Episode 126 - Drone Rescue on North Mountain with Justin

[00:00:00] I was on the, like I said, second set of batteries. I decided to stay away from the grid search and just do that swoop and I hit this... I don't know if it has a name

[00:00:10] to it or not coming off off the hill as there's a stream, waterfalls flowing down and I could see that in the thermals. It was everything was white and then you get this dark dark line in the thermals and now I can see the creek

[00:00:26] so I said I'll use that as my limit line for this side of the search until we and then if we don't see anything in here then we'll move to another spot. So at

[00:00:36] that point I'm right in the area where at our table talk that morning we thought we think we think she's gonna be somewhere in here and like you know I just I had a feeling she's gonna be somewhere in here and as I'm coming

[00:00:51] down the mountain I see one bright bright light bulb looking thermal and I was looking at my batteries also. The Bushwax were some of the worst days I've ever had in the mountains or life really. Whereas Pansom Mountain is totally opposite to

[00:01:24] the mountain on top of a crater. I think the weather challenges on this incident weren't particularly difficult. It is really the development of New York State. Catskill's were responsible. Now you're listening to Inside the Line. Catskill Mountains Podcast.

[00:01:51] Alright everyone welcome to episode 126 of Inside the Line the Catskill Mountains podcast. Tonight we have Justin from Upstate Thermal Drone Services here tonight to talk about his rescue that they had of a dog over on

[00:02:07] where was this at the Blackhead Range area? It was North Mountain it's called. North Mountain alright so right over in the North South Lake area over in the escarpment so dog rescue drone services dog rescue amazing. So Justin welcome

[00:02:24] to the show sir. Thank you thanks for having me. Yeah man feel free to chime in whenever you want we're gonna be talking about some we're gonna shoot for a little bit so like you're hiking at Hunter Mountain suspended watch out

[00:02:37] don't go up Hunter Mountain. Yeah I'm just kidding. Hunter Mountain the ski resort is doing some construction so they have suspended all hiking going up Hunter Mountain from there it's like endpoint so two epic lift upgrades are gonna be

[00:02:55] doing debuting next winter and it's suspended all summer still doing scenic sky rise beginning June 29th which is pretty far away still a month away and from the summit you can enjoy hike to the fire tower which is what is that colonial

[00:03:10] chair route from the ski area right? Yeah the official trail in is I think the colonels chair? Colonel's chair sorry sorry so any other trails from the base of the mountain which I didn't know there was any from Hunter Mountain going up to

[00:03:32] the top there are close so Ted you said you wanted to do a bushwhack from there same here? Yeah you know I've been scanning that terrain and percolating some thoughts about starting off at the ski area hiking to the limits of the cleared terrain and then

[00:03:54] bushwhacking from there up to the fire tower so I've got a few ridges picked out that seems suitable to do that with but it doesn't sound like I'm doing it before the fall now that they've

[00:04:08] closed down the hiking privileges in the ski area for the summertime. Sounds like Windham High Peak or Windham kind of stuff only open to people above $200,000. Yeah well I don't think Hunter charges those kind of dollars I just want to know why they're pumping that kind

[00:04:27] of money into uphill lift capacity when the winters are getting shorter milder they've got to blow more snow the conditions aren't as conducive to skiing as they once were and folks seem to be more inclined to travel further north to get some good skiing in and

[00:04:47] as opposed to sticking in the Catskills. True, true Justin you hike a skier any snowboarder? You know I used to ski back when I was a kid I'm from the southern Adirondack region and

[00:05:02] you know there's some decent smaller mountains nearby my hometown so I did quite a bit when I was a kid but hiking more kind of familiar with the Adirondack type hiking I went to college up there

[00:05:17] at Paul Smith's college. Oh nice. So a lot of a lot of nice stuff up there I'm really very inexperienced in hiking around the Catskills but I've been considering it and had some friends

[00:05:31] actually come to me and say oh started hiking a little bit you know they're getting into their 40s and they're like you know I just want to get out and get moving a little bit you know and try to

[00:05:41] try to extend their lives I guess. So you know I've been thinking about it of course the drone business has taken me to the mountains a few times now so if more experience comes by

[00:06:00] by doing the drone business then that's fine but I'd also like to check some places out too maybe some you know get some references to decent maybe easier hikes at first and just to kind of

[00:06:13] get out of my way I guess you know but yeah I'm not experiencing the Catskills really at all but they're beautiful to look at I know that. So so Justin we're gonna start you off with

[00:06:26] this tip and that is the Catskill fire tower challenge. It's easy terrain to hike on you'll be going up if you want there's a an old jeep trail to each one of these fire towers. Okay so the

[00:06:42] terrain itself the footing itself isn't that difficult there are spots where the pitches get you know serious but they're not that long and it's a good way to cut your teeth and do some Catskill hiking. Sure okay I almost had a dog search up there two days ago

[00:07:03] Balsam lake trail fire tower and the the dog ended up being found by a hiker up there the next day and this is just yesterday actually and the owner was able to get the dog back but

[00:07:20] I was pretty close to to having to go out there with the drone and try to search but it would have been a pretty decent hike I think in there first just to start to start my launch you know.

[00:07:34] All right all right. I was looking at it though and that seemed like a decent trail maybe to to hike on looking at the blogs there that that the pet owner was sending me. I look like it

[00:07:47] would be a decent trail I don't know maybe even my kids could take that. Oh yeah. How old are the kids? I have four daughters well two of my own two my wife we have seven two eight year olds and a

[00:08:03] twelve year old and one on the way do next month. Wow yes well that's going to be a big family. Yeah cheers man. Yeah are you hoping for a daughter or hopefully a boy? Well we were hoping for a son

[00:08:20] but it's another girl that's okay we're we're used to that. Damn. I like what you're drinking there awestruck. Hey hey we'll talk about that later. I recognize that yeah you might recognize this.

[00:08:34] I don't actually juice bomb. Juice bomb by Sloup. I like this I like this guy he's coming up on aggressive although on all terms I love it. I'm a cider by by awestruck I don't know if you've

[00:08:53] had that one yet but very good. Oh yeah oh yeah so if you miss the aurora or the eclipse there is definitely now a second or a third chance to get at something now which is a comet

[00:09:08] that's coming in. The comet of the year is getting brighter and if you miss the solar eclipse and the super storms of the of the aurora now is the time. Ted I know you have some information

[00:09:22] I'm going to go over this really quickly but I know you have a little bit more information on this now the comet is coming in of course comet's can be seen most likely it's rarely that you can see

[00:09:33] them with the naked eye mostly you can see them with good telescopes or some amazing cameras that you can of course catch a little bit more light in there but uh this is called the eclipse comet

[00:09:46] 12p ponds brooks uh green comet uh bunch of different different names for it and it's a3 and it's going to be coming in and uh we're going to have some good views of it and

[00:09:59] Ted's got a little bit more information than me about this. Oh okay so I actually looked up what a comet is oh yeah because I wasn't I wasn't completely sure what a comet is it's

[00:10:13] not like you know one flies by all the time but they're frozen according to nasa is is if they know anything about comets frozen leftovers from the formation of the solar system and they're

[00:10:26] composed of dust rock and ices they range from a few miles to tens of miles wide and they as they orbit closer to the sun guess what the ice melts gases spew out dust comes out

[00:10:41] and all of that throws off that lit up tail that follows the comet so this comet's uh closest approach to the sun will occur on or around october 10th of this year and from the northern hemisphere where most but not all of our listeners are located

[00:11:04] it will be easiest to see the comet just after that october 10th when it will be visible from the southwest just after sunset oh wow yeah when they when they say from the southwest i'm wondering if they're talking about arizona southern california like way down southwest

[00:11:25] at any rate the comet could get as bright as venus which is roughly scaled at a may a magnitude of negative five venus according to nasa is the second brightest object in the night sky the most

[00:11:42] brightest object in the night sky is what stash the sun i thought it was your forehead but yes it is yes it's the moon it's the moon folks yes no so you talk about comets you know i used to be a

[00:11:59] amateur astra astrophotographer and i have uh done a couple comets and usually they're they're available they're more seen right before sunrise so this is pretty cool that it's after

[00:12:12] sunset so that means you don't have to wake up at the goddamn like break up dawn like i had to wake up at like three four o'clock usually to get a picture of a comet and i forgot what it was

[00:12:23] comet uh like sands sands something but this was this was a good 10 years ago and exactly and you know it was it was nice right up above the the mountains before i got it but then of course you

[00:12:38] know once again the sun comes up and you can't see anything so you have that limited but right after sunset is a phenomenal time to catch it mm-hmm what do you think jaysten you think you

[00:12:47] can get your drone up there get some shots of this comet i don't know i can't go any higher than than 400 feet so why not that's the faa rule uh rules are made to be broken yeah ground level

[00:13:06] that's our max there so this guy this guy follows the rules good for him but i will say i don't see the the stars down here where i live now in duchess county um i don't see the

[00:13:21] stars like i like i would when i was a kid growing up in herkimer county where it's you know lot less light pollution and um there's there's way more stars in the sky um oh yeah yeah i

[00:13:34] i'm totally nice yeah that whole dark sky movement is a good thing yeah and it would be it would be great if more and more municipalities adopted and mandated dark sky lighting programs for shopping

[00:13:48] plazas commercial establishments and even households frankly yeah yeah yeah definitely i agree and uh do you know the cat skills uh dead center of the cat skills you know slide uh the seagr area

[00:14:01] stuff like that has the most one of the most darkest skies of new york state and the east coast uh besides the adoranx of course so right oh nice yeah we have some really dark skies here

[00:14:12] right in the middle dead center you know you go to london rocky you'll probably get some dark skies but i went to uh i did a sunset hike on panther mountain one time and you could see the lights

[00:14:23] from new york city it was absolutely insane really wow oh yeah the whole orange sky facing down south was absolutely insane but up when you go to like giant leg and on the giant ledge but when

[00:14:37] you go to that little ledge going over on panther when you're up at the top you could see over torched tremper and stuff like that it was completely dark complete darkness and then you move a little

[00:14:46] bit over and look over to the the south and it was the new york city lights it was pretty crazy so tad we're gonna go back into your area bare mountain trails in the hudson valley

[00:14:57] back open after a historic storm damaged the month or the area 10 months ago so we had a huge rainstorm happened here down in bare mountain which is the hudson valley on july 9 2023 10 inches of rain fell damaging the park's infrastructure you know videos came out of people hiking the

[00:15:18] appellation trail right there the appellation trail goes right through they had to redirect that around of course a major damage happened there if 10 inches of rain it doesn't say how how fast it

[00:15:30] fell but you know within you know you know even like eight hours of 10 inches of rain falling is a significant impact especially with bare mountain which is just cascading rock going down and just

[00:15:43] it plummeting everything and it was an absolutely insane time and uh it's back open so they have redone the the area they have made it safer now of course and the appellation trails open and

[00:15:57] bare mountain state park falling significant damage of course and uh what an amazing accomplishment in one year to happen so bear or um ted i'm pretty sure you said that you were hiking this during

[00:16:12] that time right yeah i um you know one of these strange things i was had been looking at the weather and i thought gee uh it's going to be raining everywhere so why not go someplace where

[00:16:26] it's easy to do a hike in the rain so of all things i picked uh the haram and state park albeit knowing the rain was coming i dressed appropriately and you know i had a pair of

[00:16:37] those mesh hiking shoes on some socks that were all synthetic and rain gear but i i do remember that day is i would had been hiking out in the rain it was maybe about an hour and a half into a

[00:16:52] my hike out in the rain and i came across this couple husband and wife both wearing cotton sweat pants the shirt and pants lovely and yeah and in addition to the cotton outfits they were wearing

[00:17:09] they were also wearing the luck of complete misery and disbelief on their faces so i offered them they were hiking you know miles north of where i was and i offered to give them a ride uh out to

[00:17:22] the road and and help them out but they declined so i always wondered what happened to those two people and i wonder if they're still married frankly no uh jesson did you hear about do you

[00:17:35] remember that when those amazing downpours happened it was within a couple hours yeah i mean with my regular job we're rebuilding uh one of the roads down there just uh just outside of west point

[00:17:49] 218 the goat trail that comes around there well that's still closed yeah it's still closed as of now they're making some real headway on it well yeah they they're actually putting another

