[00:00:29] The bushwhacks were some of the worst days I've ever had in the mountains, or life really. Whereas Pantsy Mountain is totally opposite, it's a mountain on top of a crater. I think the weather challenges on this incident were particularly difficult. It is really the development of New York State. Catskills will respond to it.
[00:00:52] Passing into Inside The Line, the Catskill Mountains Podcast. Okay, I want to crack my beer, talk about the hike, move on to Al Purdy, okay? Okay, so you cracking it right now? Am I going to do it? Then you're going to do it?
[00:01:17] No. First thing is, if you want people to hear the beer, you need to go to audio settings. That's too much. Is it? Well, I'm just going to crack. I'm cracking. You ready? Three. Oop. I don't have this thing here. Yeah, right? And now you get all this background noise and everything and ting-ting-ting. I just want us to give it up. I'll just do it right in front.
[00:01:46] Oh, this isn't a twist off though. I opened mine. Yeah, because you're impatient, right? You got to have yours. Okay, so I'm going with Plan 2. I was double loaded today. So, ready? Is everybody listening? Turn down all other noises. Nice. That was good. All right, so how are you doing tonight, Ted? Good.
[00:02:11] And I'm proud that you said that was good because now I know on a podcast I can crack a beer. Oh, yeah. And it sounds good. Yeah, I think that's like an essential skill. Yeah, so let's chat about some stuff. So winter is here, which is good. It's been sticking around, which is good. You know, the past couple, five, I would say five years, we have had times that it doesn't feel like winter.
[00:02:41] Like we'll get a snow storm. It'll melt three days later. Get a snow storm melt three days later. Now it's kind of getting a little bit of snow and it's staying cold. So the snow is sticking a little bit. So, I mean, do you feel that way? Yeah, there's a lot of truth to that. And we haven't had one of those epic thaw rain refreeze episodes. So we're not seeing a lot of ice on the trail when, when we do get snow, it's snow on snow.
[00:03:08] So it's been relatively good in terms of winters. And I feel good for the ski area operators because all that snow that they blew in the end of November, beginning of December, you know, hasn't melted because of rainfall. So. Yeah. We all know that these, these previous times of the past couple of years, these ski areas have, have suffered out here in the East Coast.
[00:03:32] And, you know, we basically seen some funny stuff with like memes and videos and stuff of people skiing on the East Coast. And it's just a sheet of ice. And this year is, is a different year. A lot of people are having good videos of skiing out East and nice fluffy powder, you know, ski platyc Hill as has great skiing videos and stuff.
[00:04:01] And the great promotion and stuff like that of their snow. And it's, it's been, it's been a great year. And I just, I'm very happy with what we've had compared to the past five years of, of winter. Yeah. So. It's not, it's not one of these marginal winters, although the forecast is for a little warm front passing through this weekend, but it's going to dip back down again overnight. Okay. Yeah.
[00:04:29] It'll be interesting to see what, what our trail conditions are this weekend. I know our, our hike this past weekend, we could have had some interesting situations if we had a lot of ice. We did. And we, we still had some interesting situations. But it wasn't, it wasn't, you know, dealing with the ice. Yeah. And today, this morning we're talking Tuesday. So this is January 28th. Yeah.
[00:04:55] I had one, a major snow squall that went through probably dumped over two inches of snow in a matter of 45 minutes. It was blank white out like situations and just, it was crazy, but I don't know where that went. I think it dissipated as it went towards the Catskills, but it was crazy significant here. And then the rest of the day, beautiful, sunny, all the roads are dry by 12 PM. It was crazy. So, I mean, who knows? We might get this stuff, keep going. It's very good to see.
[00:05:25] I love seeing winter happening. I love seeing the freeze keep happening. Cause I want all those fricking texts to die. They're, they're dead already. They're gone for a long time. We don't know that man. We don't know that man. It takes a lot of freezing to, to get those things dead and we want those out of there. So. Yeah. I forget what the, uh, atmospheric condition is, but, um, they've been gone for a while.
[00:05:53] I see that's that Bel Air is reporting no fresh snow in the last 24 hours. Wow. Yeah. We got two inches here. Yeah. Unbelievable. So it's, it's crazy. So amazing. So that must've shifted way east and not even hit any of the catskills. Yeah. Well, or it was just one of these little isolated snow squalls. Cause I see hunters reporting no new snow. Plata kill is reporting no new snow.
[00:06:19] And window mountain club is reporting all helicopter flights are on time, but no new snow. Amen. Amen. And I'm, I'm ready to join that club, uh, after selling my life and my, my rest of my family's worth money and stuff like that too. So, so. Well, if you, if you, if you have the money, you might as well spend it and enjoy it now. Nope.
[00:06:48] No point in taking it to the grave. Exactly. Exactly. So Ted episode 59, I know you have been a cohost for around like maybe 30, 40 episodes. Now, do you remember episode 59? Do you remember what that was about? David. Episode 59. Wasn't that the episode that you had Rip Van Winkle on? Was it that long ago? Yeah. It was, it was, it was Rip Van Winkle.
[00:07:15] As I remember, he had just, somebody just woke him up and they told him about a podcast and you got them on the show. That was 59. Nope. I'm sorry. That was 56. Yes. That's what 59 was. So 59 was the goose rescue. Oh, okay. Up on a West kill with Yana and Jake, Yana and Jake. I remember that now. Yeah. So we're talking about that. So do you've heard of Mount Shasta over in California? Correct?
[00:07:45] Most certainly. So California is. Ted. I know all about Mount Shasta. Yeah. My daughter spent a lot of time on Mount Shasta. I mean, that's, that's a nice place. I got to admit it's fifth highest peak, 14,000 feet. Big mountain. Yeah. Second highest in the cascade range. Uh, so it's a strata volcano part of the ring of fire.
[00:08:08] And recently they have found a, uh, uh, officers that were skiing and snowboarding to me. They found that a unexpected visitor was up on Mount Shasta. Uh, it was a goose. Now, Rangers, Nick Myers and Al Falconer were out for a routine patrol when they stumbled upon an unprepared, struggling climber. Now this wasn't a human.
[00:08:33] They were able to pack it up and transport it down the lower elevation, uh, for safety. It was a goose. So this is rep first reported goose rescue on Mount Shasta. Now this is the, this wasn't a frequent flyer that they said that only had one layer of down and it was neither prepared for the temperature nor overnight camping.
[00:08:58] So the goose seemed to have flown most of the way, uh, later walking on its web feet along where it became flying became impossible. It got a little bit too cold. So they said it was battered. It couldn't fly, but they still had trouble catching it. So they kind of dove into it and watching the, the rescue online, uh, was pretty cool. The video, cause they had some snowmobiles that went up and, and saved it.
[00:09:23] So it remained calm and they transported down to the mountain via snowmobile and released it into a pond down at the base of Mount Shasta. And they checked it on Christmas day and reported the burn to see just fine. So this is a while ago, but, uh, stuff was just coming out there. Unfortunately, common with mountain rescues up there on Mount Shasta, but animal rescues are very less because as far as you go Mount Shasta, the more ice it becomes, you get some glaciers and stuff like that.
[00:09:51] So there really aren't any animals existing up there except for like Wolverines and bears and stuff. But they goose rescues are one in a million. So this was a great, uh, rescue for the, the people out there for the route and rescue people out there and a good experience for them to experience one of those. Oh, I think it was a Canadian goose probably. Cause those, those guys are stubborn and just like to attack. I'm surprised they didn't get attacked by that.
[00:10:19] So, but cool story to, to share about crazy. Yeah. Well, I'm, I'm sure that, uh, the animal was probably somewhat traumatized, disorientated, confused, out of place and welcomed a human intervention like that.
[00:10:40] And what I, what I like, you had me pause when you, you read the part that the Rangers were out for a routine patrol that 10,000 feet in the winter. So I can imagine that's your job. Okay. So we're going to head out now doing our routine patrol heading up Mount Shasta on the snowmobiles going to go up to 10,000 plus feet. Yeah. Just part of our, our typical day on the mountain. Sounds like fun. Wouldn't that be nice to do that?
[00:11:09] And then, you know, climb. I mean, I mean, it's, it's, I don't know how far the hike is, but you know, let's, let's travel up by a stone. We'll be able to, to 10,000 feet and then we'll do the rest. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's one of those mountains that has a variety of ways to get to the summit. Yeah. So further examination, I have found out that geese can fly up to 29,000 feet high. No way. I don't believe that.
[00:11:38] That's, that's like, I'm going to fact check that because 29,000 feet there's the air is so thin that high. Yeah. So geese can fly altitudes ranging from a 2,000 to the over 29,000 feet, depending on the species and conditions. Most geese fly around 29, 23,000 feet high.
[00:11:58] Now that is of course, probably the, the crazier geese, not in our area, but mountaineers are also reporting seeing them fly over summits that are over 8,000 meters tall. So eight, I always can forget the conversion of meters to miles or feet is I think it's like 2.8. Yeah. I, but I'm, I'm checking these facts now that you just said, and it's true, man. Yeah.
