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

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

[00:00:51] You should too. Go to Mt. Washington.org or text FORECAST to 603-356-2137. Hello listeners! Nick coming to you live from the North Shore tonight in Rockport, Mass. With your forecast for the weekend of August 22, 2026.

[00:01:20] Mostly in the clear under mostly sunny skies. High around 50. Wind north, shifting northeast at 5-20 mph, becoming light and variable at times. Wind chill 30-40 above early then rising. Friday night. Mostly in the clear under partly cloudy skies. Low in the lower 40s. Wind northeast, shifting east at 5-20 mph, increasing to 15-30 mph. Wind chill falling to 25-35 mph above.

[00:01:44] And Saturday. In the clear under partly cloudy skies. A slight chance of isolated afternoon rain showers. High around 50. Wind east at 20-35 mph early, 10-25 mph midday, and 20-35 mph late. Wind chill 25-35 above then rising. Looking pretty decent for crushing some peaks this weekend. Happy hiking, stay safe, and enjoy.

[00:02:08] Pecker Studio into the Sounds Like A Search And Rescue Podcast.

[00:02:55] Where we discuss all things related to hiking and search and rescue in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Occasionally including the counties of Belknap and Stomp.

[00:03:22] All right, Stomp. Are we ready? Do you think we can handle this without Mike tonight? Let's go. Let's do this. All right. We got it. I think we're pretty good. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, apparently for everybody else, Mike just goes to Fenway like it seems like every week lately, whether he's at a concert or Red Sox game. What's up with this? Like, he can go to Fenway all the time. Now he's just making us take over the podcast. What's the allure? I mean, what is he doing? Concerts?

[00:03:50] Or what's cooking? Red Sox? Yeah, I think it's a mix of it sounds like he's been going to some country music concerts and he's got Red Sox and he's been drinking Mai Tais. It sounds like pretty much just sounds like he's living a good life. Well, I was going to say when he's not drinking Mai Tais, he's going to Fenway. Yes. What's wrong with him? Is this a midlife crisis or what? I don't know. Maybe we need to talk to him or something, but he's been very in the Fenway. A little intervention. Yeah, we'll see. Anyway. So anyway.

[00:04:20] So it's us again. Yeah, so it's us again. We have Adrian here. We have a better known as Abom Graham with us. So we're excited. Hi, hi. Good to be here. So I did type up a little bit of an intro. We'll see how it holds up to what Mike usually does. But I guess we'll just roll into that. So welcome to episode 243 of the Sounds Like a Search and Rescue podcast. We switch up the co-host lineup yet again with Stomp filling in for Mike tonight.

[00:04:46] And we're joined by Adrian, probably better known as Abom Graham to many of you, to talk about chasing the grid and his recent adventure on the John Muir Trail. I can't say Muir, apparently. Muir. Muir. There you go. Thank you. I appreciate that. And more. I was out hiking a portion of the AT with our buddy Dave of Dave Schitt's. And I was out pacing my cousin Jay in the final half of the Jigger Johnson this past weekend and the 50 miler. So we'll talk about that. We check in on Dave's progress through the whites.

[00:05:17] We hear about the current Apostle Point standings, which I'm sure everybody's interested in. We have another search and rescue on Franconia Ridge. We got fires in Rumany, notable hikes. We catch up on recent search and rescue news and more. So I'm Mike. Wow, I almost said I'm Mike. You hear that? Ooh, that's how many times I've heard this thing. Let's try that again. Cut. Action. Yeah. So I'm Nick. And I'm Stomp. Let's get started.

[00:05:46] Let's get started. Woohoo. All right. So we already talked. Legacy continues. Yeah. I always love how you say that. Stomp will always say the legacy continues whenever I text saying that I uploaded the episode for that week. It's like the legacy continues. The great legacy.

[00:06:14] So you ever been on any podcasts before, Adrian, or this is your first one? This is my first hiking related. I've done some. I have friends in Toronto that do as appropriate Canadian content to do a podcast around like Letterkenny, Shorzy and that whole like universe. So I've joined them on a couple episodes. Did a beer related podcast in a former career. But yeah, this is the first hiking related one. So yeah, excited to chat some trails. Awesome.

[00:06:43] So definitely not your first rodeo then. Sounds like. Good. Good. We like experienced podcasters. That makes it a little bit easier sometimes. So we did always already cover that Mike's at Fenway yet again. So that's why we're both filling in. But I did want to call out. I got to see Stomp twice in person this weekend, which was actually pretty cool. I know. I think the last time we saw each other was like last winter or something doing some recording. Yeah.

[00:07:09] Actually, I think actually last time I think I saw you was after the mountain wanderer in April where we were all like checking into Woodstock later on. And they looked at us like we're like a thruple or something checking into the same room for like a second. That was a fun time. That was a nice show, actually. You know, it's like we had what we had like 20 square feet to work with at Mountain Wanderer and good sized crowd showed up. It was fun.

[00:07:38] Then we all went over to Woodstock Inn and had some adult beverages. That was a great time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. But it was great seeing you this weekend. I actually didn't anticipate bumping into you. And I was sort of wrapped up with the music thing, which that's a great race, you know? Yeah. Tell me about your experience. It was it was a thing. I mean, I don't I'm sure our listeners like I was only aware of what the Jigger Johnson was probably from this podcast. I think you've had Marilyn on and I've talked to Marilyn from like our Viper White Mountain

[00:08:08] Endurance before. But I was talked into pacing my it's actually my cousin's husband, but it's just easier to say cousin Jay. So my cousin Sarah Beth Stomp, who you actually met her like she met you and like introduced herself. I think before even I got there when you were some spinning some tunes. But he had kind of tried to talk me into running the 50 miler of this. And I was like, I don't want to commit to that, but I will pace you. And then the call. Perhaps. Perhaps.

[00:08:37] I mean, I still feel good about that decision having seen him now and what it looks like running the 50 miler. But yeah, one to help him out and pace him in all seriousness, like I thought I could do a pretty good job. And we had done some longer hikes last year. I think I kind of opened Pandora's box for him. I had him on his first single day Prezi and then we did a single day Pemi after that. So he kind of got the bug, I think, a little bit more from that. He had he had done a 50 miler in Albany, but it had only like 4000 feet of gain.

[00:09:07] So it was comparatively a lot easier ultra to do. So he kind of got his feet wet with that. And it was like pretty much like because I'm going to do the Jigger Johnson. So I'm like, OK, I'll pace you. Originally, I was just going to do like the final leg and kind of meet him at Osceola and go out. But then I kind of was thinking, I'm like, I'll just meet him at the first aid station because I feel like he probably could use the support. And he was pretty stoked on that. But yeah, did the final like 27 ish miles from Sawyer Aid Station, Sawyer River Aid Station out to Waterville Valley.

[00:09:36] Hiked from about 7.15 p.m. on Saturday night. Well, hiked, ran, jogged, climbed all the things you do until about 9.30 a.m. We finished on Sunday. So it was a crazy experience hiking through the night for the first time. Our route kind of took us over from where I joined him. He had already done the moats, essentially hiked over Table and Tremont by the time I met him.

[00:10:02] So he'd done like 30 miles and like 10,000 feet of gain just leading up to that point. Yeah, it's pretty impressive. And when I met him, we pretty much went out to Sawyer River through Hancock Notch Trail, the Cedar Brook, crossed the kink, went up the Osceolas, came down onto Tripoli Road, walked and then went up the backside of Tecumseh. And then it's funny, like we both were like, oh yeah, we're almost there. But even when you finish Tecumseh, they take you like another three miles seemingly around

[00:10:30] Waterville Valley a little bit. A little scenic tour. With up and downs down the ski trail. So, and yeah, we came in. But yeah, it was wild seeing just tremendous amounts of respect and stokedness. Like I don't even know what you would call it. Seeing the people run the 100 miles. I know Stomp, you were kind of, you see these people come across and they're just, I don't even have probably accurate words to describe these folks that are going across and doing those things. It's incredible. Yeah, I don't think you can really appreciate it. Yeah.

[00:11:00] Until you've done something in the ballpark or similar. Yeah. But what these athletes accomplish is mind blowing. And I kept on saying over the microphone, just for the public that were hanging out, listening and watching, that you have to factor in the terrain. It's some of the hardest terrain you'll ever. Like people would come up to me and go, what is this, a running race? And I go, yeah, it's a little different.

[00:11:27] They're running 100 miles over the White Mountains, which is, you might as well just be on the moon. And it was just insane. And I got to hand it to White Mountain Endurance, I really, but they really have fostered a, like it's a family. You know what I mean? They've got such a cool family niche with this community of trail runners. It's beautiful. It's a lot of fun. And, you know, the runners don't just cross the finish line and go home.

[00:11:53] They put up their camp chairs and literally hang out all night long, all day long, just waiting for their friends and family and whoever else to come through the finish line. So it's just a really beautiful, fun event to share in. Yeah, I agree. It's, the sense of community was like insane. I think the moment, and I had like a little clip of this, like I post on our Instagram, but like when we got down from the Osceola's, my cousin Sarah Beth was just supposed to be at the volunteer station.

[00:12:20] So Osceola's the last one he hit on the 50 miler. And she was only supposed to be there till like 11. And I got a text from her at like three o'clock saying, oh, we're waiting for you down here. And I'm like, you're still down there. And just seeing the vibes of like these guys just totally spent like housing pancakes and like just any kind of hydration stuff, pickles and like just looking totally spent. It's like in the low forties, mid 40 degrees. It's like three 34 o'clock in the morning. You see these guys.

[00:12:47] I mean, I think they technically hit mile 50 on Tripoli road. So even though it's a 50 miler, fun fact, it's also like around 60 miles, maybe a little bit over that. I think Jay ended up with like 17,000 feet of gain. The 100 milers like close to 30,000 feet of gain, I think, and a little over 100 miles. It's just super gnarly. And like you hit that nail on the head too with the terrain stomp. Like from my perspective of like what I've done in the whites similarly, I would say it was like doing a Pemi loop.

[00:13:15] But like if you started it at seven or eight o'clock at night and just hiked through the entire night. Um, yeah, hard to describe, uh, but the sense of camaraderie and everything else was something I'll never forget. And it was wild to be a part of it. And I was glad to be a little part of it and super proud of Jay. I keep saying like he'd crushed it. He's a beast that I don't, in everybody that finishes that race is just, and even the people just attempting it, it takes a lot just to go for it. Um, impressive stuff, impressive stuff. Yeah, no kidding.

[00:13:45] And you were funny. It's like, I, I was thinking, uh, when you came back, you look just like you do now. You, you did, you didn't even break a sweat for goodness sakes. You looked like you just got out of the shower. It's like, yeah, I just ran 20, whatever miles. And like, you're looking fresh as, fresh as the morning dew. I'm like, what's up with this kid? I'm glad. You know, compared to the people that have been out for 60 miles, I probably didn't look too bad. Um, and actually, and actually, I don't even know.

[00:14:11] Cause I was like half asleep talking to you, but like, I actually got stung by bees in the ankle going up the backside of Tecumseh. Cause there was like a, there was a bees nest in the ground. Apparently one of the people in the hundred mile, I got taken off. But I was like, this is just insane. I'm like, I'm getting stung. Of course I was in the front leading Jay and another runner we were with at that point. I'm like, I'm like, why is my ankle on fire right now? And I looked down and I have like three bees just stinging me. I'm like, this is insane. Like this whole thing is just crazy. I'm like, at least it's getting light out again. Yeah. When, just when you thought spider webs were bad. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

[00:14:41] It was, it was something, but yeah. I mean, if, if you really want a challenging thing, like I think even just pacing, if you have a buddy that's going for it, it's, it's quite a thing. I've never done anything like that before and hike through the night. So, uh, like I was saying to you, Sal, I mean, just kudos our, our great search and rescue community here in the whites that volunteer to do that. Um, tremendous amounts of respect for going out. Cause it's, it's not easy hiking in the dark for hours on end and, and everything else, let alone carrying someone through that.

[00:15:07] So, uh, that, that was definitely fresh in my mind, but, uh, that was fun. And you were, you were spinning tunes, right? For both days to stomp. Yeah. Yeah. I had, um, 10 hours total. So five hours, Saturday, five hours, Sunday, um, Saturday, I came rolling in with like five hours of pretty much just EDM. Sunday starts a lot earlier. So it starts at eight and they have a, um, a quiet, like a regulation, a quiet time.

[00:15:35] So after eight o'clock, you can start to play music and whatever. But so I started with like two or three hours of just real mellow stuff. So it was like a big mix of pop and bluegrass and you name it, I was playing it. And then for the last two hours, I rolled into my traditional stuff. So it was a really nice time. I saw a bunch of listeners, like at least probably a dozen listeners came over over the two days and said hi and introduced themselves and, uh, whoever you are.

[00:16:02] It was nice to meet you, but, uh, there's a lot of folks out there in that community that are listening to the show. So it was nice meeting a few people, um, of all age groups too. Like it was, it was really cool. Yeah. So the next one's the cog. So they have other races lined up, but the one I'm amped up about the most is the race. The cog. And I think that's September 13th. Okay. Sunday. Yeah. So, and they're looking for runners if anybody's interested.

[00:16:29] So it's not an ultra, it's not a 20, it's a three miler, but you're racing the cog. So it's sort of certainly within the wheelbarrow of a lot of people that listen. So there are, there's some openings if anybody's interested. That's probably one of the neatest, most unique races in the series. Yeah. And I think they, the cog got beat last year, right? No. I think it got beat. It got beat, I think two years ago.

[00:16:54] And then the last two years, um, the cog, I, I don't know. I don't, inside sources, maybe, maybe not, but, uh, I think they have a, the cog had a chip on their shoulders. So they're, uh, you know, they're streamlining things and I don't know, maybe they're using nitrous oxide now or something. Let's ask Andy about nitrous oxide on the, on the cog train. Maybe that's what's going on. I feel like I remember, uh, I feel like I remember Andy on one of the shows saying they're like,

[00:17:21] Oh, there's supposed to be a slow zone and we just blow right through it now. And we put our fastest train on and like, he's trying to, yeah. Yeah. Don't open up. We can't lose that one. It's a competition for sure. It's a riot. Yeah. Any thoughts on the, sort of these, uh, ultras and all the crazy trail races, Adrian, anything you're into or just kind of. Uh, it's very, I mean, I think Nicky kind of hit the, hit the nail on the head that is

[00:17:47] just so interesting and impressive to see what people can throw down and just like navigating the train of the white mountains in the dark when you're like 40 plus hours in, uh, just running on fumes and just having that drive to keep going. Like I think, uh, Connor Brown won the a hundred this year, set a course record. It's just like insane on. Yeah. So, so, so impressive. Like I'm not, uh, I'm not a runner. I'm dabbling just into like longer, longer day hikes.

