Episode 235 - Welcome Liz Fay, Quadrobics, Hancocks, Mt. Madison, Jennings Peak, Sandwich Dome, AT Trail Culture

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

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

[00:00:51] You should too. Go to MtWashington.org or text FORECAST to 603-356-2137. Hello listeners! Nick here with your forecast for the weekend of June 13th, 2026.

[00:01:16] Friday. Mostly in the clouds under mostly cloudy skies. Morning rain showers likely, then a chance of afternoon rain showers. Slight chance of late afternoon thunderstorms. High in the mid-60s. Winds, northwest shifting west to 15-30 mph, increasing to 25-40 mph. Higher gusts possible with thunderstorm activity. Friday night. Mostly in the clouds, low in the mid-50s.

[00:01:46] Northwest at 25-40 mph, increasing to 40-55 mph with gusts up to 60 mph. Higher gusts possible with thunderstorm activity. And Saturday. Mostly in the clouds, mostly in the clouds, mostly in the clear under mostly sunny skies. High in the mid-50s. Wind northwest at 25-40 mph, decreasing to 20-35 mph with gusts up to 55 mph. So starting a little rainy and a little toasty up there this weekend.

[00:02:12] Looks like things should be clearing up nicely for the Alzheimer's hikes that will be happening on the 13th this weekend. Happy hiking. Safe hiking. Go crush some peaks!

[00:02:22] From the Woodpecker Studio in the great live-free-or-die state of New Hampshire.

[00:03:03] 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.

[00:03:36] Here, so I'm going to hit record. Alrighty. Liz, anything you say can be used against you. So just be aware. Welcome, welcome. Uh, Nick, I figured out my uh, so we had technical difficulties for episode 235. Are we going to put out 235 before this one or are we? No, I think we'll go back. I'm going to call it, the tagline is the lost episode. We'll just go back and talk about it. I had like, you were talking about the bald faces and trail maintenance and me and the Adirondacks. And yeah, we had, we had some audio technical issues.

[00:04:05] So that's why we kind of did a So You Wanna last weekend. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. We, I had 47 minutes worth of recording and then I used GarageBand to record my audio. And we have squad cast now, so we have a backup. But, um, I got an error message, Nick, that said something about I had reached my maximum number of tracks in GarageBand. But then I just restarted it and it's working fine now. So I don't know what happened. Huh. That's weird. Hopefully we're good. Yeah.

[00:04:31] So anyway, that's, um, look, every, every hundred episodes or so we have a, we have a gremlin in the mix. We're, we're people too. That's true. We mess up. That's true. So, all right. So welcome to episode two 36 of the sounds like a search and rescue podcast. This intro was brought to you by chat GPT because I didn't have time to write it manually. So we'll see how it does Liz with your intro. So this week we welcome back friend of the show, Liz Fay.

[00:04:55] Liz recently spent time on the Appalachian trail visiting our favorite through hiker, Dave Schitts in the woods, otherwise known as cocaine beer. Now she's also working her way through the Monadnock 50 Finest tackling trail maintenance projects, chasing the New Hampshire 500 highest. And then we'll find out what other adventures she has planned for the summer. So welcome. Welcome Liz. Uh, plus we'll talk about a strange new hiking trend called quadrobics. I have thoughts on this, Nick.

[00:05:22] Uh, we'll get an update from Dave as he makes his way through Pennsylvania on the Appalachian trail discussing, we'll discuss the ongoing closures at Lincoln woods. We'll explore whether the white mountains are really part of the Appalachians. This guy's an idiot, Nick. I saw that article. Um, explore whether, um, oh, and then we'll look into a growing human waste problem on Colorado's blue lakes trail, a grizzly attack in Glacier National Park and the death of Yellowstone's last working pay phone.

[00:05:49] Uh, we'll also review the Osprey Poco LT child carrier. We'll celebrate the opening of the AMC high mountain huts for the season and talk about, I did some hiking on Jennings and sandwich dome. Nick has done some adventures on Hancock and Madison, and then we'll highlight some incredible listener hikes, including Liz's East Osceola and Healbrook trail maintenance project.

[00:06:09] Uh, we'll dive into recent search and rescue news and take a look back at one of the great albums of the greatest albums of the 1970s breast breakfast in America by super tramp, which I happen to be holding an actual album of this that I, that I own. So very nice. So Nick just randomly picked that as the music minute. So, and I was very excited. So, uh, so I'm Mike and I'm Nick. Let's get started. Do do do do do.

[00:06:39] Do do do. Let's get started. All right, Nick. And then we're going to get started this weekend coming up. So the show will air on Friday and then on Saturday morning, we'll all be getting up. Liz, what are you doing for Alzheimer's this year? Uh, we're doing a hike in July.

[00:07:06] Um, my son and my brother-in-law and I are doing, um, old spec as part of a family reunion. We lost, um, my father-in-law in December from Alzheimer's dementia. So we're doing it in his honor. Oh, wow. Sorry to hear that. Condolences to your family, but that'll be a good, was your father, was he a hiker? Um, a little bit. He was always fascinated with the Appalachian Trail. Mm-hmm. And when we moved up here in the late nineties, he loved the fact that we were close to it.

[00:07:35] So he did a backpacking trip on the Franconia Ridge when we moved up here. Okay. And, uh, he's done little sections of it. So we're going to, um, kind of make it all part of the, the honor. Like that's going to be our memorial that week. Oh, that's nice. Um, yeah. Wow. Well, that'd be a good family trip for you. And, uh, yeah, I think there's a lot of people that, uh, luckily knock on wood, I haven't been touched as closely as you, but there's definitely a lot of people in our group that have, uh, have been impacted.

[00:08:04] So we're excited about it. So we're going to get on trail around 745 from Appalachia on, um, Saturday morning. And, um, yeah, Nick, if you want to give a shout out to our friends from the Alzheimer's Association and 48 Peaks, it's not too late to join us. No, you still have time. And the event does go all summer. Um, just to remind people, you don't have to hike on the day of the hiker celebration, but many people are, um, like we are. Use your passion for hiking to end Alzheimer's. Join 400 plus hikers as they climb New Hampshire's 4,000 footers or create their own challenge to support the mission of the Alzheimer's Association.

[00:08:34] 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 ticket for the hiker celebration. Let's turn the white mountains purple to end alls. Visit alls.org slash 48 peaks to learn more. And, um, you can still join the slasher podcast 48 peaks team. If you want to on Saturday, like Mike's mentioned, we'll be meeting at Appalachia 745 AM.

[00:09:02] We're planning to do Mount Adams, um, group pace. And, uh, hopefully it's a nice day. It looks like maybe some showers in the morning and then clearing up and not as toasty as they were saying earlier in the week. They were saying like 92 at one point in Gorham. And I was kind of like, whoo might be a bit, even if we get out early, but it looks a little bit nicer now. Yeah. And look at the weather, uh, today I looked yesterday. Woody, what, um, do you use like your Apple weather app?

[00:09:26] Uh, so like if I'm planning hikes, especially in that area, I'll use like the weather.gov point forecast for like Gorham Randolph and Mount Adams. They have one around 5,200 feet, um, and the higher summits forecast. And I think like we all know, like, especially that, I mean, the whites are pretty variable anyways, but the Northern presidential, it's like, you really might as well not even look until it's like two days before. Cause it just as a crap shoot, especially with like precipitation and things like that. But that's normally what I go with Mike. Yeah.

[00:09:53] I'll usually just look at my Apple weather and I have like Gorham, Jefferson, Bartlett. I have the whole, basically I got a circle of, of towns around the white mountain. So I picked the closest one. And then I, uh, like, I think I got twin mountain here and then I will, and I have Jefferson. So, but like right now it's showing it's going to be sunny basically all day, but I haven't looked at like mountain forecast or, and obviously like right now it's too early to look at the higher summits forecast, but I think knock on wood, we should have a good day. Do you have any favorite forecasting tools, Liz?

[00:10:24] Um, I, my general weather app is wonder ground. Okay. Yep. Um, and then sometimes the Apple, uh, weather, and then I narrow it in for, you know, the high mountain forecast and stuff like that. Cool. I have to check that out. I have to check that out. Wonder ground. Um, I'll add that to the show notes. Um, all right. And then when we're done with the hike this time around, we'll be going to ledge brewing, but our other favorite brewing company is reckless brewing company in Bethlehem. Nick.

[00:10:51] 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 it's where trail stores are swapped over a massive menu of mountain sized meals and pints of craft beer brewed for the North country. So when the hike is over in the gear is stowed reckless is where the adventure truly settles in reckless brewing company, the finish line for every white mountain trick.

[00:11:20] Very good, Nick. All right. So we talked a little bit about episode two 35. So episode two 35 is, uh, um, in the trash bin of history, I guess you could say. Yeah, we'll go back and I guess touch, but we had some other topics. And there and catch up. So I figured we'll go back, but it'll happen at some point this summer. Yeah, we probably, we can do one segment, Nick. Let's do one segment from two 35 that we missed. That sounds good. So, um, Liz, are you in only fans? Have you ever heard of only fans? You know, familiar with that? No.

[00:11:49] Nick is very, very popular with only fans. I am not familiar with only fans is a spicy website. So I'm glad you passed the test. It's a spicy website where people can, um, they can post spicy content and then people will pay and subscribe. On a monthly basis. For spicy things. Kind of like, you know, it would sort of be like if, um, if, if Dave set up a buy me a coffee. Dave has an only fans, doesn't he? I don't think he does.

[00:12:13] But if Dave had, if, if Dave shits in the woods, had a, um, uh, buy me a coffee site, but the only way that he would, he would, um, the only way that, um, he would interact with you is he would like take his shirt off every time you bought him a buy a coffee. Then that's kind of what only fans is. Um, but the reason I bring it up is because there's an only fans model. Fine young lady who is hiking the Pacific Crest trail.

[00:12:40] So apparently she's got a big following on Instagram and then she is hiking the Pacific Crest trail and, um, getting a lot of attention, but she ended up having to get rescued off of Mount Whitney. So she had like some kind of a stomach issue or something like that. So a lot of articles about her because, um, you know, look, she's a model. So we've got a lot of eyes on it, but, uh, that was in two 35. We talked a little bit about it. I just, I, and I asked Nick about his only fan habit and he also claimed that he has not, he'd never heard of it either.

[00:13:10] And I feel like both of you are lying. I just like how you're perpetuating this. Right. So anyway, uh, but the, let me see here. Her name is Cameron Renee and, uh, she's actually, she's made it pretty far. So I don't know how far that is. If you go from the Mexico border up to Mount Whitney, that, that's almost all of California. Does it actually go to the summit of Mount Whitney or kind of just traverses over the, let's be like a shoulder of it or something to look at that?

[00:13:40] I don't know. That's a good question. I think, I think it goes over. But anyway, all's well that ends well. As far as I know, she's back on the trail, but, um, I got a lot of our male listeners sending this article to us. So I figured I would, I would cover it. It's eight and a half miles west of the peak of Mount Whitney. She might, she might've been trying to climb it though. As part of that. She's doing a side quest. Side quest. She's doing a side quest. So, all right. Well, moving on to other, um, other topics here, Nick, what is this?

[00:14:09] What is this quadrobics? Quadrobics. You've discovered this is a new trend. Apparently, I believe stomp through this one end, but apparently there's. There's this new fitness trend called quadrobics. Um, and it basically has people channeling their inner animal by walking, running, and even jumping on all forms. And it's formally known as quadrobics. So, uh, this unconventional style of exercise is gaining traction on social media, um, where people are showing off their bear crawls and cat leaps.

[00:14:38] And, um, apparently often wearing furry masks and tails. So this is kind of a tie into maybe some only fans things. Um, but, uh, yeah, it's kind of interesting. I guess you could kind of do this hiking and end up doing this hiking, but there's people, there's like pictures of peoples and like masks and stuff crawling around and stuff. So I don't know. I guess. Liz, if you saw somebody coming up Valley way on all fours, like a spider monkey, like immediately I'm calling 911. Right. I freaked out for sure.

[00:15:05] I would be like, no way. I would be very disturbed. Yeah. If there were. So the picture of this girl is like, she looks like she's climbing out of the jungle. Like she just. If I, if you saw someone at night dressed in a cat mask crawling on all fours up the trail, I'd be so freaked out. I would run back up the trail or down the trail. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:15:27] The best part of this article ever is that like, they're like Tik TOK or wild soleil who asked her remain anonymous, started doing quadrobics last year after learning about Therians, a group of people who identify as non here. I heard about this, like kids are going into school and they're giving them like, um, cat bowls or cat food bowls or something. Is this a thing, Nick? You're closer to that age than I am. I don't, I don't know. I haven't, they don't go to school yet. One of my daughters who I will not name went through a cat girl phase.