[00:18:02] culvert in there which surprised me um they designed a grass wall and then a culvert to put back in there instead of a kind of a more of a clear span bridge type structure but my thought would have been open

[00:18:16] it up clear span it with a bridge structure and let the water go you know and you know maybe break it up uh slow it down by installing you know some large rock because then of course right

[00:18:30] at the base of the hill is the is the uh the freight rail track down there so um which has a fairly small culvert going under it because it's right at the river's edge you know so

[00:18:43] yeah that's uh that was a pretty pretty major storm last year yeah yeah it just didn't stop raining i mean it hit hit this level of intensity and just stayed there for hours it's almost like

[00:18:57] like a tropical storm or hurricane it's kind of rained yeah it was insane yeah seeing that stuff you know we've had that of course a couple times here in and the Catskills in the Hudson Valley and it

[00:19:06] just it's one of those times that you're just like unexpected and you know luckily we have people like Tad who saved lives and uh helped those people out but not marriages or at least yeah

[00:19:19] at least i don't know yeah we don't know yet we don't know what's going on over there so that Bear Mountain back open so we're probably gonna see thousands and thousands and thousands of

[00:19:29] people going up there again that don't know how to how to prepare for a hike and whatever we'll we'll see we'll see so once again you know we had i love mountain lions mountain lions happen to be

[00:19:44] my my favorite my favorite topic in here so we had uh of course i got something somebody bring it brought this to me trail runners dog was snatched by a mountain lion now this was May 23rd

[00:19:57] so it was only like six days ago and this was in mountain Montana and uh it's lying mountain lying country basically and May 15th a trail owner Ceasley McAfee 24 years old reported to Montana Fish and Game that on mountain balding near Bozeman she heard a her dog

[00:20:19] Indy yell beam and according to McAfee file the sound saw her dog being dragged off by a mountain lion the runner reportedly searched for her dogs and hoped that the mountain lion had given up

[00:20:31] but she is never ready to find Indy and uh unfortunately i would say that uh if the mountain lion was snatching off a dog that uh it's probably gone by now you know sorry it's

[00:20:44] hard to say but we don't have people like Justin over there searching for dogs and finding dogs and helping dogs like we're going to talk about tonight so so i'm going to ask you Justin do you

[00:20:53] think that's a true story there's no eyewitnesses there's no video footage there's no camera a few weeks ago stash reported something about a toddler chasing after a mountain lion

[00:21:06] and yeah well you know the term you know you got to show pictures or else it didn't happen right yeah i mean nowadays there's it's an access to to your uh phone for pictures and videos so

[00:21:21] and and and so a mountain lion allegedly hauls off this dog and then she goes looking for the dog is if there's as if the mountain lion's not coming back for anything right like he's done

[00:21:33] for the night he's checked out he's got his one kill for the day and he's not working over time that's right yeah mountain lions must know they must not like skinny trail runner types

[00:21:44] i think the the story is a little bit uh a little bit farfetched but um you know i mean perhaps the dog got snatched up by one but yeah i i wouldn't be sticking around yeah yeah and of

[00:21:58] course most of the i hate to say this you know a lot of people don't know how to keep their dog on leash through the hiking trails and and it sucks because you know you have these instances

[00:22:10] like this out in montana where you know mountain lions are just amazing stealth hunters and one little jump on pounce dig their claws into you that you're done uh the dog's done

[00:22:25] the dog has no chance and it's just you know we've seen in the past couple years a lot of videos just of mountain lions walking along the trail of course you know it there it's it's it's the

[00:22:38] wilderness they're gonna do that and it amazes me to see this and to have that instance of just having a mountain lion walk 20 feet in front of you i don't know if i'd shit my pants or not

[00:22:50] i probably would yeah if i was a mountain lion i'd walk anywhere i wanted to okay because yeah you're what do you fear in the wild if you're a mountain lion probably nothing or very little

[00:23:03] maybe a grizzly yeah grizzly that's about it maybe a mama grizzly you know to stay away from but just about everything else is yours you own it right right it's absolutely it's it so just be on

[00:23:17] the lookout for mountain lion attacks in the Catskills i will be contacting you if i hear that and that a dog's gonna be snatched up you're gonna be looking for it yeah this is maybe this is a good

[00:23:27] spot to ask you justin so i don't forget to ask you later but as your drone in the infrared unit capable of detecting mountain lions separate from other animals does it have like an app or a

[00:23:40] feature around in a filter where it'll pick up the heat signal from a mountain lion no not separate from anything it would show up just like everything else but so would would you think that

[00:23:51] maybe like the dc and other um environmental agencies have gotten together with the manufacturers of this equipment and they've eliminated the ability of the heat seeking infrared to detect mountain lions i haven't physically uh i haven't physically spotted one yet so yeah but they're

[00:24:08] out there they're out we know that right this according to that story they're one dragged away the dog okay yeah i have a lot of thickens we need to move along but i think we're getting into

[00:24:20] something here stash it's crazy it's once again once again this mountain lion stuff is just absolutely if justin hasn't spotted any like prints or anything like that you know he's been out there

[00:24:32] 100 and 100 times with this drone so sure once again all right so i don't think wait a minute i do have some some crazy stuff so we just got the dc uh forest ranger report here and uh give me

[00:24:46] one second to find this out we had a little couple instances in the cat skills that happened i know one of them was in shan deyken so that this this happened in town of hunter

[00:25:00] may 23rd forest ranger peterson responded to a call for a subject that has been shocked by a power line ranger peterson hudson police in green county sheriffs deputies performed cpr and regained

[00:25:13] a pulse ems arrived quickly and transported the patient to the hospital so once again there's a big question of how the hell did he come in contact with the power line yeah silence dead silence like

[00:25:30] yeah you got me on that what are you walk on it faced by a mountain lion up the pole i don't know i don't know maybe maybe a tree a tree knocked over a pole utility pole power line was you know

[00:25:47] at or near ground level something some bizarre set of circumstances like that or i know what's dosh is thinking the guy was out for a trail hike a walk or heard a growl or roar of a mountain lion

[00:26:01] and the only thing he could get up was a power pole came into contact with the power line or or he was illegally hiking up grand mountain on the power line cables power line cable came down he got electrocuted well those power line cables aren't there anymore

[00:26:18] they've been all right yeah well i slice yeah lies all right so also may 25th at 4 50 p.m force in shandaykin force rangers rusher and stratton responded to a 23 year old hiker with muscle weakness and land cramps on wittenberg route who would have known that i'm wittenberg mountain

[00:26:39] you know eight mile hike uh other hikers saw the dehydrated hiker from new jersey and gave him food and water new jersey wow what a what a odd place to be from uh but he was unable to stand

[00:26:52] at his own rusher reached the subject at 7 p.m and provided more nourishment taking multiple great breaks on the way down rusher and stratton helped subject out in the trailhead where the ambulance from shandaykin was waiting resources were clear at 10 0 5 p.m de c reminds hikers

[00:27:08] to be prepared by eating and hydrating prior to the temple of a difficult hike so once again 450 10 0 5 almost six hours of uh of a rescue so that was just came in seriously probably like two hours ago

[00:27:24] so stash when i'm when i'm out hiking or somebody else is out hiking on a warmer day as we're having now and we come across somebody like that what should we offer them what should we

[00:27:37] do for a person like that food and water absolutely water and gatorade if you have some some any sort of electrolytes and stuff like that being a search and rescue person and a volunteer you know

[00:27:50] i have to i have to extend my extend my duties to this person help this person get him off the mountain or you know if it causes me from not summoning the mountain whatever i'll get this

[00:28:00] person off the mound so we should sit them down have them you know remain in one spot try to rehydrate them get some electrolytes in them and monitor their their condition until they improve

[00:28:14] or call for help basically it yeah i i noted on instagram over the past weekend um there was a few people complaining about having a little a level of fatigue or lack of stamina and comparison

[00:28:30] to prior weeks out hiking and i attributed it to the fact that it was really nice on saturday out there no cloud cover the canopy is still somewhat thin at higher elevations so if you've been hiking all

[00:28:46] winter and you're not used to super hydrating now's the time to get back into the flow of things if you will and drink those fluids yeah rehydrate is what i always do before you get

[00:28:59] there you know hydrate on your way there and then another big tip that i have is fill your bladder with ice turn it upside down put it in a cooler with a bunch of kind of like uh dry ice stuff like

[00:29:14] that keep it cold and then when you are ready to go in the morning tip that thing upside down and then you have your your spout kind of area where your your high your your glass comes out

[00:29:27] um you're full of uh nice cold water instead of all's i know as you're saying that stash and justin's looking a lot he's he's wondering which bladder is this guy talking about is it

[00:29:38] is it like the bladder inside of him he fills what what's going on it's a hydration bladder yes correct justin knows he's smart come on i know he's smart he's no i know he's smart

[00:29:50] but the way you started off about filling your bladder with ice i'm saying to myself what the fuck oh oh the hydration bladder i get it now so okay jesus i just wondered what that would you got like like a a velcro opening you know when

[00:30:06] your abdomen you stuff some ice in there sleep upside down it works all right all right well if it works for you i guess that's okay all right so thanks guys for shooting the shit get a

[00:30:19] bunch of topics uh thank you to the monthly supporters darin vicki john betsey denise venessa joseph jim michael david chris and venessa thank you guys very much for supporting the show really great lupusia and it also sponsors so capture your love story against breathtaking

[00:30:37] backdrops with outdoor chronicles photography molly specializes in adventure couple photography and she'll immortalize your moments miss the stunning lamp kates the cascals adirondack m white mountains so craft timeless images that reflect your unique bond and nature's grand or

[00:30:55] embarking your own get a real unforgettable photograph journey with outdoor and mental scouting don't hesitate to get ahold of molly on all platform also discover the wilderness with trailbound project our expert-led hiking and backpacking education programs offered unparalleled outdoor experiences whether you're a beginner or a seasoned adventurer

[00:31:15] join us to learn essential skills like map encompass navigation wilderness first aid or even backpacking we use hand-on exercises to build up your confidence in any situation while you're in the backcountry start your journey today with trailbound project and unlock the wonders of the

[00:31:31] great outdoors so coffees mentions so pink pony 818 aka tracy was at harvey mountain view in the beautiful pink azaleas on a perfect day and she saw only two mountain lines i mean sorry sorry whoa i read that wrong mountain bikers roidean slip yeah sorry i'm getting so

[00:31:52] and into the tomb with the mountain lines and we know justin's gonna be back on the show spotting some mountain lines later on so uh pink pony once again tracy thank you for mentioning us also

[00:32:05] thank you to someone who is someone who donated five hardsiders today they said they enjoyed the discussion on double top and graham but really appreciate hearing that bushwhack a big indian

[00:32:15] wasn't great i think tad that was your experience uh going up big indian uh she's the person said they tried once but it was a big fail yeah i just one of these bushwhacks i did one time that looked great on the topo map and real life

[00:32:33] wasn't wasn't all that much intriguing or uh entertaining about it so but i did it i checked it off the list of course always got to check it off the list it's gotta be off the

[00:32:47] list it made it may somehow made the list and then it got checked off the list so just really quick where'd you approach that from again did you approach that from segar

[00:32:57] yes oh man the nettles were the nettles insane are there i i did it at the right time of the year they were you know only they were somewhere like mid calf below your knee they weren't that bad

[00:33:10] what was bad was just like the endless talless slope of small flat rock going up there i really haven't run into much of that elsewhere in the cat skills but this was just endless

[00:33:22] oh yeah i know i've i've approached double top from that area and the nettles were absolutely insane like waist high and just you had to whack at it all the time and that was we we wanted to get

[00:33:36] up to the we didn't want to go up to double top and then go down to the the plane crash but we wanted to go up from segar just up to double top to get the plane crash and it was a bad idea

[00:33:47] horrible idea so all right so what are you guys drinking tonight jason let's start with you um i got this uh sloop juice bomb it's uh they're like juicy uh ipa here they got their start here

[00:34:04] about 10 miles from where i live nice little town called olyseville they started out just leasing a barn at a at a small apple orchard farm and uh they've since you know gotten so big that they've

[00:34:20] moved on they and they have a a big place now that they built down in the old i think it was old ivm buildings um down in fischkell so they're they're back there in that big complex and uh

[00:34:33] pretty pretty big indoor kind of family oriented almost uh place you know decent little bites and uh and great beer so this was that's been kind of a favorite of mine since they started up here