[00:18:16] Um, and like that, that in itself is, you know, can be tricky when you're out there like doing extended Pemi loops and things like that. But then just like thinking about starting in the dark, going through the day, going through the night again. Uh, it's a mind game. Yeah. You have to have mental discipline. It really, I think honestly, in my opinion, it's like 75 plus percent mental discipline to do that stuff. Cause once you're going, you're going and when you're that far out, you're going, you got to go back. You know, it's, it's all, it's a mental game.

[00:18:46] Yeah. I agree with you. Some, I mean, I think I didn't realize until watching people's mentality and that, and I got to give Jay kudos. Like he, he definitely had ups and downs, but I saw, you see people that look so destroyed and like they're going to throw up or pass out or fall asleep or cry or like literally a combination of all four. It's just, or I saw one person come through the finish line to do a handstand. Yeah. Yes. Or, or you're like flying at the end of the race and you're still. Yeah.

[00:19:13] It's interesting to see people's like reactions to stress and that like level of what goes through it. And then also just the whole like calorie fueling and ripping off clothes. And like, it was funny. I was, I was, I was like drying Jay's back off at one point, putting a lidocaine patch on them, like in the back in the dark kind of deal. Like it's all this stuff that just, uh, it was wild, uh, wild experience. Huh? Yeah. Good stuff. Good, good stuff for sure. Um, good stuff.

[00:19:43] What else? Just thinking about it. Just like, yeah, it's awesome. So what else we got going on here? So we did want to announce we, we have a hard date for full conditions now, right? Stop. Oh yeah. It's, it's set in stone. So, um, what is it? Uh, oh yeah. It's Saturday, November 21st. So that is definitely the date of the fourth annual, I believe fourth, uh, full condition show, which will be at the Bethlehem colonial.

[00:20:10] Uh, details are still in the works, but man, we have, we have confirmed a guest or two, and this is going to take the show up a notch. It really is. We're really excited about it. We have some other ideas that we're formulating and, um, yeah. Reckless is looking to raise, um, to, to double if, you know, their, uh, fundraising from last year. Uh, so it's going to be awesome. And as listeners are probably aware, this is a benefit for the New Hampshire outdoor

[00:20:40] council. So the funds are raised through this event, uh, go to the New Hampshire outdoor council, which helps volunteer search and rescue teams. Uh, so it's definitely a day to put in your calendar books. And, uh, as the second we get information, we'll let everybody know when the tickets are live and everything else. Yeah, it's going to be a good time. I'm already stoked on our potential guests or at least, I think that's going to be a I think we pretty much have locked in the guests, but I'm, I'm pretty stoked to talk to them. So I think a lot of people are going to really enjoy it.

[00:21:08] I might be starstruck in fact, actually with one of the guests to be completely honest. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see how I do. I might be speechless. You guys might have to help pull me along with that one. If I have to interview them. Um, well, yeah, right. Might have to let the big guns take that one. All right. So my tie. Yeah. Yeah. We'll get some liquid courage. He'll be all, he'll be all set. We'll be all set. Yeah.

[00:21:34] Um, so in other news, uh, we got a recent update from our friend Dave, who is now, I believe, uh, today he was actually going across Franconia Ridge. He was sending us some pictures and stuff. So we got an official, this was an update on Lafayette. He actually wrote out for me cause he's such a nice guy. So first he, and most importantly, he wanted to call out the current, what he's starting to call the apostle standing. So I think we already talked a little bit about, um, with Jake and, uh, Peter about him

[00:22:01] sort of gamifying this whole joining him to hike kind of thing. Um, in terms of almost like a Hogwarts style points kind of system. And he's definitely doing it to make us competitive with joining him on trail. And it, it's very much working. I have to say, I'll freely admit myself with who can join him when and kind of what's going on. Um, that's really funny. So, so I don't know what's funny. The fact that he made that up or the fact that it's working to get people to come out and hike with him competitively.

[00:22:31] Um, so the current apostle standings as of, uh, we'll say Tuesday, August 18th, Jake is in the lead with 2,250 apostle points. Nick is in second. I'm in second with 1,500 points. Peter is in third with 750 points. Uh, Paul Lamar is in fourth with 750 points. So I guess technically he's tied for third. I should say, um, he wanted to call out Mike is at zero specifically. That was the last name that he gave me.

[00:23:01] Mike's been, uh, hanging up Fenway too much. Not hiking with Dave, I guess. I'm sure. It's hilarious. Yeah. Well, wait a minute. Wasn't he just on like the tri-pyramids? He could have sacrificed a personal hike day. Couldn't he have? So I believe Dave was spending some time, um, in a kind of at a cabin. He's got up in Vermont somewhere. So he was actually recovering. I think just trying to kind of lick his wounds a little bit and also probably looking at the weather. Um, so I think maybe when they're up on Sunday, he was either just kind of like, I'm done.

[00:23:30] He, he had told me he pretty much was planning on laying in bed and eating ice cream all day, which seemed pretty fair when he piked that many miles at that point. All right. Well, I can't talk. I mean, I, I haven't hiked with Dave, but I'm just like, yeah, don't ask. I'm just too busy. It's just, yeah. But that's really hilarious. Sorry. Sorry, Mike. Last place. Sorry. I mean, I'm just saying he didn't call you out in zero stomp. He called Mike out. So I don't know. I don't know what that is true. I don't know what that says there.

[00:23:57] Um, so here's our update from Mr. Dave fresh from a couple of days off. I'm currently sitting on the summit of Lafayette, watching the clouds clear and view be stunning as ever. I was passed by John Kelly on the little haystack who's going for a FKT, I think, and I'll likely get to Georgia before I get to Maine. LOL. Um, looking back Vermont almost broke me with rain, not many views and not as fun as I remembered it. Grateful for having company in Vermont. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

[00:24:25] He, he did the long trail before, but he said he just was not feeling Vermont this time. Um, grateful for having company in Vermont and New Hampshire with those that were able to join me. Um, Jake, Julie, Peter, Paul, Nick, and Liz looking ahead. The daily mileages go down as the elevation goes up. The distance to Kiktautten gets closer and with a steady pace to keep the body together, it's getting more realistic. It's good to be home and cross paths with people on trail. Hi, Denise at Carol. And it's tough in the whites, but the views here are still the best I've seen.

[00:24:54] So far. Um, so, so that's great. So he's doing well. Um, I was fortunate to get out a couple, uh, I guess a couple of weeks ago now, but I got out with Dave and Liz over smarts and cube. Um, and it was a, it was a good time. I'd be remiss. I know Dave would call me out if I didn't mention the fact that they keep crossing this hiker since Vermont. That's basically hiking in like smart wool underwear and nothing else. And it was awkward and, uh, didn't leave. We'll say that his underwear didn't leave much to the imagination.

[00:25:22] And it was a little, little, uh, uncomfortable maybe perhaps being around him, but he's, he's hiking the AT and doing his own hike. And Dave was making some really funny jokes about him not having pockets for his water filter and things like that, that went over. Um, so that was great. Um, but it was cool to hang with Dave. He's a, he's in really good spirits. Um, doing hiking strong and was looking good. He definitely, we slack packed him that day. Um, I kind of car spotted the North end on 25 a and got a ride from him and Liz back to a sort of that Dartmouth.

[00:25:50] Uh, I think it's the Dartmouth ski way you kind of get off of and start going up smarts. Um, but we had a, we had a really fun day out there. We, uh, had some good weather and stuff, cross some other AT hikers and, and he was cracking jokes as always, uh, being his usual Dave self. And it's impressive to just be like, he's come, he's walked here from Georgia. It was just kind of wild to think that. Yeah. It's amazing. Yeah. Like I said, last time it's like, how do you, how do you get here from there? Like, what's it seems like it was just yesterday.

[00:26:20] You know what I mean? Oh yeah. I was, uh, I was listening to you guys sort of remark about like, I feel like he was just down in like North Carolina or whatever. And I kind of feel the same thing where I'm like, you're here already. Like he's like, well, yeah, like I need to, I need to get here at this point. At some point I got to get through New Hampshire, but I kind of agree with you where it seems like he was far away and he had plenty of time. And then all of a sudden he's like knocking on your doorstep. Like I'm here in New Hampshire. But yeah, I got to tell you guys something really funny. Cause as you can tell from some of the fishing game reports, it's been sort of busy. A little bit.

[00:26:49] It's yeah. And we have had a handful of AT thru hikers. And whenever I see that information come across the dispatch, my heart drops and I sent Dave a text. I'm like, Dave, are you okay? Just giving you a heart attack every like two days. Yeah. And he's like, it's like the last time we just, we just had another one, another thru hiker. Uh, I won't go into details, but, uh, same thing. And it was like approximately where he probably would have been. And my heart sank.

[00:27:19] And I sent him a text. My Dave, are you okay? And he's like, yeah, everything's good. What's going on? Yeah. I'm fine. Why is something wrong? Like, no, it's okay. But we've been, we've been chatting about it. Like that's probably his biggest concern is just that one wrong step. And I'm like, dude, you gotta, you gotta plan out every fricking step at this point. You know, it's like every single step counts. You got this, you know, just slow it down. Oh, but anyway.

[00:27:49] It's so embarrassing to lose it on his home turf too. So they're like bragging the whole time. Oh, New Hampshire. I know that stuff. And then he just like, you know, goes down, going down a twin way or something like that. And it's like, oh. Yeah. The whites take them out. Yeah. Yeah. It was funny. Listen to him talk about, I think there was a hiker they knew through the wire that tried to camp out on Musalok, like during kind of like likely thunderstorm activity. This was like a day previous or whatever. And it was funny how he like jokingly is kind of saying, he's like, so what do you guys, like, what do you suggest?

[00:28:19] He's like, you're going to die. Like Dave's just telling everybody that the whites, like they're going to die if they go above tree length. Seems like. So, uh, so he's really spreading the positivity. I did enjoy it. We kind of crossed some, uh, some guys at the bottom right before we maybe, maybe a mile out. I would say from when we finished coming off cube. Um, and one of them saw, I have like a small NH 48 tattoo on my wrist and, uh, and they'd really think Adrian was crazy with how much you've been gritting and getting through, but they were like, you, you've done the list and you've done, I'm like, oh yeah, I've done them in winter.

[00:28:47] They're like, you've done them in winter, but it's these guys from down South seeing the whites for the first time. And they're like, it's really rugged. And I kind of was like, you guys haven't, haven't seen anything yet. You're just really getting into it. I'm like, once you get up on Moose Lock, I mean, it'll be the most gorgeous views I'm sure you've seen so far or one of the most, but you're going to have a really good view at the Franconia Ridge and, uh, the twins and that penny area. And then kind of across the whole Prezi range. And I'm like, it's going to blow you. I think the, hopefully the beauty of it sort of blows you guys away and takes away from the pain of it.

[00:29:13] But, um, it's funny hearing about it from the winds are always whipping up there too. Yeah. Yeah. It's a, but it was cool seeing and hearing about it, I guess, through like a lens of someone that's hiked, like, I don't know, 1700 miles, a trail from down South kind of just getting into the whites. It was, it was kind of neat. That's awesome. And Nick, I just added something to the script, which we should probably mention. Sure. The rescue me 5k. I know it's a little early, but let's, let's be honest.

[00:29:42] Labor day is like what, two weeks away. And you know what happens after that? It gets really cold. We just drop. And then all of a sudden it's snowing. Yep. Yep. Um, so yeah, we got the rescue me 5k. This event's always in Lincoln. Um, I've done it several times. Um, Saturday, November 7th. So like stomps that it is really right around the corner. I feel like once you get kind of the end of summer labor day, uh, all of a sudden it's coming. Yeah. It's always, I do want to emphasize. It's always a great time. I think stomp has been, uh, singing the national anthem as of late.

[00:30:12] Uh, maybe they asked him again this year. That's why my beard is white from all the cortisol and being stressed out for having this. Just the stress you're around. They haven't even asked him yet, but he knows it's coming because he did a good job last year and everybody said you did awesome. You know, what's funny? You know, Evelyn, my daughter, who we've done a couple of projects with, I actually was joking with him like, Hey, you want to come up and sing the national anthem? And she's like, hard.

[00:30:39] No, like I don't do belt out songs. Like, Oh, you were absolutely right. That's what it is. It's like a belt out. So you got to belt it out. Yeah. You can't like those higher parts in the national anthem. You can't do that halfway. Like if you're going to sing it higher, like you, you did a, you did a great job from what I'd heard and everything. And that's not like a, that's not like a halfway confidence type of thing when you're singing the national anthem in front of people, especially when it's windy and outside and everything else going on. And it's usually super dry too, which isn't always the greatest.

[00:31:07] It's a, it's a precipice song. You're on the precipice of a cliff drop of like a thousand feet and you have to go full send to hit that last section or you're dead. You did great. You did great. I'm all right. I'm sort of in the same ball, ballpark as, uh, as my daughter. Like I'm not a belter. I'm more of a, like a mellow vocalist when I have to, it's, it's a challenge. It's a Scott key, right? Yep. Did he write that? No. Who wrote that?

[00:31:37] I believe it's Francis Scott key. I think. Yeah. Good job, Frank. Nice job, Frankie. But yeah, back to, back to the race. It's going to be a great time. Yeah. Yeah. It's always, it kind of goes on main street. Um, usually it's like notoriously kind of chilly and windy whenever we have it. It seems like, or it's flurrying and snowing. I think a couple of years I did it, but, um, great, great group of folks running that. Usually there's sort of like an after thing at, uh, I think it'll be at base camp now.

