting? Uh, wouldn't say anything really fun. And you just like nothing besides like your typical artifacts from like the logging camps or an occasional trash and litter that you got to pack out. But. Wouldn't say anything stands out as being, you know, anything crazy or. Yeah. Nothing I've ever, I've found like a bunch of abandoned gear. I found like a backpack and stuff on Franconia Ridge one time. And then I helped my friends, Mindy and Beth Lynn.

[00:19:32] They had found a backpack that had been tied to a, a, a rescue like six years previously. They had found an old one, but nothing this cool. So this, this hiker uncovered a 1500 year old gold sword relic similar to Excalibur hidden under a tree. So this happened in Norway. So, um, this is straight out of a King Arthur legend, Nick, and it dates back to the sixth century. So they're making swords that, that far back. Yeah.

[00:20:01] It's pretty amazing that people were kind of metalworking back then. Yeah. Yeah. So it looks like the hiker from Norway noticed that there was a, there was a felled tree said and he began poking around it and he noticed that there was kind of something under the soil and poked at it with a stick. And it seemed to me, it's kind of mind blowing that he found it doing that. Like, it's not a very crazy story. He wasn't like metal detecting or doing something. He kind of just found it. And I have a picture here. It's really a beautiful sort of gold.

[00:20:30] It looks like snakes like crawling. Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to try it, describe it. It's really interesting looking. Very pretty. Yeah. Well, we'll link it in the show notes here. Um, so it says, yeah, it probably belonged to a chieftain who ruled that area. Can you imagine living in the sixth century? Like you can't even take a shower, Nick. No, a lot of things you couldn't do in the sixth century. You can't go to the dentist. What happens if you get a cavity? Do they have bikes back then?

[00:21:01] You would fit in well because nobody had bikes. Ah, see my time. Anyway, well, that's a cool story. So never, always pay attention when you're hiking. You might find a rare gold sword. So never know. Next up, Nick, there's no rhyme or reason to this, but, um, our friend Cindy, who was on the show last week, she had, um, I guess mentioned this case, but there's a, uh, anybody that's involved with Alzheimer's.

[00:21:28] So, um, certainly like you typically would think of dementia and Alzheimer's as a disease that strikes older people. But in some cases it does strike younger people too. So, uh, Cindy had sent over a follow-up, uh, related to somebody that had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's in her thirties. And unfortunately, I mean, and this is a smart person. She's a lawyer, bioengineering training. Uh, she was on jeopardy as a trivia way, uh, whiz. And she unfortunately got diagnosed with Alzheimer's in her mid thirties.

[00:21:58] Uh, there's some breakthroughs on drugs that can reduce the plaque buildup by up to 84% for patients with mild dementia symptoms. The problem with this drug is that it costs $32,000 per year. And, uh, this person's insurance company denied the request because they said that she was too young and they just arbitrarily told her that she had to be 60 years old in order to take the drug. But the, the insurance company did not explain what these insurance companies, Nick, explain yourself.

[00:22:29] Yeah. Well, they explained their self themselves after she started to go public with it. And apparently they decided they made a mistake here. So, uh, they kind of were initially denying her treatment and, uh, yeah, they came around when she kind of came out with this, but kind of wild for them to, again, they're saying like there's not evidence and there's the diagnosis for her, her age is rare. But that being said, it's, it's still early onset Alzheimer's. It's the same disease. So I don't know why, like it, so we're going to, we're going to delay treatment because she's not the right age. Like that doesn't make any sense to me. It's the same disease.

[00:22:59] It affects the brain the same way. So why would we be denying her medication? Right. If anything, we have to get better at identifying early cases so that they, they, they don't escalate into a situation where insurance companies have to pay like millions and millions of dollars to take care of people for years. If they can, you know, have a breakthrough where they, they can help somebody that's young live a better life. Then to me, that seems like a, a little bit of money upfront, but it would be worth the investment. I think. Yeah. A hundred percent.

[00:23:28] And good on her to kind of shout out and, uh, raise attention to this kind of case of insurance companies. Cause I'm sure if it happened to her, it's not the only person that has happened to, even if these cases are kind of rare in the grand context of things. Right. Right. All right, guys, let's get into the hiking stuff here. So starting with the Dave shits in the woods, Appalachian trail update. Um, so Dan, do you have any opinion on Dave shits in the woods? I don't think you've ever met him, but you must know of him, right?

[00:23:57] Uh, yeah, I've been, I've heard all the updates in the last bunch of episodes since he started and I've been following him too on Instagram. So I haven't seen the post myself and him following along. So it's been cool to see. I love the, uh, the trail name story that I got a kick out of that, the whole cocaine there. That gave me a good laugh. Yeah. Dave's a good guy. We're going to have to get him, um, up on a hike with you and see how he can do. We'll all have to see if we can row how long it takes us to do 2000 meters. Yeah. Challenges, challenges on. Right. So, but, uh, Nick, what it, where is Mr. Dave?

[00:24:28] Sure. So Dave just passed 800 miles. So he gave us this update. We've gotten into cadence with this where he actually just is going to text us on Mondays now before the podcast and let us know. So thanks Dave. Another week passed and a few milestones on the positive list. I passed the 800 mile mark and just saw my first rattlesnake. Also interesting that he labeled that as a, as kind of a good milestone, I guess. Positive milestone seeing a rattlesnake. I guess he saw it and he didn't step on it. So that's definitely positive. Yep. Um, on the negative list, I had my first tick to pull off.

[00:24:57] You, they're no doubt the worst thing out here. Virginia has been decent overall with very sporadic cell service. So I've been quiet. There were many long climbs this week, but good views and forgiving terrain at times. It's getting hot in the nineties with rain finally coming in likely all next week. Shenandoah's and Harper's Ferry are on the radar, which is crazy to me. It's an amazing adventure and worth the work I've needed to put in so far missing home, family and friends, but the support has been keeping me going. Now I'm off to priest shelter to confess my sins in the log book.

[00:25:26] They leave there for that reason. Unlikely they'll have enough paper for my list, but it will be fun to read others sins while I'm there. Huge love to all the shitheads out there. Thank you for all the positive messages and support and your shitheads are here for you, Dave. So great job. 800 miles. That's a, that's a massive milestone and I'm glad you didn't get bit by a rattlesnake. I love that. We're going to have to make a t-shirt for Dave shits in the woods. Shit. I already thought about this.

[00:25:54] Like if we made shithead t-shirts would be like bleep out that like maybe we're going to be just do like a asterisk where the eye is or something. Yeah. Or, um, I don't want to be over it or something. Yeah. The poop emoji where the eye would be. I like that. I like that idea. There we go. Great idea, Dan. See, Dan's always marketing. Okay. I was already thinking about t-shirts today. I'm like, we should need to get t-shirts for maybe like moisture. We can, we can get beanies or something. I don't know. Yeah. When, when he, uh, for the, the finish or at least when he comes to New Hampshire. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:26:23] So people know that we can proclaim our, uh, shithead status to the world when we're on trail. Right. Escort him through the state of New Hampshire. Shitheads unite. Yeah. I don't know if we'll be able to keep up with him by the time he gets to New Hampshire, he'll be cruising. Yeah. Get those trail legs going. You're cruising. Once you get to the hardest, it feels better. Exactly. Um, all right. So we got some, uh, Nick, we've got some New Hampshire hiking stuff here. So do you want to, want to talk about like, um, some trail reminders? Sure.

[00:26:51] So, uh, these are kind of PSAs that we do tend to see, uh, this time of year from fish and game with Memorial Day weekend coming up. Um, so the first one, more hiking related is sort of just the public service announcement saying that, Hey, get your hike safe card. Um, and remember that sort of variable conditions do continue into Memorial Day weekend in the whites, um, had Memorial Day weekend. B it can easily be in like the eighties and it can be hot and humid where you're sweating. It can be snowing and cold still in ice and still need spikes.

[00:27:19] Um, it seems like it's probably going to be on the chilly, chillier, wetter side. Um, after this sort of heat wave sort of subdues and kind of goes over. So that, that seems to be what's in store for this weekend. Um, go get your hike safe card. If you haven't a lot of people, um, don't think to kind of get it until maybe you're out on trail with someone else, uh, that has one, um, you can renew them. They're just yearly. So I think of it sort of like paying for a fishing license or anything like that. Um, it goes to a good cause and it can save your bacon if you're out there.

[00:27:45] Obviously they outline sort of the 10 essentials that you need, which we've gone over probably multiple times on this podcast as well. Um, so just be safe out there. Um, a lot of times Memorial Day weekend tends to be one of the first weekends that people are really getting out and for sure, a lot of, uh, a lot of hikers and a lot of people getting out this weekend. Um, the second thing sort of hiking related, depending if you see wildlife, but, um, just fishing game, urging residents to leave fawns and other young wildlife alone. A lot of times people, um, I think it's a common sort of occurrence where they'll see like

[00:28:14] a fawn or something in the woods and they assume they need to call like animal control or something. Like usually the fawn is probably fine. Um, their parents are probably out foraging food that goes for any like bear cubs, any sort of little animals you see. Um, just kind of let them be walk away. You don't need to go to fishing game and sort of report that you saw them. Um, so just leave them alone and nature will take its course and they'll do their thing. So kind of common sense there, but they always do throw that out this time of year. So it must be kind of a common thing that happens.

[00:28:42] It's like, they all want to treat these animals like they're little puppies. They're going to take them home and save them. But like the, they need to be out in the, the, the, the, the harsh wilderness, Nick. Yes. Circle of life. Indeed. So if you see, if I have seen birds fall out of a nest in our yard and put them back in before also the thing like I did, you guys grow up, did you hear the thing about like, Oh, if you touch a bird, like the mother bird won't touch the bird anymore. Oh yeah. I definitely heard that. It's not, it's not, I want to do that. I don't know.

[00:29:12] I learned later that it's not true. Generally speaking. So you see a little bird, there's like bushes we have. I can see them from the window out here and there's always like Robin nests in there. Like I've seen one fall out before and put the egg back in and it hatched just fine. So yeah, I've definitely heard different versions of that story with, with multiple animals. Like, Oh, if you get your smell on them, then they'll get rejected by the pack or some shit like that. So I don't know how true it is. I'm sure that it has to be, have some basis in reality. There's gotta be some animal that gets rejected. Yeah. Just bottom line.

[00:29:41] Don't touch the fawn, the bear cub, the fox cub, the, just, just don't touch them. Right. They're probably okay. Right. Uh, all right. A couple of trail reminders here, Nick. So, uh, Lincoln woods trail is due to be closed from June to November. I took a look at the, the project page on the Lincoln woods trail, uh, project that the forest service has, and they don't give a specific date, but I'm thinking it's going to be sooner rather than later in June. Yeah. I would just say plan on it being closed. Um, as of June 1st, try to get it in.

[00:30:10] And if you need to, if you need the bonds or all said, go get them. Uh, otherwise plan on alternative out and backs. All said, it's probably really even rougher. I think than the bonds in terms of what you need to do to get to it. Cause of the basic, basically a 2000 to 3000 foot up and down to get out into the center of the Pemi. So, uh, plan accordingly. And, uh, if you do have to do that, then take advantage of it. Maybe make it like a backpacking trip and, or look at it as an extra challenge. And you get to do owls head in the year. Lincoln woods was closed and you get a bonus 3000 foot up and down and maybe a bonus five to 10 miles.

[00:30:41] Right. Right. I definitely recommend that just to throw that out there. Like if anyone hasn't ever camped out at 13 falls, I did one of those last year, the year before, but I hiked out owls head and I did 13 falls. And then I went up to the ridge and hit Garfield and gale head and back down. And it's just a beautiful spot. So if you haven't been there, I highly recommend if you need to get owls head and the trails closed, come in from the north crash at 13, hit the peaks around it. Chill out there. It's a great spot. Yeah. I've never been to 13 falls. I know it's on the list to go check out.

[00:31:09] So it's one of the Cascades all over nice places to sit. It's beautiful. Right. One of my favorite spots. Yeah. It's going to be interesting. So for Pemi loopers, I feel like I've kind of settled on Liberty Springs is the way to go. I think. Right. If you're going to enter probably the most direct or, or, or Gale river trail and enter like on Gale head hut and then pop up there, I think in terms of elevation gain, that's probably a little bit less than going all the way up to Liberty to pop onto the, the roof.

[00:31:38] You probably could make more miles. You probably could do some sort of awkward way coming through, like from like the Southeastern side of the Pemi, right? Like come through by Kerrigan and that I need to get a map up right now to look at this, but like you could come in like through like the Hancocks or that way. Well, the, I think if you come through Kerrigan notch and you can take a wilderness trail or something. Yeah, exactly. But that's a lot more mileage. Then you're still off to ford the river at some point. That's it. Like, I think that's like a, like a late July, August type of, um, approach on that. What is that? The East side trail there.