[00:12:25] Far headed geese, 23,920 feet. Just, just imagine being climbing one of those, those mountains. And then you see some geese flying over your back, like you freaking idiots. And then they take a shit on you. Right. And then they land right next to you. Like, and then they take off. Yeah. Then they crap on you as they fly away. That's great. Wow. And that's. Leave no trace assholes. Yeah.
[00:12:55] And folks, that's why I don't climb Mount Everest because I'm not going to have no bar headed geese taking a crap on my head. Yeah. Helicopters can't fly up there, but bar headed geese can. Oh, Jesus. I mean, I've used to, I've sent you so many stories on these, these people out. And I mean, you sent me some stories about these people that are frozen in time out there. That's, it's pretty crazy to think about. Well, statistically climbing Mount Everest.
[00:13:23] Um, I don't know what the number is, but it's a very high, uh, risk of death. You know, it's not like one in 1000. It's less than one in 1000. Wow. Yeah. I mean, and then so many people have been climbing it lately that it's just, it's gotten out of control. And just like one of these geese is gonna land on these dead bodies, RIP and then take crap and then fly away, man.
[00:13:52] What a, what a crazy feeling. Yeah. Those Sherpas are probably like saluting them and being like, good job buddies. Like, so here, here it is. Um, the risk of perishing on a summit effort for Mount Everest, Everest. They say about 30,000 people try the mountain each year and about 10 die. So that's point. Oh, three, three percent people or 10. Yeah. 10 people, right?
[00:14:22] 10 people out of 30,000. So in Oneonta, the city population is how many? 14. So five, five out of 14,000 people in your city would die in a three or four month span from engaging in the same physical activity. Right. So just imagine the, the rate of that increase. If they, if they did it alone and they couldn't have a Sherpa. Yeah.
[00:14:47] Well, I did say, I sent you that article about this dude that hopped on his bicycle and rode from wherever I forget where it was, but thousands of miles to Mount Everest. And then climbed Mount Everest unsupported, no Sherpa. And then when he was done, he hopped back on his bike and rode home. Wow. Okay. So you talk about somebody who really earned their climb up Mount Everest. Give it to that dude because right. He, he wrote his bike there. Yeah.
[00:15:15] You gotta, you gotta wonder what these after doing Everest, what would they be like hiking in the Catskills? Like we just did up Round Top, you know, like I, I gotta admit going up Round Top from the, the Western side, you know, you have 0.7 miles of significant elevation. Yeah. It's almost over a thousand feet. I would say close to very close to a thousand feet and 0.7 miles. Yeah.
[00:15:42] Tad's going to his, his, his books to its points. But you have a lot of oxygen when you do that. You do. But like, seriously, would they look at you like, like you're like some sort of other, like, oh God, this is nothing. And then you're just like, wait a minute. You had two people carry your shit up, up, up a mountain. So. Shut up. I remember the first time I skied out in the Rockies, you know, at like 10, 11,000 feet of altitude and just walking from your vehicle to the left, carrying your equipment.
[00:16:13] You got winded. No matter, you were in fantastic shape. I was a teenager in fast, fantastic shape. I was like, wow, what's wrong with me? And then it occurred to me, oh, there's not a lot of oxygen in the air around here. Did you acclimate though? Oh yeah. Over a couple of days, you, you know, you totally acclimate, but that's a 10 or 11,000 feet. Now you double that and you're. True. I mean, yeah. So, so it's, it's like an insane thing.
[00:16:39] I just, you know, kudos to those people that have it in them to, to go out there and do it. I just can't imagine it. Yeah. And you know, I, I, I, we talk about like Shasta and stuff out here. We have, you know, uh, other peaks that are 14,000, you know, they're not 24,000. They're not 20, 29, you know, 8,000 meter peaks like they have out in the MLS. But, you know, we do have some significant, crazy peaks out here in the Americas and stuff like that, that you could try. Mount Washington.
[00:17:09] Mount Washington. Yeah. Just take Mount Washington. Exactly. And it has extreme weather. It's above tree line. It's a hell of a hike to get up there. Yeah. That makes the list. Exactly. There's probably people that climb Mount Everest that couldn't do a, a climb up Mount Washington. By themselves. Yeah. You get it on the wrong day. It's just as bad. You'll have all the oxygen in the world, but it's like minus 70. It was recently that Sunday. The Sunday it was like minus, I think you were right.
[00:17:38] Like my own 60, 70 degrees. And we had, we had some pretty cold temperatures. We'll talk about that later. Yeah. So we're talking about these, these massive peaks in North America. I can't help to mention this. I hate to be political, but this has gotten a little bit crazy. So president Trump has signed an executive order to rename Denali peak as Mount McKinley again within the month. Now it recently was done over.
[00:18:04] So, however, the parks surrounding the mountain will keep the name Denali mountain national park and preserve according to the executive order. Now it was dubbed Mount McKinley back in 1917 in honor of president McKinley, but the name Denali, which means the tall one or the great one dates back to immoral times stemming from the Kuhakan and Denali. Denali. Is that how you say that? At least nine native groups have their own unique names for the mountains, which is sacred in part to the ancestral lands.
[00:18:34] Now, president McKinley never visited the mountain and had no significant connection to Alaska, but under president Obama, the name McKinley was removed officially and replaced with Denali in 2015. Now, his order called Trump's executive order called that action a front to president McKinley's legacy. And quote, the order honors president McKinley for giving his life for our great nation and doubtfully recognize this historic legacy of protecting America's interest and generating
[00:19:03] an enormous wealth for all Americans. As a state, you can improve on the Alaskans Kukinana and the Antoblaska's bestowed in North America's tallest peak Denali. The great one said Senator Lisa Murawski, which is a Republican from Alaska said for those years, I've advocated Congress to restore a rightful name to the majestic mountain and respect to Alaska's first people who have lived on these lands for thousands of years. This is an issue that should not be really get dated.
[00:19:36] So, I've really never gotten to political, but I gotta admit this is crazy. This is just a weird thing that back and forth, I know, you know, probably 2015 it was the same thing and we've had, I know I've talked about this on the show previously with stuff over in Canada that they've named, they've renamed peaks that have been weird renames in Canada.
[00:20:04] I know I visited down or up in Canada. There's a place called squaw's tit long silence. Okay. That is, that is basically in, in native American turns Indians tit. Uh, so they, they renamed that of course, like I gotta admit, that's a little messed up, but having Denali, I gotta admit Denali is a bad-ass name. Yeah. They even name a vehicle after Denali. Exactly.
[00:20:35] I don't see, you're not driving a fricking McKinley around. Yeah. Going down to the Ford dealership tomorrow and asking to test drive the McKinley. Yeah. Does that come with all wheel drive or just two? Like the front wheel drive. Gotta be kidding me. Well, we have the no wheel drive McKinley. Yeah, exactly. It's, it's just a weird instance. Of course, that, that you would just, Donali is a bad-ass name. So.
[00:21:03] So what, let me ask you, let's just put this all in a different perspective. What if he renamed it after some total bad-ass woman instead of some president that people have forgotten about? What if he named it after, you know, just, just pick any, any like famous American woman. Let's, how about Rosa Parks? Why can't they call it Mount Rosa Parks? Okay.
[00:21:33] That would be very, that would be very cool. It might be offensive to the, to the, the folks up in Alaska. Yeah. But what, why pick a president? If you're going to do this, if you're going to flex your muscles is, you know, the 47th American president. Why name it after another president? Why not pick Harriet Tubman? We could name it her after Harriet Tubman. Nobody's named a mountain after her or again, Rosa Parks. I mean, there's plenty that you can pick.
[00:22:02] I off obviously I don't agree with what he did, but it, if we're going to start renaming places, why does just the president get to say what the name of the mountain's going to be forever? Like that's going to be the name of this mountain. Supposedly forever is every president going forward. Can I start reading shit? Okay. The Catskills will no longer be the Catskills stosh. How many times have you hiked slide?
[00:22:29] Well, I hiked slide when Obama was president and then when, uh, Smith was president, I hiked, it was known as, uh, Mount peak then, or, you know what? I mean, it's nuts. Why, why do, why do we even have to do this? Why can't we just keep things simple? Yeah. Right. Cut our, cut our taxes and let us retire younger. Why is it the older you grit get the further out retirement ages? What is that? Well, now we're going too far into this. No, we're not.
[00:22:59] I was watching the bills game and nobody was moving the goal line on them on Sunday. Okay. But as, as somebody who's 62 years old, you know, when I was growing up, you told me it was age 62, then 65 and now 67. And then you go and changed in all his name on me. What's going on here. Come on. Everything's going to shit now. Yeah. Yeah. This is why I should have stayed on the trail this weekend. Hiking. Damn. Just kept going. I agree.
[00:23:25] You know, then once again, you know, Denali has, has to do with the mountain, you know, they, they call it the tall one. It is referred to that in native American terms and you know, McKinley never visited there. So like at least have to do something with the mountain, you know, like if you want to rename it the tall one, like Mount the tall one. Cool. That's fricking cool. Really? You're going to buy the bumper sticker. You're going to buy the bumper sticker. I hiked the tall one. Yeah, exactly. Like, well, why not, man?
