[00:00:02] Alright Nick, Episode 244, I am back from Fenway. I would, I don't know, I actually like I don't wouldn't move back. I did live in Boston for like five or six years and I enjoyed it but the only way I would live in Boston I think is if I could get one of those condos that like overlooks Fenway Park. You know you get the roof decks that you can watch all the concerts at so but I think that's about it.

[00:00:34] Yeah, yeah. Yeah so it was just I get to my friend, you know you have to, what is that, cultivate your friend groups Nick is what I, so I have like multiple friends, I got my high school friends, then I got the Apostles Hiking Friend Group and then I have my Amesbury Dad Bods Group which is like all the guys that I met through my kids doing sports and all that stuff.

[00:00:56] So yeah, you've got to cultivate all those friendships so I had a chance to go with my Amesbury friends to the Red Sox game and one of the guys, his relative is the head of on-field security so he was like we'll get on the field before the game so it was fun and then yeah, yeah. So it was a good time and I got a little banged up on, you know, had a few cordials before the game and during the game which is fun.

[00:01:23] I didn't, I didn't have any Mai Tais, I got a, I've been going to this, I think it's called Bleacher Bar, it's like this little alleyway and you can get into Yawkey Way and Fenway from the bar, you can exit through the main way but I had like a margarita, they have this like monster margarita that's like the color of the green monster and then it's like a coconut flavored thing, it's pretty good. And then I had a gin and tonic and then a couple of beers and yeah, it was good.

[00:01:55] No, no, that's on, that's on Lansdowne Street but this is on the other side of, I think they call it, used to, I always call it Yawkey Way because that's what I was growing up but I think they changed the name of it to Jersey Street so it's on the other side and it's in this little alleyway. It's actually pretty good, I think it's called Bleacher Bar and they've got picnic tables outside and you can order appetizers and drinks and stuff so we usually will go there before any events, concerts or whatever.

[00:02:26] Yeah, right, two Red Sox games, two concerts so four times of Fenway in the last month and a half. Yeah, yeah and I'm 2-0 for the Red Sox, they've won both games that I went to. Yeah, so anyway, but I might, I think we're gonna, we're gonna go one more time, we'll see. Okay, well maybe we'll playoffs, playoffs are coming so I might get a ticket for that.

[00:02:48] Exactly, exactly but I will do some Mai Tais this weekend, I was in, I was in North Carolina this weekend, Nick, I did the long haul drive down to drop off my daughter's car and Mrs. Mike and my daughter flew down like the divas that they are. Well I drove 11 and a half hours all by myself. Yeah, yeah.

[00:03:07] I actually prefer to, I did, that's exactly, I stopped, I left Amesbury at 1.30 in the morning, empty bladder, empty bladder. I had four turkey sandwiches and six pack of Gatorade and an iced coffee and then I got to, I got to the New Jersey Delaware line. I stop at the last rest area in New Jersey and then I stop, I get gas and it's like a pit stop.

[00:03:37] I go to the bathroom and then I go get gas and then I'm off so it's like seven minutes. And then I go from the Jersey Delaware line all the way to Elon and that's it. Yep, the bladder holds until I get there. So it was 11, 11 and a half hours. Yes, and then we flew back yesterday so. Traveling man, Nick. Okay, alright, this is a hiking podcast, let's talk about hiking.

[00:04:05] So welcome to episode 244 of the Sounds Like a Search and Rescue podcast. This week the gang was supposed to be all here but Stomp couldn't make it last minute so I got to edit my thing here. But yeah, it's Mike and Nick here, no guest. So we got some topics here that's going to include an update to a regulation change proposal that could impact the White Mountains. We'll discuss the roadless rule change being proposed by the federal government that would potentially open up the whites to additional risk of development for logging and fire prevention.

[00:04:34] So we don't like the additional development for logging but we do like the fire prevention. So we'll see what the deal is there. Plus Dave Schitt's in a full conditions event update that's coming up in November. An injured hiker in the lower section of Huntington Ravine suffers a lower leg injury and crawls her way down the trail before calling for rescue. What a badass, Nick. Nick. So we'll talk about her. New Hampshire is increasing their toll prices. We got a 78-year-old New Hampshire man convicted of killing defenseless turtles.

[00:05:03] So we'll talk about him and shame him. Race car updates on Mount Washington. An update on a cold case murder from 1977. We got a music minute. We've got a recent hike on the Tri-Pyramids I'm going to talk about. Nick explores the north shore of Massachusetts with a visit to Rockport and Gloucester. Another recent search and rescue news and the topic of the week is an update on SAR data where we share the latest trends and data. So we'll give a preview of it.

[00:05:31] But basically like the headline is 2026 is shaping up to be the busiest search and rescue year since we began tracking media reports in 2019. July alone had 26 search and rescue incidents which is a record since I've been tracking it, Nick. So we'll break down all those trends and data. So I'm Mike. Let's get started. I did my Boston accent there with the started. Let's get started. Okay. So we did the Fenway fascination and the mind ties. All right.

[00:06:00] The Maine Coon Cat is our new podcast summer intern. For Mewsie is the name of it? For Muse?

[00:06:40] What will she max out at?

[00:07:23] That's great. So, yeah. I saw the cat. It's a good looking cat. It's like white. Is there Maine Coon Cats? Are they always white or is it different colors? What is a polydactyl? That sounds like a cool word.

[00:08:00] Is that a cat thing or is that a Maine Coon Cat thing?

[00:08:37] Okay. And just I'm going to stop. I'm going to break in here for a second, Nick, because I forgot to hit record on the squad cast. But I'm assuming that we both have our tracks recorded. Yeah. Okay. Perfect. Very good. All right, Nick. I'm trying to think. One other. I have Animal Muse. So my brother and sister-in-law, I'm very invested in their whole horse situation. So they have two new horses. They got a horse named Waffle and a horse named Larry. So those are them.

[00:09:06] They have, I think, female. They have four female horses that are mares. Oh, no, I can't remember. And then, I don't know. The four girl horses. Now they have two boy horses that are there for like the next nine months or so. One of them is Waffle and the other one is Larry. So they have a horse named Chicken. So there's Chicken and Waffles, which is pretty cool. I don't think so. I think they keep them like separate. But they built up a, they had three paddocks that they built up. They got three more that they're putting in.