[00:34:47] locally and we used to go to their their place there um it's uh it's called vozburg farms now vozburgs the family has uh you know generations old apple orchard fruit farmers and nice

[00:35:03] they were you know nice enough to to lease their their place out for sloop to get their start and since then uh sloop moved on but they've i believe uh kind of passed on some of their knowledge to

[00:35:17] the vozburgs and the vozburgs actually have it open as a vozburg brewing so nice they have a vozburgs also has a really great selection of beer there good stuff so is is sloop hard cider is it

[00:35:32] like an IPA beer yeah more IPA craft type yep all right all right i've never heard that before so they'll be tagged in this so thank you just a new IPA i like it yeah very good very good stuff

[00:35:45] yeah now unfortunately tad looked like he had some yeti stuff he kind of surprised me he was getting me excited with saying that he's gonna have a hard cider but no of course not yeah i

[00:35:56] my daughter bought a 12 pack of hard ciders over the weekend i tried one and it was i don't know not not too much character to it it just tasted like a hard cider period you know like one a

[00:36:12] cider you used to get back in the 70s when they sold generic beer and generic soda and cider back in the 70s yeah i mean it's you know goes back centuries hard cider what was it can you

[00:36:27] can you name it uh the it was a uh a brand out of uh somewhere around boston as i recall that's not local nothing yeah it's horrible yeah yeah it's i'm not worth mentioning let's just delete the

[00:36:42] last two minutes of the episode so but i'm having my trusty you know home roasted home brewed coffee in the becoming ever so popular yeti cup uh i ran into a hiker this weekend who knows me about

[00:36:59] the yeti cup about you know it's not the voice it's the yeti cup so i'm gonna start carrying it with me on hikes now to validate my existence on the trail hold it on when you're walking kind

[00:37:12] of like a VIP pass yeah no i'm just gonna clip it to the back of my backpack so it'll work in part is a like a bear bell but it's big enough that'll deter mountain lions from attacking me during

[00:37:24] bush wax and then when people see me go by and i have this yeti cup clanking on the back of my pack they'll say oh i think that was the guest jesus yeah so tonight uh awestruck pair and uh apples and

[00:37:41] pears you know justin spotted that earlier so justin you're a fan of awestruck i am yeah we first had it okay we we attend the uh food and wine festival every year here at the duchess county

[00:37:52] fairgrounds and and that's where i first came across the awestruck um and i saw they were pretty local here and uh they had a special going because that that stuff is like uh i don't

[00:38:06] you can find it's like 17 or 19 dollars for for a four pack uh in some of the beverage centers but at the fairgrounds so you could get it for about nine dollars uh some special going on there so

[00:38:20] we bought a bunch of it and uh homicider was was the one that i particularly like it's a kind of their fall seasonal blend i think and uh the a has like a big butcher knife stuck down

[00:38:34] through it's kind of cool so yeah but good stuff yeah yeah well good yeah i love awestruck i'm always going there we got some some seasonal stuff recently but i can't remember what it was

[00:38:47] called strawberry watermelon or something like that uh you know it's it's 15 minutes away from where i live so i get to go to a brewery and get their stuff so that's great i haven't been there

[00:38:56] yet but i'd like to go it's pretty far away for you though yeah i guess it'd be pretty far it's like an hour and 30 minutes yeah right yeah yeah so that's not a go

[00:39:10] drive around see the sites and stop at a brewery or something you know it's just got to hop on the drone so previous hikes uh just that have you done i know you you've been busy a lot with the drone

[00:39:25] have you i mean you talk about hiking have you done any previous hikes would you consider your drone stuff hikes uh yeah i mean the the story we're going to be talking about uh here in a little

[00:39:37] while on the show i mean we we hiked up that mountain um to to rescue annie but um i mean other than that uh you know not really and i haven't i don't have much experience in the cat skills

[00:39:51] as far as hike actual hiking goes um you know i went up to middleberg uh with my wife and hiked uh vroomen's nose up there once and yeah but it's that's a that's a neat spot you know and

[00:40:05] pretty easy trail so uh besides that though yeah not i haven't really gotten into it um but what i'd like to you know you'll you'll get there you know they'll take time so roman's nose is a good start absolutely phenomenal area just go harry valley

[00:40:23] i i will suggest justin if you like viewing bald eagles uh definitely check out this go harry county bald eagle trail okay awesome phenomenal place to start off with uh just some small hikes

[00:40:36] and stuff like that yep uh so tad what about you sir oh yeah so i headed out to the beaver kill beaver kill valley area this past weekend and was gonna peek back some of uh the 100 highest

[00:40:56] the beaver kill ridge beaver kill mountain willow weamock and it was a fun it well i was going to say it's a fun hike and then i started to have flashbacks of hiking through uh hobble

[00:41:09] bush hell because that's what it turned into the hike out the never sink hardenberg trail you know which as it always is going out there and that old beat up remember the beat up bridge on

[00:41:22] the the hardenberg trail yeah right that's been there for a hundred years um it's still there it looks the same it doesn't appear to be aging but shortly after that i banged a right uh just

[00:41:35] upstream of dog hollow and bullet hole and found some old logging roads almost got me up to the call up there on the ridge and once i made the ridge it was just endless patches big thick patches

[00:41:53] of hobble bush and it's where i learned that uh well afterwards i learned that hobble bush actually gets its name from the fact that the branches extend out um horizontally so far

[00:42:07] and so low to the ground that it makes people wobble and hobble when they walk through it okay yeah yeah so i was i was about six miles on that ridge uh hobble hiking through hobble bush hell

[00:42:26] but i did bag beaver kill mountain and willow we walk mountain and knock those two off the list kudos to michelle and her jeep cherokee who uh picked me up when i was hitchhiking down the road

[00:42:41] and gave me a ride out to the balsam lake parking area whereupon i was outed by chris given my voice chris is a fan of the show so thanks chris and um overall it was 10.6 miles

[00:42:58] 1925 feet of vertical gain and according to my gps tracks i hit a maximum elevation of 3300 and 73 feet but according to uh the mapping the topo it's only 3310 so somehow i i i grabbed another 63 vertical

[00:43:21] feet oh i guess my final note before we move on is that in the midst of all of that hobble bush when i got to one of the beaver kill knobs there was a clearing and it gave you a perfect

[00:43:40] view of balsam lake mountain and the fire tower at the top nice so out of 10.6 miles i had that one brief moment of tranquility and splendor and then it was over it was back to hobble bush hill

[00:43:57] so did you you went from the beaver kill area did you cross over this is vending bridge yeah on the gun that's how i walked out i didn't see anybody the whole day until

[00:44:06] i finally made the um the trail what is it the uh mon gap garden park trend yeah yeah so i made that trail i i banged the left and went out to wheel willow we walk mountain um and then headed back and

[00:44:22] and on the descent i did start running into some people and then i when i was at my weakest point but not weak enough to call the dc i hit the suspension bridge and you know the suspension

[00:44:35] suspension bridge they say don't bounce it when you hike across and right and the reason is it's going to bounce enough on its own so you don't have to give it any encouragement to bounce so

[00:44:47] yeah i went across it it's pretty cool the river i mean that whole beaver kill valley i think it's one of the most beautiful spots and yeah it's just fabulous out there i mean anytime of year it's breathtaking it's really really breathtaking in the fall but on this

[00:45:05] late spring early summer day it was great also it was um you know bug net season so for most of the way i did have a bug bug net because they were out eating yes so did you know that the that's the

[00:45:24] only suspension bridge in the cascades yes yeah it's the coolest know that it is i love that that area because number one secluded is heck uh you only get the dedicated trout pressures out there

[00:45:40] along the area yeah well there's they have they have their signs on the left and right of that bridge that you know that you can't go either wet either side of the bridge because it's posted

[00:45:51] you can just walk across the bridge yeah phenomenal area so awesome before you move on and while we're talking about bridges when you go out that never sink hardenburg trail right you're leaving the the balsam lake parking lot you're heading upstream up the never sink hardenburg

[00:46:10] trail and you're at least three quarters of a mile you walk across that wooden bridge that just goes over this small stream do you know the one i'm talking about

[00:46:23] god what is that is that the uh it's an unnamed stream that's how small it is but why is there why is there way the f out there that i know you know what i'm gonna say i know what you're gonna say

[00:46:36] right why that bridge why they did all that work to build a bridge way out there but on the west branch of the never sink at the slide mountain parking area there's no bridge

[00:46:47] okay why you made that decision who made that decision i want to know and i'm not going to stop asking questions until i find out why it is they dragged all that wood out there to build that

[00:46:59] bridge in the middle of nowhere anybody who's out there can cross that was barely flowing out of the dc podcast and do that with that i am i am i'm gonna break into their podcast room right i'm

[00:47:11] justin's gonna fly me in on his drone i'm gonna be like rambo i'm gonna fly in on the drone right into the room in the middle of the podcast yeah gosh that's when i want you to have the bail

[00:47:21] money at hand so you can bail me out because it's gonna be trouble all right so ten this weekend this this weekend uh jessica and i went over to the escarpment trail now we went actually

[00:47:35] inside the north state of south uh area the south lake area that was a little hassle of course to get into because everybody wanted to get the caterskill falls and uh the cool thing was at the beginning

[00:47:46] the lady was just like where are you guys going and we're doing the escarpment trail and they're just like oh really do you know what you're doing i'm like yeah the hat kind of says everything

[00:47:55] it's 3,500 club and uh they were just like oh all right excellent that's good because nobody else is doing the escarpment trail so we went in uh we paid of course 10 bucks not bad i don't

[00:48:10] mind helping out uh the the dc and we go all the way down to the south lake area and it's just the masses are coming up the area coming up the walkway to the caterskill falls we get onto the escarpment

[00:48:25] trail we go up we hit the cat'scomb mountain house area beautiful overlook uh barely anybody there there was one group there we hit the trail going over the escarpment absolutely nobody on trail

[00:48:37] didn't hit anybody till boulder rock saw two people dedicated hikers and then we keep going all the way over we we hit the inspiration point we hit sunset rock lake's point all that probably around five

[00:48:50] six people then right down when we hit layman's mommy it just start hitting the masses just 12 people 15 people people coming up sitting on the side of the rocks just 25 people and

[00:49:06] i'm just sitting there like wow this is amazing and uh i know uh julie has that area it's not that bad i gotta admit there's not that much trashy she she volunteers for that area she trail maintenance

[00:49:20] for that year my friend john melt trail maintenance for that area from the layman's monument uh it's not that bad to be honest people were actually respectful they're very nice talking uh dogs

[00:49:32] were on a leash i was uh i was impressed by by that uh then we we hit you know the layman's monument we go down to the junction of the bridge going over to caterscale falls and then we hit the we

[00:49:47] go back up to the road and of course masses coming in 10 20 people groups absolutely insane we're the only ones with the backpacks on there but you know what amazing time beautiful views

[00:50:02] uh people were respectful you know i i'm actually like you know no music didn't hear any music i i think the words getting out that that stuff is disrespectful people are respecting the property

[00:50:16] didn't see much you know garbage and stuff like that around there i was i was i was very happy and you know the funny thing is as i saw the we came in and i saw ranger dawson i know ranger

[00:50:30] dawson for a long time i've worked with him before and uh when we came in i looked over at him hopefully he listened to us i don't think he listened to us but it was like hey dawson and it was very

[00:50:43] uh like trying to think of the worm like the word to say like like women ish like like hey hey girlfriend uh and he got dark red and then i just spit up and left

[00:50:57] it was hilarious good time though good time well beautiful azaleas are popping up mountain laurels are popping up uh the views are fantastic overlooks in the hudson valley going into catarys gold clove people respectful uh very very happy with with the time i went even though there was

[00:51:15] amazing amount of people kayaking on north lake or south lake and uh you know people were respectful unhappy right glad to hear it all right let's let's wrap it up cat skill news volunteer 3500 club needs stewards for this weekend saturday and sunday is fully open saturday

[00:51:34] to need one person uh cat skill trail crew june 8th 9th and 10th they're doing stuff in the mongop region so they're camping at the mongop on campground uh saturday and sunday which is

[00:51:46] june 1st and 2nd they are doing the harden mongop hardenberg trail uh from the campground to sand point mountain so they're doing some blowdown some water bars cleaning stuff like that and monday and tuesday the third fourth long pond trail from the flugertown road to sand