[00:23:54] I mean, who knows? It's just, it's just, I hiked McKinley. Yeah. Yeah. That's hardcore. Yeah. I guarantee anybody who is like, did you hike McKinley? No, I hiked Denali. They're going to think you went down to the town park when you say McKinley. Yeah. Around the corner. How high is that? Like 250 feet? I think it's 256 feet. Yeah. The convenience store is pretty cool down there. It's by the seven 11. Yeah. So crazy, just crazy.
[00:24:23] And you know, hopefully he'll stay away from the Catskills cause we got a lot of native American names over here. Shit. Next thing you know, the Ashokan's going to be named, you know, the water place. Marl Argo. Yeah. Crazy. All right. So let's get out of political shit. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you to the monthly supporters, Chris Garby and Jeff Jotz, Darren White.
[00:24:47] Thank you for Mikey S John Comiskey, Summit Seekers, Desert City Radio, new supporter, by the way. Thank you very much. What was that again? Well, I didn't see it. Desert City Radio. Huh? What? Gonna have to Google that desert city radio. Same. I got this at last second. So it was pretty cool. Uh, Betsy A, Denise W, Tom H, Vanessa, Peggy, Jim C, Michael and Derek. Thank you guys very much for supporting that show. Really appreciate it.
[00:25:15] Also everyone who is supporting on anchor, get ahold of me in a chat about your sponsorship. Because as I remember them saying that they're ending their sponsorship as beginning of January. So get with me, we'll chat about it. And we'll, uh, if you want to keep continuing to support the show, please hook up and we'll support the show through, uh, buy me a coffee. Also sponsors of the show guys. Thank you very much. Our sponsors are fantastic. Amazing.
[00:25:40] So capture your love story against breathtaking backdrop with outdoor Chronicles photography. Molly specializes in adventure couple photography and she'll immortalize your moments of the stunning landscapes of the Catskills, Adirondack and white mountains. She'll craft timeless images that reflect unique bond in nature's grandeur. Embark on unforgettable photographic journey with outdoor Chronicles photography. Don't hesitate to get ahold of Molly on all platforms. Also discover the wilderness with trail bound project.
[00:26:10] Our expert led hiking and backpacking education programs offer unparalleled outdoor experiences. Whether you're a beginner or seasoned adventurer, join us to learn your sensual skills, explore stunning trails and connect with nature. Start your journey today with trail bound project and unlock the wonders of the great outdoors. So hard siders and mentions. Uh, yeah, I don't, should we, should we keep talking about this? Nobody's mentioned us anymore. Tom who's yes.
[00:26:40] Come on, Tom. Yeah. What's Tom? No more love. Jesus Christ. Tom, Tom, if you're driving up to the Catskills in your car, I want you to pull over to the side of the road and I want you to post. You got to tag us, right? You got to get back into the habit, Tom. Otherwise no more hiking for you. And speaking of no more hiking and how you can keep hiking and having fun. Chronogram, reader's choice, best regional podcast.
[00:27:08] If you haven't already voted 10, at least 10 times for us, what are you waiting for? Voting is open until February 15th. You go to the chronogram page. It's plastered with links to the reader's choice nominations under the entertainment section. Scroll down to best regional podcast. You'll see us near the bottom and vote for us. You have to put your email address and name in, but I've done that and you will not get spam.
[00:27:38] I haven't received any spam from it. Not at all. So yeah. So go in. We appreciate it. We want to dethrone the two time winner, that podcast known as city yet, which I guess deals with things you can do in the Hudson Valley when you come up for the weekend. And we think it's time that there'd be a new leader in town. Yeah. And I got to admit, you know, lights. It's easy as heck.
[00:28:07] Like I would, Ted and I have done both our, our stories and our Instagram posts of, of links and stuff. One time you sign up, I've never gotten spam or anything like that. And all you got to do every day is just go back to the link and nominate. And that's it. You dominate, nominate, nominate. And you know, I, I did this years ago. Like, I don't know if it was a year or two ago and we, I kind of like got off. I just stopped doing it because I knew I didn't have a chance, but you know, it'd be cool
[00:28:37] for once again, for someone to once again, like you say, tad dethrone city pocket. I mean, this podcast, our podcast is the laid back fun podcast. We just talk about amazing stuff in the Catskills and, you know, recently, uh, you know, with, you know, buy me a coffee and Instagram, we've gotten some great positive feedback about how people love it.
[00:29:01] Like, you know, you, you asked about desert city radio and they said, uh, they said, thank you so much for the shows. I've learned so much after buying up all the Walton historical books at the Walton big M. Um, this was our next obvious steps, amazing episodes on the Cannonsville reservoir. Let's keep history alive. Like that's, that's fantastic. That, that makes my heart. Like we're, we're kicking ass and, and just having fun. Yeah.
[00:29:28] Well, I think what separates us from the other major regional podcasts is we're not in it for the money. Right. Yeah. And I'm not saying anything bad on their part. I mean, you know, um, they use it to supplement their income, but Stosh gives back 100% of the net proceeds to the Catskill community. And, you know, we, we just do it out of our love and passion for the area.
[00:29:56] And we just like that to rise to the top, just like hiking up slide or Wittenberg go into the summit. Let's bring the show to the summit. Right. Make us number one in the, in the Hudson Valley inside the line. Yeah. Rate, rate the show, nominate the show. Chat about the show, share the show, whatever. And Tom, you need to tag the show. Okay. Right. Cause we know, we know what you drive and we don't want to go there. Okay.
[00:30:25] I'm just saying. Yeah. So awesome. Thank you everyone. Uh, just let, you know, also with these, these monthly supporters, I wanted to get a little outreach about that is that they support the show on a, on a monthly basis. They donate to the show on a monthly basis. It all accumulates to a time of where we'll spend it on the Catskills. We'll send it back on the Catskills. You know, our expenses are somewhat paid for, you know, we're talking about the zoom, the,
[00:30:52] the different, uh, developments that we have with, with the online stuff. And then the rest of the money goes back in the Catskills. And it's, uh, just a monthly thing. If you want to info about it, let me know. And I can give you a link and stuff. You want to support the podcast on a monthly basis. We have three ranges of different supports and stuff like that. And then we also have sponsorship as well. So, uh, once again, thank you to everybody who has donated and supported the show sponsors as well.
[00:31:21] Uh, amazing what you're doing. I thank you. And once again, vote for us on the chronograms. Let's see if we can knock these, these other people off of the thing and we can get best regional podcasts and we can have a good time. So rate the show also rate the show. Don't talk about the, uh, the crazy intro that everybody is disappointed about. That's too hardcore metal. That is actually like, it's like three doors down kind of stuff. It's not even it's Nickelback stuff.
[00:31:51] Uh, I don't know, but you know what I did after that person made that comment? I decided I, you know, have three alarms on my phone in the morning. You know, there's the first, the wake one, wake up one. And then there's the one I set in case I missed the wake up. And then the third alarm is like the holy shit. You're sleeping too late alarm. So I set our intro song to the music that plays for that third alarm. Cause it's just that harsh and abrupt. It works. So I'm putting it to good use. Wow.
[00:32:20] It's not that even, it's not even that heavy. I know you were like hurt with that comment, weren't you? Like, do you think it's like Romstein stuff where it's like high. I'm doing skins. Then no, I have no idea what that stuff is. It's not. Yeah. You don't know. So also is it works. It gets, it gets people's attention and that's what we're about. We're, we're, we're in it for the attention. I'll have to, I'll have to put more of the, the later parts into the intro. So you don't have to, but once again, it's, I think it's like 21 seconds. Skip.
[00:32:50] Yeah. Yeah. Wait till that person here is I'm going to come up with my, like my intro music. Wait till they hear what I come up for myself. I have something in the, in the, in, in, in the books, in the works. So my, my friend from that is helping me out. So, all right. So what are you drinking tonight, Ted? Yeah. A Lagunitas, a little stumping something.
[00:33:15] Uh, cause it's a, uh, wheat IPA had one a few weeks ago on the show and I pulled it out cause I just got one or two left models. We'll get rid of them. I see the alcohol content is a hefty 7.5. So yeah, I'm feeling that. And I think the listeners are probably, yeah, Ted's getting a little rowdy tonight. So 7.5. That's, that's a little out of control. That's way more than what I do. Yeah. Well, you're a lightweight.
[00:33:45] I am. I definitely am. You drink like you hike Stosh. Oh, I'm getting the evil eye. Yeah, he is. Wow. That was, that was, that was just, just making a funny joke. Ouch. Don't be so sensitive. Listen, I hiked my own hike. There you go. That's it. Even if it does mean you have to like turn your poles into pretzels. That's true. Actually, I got a, I got a post about that. That was pretty funny. That was a good time.
[00:34:12] Uh, so I'm having a 1911 Honeycrisse hard cider. Uh, the alcohol content is only 6.9. So it's nowhere near what Ted's doing. Jesus. Yeah. This says don't operate heavy machinery or record yourself on a podcast. So they're not, uh, how do they say that? Like, uh, they're not responsible for persons. Yeah. Not responsible for self embarrassment or, uh, humiliation.
