Episode 135 - Long Path Charity Hike with Tom Walsh

[00:00:00] I got to experience my first Catskill Deluge, which I'd never had the experience.

[00:00:06] Tell us about it.

[00:00:07] Yeah.

[00:00:08] Well, I was heading from Phoenicia.

[00:00:10] I was planning to camp.

[00:00:12] There's a little site about eight tenths of a mile before you get to the Wittenberg base

[00:00:16] at Wittenberg there.

[00:00:18] There's a campsite up to the left.

[00:00:19] Yep.

[00:00:20] And it started raining, I don't know, about an hour before I was there and I was sweated

[00:00:24] right through.

[00:00:25] So I didn't even put my poncho on.

[00:00:28] And when I got to the site there, it was actually a big tent there.

[00:00:33] It was like a party going on or something.

[00:00:35] But everything was about four or five inches underwater.

[00:00:40] And I got in there and I just, I had no poncho.

[00:00:44] I couldn't set my tent up in the rain.

[00:00:47] So I was literally just standing with my hands on my pole in the pouring rain.

[00:00:52] Wow.

[00:00:52] And I said, you know, I can't, I can't do this.

[00:00:56] So I decided, made an executive decision and decided to head for the mountain terrace

[00:01:02] lean tour.

[00:01:03] I said, I know I got a mile to the base.

[00:01:11] The bushwhacks were some of the worst days I've ever had in the mountains.

[00:01:16] Or life, really.

[00:01:23] I said, I could.

[00:01:25] I think the weather challenges on this incident were particularly difficult.

[00:01:29] It is really the development of New York state.

[00:01:33] Catskills will respond to you.

[00:01:35] You're listening to Inside the Line, the Catskill Mountains Podcast.

[00:01:51] So we have, Ted, like the five star reviews have been phenomenal in the past couple of weeks.

[00:01:57] So I thank everybody for doing that.

[00:01:59] Yeah.

[00:02:00] That's awesome.

[00:02:00] This is the first I'm hearing of it.

[00:02:01] You don't share any of this with me.

[00:02:04] Well, you've got to look it up.

[00:02:05] I'm like an outsider.

[00:02:07] Well, look it up yourself.

[00:02:09] Where do I find this juicy info?

[00:02:12] Usually Apple podcast is when you go and check out the five star review.

[00:02:17] Somebody said that they're glad they got rid of Stumpstache.

[00:02:21] Really?

[00:02:21] Yeah.

[00:02:22] Yeah.

[00:02:24] That's it.

[00:02:24] I'm signing off for the evening.

[00:02:26] I'll see you folks next year.

[00:02:28] Yeah.

[00:02:29] So, well, thank you all for the, for the reviews.

[00:02:32] Really appreciate it.

[00:02:33] Even, you know, four to five stars is what's what's five stars is definitely what we want.

[00:02:38] But, you know, if you have time, take a review on Apple podcast or Spotify podcast or whatever

[00:02:45] you can review it on.

[00:02:46] But tonight, welcome to episode one 35 tonight.

[00:02:49] We have Tom Walsh here to talk about his end to end long path through hike that he had.

[00:02:56] And, uh, you know, it's great to hear from Tom cause Tom is the only one that has done

[00:03:02] it this north to south and south to north.

[00:03:05] Right.

[00:03:06] As far as I know.

[00:03:07] Yep.

[00:03:07] Yeah.

[00:03:09] And Tom, Tom, I hate to date to ask this, but how old are you, sir?

[00:03:13] 66.

[00:03:14] 66 years old.

[00:03:15] And he has done a 372 mile hike in one, like in one time.

[00:03:21] So it's, it's just, it's absolutely phenomenal.

[00:03:23] So Tom is here tonight.

[00:03:25] Tom say hi to everybody.

[00:03:27] Hello.

[00:03:28] And he's good to be here.

[00:03:30] It's it's.

[00:03:30] I can't wait to hear your stories.

[00:03:32] You know, Tom and I had a little kind of a prenup for this and to hear some of the

[00:03:37] stuff he had to say was, I'm just, I'm just ready to, to hear it.

[00:03:43] Yes.

[00:03:43] And finally hear it.

[00:03:44] So let's, uh, get on with tonight.

[00:03:46] So September 21st and 22nd, Catskill mountain search and rescue team is having a wilderness

[00:03:52] first aid and, uh, training class.

[00:03:55] Uh, you can sign up online.

[00:03:58] Uh, you know, I had this hold up.

[00:04:01] So, uh, wow.

[00:04:03] Just all this crap that's sitting here.

[00:04:05] So, um, members and aspirants of the 3500 club Catskill mountain search and rescue team

[00:04:10] and the 3500 clubs is probably present wilderness first aid training at the West Hurley fire

[00:04:15] department on September 21st and 22nd priority will be given to the Catskill 3500 hike leaders,

[00:04:21] but there are other positions available secure your spot by registering for this course or obtaining more information at trail bomb project,

[00:04:30] uh, Catskill 3500 WFA.

[00:04:32] I'll post the link in there.

[00:04:33] Uh, in addition to this wilderness first aid training, CM SAR is also offering a hybrid CPR course, uh,

[00:04:40] at the same spot, the West Hurley fire department.

[00:04:43] Uh, this is open to all members and aspirants of the 3500 club.

[00:04:47] Uh, definitely the priority is given the hike leaders.

[00:04:50] Uh, if you're interested, once again, I will post the CPR, uh, class.

[00:04:55] Uh, it's definitely important, uh, to take a wilderness first aid just as just in case anything happens on the trail and you are prepared for, uh, that instance that could happen.

[00:05:09] So, uh, pretty cool stuff.

[00:05:12] Uh, and we'll, we'll definitely check it out.

[00:05:15] If you can have the time, go to this wilderness first aid training.

[00:05:19] It'll very, very, be very fun.

[00:05:22] So just a couple of questions, Stosh.

[00:05:25] First of all, I'll note that the West Hurley fire department is on the Eastern end of the Ashokan reservoir, right on route 28.

[00:05:33] So if you're wondering where that is pretty accessible from the through way, um, you indicated it's open to everyone, but preference to, uh, hike leaders for the 3500 club.

[00:05:44] What was the cost of this?

[00:05:47] Hmm.

[00:05:48] Good.

[00:05:49] Oh, good question.

[00:05:51] I, I, so we can look that up and fill folks in next episode.

[00:05:57] Yes, I will definitely, I will find that out right now and, uh, I can actually message them, but yeah.

[00:06:04] So, I mean, sign up, uh, and check it out because it's, it's definitely a, an awesome, uh, knowledge.

[00:06:15] Yeah.

[00:06:16] In the back country, you know, you never, you never know what you might run into with your, just yourself, another hiker, or just somebody on the trail that needs some help.

[00:06:24] Yeah.

[00:06:24] So, and just one final thing that I would personally like to know, they'll, they'll probably cover fractures, abrasions, cardiac arrest, but do they cover, um, caring for somebody who's been attacked by a mountain lion?

[00:06:39] Will that be one of the segments?

[00:06:42] I think that might, you know, Tom has been involved in that with doing the long path.

[00:06:46] So he might have to be involved with getting an attack by mountain lion.

[00:06:49] Mm-hmm .

[00:06:50] Damn mountain lions.

[00:06:51] I know they're all over the place, right?

[00:06:53] Tom?

[00:06:54] Yeah.

[00:06:54] How to maybe like how to put a tourniquet on your leg.

[00:06:57] If the mountain lion tries to rip off your leg, that would be useful information for hikers to have.

[00:07:02] Correct.

[00:07:03] Yeah.

[00:07:04] Correct.

[00:07:04] All right.

[00:07:05] Yeah.

[00:07:05] I might, I might attend.

[00:07:07] Yeah.

[00:07:07] I mean, I probably will be there as well as a search and Saskatchewan mountain search and rescue team.

[00:07:13] Well, so I might not attend.

[00:07:15] Well, I mean, the last time I'm just joking.

[00:07:17] The last time you attended that I, I saved Jake's life a little bit, but that not, I mean, not yours.

[00:07:24] You were standing by just watching us with coffee.

[00:07:26] What the hell was that?

[00:07:28] It's how I work.

[00:07:31] It was crazy.

[00:07:32] So once again, I would like to thank number one, the supporters of the show.

[00:07:37] Number two, the sponsors of the show and the hard cider donors of the show.

[00:07:43] Inside the line, the cats go mountains podcast was able to donate $750 to local organizations.

[00:07:49] Recently, $500 were donated to the Catskill center and $250.

[00:07:54] So the friends of the veteran very, that was all behalf of you guys.

[00:07:58] Once again, I don't pocket this money.

[00:07:59] I don't want to, I do this for fun.

[00:08:02] I do this for my love of the cat skills.

[00:08:04] And thank you all for once again, donating to the show.

[00:08:08] And I just, I really appreciate it.

[00:08:11] And this all goes to back to the cat skills.

[00:08:13] I don't want to see this go to waste.

[00:08:16] I don't.

[00:08:16] I don't really need the money.

[00:08:18] The cat skills needs the money to keep with the upkeep of the trails of the blow downs, especially once again, we'll be getting into this right at this instant tropical storm.

[00:08:27] Debbie, what a crazy instances happened.

[00:08:30] I mean, this wasn't as bad as Irene, but you know, we've had some flooding blow down all over the place.

[00:08:36] Yeah.

[00:08:36] I don't think it came close to what the cat skills suffered during and after Irene, but I'll say from my hike this past weekend, there was water flowing everywhere.

[00:08:50] Yeah, definitely.

[00:08:52] Yeah.

[00:08:52] I didn't run into a lot of blow down though.

[00:08:55] Yeah.

[00:08:56] I'll have to say that too.

[00:08:57] I will piggyback on that, that I didn't run down to the blow down when I went hiking as well.

[00:09:02] Uh, but I've heard other reports that, you know, slide mountain had a lot of blow down, uh, different areas.

[00:09:09] Fox hollow had a bunch of blow down.

[00:09:11] It's just really the patterns were so crazy of where the blow down was.

[00:09:16] So it just, uh, you know, we had some flooding up here in, uh, the oxygo county area.

[00:09:22] Uh, especially, you know, my house got a little bit of flooding in the basement.

[00:09:26] It was fun trying to, uh, this was my first time with the basement ever getting flooded.

[00:09:31] So we were just like, what the hell do we do?

[00:09:34] Uh, and luckily Jessica never listens to this podcast.

[00:09:38] She was freaking out before I came in and she had a cup that was, she was pouring into a bucket from the flooding.

[00:09:46] And I was like, what the hell are you doing?

[00:09:48] And she's just like, this is the only thing I could come up with.

[00:09:51] I'm like, just let it do its course.

[00:09:54] And will happen.

[00:09:55] Like, we'll have to deal with it.

[00:09:57] You have a spot pump.

[00:09:59] No, we don't, we don't need it.

[00:10:00] We never need it.

[00:10:01] This is the first time.

[00:10:02] Mm-hmm.

[00:10:03] Just about every, everybody in, in the Hudson Valley that has a house built before say 95 has a sump pump in their basement.

[00:10:12] Very common.

[00:10:13] Yeah.

[00:10:14] I didn't have to deal with that.

[00:10:16] Tom, did you have any, uh, did you have any deals with this, uh, hurricane tropical storm, Debbie?

[00:10:22] Uh, not particularly at the house here.

[00:10:24] No, but, uh, some of the trails I check around here.

[00:10:27] Yeah.

[00:10:27] I had some blow downs, um, up in Riddell State Park.

[00:10:30] And, uh, yesterday I was over in, uh, section 28 of the long path, um, doing some maintenance.

[00:10:36] And I had a couple of good blow downs in there too.

[00:10:39] Um, mostly just limbs and things though, you know, um, just loose and falling.

[00:10:43] And it wasn't too bad.

[00:10:45] Water is everywhere.

[00:10:46] Like you said, though, definitely.

[00:10:48] Yeah.

[00:10:49] And that's not too bad.

[00:10:50] Luckily we can carry those, uh, those portable saws that we have and cut those in a matter of minutes compared to bringing those massive chainsaws that would, that you might need for that, that area.

[00:11:00] So Tom, Jesus Christ, when the hell are you not doing trail maintenance?

[00:11:05] Uh, well, I wasn't doing it for five weeks.

[00:11:08] I can tell you that much for 37 days while I was hiking along.

[00:11:12] Um, but, uh, I'm out there pretty often.

[00:11:16] I, I do maintenance for a number of, um, organizations up here and with the long path and the trail conference.

[00:11:23] So, um, between everything, it keeps me pretty busy.

[00:11:26] But one thing I did want to say about the maintenance is it's not as time consuming as people think it is.

[00:11:33] It's something that once you have a trail, it's in decent shape.

[00:11:37] You, you only got to go back once a month or something and take a look at it, you know, unless there's a storm like, like we just had.

[00:11:43] But it's, um, I think a lot of people are, are scared off of trail maintenance because they feel it's going to be a lot of work.

[00:11:50] And it's really not.

[00:11:51] It's really not.

[00:11:52] Once your trail is, is, was, is established.

[00:11:54] It's just a matter of really keeping an eye on things.

[00:11:57] So for me, it's, it's, uh, I'll take pretty much, I could probably do four to five days a month and cover everything that I do, which is Otsego Land Trust, um, Otsego Conservation, DEC, and the trail conference.

[00:12:12] This guy's as fricking like iconic right here.

[00:12:16] Impressive.

[00:12:18] Right.

[00:12:19] It's just like, and, and you know, you're, you're right.

[00:12:22] You have to check on it with Tom, with our New York Detroit Trail Conference.

[00:12:26] We have to like, it's twice a year, right?

[00:12:29] Fall and spring.

[00:12:30] I think there probably is some sort of thing, but that would make sense.

[00:12:34] And it, like I said, if you get out there in the spring, or if you get a new section of trail and you get some help once it's cleaned up, there's not a lot to it.

[00:12:42] Um, there really isn't, you know, I got involved when the club up here asked me to keep an eye on a trail is essentially what they said.

[00:12:51] Could you keep an eye on this section and just let us know if anything comes, you know, falls down or anything.

[00:12:57] And then that evolved into, yeah, something fell down.

[00:13:00] All right.

[00:13:00] Well, can you take care of it for us?

[00:13:02] You know, and I started doing that.

[00:13:04] And, um, then I got a little for a little bigger pieces and bigger pieces.

[00:13:08] And, uh, like I said, it, it, it's really not a lot of work.

[00:13:12] I mean, it can get, you can get backed up with it sometimes and it feels like it's, it's getting to be a lot, but I enjoy it.

[00:13:18] I love being out in the woods.

[00:13:20] So I might as well, you know, most days when I do maintenance, I make a day, I bring my lunch with me.

[00:13:25] Um, and I'll, I'll be in the woods anywhere from five to seven hours or when I go in to do maintenance.

[00:13:31] And that's simple places of Oxygo County of where the elevation gain is not that crazy.

[00:13:37] And that's, I said, uh, that's simple places like Oxygo County where the elevation isn't as crazy as the Catskills and stuff.

[00:13:45] Oh, that's definitely a big difference with maintenance.

[00:13:48] Yeah.

[00:13:48] You know, if I had my way, I do all my maintenance on, on rail trails.

[00:13:52] Yeah.

[00:13:53] We, and we have like up Oxygo County way.

[00:13:56] We have more of, of grass and, and massive like a golden rod and stuff like that growing blackberries and stuff like that.

[00:14:04] It's a, it's a pain in the ass.

[00:14:06] We heard two weeks ago, the, the guests tell us that there's one guy that does like 10 miles of mowing with the push, with the, you know, a push mower.

[00:14:15] Um, that's how he does his trail maintenance.

[00:14:18] Yeah.

[00:14:18] I think Steve was about that.

[00:14:20] Yeah.

[00:14:21] You, you went through there.

[00:14:22] So it's, it's one of those sections in the long path.

[00:14:26] Yeah.

[00:14:27] Yeah.

[00:14:27] Yeah.

[00:14:27] The Northern sections up where I am, uh, what they call it, you know, we call the Northern 29 to 35.

[00:14:33] Um, we have the long path North hiking club that tries the best we can to maintain and keep those, those trails in good shape.

[00:14:40] But it's, it's, it's a tough job.