[00:52:04] point mountain they're doing some trail maintenance up there as well so get with the cat skill trail crew if you need some assistance or you want to volunteer please volunteer also cat skill mountain club vizzer's center jolly rovers trail crew and brebbly mountain fire tower volunteers please volunteer

[00:52:23] eight hours one time a year do it it's amazing it's fun so stickers also ask me send me an email or uh go to camp cat skill you can get stickers there give me one second i gotta do the

[00:52:37] weather forecast god damn this this thing is all right it's all the way justin i'm very sorry i am i am out of control here can you see everything that's going on right

[00:52:51] now actually again oh wow also i'm also seeing my phone blow up uh my business phone i just got a message uh the dog i was searching for last night and also early this morning for best thermal clarity

[00:53:08] uh was just spotted by somebody in the nearby area so yes there might be going back out there later this evening to uh to help with recovery mission you are absolutely insane that's incredible so whether this weekend uh we got some awesome weather this weekend

[00:53:33] friday looking to be low 40s mid 50s no rain at all some clouds nothing beautiful day saturday mid 50s high 60s with wind bare minimum probably a couple miles per hour which sucks for the

[00:53:51] for the bugs because we want to keep those bugs at bay but no clear some clouds beautiful day sunday some clouds light rain in the p.m beautiful day mid 50s the high 60s wind will be around 10 miles

[00:54:06] per hour so get out there and freaking rip it up because it's going to be an absolute fantastic weekend but big thing bring your bug naps because you never know it's going to be absolutely

[00:54:18] insane and i just lost the screen that's talking about my lines hold on hold on everybody silence ass yes uh-huh this biscuit ginger oh that's a good that's that's a really good one too yeah

[00:54:38] all right we're back let me uh get this email out so i got an email from a person that contacted me from a local area actually the heartwick college which is right next to me

[00:54:56] i usually hiked that area they they recently created some phenomenal new trails that we don't have much mountains here and in in the onyanta area but he contacted me and said that he loved

[00:55:12] the conversation that tad and i had about graham and double top tad we have been getting some awesome feedback about that graham and double top discussion so um but he said that jay

[00:55:24] gould and the gould family was absolutely a horrible family uh his gold rush investments led to a black my uh friday market crash in 1869 and uh he definitely died pretty young also uh george was not a good

[00:55:41] dude he cheated on his wife and had a secret family until she died then he married his mistress and uh he was uh definitely uh just a background a lot of background stuff that people didn't know

[00:55:56] and i guarantee morris gonna come out later on but i wanted to bring up this castile mountain history time of the furlough lodge so if you are ever going up to the balsam lake area

[00:56:09] justin i know you are going to be going up there there will be this wicked turn that you take right before the parking area for balsam lake and it overlooks double top and graham i think it's

[00:56:21] just graham though uh you might get a glimpse of both and below that is a furlough lodge which gould's owned it was built in 1890 by george uh gould who lived till 1923 only uh

[00:56:36] uh 50 something years and they wanted an area in the dry book valley uh that constructed of a rustic style with uh human logs and uh it was their summer home and shooting lodge it overlooks furlough

[00:56:51] lake in the western cat skills uh 2200 feet above sea level uh estate was over 5000 acres uh a virgin forest by then which was really weird 1890 i would i would consider that because of course

[00:57:06] the tanneries didn't come in until a little bit later than that in the beaver curl area and of course the segar area only had one little tannery down there but i know the beaver curl area had two

[00:57:15] or three down over there so uh by 1900 they enlarged their original home to 26 rooms but in stark contrast their city and winter residences so they never went up there and until they really

[00:57:28] wanted to 26 rooms by themselves so uh informal family home it is still in the gould family today and it remains a private home now george gould was the eldest son of j gould one of the most

[00:57:43] infamous robber barons who died with a fortune of 84 million and a reputation of the most despised men in america in 1886 george came to furlough lake for some trout fishing which also had to

[00:57:56] be 20 miles south of the gul homes that where his father was born which was up in roxbury and once again i went to and i talked about this that the gould uh i think it was george or j gould

[00:58:09] was it george j george j was the father george's oldest son so j was the one that knew john burrows yes and then j was the one that walked along the the city streets saw john burrows

[00:58:24] and ignored him because john had a beard and look kind of normal and uh he was a rich little let's throw out the word pompous response right exactly there you go better word than i was going

[00:58:37] to say so uh he was enchanted that he told his host that he could never buy the lake and build us that he could ever buy the lake and build a summer home but he would do it

[00:58:47] people directed him to the coat and kill how do you say that again uh tad that that one estate that's over on the bevel kill area quayton uh quayton oh yeah yeah quayton oh yeah on older

[00:58:59] lake yes yes that area that that's kind of got the pillars over there yeah that's the other railroad barren of the time yeah uh they they directed him over there but he didn't want to he wanted

[00:59:11] to stay up high so he built his new home on the hillside by a stream that tumbled its way down 250 feet in the furlough lake um from this position he enjoyed views in all directions

[00:59:22] of some of the highest peaks and the cat skills the house had been added to either side of the time at a charlotte heart was designed by an architect from kinkston uh build uh rough human pine logs

[00:59:34] over two stories and measured 100 by 46 feet with a rustic wraparound porch popped up in the knobbly back birch uh the ground floor contained just three reception rooms just three only three reception rooms good lord uh with uh the front door a billiards room and a dining room

[00:59:53] that opens straight into the sitting room with a large field of stone fireplace floor is brightened and dexon rugs bear skins and giant bangle tiger skins oh my god this guy lived in

[01:00:06] god damn poverty right over here uh right deer and elk alers drape guns trophies uh rustic stair clases going up the second floor uh so once again the ghouls uh had it rough back in

[01:00:21] the days that we know of and uh you know once again i was brought to my attention by matt stanford uh who is uh of the heartwood college area who's right next to me so

[01:00:33] we're gonna get together and talk about this and we're gonna be hiking some trails soon so we talk about double top and cram in there and in one of our previous episodes teds and uh

[01:00:43] you know just and i don't know if do you know the whole situation about double top and cram i do not no so double top double top and cram are now privately owned mountains and you cannot

[01:00:55] access them okay so they used to be and once again they closed them due to preservation which is which is kind of weird because both of them were heavily logged one of them had a

[01:01:10] repeater tower on it for tv stations and uh it just it just doesn't make sense maybe you know a couple tops on the top of the trails there might have been a couple of trails going up

[01:01:23] to the canister but you know you block those trails off they'll they'll rebuild themselves in a in matter of five to six years but they've always been privately owned mountains privately owned but they have been accessible public okay got you so they cut off the access after

[01:01:42] certain years yeah yeah covid covid is when they cut off the access because everybody started hiking it right everybody did the same mostly the same part up to the top they followed the trail

[01:01:56] they went up to the top signed in went back down nobody created a lot of new trails so it's it's just a big controversy that we have right now in the catskills uh and tad and i

[01:02:07] dreaded about it and you know teds looking a little like i don't know if he's grunted or something like that what are you are you i'm shopping on amazon now i'm i'm trying to i'm trying to buy a

[01:02:22] a mountain of my own on amazon maybe prime can deliver it i just i'm searching for something over 4200 feet in the catskills if there's anything available prime delivery a lot you can get you

[01:02:35] can get anything on on amazon so i thought i would try to see if you know i could punch in catskill mountain over 4200 feet nothing appears to be available today yeah nothing nothing yet

[01:02:48] maybe tomorrow but yeah you gotta love the golds you know some contradictions there and a lack of empathy for the fellow outdoor enthusiast who wants to get out in the woods and stretch their

[01:03:06] legs i mean they they they've kept it in the family for over a hundred years now and used it as a hunting and uh catskill mountain retreat for themselves and it at the very minimum alls we wanted was just

[01:03:23] a couple slivers of land to hike up to double top and graham and like we said last week or the week before you know ram there was a jeep trail all the way to the top and an old cinder block

[01:03:41] building with some steel infrastructure on top of it for the repeater station and then double top was a completely different environment at the top um but again the the trail leading to the top you know was a was a beaten path beaten into the ground

[01:04:00] could have been easily marked so uh what what the real reason was we can speculate but it surely is a loss nonetheless you can hike to south double top and it's more challenging than going to the

[01:04:16] other side of double top because they're you know as of the last time i was up that way there really isn't a beaten path going to that mountain from any direction yet it's a function

[01:04:30] at time and it'll probably get a beaten path to the top but you can still go up there there's a good lookout or two on that side of the mountain but maybe we'll do another deep dive into that or

[01:04:41] some some other cat skill controversy over the course of the summer yeah maybe we'll have the ghoul down here one time maybe they'll they'll be listening to this who knows all right sorry uh once

[01:04:55] again uh joneson for bringing into that stuff matt sanford uh brought me with that information so that's pretty cool stuff so let's get on to our last set of sponsors and then we'll get on to

[01:05:08] json's story which uh man with too much shooting the shit dad i'm getting we're sick and tired us we gotta stop doing it yeah all right so is it time for some new gear for hiking in the cat

[01:05:22] skills say no more camp cat skill in tannersville has all your hiking needs footwear stock moisture wicking shirts free side meals cat skill merchandise and more they have all the essentials for your hiking needs located in tannersville and online check out camp cat skill if you want

[01:05:37] free stickers stop here discover the beauty of the cat skills at around x and huntson valley with scenic route guiding our expert guys ensure you a safe unforgettable hiking experience tailored to your skill level from depth breathtaking vistas to hidden gems or if your peep bagging or just

[01:05:54] simple day hikes will lead you the best spots and back book your adventure today explore nature's wonder with scenic route guiding check them out on all social media platforms also if you

[01:06:04] mention the podcast you can get 10% off use the code mountain lion so another summit embark on a transformative journey with another summit another summit is dedicating to serving veterans and first responded with free outdoor activities activities like walks in nature paddling hiking or even

[01:06:24] backpacking join our supportive community to rejuvenate and nature's embrace experience camaraderie adventure and healing at no cost take your next step with another summit in a scent to new heights of resilience enjoy apply today on another summit org so before we get to justin

[01:06:45] that is going to get his awesome pbr let's talk about june 8th at the cat school outdoor expo we're gonna be there with our awesome banner you just want to just come there and see the

[01:06:57] the banner that we have it's absolutely phenomenal it's gonna be it's gonna be a hit we're gonna we're gonna do some karaoke right tad yeah you are um i'll bring the microphone you can do the singing

[01:07:13] it'll be all nickel back stuff i'm gonna seriously do some licking back yeah i'm burning to the ground tonight oh boy all right so we're moving right along folks and this is the end of the show

[01:07:26] yes no we're fading away why do people dislike nickel back i just get back but i haven't liked karaoke what about nickel back do you like nickel back um yeah i guess yeah why do people disrespect

[01:07:42] nickel back i can't i can't say that i don't like nickel back um uh i'm you know i'd listen to more country type west yes but all right but i don't i don't dislike that good good we'll be i'll be doing

[01:07:59] that at the outdoor expo some of this um karaoke stuff nickel back probably any stuff creed anything that people hate so you'll know when they're trying to wrap things up at the expo because

[01:08:13] that's when stash is gonna stand on the table grab the microphone and do his karaoke and that's the signal to just get to your car and get out of there no not at all you want to hear me do some

[01:08:27] creed man hold me now all right so let's get on to the guests of the night so justin tonight is here from upstate thermal drone services and he's gonna talk about a rescue

[01:08:46] they had up on north mountain for a dog named annie now justin uh does some amazing stuff and he has been a busy man in the past couple days you know i've i've i usually plan this weeks ahead

[01:09:00] of advance but justin has been busy with doing some freaking insane rescues that we've talked about so welcome to the show justin thank you thanks for having me i'm excited to be here and

[01:09:13] talk a little more about annie's story you know we you know we had a news broadcast story kind of cover it but you know they only get two three minutes uh for their for their news output you

[01:09:26] know um uh for their news cast sessions so this would be a good opportunity to kind of dive in a little bit deeper and and give a little bit more background and details about it um it's pretty

[01:09:42] pretty cool honestly my first experience uh using the drone in the cat skills for a search and rescue mission so wow unbelievable thanks yeah yeah so justin why don't you give a little

[01:09:57] background about yourself kind of like you know where you were located and stuff like that how you became into the drone services okay uh well i mean i born and raised in the southern