[00:32:06] Um, not sure what the exact plan is that this year, but that's what's been the past few years. And yeah, it's just, it's a good time. You don't get to run on main street and kind of the back neighborhoods that often. So a lot of fun. And I'm sure we'll, uh, we'll link it here in the show notes. If anybody's interested. Um, and then next up we got, it looks like a couple more hikers were recently rescued on Mount Lafayette. So this is definitely not something uncommon. Um, this is back on Friday, August 14th.

[00:32:34] Fishing game officials received a report of four hikers stuck on Franconia Ridge around 848 PM. Um, basically one of the hikers stated that another hiker in the group was having difficulty breathing and had sore legs. Um, conservation officers called the hikers to gather more information and learn that the group did not have lights were low on water and food and were not properly dressed for conditions. Um, so not a great situation there. No, no, that's like total recipe for disaster. Yeah.

[00:33:01] So due to the strong winds and cold temperatures above five, five thousand feet, they made a call for rescue. Um, five volunteers from the Pemi to Wasp Valley search and rescue team responded to the trail head along with conservation officer. Um, they left the trail head around 10 35 PM and hiked more than four miles of Franconia Ridge and then to Mount Lincoln where they located the four hikers at 1 15 AM on Saturday morning. And the hikers were all were, uh, four 18 year olds all from New Jersey. Um, so the hikers were given lights, food, water, warm clothing, and then guided to the

[00:33:31] summit of Mount Lafayette and down old bridle path back to the trail head. Um, they finally got down to the trail head 9 0 7 AM Saturday morning. So a very long hike down. Yeah. They got about eight hours from when they were found coming back down the ridge. They must've been moving pretty slowly. Woof. Um, hikers reportedly started their hike at 3 30 PM. Just again, I feel like you hear the story over and over again and did not have headlamps or enough food or water to complete the seven to nine hour hike.

[00:33:57] And, uh, they've made very clear, um, officials and conservation officers in New Hampshire Fisher game that the department intends to bill the hikers for the cost of the rescue. So that will happen if you are that reckless, uh, going up there. What do you, what do you think about this one guys? Let's keep hearing the story over and over again. I don't know. I mean, I won't comment on the whole billing thing.

[00:34:21] I mean, I don't want to get into that, but, um, I was talking to some coworkers recently and they were, they, they approached me about some of the recent rescues and this one in particular. And I don't, you know, these are younger, younger people and I'm not sure what got them, got this idea into their head or what, but, um, I mentioned it probably recently in one of

[00:34:47] the episodes I joined where I think there's a growing culture of social media where people are getting half the story. They, they see the adventure, but they're not getting the second half of the story, which is the safety and the hike safe and how to survive out there, how to prepare, how to plan out your route. So they're seeing the adventure and they're like, hell yeah, let's go. And that's it. That's where it ends. And they end up in these situations. And, uh, I don't know what to do about that dilemma.

[00:35:16] Uh, but I do think it's something that, uh, needs to be focused on, you know, I don't know how you do that, but. Yeah, it's, it's tough. Um, and I appreciate it though too. It's like, it's funny. I would call you specifically Adrian for not for like recklessness or anything, but I appreciate on Instagram. I feel like when you're hiking and you have a rough day, like you're very honest about it. And I feel like that's the minority sometimes of when people are doing little write-ups and

[00:35:42] sharing pictures of like their adventures is like, you don't see, like Stomp said, you see 50% of the story. A lot of times people don't hear about the, like, oh, you have to climb 4,000 feet and oh, it was hot. And oh, I ran out of water or like a lot of these other things. Um, and I think, is it, do you think it's just like tough for people to be candid about it? Cause they want to look a certain way or like what, what drives that? Do you think? I think that's probably part of it. Um, I know it seems like a popular thing on social media right now is for people to

[00:36:10] rag on all trails and it's like, oh, it's like sends you in the wrong directions or I don't know. I think it's just popular to write on all trails. Um, but I mean, it's, it's a tool. Like I, I use it, I track with it. I can find stuff in the areas, but you also tool that with the white mountains guide. You tool that with having a height safes card. You tool that with like, um, looking at four different weather, uh, four different weather sources and checking new England trail conditions in the winter. And it's just like, it's, it's a tool.

[00:36:39] And yeah, I think like Franconia Ridge in the white mountains, which I think we've talked about here on here, like gets more people than Yellowstone. I guess more people visitors and Yosemite, cause it's just so easy to get up here in Boston. And like Franconia Ridge is always touted as like, oh, one of the 10 top hikes in the world to do before you die. And people come up and have a hard time, like leave at, leave Boston at 10 and like probably have some beers and then are hitting the trail at three o'clock. And it's like, oh, I can just do this little nine mile loop.

[00:37:08] And I saw some cool stuff on Instagram about it. And I don't know. It's just, it just see it. Like, like you were saying, it's like every time it seems like there's a rescue on a Franconia, it's like no headlamp, no water or little water left at three o'clock. Just like, I don't, I mean, I know, I know there's volunteers at the trail heads, but it's still, you know, people think they're going to do it. They're going to do it. And like you were saying, I don't know how you break that. Yeah.

[00:37:36] I mean, I try to give a little bit of benefit of the doubt of like, people don't know what they don't know. But yeah, I definitely have seen the thing kind of your, you've talked about Adrian, where you hit like people say like, oh, all trails lies and stuff. But it's like, I don't know how, how to do a better job to like, even like you were saying some just getting the word out about like the weight, like you mentioned all great resources. Like there's the white mountain guide. There's the, the hiking, the 4,000 footers book of the white mountains that Steve Smith and Dickerman put together. Like there's all these fantastic resources, but it just seems like for whatever reason,

[00:38:05] um, I feel like, I feel old saying this, but like the younger generations just aren't getting through where even like when I had started hiking with Ash, um, Facebook wasn't as much of a thing. Like these 4,000 footer groups didn't really exist. And like, I read most of the guide and was looking on like views from the top forum about these kind of these information and like looking at maps. Um, so I don't know. Yeah. It's it. I mean, it's great that I think I would never want to deny people and their opportunity to see the whites. Cause I think there's just endless amounts of like benefits to hiking and getting out

[00:38:34] there and what it can do for your confidence and anxiety and self-esteem. And there's so many studies on like how this improves like quality of life and can really help people out. But, um, yeah, I don't know how to get through to like, you got to be prepared and it's the accessibility. I think that that trail is just makes it so tough. So tough. I don't know. I think it's, I think you have to embrace the whole social media thing and dive into it, but change it.

[00:39:00] So for instance, if, if Slasher posts a video of somebody, you know, Mike hiking the tri-pyramids, you can incorporate that information into those videos and guaranteed it's going to get shared and trickle into this culture eventually, or to some degree. I think more people have to start incorporating the safety aspect of their adventures. And I think over time, I think it'll make an impact. Yeah. Well said. Yeah.

[00:39:30] That's something even I did do better. I mean, Mike, I think Mike's Huntington review video, like we talked about that one, like pseudo viral, I would say, um, probably cause the timing, but he did do a good job of explaining the pitches and sort of like, Hey, like this is what it is. Um, this is perspective. And I think he did a really, um, good unbiased perspective, factual sort of perspective on that trail. So yeah, yeah. Something we'll get, I mean, they're the real terrifying ones of the back country winter, you know, skiers like the, you get last winter, we were watching all these,

[00:39:59] seemingly beginners, uh, tackling some of the biggest, most inappropriate slides like flume slide, looking for a back country run. And you literally, you need like so much snow to do flume slide. It's just a boulder field. And they were just trying to tackle it and they would just ski for 20 feet and then realize that this was a really bad idea. But it's that type of stuff that we're seeing out there. And it's just, it's getting crazy. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

[00:40:29] But it's an interesting topic for sure. All right. All right. So next up, I think, I believe, uh, you threw this one in stomp or maybe Mike had worked on it. You told, you told us about it. Oh yeah. Yeah. You did very nice bullet points. I enjoyed your little emojis and bullet points in here, but you want to talk about, we had a fire over in Romney, right? Yeah. So this is, yeah. What's your take on it? A bomb. Um, what is it?

[00:40:53] There's like a couple acres and it's just, yeah, it's like, we don't think of like, we think that we're so moist here in the, in the Northeast and we just don't get fires, but we do. Yeah. Yeah. It's something to think about for sure. Um, this started on the 14th. So the reason I mentioned it in the pod is because this is a hiking trail. It's, um, right behind it. You have rattlesnake mountain. So there are a number of trails that go up to the summit, which is the top out for the climbers.

[00:41:21] So this is a premier like world-class climbing location. And on the 14th, uh, near the summit, um, there were reports of a fire and it's, um, it grew to like 30 acres. Apparently 18 acres up from roughly two acres initially. Yeah. So you're right. And, um, I have the latest update. It was going on for several days here.

[00:41:50] So latest update as of the 18th, it's a hundred percent contained, which is fantastic news. So crews from the white mountain national forest, green mountain and finger lakes, national forest and New Hampshire state resources are still working on particular hotspots. Some fire is still smoldering underground and in deep crevices along the cliff face, which are hard to reach. And, um, what's really fascinating about this is they have to hike up to this.

[00:42:19] So they're taking all their gear, all their extinguishing, uh, solvents and whatnot up to this location. So it's absolutely backbreaking. I mean, the trail itself is like 1.5 to the summit. Um, so that's just amazing what they're doing to put this out. They're using controlled lines. Um, and apparently some rolling debris was coming off the cliff base down lower spreading the fire.

[00:42:45] Um, but as of today, it is a hundred percent contained. So that's good news. That's one of my biggest fears, like a big fire up here. Yeah. I mean, you get all that pine and different stuff like that. It seems like it could go quickly, but I kind of agree. It's like, I think people don't always think about fires up here, but it seems like every year we get sort of a small breakout. Um, I always am reminded of the one I've hiked through up there, but like Centennial trail on the side of Mount Hayes has like a pretty big area. Yeah. There's a small berm scar there. Yeah.

[00:43:15] You got, yeah. Yeah. You got that one. Um, I know there's been a couple, it seems like there's been a few sort of in like that Arathusa Falls, like Crawford notch area over the past few years, for whatever reason where they've, uh, they've had some burns and stuff, but you gotta be careful out there. Do we, do we know what, what caused this? It's still under investigation. Yeah. Which is interesting.

[00:43:40] I don't know if you guys are familiar with the, uh, NASA app, the F I R M S app. I'm not sure exactly what that stands for, but it shows you, it shows you worldwide heat signatures. Um, so if you're really curious as to what's going on in like the Strait of Hormuz, you can, you can go check it out and see what the heat signatures are. Um, but New Hampshire literally it has nothing. And then, you know, you can see this little spot for Rumney.

[00:44:08] Uh, it's fascinating, but you know, despite the drought, um, reports that New Hampshire has been struggling with for an extended period of time, New Hampshire has been pretty clean for, uh, fires and outbreaks and whatnot. Uh, but yeah, check out firms. It's really cool, but yeah, we don't know what started it. We'll find out apparently at some point. I'm sure. Then it looks like we had another fire over at, this was Round Top Mountain. I wasn't familiar with this one. Yeah.

[00:44:36] It's, uh, if you could read that, I can't open that link for some reason, but I think it's near Cardigan. Absolutely. So we have, yeah, 4.54 PM on Saturday, August 15th, um, Bristol fire department was dispatched by Lakes region mutual fire aid for an outdoor smoke investigation in the area of New Chester mountain road and Round Top mountain. Um, so yeah, the call came in from Cardigan mountain fire tower in Alexandria and it's cross referenced with the green mountain fire tower in Effingham. Uh, units respond to the area of slim Baker lodge.

[00:45:04] And from their members noted an area of smoke that appeared to be on the Southwest peak of Round Top, uh, staging for apparatus and personnel. Was relocated to a cell phone toward the end of Chestnut street. And yeah, like you mentioned a stomp here. I wouldn't even think that, but I'm carrying all the gear in here, but they say responders hiked in on foot with forestry tools and a drone was actually used to assist, um, in guiding the initial responders to the blaze.

[00:45:27] Uh, so after a short hike on steep terrain, an area roughly half an acre in size was located burning and the fire was spreading fairly slowly, um, despite constant wind from the North. Um, so this, this one was actually determined to be, uh, an active nature. So they think lightning actually lit this one up. Um, and they just have some sort of photos here of the actual burn. They mentioned that Bristol fire department responded with, um, total of nine personnel.

[00:45:54] And it looks like about five different units on their side, as far as vehicles. Um, and they said that the fire department will return in the morning. So this was two days ago to, uh, to just make sure that they put the blaze out. Um, so yeah, we got another one over there kind of showing some pictures of the charred, charred woods and whatnot and seeing smoke. I feel like too, it's almost one of those things that catches you by surprise. If you just see smoke coming up out of the woods and the mountains like that, cause we're just not really used to that. Like that one I would think is like a campfire out of control kind of thing. Yeah.

[00:46:25] Like what's going on? Yeah, just the other day I was driving by, um, low, you know, lower camp than here. And I saw a massive blaze going up smoke and I drive by and I'm like, oh, it was just the Mad River coffee shop. You've been reading too many fire stories. I guess, I guess we're okay. It's just Mad River coffee shop. Word, it smells just like coffee. Smells just like coffee beans. Oh yeah. Dark Luna roast. That's funny.

[00:46:57] But I added some tips. It's been a while since we, we reviewed the, uh, lightning tips. You want to run through those or you want me to cover them? Yeah, you can, you can cover them. I'll let you leave, leave the charge on it. Yeah. I mean, it's just a couple of things that hikers should be considering and aware of when they're stuck or potentially could be in a lightning storm. So prevention obviously is the, the number one thing.

[00:47:20] Just make sure you know the forecast so you're not putting yourself out there for an afternoon, thunderstorm, lightning storm, uh, especially this time of the year. Uh, if thunder's audible too late, you're already in range. So get the hell out of there. If you are unable to do that, you want to seek better ground if you're exposed. So try to descend off of any high points, any summits, ridges, uh, anything like that.

[00:47:47] Aim for lower elevation, uniform forest cover, uh, not isolated tall trees for sure. Avoid water, metal objects, poles, frames, uh, that could include things you're carrying that are metal, of course. Um, shelters, if they're available are probably the best bet. Anything with hard top metal, uh, and they exist. Like for instance, let's talk about the Wildcats. You have a building there.