[00:15:55] So like she, as in she'd pretend to be a cat. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. They would come over, her friend would come over and they pretend to be cats. Ryland's into the super kitty show. They're like six. Yeah. Doesn't pretend. She's, she's more of a, she's a pterodactyl exclusively right now. That's what she pretends to be. Okay. So. All right. Well, anyway, I feel like this is just people trying to bring their kinks to the trail. I'm getting, I'm getting that vibe. Yeah. So quadrobics.

[00:16:23] If anybody sees or hears of anybody doing quadrobics, I feel like I did see, um, I saw some naked people at, uh, Emerald pool. And then I also heard there was nude hike. Nude hiking is a thing as well. Yeah. There's a hike naked day, right? But there's like. It's coming up in later in June. I think. But there's like stipulations depending what state, like I think Vermont, like you can like appear, like people can't see you getting dressed, but if you just happen to be naked in public, it's like, okay. Okay.

[00:16:50] There's like a lot of weird stipulations with nudity in public or on trails. Yeah. Yeah, it is. So I don't know if we, this, this podcast has started with a weird, weird vibe, Liz. It has. So why don't we just keep the vibe going and give a Dave shits in the woods, Appalachian trail update. That sounds good. And it includes, um, we had one with Liz last week, but we'll kind of touch on that a little bit later. Um, but his fresh update from this week.

[00:17:16] So since the last update, I got into Harper's Ferry, but not without seeing a bear first. Once there, I first went to the ATC visitor center where I checked in, got my new number. It was five 58 and now it's three 21. Pretty much meaning I was the 558th hiker to start North and the 321st hiker to check in at Harper's Ferry. And I had my picture taken. Sorry. The article for a quadrobics just popped up when I was highlighting over it. So my mistake. Disturbing. I know you get distracted. Just a cat picture again.

[00:17:46] Um, so Dave had his picture taken at Harper's Ferry. Um, they use the numbers to keep track of who's coming through and for other statistics from Georgia, Maine, the highlight was finally seeing Mrs. Shits who took a train into town. We spent a few days doing tourist stuff in a very historical place with lots to see and so much walking up the damn hill. She headed out Friday afternoon and I went back on trail straight into Maryland with no signs to welcome me. Maryland was short, but nice with plenty of animals and the OG Washington monument stepped

[00:18:13] across the Mason Dixon line into Pennsylvania a couple of days ago, whereas where I'll be for the next 230 miles. So Dave is heading to Pennsylvania and officially crossed into the North now, I guess. That's pretty good. That was pretty good. I got to start making like, now that he's getting close, we can actually make plans. I was going to see if, I don't want to bug him, Liz. So I'm going to ask your advice on like how to, how to interact with like through hikers when they're in it. Um, but I do want to like try to get out for a couple of days, maybe in the Massachusetts section.

[00:18:42] So we'll figure it out. But how did he smell, Liz? I'll just jump right to that. How did the, how did you handle all the through hikers? That's going to be difficult. By the time I saw him, he had already, like when I first connected with him, he had already been, um, in town overnight. Okay. So I hadn't seen him, you know, right off the trail. And then when we were hiking for four days, it didn't matter since I smelled too. Yeah. After like two, after a day or two, you're good. Yeah.

[00:19:12] It was, so it really didn't matter. Well, that's good. Yeah. You had, you had mutual stinkiness together, so you didn't get like the sticker shock. Yeah. Yeah. But I just, I was just thinking of that initial meeting or like, or, or at least the first night, like maybe your, your stink isn't up to the level of, um, you know, five or six days with no deodorant or actually a hundred days with no deodorant. Like these, these hikes. So, so that's good. So Dave's making progress and, uh, yeah, he'll be up in New England in no time at all.

[00:19:41] I figure he's at 230 miles to Pennsylvania. And then I don't know how many, it's probably not even like a couple hundred miles to get through the rest of it to get to Connecticut. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I think so. So he'll be moving. Good job, Dave. He'll make it. Yeah. Crushing it. Oh yeah. All right. Um, so we'll talk more about, we'll get more insight on Dave and Liz's adventure down there in a little while, but, uh, we've got a book. A bunch of New Hampshire news here, Nick. So what do we got going on in New Hampshire right now?

[00:20:07] So first we got, uh, Justin from that recycled percussion band apparently is doing one of those challenges that they're kind of known for. And he's actually pushing our running with a, uh, a friend from Vermont to Maine who uses a wheelchair. Remind listeners who this guy is. So, um, how he's connected to the, uh, so it was Justin and Ryan were the, the gentlemen last year that sort of took on that whole challenge of hiking the 48, basically doing a deratissima deratissima in a week.

[00:20:34] And they kind of raised it, caused a kerfuffle of sorts within the, uh, the hiking community and everybody was kind of paying attention to it and watching the live updates. So, um, I think they challenged each other to sort of different, uh, feats back and forth. And this was one that, uh, it looks like he was challenged to. Um, so it actually mentions he's using, he's, uh, making the journey to raise money and support people like his friend who have traumatic brain injuries, um, and he's wheelchair bound. So, um, seems pretty cool. They're covering 26 miles per day. Probably keep you posted on how it's going.

[00:21:05] Um, pretty badass. So. All right. So yeah, so Justin, it was Ryan who was the one that did the hiking and then Justin was the one that did the, so these guys challenge each other to nonsense. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure if this was a challenge or if he's just doing it as a fundraiser, but it seems like it's probably in that ballpark. It doesn't mention the article. But Liz, if you were going to do like a stunt that you wanted to get a lot of attention hiking, what would you do?

[00:21:30] I don't know if this is really a stunt, but I have been known to knit at while hike, not while actually walking, hiking, but like finding a spot, putting my chair and doing some knitting. Okay. I like that. Knitting on the 48. I'm trying to remember, Nick, I had one. Remember I talked about, I had an idea, but I can't remember. Rotisserie chicken, which was kind of Steve's idea. I don't know if you had a separate one. Well, no, it was rotisserie chicken, but no, I had another one, like a legit, um, I think

[00:21:58] it was like, it was the 52 with a view and the 48. I don't know. Oh, if you're like hiking. Yeah. You're like hiking challenge. I remember that. Yeah. I can't remember what that was. It was in some time span. I don't know if it was in like a month or something. Yeah. It had something to do with, um, the, doing the 52 with a view and the 4,000 footers and in a certain time period. So. Yeah. Be tough. Yeah. All right. Well, good for them. They get a lot.

[00:22:26] I see them on, um, I see them on social media a lot. So they, whatever they do in social media, they seem to know how to get attention. People on Reddit hate them. I read it. Reddit people hate them. They're like, they're the worst. I went to high school with this guy and I hated them. So let's be honest though. The White Mountain National Forest Reddit people hate everybody. They're the worst. Mike's Mike's on the outs with them ever since they hated your chat. GPT bot about history and want to lance it. They mean, they just mean. So anyway, all right. What else is going on in New Hampshire? Nick.

[00:22:54] So in case you haven't heard the White Mountain National Forest Lincoln Woods trail closure has been delayed. Um, we're going to cover this last week, but we know what happened to that episode. So, uh, you now have until I believe it's June 15th. Yeah. So June 15th through November, 2026 is when it's planned on being worked on. So you now have about an extra week. Uh, not as this episode drops, but you get an extra weekend to get out there and get the bonds or owl's head or anything else you want to do getting in and out of Lincoln woods.

[00:23:24] Uh, if you so desire. So kind of good news. Liz, on a scale of one to 10, how much do you care about the Lincoln woods closure? It's pretty low. Pretty low. At the moment. Like I have, I don't need anything in that area right now. Hmm. Yeah. I think I'm feeling about the same way. Like I can make my way through. Um, we were talking about, I think we've got a little plan going on to go up to the, uh,

[00:23:52] the East side trail and try to get over to Thoreau Falls in that area. So maybe it just motivates people to explore new areas that they wouldn't have gone to otherwise. Yeah. Excellent. All right, Nick. So that's good. We'll hear, uh, there'll be much, much sadness on the 15th when it, uh, when it closes, but what else is going on? There's the good news with the AMC huts here that are open now. So yeah, just letting everybody know this came to mind because I saw the caretakers opening up Madison hut on Wednesday, the 3rd, uh, for June 4th.

[00:24:20] They have different dates depending on the open these, uh, but in general, all the AMCs high mountain huts are open. Um, so you got pretty much starting from the West, you got lonesome lake hut. Then you got green leaf. Then we've got, see if I can do this in the right order of Gale head hut, Zealand hut. Uh, what's next after that? We got the AMC highland center, which not a, isn't a hut, but still an AMC establishment. And then you got, um, Misbah hut and then lakes of the clouds and then Madison Springs hut.

[00:24:49] And then down across to Carter notch hut. And I believe that's it. But, um, all of them are open, ready to go. Uh, they already had water going, which was really nice. Um, and you can book a stay or sort of adventure if you want to. So mostly just nice to get water and have a place to snack and sort of get in for a bit if you need to and use the bathrooms, which is always nice. Right. Right. Liz, do you think you'll be staying at any huts this summer? I have never stayed at a hut.

[00:25:17] I've stopped in to snack and use the bathroom at a couple of them, but I have not stayed. Okay. Well, that may be a new, uh, a new, uh, adventure that you'll have to unlock then. Yeah. I'd be curious to see what it's like during the season. Cause I've only done one time and it was with like Zealand with you guys in the winter and then we stayed at Grey Nob and it was just us. So I feel like that's kind of my definition of a hut experience now. So I'm not sure if I want to like go with a bunch of other people. Yeah. Yeah. You've been lucky. You've had some good experiences.

[00:25:45] Uh, I keep promising my daughter and her boyfriend that we're going to do an overnight and every literally for like the last five years, I promised them. And then I just, I got out of the, I'm too busy. I never book it. So maybe this will be my year. Liz, you can come join us on me. Okay. Um, all right, Nick, what else do we have here? So this was a, and I think you mentioned seeing this too, Mike, do you, are you aware of this Instagram? I don't know how much you do Instagram. Liz, there's this guy by your side outfitters.

[00:26:14] Um, you ever heard of him? He does. He does like a lot of, he does some interesting videos. I've found with a lot of his geological videos and stuff like that. It, you kind of got to look into it because usually exaggerates. This is, we had one while back was like how the cascade range was like related to the Adirondacks. And like I looked into it and it wasn't necessarily true. So he had this video that I immediately was kind of like, I'm going to, I'm going to say, and I do enjoy a lot of the content that he posts. I don't want to make it sound like he's just posting like stuff. That's not all legitimate, but this one kind of caught me.

[00:26:42] So he basically insinuated that the white mountains are not actually part of the Appalachian mountains and they're their own thing. Um, and this was because the whites sit outside the Appalachian fold belt. Um, and for those of you who don't know what the fold belt is, I'm about to tell you. So this was a belt that was the result of the parent land masses of North America, Africa, and Europe smashing into each other. Uh, roughly 500 to 300 million years ago. So during the sort of Pangea type era, um, his video goes on to explain that a hundred

[00:27:09] million years ago as North America drifted West, it dragged New England across a hotspot. Um, basically sort of magma and whatnot, pushing up through the crust that shoved Conway granite to the surface, um, making the white mountains unique because apparently they're all granite, which also isn't true. Um, it is correct. He does state that they rode differently because they're granite, which is completely true. Um, but he sort of puts on this, uh, ruse that they are completely unique geologically.

[00:27:38] Um, and they feel out of place in the Appalachians because they're their own mountain range. So I did a little bit of digging on this. Um, it's not quite true. So I would say it's mostly wrong actually from, from this claim. I, in a lot of the videos he does, I'd say they're kind of related, but this one to me was just completely wrong. So the white mountains are definitely part of the Appalachian mountain train chain. They're not part of the classic fold and thrust belt as he mentioned. So that's, that's kind of correct.

[00:28:04] Um, if you look at sort of that belts where the continents originally were crashing into each other, that's more around like Berkshire's green mountain. So it is a little bit further West. However, a lot of the rocks basically the same, and it's, it's still the same basis of the range. Um, the Appalachian foundation of the whites formed 300 to 500 million years ago during these collisions. So it was during the same event. It's not necessarily the core of the belt where that occurred, but it is still a result of those collisions. Um, and there was around a hundred, 200 million years ago, magma that intruded into the region

[00:28:34] forming rocks like Conway granite, which we see up in New Hampshire. Um, and this was possibly related to Atlantic rifting, um, and going over the new England hotspot. So that's not a hundred percent explainable for why Conway granite ended up getting shoved up to the surface and the whites, like where you see it. Um, so these younger rocks didn't actually create the mountains themselves. They formed underground and later became exposed as erosion removed the softer surrounding rock. So you can think the granite wasn't necessarily exposed everywhere that we see it nowadays.

