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

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

[00:00:51] You should too. Go to mountwashington.org or text FORECAST to 603-356-2137. Hello listeners! Nick here with your forecast for the weekend of August 8th, 2026.

[00:01:16] Friday. Mostly in the clear under partly sunny skies. Slight chance of rain showers or thunderstorms. High in the mid-60s. Wind northwest shifting west at 15-30 mph early, decreasing to 5-20 mph, possibly becoming light and variable at times. In and out of the clouds under mostly cloudy skies. Scattered rain showers and isolated thunderstorms. Low in the mid-50s. Wind west at 5-20 mph, possibly becoming light and variable at times. Increasing to 15-30 mph.

[00:01:47] And Saturday. Mostly in the clouds under mostly cloudy skies. Rain showers with a chance of thunderstorms. High in the low 60s. Wind southwest shifting west, 15-30 mph early, increasing to 20-35 mph late. So starting out nice on Friday but looking kind of unsettled and warm, relatively speaking. Going into Saturday. Stay safe out there. Happy hiking. Hope you can cross some peaks.

[00:02:11] The Woodpecker's Studio in the great live free or die state of New Hampshire.

[00:02:53] Welcome to the Sounds Like a Search and Rescue podcast. Where we discuss all things related to hiking and search and rescue in the white mountains of New Hampshire and beyond. Here are your hosts, Mike and Nick.

[00:03:10] We're recording. I just had to eat my vitamin, Nick. I'm sorry. I was like, what am I doing right now? I have my gummy vitamins. You keep them at your desk so you don't remember to take them every morning.

[00:03:35] I keep them at my desk, yeah. It's like a big, like there's like a couple hundred vitamins and then every time it gets low. Right now I'm almost at the end of it. I get very excited at the end. I'm like, oh, I accomplished something. I finished my bucket of vitamins. But it also makes me ponder how like, how many more jars of vitamins do I have left before I die? That's so depressing. And sometimes I'll just do the math and I'll be like, alright, there's 170 vitamins in there. I take one a day. I might only have 20 bottles left, Nick.

[00:04:06] Two bottles a year, right? Yeah, yeah. About so. Anyway, so Nick got corrected by a listener and I love this. I love anytime anyone gets like, I don't like feedback, but I do like feedback when it has to do with Nick or Stomp or anybody else. It's just not me. But he, and I was like thinking this the whole time we recorded last week, but he kept calling Pamela. Pamela. Yeah. And I didn't correct him because I wanted the listeners to get the pitchforks out. And sure enough, somebody did. So we appreciate you listener for...

[00:04:35] Yeah, thank you. Always correct Nick. Never correct me. It was funny too. Like I replied and I was like, oh, thanks for the correction laughing emoji. And they're like, oh, I didn't mean like anything by like where I'm a big fan. I'm like, don't worry about it. I want to be like, have you seen how we are with each other on the podcast and in reality? Like he posted an Instagram reel of me how to learn riding a bike at 35. So I think we're okay. That's not good. I have a pretty thick skin. But thank you for calling out. We appreciate it. I even Googled it after. Yeah, I was wrong. It's Pamela. So Pamela peak. Yeah.

[00:05:05] Do better, Nick. Do better. All right. Welcome to episode 241 of the Sounds Like a Search and Rescue podcast. This week, Jake and Peter are back. Welcome. Welcome, gentlemen. Thank you. Thank you. All right. They're going to break down part two of our recent Baxter State Park trip where we cover a hike to North Brother. And we did a little hike out to north in little Niagara from Dacey Pond campground, Peter. Is that how you say it? Dacey? Correct. Yeah. That's how I pronounce it. Yeah. Yeah. Unless somebody wants to correct us. Yeah, I hope you get called out.

[00:05:35] We'll see. Plus Jake and Peter recently got out to Vermont to hike with our sometimes slasher co-host Dave Schitts in the Woods. So they'll give us an update on all things Dave. And then they can also talk a little bit about the Vermont section of the AT that they went on. I think you guys did. Would you do Killington? Yeah. Yeah. Killington and Pico. Okay. Yep. Awesome. All right. We have a history segment on the Wakefield, New Hampshire UFO ice hole mystery from 1977.

[00:06:04] This is a direct connection to some of the Slasher's own family members. So we'll talk a little bit about that. We'll do a little, we always like strange phenomena. So we'll do that. And then Mount Washington is setting up twin tower lights to commemorate 9-11. Search and rescue news has been busy with a hiker getting lost on Mount Willard. Uh, I have theories on this one guys, and it doesn't have to do with like an actual rescue, but I have some theories on this one. Um, and then, all right, where are we here? So we have Mount Willard.

[00:06:33] We got injured hikers on Tuckerman Ravine trail, uh, lion's head Kinsman Ridge. And sadly there was a fatality on well sticky. So all this plus a recent sunrise hike and trail maintenance update on bald, uh, bald face circle trail. Um, and I can rate going up the salt bald face ledges via headlamp for you guys and let you know how that is. So I'm Mike. And I'm Nick. Let's get started. Let's get started.

[00:07:11] So before we started recording, Peter was, um, looking at the script, we had shared it with him and he's like, I didn't realize you guys read directly off of it. Only time we really read directly off the script is when we do the intro. And even that I try to ad lib a little bit, right, Nick? Like, yeah, sometimes you just forget to, uh, do the intro. You don't have time to. So you've gotten pretty good doing it off the cuff. I think. Yes. If needed. Yeah. You whip it out. Anyway, I was just giving you a hard time joking. You can just email out the script to everybody. You wouldn't have to listen to the podcast.

[00:07:42] That's true. But we would miss, um, we would miss important information. Like Nick is getting a new cat this week. So. Yeah. Yeah. Jake story. Are you a cat or a dog person? I'm a dog person. I don't mind cats, but Julie's allergic to cats. So dogs, it is. Okay. We're pet free for a while. Yeah. Yeah. You just, you just retired your dog. So, um, but all right, Nick, what is this cat situation all about? So, uh, we've been looking for, we lost one of our cats.

[00:08:11] We have had two of them, just like whatever domestic short hair mongrel sort of cats. Um, and we've been looking for a new one and kind of trying to find the right time. I've been looking to get a Maine Coon cat for like a while. They're supposed to be great with families. Um, albeit it was a bit harder to find a breeder in the area than I thought it would be. Um, we finally found one that seemed pretty reputable just to heads up to people. If you do go down this rabbit hole with Maine Coons, as they're popular, I've on a lot of, uh, not a lot, but at least two or three people that were like, Oh, like, yeah, we breed. And it turns out they're like a third party. They're not like a first party breeder.

[00:08:40] They like know people and you kind of get put through, uh, some hoops and stuff. So finally, um, actually was using chat GBT. I was like, can you find me the breeders that are within two hours of this area that are accredited with, there's like two different associations for cat breeders that you can look for. Um, this one in South borough came up and, um, while she was having kittens, uh, I guess two litters coming up that would be available probably November, December. She did let us know that she had a female who was like three and a half that wasn't breeding anymore. Um, that was open for adoption.

[00:09:10] She had been open for adoption for a month or so and nobody wanted to pick her up. So I kind of looked at her in from picture and her temperament sounded good. She gets along with like dogs in their house and stuff. So I wasn't super worried about it with kids or other things. Um, and we thought she was pretty cute. I showed a picture to Ash, which kind of sealed the deal right there. Um, cheaper than a kitten as well. Um, if you're adopting a Maine Coon and, uh, yeah, we're going to get basically this three and a half year olds Maine Coon from use is her name, which I guess is a, all their cats are named after like cities or towns in the Canada.

[00:09:39] And it looks like it's like a town or something in Newfoundland, I believe. So, um, so yeah. Those Maine Coon cat, the big giant ones, right? Yeah. They get the males get a lot bigger than the females. I think the males are typically like 15 to 25 pounds, which is quite large for a house cat. Um, but the females probably top out around, I think she's around 14 pounds right now. And it's kind of odd with them compared to a lot of other cat breeds or even dogs is they actually don't mature until they're like three to five years old. So she actually could get a little bit bigger. Um, we'll see.

[00:10:08] She's probably, she's probably like 95% of the way there, but she might get a little fluffier and more filled out. So we'll see how it goes, but I got the office set up. Uh, we'll probably keep her in here for a few days or a week and see how long try to try to, uh, sort of get the cats introduced the right way. The last time we brought a cat home, they were half sisters, but we just kind of plopped the cat there, which didn't go super well for either cat until we moved into our house and they were on level ground. They seem to get along more, but it was, it was kind of don't, don't do that. If you have a cat, I didn't know any better the first time, but. Well, good, good luck, Nick.

[00:10:38] We're all excited for your cat. And we'll be, we'll be looking forward to meeting, uh, meeting her when she gets here. Thanks. Another producer. Are you a, uh, a dog or a cat person? Uh, dog person. I've got two dogs. So you had two dogs. Yeah. My wife would go either way. Yeah. I could go with cats. I'm just not, not a big cat guy. Yeah. Yeah. I think we'll get a dog one day. Maybe when the kids get a little bit older, but we'll, we'll see what happens. I know it'll end up being my chore to take care of. So that's more of my apprehension. I think. Yeah.

[00:11:07] I've moved on from wanting a dog and now I'm going to buy a horse. That works. That's my next plan. So it's a logical next step. Right. Yeah. I'm going to buy, I am buying a horse. I will buy one eventually. But, um, anyway, guys, I am just, so it's Tuesday night right now and I am just recovering from my hangover from Sunday night. I, I did a rarity. You guys have never seen me drunk. Um, so there was a drunk, um, Mike walking around Boston on Sunday night at the Zach Brown concert.

[00:11:34] And we also won free tickets to go on a cruise in Florida, which I don't know. He gave, they gave away, um, they gave away like free cruise tickets to this Margaritaville cruise. So we're going to see what that's all about. And I'll report back. It sounds dangerous, but we'll see. Excellent. What could go wrong? What could go wrong? Jake loves country music. So he, he said that he missed out. That's not the case. Okay. All right.

[00:12:04] Um, all right. And then last, but on a last bit of child or, um, witty banter here, Nick put something in here that the child gates are back into effect. So, um, he has stubbed his toe a bunch of times. So that is the, the perils of having little kids. And what if these kids end up becoming allergic to cats too, by the way, what do you do then? I don't know. I guess we're going to have to just get rid of the kids, right? Obviously it's not the cats. Um, it's true. Yeah. They've both been okay so far. Hopefully neither of us are really bothers her. So, uh, hopefully that continues.

[00:12:33] But yeah, have you guys, have you guys like taken out child gates in your path? Like one time I just completely kicked ours and like went right, right through it. Just like, yeah, metal hurts too. When you kick it enough times, I just feel like we're all so far removed from that, Nick. We don't even know. I don't even know what you're talking about. No. Yeah. I got them, got them set up again. It'll be fun. All right. Well, you know what we do want to talk about is we want to do a Dave Schitt's update. So our friend Dave is in, uh, he's on the Appalachian trail and he just gave us a recent

[00:13:03] update. Uh, it sounds like he's having a little bit of a time out there, Nick, but what's, what's the latest and greatest with Dave Schitt's on his Appalachian trail journey? Sure. So we did miss last week, um, our bad on that, but, uh, his last update, I was dealing with stomach issues and short story is I had to get off trail quickly after the symptoms stayed and I started showing newer, more concerning symptoms. I was able to get in touch with a shuttle before dawn and get to the great Barrington hospital to get checked out.

[00:13:30] Results came back positive for bacteria and unclear on parasites, but they ruled out Jardia and I took a couple different meds, took a couple zeros and got back on trail via a side trail. My friend from my friend, Sean drum, New York knew about and helped me get back south of where I get off. I think Dave was typing this in a little bit of hurry, but we appreciate the update regardless. So I didn't lose miles and didn't have the brutal climb back up the trail. I took down, got into Massachusetts and up and over full mountains again, then made my

[00:13:59] way into Vermont where things were from, were familiar, but not any easier while still trying to get my stunt strength back. Took a weekend off with Mrs. Schitt's, which was great. Then jumped back on trail with Liz Faye for a bunch of days. And of course she brought the rain and a lot of it met up with Jake and Julie who gained 500 apostle points for hiking with me. Then Peter and Jake who each got 500 apostle points for hiking Killington. I stayed at a campground and dropped it back off on trail by Liz and now taking my time

[00:14:28] with lower miles to avoid burnout and fatigue and should be in New Hampshire. By the time you guys hear this, thank you, Liz, Jake, Peter, Julie for joining me and giving me a boost I needed. So, uh, so what are these apostle points that we're talking about here? Is Dave, is Dave trying to put us in competition with each other? Yes. I think, I think basically, yes, but it's working when we were on trail. It was, it was, he was very much like Dumbledore, right?