[00:48:15] You have the, the top of the ski lift. You've got a small little water pump building. So there are options in some select tiny locations. Um, tents, picnic shelters offer no real protection. Hmm. Uh, let's see what else here. If caught outdoors with no better option, get as low as possible in a depression or among shorter trees. If you're with a group of people, try to spread those people out.

[00:48:44] Don't create a giant target. Crouch low with feet together on a pack if possible to minimize ground contact and do not lie flat. That's sort of interesting. Yeah. Um, wait it out. Stay put until at least 30 minutes, uh, until you hear the last thunder. Interesting. So there's a couple, couple tips there for you.

[00:49:10] So you're saying my one Mississippi, two Mississippi strategy for determining how far and how safe I am with thunderstorms is invalid that I've been using my entire life. Pretty much. Wow. Yeah. What is the rule for that? So every second is a mile. Is that the. That's how I've always. The rough equation. That's how I've always understood it. I don't know if that's correct. Maybe I misunderstood. But yeah, I believe it's sort of like for every second you hear between thunder, uh, flash and then the thunder. It means how many miles away you are.

[00:49:40] Um, yeah. Rough estimate. But it sounds like it can strike you anywhere and it doesn't actually matter. No, I know. I know, Adrian, you must've been dealing with kind of the thunderstorm proposition just out west, right? Yeah. We, there were definitely some days it was, um, the nice thing about the forecast that I felt kind of stupid before I started. I went into the little gear shop in, um, uh, in Curry village in Yosemite Valley and asked them like, well, what, what apps, what weather apps you recommend?

[00:50:07] Cause like out east we're all used to checking like four apps with like higher summits and windy and mountain forecast and just like the Noah report. And they looked at me like I had three heads. It's like, why would you look in more than one app? It's like, Oh, okay. You guys can trust your weather out here. Okay, cool. Um, so honestly, like if I've, I tried to do my passes in the morning, cause those typically will go up to like 11 and 12,000 feet and then you'll slowly drop back down to eight or nine. Uh, that worked pretty well.

[00:50:34] Uh, I could also like pull in, uh, Garmin just using like, uh, the cost of one message. I'll pull in a pretty basic weather report that'll give you hour by hour and the percentage for, um, uh, percentage for thunder or lightning. And like what time of day it's going to hit. So those were pretty good. And yeah, there was like one day going into my second last day that there's like a storm ahead of us and storm behind us.

[00:50:58] And me and a couple other people just kind of like stood on a, stood in a clearing and just like kind of get a, got, tried to get a gauge of which way the clouds were going. Realized one was going to pass below us and one was going to pass above us. And they did tend to try to stick towards like the higher peaks and the higher passes. So like you'd see a, you'd see stuff at like one pass and another and you'd be fine in between. So it's, it's, it's a lot easier out West though. Cause they tend to happen in the afternoon. You can see the skies getting darker cause you can actually see the sky.

[00:51:27] Uh, you have visibility where, you know, out East is like they happen overnight. They'll happen at 10 in the morning. Like you might not even see one cause you're in the trees all the time. So, uh, yeah, I, I just tried to try to stay low in the afternoon and, you know, wait it out and, and some trees have, it seemed like something was coming. Well, so basically the guy, they're like, why is this guy so paranoid about the weather out here? He's like, it just, it's thunderstorms same time every day. Just that's all you gotta be concerned about. Yeah. Yeah. That's funny.

[00:51:57] Cool. Well, I think it's always good to, uh, kind of revisit that lightning awareness. I fortunately, have you guys ever been sort of stuck above tree line and like a gnarly thunderstorm? Um, before? Yeah. No. Yeah. Okay. Well, I haven't. I wasn't, I wasn't bold enough to venture off if I thought it was going to be bad. I've recounted this before in the pod, but Alexandria, Mrs. Stomp and I were doing the Wildcats and Mike was in Waterville. I want to say he was maybe even on Tri-Pyramids. Okay.

[00:52:28] And I was in the lead coming up, uh, the Southernmost Wildcat. And I looked to my left looking East and I see this black cloud of Mordor coming out direction. And pretty much simultaneously, I get a text from Mike saying, Hey, something big's coming your way. So like the good husband I am, I keep my mouth shut because I don't want to panic her. And we're like maybe three tenths of a mile to the top of the ski lift.

[00:52:58] So I'm like, okay, we can do this. We can get there. And, um, after the fact, she knew something was wrong. Talking about it after the fact, but we got to the summit and you could see that this black cloud coming in and it got closer and closer. All of a sudden it's on top of Mount Washington. So there's a little ski patrol hut at the top. And I was looking under, like there's a step, couple steps and then like a boardwalk, a little deck. And then it goes into the ski hut. I'm looking under that.

[00:53:28] There's leftover wood. There's leftover like, uh, paneling. So I'm thinking, okay, that worst case scenario, that'll be the best place to go. We'll just go under there and hide for a bit. Um, so I start moving things around and it gets closer and closer. And then we had like literally a moment to relax and look at this thing before we decided what to do. Going under the ski lift wasn't really an option because it was just so exposed. Uh, I suppose that would have worked, but we would have been soaked and we had a long day ahead.

[00:53:57] Um, last second we fiddled with, uh, the door of this little tin. Like it was literally a tin shack that was covering some of the water piping and it was open. And so we huddled inside this metal shack, which I suppose had its own grounding, which may have been dangerous to a point, but we were in there and it was, it hit us so hard. It was hailing lasted for about 10 minutes.

[00:54:23] Um, I use one of my ski poles to lock the door shut because the wind was literally like vacuuming the door open. It was unbelievable. I'll never forget that. That was a wild time. And then, uh, it passed and then we proceeded to go to that, that little tiny overlook that overlooks Carter Notch before you descend to the hut. You know, that one spot I'm talking about. Yeah. Like right after, uh, it's what would be wildcat a technically, right?

[00:54:52] You go over like the summits over there and you got that little one that looks like you can see like Carter Notch hut and across the Carter dome and whatnot. Yeah. And the Talis field and the whole thing. Yeah. And, and literally the second we got there, this gigantic rainbow showed up. But like, you can't, you can't make it up. It was just like, yeah. Talk about memories, man. That was wild. Yeah. And you didn't ruin your day. So. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. But we were in the heat of it.

[00:55:18] I guess the point is if we, if, if we had been a half mile further, you know, heading towards that overlook, we would have been screwed because we were at the highest point of the ridge. Um, so it just worked out really good timing wise. So yeah, you can't play around up there, man. It was, it was pretty nasty. Yeah. I think there's a, a really disconcerting way to that like thunder and lightning, the way like thunder echoes through the mountains. Like when, like I've definitely heard cracks of thunder.

[00:55:46] I've fortunately, I've never been stuck in like a thunder and lightning storm. Um, I've been hailed on before with ash on near Washington once, which was interesting. Um, but yeah, the way like it cracks and it just seems to reverberate like forever. Like it's on, it's like having a subwoofer, like hitting your chest, like quite literally like right there. Um, pretty incredible. The, the amount of power it has. Um, cool. No joke. Cool. So, uh, in relation to this too, what I guess, uh, sort of keeping with the lightning theme,

[00:56:15] but we have a hiker dies by lightning strike on Mount Etna. Um, so this was, uh, this was back. Uh, it looks like that's actually in Sicily. I was going to ask where Mount Etna was. So this was back, um, from August 17th. So an American tourist was killed by a lightning strike on Sicily's Mount Etna, um, hiking Europe's largest volcano following a period of intense activity. Um, Italian firefighters said on Monday.

[00:56:43] So the 29 year old man was from Kansas and he was rescued by a helicopter after being struck Sunday evening in an exposed barren area on Mount Etna. He was later declared dead by medical personnel and his name is not being released at this time. Um, the man was found at nearly 4,600 feet in the Roca Capra area or maybe Racha Capra area. I'm not great with Italian words. Uh, so forgive me there. Um, authorities have closed areas of the volcano slope to hikers because of the volcano's prolonged activity.

[00:57:11] Um, imagining the mean lightning activity, uh, which forced the closure of the airport in nearby Cantania for most of the last week, but it was unclear if he was in the area. Um, so officials said that more people have died on Mount Etna from lightning strikes over recent decades than from volcanic activity. Um, the last actual eruption related fatalities were in 1987. Um, so imagine nowhere, nowhere to really hide on a volcanic mountaintop. Uh, unfortunately, unfortunately.

[00:57:41] Yeah, that's fascinating. And I'm sure the, uh, the conditions, the atmospheric conditions sort of exacerbate the potential. Yeah. I've never looked at that before, but I think there is something to where you end up with like lightning strikes and storms happening from volcanoes. I don't know if it's from like the heat going, it must be something to do with like heat going up in the air and other temperatures. We'll have to, we'll have to do a follow-up slasher science thing on that. Science class. We'll do a science minute.

[00:58:08] Um, but yeah, I think there is definitely a thing where you think of like thunderstorms when you see volcanoes erupting and whatnot, um, in our video. So there's gotta, gotta be something to that, but, um, unfortunate story there. We all know that hiking a mountain can be hard at times. So here's a corny dad joke to help you get over it. Ba-dum-bum. So up next, we've got dad joke. So I had to look up a hiking related one.

[00:58:37] So hopefully you guys enjoy this. I was going to ask Tom for a tick joke. Maybe he's got one off the cuff. Oh damn. I forgot about tick jokes. I want to bring back tick jokes. Way back. I'm going to bring back tick jokes. The well is dry on tick jokes. All right. I'll just go with this one then. Why did the hikers stay calm when they got lost? Any guesses guys? Because nature is hilarious.

[00:59:07] Hilarious. It's really, really awful. It's a really bad one there. That is bad. All right. That is super bad. Moving on. All right. Moving on. I won't forget. We'll bury that one. I think Mike's joke book is a little bit better than what I found. Does he still work in that book? I don't, you know, I don't think he's been doing the dad joke the last few episodes. And then one time he was like, oh, I have to get it. And it was like, I thought maybe it was in a different room, but it was like just under his desk and he like didn't want to reach to go get it or something. I don't know.

[00:59:36] He was messing with his flow and his vibe so he couldn't get the dad joke book. I don't know. I'm going to call him out next time. Maybe it's holding his Mai Tais up. Yeah. That's what I was going to say. My Tai. Fall out of his chair. Oh, man. All right.

[01:00:08] Hey, what's that sound? It must be time for the pop culture segment with Mike and Stomp. Pop culture talk. You guys been watching anything good? I feel like Stomp's always checking out. He's always like our pop culture finger on the pulse person. Oh, my God. You guys will appreciate this. Last night, I was sitting on the couch waiting for calls. Of course, that's what I do. Yeah. And I was watching The Godfather. I broke open The Godfather.

[01:00:38] Have you guys seen that? A while ago. Yeah. A while ago. Okay. So I saw it once a long time ago, but I was half paying attention. So this time I gave it my full attention. It was fantastic. It was great. Yeah. Marlon Brando. Pacino. I mean, it was really good. So I'm moving my way into Godfather part two. Cool. Michael Coglione. Yeah. I'll have to go back and watch it.

[01:01:06] I haven't seen that in a super long time. I feel like Goodfellas was one that I watched a bunch as far as those like mob vein movies. I always loved the movie. Yeah. I did Casino too. I feel like I've seen it many, many times. That genre is fantastic. Yeah. But this one is really special though, because they really captured the vibe. And of course it's an older film, but it just looks warmer. It doesn't look digital. It looks like it was made on actual film. And the acting is really just phenomenal. So good stuff. Cool.

[01:01:36] How about you, Adrian? Are you into movies, shows, anything in your house there? I just started watching season four of Reacher, which is an interesting thing. It's just based on like each season. It's an Amazon Prime show. And just looking at like one of Lee Child's, like one of her different books around this, like former military, you know, badass. And it's, it's one of those things that's nice to just put on and kind of like zone out.

[01:02:04] And there's like things blowing up and like smart ass comments and yeah, random fighting and stupid, stupid jokes. And yeah, it's a good way to kill some time. Background stuff. We do that all the time. My wife and I would just like, yeah, just put it on. What the hell? Right on, right on. And my wife's got me into it. So I was really persistent that, because I think it's the second or third time she's gone through ER. I'm like, we're going to watch it to the end and we're going to do it.

[01:02:32] So we're like past the bulk of the popular, I guess, part of the series, but I'm like, we're still going to do it. And then the other night, finally, we started watching The Pit, which has Noah, I believe Noah Wiley in it. That's from ER. And we're kind of hooked on that. And I've heard really good things about the show and it's definitely lived up to the hype so far. I've heard it just gets better and better. Sort of the main thing is it's like a 24 hour sort of each episode is like an hour, almost like real time of things happening. And it's been good. It's shot like super well.

[01:03:01] The cinematography, I think, is really well done in it. And I guess from what I've read and heard from a lot of people in the fields, it's fairly accurate in terms of the vibe that it sort of tries to nail down. It's definitely not as like warm and fuzzy as not that ER is like that all the time, but it's definitely a little bit rougher around the edges. But yeah, we're enjoying it so far. That's cool. All right. I don't know. I have a hard time with those shows. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:03:29] It's probably a little bit different kind of thing. Yeah. I'm like, I'm curious. I mean, yeah. Being in healthcare, it's like, oh my God, I don't want to watch this. I just left this. Yeah. I'm curious. Oh, they're doing that wrong. You wouldn't do it that way. All the symptoms wouldn't work together and I'm like, oh, he should be unconscious and that takes like two weeks to show up. But yeah, they killed me down in an hour and a half. Yeah. Yeah. It's too funny. All right.

[01:03:56] So moving right along, we got to get your free stickers. You can get your free stickers, slasher stickers. We got a fresh order. I believe Stomp dropped them off. So they're like hot off the press. But the Mountain Wanderer in Lincoln, we got Spinner's Pizza Pala in Andover, Mass. Yeah. So you can go get your stickers there. Um, you can get your slasher swag at our bonfire shop. So you can choose between our super popular hoodies, classic V-neck tees and more. The color selection is great in their price to move. Um, help spread the word about slasher and represent today.