[00:14:42] You know, there's not many of us in the club and most of us are my age or older.

[00:14:48] Um, unfortunately it seems that it's not until you retire that you can really have the time to do these things, you know?

[00:14:54] And, um, so most people that are into this stuff are, are, are older.

[00:14:58] And, uh, that's why we just try and give small sections.

[00:15:01] Here's a half a mile, even a quarter mile section, you know?

[00:15:04] And, and like I said, once you get that and you're comfortable, then maybe we'll give you a little more and, and add on to it.

[00:15:10] But it's rough up here.

[00:15:12] Um, it's more of the long path than a trail.

[00:15:17] Uh, I like to say going through the Catskills when we're running on everybody else's trails, blue and red.

[00:15:22] And those are trails, you know, those are side by side walking trails.

[00:15:26] A lot of them up here.

[00:15:27] It's a lot of single track.

[00:15:29] Um, you know, where's the next blaze type of stuff.

[00:15:32] You know, um, I actually got lost in my own section when I did my two hike.

[00:15:37] You know, Tom, you don't have to admit that.

[00:15:40] Well, I know it's too late now.

[00:15:43] Um, what it was, they'd been in there doing logging.

[00:15:47] Um, we're supposed to do a reroute up in there.

[00:15:49] So there's been some neglect and they did some logging and things and there's overgrowth that I came upon a field of nettles.

[00:15:56] That was massive.

[00:15:57] And, uh, it just threw everything out of whack for me.

[00:16:00] So, um, like I said, it can get daunting sometimes, but most of the time I, I, I like it.

[00:16:06] I think it's fun.

[00:16:07] Yeah.

[00:16:08] And you know, the Northern part, uh, of course has more growth than, than, than the Southern part.

[00:16:14] We have more growth of more of grass.

[00:16:16] Like I said, golden rods, just prickers, stuff like that.

[00:16:19] So it's tougher to maintain, but you get that sense of pride.

[00:16:23] Uh, that sense of accomplishment when you do it, you're just like, damn, I just did this.

[00:16:28] I'm going to make somebody else's life a little bit better experience somewhat.

[00:16:33] That's, that's one of the issues with the Northern section is, um, we don't have a lot of traffic.

[00:16:39] Um, which is why the trails need a lot of maintenance because they don't get hiked like they do in the Catskills.

[00:16:45] Um, and it makes it hard to get motivated.

[00:16:48] Um, like when I do trails in Otsegill County up here for the land trust, I can clean up a trail.

[00:16:54] And I know this weekend, there's going to be 30 or 40 people using that trail where I could do a section 28 up here and I can clean it up.

[00:17:01] And there might be, not be anybody walked that section for three or four weeks.

[00:17:05] Um, and that, you know, that's still just the way it is.

[00:17:08] For some reason, once you get north of, uh, Wyndham, once you get north of the section, uh, Route 23, um, it just, it just, it's a whole new world up here.

[00:17:18] It's, it's a completely different world.

[00:17:19] Um, you can hike for two to three days, not see anybody.

[00:17:22] Um, so if people are looking for those type of solid two type of hikes on the long path, I recommend coming up north because it's, uh,

[00:17:31] there's some good climbs, there's some beautiful walks and it's, it's, I mean, if you like solitude, I'm a solo hiker.

[00:17:38] Um, I think it's great.

[00:17:40] Yeah.

[00:17:40] I was up in that section north of, uh, 23, a few weeks ago, I did 14 miles up there and I saw one fellow the whole day.

[00:17:49] Uh, there was a lot of sections of the trail that I'm going to say overall it was well maintained, but there were a couple of sections that you could tell that.

[00:17:58] Um, the lack of foot traffic was, uh, letting the trail get, you know, overgrown sort of, but, you know, I, I was able to make my way along.

[00:18:09] It's really lovely up there.

[00:18:10] It's a totally different vibe than being down in the, um, the higher mountain area of the Catskills.

[00:18:18] And I certainly encourage everyone to at least once a year, if not once a season, take your head out of the, the higher peaks and, and see the Western cats and the Northern cats.

[00:18:32] Cause it's a, it's a unique area to go hiking in.

[00:18:36] Yeah, definitely agree.

[00:18:38] I agree.

[00:18:38] And we'll hear more about that with Tom later.

[00:18:40] So, uh, I wanted to bring up something that I got the other day about, uh, New York state announces a change to hunting and trappings and trapping licenses.

[00:18:49] I know this stuff doesn't really have to do with the long path, but it somewhat does because there's a lot of hunting involved in, and, uh, such during the winter seasons.

[00:18:58] And, uh, you know, I thought this was to bring up some good amount of people that I know that the hike are, are, are hunters and such.

[00:19:05] So, uh, New York state is changing how hunters and trappers can access and print licenses as they kick off the 24 to 25 season for the first time, all hunting, fishing and trapping licenses and tags are now printed on paper instead of plastic stop.

[00:19:21] And, uh, New York DEC conservation said they will make the change more accessible to people.

[00:19:28] And it's a, the ability for people to receive their license electronically and print tags at home will make it quicker and easier to get outdoors and connect with nature through hunting and fishing.

[00:19:38] And, you know, this is actually fantastic being someone, you know, I've worked at Walmart for 21 years and sometimes, you know, those areas go like down from the amount of people coming in that we have too much traffic and our computers will go down or something will go wrong with the DEC area.

[00:19:56] Uh, that it will take down just the, the overall, uh, program that you use to get people with fishing and hunting.

[00:20:05] And that's mostly hunting area.

[00:20:07] And this is fantastic, of course.

[00:20:09] And, uh, as, as a person that doesn't hunt and, uh, doesn't trap, uh, I, I don't really, I just don't, I just don't have the desire to do it.

[00:20:20] But, uh, I believe in, and hunting and fishing the way it's been ever since the native Americans have been here probably ever since the existence of human beings.

[00:20:30] And, you know, I think this is absolutely fantastic.

[00:20:33] We need these deer populations to fricking cut down because I've never hit a deer, but I'm sick and tired of my mom and dad hitting a deer.

[00:20:42] I don't know.

[00:20:42] Is that just me?

[00:20:44] Yeah.

[00:20:44] Well, it's, it's kind of a crowd stopper when you say you've never hit a deer.

[00:20:47] Um, that's, I find that amazing, man.

[00:20:51] Knock on wood.

[00:20:51] Knock on wood.

[00:20:52] I can't say the same for myself.

[00:20:54] I've had a few deer hits, um, and sorry about it, but some people will say that one of the most, uh, humane ways of eating meat is if you're a hunter.

[00:21:08] Um, because the animal's not living in captivity, it's living in the wild.

[00:21:12] And, you know, uh, presumably you're, you're, if you're a good shot, you take it out in one shot.

[00:21:19] So there's nothing wrong with hunting in a lawful and humane way from my point of view.

[00:21:28] Yeah.

[00:21:28] What do you think of that, Tom?

[00:21:31] Uh, I'm the same.

[00:21:32] I got the same attitude.

[00:21:33] I'm not a hunter either.

[00:21:34] Um, I don't eat venison per se, or, or, or wild meats like that.

[00:21:39] If I did and I liked venison, I don't know, maybe I would go hunting, you know, but I hold, uh, no animosity at all towards people who do hunt.

[00:21:47] Uh, like you said, they got to, we got to keep the populations in check and, uh, and there's, uh, some good, good meat out there.

[00:21:54] You know?

[00:21:55] I mean, like I said, if I liked venison, I might be a hunter.

[00:21:59] I don't know, but I just never really liked it.

[00:22:01] So never really got into hunting.

[00:22:03] The one thing I've noticed about people in general who eat venison is it seems that they go through a lot of work and effort to prepare the meat for cooking and eating, which really makes you question how palatable it is on the one hand.

[00:22:21] On the other hand, I'm just not a big fan of meat eating and I, I rarely eat meat.

[00:22:26] So, well, I imagine seasoned and cooked properly.

[00:22:29] Most game meat is really, really good.

[00:22:31] You know, that's true.

[00:22:33] And hunters are like hikers.

[00:22:36] They're a breed of their own, you know, they have their way of doing things.

[00:22:39] And, and, and, uh, like you said, it takes a lot of work, but that's part of the thing.

[00:22:45] That's part of what it's about is the work, you know?

[00:22:48] Yeah.

[00:22:49] And it's the thrill of, of the hunt and stuff like that, you know, in old school.

[00:22:54] It's true.

[00:22:55] I've, I've run into some really cool hunters, uh, bushwhacking up in the Catskills.

[00:23:01] And good for them.

[00:23:02] That's, that's, that's, that's incredible stuff of them bushwhacking to get to their spot, you know, that they've been for, you know, passed on from family traditions and stuff like that.

[00:23:12] Yeah.

[00:23:12] And they know those areas inside and out.

[00:23:16] So whenever you can talk to somebody who's a hunter up there, because they really know those woods, like the back of their hand.

[00:23:25] Especially the plane crashes.

[00:23:27] That sounds like I've gotten a whole lot of people that have been involved.

[00:23:30] Oh, really?

[00:23:30] Yeah.

[00:23:30] Yeah.

[00:23:31] That Stopple Point area was pointed out to me from a local hiker that is just,

[00:23:37] uh, that is hunted up there and he stumbled upon it one day.

[00:23:40] I'm like, what the f- that's, yeah, it's crazy.

[00:23:44] Not surprising.

[00:23:44] But a lot of those hunters haven't seen mountain lions yet.

[00:23:48] Yeah.

[00:23:49] Well, not that they're telling you, cause that that's absolutely a prize trophy.

[00:23:53] I would think for a hunter is, you know, to go after that type of game.

[00:23:57] Right.

[00:23:58] Right.

[00:23:58] So I know you want to, so you, I know you want to move on, but when you mention, uh,

[00:24:02] hunting and plane wrecks, somehow I want to know when you're hunting down these plane wrecks,

[00:24:08] how often do you find a porcupine?

[00:24:11] I have never come across a porcupine at any time during my hikes in the Catskills.

[00:24:18] Wow.

[00:24:19] Huh.

[00:24:19] I can't say this.

[00:24:20] I have, I've calculated that I have done over 3000 miles of hiking in the Catskills.

[00:24:27] And not a single porcupine and not a single deer head.

[00:24:31] No, no, you're right.

[00:24:32] Yeah.

[00:24:32] Yeah.

[00:24:33] That's crazy.

[00:24:34] Good point.

[00:24:36] And not a single mountain lion carcass.

[00:24:40] That you're telling us about.

[00:24:41] Mountain lion print, let alone a carcass.

[00:24:44] Yeah.

[00:24:44] Well, are you willing to, are you willing to give us a sworn statement to that effect that

[00:24:48] you haven't come across any mountain lion carcasses while hiking in the Catskills?

[00:24:53] 100%.

[00:24:53] No mountain lion feces as well.

[00:24:56] There was that one deer carcass up in the tree we saw though.

[00:25:00] Oh yeah.

[00:25:01] Yeah.

[00:25:02] Right.

[00:25:02] It's, you know, sometimes I'm, that was, uh, that was really weird.

[00:25:07] That was on, uh, North mountain.

[00:25:09] That was really weird.

[00:25:10] Uh, what'd you guys see again?

[00:25:13] Uh, Tom.

[00:25:15] Did I, I was just making a joke.

[00:25:17] No, no.

[00:25:18] It's happened.

[00:25:19] It's, I know it's happened before that somebody posted that on, uh, now that you mentioned

[00:25:24] it, I remember now.

[00:25:25] Yes.

[00:25:32] And took the meat out from it and then hung it from a tree up on Southwest Hunter.

[00:25:39] I don't understand why I do that.

[00:25:42] You know, I've seen, I've seen weird.

[00:25:45] What animal is this?

[00:25:46] The deer.

[00:25:48] Yeah.

[00:25:48] They probably, they probably hung it from the tree to, to dress it while it was hanging

[00:25:53] from the tree.

[00:25:54] That's pretty common.

[00:25:55] Yeah.

[00:25:55] Trust me.

[00:25:56] I grew up, I grew up further upstate than you.

[00:26:00] And within probably a, a 10 mile radius of my house, there, everyone hunted, but my family.

[00:26:08] So I knew, I knew all about hunting and their practices and, and going after deer and skinning

[00:26:15] and dressing deer and all that stuff.

[00:26:17] So they typically hang them from a tree and dress them.

[00:26:20] Yeah.

[00:26:21] Well, they're up in the air.

[00:26:22] That's less weight.

[00:26:23] I mean, I understand.

[00:26:25] Yeah.

[00:26:25] Yeah.

[00:26:25] You know, and well, and that goes back to what I said before.

[00:26:27] Some people, you know, are of the belief that you need to do that right away because

[00:26:32] it enhances the flavor of the meat.

[00:26:36] So.

[00:26:36] Yeah.

[00:26:37] I have no clue about that.

[00:26:38] I, I, I, I'm not going to do a deep dive into what some of my friends do when it comes

[00:26:42] to hunting and dressing their deer, but man, it's, they, they go through like some almost

[00:26:47] ritualistic practices.

[00:26:49] Focus up on the show, man.

[00:26:51] Yeah.

[00:26:52] Yeah.

[00:26:52] Maybe, maybe if you guys, you know, we want to promote that.

[00:26:55] It's life.

[00:26:56] It's, you know, brings back to the native American days.

[00:26:59] Come on.

[00:27:00] All right.

[00:27:01] So as we move on, we talk about, you know, tropical storm Debbie climate change somewhat.

[00:27:08] But I've recently come across this, this article that said the average temperature of 121.9

[00:27:16] degrees leads to the hottest month in Death Valley history.

[00:27:19] So Death Valley National Park experience, its hottest month on record in July of 2024 with

[00:27:27] a 24 hour average of 108.5 degrees that beats the 2018 record of 108.1 degrees.

[00:27:36] It's only 0.4 degrees, but still the average high throughout the July was 101, 121.9 degrees

[00:27:44] with nine days above 125 degrees.

[00:27:48] Uh, this is the crazy stuff about this.

[00:27:51] Uh, there were several deadly or life-threatening heat related incidents on the California park,

[00:27:56] including a death of a motorcyclist riding in extreme temperatures and a man who experienced

[00:28:01] second degree burns on his feet after losing his flip flops, scorching hot sandstone.

[00:28:09] This sounds like something that happens at fricking Caterskill high peak or, uh, Caterskill

[00:28:14] falls.

[00:28:15] Sorry.

[00:28:15] This sounds like something that happens at Caterskill falls when somebody falls over the

[00:28:19] observation area.

[00:28:20] We talked about later.

[00:28:22] Um, so six of the 10 hottest summers have come within the past 10 years, which should

[00:28:27] serve as a wake up call, which, uh, superintendent Mike Reynolds said record breathing months lead,

[00:28:32] uh, to this, uh, once in a lifetime experience as the norm.

[00:28:37] As we can see, continue to see global temperatures rise.

[00:28:40] Visitors rise to the park.

[00:28:42] Our visitor come to the park and should plan ahead and prepared for, to face extreme temperatures

[00:28:47] during the summer months.

[00:28:48] Now, this is what says from death Valley.

[00:28:51] And this is the greatest thing.

[00:28:53] Uh, I just found this to be absolutely insane.

[00:28:55] Visitors to death Valley during the summer are urged to stay within a 10 minute walk of an

[00:29:03] air conditioned vehicle, drink plenty of water, eat salty snacks, wear a hat and use sunscreen.

[00:29:10] 10 minute walk of an air conditioned vehicle.

[00:29:15] Absolutely insane.

[00:29:17] And what do you do when your car breaks down?

[00:29:20] Uh, you're out, you're out there and you know, death Valley, you, you can rent, you can rent

[00:29:25] a Jeep.

[00:29:25] I mean, you know, going in and around that value Valley is quite an experience.

[00:29:30] And there's a number of, I'm going to call them primitive or unmaintained roads that people

[00:29:37] go out on and you'll get into these stories where people will rent a Jeep and think because

[00:29:43] they have a Jeep, they can drive just about anywhere.

[00:29:45] So they're driving wherever they want to in death Valley and it breaks down on them.

[00:29:49] What do you do?

[00:29:50] Right.

[00:29:51] The car's not air conditioned anymore.