[00:34:42] Yeah. So previous hikes. Do you wanna, we'll, we'll go back and forth on this one, but you can, you can lead it. You know, I'm, I'm working on 7.5%. So, so I'm a very grateful that Ted wanted to join me on my quest for the winter 3500.
[00:35:01] So I have not, it sounds weird that I completed the 3500 in 2017, but I have not completed my winter, but, uh, you know, I've just been out and about of winter so much. Uh, with other friends and myself that I've just, you know, a lot of those times with these winter 3500. When you want to go do some crazy stuff, like, you know, we, we, we did caterskill high peak and round top this weekend. You kind of don't want to go alone.
[00:35:30] You don't, you don't know what's going to happen and stuff. Wittenberg, Cornell, you know, you, you do the six, you don't want to go alone. I, I at least don't, or my, my anxious wife doesn't want me to go alone. So Tad was just like, Hey, you're going to go out Sunday. I will occupy myself on Saturday and then we can go out Sunday. And I was like, hell yeah, man, I would love to, to go out with you on hiking on Saturday or Sunday.
[00:35:54] So Tad was like, let's, uh, do round top and caterskill high peak and end over at the Platteco parking area. So I was ecstatic for this. I was like, hell yeah. Ted wanted to get off at like 530 in the morning. I was like, hell no. Let's start doing this at 830. And Tad's just like, God damn it. This sucks. I get out at 830, but you know, we saw Al. Yeah.
[00:36:22] We did the parking area and we saw, you know, that I got to admit being 830 in the morning on a winter day. That was crazy cold. That place was pretty packed. Well, you say that, but that was at the end of the hike. I w I was about to say, I got there maybe at 830, which in the summer is kind of late for that parking area. Cause it's going to fill up fast on a weekend on a warm summer day. Not that you would find Al Purdy there is. We're going to hear later. Yeah.
[00:36:51] But, uh, on this winter morning at 830, uh, I was the second car in the parking lot. Oh, wow. And no, actually I was, I was the second. I was the third. There was a, a fellow that had pulled in. He and his buddy were going ice climbing. So, and then, uh, yeah. Then another car came in just before you, but not, not a lot of people for early morning.
[00:37:13] And, and what was interesting is although the forecast was arguably forecasting colder temperatures and, and windier conditions, I don't think it turned out that way, but it was still just a beautiful day to be out winter hiking. And I was frankly for that, that area, whether it be Huckleberry point or Catterskill high peak, uh, I was really surprised that there was an early in the day. There was such few vehicle traffic there.
[00:37:41] And we, we parked one car at, uh, the Huckleberry point area and we parked the other at the end of Chillipsy road. Yep. And we saw, what did we see down at, uh, Huckleberry point? We saw a guy dropping off his, uh, Kubota ATV. That was, that was something different. Yeah. Well, and we learned later on in the day, he drove out to one of those private houses.
[00:38:04] That's out the, the road that goes down to the fork where you go off towards Huckleberry road or Huckleberry point. So I guess, you know, on a day like today, if, if you don't have a hefty four by four, the best way to get out to your cabin down there is to take one of those. So yeah. And I didn't see his trailer parked there when we left. So he must've drove that thing up and then parked the trailer and the, the, the truck at the end of the place. Yeah.
[00:38:33] Or the, the fellow in the truck with them was going to drive the Kubota back there. And that guy left with his truck. True. Cause there was two of them. So whatever they were doing, they had a Kubota was brand, a look brand spankin' new. It looked like they had never seen a speck of mud before of the day. And so we were kind of envying it, but I mean, yeah, we, instead of taking it, we decided to hike. Yeah. We, so we started up at Chalipsy road, total end of that.
[00:39:02] Uh, we went up there with Tad's four wheel drive Jeep, which we found out that the, uh, the low profile all wheel drive Tesla with snow tires handled pretty well. Yeah. I was, I was impressed. You got pretty good traction going out there with your, with your, you said snow tires. Those are really snow tires you have on it. Yeah. They're Cooper snow tires. They're cheap. Okay. They look like all season. Any, any, any snow tires. I, to me, any snow tires is better than all wheel dry or all season.
[00:39:33] Cause they offer just a little bit more grip that make you, when you turn or you, you have that little torque with your, where your steering wheel, it grips a little bit better than all wheels or all season tires. But having, you know, we, we kind of went up there with your, your Jeep and we saw that low profile Subaru up there and we're like, oh, all right. Yeah. Which had like those rubber band tires on it. So there goes your whole theory of you need, you need something with a lot of grip to get down to the end of that road.
[00:39:59] So this guy had something that he was like, you know, the night before he was out like drag racing down the Jersey turnpike and is hopped up Subaru. And the next morning he was out hiking in the cat skills. All right. That's embarrassing. So Ted, do you want to take it off of here? How did we, how did we do with the, with the hike? Oh, I thought we did. Okay. You know, we headed up round top.
[00:40:18] Uh, for those of you who have been up round top before, you know, we just basically kind of made a B line for the Western slope of the mountain, but then kind of tracked counterclockwise towards the South cut up towards that Southwestern face. That gives you an exposure of Hunter mountain, the ski area. Had you seen that before Stosh? That view. I haven't seen it from four from mount top. Yeah.
[00:40:45] What'd you think of it in comparison to other views of the ski area, Hunter mountain. It's perfect profile view of, I mean, I, I, I'd have to say it's very similar to like the North mountain and stuff like that, but a perfect profile view of, of all the ski centers, except for the Western part, the, like the black diamonds and stuff like that. Yeah. But I think it's the closest viewpoint you get of the ski area and the cat skills without actually being on the chairlift if you will. So they had some good snow too.
[00:41:14] It looked, it looked very good. It looked good conditions. Yeah. Well, this goes back to our conversation where we've had some natural snowfall and a lot of cold temperatures for them to really blast the snowmaking equipment. And then there's been no thaw cycle that's melted away the snow. So it's for a ski area operator. It's been a good winter for them. But, uh, so after we checked out the view of Hunter, wait a minute, we haven't even talked about our, our, our, our traction situation. What on the way up? Yeah.
[00:41:44] So not even like a quarter of the way we, we, we switched from bare boots to snowshoes. That's true. We did. Yeah, it was, I, I, you know, conditions we could say back and forth, but you know, I felt comfortable with snowshoes. Yeah. Well, so the, I think the thing with going to a snowshoes was, although there was some snow depth, we can say maybe as thin as four inches in spot.
[00:42:08] And then maybe on average eight plus or minus, um, with drifting, the snow was so light that it did not pack down on your shoe. And so you were hitting rocks and whatnot.
[00:42:25] And, and whatnot, you know, it wasn't like there was enough snow cover or base underneath the recent snowfall to get you above all of the rocks, tree branches, roots, and whatnot that are generally on the surface. So it would have been nice to have a few, you know, a few more inches of base under that to really flatten things out for you. Um, so you did hear a lot of grinding of your gear on rocks as you went up, but you know, it was useful to have them on particularly when you're going up a slope like that.
[00:42:54] You got a lot of talus gaps between the rocks where your foot can go through if you don't have a shoe on. So it was helpful to keep the shoes on. Yeah. And you know, you had those times of where you're like second guessing yourself and I kind of felt more comfortable, kind of like with the length of the grip that snowshoes have. You have, you have more instead of the, you know, there's spikes of just your foot length.
[00:43:21] You have kind of like, like two inches more with the snowshoes. And then you have that, the teeth at the bottom of the top that just grip solidly with, with the terrain. And I felt more comfortable, like, like when we were over, we're chatting, we're like, Hey, maybe, you know, right here, should we switch? And I was like, yeah, let's do it. And we did. And I felt a little bit more comfortable switching the snowshoes. Yeah.
[00:43:50] It definitely wasn't the bad call to make. Um, certainly on the uphills on the downhill, I felt it was a little bit different because there wasn't enough snow to really give you good bite going downhill. Instead, you would just hit rocks and roots and it kind of make you hang up, uh, on that stuff is just opposed to being able to slide on one shoe and then the other going downhill. True. Which is fun. Yeah.
[00:44:16] So we summited Round Top and then we descended Round Top up to Caterhicle High Peak. The descent was fun. I got to admit from Round Top was fun. Yeah. Well, one of us, one of us did the, um, I'm a kindergartener method and went down on their butt. And then the other did the adult method and walked down. So. Yeah. Yeah. If you saw, if you saw my story post, you saw one of us do the epic butt slide.
[00:44:46] In fact, now that I think about it, I wish, I wish Josh Allen was able to get as much yards running the ball on Sunday as you did sliding on your butt down Round Top. Cause that would have been a game changer for the bills. Do you think? Yeah. I think they went, uh, five plays at five plays. They called the quarterback sneak sneak. They only got a first down on one of them. Oh, wow. Shame. Yeah. Shame. Shame. Unbelievable.
[00:45:14] So, yeah, I thought that was, you know, a perfect time. You went over towards the right kind of, kind of like the scale, the, the easier stuff. And I went down more of the shoot and I decided to butt slide and it was a glass side glassade, whatever they call it. Uh, I thought it was, was absolutely phenomenal and it was fun. You look pretty experienced. Yeah. So definitely done it before.