[01:04:25] I want to call it that my wife was wearing a slasher t-shirt and I think Stomp, you called her out when she was walking by with it just by happenstance this weekend. That's like one of our sort of comfy shirts. And that shirt also worked fairly well for maternity wear. If you're, uh, if you're expecting or if, uh, you're in the ball house, slasher has you covered? Um, the shirts are, uh, super comfy. Those nice tie-dye shirts and it is getting a little chilly out. So the hoodie season, um, will be here. Maybe not as much down here, but it was, it was pretty nippy up in New Hampshire this past week and it was in like the forties.

[01:04:54] So, um, definitely hoodie weather, if not puffy weather kind of coming at you. Um, yeah. So we still have plenty of patches. Uh, they're two 50 each. Uh, just reach out to us on Instagram and we'll get one to you. Coffee donations. If you want to show your support for the podcast, donate at slasher's buy me a coffee site. Donations help pay for web hosting distribution, live events. Um, perhaps beach balls. I'm being told by based on planning and my ties and my ties.

[01:05:22] You get to feed Mike's my tie addiction that he has going on every time he goes to Fenway every week. Um, and, uh, we do to remind you that you can consider becoming a monthly supporter. You take a small box and it makes us, uh, very happy as you give us a regular donation. Um, and you'll officially be a slasher senator. And we really do very much in all seriousness, seriousness, appreciate those donations. So thank you everybody. Yeah. All right. All right.

[01:05:47] So up next we got, Oh, by the way, I didn't, I didn't want to get fired as a DJ, but I definitely cat called out your wife for wearing that shirt. It was like, Hey, nice shirt. No harm, no foul. Right. We're all good. We're all good. You know where it's less. It might've been weirder for people that didn't know that you didn't know her. And yeah, exactly. You're like, what's that creepy DJ? We can't have him back. Nice shirt. Hey, nice shirt.

[01:06:16] That's fantastic. Hey, hold my bed. It's time to find out what Mike and Stomp are drinking on this week's beer talk. All right.

[01:06:44] Um, so moving right along, we got beer talk. I think Stomp, maybe you had something. I've just got an athletic brew and co beer, so I've got nothing. Oh, nice. What did you have anything? Oh, I just, I just went with the old stow cider. So it's high and dry, super dry, hard cider, six and a half. And I can barely talk right now because I don't drink too much anymore. Oh my God. You have to, you have to stay awake. If I start slurring my words, that's the reason. All right. You got to make it for at least another 30 or 40 minutes. But stay with us there. Stay with us. I'll do my best.

[01:07:15] Anything on your side, Adrian? Or do you drink at all? No drink? No drinking. Kind of ties into with why my hiking and peak bagging story started. A little over five years sober. So we're just rocking like a tonic and just some juice in there to add a little bit more flavor tonight. So congratulations. Nice. I knew we should have gone left back there. Stomp, don't worry. I know it's this way.

[01:07:45] I've got a feeling in my gut. Are you sure you're not about to have a bowel emergency? 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. But we're finishing all of my list tonight. By the way, I need some water. I'm empty.

[01:08:13] I would if I could see what I'm doing, but my headlamp batteries are dead. You got to 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. All right. So, I basically ran through my recent hikes. I kind of met out with Dave and then joined the whole jigger course. You been at all, Stomp?

[01:08:43] I know your hip's been feeling good, right? Yeah, I've been feeling great, but I just have not had a chance. Just grinding every day. I'm thinking tomorrow I'm in the North Haverhill area, so I'm going to tackle Black Mountain. Okay. Lime Kiln. Cool. After work and come back on the couch and watch Godfather Part 2. Sounds like a solid day. I'm jealous. Good recovery. Yeah, Black Mountain. Yeah, that's my recovery. Black Mountain.

[01:09:12] Cool, dude. They're what? Three, three and a half hour movies? So, yeah. You got a good amount of time in there. A couple of siders. You'll be all set. Yeah. I could just lay on the couch, not move, comatose, and just recover. There you go. Yeah, those lime kilns are super cool. They're way bigger than I thought they were. Oh, the lime kilns are great. I haven't been by that way once, but it's a cool thing to check out. Yeah, it's a tough trail, too. It's like, what is it, like a mile? 60 degree angle? Yeah. Straight up? Yeah, it goes up for sure.

[01:09:42] There's also, like, I want to say there's a really neat, like, it might be red pine grove there. That's not very common. Yeah, good. I'm nailing it. Stomps nodding yes, but that's not as commonly seen in the whites, and there's a very pretty red pine grove as you're heading up there. Yep, super open woods, big tall trees. It's gorgeous. Yeah, and then you got views of, like, Moosalock, probably the most prominent thing over there, and then you got blueberry nearby, which is now mostly viewless.

[01:10:10] And I love that whole area, like, with the Connecticut River Valley near west, too. It's really pretty. Oh, it's gorgeous. Farmland. Yeah, yeah. I find that it's really endearing. It's like I do a day over at Grafton County Nursing Home, and it's all family, and it's all, like, just really beautiful people, farming community. Everybody knows each other. Like, literally everybody knows each other.

[01:10:35] It's a very different vibe for what I'm familiar with here in New Hampshire and central New Hampshire and the whites. It's awesome. Great time. Cool. You been up to anything, Adrian, recently? Let's see. Yeah. Last Friday, I did a Grafton loop, and I realized I didn't do it with a pool noodle, so it's not that exciting. Sean, goals. You got goals. But it was the five-year anniversary of me bagging Oldspec, which was my first 4K and

[01:11:04] kind of, like, opened the floodgates to, you know, what the last five years has been for me. Oldspec was my first winter hike, and Grafton loop, I did it as a two-day backpack, which was my first overnight. So it seemed like a good, wanted to take a stab at doing that as a single day, so it came in a little over 14 hours. And like you guys were saying, it was, like, it was chilly. Like, it was, like, 40s in the morning. Like, the car kept, windshield kept, like, fogging over on the drive over. I stayed over in a little hotel, B&B in Rumney.

[01:11:34] And just, like, so funny. Like, coming down from Puzzle, and at that point, you're little. I went clockwise, started from the AT lot, so went up over the ball pates in dark wind and in the clouds, so that was some fun navigating over those, like, exposed rock ledges and just, like, checking the phone every once in a while. It's like, nope, okay, head right a little bit. But coming down Puzzle a little after, it was a little before 11, so I'm about halfway down, and two women are just kind of starting their hike.

[01:12:03] It was, like, maybe, like, a quarter mile from the trailhead. And they're like, wow, you're coming down already? And, like, oh, yeah, I actually started at the other lot, and I'm doing a single loop, and they're just, like, dumbfounded, like, jaws, like, hitting the floor. And it's, like, yeah, it's fun. I mean, it's also, it gets so quiet back there, too. It's just, like, it's super cool and would definitely recommend as, like, an alternative as, like, a two- or three-day backpack instead of, like, a Pemi loop. Like, just get into Grafton Notch.

[01:12:31] The train's not quite as rough as the Pemi, so it's a good alternative. All right, cool. Yeah, I actually was talking to him. Another, he was a local from, like, Conway Jackson area that was Payson when I was waiting for Jay, and he was saying, I was like, what's your, like, favorite place to go to, like, relatively, like, local unknown? He's like, you have to get into Grafton Notch. He's like, it's like, it's never crowded. That whole, he mentioned the bald pates and puzzle to me as well and was saying, yeah, it's just great stuff in there. I get it. For me, I always just look at the ride.

[01:13:00] It's tough for me to do that. Yeah. It's just kind of look at that compared to what I can do. But I'll have to make a point of finally getting up there maybe within, like, the next year or so and checking out some stuff. I think there's some, like, family-friendly type hikes, too, like smaller mountains up there that would be conducive maybe to bringing the kiddos up. Yeah, I think there's, like, some, like, moose caves and, like, little, like, you know, quarter-mile hike-ins to see, like, waterfalls and features and stuff like that. I normally just was going over for old spec. But, like, puzzles are great.

[01:13:27] There's also a Table Rock, which is a little spur off the AT if you're on the east side of 26 going AT Nobo, which is, like, a nice little overlook. It's only, like, a couple thousand, like, maybe a thousand feet up or so, but nice view, like, straight down the notch. Awesome. And any future plans for you guys getting out anywhere? Yeah. No, just waiting for Dave to get his vision quest over with. Yeah. So we can do Lost Past. Yeah, I don't know.

[01:13:56] It's, like, he's trying to be the big cheese, you know, like, doing this whole hiking thing for months and months and months and was like, I'm over it. Like, come on, Dave. Give me a break. It was. So, yeah, when he settles down, I'll try to nail him down to something modest. It was funny when I was on. It was, I mean, I've hiked with Dave, I think, maybe just once or a couple times. But the one that we did do was, like, around, we did, like, Randolph and stuff. And we did, like, one bushwhack kind of out there, a short one to the peak. But it was kind of funny.

[01:14:24] I was like, for how much he bushwhacks, I'm like, is it weird for you to, like, just be following the trail? And he was kind of like, yeah, I'm done with falling. Like, I'm not done with falling trails because I want to finish. But he's like, I'm ready to, like, go bushwhack again. He's like, I think he'll be chilling. I bet by, like, winter he's going to be getting itchy. And he's going to be out wanting to bushwhack some stuff. Yeah, I can't wait. So anything for you, Adrian? Any plans coming up? I'm off this weekend. I'm going to head on to Philly, see my first Rush show in 11 years or so. Oh, my God. Are you kidding me?

[01:14:52] People have seen really, really good reviews about the new lineup and the new tour, what I've seen online. So that'll be my first of four over the next couple months. And then, I don't know, next week, I'm thinking of doing a Mahusik Traverse. Kind of doing that big day in Grafton Notch kind of had me looking at some of the New England Alter 8 lists. And I've got, as I think a lot of people probably listening do, like, have a Pemi and have a Prezi. So Grafton's the other one that's kind of, or sorry, Mahusik's the other one that's kind

[01:15:22] of close. So if I can, if I can narrow down, nail down a car spot or someone to go with me, I might just bang that out on next Saturday. Sure. Saturday after next. We'll see. Sick. That one's supposed to be a gnarly thing from what I've heard. Just the terrain and the up and downs and the ladders and all that stuff. I've done the terrain before. I've kind of done it as a yo-yo over three days, but only went through the notch once because you can kind of bypass it and come back in. Um, like do a little road walk and come back in where a spec pond is.

[01:15:50] Um, but yeah, it's, it's brutal. Like the, the, the notch is tricky, uh, coming down off of like goose eye and then going up like success. There's some really nasty sections on the AT there, just like right around where the main New Hampshire border are. Cool. Have you been practicing your Tom Soria fill? Oh yeah. You gotta go solo. Yeah. You've got to get those air drums down. See like videos of people taking like low sticks into concerts.

[01:16:19] It's like, you know, blowing up on like the YouTube shorts and stuff like that. So. Oh my God. Annika is killing it. Oh, she's doing so good. Oh yeah. They just look like they're having so much fun. Like that's just like the big thing. That's what it's all about. Just music. Yeah. It's legendary. And you said, have fun, man. You said one of four, one of four times. Is that what I want to four? Sick. Sick. So other, other shows going to get up, going to go out to Cleveland, uh, do some stuff at the rock hall.

[01:16:49] And my wife has us and family out there. So it'll be a nice little long weekend trip. And then, you know, Boston and, uh, Connecticut just a hops, getting them to jump from Southern Maine. So figured we, yeah, you know, figure it's probably the last time I only did one on the 40th anniversary tour and was kind of regretting it. So you can't get too many, too many, too many bites at that apple between like hiking and concerts. We don't have kids. So it's like, you know, it's one way to, one way to burn the money. Right. Awesome.

[01:17:16] I'll be, I'll be living vicariously through your hopefully rush videos that are coming down. Um, yeah, I can't wait. So I'm, I'm heading up to basically stomp sort of the neck of the woods, but I'm staying in Rockport in the North shore this weekend, uh, Thursday through Sunday. So I think maybe there's a couple of different parks and stuff. So I imagine we'll probably do some flattish hiking. The Rockport is like, surprisingly, I remember running around there one of the days and there's a lot of little up and down, like around that whole village area.

[01:17:42] Like, um, yeah, uh, maybe a couple hundred feet here and there. And, uh, stomp, you'd be proud to know I broke out my old surf. One of my old surfboards, my six, two thruster is coming up with us. Uh, really? Yeah. The surf looks like crap. Cause it's the middle of August. Um, but we're going to be kind of near long beach, uh, for basically three and a half ish days. So I got that out. I got some wax. I got a new leash. So we'll see if maybe I can stand up on one. I don't expect there'll be much other than gutless wind swell, but be fun.

[01:18:12] Maybe I'll push her Island in on one or something like that and get a, she has a little life jacket thing on her. So see how it goes. Oh, that's great. Yeah. Yeah. Use it, uh, just to break her in. Yeah. It's a great sport. I miss that. Yeah. I'll see. It's been, I was looking, I think it's been eight or nine years since I was on a long board, but I don't think I've taken that thing out in like 10 or something years. It was funny. I was like showing a picture to like chat GBT. I'm like, does this still look okay to ride? And I was like, it's yellowed from like, you can't go to the rest of the and someone's sitting in the basement.

[01:18:40] And I, I used to write all the, uh, the hurricanes that I surfed in and Sharpie on the bottom of it. And they're all like the last ones are from like 2011, like Ophelia and like, uh, Irene actually. I remember one after that, sir, but it was kind of funny. I'm like, Oh man, it's been a really long time since I've broken this board out. Um, have you been to a stage fort park in Gloucester? No, no. I, yeah, I just haven't explored that neck of the woods that much. Check that out because your kids will love it. And, um, it was, it's funny.

[01:19:09] It just came up in my memories because, um, I was watching Widow's Bay, some TV show on Hulu or whatever. And they filmed at a couple of locations at stage fort, but there's a huge playground. It's right on the water. You can actually hike out to, um, this little peninsula. It's a really cool spot for kids to explore. And there's a little alcove beach surrounded by rocks. It's gorgeous. All right. Yeah. Well, definitely. We'll definitely put that on the list. We don't have to get out of it. Yeah. The whole area kind of fun. Thank you.