[01:10:10] ad around x northern herkimer county i've only been down in this area for the last 20 years i'd say 18 20 years that's it 18 to 20 years you know fresh out of college moved down this way

[01:10:24] to duchess county which we could see the cat skills from here which is uh one of the one of the highlights that that i think about you know living here is is that view um so being from

[01:10:37] the southern ad around x i went to college in the northern ad around x pulse miss college i have a surveying land surveying background and degree from there and moved down here to

[01:10:50] start my career um and and start real life i guess you'd say um then working for the state as a surveyor for uh almost 18 years now and i have a beautiful family i have two daughters of my own

[01:11:08] um got remarried two years ago and gained two step daughters um and uh have another daughter on the way actually born due to be born next month so growing family um the drone business is actually

[01:11:25] quite new as well and so we're as far as my background in drones you know i've i've flown drones in the past kind of recreationally um and and uh now i'm basically in business my wife and I

[01:11:42] started a small business and in hopes to uh you know further support our family and it's becoming quite quite a busy business um and now with pet rescue is is probably the biggest service that

[01:12:02] we provide um so uh i guess we could dive in dive into a little bit more about that my wife came to me and said you know do you think we should start a small business uh you know she works in fashion in

[01:12:15] New York City um she's been remote for a while uh but you know she's trying to decide you know can we do some entrepreneurship where she doesn't have to go to the city as much and and uh i

[01:12:30] thought you know i gotta get my my drone license for my own career job so why don't we think about something in the drone industry so something new that's coming up is a drone deer recovery um

[01:12:44] stuff like that and i thought well thermal drone is pretty cool we could do a bunch of different services with that little did i know about pets being missing i i honestly had no idea how many

[01:12:56] lost pets that were uh uh out there and until we started this business so i told my wife i said you know if you want to start a business i can help you you know i i can uh you know i'll have my drone

[01:13:09] certifications and if you want to start the business let's let's go for it so we uh we started this small business back in uh early january and i ended up you know um going moving ahead from the recreational type uh drone operator to getting my part 107

[01:13:29] certification and uh we decided on on a drone um there was two different choices that i had one was uh five thousand dollars more than the other one and my wife said well why don't

[01:13:45] you get that one since it's uh it's the better drone you can fly it in the in the rain in the snow and the cold weather and the high winds uh so that's something we joke about i guess as men is

[01:13:57] you know oh your spouse allowed you to get something more expensive you know but uh she she was she was the smart buyer and a smart shopper on that and and uh she uh she did all the

[01:14:10] legwork to get us up and running and um you know getting us uh the the funds to purchase the equipment and and uh and start the business so um here i am uh about four or five almost six months into it

[01:14:29] and it's it's great that's uh we're able to to help people now and that's that's become one of my favorite things about it is we're we're using our our wonderfully you know technic

[01:14:44] technological uh piece of equipment to to actually help people um and it's like i said we're it wasn't a a service that we were thinking was going to be the top of the the list um but it's fat you

[01:15:01] know i'm very fast coming um has become the absolute uh biggest service that we'll provide and probably will will remain that way forever i would guess it's a quite astonishing how many lost pets there are so justin is a a business you charge for the searching services

[01:15:25] and and what's the rate is it an hourly rate is there a minimum fee how does the charge work we kind of uh we we go with a flat rate um based on the area so

[01:15:36] based on location how how far we have to travel to get there um so our our flat rate you know ranges anywhere from you know say two hundred dollars to six hundred dollars depending on how

[01:15:49] how far we have to go but um our basic flat rate includes our travels our actual flight time is how i calculate it and i give three and a half hours of actual flight time

[01:16:05] we don't charge extra for changing locations for uh for staying in in line of sight of the drone we don't charge extra for discussions with the clients interviews with them

[01:16:19] and we don't charge extra for you know actual rescue operation you know if we if we locate the pet within that three and a half hour window uh and we go over that time on on the rescue we don't

[01:16:32] charge any extra money and so would that three and a half hours be on one day or could it be on a span of days yeah so it could be on a span of days um actually this time of year is going to be

[01:16:45] kind of like that where i'll split my time up um if it's kind of local makes it makes the most sense to us um but we'll split the time up and you know i'll i'll give you know an hour just before

[01:17:00] dark when the thermals are really good um and if we don't locate them then uh we'll offer to come back the next morning and before there's you know a sun up that would disturb the the thermals

[01:17:13] for the day um daytime searching is in my opinion it's best to beneficial because uh the rescue i think becomes it's easier during the day you know to to again to get you have to get

[01:17:28] out there in the field after you yeah a lot of times a lot of times we're guiding the owner to the pet um helps me locate them with it you know we we put a gps marker on them when we give them

[01:17:40] the gps location and uh you know and i don't know if you've seen the video of the ani rescue but um we you know we kind of guide guide them to the pet um give them kind of direction on what to do

[01:17:55] once they get there so when you started off with this business one of the aims was to provide pet rescue services that was one of the uh one of the services we wanted to provide

[01:18:07] however we thought it was going to be actually low on the list um yeah and you the part of the rescue operation uses something to detect a thermal variation uh whether it's an infrared

[01:18:24] how does that work the thermal process if the infrared lens yeah and it it detects body heat we can set the parameters for temperatures um to make the clarity a bit better there's a lot of different

[01:18:37] thermal color palette so we can use um and uh i particularly like the white hot so is there is there some means or method whereby you can set up the unit to help you

[01:18:52] better distinguish between a dog from a bobcat between a dog from a raccoon or other animal so it does have a color camera too it has a 200x zoom camera on it and uh you know we can

[01:19:12] we can distinguish during the daytime with the color camera once you see it in the thermal you know on a on a good thermal clarity day uh overcast skies um your you can see you could

[01:19:26] spot deer with the thermals from 1300 feet away 1500 feet away from the drone it's pretty pretty amazing yeah so but there's nothing special that you do to the unit itself to set it up for

[01:19:38] looking for a dog versus looking for a deer that's correct yeah that's pretty much freestyle and then you uh have to switch between the thermal camera lens and the color camera lens and

[01:19:52] make your you know identify the the animal at that point and you're able to do that on the fly switch between the two lenses oh yeah one alright wow nice excellent so let's have Stash

[01:20:04] dive into the search for Annie so so what was all that so Zach was supposed to join us tonight Zach was the owner of Annie who's the dog that went missing up on the mountain but uh we haven't

[01:20:17] been able to get a hold of him so Justin could you give us a little background about what happened do you know what happened uh oh yeah I know I know all of it um awesome tell us go deep dive

[01:20:29] yeah yes so uh so I was uh contacted by Zach's father John um and he was very concerned uh Zach was on the mountain north mountain between uh there and I can't think of the one that's

[01:20:46] just double point double point correct that's it yep uh he was he was kind of in that bridge gap between the two and on a hike with Annie which he took all the time uh he he was always hiking

[01:20:59] up in there with her um and very attached to his dog she's she's very in shape uh very you can tell she was very close to Zach um he got her as a kind of a security dog you know

[01:21:17] he had an accident I believe um uh and she was kind of his his way to cope with with things so uh he's very very close to her anyways they they enjoyed hiking um and a lot of times she would

[01:21:33] just hike without a leash too I know you had mentioned that earlier I know of people that hiked with their dogs without leashes uh and and she was one of those dogs um and uh that

[01:21:45] one evening so I didn't get contacted by them until she had already been out there one night overnight so I think it was March 4th of this year um his father John contacted me and he had gotten

[01:21:58] my name from somebody else that was not around this area and uh and I talked to him for a while I was actually at my my regular career job for the day and I said you know I don't really have

[01:22:12] the opportunity to get there right now but um I could I could tell he was very concerned uh so I said I'll tell you what I said I'll I'll get a hold of you you know as soon as I leave here

[01:22:24] I'll get a hold of you and let you know when I could could meet up with you because I want to help and uh so this this was uh you know one of my first times uh heading out to the cat skills

[01:22:37] with with the drone um and uh so I I arrived there that evening I uh John wasn't there at the time he was out in town and he said he would be back to the house Zach was up on the mountain

[01:22:51] he would not leave the mountain uh he didn't want to leave Annie up there uh by herself so he just he just looked for her and hiked and hiked and hiked and would call her name and

[01:23:03] so this was a whole day 24 hours um and I showed up and I looked at the mountain and I was like wow this is uh it's pretty pretty intimidating I guess you'd say uh looking up at the mountain and

[01:23:20] you know I'm used to searching small woodlots you know in between fields and stuff like that for pets and uh this was just a vast amount of area that I thought to myself this is this is gonna take

[01:23:34] take some work I think you know uh and of course you guys know the weather in the mountains um it's almost never cooperating I guess it's always uh it seems like there's always a cloud or

[01:23:46] always a uh some kind of moisture pocket or something coming over but uh so that evening you know I showed up and I said you know I haven't told dark I don't have a search light for my drone

[01:23:56] at this time um I plan to get one uh but with you know the tree canopy the way it is right now it even would be pretty difficult to to search at night with a with the search light um but uh

[01:24:10] we can get into that at a at another time uh but I so I showed up there and I'd talked with John and uh I wanted to get started and just start from the house and you know there's a possibility that

[01:24:24] Annie maybe tried to make her way down because from their balcony of their house you could see the top of north mountain you could you could see the top of stop a point and you could see

[01:24:34] the whole bowl in between it was a major line of sight all the way to the top of the to the hill uh top of the hill there which is I think around 30 uh you can correct me if I'm wrong

[01:24:46] maybe like 3200 feet 3,300 feet or so correct you are good yes yeah yeah so knows what he's talking about so they're on the northern side I guess you'd say of this mountain and near caro and uh where their

[01:25:01] home was and uh so anyways I I made an attempt to launch the drone um I launched it from you know uh from their back balcony of their home they have a three-story house there and uh

[01:25:19] we talked to Zach on the phone and uh just to let him know that I was there and I was willing to help try and help so um before I got started my my drone had an issue with the

[01:25:32] firmware I had to try to update the firmware uh I couldn't get the internet I couldn't get the internet to to work on it and so I said uh you know I'll I need to just ignore this and get

[01:25:47] on with it so I ignored the firmware update but as I did that it would my drone wouldn't let me adjust the elevations to be able to go up the mountain contours so when I say 400 feet is is

[01:26:00] what our FAA regulation is it's it's above ground level but when you launch your drone it's 400 feet from the spot that you launch from so as you're going up the mountain I hit the base of

[01:26:12] the mountain uh within a eighth of a mile from the house I I couldn't I could you know I was basically hitting the bottom of the mountain it goes up so fast on that side that uh without

[01:26:25] that firmware update that it wasn't allowing me to change the settings in my drone to be able to follow the contours up to up the mountain um I felt really bad uh and and I told John uh Zach

[01:26:40] Zachary's father um I told John I said I'm really sorry I have to get this fixed and now we're we're closing in on you know it's getting dark out so I could still see a thermal

[01:26:51] with the drone I just can't identify it as being a pet you know a dog a small medium-sized dog versus a fox or coyote you know so um so I decided you know I'd back out but I would come back there

[01:27:06] tomorrow uh the next morning there which would have been March 5th I think it I think it was the fourth and the fifth that I was there um so another thing was uh Zach didn't want to come

[01:27:17] down from the mountain uh but his his phone was on low battery and uh and I actually talked him into leaving his shirt uh his undershirt with his body sent on it I told him to leave it at the

[01:27:33] near the last time the last spot that he's he saw Annie when he lost her that the evening before um so a little bit of a uh a backstory about what happened there he was on the top of this

[01:27:49] mountain the north mountain and they were coming across towards stop a point and he was descending off the top and instead of taking the trails because he was running low on battery on his phone

[01:28:01] that evening too when he was running low on daylight and he didn't have a flashlight with him um he decided to kind of bushwhack down through the middle of this uh this bowl and

[01:28:13] he got to a a rock ledge which I know you've seen plenty of them up there that was icy you know it's uh it's early March and he was able to to get down off of this ledge and and it was probably

[01:28:27] a six to seven foot drop he said um and Annie was always right on his right on his heels and uh he turned around to get her and she didn't like the situation and uh you know this this rock ledge

[01:28:42] went both ways uh along this mountain for for a long ways and she got nervous and she backed up and she ran back up the the hill um up the mountain and he couldn't get back up on that