[00:45:38] And, you know, I gotta admit that once again, the last time I was up on Round Top, I went from the Western side. It was a little bit more of a easier hike from the ski trail, uh, going and then going from Brown Top to Catter. Like when you get in the call and go up to Catterscale High Peak, it's a goddamn breeze going up there. Or, yeah. Yeah. It's not that. It's like nothing. Yeah. And then we picked up somebody's tracks on the way over and they were pretty much on the money in terms of what has become the
[00:46:08] herder social path between the two until you almost get to the summit of Catterscale High Peak. And whoever it was took an abrupt left headed north towards the trail that comes up from the north side, which I won't say that was a bad call for the person because the, the tree coverage definitely thins out, uh, going that way. Otherwise in the old, I don't know how blown out it is now.
[00:46:33] If you just went straight, you know, east bound to the summit of Catterscale High Peak. But when I last did that, maybe a year and a half ago, it was still fairly tight with branches going through there. Hmm. It was a nice hike. And, you know, I hope, you know, once again, they're just these conversations of what to do with the lesser known, the herd paths and the,
[00:47:01] the trails that, you know, don't have actual markings and. You know, it's just, it's a big conversation. You gotta talk about all aspects and, you know, this person, once again, did a really good, I gotta admit really good snowshoe over to the, the north access part of the trail and then went up to the, the canister. So maybe that's the, the actual herd path and.
[00:47:28] You know, we can continue with that and keep that going, but you know, who knows? Who knows? Yeah. It's not a bad route. Yeah. And then we, we signed in to the, the, the canister and then went down to hurricane ledge where I took a couple of turns and I did a little funky navigation to where you were like, you're doing it wrong. Yeah. Well, that happens. It does. It does. You know, I mean, there's no Mark trail. So anyway, you get there is the way you get there.
[00:47:58] Nothing wrong with that. Yep. And put we had the nominal view. Yeah. When we got to the summit, there was only a, what was it? Two people had signed in before us or we were the first ones there. I forget. We were the first ones there and two people signed the day before. Yeah. And then when we, we hung out down at the, the ledge for a little bit and we came up, uh, two other people, what was it? Jen are and Josh, Jenna and Josh, John had been there. Then we made our way down.
[00:48:28] What I call Eagle Ridge. I think sauna old forest map is Eagle Ridge, which is just the Eastern. Ridge. Yep. That hits the Eastern viewpoint. And then you go towards the, the snow, which are awesome descent. You know, you hit that. There's that one point that we hit where we hit the viewpoint.
[00:48:49] And then we had to skirt a little bit over towards the north and then descent down that, that steep area where we switched from snowshoes to spikes. I was, I know both you and I were looking at each other and we're like, you know, snowshoes are not gonna be safe at this area. Yeah. Well, usually it's, you know, going down something like that. I try to put my, my face to the mountain as opposed to my back to the mountain, uh, cause you get better grip and bite.
[00:49:18] But that's, that's steep enough. We were lucky. Cause sometimes I've been there in the winter where there's enough, enough base step with the snow and with the ice that all of those tree root handholds that you normally use. And the other times of the year are just covered up with ice. So there's really nothing to grab onto. We were lucky that all of that stuff was exposed and we were able to use it going down. So it was pretty easy. Well, I used it.
[00:49:48] I think you just, you just kind of like, you know, did like a little funky dance and made your way down. I did. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I had. Tree to tree. I like tree hopping. Yeah. And you did a couple, you did like a three 60 or two in the middle, you know, I mean, if I had like scorecards, I think I would have rated it like maybe an eight, seven and nine. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I, I try to, you know, I'm ice hockey, you know, back and forth, spinorama, stuff like that.
[00:50:16] And, you know, I try to, and, you know, we had those conditions. Once you got up to the, the, the top of high peak was awesome. Low hanging trees and stuff, just full on winter conditions. And hurricane ledge wasn't bad at all. We had wind here and there where we had to duck in between the trees, but the viewpoints were absolutely mind blowing.
[00:50:41] And, you know, coming back down, uh, as Ted says, is Eagle Ridge was pretty cool that we, we just kept the spikes on the whole time. We didn't find any tracks tracks going from there on. And we just kept going with it. Uh, we might've been able to use snowshoes, but I mean, once again, like Ted said, when we descended and ascended. Cedarsical high peak, you know, those are the areas where you get grip, you don't get grip.
[00:51:10] Your snowshoes are clanking. You're not clanking. It's it's, I wouldn't say it's a cluster. Fuck. But you know, it is, it really is. Cause you know, someone might follow your tracks and be like, Oh my God, what was this person doing? But you know, there's eight inches and then there's four inches and there's two inches. So there's eight inches again. It's back and forth of craziness. Yeah. I don't know. It would have been fun to put the shoes back on, but we were making time the way we were.
[00:51:37] So we, we just made time, but I'd like to point out if, um, you ever wanted the perfect mountain to take somebody for their first Catskill mountain hike, I'd say Catterskill high peak. What? Yes. Cause it's got like seven and a half miles. No, well you from the part. Yeah. But still, I mean, it's not that hard of a hike. It isn't. You get, you get a little bushwhacking. It's an easy mountain.
[00:52:05] You know, if somebody needs a rescue, it's very accessible. I mean, it's got a, a snowmobile loop all the way around it, but you can, you, you get that feeling of being off trail. Um, you go through a different, a few different forest environments. You get the great viewpoint. You really feel like you earn it when you're up there checking it all out. And then you can get back down to the car, head into Tannersville, go to last chance
[00:52:30] or, uh, uh, mama boys get a burger, you know, uh, wine and dine your guest. I think it's the best place to take somebody out for their first Catskill mountain experience. It is. I'm just throwing that out there. You know, it's got it. It's got it. It's got it all. That's Ted's. It's Ted's suggestion. Where would you rather take somebody to Wittenberg? That's a longer hike. You talking about Catskill mountain experience or Catskill 3,500? Catskill 3,500.
[00:53:00] It's just to be like slide or something. Really? Slide. Slide. Well, slide the view is I think. Okay. I think it's phenomenal. I'm one of those that think that slider balsam. Yeah. Well, but you go to, so slide, I like slide, but you really, you really don't have that intimate feeling in a. True. Oral forest on the top of slide. Okay. Very true. And you know, you get that at Catterskill. And Catterskill, you get that rugged terrain.
[00:53:30] Yeah. To where you're like. Yeah. Like that shoot that we did on Eagle Ridge, you know, it's, it's Hardy, man. Somebody is going to feel like, wow, you know, this was, this is what my buddy does when they go into the Catskills, they do stuff like this. It's not like when, you know, I'm one of the, the, uh, feelings that I think that folks have when I tell them I'm hiking in the Catskills is they're like vision envisioning me going over to Minnawaska and hiking these carriage trails that you could drive a golf cart down. Right. Or like overlook. Yeah. So.
[00:54:00] Unfortunately. Yeah. You take somebody up, uh, uh, Catterskill high peak. It's like, Hmm. Hmm. Yeah. This is a little bit rugged. Yeah. So I'm like, so Pika Moose, I was there a couple of weeks ago. That's a great mountain on the one hand, but for your first Catskill hike, the lower elevation is kind of ho hum. Yeah. It's a good point. Good point. Yeah. It is a long hike.
[00:54:25] That is, you gotta pack, uh, and especially in the summer, a little bit more, uh, like snacks and stuff to keep them entertained. I would say beers maybe have a beer of a Huckleberry point, maybe a beer at the peak, maybe a beer at the hurricane. We're not learning about the people that Stosh takes out hiking for the first time. Right. Correct. You keep them influenced with beers. Yeah. I mean, hurricane ledge is one of those views that is unforgettable and it's expansive.
[00:54:54] So it's not like you can be like, Oh, I'm looking at the Hudson Valley. You're looking at devil's path and then you're looking at a hundred and then you're looking over. But, but to your point, if you, if you really have an athletic person, you take them, you make them climb up hurricane ledge. Right. Correct. Make them climb that ledge, check out that viewpoint. And then you take them down Eagle Ridge. Yeah. And then you break your poles down Eagle Ridge. Well, that's if the person's a newbie to hiking. Dude.
[00:55:22] So this is the reason why I buy cheap poles is because I always on bushwhacking. There's some reason why these poles kind of saved my life when I like fall forward or go back a little bit that they bend and break. So I had both of my poles broke this weekend. So we'll, we'll hear from Al Purdy later. Who's a four time finisher at the Catskill all season or yeah, all trails challenge. Um, he likes, uh, black diamond poles. I use black diamond poles.
[00:55:51] I've never had a black diamond pole break on me. Now I've only used their metal poles. I haven't used one of their carbon poles, but I have this year. I've been using a pair of carbon poles that I found a couple of years ago, bushwhacking out in the middle of nowhere. And my concern with carbon is, is when you do get them in between two rocks and you don't realize it and you keep going forward, they tend to snap. Yeah. Not bend these ones I've done, you know, gotten lodged in between two rocks. Many times start to move forward.
[00:56:21] I haven't broken one of them yet. Knock on wood. I hope it doesn't happen this coming weekend. But well, this is like probably like the 13th pair that I've broken, whether or not just being cheap pair or black diamond pair. So you got to go yourself, go into cat camp Catskill, try to talk yourself into the friends and family discount and see if you can get hooked up with a set of black diamond poles and see what they do for you. Yeah. I'll have to look into that.