[00:32:08] So, but I'm thinking like Liberty Springs makes the most sense to me because if you do Liberty Springs and then you go in, what is it? Clockwise. Right. Then, you know, you're not like, I don't want to avoid that flat Lincoln woods section. That's six miles or so until towards the end. So at least you can recover a little bit on that flat section and then you get a going up also Osseo kind of stinks, but right at the end too, that'd be brutal. Like, and then you got to kind of can't avoid it. Yeah.

[00:32:38] I mean, I, I think in terms of elevation gain, probably coming up where Gale head hut is your least, uh, your path of least resistance there. I, again, it's not, it's still going to be a lot more like it's like a, it's going to be like a bonus two, 3000 feet on there. Yeah. That might do it counterclockwise. If I were to do Gale, uh, the Gale river trail, because Garfield Ridge is a gnarly trail and for that to be towards the end of your full loop would be a pretty rough spot. Yep. That's true. And that Garfield Ridge section is like climbing up a waterfall.

[00:33:07] So take a pick coming down South twin would probably be preferable. Yes. True. If that could be your like right there, you get down South twin and then you're pretty much like a half mile from your fork out. So that's not a bad spot to be in the huts right there. So you can fuel up and rest up for the last push. Right. I like your strategy. All right. Well, I think that there's no, no right answer on that one, but it'll be interesting to see what people do for Pemi loops. Um, the right answer is to do backpacking or camping out. Like you said, Dan, it's, that's the way to go.

[00:33:34] Um, the other trail news and I don't have a date on this one, but I was on this, this, this, this weekend. So I kind of thought about it and I was, I did talk to one of the, uh, trailhead stewards that was there warning people. She actually, she's a listener. She, um, very nice said she, she's almost caught up to listening, but she had said that I had asked her like, when are they going to reroute the, the falling waters trail section?

[00:34:00] She said she didn't know, but she thought that probably within, uh, within the summertime here. So I just want to remind people that, uh, I think based on the project, um, site, I pulled the map here. So the re-road is essentially going to be like, it's going to be away from, um, dry brook and it's going to go a little bit closer to Walker brook and then eventually cut into

[00:34:27] cloudland falls bent, but then it's going to stay more to the, I guess that would be the north of where falling waters is now. So it's going to be, I guess, closer to old bridal and you'll, you'll cut off and just be on the other side of Walker brook and, and climb up. So you really won't, you won't have any river crossings until at the very, very top of the trail, but the old trail is all going to go away. So you, you'll, um, you probably have your last chance to do that, that old trail.

[00:34:55] Uh, coming up over the next couple of months and eventually there will be a cut over and they'll, they'll move the trail. So just get ready for that. Is it a spur path to cloudland falls or does it kind of go out to and then swing back? Cause it used, it goes right along the edge of it right now. Right? Yeah. I can't really tell. I think it's a spur trail. I couldn't see where it might be connecting, but essentially if you're looking at cloudland falls, it would be to the left somewhere. Okay. Yeah. Interesting. It is kind of a bummer that there's the other two, uh, waterfalls there.

[00:35:25] I mean, I guess you can still put nothing stopping you from bushwhacking and going to them, but you got like step stone falls and the other one over there. Yeah. I'll be curious to see, uh, what they do for, um, what, what they do for the, um, blocking the old trail and how that's going to work. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll see. Cause there's a, there is a bridge there and then there is a, uh, although maybe the bridge is in the first one, then maybe actually, no, there's not a bridge on that, that water crossing,

[00:35:54] but that water crossing this weekend, the first one was moving pretty quickly. There was like six people all waiting to go across and I just clomped through them. I got my, they won't get their sneakers. They're taking their shoes off. They're going barefoot on wet rocks. I was like, this is a disaster. Oh, like the very, very first one you hit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That one can, uh, I remember hitting that in the winter before with ice on it. And that was, that was kind of a thing. Yeah. Yeah. They all had their shoes off and they were, they were standing on wet rock above the water. And I was like, this is crazy. I'm like, that's the slipperiest thing you can, you can do. Yeah.

[00:36:24] That's not like a flat river bed over there to walk across. No. So, yeah. Interesting. Anyway. So there's that. And then I also had an update on the snow monorail. Um, I don't know Dan, if you've been out recently, but there's really not much left. There's a little bit of monorail northerly facing and then, um, otherwise it's, it's mostly gone. Unless you're on Gio. Yeah. So I've been keeping my eye on that. Cause I didn't want to get out like with the air. So most of it was gone. So, uh, that's why I did hail this past weekend.

[00:36:54] Cause I got a report that all the snow was gone. I was like, sweet. There's one I can do real quick, but I've been keeping an eye on the reports. I think there's like a little bit on Musa lock still on like Gorge Brook has like a handful, but everyone says it's like avoidable and pretty, you can just step around it kind of at this point. It's so narrow. Yeah. I'm not, I have actually not done really any winter hikes. I just did like a bit of a shakedown this spring, like towards like late winter, just

[00:37:21] doing like flat trails through like, I did like the whole bike path and the Pemi trail through Franconia notch just to kind of break in some winter gear. I got some snowshoes and boots on, on the end of season sale to kind of start dipping my toes into that. What's the, what's the hesitation? Uh, it's like temperature regulation for me. I, I run real hot. I sweat a lot. Um, so like there's like a finding of balance of like, all right, I need to layer up. So I'm safe and protected from the elements, but then I will get so sweaty and wet under all those layers so quickly.

[00:37:50] It's like, how, where do I find that balance? And, uh, I've just never been willing to be like, eh, I'm just going to be uncomfortable. If I go out in the winter, I feel like it's just not going to be a good time, but I'm willing to like, try to start dipping my toes and do some low elevation and figure it out and see if I can find a happy spot. Cause I see all the photos and videos posted of people out there in the winter. It looks so beautiful and I'd love to get out there and give it a go. So I haven't really done it yet, but I'm looking to hopefully this coming year now that I have the gear to do it, uh, safely at least. Nick, you ever want to get out?

[00:38:20] We would take them. We take them up Pierce, right? Yeah, absolutely. And there's, that's a nice start low. Yeah. I hear you though. I mean, it is like, that is kind of such a thing. And I mean, I've seen like people that hike in t-shirts when it's like 10 out, which is kind of, it's, it's crazy how much I've also seen people hiking up hill and puffies before. Like it's kind of wild how people's cores and I mean your pace and all that kind of factors into it. But I mean, I, I've definitely been hiking with people for uphill who had like that particular

[00:38:46] when I had been on Franconia Ridge in the winter, I was with someone that was hiking up at a puffy and I was in like a smart wool base layer and like pants and I was comfy. I feel like I'd be like the one I'd be like, just get my ears covered and get my fingers covered. And then I could be shirtless otherwise and probably be fine. Our buddy Andy's in like shorts and gators, like practically unless it's really cold. So like it's whatever works for you. Yeah. I just got to figure out what works, but I'm willing to find out now. I haven't done it yet, but it's a, it's on the list for next winter. For sure. We'll get you. We'll get you out. You do. You'll be fine. We'll take it a pier.

[00:39:16] So you fall in love and then you'll be a real winter hiker. This will be good. So, um, all right. So this is good. And then Nick, we had a couple of reminders on water crossings. Water crossings were running hot this week. And, uh, I got, sorry, a couple of videos of people going across Owl's head. I was a little freaked out. I thought that it was running a little too fast for what they were doing, but they made it through. But just a reminder, we will put links in the show notes for the, um, the government water crossing data, um, that is from the, uh, the USGS and you can use these.

[00:39:45] I basically will look at the East Pemi, um, gauge. So there's what they, they have these gauges in the rivers and I'll do the Peabody river and the, uh, the East East branch or the Pemi, which will tell you pretty clearly how the, um, how the water's flowing. And I don't really use the gauge height as much as I switch it over to, there's a little toggle that you can switch over to that will give you the, um, the cubic feet discharge.

[00:40:14] So you can graph that and then that will give you a better sense. So we've talked about this before. Um, the, the Pemi, it's typically around 600, uh, feet per, um, cubic feet per second, I think is, is sort of the danger zone. And then on the, the Peabody river, I was just looking, this is the one that has the great Gulf crossing, Nick. Okay. That was going to be my question is where that actually is. So that's down and basically shooting straight out of the great Gulf towards like 16. Right. Right.

[00:40:43] Um, exactly. It's that, that, that bridge right there. So if you look at that and you go back to, I'm trying to find, where is the 30 day right now it's running at, um, why can't I find the, Oh, here we go. Here's the one year I found it. So in August when the, that crossing, so that bridge is out right now, as far as I know, I don't think they've replaced it.

[00:41:08] So in July and August, the, um, the water was flowing at like 45, 40 to 45 cubic feet per second. And it got down to as low as like 12 right now. It's running at 163. So it's like, it's quite hot. Yeah. It's, it's a lot. Exactly. It's even four or five times more.

[00:41:37] So I think that, and it's been pretty steady. It spikes up and then it, it's sort of the low point right now with the discharge is like, um, 86 cubic feet per, uh, per second. So I don't know how safe the great Gulf is at this point, but you can use this to kind of estimate, know what you're, what you're getting into. Uh, the East branch of the PEMI 600 is the reading and we're pretty confident on that one because it's just, it's more well known, but, um, just use those in, uh, keep it safe.

[00:42:05] I know we talked about this for a couple of weeks, but now's the time of the year to just worry about the river crossings. For sure. Um, what else, Nick? We got tick reminders. We talked about Dave getting ticks. What do we need to know about that? Um, just be safe out there. The ticks will be waking up, especially when you're in sort of lower elevation areas with grasses and brush and things like that. Um, I usually use bug spray and stuff with deetinant. Um, a lot of people I know treat their clothing with permethrin. Um, that seems to work really well.

[00:42:35] I actually might try that this season. Um, I think one of the biggest things like I learned from my dad, even when we go fishing in East Providence through grass and stuff is like, first thing you do, if you get back from hiking, like it, this may not be practical backpacking, but if you're just going home or whatever is take your clothes off and take a shower kind of when you get in the house and just give yourself a quick check down in the mirror and make sure you don't have any new freckles or anything like that. Um, I think usually up in New Hampshire, you're sort of seeing those wood ticks and things. They're a little bit bigger, not as much the deer ticks that can be like a pinhead

[00:43:04] size. Um, but just kind of do a sort of courtesy look over and make sure you don't have any little friends that you're taking home with you. Right. I heard a good conspiracy theory about ticks, Dan. Do you like conspiracy theories? No, they're intriguing. They can be intriguing. Right. Right. So I read online, I don't know where I read this, but I read somewhere that, you know, how there's that tick that, that bites you and, um, you don't like red meat for, you can't eat red meat for however long and for a couple of years or something like that. Yeah.

[00:43:33] I've heard of that, like urban legend kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's real. It's true though. It is. There is this like, it's a, it's pretty rare at this point, but there's this conspiracy theory that like activists are going to try to like breed these ticks and drop them off everywhere with the idea that they're going to like, if you get bit by this tick, then you can't eat red meat and it's going to save all the cows. That's dark. That's the plan. So we got to be careful. We have no ticks on us. Cause I like my steak.

[00:44:02] I like steaks. Post-type burger. Can't beat that. Exactly. Can't take that away from me. I feel like even if I caught that disease, I would just fight it. I would just, I would just eat burgers anyway, just because they taste so good. Be worth the pain. What was it? Like stop your ability to process red meat or something? I think so. I don't know. I feel like we knew somebody that had it. Huh? You throw up, maybe you throw up if you eat it. Sounds unpleasant. I don't know.

[00:44:30] Have you ever had a food that you liked and now you can't eat it? Uh, so personally stuff with like a lot of, raw garlic or tons of garlic. I cannot eat anymore as I'd say it hit me like four or five years ago. It wrecks my stomach. Like I can eat the spices and stuff, or even if it's cooked or sauteed, but like, um, where you might see it in like hummus, things like that. Like it really can rip my stomach apart. Yeah. Uh, just no bueno. What about you guys?

[00:44:58] I don't think I've ever developed any aversions like that. I've had like dietary shifts. Like I don't, I used to drink so much soda. And then when I cut that out and kind of stopped putting sugar in my coffee and stuff like that, now I just kind of find it gross and overly sweet. But I look back at how I used to put like two giant heaping teaspoons of sugar in my coffee to make it even drinkable to me. And now it's like, I'll just take a black, like complete shift from where I used to be. Yeah. I feel like I never used to be able to drink like flavored seltzer. Like I would have thought that was disgusting when I was probably like in my early twenties.

[00:45:27] And that's something that I've gotten more into and less drinking soda and like more like lemon seltzer and whereas before I would have drank that and been like, Oh, this is disgusting. But I think that's kind of with like you, or you're saying your, your tolerance and how used you are to like the sweet flavors and stuff. Like it becomes stronger if you don't do it as much, but yeah. Yeah. I haven't really, I can't think of any foods that I, I, I no longer can eat. So I'm just a pig. Yeah. Like you heat it. You do anything. So, uh, all right. What else do we have here next?