[00:14:55] You know, taking, taking points and giving points at will for just making stuff up. I like it. Yeah. It's good to know. So for the listeners, if you're not familiar with the reference, so basically we have this like chat group. There's like 10 or 11 of us in there. Dave's in there. And then we have, there's a lot of biblical names, Peter, Paul's a bunch of those. So Dave had come up with a nickname for the group, which we are now called the apostles just because of that, um, that biblical name connection there.

[00:15:21] So he's now giving out, um, Harry Potter themed apostle points for the people that come hike with him. So that's pretty cool. He's a funny guy. Yes. Yeah. And we're looking forward to it. And I think by the time this drops, he'll be in New Hampshire. So he'll be making his way through Hanover. Um, the timing, I'm so pissed because I want to get out there and hike with him, but it's just not going to work out this week. And, uh, I gotta figure something out. It looks like I'm going to be in Maine with you, Dave. So I, sorry about that.

[00:15:47] Um, but Jake, you guys got out there and, uh, connected with him. So talk about that a little bit. What was the plan there? How did that develop? And then what was the experience? So, uh, I sent him a, you know, texted just him and said, Hey, by the way, you gotta be into Vermont. Where exactly are you? He told me where he was. I looked at the map. Well, shit, maybe this weekend I'll be in Julie. I'll take a ride up. We were just looking for something to do. We didn't want to go up for the whole weekend, maybe just a day trip.

[00:16:18] Um, so he was, uh, a little south of Rutland when, uh, when we met, met up with him. Um, we only did about four or five miles with him, but we got to walk over this cool, uh, real cool gorge. I think it's called Clarendon Gorge. Um, then we turned around, went up trail and, uh, said four or five miles nonstop talking. He was super appreciative to have, uh, familiar faces, familiar voices.

[00:16:46] Um, you know, people he knew that he could talk to as opposed to strangers on trail, right? You get to know these people a little bit, but you don't really know them. Um, so yeah, we just spent a lot of time talking and walking, uh, at the end of the, uh, where we were turning around. There was a little farm stand. We had some ice cream. He charged up some of his gear. I carried a few beers with us. So, uh, with me. So we all had a beer and then they moved on.

[00:17:14] Um, Julie ended up saying, you know what? It's a nice day. It's a nice place. She ended up staying at the farm reading her book. Well, I ran back the four miles to the car and apparently while I was going back to the car, Julie and Dave came up with a plan that, hey, if we really want to, there is a way that we could hook up and do Killington the next day. All right. So tell me about that plan.

[00:17:41] Meanwhile, uh, Peter's wife, Deb had texted Julie and I, hey, I heard you're hiking today and we're kind of on your route home. Uh, come by for dinner and a drink. So we did. I walked in. Hey, Peter, Dave says we should, uh, you know, if we want to hike Killington, this is how we could do it. No, no, no. I gotta, I gotta paint. I gotta paint. And the more, the more we talked about it, uh, next thing I know, I opened a beer and turned around and looked and there's Peter filling his water bottles.

[00:18:10] So we, we came up with the plan and priorities, Peter. Nice. Absolutely. Yeah. So, yeah, we ended up meeting up with Dave, uh, Saturday, Sunday morning, Peter and I, Julie decided not to do the, the Killington, uh, leg of it. Um, and Peter and I kind of busted ass, uh, getting up there Sunday morning.

[00:18:35] Um, he was a little bit ahead of schedule as far as the timing of what we thought he was going to be. Um, so we basically ran to the summit of Killington. Um, met up, we actually beat him up there, sat there 10 or 15 minutes, talked to a couple other hikers that came through. Um, he showed up, he texted us from the bottom of the climb up and he's like, I'm coming up now. Like, we'll come down if you want. Nope. The lodge is open. There's beer there.

[00:19:06] Hmm. So, uh, yeah, they, they came up, we sat, went into the lodge, he charged a little bit. We had a beer, ordered big, big basket of fries, delicious fries at the lodge at Killington. Um, yeah, and then we, then we stepped off and hung with Dave for most of the day. Very good. Were you able to carry his pack or did he, uh, did he have to lift everything himself? No, he, he carried his stuff. Um, I carried, I carried the beers on, uh, Saturday.

[00:19:36] Um, Liz was running a little low on, on, uh, fuel. I carried a can of fuel until we parted ways. Um, you know, gave it to them when we parted ways on Saturday. Um, but other than that, no, he's, he, he was offering to carry the beers. I'm like, dude, you got a big heavy pack. I'll carry those. Yeah. Very good. So what do you think? You think he's, um, he's making good mileage? He's making the mileage that he's gonna need to, to make it in time.

[00:20:05] You know what I mean? Um, he, he knows his body. Uh, from what I understand, you know, yeah, he could push a few more miles, but it's, it's not going to last. Um, few more big mile days is going to end up costing him more, a few, you know, a few days down the road is, uh, you know, um, he'll make it, he'll make it. Very good.

[00:20:34] Nick, we got to come up with a plan now that they've, they have like the better friends and we need to step it up. Yeah. I've been, I might try to, I mean, we got a good amount going on too, but depending on how the weather works out, maybe even early next week, I'll see where he is and maybe try to take a day and go up early next week. But no guarantees, Dave, I'm going to see what the work schedule and everything else else is at, but it'll be a little bit easier for me to get to him where he's going into now than probably anywhere else. So yeah, if I want to do it, if I can do a day trip like that quick and arrange it. Yeah.

[00:21:02] Early next week, I would expect him to be south of Moose Lock somewhere in that stretch between Hanover and up to there. So nice, nice, easy hiking in there. Yeah, for sure. All right. Well, moving on to some New Hampshire stuff here. So we got, somebody sent this to us. There's a candle company called Live Free or Die Candle Company. So shout out to them. Nick, do you know anything about this? Or was this something stomp through in? Stomp through the sin. I did check out the link a little bit. It looked really neat. Yeah, this is pretty cool.

[00:21:30] They have all different flavors of candles here. It looks like the flavors are like, they have New Hampshire themed flavors. So there is the 1776, there's the appeal to heaven, come and take it, which has got like a, like some sort of a gun in front of it. And then... Kangamingus leaf peeping. That sounds good. Yeah, yeah.

[00:21:59] So if you want to... I feel like, Peter, this would be good for your new place to do a New Hampshire theme on. So don't tread on me. Live Free or Die. Does it say where to get them? Or is it just online direct? It's online and I will put this in the show notes for people. And then there are like, they're at these different events. There's one... Oh, actually it looks like, yeah, it's coming up. Leaf Peepers Arts and Craft Fair in North Conway, which I've been to this.

[00:22:28] It's at Chula Park. And then Great Glens Trail Craft Fair in Gorham on November 30th. So it looks like online and then at different events. So I'll put this in the show notes and check it out. It's pretty cool. Next up, Nick, I talked about this in the intro. So they're going... Washington is putting together the honor... What they're calling the Honor Summit United in Remembrance of 9-11. So this will be the 25th anniversary of 9-11.

[00:22:57] So this September, two pillars of light will rise from the highest peak in the Northeast as a powerful symbol of resilience, gratitude and unity inspired by the dual beams that honor September 11th. The honor summer pays tribute to the lives lost, the first responders who answered the call and the veterans whose courage continue to protect our community. So that's pretty cool. I would definitely like to go up there and check that out. It's going to be from September 9th to the 12th.

[00:23:21] The beams of light will illuminate the sky four and a half miles above Mount Washington and will be visible from communities throughout New Hampshire and beyond on a clear night. Yeah, it looks pretty neat. I know one time when I visited New York, I don't know what age I was. It was after September 11th, but I know that New York, I think... I don't know if they still do it annually, but they do a sort of similar thing at the site where they actually have like two beams of light that project up like where the Twin Towers used to be. Right. And this kind of looks similar. I imagine it'll be really striking coming from the summit of Mount Washington. It's like that whole area.

[00:23:50] You'll be able to see it probably from miles away. Hmm. Did you guys ever go to the Twin Towers before the, uh, before 9-11? No, never got there. As a real little kid, I, not that I remember, I was there, uh, when they were still doing a lot of cleanup. I got a friend that lives in New York City, actually my climbing partner, Nate. Um, so when they were still doing a lot of cleanup, but they had their reflecting pool there, I was, I was there. Yeah. Yeah. I did go there. I ate at that, um, Windows of the World.

[00:24:20] Uh, and that fact, Al Sharpton walked in when me and Mrs. What? Mrs. Mike used to work for the Marriott. So we would go and we got, um, yeah, we, we would stay there every once in a while. So, yeah, I do remember it. Um, but yeah, sad tragedy, but that's pretty cool that Mount Washington's doing that. So we'll put that link in the show notes and people want to check it out. Put that on your calendar for September 9th to the 12th. Uh, you can hike up there. It'd be kind of cool to hike up there at night to just check that out. I don't know, uh, how close you can get to the actual light, but I, I mean, can you just

[00:24:47] imagine going like across, like from Bootspur and heading up that, the view that, you know, a clear night would be crazy. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. All right. Um, next moving on here.

[00:25:17] So we got a couple of search and rescue news here. So this guy got lost on Mount Willard, uh, which is, uh, that's a thing for sure. That's a, that's impressive. So on Sunday, July 19th at 8, 11 PM fishing game, respond to a call for an overdue hiker who was hiking Mount Willard in Crawford notch, uh, 27 year old hiker from Nashua, um, departed the trailhead at 2 30 PM and was expected back in a few hours after completing a 3.2 mile round trip hike to the summit of Mount Willard and back now Willard's pretty busy.

[00:25:47] This was a Sunday afternoon late in the day. So not probably not as many people around. Uh, but when Watson didn't return by 8 PM, his wife called 9 11 for assistance or 9 1 1 for assistance and conservation officers responded. So at 9 35 PM, uh, 9 1 1 received a call from Watson and was able to get his location. He was on the Mount Avalon trail, a short distance from Mount Willard trail junction. Watson was able to hike back down to the trailhead parking lot and reunite with his wife.

[00:26:16] When questioned by conservation officers, Watson could not recall where he had hiked all day. He realized he had hiked too far within reach, uh, too far without reaching the summit of Mount Willard. So he turned around, had no cell phone signals. So he was unable to notify his wife or call 9 1 1. Finally found a cell phone service. He called 9 1 1 for assistance. So that's it. So I don't know you guys, what do you think? You think he took a happy trip somewhere and, um, maybe he had a few too many gummy beers and wandered off into the woods.

[00:26:47] I honestly don't even know. Don't even know. Yeah. How can you be gone that far, that far for that, for that long and not know where you are? Yeah. And those, those are busy sections of trail too, right? I mean, you would, you would have passed saying at least 10 people throughout the afternoon, right? That you could have asked, Hey, am I on the right trail? I think it's interesting too. He called back 9 1 1 cause they make it. It's like, we've all know, we've all been there.

[00:27:15] We all know, but like the Mount Willard junction is like steps into the woods after you cross the tracks. It's not like it's like a ways away. Like he was like, what? Probably like a 30 second walk up the trail or something. Like maybe a 30 second jog up the trail for where they actually called 9 1 1. So I don't know. It's weird. I wonder, I don't know. A lot of, a lot of questions on this one for sure. Like how did he go up to like Tom and field and just, I don't know. I don't know what ended up happening there. Um, so yeah, I don't know if he took a happy trip or the other thing I always think about with this one is like, was he, was he with somebody that he didn't want his wife to know

[00:27:45] he was with and, um, Is a concubine? Who knows what happened there? So yeah, that's really fishy. Could be an honest mistake. It could be, he just went up the Avalon trail and, uh, no one was around and he just kind of wandered around. It is a little, I mean, there is that cold between Avalon and the start of the climb up to field that maybe is a little confusing for people. I don't know, but I think it's impressive. He got lost on Mount Willard. Yes. Yeah.

[00:28:14] So, uh, this next one here is Peter Whitehorse ledge. Um, can you refresh my memory? Is that part of the white mountain guide? If you're doing redlining, you have to go within that cathedral ledge. What it is all part of that. It is. There's, there's, there's specific trails up in there that are part of it because there's, there's a lot of it. I don't know if it's maybe some of its climbers trails to come back down and so, but there's definitely like the path that goes around the pond that's down there as well as something

[00:28:41] that goes up and connects to red bridge as well. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So the officially that, uh, that area is known as cathedral ledge state park. So that's a state park that, um, that those trail systems run through, but they are part of the white mountain national forest. So, um, I go up there like you can draw and that is also another, a trailhead, Peter, where I think you can drive up to the, you can drive up to cathedral ledge and then hit those trails from up, up on the road. So you don't have to climb up if you don't want to.