[00:29:01] There's been hundreds of literally a hundred million years of erosion and weather and things going on. Um, so when you think of Conway granite and, and I mean, people know New Hampshire is the granite state. Um, but many, and I think most of the white mountains are not actually made of Conway granite. Some classic ones that people probably know are Chikura and white face. They are completely Conway granite. When you see the summits of those, um, many of them are not, um, primarily not being of

[00:29:28] that origin or the presidential range, which, um, again, against his argument, they're composed primarily of older metamorphic rocks that are directly tied to the original Appalachian mountains. Um, so they're pretty much that indigenous rock that you see when you go down to Virginia and you see in other places. Um, and just wanted to add to that when we see the dramatic features in the whites, like the ravines and the glacial cirques that in, I'm mentioning it right in the name there, but glaciers are really responsible for the dramatic and rough terrain that you see in the whites.

[00:29:56] So it's not necessarily erosion or sort of these, um, crashing events of continents and things like that. So interesting video, but a clarification there. And, um, another thing I wanted to add, I was just thinking of if you go into the back of the white mountain, 4,000 footer guide by Steve Smith and Mike Dickerman, there's a section that will tell you what type of rock each of the mountains is made out of. Um, so if you're really in, and you want to go down that geological rabble rabbit hole, you can actually see that. Um, but a good chunk of them are not made out of Conway granite.

[00:30:25] Um, there's many dramatic features like the cannon cliffs and stuff that are have granite and things in the whites, but certainly not all of the mountains are made out of granite. Right. It's crazy to think that, um, if you went back, Bill, you know, whatever, a hundredth of thousands of years ago or billion years ago, that the Mount Washington could have been like rival Mount Everest and the Alps and in the Andes at that height. Yeah. It's, um, well, I know there's a sign on Wachusett that mentioned, I think Wachusett, they

[00:30:54] guess before the glaciers like was like nine or 10,000 feet tall. And then it just got raked by glaciers. So a lot of the whites were the same way and, um, they carved out the ravines and the valleys and the notches. And, um, that's why you have all those glacial erratics everywhere. There's glacial erratics even like around where we all live probably too. It's even in Southeastern Mass, you see the influence of glaciers that were sliding down into the Bay in Southern New England. So. Right. Well, very interesting. So sorry, uh, by your side outfitters, but, um, we, we are going to, uh, call this

[00:31:23] misinformation, but most of your stuff's pretty good. So we'll, we'll keep giving you a follow. Yes. All right. And then we've got some national news here. So, um, obviously we know, um, there's, we talk quite a bit about shitting in the woods on this show. So, um, Colorado's Blue Lakes Trail has a massive human waste problem. So, um, Colorado's Colorado crews are cleaning up an abundance of human shit at one of the state's most popular trails.

[00:31:51] So trail workers are removing years of accumulated human waste. I feel like years of waste, like what are these people shitting out of their bodies that it's, doesn't it disappear after a while? I don't know. I had one favorite part of the article too, was how they mentioned that they think, they think the marmots might be eating in that. And that's why they're super chunky, which is disgusting. And also like kind of fascinating. Well, on that theme, I will tell you that I did see somebody posted on the 4,000 foot

[00:32:18] of group and said that they had a medical emergency with their dog because the dog had gotten a hold of human waste and had overdosed on, they think had overdosed on marijuana. So somebody was smoking pot or they would, whatever they were, they were doing marijuana and they, they went apparently like right on the trail and the dog ate the human waste and then had to be hospitalized because it got exposed to pot. That's insane. Right. I didn't know that could happen. I didn't know either. And now we know. So. That's why we're here.

[00:32:48] Yeah. So you gotta dig. I mean, look, you gotta dig, you gotta have your shovel and you gotta dig, whatever, eight, 10, 12 inches, get it down there, cover it up, step on it and, um, and move along. Ugh. So, but anyway, they're doing all kinds of work on this popular trail. Um, I guess that this, this, this lakes trail encompasses three turquoise lakes nestled in an alpine basin below Colorado's 14,000 foot Mount Sneffles.

[00:33:14] It's an eight and a half mile trail leading to the lakes and it's one of the most popular hikes in the States drawing, uh, in the state drawing over 35,000 visitors per year, according to the forest service. So, um. A lot of poop. I guess, yeah, they need, maybe they need to put some porta potties in there. Yeah. Maybe. Privy's. Privy's, I think. Yeah. So anyway, but that's, uh, that's it. So be, be careful.

[00:33:39] And if you, um, if you have a dog, watch out cause apparently dogs like to, uh, eat human waste and you never know what's in there. Mm. All right, Nick, we always love a good grizzly bear attack story here on the slasher podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, we do. And unfortunate for the victims, but at least this guy was, uh, I mean, he would, I'd say he was okay. He's alive, but he got pretty beat up. But yeah, this was a good looking dude. This guy. He is a good looking guy. I'm not going to lie. He has a face for video podcasts. Yeah.

[00:34:09] I'll send this to you. This guy looks like, like, look, if, if, if me, Nick and Dave were in a room with this guy, like no one's picking us. No. Stop might, stop might be able to contend with him. Stop might rival. But, um, but yeah, he looks pretty good for grizzly bear attack. Yeah. So this hiker was on a trip to Montana and miraculously escaped a terrifying encounter with a grizzly bear that bit his arm and dragged him before running off. It's terrifying. Just terrifying.

[00:34:34] So, uh, Daniel Kragos shared frightening details of his trip to Glacier National Park on May 28th, where he was on a hike with his friend along the popular Grinnell Glacier Trail. So the 32 year old said he followed two hikers at the end of the trail to take some photos while his friend stayed back when he noticed a small grizzly bear. Um, he immediately checked his surroundings and, uh, no more than 15 feet above me on the mountainside was a larger grizzly. So, um, thinking that probably he had sort of a mom with a smaller grizzly near him.

[00:35:04] So he did as he told and he alerted the bear. But at that point he was so close that it likely just frightened the grizzly bear. Um, and as soon as it saw him, it charged down and attacked him. He threw his arm up and he bit it and it dragged him about 20 to 30 feet and then it ran off. Um, and he shared pictures of the x-ray and like this thing snapped his arm like a wishbone. Like it is destroyed. They, you can see they put steel plates in it, but it's impressive. Like it bit and like did it look like his bone was almost protruding from the skin. Yeah.

[00:35:33] Um, and you think how quickly it literally just bit him and like just snapped him like a twig essentially. It's insane. Yeah. And there's a GoFund, so apparently like the medical expenses for this guy, I don't know, maybe he doesn't have insurance. Maybe, I don't know what the story is with the insurance here, but he basically said that the medical bills are overwhelming and he was lucky. There was actually a, an orthopedic surgeon that was, or a pediatric ER doctor nearby who stabilized the arm, I guess.

[00:36:03] And then he was airlifted by helicopter. So that's probably what the expense is, is the helicopter. Um, and then I guess he had an orthopedic surgeon, the hospital team worked tirelessly to stabilize him and begin the recovery. So three surgeries. So the helicopter ride plus the three surgeries, uh, he said that the, the costs are overwhelming. So he's got a GoFund me that he's looking to raise $60,000. He won't have $41,000.

[00:36:30] So hopefully he can cut a deal with the, um, he can cut a deal with the, with the hospital to just pay them that and move on with his life. But that's scary. It's a small grizzly, but the, the, the article in the paper, the article online shows like the scariest looking grizzly you could imagine. Oh yeah. It's like a stock photo with like its teeth, like just grows like growling or yelling or whatever. Um, and they do mention, I was curious about this too, but they said that officials said they likely didn't detect each other because of the sound of rushing water.

[00:36:59] So they're thinking the grizzly couldn't hear the hikers and the hikers couldn't hear the grizzly. And, um, that's why they kind of snuck up on each other and it wasn't good for either of them. Liz, what is your beer defense system? Do you, uh, I mean, I think about this every once in a while. Mine is immediately like, I'm going to stick my hiking poles in the eyes and, and drive it right into the brain and kill the beer. If not, I'm just going to throw a Snickers bar and run. But do you, do you have a plan?

[00:37:28] Well, plan number one is to not see them. Um, and yeah, I like that plan. Um, and luckily so far, anytime I've seen them, they've been far off trail or far down the trail that making noise scares them. Um, because I honestly, I was thinking about that the last time I was out, what I would do if I, like one was coming at me because I see so many more stories of that happening. Might be the Snickers bar getting thrown at it.

[00:37:57] Do you have like a, do you have a specific noise that you're going to make that you think is, is more apt to scare the bear away? I yell or I, I, um, hit my poles together. What would you yell? What is your yell? Is it just like a, Hey! Or, yeah. Yeah, probably. Um, Izzy and I were together a couple of years ago and she started singing a song when we saw a bear. Well, I guess, did the bear run away? Yes.

[00:38:25] She must not be great at karaoke night then. They don't like Sinatra. You get to sing the Sinatra. Yeah, exactly. All right. Well, think about that a little bit more. I feel like you're, I feel like your system has got some holes in it. It absolutely does. What? I don't have a good system. Mine's not great either. So, I just started singing the Macarena. Yeah. But it would run away. So, I guess you could pick up a rock maybe and throw it if you need to.

[00:38:53] Like, not at the bear, but like near the bear. I had to hide from a moose once. You did. That's scary. Yes. But that's easy. I think it's actually easier to hide from a moose than it is to hide from a bear. I would think so because they are, you find a small space and they can't really. Yeah. Yeah. I kind of wedged myself amongst some trees so that he didn't, it was a bull. But the black bear can reach in. So, yeah. Exactly. Yeah. All right. Well, that was good.

[00:39:23] So, we'll have to just keep studying, Liz. You'll figure out a defense mechanism there. So, all right. And then, Liz, did you ever have to use a payphone when you were young? Did you ever get in trouble and have to call your parents? You know how your parents always tell you like, don't be afraid to call me. You're in a bad situation. Did you ever have to do that and call them on a payphone collect or anything? I know I've used, I know I use payphones and I know, like, I don't think I was ever in

[00:39:52] trouble, but I did have to use, I remember using the calling card. Nick, do you even know what a collect call is? When I say a collect call, do you know what that means? Not really. I did use a payphone once. You did? Yeah. But you don't know what a collect call is? No. So, all right. Liz, do you know what a collect call is? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. A collect call is back in the day, you would, maybe at somebody's house, like, you would

[00:40:22] get charged depending on where you call. Like, I don't understand the whole thing, but all I remember is that I lived in North Redding and then most of my family lived in Somerville and Cambridge. And for them to call out to the suburbs in Somerville cost them, like, money. But for us to call from North Redding to Somerville didn't cost any money. So, we had a whole system where, like, my grandmother would ring once and hang up. And then my aunts would ring twice and hang up.

[00:40:51] And then my other aunts would ring three. So, you weren't allowed to pick the phone up until the fourth ring because if it hung up, then you knew it was one of my aunts that my mother would have to call over her mother. So, there's a whole system there. But then in addition to that, sometimes, like, you might be at a friend's house or something like that and you didn't want them to get charged. So, you could call your house and you would call zero, the operator. And then you would, the operator would pick up and then you would say, I want to make a collect call. And then you'd give the phone number.

[00:41:20] And then, say you had to get picked up or something like that. And then you would get patched through. The operator would say, I have a collect call from Michael. Will you accept it? And then the other person on the end would say, yeah, I accept it. And then the operator would connect you and then you could talk. Sometimes, if you didn't have any money, you would do a collect call. And then the second the operator got you on the line, you would be like, I'm at 123 Main Street. Come get me. And then you'd hang up. And then your parent would be like, I'm not accepting the collect call.

[00:41:47] But they would know to go to pick you up. Wow. That's complicated. Yeah. It was a whole system. I remember when this jogged my memory when you said about the calls costing more money. But I remember my grandmother had one of her sisters lived out in Utah. She had bad arthritis. And I guess if you're in drier climates, it tends to be better. So she had moved out to outside Salt Lake City. And they used to take turns calling each other back and forth because of the phone bill. They would split it monthly. They'd call each other.

[00:42:16] And they'd be like, oh, it's your turn this month. Right. But I guess it was pretty pricey. They'd talk for a few hours or whatever. Yeah. We had one girl in college that we got. Like, it took a couple of weeks. We took a couple of weeks in college to actually get your phones. Like, you would sign up for phones. And then eventually, like, the phone company would come and do the whole dorm. And I know there was, like, one group of girls on the floor below us that one of the girls, they got the phone, and the girl was constantly on the phone with her boyfriend. I don't know where he went to school, somewhere.

[00:42:45] But she was definitely into her boyfriend. She'd never come out. Everyone was like, oh, come out and party. She'd stay in the room. She racked up, like, $900 in a month of phone bills with her boyfriend. And then the parents made her come home because, yeah. So there was all kinds of shenanigans with phones. Is all this stuff, like, makes sense to you, right? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So anyway, the reason we bring this up is that the last working pay phone in the Yellowstone is now dead. Oh, wow. Sigh.

[00:43:15] Which is sad. So it's, I guess, a courtesy phone that you could use. But I feel like there is a pay phone at Lafayette. There's a pay phone in New Hampshire at Lafayette Campground parking lot. I wonder if there's any other ones, like Pinkham Notch or any areas like that. There's a couple. I think there is one at Pinkham Notch, too. Mm-hmm. I feel like I heard that somewhere. So anyway, the end of an error. But you learned a little bit, Nick, about collect calls, too.