[01:19:39] Yeah. We stayed there in like last June is sort of like a last getaway before we had my son. Um, and, uh, yeah, we were blown away by Rockport. It reminded me of like Jamestown or something, but with like way less people. Um, yeah. And we really liked the vibe. So I'm sure Ash will be eating lobster, like three meals a day for four days. So she'll be super happy. Yeah. And you can, you can stock up on your Chinese, uh, sandals. Yes. Yes. For some reason there's plenty of Chinese sandals you can buy there.

[01:20:09] Yes, for sure. It's an interesting little walk. It's time for Slasher's notable hike of the week. If you want to be considered for the hike of the week, simply tag Slasher on your social media post. All right. So up next, notable listener hikes of the week. So you can tag Slasher on your adventure to be considered for Slasher's hike of the week.

[01:20:37] No guarantees to be plugged on the show. Um, make sure you tag us on Instagram. I actually got two questions this week through the thing being like one of my personal IG, but being like, how do I do this? All you do is tag us and hopefully I see it and I forgive me if I don't see them. I try to get all of them. Um, so we've got that frigging hiker cooling off in, uh, caves at Dungeon Rock in Lynn Woods and Lynn Mass. So we got, we got another stop neck of the woods here. I mean, you're saying it was like 20 degrees colder. There's like some like pirate treasure legend, right?

[01:21:07] In Dungeon Rock? Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. The, the legend is that, uh, somebody was trying to find buried treasure. So they were just, they were using, um, I don't know, divining rods and whatnot to try to find out where this treasure was. So when you descend this cave, it, it meanders left, right, all over the place. And then it just sort of bottoms out and is flooded at the bottom. Uh, when it's open, you can go all the way down and check it out.

[01:21:36] But yeah, Lynn Woods is amazing. I do have it on the docket to do. So you want to for Lynn Woods, cause there's so much history in there. It's a, it's an amazing place. It's huge. Cool. Um, next we got our friend, Paul Lamar. Uh, he tagged us. He did cascade Brooke to lonesome lake, um, with Dave and Liz. So a little AT action here and earning some apostle points. Uh, Liz Faye also did, uh, a little post and, um, uh, he got, she had a great picture.

[01:22:05] So Paul was trying to put rocks in Dave's backpack. Oh, geez, Paul. Um, that should be negative apostle points, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's a negative. So you guys laugh and I'm not, I didn't have this in a text, but Dave actually came up with a point system, like literally for everything. Like if you, if you said you were going to go hiking with him and then you bailed, it's like minus 500 apostle points. Um, it was pretty, it was pretty funny. Like he, he spent some time thinking this out.

[01:22:31] Um, I don't know, maybe, maybe the rock thing we probably should bring into question. I wouldn't mind seeing Paul lose some apostle points for that. Um, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. I mean, St. Stephen was stoned to death. So there's definitely a negativity there. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, we were getting into all this. Yeah. We were all getting into like, cause we have a Peter and a Paul in there, like Rob Peter to pay Paul. Um, Liz ended up with like an interesting trail name and asked why she couldn't get apostle points, which I'm not going to get into. Um, but we had a fun, we had a fun time on trail.

[01:23:02] Um, so next we got 802 trail pup six, uh, 50 out of 52 with a view with their pooch. Uh, nook 603, our Dan, our, our friend, Dan, excuse me, beast out rowing on the Hancocks for 12 and 13 out of 48 with his rower. So he was able to find some nice spots to, uh, bang out, bang out some waves. Like those slides with the 70 pound pack just sounds brutal with that. What's that? Like a, like nine and a half, 10 mile loop total.

[01:23:32] Yeah. Yeah. I just, that's, that's a hell of a day. I just feel like I'd be terrified taking that thing down the South, like South Hancock. Like that's all like loose scree and stuff. Like, I don't even know what's better. Yeah. North has it on the top too. Yeah. Yeah. It's gotten so eroded recently. That's yeah. That's wild. Um, so nice job, Dan, regardless. Nobody's, I don't think anybody's going to challenge you for that. And it's pretty inspiring to watch you go through that. Um, he's found the ultimate niche. He has. Yeah.

[01:23:59] I don't think it, I think anybody's going to go after that. Um, Dr. M hikes and Wally and the Mastiffs. They, uh, both, uh, kind of tagged us separately for a hike. They were on, um, Stinson for 10 out of 52 with a view, uh, for them. And then three out of 52 for Wally, the dog folk star 20 and 21 out of the 80 K 46. I wrote 80 K 48 over here. I don't know why, but 80 K 46, um, did giant and Rocky peak Ridge. So some of the sort of Eastern ones off 73 there, I've not gotten to those two yet.

[01:24:29] They look absolutely gorgeous. I've heard good things about Rocky peak Ridge, especially. I should say I've done giant, not Rocky peak Ridge. Um, and Wally was out there, he crossed paths with some white mountain hikers. He crossed the little foot team. Um, so that was kind of cool. Oh, nice. Um, J H black 1970 continues to get berated by Mike when he hikes while doing the tri pyramids via the slides. Um, and he was also with Paul Gamal. So Mike, we got like, Mike posted a story video with like Jay, like take a break. And like, it was just funny. A lot of, a lot of people reacted to it.

[01:24:58] Cause, and that's very much like if you were actually hiking with Mike and Jay, that's like the dynamic most of the time. Yeah. I, I second that. Um, it was pretty funny. Uh, Mike's, I guess Mike's a good teacher, but very strict and he kind of, kind of lays into him sometimes, but Jay's, I forget exactly which number it was. He's getting up there though. Uh, kind of making some progress and nice job, Jay. Um, I kind of was saying to him, he's, he's had a crash course between, excuse me, doing

[01:25:26] Adams on sort of the Alzheimer's hike to doing the knife edge on Katahdin, um, to going up North tri slide. So he's quickly, uh, becoming pretty adept at all these steep scrambly trails and he's doing awesome. So nice job, Jay. Um, Cindy has seven. Our friend Cindy Heshin did Kerrigan for 42 out of 48. So she's getting close down the final stretch warmer. Yeah. Nice job, Cindy. Click. She had a good time up on Kerrigan. Then Liz Fay, a separate tag, uh, here.

[01:25:53] She did white face with Izzy who we've had on the podcast before. So she had a really interesting route for red lining for Izzy. Looks like they ended up kind of coming from Ferncroft, eventually making their way to Tom Wiggins, um, sort of up blueberry ledge to white face. And then they came down Kate sleeper and downs brook. And then they came back up from downs brook after they got the section she needed. Um, and eventually descended down McCrillist trail to flat mountain pond, uh, trail. So they car spotted at flat on pond and Ferncroft.

[01:26:21] It sounded like I had to look on that one on the map when I was reading it to pay attention. It was definitely red lining route for sure. Do we have any, uh, maybe we'll let Adrian pick. Do we have any, uh, what picks of the week for notable hikes? Oh boy. Uh, well, I kind of feel like just to be the anti Mike, I kind of don't want to pick a dog, which I know it wouldn't be very popular, but it's totally within your prerogative. We nominated you this week, so it's totally okay. You've been appointed. What's it? They'll get picked eventually again.

[01:26:50] Let's be real. That's that's fair. Uh, yeah. That route that Liz dead just seems like super cool. All right. Like the sleepers are just like such a gorgeous, like I talk about like untraveled section and the whites is just like, so, so peaceful. It's so awesome in there. I haven't done downs, but I've been meaning to. Yeah. That whole area I went through a couple of summers ago. And I think, I think Stomp you were telling me about like, Oh, that's an area you got to check out.

[01:27:19] But like two things came to mind is that it had great, like it's, it's cool when you get on these areas, the whites that aren't as eroded. Like it has really cushy footing on a lot of it. Oh yeah. Sleepers is gorgeous. It's so cruisy. Oh, it's nice. And then, um, and the other thing that came to mind is there was a ton of moose poop everywhere. And I was like, this would be cool to see one. But if one got you cornered on that trail, like you would have nowhere to go into the woods. Like you're just, you're just pretty much there with a moose. Um, but cool. All right. So we, so Liz, you get it.

[01:27:47] Liz and Izzy, you get it this week. Um, nice. So Adrian, that is beautiful. Oh yeah. It's a good spot. Um, yeah. Yeah. It's time for slashers guest of the week.

[01:28:17] Very cool. Very cool. So Adrian, are you, you ready for your segment? This is your moment this week. Let's go. All right. So do it. So, uh, I've been following you for a super long time on Instagram, watching what you're doing between gridding and like, I believe you did a, you did a deritesimal, I think last year, right? You did through hike. Yeah.

[01:28:47] Um, you're just always doing super cool stuff. Always getting out there crushing peaks. Um, so do you want to introduce yourself to the listeners? Sure. Yeah. Uh, I'm Adrian back Oliver. I live in a Southern Maine right now in Portland area. But originally from Nova Scotia. Uh, so grew up, uh, grew up in a college town and then went to school at a smaller college town. Cause I didn't, yeah, didn't, didn't like the big college town, the bigger college town we grew up in. Uh, we had, we had a summer place in the water.

[01:29:15] So I was kind of, uh, considered myself as an outdoor person. I did a lot of sports growing up, not nothing really like I was very good at, but was at least active anyways. Uh, biggest one was I swam competitively for about nine ish years or so. And then just kind of, kind of got out of it. Got, uh, started playing in a punk band with some like really good friends from grade one. And then that kind of took over my last couple of years of high school and, uh, went to school

[01:29:43] for environmental science, uh, gradually with an honors degree. And that kind of spent my last summer, just like hanging out with a couple, uh, couple of classmates on this like hundred acre property right on the water that we were kind of like cutting our own trails with and kind of doing like, like undergrad pseudo kind of BS research projects. But, um, yeah, it was a lot of fun. And then, uh, from there, uh, my mom, my mom's has us citizenship.

[01:30:09] So back that's back when like the States was cool with you like inheriting it. I think they've kind of cracked down on that a little bit. So I've got dual citizenship. So I was able to, uh, picked up an internship down in Cincinnati and then kind of moved, moved jobs a bunch. And then ended up in the Northeast, uh, moved up to Maine. I think in 2015 for work, uh, worked in the beer industry for like 10 ish years, 12 years or so.

[01:30:34] Uh, and then kind of like right at the tail end of pandemic, um, stopped, uh, just realized like I tried kind of cutting alcohol out a bit and then bringing it back in. And then just realizing quite have control over it. So got, uh, uh, got sober in July of 2021 and then realized I needed like something else to focus that attention. So I reached out to a buddy that I'd done some shorter hikes with and he was working

[01:31:01] on the, the mid, uh, 14 main 4,000 footers, uh, my buddy bill. And so we hiked all spec together, uh, which, which I said earlier was like August 14th of 21. And then he had, uh, he had a, a frame, uh, a ball up in Baxter. So he'd already had that on the calendar. I'm like, well, I've got one. So from like in like a month and a half got like the remaining, uh, remaining, I guess it would have been 10.

[01:31:28] And then we did a Baxter Hamlin and then finished on brother in like the second week of October or something like that. And then that kind of like lit the fire and he like shared me the list for like the main 3,500, which most of which are bushwhacks and pretty, pretty brutal ones. And then realized once I had that, I was a fair bit into having a lot of the new England hundred highest and then got the, um, and the 67 and then just kind of, yeah, I don't know why.

[01:31:57] Like, I think a lot of us just like lists just kind of click. Not quite sure why that is. I think it's just nice having like, um, like having that list of like, oh, here's another thing to discover. Here's another thing to discover. Here's another thing to work on. And then that's kind of come full circle. So like my July and August, I've been gridded out. So I've been enjoying doing things like, oh, I'm going to go do a Grafton loop or like, let's go just do like a fun loop in the fun loop in the, in the Northern Pemi or like

[01:32:26] go backpack at West for a couple of weeks. And, um, yeah, it's kind of, kind of a quick little synopsis of, you know, how I ended up with you guys. That was, I just want to give you kudos. That was a fantastic synopsis sort of to kick off and introduce yourself. That was awesome. Um, thank you. So I don't want to backtrack. So in like, I'm super familiar with like the New Hampshire 48 and stuff is the main 14,000 footers. Is that like 14,000 footers, the main 14, 4,000 footers, is that something like a lot

[01:32:54] of main hikers are like kind of going for is like a thing or I think it's growing. Like all of that peak bagging is, I think it's like, it maybe more so gets jumped in with like people working on the new wing 67, which I think is a kind of a natural progression after doing the 48. Cause the 48 is so well known. Um, I honestly never thought I'd actually do any of the 48 at first. I'm like, oh, everybody talks about there. So busy over there, New Hampshire so far.

[01:33:20] And then when you look at it, it's, it's actually, it's closer for me to get to like basically all the hikes in New Hampshire, where if you look at like the main high, main high peaks region is in Carabasset Valley, like 10 of the 14 main 4,000 footers are like right in that circle with like the Bigelows and the Saddlebacks and the Crockers and, uh, Sugarloaf, like right in that area. Like you can do like the, it's known as like the Carabasset six pack where you do like

[01:33:47] Sugar, Sugarloaf, Spalding, Reddington, Abraham and the Crockers and just make a little like 24 ish mile loop out of it and just bang them all out. And then the Bigelows are like right across the street and Saddlebacks only like a 45 minute drive. All right. Um, yeah, like I can speak. So like me and my wife need, I'm like not allowed to touch the 67 list without her. Um, okay. Old spec. Um, we need, but the whole rest of those peaks we need other than like, we need everything that Carabasset Valley area. Um, other than Sugarloaf and Spalding, we knocked those out like a couple of years ago,

[01:34:17] but like the big, I think we want to try to finish on like the Bigelows after I've seen great pictures, but it looks like such a beautiful area. But like you said, it's a, it's a hall to get, to get up there. Oh yeah. Like Carabasset Valley is like, it's probably takes me just as long for like drive over to Cabot as it does to get up to Carabasset Valley, which is just like, you know, Cabot's probably my furthest drive to get into New Hampshire. Yeah. And then, and what about that? So this main 3,500 list, how many, how many like peaks of those are you looking at?