[00:29:10] Um, but if you've never been there, so cathedral ledges off of West side road, North Conway, you can dry. It's actually a great place to take little kids. It's a great place to take people that are not hikers. If you want to get a view because cathedral ledge is a, uh, fenced in rock prominent, um, outcropping that you can see views down into the North Conway Valley and out into the green hills. And then, uh, to all over to the right of cathedral ledge is a series of trails that take you to

[00:29:39] white horse ledge. Um, and that's where this, um, this person ran into trouble. 73 year old hiker from Lincoln, New Hampshire was about two miles from the trailhead at the time, uh, that she called. So she was having difficulty near the summit of white horse ledge around 4 PM on Monday, July 20th. So conservation officers in North Conway fire and rescue and lakes region search and rescue responded. They, I guess she was, it looks like she had a hydration issue.

[00:30:08] So they were rehydrated her and gave her some rest. And then she was able to hike out on her own with some assistance. So she got back to the trailhead around seven 30. So not a big deal that there, they were able to hike her out, but, um, definitely like it made me think about white horse ledge and cathedral ledge. It's just do such a good area for like young kids or people that aren't hikers that want to experience a little bit of like what it's like to hike in the whites to, to get the views, but not, not have to do the work. Yeah. A hundred percent.

[00:30:38] Yep. All right. Um, and then next one here, we have two more, um, search and rescue calls and then we're going to get into a history segment here. So the next one is a hiker was injured on the Tuckerman ravine trail. So this is the upper section. And this one happened on Saturday, July 25th, around 1 20 PM. So that was the day that we were on Katahdin or no, the day we were actually the day after Katahdin, but it was still pretty hot that day.

[00:31:06] Uh, so nine 11, a 911 call, um, about an injured hiker on Tuckerman ravine trail near the Tuckerman junction. So Tuckerman junction is I believe where lion's head connects with the upper part of Tuckerman ravine trail. So this is on the summit cone where the big rocks are. Um, so the 18 year old hiker from Massachusetts had a significant leg injury and couldn't continue. So pass, there was some hikers that had EMT certifications. They were able to assess the injury.

[00:31:35] So good Samaritans and they provided medical support while a rescue crew was assembled, uh, fishing game conservation officers and, uh, Andrew Scoggin Valley search and rescue on lakes region, search and rescue responded to the incident. Uh, it looks like they were rescuers were transported to the Mount Washington auto road to the summit, hike down that half a mile. And then they placed him in a litter and carried him back up to the summit. And then, uh, took him, I guess the, the four good Samaritan hikers stayed to help as well.

[00:32:02] So by five 50, they were able to get him to the summit and then take him into a cruiser and get him down to a hospital. So, um, one thing I just want to look for listeners. If you aren't familiar with Tuckerman, um, ravine trail, there's a lower section, which starts at hermit. Well, it starts basically at pink. I'm not sure, but there's the hermit lake section. And once you get on top of the head wall of Tuckerman, then you can continue up on Tuckerman ravine, which takes you into,

[00:32:27] I don't know, Peter, how you would describe it basically like big rock hopping and, um, a lot of big boulder fields that you can go up Tuckerman ravine to the summit. I actually prefer to how to head over to South side trail and then come up Crawford whenever I can. I don't know if you guys have an opinion on this or if you even go that way, but to me, I avoid that upper section of Tuckerman just because I can't stand the lights. I actually don't like it. It's too much rock hopping. The rocks are like too high for me. Um, and I, I just find that like, it's the same distance to go.

[00:32:57] So South side over to Crawford and it's a, it's just a nicer hike for me. I don't, uh, I've done the, the, the upper section of Tuckerman's a couple of times. Um, yeah, the Crawford is a much easier hike, a little bit more enjoyable, a little less tough on the body. Right. Yeah. And I think that it's just, to me, it's just like a lot less rock hopping. So that's my preference.

[00:33:26] What is South side? What does that junction come in? Like before you start actually climbing up the right, it doesn't like wrap around sort of the Southern side of the, like, I guess that makes sense. Right. When you clear the head wall, um, then you connect with, there's a, there's a lower trail that, um, takes you over to lion's head. And then that trail just continues on to, um, South side trail as well.

[00:33:48] So it's basically goes along the head wall and then connects to Crawford path and then takes you basically like that traditional route that you take, uh, to go from lakes of the cloud up to the summit. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's all big rock and tallies. Like you said, it's a lot more rock hopping that goes up that way. Uh, six of one, half dozen of the other for me, just, you know, whichever side is going to be a little bit shorter. Um, but yeah, it's, it's all of that stuff. It's pretty challenging.

[00:34:16] Just a slow walking up it. Right. Right. Right. Well, also that ends well, that one. So, um, not a bad location to get a rescue just cause you're so close to the auto road. So it's, it saves a lot of time, but it's still not good. Um, next up, there was a fatality on Welsh Dickey, Nick. So what, what happened on this one? Yeah, this was an unfortunate one. So Saturday, July 25th, around 12, 15 PM fishing game was notified of a hiker having a medical emergency on the Welsh and Dickey trail in Waterville Valley.

[00:34:46] Um, basically 62 year old male that wasn't feeling well and unable to walk. Um, and considering all that info, a rescue call was made. Um, volunteers from Pemi Valley search and rescue and fish and game officers responded to the trailhead at 1 PM. The first group of volunteers started up the trailhead, um, at 1 44 PM, another 911 call was received. Um, at this point, the hiker had collapsed and was no longer responsive. So CPR was started by passing hikers, um, and continued till the volunteers were able to get there.

[00:35:16] Uh, and, uh, due to the seriousness of the situation distance from the trailhead, um, the New Hampshire army national guard helicopter was called in. Uh, the national guard got a flight true together while Pemi Valley search and rescue and good Samaritans performed life-saving measures. Uh, the helicopter was able to hoist the hiker from the mountain. Unfortunately, the hiker did not survive. Um, and they're withholding, uh, the name and, uh, everything about the hiker until the family members are notified. Uh, volunteers got back down at 5 36 PM. So just a really unfortunate one here.

[00:35:45] Um, our thoughts with the family and with, uh, all the search and rescue volunteers, um, and fish and game officers that were involved in this one performing life-saving measures, uh, trying to keep the guy alive. Um, but yeah, just a, just a sort of sad story, not kind of an unexpected spot for that to happen. Um, but yeah, it's too bad. It's, it's too bad. I think that they, I don't know, sometimes these get back to the family and whatnot. So condolences to the family.

[00:36:10] One thing I will say is we've had the New Hampshire army national, um, guard, um, team on here before. And they've talked about like that area of Welsh Dickey is where they have a lot of their training. So I think they do landing touchdowns somewhere back there. So for them to get over there, it's just like, it's, it's like second nature. So I'm sure that they got there as soon as they could, unfortunately.

[00:36:29] Um, you know, it didn't work out, uh, from a timing perspective, but, uh, for the family, it is, there's a, never a good spot to have this happen, but like Welsh Dickey is where, where they train and they can get there really fast. So I'm sure that they did do their best to, to try to, try to save him. So very sad, but, um, next, next one on here, Nick is an AT section hiker.

[00:36:58] I'm starting to call the section of Kinsman Ridge, like the, the, the Bermuda triangle for through hikers. It seems like we've got like a lot of injuries in this, this particular area, but this section hiker had a head injury at Eliza Brook shelter. Have you ever been, Nick, have you been on Eliza Brook? I've never been in that area. Um, whereabouts is that? I'd actually actually have to, is that on the Kinsman Ridge past? Yeah. It's the near Mount Wolf, I think. Okay. Yeah.

[00:37:23] I haven't been by that before, but, um, yeah, it does seem like we've had a lot of stuff going on just over the past six or seven months in this area. Um, but this was back on Sunday, uh, July 26th to 15 PM fishing game was notified of a hiker had fallen and suffered a serious head injury. Um, the hiker was hiking the AT when the incident occurred and was on day five of hiking across New Hampshire. Um, the information provided was that the hiker was less than a mile from the Eliza Brook shelter and attempting to make it there.

[00:37:50] So rescuers drove ATVs for about six miles and then hiked over a mile to the Eliza Brook shelter, reaching the injured hiker at 4 18 PM. Um, the hiker was identified as a 69 year old from Ohio. So he's come a long ways. Um, the hiker and his brother were section hiking the AT when the incident occurred. Um, they mentioned too, that, uh, the pair was very well prepared and had all the acquired equipment and gear needed.

[00:38:12] Um, and due to the seriousness of the injury, uh, the hiker was assisted to the waiting ATV and then transported back to the trailhead arriving around 5 48 PM. Um, and then pretty much treated them for further injuries there. Um, just mentioning too, that the hikers, uh, were super well prepared fishing game always tends to call us out. So these guys were sounds like had all their stuff. They were experienced hikers. And this was kind of a case of probably just slip and fall and something happened. And thankfully, um, that trail, maybe Peter, you have a better idea too, but to be able to drive an ATV in there for six miles to get to him.

[00:38:42] Um, I don't know how rugged that trail is, but it must be somewhat wide and flat. Or at least my guess is they came up real book. Okay. Yeah. That's right. That is kind of very much moderate going up. I could see somebody getting an ATV up there. Once you hit the AT though in there, it narrows in a bit. Okay. Yeah. I was looking at some of the topo while we were talking about that and that I would imagine it'd be a heck of a ride down on an ATV going down that thing.

[00:39:12] Um, but at least they were able to get it in there and kind of get them down speedily. So you have to look, I think this is at least the fourth AT through hiker that has gotten in trouble between, um, Beaver Brook and, uh, the Kinsman area in the last two years. So there's, there's been a couple of them for sure. And you, there was a long period where you didn't see a single AT through hiker having any rescues, but for the last two, three years, they've, they've popped up more and more. There's just been a lot to like basin cascades.

[00:39:41] And then we had, we had that one fatality back in the spring around there, but there's been a lot of activity around sort of the Kinsman Ridge area. Yep. Very good. Well, um, that's, that's, we've got a few more search and rescues at the end if we have time, but that, that we wanted to knock those out. It's been busy. Uh, you guys want to do a history segment or a little like a history mystery segment? Yes. Sounds good. Been too long. Let's dive into some white mountains history, shall we?

[00:40:16] Nick, I'm gonna, I'm gonna assign you a, um, a set of homework. You have to put some like mystery music, like some Scooby-Doo type music behind this segment. All right. As I'm talking. So you have something like spooky and mysterious. Yes. Yeah. So, and you may have to do some outdoor, like maybe some wind and some snowy conditions. Um, I'm going to go. All right. You're pushing it now. It's going to cost us money. Yeah. We'll see. Anyway, cue the winter boots and the door opening and whatever.

[00:40:45] So anyway, I wanted to do this segment just because, um, my, I mentioned this maybe once or twice and there's some stuff on the, the social media. We've put together some videos of, um, I've been, uh, helping my brother and sister-in-law clear their property. They bought like a horse farm that was a little bit of a kind of a hoarder situation. So they've been getting the, the, the horse stalls ready and doing a lot of work over there, but come to find out that this, this particular piece of property had a mystery from 1977. That was somewhat well known.

[00:41:13] And, uh, it's, it's called the, it's known by a couple of different things. The Wakefield ice mystery, the mystery at McCarthy's pond, the Wakefield UFO, um, incident. So there's a whole bunch of things here, but, um, just to tee this off. So last month, my brother and sister-in-law bought this old horse farm in Wakefield, New Hampshire. Since then they've been working to restore the property to its former glory. So with the, and I've been helping them with this, that there's a lot of clearing, a lot of overgrowth, a lot of building repair, a lot of horse stalls we got to repair.

[00:41:43] And slowly I've been learning the different parts of the farm and they've been learning more and more of the property. We haven't been able to explore all the property long-term. The plan is to basically build a set of, um, horse trails or mountain bike trails and hiking trails around the property. Um, but we haven't, I scoured it a little bit out there this week, but that's a long-term plan guys. And we'll, it'll be a little party spot for us for bad. If we can do some camping out there and whatnot. Um, but the property's large, it's like 40 acres.

[00:42:11] It's got a house in an upper barn that was built in 1810. It's got a larger outdoor or indoor riding arena and, and, and a row of stables that was built in the 1990s. And then directly between the house in the large, um, right, indoor riding facility sits a small pond. You'd look at it and go like, Oh, this is a cool little pond to maybe go ice skating in the winter. Very nondescript right by the driveway between the house and the, in the large, um, set of stalls.

