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

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

[00:00:51] You should too. Go to mountwashington.org or text FORECAST to 603-356-2137. What's good, listeners? Nick here with your forecast for the weekend of September 26th, 2026. Friday, in the clear under partly cloudy skies, high in the lower 40s.

[00:01:21] Wind east shifting northeast at 30 to 45 mph with gusts up to 55 mph, decreasing to 25 to 40 mph with gusts up to 50 mph. Windchill rising to 25 to 35 above. Friday night in the clear under partly cloudy skies. Low in the mid 30s. Wind northeast at 25 to 40 mph with gusts up to 50 mph, increasing to 30 to 45 mph with gusts up to 55 mph late. Windchill falling to 15 to 25 above. And Saturday.

[00:01:49] Mostly in the clear trending towards mostly in the clouds in the afternoon under mostly cloudy skies. Slight chance of morning rain showers becoming a chance in the afternoon. High in the upper 30s. Wind northeast shifting east at 35 to 50 mph with gusts up to 60 mph, increasing to 40 to 55 mph with gusts up to 65 mph. Windchill rising to 20 to 30 above. So kind of a nice start going into Friday, but it looks like things are going to trend sort of downhill as we go into Saturday afternoon with that nor'easter sort of moving up the coast.

[00:02:18] It's going to be breezy, a little chilly. I'm sure there's going to be some rain showers moving in. So definitely make sure you pay attention to the forecast, especially as we're getting to the Saturday time period. That being said, be safe, happy hiking and grow crush some peaks.

[00:02:32] From the Woodpecker Studio in the great live free or die state of New Hampshire.

[00:03:13] Welcome to the Sounds Like A Search And Rescue Podcast where we discuss all things related to hiking and search and rescue in the white mountains of New Hampshire. New Hampshire and beyond. Here are your hosts.

[00:03:45] Okay, Nick, episode 247. Welcome, welcome. This is this is take two because we lost. We lost our wrap around last night. So that happens. It happens sometimes. We it was in this case is it was both of us to blame. So were equally culpable. Yeah, it was an unfortunate series of events. My recording platform crashed when I clicked save. And then we realized that we didn't hit record on squad cast. So tonight we got both recording.

[00:04:13] I'm not going to get too crazy hitting the save button and we're recording on squad cast. So hopefully you were in the clear and we we got practice 35 minutes in right? Yes. Yeah, we we have a backup for a backup say so. So and just for the listeners, Stomp was supposed to join us, but he had a we're going to talk about this right now. He had a busy night last night. There was two rescues. So he is doing some Mrs. Stomp time and and you know Stomp is quite the lover boy Nick. He is. Yes.

[00:04:40] Yeah, he makes sure he's I don't even know what to say. But yeah, he's maintaining the relationship. It's very important with you with the young children. There will come a time right now. Everything's about the kids, but there will come a time with those kids leave the house and then you've got to you've got to work to keep that relationship. You got to find the spark back in your relationship Nick. Yes, yes. I just came out of the throes of a one on two bath time, which is always an adventure. Then I got the cat the new Maine Coon cat trying to play in the toilet bowl.

[00:05:10] I'm trying to get even yes all dressed. It was fun. Nothing kills the the spark more than tubby time. Yes. Yes. As fun as it can be. It does certainly kill the spark. Yeah. Yeah. There's seasons of life when it comes to marriages Nick and you're you you're friends with a bunch of old people. So you can just ask us for advice. All right. That's noted. I appreciate it. You have all your friends are old is that's kind of interesting.

[00:05:38] And just not I wouldn't say everybody but a lot of the hikers that I've befriended in the whites do. I don't seem to be older. I mean me and Steve are pretty close to the same age. Are you are you technically old? I'm 54. Yeah, I'd say you're. So I'm definitely a I'm a different generation than you for sure. I don't like the fact that you're cheating on us with younger people. I know you have other friend groups. That's not acceptable. This dude Wilkie you're hanging out with. Get like possessed about friends. Yeah, I don't like that.

[00:06:07] So anyway, but okay, so welcome to episode 247. So I didn't even I didn't even write an intro here. So I got to wing it. So the second this week we have a we have a special guest here Patrick Hummel Park manager of the Mount Washington State Park. Patrick is going to sit in with us on a segment. So he oversee oversees and manages the operations of the summit of Mount Washington.

[00:06:31] And he was kind enough to join us to go over the all the details on the honor summits like the logistics, the planning, the experience on the summit. And then he's got some fun stories for us, too. We're talking a little bit about rescues and just everything that's going on around Mount Washington planning for the winter and whatnot. So Patrick's always a great, great guest to have on. He's been on a few times with us. So we will do a segment with him. And then in addition to that, we've got updates on events. There's a lot of events coming up this fall.

[00:06:59] So we will talk about I think there's like four or five events that we want people to know about. Then unfortunately, there was a through hiker fatality on Mount Katahdin. So we'll talk about that in detail. And then there was a couple of search and rescue events that happened this week that we'll break down. We've got a hiker that gets stuck on a tree. We got a 70 year old hiker that got lost on an island. We got hikers using AI to plan mountain trips and needing rescues. We've got music minutes, dad jokes.

[00:07:29] Nick did a Kilkenny Ridge race 25 K. So he'll give the breakdown on that. And then we got notable hikers. And I'm sure there's going to be some more fun stuff, Nick. So I'm Mike. And I'm Nick. Let's get started. Let's get started. That was a great second improvised intro, Mike.

[00:07:59] Yes, it was. We're vibing here. So, all right. So the first thing I have here, I got a couple of just FYI informational notes here. So first thing is Craig Heiselman, who was a guest on the show. He is the AMC trail adopter, volunteer coordinator, and does a million other things when it comes to... If a trail needs to be fixed, he's the guy in the whites to do it.

[00:08:23] So he just posted on his social media that the Falling Waters trail relocation is starting today. So they're starting to reroute that trail. And I think that, Nick, the deal with that is it goes a little bit south of the current trail and then there's a spur trail that gets out to Cloudland Falls. Is that correct? Yeah, that's what it sounds like. Should be avoiding the two lower falls whose names are escaping me right now. Maybe like Swift Water Falls and I forget the other one.

[00:08:49] But kind of avoid some of those problematic areas that results in a lot of the search and rescue activity that we see in the Franconia Ridge Loop itself. You won't be going up past that sort of left side of Cloudland Falls anymore. The new trail should sort of meet above Cloudland Falls where you sort of start the pseudo switchbacks before the climb gets really steep. So it should be nice. I'm kind of looking forward to checking it out. Yeah, yeah, it will be good.

[00:09:17] And I'm excited to sort of put a mark on this date and then maybe take a look at search and rescue media events to see if there's been any significant changes because the Falling Waters trail obviously is one of the big hotspots for search and rescue in the White Mountains. So it'll be interesting to see if this reroute has a noticeable effect on reductions in search and rescue. Hopefully it does. Yeah, yeah. Hopefully for all the folks we know that are out there helping folks out. But yeah, you'll get a nice delta to compare against. Yeah.

[00:09:46] It sounds like it's going to reroute it away from that section where you get across the drainage up above Cloudland Falls. That seems to be where a lot of people get in trouble. And it is a tricky spot if you're not like, I feel like Nick sometimes like we don't think too much about footing because it's sort of like we're out there every weekend. But I do think that people that aren't experiencing height like the footing on that trail is, is, is, is pretty tough. I mean, you, we have to pay attention as well, but I think that people that aren't experienced

[00:10:13] hikers that it's an accessible area and they get in trouble because they just don't know. Um, and they also probably don't have the right footwear a lot of times. Yeah, for sure. And I mean, even with some of it, if you do know to watch your, your footing a little bit, I mean, I had like last year where there was some frost on like a bog bridge. I forget where I was hiking. And like that almost took me out. So, I mean, you get that fine glare ice on that section of Cloudland Falls. Like, I don't think there's too much you really can do. Um, so if you can, as beautiful as it is going by those waterfalls, I'm sure there's still going to be herd paths for people going to check those out.

[00:10:42] But, um, hopefully for the vast majority of people that are going out there just looking to tackle the ridge, um, this will make a lot more sense and it'll be a lot safer. So, right. Good for everybody. And I'm, um, I'm looking to do a project on, uh, Franconia Ridge. So I may be up there in a couple of weeks, just shoot some content for Instagram and for the, uh, the show. So we'll, we'll see if I can go check it out. I will keep me, keep me posted on that as well. Yeah, I will. I will. Um, and then, uh, next up here is we just want to remind people that, uh, as of last night,

[00:11:11] so we're recording this on Wednesday, September 23rd. Um, the, the first take we did on this was much more dramatic cause it was like 10 minutes away from the start of the fall. Now it's yesterday at 8 0 4 PM, the fall has begun. So if you're doing a single season fall 4,000 footer attempt, then, uh, this would be, uh, the day that you would want to start. Yeah. Um, if you're a seasonal person like me, you're working maybe on your seasonal list. Uh, fall is officially upon us. Summer is over and, uh, fall's definitely coming in.

[00:11:39] It seems like, uh, I know they can't say winter's like a lion, right? They'll say like, I don't know what falls like a fast leaf, like it's coming in, but, uh, it seems to be kind of chilly and frosty. I think there was actually a frost this morning up in the whites, some spots. So yeah, yeah. I did see an announcement up in, um, one of the counties in Maine too. They had a full, a frost alert. So it's moving along. It is. It is. So welcome fall. And then, um, with fall, that means that events are, are in the mix here. So there's a lot of events coming up next.

[00:12:06] So, um, the first event we want to talk about is our own stomp, the, um, cohost here, sometimes cohost. Now, um, he is going to be the DJ at the reckless Halloween party. So reckless brewing and Bethlehem, um, stomp is going to be, uh, the DJ. There's going to be a fashion runway for the best costume and lots of other fun. So that's going to be on October 30th from 8 PM to 11 PM. And this is a ticketed event.

[00:12:33] So the tickets are not available yet on the reckless site, but as soon as they are, we will get the, get the word out. So if you want to party with stomp on Halloween, uh, you can do that on October 30th, 8 PM to 11 PM. He will be DJing there. Yeah. It should be a good time. I mean, it's always a good time going to reckless. So night before Halloween should be a Friday. Right. And then, yeah, exactly. So we'll keep, keep people updated on social media and then next up full conditions on November 21st.

[00:13:03] So that is, um, the, our podcast live event. Uh, we'll be hosting that and, uh, it's going to be a great lineup. We've got a bunch of awesome guests and, uh, it's going to be on, uh, Saturday, November 21st at the Colonial Theater in Bethlehem. Doors will open at 4 PM. Nick, our own Nick is going to be playing from four to 430. So you're just going to do an acoustic, um, set. Yeah. That's the plan. Solo acoustic, uh, going to get a set list together.

[00:13:29] It's coming up quick and I got to get my fingers nimble when my voice ready, even though it's only half an hour. Right. So I'm looking forward to it. You got to warm it up. What do you, what do you get about eight songs out of that? Uh, yeah. Like maybe like six, six or seven, trying to think five minutes as long as I don't do like any 10 minute type things. Yeah. I'll probably, probably thinking like six or seven songs and yeah. See how it goes. No, no free bird. No, no free bird. No free bird. So try to keep to like three or four minute songs. Okay.

[00:13:58] All right. Well, that'll be good. And then Stomp is going to DJ from four 30 to five. And then, um, we'll be preview. We'll be watching the movie, my ride or die. And then, um, talking with Kate Z lift who is, um, involved with the movie. And then we've got Ty Gagne. We've got Lieutenant James Nealon, um, from fishing game. We've got Joe Roman of AMC and Paw rescue. And then there's going to be an after party in raffles at the Pine house at reckless. So great night.

[00:14:25] Um, go ahead and get your Airbnb so that you can, um, partake in many, um, beers and whatever type of drinks you want. And then, uh, yeah, we'll, we'll be looking forward to, I'm going to be staying up that night. I think Nick. Yeah. Awesome. We'll be, uh, we'll be staying up in Bethlehem, not too far away as well. And we got Meme Claire, um, has graciously, um, offered to join us for the weekend. So we'll have a babysitter. So me and Ash will be having a few beers at reckless children. Well, that's great. For a few hours. That's great.

[00:14:53] So you can, uh, you can reigniting the spark. You can reignite your spark. So, and then speaking of sparks here, if you're a runner and you're interested in, um, getting out there, um, you can sign up for the rescue me 5k, which is going to be run on a Lincoln, New Hampshire. Um, and this is a fundraiser event for the lakes region, search and rescue. Always a great time. They do a little raffle event as well.

[00:15:19] And this is going to be on Saturday, November 7th, 2026 and, um, our own stomp. And then Dave shits in the woods will be there, uh, to help host. And then, uh, I may be showing up, Nick. I don't think you, I think you were previously, um, committed to something else, right? Yeah. We're going to be doing a long weekend up in Acadia that I've never checked out. So we were, uh, yeah, we wanted to do something. And I was saying, Ash, we'll go to the Adirondacks or try to knock off a 4k in Maine, but she's like, how about Acadia? We've never been there. So yeah, we're going to be heading up there.