[00:29:53] So my, my daughter has spent a lot of time in death Valley and she'll go, she'll tell you

[00:29:58] the preparations that you go into taking a trip out into death Valley with like bringing a tarp

[00:30:06] and poles.

[00:30:07] Um, so you can stay outside of your car under the tarp.

[00:30:11] If you have to putting balloons on your car, if you have to be rescued, you're supposed

[00:30:16] to have a bunch of balloons that you can blow up, um, and put outside of your car so they

[00:30:21] can see it more.

[00:30:22] There's, you know, it's a very fascinating place.

[00:30:25] Death Valley.

[00:30:25] I hope to get there sometime myself, Tom, have you ever been there?

[00:30:28] Death Valley?

[00:30:29] No, I have not.

[00:30:31] Um, maybe that'll be a, put on my bucket list for next summer.

[00:30:36] Yeah.

[00:30:36] Well, don't go in the summer.

[00:30:38] This is what we're hearing.

[00:30:39] Don't go in July.

[00:30:41] All right.

[00:30:42] All right.

[00:30:42] Next winter.

[00:30:43] Yeah.

[00:30:43] Yeah.

[00:30:45] I'm not a big fan of each.

[00:30:47] So yeah, the, the winters are a little bit better and I would expect that their, their

[00:30:53] winters are a little less people in the summer.

[00:30:55] So I think it would be pretty phenomenal time to go there.

[00:31:00] Uh, and just, I just 10 minute walk of an air conditioned vehicles, you know, that's

[00:31:07] just absolutely insane.

[00:31:08] And, you know, we have, I, I, I, with these humidity, we have heat angle indexes of like

[00:31:15] 101 to like 105.

[00:31:17] But, you know, I lived out in Arizona for two years and we had probably, you know, the

[00:31:24] highs were like 115, but they never went into love, like 129 to that kind of crazy.

[00:31:31] And it felt, it felt hot.

[00:31:33] The sun was beating, but it didn't feel like crazy.

[00:31:36] Like up in New York when, when it's a hundred, you know, it's, it's like 90 degrees, but it's

[00:31:42] the humidity is a hundred percent.

[00:31:44] It's insane.

[00:31:44] You feel like death.

[00:31:46] You walk out to your car and you feel like, holy shit, this killed me.

[00:31:51] But I, I can't, I can't say the, I can't talk about the 129 degrees of, of desert heat,

[00:31:59] but you're right, tad.

[00:32:02] And, uh, you know, rewrite Tom, that's kind of like a death valley.

[00:32:06] I've heard is a whole nother experience just in its own.

[00:32:10] The West is a whole nother experience of it.

[00:32:12] And so yeah, yeah.

[00:32:13] Completely different.

[00:32:14] Yeah.

[00:32:15] Uh, but you can't see the greenery, you know, hiking recently.

[00:32:19] I just, uh, I can't, the lush greenery.

[00:32:23] It's just blows my mind every time.

[00:32:26] Yeah.

[00:32:26] It's, you know, we're, we're kind of at that peak time of year now, peak greenage,

[00:32:31] I guess we could say, and then we're a little more than a month away from the fall.

[00:32:37] Right.

[00:32:38] The, the, the, the big, you know, colorful show before winter sets in.

[00:32:43] It's a great time of year.

[00:32:45] Yeah.

[00:32:46] But fricking nettles are at peak.

[00:32:49] Burns are at peak.

[00:32:50] Don't, don't even, don't even mention nettles around me, man.

[00:32:54] My God.

[00:32:56] Tom's crying right now.

[00:32:58] Yeah.

[00:32:58] Yeah.

[00:32:58] I've got a massive nettle field in my section.

[00:33:01] I have to decide whether I'm going to deal with it or just let it sit till it dies.

[00:33:05] Best, best thing to do, Tom, is you go out there with one of those five gallon spray

[00:33:09] cans.

[00:33:10] When nobody's looking, you pump it up, you go out there with, just spray the whole field.

[00:33:14] Just spray them.

[00:33:16] It's not a crime.

[00:33:17] And they'll grow back next year though.

[00:33:18] That's the thing.

[00:33:18] They don't give a shit about you.

[00:33:21] They'll go right back.

[00:33:23] Crazy.

[00:33:24] So last, last, uh, thing on shooting the shit, uh, hiker, uh, Tad, we're going to

[00:33:31] skip over the Olympics.

[00:33:32] The Olympics are boring.

[00:33:33] Ooh, that's okay.

[00:33:35] That's all right.

[00:33:36] So, uh, hiker trapped in, in slot Canyon for 13 hours in Arizona.

[00:33:42] So, uh, two people were rescued from Northern Arizona Canyon until I 19th after the campaign

[00:33:48] stuck for 300 feet deep in the Canyon while hiking, according to Cocosanino County, uh,

[00:33:55] Sheriff's office.

[00:33:55] Now I've been there, uh, hike there a little bit when I lived down in Arizona.

[00:33:59] So Madison Hart said, the rescue team got to me about 13 hours.

[00:34:04] My legs, uh, had turned purple from standing for so long in the same area.

[00:34:08] Hart and her friend were hiking on July 19th at Wildcat Tank Canyon, just located north of

[00:34:14] Page, Arizona, which is the, uh, famous for, uh, God damn, I'm trying to remember those

[00:34:21] slot canyons that everybody goes through that pays a lot of money to.

[00:34:24] Uh, uh, it'll, it'll come back to me to climb down to a lower area of the can than both of

[00:34:30] them getting stuck in between narrow rock walls.

[00:34:32] Uh, she was stuck from her hips, unable to sit or lie down and go forward and backward.

[00:34:38] This, this reminds me of the movie 127 hours.

[00:34:43] And, uh, she said her heart and her friend tried lighting a small fire to send a smoke

[00:34:48] signal screaming for help over 10 calls, uh, to 9-11.

[00:34:52] And luckily one of them connected and, uh, they, they got through to, uh, rescue, uh,

[00:35:02] personnel and, uh, heart's friend was rescued five hours earlier than her due to heart being,

[00:35:06] being unable to move in the position and the rescue team, leaving her to stay in the canyon

[00:35:10] until dark.

[00:35:11] And there was video.

[00:35:12] I'll have to post this video of them getting rescued with a helicopter actually coming down

[00:35:18] in the area.

[00:35:19] Uh, she said that she's glad that her friend are alive.

[00:35:22] And so thanks for every person who helped us.

[00:35:24] They saved our lives.

[00:35:25] I'll never forget that.

[00:35:26] Uh, Cosa Nino County Sheriff's office did not immediately respond to the request for information.

[00:35:33] So after seeing this, uh, she only posted about 10 seconds of where she was and the air, the

[00:35:43] helicopter flying over.

[00:35:44] But I've been in the slot canyons out West of an Arizona and Utah.

[00:35:49] Uh, and there have been some times of where not say that I would be caught in the area, but I kind of thought about it.

[00:35:59] And I was just like, damn, this is a little sketchy situation of where you'd have to take your pack off

[00:36:05] and kind of chisel your way through the area.

[00:36:09] And, uh, I, I, I don't know.

[00:36:12] That's a little scary.

[00:36:13] Luckily I have my, my wife who has, uh, is little anxiety and she would never let me go through these areas with her, with her.

[00:36:24] What do you think, Ted?

[00:36:26] Yeah.

[00:36:26] Slot canyons.

[00:36:27] Um, we have them in the Catskills.

[00:36:31] I don't think they call them slot canyons though, but we have those, you know, narrow passages.

[00:36:36] You'll find them from place to place.

[00:36:39] Uh, I don't think I'm, you know, I'll say in the gunks though.

[00:36:43] I, I have climbed up some of those to get up and over the ridge.

[00:36:47] Um, they're not, those aren't, those aren't curvy though.

[00:36:50] Those are fricking jagged.

[00:36:52] Yeah.

[00:36:53] They're yeah.

[00:36:53] They're, you know, and then they got a lot of like talus rock in them that you have to climb over.

[00:36:58] It's an interesting experience.

[00:37:00] Um, it's fun to do, particularly when there's some level of ice and snow in there.

[00:37:06] Cause you can get better traction as you're going through.

[00:37:09] Um, yeah, but the slot canyons, it must be a unique experience until the water comes along.

[00:37:15] Oh God.

[00:37:16] Yeah.

[00:37:17] Um, 13 hours though.

[00:37:19] That's absolutely insane.

[00:37:20] You know, I've done about four slot canyons in Utah and Arizona that I could say noticing when I did what they call the Buckskin Gulch, the longest, deepest slot canyon in the world.

[00:37:33] I only did about seven miles of it and seeing, uh, debris 50 feet above your head really kind of raises your concern of holy shit.

[00:37:47] That debris got up there by water.

[00:37:49] Mm-hmm and what happens like, you know, you, you gotta keep a keen eye.

[00:37:55] Just imagine.

[00:37:56] I can't even just thinking about that of what imagined, you know, a lot of people don't realize that, you know, 50 to a hundred miles north of you could be a rainstorm.

[00:38:07] And that all flows into that slot canyon.

[00:38:11] And 10 hours later, that slot canyon could be filled with the water that was from that rainstorm.

[00:38:17] Crazy.

[00:38:17] What about you, Tom?

[00:38:18] You ever get out west to any hiking slot canyons?

[00:38:21] Unfortunately, no.

[00:38:22] I, I did live in Colorado for a little while when I was a younger man, but I wasn't very much into the hiking, unfortunately, when I had the Rocky mountains in my backyard.

[00:38:31] Um, so no, but again, they, they're on my list for things I'd like to do, you know, in the future.

[00:38:37] I would like to actually grab a motor home for a month or two and, and just go around and see a lot of things, you know, one night's trip is kind of like what I'm, what I'm planning towards.

[00:38:48] Yeah.

[00:38:48] I have a good friend of mine's son just, um, he's, uh, graduated college, has a master's degree, quit his job.

[00:38:56] He built a camper to go on the back of his pickup truck and tomorrow he and his girlfriend are leaving for an indefinite duration, um, but cross country or wherever in the country, North America, their travels take them, but they're going out to explore.

[00:39:16] And I, I really encourage young, young people to get out there and do it.

[00:39:20] Don't wait until you're Mayan Tom ages to, to take time off and do those things.

[00:39:26] Try to make time for it when you're young.

[00:39:28] Well, it gets, it gets harder to do, um, those types of things because when I was a younger man, that's what I was thinking.

[00:39:34] You know, when I retire, I'll get a motor home and hit the road for like two years or something, you know, but, but now you have all these, you know, my family's here, my grandkids, you know, my wife says.

[00:39:46] There's no way I'm not seeing my grandkids for two years.

[00:39:49] You know what I'm saying?

[00:39:49] So it kind of changes.

[00:39:51] That's why I said, now we're looking at maybe a month at a time or, you know, 30 days at a time and try and do something like that.

[00:39:58] But, uh, there's too many ties now.

[00:40:01] I got this too much in your life to just pick up and go, you know, even five weeks.

[00:40:06] Yeah.

[00:40:06] Do it when you're younger.

[00:40:07] I told a friend of mine two summers ago, um, and he took my advice.

[00:40:12] He's, he's a little bit older than you, Tom has two grandchildren.

[00:40:15] They were at the time ages eight and 10.

[00:40:18] And I told him, you need to take your grandkids now cross country for the summer.

[00:40:22] Cause when they're a little older, they're not going to want to do it with you.

[00:40:26] You know, when they have their social groups.

[00:40:27] So he did it.

[00:40:29] They took two months off.

[00:40:30] They rented an RV.

[00:40:31] They went cross country with their grandkids.

[00:40:33] Yeah.

[00:40:34] It was a fabulous time.

[00:40:36] I've got seven grandkids, six, seven on the way.

[00:40:39] So I don't know if they can get an RV.

[00:40:42] Geez.

[00:40:43] You better stick to trail maintenance, Tom.

[00:40:45] Yeah.

[00:40:46] That sounds like it's where your sanity is.

[00:40:49] Yeah.

[00:40:50] No.

[00:40:50] With diaper changes.

[00:40:52] Yeah.

[00:40:53] Five seconds flat.

[00:40:55] Yeah.

[00:40:55] Done.

[00:40:56] I thought we were talking about Olympics.

[00:40:58] Yeah.

[00:40:59] Right.

[00:41:00] So, Tom and Ted, once again, thank you for shooting the shit.

[00:41:05] Really appreciate it, Tom.

[00:41:06] Thank you for joining in on this weird chat that we go all over the place with.

[00:41:12] So, once again, thank you to the monthly supporters, Darren, Vicky, John, Betsy, Denise, Vanessa,

[00:41:18] Joseph, Jim C., and David and Chris.

[00:41:22] Thank you guys very much for supporting the show.

[00:41:24] Really appreciate it.

[00:41:25] Also, thank you to the awesome sponsors of the show.

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[00:42:36] So, check them out.

[00:42:38] So, also, if you mention the podcast or one of your hikes through social media, we'll chat about it on the show.

[00:42:44] So, mention us.

[00:42:45] Tag us on Instagram, Facebook, or whatever.

[00:42:48] We'll mention you and talk about you on the show.

[00:42:51] So, also, Overlook Outdoors is having a summer sale.

[00:42:55] Check out their stuff online.

[00:42:56] They have great Catskill merchandise.

[00:43:00] Use the code SUMMER2024 to check out their stuff and get a summer discount code on their beautiful Catskill merchandise.

[00:43:08] I actually have quite a bit.

[00:43:09] I've ordered quite a bit from them, and they keep telling me not to order.

[00:43:13] And I don't know why, because their stuff is absolutely phenomenal.

[00:43:18] So, what are you guys drinking tonight, Ted?

[00:43:21] Well, I guess you're having me go first because you know Tom will outdo me.

[00:43:26] Hey, I'm having a delicious Coke on the rocks.

[00:43:34] Hey, that's different.

[00:43:36] Jesus, different coffee.

[00:43:37] Whoa!

[00:43:38] Yeah, it's like a rum and Coke without the rum.

[00:43:41] Well, I'm not outdoing anybody.

[00:43:43] I just got a glass of water.

[00:43:45] Hey, that's okay.

[00:43:46] Got to stay hydrated.

[00:43:48] I am having a 1911 hard cider pineapple.

[00:43:53] So, I'm going to tag them in this, even though they won't care about it.

[00:43:58] Because, yeah.

[00:44:01] Previous hikes.

[00:44:02] So, Ted, I'm going to let you go so I can go to the bathroom real quick.

[00:44:06] So, I like that.

[00:44:10] You're going to step out of the room while I go over my hike.

[00:44:13] That's how interested you are in my hiking endeavors.

[00:44:17] Are my hikes as boring as what I drink?

[00:44:21] No.

[00:44:22] Okay.

[00:44:22] So, okay.

[00:44:23] I will go with that.

[00:44:24] This is so insulting.

[00:44:24] I've been so insulted here.

[00:44:26] It's going to take me a minute to regroup.

[00:44:28] So, just hit the pause button.

[00:44:30] I'm going to have to get my thoughts back together.

[00:44:32] Okay.

[00:44:33] Hikes.

[00:44:33] You want me to do both of my recent hikes?

[00:44:35] Because we didn't have a show last week or just hit one of them.

[00:44:40] So, let's go over with your first one and then we'll have Tom and then we'll go over with the second one.

[00:44:44] Okay.

[00:44:44] So, two weeks ago as part of my trying to click off these segments I need to do for the Catskill All Trails Challenge,

[00:44:54] I had a small segment of the Sager Trail to do and a segment of the Pine Hill West Branch Trail to do.

[00:45:02] So, I parked at Lost Cove, cycled down to Burnham Hollow Road and bushwhacked over to an old, what I'm going to, well, the lower part was an old, well, not old, maybe 30 years old, 25 year old logging road that went up one of the ridgelines and then branched east into the call and eventually turned into what I'll describe as an old ox road.

[00:45:31] That went up into the call between Big Indian and Eagle.

[00:45:40] And it was quite interesting.

[00:45:41] I mean, it was fascinating to me to see how that, you know, at least over 150 years ago, how they improved, leveled off this road, had dragged rocks to build up the downhill side of the road.

[00:45:55] So, it was level with what was the uphill side of the road and then brought you right up into the call between, again, Big Indian and Eagle.