[00:42:38] So this location is important because a lot of versions of this story will present this pond as being like out in the middle of like the wilderness and you get a snowshoe out to it. And so the, it's, it's kind of a game of telephone with the way the story has played out over the years, but this pond is not hidden deep in the woods. It's not some secret place concealed by like the forest where you can only reach it by a compass or snowshoes. There's, there's a couple of like different podcasts and people that have, uh, presented

[00:43:05] it as like a, this pond that's hard to get to, but it's not, it's just like, it's a catch pond right next to the driveway. Uh, so it's right in the middle of the property sits between the home and the horse buildings in a place that the family, um, would have seen while looking out their house and walking back and forth, um, to take care of the horses. So it was just part of their daily landscape. So this story starts on January 10th, 1977. So I would have been four, Nick, I would have been four years old at this point.

[00:43:35] You're as old as my daughter. I'm so cute back then, Nick, you would believe it. So I'm sure I couldn't believe it. Right. So anyway, January 10th, 1977, um, something about that familiar landscape suddenly looked wrong, Nick. This is where you would put the cool music in. Okay. So what, what looked wrong? Well, so this is, I'll get to it, but right now just to give a little bit of background at the time, the property was known as Rocky Ridge farm. It was owned by the McCarthy family.

[00:44:04] They had reportedly used this Wakefield property as a summer house beginning in 1967 when they were still living and working in the Boston area. So around six years before the pond incident, around 1971, the family moved there full time to raise horses. So, uh, the owner's name was William McCarthy. So later stories often called William McCarthy farmer bill, but that gives the tail sort of like a rustic charm.

[00:44:33] But, um, he was not just some farmer guy. He was really a building contractor that worked on like skyscrapers in, in Boston. So, um, in online discussions about this story, and I'll get to the details of the story in a minute. His daughter, Kathy had said that her father had worked in construction in Boston and New Hampshire and was never really happy when reporters just reduced him down to farmer bill. Um, but that's the deal. They lived in this horse farm. They had been living there for about six years by 1977.

[00:45:03] Kathy had said the deal with the, with the horses was that that was her department. She was a horse girl. Um, and the, the family had moved up there. There was like a smaller set of stable right now. The, the, there's a big indoor riding arena training facility with 21 horse stalls. The original stalls that, that we were actually working on this weekend. There's like six of them. And I think that was the original farm. And then they had an outdoor sand based, um, training section for the horses.

[00:45:31] So not as big as it is today, but, um, probably we, they have the same amount of horses. They have five horses right now and probably around what the McCarthy's had as well. Um, but the, you know, so this Rocky Ridge farm, it wasn't some isolated frontier homestead. It was like a working family property occupied by the people who knew, um, who, you know, just had a daily routine. So going back to Monday, January 10th, 1977, there was a snow storm going underway.

[00:45:58] They had the, they describe it as a blizzard, but it was a, it was a snow storm. Snow laid heavily across the farm and the temperature was around five degrees Fahrenheit. So this is a wide open piece of property. So I can definitely see back then that the, you know, the, the snow would cover up the fields and, uh, the wind would probably be whipping because there's really not a lot of protection in that, that area there. So, uh, a blizzard was underway. Um, this pond was thick with ice.

[00:46:25] Uh, the New York times article that described the incident described it as roughly being 15 inches thick. And then some other accounts over the, over the different news stories have said 14 to 18 inches. So the details of this thing already begin to shift as, as the story, uh, begins. But essentially what happened is William McCarthy looks out around noontime on Monday, January 10th towards the pond and he sees what appears to be a hole in the ice. So that's, that's odd, right?

[00:46:53] So he goes down there to investigate through the opening. What McCarthy claims is that he cautiously looked down into the hole and saw a black square object. Um, and this black object would become like the famous detail of the story. So over the years, the, the square object would become a box. The box would become a cube. The cube would sometimes become a piece of like alien technology or a UFO. So people really ran with this thing, but the story ended up getting crazy.

[00:47:20] But ultimately no one ever really found out exactly what this supposed object was. Um, McCarthy probed the area with a horse in rakes. And he later said that what appeared to be a black object was actually a square depression or a hole in the hard pack bottom of the pond about one foot square and perhaps three feet. Now this pond I've been, I've been checked out this pond. This pond is probably no deeper than three to four feet in the middle as best I can tell. It's a typical pond. You'll see like a muddy bottom. It's got grass growing in it.

[00:47:50] So I have to imagine by January that thing's probably almost already empty of water. So there's probably not much water in there, maybe a little bit of muck, but it's got to be frozen solid for the most part. So anyway, McCarthy's digging around. He's like trying to figure out why is this big three foot hole in the ice when it's 15 inches thick and it's the middle of a five degree blizzard here. So he also reported that the ice itself was changing.

[00:48:16] He said that the ice began melting into two rounded openings and snow on and around the pond turned to slush. So this was going on at a blizzard roughly five degrees above zero. So McCarthy didn't know what to do. So he ended up calling the local police just being like, this is a strange situation. And then the phone call that he made to the police ended up transforming this afternoon, looking at this hole in the family pond into a full scale New Hampshire event that made

[00:48:43] news stories for like three or four days across the region and actually made national news in New York times. And then ended up being part of like probably 10 different books that included this incident in their, in their stories in the eighties. So local officers arrived. Five, they broke out Geiger counters. So the contemporary reporting says that it's not entirely clear what happened with these Geiger counters.

[00:49:09] So there's a lot of uncertainty on their later accounts supply specific radiation readings. One account said three, uh, Ronin gens, I think is how you pronounce that. Um, so this is a level of radiation that would be the equivalent of exposure of 1500 chest x-rays received at once. So it's a concerning level, uh, but far below a dose expected to cause radiation sickness or death. One later version says that three different instruments gave three different results,

[00:49:37] one high, one low and one effectively zero. So the readings have never been established consistently in the surviving material that I could find. But at the time, the possibility of radiation was apparently taken seriously enough to escalate the response. So now Q would have this negative radiation reading civil defense personnel arrive at night. Um, supposedly like two in the morning. And this is where the story gets, you know, conspiracy theories. They say basically like the men in black showed up at two in the morning and took whatever was in that pond out of there.

[00:50:06] But no one really knows. Um, McCarthy had a German shepherd, which was, um, uh, alerted everybody to the activity that was going on at night. Um, and then by that point, local police, civil defense workers, highway employees, state police client crime lab personnel representatives of the attorney general's office and a national guard colonel ended up showing up at the McCarthy's farm. He McCarthy was reportedly advised not to let the horses drink from the pond.

[00:50:35] And then officials proceeded to cut through the ice using a post hole digger. They, and they, they collected mud from the bottom, placed it in plastic bags and carried away for testing. Uh, at that time it was a local story and they were trying to make it so that the story didn't leak. Uh, unfortunately it got around town what was going on and reporters and curiosity seekers arrived at the property. There was cars lined along Ballard Ridge road beside the snow banks and a helicopter carrying

[00:51:03] a television crew landed in the snowy field. A second helicopter couldn't even find enough room. So this thing got out of control guys. It's got a little, little crazy in January in New Hampshire, but they probably all board. And this is the most exciting thing that happened in Wakefield, New Hampshire. And who God knows how long. Yeah, for sure. I, especially back then, I have to imagine they were going to sensationalize it as much as possible. Right. Right. So, um, yeah, so it was a big escalation and then the William McCarthy's wife, Dorothy

[00:51:32] later said that someone from the attorney general's office told her, we're trying not to let this leak out. Uh, unfortunately at a nearby general store, one man reportedly declared it was the biggest thing that had ever happened in Wakefield, New Hampshire. So back at the farm, sightseer starts staring to start, you know, making their way over there. They're staring at the ice and offering their opinions. One visitor wondered whether all the attention would cause the property value to become an outrageous, you know? So everyone's thinking they're going to be millionaires now because of the novelty of this thing.

[00:52:01] So a couple of days of chaos with the, with the news reports and everything by January 13. So this is three days later, New Hampshire governor Meldrum Thompson, Jr. was attempting to bring the excitement to an end. The governor announced that there was no object at the bottom of the pond. He said that the first instruments had not been adequate and that more sophisticated equipment produced a negative result for radiation. He described the alarm as false and said that he was glad that there was nothing to fear. Officially that should have closed the matter.

[00:52:31] William McCarthy was not convinced. There's a bunch of follow-ons on this thing. I'm going to get into. So he told reporters when spring came, he intended to dig up the area and find out for himself. His wife reached a different conclusion. She said that if another hole appeared, she was going to tell anybody. So I'm going to keep my mouth shut. And that may be the most reasonable statement made during the entire investigation. But that was not the end of the story when the officials left. Um, it began to grow in retelling.

[00:52:57] So the uncertainty higher of the uncertainties hardened into certainties. The pond became this like hidden and remote pond when in reality, it was just this pond that was right off the driveway. The black, um, appearance became the solid black mysterious cube. Ambiguous instrument readings became dangerously high radiation. Officials collecting mud became government agents secretly removing an object. Two vehicles arriving after midnight became proof that someone had reached the pond before investigators return.

[00:53:27] Could it be men in black? So some versions even say that the state trained the pond and discovered that the object had vanished. That sequence is featured prominently in modern retellings, but it's not what the New York Times article at the time it said. So original newspaper stories say officials cut through the ice and remove mud for testing. It does not report a confirmed black cube being recovered, a secret federal remover or drained pond revealing an empty impact site.

[00:53:52] Years later, a woman identifying herself as Kathy McCarthy Williams daughter offered a family perspective. She said that she had gone down to the pond with her father through deep snow. She remembered an open patch of water roughly three feet across despite single digit temperatures and winds. She said she and her father poked at the apparent object, decided that continually is not wise and left it alone. She disputes accounts naming her brother Thomas as the original discoverer. She must, I don't know if her and Thomas are beefing. According to her collection, Thomas did not live at the farm and came only after the family

[00:54:22] told him what happened. Kathy described the pond as shallow, with a clay-like bottom rather than deep mud. She recalled the entire surface becoming slushy in a second dark area or opening appeared later. So anyways, it's valuable information there. But anyway, this story is not simply about what happened to the ice. It's about what happens when events occur and reporters, officials, farm, family members,

[00:54:50] UFO researchers, and decades of retelling all tell the story. So if you dig around on this story, you can look at McCarthy's pond. There's all kinds of crazy tellings about UFOs and all kinds of weird stuff. But it could be nothing. It could be that like two layers of ice were on the pond, one of them dropped into the other one. That sometimes does happen. It could be, there was another explanation where they said potentially like a spring or a groundwater movement with gas in it might have caused the melting.

[00:55:18] And then obviously like a meteor or some sort of space object might have also caused this. And it could be that like the, you know, the, it was destroyed when it hit the pond for some reason. It could be natural. Who knows? Maybe, maybe teenage kids decided to light a fire or something and it wasn't, people weren't aware. Who knows? It could be anything, but, um, aircraft debris, it could be a satellite, anything like that. But no one ever really discovered it.

[00:55:44] But, uh, the, the appealing part of this was people were getting into like government coverup theories. Um, they were talking about, uh, UFOs and all kinds of other explanations, but it is kind of a weird story. Like how does a three foot wide hole appear in the middle of like a 15 inch set of ice in a pond when, you know, it's, it's five degrees out. I don't know if you get any theories. Uh, no theories.

[00:56:12] I guess I'd start with the question of what caused them to go out and look at it to begin with. Right. Did they hear something? It was, yeah, it was noontime. They had to go. So the way that the house is set up is that they got to take, they got to keep an eye on the horses. So by noontime, I would imagine that like typically the way the horses work is you get up there in the morning, you got to feed that, that the better question, Peter would be like, they get up in the morning to feed the horses. How do they not see it at six in the morning when they go out to feed the horses later on

[00:56:40] in the day, they got to go back and water the horses again and make sure that they've got enough hay and everything. So over the course of the day, going back and forth between the house and the horse stalls, they would have seen the, the, the, the pond. Fair enough. Yeah. So anyway, but it was called Rocky Ridge Farm back then, but it's, it's, you know, it's quiet now. It's gone through a bunch of different names. Um, we're now calling it the Avalon Equestrian and they're working it as a family with, uh, with my niece, their daughter.

[00:57:10] So no reporters around anymore, no helicopters, no lines of cars, but the same, same layout is there. Uh, the house and upper barn sits unchanged from when it was built in 1810. And the indoor riding arena was built in the 1990s, which expanded the old horse stables. Um, you know, with the pond sitting in between them. So it's not in a haunted forest. It's not miles from the nearest human footprint. It's right in the center of that area.

[00:57:35] Um, no one knows whether this was a unusual failure of ice, perhaps warm water rose from below via spring. We don't know whether the instruments that supposedly read the radiation were right or wrong. Um, we don't know. Maybe some kids lit a fire at night and did it as a prank. It's tough to know, but 50 years later, the story still continues and is well known in Wakefield. So it was a chaotic investigation. A lot of evidence is missing.