[00:15:47] Should be fun, but I'll miss you guys. Nonetheless, we will, uh, we'll be thinking of you, Nick. I appreciate it. So, and I think when we did the previous recording, you had recalled that, um, the rescue me 5k was when Mike and Nick had first met each other. That was probably what, like four or five years ago. Yeah. I don't know. It's, it might be three, three or four years ago. Yeah. That was the genesis of our relationship. I was joking because you, you needed, you still needed owl's head for the winner at that point. And I think I did pretty okay in the race.

[00:16:15] And you're like, we had met before, I think just from the podcast, like me and Ash were like creeping and like met you guys. And, uh, cause did you get, maybe there was a slasher team or something. I don't know if that's one of those events where you can like do a group team thing and like, I don't know if stomp had our bibs or whatever. I forget. But in any event, um, you're like, Hey, do you want to do all set after? And that's kind of, we started messaging on Facebook and that's how it started. That was pre, that was still my PUDS podcast days too. I wasn't gunning for a cohost seat at that point. Right. Right. You would just like, and then you showed up, we had talked about this last night.

[00:16:44] So Nick is kind of interesting. So Nick just showed up. He didn't know anybody. Nope. And we did that. We did a winter owl's head hike. And I think it was what Peter and Jake stir and. Yeah. Steve. Steve. And Mike Keen. Mike Keen was there. So yeah. Um, and then Nick had like cut his face wide open cause it's just like a tradition when the slasher crew goes on owl's head, we bleed. Yeah. We have to bleed on that peak for some reason. Yeah. Like, uh, it's true. I, we were pretty close to the true summit of owl's head.

[00:17:12] And I think like a tree branch got caught under my snowshoe. Um, and I didn't have at this time, I didn't secure my hill sound micro spikes properly with two carabiners in the way I had them on the side. They actually slingshot around and hit me in the face. So I think I've mentioned a few times on the podcast and on PUDS, but an FYI of like, if those crazy things do happen, so make sure you secure those spikes. I know a lot of people just let them hang with one carabiner. They use one carabiner and they just dangle and then they can swing around. It's dangerous.

[00:17:40] So Jakester and Peter use the two to pin them down. As do, as do I now after slingshotting myself in the face of them. I mean, I was, I was lucky it didn't hit me in the eye or something that could have been worse, but, uh, but yeah, you still kept me around after that. So I guess I didn't embarrass myself too bad. Exactly. And then, uh, Nick, you've got one other event that you're, you're, you're doing this year, Tay Summit Challenge. We've always, um, you know, tried to do what we can to help out, um, Tay Summit Challenge.

[00:18:08] And Britt, Brittany's been on, um, a few times and you know, you're, you're doing it again this year, right? Yeah. So, um, this is a challenge. Again, we've, we've had them on before, but, um, it's a fundraiser for genetic lung cancer. There's sort of two components to it. One's the fundraising for money portion. Um, and then there's also an elevation gain component that you can kind of compete in, um, for prizes. So it's a lot of fun. Um, you kind of just log your activities and, uh, take photos, um, kind of get out there and hit a bunch of elevation gain for a cause. Um, see how much I got this year.

[00:18:38] Originally I was shooting for 30,000 feet, but a lot going on and training for another race. So, um, try to get out there and, uh, try to raise some money. Just kind of another, uh, fun way to get out this time of year and another good excuse. So, right. And I'll be traveling man this fall, Nick. So I'll be in North Carolina or in DC and all these places. So I'm just going to donate. Cause I don't know. I just, I'm too busy right now to get a lot of elevation in. I appreciate it. Yeah. Well, uh, we'll share out a link in the show notes. I'd appreciate it in donations and better yet, if you want to actually do it yourself, it's still, it runs through October 11th.

[00:19:06] And I really do think like, uh, this is one of the prettiest times of year really to hike before you get into winter. Um, so that's kind of why they run it and the idea behind it, but great cause, great people. Good fun. Right.

[00:19:41] All right, Nick. So why don't we, uh, give a rundown on recent search and rescue news? We usually do this in the back end of the show, but we'll do it now. Um, and unfortunately we have to start with a sad, um, story here, but, uh, there was a fatality on Mount Katahdin and there wasn't a ton of info on this originally. I think that this went down on, um, it was Monday the 14th. So this is probably going back about nine days now since when we, uh, recording, but, uh,

[00:20:10] they just made the announcement that they identified the hiker. So it was a 64 year old, um, man from Colton, California, Burt Peter Goris. And, um, it sounds like he was, um, he was hiking. He did the full through hike. He actually summited Baxter peak or Katahdin. Um, and then as he was making his way down, it doesn't say Nick exactly where I'm assuming he was up in the table lands, um, which is where the helicopter landed that rescued him.

[00:20:39] But, uh, somewhere down towards, uh, a ball slide trail, he was, uh, incapacitated leg injury or some sort of incapacitated, um, state. And, uh, unfortunately, you know, he wasn't in, it wasn't good conditions. It was basically like 30, 40 mile an hour winds. It was raining. The wind chill was like 20 degrees. It's almost like perfect conditions for not perfect conditions, but like the, the typical hypothermia conditions, right? Yeah.

[00:21:09] When you're soaked like that and the wind's just beating you to the bone, um, things can turn south really quickly. I mean, I, I don't, fortunately I haven't been in a situation like that, but it seems like it can really sneak up on you. And I suspect like he didn't even realize he was hypothermic before he started probably getting lethargic and confused them. Um, like you were mentioning too, it sounds like there's a couple hikers who had crossed them. It sounds like two different groups. Um, and they called 911. One of them ended up actually helping wrap them up in a sleeping bag. Um, trying to sort of help them stay out on the trail.

[00:21:38] It sounded like he was already pretty lethargic and unable to move. Um, and it had a leg injury by that point that they found him in the afternoon. Um, and it sounds like by the time they got to him, um, it was kind of hopeless at that point. So, yeah, yeah. It looks like two different hikers came upon him and like you said, the first hiker wrapped him up in a sleeping bag, emergency blanket, tarp tent, and then another hiker, um, you know, they were basically forced to leave because the risk of hypothermia was so, so bad.

[00:22:05] So this is a second hiker and it was able to get through to 911 and also left some gear for him, um, but had to descend. So obviously if like two hikers came upon him and they both made the decision, like I got to get down, like this is really dangerous conditions. Like it must've been pretty bad up there, but they were able to get an, a main army national guard black Hawk helicopter along with, um, you know, some national guard members and, uh, park rangers.

[00:22:32] They were able to get, uh, Gorse into a stretcher and get him to Millinocket airport. And, um, at that point they got him into an ambulance and, um, he had unfortunately passed. So sad story, especially just thinking about how, you know, you do that long of a hike, you're out for over 2000 miles and then, you know, you summit, you complete, basically you accomplish what you're looking to do. And then like this happens. It's just such a tragedy. Yeah. Awful ending to kind of a beautiful journey. I'm sure.

[00:23:00] And, uh, for the, for those of you that haven't been up to Katahdin, I mean, we talked about it pretty recently on the podcast, but picture like the top of Washington, like there's no shelter. There's nowhere to hide if you're up on that table in section or anywhere. And it's, it's not even like, I think you're going to get like a tent stake in the ground. Even if you did out of a tent and you tried to set something up, it would probably would just blow away. So, um, there's really nowhere to hide up there. Yeah, it is. And like people don't, I mean, if people that have been up there probably have an idea,

[00:23:25] but I will say like the, the summit to get to a ball trail is, uh, and below treeline is it's a good distance. You know, it's, I think it's over a mile. So, um, just to get exposed to that, maybe he had the wind at his back when he was going up and he felt good and then coming back in, he's getting pelted with the wind. It's tough to know what the, you know, did he injure himself because he was hypothermic or did he just slip? It's just, um, really risky up there when the conditions turn. Yeah. And I mean, in one caveat compared to Mount Washington, like it's, it's really remote up there.

[00:23:55] I mean, even to get to where the trailhead is to Katahdin, like the common trailheads are like, it's solid 30, 40 minute ride, probably from the Millinocket. So you're, you're well out there. Yeah. So sad story. Hopefully, um, you know, this, there's no other issues up there. I know that the weather looks good right now. So our friend, just to pivot to, um, continue on the Appalachian trail, our friend Dave is probably like looking at finishing. It's close.

[00:24:22] I would say in the next couple of days, but the weather, like looking at the weather, like he's got a good window of the next two days. And then after that, it looks terrible. So it's like they kind of pin down for finishing if, if they, if, if he doesn't finish in the next two days. Yeah. Hopefully he can make it, um, we know he's very close. I believe he was, as of today, he was approaching Abel bridge. Um, so hopefully he can get it done before the weather sort of moves in and turns south. Right.

[00:24:48] So, um, all right, Nick, and then a couple of other cases here. So this happened on, um, Monday night, September 21st, it was two rescue events. So the first one was, uh, on Owl's head, a, uh, let me see how old this guy was, 56 year old hiker from North Conway. Um, he, he was out hiking.

[00:25:14] He injured himself up on the Brutus Bushwack, which is like basically a trail. Uh, but it's way, uh, way in there. I mean, you're talking like six and a half miles or so, uh, from, from the Lincoln Woods trailhead, probably even longer, Nick, right? Maybe like eight miles, right? Yeah. I mean, I think, I think out to the base, out to Owl's head itself is probably what, like almost nine miles total or 17 miles in that ballpark. So yeah, you're, you're, you're a good ways out there. You're a couple hours at least even on fast legs. Right.

[00:25:40] So he was out there hiking with a friend of his and, um, there's no cell connection out there. He was trying to get a cell connection to call 911. He ran across another hiker that had a Garmin. The guy with the, the good Samaritan hiker with the Garmin was able to get a message out to fish and game and they staged a, um, a rescue team. So they ended up getting like, I think it said 29 rescuers.

[00:26:09] And then however many fish and game team members were out there. So they left from Lincoln Woods trailhead. The news article here says that they were able to utilize ATVs for the first two and a half miles. So I'm thinking Nick, that they probably were able to navigate through whatever the construction is that's going on there. And, um, that, that's good news. So they, I guess whatever they're doing for construction, it isn't so tight that you can't get a, an ATV through there. Yeah. And I mean, at this point, their original schedule is to be done in November.

[00:26:39] So I would think that they're wrapping up if they are on schedule. Um, yeah, but yeah, it's good that they, they were able to get in there because I mean, really the closest alternative is probably to go up to like Galehead hut and drop in by like 13 falls to get out there. So. Which would be a nightmare. Yeah. Yeah. That wouldn't be fun for anybody. Right. So, um, yeah. So the call came in at five 15, uh, first rescuers, um, started to get into the area around seven.

[00:27:04] And then by nine 45, um, they had actually made contact with the injured hiker and then, um, they got him in a litter around 10 and then he was out around 2 AM. So, I mean, Nick, I was thinking about this. We were talking a little bit about this last night, but like that trail is, it's pretty flat, but I also feel like there's some drainage sections where you're sort of side hill. So it's not completely flat and easy until you get maybe to the, um, I mean the Black

[00:27:34] Pond Bushwhack, but maybe they didn't take that cause they wanted to get to the, the bridge instead. Yeah. And I mean, um, you, the water levels are pretty low right now, or at least they were as of last weekend, but you're still dealing with taking that across some river crossings and some loose rocks and stuff. So that's no picnic. Yeah. So that, that's a brutal carryout. And then, so that one, I guess he, um, went off and, and, uh, you know, ended up, um, I guess getting medical attention at that point.

[00:28:01] But, uh, as that's happening around one 15, the, the fishing game got another call in Thornton, New Hampshire for a 68 year old man that had gone. Supposedly his family said he had gone for a hike, um, had left at some point during the day on Monday. The family got nervous by Tuesday at one 15 AM and they called fishing game, fishing game, then did basically like a missing person search for the guy all night. They had drones and canines utilized for the search by seven 30.

[00:28:30] They had located the man about a quarter mile from his house using a canine from the New England canine, uh, organization. And the guy just basically said, he's like, Oh yeah, I was just, um, you know, camping out. I was doing a little backpacking trip. So who knows, maybe, maybe there was some arguments with the family and he wanted to cool off, but it, you know, crazy night for fishing game for sure. Yeah. You always wonder with those ones if there was some sort of domestic dispute and the guy was just pissed off and was like, I'm going to go camp in the woods tonight. And then like, exactly.

[00:28:58] Doesn't get communicated and people think he's going to like die out there and camping a quarter mile from his house. Right. So, um, yeah, Nick. And then I guess we had a couple more here. There was an injured hiker in, uh, on Mount Monadnock on the white dot trail. This one went down on Saturday, the 19th, 415. They got a call. Um, and then, well, these, it's kind of a weird timeline on here. I'm going to forget about the time. I don't know what the timeline was cause it doesn't make any sense.

[00:29:28] It says they got a call at 415 and then, um, they didn't notice that last night. Yeah. Yeah. That is weird. But anyway, uh, pretty standard stuff. The white dot trail is a steep sort of ledgy trail. Uh, the lower section is, and then the section that gets below tree line is pretty tricky too. It's like, it's wide. So you think like, all right, it's a little bit easier to navigate with a litter, but it's still pretty steep. Yeah. It's deceivingly rugged. I mean, I think, uh, even like Monadnock was one of the first mountains we tackle and it gives you a good taste of mountains much bigger than it.