[00:09:35] So they've got six paddocks. And then I think we'll see if the herd grows or not. I definitely want to buy a horse one of these days. So if any listeners have a horse that they think would be a good purchase for me, let me know. I don't know. I don't know what the long-term plan is. They were talking about corporate events. They're talking about maybe doing boarding.

[00:10:04] But I think that for now, maybe they'll do horse lessons or something like that too. So the possibilities are unlimited. But I have been working on the trails. I didn't get up there this weekend, but I'm going to go on Friday to try to get some work done up there.

[00:10:37] I mean, you really have to be like one with the horse. It's crazy. Yeah, it's impressive. All right. Well, congratulations. That's the slasher animal news for people in case they care. All right. So coming up on Friday, there is a full lunar eclipse here, Nick. So I guess that this is a very routine lunar eclipse will occur this week over more than half of the lower 48 U.S. states, Canada, and most of Mexico.

[00:11:07] 96% of the moon's visible disk will fall behind the Earth's shadow. So you'll be looking for the moon to have a deep red tint. And if you're lucky, you will see a thin band of the moon's normal gray. And it says basically most of the Midwest and East Coast will see the entire eclipse as visible. So this is a, like I said, a lunar eclipse. So this is where the moon's disk will fall behind the Earth's shadow.

[00:11:37] So it'll have a red tint. So keep an eye on that. It looks like the viewing time is going to be 12, 13 a.m. on Friday. So the Friday night, if it's clear, would be a good night to go hiking. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. All right.

[00:12:01] So next up here, we've got this roadless rule update for the White Mountain National Forest. So the federal government is proposing to remove this rule here. So I try to do my best to run this down. And like, don't write us a big, long diatribe about like our opinion on this. I don't want anything touched around here. I just want everything to stay the same. That's my opinion. But I'm trying to give like both the reason for and the reason against.

[00:12:31] I'm not saying I care about this one way or the other. Don't write us a big, long diatribe about this. Anyway, so, okay. So there was a law in 2000. So we already know like there's the wilderness designation. So there's like six or eight sections of the White Mountain National Forest that has wilderness designation.

[00:13:00] You've got like the sandwich wilderness. You've got the Great Gulf wilderness. You've got the, yeah, you've got the, I forget what the other wilderness regions are. I don't have the list in front of you, but you get the idea. So there's all these wilderness regions. If it's a wilderness designation, then there's all kinds of rules. You cannot build roads. You can't, there's limited signage. There's limited any sort of development, no logging. It's all protected, which is good. So we've got that.

[00:13:27] Then there's designation within the National Forest. In 2001, they created this roadless rule. And when I say they, I don't even know what I'm talking about, Nick. Somebody in the government said, yeah. Yeah. So they, they basically designated inventory roadless areas. The Forest Service was able to do that. And this basically meant that there could be no new roads, reconstructed roads, or conduct any timber harvesting.

[00:13:56] With some exceptions for things like public safety, wildfire management, habitat work, and certain existing rights. So the idea is to preserve large blocks of national forests that are still relatively undeveloped. It sounds like they've got some exceptions where if there's wildfire management needs, they can put in for an exception. But that doesn't seem to be good enough for the government right now. So they proposed a change to eliminate the nationwide rule. They basically said, like, we don't need this rule.

[00:14:24] And their idea is that they want the individual national forest and its existing forest management plans to dictate where you can build these timber roads if you're going to do wildfire clearance or you are going to do actual harvesting. So the U.S. Department of Agriculture stated rationale is that local managers need more flexibility for wildfire reduction, forest health, timber production, and local economic needs.

[00:14:54] So the White Mountain National Forest, Nick, has about 235,000 acres of this roadless, roadless areas in the forest. So do you have any idea what percentage that might be of the White Mountains, Nick? Yeah, it's 30%. So the White Mountains is like 800,000 acres.

[00:15:22] This is outside of the wilderness areas. This is, yeah, so this is outside the wilderness areas. So 30% of the rest of the forest is designated as roadless. All right. So one caveat to this. So it sounds like the federal government is basically saying, like, this roadless rule. And I don't know if they care much about what's going on in the East. I suspect that this is probably more of a West thing that they care about more.

[00:15:50] But they basically stress that rescinding this roadless rule would not automatically open up all the acres for logging or roads. They would not authorize this for any specific project. So the existing process where you have to propose a project and it goes through the review process would still have to go in place. And we've talked about this before.

[00:16:14] You can go on the U.S. Forest Service and their project website, and you can see the list of all the projects that are being proposed or in process and whatnot. So you'd still need to get the approval for this. So the restrictions would remain. And if there were any future roads or timber projects, they would still need to comply with federal laws. And congressionally designated wilderness areas would retain its separate statutory protections. All right.

[00:16:39] So the argument for this by the Department of Agriculture is that forest supervisors understand individual forests better than the feds in Washington and should have more discretion to make those decisions through normal forest planning and environmental review process.

[00:16:57] So that's basically what they're saying is trust the local like a White Mountain National Forest Management Plan and the professional foresters rather than imposing some national rule that that doesn't fit the protection. Now, the argument against this is that the whole reason these areas remain roadless is that roads change the forest in ways that are extremely difficult to undo.

[00:17:19] So once you, I mean, how many times we talk about this, Nick, when we go bushwhacking all the old logging train tracks and the timber roads and everything, they still exist. You can see them. Yeah. Right.

[00:17:50] I was on the, yeah, we were on the Tri-Pyramid slide. We could see roads cutting across up to the scar and stuff. So if you hike with Dave and Stomp, I mean, you've probably done this. That's all, there's bread and butter. They're looking for those old logging cuts. So, right. Right. So the other arguments against this is roads, like they impact the wildlife habitat. They create erosion and sediment problems. They introduce invasive species.

[00:18:19] And once you've got these individual projects that put together all these roads into a large forest, you can't recreate the original roadless landscape. So the national rule acts as a backstop against the slow death by a thousand cuts issues that you can run into. Because if you trust the local forest management, you don't know what their motivations are.

[00:18:44] You might get a forest management organization that's in bed with the timber organizations and just starts approving all kinds of timber cuts. And next thing you know, you've got an out of control situation where they're cutting roads into areas that no one wants them to cut roads into. But then you're powerless to protect it. So this way, it handcuffs the government from being able to like just go crazy and cut up forest areas.

[00:19:09] So that's the argument to keep it is like make it more difficult for people to propose these types of projects.