[00:58:02] Uh, every time the story is retold, it gets, this pond gets a little bit more remote. The radiation gets a little stronger and the black square becomes more and more, um, definite that, that existed. But we really don't know what happened. Maybe it was a UFO. I like to think that it was maybe a meteor that, that hit. Um, there is a weird couple of footnotes on this thing.

[00:58:22] Uh, there's a guy by the name of William Houston that was on Facebook that claimed that he had found this unusual looking, and I'll link this in the show notes. He found this unusual looking rock, which is, um, which does not look like a natural rock.

[00:58:43] And, uh, he had posted like two, three years ago and said that he had, um, I guess he had been the son of the, when, when it was Rocky Ridge farm, it was the McCarthy sold it a couple of years later. This guy's parents owned the horse farm and they called it Misty Meadows. When he was on the horse farm as a kid, he found this rock and he was like, this is such a weird rock. And he kept it all the way for the rest of his life.

[00:59:09] And in 2022, he posted it and was like, I'm going to get this check to see if it might be a meteor. So he said he found it in the outdoor riding arena, which is literally like right next to the pond. He said he found it wedged in the sand and pulled it out. And, you know, I'll send you guys the pictures of it. The link is in the show notes if you want to check it out. But, um, it's, it is interesting. So I may reach out to this guy to ask him if he ever got tested for, for it being a meteor. So that might be the explanation.

[00:59:39] Yeah. I like the meteor idea. Um, so Mike, did you, was this like disclosed? Like, did your brother and stuff find out about this when they bought it? Or did you just stumble upon this from looking through New Hampshire kind of oddities? Or how did you actually realize this was the pond? I'll have to double check with my brother to see, I think I'll have to ask him. I think that the weird thing about this whole property is that, um, it's had a bunch of different owners. And when they bought the property, they heard from a lot of the former owners.

[01:00:09] Cause I think that the, the situation with the previous owner was a little rough. I think that they were in over their heads as far as maintaining the property. So I think that some of the previous owners were happy that they had bought the property and hopeful that they were going to restore it back to like a better condition than it had been in over the, over the recent. I mean, I can tell you that like this whole thing was a wreck buying this thing in the amount of work that they've done. I mean, I've just go over there for a few hours on the weekends.

[01:00:36] I've spent a couple of days over there, but the amount of work is insane that they've done already clearing the fields, getting the stalls ready to go. So, um, so I think what ended up happening is they heard from McCarthy's daughter. I'll have to double check and see, and maybe, maybe I'll get her on for segment, but I think that's what happened is they heard from McCarthy's daughter who we just referenced and then found out about it from, um, but I don't think they knew until they bought the property.

[01:01:01] Okay. Cool. Yeah. I imagine it must be kind of one of the more notable kind of newsworthy things for Wakefield still. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. 1977, it kind of sounds like a precursor to today's entire news media circus. Right. Yeah. It was like, you could definitely see this being like a stranger things episode, right? You know, something fell into the, in the pond, but it escaped before anybody really noticed it and it's in the woods somewhere, but everybody's, you know, searching around the property.

[01:01:31] So it'd be like an X files, um, thing. And then there is a little bit of extra research that I need to do. I found that, um, there's a, there was a followup article from October 12th, 1977 that revisits the incident and has some interviews with William. I wasn't able to find the reference to the article, but I have to go onto the New Hampshire times archive site to find the October 12th, 1977 edition.

[01:01:55] I think I have to pay a little bit of money on that one. So I'm going to try to get that. And then I'll try to reach out to McCarthy's daughter. And then maybe I'll try to reach out to that meteorite guy, see what's going on, but interesting story. Yeah. It was really cool. Yeah. When you send me, it's funny. If you look, there's like so many, like Reddit and forum posts, there's a lot of stuff online about this. Um, a lot of people have dived down the same rabbit hole before. So it's kind of interesting that your brothers. So are we going to go in the summer and try to dig up this pond? It's going to be my next question.

[01:02:25] Yeah. We are. Well, I was almost thinking of, I might do a video and just go diving into that pond and kicking around with my feet to see if I can find like some radiation down there. We never see you again. Right. Be bad. We'll have to see. I mean, it's got a culvert. You could, in theory, just like, literally, you could probably pump that pond out in about probably less than an hour. I could, I could put a pump in there and just get that whole thing cleared out and see what's on the bottom. But I don't know. We got other work to do. We got, we got the horses to worry about when I'm over there. So.

[01:02:55] But maybe next year. Excellent. So anyway, but that's the story of the Wakefield UFO mystery, the Wakefield ice hole mystery, um, McCarthy's pond. So we'll put some links in the show notes of different sources that you can check and check and read out. But I love those stories, the local sort of weird oddities. Yeah. Yeah, that was cool. Yeah. Very good. Uh, what is next, Nick?

[01:03:23] So next, uh, we have, this was another sort of unfortunate event. Um, we had a Netflix star and mountaineer Nirmal Persia dives in tragic avalanche. Um, so I, I got this one sent by a couple of friends and stuff who would pay attention to the sort of community. Um, but this, uh, this climber getting an ad block here. Nirmal Persia, um, ended up, uh, he, his, uh, a sense. I haven't actually seen this. I don't know if any of you guys have seen this, but in the Netflix film, 14 peaks, nothing is impossible.

[01:03:52] So he, uh, summited all the 14, I guess, 8,000 meter peaks, um, in the world, um, kind of became pretty famous through this documentary. And it sounded like, uh, pretty recently he'd been leading a pack of 10 climbers trekking up to the 26,400 foot broad peak in Pakistan when a snow slide struck midday this past Thursday. Um, and basically they all went missing. Um, sounds like all of them sort of perished in the avalanche. So really unfortunate situation.

[01:04:20] The climber, uh, Persia was only 43 year old, 43 years old. Um, kind of really made a name for himself. And it sounds like, uh, there was just kind of a potentially a really large snow pack up there and they got caught in an avalanche and kind of how it ended. So kind of interesting. It seems like for someone that experienced, it seems like maybe not the best conditions a lot. I read a few different articles people had sent to me on this too. So I know it was maybe summit fever going on, or maybe they thought they could handle it, but it's, it's kind of interesting.

[01:04:49] Yeah. I mean, you're, you're, um, you know, your, your window for, um, mistakes is pretty narrow when you're up there above, uh, 8,000 meters or even, even just in the, that those areas. So anywhere you're dealing with avalanche territory and, and in those high summits is just scary. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. It sounds like, so, uh, Persia had actually broken the record for the fastest ascents of these, uh, the 14, 8,000 meter peaks in the world.

[01:05:19] Um, those back in 2019 climbing just over 26,300 feet in six months. So we did it over six months time, which is pretty damn impressive. Um, and imagine a lot of coordination and money involved in that too. So it sounds like they, they searched for them. They made every possible effort to try to find, uh, the people that were lost, but ultimately, uh, we're unable to find them at this time. Very good. And then what's next, Nick?

[01:05:48] Then, uh, I guess we've been too many weeks since we've talked about a grizzly. So, uh, this was, I think, I think Stomp had found this one. So Catholic deacon fell 100 feet while being mauled to death by a surprised grizzly bear. So that sounds pretty horrible. This is a nightmare. Yeah. So there's a Catholic deacon that was mauled to death by a grizzly bear and fell almost 100 feet as the animal continued to attack him. So I guess in free fall, he was still getting attacked by this grizzly bear.

[01:06:14] Um, Anthony Pio, 33 was hiking Montana's Glacier National Park on May 3rd when he surprised an adult male grizzly bear on Mount Brown lookout trail. Do not want to surprise any grizzly bears. Um, so that darkness and deadfall on the trail would have prevented the bear and Mr. Pio from seeing each other until they were very close. And, uh, the productive grizzly bear launched an intense attack.

[01:06:38] It sounds like, uh, Julio fully discharged his bear spray, um, but plunged 93 feet down slope. Um, and it's funny too, this is just sort of in the station, the article, but as someone mentioned that probably while the bear continued to attack. So to give you the visual there, it's kind of extrapolated a bit. Yeah. The crazy thing about this one is it sounds like he stumbled into the beer. He was able to, this guy, by the way, you think a Catholic deacon, like the deacons I know are a little, little, little soft neck.

[01:07:06] I, I am yet to meet a Catholic deacon that I, that I, and I've seen a lot of them that, that were outdoor. This guy's got like Bowie knives and guns and stuff. He's a hunter. He's a real outdoorsy man, manly man. Um, so he let loose with the bear spray and then the, the bear stopped attacking him. He was able to sort of climb up a little bit. And then unfortunately the bear came back for round two and that was the end. Yeah. Um, this always makes me think too, I wonder how effective that bear spray is.

[01:07:32] And the sense of like, is that, are you just going to piss the bear off more and it's still going to try to kill you? Cause it seems like that's kind of what happened here. Like, I don't know if you could get it in the eyes or in the mouth. Like there must be somewhere you can hit a bear with that, that it'll actually stop. But, um, didn't seem like it helps a lot here. I did a solo nighttime hike this weekend, Nick. And I, I had my, I was a little bit nervous about black bears, but I had my silky saw and I was right. I was going to take that out and use it like a sword. If I needed to.

[01:08:00] That seems like a surefire, uh, defense system for sure. That's better than singing. That was like, was it Liz Faye we had on that was like singing was just sort of the defense mechanism. Sorry, Liz. You and Izzy. But like, yeah, I guess that probably put more faith in that at least. Yes. Yeah. Imagine taking a black bear down with a silky saw. You'd be like a legend. You would, you probably would be. Yeah. You know why? Cause it would never happen, but you know. Yeah. Yeah. This is a terrible story. Yeah.

[01:08:31] Oh gosh. Uh, so this is the first, first fatal attack in Glacier National Park in 30 years, which is surprising to me. So, but now he's, um, yeah, he lived a pretty good life. 33 years old. He was a Florida guy, but he, he did all kinds of hiking all over these national parks here. So Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Starved Rock, Mount Rushmore. So a lot of experience, uh, in the outdoors.

[01:08:59] And unfortunately he did everything right as far as having the beer spray, but it's still, you stumble on a grizzly and it's game over. Yeah. I don't think your odds are really great. I'm, I am kind of surprised. I mean, it's, it's encouraging to hear that it's been that long since a fatality because Glacier to me above a lot of the national parks is like synonymous with grizzlies and people talking about grizzlies out of everywhere else I seem to hear about. Maybe it's just because it's popularity. A lot of people go there, but I always think of grizzlies. Yep. All right.

[01:09:27] Uh, Nick, we are, uh, we're running out of time here. So I think that we've got to skip the gear review and I think we've got to skip the music minute. Um, or we'll hear Nick, you can do music minute or you can do notable hikes. Which one do you want to do? Um, we'll, we'll skip the music minute and we'll get, we'll throw to notables. How does that sound? That's good. I will say that the music minute on point this, this week. So we'll, I approve. Thank you.

[01:09:53] You guys, I think hanging out with you guys for a weekend, like jogged my eighties and nineties music kind of things again. So. All right. So now we're moving on to, um, all right. If you want to get stickers for slasher, then, uh, you can go to mountain wander. You can go to Spinner's pizza parlor in Andover. Um, if you want to get slasher swag, you can get that at the bonfire shop. We'll link that in the show notes. Um, if you want to get patches, you can still message us over Instagram.

[01:10:19] They're $2 and 50 cents and Nick will somehow figure out how to get your address and Venmo and all that stuff. So just send us a message if you want those. And then if you want to donate to us to help us pay for bear spray and, um, Geiger detectors, whatever we need. Dredging ponds. Yeah. Pond dredging services. Um, you can do that through slasher's buy me a coffee site. So, um, you can go ahead and buy us coffee and that money will go to, uh, web hosting, distribution, live events, or any other nonsense that we decide. And then you can also become a monthly supporter.

[01:10:49] So if you click a box and say, take money out of my banking account every month, you can do that. And then like, it's impossible to cancel it. You have to jump through a bunch of hoops. So we love that. That's our favorite thing. And then moving on to bear bear talk, um, not the black bear talk, but the kind you drink. Uh, this is the part of the show where we talk about what bear we're drinking. So Peter, are you drinking anything tonight? I am drinking water tonight. All right. You're drinking water. All right. I see Jake just flashed a bear. He is never going to be somebody that doesn't have a, have a drink.