[01:28:56] icy ledge it was just it was too high and too slippery for him to get back up there um so he spent some time you know just trying to call her name and coax her down and uh she just wasn't very

[01:29:08] comfortable so he ended up coming out that that evening um he made it out at dark right around dark I guess and she I think got some flashlights and stuff and went right back up there and

[01:29:21] just kind of spent the night up there um wow he found some of her tracks I guess uh the next morning and that's kind of when I kind of got the call was a late late morning on the fourth

[01:29:37] so jumping ahead again to where I kind of left off you know I had to leave him that night of the fourth that I showed up there to do this search for them uh based on you know

[01:29:48] kind of a slight malfunction of my drone and uh I promised them I would come back the next morning and I said if it's if it's not going to allow me to change the settings I will hike to the top of

[01:29:59] north mountain and I'll launch my drone from there because I know then I can be 400 feet above the top illegal no I could be 400 feet above the top of that mountain and I could fall

[01:30:10] down right correct you are uh didn't you get certified for yeah but it's 400 feet above ground level so no matter where you are you should you're always legal to be 400 feet above ground level

[01:30:23] correct nice nice but when we were at the bottom of the mountain where their house was the settings weren't allowing me to adjust for that so as I flew outward from their home I was hitting the base of the mountain before I could get above that 400 feet yeah

[01:30:38] not even you know when you were doing that you could only hit like a certain amount of elevation before you could get to that spot of probably where she was correct so the contours

[01:30:48] go up but the drone says I'm at 400 feet already you know so long story short I went home uh I did my par got the firmware update and I was able to check to change the settings

[01:31:01] so that I could then follow the contours up the mountain nice so the next morning I show up there bright and early they offer me coffee we talked about it kind of had a little tailgate session

[01:31:14] there right in their in their kitchen dining room and what we were going to do you know Zach was all dressed ready to go uh and I said listen I'll if you help me carry my equipment because

[01:31:27] I have a eight pound drone with three sets of batteries that weigh a few pounds I have a battery charging station that's several pounds I have a a Generak battery bank charging power source

[01:31:44] that weighs about 40 pounds if I'm going to go up there I need at least three hours three and a half hours of charging time with my battery bank so I said we're going to do this I'll need

[01:31:58] some help but I will do it you know Tad's got a question real quickly yeah so were there other folks out there helping in the search uh no not not at that time nope there was nobody else

[01:32:14] really contacted to be out there helping no so it was just you and the family out looking for Annie that's right so we we talked about it there in their dining room and how we were going to do

[01:32:25] this to get her located so then we could start the rescue mission um I was I was intimidated but at the same time I felt pretty confident uh we both agreed that Annie should be on this side of the mountain

[01:32:41] be the leeward side of the mountain out of the wind out of the weather as much as possible we thought that she'd be on that side based on you know just trying to get back to Zach knowing

[01:32:53] she's been up there many times and and knowing that she's you know she's going to try and get down eventually down to where he was so I I went in there with with a little bit of question

[01:33:10] whether or not it was going to work out but I also had a pretty high confidence level and that's the way I I thought about it even ever since that search right there I thought about every

[01:33:19] search after that what's my confidence level going into this you know when I want to charge somebody somebody a fee to do this uh this service I want to be I want to be slightly more than

[01:33:34] slightly confident that the dog is in the search area right yeah so Justin one quick question how did uh like uh John you know Zach's father contact you first like did he how did he know about you

[01:33:51] so he just called me uh he was referred to me by by someone else that knew about us and about the the business that my wife and I had started um and a it was just a referral from somebody else and

[01:34:07] uh he was able to get hold of me and I was fairly close you know I'm maybe 30 30 to 40 minutes away from there so wow how many how many animal searches had you done before this uh before that one so I

[01:34:23] had just gotten my license in January I think was on three to four searches before that wow awesome amazing this thermal drone uh technology is fairly new uh and in the pet search

[01:34:39] realm of it is is even newer you know it's it's probably like wow probably around a year old at this point people actually use it for for pet searches uh you know on a on a small business level

[01:34:54] you know a consumer type drone level I guess you'd say uh he minds it's more of a professional type drone but it's still it's still an affordable drone to a consumer I don't know you were thrown

[01:35:06] around some pretty big numbers a while ago my wife wouldn't let me spend that on a drone whether it was a second third or fourth business yeah yeah but it's uh it it's just one of those things

[01:35:18] that you know to to get into it it's still in my opinion it's still a low cost yeah definitely introductory uh cost to get into it it's still pretty low cost for actual

[01:35:31] for a small business yeah and if it's something you like to do when you're helping other people that certainly makes it seem more affordable so let's let's go back to the day in question

[01:35:41] you show up the second day you have a little tailgate uh strategy session that morning and with all this gear weighing dozens and dozens of pounds do you set out to hike up north mountain

[01:35:56] so we were going to do that and zacks father john mentioned to us he said well what if what if you're able to go over to uh there's a little resort over there um on the side uh

[01:36:12] the side of the mountain kind of close to to where they are I don't remember the name of black mountain what is it again tatted we talked about this last thing oh yeah yeah there's a few

[01:36:23] over there it's north mountain something so it's a kind of a privately owned area um and as you as we went up and so we decided okay we'll go we'll go talk to some people over there

[01:36:35] so we drove the truck my truck over uh and we got past the little resort we got going up this little hillside uh gravel road and we came to a uh a camping trailer that was there and off to the

[01:36:50] side of that you could see nothing but endless lines of uh maple syrup uh you know plastic lines coming down through the woods so we we pull up to this this camping trailer and uh the door opens

[01:37:06] and zack zack goes knocks on the door and uh it was raining a little bit and uh zack knocks on the door and two big dogs run out and a young guy with a cowboy hat and uh and uh work boot steps out

[01:37:21] and uh his name was Tristan and he he walked out and said can I help you guys and we kind of told him the story he says oh I heard about it already uh my family told me about it and he said can I

[01:37:35] help you guys at all and we're like well we're trying to get a little bit closer to the top of this mountain um uh where we can still see see everything still see the top but a little bit

[01:37:48] closer so we can get a better range you know because my drone is you know even even with uh full visual uh visibility is you know one mile to a mile and a half or so before the the uh the

[01:38:01] signal with the rural controller kind of dies down on it you know it gets weaker so um impressive though yeah it's very impressive yeah absolutely um and so he said well why don't you hop

[01:38:13] in our our atv here at side by side atv he said if you don't mind like you can throw your equipment in there i'll take you to our our highest field that we have here so we thought that was great

[01:38:27] and yeah it sounds lucky awesome this was a person that we didn't even know and he was very very willing to help us out and uh so he yeah he took us we put the equipment in there

[01:38:40] Zach and I both jumped in the front of this thing and closed the doors we went up these trails and it got up to this open field and you could still see everything at the top of the mountain there

[01:38:49] and uh and we started we started the search from there um and it was uh March 5th you know probably 9 9 in the morning or so and uh I got going and the thermals were gray as overcast clouds and

[01:39:07] light rain falling which is fine you know the drone that I have can can withstand high winds up to 50 miles an hour can withstand some some light rains it's it's a really robust machine you know

[01:39:20] it's a really really good machine so I got going I found several deer some squirrels you know I was kind of showing Zach on the screen you know if Annie is out here we're gonna see her because there's

[01:39:32] there's no leaves on the trees yet um it's early March it's cold you know it's it's perfect conditions the thermal clarity was amazing I was spotting deer you know a thousand feet away

[01:39:45] with the thermal camera and then you know throwing on the zoom color camera and and you could tell instantly you know what they were so uh Zach was was really intrigued is he was all for it he said I

[01:39:59] I got some good confidence here so I'd burn up a whole set of batteries it takes you know 28 to 30 minutes or so and I have to do a battery swap with the drone so I have to come back and

[01:40:10] swap them out mine takes two batteries at a time so you can hot swap the batteries and just go right back up in the air you don't have to take any time shutting it down swapping batteries out

[01:40:21] it's very seamless quick and easy and you're back up and running and you can you can navigate right back to where you were prior to the battery battery swap so I was actually maybe close to the

[01:40:36] end of my last my second set of batteries so almost an hour into the search and I decided um you know to swoop up towards the top where it was starting at real steep and kind of create a limit border

[01:40:54] and then I would start grid searching from there before I moved to a different location so what I decided to do is I would get as far out as I could see and and as far out as my remote

[01:41:06] control would would allow me to get before the signal dropped off and I would use that line come back down the mountain and come back to us and create this kind of a search limit area um

[01:41:20] I was on this like I said second set of batteries I decided to stay away from the grid search and just do that swoop and I hit this uh I don't know if it has a name to it or not coming off

[01:41:32] off the hill as there's a stream waterfalls flowing down and I could see that in the thermals it was everything was white and then you get this dark dark line in the thermals and

[01:41:46] I could see the creek so I said I'll use that as my limit line for this side of the search until we and then if we don't see anything in here then we'll move to another spot

[01:41:56] so at that point I'm right in the area where at our table talk that morning we thought we think we think she's going to be somewhere in here and like you know I just I had a feeling

[01:42:09] she's going to be somewhere in here and as I'm coming down the mountain I see one bright bright light bulb looking thermal and I was looking at my batteries also and the battery power was was dwindling and down to probably 40% battery and once my drone gets to about 26% 25%

[01:42:31] battery it makes me come back and swap them so reason for that it doesn't want you to run out of battery power while it's you know a thousand feet away from here or something you know so

[01:42:44] kind of a safety feature for for getting back to put fresh fresh juice in it but I hit the color camera on that on that thermal spot and I saw black and

[01:42:58] I wasn't sure at first I know there's bears in the Catskills you know could have been a small bear but it was something alive there was something laying there and I showed I showed Zach on the screen

[01:43:12] and I thought he was going to tackle me to the ground he was he's like oh my gosh you found her and I was like I said listen I said don't get too excited I I don't know if it's her yeah I haven't

[01:43:27] identified as being her yet I said but my batteries are getting low and it's gonna make me come back I said so before we get too excited I'm gonna mark the spot so my drone also has a

[01:43:38] laser rangefinder on it and it can pin wow put a GPS coordinate location at the spot um and uh so I marked it I said don't worry we got this I said I'm gonna check it back out you know

[01:43:53] check it out again when when I come back with fresh battery so uh came back swapped the batteries he was still he was excited he was very emotional too um because he he kind of thought he's like

[01:44:08] I'm pretty sure you probably found her you know so swapped the batteries and I zoomed right back there I get a little bit different angle we're looking at a little bit you could tell it's curled up

[01:44:20] kind of in a ball you know just laying there curled up staying warm and uh as we're I'm trying to get different angles and kind of come lower get lower altitude just to be able to

[01:44:35] to get different angles uh to see any collar she did have a collar on and she I think she had like a t-shirt kind of thing on too because it was cold up there you know when they were hiking

[01:44:46] he threw some kind of shirt over top of her um and uh in a harness and she had a harness on um so uh anyways it was still looked just like a black figure and all of a sudden the the head

[01:45:02] kind of moved and you could see her collar and and Zach knew then that that was her he said oh my gosh I cannot believe this isn't it it was literally only about an hour into the drone search which

[01:45:16] which was amazing to me because as I looked at that mountain even the night before when I showed up there the first time to help them uh I had no idea how long it was going to take me um

[01:45:30] but we we looked at the features of the mountain we went by you know where he was located when he got separated from her um then we kind of made the decision you know this is probably where

[01:45:43] she would be we didn't think she would end up on the whole opposite side of the mountain um I think mainly just because of the weather uh you know we thought she would be on that leeward side

[01:45:55] and to stay out of that that wind that blows up the the southern slopes you know um and uh it was just amazing and you know I couldn't thank the the boy Tristan there and his family

[01:46:08] enough to allow us to to go up in there on their property to get closer to to where we needed to be with the drone um so Justin were there any other people involved in this like did

[01:46:22] any people like go up top and search and stuff like that no there wasn't uh and so so at that moment what we decided to do was because okay now I have her located we know where she is we know

[01:46:38] she's just laying there she's fine we didn't know if she was hurt um but we knew she was there had her located and now the the next big step with this with this drone search stuff is recovery

[01:46:53] and retrieval rescue you know so we did the search we we had her pinpointed and located now it was time to search just so happened we saw on the maps that there was some kind of trail