[00:20:02] Yeah, exactly. And I think that this, again, I don't think that this is necessarily a rule change that the government was looking at and saying like this is going to impact like the northeast region. I suspect that this is more about what's going on out west where there's more likely to have wildfires than there is here in the east. But still, you know, the wildfire risk is there, I suppose. We've had a couple of dry summers for sure. We sort of benefit, I think, by the winter runoff. So we're pretty moist.

[00:20:31] Can I say that word, Nick? I think people don't like this. Pretty wet. Yeah, we're a pretty wet area here. So we're protected. Yeah, yeah. But ultimately, like my take on this is like I say keep the rule in place.

[00:20:44] And then if you want to give the local forest management functions more options, then there's sort of a middle ground here where if there's already exceptions allowed into this roadless protection and you basically need an exception that says like, look, there's a true wildfire risk.

[00:21:05] Define what those risk parameters are and then build an exception process into the older already existing roadless rule regulations that justifies when you might want to get into a section to actually build a rule or road that's going to allow you to mitigate wildfire risk. Otherwise, I think that just wiping this whole thing out is probably just too big of a sweep.

[00:21:31] Like just do a middle ground where you just lighten the regulation enough where exceptions can be made.

[00:22:13] Yeah, I don't think the sky is falling with this one, but I think that also there's a middle ground here that they should look at. But look, we're just guys on podcasts, Nick. What do we know? So anyway, that's our take. We're not for this. We're not against it necessarily. I'm probably more against it than I am for it. So but write Nick a letter. If you need to write anyone a letter to complain that you don't agree with it, that's fine.

[00:22:42] So that's true. OK, up next, a couple of updates here. So full conditions. So we do an annual event now. I think this is our fourth or fifth year doing this. So fundraiser for Search and Rescue. It's going to be on November 1st at the Berlin Theater. And then we're going to have an after party at Reckless. We're going to have a bunch of cool guests. I don't think that we can share any details yet, but I think that this is going to be our best crew of guests. And it's really going to be focused on it. I'll give you a hint.

[00:23:11] It's going to be very focused on Search and Rescue and the people that are deeply involved in Search and Rescue. Oh, Bethlehem. What did I say? Bethel? Oh, Berlin. Jesus. Jesus. I'm losing my mind. I went off script.

[00:23:49] OK. Wives, I think. All right. At the Bethlehem Theater. Cut that into the edit. My daughter just walked by me. I was like, wait a minute. So, yeah. So, no, Mrs. Mike does not come down here when I record. We do the same routine. She's up there watching some reality show.

[00:24:17] And then I come up at like 830. And she's like, you was really long tonight. And I said, well, you know, we talk a lot. So, we do. We do. So, important stuff like Dave Schitt's update. So, where is Dave, Nick?

[00:25:21] Yeah, this sucks. I mean, the Greylock thing fell apart. I think it would happen there. Oh, because he got to Greylock by the time we were going to Baxter. Yeah, he got sick. And then I got to work Monday through Friday. I can't. Who are these people that can just go in the middle? Why is Stevie Schitt just wandering around in the middle of the week? Like, doesn't this guy have a job? Why is Paul Lamar? I'm calling Paul Lamar's HR director. What is he up to?

[00:25:53] Yeah.

[00:27:04] Yeah, I'm going to try to swing it this weekend. I'm going to try. He thinks he's going to be up by Muhuzik Arm on Sunday. So, I might go in. If I can get another friend, then we can go into Success Pond Road, go in through the Muhuzik notch, and then come out to Grafton. So, I'm going to see what I can do. Oh, you have me? Yeah, that's cool. Yeah.

[00:27:34] Yeah, we'll see what happens. I mean, it's tough to know. Logistically, he'll know. He'll have a better idea by Friday, I think. And then I'll, yes. Very good. All right. So, Dave is moving along here. And then October 3rd, I have my Baxter. So, I might load up on Apostle Points if I can meet him at Baxter, and if he finishes around that time. But we'll see. Yes. So, all right. A couple things here for New Hampshire news here.

[00:28:04] So, injured hiker crawls out of Huntington Ravine Trail. This is pretty good. And then Lakes Region Search and Rescue, their Facebook page, they gave a big shout-out. I guess I can give her name because Lakes Region put her out there. So, and then this is something to be, I guess, I would be proud of this. If this were me, Nick, I would be telling everybody. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Badass.

[00:28:29] So, Sydney Cox, she's, let me see here. I lost my place for a second. Yeah. I'm not going to say how old she is. Sydney Cox, she's from New Hampshire. So, she is a, she's, I guess, pretty far along in her 4,000 footers. I think she's, I read somewhere she's in like her mid-30s out of 48. So, she's been around. So, on Saturday, October 22nd, around 10.45 a.m., I'm going to tell you something about Huntington Ravine.

[00:28:57] You haven't done this, Nick, but I always tell people the lower boulder field is the most dangerous part of that trail, in my opinion, as Sydney found out. So, 10.45, a call came in and Sydney suffered a lower leg injury preventing her from being able to hike out without assistance. So, she had been hunting, she had been hiking Huntington Ravine Trail with a companion when she injured her lower leg at the boulder field around 9 a.m. So, she's an hour and 45 minutes determined to make it out without calling for help.

[00:29:28] Cox crawled, hopped, and shuffled approximately half a mile, four tenths of a mile before it became too much to continue without assistance. She ultimately made a 911 call for help. So, a rescue response was initiated, fishing game, Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue, and some volunteers hiked up to Tuckerman Ravine Trail, to Huntington Ravine Trail. Well, conservation officers utilized ATVs to haul up rescue gear, and they got her in a litter.

[00:29:57] Ended up being about a half a mile carryout when originally it would have been like 1.25 miles. So, by her crawling and shuffling out and making her way down there, she saved like a lot of time. There, which is impressive. So, they gave her a big shout-out and said that she was well-prepared. And then Lakes Region Search and Rescue put out an announcement that said that it was a little bit more detailed. Basically, they said that the rescue didn't happen on Huntington's head wall.

[00:30:26] Sydney had just passed one of the large boulder areas where she misjudged a roughly three-foot step down. It's tough in there, Nick. I'm trying to think what you, because you haven't hiked in there. I'm trying to think. It's very similar to like the bottom of the Great Gulf. It's all the same idea. Yeah, it's all the bottom of those big head walls got those big boulder fields. And you've got a maneuver in there. Like Six Husbands is another one, I think. That kind of reminds me of it.