[00:43:45] I did. That was a fun story, Tom. Yes. I was like those. Very good. All right. So and then we learned about Liz's beer defense technique. So this has been a fun show so far. Yes, it has. Ready for Slasher's Gear Review? Gear Review.

[00:44:14] So I've seen you've been carrying your little guy on your back, Nick. Yeah. Ethan's been riding in the carrier and Ryland's kind of kicked out, which has caused mixed feelings. I think she's cool with it now. But it's kind of at first she's like, oh, he has to go on that. He's too little. And I'm like, no, you're too big now. And I did want to shout out. I don't think I've shouted out this specific carrier on the podcast before, but I've been using the Osprey Poco LT Child Carrier now for almost, gosh, three and a half years because I had Ryland in it most of the time.

[00:44:42] And it's like rated up to around 40 pounds. I've had really good luck with it. One thing I will say, and I did link it in here, but it is way more expensive than it was. Like, I mean, this would have been probably during early before Ryland was born, like 2022. So it's like $150, I think, more expensive than what we paid for it. And actually, if unless you buy the top of the line one, there's like this little canopy that's nice. It'll go pull out the top, the back of the pack and then go over the top of it to sort of shelter your kid out of the sun or rain or whatever.

[00:45:11] And you have to buy that separately unless you buy like the most expensive one now. So they're running like $450. But it's a good use. Like I've taken them everywhere. And it's a good option, a little pricey. So maybe if you get like a registry or something for a new kid and try to use a gift certificate for it. But I think it's kind of a priceless one. You talk about just generally being comfortable and being secure with a kid on your back. I've fallen down in that thing, like on watch you sit and stuff. And Ryland was perfectly fine, even though I was a little banged up. So they work pretty well.

[00:45:41] Yeah. Mrs. Mike used to carry the, we had, I mean, we didn't have something this fancy, but we had a similar thing. And Mrs. Mike actually used to carry the kids around when she was just cleaning up the house. And they would tend to fall asleep. So she would just carry them around while she was whatever, vacuuming or doing dishes or whatever she was up to during the day. And the kids used to love it. They love being in that thing. Oh yeah. They're usually pretty cozy. Like Ryland, it seems, and it seems like Ethan too.

[00:46:08] Like when I go down things like that, it must just sort of be the rocking motion, but they'll usually pass out and they seem to enjoy it. Very good. Very good. So I'm not prepared for the dad joke. So we'll wait until next week for that, Nick. But now we are prepared with a music minute here that I'm very excited for. Yes. So I figured that you'd probably enjoy this one this week. So I'm taking it back to the seventies again.

[00:46:33] Um, and I don't know why this album came up this, this week in, in my shuffle or whatever. And then I started looking at, they did a 2025 remaster or 2026 remaster of it. But, um, this week's album is Breakfast in America by the band Supertramp came out in 1979. So this was released back in March of 1979 and became Supertramp's greatest commercial success. It reached number one in the billboard 200 and spent six weeks at the top of the chart, which is pretty damn impressive.

[00:47:02] Um, it won two Grammy awards and received an album of the year nomination, um, blended progressive rock, pop and rock art rock into accessible radio friendly sound, um, sold an estimated 18 million copies worldwide. Um, and I ended up checking out this 2026 remaster. Um, it's, it's brings it, I think it makes it sound a little bit more modern. It's not like aggressive where it looks like anything sounds drastically different. I think it just is a little bit cleaner. Um, just sort of brings it up to date.

[00:47:28] Um, and apparently Supertramp's been going through, uh, sort of remastering and re-releasing all of their albums as part of an ongoing catalog reissue. Um, which is kind of fun. If you're into vinyl or anything like that, they're putting everything in back out on 180 grand vinyl, remastering it, um, by, uh, miles Scholl at Abbey road studios. So pretty neat there. Um, as far as the, I mean, the whole album is fantastic, but as far as the massive hits, the logical song, I think it's probably the song where most people think of, if they think

[00:47:57] of this album, goodbye stranger, take the long way home and breakfast in America that I kind of forgot about that track a little bit. It's, it's a great track. It's a little, I think it's a little like quirky, but it's just really catchy and all of this out. It's just been the logical song was stuck in my head. Like, you know, singing it before I even logged on to hear this tonight. So, um, couple of little interesting facts about this one. So it was recorded, um, when super tramp was arguably at their creative and commercial peak. Um, some people think it might've occurred a little bit before that, but either way, they

[00:48:26] were kind of crushing it at this time. Um, the whole sound on the album was driven by the contrasting songwriting styles of Roger Hodson and Rick Davies. Um, it's known for, in addition to just being a popular album, it's, it had really meticulous production, layered keyboards, um, great harmonies. And it's, it has a fantastic sound. Like, especially considering this was made back in 79, it sounds a lot better than a lot of things recorded at that time. I think, um, when you kind of think of some of the contemporary albums that came out in

[00:48:54] that time period, um, there's Whirlitzer electric piano throughout the entire thing, which kind of gives the album, this sort of tying theme together, um, makes it sound sort of cohesive. And of course the album cover depicts a waitress in the statue of Liberty overlooking a breakfast food version of New York city. So, um, yeah, it's great, great stuff. Do you want to talk a little bit about the album? Just a little, um. It seemed like you were close to it. Yeah. Just a little fun fact here.

[00:49:20] As you were typing, I would say the, the, the cover album is a waitress holding up a glass of orange juice and she's behind like, uh, New York city and the art on it's kind of cool. It's like a, it's like diner, um, table, um, fixings, but they're, they're, they look like New York city, Manhattan. And then, uh, she's like dressed up, like I said, as like a diner waitress and she's sitting there holding up the cup, like the statue of Liberty. So then the actress's name is Kate Murtaugh.

[00:49:49] Uh, so, um, she apparently portrays a diner waitress named Libby posing like the statue of Liberty while holding the glass of orange juice. And it was designed by, uh, Mike Dowd and Mick Haggerty and became one of the most recognizable album covers in the 1970s. I don't know. I think that anybody that went to college in the late eighties into the nineties, um, if you didn't have this album on your, uh, five disc CD player running, it would be unusual.

[00:50:18] At least guys, I don't know about the girls, but like this was constantly in my, my CD player. So I love it. Yeah, I know my, um, my dad, I was, I was saying this to you in stomp when we were texting my dad was saying that he thinks he went through more, uh, vinyl copies of this than anything else because they'd have parties and like people would end up trying to put it on while they were drinking or whatever. And they'd spill beer and other things on it. So he's like, I think this is like my ninth or 10th copies had. I actually have my dad's copy over there on the record shelf, but, um, it is a super

[00:50:48] recognizable album cover. It's almost like I'd put it up there with sort of like the pink Floyd dark side of the moon cover where it's like, you see that and it's a pretty iconic. And very recognizable cover. Yeah, I agree. And when Caroline, so my oldest daughter, when she started getting into, uh, vinyl, uh, literally like the first thing we did, the first thing I looked for when we went to the record stores to start her collection was this, was this album here. So, so. And she was like, I don't even know what this is. And I said, trust me. Well, just listen to it. Good picnic. I appreciate this.

[00:51:17] None of that garbage, uh, indie, uh, angsty stuff. So. Wait for next week. So I actually, I've been into a little, a couple of indie, um, artists though. Uh, Maggie Robertson and Holly Humberstone. Have you, are you familiar with either one of them? I'm not. Send them to you. There's a new one on me. Okay. Send them to you. So. Liz, do you have any thoughts on, uh, uh, super tramp? Was that a, was that something you were familiar with back in your younger days? You know, it's funny is I, I'm sure if I listened to it, I would recognize it, but right

[00:51:47] now I cannot place it at all. Okay. I'm old. Probably old enough. Do you do Spotify or Apple music? Apple music. Yeah. Okay. So you can, you should be able to just look it up and breakfast in America and then just let it play. I'll be checking it out when we're done here. Right. It's one of those ones that you just play the whole album. Every song is good. All right, Nick, what are we onto at this point now?

[00:52:11] So we are what swag are on the part of the show where we, um, talk about swag here. So, all right. So if you want stickers and I'm going to bring some stickers to the, uh, the, the Alzheimer's hike, and then you got to, you have to bring patches, Nick. I'm going to bring patches and make sure you bring some extra stickers. Cause I need. Yeah. Yeah. We'll get plenty. So, um, get your free stickers at the mountain wanderer. So go see our friends, Forrest and Caroline at the mountain wanderer.

[00:52:41] They've got stickers. And then if you want, if you're an Andover mass, you can go to Spinner's pizza parlor and get stickers down there. So, uh, and then if you want slasher swag and you want to represent, you can check out our bonfire shop. We've got hoodies, t-shirts, all kinds of fun stuff with good color selection. So you can help spread the word about slasher and represent today. And then, uh, if you do want patches, we do have those available. They're $2 and 50 cents each, and you can get them mailed directly to the door. So, uh, we accept payment through the slasher Venmo.

[00:53:11] So just send us a note over Instagram or our email account, and then we can, we can get your address and get those over to you. So, and then if you want to donate coffee, if you want to do, if you want to donate to the show and give us money for no apparent reason, you can do that. Um, you can support the podcast by donating to Slashers BuyMeACoffee site. So donations help us pay for web hosting, distribution, live events, patches, stickers, diapers, diapers, Nick's baby carrier, whatever, whatever it is.

[00:53:41] And then you can also click a button that makes you a monthly supporter where we take money out of your bank account every month. And I've heard it's impossible to cancel once you do that. So I highly recommend that you do that. We do. It'll go to a good place. Yes, it will. So, um, can you imagine if somebody signs up for that monthly thing and then like 25 years from now, like I'm dead in the ground, Stomp's dead in the ground, Nick, you'll still be alive. You'll continue to get that money every month.

[00:54:09] Just keep investing in it and then I'll buy a Shelly in Europe. That's true. That's true. So. Hey, hold my beer. It's time to find out what Mike and Stomp are drinking on this week's Beer Talk. All right.

[00:54:36] Um, and now is the part of the show where we talk about, uh, the beer that we are drinking tonight, Nick. So I don't know. I've been, I've been watching both of you. I haven't seen either one of you taking sips of anything. I missed the assignment. All right. Liz has got something. What do you have, Liz? I have a Stow Cider, a strawberry lemonade. Okay. How is it? It's good. I like this. Yeah. It looks, uh, it looks, looks like a good, uh, good summer. It's a good sour thing, so. Are you typically more of a cider person than like a beer person or other types? Yeah.

[00:55:06] I'll drink a beer here and there, but I do like, I like ciders a lot. I feel like that works well for summer. What do you got, Mike? I have, um, it is called, it's, uh, Coronado Brewing Company. This is, um. That's good. A Trader Joe's special from Mrs. Mike, I think. So it's called Weekend Vibes IPA. So what's better than Weekend Vibes than on a Tuesday night? They're really good. And I've been to their brewery twice in San Diego. Really? Out there.

[00:55:35] So if you're ever out in San Diego, it's on, uh, the islands whose name is escaping me out there off the coast of San Diego. Yeah. They have a really cool brewery. I know what you're talking about. This is a very. Coronado Island. Coronado Island. Coronado Island. This is 6.8% alcohol, but very smooth IPA surprisingly, so. Yeah, they have good stuff. They're doing well there, so. Okay. Um, and Nick, you, you're just drinking water? I've got Diet Coke tonight, so. I'll be having some beers this weekend, though. After the hike. That's for sure. Very well. Taking it easy.

[00:56:11] 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. We got this. But I just blew out my hip. I fell down that gully with my 40-year-old micro spikes. Suck it up, Stomp. It's 4 p.m. 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.

[00:56:39] 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. Psh, ha, whatever, mister. Do you know me? I have a podcast. Psh, whatever. Let's find out what Mike and Stomp have been hiking. Very well.

[00:57:08] And then, uh, now's the time of the show where we talk about our recent hikes, Nick. Nick has been, Nick, I'm still locked out of the Instagram account, so I can't share my exploits. I know. Well, we've been trying to work on it. I think we need to get into Facebook first to try to get into Instagram, or we just need to reset it. We're gonna sort it out when we do, on the hike. Okay. Well, Nobby does his speech. We'll sort out the, uh, Instagram. In an area with spotty internet service. It'll be, it'll do it. But, uh, I don't know. Do you want to go first?

[00:57:38] You want me to go first? You can go first. All right. So, uh, where did I go this weekend? I hiked with, um, my friend Jay and my friend Tom and, uh, Jay, our friend Jakester. And we did a, originally we were, I don't know, we didn't have plans. And then Stomp raised his hand and said, I'm going to get out hiking. So we were like, all right, well, let's make it convenient for Stomp. So we figured we would do right by his neighborhood. So we were going to do, um, Jennings and Sandwich.