[00:45:57] So you did your PSA, uh, leave the, leave the animals alone here. Um, all right, we've got, let's do this one. I have a heartwarming father's day hiking story here. So, um, son of a billionaire was arrested after a father's death while hiking. So this guy owned a clothing store. He owns a clothing store called mango, which I guess it's in Europe.

[00:46:22] So this is a, uh, Isaac and Dick, the billionaire founder of Spanish fast fashion retailer. Mango was arrested. Oh, or so Jonathan and Dick, the son of Isaac and Dick. So Jonathan is a son. Isaac's the dad. Billy, the big guy's a billionaire found here. The son was arrested and detained by Spanish police before a court of parents related to his father's death in 2014, where he fell while he was on a hike, according to multiple reports.

[00:46:53] The son was arrested to be taken before a judge at a court outside Barcelona for questioning. The father died in December, 2024, after falling about 300 feet while hiking on Montserrat, a mountain in Catalonia. His death was initially investigated as an accident. Later in 2025, police began examining the billionaire's death as a possible homicide.

[00:47:18] The eldest son at the time was his heir apparent, but the only person who was present with his father on the hiking trip. According to this report, the Antic family, this is the family told multiple outlets that the son was cooperating with investigators in the company is called mango did not return a request for comment. So I guess apparently this guy's worth the guy that died is worth $4 billion. And the son was the presumptive heir to the father.

[00:47:49] I guess this is like the fashion retailer. It was founded in 1984. And the son is still the co-owner of the holding company. That's the majority shareholder. Apparently the son had been named the CEO for like four years, but then the father replaced him with another CEO. So with the son, the father fired the son. And then there was a lot of turbulence because I guess the son remains the vice chairman of the board of directors.

[00:48:14] But now that he's been arrested, I guess the, the, there's some open question on what his involvement with the company. But this store is called mango. They reported record earnings in 2025 growing 13% year over year and reached 3.8 billion in revenue. You ever heard of this mango clothing store, Nick? I can't say I have. No, I was just looking them up. You're going to go on a limb and say that between you and Dan and me, like none of us are like really fashion mavericks. I don't know.

[00:48:44] I did work for Ralph Lauren and Brooks Brothers coming out of college a little bit. So I'm a little bit, but still mango does not ring a bell to me remotely. Yeah. I guess they have a store in the mall of America. They have 65 locations in the U S as of March, 2026. But I went online and looked and it looks like, um, looks like a lot of, um, hipster gear is what I would call it. Skinny jeans, neck and blazers. $70 swimsuits. Yes. Well, I don't know.

[00:49:14] Anyway, so I don't know. I feel like the son's probably guilty. Seems shady to me. What are these billionaires doing out hiking? And then one of them ends up dead and his son inherits all the money. It does seem shady. I also want to call out Mike that you lied in. This story is not heartwarming. It isn't. It isn't. I was being, uh, I was it ironic. Yes. I think so. Yeah. So yeah, be careful. I guess you got to be careful if, uh, you're a billionaire. Don't trust anybody. True. Especially if you replaced your son as CEO.

[00:49:42] Dan, do you have any favorite clothing, um, brands that you, you go to? Uh, I am just like a, whatever is on sale at the TJX corporation, basically at this point, go to like Sierra and Marshalls and TJ Maxx and just attack the cleared shelves and just anything synthetic. Basically at this point, whatever is built for comfort. Nice. Nice.

[00:50:03] Like I said, not a fashion Maverick, Nick, Nick, if you have to get, if you, Hey, look, I'm, I'm like basically Eddie Bauer and Virgin at this point. Nick, if you have to get dressed up, we do you, what should go to move? Uh, right now dressed up for me is like, so it's funny. I had a couple of questions in here, which were, I'm like, yeah, we're kind of cut from the same cloth with that. I, at Kohl's is generally where I would go to buy a dress shirt. Straight to Kohl's.

[00:50:30] Straight to Kohl's. I'm like the same pair of Docker dress shoes that I had like pre COVID cause they just haven't been worn a lot. Right. Um, but yeah, I'm not super fancy. Dan, how many suits do you own? Uh, I got a good amount. I got, I think four or five. That's pretty good.

[00:51:00] Yeah. Not too bad. Like I said, I've worked in the fashion industry before it was a while ago, but I still have so many leftovers from my Ralph Lauren days that like, I never have to buy fancy clothes again. I can just ride those into the sunset at this point. Right. Right. Right. That's because you think about guys, we were wearing like suits to work every day too. Uh, at Brooks brothers I was. Yeah. Okay. A couple of times a week at least you didn't have to, but you know, you did cause it was like, that's the brand and all that kind of stuff. But cool. You know, Ralph Lauren, it was like, Oh, the button down shirts, polo shirts, all those kinds of things. I stocked up on those, but never have to buy fancy clothes ever again. Pretty much.

[00:51:31] I feel like Dan's the most fashionable out of the three of us, Nick. Probably. He's got me being on suits. Yeah. Yeah. I think I have like one suit and like a sports jacket. I get my funeral, funeral wedding suit. I have accumulated mine more over recent years. I only had like, I think two or maybe leftover from those days, but then I had, I got a new one for my wedding and then I got a new one for my mom got remarried. I got one for that. And now I have my sister-in-law's getting married and I'm going to get a new one for that. So I've stockpiled just like, Oh, they needed this color. And I'm like, all right, I'll get one of those.

[00:52:01] I'll find a cheap one. Right. Right. Get another color. Yeah. Well, anyway, that that's interesting. So we'll, we'll monitor this, uh, this court case. This sounds like an HBO series in the making with this staircase. Uh, all right. What else do we have here? Oh, a couple of other things here. So the parking pass, uh, you had said to get the hike safe card. Also get, get a parking pass. So 30 bucks, you can go to mountain wander and get one too. I think they have them there. So, um, worth getting it.

[00:52:27] So you have to deal with the $5 thing at the, um, at the parking lot. Yep. All right. You guys want to play New Hampshire trivia? Yeah. Okay. Bring it on. All right. All right. So here we go. Dan, how long have you lived in New Hampshire for? Uh, I moved to New Hampshire in 2010. So 16 years now this year. All right. That's a pretty good resume. Not too bad. So, uh, all right. Um, here we go. Let me see here.

[00:52:55] Which famous astronaut in first American in space was born in Derry, New Hampshire? Uh, Alan Shepard. There you go. There you go. Very good. All right. Which, uh, we're going to keep it with the famous people. Which famous poet owned a farm in Franconia, New Hampshire and wrote stopping by the woods on a snowy evening? Robert Frost. There you go, Nick. I was gonna say, I know he has a homestead in Derry, which is near where I am, but I wasn't sure about Franconia, but Nick beat me to it. All right.

[00:53:24] Here's a pop culture famous person one. And, uh, don't look at the bottom of the script, Nick. I'll, I will tell, I'll be able to tell where the cursor is. Uh, which breaking bad actor grew up in New Hampshire and attended college there? What? Breaking bad actor. No kidding. Yeah. New Hampshire and attended college there. I'm bad with actors names. So I mean, either. I don't watch a super ton of TV, so I don't even know if any of the actors at all. Walter White, Bryan Cranston. Really? I had no idea. I had no idea.

[00:53:54] His accent jives kind of like a New England sort of way of speaking. Yeah. He gives off a new vibe. All right. Um, what New Hampshire attraction claims to be America's oldest tourist attraction? Huh? At the, the Mount Washington maybe? Nope. See the auto, auto road? Wow.

[00:54:17] Uh, kind of close, but, uh, New Hampshire attraction claims to be America's oldest tourist attraction. The polar caves. Really? I'm trying to think of a geographic feature, like Flume Gorge or something like that. Yeah. Right. So here's another question. New Hampshire is the only you, I actually didn't realize this. New Hampshire is the only U.S. state that does not require what type of adult clothing accessory while driving.

[00:54:45] Though common sense would, would tell people that they should include this. Adult clothing? Shirt? A motorcycle helmet. Oh. I thought that there were other states that didn't require a motorcycle helmet, but New Hampshire's the only one apparently. Really? I would have guessed like Florida or like somewhere else didn't require them. I'll have to double check that one. I got this online. So, um, all right, here's one. I feel, I have a feeling Dan's going to get this and this has come up before.

[00:55:13] What New Hampshire town is home to the world's longest candy counter? Longest candy counter. Is that, um, that Laconia? I think I know it, but. You got it, Nick? Littleton? Yes. Littleton shutters. Oh. That's come up on the show before. So, uh, another, there's a space one here. What New Hampshire teacher was selected for NASA's teacher in space program and then, and tragically died aboard the, uh, Challenger in 1986?

[00:55:44] Uh, Kristen McAuliffe. There you go. Yeah. Everybody, uh, were you, how, were you a kid when that, uh, did you watch that when you were a kid? You're a little younger than I am, right? Uh-huh. Yeah, no, not quite. I was still not quite born yet. I'm a 91. Yeah. I was like a year younger than me then. Yeah. 35. Making me feel old here. I was in, I was in seventh or eighth grade when that happened. So. Wait, here's another one. Which Saturday Night Live comedian and actor was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire? Adam Sandler?

[00:56:14] Nope. No. No? Sarah Silverman? Sarah Silverman, correct. I don't know where, I feel like, um, Sandler was in Nashua maybe? Um, he's Manchester. Manchester, okay. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's where I live, so I hear about it all the time. Anytime he shows up in town, it's all over the news. Does he show up in town a lot? Oh yeah. A couple times a year, yeah. He'll just go to the Red Arrow Diner and stuff, like the local spots. He'll just like, he'll show up like you would expect and just like, his like raggy clothes look like any old regular. Yeah.

[00:56:41] Average Joe from Manchester, and he just pops in, shows up at the Puritan or wherever, and people are like, oh, hey, that's Adam Sandler. Oh yeah. Yeah, he shows up on the seacoast too. He'll, uh, I know he was at Woodman's in Essex one time, and then I think he was in Rye one time. I think one of my friends met him at Rye and sent the picture, so he's around. Mm-hmm. All right, last one here. Which beloved, this is going to be a tough one for you two, but which beloved 1981 film starring Catherine Hepburn and Henry Fonda was filmed at Squam Lake?

[00:57:12] Oh, this is, uh, Golden something, isn't it? On Golden Pond? That's it, that's it. So yeah, yeah. I remember that just because there's a store there that's like called like the Golden Pond Country Store, and it's like, plays on the nostalgia of that, I think. Yeah, that's right. My mom, M.A. Claire, one of her favorites growing up, I'd walk in the room and be like, are you watching on Golden Pond? I'd be like, I don't know, it was just on the TV again. Um, here, I'll do the last one bonus round. This is a brewery related one, so Dan better get this.

[00:57:38] Which brewery is one of the oldest craft breweries in New Hampshire and helped launch the modern beer scene? Uh, there's a few of those. What's like the oldest one? In New Hampshire? Smutty Nose is pretty old. Yeah, yeah. One of the OG ones. Woodstock? It's his Portsmouth Brewery. Mm, they closed like last year or the year before. Yeah, yeah. It's pretty bad. It's definitely one of the originals. Yeah, I guess I got my old, uh, I got this online, so I guess some of them are dated, but you guys did pretty well though.

[00:58:11] Are you ready for Slasher's Gear Review? All right. Uh, next up here, Nick is gear, gear stuff. Yeah, so, uh, I think, uh, I don't know if Stomp probably threw in a few of these. I was gonna mention from my side, I actually, they, Virgin had a sale going on and I actually picked up one of their Alpha 60 hoodies.

[00:58:40] So, do I need another hoodie from them? Probably not really. Yes. I guess the answer is always yes. I have just the Highlander hoodie and this one seemed like it'll be kind of a, maybe a better springtime feel. Um, the thing is incredibly light. Like it came in the mail and I was like, is this actually like, it feels like if you put it on, it's almost kind of like, I don't know, like it feels almost delicate. It is not, I've worn it several times since. Um, but that was one of my new spring pickups for gear. So, I just can't help myself with Virgin sometimes.

[00:59:08] And I had, I'd been looking at it a few times and they had the, the newer ones in. So, get a nice, uh, Alpha 60 in black. In black. Yeah. Yeah. So, you tend to go with like black or dark. You don't, you're not a color guy is my observation. Yeah, it depends. It's funny with t-shirts and stuff. I feel like I have red shirts or like blue shirts or shirts like that. But I feel like when it comes to hoodies and sweatshirts, I kind of just tend to be boring and get black. I almost got one of the cranberry ones.

[00:59:35] Kind of thought about that for a second, but I feel like you have a lot of, you have a lot of blue stuff, Mike. I feel like blue is like one of your colors. I do. I do. It's my, somebody told me that blue was my color. I think. Yeah. I can see that. Do you have any color preferences, Dan? Uh, I feel like I run the gamut. I got like a full rainbow of everything. I have like, I think I lean towards the earthy colors, like the darker blues and dark greens. Like I'm like, I'm wearing now. I got like the dark green going browns and pastel stuff, but I have a little bit of everything. Cool.