[01:11:19] So what is that? Jake's got Eddie Topper. Oh, you're muted, Jake. You're muted. You're on mute, Jake. You're on mute, Jake. Oh, sorry. Jake, look, we're a professional podcast here. Sorry. You got to hit your mute button when you're talking. I was in Vermont this last weekend, so I am drinking Heady Topper, but I'm going back and forth between the Heady Topper and the water. Excellent. Excellent. Good choice. And then young Nick, what are you drinking?

[01:11:49] I just have athletic, so not very exciting. School night. I do like that. Nick, the listeners all want to know whether or not you purchased a bike and if you've continued on with your bike riding journey, or if you've just, um, uh, continued on to ignore your bike riding, you have responsibility for young children. Now they should be learning how to ride a bike. They should be out riding around and we, the listeners want to know. Um, the conversations about purchasing bikes have, have kicked off. I'll keep everybody abreast of the situation as the, as it unfolds, but nothing has been

[01:12:18] happening as of late. So, um, yeah, that's where we're at, but I'll be sure to let everybody know. I feel like you should be prioritizing bike purchases over Maine Coon cat purchases, but that's just my opinion. Well, that's, you're entitled to your opinion, Mike. Okay. I'm not going to let this go. So I'm not going to stop bothering you until those children can ride bikes with no training wheels. It could be a long, it could be a long ongoing segment. Mrs. Nick, I have you back.

[01:12:53] 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. 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.

[01:13:21] 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. Ha! Whatever, mister. Do you know me? I have a podcast. Whatever. Let's find out what Mike and Stomp have been hiking. Uh, all right. Next up is the part of the show where we talk about recent hikes.

[01:13:49] So Peter and Jake already talked about their recent adventure on the Appalachian Trail in Killington. Do we need to get into more detail on that? Or did you guys give us all the details? I think you got most of the detail on that. That's about it. Over Killington, not Pico. Okay. I was, I was, uh, I remember the one thing I remember about Pico is there's a lot of signs about porcupines on Pico. Did you guys see any like signs warning about porcupines? Didn't see any signs. Well, we were kind of running too, so. Not a lot, but I've never seen a few. Okay.

[01:14:19] Didn't see any porcupines either. It was kind of a weird, um, like mix of, of forest roads and trails to get, actually get up to the summer to Pico, but. Okay. Interesting. All right. Uh, Nick, and then, um, you had a very exciting weekend at Katahdin and then now you seem to have, um, reverted to unexciting weekends of hiking, um, now that you are home in Southern Mass. So where did you get out to? Yeah. What, like you said, one, uh, one Friday you're hiking Katahdin and Hamlin Peak and the next,

[01:14:49] uh, you're doing like 250 foot ascents up a 450 foot hill in Cumberland, Rhode Island. So yeah, I got out a little bit on Friday morning, Saturday, just trying to keep the legs fresh, uh, with, uh, some races with the Jigger Johnson sneaking up on us in a couple of weeks with my, uh, my cousin. So yeah. And I've got a, he kind of was propositioned to me. I was planning on joining at the Hancock Harampin and going out there, but now he was kind of asking if I would want to join at Sawyer River and maybe Peter, you can give us some insight. I don't know if any of you guys have been on that, but the Sawyer, basically the Sawyer

[01:15:18] River trail through Kerrigan Notch trail, um, kind of that section where you go back to Hancock Harampin, um, is apparently like notoriously one of the nastiest sections of like that whole trail as far as like, it's just super wet and I guess muddy a lot. And, uh, he's kind of worried about it personally. And I'm like, I don't know if I want to, I mean, I feel like I should suffer with him, but, um, yeah, I don't know if you've been through there and have any recollection.

[01:15:42] It's wet and muddy, but, um, I don't remember anything terribly challenging about it. Yeah. Again, it was just sort of marshy in a bunch of spots. It's not, not steep. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I don't know if that's the case of some of the, the, the folks that have run ultra races and just haven't hiked in the whites as much kind of hitting that. And then they get really like bummed out cause they can't make as good times, uh, as they think they can. But, uh, but yeah, so that's where I'm at. I might try to get out to blue Hills or something this weekend.

[01:16:11] We'll see what's up, but what, but you had a much more exciting hike to talk about Mike. So what did you do this past weekend? Yeah. Before we get into that, I just like to say, I enjoy having Peter on the show because he's completed his red line and it's like, basically like we don't even have to reference a white mountain guide ever again. Cause we just asked Peter. Encyclopedia. So, but I got out to the ball pieces. Um, I had, uh, done some trail maintenance in May. I had done, I think some sections between Bicknell. Oh, I did an Eagle Crag to Bicknell Ridge.

[01:16:40] And then I did some other sections beyond Bicknell Ridge. And then I, I had to just scout the whole circle. So I decided that, um, we had to get back into Boston on Sunday. So it was Saturday. So I got up at two in the morning on Saturday, went and grabbed some coffee at the Irving and Freiburg, and then went over to Evans Notch. And I was on trail by like three o'clock in the morning and just headlamped it solo. There was a couple of cars in the, in the parking lot. So I thought that I would see some people camping up at the shelter, but I didn't see anybody when I got up there.

[01:17:08] But yeah, it was, I hadn't done a solo night hike in a while and it was kind of, it was fun. It was peaceful. I just put in an audio book and moved along. And, uh, that, that section of trail from the parking lot to Emerald Pool is pretty much flat. So it gives you like a mile, maybe a little over a mile of just getting easing into it. And then once you get to the cutoff to get up to, um, salt bald face, the section past Emerald Pool up to the shelter is a, yeah, that's a big climb.

[01:17:37] I think that's probably, I don't know, 1400 feet of climbing over the course of about a mile and a half or, or so. So got up to the shelter. There's no water around there at all. So, um, if anybody's going to the bald faces, basically you've got, I think it's Chandler Brook. Um, there is some water sources higher up on the Bicknell Ridge side when you cut over to South bald face, but otherwise like there's no water options up there at all. So I carried, I think four liters. I had two Gatorades and two liters of water with me.

[01:18:07] And, um, I was a little bit nervous about going up the ledges with the headlamp just because those ledges are a little tricky. I don't know if you guys have done them, but they're a little tricky to navigate. Uh, but it was like almost a full moon. And by the time I got to the ledges at four in the morning, it was like the sunrise was starting to come up and I still have my headlamp on. By the time I got up to the top of the ledges, I shut my headlamp off. It didn't need it anymore. And then you could see the, um, the, the sunrise coming up above me.

[01:18:36] And I just, I got up to South bald face. Perfect time. I had maybe about a half hour before the sun came up, but I could see like the, the pre sun. Um, and then the sun just popped right up through the clouds and I just sat there until maybe about six. And then after that I was in perfect position. So the start of my trails that I maintain up there go from salt bald face over to Eagle Crag. So I basically, I had done all that work between South and North last, last year.

[01:19:05] So I knew that that was mostly cleared out. There was a couple of blow downs I had to take care of. There was like five or six sections that had grown in. It's crazy how much they grow in over the course of a year. So just a lot of brushing and, um, made my way over to North bald face by four hours. I was messing around between South and North. And then I got between North and the low coal heading to Bicknell Ridge, cleared out all those areas and then started seeing people.

[01:19:33] And then by that point I ran out of water and then I had to get down. So, but it's mostly clear. Nice. Yeah. You shared a nice reel of the sunrise there. It looked really pretty up, up there in the morning. I'm learning on my Instagram not to, not to move too quickly, Nick. I did one minute perfectly. It's tough to do the slow pan. It takes a long time. Even I go, I go too fast sometimes too. It's tough to, to really lock it in. You realize how much better the quality looks when you go a little bit slower too with that, but you did good.

[01:20:02] I appreciated the music selection and everything. I thought it was quite nice. Yeah, it was pretty good. Yeah. I did only the young by journey for my music selection, which is good. Yeah. But it was nice. It's very, I enjoy the, the lopper and just clipping away at the, at the trails. I like basically my system with the trails at this point is I kind of walk the trail and if anything touches my legs, then immediately it gets cut. Right. And then if anything hits my shoulders or my head or anything like that, and then it gets hit.

[01:20:34] I'm going to do what I call the Peter test and the Peter test is basically, um, is there anything above my head, like a foot above my head that might not like it hit. And I'll, I'll make sure I clear that. So guys, Pete, the listeners that are at Peter is like super tall. What are you like? Six, six, six, six, Peter. Six, five, six, five. Yeah. Six, five. Drunk a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. So that'll happen. But, um, yeah, so I make sure that I clear like the higher parts and, um, for the most

[01:21:02] part, yeah, it's, it's mostly clear. It's a two and a half mile section of trail and I've got maybe a quarter mile to three eighths of a mile that I've got to, I've got to go back and do like six or seven sections. So I'll do that in September. Awesome. And they already, the bald face loop, uh, over your trail was like last weekend, I think, or two weekends ago. Yeah. It was like last weekend. So I don't know if they go up there and do any work. I didn't see anything. Um, yeah, I was, yeah, I was going to be my question. Yeah. I didn't see them do anything.

[01:21:30] Maybe they cleared some blowdowns that I didn't see anything. I had to do a couple of blowdowns and I did actually do a little bit of Cairn work up there, just building up one Cairn that had to get fixed. But otherwise that, that trail was in good shape. So I think if I finish in September, I, I have a feeling that after the, that'll be six sessions over the last two years. So I've done three sessions last year and then I'll have done three sessions this year. May, July and May, August and September.

[01:22:00] So that's basically what it took to do two and a half miles. And I think next year should just be a single trip to just cut brush back anything that come through, came through, and then maybe deal with blowdowns over the winter if they come through. But I really haven't had many, many blowdowns in the winter either up there. Yeah. I'd be curious if you see years where it seems like it grows more. I see, it seems like with my trail, it's been like every other, I'm sure it's just totally dependent upon rain probably, but the way it's worked out, it's like every other year I've gone up there, it seems to grow more. And mine's all crumbles too.

[01:22:30] It's not the, you have like actual more trees and stuff that grow up there, but it's, it is kind of interesting to see how like months apart, how much it grows in. It's kind of, it's kind of cool to be like, Oh man, I didn't expect this much, but I'm curious what it'll look like year to year. I'm sure you'll notice with like seasonal trends doing it long enough. Like if you get a lot of rain, maybe it grows more if it's a cooler summer or things like that. It's kind of interesting to see the ecosystem up there. Right. Right. I think that the, the plan will be to just do this last session in September, get everything

[01:22:59] good and then do another session in May of next year. And if that's all good, then I'll talk to AMC and maybe I can grab another section. Like, cause I think Bicknell Ridge, there's some set of actually that looks pretty good, but there's some sections below South Bald Face that probably could get some work done. So I'll, I'll talk to AMC and see what they have available. And while we're on the topic too, a trail maintenance, our buddy Craig just sent out his August sort of reminder, check in and submit those trail reports.

[01:23:29] If you've been out there doing trail maintenance folks, cause I think that he's looking for some, it seems like there's like 20% or so of people haven't submitted any work reports. And he knows that most of us have gotten out there by this point in the summer, at least once. So just a friendly reminder. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like immediately submit mine cause I want credit. Yeah. You're like the dude, were you the favorite kid in class too? I don't know. I don't know. I just like, I have to submit it because I'm like, if I didn't submit it, then it doesn't get tracked and then I don't get credit. Yeah. I need to be better.

[01:23:58] I usually do. I did it within like a week or so this time, but I've definitely let it go for like a month or two before. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Future plans people. So Peter, I know you had talked about potentially checking out the Mount Washington car race that was, that's going to be going on this weekend. Any other plans for you, Peter? Going out to Portland, Oregon for a week coming up. Nice. I mean, family trip. So hope is to get out to do a little bit of hiking around Mount Hood if we can.

[01:24:26] Not, not obviously going up Mount Hood, but there's a lot of waterfalls and Columbia River Gorge is supposed to be really pretty. So check that stuff out. Awesome. Yeah. That's a, that's a beautiful area for sure. And then, uh, Jakester, any plans for you in the future? Uh, got an Acadia trip coming up in September. Uh, got a rock track, rock climbing trip also in September. Um, other than that, play it by year. All right.

[01:24:56] And then Nick, what do you got going on? Um, nothing much. Might be looking at Blue Hills or something one day this week. And on the Acadia train after chatting with you guys, we're, we're going to stay the first week in November. We get a rental. So we're going to do a long weekend out in Acadia. So I was starting to, starting to look at that a little bit, but, uh, excited to check that out that time of year. So it should be fun. Awesome. Yeah. And then I don't have my, I'm going to be up North, but I don't have any plans. I probably going to stick local somewhere in Western Maine, either Pleasant Mountain

[01:25:22] or Burnt Meadow, or maybe, uh, get up to Black Cap or one of those, um, green, green hills, pikes, maybe the Redstone, something like that. So the kid's got some friends coming up and boyfriends and all that fun stuff. So nothing crazy. I can't take them on any big adventures, but I can take them on some small stuff. Fun. It's time for Slasher's notable hike of the week.