[00:58:06] Stomp was going to just do Jennings and then turn around. And he was like, you know, my, my hip is not great, but I think I can do my first hike. And then he decided to tap out cause he did a little camping trip the day before. So that was fine. But we just met on, um, exit three in Wyndham, New Hampshire, all piled into one car. My friend Tom drove and then we were off and we went up Sandwich Mountain Trail from Drakesbrook Trailhead and a great trail. Trail maintainer was up there.

[00:58:35] Now that I'm doing trail maintenance, I could, I could see the edges were broken out. I could see the drainage was cleared. I could see that there was brushing that had been done. I could spot all that because I've now been trained to see all of it. So the trail was in fantastic shape. And, um, once we got up to the top of Sandwich Mountain Trail, then we headed up to, uh, Jennings Peak, which, well, we actually got some awesome views on Noon Peak to start with. Then we went to Jennings, which had even better views of Sachem Peak and then Sandwich. Uh, you could see everything.

[00:59:05] And then, yeah, we headed up to Sandwich Dome. Nick wasn't sure if there was going to be views or not. I wasn't sure either, but it looks like they've got, it's not great, but they've got like a section cut down so you can see out. And I don't think they'll ever take that mountain off of the 52 of the view list because it's, it's like kind of the whole mountain of the over the hill hikers. So, but it was nice. And then we went, um, we went back down Drake's Brook Trail, which was in good shape as well.

[00:59:33] A couple of blow downs, but otherwise, um, awesome day. And it had threatened to rain, but it didn't rain. So we just had a high ceiling and, um, yeah, got awesome views all day. It was a great time. And then one of the interesting things, Nick, is, and I've seen you, you've kind of seen this journey as well as our friend Jay last year. So Jay's kind of like, he was my soccer dad, um, Amesbury local guy that's gotten into hiking and he's now become friends with my hiking friends.

[01:00:01] And last year he would struggle to keep up and, and he would have a hard time. He's just like cruising along now. No problem. Going downhill 20 minute miles with like me and Jake were moving along and he was keeping up no problem now. So it's been awesome to see him. He's lost like 45 pounds. And then he's also just picked that he's gotten his hiking legs. So it's been amazing to see his, his progression. Sick. Yeah. That's, that's really, that's cool. That's, that's cool seeing people sort of on that journey. Good job, Jay. And he's been putting up with you two on the trail. So yeah.

[01:00:30] Yeah. It's a great job. He's got a tough teacher. Yeah. It's kind of weird. Liz, like I've known this guy for years and like he wasn't, he was always a little bit into hiking, but not really. We would run together, but he's totally addicted at this point. He's always talking about like, oh, this route or this mountain or whatever. Have you ever had somebody that you knew before and then all of a sudden they got the bug and you're like, who is this person? Not really. Cause Dave was already into hiking quite a bit when I started hiking with him. And Izzy and I kind of started together.

[01:00:58] We, I've known Izzy since she was probably in like third grade. Right. So our families hiked together. Um, and then she and I started working on our 48 kind of at the same time. So we were doing, we were doing all that learning stuff at the same time. Right. Yeah. So it is kind of weird like seeing it. Cause the same with me, like everyone I've known was into hiking. So I didn't know anybody that had just started. So for him to just start off with now, he's like playing, he's going to come up to Katahdin with us next. So he's all in. Oh, that's cool. That's neat.

[01:01:28] Yeah. He was, I think it was 20 is 25th 52 with a view that he's done. So he's halfway crushing it. I know he's doing 48 and those at the same time. So yeah, that's a, that's a, that's not an easy, that's like almost a 3000 foot birthday to doing those two things. Right. Like it's pretty legit. Yeah. I don't look at my Strava. I think it's closer to like 2700 or something. I think it will. I don't know. You start at 1400 and that, and then you go up to 4000. So that's, yeah, that's 2600 right there. And then there's a little bit of up and down.

[01:01:58] So yeah, it is close to 3000. Yeah. I'll have to get back out to those. I haven't, I've only been on like a lot of the 52s. I've only been on that once and with Ash and we did, we did not have great views from Sandwich Dome. Like I think there was a tree in the middle of the way. Yeah. Yeah. I think they've done a little bit of pruning up there. So it's not, not bad, but not the greatest. Like definitely Jennings and Noon were much, much more interesting views from my, from my perspective. And there's no room up there either. That was the thing is we didn't see anybody until we got to Sandwich.

[01:02:27] And then there was a lot of people coming up Bennett street and there was people coming up Algonquin. So when we got there, there was like maybe a dozen people on there. We were standing on the summit, but then some other people came and I was like, all right, let's get out of here. Cause we'll let other people see the view, but there's really not a lot of room on Sandwich Dome to move around. You were up there not that long ago too, Liz, right? Yes. Yes. I did a hike with my son. Okay. Um, we did a weird loop.

[01:02:55] Like we, I needed a black mountain trail, um, the rest of Guinea pond trail and the rest of Algonquin trail. So we did like a 13 mile loop. Um, cause we came in from flat, uh, flat mountain pond parking area. Um, that was a neat loop. Yeah. Yeah. One of the, one of the guys on the summit, I was talking to him, somebody asked what direction he came up from and he, him and his son came up the Gleason trail.

[01:03:24] And I asked, I was like, Oh, did you, you went up the abandoned part? And he's like, yeah, we went all the way up. So, and I had done that one before too. So, um, I thought that that was interesting. I was asking him, I was like, how was it? And he said, it's in pretty good shape. A lot of moose, um, activity on that. That trail, I've been up there too. And it was like crazy amount of moose, um, moose activity. So yeah. But he said that it wasn't too bad. He connected with Bennett street at the top and then made it through. So there's all kinds of adventures up there.

[01:03:55] Cool. I'm glad you guys had a good day. Yeah. What about you, Nick? You got a lot of good photos on the Instagram. Thank you. Yeah. I'm still good. My camera with me too. So I need to like comb down what, how much I take, but it's, it's all good. Um, so yeah, I've been looking. So a couple of goals, I wanted to get trail maintenance done. Um, just before, like we were actually getting up there for even this hike. Like that's usually what I've tried to do. Um, on the cutoff on airline cutoff, I maintain up there for anybody that doesn't know.

[01:04:21] Um, and I also wanted to get out and bag some spring peaks and also had mixed feelings of like, I wanted to do a little bit bigger day with some trail race stuff coming up later in the summer. Um, so what I settled on was I did the Hancocks in the morning. I needed them for spring and to round out, um, them for all four seasons. And then I headed over to Madison after, um, went up and over Madison, um, pretty much. And then did trail maintenance and caught sunset up there, which was like fantastic. Um, just a long day. It was a bigger day.

[01:04:48] I think it ended up being around 20 miles, 7,500 feet, somewhere in that ballpark. Um, doing, I've done a couple of two for days in the whites where I tried to do a couple of 4,000 footers. I think I've done like Cannon and Jackson in the same day. I've done Cabot and Mariah in the same day. Um, this one kicked my butt more than I think I thought it was would. And I also kind of had my own self to blame just because I picked going up Watson path. Um, as opposed to just going up Valley way over Madison, which I love Watson path. Um, it has great views, but the kind of the trade-off is that it's just super steep.

[01:05:16] Um, I had a couple of little fun facts because we've just talked about on the podcast before, but according to my Garmin watch, so that climb up to North Hancock, first of all, I was noticing 1100 feet and 0.6. So that's, that's a good steep ascent, which I think anybody's, it's gone up from that ditch, um, kind of the drainage nose. And then Watson path climbs over 2000 feet in a little over a mile, um, from duck falls where it drops down up to the summit of Madison. So I think it's probably the steepest way on Madison that you can actually get up there.

[01:05:44] Um, but like I said, it's like all of a sudden you're, I'm always impressed. Like you're below sort of Duran Ridge and you can see where Valley way is going across from you. And then like, before, you know what you're like, well above, um, you can see airline kind of below you and whatnot. And you can see Hawker Ridge sort of popping out. Um, but great views down to Gorham. Really interesting perspective. Um, definitely recommend the trail for a scent, not so much decent and make sure, um, you're doing it in a clear weather day. Um, it does look like there's some newer carn's up there.

[01:06:11] Um, since the last time I did in some fresh blazes, but it's definitely hard to follow in spots. And I've done it, I think four times now. Um, there's one spot where it ducks back into the brush before it hits, um, pine link. That's not always super obvious to hit. Um, but really fun day. Um, caught a crazy sunset up there. I probably brushed for, I'd say a little over two hours. I was kind of going back and forth with Mike. I saw a snowshoe hair, which I was probably way too excited about. Yeah, you were very excited about that. Those are good. I've never seen one. No, they're, they're big. Like, that's the thing that surprised me the most.

[01:06:40] I thought it was like a fox or something that I was running and it was kind of, it was just hopping through the trail and I, or maybe like, I don't know, like a bobcat or something, but like, it's the size of like, it's basically as big as like my small house cat. Like it's as far as how tall they are. Um, but they have massive feet, which explains the footprints you see and you see why they're called snowshoe hair. Cause I'm sure they just float right across the snow. Um, but that was really neat. Um, yeah. And just kind of had to smooth descent down. There's always a ton of toads whenever I've come down Valley way in the dark and this

[01:07:09] time of year, which is something like toads, like literally like hand sized toads that I'm trying not to step on. Um, but it's, it's a good time. Cause I don't actually don't mind coming down Valley way in the dark. And it's funny. I was on the phone with Ash briefly cause it's kind of saying goodnight to her before. And she's like, aren't you afraid like hiking down there? And I'm like, I just try not, I put on music and I just try not to think about it. I'm like, hopefully there's no like moose or anything crazy going on, but it's, it's pretty, uh, pretty chill going down there. So that was a lot of fun. Um, and real quick, um, Ash was out for sort of a bachelorette weekend for her sister.

[01:07:39] She had a bridal shower and stuff. So I was with the kiddos and we checked out some local places. Um, one of which I had never been to before. Um, so we did carrot tank wildlife refuge over here in Seekonk on Friday night. Um, we did Allen's pond wildlife refuge, which is like an Audubon spot down in Westport, Dartmouth area, which was really pretty on Saturday. And then Sunday we got over to the blue Hills together. So, uh, Rylan was crushing some smaller Hills and, uh, had Ethan on my back, which was fun. And he had, it all went pretty well.

[01:08:06] And then he, Ethan peed through like three outfits, I think, um, within about a 24 hour time span on the trail. I've done that. Um, and a bunch of diapers. So, uh, we had fun. We went to a playground at blue Hills. It was a good time. And the weather Saturday, Sunday, I should say it was a little toasty, but it was pretty breezy up around blue Hills. It wasn't actually that bad. Um, so it was, it was nice. Well, I'm looking forward to hiking with you, Nick this weekend and you, hopefully you bring in your camera. I'm going to, uh, I'm going to try to look my, as good as I can look. Yeah. Make sure you're well groomed. We need some nice pictures.

[01:08:35] Chat GPT. I took, I'll take a picture beforehand and ask it to give me a rating. Usually it tells me I'm around four or five. So we'll see. Actually, true story. I actually was asking about chat GPT, how to self groom your sideburns. Cause my sideburns were just getting a little crazy and it gave me a pretty good answer and Ash thought they looked okay. So that's good. It's not too bad. It's good for chat GPT, Nick. So you're not worried. Look, you know, you don't have much to work with. So any assistance you need? And then Liz, what, what have you been up to? I know we're going to talk in a little bit more detail, but any recent hikes that you've

[01:09:05] just done? Uh, yeah, I, um, last week I did East Osceola. So I, I, I like the lists and things, but I'm not ever going to red line the, um, the guide like Izzy's working on it. I keep track and I like the variety of trails of, of hiking things I've never hiked, but I came across the Waterville red liner 125. So it's red lining all of the trails in the Waterville Valley area.

[01:09:35] And so I only have a couple more, I think two more hikes after yesterday. So I, I did, uh, East pond from, um, or sorry, East Osceola from Greeley ponds up, um, to East Osceola. And then yesterday I did North Tripyramid coming in from Livermore. Um, the right, you know, the Livermore lot did the Scour Ridge trail up to Pine Benbrook. Um, so I got those done.

[01:10:04] Um, Scour Ridge trail is really neat trail. It's, it's very easy compared to doing the North slide and the, uh, South slide for sure. Um, and you could kind of peek through the trees and see the North slide, which looks super intimidating from that angle. Right. It looks like it's almost 90 degrees. Um, so it was just a neat perspective to do something different like that.

[01:10:30] And then, um, last Friday I was on Halebrook trail, which is my adopted trail. Um, one of two, um, and it's in pretty good shape now. I was a, uh, co-adopter, but my co-adopter quit. So I'm now on my own for a while until they find somebody else. And that's the trail with a lot of needs. A lot of drainage I would imagine. Yeah, there are, um, 86, 87 drainages from top to bottom.

[01:11:00] I've counted. I was reading that in your post. I was like, oh my God. Yeah. A lot of drainages. There's a lot of drainages. Um, but they, we, they did the, um, the Forest Service did the training on my trail, uh, last weekend. So at least the first, um, up to the first water crossing we had, we cleared out as a group, which was huge. And then, um, Chad, who I met, I guess I met him last year at a training and then, um, kind of found him on Instagram.