[01:47:08] that that led and on the screen uh on my google map screen that shows up on my on my drone pilot app on my remote control the screen pretty much showed this trail to stop right where she was laying

[01:47:25] which was kind of an interesting interesting thing there too um and uh so I told Zach I said listen I said I need to monitor her while you're going there to make the rescue I need to monitor her and her movements as you're as you're approaching her so

[01:47:51] I see you're you're going around some some maps here uh yeah yeah yeah I'm curious be right below your cursor I think if you if you move the map up a little bit if you find north mountain north mountain is uh well let's see right here

[01:48:10] yeah north point just for the list just for the listeners though stash's map has got like plane crash locations flagged all over it I do I do I've seen three or four already

[01:48:22] I'm taking notes on that that's pretty cool because uh Zach when we did the news interview with uh with news channel 10 um they had a little bit of video footage that Zach had sent them of uh

[01:48:36] kind of like uh some roles of him and and Annie actually hiking in the mountains together and one of the uh one of the videos that he had sent had footage of him walking up to one of the

[01:48:47] plane crash sites probably that the stop point one the the normal one not the other one so you said you had a field that you went from yeah there's one of those fields down there

[01:49:00] it's hard to it's hard to see which one on this yeah let's get off this isn't detract enough I told Zach I said listen I said I have to hike up in there with you

[01:49:15] and I need to get to a spot where I can launch the drone from safely and also be able to see and monitor uh when you when you're approaching uh Annie to make sure she's you know she's not in that

[01:49:31] survival mode where where she's gonna uh flee and and run away from them um that was my biggest fear uh because I had it on previous searches where you know the pet owner assumed that their pet would

[01:49:46] you know come back to them and when they went to recover it and I would guide them to it and uh the dog was in that fight or flight survival mode and they just take off so I asked I asked Zach

[01:50:03] I said are you pretty confident that she would come to me he said oh yeah he goes if I find her if I walk up there I pretty much 100 feel that she would come right to me so I felt good about it

[01:50:16] I went with his feelings about it and and just said you know just take it easy go slow don't don't don't get too excited but uh you know approach her slowly and see what see what she does

[01:50:31] so I hiked up that hill with them um at that point in time I had full three sets of batteries because I'm constantly charging my batteries as they go as as I'm searching so I had three sets uh

[01:50:44] and we we ended up hiking this trail that was it was pretty good it was pretty clear there was a couple spots where we kind of had to zigzag around some blow downs and things uh

[01:50:56] but pretty pretty general you know kept the creek uh that stream that ran down the the mountain side we kept it to our right and it would eventually lead us right to Annie um I got to a spot where I

[01:51:10] felt comfortable um and can and could see uh well enough and and had a good you know launch point um little guy no the launch point was okay but the bringing it back in and actually landing

[01:51:24] on these rocks was a little bit iffy uh but uh I was able to get to a spot he went ahead of me and and I was able to get the drone in the air uh and and back up to where I could find

[01:51:39] both of them in the thermals and it was a pretty epic uh pretty even for me emotional reuniting of of a a pet owner and and the pet that they love so much um and he he was a he

[01:51:56] was right uh you know she she came right to him when he wow when he went up to her she was she was kind of injured she had uh uh right in her I would just call her armpit I guess up here

[01:52:09] in the in the front of her chest under her leg um she had kind of a sore where she had been walking in and you know just had chafed there from her uh harness and that shirt that he had

[01:52:21] um on her that probably most likely got soaked in wet you know and um so she had a little bit of light injury but she was she was a champ she she walked right down that hill and I I left them

[01:52:38] alone once they uh became reunited I told him I said I said just lay there with her and just love her up for a while and don't don't worry about when you come back down they said uh

[01:52:49] you know he was really emotional on we we keep contact on the phone you know I do this a lot now just staying calm if there's self- insurance obviously um staying contact with them as they're

[01:53:02] being guided uh and and being told what the you know the animal that their pet is doing what their reactions are um because that's a big part of it you know if they start to run

[01:53:14] away and you've got to tell them they gotta back off and just let them uh let them come to you you know um uh so it's really really uh it's probably gonna be the highlight of of my service uh

[01:53:31] what I'm doing about the cow rescues come on yeah the cow rescues are pretty fun uh you know cows don't go very far but they get into some really thick stuff that uh I was

[01:53:42] telling Tad that you know a lot of people just won't like won't bushwhack through and hike through to find them you know uh so it's a it's a great tool to to help these guys uh that ride on the horse

[01:53:54] back and and rope these this cattle that are they're out on the loose but um I would say finding Annie on that mountain side uh will probably be one of the biggest highlights of

[01:54:08] my drone flying uh career you know uh and one that I came home from and and told my wife like you're amazing for even thinking about starting a small business I'm glad that I'm I was able to

[01:54:25] to make this decision with you and and we're doing it and we're and we're uh you know try to make ourselves available as available as we can um uh and with the pet search you know a lot of times

[01:54:39] it's you know you got to be available and if you're not hopefully there's one of us uh that we can network with and and that does have availability that we know of and that we trust in to to go

[01:54:53] and do a good job for somebody um and uh you know hopefully locate yeah I wish I could go out locate every pet you know but just there's so many cases and it's they're everywhere you know

[01:55:08] the coast to coast and it's it's amazing how many lost pets there are but uh the story of Annie just a kind of a wild one I never would have thought uh so early on doing this that I would have such a

[01:55:20] a big job I considered that a pretty big job um just even though I was able to find her fairly quickly uh I still took some planning um and and just just looking at those mountains you know

[01:55:36] that they're beautiful and I I love looking at them but to actually say well I have a job here to do it's pretty intimidating so but yeah uh great story great great outcome uh you know couldn't

[01:55:51] have thought of a happier one I became you know famous I feeling it I became really good friends with with that family and uh you know Zach will say to the end of time that he owes me a huge debt

[01:56:05] but you know it's uh it's kind of a now we're now we're kind of friends and yeah now I'll check in on Annie every once in a while and and see how she's doing um so when Annie recovered

[01:56:19] from her abrasion or her chaffing injury yeah yeah so she went to the vets right away to get checked out and of course she she hadn't eaten in a few days so it took a little bit of time for her to get

[01:56:34] back to normal I guess you can say um but uh yeah they're they're back out hiking again very cool now they have GPS collars on all their dogs um which is a good thing and

[01:56:47] I guess uh John the father is constantly uh looking at the app to see where Annie is and follow up on Zach I guess maybe that should be a a second line of business is selling the

[01:57:04] GPS collars you recover the animal and there's a collar for X dollars more yeah it's not bad any other happy endings like that with other pets yeah yeah um several actually uh you know it's

[01:57:21] I don't know if it's coincidence or not but uh many calls that I've been on if if we hadn't found or located the pet they end up coming out of the woods or wherever they're hiding they

[01:57:34] they end up coming out not long after we leave it seems like sometimes while sometimes right after we leave um like I said I don't know if it's a coincidence I don't know if they maybe they're

[01:57:44] hearing the drone go up and down you know take off and land take off and land and they maybe somehow they're they're attracted to that sound I don't know um but I've had several with that same same kind of thing happen where and I've asked other drone operators

[01:58:03] that I know and they've had it happen to them several times as well so um not not so sure that it's you know if that's a real thing or not but it's happened many times uh and then

[01:58:17] yeah a few few other ones uh I just rescued a Sharpay down in the town of Hyde Park his name was Willis that was a that was a fun one that was one where it was sunny all day decided to go

[01:58:33] you know the last hour or so before dark um and then if we hadn't located them I'd come back the next morning and uh we actually found within a half hour probably before dark about a thousand feet away from us right across the road in an open

[01:58:50] he was just hanging out he was tired but uh he was just hanging out there and it it took the owners a good 20 to 25 minutes of uh oops you're you're yeah yeah I was

[01:59:04] I'm I I needed you sorry little technical difficulty here that was my fault so that was a that was a good rescue there um I got one I'm working on right now uh that was I guess just

[01:59:20] spotted recently uh this evening um right in the same vicinity where I was flying this morning so um we'll probably have to go back out after that one uh busy man now look at this

[01:59:32] yeah yeah it's uh it's it's good and you know I'm I'm glad that you know I don't solicit my business it's it's all from just word of mouth referrals from from others uh and we're we're slowly building

[01:59:49] uh a Facebook presence um and uh we're we're very happy where we're at we're we're kind of making like I said making friendships it almost seems like with the people that were we're helping out um they're they're very uh very in love with their pets and

[02:00:10] and I am a pet owner too so and I would be really upset if one of them just got away from us and and didn't come back one day so um so it's a service we're we're happy to

[02:00:21] to be in and uh we you know even I hope that maybe more people get into it as well um because we we can't always we can't get to them all you know so uh it's kind of a

[02:00:34] it's pretty pretty good business to to be able to help help others and I mean we do charge a fee but you know we have we have reasons for that you know and and uh and I always do do my best to

[02:00:49] make suggestions and give advice um uh before even going out for a search you know um I want to make sure that it's it's right for the person and and right for for us to even uh

[02:01:02] you know use our our time and and our equipment to to search for so there's you know there's there's times where it's not a good idea there's times where it's it's the best idea like get

[02:01:14] out there right now you know if there's a if there's a dog with a leash attached um that's that's one that all the rescues uh also you know say that's that's one that you really have

[02:01:26] to go after right away because if if they get tangled up on a uh you know any kind of tree or offense posts or anything and you know if they get stuck there um one there's going to be no

[02:01:41] recent sightings and that's that's a lot of the business too is you know if a dog's been missing for three days and he was a different case because she was out out on the top of a mountain

[02:01:51] but if you're in a you know slightly suburban area you know most likely someone is going to see that pet eventually um but that's you know if they have a leash attached then you want to go

[02:02:04] after them as quickly as possible but it's stash that reminds me I think I sent you the link to the article about the bear in the Sagertees area that was spotted with the bucket over its head

[02:02:18] did you see that yeah you're gonna you're gonna yeah yeah are you gonna spot that Justin come on so we were on that case uh we were in no way yeah we were we didn't actually fly but um we were on

[02:02:29] in contact with the wildlife uh guy there and in that area and you know there was a lot of rumors going around there was even a talk that there might have been two different bears with

[02:02:41] buckets on their head at the same time one in Catskill one in Saugage yeah so and you know there were so many there's so many really weird stories going on rumors going around that the wildlife

[02:02:53] guy said listen until we get an actual confirmed recent new sighting we're not gonna have you come out and I was gonna go out pro bono on that one and and help them um and uh but again you know

[02:03:08] I went with the wishes of the the wildlife uh guy that you know don't come out unless unless we call you out you know um I didn't want to step on anybody's toes with that we didn't actually know

[02:03:21] exactly where this bear was you know what general location it was even in so uh we kind of left it alone until maybe we had another person say oh I spotted over here because when it when it was first

[02:03:33] seen I guess it was days before someone even came forward and said oh I saw the bear with the bucket on it said you know so they had already been days with it uh you know before it even got reported

[02:03:45] so we didn't actually go and fly for that one I would have uh if somebody put out the the request for us to be there but yeah it's a messed up situation yeah I would have loved to help

[02:03:56] help that bear out you know I'm a hunter but I feel I feel bad for pets in that situation too you know right what the what the actual f yeah that's just the craziest situation I'm a hunter but I do

[02:04:10] respect wildlife and um that that's one that I wish I could have uh definitely helped on but like I said you know these rumors then we're coming out that a couple fishermen found it and

[02:04:25] were able to get the bucket off it said then there was a story that a some highway department employee tranquilized it and took the bucket off it said but like I said there's no pictures so I guess

[02:04:38] I heard that a two and a half year old toddler wrangled it to the ground and pulled the bucket off its head it says fucking bear that was in jersey I'm sorry that wasn't up in New York

[02:04:49] it was different bear so I think people were just starting to tell stories that that was saved just to just to try to get people to stop talking about it after a while you know now it's it's

[02:05:00] that that's uh that's one of those situations that you'll see that's actually brought to to life on on like Instagram Facebook stuff like that because that's just a crazy situation and we've

[02:05:14] we've actually seen that here before in the Catskills where I don't know if it's Catskills are up here that I've seen that actually where you know a bear has been stuck inside of a uh some sort of like

[02:05:29] I think it was a dog's uh like uh like feeder or something like that like it's a tube and then and then they cut it off they tranquilized that they cut it off it was just this is a