[00:30:53] And the tricky thing about these is that they're sort of over, under, and there's some jumps that you can look at that are a little bit blind sometimes. I've actually had more problem with hitting my head on some of these duck unders than I have with like jumping or anything like that. But it's, and the other thing is, is you're so focused on like, all right, I got to get to the view so I can see the head wall so I can start the climb. You're going through these boulder fields and you're sort of like, this is just like the pregame to get through. And you're not focused.

[00:31:22] Like once you get on the head wall or the slabs, you're more locked in. And I think what happens in those lower sections of, and the thing is from Harvard Cavern, when you go past that, up to the actual climb itself is about a mile. So you've got a, you've got a decent amount of crawling through these, not crawling through, but like just basically maneuvering through these boulder fields. And it's easy to slip and, and, and, and, you know, it's just like one piece of bad luck to, to make it happen.

[00:31:50] So anyway, so when she, when she hurt her ankle, she tried to make progress towards the trailhead and she was crawling on her hands and knees. She was scooting through steeper, rocky terrain, hopping when possible, and occasionally leaning on her hiking companion for assistance. She managed to cover a decent amount of ground after about two hours though. She basically made the call.

[00:32:12] And this is where Lake search and rescue, Lake region search and rescue basically said like, that's an important lesson to be learned is like, it's cool to be a hero and try to push as hard as you can. But there comes a time where you just got a call and that she judged it perfectly. Basically like the litter, the litter team was able to get there and ultimately she wasn't going to completely self rescue, but she, she did a good hybrid job on this one.

[00:33:33] Yeah, exactly. And I'll, I'll, I'll link the, the, the post on the search and rescue or the, the fishing game newsletter. And then the, the lakes region commentary, cause it's pretty good. The, the one thing that comes to mind on this one is this is one of those scenarios where I do think Nick having like one or two of those Sam splints, I think like I have, I can't, I've been carrying two of the splints now. And my idea with the two is that it just gives you a little bit more versatility.

[00:34:00] If you, if you have a higher leg injury you can put one on either side and sort of wrap them together with a shoe already on there and maybe stabilize it a bit. There's a couple of different ways that you can split somebody up, but having two of them can be helpful if it's, if it's higher up. So that's the only thought that I have potentially is that maybe with a splint it may have made it, and maybe she had a splint. I don't know. I don't know.

[00:34:23] But I'm just thinking with these ankle injuries, having one or two splints with a good wrap will give you a lot of options to hopefully stabilize it so that you can, you know, you can limit the movement and the pain a little bit. You can work that too.

[00:35:01] Yeah, yeah. Exactly. And you can mold them into different. Different, exactly. So like with two, two of them you can actually like sort of wrap, you know, you can wrap an ankle on either side and then use the, use the wrap to stabilize it so that you sort of have like a, you know, it will stabilize the leg overall.

[00:35:30] If you just use one, you can wrap that around. Like generally like you would keep the shoe on in a lot of cases, like you wouldn't take the shoe off. So having two of them with the shoe on gives you a little bit more versatility if something bad happens. So just something to think about. Like if you, if you're, if you feel like you can carry a little bit more weight, they're not super heavy. Just get like one or two Sam splints with a, with a nice wrap. And then you just go on YouTube, do some videos, or if you want to take a wilderness first aid course, you can, you know, you can be prepared.

[00:35:59] So anyway, so that's good news. That ends there. So next up here, Nick, we have the new toll hike in New Hampshire. We've talked about this before. So the, I guess the governor had vetoed it, but then the state legislature had overridden the veto. So there's going to be an increase where the, the toll on the Hampton 95 side, I'm assuming there's some other tolls like up on 93. It's going to go from $2 to $4 beginning January 1st, 2027.

[00:37:18] Right, right. For years, like my, all my kids and my wife always had New Hampshire. I had Massachusetts because I was going into Cambridge. I had to pay in the Tobin Bridge. But once I, once COVID came, I switched to New Hampshire. So yeah, if you're a mass resident and you want to avoid this, just, just get a New Hampshire easy pass. Very good. State need, New Hampshire needs more money, I guess. So, all right, moving on here. This is the, this story here.

[00:37:43] This guy's a jerk face, Nick, especially if you're 78 and you haven't learned that lesson.

[00:39:25] Yeah, it's probably, he's probably like there's an overall statute or something that he, they probably charged him with that, that covers like fish, animals, birds or something.

[00:40:00] That's good. That's good. Yeah. You know, like sun turtles and painted turtles, the same thing. There's no difference. So painted turtle, I think is the official name, but I watch these things, Nick, I, I do laps around the pond up in Maine in my standup paddleboard and I go turtle hunt.

[00:40:16] I don't fish, but I go spot turtles and the turtles will, they lay on like, we have these old logs because it used to be a logging area and they would, they float up on the pond and then the turtles all sit on the logs, the end of the log that sticks out of the water and they sun all day. It was minding their own business.

[00:41:08] Yeah. They eat insects. They don't bother anybody. Save the turtle, get rid of this guy. This guy, I don't feel bad for this guy. You said you feel bad for this guy. This guy's probably been making his family miserable forever. Yes.

[00:41:38] Yeah. Yeah. So this is from 1977. So she was a, I don't know. She was from the area, but she was working some kind of social work. I think she was in North, she was working in North Conway. And I think she was living there. It hadn't been there for that long. Um, and then she had, you know, was a hiker and she decided to get out.

[00:42:01] And some of the press reports on this are a little tricky, Nick, because the verbiage they use to describe the trail is they call it Sawyer Brook Trail. But I think the way that we reference it is Sawyer River Trail. So there's a little bit of confusion when you, so if you look for Sawyer Brook Trail in the White Mountain National Park, I don't think it's listed. I had a look in the, I got a look at my guidebook. I didn't see it there. There's a Sawyer River Trail that goes out to Sawyer Pond where she was found.

[00:42:29] Uh, but yeah, basically she had gone for, um, a hike on August 21st, uh, 1977. They basically sent this out on the anniversary of her murder, um, to go hiking out to Sawyer Pond. She didn't come home that day, so friends reported her missing. Her body was found three days later off 302 near Sawyer Pond, according to her family. An autopsy determined that Roth had been strangled to death, uh, and no one's ever been charged in her killing.