[01:11:30] He went up and he cleared all of my, um, my blowdowns during the training, which was huge. Um, cause there were a lot apparently. Um, I was going to ask you that. So Val, like, I mean, my, my trail doesn't get like anything like that, but I was going up Valley way and there had been some cleared out, but there's like, there was one section there was six or seven blowdowns, like maybe a mile and a half in, but it seemed like, I don't know if it was one of those wet ice storms, but it seemed like it rocked a lot of the areas. Watson path had a couple too, where, um, like a couple of places where trees were just

[01:11:59] ripped out of the ground. So I was kind of curious how, what it was kind of looking in other areas of the whites. Yeah. The same. Like, um, I, somebody else ended up clearing it. Um, I think Chad did some of it, but there was, it basically was a giant, looked like a giant Christmas tree in the middle of the trail towards the top. Wow. Yeah. Um, so my other one is Mount Kineo trail. I, I did a little work on it so far. It's not that high. It's, it's, uh, not frequently hiked.

[01:12:29] It's over by three ponds trail and car mountain trail in that area. Um, it's a different beast. It's mostly brushing. There's really no, um, water bars that I've had to deal with. Um, and then I usually have to clear blow downs off of it, but. Do you just pack like a hazel hoe up with you for clearing the drainages? I have, um, a rogue hoe. Okay. Um, that I like a lot. It's just, I think it's heavy to hike up Halebrook trail with.

[01:12:59] I feel it. Like, I'm like, I just carry some small loppers and a saw. And I think Mike's kind of in that same boat too. But I'm like the, you people that carry up like hose with you up 2.2 miles or whatever. It was a lot of work. And like, God bless you. Right. But I mean, I would take, I would carry the hoe though, because I also wouldn't want to bend. Like, I guess you could, I mean, you could have like a smaller, lighter instrument to clear drainage, but I wouldn't want to bend over. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:13:26] That's the thing is it's worth it to bring something with a longer handle, I would think. The hoe works great getting through, especially when I do the fall cleaning and it's all the wet leaves. It just, it rakes those wet leaves so easily. Yeah. Compared to like a cheap little rake. I will eventually go, I guess the more I'm seeing, like I've been doing the trail adopting for a little while now, but I do think that there are, when you think about trail adopting,

[01:13:52] there are, you do want to think in terms of elevation trails versus flatter trails. Cause I do the bald face, that section from Eagle Crag to, to South bald face at two and a half miles, but it's really not, it, all it is is brushing and then the occasional blowdown be in, there's really not a lot of stuff to work with as far as Cairns go, but the Cairns are pretty much built up anyway. So I just have to hike up and then do the brushing and open up the corridor, which is pretty straightforward.

[01:14:21] But I do think eventually like I'll give that trail up and try to get, I may even like do like the bald face circle trail, like the lower section needs a lot more work in my view, like the drainages are going to be cleared and there's way more blow downs traditionally. So we'll see, but it is a lot more work though, I think. Yeah. Yeah. And that's why I adopted the second trail. Cause I wanted something completely different. Yes. So I have two that need completely different things. Yeah.

[01:14:48] Um, I find that the brushing is so, I don't know, it relaxes me. I, I don't mind it as much. There's a lot of bending over, but, um, it's just very peaceful. I feel like. I had like a aha moment up on the cutoff where, um, just texted Mike about this too, but I realized, I don't know why, like I'm always trimming like the little crummelts and the little furs that are like trying to come up out of the moss. And I'm like, Oh, I can just yank these out of the moss and just chuck them into the woods. I'm like, why have I been doing this manually the whole time?

[01:15:17] And I'm like, it's so not all of them come out. I should be fair. It's insane how the roots on those sometimes like dig into like rocks and like it, they just go on forever seemingly sometimes. But a lot of them you can just kind of pop out of the moss and it's fun. But I was like, man, why have I been killing myself just trying to trim all these little things on the side of the trail for the past like two or three years? I figured that out last year too. I started ripping stuff out by the roots. Yeah. Like one, I don't even know why I noticed this. I think I, cause I had one, like my loppers and a bigger one and I must've yanked it kind

[01:15:47] of while I was trying to like just cut it in half. And then the whole thing just ripped out of the moss and the dirt. And I'm like, why don't I just do that instead? And I was like, oh man, this is nice. It's time for Slasher's notable hike of the week. If you want to be considered for the hike of the week, simply tag Slasher on your social media post.

[01:16:15] You're getting out and about. So we'll jump back to you to talk about the Appalachian Trail and all your other adventures in a minute. But we have to do what I think is probably one of your favorite segments, which is the notable listener hike of the week. Sure. So, um, you can tag us on Instagram, maybe be featured for notable height of the week. I try to catch everybody, but no guarantees to be plugged on the show. Uh, our friend Andy summit snack attack table mountain after work in the gym.

[01:16:43] And then he did his first Washington trek up Huntington ravine with, uh, Riley and Bailey. So it looked like they had a good time. Looked like a little bit of snow hanging out in Huntington ravine. Uh, similar vibes to what I saw King ravine look like. I saw a little bit of snow on Watson path, but it was like enough to maybe make a snowman. Um, that was it, but great, gorgeous pictures as always. Andy glad you had a fun time up there. Liz Fay East Osceola from Greeley ponds for something new and the waterville Valley red liner 125 patch and trail maintenance on hill Brook trail.

[01:17:10] And I specifically called out that whole 88 water bars and 2.2 miles. That's nuts. Um, Marley Sue to Parker for 45 out of 52 at the view. What don't. And she did it with what Donna Hamilton photographs. Um, grateful hiker did cab it for 42 out of 48. So he's rounding out. He's kind of getting close to finishing Sarah solo summits. Our friend, Sarah did her grid finish on isolation with Paul Lamar. We'll will hike geez, Louise hoops and blue collar hiker. Looked like they had a pretty good day for it.

[01:17:39] Big congrats to Sarah, Paul Lamar, wildcat, Carter Mariah traverse with Sarah solo summits fit to hike 603 sporty spice three Kaya and Nisa, um, for Sarah's grid, sip rock 81. TJ joined them at some point on the way through this, um, 802 trail pup six target was a few times. So Kerasage North for 41 on 52, their 12th summit of cardigan for 2026.

[01:18:05] Um, and they did camel's hump in Vermont with radar, the dog that it looks like, uh, Mike just entered one in. Yeah. This is the dad ventures crew. So Justin and the guys and, um, and the kids, they did an owl's heads attempt. And I think the timing was a little off because it was like right after the storm. So it looks like they, they turned back, but they got a cool video on there. So. Oh, okay. I have to check that. So, so they brought a rope and stuff. They got the kids across, which is fun, but, um, yeah, good for them. Awesome.

[01:18:34] So I think this week we've got to give it to Sarah for a grid finish. No question. No question. Sarah solo summit for the good job, Sarah. Yeah. Excellent. Very proud of you. And, uh, yeah, it's awesome. Yes. Looks like he had a good time. I know she's up there. She's not an attention sinker, but we're going to give her attention. No. And Sarah, I didn't want to just, normally I let Mike choose, but I didn't want to jump in front just because there were dogs and I don't know. He gets, he gets a little squirrely sometimes. And I didn't know if he was going to pick radar, the dog instead. No, I know my role, Nick. I know.

[01:19:04] I know. I've hiked with Sarah a couple of times now. I know that I'm not going to, I'm not going to, um, miss that one. So it's time for slashers guest of the week. Very cool. Very cool.

[01:19:43] Liz, this is now your moment. This is your time to shine. This is your segment. This is your, uh, spotlight here. Excellent. Are you ready? Sure. We've already learned about your system for, uh, protecting yourself from beer attacks, which is good. We know that you're a trail maintainer. What else did we learn about her already, Nick? Um, we know that she's friends with Dave. Yeah. I know that you bushwhack. Yep. Yes. And Izzy. How many times have you been on the show? This is going to be like a third or fourth time.

[01:20:13] I think this is only my second, actually. I feel like you want to. Um, yeah. I was on with, uh, Dave and I were on talking about bushwhacking, but we didn't, I mean, that was a while ago. Yeah. I feel like you were on one more time, but maybe I'm, maybe I've, I'm misremembering here, but I guess, why don't you start off? Why don't you introduce yourself a little bit and, um, give a little bit of background reminders for the listeners who you are. Okay. So I'm Liz, um, and I do a lot of hiking.

[01:20:43] Um, I, I, my previous interest was a lot of running. Um, when my kids were little, it was just easier to run. So I did, I actually ran a couple of marathons and things like that. And I used to push them in the stroller, uh, the jogging stroller. But I've since discovered that I like hiking way better than I ever liked running. Um, and I went through the 48 and the 52 and the bell naps and the yossippies.

[01:21:11] And I just like lists because it gives me ideas and it gives me a focus. Um, I'm working my way through the, um, 500 highest because I really do enjoy bushwhacking. Um, let's see. I like new experiences. You'll never find me gritting. I, if I repeat something, it's because I'm going at a different approach, different trails,

[01:21:39] or if I'm hiking with somebody that really wants to do something I've already done, but you will never find me gritting. Cause I just, I just don't like doing the same thing over and over and over again, even though I know the weather's always different or things like that. But, um, I like the fact that the things that I've been hiking, including the Monadnock 50 finest that I just finished, it's giving me a chance to explore the state, like all of it, all the nooks and crannies of New Hampshire, which I'm finding a lot of fun.

[01:22:09] Um, I'm also now working on my main 4,000 footers cause I'd gotten the Vermont. Um, last year I did my first two main 4,000 footers, which were a Baxter and North brother. So this year I'm going to hopefully get a couple more, um, old spec. Hopefully we're going to Baxter this weekend. So hopefully I'll get Hamlin this weekend.

[01:22:33] Um, so yeah, I, I, I, I pretty much I'll hike anything mostly. And you have a little crew. So there's you, there's Dave Schitts in the Woods who we know about, and then Izzy. So you get your little like crew. Seems like that's how it works with the longer you hike, you, you develop your little posse of people that will get out with you. Yes. I mean, I, I think the majority of my hikes are solo, but when I'm not hiking solo,

[01:23:00] it's, it's with either Dave or Izzy, my son, Nick, uh, does hike, but he's a college student. He's going to senior at a UVM. Yep. Um, but I've gotten him into backpacking. He's gone on his own backpacking trips with his friends and solo backpacking. So, um, when we get together, he and I will hike. Um, but yeah, I keep thinking maybe I'll expand my group, but I haven't found more people to expand my group. I feel like we're going to have some crossover, like Dave's going to pull you into our, our

[01:23:30] little crew at some point, I think. I mean, we hiked, well, we hiked together way back. Yep. That was probably like two years ago now with Randolph and Crescent. Oh, that's true. You did. Yes. I was with you for that. That's right. You, you conspired with the rest of the guys to not tell me that my zipper was down. Yes. We tried to get Liz to tell you, but she didn't want to. Yeah, they tried. Yeah. Yeah. And I hiked with, um, Peter and Jakester and who else was there? Um, this one in February when we did, um, yep.

[01:24:00] Now my brain is not working. Oh, the one, uh, the one off of Lafayette and stuff. Yeah. Uh, yep. It'll come to me. I did learn that Peter being as tall as he is, it's great for breaking trail. Perfect setting up front. Right. Oh my goodness. He was amazing. Yes. He'll knock down all the snow. Yes. Across all the rivers. Send them across the rivers first. Yes. And I ran into Jake and Peter when I was doing, um, the Halebrook trail training.

[01:24:30] Um, they were coming down. Yeah. So I hadn't seen them in a while. So it was nice to catch up. Jake was talking about that this weekend on trail. So, um, all right. So you're, we're going to go down the list here, Liz, of, of topics. So finishing the Monadnock 50 finest list. So can you refresh the listeners around what the Monadnock 50 finest is? Yes. So that is a, it's a new list, um, created by, uh, his name, Mark Swayze.

[01:24:58] He came, he came up with a list, I think last spring. Um, there's 50 mountains, hills, or viewpoints in the Monadnock region. So mostly, um, Cheshire County. Um, most of them have views of Monadnock or views. They all have trails. Uh, they're all pretty short.

[01:25:24] Um, some you can make, um, like a loop to get a couple of peaks at once. Or, uh, in the case of there's three and I think it's Swansea. It's, uh, Mount Caesar, honey and Hughes. They're like all like next to each other on the same road. So you, you park at one, you hike one, drive down the road, you park, hike the next one. Cause they're all, you know, two to three miles each. So you could, you could knock off a bunch in a day. That's fun.

[01:25:52] Um, it is a list that, uh, Dave found first. Uh, he, I don't know where he found it. And so he did a hike and he posted it. And I was like, wait a minute, what are you talking about? Monadnock finest. So I immediately jumped on cause I'm like, this is perfect. Cause some of them are less than an hour from us. Uh, so it's really nice to not have to drive as far, uh, for some of those peaks. Um, they specifically accused you of stealing his list. Yeah. Yeah. When he reached out to me and he did recommend you for a guest, but he did. Yeah.