[01:34:45] I think it's, it's 67. Uh, there's a bunch on the, there's a bunch on the bound on a bunch on the border. Uh, I mean, Nick, you, you, you were just up there, but you know, did you look at like where Baron mountain is? It's kind of like equal distance between like Mount OJI and like, it's, it's the owl, right? I always want to call it owl's head, but I know it's not right. It's like, yeah. So it's almost like a three mile equal distance between OJI and the owl, but it's on the list and there's no herd pass in there.

[01:35:15] It's never been, uh, it's never been like that area has never been logged. So it's just like, it took me like eight hours just to do that slog, like going like less than four miles, like less than a mile an hour. Uh, you don't quite know what you're going, getting into. And there was like a lot of peaks like that. I think in hindsight, like some of them were on, like on private land and you're just like, cause there's all these weird, like forest, um, like forest companies that have stuff.

[01:35:42] And I think like middle Reddington is one of them. And that's like right where that like military land is as well. That people always talk about, um, like, like kind of borders through the AT and there was that missing, um, missing AT hiker that kind of like wandered off trail a few years ago. I'm forgetting her name. And then she just kind of like, basically like hung out in her tent for a couple of weeks until she starved to death. And there was like these conspiracy theories that she wandered on to like that military land in there.

[01:36:11] Um, but yeah, there's, it's, uh, it's interesting. I don't know if it's necessarily a legit list, um, other than people just pick like, oh, well it's, you know, one step down from 4,000 is 3,500. So here's like another 67 piece you can put on that. Cool. Yeah. That's not something I was aware of. I mean, you talk about Baxter, like there's some wild terrain in there. Like Baron definitely the owl. When you mentioned that, I definitely remember looking at that when you were kind of looking around at mountains, but I was saying bushwhacking in Baxter must be like insane. It seems like stomp.

[01:36:41] It seemed like you and Dave would like go like buck wild, bushwhacking somewhere like that. That's just all this untrod. Like you probably literally hit, can hit areas that nobody's ever stepped in before. Like, oh yeah, I'm sure. Um, yeah. Yeah. Like it was so dense up there. So dense. Like you're not even seeing moose poop. Like, like the moose aren't even going out there, but there is a gorgeous loop. Uh, like the travel of traveler loop is what I ended up finishing my, uh, uh, uh, my 3,500 on. It's just like gorgeous up the North end of the park.

[01:37:11] Like you can see like the Katahdin massive and, uh, uh, uh, double top and like the owl. And it's just, yeah. Would absolutely recommend again, like you guys were talking about last week. Uh, just once you get off of Katahdin, like you don't see people on the peaks, like you go up to brother or co and you just don't see anybody up there. Double tops kind of the same way. So if people want to get off the beaten path, but explore Baxter, like yeah, head up North travelers. Gorgeous. Our buddy, uh, Steve was staying up there for a couple of days after we all left, um, and

[01:37:41] was heading up to the North side of the park and did like the travelers the next day. And, uh, yeah, he looks, it looked fantastic. And he was saying, yeah, I didn't see too many people. I don't think up there. Not that like, not that Baxter's crazy compared to like a Franconia Ridge situation, but yeah, it's the same vibe of like, there's like a party going on over there and you're kind of like just chilling and taking in the view from far away. Yeah. I want to say like, uh, South traveler is like one of like the tallest, like shield volcano remnants and like new England or something like that at like 32.

[01:38:10] And then North travelers like right above 35. All right. Cool. And then I, I mean, the thing I've seen you really cruising through is the grid. So how did you stumble upon that? I mean, sort of just, I mean, I think it just kind of like fell out of like that list based, um, that list based approach and, um, I guess maybe to, you know, maybe put a little bit of a buzzkill on things. But what drives me a lot is like, I lost my dad. It's very suddenly.

[01:38:40] And he was, uh, I was 13. He died in a car accident when he was 45. So there's always kind of like, as I like turn 40 and like slowly inch closer and closer to that age. And I think it's always been instilled in me. Like, we don't, we don't know how much time we have. Like you could just get hit by a bus walking across the street or, you know, somebody runs a red light or, you know, choke on a chicken bone or whatever. Like you never know.

[01:39:03] Um, and I've always just like been very, very focused on like, on what my interests are, whether that's like, you know, punk bands are going to music. I mean, I think like, I like a lot of like kind of culty nerdy bands, like Russian dream theater or like my kind of two big ones. Um, so just like get super focused into things. And I think like the hiking and list based approach really, um, it really just latched onto me.

[01:39:31] And once I did the 67 and the 48, I'm like, Oh, and I started like working on the 48 for the winter. And, um, just like, Oh, well, I guess I might as well start tracking for a grid. And then I finished, I finished my 48. It was over two winters, but it was within a single year. So I'm like, Oh, I got my winter 48, but at that point it was like the third week in January. And I think I'd already banged out like 23. I'm like, Oh, well, I might as well go for a single season now.

[01:39:58] And then once you had a single season summer and single season winter, it's just like, I don't know, the floodgates kind of open. And I was fortunate enough in the last year to get a work schedule that like allows me to be, it's four 10. So I have three days off in a row, which just really allows you to make some good, uh, good progress over like if you're wanting to bang out the grid. That's awesome. I was always curious logistically, like with people, I know folks too, who like either they kind of get off of work, like they work like third shift and then they're driving up and doing it and that kind of works.

[01:40:27] So it's cool to get some insights or in that logistics, not to say, I mean, it's still like you're, you're hiking a shit ton pretty, pretty plainly. And that's, that's a lot of commitment to go up there and be hitting all these peaks and stuff. It's a lot of car time. Like I kind of drove like a 2011 crawl into the ground, which part of it was me just being a little bit too aggressive when I first got it. Um, yeah, it's a lot of car time. I honestly do do, do them a lot in the day as day trips and over the winter. That's definitely the case.

[01:40:54] But like, I've enjoyed, um, and it's probably a combination of like seeing like how, how can I keep pushing myself? Like what, what's longer days? Like, well, yeah, you can just do the tri-pyramids, but you can come across the sleeper and do like maybe a mile and a quarter road walk. And then you bang out past a Conaway and Whiteface as well. Uh, I think like last summer, two summers ago, I was really getting the backpacking as well. So you can do some pretty cool, um, pretty cool loops in the, in the whites and like

[01:41:21] be able to knock out like 13 to 15 peaks, depending on where you go over like a two or three day trip. Um, like stop, I was doing that, um, uh, skyline loop loop in the white in, uh, Waterville. And then you, you know, you tack on like this, uh, whiteface past the Conaway as an out and back. And like, that makes like the 30 ish mile loop. Like that turns it into like 45, which is honestly, it's a decent, like two, two, three day backpack trip. Oh yeah. It's funny you mentioned that.

[01:41:49] Cause I was thinking about the, uh, lodge to dodge and all those grand lengthy adventures. I haven't, uh, talked about those in quite a while, but skyline's another one. That's, that's a great little loop there. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, uh, and you've definitely, I remember you seen earlier on, you, you kind of inspired me. Definitely. One of the people to like, we'll call it like, I'd call it like a two for a day. Like when you're like doing like, I don't know, cabin Mariah, or like you'd knock out two, 4,000 footers in two different spots every day.

[01:42:17] Like you're, you're definitely doing a good amount of those, but I think it's a lot of people don't think to do them, but then you do it. And it's like, it's a tough thing, but it's cool to like knock out two different separate hikes in a day and like drive in between and stuff. Yeah. And, and it's that second climb too. It's like, you know, when you're doing two, like you're doing the triperi events together or whiteface past the Conaway. It's like, yeah, you know, you get that like 200, 300, like 500 foot drop and you go back up a bit. But when you're doing like the full climb again, and you're picking up another 25 to, you know,

[01:42:47] 3000 feet, especially if you're doing like Wombeck to Cabot where then you've just sat in the car for 45 minutes and your legs are starting to go like, oh yeah, I'm done. Like that can get, that can get pretty brutal, but it's like, I don't know. Like for me, it kind of ties into the drive too. It's like, if I'm driving up there for like, if I'm in the car for four and a half hours, I don't really want to do a three hour hike. So yeah. You gotta, gotta make the good bang for your buck kind of driving up there. I was like, me and my buddy would talk about the like drive to a hike ratio where you got

[01:43:16] to make, make sure you're hiking at least as long as that drive time. And then you're kind of like, I don't know if it's like chasing the dragon is the right turn, but then you realize like, oh, that didn't feel too bad if, if like, you know, you get like 14 miles in and 6,000 feet. So then you like slowly keep pushing it. And then you like, you know, your alarm time start getting a little earlier so you can make it home to walk the dog before dinner time and all that.

[01:43:41] So it's like juggling some logistics, but yeah, I mean, you get a pretty good list of rotating podcasts that you can, you know, drop over the week when you're spending, you know, maybe like 10, 10 hours or so a week in the car, just like go into and from the whites. Yeah. I hear, I hear that. Um, so pretty recently we'll shift things out West, but you did something on that's absolutely on my bucket list is climbing Mount Whitney. I mean, you did, you did the whole John weird, but okay, why do I keep having trouble? Why can't you say that?

[01:44:14] I mean, I guess you weren't a big enough tree hugger in the, uh, in the growing up. Cause it's like, yeah, John Muir and the Sierra club. John, John Muir. There we go. I can say it now. I don't know why I'm just struggling with it so badly. Um, but yeah, you were out hiking that from Yosemite. So you want to kind of talk about the logistics of that a little bit and what kind of led you down the path of going out? Yeah. Um, well, I guess I'm going to, I'm just going to start by saying, so, uh, what we

[01:44:39] know is the John Muir trail now is very much, um, it's related on, um, old, uh, indigenous footpath. So that route was known as the Pneumopoyo. Uh, it's just commonly referred to as the JMT or John Muir trail, which is how people talk about it, you know, on the trail. So I'm just going to use that, but definitely, you know, respect to the, the people's land that we, we are all on and, um, you know, the, the historic nature of that route.

[01:45:03] Uh, so what inspired me to do the JMT, it actually came out of the Deeratissima oddly enough. Interesting. Um, so I, I kind of, I broad-dogged the Deeratissima in the sense that I didn't take headphones and probably around day or day four or day five, I was really, really regretting that decision and just going a little loopy in my own head. And as gorgeous as the whites are, there's still like, there's so much time in the trees, like what, half of the summits in New Hampshire are, are, are wooded probably.

[01:45:33] And then there's just like all these walks on like Cedar Brook and going between Cabot and Wambach and, um, yeah, just, uh, yeah, a lot of time in the trees. So I'm like, all right, I need to, I need a break from the trees, which wasn't really what I thought going into the Deeratissima, but it was my takeaway. And I'd always, uh, I, I don't know if a lot would do the triple crown of the big three hiking trails. So the PCT, the CDT and the AT, uh, but there's like the smaller sections known as a triple

[01:46:03] tiara. So the, uh, the launch, the long trail, which is part of the AT, the Colorado trail, which is part of the CDT and the JMT, which is part of the PCT or good, good chunks of it. I mean, the trails don't totally overlap, but, um, there, there's good portions of it. Uh, and I knew that like, like everybody, like the JMT is like one of the hardest permits to get in the, in the country. Um, there's like so many, so much stuff on YouTube and just like people just rave about the Sierras. And like, again, I did environmental science degree.

[01:46:33] Like I considered myself like a tree hugger and like did like the environmental group in college and started like a, um, like community sustainability project when I was wrapping up my undergrad and things like that. So, um, yeah, just like always felt drawn to like wanting to go check out what those mountains were. So kind of got off the, got off the Diritissima and had a few days in DC with my in-laws before going back to work just to kind of recover after that.

[01:47:01] Um, you know, butt kicking, uh, and it was just like started digging into like what the permit process was. And it does seem like it changes a little bit every year. Uh, tree line review, uh, had a really awesome write up on, uh, just kind of like the logistics of what the JMT are. And then also to be fair, like the, um, if you look up like the Yosemite permitting system, they have a really good write up on like specifically if you want to try to get to JMT permit, how you do it.

[01:47:28] So the way that it worked this year was, uh, it's a lottery system that wrote that, uh, kind of like rolls every, like it starts 24 weeks out. So 24 weeks out from your anticipated start week, you have a week to kind of like put in for, um, how many people in your party, what days you'd want to start, uh, and then what trailhead you want to start with. So there's two trailheads, um, to go, um, starting in the North. So there's the, uh, Happy Isles trailhead, which is the same as the Mist Trail.

[01:47:58] Uh, which I know, um, if you're doing, uh, Half Dome, uh, that's where you start from, uh, in Yosemite Valley. And then there's the, uh, the permit that I ended up getting was for Lyle Canyon, which is about 20 ish miles away in Tuolumne Meadows. Um, so that's the one I ended up getting. Uh, so you put in for the lottery, which is basically what it is. They just kind of like people put in, like, where do I want to start? How many people are in my party? What days can I start?

[01:48:25] And then they just kind of like randomly pick them. It's, they allow, I believe it's 40 people per day to exit over Donahue Pass, which is the exit, which is the, um, uh, which is kind of like you exit, uh, Yosemite Valley or Yosemite National Park. And then you go into Inyo National Park. So Donahue Pass is the one. So you got one, if you want to go, um, north to south, which is then you're starting in Yosemite Valley, which is 4,000 feet, or you're starting in Tuolumne Meadows, which is 7,000

[01:48:55] feet and going south. And then you gradually step up your passes and your elevation. And then you would finish at Mount Whitney, which is, um, the highest peak in the lower 48, uh, 14,505 feet. Uh, you can do that way. You can also start at Whitney Portal. Um, I do like this, like really brutal, like people day hike Whitney, which just, I would not do it from that way. You're like starting in the desert, you're climbing like seven, 8,000 feet over.

[01:49:23] I think it's like, uh, uh, it's some stupid amount, like just to get up there. You're just like on switchbacks all day in this Canyon and it's constant exposure. Um, but you can get a permit to go that way. There's also other ways to do it as well. Um, where you could get like a permit to start at like Sonora Pass and then hike in, or a lot of people will like start in Cottonwood and then tag Whitney and then take the JMT northbound. So there are other ways if you want to look around to get it, if you're not lucky enough to get the lottery.