[02:05:41] couple of years ago so it's really weird it happens so crazy so Justin any like positive hits before any so like mountain lions bear stuff like that mostly generally mountain lions uh no mountain

[02:05:57] lions um you have to see mountain lion but oh maybe a mountain lion went and helped that bear with the buck on sand I don't know but that's what we're thinking but uh before that uh I've seen a lot of

[02:06:09] different critters out there in the woods with the drone anything from groundhogs to raccoons, opossums, coyotes, foxes, deer, bear, black bears, you name it other random dogs that I wasn't even

[02:06:27] looking for. Yeah and strategically the time the time that you go out to do this is before it gets like hot and stuff like that so you can see the yeah so the overcast days you know

[02:06:39] are best um colder days without tree canopy are best uh so winter time searches are probably the best for success rate I would say that would be your best time um right now yeah it's early morning late

[02:06:58] evening uh overcast days um and then of course night time we can search at night too um if you have a search light then there's a better chance of being able to identify the animal that you're

[02:07:11] looking at um but if we're looking for livestock I wouldn't even need a search light for that we can we can see the the thermal clarity well enough looking for a horse or a cow that uh

[02:07:24] we wouldn't really need any search light but um that's uh becoming a pretty popular networking kind of thing too um with the livestock so it's a it's a it's cool business it's it's uh

[02:07:40] it is a fun a fun business but it's also a rewarding business when you're able to help people locate their their pets and and hopefully bring them back home to them. So the the best place

[02:07:55] to find you is on Facebook. Yeah yeah currently um actually uh Annie's family has offered to uh to create a web page or website for me they they are involved with that kind of stuff graphics design

[02:08:12] stuff and they they actually offered them to uh to make me a web page so um I might uh take them up on that and and get that going um I just I could do it I just I really don't have the

[02:08:23] time right now. Sure so in the meantime the the name of your business again it's Upstate Thermal Drone Services. Gotcha. So Facebook uh we do have Instagram it's uh I I always I feel like Facebook

[02:08:39] is a little bit more powerful tool as far as uh uh business um view and promotion wise uh like I said I don't solicit my business but I still feel like Facebook is the more powerful uh source

[02:08:53] for that um and then you know website will be uh next probably next best and then uh YouTube I have a few I do have a YouTube channel to Upstate Thermal Drone Services uh where I post some of

[02:09:08] my longer videos on there um but then again you know I just I'm not experienced enough in in that section of you know media uh to to know how to kind of promote it to to get more

[02:09:24] views and for for people to find us so. Never underestimate Instagram man if you put yeah if you put dog rescue you will be a fucking hit instantly. Yeah I will like it thousands of times.

[02:09:41] I'm checking out your Instagram feed right now and you got some you got some you got some pretty cool overhead shots there. I'm I'm just glad I'm just glad you're not flying over my house.

[02:09:54] Naked out in the long yeah. Did have a guy in Connecticut um threatened to shoot the shoot the drone down. Always. And I let him know it was a federal offense to do that and he said I was

[02:10:07] looking in his windows and flying over his house I said no I said I'm looking for a lost dog actually and he goes he says you got a good story he says because I'm gonna I'm gonna uh. Cheers. I'm gonna

[02:10:19] go tell somebody about this and I said well I said you found me you know where I am so I said I'm I'm legit just haven't come over. I never saw him and nobody else uh no police or anything

[02:10:31] showed up so. Am I correct that's legal that under federal law the drone operator can fly over private property? You can yes they're nice. The private property owner does not own the airspace above

[02:10:46] their home. Correct. So just like an airplane we have the same rights as a airplane or helicopter you know can we can fly. So that's that's what makes this uh this service uh justified

[02:10:59] by somebody looking for their pet they you know to go and get permission from every single landowner where your dog might be located is very difficult as very time consuming and a lot of people don't

[02:11:13] like to be hassled with with doing that you know. Yeah. Locking on every single door and saying you know my dogs lost the mind if I search your property and you know what

[02:11:24] a lot of people are probably going to say no. Yeah. Um so. Especially Stosha's neighbors upstate you know. No no they love my dogs come on. They love my absolutely insane Jamaican dogs.

[02:11:39] Another thing we're going to be uh doing is a wildlife survey so if people want to know you know outside of the actual open season of deer season because New York hasn't adopted the

[02:11:52] uh uh deer recovery yet by drone um so if a hunter wounds a deer and they can't they can't find it um you know New York says that it's illegal for a drone to come in a service to

[02:12:07] come in and locate this this deceased animal right. Um so what we are offering is uh if private property owners want to know what is on their property for wildlife deer especially then we're doing like a deer analysis survey. We're on private property we're going to offer it

[02:12:29] outside of the regular deer seasons open hunting seasons and kind of give people an idea what's on their property and um uh the ability for them to manage it without actually putting boots on the ground and walking through it and potentially bumping all the deer onto their

[02:12:49] neighbor's property you know so. Interesting. Cool cool concept for land management um and there's a lot of hunters uh around New York state and uh you know we're hoping to to get into that part

[02:13:03] of it too where you know would kind of become a tool for land management um private property owners that like to like to hunt their property and bring more animals into their property um

[02:13:17] to stay there you know and and kind of show them potentially how they could hunt their property you know without even walking in there and disturbing all the wildlife that's

[02:13:28] there we can yeah I show them ahead of time and then they can make their own approaches on uh on how to manage it from there so. Wow. Cool stuff Justin amazing stuff that uh we brought about

[02:13:42] like way way more better than uh your little time in times union this just brings out so much more that uh we heard tonight that it's just absolutely phenomenal so unfortunately

[02:13:55] Ted has something called stump stash oh and I'm pretty sure I'm going to go over three on this so Justin we'll see you're gonna be helping me yeah okay Justin might know the answer

[02:14:05] to some of these questions maybe all but Justin you need to bite your tongue until Stash has had the opportunity to answer the question all right Stasher you're ready hands away from the keyboard no googling we're gonna have a true and false question

[02:14:27] to open it up launching landing or operating drones on wilderness classified lands in New York state is prohibited true or false false you're allowed to launch land or operate a drone on

[02:14:46] wilderness land in New York state it's false I know it well Justin you have to you have to listen to the question closely what do you say Justin true or false false it's false actually

[02:15:00] it's true according to the TEC webpage you you you can fly over oh you can't you can't take off or land from there correct you can take off yeah okay so a little bit almost a trick question but yeah

[02:15:15] well they're all trick questions that's what I'm in the business of curveball sliders and cutters that's what I'm throwing I've seen I've seen all those people fly the the drones from freaking caterskill falls that's a wilderness area it's caterskill wilderness is it wilderness area

[02:15:30] okay I believe it says as long as you do not launch or land on that property you can fly over it correct so you can like what about like letting it off from your hand is that that's that's launching

[02:15:45] it from the area you're still launching it from there okay okay so if you come in like you know a 747 a 737 you're flying over right then then you're okay I think that I think the DEC was a little

[02:15:59] gratuitous on their part when they said operating in the wilderness class classified lands okay next question question number two true or false hobbyist drone use is allowed on New York state forest lands hobbyist drone use is allowed on New York state forest lands yeah I want to say

[02:16:26] false but I know you're gonna say true but it's I I say false because it's hobbyist but it depends on if you get a permit or not correct wrong apparently on state forest lands a hobbyist

[02:16:44] drone can be operated which I'm assuming given what the DEC said DEC webpage says about wilderness classified lands you then is a hobbyist on state forest land but not wilderness land you can launch

[02:17:00] your drone it's got to be with permit though it didn't say that it didn't say that slide is a wilderness program I've never seen a drone slide but that's but that's wilderness it's not state

[02:17:12] forest they're different classification state forest is like it's a lower level maybe bare pen okay and if it's not a wilderness area I'm over to yeah well not surprising not surprising right

[02:17:29] Justin huh did you think you would be two for two at this but I just got the double single fingers salute there okay last true or false if a DEC campground is in a state forest then I can

[02:17:46] use my drone if a DEC campground is in a state forest then I can use my drone true or false I'm calling Justin on this one it's gotta be it's gotta be false or true because it's a

[02:18:02] state forest so you just talked about that in the last question true or false Justin I would say true on that one it's true provided provided you get a temporary permit from the DEC

[02:18:24] first so if it's gonna take like six months to get just be it's it's it's part of leave notation have to plan ahead I think it's the same as the Appalachian trail properties

[02:18:36] is it yeah I didn't research I believe it is like you have to get like prior approvals yeah yeah so the DEC has this whole hierarchy or grading of land and use areas

[02:18:50] some of them drone uses not permitted at all when I say drone use the landing or taking off launching in that area and then others you have to get pre-approval a temporary use permit

[02:19:03] they have different methods for getting it you can get one on an emergency basis or on the standard pile of red tape basis and then and then if you're in a state campground

[02:19:14] you need to call the ranger and ask the ranger imagine north north south lake where like 85 drones would be going up drone races what about in a professional standpoint where it's search and rescue mission life or death situation for a pet

[02:19:39] Justin you know to be honest being a search and rescue volunteer and participating in that I have never seen a certain rescue for a pet it's always like it's always been volunteer kind of like you

[02:19:54] other people stuff like that have to dedicate their time for that I don't think that these can be involved with that which is really weird yeah well I've been on a few wildlife missions

[02:20:09] and on neither or none of the cases has the DEC been fully involved in that it's always been a wildlife rehab facility or something that's kind of maybe licensed through DEC but not the actual DEC yeah I suspect that to a certain extent a lot of these rules

[02:20:33] are going to be ignored if there's a good intent behind the drone usage right and and in those instances where it's being abused people are taking advantage of things they're crashing their drones because they're inexperienced have cheap equipment whatever I'm sure the DEC

[02:20:55] would be more interested in enforcing the rules than in instances where somebody's going up there for a good reason to recover something to rescue an animal you know something with a good intention behind it so there you go stumps stash we'll give you one for three yeah we'll

[02:21:14] give you an F plus Jesus that's the typical grades I get that's just all right so Justin wrap this up post hike bruise and bite you know shout out to the local restaurant pub business that you grab

[02:21:29] after a hike or you know a freaking drone rescue what do you what do you suggest buddy what do I suggest after a drone rescue yeah yeah kind of like a drink like a local restaurant

[02:21:42] or stuff like that in your area uh boy um I mean I like a lot of places uh we're talking about like local yeah local businesses I mean up there where Annie was rescued I kind of like barnwood

[02:22:01] barnwood restaurant is that on route 23 that would be on route 23 yep nice I heard of that yes that's the first near uh near caro yep all right well excellent uh Ted I want to ask you because you probably just go to stewards all the time

[02:22:22] yeah at this time of year I'm just eating nettles no that's good stuff hey it's good it's healthy it's healthy all right so once again Justin thank you for joining us tonight uh probably the longest

[02:22:34] podcast we've had ever which is actually freaking worth it because it was absolutely phenomenal story so uh definitely once again thank you to Justin for joining us thank you to the monthly supporters and the monthly sponsors really appreciate you guys uh thank you to everyone who

[02:22:50] has donated to the show once again your donations and the monthly supporters and sponsors won't really go towards me they'll go towards donations we made a $250 donation towards the Catskill Trail crew will make another donation soon to a local organization so if you donate it won't go

[02:23:09] towards me or or Ted or anybody else it'll go towards the local organization so thank you everybody who donates still thank you once again to everybody who's listening 126 episodes in thank you big thank you to Justin for once again joining us and once again for rescuing

[02:23:27] Annie up on the side of a freaking mountain that I gotta admit I've been there that place is absolutely insane with steepness so once again thank you for joining us thanks a lot for having me it's great

[02:23:39] meeting you guys uh Ted and Stash you guys are awesome cool thanks Justin yeah thanks for joining us uh let's get together and we'll start your adventure journey we'll bushwack up

[02:23:51] north southbound haha sounds good to me we'll rock on all right have a good night uh take it easy guys you too bye bye bye bye everyone I just want to thank you for listening to the show if you

[02:24:11] enjoyed the show subscribe and throw down a smooth review on Spotify apple podcast or any podcast platform that you use you can also check daily updates of the podcast hikes hiking news and local

[02:24:28] news on facebook instagram twitter and the official website of the show remember this you gotta just keep on living in the cat skills man and i'd be i wake up wake up wake up