[00:42:58] The family basically said she's a gentle flower just waiting for the sunrise, and she lived by the words, you can't change the world, but you can change your corner. Um, so the family's just basically saying if anybody reads this and has information about who killed her, please come forward. I feel like I read a couple of sources on this that they might have DNA, uh, for this case. Uh, but if they do have DNA, then in my, my mind, they probably would have run it through the genealogy DNA databases

[00:43:27] to see if they could get some sort of a hit on a relative of somebody that had that DNA. So I don't know if they, if they actually still have usable DNA. A lot of these older cases, maybe they collected it, but they didn't store it in a way that they could actually extract it. But the technology is getting better and more and more they'll be able to extract usable DNA. So we'll see on this one. Uh, but there's been some weird theories over the years on this one.

[00:43:51] Um, I know that there was some discussions on Reddit around, there was a Connecticut River Valley killer that was active in the late eighties. And, um, there had been a guy named Rodney Alcala who was known as the dating game killer that had at one point, this guy was a mean killer, rapist, pedophile. Um, he would bludge and strangle and rape his female victims.

[00:44:21] And, um, he was known as the dating game killer because he had made an appearance on that, this, this show in the 1970s called The Dating Game, where like a woman would go on and meet three guys that were hidden and they'd ask a bunch of questions. It's kind of a comedy show. And then she'd decide which one she wanted to date. So he had appeared on that show and then had later, um, gone, gone on to become a serial killer.

[00:44:45] So Rodney Alcala was at one point suspected of, um, some of these, these murders in the area because he was in New Hampshire at a certain point. But the timeline where Alcala was doesn't exactly line up. I mean, this guy traveled around a lot in New York, um, and out in the West Coast as well. So nothing perfect there, but Alcala's name has been connected to this.

[00:45:10] And then obviously like this Connecticut River Valley killer, this was really more of, um, more of activity that happened in the eighties and nineties. So it might've been early. So who knows, Nick? I mean, these, these murders, sometimes they just could be a one-off and you never hear from the person again. And then other times it's, it is really a serial killer. So tough to know.

[00:46:13] Yeah. And it is like the, the problem with that trailhead too. I would imagine like if you're, if you're somebody that's looking to have bad intentions and you pull up and you see, okay, there's only one car at that trailhead. Cause it's not a lot of parking there. Then all of a sudden you see the one person out there, then you, you can be, have reasonable confidence that like you're going to be by yourself with that person.

[00:46:37] So I hope that they find some DNA and that they run this through the genealogy databases and get a hit of a relative and then start working their way through suspects. It could be all over them. I think that the, the, one of the first things they'll go for is the fingernails.

[00:47:01] They'll go under the fingernails of the victim because you're obviously like, if it's a close contact murder, then obviously you're going to be trying to fight off your victim and then you'll get some DNA under your fingernails. Yeah. And then obviously if there's any sexual assault, then it's, you know, they'll extract it down from that area and whatnot, but blood, anything they'll look, they'll basically look along the body in the crime scene to see if they can find any weapons.

[00:47:55] They'll get it. They'll look into those databases and look to see if there's a hit there. Oftentimes it's basically like a, it could be a, I think up to a fourth cousin. If they can find a fourth cousin, they can then use genealogy, which is basically your family tree to try to assume like, okay, it was a murder in the 1970s. Because we know that the, the, the perpetrator was likely between 18 and 38 or whatever.

[00:48:21] They can look and say like, all right, well, this person's relatives, they had six people that are in that age range in that time period. And then they can look and actually be sure to say like, all right, we had these people live. And then once they get a real suspect, that's when the police will try to get a warrant to try to get DNA from the actual suspect. Or if the person's dead, they may try to get a relative to say like, hey, you're the son of this.

[00:48:47] Can we, can we just get, get your DNA to match up and verify whether or not this guy was actually the killer? Right. Yeah. I mean, it's not the only one. Louise Chaput is the other one that you think of that had been murdered in, I think early 2000s.

[00:49:10] She was the one that had been walking by, was that Lost, I forget the name of that Lost Pond and then Glenn Boulder, that area there. So don't quote me on the name of that pond. Maybe I'm getting that wrong, but anyway, so hopefully they'll get a break on this one. Sherry Roth. I'll, I'll link this in the show notes if people want to do some research. And then next up, Nick, you're more, this is more your speed. I do know our friend Nobby had posted a video on YouTube that highlighted some of the activity in Mount Washington with the hill climb activity.

[00:49:39] But what was this all about?

[00:52:56] Okay. Yeah, you have a WRX, right?

[00:54:00] It's crazy. Yeah, yeah, I got to go check it out. But yeah, I'll link the video that Nobby had put together. He got some good action there. And then I did see some other video of like some drifting and whatnot. So it looked like a fun day.

[00:54:40] Do you, do you find that you get pulled over by the police frequently driving that car? Because I feel like that's a cop magnet.

[00:55:33] Right, right. Right, yeah. It's like, pull me over, pull me over. Exactly. Exactly. All right. So, all right. So that's good stuff. And Nick, slow down, please. Slow down. National news here. So Hoover Dam reaches crisis levels. I feel like three years ago, we were always talking about the Hoover Dam and the Glen Canyon.

[00:56:03] They were going to dry up. And then we had like one winter with a lot of snow. And then everything was fixed. Now we're back to a mess here. It's the lowest, it's crisis here, Nick.

[00:56:38] Yes, I've been there. Yeah, well, and then farther down, you've got Glen Canyon Dam as well, which is a huge, it's another dam. So there's a bunch of these dams that flow down the Colorado, or that the Colorado River flows through.

[00:57:52] We're going to fire up the snow machine, Nick. Yes. Yeah.

[00:58:20] I know last time this happened, they were discovering a lot of new dead bodies, Nick, because the low levels of the water, the dead bodies were appearing. So maybe something interesting will pop up. Yes. Yeah. You know what else is interesting here? Stomp had, Stomp is very, he's keeping an eye out for health. Health and wellness is his thing now.

[00:58:47] So he just wanted to put a plug in for this app. It's called Yuka, Y-U-K-A. And it is a food and cosmetic scanner. This is actually pretty good. It's an independent food app that scans food and cosmetics. And then it'll tell you how toxic they are. And then if you happen to pick something that's toxic, then it will provide a better alternative with less toxic brands, which is pretty cool.