[00:29:56] Um, with that bald summit and kind of ledges. And like you said, a lot of it, um, is very eroded, the footing and stuff, just because it does get hiked so much. Like a lot of that rocks really smooth down and it's easy to slip even on a dry day. You're not paying attention. Yeah. Yeah. And that, like that, that, that section of Monadnock gets so much traffic, like the erosion on that trail is, is incredible. It's just like a vein of roots as you go through it. And then obviously the, the granite and the rocks.

[00:30:25] So, yeah. All right. And then the last one here, Nick is a, uh, hiker assisted on Mount Washington. So, uh, this is on Crawford path. So this call came in at three 15 on Tuesday, September 15. So this is a little bit older. Um, the victim was making his way up Crawford path between lakes and the summit. And, um, I guess this guy was attempting to self rescue.

[00:30:51] He had, um, dislocated his shoulder and injured his back while he was hiking. So another hiker came upon him and, uh, called 911 to report. The injured man was making his way up the trail. The hiker was able to, uh, put the, the, the good Samaritan hiker was able to put the victim on the phone and advise that he had, you know, hurt, hurt his shoulder, injured his back. And, um, fishing game basically made their way up to the summit, started walking down,

[00:31:21] um, the Crawford path met him. And then I think they ended up just basically meeting him about a half a mile before the summit, maybe a little bit less 61 year old Connecticut hiker. Um, and I guess they were able to drive him down the auto road and then get him to any, uh, any ambulance and get him to the hospital. So, um, I guess he was parked at the cog railway and they gave him a ride back, which is nice too, but all's well that ends well there, Nick. Yeah. Um, have you ever seen anybody dislocate their shoulder before Mike?

[00:31:50] I dislocated my shoulder snowboarding. Ouch. Yeah. I could see that happening. Um, when I, back in my skateboarding days, one of my friends was like jumping down a stair set at a school and dislocated his shoulder. And it was probably one of the grosser things I'd seen at the time. I was like, Oh my God. He's like, I think I dislocated him. And we were all like, yeah, you, there's something going on there. That's not right. We're pretty sure, pretty sure that shouldn't look like that. I would assume skateboarding, like dislocated shoulders and broken collarbones are probably like the most common issues. Right?

[00:32:20] Yeah. I know, um, from friends in college that played soccer too. A lot of soccer goalies end up having dislocated shoulder problems too, from just diving on the ground like that. And you just extend and like land like that all the time. It can become problematic. Yeah. It's not a fun injury. I mean, I guess you can, the good thing is, is I guess your lower leg, your legs would still work. It's just, I would assume the jostling around on, um, while you're walking is what would hurt the most. Oh yeah. So you want to strap it up.

[00:32:48] So I, I have a wrap, like I have that wrap that I use with the splint. I have with a splint. So if something happened, I could, we could basically wrap it around and immobilize the arms. So I think that's what you want to do. That's another good reason to have a wrap with you. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. So, all right. And then, uh, we got some national news here, Nick. Uh, this next one is, uh, from New York. Yeah. I got a lot of, I got a lot of issues with this one. Yeah.

[00:33:16] Um, so this one mentions this hiker rescued from tree after getting stuck during photo shoot. So there's a man found in the woods, approximately 500 feet from the road, seven feet off the ground with his knee caught in the tree. Um, this was out, it sounds like around sort of the Ithaca region, sort of out in New York. I don't know. Again, we're, we're rehashing some of this, but calling this guy a hiker seems like a stretch. Like they just found his SUV parked there with nobody in it. And they happened to notice that he was stuck in a tree 500 feet away.

[00:33:46] So I don't know if I'd say 500 feet in the woods, trying to take pictures of yourself climbing a tree as a hiker, but I think they're being kind. I feel like we're, we, we can, we can safely say that the, um, the committee, the designate hikers is going to remove this guy's designation. He's got an SUV. He's an ATV or this is garbage. Yes. I agree. I agree. But we're glad he's okay. He made it without injury and they got him down. So Nick, um, were you a, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, were you a tree climber when you were a young man?

[00:34:15] I did, I did some tree climbing. We had a, uh, at a friend that had a maple, like a big old maple tree in his yard with some of the boughs. Um, you could sort of hop up and climb in it, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't say I went to the top of the trees. I wasn't, I was an eccentric tree climber, but I did some tree climbing in my day. What about you, Mike? I would say I was a prolific tree climber, Nick. I would, I would, I was like a, like a monkey when I was a little kid. I was in tree, we had tree houses, we had pine trees that we would climb.

[00:34:44] We would like have ladders, but we would like basically hammer in like, um, a ladder into, we would just get wooden scrap and we would hammer it into the trees and make our own ladder so that we could monkey our way up these giant trees. Nice. Nice. It's the eighties. I would be, yeah, the eight, I was covered in sap all the time because everything in my neighborhood was all pine trees. Yeah. Yeah. That, that doesn't come out of clothing either. Once you get sap and clothes, you're dumb. That's right. That's right.

[00:35:13] But the way it used to work, Nick, is that you had your school clothes, which were the good clothes. And then you had your play clothes that you would put on when you got home from school. The play clothes were always last year's school clothes. So they were always like floods. You know what a flood is? No, I don't. You don't know what a flood is when you, um, when you wear pants and they're too short. They used to call them floods. Oh, so like they're like above your ankle kind of. They're above your ankle. So you'd be like, oh, you were in floods. That makes the imagery of you climbing trees funnier. Yes.

[00:35:42] I feel like I'm just imagining you as you are now with floods on climbing trees being stoked on it. Yeah. But, but with, uh, more hair. Noted. Yes. So anyway, but okay. So this guy, it's, the news articles calls him a hiker. He's not. But anyway, he's always, well, that ends well. He got stuck in a tree and he got rescued. So. Yeah. Yeah. Um, next story we have here, Nick, 70 year old hiker.

[00:36:08] Um, this guy, apparently, um, his wife says that he just likes to go out and do adventures, but I think this, I think he needs to calm down a little, Nick. Yeah. He needs to tone his adventures down. Yeah. This seems like it got a little bit out of control. So, um, this was a 70 year olds that ended up being rescued from a row Island in Royale National and Isle Royale, excuse me, National Park, which is up in, uh, Cooineau County in Michigan. So up sort of on the Great Lakes region.

[00:36:38] Um, sounds like, uh, this, uh, seven year old hiker planned a nine day solo backpacking hike through the Isle Royale National Park, um, on an island off Lake Superior when, uh, he kind of ended up getting lost. So he was supposed to return on a ferry to Michigan's upper peninsula on the 5th. Um, but when he didn't arrive, arrive home, the family reported him missing and, uh, sorrow efforts began shortly later. So they mentioned that, um, this man was an experienced hiker, but apparently this Isle Royale is a super rugged landscape.

[00:37:06] It's also one of the most, um, remote and least visited national parks in the United States. And there's no roads or wheeled vehicles or cell service on the island. So it sounds like on the fourth day of the trip, um, he veered off trails and fell into a swamp, drenched all his clothes, his bag and his food, lost his cell phone. Um, for the next 11 days, he screamed for help thousands of times. This sounds awful, a little castaway-esque, and he survived off a small amount of freeze-dried food and dirty water.

[00:37:33] Um, so eventually, uh, search and rescue began to look a narrow area based on his last location. Um, they expanded their search via boat and air, and eventually they actually found footage of him walking on a, on foot by a trail camera near Greenstone Ridge Trail, um, from August 30th. So they expanded that area. Eventually, um, they ended up finding him, which was kind of amazing. Um, it's, it's fine, Mike.

[00:37:57] I'll, I'll say like the, I guess my nightmare scenarios, I mean, even like I think of the day, like we were up on Jefferson this winter, like whiteout conditions above treeline or maybe being in fog above treeline and being really disoriented is kind of scary. But like, I think being trapped in like a swamp that's flat where you can't see where you are is also kind of terrifying. Like this sounds like, it reminds me of like if you were trapped in the Everglades or something, you had no idea where you were. Right. Right. It's like, what, what did Yoda do when he was all by himself? Oh yeah. And you know what I mean?

[00:38:24] Like in that swamp that he was in, like it, it was, it didn't look fun. Yeah. No, no. No. So, but yeah, this Isle Royale National Park. So this is basically, it's an island in Lake Superior and then, yeah, it's got a big trail system and everything, but it doesn't get a lot of traffic. But luckily, luckily the kayakers came by and were able to, uh, to identify the guy. But, um, I think this guy needs to chill. I think he needs to go to places where more people are in, in his next adventure. Yes. Yeah.

[00:38:53] And I mean, uh, it's a good thing. His, uh, his wife said that he is not suicidal. He just likes a good, solid adventure in nature, which I thought was an interesting quote to end the article with. It's like, dude, but, um, we're glad. But I mean, that's what you need is like to advocate for people. Cause I mean, it probably would be easy for them to go like, yeah, he just wandered off. And, um, but you know, the wife was really pushing the search and rescue.

[00:39:16] And, you know, I think when they saw the video footage of him, uh, they probably felt like, all right, well, we know that he was alive within this period. So maybe they had a lot of hope there, but, um, all's good. He, um, I guess he's going to have a pretty hard recovery from this one, but, um, I'm thinking that he's probably done with these crazy adventures at this point. Yeah. We're, we're glad he's okay. And he's, he was definitely a hiker for sure. Yes. Good for him for surviving.

[00:39:41] And then next up here, um, we get a lot of these articles here, Nick, I feel like this one got sent to us by a bunch of people, but hikers that used AI to map out their, uh, their mountain trip, uh, had to be rescued. So we, we don't like using AI for planning our, our hikes. No. Um, I'm also going to come clean on this one. So it was on Mount Shasta in California.

[00:40:05] I said Shasta last night and Mike actually bailed me out a little bit, but I just wanted to come clean with the listeners that I had a faux pas of pronunciation again, along the lines of Pamela and Pamela. But that aside, um, so yeah, these, these three, uh, young men ended up using Google's Gemini to plan a hike of Mount Shasta. Um, after reaching the summit of 7 PM, they decided to hike back down in the dark and got lost. One of them fell and injured his knee and they became stranded.

[00:40:32] So the sheriff's office rescue search and rescue team of us forest service climbing rangers rescued the men on Monday. I believe this was a couple of weeks back in early September. Um, after their rescue, one man told sheriff's deputy that they relied on the AI chat bot for information about the route and what to pack. Um, they mentioned too, that this eight hour sent kind of became a multi-day ordeal and they probably should have realized it before, um, getting as far as they did.

[00:40:59] Um, generally they tell you that if you're not going to make the summit of Mount Shasta by noon, you should be turning back. Um, kind of despite how close you are to it, just to ensure that you got time to get back to your car, uh, before it gets dark. Um, and just mentioning that the summit can be extremely dangerous. And it seems like, uh, the AI planner sort of maybe oversimplified the undertaking that it took to hike Mount Shasta in the route they planned. So yeah, like Mike said, I think we're AI can be useful for a lot of things. It's, it's not useful for route planning yet.

[00:41:27] I think in planning days like this, and certainly if you're, you're hiking a bigger summit out West or some terrain you're unfamiliar with, like try to find guides or find people that are familiar to go with. Um, don't just plan it in AI and go for it. Get the official guidebook, get the paper map, you know, use, I use Gaia as an electronic map. You can use that. It's got open, uh, I think it's, it's open. Um, I forget what the, what the platform is, but you can pick a bunch of different maps that are, that are reasonably reliable.

[00:41:56] Uh, but always just use the official guide and, uh, just keep an eye on that. We've seen, I think we did an article, uh, the last episode around like, uh, there's like fake AI written guidebooks now too. So you got to make sure you get the official guidebook. Yeah, for sure. Wherever that is. So, uh, good luck. AI is going to continue to confuse all of us, Nick. Yeah. I suspect this is the first of many stories. I mean, people thought maybe all trails was bad. Like at least all trails credit, you can read reviews of what people have said about it.

[00:42:25] Um, but this is like really a wild card, but I'm sure we're going to see way more of these as time goes on. 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. But I'm bum. Okay, Nick, uh, we've got, uh, some fall themed dad jokes here. So what's the ratio of a pumpkin circumference to its diameter? Uh, pumpkin pie.

[00:42:55] And pie, the mathematical. That's good. That's good. All right. And then, um, why did the scarecrow win the Nobel prize? Because he was outstanding in his field. Full disclosure, I picked these and that one still makes me giggle. Yeah, that's a good one. I've read it now. I like that. Outstanding in his field. It's a scarecrow people. That's funny. So he's outstanding in a field. What else do you do when you're a scarecrow? Exactly. Oh, this is pathetic. All right, Nick, um, music minute. This is your moment.

[00:43:24] This is your time. Nick loves music and, um, he loves to do, um, these, these flashes and under minutes. So let's go. Yeah, we're going, we're going under a minute tonight. So I just thought, um, I'd throw together a list of the albums I've been listening to lately. There's been a lot of stuff sort of in my wheelhouse from some artists I listened to that's been released over the past month or so. So here we go. Um, this mirror weighs a ton by Interpol melody by slow pulp conversations EP by Hazel English everythingness by Atmos bloom.