[01:00:04] And then, um, it looks like stomp included here. So the company hyper shell getting paywalled almost, um, announced that there's going to be a partnership with the Seattle mountain rescue team. And they're actually going to deploy, uh, their exoskeletons and, uh, the team there will be the second in the United States to use the tech. So this is kind of the, the exoskeleton deal and kind of seeing how they apply to search and rescue. It's kind of cool to see this stuff. I mean, I feel like even since I've been listening to podcasts, you guys have had these sort of recurring over the years and it seems like they're finally getting to the point

[01:00:33] where they're actually getting deployed on the ground and seeing how useful they'll be. So it's pretty neat. I'm pumped. This, this technology is going to peak just as I become an old guy that is, I'm not going to be able to make it up. I can now throw in an exoskeleton. I'm going to be plugging in a USB charger brick into your exoskeleton in like 20 years so you can make it up. Imagine you shut my battery off until I'm like enough of you. Hi Mike. I'd be like, Oh man, that's going to be the new form of rescue is like search and rescue

[01:01:02] was called out because somebody's exoskeleton battery died. And, um, stomp also threw in this product called the photon matrix. So it's advertised as the world's first portable laser mosquito air defense, which is pretty, this thing's pretty wild looking. Um, it detects mosquitoes with LIDAR and eliminates them with a laser for cleaner, smarter, and more advanced mosquito control experience. This marketing is fantastic.

[01:01:27] Um, it's only $648 right now, just 30% off MSRP. Um, offer ends June 20th. So if you want what effectively appears to be a mosquito anti-aircraft laser, um, this could be for you. I mean, I look, I'm curious how well it works. Also, it's funny. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Hold on. You cannot, you cannot buy this. This is an Indiegogo.

[01:01:54] This is a, first of all, they're like, it's 19 million something Hong Kong dollars. So, I mean, I love the idea, but I don't know if I'm going to. You know how real that is. It's going to like put someone's eye out too. Like you're walking by and it's just like popping off mosquitoes and all of a sudden just hit someone in the eye, walk in the other direction. Oh God. Oh my God. Imagine redeploying this. So you're annoying kids. Like just, you know, laser the kids. So it's dangerous. It looks cool. Yeah. I'm going to stick with my tennis racket that we, I have a tennis racket that like is electric. Oh yeah.

[01:02:23] I love those best. It's a fail safe. The best. Every time I'm out hiking, I'm like, I should bring that with me. Cause like, if I could just wave this in front and just keep getting the cloud out of here, just, you just hear him. So satisfying. Maybe look, you got enough gimmicks. Maybe I'll bring the, you just hear the dude walking through the woods. He's zapping everything. Then they, how about this? An exoskeleton that has all the, the, has the fly swatter tennis racket stuff around it. Oh my gosh.

[01:02:53] It's just like on like a pivoting arm and it just keeps swinging in a circle. Yes. And then on a loop, just hitting everything in sight. I like it. I like it. So, all right, well, we got plenty of gear here. Now's the time for Nixon music minute. My expectations are whatever the, whatever the lowest expectation you can have. This is even lower, but we'll let Nick proceed. It's hard coming off Led Zeppelin four. Right? Yes. Um, so I'm back, I'm back to an indie, uh, indie album this week that I've been listening to. So this week we've got a place you grew up in by the band. LaVita came out in 2023.

[01:03:23] So LaVita is a dream pop shoegaze band originally formed in Albany, New York by Ali Jinovich and Jake Brooks around 2018. Their sound blends shoegaze, dream pop and indie rock with big atmospheric guitars and melodic songwriting. This is their second full length album, a place you grew up in. Um, they had one album before this. Um, this was released on April 14th, 2023. The album as it's a title maybe implies centers around themes of nostalgia, memory, growing older and revisiting places that shaped you as a human being.

[01:03:53] Sonically, the album has been compared to artists like beach house always in the atmospheric side of the smashing pumpkins. This album did generate a good amount of buzz in the indie rock community and shoegaze circles. Um, through a couple of different singles. Um, one is just basically a swear word. I'm not going to say cause I'd have to bleep it out or maybe I'll just say f*** and I'll bleep it out later. Um, but that's the name of the song. Um, then we got surprise, Troy creeps and clean. Um, critics praise the album for the huge reverb, heavy guitar textures, dreamy, polished

[01:04:22] production, um, production, very clean on this. A lot of stuff I listened to, I definitely appreciate the good production value. Um, strong, emotional songwriting, which Mike isn't always a fan on, um, and a modern take on classic shoegaze influences. Um, the bands often associated with the, the sort of modern shoegaze revival, which do you guys know what shoegaze is and where it actually gets the name from? So it comes out of these sort of like seventies, eighties bands, like my bloody Valentine stuff

[01:04:49] where the typically the, the people that were in the bands, weren't the showman type. And they would actually literally be gazing at their shoes while you're watching them play. So that's where the term shoegaze comes from. They just be kind of looking at the ground while they're playing their guitars and stuff. Kind of like the, uh, the goth kids in South park doing their thing. Like exactly. Yes, exactly. You got it down. As soon as you described, I was like, I've seen this before. Yeah. Usually it kind of ends up being more progressive sort of rock.

[01:05:14] I there's too many terms thrown around sometimes, but it's, it's one that I find myself and occasionally. Um, so good recommendations. Um, if you like these bands, um, say beach house, smashing pumpkins, cranberries, always slow dive, M83 paramore wolf, Alice, Japanese breakfast. I would check these guys out. Cause you'll probably dig them. My favorite tracks off here. Um, singles aside are surprise. Um, pretty straightforward, traditional indie pop song, rock song here.

[01:05:43] Um, jumper cables is good. Troy creeps cut sleeves. Um, a place you grew up in the title track is absolutely the standout track on this album. Um, been on repeat a lot is learning how to play it except I can't sing that high. So maybe I'll try to cover it and do something at family parties. Um, but a great song. Um, and if you do like this album, definitely check out their 2020 album, their first full length debut. What happens after? Um, that's a really solid album. I, I, I've been listening to it more.

[01:06:11] Um, lately then their newest one, their newest album, love Darla. Um, I think just misses the mark. It seems like the production value is just not there. And I, I appreciate them trying to change direction a little bit, but it's just not as good an album. So that's it. Thank you, Nick. I, I listened a little bit before the show when I give this band zero stars, but then again, I also liked we built the city on rock and roll. So who am I to say fair enough? So until next week, until next week, it's very angsty.

[01:06:42] You need to listen to some upbeat music and stay happy. Nick. So look up from your shoes, please. Hey, what's that sound?

[01:07:09] It must be time for the pop culture segment with Mike and stop. Uh, all right. Uh, what are we talking about? We have pop culture. Are you guys watching any good TV? Not me? Not really. I'm not, like I said, I'm not huge TV guy. I usually just end up, my wife watches her shows and I'll just be sitting there going like, Oh, I'm glad you're having a good time. But yeah, no, we just like, we'll watch, we'll record our Jeopardy episodes and we'll

[01:07:35] watch those once they stack up a few, but yeah, otherwise not too, too much. So Nick, anything good for you? So we're still watching you. I feel like this is like months ago. I was saying this, but we're still going. I think we're on like season eight or nine. Now of ER, um, George Clooney is gone. Uh, the main character played that plays Mark green is still on there. Uh, I didn't want to shut a shout out. So we ended up watching all sorts of kids movies cause we have kids in Rylan's like approaching four years old. So Disney plus is our friend, but she watched a good dinosaur.

[01:08:04] I don't know if you have either of you guys heard of this movie. It's a kind of a weird Disney movie. It's a little strange. It's like got this dinosaur and he'd be like, be friends. This like caveman boy who acts like a dog. It's, it was just very interesting. That's probably the reason why nobody's ever heard of this movie, but it was a Disney movie and Rylan has watched it like three times now. So, um, it's great. It's grown on me a little bit, but we were first watching him like, this is very strange. And there's also like scenes with like pterodactyls, like eating other animals and stuff. And I don't know. It's just odd for a kid's movie. Here's a, here's a little dose of the real world.

[01:08:34] Right? Yeah. I have to ask my nieces. I have a eight and 10 year old nieces who I bet you they might know if I asked them like, have you heard about the good dinosaur? They'd be like, Oh yeah. Yeah. It was a little different than like cars or something of that nature. The little mermaid. Sometimes those kids shows can be absolute bangers. Yes. Bluey. I've been, I've been watching a series, Nick. It's pretty good. What are you watching? It's a rom-com. Oh. But it's got like, it's good. It's called, uh, off campus. It's on Amazon prime. I love it.

[01:09:03] It's got like romance, it's got comedy, and then it's got like a guy's aspect to it. Cause it's all like college hockey players, but it's not the it's it. There's another college hockey thing. That's popular, but it's not, this is boys and girls. It's nice. So, uh, but yeah, it's called off campus. It's on Amazon prime and it's a, it's pretty good. Very nice. I love a nice rom-com. There you go. So anyway, but, uh, we got that. All right. So now there's time to, uh, we get some plugs here for slasher.

[01:09:32] So we've got the stickers. If you need stickers, Nick, where do you go? So if you need stickers, you can get them over at the mountain wanderer in Lincoln, or you can get them over at spin is pizza. Wow. My accent is coming through or Mike's accent is coming through my voice. I'm not sure what I was trying to do there. Spin is pizza Paula in Andover, mass. Um, you can, you can get it over there. Um, I forgot to rewrite this in the script. I got to put it as part of the template, but if you would like patches, we've got fresh

[01:10:00] patches, so they will be two 50 each, uh, reach out to us on Instagram, or you can Venmo is at slasher podcast. Just make sure you include your name and address and we will get them to you. Very good. And then if you want a slasher swag, you can, uh, shop at our bonfire shopping, get t-shirts, hoodies, all kinds of fun stuff there. The, uh, the color selections, great in their price to move. And then if you want to donate to us, uh, to pay for our equipment and all the other stuff

[01:10:29] that goes into the production of this very expensive podcast, um, then you can go ahead and go to slasher's buy me a coffee site and donate. Uh, donation helps with web hosting distribution, live events. And, um, Nick, I want to take a European vacation. So these people need to pony up. I'd like to go to Europe at some point too. And Dan's rider was very surprisingly and shockingly expensive to get him to do this. So yeah, exactly. I was going to say, you guys should save up some of those donations and, uh, get one

[01:10:59] of those mosquito lasers and we can give it a trial. That's a good point. We have a review on this thing. You can go in the middle of the PEMI and light that thing up in Bond cliff and see how it does. Yeah. Next week's music minute. Nick's going to review the band mosquito lasers. Uh, all right. So yeah, you can buy a coffee and then, um, shout out to a friend of the show. Shandy. She donated to, uh, to us. So thank you so much, Shandy.

[01:11:35] Hey, hold my bed. It's time to find out what Mike and Stomp are drinking on this week's beer talk. And then, uh, now as a part of the show, we talk about beer. My understanding Dan is that you've got some background in brewing. So I actually stepped up my game and I, I brought a reckless brewing beer called fully charged tonight, which it seems like it tastes like it has a lot of alcohol in it, but it's really good. That's cool. Graphic.

[01:12:05] It's got like a power cord attached to it. Fully charged. Excellent. Yeah. I do work for a brewery. So that's what I do on my full-time work. Um, but I, I'm drinking one of our beers, able Ebeneezer down in Merrimack in Hampshire. Uh, give it, give it, give them a plug. What's the, what's the brewery? Uh, yeah. Abel Ebeneezer brewing, uh, Merrimack, New Hampshire. Um, this is our flagship IPA. It's a smoked IPA called burn the ships. Ooh. But yeah, it's a cherry wood smoked IPA. It's like a little bit red ale, a little bit West coast IPA.

[01:12:33] It's got a little bit of cherry wood smoked malt that gives it a little smoky touch, but we use a caramel malt too. That gives a little sweetness. So it's a kind of hit you from all sides, a little bit of all the flavors. It's, it was my favorite beer before I worked there. And then when they were hiring, I was like, I could sell that beer cause I love it. So they hired me and the rest was history. But awesome. How long you been there for? Uh, it'll be eight years this fall. Eight years. Wow. Nope. You drink, you drink a lot of beer. I'd say yeah, more than my fair share. I get a good allowance working there and I'm, I used to work in distribution.

[01:13:03] So I was in all the stores, uh, delivering all the time. So I was just seeing all the new stuff all the time. Be like, Ooh, there's a new beer. I want to try that. Oh, there's a new one. I want to try that. And I, I always try to do a summit beer whenever I hike. It's always just a tradition of mine. Even when I do the rowing, it's like a post row reward, bring a beer. It's worth the wait. Do you have a system to keep your beer cold while you're hiking up? Uh, I have like a, my, it's funny actually. I still have my old LL bean lunchbox that I had in fifth grade, just like that little like mini briefcase sized one.