[00:56:51] So yeah, my poles broke when we were going down the Eagle Ridge. There was this one little section kind of, I think where I slipped with my spikes and I kind of this overcorrected myself and I just bent and one of them snapped. And the other one kind of does bend. So yeah, I'm kind of screwed. They were all messed up. They were, but they've always been, I, my, my bushwhacking is not any sort of like, like, oh, let's take this easy route.
[00:57:18] I always take the, I hate to say it, the fucked up route. Like, let's go have some fun. And then when I come back down, I rely mostly on my poles to keep my balance. Like, I know that's bad. You know, you shouldn't do that, but it's, it's a very helpful. Yeah. Well, that's part of what they're doing is to, you know, allow you that opportunity to correct. Um, but you did snap off the bottom of the one. Yeah.
[00:57:44] But the good thing it was, was that I had so much length on the other part of it that I just extended it out and it was basically a regular hiking pole. That's the nice thing about breaking it at the bottom. You know? Yeah. If you break it mid shaft, that's a whole other story. Then you've got like, you know, two worthless pieces of trekking pole. Yeah. And thank you for carrying that worthless piece of trekking pole. Thank you. That's what I'm here for. And I had a great time. I had a great time. Thank you for letting me. I got only got 10 more left, Ted.
[00:58:14] Yeah. Well, we, let's, uh, send me your list. And I think you have a, a big Indian for loan and Rocky. I know those four. Uh, Wittenberg, Cornell. I can't believe that we should do that. I know. Van Ben Shoten for Wittenberg, Cornell. Uh, I know it's weird. Eagle. My God, there's three more left. Unbelievable.
[00:58:42] Uh, is it peek-a-moos and table? Wow. And then one more. What is the loan? Uh, I can't remember, but yeah. So I'm not, I, I, I'd like to finish them, but you know what? I'd like to just have the experience and this is a great winter experience. So I might as well experience it while it's full on winter instead of just like maybe ice or not ice.
[00:59:10] So, oh, you gotta, you gotta be used to and good at ice hiking in the Catskills. Cause that's what we see a lot of most winters. Yeah. And, and Jamie, Jamie was on the show for variable and he was ice hiking in tag us. Yeah. He was actually in the parking lot of Huckleberry point. He didn't tag us. What the hell? Shame. Yeah. God, I'm going to tag him. It's sweet. We should just delete that episode. Right.
[00:59:39] Oh, so awesome. Great time. Ted. Thank you for joining me. I really appreciate it. I'm glad you got to get home to get your bills game. So they can lose overpaid athletes, but yes. So Catskill news volunteer, uh, 3500 club Catskill trail clue Catskill mountains club visitors center Jolly rovers show clue. Probably out in fire tower, uh, volunteer.
[01:00:03] They're always making up there as their, their summer, spring, uh, fall excursions here now in the winter. Um, also if you need stickers, let me know. We'll send them free of charge or go to camp Catskill. We'll get you there. Also registration starts on February's first for Manitou's revenge ultra marathon that goes 52 miles from one end of the Catskill. And then the other.
[01:00:33] Had I known this last week, I would have started training and entered it. I agree. Same. I would have stayed home and not even thought about this. I've heard about this crap. This is absolute insane. So do they have, do they have like an over 60 category? Maybe I can enter the over 60 category. I guaranteeing they have very many categories, so you could probably qualify for that, but you gotta finish the race to actually get like, or wait, you have to qualify for like three other different races.
[01:01:00] To, to get into this race. It's pretty crazy. It's like, you have to qualify for two marathons and then another marathon. I understand. Cause they don't want somebody crap it out. You're about 21 miles into it and, you know. Well, yeah. And then you don't, you don't want to give all you, there's limited, you know, uh, starting positions. You don't want to give out those starting positions to people that don't have a realistic chance of finishing.
[01:01:27] It's somebody who's been out training and, and doing these types of events for a while. And is, you know, has a high likelihood of being competitive and being able to finish this. That's that's the person that you want at the starting line. You know, they earn, they earn that. So let them have a shot at it. Yeah. So Ed, is Ed going to be doing this? Ed, I don't know. I mean, Ed, you know, he's been, it seems like he's been keeping a low profile. Um, I know he does listen to the show from time to time. We can ping him. We ought to get him.
[01:01:57] We ought to get him back on the show. We should do like a thing where he just like, we randomly, we queue up the show and we just randomly like try to ping people message people to click in and just do like on the spot, random interviews. You know? So if we're going to do that, we should announce that like, you know, next Tuesday night at seven o'clock, that's what we're going to do. Yeah. That's just Tuesday night. You two Rangers are going to be joining us. Yeah. Then I'm Woodstock. So. Yeah. All right. So weather forecast. How about that?
[01:02:26] So this weekend looks pretty decent Friday. Going to get a little bit of cloudiness and light snow, uh, accumulation around two inches highs around 36 lows around 10 degrees at night. So that it gets a little bit colder, colder toward the weekend. Saturday looks to be all clear. Saturday, a high of 23, a load of seven degrees with wind chill.
[01:02:51] So once again, layer up, but be prepared with your sunglasses and such with your facial stuff. Sorry about that. Uh, Sunday looks to be cloudy with mild snow. Uh, and then towards the late night of snow, we're going to have a lot of snow up to four inches of snow, a high of 28, a low of seven degrees with the wind chill. So. It looks like Sunday, we're going to get a little bit more of snow throughout the week.
[01:03:19] It's going to be chilly to, to moderate temperatures. So. Get out there, be prepared. I got to admit. Uh, people have been prepared and have been wearing snowshoes from what I've seen and spikes. Things have been great. So thank you to all who is, uh, doing their part and being a successful winter hiking area of the Catskill. So this is, this is going pretty well. Yeah, it's been a good winter.
[01:03:44] And that for, from the sounds of that forecast, there's no rain forecasted. So it looks like we're going to have, you know, snow on the ground again, as opposed to it getting iced up and. Yeah. Yeah. And turning into one of those, you know, slip slide type of hikes on the trail. Yeah. So get out there, have some fun, tag us, have some fun, cross some peaks. What do you know? All right.
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[01:05:35] Take your next step with another summit and ascend to new heights of resilience and joy. Apply today at another summit.org. Let's welcome to the guest of the night. Let's go. So tonight, Al Purdy is going to join us and he's going to talk about his Catskill all trails experience. Now, Al is a three times Catskill all trails finisher. So three times. Four. Wow. When did that come?
[01:06:05] November 24th. Jesus. All right. All right. So this podcast needs to be shut down and Al needs to take over. Because he is just. Al spends too much time hiking to take over the podcast. And he did. You said you just got out of work. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How the hell do you hike so much in work? Like, oh my God. I go every Sunday. Uh, yeah, my, my wife has to work Sunday. Yeah. So I go then.
[01:06:35] Sunday's your day. It's mine as well. Also, but mine's Saturday. Okay. Wow. We have. So Al is going to talk to us about the, uh, his all trails, uh, experience is ultra challenge experience. So now, you know, I did the math on how many miles you've hiked with that. So now I got to redo that math. I'll add another 376 to that. So no, we have prior episodes about this.
[01:07:02] Uh, episode 116, Sam Cash was, uh, all trails challenge finisher and 137, uh, episode 137 with Sarah Bacon. She did a, an episode with us about the all trails challenge, but now we have Al here who's done it four times now, which is absolutely insane. And we actually saw each other this Sunday. So it's, it's great to see again. You know how I recognize you, Al? Take a guess. Uh, beard, obviously. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I'm like, Oh, that's Al pretty.
[01:07:32] And I heard you're a metal head, correct? Oh yeah. Yep. Yeah. I, uh, I grew up in the eighties. So. Excellent. We got a fellow metal head here, so that's good. That's good. So Al, why don't you, uh, give us a little background about yourself and, uh, we'll take it off from there. Well, I've always been an outdoor person and I, uh, grew up in the Hudson Highlands. We live right at the, uh, foot of the Wilkinson trail.
[01:07:58] So, you know, I started hiking then, you know, when we were at school, we would pretty much skip out of class, you know, go up in the mountains. Yeah. And from there, I went to a minnewaska Mohonk and, uh, pray about 15, 20 years ago. I found my way to the Catskills. And, uh, so with all that, like as a teen, you were out exploring all the time and stuff like that. And you just 20 years ago, you came to the Catskills.
[01:08:26] What did you start doing in the Catskills that, uh, like got your attention? Uh, it was weird. A friend of mine took me to overlook mountain and that's the only place I hiked for like a whole season. And I seen a 3,500 checklist laying on the ground. I looked at it and I just started hitting all those spots. It's just by chance. Wow.
[01:08:52] So, so I, what, what I hear is because somebody left some trail trash out there that happened to be a 3,500 checklist. That's what, that's what kicked off your Catskill hiking career. Is that true? Well, uh, I hiked in the Catskills probably like a year or two. I had no idea, uh, about any 3,500 club or, you know, the high peaks or anything that I just had. I couldn't stumble across it. Hmm.