[00:46:04] So, I continued, I did that section of the Sager Trail where the nettles were vicious, were just vicious, okay?

[00:46:16] I mean, going up the ox trail, there was really no nettles.

[00:46:20] It was kind of splendid hiking, not a lot of low ground cover.

[00:46:23] And then once you crested over that and got into the mark trail, just big, vicious patches of nettles.

[00:46:34] I swear, when you would walk by them, they would growl at you.

[00:46:37] And yeah, once you, I mean, Tom knows these types of nettles.

[00:46:41] They're just ferocious.

[00:46:44] So, and that day was accompanied by the three H's of summer hiking, which is humidity, heat, and more humidity, okay?

[00:46:56] I mean, right?

[00:46:57] The humidity index, if there is such a thing, was like in the 3000s, okay?

[00:47:04] Oh, wow.

[00:47:05] Yeah, the rain had come through early that morning and I had a few showers as I was driving in, but it was, I mean, everything was just dripping with moisture.

[00:47:16] And it was a decent hike and I was overall 12 and a half miles, 3850 feet of vertical gain over Eagle, Hanes, Balsam, and Bel Air.

[00:47:31] Nice.

[00:47:32] Nice.

[00:47:32] So, the views from Bel Air, I mean, I've been up there once or twice.

[00:47:39] I think they're actually pretty decent.

[00:47:41] They're worthwhile.

[00:47:42] Well, when you say Bel, are you talking about the ski area or the mountain?

[00:47:46] Okay.

[00:47:47] So, the mountain proper is east of the ski area.

[00:47:52] Oh, you're talking to the lean-to?

[00:47:56] Yes.

[00:47:57] Oh, shit.

[00:47:58] I haven't gone over there.

[00:47:59] Yeah.

[00:48:00] It's, you know, it's one of these interesting mountaintops where it's just bedrock at the top.

[00:48:07] No trees, no ground cover.

[00:48:10] Just this, not all that large, but barren, completely barren area where the trails converge.

[00:48:21] You know, interesting place to hang out, to camp, zero view.

[00:48:25] But you're also right there at the edge of that huge segment of old growth forest that Mike Kudish writes about.

[00:48:38] That takes you all, you know, all the way into, you know, almost a gram.

[00:48:43] Wow.

[00:48:44] Yeah.

[00:48:45] And that's really the high-

[00:48:46] Yeah.

[00:48:47] That's- I mean, that ox road was very cool.

[00:48:49] The nettles were not very cool, but that whole segment of old growth forest was, for me, was really epic cool.

[00:48:59] So, I enjoyed it a lot.

[00:49:01] Old perchers and stuff.

[00:49:03] Other than the three H's, which are, what are they again, Tom?

[00:49:06] What are the three H's?

[00:49:07] Well, I just say humidity, humidity, and humidity.

[00:49:12] The hell with the heat, right?

[00:49:14] Yeah.

[00:49:14] Yeah, right?

[00:49:14] Okay.

[00:49:15] It's all tied into frickin' one.

[00:49:17] Well, it should be humidity, sweat, humidity, because you just burn off so much goddamn sweat during that time that you have to replenish yourself.

[00:49:26] I doubt whether, I mean, we could get scientists.

[00:49:29] I doubt if it's really sweat then.

[00:49:31] It's so humid.

[00:49:32] Are you perspiring or is it just the air when it comes into contact with your body and your body is actually cooler than the ambient air?

[00:49:40] Mm-hmm.

[00:49:40] So, is the humidity condensing on you?

[00:49:44] I just don't know enough about the science of it to have a definitive opinion, but-

[00:49:49] Well, in my case, it's sweat, I can guarantee.

[00:49:52] Yeah?

[00:49:52] Right.

[00:49:52] It's sweat.

[00:49:53] Yeah.

[00:49:54] What did you, Tom, what have you done recently besides the long path that you did?

[00:49:59] What do you mean, as far as hikes?

[00:50:01] Yeah.

[00:50:01] I know you did some trail maintenance stuff, right?

[00:50:04] Well, yeah, that's just been, after the hike, I pretty much didn't do anything for a couple of weeks.

[00:50:09] And just last week, I started getting out again.

[00:50:12] I had to go pick up one of my stashes up at Elm Ridge.

[00:50:17] So, that was my first hike after my through hike.

[00:50:20] It was about three and a half miles just up to the lean-to because I put stashes for my through hike.

[00:50:26] So, I had to go retrieve my empty container up there.

[00:50:30] And then after that, I've done maintenance.

[00:50:33] Yesterday, I did nine miles.

[00:50:36] And the day before, I did nine and a half.

[00:50:38] So, I think I'm starting to get back into it a little bit.

[00:50:41] And both of those days entail doing maintenance, too.

[00:50:44] So, I feel like I'm starting to get back.

[00:50:47] I realize how much I miss the woods when I got out there.

[00:50:50] You know?

[00:50:51] I start walking along and thinking, wow, this is what I forgot.

[00:50:54] What's so great about being in the woods?

[00:50:57] So, I'll be getting back in there a lot more in the next couple of weeks.

[00:51:02] That's for sure.

[00:51:03] Where were you doing your stuff?

[00:51:06] Well, I was doing a maintenance set.

[00:51:08] I did some over in Compton Bridge with the land trust.

[00:51:12] We got a massive knotweed problem over there.

[00:51:15] Japanese knotweed.

[00:51:17] Oh, God.

[00:51:18] Horrible shit.

[00:51:19] Yeah.

[00:51:19] That took over the whole trail almost.

[00:51:21] So, we did some work over there.

[00:51:24] And then, like I said, I was up to Riddell three times in the last week or so.

[00:51:29] And then yesterday, I ran over to Section 28.

[00:51:32] Took a quick look at that.

[00:51:34] So, I'll probably spend the next couple of weeks just checking up on most of my maintenance areas.

[00:51:40] Fortunately, over here in Otsegal, I only have a couple with the state land because we don't have a lot of trails.

[00:51:46] We have 21 state forests in this county.

[00:51:48] And I think maybe three of them have actual trails that are marked.

[00:51:54] And we can't maintain trails unless they're blazed.

[00:51:57] So, that puts us into a position where, like you can go to a state forest.

[00:52:02] I've got, within 10 minutes of my house, I get seven state forests.

[00:52:06] And I can literally walk to five of them.

[00:52:10] Wow.

[00:52:11] But none of them have, they have logging roads and old seasonal roads and things.

[00:52:15] But none of them have designated trails that we can go in and maintain.

[00:52:19] So, that makes it a problem.

[00:52:22] I'm actually working with the DEC now.

[00:52:24] We're looking to put about three and a half, four miles of trails into Milford State Forest.

[00:52:30] Nice.

[00:52:31] Yeah.

[00:52:31] Well, we've got it walked out with the DEC.

[00:52:35] We've got it figured out.

[00:52:36] We're just waiting for their approval.

[00:52:37] And as soon as they say, yeah, we'll put the blazes up and we'll assign some maintainers and we'll start cleaning things up.

[00:52:43] You know.

[00:52:45] That's phenomenal.

[00:52:46] You know, once again, step in the right direction is what we want to do.

[00:52:51] Make these forests.

[00:52:53] I mean, most of them are only observed by hunters.

[00:52:56] I would say up in the OXEGO County area, old logging roads, old CCC roads and stuff like that.

[00:53:04] Hunters like to come up here, but I would love these areas to be accessible for hikers as well.

[00:53:11] You know, Tom, I'm with you on that one.

[00:53:14] I've done the OXEGO Octet.

[00:53:15] I've done more than that.

[00:53:16] And having these small forests is very essential for people just to get out and have a good time right next to their house.

[00:53:25] And one of my biggest things that I try to promote, especially for folks my age, is that these old CCC roads, like you said, and the seasonal roads are great hiking.

[00:53:39] You can drive your car up into one of these state forests and just pull it off the road and get out and walk the roads.

[00:53:45] And it's a great way to be in the woods without actually being in the woods.

[00:53:50] You know what I'm saying?

[00:53:51] You're not worried about stepping in water and wet holes and bugs and you're actually out walking along the roads.

[00:53:58] But it's, you know, it's easier walking, but it still gives you the opportunity to get outdoors.

[00:54:04] So I'm a big proponent of the CCC roads.

[00:54:07] I love walking on them.

[00:54:08] I truly do.

[00:54:09] I agree.

[00:54:10] Not everybody's capable of hiking the devil's path.

[00:54:16] Thank God.

[00:54:17] You know, yeah.

[00:54:18] I mean, as I get older, you know, my knees become more and more painful.

[00:54:25] And sadly, there's going to come a day where I'm going to be a CCC trail hiker or road hiker, you know?

[00:54:32] But at least I'm still getting out.

[00:54:35] No disrespect.

[00:54:35] Yeah.

[00:54:36] You know, there's nothing wrong with that.

[00:54:38] And, you know, it's just having accessible opportunities to get outdoors for everyone.

[00:54:45] Exactly.

[00:54:45] And they're, like I said, where I live, they're 10 minutes away.

[00:54:49] Anybody in this county can get in their car and drive for less than 10 minutes and be in a state forest.

[00:54:55] And like I said, you just get out in the car and park along the road and you can walk two, three miles on these roads, turn around and come back.

[00:55:02] And you've got a five-mile hike under your belt, you know?

[00:55:05] It's not difficult.

[00:55:06] There's climbs.

[00:55:08] There's little hills and things.

[00:55:09] But like you said, there's certainly no devil's path type stuff.

[00:55:12] Yeah.

[00:55:13] You know, personally, I'm glad I did it this year because I don't know if I would have been able to do it next year.

[00:55:20] So I'm very glad I got it under my belt now and got it over with.

[00:55:25] Yeah.

[00:55:25] And, you know, a lot of stuff you can just find.

[00:55:29] And I, for one, search on Google Maps.

[00:55:33] If you zoom in and you see a green area, that's a state forest.

[00:55:37] And you have access to that.

[00:55:39] Yeah.

[00:55:39] They have a different color.

[00:55:40] Yep.

[00:55:40] Yeah.

[00:55:41] You just need to kind of research after that, find out what the state forest name is, where the roads are, what is accessible.

[00:55:48] And you can explore that to your death.

[00:55:51] You know, it's absolutely phenomenal.

[00:55:54] That's what I did with the Oxego Challenge.

[00:55:57] You know, I went up to Charles E. Baker, which is towards Norwich of my area.

[00:56:02] And that it's just one of the biggest state forests besides the Adirondacks.

[00:56:06] Actually, the Adirondacks is bigger.

[00:56:09] But Charles E. Baker is one of the biggest state forests you can just explore there.

[00:56:13] So, it does take a little bit of research.

[00:56:18] But you could have an endless amount of opportunities with just searching on Google Maps or just searching Google in general of your local area.

[00:56:29] Well, did you know with the Octet Challenge, I'm the only person that ever did a super ultra Octet Challenge.

[00:56:36] And that I did all 12 of the hikes in one day.

[00:56:39] Psycho.

[00:56:41] Wow.

[00:56:41] Yeah.

[00:56:41] Well, they're short hikes.

[00:56:43] You know, they added up to about 20 miles by the time I was done and 150 miles of driving.

[00:56:49] But that's one of the great things about Oxego Outdoors is these hikes and things.

[00:56:55] And I tell people all the time, if you're looking for hikes, go online.

[00:56:59] Like you said, just Google things and you'll find plenty of places to go hiking.

[00:57:04] Yeah.

[00:57:04] So, you know, you talk about this stuff previously on Tad with your awesome hike over in the Southern Catskills.

[00:57:12] Tom, with your hikes up in the Oxego area.

[00:57:14] I recently took my friend John up to Becker Hollow.

[00:57:19] I know, Tad, you've been up there.

[00:57:21] But, Tom, have you ever done Becker Hollow?

[00:57:23] I'm not sure.

[00:57:25] I don't think I have.

[00:57:28] It's a beast.

[00:57:29] So, it's 2.2 miles to the top and it's around 2,300 feet of elevation gain.

[00:57:36] So, it's 1,000 feet per mile.

[00:57:39] Wow.

[00:57:40] It's a beast.

[00:57:41] And I was ready for it.

[00:57:45] You know, my friend John, I told him I was kind of a dick at this time and I told him it was only 4.4 miles long.

[00:57:55] And he's like, oh, hell yeah, let's do that.

[00:57:58] I didn't tell him the elevation gain.

[00:58:01] So, we got the first thing I want to say is that we got down to the parking area.

[00:58:06] This was fantastic.

[00:58:07] So, Tad, I want to tell you that the Tesla is in repair right now for the trunk and I got a freaking Alfa Romeo to go with it.

[00:58:15] It's pretty weird.

[00:58:16] Oh, really?

[00:58:16] Wow.

[00:58:17] It sucks.

[00:58:18] What happened to the trunk?

[00:58:19] A tree fall on it or?

[00:58:20] No, the trunk itself.

[00:58:22] Your wife throw you into the back of your car?

[00:58:25] Oh, she doesn't know how to drive that thing.

[00:58:27] So, the trunk itself, you know, it's one of those powered trunk closing.

[00:58:33] It's self-closed on itself and it was off alignment and it hit the glass and it cracked the glass.

[00:58:40] So, Tesla is covering all this, which is phenomenal.

[00:58:43] So, I find that crazy after 77,000 miles.

[00:58:47] So, this place that Tesla referred me to gave me an Alfa Romeo.

[00:58:52] So, I'm sitting in the parking lot with an expensive car and I hate to say it like this.

[00:58:59] I don't mean to recall, but a bunch of a van of Jewish people came by and asked me about the hike.

[00:59:07] And they're just like, are you doing this hike?

[00:59:10] I'm like, yeah, this is Becker Hollow.

[00:59:12] I'm like, two miles.

[00:59:13] And they're like, two miles?

[00:59:15] That sounds easy.

[00:59:15] I'm just like, two miles with 2,200 feet of elevation gain.

[00:59:20] And they're just like, oh, that doesn't sound bad.

[00:59:22] I'm like, it's actually horrible.

[00:59:26] But it has an inflatable pool at the top.

[00:59:29] And they're like, what?

[00:59:31] And they're like, the people that are up there, the volunteers, offer an inflatable pool.

[00:59:38] So, bring your swimsuit up.

[00:59:40] And they're just like, oh, yeah, we'll do that.

[00:59:43] And then they sped off.

[00:59:44] They seriously spun their tires and sped off.

[00:59:47] I'm like, I don't think I convinced them.

[00:59:49] And that's how you kept the DEC busy this week from doing their podcast is by giving out this misinformation.

[00:59:56] So, there was a dozen people that went up to hike Becker Hollow, got to Hunter Mountain expecting to dive in the inflatable pool.

[01:00:07] And they were gravely disappointed.

[01:00:10] Exactly.

[01:00:10] But they got a helicopter ride back down to their car.

[01:00:14] So, that's not that bad.

[01:00:15] They missed out on the inflatable pool, but they got to ride in the DEC helicopter.

[01:00:20] Right.

[01:00:21] Not bad.

[01:00:21] Not bad.

[01:00:22] So, you know, to be honest, it wasn't a bad hike.

[01:00:25] It's a beast.

[01:00:27] I don't mind it.

[01:00:28] It's pretty cool.

[01:00:29] You're in the woods all the time.

[01:00:31] It's a boring hike.

[01:00:31] It's a boring hike up that log.

[01:00:34] It's a beast.

[01:00:34] But it's also, there's so many trails like that and there are roads like that and the Catskills that I will say, though, it's a great hike in the winter.

[01:00:46] Yes.

[01:00:47] Like going down that in the winter, especially if nobody's been down ahead of you, you can just fly down that.

[01:00:53] When there's like a good snow base, you got your snowshoes on.

[01:00:56] It's almost like teleskiing with your snowshoes on.

[01:00:59] I've done that.

[01:01:00] That's fun.

[01:01:00] And you can, it's a good training hike if you want to do some awesome elevation gain per mile.

[01:01:06] So, I mean, he was, he hated it.

[01:01:09] Number one, we got to the top.

[01:01:11] There was no view.

[01:01:12] We had the clouds flying through.

[01:01:14] On the way down, we hit some rain.

[01:01:17] And, you know, I got to say it wasn't a bad hike.

[01:01:20] No views.