[01:49:50] So I was fortunate to get a lottery permit starting at Lyle Canyon. Uh, I looked at the map and then just knowing like, I had so many people like, oh, the train out West is a lot easier, which it is. It absolutely is compared to what we're used to hiking in the Northeast. Uh, so I ended up just doing the, that first like 20 ish mile section as a day hike. Um, we went out, I went out with my wife. She came out a few days. We went out a few days early cause it's just kind of made sense with my work schedule and when, with when my permit date was.

[01:50:21] Uh, so we got a spot in, um, like one of the towns that's just like, um, just like outside of Inyo national, uh, national forest. And just, I basically just took a day pack and like did that. This ended up being like 7,000 feet of elevation and probably around 25 miles or so. And then picked up my permit for the next day and yeah, started heading South. Very, very cool. Wow. Um, amazing.

[01:50:49] So I was going to ask too, you talked about the terrain. How did you feel with like sort of the elevations that you're getting up to your mission in these passes, like 11, 12,000 feet? Like did, did it kind of, you kind of ease into it and you kind of were adapting or did you kind of notice it? That was the one thing I was so paranoid about. Cause I've just heard so many stories that like, you don't know how you're going to act at elevation until you're out there and you could be like, and you know, being in good shape helps. Um, I will preface this by saying definitely consult with your doctor. I'm not a physician.

[01:51:17] Um, but I have some people recommend taking like a chlorophyll supplement, which in theory bumps up your, your, your red blood cell, which again, of course, you know, if I hold, have more red blood cells, I can hold more oxygen in my blood. That should be helpful at elevation. Uh, I also got a prescription for Diamox, which also, um, helps to alleviate some of the symptoms of some altitude sickness. So, and I also like tried to stagger my first day, first few days apart from the first day, which I did as a, as a, as a day hike.

[01:51:45] But I only, I was like started at four, went up to nine and then drop back down to seven. So I felt pretty good about that. Uh, I would say on that first day when I was pritting around 8,000 feet, I was starting to feel like a little lightheaded, but the interesting thing I found about being out West where hiking in the Northeast, like it's the grade that's going to slow you down or, it's the terrain that's going to slow you down or it's the roots or it's the rocks. And out West I found is really like, I had to check myself, which I'm not used to doing.

[01:52:15] Uh, so I just slowed my pace down a little bit, like just concentrated on drinking more water, uh, ate something. And like, honestly, like the headache stayed at bay and I really didn't have any altitude, um, problems, but I'd also like, you know, we can talk about it more later too, was just, but I'd just done like so much gritting in. So like, I was such in, um, like really, really good hiking shape going out, which I'm sure helped a lot as well. And just like spent a few days, like with shorter days.

[01:52:43] And, um, I want to say my third day, I like did a Nero into Red's Meadow and stopped around like noonish or so, and then just spent the day there. So like had chances for my body to like just adjust being an elevation too, which I, you know, think is a good idea and just kind of generally recommended. So any, uh, any, like your whole post too, from this period has fallen along. Like it just looked like so many postcard perfect sort of sort of shots you were getting, but

[01:53:08] any sort of favorite parts of sort of that whole trail that really stuck out to you? It's just hard because everything is so new and it's just like, like everywhere, like there's so many, like just gorgeous, like you can just not be paying attention. And then just all of a sudden, like you come around a corner and there's like this amazing, like almost like Triforce face, like rock face pocking out of the clouds. And you like, you know, pull up the map to see what it is. And it's just labeled like peak number three.

[01:53:36] It's just like, there's so many like gorgeous, stunning views that it's just like, we're not even labeling them anymore. Um, but I thought, which it might just be like, you know, the first hit, but just like walking through like the echoes and like cathedral peak and cathedral, uh, cathedral lake just on that first day before you drop into Tuolumne Meadows, which a lot of people actually do do it as a day hike. I think it's maybe like five miles up and probably around 2000 feet.

[01:54:03] So like, that's definitely something you could hit up, um, from Lee Vinning, uh, which that's the name of the town that we stayed at between, uh, Monday and Tuesday. My permit day was Tuesday. Um, I had a gorgeous swim in Virginia Lake. That's another thing. There's like these Alpine lakes all over the place and like, you're kind of baking and they're chilled there, you know, and still in July, you're still getting some snow melt. Um, things are cool, but like great way to, um, great way to cool off.

[01:54:31] Although I did learn after the first dip that like, you kind of need to put your sun hoodie on back right away. Cause you will burn very, very quickly. Just being at like nine, 10, 11,000 feet. Uh, that, that was definitely a highlight. Um, yeah, I just had like this gorgeous, uh, gorgeous night, just like camping on the side of a silver pass Lake. And, uh, I was kind of just like jokingly put it on, like put this photo that I took

[01:55:00] on, um, from a place that I dug a cat hole in the morning. Cause there's like nobody and there's like this lake right in front of it. And there's like clouds that are reflecting in it. And there's just like nobody around. It's just like, yeah, this is like the best place that I've ever pooped. Like gorgeous view. That's awesome. So just every time I look at it, I'm chuckling. I'm just like, Oh yeah, I pooped there. It was awesome. Yeah. That's fantastic. Um, so how was Whitney and kind of the end itself? Like how, how did that go?

[01:55:30] Uh, yeah, Whitney. So we did kind of the, the stereotypical, uh, sunrise, uh, sunrise push. So, um, camped, uh, camped at Qatar Lake, which is, I want to say like four or five miles outside of Crabtree Meadow, um, which is just, there's a ranger station there and like, it makes it a pretty short shot. I forget, uh, woke up at 2am was on trail by two 30.

[01:55:57] Um, it's just a good amount of switchbacks in the dark. Uh, I met, I summited, I think it was like a little probably around four 30 and sunrise was right around six. So it was, you know, pretty chilly for that hour and a half when you're just waiting for waiting for the sun to come up. But it's just like, there's only a handful of people up there and it's just like, it's just so cool watching this, the sky just like slowly, slowly change. And you're looking out over like a desert.

[01:56:25] So there's like really no like natural or no like man, uh, human lighting influencing it. And just like how the clouds just slowly light up and just going from that darker red and, um, yeah. And just, you know, being up there with people that like really worked to do it was pretty, it was pretty cool. Yeah. It looked, uh, it looked pretty stunning. I was like, it's like the, the difference, especially in that desert environment always kind of gets me. Cause like the Northeast is so lush and stuff. I've only been out to the desert like once, well once and actually got to hike.

[01:56:55] Um, but it's, it's so staggering. Like how different that terrain is compared to what we're used to. Like I always feel like when you come back here, you're like, oh man, it's so green. Like everywhere there's so much stuff and out there it's so desolate. Um, and like even, even the forest too, like you're like tree line is still like to like 10, five, 11,000 feet. Like you're in tree line a bunch. Um, but it's just like the trees are bigger and like, they're just like more spread out.

[01:57:20] So it's nothing like, you know, the bushwhacking through like couple year old spruce and fur that we do in the Northeast. It's just, yeah, it's just wild. Like you're not, you don't have branches like falling over the trail and there, there are definitely some deadfalls that people haven't gotten to, but, uh, it's not like things are growing in cause like where the branches are starting at the trees are a good, like 30 feet over your head. Any, uh, any future trips you got coming up or any future plans just kind of just working

[01:57:48] on your grid and seeing what comes your way. Yeah. I mean, I think I'm going to just keep working on the grid. The goal is to finish in December. Uh, I think I'm going to, goal is to finish on East Osceola, which from looking at, uh, looking at the website will be the first finish on East Osceola or at least the people that have submitted it. So that's kind of cool. Uh, East Osceola, just cause that was my first, uh, first, uh, New Hampshire 4,000 footer. So kind of might as well come full circle with it. So why not? That's interesting. That's an interesting first 4,000 footer.

[01:58:19] You've already been in Maine, so you weren't like a newbie, but like going up East is like a very rugged climb. Oh yeah. It was brutal. And I don't think I totally knew what I was getting out, getting into like my plan. I don't think I'd even plan to do the Osceolas that week or no, I plan to do, um, as part of like a summit, uh, summits and solidarity, uh, hike that day, that weekend is back when they first started and we're like going like, Hey, we want to hit all the 48. I was going to do the Hancocks and was looking at it's like, Oh, well the Osceolas aren't that far away.

[01:58:47] And when you don't know the, no, the terrain, you're just kind of looking at mileage and elevation and then didn't really realize like how nasty that climb up East Osceola is. Uh, but got out of work a little early and was staying at, um, uh, what's the place by the discovery trail? Is it like big rock is the white mountains campground? I think it's something, yeah, I was staying in there. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I'm like, Oh, the Osceolas aren't that far away. So why don't I just go like, you know, bang them at like, you know, I did the, I did the

[01:59:16] thing actually that we were just talking about at the beginning and kind of ragging on where I probably started out. Like, uh, it was probably two, I think, but I did have, I did have water and a filter and a headlamp. So I was a little bit more prepared than that. Um, but yeah. And then just like, you know, that was the shortest hike and closest to where I was staying. So just like parked at a, parked at Greeley and went up and then it's just like, Oh wow, this is, this is wild. Like I always thought like, Oh, and in Hampshire will be so much easier because there's so many more people and it can't be as rugged as Maine.

[01:59:45] And that kind of humbled me a little bit like this, you know, cocky hiker that had done stuff in Maine. That one, that one always was in my head with winter. Cause going up that winter one, a lot of people regard that as like one of the more challenging ones just cause of like the ice and things like that. And I have to say when I did it, it kind of got me up and even, it was funny at the thrown back to the jigger. Like I was telling Jay, I'm like, your two worst climbs are going to be Tremont East Osceola. And like overwhelmingly everybody I talked to, you thought Tremont was the worst part of

[02:00:13] that whole thing, which I thought was, that's like a little sleeper, a little steep guy. Um, yeah, I did. Cause Tremont's on the fifth, it's on the 52 with the view, right? So when you're coming up a three Oh two, I did it. Like it was like middle of April, but there was still a bit of a good amount of snow. Cause though it's always like a lot of like side booting, but you're like, yeah, it gets steep and it's a slog for, you know, some of those 52 with the view. I mean, I don't know. I think people that have done the list might agree with this, but I would say like, that's the more like interesting list than the 48.

[02:00:43] Yeah. I wouldn't, I wouldn't argue with you with how it kind of, um, takes you around all of New Hampshire too, which is cool. It takes you to a lot of cool places. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and you know, I still don't think McGalloway was worth it, but you know, you might as well get way up there. Oh yeah. Um, well I've heard that before actually. Yeah. It's, it's okay. Yeah. It's like an eight or 10 mile, you know, dirt road in and just like, you know, slowly it's

[02:01:13] keeps degrading and degrading and you're just like, should I keep pushing or should I just road walk from here? You're braver than I, I, I, I parked at the, uh, the first turnoff that you get and actually walked in and out on that one. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't, yeah. I've heard stories of people that do like the winter 52 with a view and they're just like, Oh yeah. You just get on Facebook and look at what the snowmobilers are doing. And then you can basically just snowshoe in. It's like, that's still a brutal snowshoe in though. Like it's easily an eight mile trek.

[02:01:43] Sugar loaf off Nash stream road. Like those ones like that. It's just so wild. Yeah. Yeah. Or like, or haystack would be, or not haystack. Um, uh, uh, what's the one right below the tri pyramid is the North of the sugar loaf or the middle sugar loaf, uh, like something knob or I can't remember. Oh, you're talking about, um, yeah. In twin mountain. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nubble. Nubble. That's it.

[02:02:13] Yeah. The Nubble. Peak above the Nubble or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Oh man. That, that was surprisingly steep too. I think I did that after doing, um, the one by loon was like West scar or scour. And then like did like, like, Oh, that'll be easy to go up and do peak above the Nubble. And it's just like, it's a slog up. Like it's that solid, like mile and a half and you're just climbing all the time. And you're in the trees and then it's just like, okay, cool.

[02:02:45] All right, man. We'll, we'll, we'll definitely be, uh, if you watch in the sea where you're up to next on your adventures and, uh, we appreciate your time, Adrian. I think, I feel like we could have you back and talk about a ton more stuff, but, uh, I think we'll call it. Yeah. It's a, it's what we do. I definitely appreciate the invite. And I will say when I started looking into like some of the new Hampshire lists, like

[02:03:10] those early episodes, uh, stomp that you and Mike did looking at the 48 and the 52 and the T 25 were just like, those are amazing resources. Oh, good. Thank you guys for that. That was super helpful. Oh, no problem. Yeah. We're still getting royalties on them. I wouldn't believe it. Not. I wouldn't believe it. All right, man. Well, I don't know what to do with all the money. Checks keep on pouring in.

[02:03:38] You wouldn't know it, but surprising. Nick wasn't on that. So he's not getting this cut, right? Yeah. Screwed Nick. I got to cement my own legacy here. The flasher podcast. It would seem that's what those. So you want us before. It's my royalties. Oh, Adrian. Thank you again. It's been great, man. And, uh, yeah. I appreciate you guys. Yeah. It was a lot of fun. Yeah. It was great to meet you. Yeah. All right. Good night, everybody. Good night. Later.

[02:04:14] Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed the show, you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you want to learn more about the topics covered in today's show, please check out the show notes and safety information at slasherpodcast.com. That's S-L-A-S-R podcast.com. You can also follow the show on Facebook and Instagram.

[02:04:43] We hope you'll join us next week for another great show. Until then, on behalf of Mike and Stomp, get out there and crush some mega peaks. Now covered in scratches, blisters, and bug bites, Chris Staff wanted to complete his most challenging day hike ever. Fish and game officers say the hiker from Florida activated an emergency beacon yesterday morning. He was hiking along the Appalachian Trail when the weather started to get worse.

[02:05:14] Officials say the snow was piled up to three feet in some spots, and there was a wind chill of minus one degree. And there's three words that describe this race. Do we all know who they are? Oh, yeah! Lieutenant James Neeland from New Hampshire Fish and Game. Lieutenant, thanks for being with us today. Thanks for having me. What are some of the most common mistakes you see people make when they're heading out on the trails to hike here in New Hampshire? Seems to me the most common is being unprepared.

[02:05:40] I think if they just simply visited hikesafe.com and got a list of the ten essential items and had those in their packs, they probably would have no need to ever call us at all.