[01:26:22] No, I stole it. He did very much accuse you of stealing his list. I did. I did steal it. And, uh, I passed it on to Izzy and she is working on it as well. Nice. Nice. All going to finish before Dave. Yep. He's a little busy right now. Yeah, I guess so. And then with your hike, so you were down on the Appalachian Trail a couple of weeks ago with, uh, with Dave. So it's always kind of a weird thing where, um, you know, when I hear this sometimes, like

[01:26:49] there'll be difficulties where if somebody's through hiking, I think they get into a routine and they get into a system and they have their little crew and then friends will come and try to hike with them. Um, and I've heard mixed, mixed results sometimes, you know, it's like, um, you've got to, you, you got to transition into their world, I guess a little bit, but Dave's an easygoing guy and easy to deal with. So, um, probably it was pretty easy, but can you talk a little bit about like, well, what

[01:27:18] was the plan? And would, did you have any concerns about like disrupting his flow or, or anything like that with, with the, um, jumping into a section hike of the AT? Yeah, I, um, so back in 21, he did the long trail and I did jump in for a section actually as he did too, that I, the three of us did a section. So I kind of had already like done the experience of finding him on trail, hiking with him for

[01:27:48] a couple of days than leaving. The AT was a little bit bigger deal, um, which is one of the reasons why I didn't even ponder going down to hike with him until he had been on trail for a good couple of months. So he had his, he had a system, he knows what he's doing. He, he has a, uh, you know, resupplies, like he, he knows basically the ins and outs of the trail. Uh, I was nervous.

[01:28:15] I was very nervous, um, when we actually started hiking because I was afraid he was gonna be faster. I wasn't gonna be able to keep up. I mean, we'd planned with where my car was spotted. It was 54 miles in four days and I haven't backpacked yet this season. This is the, this was the first time out. So very nervous that I was going to be physically in over my head. Um, I was not like, he's the, he's got the same pace he always has, which is one of the

[01:28:44] reasons why we hike well together because he has, we, we kind of have the same pace. So it works out really well. Um, it was nice because he knew the ins and outs. So he was the one who could, he arranged for the shuttle driver to help us drop my car halfway through Shenandoah national park. Um, and he, he, he's hiked with people in and out.

[01:29:07] Um, and at the time there were two ladies that, um, were in the area that we, like, I hiked one or one day with one and one day with the other. So like, but everybody kind of does their own thing and he's definitely doing his own thing. Like if he works out that he can hike with people, he hikes with people. If it's not, he does his own thing and he, and he hikes by himself. So, uh, yeah.

[01:29:34] So, and I'm not, I'm not surprised, like you just get into your routine and I would assume that it's logistically, uh, relying on other people, you know, things, plans change and whatnot. So unless you're like a married couple or something like that, then it's just like, let people do their own thing and don't stress about it. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Cause I mean, I mean, I, I saw it firsthand, like one of the women, like she had family in the area that we were, uh, hiking.

[01:30:02] And so because of the weather and the fact that she had sent home all her, uh, cold weather clothes, she had to get picked up. And then she got dropped to do a slack pack going South. So she, she, her change, her plans changed immediately as, as each day went on. And, um, everything has to be very fluid, I think for the, you to be successful on the Appalachian trail. Yeah. What was your overall impression of the through hikers that you, you met where they, they,

[01:30:30] they sort of have made it past once you make it to Harper's Ferry or at least close to Harper's Ferry then at that point, it's pretty likely that you're going to be successful unless there's an injury at that point. Did you get that sense or did you get a sense that there was still people out there sort of unsure of themselves? Um, the, honestly, I, I didn't see a ton of through hikers probably because of the weather. Right.

[01:30:55] Um, it rained Friday, Saturday, we had a little sun on Sunday and then it rained again on Monday. So what most of the hikers were doing is a lot of people were slack packing. So we would run in, we ran into a couple of people that Dave knew, but they were going South as we were going North. So it was like a quick exchange. Um, and on trail, we didn't see a lot of people and I couldn't figure out why, like,

[01:31:24] why would people be off trail for four days? And on my last day, when we, um, connected back with, uh, Mighty Mouse, one of Dave's friends, she said that a lot of the through hikers were, um, they call it retro blazing. So the original AT, I guess, went through on, was on skyline drive and that's where the views are. Right. And I think it's shorter.

[01:31:50] So with the rain and the miserable weather, a lot of the through hikers, that section that I was on, they were out on the road hiking, not on the trail where we were, which was kind of interesting. But, um, the hikers we did see were very prepared. I mean, you have to be for that kind of rain. And I think this was the first like solid week of rain that the AT hikers at that had had to deal with.

[01:32:17] Dave said he's, he had had like a couple of days of like half a day of rain and that was it. So this was the kind of the worst weather. A lot of them were having to deal with and they were all very prepared. Um, everybody had ponchos. I saw one umbrella. Well, you did. Thought of you, Mike. I like that. I like that. I had my umbrella this weekend. I couldn't use it though, but I was ready to. And the guy who had it was so excited about his umbrella. I bet. They always are. I do.

[01:32:46] I feel like that's the best system. So, but you, so you brought, you brought terrible luck and terrible weather to Dave. I did. I, I delivered. And it was funny when we were starting to plan it. Um, I was trying to get down there earlier in, uh, May and it wasn't working out. And, uh, we kind of narrowed in on the time and he's like, just whatever, you do, just don't bring rain. Just don't bring rain. Yeah. Did you get, did you get the sense from him that, um, he's stressing about getting up

[01:33:13] to like on New Hampshire and Maine and that he's stressing out about a bunch of people hitting him up and wanting to hike with him or whatnot? Or did he talk about that? In fact, I think he's looking forward to, uh, connecting with, with people as he gets closer. Okay. Uh, he has a friend that lives in Connecticut that I believe is joining him, New York, Connecticut area. Um, so, I mean, if you were thinking about trying to catch up with him in Massachusetts, that would be, that would be good.

[01:33:41] I'm going to connect with him again in Vermont because there's, I want to do more of the long trail. Um, I've done sections already. I want to get some more, so I'm going to use him as my excuse. Right. Yeah. I was thinking. I definitely want to try to link up with him either like in mass across like the gray log section or like something or even I'd be up or even, um, just any other, I mean, I guess any of the mass or New Hampshire sections, but I'm hoping to get out with him a few times. No, and we got to, we got to look at getting t-shirts or something. We do. We are getting, I really wanted to look at doing that. For sure.

[01:34:11] So, uh, that's good. You're a good friend, Liz. I was going to ask too, from your perspective, have you noticed any changes in terms of like, I guess how he operates with his gear and sort of, I know you're saying like his pace is the same, but any, or I know he's pretty, like he's done backpacking before too. Like you've seen him on the long trail. So he had experience. So it might not, it must not be as jarring as like someone that's never done that. And then you see how they're acting now, but any sort of like operational differences and how he was kind of with his gear and everything or kind of business as usual.

[01:34:37] He had his gear really well dialed in before he left. He did a shakedown hike in the rain, um, before he left. And I think most of what he tested out, he had, he changed his water filter system. Um, but he's like, nothing's really changed. Like the same, same routine that I've seen cause we've backpacked together before. Um, a couple little variations, a lot more food. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:35:06] We're just crushing all the miles. A lot more food. It must be, become almost unsustainable at some point. Yeah. Yeah. You're just hiking that much. Cool. So, um, you're going to meet up with him again. You're going to try to do a, a, a section in Vermont. That's good. What, um, what was the most surprising thing, I guess, about just being in the, in that particular area? So I don't know, I'm assuming you hadn't hiked in that area.

[01:35:36] How, how different was it than the, compared to the whites? Very different. I, I had been to Shenandoah national park 30 some years ago with a friend when we did a cross country trip, but I remembered none of it. Um, so it was really neat to see it again. Um, I really had a great like road trip and everything. Like I enjoyed the whole thing, even though it was raining. Um, the trail through Shenandoah national park.

[01:36:00] Now I know it's not the case for all of Virginia, but it was lovely compared to New Hampshire. There were no rocks or roots. It was walking on a dirt path. I mean, it was, it was still ups and downs. I mean, we had plenty of elevation gain and loss, but it was just so easy footing compared to what I'm used to up here. Um, I, I think once he left the park and was in the roller coaster section, it got, it got rocky again.

[01:36:28] I got the sweet spot really for trails. Yeah, I did. That was my impression of like Yosemite and the West coast too. It was like, oh my God, there's like no rock hopping, no roots, anything like that, which is a miracle. It was lovely. What is, um, what do you think, um, did you get any impression of Dave's gravitas or his sort of standing within the hiking community? Was he well known or is he? Oh my gosh.

[01:36:57] I, he, I think he's trail famous at this point. So the story about his, uh, his name, Cocaine Bear. After I dropped him and Mighty Mouse back on trail on the Tuesday after Memorial Day, I started driving North and I stopped in Harper's Ferry because why not? Neat town. Not only you have the, uh, the trail conservancy there, but all the history and stuff. And I only got to spend a couple hours in the town.

[01:37:24] I'll have to go back for more, but I was in the, uh, an outfitter shop downtown and I was listening to a young man and the store owner talking about, um, of all things, deaths in the whites. And I interjected, I, I said, oh, have you heard about the, the most recent, um, death on Kinsman Ridge trail? And the kid's like, oh yeah, yeah. You know? And so he's kind of talking and he's, and I said, I made the comment of, uh, the, you know, that I was from New Hampshire.

[01:37:53] He's like, oh, that's really cool. I'm from Massachusetts. And then he asked me if I was hiking the AT. I said, no, no. I was just down in Shenandoah national park hiking a section with a friend of mine that is hiking the trail. And he said, oh, so who's your friend? I said, oh, cocaine bear. And he looks at me with this recollection. Oh my gosh. I know who that is. Oh wow. And I'm like, okay, that's weird. Cause now we're, I'm like a couple, you know, a couple hundred miles north of where Dave was at the time.

[01:38:24] And, and he's like, I, I haven't met him, but I heard the story. I've been hiking with OG and he told me all about how cocaine bear got his name. And it turns out OG was with Dave when it happened. So his, the story of cocaine bear is, is going up the trail going north and they're sharing his story. Cause everybody loves how he got his, his trail name. It's a good story. AT telegraph. That's so cool. Yes. Yes. It is a giant rumor mill.

[01:38:53] It's like middle school, the AT with the rumors and the stories. But yes, I, I, uh, I feel like he is a trail famous. That's no surprise. All right. Well, so you had your AT adventure. So then you're going to Katahdin this, this weekend, you said. Yes. What's the logistically, what's the plan there? Well, we just found out, I just found out that as of tomorrow, all the trails are open. Okay. Cause that was a nail biter.

[01:39:21] Cause right now, as of like today, only, um, Hunt and A-Ball are open. Um, but they're opening up the rest of the trails tomorrow. Thank goodness. Um, and I'm going with Izzy and two of her college friends. So I'm going to feel like the old lady. Well, they'll keep you young though. That's the good thing. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

[01:39:42] Um, and the goal is Hamlin on one day and, um, back to North brother because Izzy wants to do fort cause she's doing the hundred, um, new England, hundred highest. And last year we had driving rain and wind on North brother and decided smartly not to go for fort at that point. And we came down.

[01:40:06] Um, so it'd all be weather dependent on what we end up tackling, but those are the plans. All right. Well, that sounds very exciting. We're, we're going, uh, next month. So we, we've got a big crew of people that are heading up there. So, but it's always exciting to get up into Baxter. Yes. It's beautiful. I had such a nice time last year. That was my first time last year. Excellent. And then you said, so all the trails are open. So I didn't know that, that they, they, they keep them closed this, this far into the year.

[01:40:36] Yeah. The, the, all trail, the only ones I think that they control are anything accessing Katahdin and, um, or Baxter and Hamlin. Right. Okay. Um, and they always, they open up the sunny side. Like, so the West facing trails first. So a ball and, um, hunt get open first. And then as the freeze thaw cycle ends, they open up the rest of them. Okay. Yeah. I gotta imagine they probably got snow like the whites a couple of weeks back.

[01:41:04] So, I mean, there was, it was kind of wild even, excuse me, on Wednesday, looking out on the entire summit cone of Washington. So, I mean, it's probably gone even now after a couple of days, but there was snow all over the summit cone and top of King. I mean, the top of King ravine snow in June is not that weird, but, but, uh, it was kind of odd to look out and see all the green and then see like the summit cone of Washington had a bunch of white on it. I will say, but look, hopefully you have great weather out there. Which way are you planning on going up Hamlin?