[01:01:21] I mean, I enjoy the views all the time.

[01:01:23] But the one cool thing is on the way back when we were traveling over back to Hunter, we slowed down and there was a bear picking apples from a tree.

[01:01:32] I didn't get a picture of it.

[01:01:35] But it was beautiful just picking apples from a tree.

[01:01:38] And then the cub was kind of like reaching up for the mama to give it the apples.

[01:01:43] And I was just, it was, my friend has never seen a black bear in his life.

[01:01:46] So, it was great.

[01:01:47] So, you were below 2,000 feet when you saw that?

[01:01:51] Oh, yeah.

[01:01:52] The elevation.

[01:01:53] Yeah.

[01:01:53] I was driving towards kind of like the dip going up.

[01:01:57] Okay.

[01:01:57] All right.

[01:01:58] So, you were in the Alpha Romeo when you saw the bear.

[01:02:03] Yes, yes, yes.

[01:02:04] All right.

[01:02:04] You know that one rich person's house that sits on the side of Plateau?

[01:02:09] Yeah.

[01:02:09] That's where my uncle Vinny's house is right there.

[01:02:11] Yeah.

[01:02:12] Vinny from my cousin Vinny.

[01:02:14] You know, I remember him.

[01:02:15] Yeah, that's him.

[01:02:15] My uncle.

[01:02:16] Yep.

[01:02:16] Yeah.

[01:02:17] That's the road that they went up to.

[01:02:19] And it was the bear was picking apples from there.

[01:02:22] So, it was absolutely phenomenal.

[01:02:23] They like, bears like those rich apples.

[01:02:26] Yeah.

[01:02:27] So.

[01:02:27] I just saw, unfortunately, up in Old Forge, they had to put bears down for that reason.

[01:02:32] They were, my daughter was just up there camping this past weekend and sent me photos of bears

[01:02:38] up in a tree eating apples right in town.

[01:02:40] And then, uh, my son-in-law's sister posted this morning that the DEC had to go, unfortunately, had to go in and euthanize the mother and two or three cubs.

[01:02:50] Yeah.

[01:02:50] Because they were just right in the middle of town.

[01:02:53] They were getting too used to what was going on.

[01:02:55] And, uh, that's, that's always, yeah, it's such a sad thing to hear, you know?

[01:03:29] Yeah.

[01:03:30] We're getting too much of a guy to stosh tonight.

[01:03:31] We are.

[01:03:33] Yeah.

[01:03:33] He's giving out, he's giving out false information to people of certain ethnic backgrounds.

[01:03:39] He's, he's like, suburbanites should be, you know, drawn and quartered by wild bears in the town center.

[01:03:47] What's, what's next?

[01:03:49] Tom, you bring out the worst in stosh.

[01:03:53] I know, right?

[01:03:54] So, I gotta admit.

[01:03:55] He's intimidated, he's intimidated by all of Tom's volunteer work.

[01:04:00] Oh, God.

[01:04:00] That's what it is.

[01:04:01] And the beard.

[01:04:02] And the beard.

[01:04:03] Yeah.

[01:04:03] Tom, Tom's sporting like that, you know, old, old man, you know,

[01:04:08] John Burroughs beard.

[01:04:10] Yeah.

[01:04:10] Yeah.

[01:04:10] John Burroughs would be envious of Tom.

[01:04:14] Definitely.

[01:04:15] I gotta admit, these, the, the people that stopped by these, this, uh, these Jewish people

[01:04:22] would have never done this hike.

[01:04:24] They would have gone up a quarter of a mile and been like, hell no.

[01:04:28] I gotta admit, I've never.

[01:04:31] Well, that's, that's what you think, but I'm going to check the DEC weekly reports now and

[01:04:36] see, see what search and rescue operations there were on Becker Hollow this past week.

[01:04:41] All right.

[01:04:42] Yeah.

[01:04:42] And if, and if there's part of the report is that two, two adult males were seen fleeing

[01:04:48] in an alpha Romeo with rental plates.

[01:04:53] Then I think they're rental.

[01:04:54] I don't know.

[01:04:55] I gotta, I don't know, but.

[01:04:57] We're onto something here.

[01:04:59] We are.

[01:04:59] Next thing you're going to tell us about is how you guys got a ride share out of like

[01:05:03] downtown Hunter to get away from the area or something.

[01:05:06] That was Cairo.

[01:05:08] It was Cairo.

[01:05:09] So, uh, Ted, let's, let's, uh, skip the second part of our, oh, you're going to skip the second.

[01:05:15] Okay.

[01:05:15] You're going to skip the second.

[01:05:16] We're an hour and seven minutes and I want to get to Tom's stuff.

[01:05:19] Okay.

[01:05:20] So I just, I'm just going to throw out there.

[01:05:22] This is the, the, after, I don't know how many thousands of miles I've hiked in the

[01:05:26] Catskills, but I'm, I'm well over 500 times, you know, to the top of these high peaks in

[01:05:33] the Catskills and this is the first time ever I went to Catterskill Falls.

[01:05:39] So we're going to skip it.

[01:05:40] We're going to skip it because it's now, cause it, well, I'm going to do another epic hike

[01:05:43] this weekend.

[01:05:44] So I'm going to talk about that one.

[01:05:46] We're just going to, we're going to pretend that my side hike to Catterskill high, this

[01:05:52] Catterskill Falls never happened.

[01:05:55] It didn't happen.

[01:05:56] We will.

[01:05:57] Once again, volunteer 3500 club is having trailhead stewards, Catskill trail crew, uh,

[01:06:03] need some help doing some trail maintenance around the area.

[01:06:06] Catskill mountain club visitors center, Charlie rovers trail crew, uh, Bradley mountain fire

[01:06:11] tower.

[01:06:12] Definitely check out for all volunteer opportunities, especially New York do Jersey trail conference

[01:06:17] as well.

[01:06:17] Tom will be talking about that a little bit tonight.

[01:06:20] Uh, stickers.

[01:06:21] Don't forget to email me or, uh, any Facebook opportunities or stuff like that.

[01:06:26] Uh, Instagram also stop at camp Catskill or some stickers.

[01:06:31] So, and the weather and gear and, and, and awesome gear as well.

[01:06:37] So the weather forecast for this weekend, give me one second.

[01:06:45] So it looks like, uh, Friday we will have clear.

[01:06:54] And, uh, a high of 63 and a low of 57 that's at night.

[01:06:58] So it looks like a beautiful time, but Saturday and Sunday looks like moderate rain showers.

[01:07:04] Both days, a low of 55, a high of 59, a little bit of rain, not too much, a little bit of wind

[01:07:12] here, 30 stuff like that.

[01:07:14] So, uh, it seems like the heaviest rain will be on Sunday morning, very mild, uh, temperatures

[01:07:20] winds increasing late at night, but nothing too crazy.

[01:07:24] So bring your, your, your weather gear, stuff like that.

[01:07:28] Wind rain ponchos, stuff like that.

[01:07:30] And just to keep yourself, uh, not, uh, uh, exposed to these elements and stuff like that.

[01:07:36] So it's, it looks really good.

[01:07:39] So I was going to do some Catskill mountain history, but I would like to get onto Tom's

[01:07:44] stuff.

[01:07:44] So I've been trying to get a hold of the Delaware aqueduct people and they have been non-cooperative.

[01:07:50] so whatever so let's get on to the sponsors uh discover camp catskill and tanninsville your

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[01:09:19] to new heights of resilience and joy apply today on another summit.org so let's finally get to the

[01:09:27] guest of the night

[01:09:31] so tom walsh is here to talk about his long path journey from north to south uh for charity correct tom

[01:09:42] uh yes yeah i'm a cancer survivor um i had cancer six years ago and um after i got cured of my cancer i i was

[01:09:52] actually working towards hiking the long path at the time i was you know started hiking and i was doing

[01:09:58] smaller hikes and i was planning my long path hike um when i got sick so i decided when i got better i said well if i'm

[01:10:06] going to do this this hike and you know this five week hike i might as well raise some money doing it

[01:10:12] you know and do it have a purpose behind it and um i set a five thousand dollar goal and and i reached it

[01:10:19] nice yeah first year um actually i was at i think 48 84 or something but damn close enough for me

[01:10:29] that uh made me realize that this is something that i i could do so um this year when i did the long

[01:10:35] path southbound was actually my fifth um annual charity challenge hike is what i call it um and

[01:10:43] essentially it's just it's a charity challenge in that it's it's got to be difficult for me it can't be

[01:10:49] something that's not hard or else i would just ask people to give me money um but i i want people to

[01:10:54] donate based on me being able to complete these challenges whatever they happen to be and for

[01:11:00] five years they've all involved hiking so far and i hope they continue to involve hiking because that's what

[01:11:06] i enjoy doing yeah and um and that that's how i got started um was five years ago um that's when you

[01:11:14] started hiking officially or did you start what's what's your background of hiking and somewhat life

[01:11:19] well you know i was a boy scout my family and we camped and and our you know our whole lives we

[01:11:25] camped on weekends and the holidays and but i was never really a big hiker since i was younger and um

[01:11:32] i actually got into hiking because my son asked me to when he moved to town he asked me if i could

[01:11:38] take his dog out for a walk a couple days a week so um i said sure and i started grabbing the rock and

[01:11:44] we'd walk up and down the railroad tracks just a mile or so and and then as the summer came and

[01:11:50] it started to get hotter i said well we got to get off these tracks we got to get into the woods

[01:11:54] so then we started going to some of the state forests around here and then i said well we got to hike

[01:11:59] somewhere where there's water so he can drink you know and go swimming and and we just kept expanding

[01:12:06] and expanding and next thing i was spending eight hour days in the woods with the rock um you know

[01:12:11] going for lunch and hiking you know miles and miles with them and uh that's essentially what got me

[01:12:17] started to hiking again and then i uh saw the long path sign in middleburg i used to see it all the

[01:12:24] time there's a big green science as long path and i always wondered what it was and uh i just decided

[01:12:30] i guess i was about sure i must have been 60 almost and i said you know i'm gonna check this long path

[01:12:36] thing out and decided i was gonna hike from middleburg to thatcher park um which is about 44 miles it's the

[01:12:43] last four sections and i got in touch with the long path north hiking club and to try and glean some

[01:12:50] information from them about the trail but um unfortunately like i said earlier most of the

[01:12:56] guys in the club are older and they're none of them really through hikers or anything so it wasn't

[01:13:02] the type of information i was hoping to get from them um i did most of my learning from trial and error

[01:13:07] my first attempt at middleburg to thatcher park i only lasted two and a half days um before i completely

[01:13:15] broke down and had to be pretty much carried off the trail um but i probably carrying 60 pounds on my

[01:13:23] back that first trip yeah because i had no idea i went out in the bar and i grabbed an old boy scout

[01:13:29] knapsack and you know i had blankets and tents i even had a frying pan with me um i had radio

[01:13:36] what about a deep did you bring a deep fryer for the french fries you wouldn't believe my pack was so

[01:13:43] heavy when i got up it took me a couple of hours just to get from middleburg up to the top of the

[01:13:48] cliffs going through the lemon squeeze and everything and i literally i dropped my map and when i bent over

[01:13:54] to pick it up i literally fell over top ways i was just so heavy i just fell right on my head and uh

[01:14:02] and anyway i did about 10 miles first day the second day i did more than i wanted to so the third day i

[01:14:08] couldn't walk um all my muscles were seized up and um i i kept attempted to keep going but eventually

[01:14:15] just had to call it off and uh naturally had no service where i was so i wound up walking down into

[01:14:21] the town of burn and and actually there was a paramedic place down there and she was kind enough to

[01:14:26] drive back up in the woods and i left my pack stashed under a bridge um because i couldn't carry it no more

[01:14:32] and uh and the bottom line was i learned a lot of valuable lessons um i mean i was wearing dungarees

[01:14:40] work boots cotton socks carrying all this gear that i didn't need and um and like i said it was pretty

[01:14:48] much a disaster but it like i said i learned the next year i made my next trip to ems and started buying

[01:14:54] some decent equipment and and figuring things out and uh eventually i was able to do middleburg the

[01:15:01] thatcher and then i did middleburg the gilboa and then i did go bow to thatcher and and on and on and

[01:15:06] just as i was building up with anticipation of eventually doing the long paths um the whole thing

[01:15:12] and uh i was actually on the third day of my gilboa i was doing gilboa at thatcher park and on my third

[01:15:20] day my wife was supposed to come resupply me but instead she came and got me and told me the doctor

[01:15:25] had called i had cancer and i had to come off the hike and you know go in and start the scan

[01:15:31] and start the process if you will of getting better wow so you're telling us that you're

[01:15:36] out there doing this epic long path adventure and your wife drives up you don't know she's coming

[01:15:44] she drives up and she breaks this news on you is that how it happened i knew she was coming because

[01:15:48] she was going to resupply me um and i had had a biopsy done on thursday um of the week prior and

[01:15:57] i left on my hike on sunday or saturday i left i left on the hike and with the stitches in my neck

[01:16:03] and everything i because i had planned it i said i'm going and uh she met me in middleburg and when

[01:16:08] she came to meet me she said she actually just said the doctor called said you have to call him

[01:16:12] so i got him i got on the phone and called him and he said yep it was cancer he says you got to come in

[01:16:17] tomorrow for a pet scan and and um the the funny thing was like whenever every single time i went to see

[01:16:23] doctor they'd all say how you feeling how you feel i feel great you know i was just out doing a 70 mile

[01:16:28] hike and uh i think my hiking played a large part in my being able to to be alive today if you will

[01:16:37] um to my sicknesses because i was in pretty good shape um if i was a couch potato when i got sick

[01:16:43] i don't know what would have happened you know so i really think the hiking and everything just

[01:16:49] the general lifestyle of being in the woods really played a large part of my getting better i really

[01:16:55] do that is an attitude when did you start doing like the your your long distance hiking like what

[01:17:03] what year would you say you start doing it yeah like i said it was only about seven six years ago maybe

[01:17:09] oh wow yeah i i was um well when i got cancer i was 60 all right and so i and i was doing the um

[01:17:18] the northern section so i probably had been my first long distance hike was probably a couple

[01:17:24] of months before that so i'm just pretty new at this game actually well you're pretty good at it

[01:17:31] i'm tired um yeah i i was i had the bucket list i like i was looking at the appalachian trail thinking

[01:17:38] maybe that'd be cool but um i've after reading the blogs and everything else that goes associated with

[01:17:45] that it's just too crowded for me um i'm just i'm more of a solo type guy i don't want to get to

[01:17:50] the end of the day and have 30 people at a campsite or something you know i prefer to yeah i prefer to

[01:17:56] actually pull 150 feet off the trail and just set my tent wherever i want you know um which is one of

[01:18:02] the beauties of the long path you know you do have a lot of options for places to stay wow nice now

[01:18:08] with the long path history did you your first hike fully from you did you from south to north right

[01:18:19] my first true hike was from manhattan to thatcher park oh wow so we we uh if the listeners don't know

[01:18:26] that the long path extends at this time that tom did it from manhattan always to thatcher park they're

[01:18:33] extending that correct yes yes the current beginning is is 175th street and fort washington avenue there's

[01:18:42] a subway station that's technically where the trail starts and right now it ends at stage road and

[01:18:48] thatcher but um steve as you guys know is in the process of um extending that down into the town of

[01:18:54] altamont um actually the town approached the trail committee and asked if they would divert the trail to

[01:19:01] come down through their town um which i think is great you know any any time a trail can go to a

[01:19:06] town of any sort is a wonderful thing for resupplies and possible places to stay and things like that so

[01:19:13] the fact that altamont um stepped up and embraced the trail and said we want the trail to come down

[01:19:19] here i thought it was really cool and uh andy and steve steve primarily as he was telling you a few weeks

[01:19:25] ago he's been doing a lot of work so i'm imagining it's not much longer till that'll be complete

[01:19:31] and then the official end if you're an end-to-ender would be in in altamont so what was your experience

[01:19:39] of going down all the way from you know oxygo county to to manhattan like it was it was it was kind of it

[01:19:48] was during covet actually you know it was uh it was uh June 1st of 2020 so covet was still i mean we

[01:19:55] weren't in lockdowns and such but it was like when i got on the amtrak from from um renslaire i took the