[01:25:48] If you want to be considered for the hike of the week, simply tag Slasher on your social media post. All right. So next up here, moving on is notable listener hike of the week. Um, if you want to, um, get on this, you can tag Slasher on your adventure to be considered for Slasher's hike of the week. No guarantees. Um, you'll be plugged on the show, but, uh, just put it in and we'll see what happens. Yeah. And throw it up on Instagram. Cause we don't check, uh, Facebook as much. Um, so here we go.

[01:26:17] Arlo the Beagle, Acadia National Park. Uh, it looks like they did Acadia Mountain, Door Mountain, Day Mountain, and Arlo became a certified Bark Ranger. That might just get hike of the week right there for Mike, just because I'm certified Bark I see Arlo on our feed now on Instagram too. He's like a full, he's like a member of the show now. Yeah. We've been in collaborations together. We love those collab posts. Uh, Cody, not, not in New York or NY, I guess. Huge bull moose in your territory, Mike. Huge bull moose on North Bald Face from South Bald Face.

[01:26:46] Oh, I saw that. This is super cool. He actually zoomed in. It was really cool. Yeah. Actually. I just replied to that. That was a good catch. I, I, I was actually sitting on South Bald Face looking over at North being like, maybe I'll see the moose, but I didn't see any signs of it. Yeah. It was kind of funny. It just sort of wanders up there and then wanders back. Kind of neat. Um, folk star epic scramble up the head wall of castle ravine. This looked like a fun one. It looked very scenic and very green in there this time of year. Uh, that frigging hiker Carter dome on the past less travel. This was interesting.

[01:27:16] So he went up bog brook to wildcat river trail, the Carter Mariah trail up to Carter dome. Then he went past Carter dome to check out Mount height, where he said there was fantastic views. Then he went back towards Carter dome and down the rainbow trail. Um, and he mentioned there was a really nice surprise viewpoint along the way down. And then he hopped back on bog brook. And, uh, it sounds like the heavens opened up on him on the way down. It said he wouldn't even mattered if he had his rain gear on kind of style rain. Um, and he was 35 out of 48. So he's getting there. So congrats.

[01:27:43] Our buddy, Dan nooks nook 603, the rower guy. Um, Dan continues his rower journey with Moosalock for 11 out of 48. Nice job, Dan. Liz Faye joining Dave on the AT again in Vermont, um, shared some pictures of Stratton mountain in the Stratton pond shelter. So Stratton's cool. I played, I played golf at the Stratton course once. I've never hiked it and hope to get back sometime. Our friend Cindy Hessian, Cindy chest set or Cindy has seven. I always say her Instagram handle name.

[01:28:16] This takes great photos. Interesting loop up Webster cliff trail all the way over to Crawford path, um, to the Mount Eisenhower trail, then back down through the dry river wilderness, um, looping back to his car. Uh, just kind of a different loop. Pretty neat. Nice job. And then PA tell your one Moosalock by the Beaver brook trail, which they mentioned was quite steeper than the other ways they've been at Moosalock. So who's got it this week? I would say folk star on the, uh, castle ravine. That's always a fun one.

[01:28:46] Cool. Yeah. Look good. It looked gorgeous in there. Looking at pictures at a glimpse, I would have thought it was King ravine or something like that, but that's just boulders and the sites, but I'll have to get in there sometime. Right. So, and, uh, Cindy's getting close. So we'll hold hers for a 48. And there was much rejoicing. Slasher's hiking topic of the week.

[01:29:18] All right. So moving on, this is the, uh, so we wanted to just continue on the Baxter state park recap. So this will be part two. Um, so the, this part, uh, this was day two. We had split up on the group. Some of the crew went to North brother and then the rest of the crew went to explore some swimming and some waterfalls. So I guess Nick and Jake, why don't you guys break down, um, I guess your trip up to North brother or so, and then talk a little bit about how everyone was all gung ho about we're definitely going to do North brother.

[01:29:44] And then after we did Katahdin, everybody was like, nobody's interested in doing a long hike. Yeah. It was kind of a funny dynamic. I think we got back that night and like, um, I don't know, maybe I'll let you, I'll throw it to you, Jake. You can describe the dynamic of the group when we were kind of mentioning North brother potential the next day. I think pretty much everybody was like, yeah, I'm good. Except for, except for Paul. He's like, what are we walking tomorrow? Um, yeah.

[01:30:14] So Paul really wanted to, really wanted to hike. And, uh, I could have gone either way. If it was just going to be two of us, I was like, nah, I'll, I'll do the small thing with the waterfall. But if anybody else goes, all right, fine. I'll, I'll join in. Um, and I don't think you had made a decision as of yet, Nick. Yeah. Yeah. I kind of, I think it was in the same boat as you. I'm like, I could go either. Like, it's supposed to be nice tomorrow. I'm like, I would like to hit it if someone wanted L. I don't know if I would have gone solo if everybody had decided not to go.

[01:30:43] But, uh, I also am kind of like the dog getting out of the yard sort of effective. Like I'm trying to hike as much as possible probably while we're up there a little bit more. So I was in that boat. Yeah. Um, plus it, it, it's a, you know, Maine and, uh, new England 4k that I didn't have. So it was, you know, that little carrot dangling. Um, but we decided to go for it and it was a hot day. Yeah. It started off quite steamy.

[01:31:13] Um, another little funny anecdote is I don't know how far we get into the hike before Paul, Paul realized, I think he heard us say that it was, he heard 3000 feet or something to that effect. And this is when the keg was flowing and everything else was going on. So interpretations may have varied a little bit of depending who you were listening to, but we were talking about the hike and I'm like, Oh, I think it's like eight or nine miles. And well, like 3000 feet. And Paul's like, Oh, like 3000 feet. Like we can do that. And like, I don't know how far up we got before he realized that it was actually a 4000 footer

[01:31:39] and it wasn't just another 3000 foot ish peak in, in, uh, Baxter state park. So that was kind of funny. He's like, Oh, 3000 feet of elevation gain. Yeah. I think it was at that first major trail junction where it said, uh, at the, at the plateau where it actually had the elevation of North and South brother, you know, North that way at whatever it was, 41 South that way at 39. He's like, this is a 4000 footer. Yes.

[01:32:09] Yeah. That was part of the appeal. That's why we're here. Um, but yeah, so, so we woke up, we, we didn't get a particularly early start. I think we left like around nine or 10 o'clock, 10 o'clock, something like that. Yeah. I don't think we left. It was definitely closer to probably definitely after nine, closer to 10 when we left the, left the campsite. Yeah. And one thing I, I kind of forgot to, um, in, I also forgot sort of like, it was a little bit of a ride just going to Roaringbrook the previous day, but from where we left the

[01:32:37] tote road, I want to say from where we were camping, it was almost 50 minutes and it was about a 45 minute ride up the tote road. Um, doing the speed limit that we were, of course we're doing, um, the whole way, but to get up there and realistically to, to be completely honest with people, like you might be able to go 20 or 30 on some of the tote road, but it's, it's so windy and dusty and like dirty. And if this car is coming, you really can't make great time anyways. Um, probably took us about 40 minutes. Um, you take a left once you get in the park at the tote road entrance. Um, and kind of nice. You're just driving past a ton of ponds and different trail heads.

[01:33:07] Um, and one thing I did want to call out is like, we can, I saw it once and was calling out to you guys, but the profile of double top when you're heading up from the tote road is like, it's just this like granite gumdrop Mount crumpets type of looking thing that you see in the distance. It was really, really cool. And we were both were like, what the hell is that? Yep. Pull up the map. Yep. That's, that's the double heads. It's fantastic. It's in its steep. Yeah, for, for sure. Um, but yeah, we got there and like Jake mentioned, uh, it was funny to you.

[01:33:37] It was just very muggy and warm down in the woods. Like compared it, not that it wasn't warm when we did a Katahdin. Um, but it seemed like especially sticky, uh, kind of down low and we were kind of near the river at first, which was nice. But then we ended up in sort of this place, like no breeze, just kind of quite toasty and humid. Um, it got better as we got up higher. And, um, how would you sort of describe, I mean, we were kind of, we're thinking about this, but how was the route up to, uh, North brother itself, Jake?

[01:34:03] So it was pretty interesting in that it wasn't the consistent climb that, that you're, we're kind of used to. It was relatively flat and then almost straight up for a thousand feet and then relatively flat again. Uh, you know, it was to climb up to the pond, then we were flat and then we had to climb up again to the, the call or the, the plateau between North and South.

[01:34:30] And then another mile of flat, soft padded trail. Um, and then the, the last climb up to North brother itself was again, steep, just like we're used to in the, in the whites. Yeah. Yeah. That was pretty good summary. There was one part I'd remember that stuck out in my brain when we're going and we keep saying plateau, but it's like weird when you get up to like North brother, like before you get to the last junction, you're on the mile of like almost flat, like really beautiful bog bridges.

[01:34:58] And there's some really nice bridge work in there, but when you get up higher, it is weird. It's, it's almost like this flat land. Obviously it's not totally flat, but it is almost like a plateau with like jumbled piles and little craggy peaks sticking out of it. Like when you look from code to South brother, North brother and Fort peak. Um, so that's what we kind of mean we're talking about sort of that plateau. Um, but yeah, just some steep little climbs in this one spot as you're heading on those bog bridges, you see left through, like, it's gotta be just an area of sort of blow downs or whatever, but you can see like North brother up and we're like, we're still at like, I

[01:35:27] don't know if it was like 3,200 feet or whatever. And it ends up like, you must go up like the last seven, 800 feet and like point, it was probably like a half a mile, maybe less. Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking 0.5 ish. Yeah. You're just sort of going up drainage and everything. It's pretty, pretty typical about white mountain trails. I don't know if it reminded you anything particularly Jake, but it kind of reminded me of the Kilkenny range a little bit, like almost that washed up, washed out backside of Cabot, maybe a little bit more scrambly, um, kind of a lot of ferns, very lush. I would agree with that.

[01:35:57] Uh, water trickling, even though it was dry everywhere, there was definitely water trickling down parts of the parts of that trail going up the final push on North brother. Um, uh, yeah, very, very lush, very wet. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, and I had done North brother like five ish years ago, give or take. Um, and I kind of forgotten, like, it is just a jumbled pile, excuse me. I think like many of those main peaks up there, but just a jumbled pile of boulders.

[01:36:24] So you have completely pretty much, you break tree line a couple hundred feet below the actual top of the summit itself. Um, but great views out to like, yeah, you could see Katahdin and the table lands. Um, we were kind of looking around, you could see like double top and that whole range. Um, and, uh, what really stuck out to me too is, is how much like, uh, I think even Paul might have called it out, but like co itself, like the ridge, like it looked like an open, like a little mini Franconia Ridge or something like a lot of those ridge lines. It looks like all of them must have open summits.

[01:36:54] Um, I haven't been, I think we did South, but I don't really remember. And I definitely haven't done co, but it's kind of funny. All those summits, as you start to look closer, they all have, cause the tree line and the weather up there, cause we're so much further North must just like hit stuff a little bit lower and everything's just wide open and kind of, uh, just scarred open. It's kind of cool. Yeah, I would agree. Definitely. Uh, looked, looked very, like you said, Franconia Ridge ish, a lot of open tree line. Looking forward to actually getting back there and doing some of that sometime. Yeah.

[01:37:24] A hundred percent. It looks like it'd be a fun traverse, probably a harder again, like with, it seems like a lot of stuff in Baxter, like harder than the numbers would indicate. Um, but I think we both ended up with around nine miles, 3,200 feet, which a little bit more than the book had for this around there. Um, teardrop pond is the name of the pond that you actually hit in the middle, which I thought was cool. And, uh, Steve, uh, of Stevie each shit had an encounter with a moose here a couple of years ago and actually got charged by one. Um, so we're kind of on, on alert of being like, I hope we see when it crossed the pond,

[01:37:53] but not on the trail directly behind us. Um, but a really pretty spot in itself. If you just wanted to hike up there and you didn't feel like going to North brother, it's this nice little bowl, um, kind of in the area. Uh, I think other than that, it was kind of a, not exciting in a good way. We kind of all get up there. We hung out for a bit. Um, so a couple of people on trail, not, uh, not many at all compared to the day before. Yeah. Not at all. Yeah. Um, maybe eight or nine cars in the parking lot total. Yeah. Something like that.