[01:13:30] Like with the top, I just tuck it in there with an ice pack, throw it in the bottom of my, uh, uh, day pack. And it usually stays pretty golden. That's a good system. That's a good system. Like wrap it in a t-shirt. If I have to, if I don't want to bring the extra weight, I'll just like wrap it up in one of my layers and stick it at the bottom. As long as it's not against my back where it's going to warm up, just keep it on the outside. That's it. You need look up on my, my buddy, other different light got for me as a Christmas present years ago, but there's a company brumate that makes like little insulated like beer koozies. They work really well.

[01:14:00] I have like a Yeti style mug that they've made, but my wife has one for like slim cans that you just either like insert it and you can, like, it's got a screw top and it kind of like vacuum insulates the whole can. Yeah. They work surprisingly well. To your point about the vacuum insulation, it can be difficult to get an empty out of there sometimes. Cause it just gets like, it's like stuck in there and you get frustrated and crumpled. And I got to like pinch it and try to get an air pocket in there. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. I haven't, I did, I haven't been using my water bladder for the last year or so, but

[01:14:27] I used to, um, I would fill the water bladder up with ice and a little bit of water and then stick the, I sometimes I could fit two beers in there if I did a three liter. That's smart. And then I had my, I would put like a, I would put it inside a plastic bag and then just put it inside the water. And then I drink the water. The ice would still be there. And by the time I got up top, it was, it was like ice cold. It's nice. It's a good idea. I might actually use that. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, but, uh, Nick, what are you drinking? So yeah, I saw an honor, an honor of Dan being here. Cause he is into beer.

[01:14:55] Uh, I figured I'd partake tonight, but I have a Muse IPA by whalers down in there in like Kingston, North Island. So I actually was down visiting a cousin at North Kingston this weekend. So kind of got me thinking of that. Yeah. They're like, look at us. The rise APA. Like they have everywhere. Oh yeah. I've had that a couple of times. Yeah. They're, they're a cool spot down there. It's so I was kind of talk about like, uh, Ash, my wife, like graduated, I think like the year or two before whalers open, but I talk about how like it would have been nice if these breweries were like down by URI back then, as opposed to like going to bond you

[01:15:25] and all these other like kind of bars and we'd go to happy hours. Now there's some, and you got tilted barn over there, not too far away. That's a good one. I really want to go to that one. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of, a lot of good stuff in that area. Yeah. I grew up in Southeastern Connecticut, so that's pretty close to me. So I could give me a good reason to go down there and hit up some of those spots that have popped up since I left the area. Yeah, for sure. Cool. Excellent. Um, all right. So we all understood our assignment tonight and we all had a beer, which is, I think the

[01:15:53] first time in a long time, Nick, that we've all had a beer together. It is. It is. Usually I just talk about what I was drinking. So yeah, exactly. I knew we should have gone left back there. Stomp. Don't worry. I know it's this way. I've got a feeling in my gut. Uh, are you sure you're not about to have a bowel emergency? Uh, totally.

[01:16:21] We got this, but I just blew out my hip, fell down that gully with my 40 year old micro spikes. Suck it up. Stomp. It's 4 PM. We're at 3,500 feet. We got nine miles back to the parking lot. Your leg may be broken. We got no cell connection and we can't feel our fingers, but we're finishing all of my list tonight. By the way, I need some water. I'm empty. I would if I could see what I'm doing, but my headlamp batteries are dead. You gotta be kidding me. What a chump. This is the last time I hike with you.

[01:16:51] Ha. Whatever, mister. Do you know me? I have a podcast. Whatever. Whatever. Let's find out what Mike and Stomp have been hiking. Uh, okay. So now is the part of the show we talk about where we've recently hiked. So Nick, I think that you, unfortunately you, you burned a little bit too close to the sun the last couple of weeks and then you had to do yard work this week, right? Yeah.

[01:17:18] I had to be responsible this week and, um, we had a nice, my dad's side of the family had a nice picnic gathering. I did want to mention that me and Ash are the 2026 Sidla picnic egg tossing champions. So I did get that done. Well done. Not a big deal. Thank you. Thank you. That's a lot of pressure. It is. We were going back pretty far, far back for a bit too. We were almost into like overhand territory. So I, I did get accused of my egg being hard boiled too, which I did not appreciate for

[01:17:47] my aunt, but, uh, we won and we won like a frying pan because she got some gifts for people, which was kind of nice. So we want a frying pan and some like Haribo gum, Haribi Haribo Harubo gummy bears, the gummies. That was nice. I probably wouldn't be able to resist throwing it too hard that it would crack all over Mrs. Mike. It's been 25 years of marriage. I've had, I've reached my limit with her. It was a class. My, uh, my cousin, Matt and his wife, Danielle, it was super funny. Like they were getting further out and Matt threw it to Danielle and she like squeezed it and broke.

[01:18:16] And he's like, you squeeze the egg. You can't squeeze the egg. You don't squeeze it. You cradle the egg. Oh, well, congratulations. That is a, that's an impressive, impressive skill there. You and Ash are very athletic, I think. Thanks. But you guys get out and got some hiking. So let's hear about that. Yeah. Dan, did you get any, you go anywhere recently? Uh, yeah, I just got out for my first, uh, real hike of the year. I guess, uh, I did a shakedown kind of like I said, the winter thing and back in March,

[01:18:43] but, uh, I got out to Mount hail, uh, this past Sunday, uh, when we had that nice, beautiful weather weekend. So it was, it was really nice. I got the notice. I saw the gate was open for Zeeland road. So that was like, good, got that access. And I got a salt trail reports that said all the monorail and ice was gone. So it was a full steam ahead for that. So, uh, went up there, did the ERG. So it was the first one of the year with that, with the rower. Uh, my sister and my niece came along and it was my sister's second 4,000 footer. And my niece is first. Uh, she's 10 years old and she wouldn't do her first along with us. So that was fun to have her along. That's awesome.

[01:19:13] Um, but yeah, it was great. And she had a good, she had a good time. The niece, uh, up until we got to the top and she was having a great time. And then the hike down, she kind of started getting sick of it and going like, oh, this kind of sucks. This kind of hurts. And it's like, yeah, welcome to our world. The hike down is always the worst part, especially on a viewless one. But, um, my sister will like told her like, there's not a lot to see. It's not going to be a big, pretty view. So like, are you okay with this? And she was like, yeah, I just want to like with uncle Danny. I want to do it. I want to do it. So, uh, she came along and she was, she was great. She did great. She was a good sport about it.

[01:19:41] And, uh, I want to, this was a good shakedown cause she might join us for the Alzheimer's hike. Um, in June, that was like the first thing she was like, I want to do that. And she was like, well, we're doing Eisenhower. So, uh, she'll get some, we wanted to give her a little shakedown hike of something a little shorter and lower and shorter just to see if she can handle it. And as long as her attitude's in a good spot, then I think she'll, she'll handle it just fine. That's good. She had a good time. Yeah. And then, um, so we'll talk about this in more detail, but so you carried the, the rower up and then you set it up. So hail is a pretty easy spot.

[01:20:10] I mean, I'm assuming pretty easy to find a flatter. Yeah. That was a good one. It was a good short mile, short hike, just a little over two miles each way. Um, trail was clear and pretty gradual the whole way. It just kind of goes up the whole way and, um, pretty moderate grade, but nothing too rough for footing. And I like to have a big clearing at the top, uh, makes it easy set up. I was just able to put it right on a patch and dirt right next to the big Karen up there and, uh, let her rip. So good one for the first one of the year and kind of get the shakedown, shake the cobwebs

[01:20:36] off, make sure the hips and the shoulders feel good carrying the weight and bigger things ahead. Anybody look at you like you're a maniac? Uh, every, every single person that I pass. It's actually funny though. Now I actually get a, I'm getting people now who are like, Oh, I've seen you before. Like, Oh, I know what that is. I know what this is. And then there's other people that are like, what is that on your back? And so it's cause it's sticking out above my head and it's a big old thing. Like, what is that? And some people recognize it. They're like, is that a rowing machine? And I gotta explain myself.

[01:21:03] So it's, it can be a little exhausting sometimes, but I'm always happy to indulge people's curiosity. Cause I know it's pretty, pretty wacky what I'm doing, but one guy thought it was a guitar. He's like, Oh, you go into the hut. Is that a guitar case? And I was like, Oh, I wish it was something nice. The heaviest guitar ever. Yeah. Wow. Well, that's good. I got out. So then we, your segments coming up in a minute, but I'll just quickly, I did Franconia Ridge.

[01:21:27] So my daughter was supposed to, we were supposed to do Monroe for my daughter's 4,000 footer list, but she was in Boston partying a little bit too heavy. And then she decided to stay late. So she texted us and said she wasn't going. So then me and my friend Jay just pivoted. He had, he's doing the 52 with the views, but he decided he wanted to try some 4,000 footers. So we, he's been losing a lot of weight and he's been hiking progressively harder and harder hikes. So we did that Pogus hike. So, um, we decided to go across Franconia Ridge.

[01:21:54] It's very, you know, it was a, it was a busy Sunday and, um, we, we made it up falling waters, the traditional path there. It was pretty, a lot, a lot of people, you know, passing people and people are passing us. And, uh, but otherwise it was pretty nondescript. It was, it is what it is with falling waters. And then, uh, we were a little worried about the wind. The wind was supposed to be like the higher summits forecast said gust of up to like 60 or 70 miles an hour. We get up to a little haystack and it might've been blowing like five or 10 miles an hour. It was enough.

[01:22:22] You could feel it, but like really over the course of the whole hike, like wind was not a factor at all, really, other than like when we got up to Lafayette. But, um, but we knew that there was going to be a big group there. So shout out to Tonya Sterling. Tonya, uh, finished her grid on Mount Lincoln. So we knew they were heading up a little early cause one of our friends, Paul was in that group and we didn't see them going up, but I did spot them as we got to little haystack. I could see them on the sub peak heading up to Lincoln.

[01:22:49] And then by the time we got across, they were maybe, I don't know. I heard them shouting the celebration for her finish. Like we might've been like 200 feet below them. And then we just came up and then, you know, it was a lot of familiar faces. Andrew Barlow was there, Stacy Dion, uh, Paul, Sarah. So good, good group. Mike Masel was on there as well from red line. So a bunch of good people on there and a shout out to Tonya. I was able to officially give her Nick the notable listener hike of the week. That's awesome.

[01:23:19] Which is good. Well-deserved, especially in person. Yeah. Congrats. That was fun. Congratulations. So shout out to Tonya. And then yeah, Jay did great. I mean, Nick, I know you've, you've hiked with Jay a little bit too. It's kind of fun watching like through his eyes, experiencing a lot of these firsts that, you know, we take for granted, but it's been kind of fun watching him get the, get the mountain bug. And I've sort of like my thing now is not like, I'm not doing redlining. I'm not doing grading.

[01:23:45] I'm really just working with Jay and working with Caroline to finish their lists, whatever they need to do. I'm just doing with them. Yeah. That's fun. And I was creeping your, your Strava like showed up at my newsfeed today and like, you guys were cruising pretty good up and down over through that loop. It looked like for time. So good job, Jay. Yeah. Yeah. And I will say the, the, the Franconia, you're doing up falling waters and then down old bridal. It's kind of nice.

[01:24:11] Cause the last mile and a half of falling waters or old bridal is, is, is a lot nicer than it has been in the past. So it's got a lot of nice steers and whatnot. There's still some sections that aren't great, but when the most part it's a nice finish. Look like you guys had awesome views too, right? There was any cloud. There was not a cloud in the sky. There was the gliders were going up above us and, uh, well there was clouds, but they were high. Okay. Neat. I'm glad you guys had a good day out there. Was that this past Sunday? Was that? That was, that was on Sunday. Yeah.

[01:24:40] It was a beautiful day for sure. Like you could get the peaks through the trees on hail up towards the presidentials, but like everything was clear as can be. You can see the towers on Washington and make out everything. It was like kind of wished I was on a more peak with a more views, but, uh, yeah, it was definitely a good day to be out. People were out there for sure. Right. Right. So, uh, but Nick, I don't, I don't know if you want to, um, maybe wait for the notable hikes until next week and then we can, uh, we can pick a new winner. Yeah. That works for me. Yeah.