[00:43:53] No gasoline by wide mouth. Goodbye. Lavender EP Opal mag and an eraser in a maze by modest mouse, who I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with. Um, it's cool to see them put out something new, good production value. Um, but that's what I've been listening to. Well, Nick, I haven't listened to anything new, but I've been listening to some old stuff in particular, uh, the audio slave, uh, debut album from 2002. And in particular, the song show me how to live, which after listening to that, I want

[00:44:21] to run to a wall or go to war. I mean, I'll do, I mean, I could, I could rip, rip something apart, Nick. So I listened to that on a, my long run today at lunch. Cause I hadn't listened to it in a while. Cause you suggested last night. Yeah. And it was, it was really good. I, it, I don't think I've listened to that first album a lot. I've listened to out of exile that came out more when I was in middle school, high school a bunch. Um, but that's, it's good stuff. And Chris Cornell's voice is ridiculous. Right. Right. Insane, insane prime.

[00:44:47] And for people that aren't aware of, so audio slave is essentially like rage against the machine, but, um, Zach, whatever his name is, the lead singer rage against machine. I don't know what he was, he was off doing his own thing. So the remaining members of rage against the machine, um, hooked up with Chris Cornell and they created audio slave and like, it's, they got some good album. I think they did what? Three albums, Nick. Yeah, I think three I'd have to check. Um, Tom Morello, obviously fantastic guitarist too, that he's been in a bunch of projects with people since then.

[00:45:17] I feel like I used to think he was kind of gimmicky when I was younger. And as I've gotten older and listening more, I'm like, he's, he's a solid guitar player and anybody would be happy to have him play with them. So him and Chris Cornell together was just killer. I was, um, I saw them in like 97 or 96 at the Fitchburg ice arena. And, uh, it was insane rage against machine. Yeah. That must've been wild. Wild. I mean, it was like crazy. I mean, no seats whatsoever. It was just a mosh pit of like sweaty people.

[00:45:46] So I feel like they're, they came out really like a right place, right time for sure. Right place, right time. And I feel like too, like they blew up like the first person that listened to him, but it's been like, what the hell is this? And then it's like, it just took off like wildfire. Yeah. Yeah. They were, they were a good band for the moment. So, um, all right, Nick. Um, so if you want to get stickers, you can go ahead and get those at mountain wanderer or spinners pizza parlor. So mountain wanderer is in Lincoln, New Hampshire. It is the, um, the place to go.

[00:46:16] If you want to get paper maps or guidebooks or anything else is a bunch of cool, um, arts and crafts and things like that. I've got, I've got pictures there for sale still. I've sold. Yeah. New pictures. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. So yeah, go check that out at Mount wanderer or spinners pizza parlor in Andover, mass. And then, um, if you want to get slasher swag, uh, you can get that at our bonfire shop and choose between super popular hoodies, classic or V neck t-shirts and more color selection is great. And they have price to move.

[00:46:45] Uh, and then also we have slasher patches. If you're interested, they're $2 and 50 cents. Just got to pay for the, uh, the cost of those. Um, you can get those mailed directly to your door. So just send us a note over Instagram and then you can do the payment to the slasher Venmo account. Nick, we have a Venmo account. Apparently I didn't know this. Yes. Yes, we do. We're, uh, we're in the modern era. So we do have a Venmo. Okay. It's cool. All right. We're almost a legitimate business at this point. We are practically those Facebook reels keep coming in. I know. Yeah.

[00:47:13] We're actually earning money on our social media account now, which is incredible. So I gotta, I gotta set, I gotta set our logistics up with that. I've been leading. It's so interesting how we have like completely different styles though, Nick. So you're the slow pan and I'm the walk and talk. Yeah. Mostly. I think I might try some walk and talk ones. We'll see. I've done those to my stories, but I haven't done like the formal reel share yet with them. I like your history ones too. Those have done well. Yeah. I'm going to do more of those. I think every time I'm on a trail, I'm going to find some dumb fact about history. So.

[00:47:43] Hi, it's Mike from Slasher. Yeah. That's my opening. It's Mike from Slasher. So. I like it. Seems, seems fitting. I guess. Yeah. I'll stick with it for now. Yo, yo, yo. It's Mike. Yeah. Yeah. I'll come up with a new, new intro at some point. But anyway, dabble a little bit with social media. Like I have a face for radio, Nick, but I try. So.

[00:48:13] Hey, hold my bed. It's time to find out what Mike and Stomp are drinking. On this week's Beer Talk. All right, Nick. So this is, this is where we cut out last time. So all of this is new material. So we're not rehashing anything, but this is part of the show where we talk about what beer we're drinking and I'm not drinking any beer and I'm probably going to do an early sober October. So I've been drinking a bit this summer. So I think I'm going to back off this fall. All right. Yeah.

[00:48:42] That sounds, that sounds fitting. No more, no more Mai Tais for October. You're taking a step back. I think so. So I've been getting a little too, I had to go to my doctor's appointment and they have the questions about like, um, how often do you drink? And I'm like, usually I'm like, like two, three times a month. But this time I had to like go over to the next level, which I can't remember what a six times a month. Maybe I can't remember, but I felt shame. I was going to ask if you're, I'm just going to say, if you're going to Fenway in October, I feel like that's going to prove problematic for you.

[00:49:13] Yeah. Yeah. And I also lied too. Cause they're like, if you, if you did drink, um, how many did you have? More than like two, something like if you drank, um, excessively, did you drink more than six drinks in one night? I was like, Nope, I didn't do that. Checkbox. I'm not sure. Yeah. So anyway, hopefully my doctor's not listening and they know I lied. All right. Well, I, um, I did want to shout out, I got over to reckless and had, um, a beer with, uh, my cousin Jay on Saturday.

[00:49:42] He came out to the Kilkenny Ridge and cheered me on at the finish line. Um, had some clouded judgment, which was fantastic. And got one of their Tennessee hot sandwiches, which was delicious. Um, this is just a funny aside of happenstance tonight, but, um, my mom, Memme Claire, I've been trying to get her into seltzers cause instead of soda, just cause we drink seltzers a lot. Um, and you can, you can see this little can, Mike, but apparently. She doesn't like them. So she gave them to us and she bought like a 30 pack probably from target or Walmart.

[00:50:09] So she really went hard into it despite the fact that she doesn't like seltzer and they're like weird little kids flavors. So tonight I'm drinking dragon whispers by polar seltzer jr. Um, which is pretty delightful. It's not too bad, but they're all like weird flavors, like mermaid breath and like frost and like dragon whispers. So it's just kind of strange, but what does it taste like? Uh, it's this, this advertises. There's a fruit bomb with a tropical punch, but it's like, I don't know.

[00:50:37] It, it just takes like a slightly fruity seltzer, but they're in, they're all like eight ounce cans or something. So you can drink like 17 of them. It's very whimsical. Yes. That's a good word for it. I would, I would describe this can as whimsical. Yeah. Whimsy whimsical. So, all right. Well, good for you, Nick. Good for you. I knew we should have gone left back there. Stomp, don't worry. I know it's this way.

[00:51:06] I've got a feeling in my gut. Uh, are you sure you're not about to have a bowel emergency? Uh, totally. We got this. But I just blew out my hip. Fell down that gully with my 40 year old micro spikes. Suck it up, Stomp. It's 4 PM. We're at 3,500 feet. We got nine miles back to the parking lot. Your leg may be broken. We got no cell connection and we can't feel our fingers. But we're finishing all of my list tonight. By the way, I need some water. I'm empty.

[00:51:35] I would if I could see what I'm doing, but my headlamp batteries are dead. You gotta be kidding me. What a chump. This is the last time I hike with you. Ha. Whatever, mister. Do you know me? I have a podcast. Whatever. Let's find out what Mike and Stomp have been hiking. That was the part of the show where we talk about recent hikes and activity.

[00:52:00] So, um, Nick, you've got much more interesting updates than I do because I didn't actually go hiking, but I got a little something I can add at the end. But why don't you just break down the Kilkenny Ridge race and then any other activity you were up to? Yeah, sure. So, um, this weekend I had the Kilkenny Ridge race, uh, signed up for the 25K back in February. So it was finally the weekend. The weather was gorgeous and everything. Um, uh, Friday I had a half day off from work. So headed out from the office up to New Hampshire.

[00:52:29] Um, and it's funny. Ash was like, Oh, don't you want to like not do anything? And shouldn't you save your legs for the race? And I'm like, I can't like, it was a beautiful night. I wanted to get up for sunset somewhere. So I'm like, I'm not just going to sit in my like hotel room and wait. Like I'm, I'm not that fast of a runner that it's going to make a difference for me tomorrow. It's not like I was going to win the race or anything crazy. Um, so I took a trip over to Glen Ellis Falls. Um, wanted to just get some photos of it. The water levels are pretty low up there right now. I know, I think there's like a moderate drought in the whites. And generally this time of year, water is just low anyways. Um, but Glen Ellis is always kind of solid.

[00:53:00] Um, I checked out a new to me thing, uh, Triple Falls, which is off. I think it's the town line trail off Dolly Cop Road. There's a couple of falls. It's like Proteus Falls, Erebus Falls. And while the other one whose name is escaping me. Um, the thing I didn't check about that is that usually by July, it's barely running at all. So it was, it was super dry. I'll have to get back there in the spring sometime. Um, posted some pictures online of Erebus Falls. Did have a little bit of a sort of flow, but I imagine the spring, it must be kind of a really nice bang for your buck. Um, really steep.

[00:53:28] It goes up maybe 250, 300 feet to the top. Really? Um, in like 0.3 miles. Um, but really pretty. So check that out. And then, um, decided I wanted to hit Pine Mountain for sunset. Um, wanted to get to those ledges on Madison. And, and, uh, for whatever reason, I just kind of had in my head, I wanted to go from the Gorham side. Cause I'd done that like four years ago and hadn't been back since. And, um, I was texting you guys while I was heading up here and an FYI for everybody that Gorham side, there's currently sort of a dispute with the landowner.

[00:53:57] There's, there's a quarry where it sort of starts where, or I should say where the, the Pine Mountain trail trailhead used to start, um, off Promenade Street in Gorham. Um, and as of right now, it's completely gone. There's a sign saying no public vehicles going down there. So the parking's a little weird. I parked sort of near the cemetery. Um, maybe we can link or find that Facebook article. Um, I think I linked it actually here in the show notes that gets a little bit more specific to where you should park over there, but you currently can go up through mountain bike trails.

[00:54:26] I perhaps ended up going through some of the private land cause it didn't mention people and went through the quarry. And actually the old trail is still flagged. It's got pink flagging tape and spots on it. I was able to follow it up. Okay. Um, you can tell it's overgrown. Hasn't been getting as much use. Um, but if you don't want to do that, um, which I suggest you don't do that, you can go up through mountain bike trails. Um, even you can find sort of the route on all trails or Garmin or whatever. Um, and weave your wave up to the weave your way up to the Pine Mountain trail. Um, eventually you come out to Chapel rock.

[00:54:53] Um, I kind of just scurried across the ridge because I wanted to get out there for sunset. Um, got to those ledges that are more on the South side. Um, it was a beautiful night. It was like a slight breeze. It was probably in the fifties up there. Um, nice and clear hung out. So the sun was pretty low and then, um, took some shots off those back outlooks. And like right when sundown happened, I was, uh, over on Chapel rock, which is really pretty. I forgot how beautiful that is over there. Um, from both those outlooks, you've more or less got a view all the way east.

[00:55:22] You're sort of see the Carter Mariah range and the Wildcats and Pinkham notch. Um, you can see Washington sort of poking out to the east, um, or Southeast, I guess, of Madison. Madison's kind of the biggest thing of view. You can sort of see that giant ridgeline going up in front of you. And then you can see Gorham kind of below in spots. So, um, very pretty sunset spot. Um, that concluded Friday evening as I went down in the dark. Um, Saturday was raised. And you could, you, the, the chapel was open for at that point. They, I know they shut it down for the summer, but you were able to get to it at this date.

[00:55:52] Believe it's Memorial Day to Labor Day. You're not supposed to be going up there. They have the camp, um, open. Um, there's also a really nice lean to it. One, I think it's like Angel's Outlook or something out there. I don't know if that's part of the camp or you can just go up there and use it, but there was like a little fire pit and stuff. It looked like that'd be a sweet spot to do an overnight. Yeah. Yeah. No pine is a beautiful, it's got the, it's got, um, a lot of different viewpoints in this. It's a, it's a great little mountain. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Um, so yeah, Saturday, um, the 25 K started at 8 AM.

[00:56:21] Um, basically you had to go over to South Ponds. Um, I was going to be shuttled to the Berlin Fitch Astory off York Pond Road where it would start. Um, from there it more or less made its way up Mount Cabot, um, all the way across to Unknown Pond and then up and over Rogers Ledge and back to South Pond. Um, so the morning was pretty chilly. There was actually frost, um, kind of in different spots, like around the hotel and in Gorham. I think my car had like 32 or 33 degrees when I got to South Pond. So it was a nippy, but beautiful morning.