[01:09:21] I just, just start checking it off as I went along. That's, that's crazy. And this was 20 years ago. So you're talking early two thousands? Well, no, I'd say probably like 2005, 2007 range, maybe not 20 years ago. I mean, very close. So that, that was way before, of course, all the, uh, you know, the herd paths and stuff like that. So this was, this is way before all that stuff. Yeah. I didn't even have a map at first.
[01:09:47] So I just kept driving down roads, you know, seeing a trailhead and just going for it. Wow. Awesome. That's crazy. So that's, that's fantastic. So now, uh, what, like, when did you finish your 3,500? I think it was 2015. Yes. I was 49 years old. So, yeah. Wow. Excellent. Congratulations. Uh, 2015. That's close. That was 2017. Tad, you said you were like 2018, 19.
[01:10:17] I'm going to go with 2018. Okay. Wow. Awesome. So that, I mean, now that, I mean, that took you a while to do that, but now you're fricking doing the all trails in a matter of like two months. So that's insane. Um, so now with the all trails challenge that is involved with the Catskill mountain club. Now, can you, uh, are you a member of the Catskill mountain club? Oh yes. Yes. Uh, can you tell us a little bit about, about the Catskill mountain club?
[01:10:45] Uh, well, uh, basically they just promote outdoor activities and the Catskills. Uh, they're more than just hiking. I mean, they, uh, do bicycling, boating. I think anything that doesn't involve a motorized vehicle. Uh, somebody even posted a mini golf outing. Oh, nice. Wow. Yeah. So yeah, they do a variety.
[01:11:09] I mean, they promote the old trails, the grid, uh, you know, some of their own trails that they've made. Do you, uh, they also do like trail maintenance that they have been building new trails, correct? Uh, yeah, I think they have, uh, several, like they have six. Yeah. Yeah. The guys, some of them are involved in the trail maintenance. I know they did some work on the, uh, Huckleberry loop trail a while back. Yeah.
[01:11:36] Now with, uh, the Catskill mountains club after, did you get into knowing about the Catskill mountain club before you finished the 3,500 or was that after the 3,500? Uh, it was after a 3,500. A friend of mine was trying to talk me into doing it, uh, a while back and I wasn't into it at first, but after a year or so, I started doing it. You just started nailing out these trails and stuff. Who's a friend? What do you want to mention his name? What's what's his name?
[01:12:05] It was a guy named Rich Williams and, uh, Chuck stump. Uh, yeah, Richard passed away a while ago. I know Chuck. He's on the, my, uh, my search and rescue team. Yeah. Yeah. I hiked with him back in the day. Oh, nice. He's a cool dude. Real nice guy. He's a real nice guy. He has no filter. That's the best part about him. He has no, he has a lot of fun and, you know, very helpful to everybody around him. Definitely. Definitely.
[01:12:35] So, uh, do you want to, uh, give a little bit information about the all trails challenge? I mean, of course we're not talking about the all trails app that gives you false information all the time. So we're talking about completing everything. You want to talk about that? Uh, well, it's, uh, 87 trails. I believe it's 347 miles. And, uh, you will have to backtrack. Yes. Yeah.
[01:13:03] Uh, anybody that's doing it. I, I advise them to like really study the map, do it with another person seeing car shuttle. Yeah. That'd be the best way to approach it. And do it by yourself. Good. Yeah. If you do it by yourself, it just takes longer. Yeah. You got to do those miles there and back. So a seven mile day could be turned into a 14 mile day if you do it solo. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No doubt.
[01:13:32] I've done a lot of it solo and you know, just, it just takes a while. Do you, do you have a, uh, perspective of how many people have finished the ultra challenge for those have been you? Yeah, I believe 77. 77. Wow. Compared to the 3,500 club, which is we're over in the 4,000. Yeah. I think the grid's about the same. I think about 70 people have finished that. Wow.
[01:13:59] So we're talking, you know, we have all these mountain clubs around here, you know, the Adirondacks is I I I'm guessing they're well over 15,000. The 48 over at New Hampshire are I'm, I'm pretty sure they're the 18,000 and then we have Catskill 3500, which is for over 4,000. And then we have the all trails and the grid, which is now up to 77, not even a hundred. Wow.
[01:14:26] I, I just want people to, you know, it's, we have all these talks about, you know, wanting to be out in these hikes secluded and stuff like that. But, you know, having more people check out these trails might get these people, more information and more, you know, maintenance, these trails that we could need and they could still be just as beautiful.
[01:14:45] I mean, most of us that take these dedicated trails that to do this are one of us that appreciates the outdoors that, you know, we, we want to be out there for secludedness to, to be alone, to have that time. I'm being like, wow, I'm loving what I'm seeing. Yeah. Yeah. I've spent like a whole season, you know, whole winter season, hiking Western Catskills without seeing a person. Wow. Yeah.
[01:15:14] So, and then Ted, that one question you have, how many two times finishers, three times, any four times finisher that second one or that third one is, is kind of self-explanatory that he just did the four. Are you the only third time and four time finisher? Uh, there's a one lady finished three times. Uh, she passed away, I believe like a year ago. Uh, well, she didn't pass away doing the all trails challenge. Did she tell?
[01:15:43] No, no, she wasn't last. Her car wasn't last seen in the Western Catskills and she was never found. Uh, no, no, no. That's horrible. Yeah. I was going to say a joke, but that's that she was on the touch me, not trail. Ooh. Well, she did not. Our sensors are going to come in and take care of that. So Al, um, you, you've done this four times.
[01:16:07] Um, I know with the 3,500 and hikers anonymous, they have like all these combinations. They do single season around in a month, stuff like that. What about what the all trails is or like a fastest known time for somebody to complete the all trails. Don't roll your eyes. Let's, let's get an answer. Fastest time. Anyone you know of? I know one person that's done it and like a year and four months.
[01:16:36] That's that's it. I mean, there's no known, uh, no official. Is that you? No, I did it fastest. I did. It was like a year and five months, but I don't hike in the summer. So I. Yeah. What do you do in the summer? I, uh, do mostly mountain biking up in Minnawaska state park or a Mohawk. I spend a lot of time up there just as much there as I do cats. Hmm. Cool.
[01:17:05] Um, what about the people try to grid the all trails? Anybody trying to like do each trail each month or each season of the year? Not that I know of. I mean, it's just a standard, uh, you know, however long it takes you. There's no winter, uh, all trails. No, you know, no grid for the all trails. Not yet. Yeah. Yeah. We saw somebody will come up with it. People seem to not be satisfied with just hiking the trail.
[01:17:34] They, they have to like make some extra special challenge out of it. Maybe just even just say that, well, I did it faster than you, but I always wonder if those fastest known known time people actually are enjoying what they do. Right. I always thought that as well. Yeah. Yeah. I want to stop the smell of roses, you know? Right. The, the touch me not, uh, flowers out there.
[01:18:00] So, um, why is it you, you found the, uh, the list of the 3,500 mountains, you set out to do the 3,500 mountains. And after that you started to do the old trails. Do I have that correct? Well, I did the, uh, winter, the winter 3,500. Then I went right into the old trails. Is there something that prompted you to do that? Was there something appealing about it or did it just happen? I, I just, I mean, there's always, you know, a spot that I didn't see, you know?
[01:18:29] So I, I, I would just have to go and do that trail. So I, I've seen them all. Yeah. And so how long did it take you to complete that first round of the old trails? The first time I, I really couldn't say, because I mean, I did the 3,500 first, uh, hiked a few, you know, a few years before I actually started keeping track of everything. Uh, the second and third time it took me like a year and a half.
[01:18:58] The fourth time it took me like maybe two years. Cause I, I didn't really do it in an accelerated pace this time. I just more enjoyed it. And I was leading group hikes to helping those people, uh, you know, achieve it. So is there anything that, well, let me ask you first. Did you ever do the grid? Did you do the four 20 grid? No. Uh, like I said, I don't hike into the summer really doesn't appeal to me that much. So that's one of the reasons why I don't.
[01:19:28] And so why is it instead of doing the grid, you've been returning to the old trails? Is there something more appealing about the trail hiking versus sticking to the mountains or vice versa? Well, I, I really enjoy the high peaks, but the old trails, it just offers more variety. I mean, you got lakes. I mean, there's, you know, places where you're out in the middle of nowhere. I mean, total, you know, total privacy. I mean, you know, just places nobody else goes. Yeah.
[01:19:58] Yeah. I'll, I'll agree with you there. I mean, I finished my grid and then I set out to do the old trails and hiking the Western Catskills and seem even some of the trails in the Eastern, the more high peak area of the Catskills has a different vibe, but certainly when you go out and hike in the, the Western areas of the cats, uh, you'll go. I think I did a hike one day, I hiked 14 miles. I didn't see a single soul. No, I take that back.
[01:20:27] I saw one guy who was trail running. That was it. Otherwise 14 miles, not a single person the entire day. Um, and you go through such diverse, uh, forest areas on these hikes. It's a really neat out there. So I'm going to ask you some, some personal questions, at least to me in terms of my trying to nail down, you said, there's like a lot of backtracking.