[01:20:02] amtrak down to the city and then took a cab up to 175th um there was nobody on the train like you know

[01:20:09] and um when i checked into my first hotel they actually required me to sign a form stating that i

[01:20:15] was a uh what do they call it you know necessary worker or something like that you know that i could

[01:20:21] stay in their hotel um and uh it was so it was it was a different time when i started you know um

[01:20:28] there was there was people out and about i have plenty of friendlies that i met along the way

[01:20:33] but um i found it to be a lot different on the trail than this time as far as um people engaging with

[01:20:42] me in town and things like that on the trail it's it's fine everybody engages but when you walk into a

[01:20:48] town you stop in a diner the first time through every time i'd stop people wow look at you where

[01:20:53] you're going where you're coming from and all of that and and this time i didn't get much of that um

[01:20:59] how long no it was like every time i go to a little town or something people it was almost like

[01:21:04] they were looking right through me it was um um it kind of made me wonder if you know people might

[01:21:10] have thought i was a homeless guy to be honest with you um i was told the last two years when i did my

[01:21:16] hikes up here in the county i there was a lot of road walking involved in those hikes and a couple

[01:21:22] of people i know said we saw you you look like a homeless guy on the side of the road and and i

[01:21:27] never thought about that but until this hike and i realized people see me with my pack and everything

[01:21:32] and the last thing they want to do is come up to me and say hey where are you going you know not

[01:21:37] really knowing if i'm going anywhere you know um so i i think that might have had a lot to do with

[01:21:43] the people's hesitancy um i was like i said i was in the wartsboro diner and not one person

[01:21:49] i had my pack right in the middle of the floor next to my table and now not even the server

[01:21:54] was like oh cool we're you know what are you doing a big hike or something like that you know i had

[01:21:59] none of that this year which was definitely different it really was um like i said on the trail

[01:22:05] was different people see you with the pack and the bedroll and everything and right away they

[01:22:09] they know you're at least out there for a couple of days you know and that's generally what they'll

[01:22:13] say like when i was in the devil's path oh you're doing the path or you're doing burrows range trail

[01:22:18] or something and when i tell them no i'm doing a long path it was just like everybody would light

[01:22:23] right up oh that's so cool you know everybody thought it was great and um i liked it because

[01:22:28] whenever i call these type of people friendlies and whenever i meet a friendly i'd always no matter where

[01:22:35] i was or what i was going through i would always step away from that with a bounce in my step

[01:22:39] it always i'd always walk away just thinking that was really cool you know these people are rooting

[01:22:45] for me and and it would always just kind of spur me to go further you know so a lot of these type

[01:22:53] at least for me a lot of the hike was was about the people in the encounters and uh i have two books

[01:23:01] ones full of pictures of waterfalls and valleys and fire towers and the other ones full of people

[01:23:07] and when i show them to people and they look and they're like they look at this waterfall oh that's

[01:23:12] beautiful where's that i don't know it's in the mountains somewhere you know what i mean i i really

[01:23:16] don't know these mountains like you would think i would from the way i hike them but when i see a picture

[01:23:22] of a person and they say who i know exactly who it was where we talked about you know the whole thing

[01:23:27] so my memories are definitely more aligned with with the folks i met along the way than than the sites

[01:23:34] i saw so so tom let me just have you backtrack there sure you said you said you have two books of photos

[01:23:42] did i hear that right yeah two you know i've made photo albums from the hike yeah i gotcha do you carry

[01:23:48] these on the trail is that what i'm hearing no no no no okay so this is like caught yeah trust me

[01:23:55] if they weigh something i'm not carrying them okay yeah because that came across as like

[01:24:01] very old school you're hiking along with your knapsack and you pull out these books of photos so

[01:24:08] all right so what why don't we talk about you you told us that first experience you lasted 2.5 days

[01:24:17] how did you your gear change from that first 2.5 day experience to when you you took the amtrak down

[01:24:24] to new york city the taxi over to 175 and set out to hike northbound down the long trail the first time

[01:24:33] to be honest from that very first hike to my first long path the gear didn't change much

[01:24:41] as far as what i had i mean obviously i went out and bought a nice pack i bought an osprey

[01:24:46] um that i really like um but uh it was mostly just discarding stuff you know it was just mostly

[01:24:53] stuff that i didn't need that when i first started hiking i would bring stuff saying oh maybe i might

[01:24:59] need this you know and then after you hike a few hikes you come to realize no you don't need that you

[01:25:05] know well you do need this um truth be told my first hike i had a 1999 walmart tent and i had a 1999

[01:25:13] walmart sleeping bag um that weighed three pounds and my tent was maybe four and a half pounds it was

[01:25:20] just a little pup tent um and i loved the hell out of it you know it kept me dry um but i was probably

[01:25:26] still on my first hike i had set myself up for weekly resupplies i started in manhattan and then i had my

[01:25:35] first resupply in um i believe it was in walwarsen and then my next one was in palinville and i was

[01:25:43] being resupplied once a week but that meant when i started up i was carrying seven days worth of food

[01:25:49] um which was a lot you know and i was probably carrying in the neighborhood of 35 pounds most days

[01:25:55] on that first hike not bad four years later i've come to realize i can't carry that type of weight

[01:26:02] anymore and i i did this year i upgraded even more i bought an enlightenment quilt i bought a big agnes tent

[01:26:09] um yeah i upgraded a lot of stuff and i got and i did my stashes and i had a bounce box so i was never

[01:26:17] carrying more than three days of food at any one time um but still when i did devil's path i had three

[01:26:24] days of food and a gallon of water on board so i was probably between 32 to 35 pounds at that point

[01:26:31] um it seems whenever i had my hardest climbs was when i had my most weight you know um but as far

[01:26:38] as the gear goes that's just you know learn is that i i am definitely a gram counter now um you know

[01:26:45] i look at everything i weigh everything um and i just can't get myself i mean without spending a

[01:26:52] couple of thousand dollars um i can't get myself much lighter than i am right now i think where i am

[01:26:58] right now is is about as light as i'm going to get so what's that weight what's your well my base weight

[01:27:04] is probably in the 11 to 12 pound range and and then uh you know you throw in my my cook kit and my

[01:27:11] clothes and and everything else like i said with three days worth of food and um i was trying to carry

[01:27:18] about two liters of water with me most times i would probably sit in that 25 pound range

[01:27:24] so that's manageable no that's very manageable for me yes um so how big is the pack how many

[01:27:31] liters is your pack it's a 58 liter oh wow it seems like a pretty big pack for that kind of weight

[01:27:38] not really it's an it's an osprey um uh exos i think it's called uh about five years now it's

[01:27:45] pretty much beat up pretty good now it's been through five hikes um but it's it's actually the

[01:27:51] almost the perfect size for for my gear um i have most of my gear in in little little sacks so it's

[01:27:58] really just a matter of i have my cook kit in this my my hygiene in this and my clothes in that and my

[01:28:03] and then i just open the pack and i just you know pop everything in there it uh and it actually fits

[01:28:09] um pretty pretty snug it's pretty nice fit for me wow so your recent expedition on the long path

[01:28:17] that you went from north to south right yes how long did that take that was 37 days

[01:28:25] 37 days wow the first one was 34 days um with 30 with four days off so it was 12 miles a day average

[01:28:34] and this one was 37 and again i think i took four days um the one big push i did was i um i i took some

[01:28:44] time off in ellenville and then three days later i i actually took a day off to go canoeing on the

[01:28:49] delaware river because the long path passes right by the delaware and i've been going canoeing with

[01:28:55] my family and friends every year since 1976 actually i haven't missed a year in 49 years

[01:29:02] and i wasn't gonna miss this year so i kind of scheduled my hike so that i would be in otisville

[01:29:08] on the weekend of the canoe trip and then somebody just i actually walked over to the hometown deli from

[01:29:14] uh from basha kill and bummed the ride to the campground six miles up the road and on friday

[01:29:20] and then saturday spent the day canoeing with my family and friends we had about 30 people this year

[01:29:24] it was great and then sunday somebody dropped me back off at basha kill and i just picked it back up

[01:29:29] again and i went from that sunday right through to the end the following tuesday i did 10 days straight

[01:29:36] through without taking a zero which for me was was i was gonna take a zero but once i got down mount ivy

[01:29:42] i'm like a couple days out i was like i gotta just you know push through this so yeah um so did you

[01:29:48] feel that 37 days was perfect or would you like to minimize it or you know extend it what uh you know

[01:29:57] from from uh where i'm at physically um i probably could have done it a little i could have probably

[01:30:05] knocked a day or two off especially at the end because i had my trail legs towards the end um but

[01:30:10] that sometimes i just like i was in um just above harriman and i was looking at my my things and

[01:30:17] i really said you know from here i might be able to bang this out in about five days

[01:30:21] and i took seven you know because rather than doing five 15 mile days let's do seven tens you know and

[01:30:29] and take it easy you know enjoy it right why push you know um i did a lot of pushing on the on this hike

[01:30:37] there was some brutal brutal days i mean there were some days where i i was averaging half a mile an

[01:30:44] hour um that's how slow i was moving yes there was there was what was that the heat the humidity

[01:30:51] the combination of everything that the hardest days were in the catskills and it was primarily

[01:30:57] because of the climbs and the descents um i did start off on june 17th so my first four days

[01:31:04] was in that first heat wave that we had and uh yeah i actually i took a zero i hiked monday tuesday

[01:31:11] wednesday thursday and then i took a zero day friday which i had planned and i came home because i was only

[01:31:17] 20 minutes from the house and i had lost six pounds in that first four days and um the next week i took

[01:31:25] another zero i lost another four or five oh wow yeah well i started a little heavy which you know i had a

[01:31:31] little bit more weight on me than i probably should have um but by the by the end of the hike i dropped

[01:31:36] just over 20 pounds and um i actually ate like a madman in the last four days so i would imagine i was

[01:31:44] probably down over 25 pounds at one point um so what one thing i'm curious about tom is how how does the

[01:31:52] the camping arrangements or overnight arrangements differ in orange and rockland county versus upstate

[01:32:03] uh well it's probably a little bit more difficult um down there than up here because up here you got

[01:32:10] so much state land you can just like i said just pop 150 feet off the trail and you can set up wherever

[01:32:14] you want um my big advantage was having andy garrison um as one of my my i have what i call the big three

[01:32:23] which was andy cammy and christina and um they're the ones who did my bounce box for me andy picked me

[01:32:29] up in uh plaid clove with my bounce box and he went all the way down to middletown and then handed it off

[01:32:36] to cammy and then she handed it off to christina down into harriman um and one of them was meeting me

[01:32:43] essentially every two to three days with my bounce box to resupply me and andy knows all the places

[01:32:50] to stay you know i'm saying he he i mean there was a couple of stealth places where i wasn't supposed to

[01:32:56] be but andy would be like oh don't worry this is a good spot and um on the state land and he's also

[01:33:02] involved with osi which has a lot of properties along the trail too and so he would put me in osi properties

[01:33:09] uh probably spent four or five nights in osi properties which is tom one sec what is osi

[01:33:15] um open spaces initiative i think it's called open spaces institute nice i believe it's open space

[01:33:22] initiatives and it's uh it's a non-profit that purchases properties across the catskills you know

[01:33:30] with the intent of eventually making them public um i believe they try and purchase this particularly if

[01:33:35] they can find stuff putting up with the state land and things like that um and they've got properties

[01:33:41] everywhere osi is huge and andy's very involved with them so i mean andy's the type of guy where i

[01:33:47] could call him up and say andy i'm in section 22 and i'm lost and he'll he'll say to me what are you

[01:33:54] looking at and i could say i'm looking at a big tree with a rock next to it and he knows like exactly

[01:34:00] where i am i mean he knows every inch of this trail um he is such an asset um to this trail i said i i

[01:34:08] did a talk with somebody earlier today and i was saying that there's no doubt friends in a long path

[01:34:15] got me through this hike um i'm not too proud to say oh i did i had at least a dozen people that helped

[01:34:24] me in one way or another during this hike and whether it was giving me a ride from the trailhead to my hotel

[01:34:30] or finding a place for me to stay the very first night i got to where i was going to stay and i was

[01:34:35] like it's early maybe i should push on i called steve seagart he made a call that one of the landowners

[01:34:41] yeah he can set his tent up here um a few days later bobby and laurie uh found me a spot to camp up

[01:34:49] yeah up off bluebird road they were like oh we know this guy we'll call him and it was like yeah you

[01:34:53] can set a tent there and like i said people russ russ from uh the hiking club met me up in cotton hill

[01:34:59] with a veal parmesan hero and two gallons of water you know um so i i certainly couldn't have done

[01:35:07] this hot hot hike without without the help i got like i said i i feel that um christina and cammy

[01:35:13] pretty much the last week to eight days they really nursed me right through that that whole bottom

[01:35:19] section they came out hiked with me a couple days and uh you know walk with me and and uh it was it

[01:35:26] was just really cool when i actually my very last day christina um picked me up at the hotel in nyack

[01:35:33] brought me to the state line um to the to the administration building where i'd finished the

[01:35:39] day before and she picked me up and brought me to the hotel and then she proceeded to walk the

[01:35:45] whole 10 miles with me to the end of the section on 175th street and a couple of miles in yeah we

[01:35:51] were in walking a couple miles in and here comes cammy she met us and she walked in and all of a

[01:35:56] sudden here comes sean gitlin i don't know if you're familiar with sean but he's done the long path three

[01:36:01] times he's through hike the long path um i think in three separate seasons he just recently did it this

[01:36:08] winter he did it in february and march and um what this is a quick story but i did attempt to hike the

[01:36:16] long path southbound in 2021 after i did it northbound the very next year i said i'm going to be the first

[01:36:23] person to do it both ways and um i wound up injuring my calf um outside phoenicia and when i got to the

[01:36:30] base of wittenberg i decided to call the hike off and went down to woodland valley um and it was it

[01:36:36] was a hard decision but i couldn't risk getting hurt up on the boroughs range so i decided to call it but

[01:36:42] two nights prior to that i was staying up on tramper mountain at the lean to and that's when i met sean

[01:36:47] gitlin and he was doing a northbound hike at that time and i told him how i was going to be the first

[01:36:53] guy to do it both ways and all of this stuff and and he thought that was great and anyway this year

[01:37:00] when i was planning what to do for my charity challenge i had narrowed it down to a couple of hikes

[01:37:05] um the long path being one of them and when sean was doing his northbound hike andy asked him he said

[01:37:11] you know this is your third time how come you haven't gone southbound and he said because i know

[01:37:15] tom wants to be the first one to do it both ways nice right and i was just like well i guess i know

[01:37:22] what i'm doing this year and you know and it kind of sealed the deal for me um as to what i was going

[01:37:27] to do and that made it so much nicer for him to come out on my last day and walk with me the last

[01:37:34] few miles across the bridge and all you know um to have him and cammy and christina who both um just a

[01:37:41] few months ago completed their end to ends um which is which is how i know them because when they came up

[01:37:47] to the northern end i shuttled them a couple of times and went hiking with them a couple of times

[01:37:51] so that's how i met them you know and um so having this this kind of like enthusiasm with the other

[01:37:58] people gives you kind of that inspiration to to kick ass and to finish it well it really did it

[01:38:06] really did um the christina in particular at one point when i was about a week a week from the end

[01:38:13] um again i was dealing with rashes and blisters and it was going to be pouring rain this particular

[01:38:19] night and her and cammy came and walked with me for for a while and to resupply me and when the rain

[01:38:25] started um christina was just like well that's it you're not you're coming home you're coming to my

[01:38:29] house and she called her husband anthony and he was very gracious and they brought me home and

[01:38:34] i got to sleep in a warm bed and take a shower and and um i don't know if i had to camp in the

[01:38:41] rain that night and wake up the next morning and put on wet shoes and socks and wet clothes and with

[01:38:48] the blisters i was dealing with i don't know how much further i would have went that day

[01:38:52] so that little bit of kindness on her part was was was changing was you know changed the whole

[01:38:58] hike for me it was amazing it was amazing that's why i refer to them as the big three because andy

[01:39:04] cammy and christina just pretty much the whole way through they were just there almost every day i

[01:39:09] could call one of them or see one of them and uh like i said a lot of people are like uh supported