[01:38:23] And, um, we noted this in the last episode too, but just like, this isn't, you don't need a parking pass to hike. This is the Marston trailhead. Um, you don't need a parking pass at any time to hike here. You do still have to pay the, uh, the gate pass to sort of just get into the park, but that's all you got to do. Um, and I would imagine like we hit it on a, on a Saturday. So I would imagine that if you're hit it on a Saturday morning, we were late there, like, and it was that crowded in the summer. Like it's probably not getting a ton of traffic. Um, mostly people just sort of peak bagging. So that's an option.

[01:38:49] Then basically, if you're going to do a weekend up at Baxter and you need your plan B so you can get in line to see if you want to get to Roaring Brook. And if you don't get Roaring Brook, then you, you can, you could head over to, um, the Tote Road past A-Ball and then you have a bunch of options with the Marston trail. You've got Dacey Pond that we're going to talk about and then that double top hike. So there's a lot of good options for, for hikes as a consolation prize if you can't get Katahdin.

[01:39:15] Um, and then in theory, you could also park over, um, Dacey Pond and just go up to Baxter Peak out and back via the, um, the, what is that? The Hunt Trail, I think that they call it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you definitely got some options. Um, but yeah, pretty uneventful on the way down. I think we all filled up water at like the last stream we crossed, like Jake said, um, it was flown pretty good everywhere despite seemingly being dry, I guess. And I mean, it is like almost August, late July. So, um, happens and yeah.

[01:39:44] And then we had, uh, some beers that I brought at a picnic table in the shade cause it had gotten pretty toasty down low by that point. And then we hopped in the Togue Pond on the way out, which is right by that, uh, that Togue Pond gate, which was, was a nice refreshing dip. And I hadn't showered or bathed all weekend too. So that was sort of my shower for the last. Yeah, we knew. We could tell. Yeah. You could tell. Believe me. We all knew that. Um, all right. And then, well, you guys were doing that. The smart people were having a swimming adventure.

[01:40:13] So Peter, what was that all about? So we decided to not do any more crazy hiking. We did it one day and then we were old and we're, we're tired. We just wanted to get in the river. So what did we end up doing? Yeah. In preparation for the trip, I had mapped out, like, here's a bunch of different smaller options. Originally, I was thinking when we went up there Thursday night, if we got there early enough, go into the park and explore something. But one of the options that I had found, look at, you know, using Google AI was a big Niagara and little Niagara fall.

[01:40:42] So you're basically, you go in, you take that same tow road, like you were going up to Marston trail, um, that, that Jake and Nick and Paul followed. And at some point you follow it south to Dacey Pond campground. Um, again, no, no parking pass needed to get in there. You need your entrance pass to actually get into the park. Um, but once you, once you park there, you were parking for maybe a dozen cars. If I remember, um, there were, there were a couple of open spots when we were there.

[01:41:12] We got a slightly later start than they did. We got them out of camp first and then we headed over seven of us in one car. Um, and yeah, and about, uh, my less, a little bit less than a mile and a half each way, uh, to go down from the, the pond campground down to the falls, mostly flat kind of descends a little bit right at the end. And I would say, I mean, best way to describe it is you go down, you're, you're running parallel

[01:41:41] to the river and it, you know, varying spots along the trail. There's spots to go out and look at the river or where you land for big Niagara ultimately is at the bottom. So we took our, took the opportunity there to do a little floating. Right. Yeah, exactly. And like, there wasn't that many people around. There was a few people around, but we figured out like a way to just repel everybody was we all just stripped down our underwear and went swimming and there was six or seven dad bods

[01:42:10] floating in the river and everyone just like avoided that area while we were there, which was great. Yeah. Yeah. And we hadn't showered in three days. So once the oil slick had kind of moved off of us, um, the, the, the water was, was cold, but not so cold. You couldn't sit in it and nice and refreshing. So, I mean, it was perfect. I mean, so there's, I mean, obviously there's a million great water and holes in New Hampshire, but, um, this is like, um, I would say it was kind of slow moving.

[01:42:38] There was a couple of different deeper pools that you get into and ease yourself in, but like you could sort of sit halfway in, halfway out of the water. And then the sun was beating right down on us. So it was perfect day. It was a perfect way to do it. So I think that the Baxter, basically one group doubled down and they did two epic hikes and then the other group, the smart group was what I would call them, did the epic hike and then did the relaxing swim and then no pressure. And we got back and then, um, we ended up going to, so it was like a three and a half mile total hike there.

[01:43:07] And then we ended up going back to, uh, New England outdoor center afterwards and we enjoyed beer and, uh, pizza. And then we were able to take a shower there. So they have showers in the bathroom there. So it's $5 to take a shower. So everyone, we had scouted that out before, um, on Friday night. So on Sunday, was it Saturday, Sunday or Saturday? I can't remember. Thursday. Yeah. So we had scouted it out and then Saturday we were all able to take showers and, um,

[01:43:32] get, get somewhat clean and then, um, head, head out to, um, the cabin afterwards. But, uh, you guys came a little bit later, right? Nick, you, you came probably a few hours after us. Um, yeah. I mean, we got back before you guys got back to the house, but yeah, maybe missed you by a couple hours. I want to call it another, like another little funny thing is Steve. Who's, uh, who's just witty and funny was like, well, I didn't have showering at a brewery on my 2026 bingo card.

[01:44:00] Cause technically you're like that New England outdoor center is like everything. It's like, you can buy stuff there. You can shower there. You can get a beer there and a pizza. It's, it's pretty neat place. Yeah. Which is great. And then, um, yeah, so that was it. And then I guess Nick, you had a couple of different, like, uh, bullet points here that you wanted to cover, um, about just around camp itself. So, um, what else do you have? Yeah. So this was funny. I think, I think this was Saturday night.

[01:44:29] Um, but like shortly Mike would probably know better than me just based on memory. But like right after I went to bed, I think it was maybe around 10 o'clock or somewhere in that timeframe. Like something just felt like you could hear a loud bang in the woods. And I was chatting with you. And first of all, I heard Steve just saying his tent, like, we'll bleep this out. But he goes, what the f*** was that? And like, nobody said anything. And I'm like, I guess we'll just go on back to sleep. We're probably all fine. But then I got over to Mike's, uh, I saw Mike waking up in the morning.

[01:44:57] I was, I was walking over there and he's like, did you see that like giant widow maker that almost killed me last night? Yeah. It was closest to me for sure. I don't know how close it was, but it was like enough to give me pause a little bit. I was like, ah, it wouldn't be cool if that happened like right on top of my hammock. But, um, cause I was the only one that was kind of in the woods. You guys were like kind of close to the cabin itself. So, um, but I guess the trees could have fallen on any of us, but yeah, that was a little disturbing. Yeah. So that was kind of funny.

[01:45:24] And then, um, we were, I mean, again, we just, we got so lucky with the weather, but I was really determined on that last night out there. Um, we had, we had spotted a place that, um, I saw would have good potential to sort of shoot the Milky Way and some night photos, um, along the golden road, maybe like a two or three minute ride up. Um, so finally on Saturday, knowing that we were just leaving the next day, um, or I guess technically this was early Sunday morning, woke up around two o'clock, finally got out

[01:45:49] of my 10, like quarter past or so, um, timed it just after the moon set and got out, um, headed up golden road to the spot and was setting on my camera. And immediately was just like terrified because it sounded like someone just threw a giant rock in the water in front of me. And then it happened two more times. And at that point I straight up ran back into my car. Um, I was not trying to be brave. I was like, is there going to be a moose that I'm going to see in the water? Maybe there's a big foot throwing rocks at me when you're in the middle of the dark

[01:46:17] in, uh, that area main by yourself, your brain goes a little while, but I settled down for a few minutes and I remembered Peter's story about, um, you thinking that's out camping in the past and that it was, and we had seen, so we had actually seen a little bit of foreshadowing earlier in the week. We saw that one of the culverts between compass pond and river pond just up the street from us, um, was being blocked by, uh, all logs and stuff. So it's definitely beaver activity up there. And I kind of was like, it's probably just a beaver smacking its tail on the water.

[01:46:46] And I actually, I added a YouTube link in the notes. If nobody's ever heard what it sounds like, it does sound exactly like someone's throwing a good size rock in the water in front of you. And the way that it echoes across the water too, probably made it seem way more dramatic to me, um, and being unexpected. But I did compose myself going back to the car and got out and, uh, shot some photos. I've been kind of sharing those on Instagram and sharing them with slasher. But, um, some of the darkest guys I've ever seen, um, kind of on the Bortle class scale up there is one of the darkest places for sure in the Northeast.

[01:47:15] You'd have to go further into Canada, quite a ways North to actually get darker than where that area around Katahdin is. So super impressive. I don't think I've shot that many stars before and already already thinking what I could do next time, but just really beautiful up there. If you're into stargazing or whatever at all, it's kind of premier skies for that. Um, so almost had a heart attack from the beavers, um, scaring. And I think that's, uh, that was it. I was going to kind of ask me, maybe we'll go with you, Peter, cause you organized any

[01:47:42] sort of reflections on, on the whole trip, anything to improve upon for next year. Any, any kind of, uh, second thoughts? No, I think it went really well. Yeah. I think everything went really well. Everybody was contributed, you know, to the trip. Even if we did split up the second day, I don't think anybody was, you know, upset by that. Um, you know, I'm really upset you guys didn't join us.

[01:48:11] Let it out now. We ate well, we drank well, we probably didn't sleep as well as we could have, but you know, but that's typical of that type of trip. So yeah. Yeah. Right on. Any other, any other final thoughts on the trip? I just like to say that like guys get like knocked about, like not being like organized or planning and all this stuff. I thought that we were like the super planners. We could have been doing a bachelorette party. We were so planned out that, that weekend. So, well, we all did good. Like all came together. It's a little chaotic.

[01:48:41] I think that like, you know, we all just sort of verified one thing and everybody followed through. So it was a good group of people. I would definitely travel with you guys again, for sure. So next time we got to do something maybe out of New England and do, do something maybe on the West coast or something, but we'll, we'll figure it out. Um, but I liked that everyone was cool. All the food was great. Uh, the bear connection, um, Jake was, was on point. The only issue that I had really my biggest gripe is, um, the, the absolute disrespectful

[01:49:09] and offensive behavior towards my music selection. It was unacceptable. I will not stand for it ever again. I'm going to basically toss everybody's speakers into the woods next time and only run my speakers and listen to all my country music. We'll see how that works. All right. I'm talking to you, Jake. I wasn't the only one. I know. I know. I know. Unfortunately, Jackson has been, um, uh, tarnished against me too.

[01:49:36] So I gotta, I gotta work my way to back to him to earn his respect. He had one of the best. We can't say it on the podcast, but he had one of your, I mean, yeah, I'm just not going to, we're not going to say it, but he had one of the best quick, quick granted. He had said he'd heard somewhere before, but how quickly he said it to you was, oh man, it was good. It was so funny. It was a moment of the trip. It was funny. Yeah, it is. It is fun. I appreciate having the younger people there too. They're keeping, they keep you honest, I will say. So he's a good man.

[01:50:04] So anyway, but I think that this will do it, Nick. Um, we're up against time and we're going to, we'll, we can do the remaining search and rescue stuff. Um, maybe next episode, but yeah, so we learned about Baxter state park again. We learned about search and rescues. We got Dave Schitt's updates. We got the mystery of the ice hole in Wakefield. Um, we'll come back with your music minute on the next episode and, uh, that's about it. So we accomplished a lot here tonight, gentlemen.

[01:50:35] Absolutely. Absolutely. Well done. Well done guys. Okay. This is two 41 and we will see you next episode. Bye. Good night. Bye. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed the show, you can subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[01:51:00] If you want to learn more about the topics covered in today's show, please check out the show notes and safety information at slasher podcast.com. That's S L A S R podcast.com. You can also follow the show on Facebook and Instagram. We hope you'll join us next week for another great show until then on behalf of Mike and Stump. Get out there and crush some mega peace.

[01:51:30] Now covered in scratches, blisters, and bug bites. Chris staff wanted to complete his most challenging day hike ever. Fish and game officers say the hiker from Florida activated an emergency beacon yesterday morning. He was hiking along the Appalachian trail when the weather started to get worse. Officials say the snow was piled up to three feet in some spots and there was a wind chill of minus one degree. And there's three words to describe this race. Do we all know what they are? Oh yeah.

[01:52:02] Lieutenant James Neeland, New Hampshire Fish and Game. Lucentia, thanks for being with us today. Thanks for having me. What are some of the most common mistakes you see people make when they're heading out on the trails to hike here in New Hampshire? Seems to me the most common is being unprepared. I think if they just simply visited hikesafe.com and got a list of the 10 essential items and had those in their packs, they probably would have no need to ever call us at all.