[00:59:14] So Stomp gave this a two thumbs up and he wants to have people check it out. So I'll link this in the show notes. I didn't get a chance to download this before the episode, but I've had some similar apps that I've used and they're all pretty good from a technology perspective. The apps I've used are more like they scan food for calories and nutrition, but this is a good idea too with the toxic stuff.

[00:59:51] Do you know what this dad joke is on the script? I got it right here. I have two dad joke books and a mug.

[01:00:09] I'll find one here. So yeah, I have two books. I'm fluffing around here, folks. So sorry about that. And I have a mug too that I can scan that Julie gave me that has a dad joke of the day. So I have a Christmas theme one and I have a regular theme one.

[01:00:39] So all right, Nick, I am terrified of elevators. I'm going to take steps to avoid them. What are you called if you see a robbery in an Apple store? An eyewitness. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I'll be here all night. Very good.

[01:01:08] All right. This is the part of the show where Nick does his music minute. This thing has been, we've been planning to do this music minute for like four episodes in a row and we haven't got to it. So now is your moment, Nick. Yeah, I feel like they never are.

[01:02:52] No. Yeah, there was like a, there was like a non-grunt, there was like the blues travelers and like that, Dave Matthews, like there was like a grunge, it wasn't grunge, but it was like an alternative nineties. There was the wallflowers would be another one I would put up there.

[01:06:16] Fun fact about Adam Duritz. He dated two thirds of the Friends stars, Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox. Yes. In their primes too. And he's not a good looking guy. I mean, there's no, I'm not, he, I don't know. He just not a good looking dude, but he, he makes it work. He's got a look. He's got a look. So he's got the dreadlocks and everything. So, all right. That's your music minute. I feel like that was a music five minutes, but we'll work on that, Nick.

[01:06:44] So, um, if you are interested in getting stickers, you can go get a slasher stickers at the mountain wanderer or Spinner's pizza parlor. And then, uh, if you want to get swag, you can hit our bonfire shop and choose between super popular hoodies, classic or V-neck tees and more. Have you ever won a V-neck tee, Nick? I'd never won a V-neck tee. You're going to be jacked. Yeah. Yes.

[01:07:13] I'm trying to get jacked. Yeah. You are hairy actually, which it's surprising. You're like sneaky hairy because you're blonde and then your eyebrows are very light. So most people would think that you're not hairy, but then you've got a lot of chest hair going on. Yeah.

[01:07:42] You're like, um, uh, Dawson with a hairy chest. Right. Right. Right. There you go. Take it. So anyway, uh, but anyway, if you want to get a shirt, get your bonfire and then, uh, patches are still available. So they're $2 and 50 cents each. You can reach out to us over Instagram or our email account and, uh, Nick will figure out a way to get that to you if you want some patches.

[01:08:09] So, and then if you want to donate, we got a bunch of donors, um, this week. So, um, if you want to do that, you can do the slasher buy me a coffee, uh, donation. And then if you want to be a monthly supporter, you can tick a small box and then you'll never be able to cancel and you'll just send us money every month. So we appreciate that. So we have, um, two, um, two people. So Jennifer donated five coffees and became a monthly supporter and she gave a shout out.

[01:08:36] So this is the, this must be the lady, Nick, that Tom and Jay just sat there and did nothing to help. And then I had to climb down like a spider monkey on the rocks and help her out and give her a little bit of my, you know, step on my knee and give her a lift up. So she's good. She went down Pomola and up chimney and they were on their way.

[01:09:12] Yeah. No shame in that. That was a sketchy section at all. But I do like have to laugh Jay and Tom just standing there doing nothing. Yeah. So Tom started coaching and I'm like, Tom, she doesn't need a, she doesn't need a motivational speaker. She needs somebody to give her a knee to step on. So anyway, yeah, exactly. Like don't coach help. Yep. So anyway, but thank you, Jennifer. And yeah, good for you. Hopefully you get back out there. You guys were killing it up there.

[01:09:41] That was an awesome day and I'm glad you had a good time. And then Matt Hercules sent five coffees over to us as well. So thank you, sir. Or ma'am. I don't know what it is. So next up is a part of the show where we talk about what beer we are drinking, Nick. And I'm not drinking a beer. I'm having water right now. And I had a little bit too much to drink this weekend at the college campus too. Not too bad.

[01:10:10] No, I just a couple of, I was putting together furniture, Nick, and drinking. So. Yep.

[01:11:08] Awesome. All right. Now is a part of the show where we talk about recent hikes, Nick. So if you've been out and about, you want to share any hikes with us? It sounds like you were in the Gloucester Rockport North Shore area recently.

[01:13:05] Gloucester and Rockport are sneaky. They had some hills in them. Newport's got a little bit of that cliff stuff going on.

[01:13:50] Nice. Well, yeah. I just wanted to put a reminder in for the show notes. So basically like, so that Magnolia Reserve area that you, you got in. So there's a, anytime you're in Essex County up in the North Shore, like the Rockport, Newbury

[01:14:14] Port, Amesbury, Newbury, Groveland, Gloucester, all these areas. There's the Ipswich, Hamilton, Wenham. There's a, it's called the Greenbelt. Um, it's Essex County Greenbelt and it's a land trust association that has like hundreds and hundreds of miles of, uh, trail systems and nature preserves and everywhere you go.

[01:14:40] So you can basically like just look on the Greenbelt, um, website and it'll link you to all the trail systems that you can go hiking on anytime. So there's a ton of activity on there. So you found a couple, almost all of those nature preserves in those hiking areas. If they're not state parks, they'll be associated with Essex County Greenbelt.

[01:15:20] Yeah. So I was, um, I continued to go, um, hiking with Jay, my friend Jay, he's a newer hiker and, uh, although he's getting up there now, but it's been fun to redo the, I've been basically redoing the 52 with a view and the 4,000 footers through his eyes, which has been fun. So he wanted to get some summits in and I had recommended the tri pyramid slot. So we had done Katab in a couple of weeks before and he was like, oh, this is really cool. And I said, we should do the tri pyramid slide, um, route.