[00:56:49] Um, the leaves and the foliage changing a little bit more up there than even around Gorham. Cause you are like 30, 40 minutes, probably North of there. Um, and yeah, it was a great first race experience. Um, I ended up coming in a little over four and a half hours. I was right in the middle of the fields. Um, one thing that in, I'm already kind of doing like, uh, reanalyzing what I could have done to be faster. And there was two things. So one, I was just really determined with like, I I'm just doing this for myself. I'm trying not to be competitive. So when everybody sort of took off jogging in the beginning, I actually sort of just power

[00:57:19] hiked and walked on New York pond road, which I think in the end, I could have definitely jogged that and still had enough energy to still do well in the climb up cab it. Cause what ended up happening is I kind of broke out and walks, but I passed probably like a solid 20 or so people that were all in front of me when I was climbing up cab up. Um, made good time kind of going up there. Um, the second thing that came to mind is that I didn't have any snacks and sort of an extra shirt and easy to place, uh, easy to grab place in my vest. So kind of like get food. I kind of twice, I took off my pack and had to do all this stuff where if I just had like

[00:57:48] candy or re I just had some Reese's and stuff like in my, um, zipper on my like strap on my chest, I probably could have like eaten a little bit faster and done that on the go and save myself like 10, like probably like conservatively like 10 minutes, I would say. Really well in the ups. Um, it's insane to see. I definitely had someone from the 50 or the 25 past me, like just like sprinting down the back of cab it, which was just insane. These people are just incredible athletes that are out there doing it.

[00:58:16] Um, when you see these people in the groove, but did, um, sort of run the downhill. I mostly jogged from down Rogers ledge. Um, there was a lot of blowdown. So that was kind of interesting. Try not to like kill myself. I only had one spot coming out in crowds at all, or were you mostly sort of on your own? Uh, mostly on my own. I did end up sort of leapfrogging these two other guys, like almost all the way down. So we were kind of together. I passed them going up cab it. They passed me going by unknown pond when I was getting water and having a snack. And then sort of, I passed them again, going up Rogers ledge.

[00:58:45] And then both of them sort of passed me on the way down running, um, maybe a couple minutes in front of me each way. So kind of like, uh, definitely not in a crowd, but like there were people here and there. We also were crossing just people playing out hiking on Saturday because it's this beautiful Saturday in the whites. So it was kind of funny, like crossing these people. And I, I, I'm assuming most of them got the vibe that there was a race going on after like the 20th person, like went past them or whatever. Yeah. Um, but it was kind of funny to see these people's reaction when you're like sort of running

[00:59:12] down the trail or like sort of power hiking, like around them and like all sweaty and breathing heavy and stuff. You're like, what the hell are you doing? Kind of deal. So, um, yeah, well, that's good for you, Nick. Yeah. Thanks. I was, I was pretty happy with the time and yeah, my cousin Jay, who I helped out in the jigger, um, kind of surprised me. I think it was like the day or two before and was like, Hey, I'm going to come out and see you. And, uh, he brought me some Gatorade at the finish line, which was incredible. Um, they also had like vouchers for a cheeseburger and they had like some potato salad and stuff

[00:59:41] you could have there. And, uh, talk to our friend, our friend Gwen was, uh, helping volunteer and cook, uh, with her, her daughter over there and thanked all the volunteers. And then got to chat with Marilyn who I didn't really chat with her too much. We've from our Viper and white mountain endurance. We've had her on the podcast before, but chatted with her a bit. I got a hoodie, which was super comfy. And, uh, then we went out to reckless and grab some food and I pretty much didn't do anything after that at night. I was like, it is a beautiful sunset. I'd like to get out and even take photos, but I'm like, I just, I was like, I need to chill. I don't know how to, I don't know how to chill sometimes.

[01:00:11] I'm not great at that. Um, you think you'll do the 50 K next year? Uh, not the, so there's a 25. 25 K 25 mile and a 50 mile. I think I am going to try to do the 25 next year. So the 25 would be a full Kilkenny Ridge traverse. Yeah. Um, going starting, uh, basically up, start King and then going all the way across, which I think would be a lot of fun. It is beautiful terrain. The foliage was nice. Like things were, things were significantly wetter in the Kilkenny range than in Gorham. Um, which was kind of interesting.

[01:00:38] I don't, I don't know if that's because of sort of maybe there's like a rain shadow effect where Gorham is and a lot of it hits the prezzies and they don't get a lot of rain on that side or, or perhaps the Kilkenny Ridge is just naturally wetter. Um, which could be entirely possible, but I, it was noticeable. Um, but yeah, I was, it was, it was a lot of fun. And then, um, Sunday wanted to hit something, um, taste summit challenge motivated slash. I just love hiking and wanted to take advantage of being up there in the morning before having to get back home. But I did get up, uh, earlier and do imp face.

[01:01:07] Um, so that was a bunch of fun. I hadn't been up there in like four years either. I forgot how steep the backside. Yeah, it is. I think it does almost 2000 feet in just about two miles, but really great views up there. There was kind of a high cloud ceiling with clouds blown in and out over Washington, the prezzies. Um, and then I crossed, uh, two listeners, Audra and Nick up there. Um, I'll have to shout them out for notables separately, but great chatting with them. They said they liked the podcast. So it's always kind of funny. I don't, I don't get recognized out there too much. And like, Hey, are you Nick from slasher?

[01:01:36] And I was like, yes, yes, it is me. Um, but yeah, I'd get up there and went down pretty quick. And it's funny too, uh, Mike with the, with the, the soreness, I actually was more sore on Monday from the race than I was on a Sunday, like a hundred percent. Like Sunday, I was kind of sore going out and then I did like recovery run on Monday around here. I'm like, my leg, my legs are like better now. Like I did a pretty long run today, but I'm like, they were shot on Monday. I was just like led, led. I'm like not used to that running. The running down is tough. It beats the crap out of your legs.

[01:02:06] Yeah. You hit your quads. It's just a different, uh, different set of muscles and you don't do it that, that much. But like running downhill for an extended amount of time in the mountains, um, yeah, it beats the crap out of your quads. Yeah. Dumb. Big section. Two other things on the route I want to mention that the backside of Rogers ledge is steep as hell. I did not realize that like going, going up, um, from the, the unknown pond side. And then there's a pretty good descent from unknown pond to where those bogs are, which was kind of, that was what probably one of the most runnable sections of that entire trail.

[01:02:36] It was like mostly good. There's a lot of ferns and like it's the footing sometimes can be like, that's a wet area. Yeah. Or heading into the bogs area. That's, that's the only place where, uh, Ash will listen to this and probably yell at me, but that's the only place where I was like maybe being a little reckless running and my face might've gotten pretty close to a tree slipping. Cause those ferns cover up the rocks and stuff. You can't see anything. And like, I just was like one second, I'm like, Whoa, that almost just happened. Let me slow down a little bit. I'm not that coordinated yet. It's a good area.

[01:03:04] I mean, I like to get out to the Kilkenny Ridge at least once every couple of years for sure. So beautiful. Well, geez, I'm exhausted listening to your weekend, Nick. I was sitting on my, I'm trying to remember what I did. Oh, we had a family event. So I was in North Red Addy to do a church thing on Saturday. And then, uh, Sunday I did actually, um, I wasn't able to hike, but I've been making a lot of progress on the, uh, Avalon Equestrian, my brother and sister-in-law's horse farm up in New Hampshire.

[01:03:31] So the, the, the history on this thing is interesting. So there's like, is like 40 plus acres in this place, but, and it had a whole trail system, uh, for horses and for people too. Uh, but the whole back of it has been logged and they like, I think it was in like 2023, they logged the entire back section of it. Oh, so everything is just ruined. Yeah. Recently. And everything is ruined. Like there's timber scrap everywhere. The trail's like gone.

[01:03:58] Like you, I sort of felt like, you know, sort of how like the, the timber barons back in the day in the, you know, the 19 early 1900s when they just clear cut everything, same type of thing there. Although they were a little bit selective. I don't know if they just went after hardwood and kept the pine or what the story is there. But, um, I basically have been scouting the property, trying to figure out where we're going to lay these trails. And over time you start seeing, you're like, wait a minute, I think that this is a trail system here.

[01:04:25] So very slowly, like we cleared the main carriage road to get to the back of the property. Then we did a cutover road. Then we did our carriage road. Then we did the, I had to be, and basically I've been doing this on like Friday nights and then picking like a Saturday or Monday or Saturday and working for like a few hours with a brush hog, which is a heavy duty, like, um, tool that you can clear stuff with. And then we got a chainsaw and then I'm using the silky saw and my loppers and there's some

[01:04:54] sections where beavers ruined everything. So I've had to like pull up big trees and everything. But at this point right now, we've got trail systems around the two ponds on the property. We've got the connecting carriage road to get to the back of the property. We've got a cutover trail. And then we just finished on Sunday, the biggest piece of it, which is a connecting trail that, that goes from the pond system to, um, the, the main carriage road and loops around.

[01:05:23] So we've got like probably, I don't know what it is, maybe a mile or so worth of, um, trail that the horses can now loop from the upper stalls down into the back of the property and then back up to the pond system. So it's really like over three months, it's taken us to like, and they've been doing a lot of work on the, on the, getting the, the fields cleared and getting the paddocks set up and getting a lot of work in the stalls as well. But I've been doing the trail system. So I'm kind of proud, proud of it, Nick, that we've like going into the fall, we've got a full loop.

[01:05:51] It's a shit ton of work, like ton of work. Yeah. Yeah. Was there, was there an old trail map anywhere or would that just not have even helped if it did exist? I don't know. It's like a lot of people on social media, like a lot of the people that, a lot of the families that used to own the property, like are saying like, oh, there was, there was so many great trails back there, but I don't know if there's like an old map or anything. I'd have to look. So, but I'm kind of just looking at it and me and my brother will go out and we'll bushwhack

[01:06:19] and we'll be like, well, this looks like a trail here. And then the problem is, is everything, there's just timber scrap everywhere. So when you, you have to basically, you know, cut blow downs away, you've got to cut branches back and then you've got a clear path, but that clear path is full of like all kinds of timber scraps. So you have to basically like, he needs to get an excavator so we can get in there and do the work, but we've been doing it by hand. I've been basically raking the wood off the trail for the horses to clear through.

[01:06:47] So, but we've got a good, good distance done now. Yeah. I mean, interestingly enough, there's actually like probably a mile and a half from here. There's a farmland that they sold probably a couple of years ago and they're actually logging some of it. There must be done. I would never think like around here you'd be logging, but there must be some older trees. So I can sympathize a little bit with like the mess that like we go, there's an adjacent town forest property to it. And me and Ryland have poked through there before. And yeah, it is kind of insane because they've, they're running wood chippers and like all sorts

[01:07:15] of stuff over there and like, they kind of just leave all those scraps. Like there's just wood everywhere, like, and then stumps in places and yeah, it's a mess. Crazy. And anyway, Nick, enough of that. So someday I'll get you up on the farm. You can check out the work that we've been doing up there. It's been, it's been a great summer, really fun experience and really like good family bonding. And I'm really proud of them and they're, they're following their dreams and it's not easy, but they are, they're making it happen.

[01:07:48] 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, Nick, um, notable listener hikes of the week here. Let's, let's go with this. All right. So, um, Slasher's notable hike of the week, um, do tag us on Instagram. If you're going to also people make sure when, when I say tag us, I'll be specific. Like use the at Slasher podcast tag.

[01:08:15] I had a couple people recently who are doing hashtag hashtag Slasher podcast or hashtag I can't say that tonight. Slasher, um, make sure you tag us on Instagram with the ad. That's what you want to do for us to notice. Um, so first off, special shout out to Audra and Nick, who I just mentioned, I crossed them going up in face. Um, Audra just finished her 52th view on Mount success the day before. So congratulations. Um, and thanks for chatting. And it looked like you guys were having a fun day. Um, thanks for listening and spreading the word about Slasher. Congratulations, Audra. Yes.

[01:08:45] And big congratulations. Um, summit snack attack, our buddy, Andy, uh, did landslide gully on Mount Webster. So this one goes back at this one. Um, I thought it was really cool too. Uh, so I had done Willie Tom field back in spring or maybe the end of winter and had some pictures, closeups of landslide gully with my 70 millimeter lens. Um, and he's like, I want to hit that. So Andy did indeed. He went out and hit it. Um, look like a pretty gnarly adventure. It's one of those slides that goes up basically the side of Mount Webster.

[01:09:13] Um, it's a pretty deep cut in the land. Um, you can see far away. So he went up it. Yeah. He's, he's a beast. You had his helmet on and everything. He said it challenged. It seemed like everything that he's kind of learned so far, bushwhacking and climbing slides. Uh, so good on you, Andy. That's, that's a gnarly one. Karen 220, the Carters for 44 out of 48. Um, and was lamenting that she thinks the Carters get a bad rap because you got, um, Mount Height in there and some other nice little views. I kind of agree there.

[01:09:41] Um, last time I was up there and it was in the winter granted, but Height's super nice. Um, there's some nice areas of sort of ridgeline to after middle Carter as well. Um, if you're getting out that way. So there's definitely some views of the Prezis out there to be had folk star, um, mentioned his friend, Mike, who's not on Instagram finished his new England hundred highest on snow cup suptic, AKA snow mountain in Maine. I had to look up that one. Um, when he said snow cup suptic, I'm like, is that a typo? But apparently that's just commonly what it's referred to.

[01:10:10] Liz Fay, um, back a hundred mile wilderness AT with Dave and Paul. She did 12 miles, including the barren ledges. She passed the 2100 mile mark. Um, she also did fourth mountain. Um, they saw a 1984 plane crash, third mountain and stealth camp near chair back pond. Arlo the beagle, Mike's favorite smarts via the AT and ranger trails for 44 out of 52 with a view. He must've been inspired by our recent. So you want to episode?