[01:25:07] Congrats again, Tanya Sterling for finishing the grid and epic finish day. Do it on the ridge like that. Yeah. And I think the big, the big testimony for, and I see this a lot with the gridders is that the, you know, the, the, the accomplishment of 576 summits is impressive, but for what's even more impressive, I think is the collection of friends that these people pick up from doing this because you just mentally cannot do this by yourself. Like you have to, by definition, meet a

[01:25:35] bunch of different people that you end up hiking with over time because, uh, you need people to come with you during the spring. You need people to come with you during the winter. And it was very clear to me from Tanya's group of friends. And I don't know all of them, but I know enough of them that she, if you ask her, she would probably tell you that like the, the big, the, the, her favorite accomplishment is probably the amount of friends and family that were there to support her

[01:25:56] through this versus just the accomplishment alone. Good stuff. It's time for slashers guest

[01:26:21] of the week. Very cool. Very cool. All right, Dan, now moving on, this is your segment. This is your moment. We're going to find out everything we can about you. So why don't you start off by introducing yourself, talk a little bit about your background, your early life and how you got into, I guess, outdoor sports and activities. Uh, yeah. So, uh, I grew up in Southeastern Connecticut.

[01:26:50] Um, so I was a bit removed from the mountains and I didn't really get introduced them to them for a little while. Um, I was definitely an outdoorsy kind of kid, but we'd like, we are for that as a family, we'd go camping all the time. We had a pop-up camper that we'd go every summer. We'd go for a week to this campground. It was just like half hour from where we lived and it wasn't really anything too crazy. It was like a fancy campground kind of thing where there was like running water and spigots and stuff like that in a general store. But it was something I looked forward to every year and always had a blast and kind of introduced me to the outdoors. We'd always just go off on our bikes and go

[01:27:18] exploring and go fishing or jump in the lake and do all that kind of stuff. Um, but I really got the push, um, and the bug in, uh, later in high school, my junior year, there was an elective gym class called outdoor pursuits that they offered. And it was just kind of just like, it costs a little extra, but you could like go, we did like rock climbing trip. There was fishing trips. We did a camping trip. And, um, so I was like super into that. So me and a couple of friends of mine, uh, jumped in that class and had a blast. But one of the big trips for that was a hike up Mount Monadnock.

[01:27:48] Um, so we took the trips like about a two and a half hour drive to get there from where we were. Um, so it was something I was completely unfamiliar with, but we did that mountain and opened my eyes up kind of to like, Oh, this is not that far away. And this is like really cool. Like what else is there? And as time went on, I discovered the 48 and the white mountains and all that stuff. And, um, eventually it took a little while of like self-development before I was like ready to be like, all right, I'm going to take on this challenge. And then I discovered the 48 and

[01:28:15] did my first two in, um, 2017. Um, shortly after I get a little bit after I got out of college, I was just like, all right, I'm going to start doing this for me. And, um, fell in love with it immediately. It was just like a rainy crappy October day where I was still working my old job and didn't have a really good schedule. So I picked this day out like well in advance and like, all right, I'm going to go hiking this day. And this is what I'm going to do. And the weather was terrible. If it was, if it was today, I'd be like, yeah, I'm turning back. I'm not hiking today. It's kind of one of those went up the flume slide. And it was like in the pouring rain, it was a terrible decision,

[01:28:44] but, uh, definitely kind of like opened my eyes up immediately to like, all right, yeah, this is no joke up here. This is like, this is real stuff. But, uh, it was, I took on the challenge and I did something I was for years thought I wasn't capable of doing. And, uh, kind of like the mountains helped me kind of shape me into who I am now and open my eyes up to a whole new world. And, uh, I was off and running from there like that when I caught the bug, so to speak. Now, have you completed the

[01:29:11] 4,000 footers? Uh, like not with the, uh, with the rolling machine? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So I've done, uh, like I said, I caught the bug. I did that first hike in 2017. And then the next year in 2018, I did Moosalock as my third. And then I got my job at the brewery shortly after that. And that gave me as the Monday to Friday schedule where I, that I never had in my life before, where every weekend was free because I was working most weekends before and it was tough to get out. Um, but then I was like, I'm going to attack this list. So I finished it over the next two years. Uh, normal fashion. I did

[01:29:40] like 23 in 2019 and then closed out the list in 2020. Um, so yeah, I really attacked it hard and, um, yeah, didn't normally. So like today, a lot of people are curious. It's like, is this the first time he's done this with this running machine? Does he know what he's getting into? And like, yes, I've been to every summit. I know what the challenges are going to be. I know Adams and Jefferson are going to be an absolute nightmare to find a place to set up. But, uh, but yeah, I've, I've done the full 48. I'm working on the 52 of the view. I'm keeping track of a hundred highest. I'm trying to redline

[01:30:07] as best I can just give me an excuse to whether I have the rower or not. I try to do something different every time I go hiking, like new trail, new peak, new month for this one. Cause you know, gritting, you know, it's like, I'm not really a winter hiker, but I'm grid adjacent. I got the spreadsheet just to be sure, just to track it. But, uh, yeah, it's a, so yeah, I'm pretty well versed in the mountains as a, as a regular hiker. And then the, their rowing machine thing is just a, a side side quest, so to speak. Were you, were you on a crew in college?

[01:30:36] Uh, yeah, I picked up the sport just before I started high school, um, and did it through two years of college and then quit early to start working, kind of regret doing that. I wish I did it longer. Um, but yeah, I rode through four years of high school. I had just moved to the new town that I picked it up in, um, my second, um, in middle school, like seventh grade. And, uh, I was a soccer player and then I went through kind of like a pretty quick growth spurt and it messed my knees up. And my mom had a coworker whose kids were from that town and were on the rowing team.

[01:31:03] And through them, she was like, if soccer is not good for him anymore, you should try this new sport. It's kind of, I know it's kind of different, but he should try it out. My mom kind of had to beg me to try it because I was a stubborn, you know, high school age kid, like, like, it's dumb boats. I don't want to do that. But, uh, she strong armed me into doing the summer learn to row program. That's kind of like an intro. So like, if you, it's obviously not a lot of people are familiar with the sport. So you can take this like six week program in the winter, try out the sport. And if you like it, you can join the team. And, uh, when you start high school

[01:31:31] the next year and I did that and fell in love with it immediately. So I did it through all high school and college. And then, um, after I got out of college, I found a club here just north of Manchester where you can just masters rowers and you can just take boats out on your own, row with other people or in a single. And I've been doing that for about, uh, close to 10 years now, um, on my own. Wow. So you stuck with it. Um, did you ever do like the head of the Charles? Uh, yeah, I actually just wasn't yet last year for the first time in a while. It's an

[01:31:58] application process. And I finally got back in and just raced in it in 2025. So that was a, that was a lot of fun. Okay. So you're somewhat legit as far as rowing goes then. Yeah. Yeah. I've definitely, um, I put a lot into it. That's definitely one of my favorite, like I said, hiking and rowing are like my two big things. Um, I'm a competitive rower for sure. Um, now that I finally got my own boat last year, the year before last, um, cause I've been using just borrowed club equipment with a, that my club has just to compete and row on my own. But then

[01:32:27] I got my own boat and that was able to get serious about it and really like train regularly, use my own stuff and, uh, try to get back into racing again. Like I had been back in college and high school, I kind of missed the competition and being able to do that kind of thing. So, uh, yeah, I do that do a couple of races a year. Uh, usually in the fall, the longer head racing season is kind of more my jam, but, um, yeah, head of the Charles is like the crown jewel. And that's kind of why I fell off last year. I was trying to get to 10 erg hikes last year and I fell short. I ended up at seven, um, because I got into the head of the Charles and I kind of shifted my priorities to like,

[01:32:57] Oh, I've been trying to get into this for like the last nine years and I'm finally back. So I laid off the hiking and focused on being in the boat a little more last year, but this year I'm kind of like dialed in. I'm like, all right, this is going to be a good hiking year. And if, uh, the wrong will just be as a, as it comes, but right. And logistically, how heavy is the rower when you, so you, you, you, I've seen the pitches of this. So you have this thing packed up. Um, so you have a backpack and then you also have the rower that you carry up. How much does it weigh?

[01:33:25] Uh, so the machine is just under 60 pounds. Uh, the, the website listed as 59, the company that makes it concept to, um, it's kind of like the standard rowing machine in the sport. It's what everyone trains on. It's like the standard distances and the standard, uh, racing pieces are done on it. It's an air resistance machine. So it's pretty simple. It just has like the computer that can, that tracks the info. And, um, yeah, it was just air resistance when you pull on it, but yeah, it weighs just under 60 pounds. I strap it up to like a aluminum pack frame that I got off

[01:33:52] of Amazon. Um, I did, it breaks into two pieces in the middle. It's got like a quick release and they kind of nest together. If you just pop the front leg off, I just have to take four screws off the front leg and they kind of nest. And I use a boat strap to just cinch them up. And then you can just prop it right up on the shelf of the frame pack and just frame, uh, cinch it right up to the back of it. And it kind of sits pretty flat right up against it. And the flywheels on the bottom. So the weight's kind of right down by my hips. And then I just stick my day pack on like the flywheels, kind of a shelf built in that it sits on. So I can just put my backpack right on top of that, use that with like a bungee cord. I

[01:34:20] strapped that to the machine itself and then that's all set up. So it's like all in, it's probably 65, 70 pounds that I'm carrying between the machine and my usual day pack. Jeez Louise, did you do any rucking or anything ahead of time with this thing? Or you just kind of like, you just kind of went for it? Yeah, I just kind of went for it. Yeah. I've typically been like a pretty aggressive hiker. When I did my 48, like I did them, like I said, the last two years, I just hammered out 20 plus each year. And I did a lot of long traverses. I did a full presidential traverse. The first time I got

[01:34:46] all the presidential peaks, I did those all in one day. I did the Wildcats, Carters and Mariah in one day. Um, so like the, like the rowing helps me with the endurance base. Like definitely I can go like hike long, hike hard, hike fast. Um, thanks to that. But carrying that kind of weight is a lot though. I mean, that's, that's probably like four or five times when most people are carrying it. Yeah, definitely. It slows me down a bit, which is kind of a good thing. Cause it's a, it's one thing that I can get. Like I was able to get my niece and my sister to hike with me. They did cannon with me last year. At least my sister did my wife.

[01:35:14] And then my sister and niece came with this one that they just did. Cause it's usually I'm like hiking so fast. Everyone's gotta be like, slow down, like hang with us a bit. And now I'm like, I got 70 pounds on my back. Everyone's like, all right, I can keep up with you. Yeah. I'm trying to think like the Carters are going to suck. Oh yeah. There's a handful of my list that I'm just looking at. Like, yeah, that's going to be rough. Cause there's some where it's like that the trails are going to suck to get up. There's some where the summit's just like basically a Karen next to the trail. Like

[01:35:42] you said, like middle and South Carter white face comes to mind where it's just like a little nub on the side of the trail. It's like, there's no real good place to set up. So it'll be a little tricky. And then like Adams and Jefferson are just rock fields. So like finding two roughly level rocks, five feet apart where the machine can set up will be a little tricky, but for those, it'll just be like, get the machine to the summit and get it to the peak and then just kind of work your way down. See if you can find something that works and get as close as I can. I remember chatting with you. You were kind enough to come out to the sort of the event we did at

[01:36:10] the mountain wander. And I remember chatting with you briefly. I don't recall, but I was like, if anybody gives you, gives you shit for not going to the summit of Adams and Jefferson or Madison and rowing on top of those summits, they should carry the rower up to Madison Springs or wherever heavy thing is before they can ever challenge you or anything. Like, I think that's plenty worthy. Like go to, go to that cold at Madison hut and row and you can count Madison and Adams to me. That's like 3,500 feet of gain or whatever, 3,600 with a 60 pounds on your back. And the Northern

[01:36:38] Presby is like, I think you win at that rate. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be tough, but like, yeah, I'm trying to do it in like in the spirit of the AMC rules of like where you have to get the patch. It's like, it has to be, you know, carried yourself all the way up and all the way down. It's been like getting to the summit again. It's just like, just for posterity sake of like, I can say like I wrote on the summit versus like, Oh, it was like a 300 down just wouldn't feel quite right. So like as close as I can get, you know, I'll feel. Yeah. You'll figure it out. You'll figure

[01:37:04] all the logistics. Nick, I was trying to go through, like I pulled together a list of gimmick hikers that were, I know of here. So, and Dan, let me, let me know if you're missing anyone. So number one, stomp all time greatest, the pool noodle Pemi loop. One of these hikes, I'm going to strap a pool noodle to the back of my rower and just have it wave in the breeze behind it. Yeah. What's, what's better than a pool noodle? It's like weighs nothing. And it's, it's, it's sort of like a conversation starter, right? I'm going to fly a flag off of a noodle, you

[01:37:32] know, something like that. Right. Right. There's the AT, there's the AT through hiker that carried the leaf blower from Springer Mountain all the way through. Remember that guy? I do. I vaguely remember that dude. Don't recall a leaf blower. That's something though. Yeah. Yeah. There was one that it was an AT through hiker that put his, he brought a leaf blower. And then there's obviously Larry the Log. We know Larry. Um, geez, Louise. We love Amy. Oops. Um, there's a rainbow tutu lady. Have you seen the rainbow tutu lady, Nick? I don't think so. I saw her