[01:39:15] and unsupported hikes and all that i i got no problem i'm not proud about it at all i mean i had

[01:39:21] a lot of help and i don't think i could have done it without it and that's all there is to it so it

[01:39:27] sounds like uh it's about the connections that's what makes it happen i had an interview this morning

[01:39:33] with um with a magazine um called hook magazine down out of nyack um a guy called me up about my hike

[01:39:40] and and i told him just that he asked me about the the community and the long path community is just

[01:39:46] it's tremendous um friends that are long path facebook page if anybody's gonna hike the long path

[01:39:53] do yourself a favor and join up with the friends of the long path because the resources you can get

[01:39:58] from that page are just astronomical um you know catskill trail conditions obviously is a great

[01:40:04] great um site for for finding out about water sources and things like that but if you want to

[01:40:10] learn anything long path go on friends of the long path and all you got to do is post say i'm going to

[01:40:15] go up and do section so and so any chance someone could give me a ride and you'll get responses you'll

[01:40:20] get people from the from the area saying oh yeah i can meet you and i've met people at six o'clock in

[01:40:24] the morning and just drove them ten miles back to so they could start a section you know and um always just did

[01:40:32] it because this is what i do where i'm up here and then sure enough like i said to christine you know

[01:40:36] give a girl a couple of rides and next thing you sit in her kitchen eating a hero you know

[01:40:41] you know the long path community i think is is tremendous i really think that the the people

[01:40:48] that are involved in it cammy and christina both do trail maintenance cammy i think is actually a

[01:40:54] trail supervisor in one section um and obviously andy is uh he's the probably the biggest asset that

[01:41:02] i would say that this trail has yeah so tom uh i have two questions before we get to the question

[01:41:11] that was on the top of my mind i just want to make sure that the folks at hook magazine don't outdo us

[01:41:18] so is there anything that they asked you or you told them jesus that you haven't covered so we're

[01:41:24] so we don't get out scooped you know i i i think it was the guy was writing a story about the long path

[01:41:31] essentially and he ensured that i had just completed it and that's why he called me to get some insight

[01:41:36] from me we did talk for quite a while but again it was um it's like he wanted you know what what do

[01:41:44] you tell people who want to hike the long path and this is what i said to you you know get on facebook

[01:41:48] and uh and and look around and i'm friends at a long path i mean and and you're going to find all

[01:41:54] the resources you need i mean the the long path is it's amazing because of all the different i don't

[01:41:59] know the right word but it's like the ecosystems if you will where it goes from manhattan to the

[01:42:05] depths of the catskills and then when you get up north here it's a whole different world even from the

[01:42:10] catskills so and that's that was my other question so you've spent 37 days on trail through a variety of

[01:42:20] conditions rain heat humidity the devil's path um the harriman uh rail trail through goshen

[01:42:31] but eventually you make your way across the george washington bridge you're in new york city

[01:42:38] what do you do you've lost all that weight what do you i mean what do you do do you go out for dinner

[01:42:43] did you go out for lunch i mean what is the shebang at the end of this epic journey

[01:42:49] actually the shebang at the end of the journey i i think i got to the subway station around

[01:42:54] two o'clock maybe quarter to two and i was in um croton on the hudson getting on an amtrak by 305

[01:43:05] that was that's it you're nothing special no no like i said it was great to have cammy and sean

[01:43:13] and and what and christina with me and and we took some photos at the subway station and then i was like

[01:43:18] all right now i got to get home and sean um went online and and ordered me an uber i got an uber came

[01:43:26] we was there in like two minutes picked me up and he ran me up to amtrak and i was home by uh 6 30 you

[01:43:32] know um having dinner at my own house you know it was yeah i i just i couldn't decide should i stay

[01:43:38] an extra night in the city and then go home tomorrow or you know how to play this and um

[01:43:43] i just said you know what i got a chance to make that particular train i'm gonna go for it you know

[01:43:48] yeah i find it interesting that you're you're out there for 37 days you end up in new york city any

[01:43:55] type of food imaginable any you know the the city's got all these wonderful things to do and you just

[01:44:02] want to get home because there's no place like home is that is that you wanted to get back to the

[01:44:06] grandkids yeah it was it was it was you know really was all that i wanted to do i had no other

[01:44:13] thoughts in my i i've been looking at bus schedules and you know maybe i can take a bus to this and that

[01:44:18] and then when i saw i mean it cost me over 100 bucks for an uber to get up to the train station

[01:44:24] yeah yeah well that's new york city for you yeah i didn't care at that point you know what i mean i was

[01:44:30] just like you know 100 bucks at this point i'll be on a train in an hour i'll be home in three four

[01:44:36] hours it was it was just weird getting on a train with a lot of people on it and stuff because like

[01:44:41] i said the last time with your massive backpack yeah yeah and and not smelling the sweetest either i'm

[01:44:47] sure i'm sure that was an issue too so my next question tom is uh stasha's wife is planning

[01:44:55] uh an excursion for him to spend uh 40 days on the long path and she wants to know should she send

[01:45:03] him northbound starting off in new york city or should she send them southbound starting at

[01:45:10] bachelor park and heading south which which for you um is the best way to go if you're only going to do it

[01:45:16] one time well they say the southbound is downhill most of the way so um but i don't know if i can agree

[01:45:23] with that i would say that looking at both of them for me the northbound was the easier of the two

[01:45:31] hikes um i think it's nice that you have almost two weeks of hiking before you hit the hard stuff

[01:45:39] um you know what i mean you're coming through you go to rockland county there's not a hill over a

[01:45:44] thousand feet and then you get into orange county there's nothing over two thousand feet so it you're

[01:45:49] giving yourself some time to build up before you start getting into the real hills whereas when you

[01:45:55] start at thatcher it's only a matter of days till you're into some serious climbs and i mean nothing

[01:46:00] scrambles or nothing but you're in the mountains immediately you know and um the other thing for

[01:46:07] me from a from a mental standpoint was when i did it northbound like i said i had andy i knew andy

[01:46:15] because he showed up at a couple of hiking club meetings up here um so i knew who he was but i

[01:46:22] didn't really know andy and when i started my hike um i might have been on my second day third day at

[01:46:27] the latest i ran into andy he came and met me on the trail and um he was with me that first hike

[01:46:34] from there all the way to wyndham i saw him if not every day i spoke to him almost every day oh andy was

[01:46:42] he he was tremendous for me and i wasn't doing facebook or nothing back then so he was posting

[01:46:48] online you know um where i was and what i was doing and everything and that's how people knew when they

[01:46:54] saw me knew who i was um but the biggest difference mentally was andy would say to me like um i'll give

[01:47:01] you a quick instance um i was in phoenicia and he told me he wanted me to make it to mink hollow lean

[01:47:07] to that day and it was i think it was about 17 or 18 yeah it's a good hike but he explained

[01:47:14] he said the next day you've got to go to the devil's path and i want you to start at mink hollow so i

[01:47:21] want you to get to mink hollow and so i i did i got to mink hollow and then the next day i did devil's

[01:47:27] path and the beauty for me was i wasn't familiar with the trail at all so all i knew every day when i

[01:47:35] woke up in the morning all i knew was i had a hard day in front of me i knew i have to go up mountains

[01:47:40] i have to go down mountains i have a hard day in front of me but this year when i did it i knew

[01:47:46] exactly how hard those days were going to be because now i know the mountains in front of me you know

[01:47:52] like when i did the devil's path the first time i had no idea what i was getting into i just did it

[01:47:59] you know i just did it this year i knew exactly what i was getting into so it was it was you know

[01:48:06] that much harder to get motivated you know to get motivated for it um i don't know if i said earlier

[01:48:12] but one of the things i truly hate is going up mountains um i'm not i'm not a big fan of it um

[01:48:18] i certainly took up the wrong hobby um but i had the wrong podcast this is called the

[01:48:25] mountains podcast sorry words i hate in the long path guide are send steeply

[01:48:33] it's just i you know i mean obviously i've come to accept it um i get to mountains like when i did

[01:48:39] the you know i started at devil's kitchen and went up uh you know in the long path uh the devil's path i

[01:48:44] mean you're right indian head yep you're right yep and i just get to the bottom and i look up and

[01:48:49] i just say okay we got to do this let's do it and and and i just and i just do it you know um there

[01:48:56] are times where my feet are literally moving four inches at a time um i do have compromised lungs

[01:49:02] from when i was sick earlier um i when i had the cancer i did i wound up on life support for five days

[01:49:08] in in the hospital and um i had some really rough rough times um so i do have some some physical

[01:49:16] limitations if you will um but i don't let that limit me if you understand what i'm saying

[01:49:22] i know all about that so yeah yeah i just i just you know i want to keep going for me i'll be honest

[01:49:30] with you this podcast this interview this afternoon um the only honor rotary asked me to speak at a

[01:49:35] luncheon stash so um these things i'll do all of them if they can generate more interest and more

[01:49:43] money in my charities you know um in in this case certainly i love the idea that it's bringing more

[01:49:50] more um interest to the long path and and more stuff about the long path because i think that's

[01:49:55] good that we get more people out there but for me the bottom line is i'm trying to raise money

[01:50:00] for charities so if i can do a podcast like this and say you know if you go online to otsego outdoors.org

[01:50:08] there is a um a link on there with a story about me if you want to donate you can go on there and

[01:50:14] donate some money to these charities and if i can generate another couple hundred bucks by talking to

[01:50:18] somebody i'll do it all day long you know so one question tom when you did the devil's path did you

[01:50:26] at least have views did i have views yeah from the peaks yes yes i did oh okay good good well then it's

[01:50:34] a it's a then it's an actual like benefit for you yeah wittenberg is one of my favorite peaks it really

[01:50:40] is um unfortunately i'm sorry not what wittenberg is borough's range yeah um um indian head twin

[01:50:49] plateau right twin is just twin is just beat the hell out of me um especially especially going down

[01:50:56] going down on the south side of twin that really tom not to interrupt you that is one of the steep

[01:51:02] exceptions of the catskills that you can ever face so don't don't feel bad about it well i know i was

[01:51:08] up on top and i was looking down through this big hole that went down and i was like this can't

[01:51:13] possibly be the trail because i didn't see any blazes and and i hear from all the way down the

[01:51:18] bottom i hear oh yes it is somebody yelling at me you know and i was like god speaking to you

[01:51:24] you know um i had to take my pack off to get up the cornell crack and an entire rope to it and pull

[01:51:30] it up behind me wow burroughs range was was one of my hardest days because it was raining and um i i

[01:51:39] got to experience my first catskill deluge which i'd never had the the um the experience about it

[01:51:46] yeah uh well i was heading from venicia i was planning to to camp there's a little site about

[01:51:52] eight tenths of a mile before you get to the wittenberg base of wittenberg there um there's

[01:51:57] a campsite up to the left and it started raining i don't know about an hour before i was there and i

[01:52:02] was sweated right through so i didn't even put my poncho on and um when i got to the site there it was

[01:52:10] there was actually a big tent there it was like a party going on or something but everything was was

[01:52:16] about four or five inches underwater and um i got in there and i i just i had no poncho i couldn't set

[01:52:23] my rain up my tent up in the rain so i was literally just standing with my hands on my pole in the

[01:52:29] pouring rain wow and i said you know i can't i i can't do this so i decided made an executive decision

[01:52:41] and i said i know i got a mile to the base of wittenberg and then i'm 1.2 to the lean to so

[01:52:46] let's let's go there and i got to hike on a trail where the water was shin deep running down the trail

[01:52:53] it was like walking through a creek um i'd seen videos of that before but i didn't really get to

[01:52:59] experience it until this time that you know there comes a point where you're not even thinking about

[01:53:03] staying dry anymore um you're just sloshing through knee deep water um it's it was truly i was able to

[01:53:11] drink by just putting my my my head up and opening my mouth and it was raining so hard i was able to

[01:53:17] drink like that um and then the next day obviously now the first thing i got to do is hump the mile

[01:53:24] point two up out of the lean to just to get to the base of wittenberg and then it took me close to an

[01:53:30] hour and a half to do the 1.1 miles up to wittenberg and that was the everybody you know i i gotta say

[01:53:38] that that spot is one of the most difficult in the catskills and i'd have to say that that is one of the

[01:53:45] most unexpected in the catskills so and i got to do it in the rain yeah with with your pack probably

[01:53:53] two three pounds heavier than what it was supposed to be well i was loaded i i loaded up with water um i

[01:53:59] knew i wasn't going to find water to the other side of slide i think is where i found the water um

[01:54:04] so i i had to load up and i was what i did when finisher i picked up an extra liter and a half bottle

[01:54:10] an empty one so now i had two liter and a half and another single liter so i was able to carry four

[01:54:17] liters with me but again that's you know that's an extra eight pounds on your back now eight nine pounds

[01:54:22] um and wittenberg obviously there was no views because of the rain um it didn't stop raining until

[01:54:29] i was going down slide heading down towards the never sink was when it finally stopped raining on me

[01:54:35] um but that when i got to the top of wittenberg that was when i made a call to andy because i was

[01:54:40] i was having trouble breathing i was i was whooped i was whooped and i i i couldn't see 20 feet because of

[01:54:50] andy and he was just you know he's just like well you got that one done it's not so bad going down

[01:54:55] and then cornell's not too bad and then you got water on slide and and i was just like yeah okay you

[01:55:01] know and and i just just took off there was a it was um what they call him a steward up on slide i think

[01:55:09] so when i got andy told me oh there's a guy up on slides when you saw that gave me something to hike

[01:55:14] towards anyway you know and um he had some bandages because i had a broken finger for the whole

[01:55:19] hike so he had some stuff for me and uh helped me out a little bit but uh that was another one of

[01:55:25] one of those turning points if you will on that on my height that um you know they call bonking um

[01:55:32] unfortunately my nutrition on the trail is horrendous and i probably spend my whole day bonking um you

[01:55:40] it's just like one big bunk it was my whole day i drink a five-hour energy at some point during the

[01:55:47] day i have my electrolytes but it's very difficult for me like when i got to that terrace mountain lean

[01:55:53] to um i had been carrying a sub that i bought in phoenicia and i just i just didn't want to eat

[01:55:59] you know when i got there i was just like i i just had no appetite i was just

[01:56:03] understandable so what'd you do with what'd you do with the sub did you feed it to the bears the

[01:56:08] raccoons actually ate half of it for breakfast actually um because i knew i had to get something in

[01:56:16] me i had a big day in front of me you know and i know how it works carbs are for tomorrow and the day

[01:56:21] before i didn't really carve up very well you know i had good breakfast at brios and all so that certainly

[01:56:26] helped um but my nutrition is is my downfall it really is that one of the things is i'm a meat and

[01:56:34] potato guy so finding trail stuff is difficult for me because i don't eat vegetables and stuff like

[01:56:40] that so um it's a lot of oatmeal and potatoes and noodles and stuff like that but i just that's why

[01:56:48] whenever i get to a town i just i just go to town you know if you will yeah yeah when you got when you

[01:56:54] got to new york city you you just headed home oh yeah right good point good point yeah from the city

[01:57:01] to the home yeah well i i think i was able to get a couple of mike's hot dogs up in schenectady when i

[01:57:07] got off the train so that was good for me but no but no soggy water dogs down in manhattan i tell you

[01:57:13] what i love them i love them dogs if i if i saw a card i probably would have stopped my card just pulls

[01:57:19] over when it sees the umbrella i can't stop it those are great them some brett's a great dirty water dogs

[01:57:26] so tom you you had some uh as you can say tough times and and the cat skills and such like that but

[01:57:33] what about this hiking for charity stuff why why why do this why go the extra mile no that that's like

[01:57:43] i said that started because when i had cancer when i was having my chemo treatments um speaking with

[01:57:48] the nurses and things i had one particular chemo drug that had to be actually had to be hand infused

[01:57:56] and it took about 20-25 minutes so i called it the getting to know you drug because the nurse would

[01:58:01] literally sit in a chair right here with this huge syringe and just push a little bit every couple

[01:58:06] of minutes and and so we talked and and that's when i found out about how many other people in the room

[01:58:13] with me were struggling um you know um couldn't didn't have money to get to their treatments to

[01:58:19] get a cab um couldn't make their co-pays couldn't pay electric bills um it was just so much you know that