[01:10:39] Yeah, that's what I'm, that's what I'd like to think. Um, he was cuter than any pictures I took of Dave up there in the fire tower too. Sorry, Dave. Um, Jakester D2 day one in Arcadia on an annual trip with Julie, um, did the sundew trail to scoot it on scoot it peninsula and East trail up and over scoot it head and buck cove mountain. And then they had dinner at Jordan pond house. So I was, I was starting to scout out some of these places for when we're up there. Um, it looks beautiful. Lauren J Bennett overnight overnight up to Madison hut in Mount Madison. Um, look like a fun adventure there.

[01:11:09] And then the let's hike podcast. Um, Jeremy finished his 48 with West bond bond and bond cliff. Um, and perhaps Zealand. I might've just left that out over there. I imagine he probably did the Z bonds. Um, but congrats. Um, who's got it this week, Mike? Oh boy. So, uh, I always forget the finisher. So Audra gets a notable hike of the week. And then I think, uh, folk stars friend, Mike, I think that's, that's probably the most impressive one I would say. And then shout out to Jeremy, um, uh, for finishing his 48.

[01:11:38] And yeah, definitely like, uh, if you're not having checked it out, check out the let's hike podcast. So Jeremy, um, I think Sarah is now his cohost over there. So great people. Um, we've hiked with both of them in the past. So, uh, give them a, give them a listen as well. And Nick, with that, um, we're going to move on to our segment with our friend Patrick from Mount Washington to talk about the honor summit and a whole bunch of other topics. So let's move into that. All right.

[01:12:22] It's time for slashers guest of the week. Very cool. Very cool. All right, Patrick. So anything you say can be used against you. So you're live on the record. Oh, Lord help us. Yeah. So welcome. Welcome. So Patrick, well, I'm going to, I'm just going to, um, break out your resume for the listeners,

[01:12:50] uh, before we turn it over to you with a bunch of questions here. But so Patrick is joining us. Um, he is the park manager of the Mount Washington state park. So he has a great crew of people that, uh, that work with him up there, but, um, you're, you're the head guy, right, Patrick? Yeah. Uh, it's, uh, that, that's my position. I run the summit of Mount Washington on behalf of the state of New Hampshire. Yep. And then, uh, Patrick has previously worked as, um, the supervisor of the New Hampshire

[01:13:19] state parks volunteer program. And he also worked as park manager at Manadnock and he's been, um, you've been on the show a few times here, Patrick. So you were in episode 139 where we did a deep dive. So listeners can check that episode out. And then you've been part of our full conditions live shows. And then you've also co-hosted, um, a, so you want to episode on Mount Manadnock as being one of the foremost experts on Mount Manadnock, I would say, right? I would say, I know a lot. Yeah.

[01:13:46] Whether I'm an expert or not is up to others, but I spent a good deal of time there and adore that mountain. Yep. I'm going to bestow that, um, that designation onto you. So. Thank you. Thank you. I'll accept it. Excellent. So, um, I guess just to start off with Patrick, we wanted to just, uh, cover the, um, the, the honor summit lights that, that ha that happened, um, recently. So I think the dates on that were September 9th to September 12th. So we're like two, uh, a little under two weeks past it now.

[01:14:16] And logistically, like, I think there's probably a lot of people, a lot of listeners that are interested in, um, the whole background on this thing. And then, um, you know, the experience of being up there for the, the, the three or four days where are the four or five days that it was set up. So I guess maybe to start off with Patrick, could you just give some background? Like how did, um, you first become aware of the proposal to put these lights up in, in honor of, uh, nine 11th 25th anniversary? Uh, this was brought to our agency, uh, DNCR, the department of natural and cultural resources.

[01:14:46] Um, last summer, uh, by a great group of people, uh, headed by Renee Plummer, uh, who is a mover and a shaker down on the seacoast, um, especially for veterans affairs and nonprofits. And she had this vision of putting lights at the summit of Mount Washington, mimicking the

[01:15:11] lights in lower Manhattan at ground zero for the 25th anniversary of September 11th. Uh, this of course was by no means going to be an easy feat to pull off. Uh, and given that the summit is owned, operated by the state of New Hampshire, uh, as Mount Washington state park, our agency, and certainly myself are going to need to be involved in regards

[01:15:37] to not only its permittance, but some of logistics in regards to pulling it off. Um, so this group had a lot of, uh, good, good people who had big ideas, um, but not a lot of intimate knowledge about how the mountain worked, how the summit worked and the logistics that were going to need to be involved. So I knew very quickly that it was going to be, um, really important for us to be actively

[01:16:06] involved with the planning, assuming it was going to be permitted so that, uh, we could fill in the gaps with where that knowledge was, um, you know, not, not there, not present. So, uh, this, uh, so we, we ran into a, I don't want to say a snafu, but this event actually after a couple months of preliminary planning and discussion last year got canceled.

[01:16:34] Uh, there was some thoughts that whatever was going on in the, um, uh, in the fundraising world, uh, and what they were looking to, um, put forth to these, uh, beyond the cost of the event, um, there was some fear that there would not be much there, uh, to give to these, um, beneficiaries. Jerry's.

[01:17:04] So the event actually got pulled for a while and I just assumed it wasn't going to happen. And then sort of blues brother style, Renee went out, got the band back together and we had a very short window to try to pull this off. Uh, but we were able to do that. Um, we had some of the groundwork laid out initially in some conceptual conversations.

[01:17:31] And then, uh, we were able to build upon that to pull this off. So, uh, I guess that's sort of how it came together. Um, but what seems maybe basic for some folks, you take a couple of lights, you throw them on, on the top of the mountain and you call it good. Uh, it's not that simple whatsoever. So there was a lot that needed to go into, um, putting an event off like this, but big picture.

[01:18:01] Uh, we knew what it meant. Uh, we knew what, uh, it was going to attract and what it was going to mean to people. And so for those of us who were involved in trying to pull this event together and to try to ensure it happened, um, there was a lot of work involved. Is the, and I don't know, like I'm not, uh, I don't have an electrician background or anything like that, but was there anything infrastructure wise where with like the electric, uh, the

[01:18:29] electric setup that you had, like the pipes up in the summit, were they big enough to accommodate those lights as they existed or did they have to bring in special generators or how does, how did that, the power supply work? Yeah. Power supply for these fixtures were supplied off of generator. Um, there was some discussion about tying into the summit lines, uh, that we pushed aside

[01:18:53] early on, um, uh, knowing that there were some limitations in regards to where you can sort of plug in and, uh, what that would mean. And so there were generators that supplied independent power to these lights. How, how is the electrical grid set up to Mount Washington? Is there just like, I'd actually never considered that before. Is it just like pipes that have electrical cables that are running up there through like the rock and stuff, or how does that actually tie into the grid? Uh, thanks. Thanks for asking.

[01:19:22] Uh, I mean, we've got a little city in the sky on the top of a mountain and nothing up there belongs up there. So, uh, it is interesting in regards to how the summit. Functions in regards to the systems and the facilities there. Electrically, uh, since about 2007 or so, uh, the summit has been tied to the, to the grid, to, to grid power on buried electrical lines that run down the adjacent to the cog railway tracks.

[01:19:51] So the summit is tied into the grid, uh, through Bretton Woods and Carroll, New Hampshire, um, buried, uh, from the cog railway on up. So when the winds are blowing a hundred miles per hour on the summit, that doesn't necessarily mean that we're more apt to, uh, to a power outage on the summit. Um, but whatever's going on in the valley will obviously affect what we have going on at the top of the mountain.

[01:20:19] But in this case, the lights, uh, were, um, we're not tied into the summit. Uh, sunbelt, uh, provided generator power to, uh, both sets of lights, uh, so that they could run independently of the summit power. And that, that's how they, they were turned on and off. I'm, I'm curious, did you guys talk?

[01:20:42] Cause like, there's no guarantee that you're going to have a, like the weather wise, you had at least two actually perfect nights of, uh, of clear conditions, but there's no guarantee. Like you easily could have had three or four nights in a row where there was just cloud cover. Did you have a contingency plan? Like, would you keep it going for a day or two extra if, if it looked like the weather was going to clear or what, what was the discussion around the weather conditions on the summit? Uh, the contingency plan was to try to run for four nights and hoping you at least got one of them.

[01:21:11] Uh, mid, mid September on the summit, it, it could be 50 degrees. It could be 20 degrees. Neither of them would be odd. So, uh, I think the group aspired to have at least one to two nights, but knowing they would need to lay four nights out in regards to the timeframe and the schedule in the hopes that the mountain gave them a night or two. And that's what ended up happening.

[01:21:38] But we didn't have a contingency plan in place necessarily to run beyond the 12th. If all four nights ended up being, you know, washed out because of weather. So, um, weather certainly did disrupt the schedule as it was set and that was anticipated. And there were plans for that.

[01:21:58] What I had told the group in the early stages of this planning was that, uh, you know, the, the lights and the planning, the schedule, all of that could be laid out. You can plan as best you, as you can, but the mountain decides and we need to work with what the mountain dictates.

[01:22:19] And I think I felt optimistic that we would have a one in four night chance to run these things to a place where, where people might be able to see them. Right. Yeah. And you ended up getting Friday and Saturday night was, was really good. It was, yeah. And the testing night was exceptionally good as well on the Tuesday. Uh, we did have a test night, uh, where the lights ran for about two hours on the Tuesday before the official kickoff on that Wednesday.

[01:22:49] But, you know, I know that the, uh, there was a ceremony, a commemoration and the kickoff for the first night on that Wednesday, which we had driving rain and fog and, and the lights weren't going to be visible. As we knew from the Valley, we did have a live feed, uh, so that people could see them, uh, online.

[01:23:12] But, um, I would say that if the mountain were to give us two nights, aside from giving us that first night, giving us the 11th and the 12th that Friday and Saturday, um, was very kind of the mountain to do. I was curious too, like, um, besides the electricity, the configuration of the lights, was it basically like an outline of a square shooting vertically into the sky? Like I would imagine it's gotta be probably, it's not as simple as just setting them down and hoping they all point up straight. Right. Like, did you have to level them?

[01:23:40] Like, I'm also thinking of someone about Washington other than the places that are paved is terribly uneven. It wouldn't be great for a level service to point something straight up into the sky. No, absolutely not. Um, these light fixtures, they were basically a grid of nine lights that, uh, a three by three grid of lights, uh, very high tech. I know maybe some people may not believe that based on what some of the visibility was, uh, off mountain, but we'll, we'll talk about that.

[01:24:11] Um, the lights traveled, I think from Texas, if I'm not mistaken, uh, all the way up to the summit of Mount Washington. And we had a great group working on the summit. Um, Sarah, uh, who ran the lights as a freelancer on behalf of port lighting, uh, was making tweaks and adjustments to those lights every night, even up until the last night. She was very much a perfectionist.

[01:24:35] Um, and, uh, Chris Malloy from Malloy Entertainment, um, who does a lot of events, uh, was fantastic to work with. And from a park perspective, I was very fortunate to work with not only a great group of people who knew their stuff, were also quite aware of what they didn't know in regards to leaning on us for travel logistics and weather and things like that. Um, but they were really fun to work with.

[01:25:02] Well, by the time Saturday night came around and we were wrapping up the last of the night, um, then the shutting the lights off for the last time I was lamenting that we weren't getting together after that. Cause, uh, the crew was so good to work with and fun to work with and just really good people. Did they say what, like, what, what are the, what do they use those lights for when they're not using them for the 9-11 memorial? Is there other purposes for them?

[01:25:30] I, I think they're, I want to say they're concert type lighting, but they, I mean, we were getting some range to three, three plus miles into the sky on some nights. So I don't know if they need that type of light for, for concerts or not.

[01:25:45] Um, but, uh, it was an impressive display and the, um, I, especially the first two nights, you know, we ran Wednesday and Thursday nights for a limited period of time, um, in some really thick fog on the summit. And when those things came on for the first time, I felt like we were living across the street from the Griswolds and it was just so bright. Yeah.

[01:26:13] It was just so bright, uh, through the fog up there. Um, but, uh, you know, I, I, I was up on the summit every night for them. Um, so I got to see them mostly right on the summit. I did on Saturday night travel down partway down the mountain, um, to see them. But, uh, the photographs that I've seen that people have shared on social media following the event, uh, from close and other places, some distant, uh, were really impressive.

[01:26:43] And it was, uh, I don't know, it was such a great display for the mountain and it was a great thing to do to commemorate and honor, um, all victims of 9-11, not just in New York city, but also in Pennsylvania and DC and, and beyond. Right. Yeah. And it is crazy. Like you've got a whole generation of people that just didn't, they weren't here for 9-11. So it is important to, to remember history and remember that day. I think that we're a little bit old.

[01:27:10] Nick, Nick was a young, young person, but Patrick, me and you were a little more seasoned. So we remember it and it, it's a, um, it was a, it was a great memorial, but the, um, I guess on the summit itself, did you, did you see, um, a bigger amount of foot traffic from hikers and people that were curious? Yeah, I would say, especially Friday and Saturday when we actually could see off the mountain, uh, there were a lot of headlamps out in the range. I could certainly see hikers in the presidential range and beyond.

[01:27:39] Uh, we had visitors to the summit by foot in addition to the ones that were brought up by the auto road and the cog railway, um, during some of those nights. And in just talking to people, uh, and seeing what people had posted, um, that this, this display touched a lot of people. And I hopefully, I think did the remembrance and the reminder about what had happened and what that means.