[01:38:02] when, I think I'm friends with her on Facebook. I saw her coming up, um, Caps Ridge one time and I was like, I think she's, I think she's semi famous. She's a gimmick hiker. Is she a gritter? I think so. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. I think I know who you're talking about. Denise maybe. Yeah. Denise. Yeah. Yes. Um, and then you've got the, there's people that carry stuff, the animals. I see those. I saw a water bucket challenge guy on Chikora one time. He carried like a bucket of water up to Chikora and then did the dump on it. Oh, like the ice bucket

[01:38:30] challenge on a side. Yes. Yep. Yep. Um, I personally, I'm a gimmick hiker too. I brought a rotisserie chicken to Zealand hot one time. Gourmet stuff. It's good. Yes. Which is good. And then other than that, they got the Alt and Weagle day on Mount Washington, which is people dress up, but I'm trying to think, is there any other gimmick hikers we haven't thought about? Not sure. Otherwise. Yeah. I don't want to do it like on like a regular basis

[01:38:56] besides like a one-off. Right. Yeah. Cause you have to be a marketer too. You have to market yourself as a gimmick hiker. Not to outforce, but I know that he's a fan of going up to summits and flying kites on them. Oh, okay. I think I remember reading in the 4,000 footer book, someone like juggled on every summit. Yeah. There's some weird stuff on there. That's pretty good. I'm trying to think what else could you do? What's a gimmick that has

[01:39:22] never been done that would be kind of cool? On the chicken theme. And I think Steve, our buddy Steve from the Cape or Steve eats shit, depending on where you'd know him from. I think you should start a patch for hiking up with a rotisserie chicken to every summit. Like you have not a patch. A rotisserie chicken patch. Yeah. To every summit. And you got to like have some rotisserie chicken up there and then bring it down. Me. Yeah. I'm going to talk to Steve about that. I would do that. I love rotisserie chickens. You could have a lot of fun with a patch and like a chicken on a mountain or something like that. There's a lot of options there.

[01:39:52] Yeah. That's a good one. So anyway, but that's good. I love it. I love the ingenuity here. I'm trying to think if there's any, I feel like we're missing something though. No, when I did my first round of the 48, the normal way, quote unquote, I guess, but I purposely brought a different New Hampshire brew beer on it to every summit and had a, my summit beer was a different New Hampshire beer every summit I had for my first round. So you had 48 different beers? Yeah, 48 different beers. They weren't all different breweries. I repeated a few breweries,

[01:40:22] but the beer was unique every single time and including for the traverses. So like when I did the presidential, I brought eight beers up Mount Madison. So like that, that was my training for the rowing machine, I guess was, was hucking multiple beers doing the whole traverse. Cause I was like, I'm sticking to that stick. So I'm going to do that. Thank God you stopped drinking soda. That's what made me do it. Let me do it. And I will say my wife is like, she does like the exercise classes of rowing. So she really like,

[01:40:49] she has zero interest in the podcast or hiking. Like she doesn't want to talk about, I did tell her, I was like, I got a rower coming on tonight. And she asked me a couple of questions. She's like, what, what is his rowing machine? Is it like, she said, is it a water machine? I don't even know what that means. Yeah, no, I guess that, but it was, it's an air resistance machine. The ones that like, I think Orange Theory uses ones that are water resistant. They just have like a big bowl with a paddle kind of in it and it goes against the water resistance. But, uh, and this one's an air resistance one. So it's just a flywheel and a housing and you can just adjust the shutter flow.

[01:41:18] Um, that adjust kind of the gearing of the flywheel. I'm curious as someone who's never, I've never done any competitive rowing or used a rowing machine or anything like that. Like how is it like a full, is it a lot of your legs and your arm and core or is it like just your fully body? Is there like anything that is more? Yeah, it's definitely a full, full body workout for sure. Um, but it is a lot more legs than people realize that people don't, um, do the sport kind of people think of it as like a pulling sport because you're pulling on the chain, like literally, but it's more of a push with

[01:41:47] the legs and you kind of hinge through the hips and finish with the arms. So it's like people like, Oh, you must have strong arms as a rower. And it's like, it's kind of actually the inverse your kind. It's more of a leg sport for the most part. Um, cause those are your strongest muscles and your strongest limbs. So, um, to push the power through with, with those, um, is the most efficient way. Awesome. And then I was going to ask about the 2000 meters. Is that just a standard competitive measurement for growing or where does that come from? Uh, yeah. So like the standard race distance

[01:42:17] in the spring for sprints is 2000 meters. It's kind of like the Olympic distance also, like usually spring race courses are 2000 meters. Um, I think they're actually for 28, they're shortening it to 1500, which is strange to me. I don't know why, but cause yeah, because as long as it's been a sport, it's been like 2000 meters is the standard sprint distance. And then like five or 6,000 is like the longer fall head racing distance. Um, so yeah, when I, I thought of the challenge, I was like, elevation in meters or something like that for each mountain. But then I decided on doing something

[01:42:46] that's just kind of like a repeatable measurable one where I can track each one and I can get it like a similar result and be like, Oh, how did I do on this mountain compared to this one doing the same distance? And, um, just something that's easily recognized by anyone who's a rower. And it's like, when you know, it's like, Oh, what's your 2k, you know, it's like, that's like your standard, like grading of like, right. How strong are you? How good of a rower are you? What's your 2k? Yeah. Cool. Uh, just looking at the eight that you've done so far, can we just go down the list?

[01:43:13] So you did the, the, uh, and this is not in the order that you did them, but I did, uh, I did some research and I just went through your Instagram to just get, um, all the summits that I think you have. So you did the Osceola. So obviously like, uh, the main summit of Osceola is like probably like the best setup for you. Cause it's basically like a flat floor. Um, so how, how, how did you approach the Osceola's? Uh, so that one was, uh, probably the hardest one I've done so far, which is kind of interesting cause I've done Owl's Head, but, um, that one's kind of just so

[01:43:43] long and flat. It wasn't so bad. It was just the mileage, but, um, I did Tecumseh first and then the Osceola's second, the following weekend. Um, so that was kind of my first mistake cause I was just kind of really excited to get going on it. And I was feeling pretty, pretty chipper and feeling in good spirits after getting Tecumseh done. So I attacked the Osceola's the next weekend and also in just my red lining, um, mindset. I was like, all right, I did the Osceola's from Tripoli the first time. So I should do it from Greeley Ponds this time and get a new trail to knowing like, yeah,

[01:44:11] it's supposed to be the more aggressive approach, but then going up that trail, I was like, I can see why totally different trail. Yeah. So it was pretty gnarly. It was slow going. It was tough. And I was still pretty fatigued cause I had done, I'd hiked an erg up a mountain the weekend before that too. So it was pretty tough, but, um, but yeah, getting to Osceola, I had, I made the mind up to get to the main peak first, just bypass East and go straight to the main peak row there and then backtrack to East and hit that one on the way down. Um, but yeah, going up Greeley Ponds, gnarly,

[01:44:38] going up the chimney and super gnarly. Um, and then doing it on kind of tired legs was pretty tough, but it was nice to have that view on Osceola. That was the first one where I did, right. Cause I did Tecumseh for the first one. It was kind of in the trees, not a ton to see. Um, but Osceola was like full Vista, super awesome, super cool. And then East on the way down when I was like the about to die, in the woods next to a rock pile was pretty tough mentally, but, uh, that's the one that I think that was my slowest one for a 2k. I just kind of like set the pace to like just under seven minutes,

[01:45:07] which is my kind of cutoff of like, I want to do everyone under seven minutes. And, uh, I just hung in there and just made it to the finish line and crawled my way down. Nice. So you did Tecumseh, so that one's not too difficult to set up on. I can't imagine. Yeah. It was like a nice little dirt patch just off to the side of the main summit here. And it was perfect. Yeah. And then you've done and again, that's another one that I think that little circle there, Nick, that, that one's not

[01:45:32] too bad to set up on either. I don't think. Yeah. You got kind of just a flat dirt clearing, right? Yeah. There's a few trees around in that one, but it was again, pretty easy. I was just able to, I just put it together and it took me two seconds. I was pretty much right next to the rock that that Karen usually comes in. It come up appears and disappears constantly, but I was pretty much right next to that summit Karen rock. How's it, how's it going up and down the slide with that thing on your back? Uh, so I went up Brutus and then down the slide with it. I was

[01:45:59] planning on doing Brutus both ways just cause I've been up my house head twice before without the rower and kind of was like, it's going to be a little tricky. It's going to be a little sketchy. I don't want to do that. And, um, but, uh, I, I went up Brutus and I actually missed a turn at the drainage. I don't know if you guys have ever done it before, but you get to like this drainage and you kind of bang a left, right up it. But I kind of missed it cause it looked like a herd path kept going straight and I was whacking into the woods for about a quarter mile until I realized that this is coming down or going up and going up. Oh,

[01:46:26] really? Yeah. Yeah. So I missed the turn and all of a sudden I was just like ducking through so many trees. I was like, this feels too tight. And I had to backtrack and get out of there. And I realized I can look at my GPS track and see how far off I got. So, but I was still a gnarly climb, but going up Brutus was pretty, um, relatively easy. But then I went down the slide cause after that bushwhacking experience, I was like, I don't want to have to keep like ducking through trees cause it sticks out a good foot and a half, two feet above my head. Um, but going down the slide wasn't too bad. I just kind of turned backwards and kind of like down climbed

[01:46:53] it. Like I was doing a ladder in a lot of spots and wasn't so bad. All right. And then you talked about heel. So then you did Franconia Ridge. So you did Lincoln Lafayette as well. Yeah. That was what I finished last year on. Um, I went up Greenleaf for that one. Cause again, it was, I had, I'd already done old bridal and falling waters and done the full traverse. So I hadn't done Greenleaf yet. And it was pretty, actually a moderate trail and it was actually pretty great cause it was a pretty typical busy hiking day when I was up on that one. But going up Greenleaf, if I saw like no one, there was like no one on the trail. So it was a nice, clear,

[01:47:21] clean, easy walk up. And then as soon as I got to Greenleaf hut, it was just like mayhem as usual. But, um, yeah, I went out again. I was just like, I did the Osceola's. I went out to Lincoln first, wrote on Lincoln, backtracked to Lafayette, set up there and then worked my way back down. But, uh, yeah, you, I think the biggest obstacle is probably like overhanging trees has been like one of my biggest banes of carrying that thing up there. Cause it'll hook me cause that's where like the back leg kind of is. And I'll like, if I fit,

[01:47:49] if I think I'm clear and then I'm not, it'll catch me and kind of yank me back. I'm like, I gotta back up and then duck. All right. Sneak under it. Like limbo style. Blowdowns must be a nightmare. Oh yeah. Yeah. There's a couple of, you have to kind of like the best way to do it is if you can kind of like lean the weight fully on my back, I kind of like lean at like full 90 degrees and kind of like pancake it on myself and shuffle under a little bit. Cause like your typical blowdown that you can kind of just limbo under when you have that much weight and that much volume on your back. It's, it's much harder to get around.

[01:48:17] There's something you can be like, Oh, it's an easy step over or under. And then it's like just that right height where would that kind of weight and volume? It's like a little tough, but I've made it so far. There was one actually on hail that was a little tricky. And then someone, a trail maintainer had cleared it by the time we were at the summit and we came down and I was like, Oh, the trails, that tree's gone. That's awesome. So. Oh, nice. And then cannons the other one. Uh, yeah. And that was a, obviously that's easy one to set up cause there was a platform. So that was super easy, but getting up, um, we went up, uh, Kinsman Ridge from the tram

[01:48:46] side. So it was short and steep and sharp, but not too, too bad. It was really muddy up at the top section. Once you get past the steep part, a lot of that was probably the hardest part. It was just a lot of, it was, uh, I think it was early June when I did that one. So it was still kind of like rainy spring season, snow melt kind of was still holding on up there a little bit, but. Yeah. And Nick, I'm trying to think like, what does he have left? That's like kind of easy to do. Like Pierce would be easy enough. Yeah. Eisenhower would be easy enough. Like

[01:49:15] we talked about the Carters is going to suck. What other ones does he have? Jackson. I mean, I can see that ledge being, I mean, if you did the owl's head slide or something like that, that, that ledge at the top, I don't think it's going to be an issue. That's a nice flat one. Yeah. I think Pierce, Eisenhower, Monroe, probably not. There's definitely sort of that ridge that like leads up there where I think you could probably get a rower on it. Probably just have to be careful for the Alpine grass and stuff up there, but there's definitely a lot of ledge.