[01:15:48] We'll do North, North tri slide and then go down the South slide. And it'd be a good challenge for you. Fun day. So I met, um, Jay, I was over in Maine. So I had to drive. Matter of fact, driving from Maine to get over to Waterville Valley is like the same distance as it would be for me going from Amesbury to Waterville Valley. It's a two hour drive. Cause no, no, because you're doing like a fish hook cause you're basically going over

[01:16:17] from Freiburg and then you got to go a little South and then you got to go over the kank and then down 93 and then back over to Waterville. So it was a little under two hours for me to get there. But anyway, I met Jay and then Paul Gamal came with us, which is good. So for people that haven't done this hike, it's, it's, it's good. It's, it's a nice flat approach. You get like three and a half miles or so of like sort of flat, just walking down, um, Livermore. So Livermore parking lot.

[01:16:45] And then you go, it's, it's basically an old road that you, um, you walk up and then it splits off into the North tri slide trail. And then from there, it's like maybe about a half a mile of just in the woods. And then you get to the bottom of the slide. And I have a video, I'll link it in the show notes here. Uh, Nick, I think that video has got like, I don't know if it's got like 80 or 90,000 views or something.

[01:17:18] Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's tough. You know, Jay's in like, he, he's in, he's in awesome shape, um, compared to where he was, but like with me and Paul, we're sort of just walking up these slabs cause we've done it for so long. And then he's sort of like, this is insane. Yeah. Yeah. He's just like, this isn't, he's army crawling up this thing. Like, are you kidding me?

[01:17:47] So, um, but anyway, it was, it was, it was, it was a fun day and, uh, there's a nice video. I did a little bit of a history on it. So basically for people that aren't familiar, the, the North tri slide was the result of a huge rain event that happened in August 13th, I think of 1885. So it's about 140 years old and the whole thing just let loose. And there's an article that's in Appalachia that talks about the first explorers that actually came upon the, the bottom of the slide.

[01:18:16] That was a huge soup of just like trees and boulders and moss and dirt and runoff. And, um, they had to make their way through this to, to, to get to the slide itself. But they basically woke up one morning and they saw this big gash on the side of the mountain. And now it's the North tri slide is essentially just like a rock slab on the lower section. I find the lower section, Nick, to be more challenging than the upper section.

[01:18:42] Uh, but I mean, the upper section, the slide's massive and you get these awesome views out into the Osceolas and Waterville Valley and Tecumseh. So it's, it's definitely a great, great hike, awesome views. And, um, yeah, we had a good time. Um, we started seeing more people. We didn't see anybody when we were walking out there, but once we got on the slide, I ran into a guy that recognized me. He was a listener. He was finishing his 48 that day. So congratulations to him. Yep.

[01:19:10] And, um, yeah, we just basically, after that, we just went across. Uh, I like that ridge. It's actually kind of a fun ridge to go across. There's not many views or anything like that, but it's just a nice trail system. And then you get to the South slide and then South slide is very different where it's a loose sort of scree field compared to the North slide, which is more of a slab that you're walking up. But, um, but overall it's like an 11 or 12 mile hike.

[01:19:37] And about half of that is just on Livermore on the, on the road, which is easy enough. But then like the other six miles, there's a lot of up and then a lot of down.

[01:19:47] So, yeah, yeah.

[01:20:25] It's, it's, it was a fun day and it was a black lab day on the tri-pyramids. We saw about four or five black labs. The only dogs we saw, they were all black labs. Yeah. Kind of weird, but good day. Uh, it was hot for sure. Um, so we had to drink a lot of water, a lot of ton of water, like I guess on this slide itself, but like a lot of water options with the, um, with the, the near the road and whatnot.

[01:20:54] So you could filter, I suppose. Very good. So yeah, highly recommend it. Five stars. So good job, Jay. He's moving along. I think he's like in his teens now for the 4,000 footers and he's halfway through the 52 with a view. So we'll get there. Um, all right. And then, um, future plans here. I had talked about this. I'm probably going to hit the Mahusics this weekend to, to meet up with Dave. And then Nick, you, you said you may join, right?

[01:21:33] Uh, now is the part of the show where we do the notable, uh, listener hikes of the week here, Nick.

[01:23:35] Ooh, two legends. Nah, not happening. As much as I like miles, not happening. Yes. That is a way to my heart.

[01:24:17] Don't skip Mount Hite. That's where Dave was today. As a matter of fact, so you can, you can get some views there. So, um, so I think that it's a no brainer here. So, um, 802 trail pops, uh, pops had finished the, the North mode 52, 52 with the radar of the dog. So that's an immediate. Yeah. That that's the hike of the week, but I will say Duchess 36, 63 with steaks on Garfield and margaritas afterwards. Like that's, that's almost as good as dogs for me. Steak and margaritas.

[01:24:48] Yeah. It's very bougie. All right. So, uh, now is the part of the show here. So we're going to do a segment here. Nick, I was going to, I'm going to share my screen for you so you can follow along. So I went and, um, I just, I did an update on the search and rescue data just to give some trends on this year here. So let me just share my screen here.

[01:25:24] Let me know if you can see what I'm referencing here, Nick. You got it? Is it too small? Need a bigger? All right. So, um, I had just put together. So this, this year, year to date right now, um, there is, let me just look at this for a second. Sorry. I got to scroll down. I thought I was prepared, but I never am.

[01:25:50] Um, so in 2026, so what I do is I, we collect the media news report. So I have, since 2019, I've been collecting every search and rescue news media report that comes out over fishing game. So you can go onto their website and just basically collect everything. And then from there you can, you can then put, I put it into a table that I, um, I use to extract the details. So you've got what year it happened. I have an incident number. I've got the month.

[01:26:18] I've got the date, the trail, the mountains, whether there's a list associated with it, the name of the hiker, the city, the state, the gender, the age, age range. I have a rating here, whether it's negligent or not negligent. I've got a category, um, which is basically the categories are death, fatigue, lost, uh, with a map headlamp panic. You've got lower leg injury, medical issue, a miscellaneous. And then I've got reckless behavior as the categories.

[01:26:44] Then I also keep track of whether there's a group or no group, which day of the week it is in the season. And then that way you can basically pull these metrics and get some trends. So I, I already did. It's done. Yeah. I just, I just can, I just link the articles and then it just, it extracts it for me automatically. So, um, carry on. So I got this here.

[01:27:10] So basically, um, when you look at the trends right now, um, the number of people that need rescues generally averages across 2019 to, um, 2005, the average is around 107 people per year end up, um, end up needing a rescue. Right. So it spikes like in 2021, it was 118 and 2023, it was only 90.