[01:28:07] Um, and I think it's important for us in New England to, to remember that. And, and I think this display, uh, both honored those victims and carried their memories forward. And also those who are still in service, uh, in, in police, fire departments, first responders, uh, it meant a lot to a lot of people. Right. Yeah.

[01:28:34] And the, um, as far as the, the marketing for this event. So it's interesting that you had said there was a little bit of start and stop. Like we obviously like we pay attention to this stuff just because anything that goes on in the mountains, like we're just, we're throwing it out on the podcast here. But I really didn't, it didn't hit me necessarily how well publicized this had become until maybe like a week or so before where all of a sudden I started seeing it in like my local town. I'm in the seacoast area.

[01:29:01] Like I'm in, I'm in Amesbury, like Merrimack Valley, seacoast region. And there was like people posting saying like, you're going to be able to see the lights from, you know, Mount Agamemichus or wherever. And it was like, got a lot of attention. And I don't know, um, if that was just word of mouth or if it was good marketing. I don't know if you have any sense for that. I think it was probably a combination of the two. Yeah.

[01:29:23] Um, and certainly that, uh, information about the lights being visible from so far away, which I, I was all skeptical about myself. Right. You know, once it catches and, and gets out there, uh, you know, and then it gets, I don't want to say exaggerated, but, uh, you know, the, the summit of Mount Washington's, I, what I think happened is the summit of Mount Washington.

[01:29:48] Mount Washington's maximum visibility is 130 miles, uh, on the clearest of days. And that reaches out to the summits of, of Mount Marcy and Whiteface out of New York. Uh, but that one 30 visibility, including the lights being, you know, pointing a couple of miles into the sky, uh, under the most pristine conditions away from light pollution.

[01:30:10] Uh, someone took that as a radius of beings, you know, around the mountain and maybe elevated expectations a little bit. Uh, there was also, I will say, you know, obviously Wednesday and Thursday, we were in driving rain, wind and fog. The first two nights, we didn't run the lights for their full extent.

[01:30:34] Um, Wednesday night, I think we had the lights on for about an hour, a little over an hour, uh, for the kickoff event and, and just to, you know, keep them going and also making tweaks and adjustments to them while we're on the summit. Thursday night, they might've been on for about two hours, but we knew Friday and Saturday, we were going to have some clarity. And certainly Friday being the September 11th itself, there was going to be a lot of people coming to the area.

[01:31:02] But that day on the summit, the visibility in the daytime hours was a little hazy. Uh, I think we might've had some wildfire smoke coming from up North. And, uh, um, even though it was clear and we had a really nice night, uh, I, you know, I knew we weren't going to reach the distances that were being reported. Out there.

[01:31:26] So, um, you really needed to get away from light pollution, uh, a lot and also not have light pollution between you and the mountain as best as you could to really get the maximum visibility. But I know people's cameras and phones did a pretty good job on picking some stuff up.

[01:31:42] And I was happy to really see the general attitude of people going out into, uh, into their neighborhoods or out into their local mountains to see these lights where maybe they were dulled or couldn't see them as well as they had hoped. Um, they were just happy to be out.

[01:32:01] And there was some really nice nights for hiking and, and the general consensus was for those who couldn't see the lights for the most part, not everybody, but the general consensus seemed to be, Hey, I went out. Um, couldn't quite catch them. Uh, couldn't see them, but just glad to know they're happening. There was a really nice night to hike and I'm coming home, you know, happy. And I'm really glad there's a commemoration happening in new England, um, that centers on nine 11. So. Yeah.

[01:32:29] And I, I definitely like, so I, I was obviously, I went off and hiked with my friends. I said, bye to the family. I'm going in the woods. So we saw her from Crawford, which was great. But my wife and, um, daughter and my father-in-law, the family, they, they got in the car, they're in Western Maine, Brownfield. So they got in the car and there was like, there was locals in Brownfield that were offering up like, Hey, come to this road and park. And there was people hanging out and, and, you know, side roads and then people down in Freiburg that were, um, that were checking it out. There was jockey cap. You could see it from.

[01:32:58] And then my, my family actually made their way in. Finally said, you know what, we're going to go into North Conway. And they, they braved going down 16 to the, the, the, the overlook. They said it was absolutely packed, but the energy there was great. It was like 4th of July for everyone. So it definitely got the crowds out, at least in the North Conway side. I can't speak to the other parts, but I mean, Stomp had talked about middle. Sugarloaf and how crowded that was. We were the only ones on Crawford. You know, we got, we thought it was dim. It was definitely hazy.

[01:33:26] I think we weren't really paying attention to the haze because we were looking at the sunset and then we realized like, okay, it's a little bit dim. I'd say by eight 30, eight 40, when we started heading down, I started looking back and I was like, yeah, it's starting to pop a little bit, but yeah, there was haze Friday night for sure. Definitely. And a little bit Saturday.

[01:33:43] And also, yeah, as you pointed out, uh, as we saw on Tuesday night during the testing, it was, you know, probably closer to the nine o'clock hour where the lights were at a brighter point than they were being turned on at eight o'clock. So a little bit of time made, made a little bit of difference as well.

[01:34:01] But I think what I'm hearing is, you know, what this, the intention of this event was, uh, to not only remember the horrific events of September 11, 25 years ago, and to honor those folks who have been affected by that, but was also to bring people together.

[01:34:23] And I think in the hiking community, I've heard a lot of stories of people like you on Crawford and, and in other mountains nearby where people, whether they saw the lights or not, or whether they were bright or not, it seemed to bring the community together in the hiking community, especially. Um, as well as all of those who traveled to the local areas.

[01:34:48] Um, it seemed like good vibes all around and it's nice to have something going on centered on Mount Washington. That's actually bringing people together. And, and that's the underlying win, I think, in a lot of this. Right. Yeah. I mean, it was very successful and you had the, the weather could have, I mean, you could have been bitten by the weather for sure on this, but it was great. Uh, great event. Is there any, anything, any other cool events that are in the pipeline at this point that you can disclose? Closing? Closing? Yeah, you're closing.

[01:35:18] That's a cool event for you guys. It's a great event. I mean, we love all the people who come to see us all summer long, but that's the next thing on the horizon for us. But no, uh, in regards to any special events on Mount Washington, uh, there isn't anything scheduled for the rest of the year. We, we just wrapped up, uh, a busy season, a busy event season, especially with, um, not just the honor summit event.

[01:35:44] Um, which was a real, I think a, a, a big success as well as a lot of work involved to pull that off. Uh, but also, uh, race the cog last weekend, uh, which the weather was borderline on. I know you guys talked about that a little bit on your last show, but, uh, beyond that, just sort of the calendar pivots to closing. Lakes of the clouds, uh, closed this past weekend. Madison spring hut is closing the weekend after the auto road is going to be rolling back.

[01:36:13] Their hours a little bit to a four 30 closure time, um, in the next week or so. And, uh, we have an October 18th last day of summit operations in the Sherman Adams building for the state park. So, um, that's more so what's on our mind is the inevitable swell of visitorship coming with the fall foliage and the leaves rapidly turning and everyone who comes out for that.

[01:36:38] And, um, trying to survive until we close the doors for, for the 20, 26 season. Right. Right. Right. And the, um, the search and rescue stuff will slow down a little bit, obviously when you guys close, um, and typically like, you know, July, July, August. So August was the busiest as far as media reports go. And I know you, you don't, you see a lot more than what's in the news. Um, but the, uh, you know, into, into October, you'll still see a lot of search and rescue media reports.

[01:37:07] But, um, can you, can you just give your, your take over the, how's the last six months been? I'm assuming that there's a ton of, you know, Hey, I need, I hiked up, but I need to figure out a way to get down because if not, I'm going to be in trouble. So has it, has it gotten better, worse or the, both the same? It's been pretty steady. Uh, you know, I don't know that people appreciate how often the state park staff on the summit of Mount Washington is aiding, uh, hikers and other visitors bailing people out.

[01:37:36] And providing support, of course, to our search and rescue community. Uh, I, I don't know if this year has been any, I don't know that it's been notable for an increase and certainly not a decrease in those types of, uh, incidents. Uh, we see it all year long. Uh, the shoulder season is usually some of the toughest, especially this time of year.

[01:38:00] As you got a lot of people who are coming out that not only are they not necessarily prepared for a hike in Mount Washington, uh, but may not fully appreciate the weather changes, uh, that can occur. The weather differences between the base and the summit.

[01:38:17] And then also the rapidly changing sunset time, uh, especially for those climbing up the east side of the mountain, dark and descend out in Tuckerman Ravine and, uh, the east sides of the mountain pretty quickly, uh, on folks who aren't otherwise prepared for, for that part of their hike. So, um, we're just sort of bracing ourselves for that, but I can't say that the seasons, it's been busy for us on the summit as it always is.

[01:38:45] I don't know that it's necessarily been a notable increase in, uh, staff time aiding hikers. It's, it's all year, all year long. Do you get notified of every situation? Like if somebody comes up to a park staff member and says like, you know, I'm a, I need help getting down and, and can you direct me in my options? Do you always get called on that or is this the staff that they can handle it? We do that all the time.

[01:39:12] Um, we're, we're advising hikers left and right. Uh, it's the ones that happen at the end of the day. Uh, sometimes what we call the witching hour when the hiker shuttle's gone for the day, the last train is gone for the day. And somebody who thought that one of those two options was, you know, assumed to them, uh, is no longer there. That we're helping them figure out, you know, what it means to get back.

[01:39:36] So, um, this time, this time of year is, you know, there, there's more propensity certainly for those types of, of situations. But, uh, you know, that's part of our service that we're up there for is, is, you know, we're advising hikers all day long, every day, just in regards to the best route down, uh, presidential traverse bailouts.

[01:40:01] And what that looks like, uh, as we've been dealing with more so over the last few years and how to best navigate those things that people that didn't set any plans for what it means if they can't complete it. So that's interesting. Cause I feel like I haven't done it. Like, I feel like usually if you make it to Washington, I guess it depends on the time of day, but usually at that point it's proverbially all downhill, except it's not.

[01:40:25] Cause you have Monroe and Eisenhower and Pierce still, but that's interesting that people are, people make it that far before bailing out. Like I would think you'd look up at Washington and be like, Nope, I'm done. And we were, we're a pretty common bailout point on the summit. I think people just see the infrastructure up there, assume they've got options. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't, but there's a lot of people tapping out.

[01:40:48] On a presidency traverse on the summit of Washington that, um, either are running out of daylight or just out of energy to continue. And, and yeah, it's, we like to say on the summit, it's all downhill from here, but that doesn't mean that it's easy downhill. And especially on a traverse, if you're still trying to tag Eisenhower and, and, uh, Monroe's, you know, as well. Um, uh, you know, those are, you still got some climbs to do there.

[01:41:16] Uh, if you're doing a North South presby, but, um, yeah, yeah, it's, it, you, you, you just, what you're trying to do is just help people get back to their car. That's the goal at the end of the day. You know, I, we tell hikers all the time. And it's the summit's not required getting back to your car is, this is, you know, how to do that. Yeah. One thing that's interesting, Patrick, on the, um, on the media reports, at least this year, there's a couple of trends.

[01:41:45] One is Huntington ravine is, has been become a hotspot, but the other is the ones that have hit the news in Mount Washington, the vast majority of them are like teenagers. You've got like eight or nine of these cases where it's like an 18, 19 year old kid. I know you had the two kids that came up in April that like, they were really had a close call on that one, I think. And then, you know, you've got young kids that have been in, um, Huntington ravine and whatnot.

[01:42:12] But yeah, it just seems like this year, for whatever reason, the trend seems to be like more younger people getting in trouble on my, on Mount Washington in particular. It seems that way. It seemed that way to us last year as well. And I don't, you know, I am not wise enough to tell you what or who is to blame.

[01:42:33] Certainly there seems to be a lot of more social media attention on places like Huntington ravine and, and Huntington, uh, which mission game is, uh, pointed out as barely a trail. Um, as you know, cool of an experience as Huntington can be, uh, I think there seems to be a lot of people trying to tackle Huntington who probably aren't ready for it. Um, that maybe are overestimating their own abilities.

[01:43:03] Uh, it, it's just, you know, I, like I said, I don't know the, the ins and outs, the reasons for it, but definitely we're seeing a lot more 20 something year olds. It's male and, uh, from certain locations that I don't know.

[01:43:21] We're being inspired by others who are doing things on the mountain, um, through social media or YouTube or other outlets, or if they're finding Mount Washington, uh, and it's a lure through other avenues.

[01:43:35] Uh, but certainly a lack of preparedness and, um, a lack of appreciation for the terrain seems to be fairly consistent amongst those who are needing help in that area or being wiped out after completing that area and needing help, uh, to get back down.

[01:44:00] Well, the, um, the park staff, I'm sure you guys probably, you, you, you save a lot of people, um, at least by giving them advice. And then like, if things get really bad, I know that, um, as a staging area, the summit is really, hopefully it hasn't, doesn't have to be used as much as, as it does, but it's good to have it there. I mean, as much as people talk about like, oh, it should be pure and there shouldn't be any infrastructure up there. You know, it is what it is as a whole history behind that.