[01:49:41] I obviously don't want to cause any damage. Yeah. Cause I'm like, I'm already doing something wild enough and I don't want people thinking I'm going up there and dropping it anywhere I want. So. I mean, I feel like a good amount of them do have like some sort of clearing kind of around. I mean, like you got like Cabot or like Wombeck or things like that. Like there's a lot of times there's just sort of a flat dirt path or something. Like how much, how we didn't ask that too. How big is it? Like once you sort of set it up, like how long is this thing? It's probably about five feet, five to six feet long, something like that. Yeah. It's

[01:50:09] like the middle of it's kind of where your feet strap in and the rail is probably four feet. And then there's just the flywheel section, which is kind of just a little chunk of it, probably another foot and a half or so. So it's not the longest thing in the whole world. So you just got to kind of find just two roughly level spots about five feet apart and you can finagle it, spin it, whatever you want, stick a rock under one side to kind of level it up. Me too. Maybe like I bundle up a t-shirt and stuff it under a leg if it's a little off, a little wobbly or something. But yeah, I have a list of all the ones left to do and

[01:50:38] the trails that are probably the best approach. And part of my strategy is actually kind of good that I did the traverses that I did because also just for the sake of my redlining and for the ease of this project, I haven't done any of like the individual trails up a lot of these peaks. So like the Southern Prezies, Eisenhower, like those ones I haven't done, Edmunds Path or things like that. So there's a lot of new trails for me that I can do each one individually. Like 19 Mile Brook I just did last year, but like the Carter Dome trail

[01:51:07] to get Carter Dome, I can do that one just straight shot. But yeah, the trickiest part is probably going to be just the setups. Like you said, like the rocky field ones in the spot where it's really narrow or just like right off the trail. I mean, I think Jefferson you'll be okay because that's kind of like almost like a plateau with just rock piles on it. I mean, that one might be interesting. Like you said though, if you go like two five foot areas that are sort of even like even on Adams, there's definitely spots where the rocks are

[01:51:34] pseudo level five feet apart. Yeah, exactly. Like whatever happens in the middle, as long as they don't come up like a good, like eight or 10 inches to the height of the rail, like they can be as bumpy as they want under there. As long as I can just bridge the gap, that's all I need. But I did scout out a spot on Madison last year because I section heights the New Hampshire section of the AT. So I got to go over that summit while I was up there, I was definitely like taking notes, looking around like, where can I set up up here? Cause this is one of those hard ones. And I found a pretty good spot, like just off the summit. I was like, Oh, I think that'll work. I think I'll take a note of that. Remember

[01:52:01] this spot? Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure you'll fit, you'll figure it out. I mean, like you said, you can, you can hopefully balance it on a rock or two, but that would suck. Imagine like you, you rigged it up and then it fell on you. I'd have to like tipped over in the middle of it and just dump me over. That would be awful. I'd have to start over. Well, Nick, we have to make sure he's got some slasher stickers for his, uh, his erg machine. I got one. I got one at the end. Oh, you got one. I got one at the live recording and I slapped it. Oh, perfect. So you're representing already. Nice.

[01:52:28] All right. One of the, just to change the topic here that I'm interested in here. So your Instagram, when I went back and looked at it, like in the early stages of it, like it wasn't as much about hiking, but it was more about your, um, rest, maybe a restoration or at least like purchasing of this Toyota Chinook. So can you talk a little bit about that and like explain to the listeners what this is? Cause it's kind of like van life type of thing, but it's like a vintage. Yeah, definitely. That's where the handle came from,

[01:52:55] the Nook 603. It's cool as hell. I love it. Came from the Chinook. Um, cause yeah, I started that. I just had a, um, I bought this and it was 2021, I think when I bought it, maybe 2020. Um, but yeah. It's the most COVID thing ever. Seriously. Yeah. The market was hot back then and it was tough to find something that wasn't super expensive, but that's why I was able to get it as cheap as I did. Cause it was kind of a, so it's a 1976 Toyota. Uh, it's on a Hilux pickup frame, but it has a big fiberglass camper shell and Chinook is the company that made the campers and they actually sold them on dealer lots

[01:53:23] back then. Like the Toyota Chinook camper was sold at Toyota dealerships. Um, but they're a lot pretty popular on the West coast, Pacific Northwest. Um, but I found this one on Facebook marketplace out of a field in Northern Vermont and the guy had to as a project, he had a few of them actually. And, um, it was just kind of one that was getting left aside and it had sat in the field for a good six, seven years, something like that four or five years maybe. Um, but yeah, I got a, got a good deal on it. It was, it started and ran, but it was kind of rough on the inside, had some water damage, mouse damage, stuff like that.

[01:53:52] Um, but yeah, I was just looking for like an adventure mobile to just fuel the adventures, something to camp in for weekend trips, do like for the Vermont and Maine 4,000 footers to get out there and not have to go out and back a million times and just camp out and get a few in a weekend kind of thing. Um, so like not like a hardcore fancy camper. I was a something that could, and also I had to fit in my garage. That was a rule that my, that my, me and my wife both agreed to. It was just like, if we're going to park some big old thing that we got to fix up, it's got to go in the garage. So it fits in there. Um, but it does have a pop-up roof so you can pop the roof up and stand up inside,

[01:54:22] which is pretty cool. But, um, yeah, I bought that and I started the Instagram account kind of as a resource for renovating that because a lot of other owners of this particular kind of camper have accounts where they've like done the same thing, bought it, fixed it up and, uh, they have resources of like where you can get parts for them or like what are the best practices for certain things and certain thing that they have, they have parts sometimes that come up on marketplace. So I was like, Oh, this would be a really good resource. And it was actually really helpful. There's a guy in Maine that has a Toyota pickup

[01:54:50] trucks, um, that had spare parts that I was able to get like the fender badges and the, um, door sills for it that were missing. But, uh, yeah, it was a kind of a COVID purchase and I spent a couple of years fixing it up and getting it roadworthy again. I had to gut the whole interior, did a lot of mechanical parts. I did the whole steering mechanism, oil pump, water pump, spark plugs, oil changes, the whole nine yards. Did you know about cars before this or did you learn everything based on, um, just research and doing this project?

[01:55:17] It was like half and half. Um, I definitely was a little pretty handy growing up. It was kind of like, well, I was always like with my dad in the garage and I, he taught me like the basic stuff of like how to change your oil and change your spark plugs and that kind of basic stuff. But, um, when it came to like full deep dive stuff, I wasn't super well-versed, but like YouTube videos go a long way when you have a general knowledge of like how the car works and stuff like that. So I was able to leverage that plus the Instagram account and watching other people doing it and their input and their feedback. Um, and just kind of self

[01:55:45] teach as you go. And 1976 too, it was like the easiest thing to work on. It's amazing. When you look at like, I look at my, my daily driver car now, and I look at that engine, it's like the difference of like, Oh, I can just, I can stick a wrench anywhere in that Toyota engine bay and just see every part and everything's accessible. And then everything now it's like just a jumble of wires and batteries and shrouds and plastic covers and stuff. But, um, yeah, it was a, that was, it was a self-discovery and a project that took me about a year and a half to get

[01:56:12] it like roadworthy. Um, and I got it registered and that was like a huge day. I had to like replace the floor pans. That was like the last big thing cause it was rusted through. Um, and then I started taking it to breweries of course, before the camper was done. It was like, all right, it's drivable now. I got to start using this thing. So I'd start slapping brewery stickers on the bumper for everywhere I've taken it. And then now I'm like 90% done with the inside of the back. And, um, it's like I can go out and on a couple of weekend trips with it, but I haven't finished the electrical and like the kitchen stuff. So

[01:56:39] that's, what's kind of left to do on it to make it like a full time weekend or mobile. Sick. I show it's really cool looking. Yeah. It's super fun to drive. It's a, it's a 76. It's a four speed manual. A lot of people swap a five speed transmission into it to get a little extra kick out of it. Cause once you get up to like 55, 60 miles an hour, it's kind of hitting its limit. It's like a little four cylinder engine. The things are hoping my, my wife calls it the big white whale cause it just comes. It's just like this big hulking thing, but it's, it's, it's a blast. It's fun to take out.

[01:57:07] It turns a lot of heads. Uh, Oh yeah. I bet you probably get a lot of people chasing you down. What is that? Yeah. It turned a lot. That's what I did when I saw it. Cause I was looking for something like a Volkswagen, like a Westphalia, like one of those kinds of things was like what I had in mind of like, they'll fit my garage, but I can like pop the top up and still have some space. And then that popped up. And my, my first thought was like, the hell is that thing? Like I've never seen that before. And, uh, I like once I looked into it, I was like, this is the coolest thing. Cause like it's Toyota, it's got a bulletproof engine. Like the thing sat in a field forever and it's still just

[01:57:35] like the guy would just turn the key and it just started right up. The car would start dumping fuel eventually, but still just the fact that it would fire right up and after how much it sat was, was awesome. So it's a stream. Well, I've put, I think a good, uh, I've put close to 3000 miles on it since I got it now. Um, taking it to a lot of few trips up North, a lot of brewery trips. Um, so yeah, I've had a lot of fun with it and it's hopefully going to be kind of a, um, my conveyance to most of my adventures up North, especially once I get it finished up, it'll be a,

[01:58:02] my true of adventure mobile. That was the spirit of me getting it was to get it back doing what it was meant to do. So. Nice. Well, I think, uh, you're, you've got, you're a man of many hobbies and then you also have a fashion side to you. You get your Brooks brothers suits and, and everything. So we've learned a lot. Nick, is anything we've missed here? Uh, I don't, I don't think so. Or actually there was one last thing I had, and this is from my own interest, but I noticed that you do a little

[01:58:28] photography too. Uh, yeah, I, I did a lot of, not as much recently. Um, I did do, like, it was just a huge hobby of mine going through high school and college. That was like one thing I did a ton. Cool. Um, but I ended up taking up sports photography, um, as like a gig when I was in college, the guy was like, I did it as like a part-time thing for the college teams. And, uh, the guy that ran it full time retired while I was going there doing it as like a part-time thing. And he, they came to me and were like, Hey, you want to take over doing this? When I was

[01:58:56] like, sure. Yeah. That's like, they, I was like the full-time athletics photographer for Franklin Pierce for, uh, like like six, seven years. Um, until like until COVID hit. And then they kind of like, I couldn't go on campus anymore. And then they kind of readjusted from there, but I did that for a good chunk of time. And that was a lot of fun. But, uh, yeah, like artistic photography, like I see your work all the time. It's amazing stuff. It makes me want to get my camera out more often. Cause like I, right before the live recording, I went out and, uh, did, uh, Fletcher Cascades and was like, I'm just gonna bring my camera and do something,

[01:59:24] do some of this work that I haven't done in a while. And it kind of brought me back to that. So it's something I enjoy, but I got to decide what heavy thing am I going to bring the camera equipment or the rowing machine? Now I got to like, yeah, you remind me of myself a little bit with the multiple hobbies. Like I'll say, I need another hobby. Like I need a hole in the head or something. Like I just, I very easily can get 110% into things that I enjoy. So, um, that's a super cool list done. Cause there's just so many things. It's like I said, with the hiking list, it's like, do I do a hundred eyes today? Do I do

[01:59:51] trace a new trail today? Do I do another 4,000 footer for a new month? Like what do I do? The choices are endless, but that's the fun of it. It's like every adventure is a new adventure. Hopefully that's the goal. Awesome. Very good. Well, I think that, um, we, we need a younger guy on our crew because Nick's the only one that's like in his, uh, 30. So if you want to join us for hiking or if you want us to join you with a rower, the rower hike will be, we'd be down for that for sure. And then we'll teach you the ways of winter hiking. We've got plenty of sweaty friends, so we can, we can,

[02:00:21] we can show you the ways. Yeah. It'll be good to network with a few people. Cause that's kind of what I, I could use some guidance on people with that experience, but yeah, all the legal days next weekend, I'm doing Mount Washington this coming weekend for that with the rower. So I'll be doing that. So if anyone's out on Saturday, that's where I'll be. Yeah. This will be the first time Memorial Day weekend in like 10 years that I haven't done Mount Washington because I got to go down, I'm going down to North Carolina tomorrow. So don't break into my house, people. I'll be back by the time this show records. So don't try it. Take this hot weather with you, will you?

[02:00:50] Yeah. That's too hot. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. So, but, but thanks again, Dan and Nick, anything else before we wrap up? No, thanks Dan for coming on. Glad we crossed paths a while back and hopefully we'll get out hiking at some point. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Appreciate it. Appreciate you guys having me on. We will see you out in the trails. All right. Bye.

[02:01:45] We hope you'll join us next week for another great show. Until then, on behalf of Mike and Stomp, get out there and crush some mega peaks. Now covered in scratches, blisters and bug bites, Chris Staff wanted to complete his most challenging day hike ever. Fish and game officers say the hiker from Florida activated an emergency beacon yesterday morning.

[02:02:11] 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 that describe this race. Do we all know where they are? Oh, my God. Here's Lieutenant James Neeland from New Hampshire Fish and Game. Lucinda, thanks for being with us today. Thanks for having me. What are some of the most common mistakes you see people make when they're heading out on the trails to hike here in New Hampshire?

[02:02:40] 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.