[01:58:27] that these people could use that i said well if i'm going to do this crazy hike i'm going to raise

[01:58:32] some money for these people then and um the first couple years i i decided right off the bat i'm

[01:58:37] going to split it between two charities i didn't want to just give it all to one but i didn't want

[01:58:42] to split it five ways and have the amount of money to be too small to really make a difference so i said

[01:58:47] let's do two charities in the first two years i gave half the money to a charity called tunnel to

[01:58:52] towers which is out of the city and they pay off the mortgages of first responders who were killed in

[01:58:58] the line of duty um they have since expanded their mission statement now they they build smart homes

[01:59:04] for disabled veterans they take care of gold star families um it's a huge huge organization tunnel to

[01:59:11] towers it was um founded by the brother of a firefighter killed in 9-11 and who actually ran from

[01:59:17] brooklyn through the battery tunnel to the towers because he was off that day and then was killed

[01:59:22] when the tower was collapsed um so i i gave half the money to them for a couple years and then i met

[01:59:28] these folks from at sego outdoors when i did the super rock tech challenge and um they were such nice

[01:59:35] people peggy and ellen and and jennifer and i said to them well maybe next year i'll raise money for you

[01:59:41] guys you know and um they did such a great job of promoting and and everything and setting up websites

[01:59:47] and everything that i've just i've just stuck with them and and for the hospital i give i go back and

[01:59:54] forth what i want to do is have one year i give to the cancer patients and the next year i wanted to

[01:59:59] my plan was to give it to icu for the same reasons because like when i was in icu my wife could get in

[02:00:07] the car and go home but there are other people who god forbid you know they have a loved one they're

[02:00:11] out of town or something and they need a place to stay or or food for meals or things like that

[02:00:16] so i wanted to designate the money to that and then i came to find out that bassett hospital in

[02:00:21] cooperstown actually has they call it the hannah lee house and it's like their own little ronald

[02:00:27] mcdonald house so i give the money to the hannah lee house one year and then the cancer patients

[02:00:32] the next year so i go back and forth with that and i'll see you outdoors so i've i've given to

[02:00:38] four or five different charities now i've raised 25 000 um now in five years so it's how much

[02:00:45] how much was that again tom let's just hear that right again i've raised over 25 000 holy

[02:00:50] shit that's so you're doing you're doing over 5k a year exactly hiking for charities well kudos to

[02:00:57] you buddy that's that's real impressive and i i hope to do it as long as i physically can yeah

[02:01:04] that's one of the things about it being a charity challenge is it's a charity challenge hike but it

[02:01:10] doesn't necessarily have to be a hike um i actually looked at bicycling um after the last year i was like

[02:01:17] maybe i could try bicycle and then i won't have to talk about that yeah i've got a bad bad neck and

[02:01:23] shoulders and things so i've got stenosis in my neck i've got arthritis and so carrying even 25 pounds

[02:01:30] is getting difficult um but i i bought a bike a nice little seven speeder and and i don't like it i

[02:01:37] don't i'm sorry i just it's too much like running i mean you're really you just got your constant you

[02:01:43] know you got i mean it's great when you're on the downhills and you can coast and stuff that's real

[02:01:48] nice you're killing me tom i'm bleeding i'm bleeding out here i'm this is great yeah yeah

[02:01:56] somebody somebody get the defibrillators i'm down i can't do the bike i i i think um because what i was

[02:02:03] looking at was the empire trail so i was thinking a bike would be perfect for that you know um but no

[02:02:09] i can't do the bike so it's gonna so tad looks like you gotta do this yeah so so yeah so tom i we

[02:02:17] we see people all the time uh with the best of intentions setting out to raise money for charity

[02:02:25] and what what's your pro tips i mean somebody who's done 25k in five years uh with their their you know

[02:02:36] backpack on huffing and puffing a cancer survivor huffing and puffing you know up and down the devil's

[02:02:42] path through the catskills uh you know uh right down to manhattan what's your advice to somebody who

[02:02:50] wants to get out and do what you're doing you know hike for charity um i i think it's passion

[02:02:57] you have to be passionate about what you want to do um i i truly believe in these organizations i i

[02:03:03] truly believe that they do a lot of good um and and and that makes it really easy um when one of the

[02:03:11] reasons when i did my first hike i mean this year i had almost ten dollars per mile sponsored

[02:03:16] that's how i that's how i raise money is that's cool for every mile that's about how much it costs

[02:03:22] me to drive my car by the way 10 10 bucks a mile for my job i'm just i'm just saying that but all

[02:03:27] right tom i'm sorry i interrupted you no that's all right it's um it's just i mean these hikes have

[02:03:32] cost me over the years sometimes they can cost me a pretty penny out of my own pocket obviously this

[02:03:37] year with the upgraded gear and then hotel rooms and food and everything you know sometimes i wonder

[02:03:42] if i'm not better up just giving all that money to charity and not hiking at all um but it's it you

[02:03:48] have to when i go out like like i said i had almost 10 miles uh ten dollars a mile so when i wake up in

[02:03:55] the morning and i say today i'm gonna hike so far i know i'm gonna raise a hundred and something

[02:03:59] dollars today if i hike 50 miles i'm gonna raise 150 today you know and every day you're raising money

[02:04:07] when you have something like that that's what like i said if i was doing something that wasn't difficult

[02:04:13] to do well then i would just say hey listen i'm collecting money for charity give me money um but the

[02:04:18] whole point is i've got to finish these challenges and then people give me the money you know based on

[02:04:25] on my challenge um yeah and and so tom if i if i heard you correct and i want to make sure we get

[02:04:30] this out there even though you've finished your southbound um long path challenge people can still

[02:04:38] donate yes they can yes i'm gonna the website will be up and uh the link will be up probably for a few

[02:04:45] months yet um and it's at seagulloutdoors.org if you just go to that and they'll see you'll see these

[02:04:52] various stories and there's a story about me and they actually um i have what i call a spot my gps

[02:04:58] for when i hike i carry a spot on my pack and it beeps every 10 minutes and i got it originally from

[02:05:05] my wife because she can just look on her phone and see right where i am and um i was able to go public

[02:05:11] with it this year so at seagulloutdoors was able to post actually a link to that and anybody could go on

[02:05:18] their phone and see where i was or and where i had been by looking at my spot account which i thought

[02:05:24] was really cool this year it brought a lot more like i said being i was out of town it brought a

[02:05:29] lot more people involved i think i think i'm going to set a record this year for money gained um money

[02:05:34] earned i mean yeah well let's let's have our yeah our listeners let's i'm gonna i'm gonna look that up

[02:05:40] and and chip in and i think all of our listeners i did want to say if i could um i thought of this while

[02:05:47] i was hiking down down south on the long path um you know somebody in nyack or somebody down south um

[02:05:54] says you know by fair mountain or something say meet me and say well why should i give you money you know

[02:06:00] for for trails up by you or or cancer and and you know something i i agree i understand where you're

[02:06:07] coming from so if that's what you think do me a favor and donate to your local hiking club or donate

[02:06:13] to your local um cancer society you know what i'm saying if you think what i'm doing is is a good

[02:06:19] thing but you would rather not donate to money to something hundreds of miles away i understand that

[02:06:25] then just do me a favor and donate to the one in your town yeah exactly that's the way i um so it's

[02:06:32] way we we promote stuff here on uh inside the line it's just donate your time or donate your money

[02:06:39] to local organizations you know it gets done it it either helps the trails or it helps the

[02:06:46] the community it's just the same thing as you tom it's just you you have kind of the same mindset as

[02:06:53] i do uh ted i don't know you got to start this this cycle challenges crap that tom was thinking about

[02:07:00] man i'm putting you to the test yeah i was i would do that um re canal empire trail two summers ago

[02:07:10] with my brother-in-law but then did you do the empire trail well i was we were planning on it and

[02:07:15] then you know he had all these heart problems and had to get some stents and and bailed out on me so

[02:07:21] well it's a little early to to leak it out but i'm actually thinking of doing it next year for my

[02:07:26] challenge oh yeah look at that do it together do it yeah look yeah look me up maybe we'll we'll do

[02:07:31] it together no no i'm gonna walk it oh you're walking walking it well maybe all right maybe i'll

[02:07:36] ride it you can walk it we'll go at about the same pace it's an issue because the trail is set

[02:07:41] up for bikers it's it's not set up for hikers um uh you know i'm looking at maybe buffalo to albany

[02:07:47] or something like that um it's a fucking incredible though jesus the beauty of it is there's no mountains

[02:07:54] yeah yeah i think i think the the net change in elevation is like under a thousand feet yeah

[02:08:02] i'm actually thinking putting some wheels on my backpack and pulling it behind me yeah

[02:08:07] i mean tom i think if you did the the long path you could probably do that the empire trail with a

[02:08:14] breeze it's it's actually from um buffalo to albany is 360 miles so yeah it would be about the same

[02:08:22] distance actually i was considering just banging into another 40 miles down at cairo or something

[02:08:27] and making it even 400 um we'll have to see how i feel next year all right you and tad need to hook

[02:08:34] up for this tom you've come a long way since that first 2.5 day excursion on the long path right yes

[02:08:42] yes i have do you have any suggestions uh for the listeners uh besides you know donating to your

[02:08:49] local charities and stuff suggestions uh what about hikes or i mean anything any

[02:08:57] well first of all the one thing i would say about certainly is trail maintainers um who's ever

[02:09:02] listening if you're a hiker and you do hike the trails please you know get in touch with the

[02:09:08] new york new jersey trail conference or even your local hiking club uh um edgewater hikers whatever

[02:09:14] and see about picking up a little piece of trail it's nice i mean i call it my trail you know what

[02:09:21] i mean i said i'm going out to work on my trail um you take ownership of it and you just just take

[02:09:27] care of a little piece and it's it's not that difficult and if more people got involved with that

[02:09:31] it would make it a lot nicer for everybody you know um so that's you know as far as that goes i

[02:09:38] could say that but yeah i mean that's that's it's what it's all about everybody volunteers you know i

[02:09:46] forgot how i said this tad but anybody in volunteers 16 hours of your 365 days a year you know 16 hours

[02:09:56] of your life that could make a difference within any trail within you know the united states oh yeah

[02:10:03] i mean i know probably like five or six people listen to this podcast so it's it's not going to

[02:10:08] maybe make a difference but you know what five or six people can make a difference you know well i

[02:10:13] told some people this week so we might have might have about a dozen so

[02:10:18] well hey that's a freaking increase that i said i made sure i told some people so we

[02:10:23] hopefully we got a few more this week well hopefully andy will get a hold of me i've been

[02:10:27] trying to get a hold of him for years about this steven got a hold of him no problem no problem

[02:10:34] i'll make sure he gets in touch with you i mean he doesn't know you want to talk to i'm telling you

[02:10:39] what he when you want to talk to somebody about the long path he's the guy he's probably got the stories

[02:10:44] like you do probably oh he's he's got the stories all right and he knows a lot about the history

[02:10:50] um as you talk with steve a couple weeks ago how it was originally points of interest back in the 30s

[02:10:57] or 40s whatever it was where it was just a bunch of spots across the state and it was up to you to

[02:11:02] find out how to get there and then people started making trails to them and there was i mean it only

[02:11:09] went up to windham until maybe 20 years ago 25 years ago it was when it started going north of

[02:11:15] windham so i mean um and andy's been involved in it like i said he's got a steel trap for this stuff

[02:11:21] too he knows everything about the long path so um i've i've talked to steven hook me up you and

[02:11:27] steven get together hook me up with him because i have been reaching out to him for years all right

[02:11:33] well yeah no i'll make sure of it in the next he's on vacation right now but he'll get back to you when

[02:11:38] he gets back okay okay so last question of the night tom post hike bruising bites uh you know it

[02:11:46] doesn't have to be the cat skills i kind of prefer the cat skills but what do you suggest to get while

[02:11:51] doing the long path what was your favorite stop that just well obviously brios um yeah oh yeah yeah i

[02:11:59] mean that that's that's a no-brainer if you're going to finicia you got to go to brios and for me one of my

[02:12:04] favorites always is um is outpost barbecue outpost barbecue nice all right route 209 just outside

[02:12:14] warwarsing when you come down from section 15 you come down from vernoi falls into 209 i believe it

[02:12:22] would be to left from there but um actually my first time through when the northbound andy picked

[02:12:30] me up because he was i was taking a zero day and on the way to the hotel we stopped there and it was

[02:12:34] like five to eight they were closing at eight o'clock and i ordered all this food and um i said to the

[02:12:40] woman after she took my money i was waiting i said i'm so glad you're still open and she says why what's

[02:12:46] going on and i says i just got done walking 15 miles today carrying all this weight and what's going

[02:12:51] on i told him my hiking for charity and she says hey bobby come here she calls billy whoever he is she

[02:12:56] says tell him so i told him and he was like turns to where he says feed this man and she opened the

[02:13:03] register and handed me back all my money and gave me a big bag of food and sent me on my way and i've

[02:13:08] been back four times since then you know um wow he stepped to the plate he fed me a good meal and i'll

[02:13:14] never forget it and i i actually brought andy there for dinner on this hike and he met me um he brought

[02:13:20] me to the hotel in ellenville so before we went we went to outpost for for some dinner this time too

[02:13:25] it's definitely good good food yeah i gotta admit uh the long path the catskills the camaraderie

[02:13:33] is just out of control it's beautiful uh i've never experienced you know i've been to other places and

[02:13:40] and just the kindness and stuff in the catskills and outside of the catskills just blows my mind all the

[02:13:47] time it's it's a wonderful thing it really is yeah and i'm just i'm very happy and that's why you know

[02:13:53] uh a big reason why i do this podcast is that we are all stuck together and we can all make a big

[02:14:01] difference in this place and uh we do we actually do you know coming up once again with the sponsors

[02:14:07] with the the people who support the podcast with people like you tom who raise money for this it just

[02:14:14] it blows my freaking mind that we can do this in this such a small area uh and i see places other you

[02:14:22] know bigger areas that struggle in in this in this sense of mind let's say the of volunteerism and

[02:14:31] raising charity and stuff so thank you tom my pleasure yeah thank you for for joining us and thank you for

[02:14:39] number number number one for doing all this charity for your local trails and for your local organizations

[02:14:44] i really appreciate it tom you're like the 25 25 000 man yeah well i enjoy it um it's fun for me and

[02:14:54] it gets me to meeting people and and like you guys and doing things like this and and i i love it so i

[02:15:01] thank you guys for allowing me to come on your show and and promote these both these charities that i raise

[02:15:06] money for and promote one path too yeah and also thank your daughter for hooking us up with this yes i will i

[02:15:14] could otherwise i would have been holding my phone this whole time trying to figure this out god i've

[02:15:19] i've been wrong with people like that and they've like tried to place it up against places and i've

[02:15:24] seen their forehead the whole time so yeah i'm glad thank your daughter for this i appreciate it and

[02:15:29] sorry you know that it took almost two and a half hours for this but it was a fantastic chat yeah i

[02:15:35] appreciate that i i love it tom i hope to see you out you know what's sad is we're right next to each

[02:15:42] other but we haven't seen each other out in the trail let's do it yeah yeah let's go to bramley mountain

[02:15:47] right i was just gonna say bramley mountain i did that today so we we didn't talk about that today but

[02:15:53] once again i'd like to thank the monthly supporters and the monthly sponsors really appreciate you guys

[02:15:58] contributing to the show uh thank you to everybody who's donated hard siders thank you to everyone who is

[02:16:04] still listening 135 episodes in uh tad joined me again tonight thank you tad for joining me tom

[02:16:11] thank you once again for joining me this was an awesome chat congratulations on your your north

[02:16:17] to south your south to north finish but once again the only person who has done it so far keep kicking

[02:16:21] ass i will all right have a good night uh see you guys soon thanks tom thanks don thanks guys hi everyone

[02:16:33] i just want to thank you for listening to the show if you enjoyed the show subscribe and throw down a

[02:16:40] smooth review on spotify apple podcasts or any podcast platform that you use you can also check daily

[02:16:49] updates of the podcast hikes hiking news and local news on facebook instagram twitter and the official

[02:16:58] website of the show remember this you gotta just keep on living in the catskills man

[02:17:06] i the i am wicked wicked wicked

[02:17:11] you