[01:44:28] And, um, you know, it's helpful to, to be able to stage there for sure. Yeah. I mean, we've talked about that in the past and, you know, the pure, uh, viewpoint of Mount Washington and wanting to wipe the slate clean. It's, it's, it's just not going to happen. The mountains been this way since really 1852 when the summit house, uh, went up, uh, and then the tip top house a year later.

[01:44:55] And then the auto road, 1861 for the carriage road. I mean, that was, they opened four months after the firing on Mount Sumter, uh, and the onset of the civil war. And then the cog railway in 1869, uh, both engineering marvels, uh, but both also predating public land. You know, things aren't going to change up there, uh, despite people's desires, but there's also benefits to that.

[01:45:22] The cog railway and the auto road, uh, both are outlets that end up bailing out a lot of hikers. Again, daily, um, they provide access to the summit for the state park staff and those who are taking care of the summit and certainly providing access to the Mount Washington observatory, uh, whose work is detrimental to all of our safety in regards to forecasting and researching the weather on the summit.

[01:45:49] So, um, you know, you got every other peak in the white mountains. I think it's, you know, if the hikers can share one with the summit of Mount Washington, we'd appreciate that. And, uh, it does provide, um, you know, because Mount Washington has had its allure to people, uh, and, and climbers and hikers for so long and can get people in trouble. Yeah. That infrastructure on the mountain has also saved a lot of lives over the year. And I, I, I don't know that that's a bad thing.

[01:46:18] Right. Yeah. And there's six or seven other presidential summits that don't have any infrastructure on them that you can enjoy. Pretty much aside, maybe from cannon side from wildcat. Maybe you got every other peak in the white mountains to play with. Uh, so there's one to share and, uh, we do welcome and appreciate the members of the hiking community that love Mount Washington as well. And the Appalachian trail hikers that come through the summit over the course of the summer.

[01:46:48] Um, we appreciate everyone that comes up to the experience Mount Washington in the, you know, way that they want to. Uh, we just want to make sure however they're getting up there that they do it safely and, uh, responsibly. But, um, you know, we're all, uh, the summit is state park staff, myself, we're all part of the hiking community as well.

[01:47:11] So we understand that perspective of slogging all day through Huntington or Tuckerman ravine or up Ammanusik or the jewel trails. And, and you arrive at a little city in the sky and it's a little bit of a, a mind F, but, uh, you know, it's all part of a community of people who are, you know, looking to experience Mount Washington in their own way. And, and in that regard, we're all, we're all one big happy family up there.

[01:47:40] Right. Yeah. And then as far as the weather goes right now, just for people that are, um, listening to this, you do see like in the, the June, July, August, and even early September period, like the, the, the average high is in the, the mid to low forties. In October, it'll drop to the low thirties. And then you have the November, December, January, February, March, where it gets to be, um, you know, consistently cold. I think the January and February are like six degrees is the average up there.

[01:48:11] Yeah. I mean, the weather's changing fast. Uh, winter's never too far away up there. Uh, we're already, you know, as we speak, tracking the weather, we got a cold front, you know, here and, and hanging over us every night. With below freezing temperatures, which we have to monitor closely for staff travels, uh, in the night and also in the, uh, each morning.

[01:48:34] Uh, and hopefully hikers and visitors coming up through the cog and the auto road are also keeping an eye on things and preparing accordingly. But, uh, it's, it's September, it's mid to late September, winter's breathing down our neck and, um, it's, uh, it's going to be here before we know it. And it hits us first before anywhere else. Right. Right. Any, uh, any big capital projects that are, uh, in the queue for 2027 up there?

[01:49:02] Not for 27 beyond 27, we're looking to replace our fuel tanks on the summit, which are, um, pretty well aged. Uh, the fuel tanks provide the storage for kerosene that heats the buildings on the summit and also provides the fuel for the backup generators, uh, when the power goes out. And, um, those are, uh, aging out rapidly.

[01:49:27] Uh, not that they have any significant issues going on at the moment, but we want to make sure that we have a plan in place before issues come up. So, uh, the fuel tanks for the state park is really the next kind of thing on the horizon for us as far as a big, significant, uh, project goes. What's the condition of the tip top house right now? Uh, thanks for asking the tip top house.

[01:49:52] Uh, we lament has been closed for many years to the public and, and we're greatly, uh, motivated to get that, uh, building accessible to the public. Again, uh, we have a contract being put together, uh, that should go out to bid very shortly. And we're hoping for some pretty significant work to occur, um, through next year. Uh, I, I don't hold me to this.

[01:50:20] Could be a soft opening as early as next year, um, towards the end of next year. Um, but by 2028, we hope that we'll have our first full season of the tip top house being available. But there's a lot of significant work that's been needed, um, to get that building up to code, uh, back into shape. And these are the most significant renovations. The tip top house has seen since the early 1980s.

[01:50:45] Uh, so we really want to make sure that the tip top house has been, is getting, um, a lot of work and is set up for the next 45 years. And, and the next park manager. Well, after me, when was the last time that was actually open? Cause I don't think I've ever seen it open even since I've been hiking. The tip top house was last open to the public in 2019. Yeah. I've been in there a bunch of times. Okay. Yeah.

[01:51:13] We, we had closed it in 2020, um, uh, because the pandemic was going on and trying to do, you know, crowd control in that building just wasn't worthwhile. So the park staff got in there to try to get some work done in while the building was closed. And unfortunately, the more we dug in, the more and more problems we found. Oh boy. Okay. And, uh, yeah.

[01:51:36] So the tip top house, uh, for those that don't know, the tip top house is the oldest surviving structure on the summit of Mount Washington. Second, really more or less second building built up there in 1853. Originally opened as a hotel, uh, has had many uses over the years, uh, including a printing press for the, among the clouds newspaper.

[01:51:58] The first newspaper printed at the top of the mountain, um, as well as, uh, many other interesting uses. But since the 1980s has been open to the public as a self guided walkthrough museum, uh, as a step back in time to the mountains history and early development in the 1850s and 1860s.

[01:52:21] And that's certainly the type of use that it's going to have into the future, but we want to, um, bring the building back up to code, freshen the place up a little bit. We're adding new interpretive displays and other things into the building. And when it gets reopened to the public, um, really hope people can come up and really experience summit life as, uh, as the summit felt like back, back down 170 years ago.

[01:52:49] You know, Patrick, if I were you, I would go in that place when no one's looking, I would go in that place with like five or six candles and just read for like a couple of hours. And I'd feel like I was Henry David Thoreau sitting up there in the 1800s. Thoreau is one of the many famous people who have visited the tip top house. Yeah. Uh, we've had two sitting presidents visit the tip top house, uh, Grant and, and Rutherford B. Hayes, everyone's favorite president.

[01:53:17] Uh, Mary Todd, Mary Todd. Legendary. Of course. I mean, we're all Hayes fans, right? Hayes heads, we call ourselves. Yeah. Uh, but Mary Todd Lincoln, Robert Lincoln both stayed there. Uh, Jefferson Davis pre civil war also stayed there. Uh, PT Barnum came up to the tip top house, uh, after, uh, arriving to the summit in the early days by the cog railway.

[01:53:44] And PT Barnum to claim, uh, proclaimed Mount Washington to be the second greatest show on earth. Uh, which is something, something we hope he just didn't drop everywhere. He went just to enamor himself to people. So we'll, uh, we'll think him climbing the first mountain climbing railroad and arriving the tip top house. He was still, uh, stirred, but not so much to, you know, undercut his own business. But PT Barnum being another infamous visitor.

[01:54:13] So there's been a lot of, uh, well-known people who have visited the tip top house over the years. And we want to share, um, that with people as well. So that while they're standing in that space in the tip top house, they can reflect upon the appeal of Mount Washington from, uh, in the summit for the last 170 some odd years. And, uh, think about their own, um, place, uh, in time while they're visiting. Well, that would be cool if it does open up. So, but, uh, well, Patrick, we, we appreciate you, uh, coming on.

[01:54:42] I think that the, the honor lights, uh, event was great and, uh, we appreciate the work that the, you and the park staff do and all of your, your partners up on the summit with the observatory. And even the cats are out there helping, uh, to keep everyone's spirits up. So, uh, winter programming though, you'll have, um, obviously the observatory runs, um, some, some visitor programs, and then you get a lot of hikers in the winter. Um, anything that you want to, uh, just, just let the listeners know that they should be aware of if they're, if they're planning on visiting the summit over the winter?

[01:55:13] Just check the weather, know before you go and you get back to your car, uh, under your own power and enjoy the mountain. You know, it's really it. So pick a, pick a good weather day. The summit is not required, but your car is, I guess is the best I can say, but, um, thank you. Thanks for having me on. Uh, really appreciate it. The honor summit event.

[01:55:37] I hope really, I hope it really touched people in a way that, you know, it maybe made their 25th, uh, 9-11 a little bit. I don't know about better, but different or more reflective. Um, you know, it was, it was not an easy thing to pull off. This is really maybe the third time the summits had any kind of lights on it like this in any capacity.

[01:56:04] And the first time they've been shot up into the sky for the bird folks out there. I will say that, uh, we had Autobahn and fish and game, uh, as part of the planning. Uh, they were on the summit for Friday and Saturday. We didn't bother with the Wednesday and Thursday because of the weather. They were also up there for the test night, Tuesday nights. Um, and I'm happy to report that, uh, from what they've told me, the migrating birds, uh, were not negatively affected by the lights. They were certainly witnessed.

[01:56:34] Uh, they came through the lights. None of them circled. We had no fatalities. Um, probably had more bats than anything, which was interesting. Well, Stomp was feeding all of the gray jays on middle sugar lobes. So he kept them away from the lights. Yeah. Well, that is, I, well, I don't want to say that's good. I'm just like, a lot of peanuts.

[01:56:56] It's going to say, I'm glad we didn't see him on the summit, but, um, but yeah, there was a lot of things put in place to make sure, uh, that this event went off. Well, not just, uh, visually, uh, and logistically getting these things up and down the mountain, but also in, uh, on behalf of the wildlife, uh, which we were certainly aware of and had plans in place for. We wanted to make sure this event was done right. And, um, it's gonna, I think be a noteworthy thing in the mountains history.

[01:57:25] It's great to have been involved with it. And from somebody who's, uh, got deep roots in New York city, who's been a New York city resident myself, uh, lost a family friend in nine 11 and have had, uh, my father and uncle who have been on the NYPD and are not who have served in customs. This was a meaningful project for me.

[01:57:45] And, uh, I'm just glad that, uh, this touched a lot of people and, and, and the mountains served as a great backdrop for, you know, commemorating, um, a pretty remarkable time in our country's history. Right, right. And it's as tragic as that, the events of that period were the, the one positive, I will, there's some positives, but I'd say the, the sense of community and togetherness after that event was, uh, you know, you do look back at that and realize like, you know, that was a unique time in our history.

[01:58:15] And for this event, at least you brought back a little bit of that sort of unity and togetherness, which is, which I think has been lacking a lot in the last, I don't know how many years. Yeah. Same. I agree too. I think this was what I've have seen, as I think I noted earlier, just this, I think brought a lot of people together, brought a lot of attention on the mountain. Uh, but the mountain was a great stage for remembering, uh, what had happened.

[01:58:44] And, um, the, I'm glad Renee Plummer had come up with this idea and I'm glad we're able to pull together to, to pull this off. Um, cause I know how much it meant to people. Right. Well, I'm glad you could make it here tonight to give a, give you a perspective. So I think the listeners are going to really love this. If you want to follow, uh, Patrick, you can check him out on Instagram at, uh, top of the, at, at top of the Northeast. So we'll include the link in the show notes, and then we'll link to the, the park website as well as the observatory website.

[01:59:12] And, uh, you can find out all the information you need across the internet about, um, about Mount Washington. So Patrick, until next time, I'm sure we'll, uh, hopefully we'll see you at full conditions. And if not, then I'm sure we'll run into you. I'll, I'll knock on the door when I need a break and I need a hot chocolate with a winter when I'm hiking. Please come on in. I'm sure Nimbus wants to say hi. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But regular hikers don't do that, but I'm going to knock on the door. So yeah, that's great. Thanks guys.

[01:59:42] Uh, really appreciate it. Awesome. Thank you. All right, Nick. So that was fun. Patrick's always interesting. Dude, we could have talked to him for like three hours. We could have. I just feel like you could just keep leading to down to different historical areas about Washington. I was going to start asking about like, what's the most frequent thing they have to do maintenance on and stuff. But we only had so much time tonight. So I'm sure we'll have him back again. Yeah. So, uh, but all, all's good there. And then Nick, we're at time. We're over time right now. So I will let you go.

[02:00:12] And then we'll be back on next week for episode, episode two 48. All right. Night everybody. Did it. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed the show, you can subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[02:00:37] 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. We hope you'll join us next week for another great show until then on behalf of Mike and stop, get out there and crush some mega peace.

[02:01:06] Now covered in scratches, blisters, and bug bites. Chris staff wanted to complete his most challenging day hike ever. Fish and game officers say the hiker from Florida activated an emergency beacon yesterday morning. He was hiking along the Appalachian Trail when the weather started to get worse. Officials say the snow was piled up to three feet in some spots and there was a wind chill of minus one degree. And there's three words that describe this race. Do we all know who they are? Oh, yeah.

[02:01:39] Lieutenant James Neeland, 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. I think if they just simply visited Hikesafe.com and got a list of the 10 essential items and had those in their packs, they probably would have no need to ever call us at all. Thank you.