[01:41:28] I'd like to go in from, um, Roaring Springs side that go up chimney pond to Hamlin just because I haven't been on that side yet. So it'd be neat to see it from that direction. Oh, chimney pond's beautiful. I mean, I've only been in there once too, but we did like chimney pond up to like the saddle trail and stuff. And that, that whole, like the knife edge behind chimney pond is just super stunning. Yeah. And you can kind of see the bowl as you are further out. It's so pretty. Yeah. That's why I want to come in from that way. Just cause I want to see it from that side.

[01:41:59] Cool. Well, I'm jealous, but we will get our moment. We will get our moment, um, eventually next month. But, uh, what else Liz, anything else interesting that you want to share with us before we wrap up? Um, no, I think that's like, um, my, my backpacking trips this summer will be where I, I, I join up with Dave cause that makes planning easier. Right. That's good. So we'll definitely reach out to you before we, so I think it sounds like me and Nick may

[01:42:28] be scheming together to get with Dave to do, um, maybe the gray lock into Vermont section a little bit. Uh, I can take Dave to Jack's hot dog stand as well. And then, um, we may hit you up for some advice on how to make sure that we don't disturb him too much in his flow. Yes, certainly. No problem. Awesome. No problem.

[01:42:46] Do you want to talk about, um, some search and rescue stuff? Sure. Very good. Nick, what do we have to start off with here?

[01:43:16] So there's been like five or six incidents, right? Yeah. So we got a little bit of catch up mostly, uh, sort of the Memorial day weekend timeframe. So back on May 21st, I don't know why my voice is getting scratchy. I think the allergies are just hitting me tonight. Um, we had injured hiker rescued on the lonesome lake trail back in Lincoln. So Thursday, May 21st, approximately 6 PM, New Hampshire fishing game is notified of an injured hiker on the lonesome lake trail report indicated the hiker had sustained a lower leg injury and was unable to hike under her own power.

[01:43:43] So conservation officers responded to lonesome lake trail at Lafayette campground where multiple hikers confirmed that the injured individual was located roughly half a mile up the trail. So not too far away. Um, volunteers from PEMI, uh, assembled at the trailhead and assisted with the carrier out. Um, the hiker was identified as a 26 year old from Keene, New Hampshire, and, uh, she had slipped while descending the trail resulting in an injury. So they carried, uh, the hiker to awaiting Linwood ambulance and she was down at 8 PM.

[01:44:11] So not too bad at all, but not too far up the trail. So that's kind of good from that sense. Not good to be injured, but good that she wasn't super far out. Um, she was taken by private vehicle to Littleton regional hospital for further treatment for the injury. So quick turnaround on that one. Um, never good to get hurt, but if you're going to do it half a mile out from the trail, isn't too bad rather than being up on fish and Jimmy or something on that side. Right. Right. So, okay. Not too bad. Um, and then this, this next one is an overdue hiker.

[01:44:39] So, uh, this is a 64 year old guy from East Kingston, New Hampshire, Nick, my neighborhood, one or two towns over for me. So he was hiking with his sons and they had become separated on the bowls trail nearly, four miles from the trailhead. So no cell service in the area. And after, yeah, that, that section of, um, of Chikora is terrible. Like the Kangamanga side where, uh, there's, there's no cell connection there. So you just can't get in trouble.

[01:45:07] But he, so he separated from his sons and then, um, I guess they reached the trailhead and they were waiting for a couple of hours for their father to arrive. Oh man, can you imagine how much they must've been sweating? Like, who do we call mom or not? I don't know what to do. Uh, but they were able to send an emergency text to 911 for assistance. And then Conway fire and rescue personnel responded and treated, I guess they treated the sons for dehydration.

[01:45:35] And then, um, the conservation officers and members of, uh, lakes region search and rescue responded, hiked up the trail to locate the father. And he was found about a half a mile up the trail and was able to hike out on his own. So this call came in around 10 30 PM and then they got to the father around 12 30. So I don't know what was going on here. They were having a, a little bit of a fun, fun hike, I guess. And they got separated. So all's well that ends well, Nick.

[01:46:06] Don't leave your old father, your elderly father alone in the woods, please. Yeah, not good. Or Mike with his hydraulic legs. Yes. Yeah. My exco exoskeleton. There we go. Um, so moving along, we got May 28th, uh, injured hiker airlifted from the Bond cliff trail. So, um, May 28th, 1153 AM conservation officers were made aware of an injured hiker on the Bond cliff trail in Lincoln. Uh, the solar hiker was able to get a text message to New Hampshire, 9-1-1, um, letting

[01:46:36] them know that he had suffered a lower leg injury that prevented him from continuing without assistance. The coordinates showed him seven and a half miles from the trailhead. So probably about a mile and a half below the Bond cliff summit, um, due to the remote location and to avoid a strenuous carryout, the New Hampshire army national guard was contacted. Um, and they assisted with a helicopter extraction. So 1 PM, uh, the army national guard, uh, Lakota had departed from Concord to locate the injured hiker. Um, while a followup black Hawk would actually hoist the hiker from the trail once he was

[01:47:06] located. So it's interesting that they actually kind of used two different choppers to sort of get the thing done. Um, the crew of the Lakota able, were able to locate the hiker at 1 30 PM. And shortly thereafter, the black Hawk arrived at the scene, lowered a couple of crew members onto the injured hiker. Um, they moved him to an opening in the trees where the black Hawk could get him, um, at 2 50 PM. They hoisted them back up into the black Hawk. Um, the well-prepared hiker, the article does call out, um, was identified as a 66 year old from Plymouth, New Hampshire.

[01:47:35] Um, he had spent the previous night at the Gio shelter. And as he made it his way out, he slipped and fell as he descended a steep section of trail. Um, so kind of just a bad luck situation there. And at least they were able to get a chopper to him to kind of lift him out as opposed to someone having to do a seven and a half mile carry out, out on the Lincoln. I would think they'd be able to take ATVs up a good portion of Lincoln woods trail on the wilderness trail. But, um, still good that they were able to find an opening. I can imagine that's going to be almost around probably the last time you cross black Brook

[01:48:04] in terms of mileage. I had all trails up over here, but it had to be right around that spot that he had slipped. So. Very good. Um, all right, Nick, this next one, stop me. If you heard this before, but an injured hiker rescued on the old bridal path in Frank. A few times. So it was like a school group. So this was Friday, May 29th at 8 30 AM, um, injured hiker on the old bridal path in Frank Cohen. It doesn't say, I guess he was about a mile and a half down from the old bridal path.

[01:48:35] So there was a report come came in that a hiker had suffered a lower leg injury, was unable to continue. So conservation officers responded to the trail and were met by a bunch of volunteers from Pemisar rescues ascended the trail at around nine 30 and reached the injured hiker around 10. There's about two hours to get to the hiker. He was a juvenile traveling with a school group from Connecticut. They were well prepared for the trip and the group had all the necessary equipment for an overnight hike.

[01:49:01] Conservation officers along with Pemis search and rescue and some staff from Franconia, Notch State Park carried the injured hiker about a mile and a half down old bridal path and got him out around 12 30. That lower section of old bridal is like chef's kiss. Now it is gorgeous. Well done. It is quite lovely. Quite lovely. So he must've been past the agonies and then maybe past that switchback and then in the lower section is about a mile and a half.

[01:49:30] So not, not, not a bad area cause it widens out. So it's easier for a carry out there. Yeah, for sure. Um, so next we had, it was, it was originally a fishing game had this as a missing person and the title actually changed to missing hiker, but, um, June 1st, they were notified of, uh, a missing person shortly after 10 30 PM. Um, basically in the area of the Sawyer Rock picnic area. I had to look this one up and not familiar, but it's more or less along 302 right past the, uh, Mount Tremont trailhead.

[01:49:59] So kind of in that area 302 before you actually hit Bartlett. Um, and it does mention that they kind of searched from the initial search, didn't turn up anything, which was kind of unfortunate. Um, 64 year old from Auburn mass. Um, they even use actual volunteer drone operator to try to, um, actually find them and they didn't weren't able to. Um, but the following day, uh, just after daily on June 2nd, shortly before 11 AM, um, the hiker found his way back to the road, uh, 302 and was uninjured.

[01:50:28] So kind of a good situation there. They mentioned that new England canine and, uh, upper Valley wilderness response team, um, was kind of involved in the search and good job. And glad he was able to find his way back to the road. I'll have to take note of where that is next time we drive by it. And then again, I, I'm in Franconia again, Nick. So, uh, you are, you get the Franconia. Massachusetts man assisted off falling waters trip.

[01:50:55] Why do they always have to just say Massachusetts man, whenever a Massachusetts guy is? I want, I do, I do want to note that we've had three New Hampshire so far and they don't say New Hampshire man or woman. They don't. Rescued. They just say Massachusetts. I wonder if they just. Liz is just cracking up right now. I wonder if the conservation offices are just trolling Massachusetts and laughing. I don't know. It seems specific sometimes. Liz, did you grow up in New Hampshire? Did you say you grew up in New Hampshire?

[01:51:22] No, I actually grew up in, uh, Western New York near, uh, Niagara Falls. Okay. All right. All right. So, um, I just was checking to see if you were a Massachusetts person. She's like, don't loop me. She's like, don't lump me in with you people. Nope. Like when I say that. We moved to New Hampshire in 1997. Okay. All right. So they don't call Albert Island either. Usually it's just Massachusetts. It's just Massachusetts. They said, Massachusetts man assisted all falling water. So anyway, uh, Thursday, June 4th, uh, just before 4 PM conservation officers found

[01:51:51] that a hiker was suffering a medical emergency on falling water. So he's about two and a half miles from the trailhead. So that's up above the falls. A good Samaritan. So two and a half miles that puts them maybe a little bit below, um, shining rock or something like that, Nick. Yeah. Probably before you hit that last good climb, I would think up to the summit. So anyway, a good Samaritan had come across the ailing hiker and was trying to assist him down the trail. It was established that the good Samaritan would continue slowly down the trail while

[01:52:20] two conservation officers hiked up to assist. By 530, the first conservation officers arrived with the pier at Cloudland Falls. So they made their way down. Fluids were provided and the group continued slowly to the trailhead where they arrived just before seven. So it took them about three hours to get down, an hour and a half to get to him. And then another hour and a half to get down. So the hiker was assessed by the ambulance crew, but chose to rest and continue home to Massachusetts.

[01:52:47] Hiker was identified as a 52 year old man from Brewster, Massachusetts. So, um, so I guess he had departed earlier in the day, attempting to summit Little Hay. Hay stack before arriving to the summit, he made the wise choice to turn around and come down as a sudden illness made it difficult to continue. So he made an illness. So he said that the hiker was well prepared with more than the 10 essentials in his. See, that's how Massachusetts people are. It's not 10 essentials. It's more than 10 essentials.

[01:53:17] Yeah. So I don't, what do you think Liz is more than it? What else could there be in addition to the 10 essentials? In addition. Something to deal with bears? I don't know. Bear spray. Do you have like outside the 10 essentials, what else do you carry? What is your 11th essential? Am I 11th essential? That's a good icebreaker. What is it? A Kula cloth. A Kula cloth. Okay. That's good.

[01:53:47] That's, um, or like a pee funnel, something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I use that for backpacking. That's great. Yeah. That would be a good icebreaker. If a bunch of hikers met each other, would it introduce yourself? Yes. And then what is your 11th essential? Yes. Excellent. I'm going to use that for the next corporate outing. I like it. All right. Anything else, Nick? Or can we go home? Um, no, I was going to mention in light of the story, cause I think they maybe alluded

[01:54:16] a little bit to dehydration or something a lot to that effect that we are getting some warm days up in the whites. Um, it is a little bit cooler in the mountains, but it can be hot as bizalls down in the valleys still, um, eighties, even in Franconia notch. So, uh, make sure you're carrying definitely time of year to be carrying your water filter. Um, make sure you're taking some drinks with electrolytes and things like that. Cause I think that can be a pretty big game changer this time of year. And bug spray. That's all. Bug spray is the 11th essential. This is the, this time of the year is out of control. Bug net. Yep. The hell, the hellish bugs were out on the Hancocks.

[01:54:46] They were fine up on Madison and stuff, but they're like the ones that don't bite you, but they just land all over you. And I read somewhere, they said that alcohol attracts bugs. So be careful, but, uh, but that's it. That's all we got. Um, so I will let everyone go and, uh, you can go back to your normal, um, daily routine now and, and we will be back next week. All right. Bye everybody. Bye. Thank you for listening.

[01:55:14] If you enjoyed the show, you can subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you want to learn more about the topics covered in today's show, please check out the show notes and safety information at slasherpodcast.com. That's S L A S R podcast.com. You can also follow the show on Facebook and Instagram.

[01:55:41] We hope you'll join us next week for another great show until then on behalf of Mike and Stomp, get out there and crush some mega peace. Now covered in scratches, blisters, and bug bites. Chris staff wanted to complete his most challenging day hike ever. Fish and game officers say the hiker from Florida activated an emergency beacon yesterday morning.

[01:56:08] 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 who they are? Oh yeah! Lieutenant James Neeland, 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?

[01:56:36] 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.