[01:27:38] So it goes up and down right now, year to date. And we're only sitting on August 25th. We've got 95 people that have been involved in search and rescue media events. So my prediction is that, um, we will likely see a, um, a high number. We'll probably be 2021 where it was 118 people that made the news reports. So, um, and the, what's driving that right now is that we had a pretty average year up until,

[01:28:07] um, up until July. In July of this year, there was 26 people involved in search and rescue incidents, which is the largest month, um, that has, that I, that I've ever tracked. So, um, the next busiest month was in August of 2022 that had 23, um, people that were involved in search and rescue. And then right behind that was August of 2020.

[01:28:36] So typically August and July are pretty hot, uh, as far as the, the months go. But, uh, it's been a couple of years since we've seen something this busy. There's a couple of months that have had 19 rescues. There was May of 2019, which is an anomaly. October of 2020, which was an anomaly. July of 2021, which is to be expected. And then July of 20 or August of 2025. Um, so anytime you see that July and August, that's always going to be the busiest periods.

[01:29:03] But, um, this, this July in particular was super busy. And then August, we're at, we've got another week to go. We have another weekend and we're already at 16. So my guess is that we're probably going to be up into the twenties for August as well. So that will make July and August of this year, the busiest two month period that, um, that we've seen since we've been collecting search and rescue. So matter of fact, it already is.

[01:29:29] So there's been 42 people involved in search and rescue since the July 1st. And there is no two month period that has been that bit, that has been that busy. Yeah. No, but there's definitely like, I think that there's certainly some issues with like certain

[01:29:55] weekends where surprise weather happens or, um, you know, it's good enough to go out, but, but dangerous enough to, for people to get injured. But I find it's not so much the weather doesn't cause a lot of these. I think that like a lot of it is like, I can give you the category says, so we've had five, five fatalities, which most of those are medical issues. There's no, no, no, nothing there. Eight people have suffered from fatigue and needed a rescue. There's been 17 people this year. This is of the 95.

[01:30:24] There's just 17 people that were lost. And we categorize it with basically they either didn't have a headlamp. Um, they didn't have a map or they were panicked 30 lower leg injuries, which is the most common thing, 13 medical issues, 13 miscellaneous injuries, and then nine cases of reckless behavior, which, um, like that group on Franconia, there was four of them. So that's all like, it's one incident of reckless behavior, but with four people.

[01:30:52] So the, uh, and then the trends from the state, state issues here, this is kind of interesting. So obviously like Massachusetts this year, 31 of the 95 are from Massachusetts. That's about a third 17 from New Hampshire, which is trending down last year. I think it was mass in New Hampshire were pretty equal eight from New Jersey, which is unusual.

[01:31:16] So, um, that's a big number for New Jersey, six from Canada, which is another large number. Correct. Yep. Yep. So, uh, but that's how I, that's how I track everything annually. So it evens out, but yeah, eight in New Hampshire and then six in Canada. We've had a fair number of rescues from both of those areas in Rhode Island. And then the rest of the States, Maine's got four Pennsylvania.

[01:31:44] There's a fair number of like people outside the area, a couple from Virginia, a couple from Ohio, um, Texas, New Mexico, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Delaware, Brazil, California. And then historically since 2019, if you look at the total numbers, mass has, there's about 843 people that have been rescued in the last six or seven years. Mass has 251. New Hampshire has 209.

[01:32:13] And then Rhode Island and Maine are followed by 42 total. Um, and then a couple of other interesting tidbits here. So age range wise, um, 20 to 29 year olds by far are the most likely to, uh, need rescues almost double every other age group. Uh, the next most common age group is 50 to 59 at 126 rescues, um, out of the, since I've been tracking this.

[01:32:42] And then, uh, the least likely group to need a rescue. Well, this, the young people actually zero to 19 years of age 78, um, 40 to 49 year olds, interestingly, are less likely to have a, they don't have a lot of rescues compared, uh, percentage wise. They're, um, less than the 50% less likely to need a rescue than a 20 to 29 year old.

[01:33:15] Yeah. Yeah. It's just like, I think that it goes back to like, you guys talked about this last week about like these young kids, they have no clue what's going on. They, they completely clueless about the risks that are involved in it. And it's not, they're not, I mean, you can call it negligent, but like, I don't think that there's any harm meant by it. It's just, they don't have a clue. Yeah. Uh, busiest day for rescues, Nick, not surprising would be Saturday and followed by Sunday.

[01:33:43] Uh, yeah. Wednesday's the least, Wednesday, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the least busy. And then, uh, Monday's the busiest weekday. And then obviously like the summertime is the busiest followed by spring and then fall. What else do we got here? Um, yeah, I think that's it for now. Um, there's some larger trends. I'll, I'll round this out and get more details.

[01:34:12] I got to put this, I got to use some AI tools that I want to build some visualizations. I'm probably going to do some videos, Nick, of like, you know, those videos that they do for TikTok where there's like a face and then you pull up data behind it. I'm going to try to do something like that, but we'll see. Yeah. I'm not really, I'm not a good looking guy, Nick. So I don't know if people want to see my, I'll, I'll blur it out a little bit. We'll get stomped. Yeah. We'll get stomped. Yeah.

[01:34:55] I think we're on pace for that. I mean, I roll my eyes when people say this is the busiest search and rescue ever. Like, cause a lot of times it's wrong. This, like I said, this two month period from July to August will be the busiest period based on media reports. You know, that's all I measure. There's other things that go on behind the scenes. There's local rescues that happen that don't make them in the media reports. But if you just over time, if you normalize this, like you can tell, like compared to 2019

[01:35:22] or 2020, you can get trends based on media reports because they're consistent.

[01:35:53] Right. I mean, in, in 2024 and September, there was 15 people that needed a rescue in October of 2020 and 2021. There was like 18, 19 people that needed a rescue. So if you have that pace of rescues by far, you'll, you'll eclipse everything that I've tracked since 2019. Yep. Um, all right, Nick, um, why don't we, do we want to push search and rescue to next week?

[01:36:23] And then we will, uh, we'll call this one done. All right. Very good. Yep. We can do that. And then do we have a guest next week, Nick lined up yet? We're working on it. So very good. So until next time, um, we will talk soon and get out there and hike. Very good.