[01:20:53] How is it you keep track of the trails as you hike them? Do you mark them off on a map on a spreadsheet or something else? What is your tracking methodology? If you will, uh, it's pretty primitive. I use, uh, the checklist and, uh, if I have to hike a trail more than once, I just go to the back of the page and, you know, write the miles of that trail that I did that day. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah.
[01:21:21] So, and so having done this four times, one of the logistical things that, uh, puzzled me. And I, when I started out doing this, I didn't put enough thought into this component is, is there any way that you found is the best way to go to minimize the amount of backtracking that you do? Like, like all these little spur trails that go off to this road or that road is, did you
[01:21:49] come up with any method to just minimize that extra hiking time? Well, you just got to really study the map. If there's a way you can do a loop, do it as a loop. Uh, if you have another person doing it with you, that's great. Yeah. Yeah. Then you got to, uh, yeah, there's certain times a year where the hikes will, you know, it'll be easier. Mm hmm. Uh, yeah. The Western cascals, you got parking issues.
[01:22:15] Uh, yeah, the trails will get overgrown, you know, so you'd have to do a lot of trail finding you do in the summer. Yes. I do it in the fall and winter. So before I send it back to Stosh, um, I've done most of my old trails solo and I bring a bike and I'll drop my Jeep off at the end of the hike and I'll ride my bike out to where I'm starting. So that way I like that. Yeah.
[01:22:40] That way I, when I do like a 14 mile leg, you know, the, I'll do a 10 to 20 mile bike ride to start off that hike and, and just end up at my Jeep at the end of the hike. The other thing that I started doing now that I'm almost to the end, I think I have like 30 miles left to go. And so I've got some, these like little isolated segments that I would have to retrace on a
[01:23:06] trail to get out to that segment and then hike it to a certain point, you know, um, finish off that. So what I've just started to do to get to those, I just bushwhack out to where I need to go. I'll ride my bike to some random spot on the side of the road, chain it up and just head out into the woods to the trail, pick up the trail, hike it back to the Jeep. And I call it the, the bike whack and hike, you know, uh, segment.
[01:23:34] So it's, it's working, but I still, like I said, I still got 30 miles to go. So I know, I know Stosh now, now that I'm done talking about myself, Stosh wants to ask you some questions. I mean, you chat, you talk about going in like, kind of like the, the, the winter and stuff like that. So you don't do you go, you go in the summer. So that does that mean you don't have to really deal with the, the finding stuff where,
[01:23:59] you know, nettles and the chest high ferns and stuff that, I mean, I, that would bring me back to the trail. I love the chest high ferns besides the ticks, but that's what brings me back to those trails. Yeah. I'm the opposite. I mean, I, uh, I find trails like that. I mean, I'd rather do them in the winter. You know, there's no foliage, no vegetation. Uh, cause some of them are hard to, you know, find your way to keep on the trail. Correct.
[01:24:29] Those, I, those Western ones are sometimes poorly marked as well. You know, where you're once again, like up in waist high ferns or, or somewhat nettles. And then the trail markers 200 yards ahead of you, instead of, you know, being like 15 yards and stuff like that. So yeah, I got a, you're, that's a good point. So percentage wise, how many, how many much percentage wise do you think you've done in the winter?
[01:24:56] Like almost all of it, of those four times? Usually hiking for me, hiking season, uh, starts. I'd say after Columbus day and Columbus day to Easter. Wow. Easter, I started hiking less and doing more biking. Wow. That is insane. So being on the, the all trails challenge and stuff like that. So what are the, some of the non popular like spots of the trails and the Catskills that
[01:25:25] always brings you back that you can't like stop thinking about that? You want to go back all the time? Uh, I like the, uh, trout ponds, mud pond area. Just that's just a little loop around older lake. I really like, so I like a mile, but I like to just relax, hang out there. Yeah. It's just a few of the places, big pond, little pond area, you know, touch me not trail. There's a lot. And that's, that's definitely better in the winter because there's less people.
[01:25:54] Well, there's, there's no people out there usually period, but. True. Well, well said. Yeah, there's, I mean, out there in the summer, that place is, is packed full of everybody, families and stuff like that. Well, there's a lot of campgrounds. You have the little pond campground. There's a primitive sites on big ponds and all there. And I think a mud pond trout pond, they have a lot of primitive sites too. Yeah, exactly.
[01:26:24] Now, I mean, we, we have. Yeah. I've, you know, I've heard there, you know, some of them can be. We are very secluded out in the, and the further part. And we go through a lot of the, the CCC areas that, you know, have these, these forests that are planted. But then you have some of these areas that just are, are just absolutely stunning and full of kind of whatever you want for, for, for nature and such like that.
[01:26:51] And then in the summer, it's just complete bushwhacking craziness out there, especially in the Western Godskills. And I mean, talking about complete craziness. Do you have the most secluded trail that you love to go to that just, you'll see. Yeah. That you've never really seen anybody ever. Uh, the lower section of the mud pond trail. Uh, that's really quiet. And, uh, the Mon God parting trail. Oh, wow.
[01:27:21] Yeah. Yeah. There's, I hardly ever see anybody out there. I mean, this is, I mean, you gotta say the winter, then this is usually in the summer, you'll see lost, deserted people out there. Cause they're usually like wandering off the mud pond, trout pond area. And they're like, excuse me. Uh, we stayed over here. Can we get, how can we get back to there? So I understand. I definitely understand. They're like bushwhacks out there, even though they're marked trails in the summer.
[01:27:49] I mean, it would be totally overgrown. True. That's, that's the beauty of it. That's why I like it. Cause people will see the nettles. And that's, that's the one thing I actually like is I like seeing people get into the nettles and realize like, what the hell is going on? And I'm like, that's why you shouldn't wear shorts out here, buddy. Yeah. Yeah. I'd definitely be the trail for you if you're into that. Yeah. Well, one of the things I noticed in the Western cats is, uh, you actually have like a sod.
[01:28:19] Trail or something covered with vegetation. Unlike the, the high mountain areas where the trail has just been worn down through foot traffic and water erosion down to rock and boulders. Would you agree with that Al? Oh yeah, no doubt. Yeah. If you fall, it's a little more forgiving. Mm-hmm . You know, they don't see, see much traffic either. So there's no trail erosion really. Yeah. That's the best part. Yeah.
[01:28:49] And I also know that Matt Smith and his trail crew is, is really been devoting a lot of attention over the past year to the Western Catskills. So would you, would you say that the trail maintenance out there has gotten better in the last year or so? Yeah, no doubt. Uh, even better marked. Yeah. So kudos to, to Matt and his crew, uh, going to task out there. Absolutely. Absolutely.
[01:29:14] And you know, the Catskill Mountains club has stepped it up, you know, once again, you know, people like Al, Al, just an FYI, Al leads hikes for the Catskill Mountains club and he does them continuously. And it's insane of how many hikes he led. But, uh, if you ever want to do the all trails challenge, uh, follow Al on Facebook, follow Catskill Mountain club, uh, online and Catskill ultra counts, Catskill trail conditions on Facebook and such.
[01:29:42] Al is always leading hikes out into the crazy places that, uh, you know, if you want to have a two person hike or maybe even more than that, uh, he could bring you out there and guide you to the best for free. It's not, it does Al doesn't charge anything. Do you charge beers by the way? No, maybe a burger would be good burgers. Oh, even better. Yeah. Even better. Uh, so, you know, I mean, this next question is my question.
[01:30:11] I am a viewpoint guy. I love viewpoints. Is there a favorite viewpoint that you have while doing the all trails challenge or any, any part in the Catskills that just keeps bringing you back? Uh, yeah. Yeah. There, there's so many. I mean, I, uh, I mean the one I did Sunday, I mean, Huckleberry point, that's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely a spot.
[01:30:37] Uh, try to think there's sunset rock, uh, up by North South wake. That's another one. Yeah. Uh, what I just thought of is, you know, where the John Rob lean to is. Oh yeah. Yeah. That's a great spot. Yeah. I definitely want to camp out there. Especially at sunset. But yeah, my wife and I camped out there, uh, uh, one time and, and we got the most beautiful sunset and sunrise.
[01:31:04] So we got, we got very lucky and I got a bet that places is something else. Yeah. That's beautiful. That's one of the nicest views. I think of the cats goes right there. Worst views in the cat skills. Don't ever go there. No, leave it alone. No, I'm just kidding. Awesome. That's yeah. That's, that's me though. I am. I'm loving the view. Like we had, we recently like, like we saw you on Sunday, we went to cat or school high peak. That is one of those views that is just unforgettable. Hurricane ledge. Yeah.
[01:31:33] And it, but there's so many out there that you're just like, God damn, this is, this is tough. Even the, the small tiny viewpoints that you get on, you know, some of those places like, you know, over in we'll talk about the Western cats skills. Uh, oh my God. What is that? Uh, the viewpoint with the pond, you gotta be kidding me. I wasn't there. I was there too. That put right off the captain starts with an S shaver town. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Believe it or not.
[01:32:02] I've never done that trail. Is that part of the challenge? Nope. No, the shaver town. I'm true. Uh, okay. You gotta go there. Well, that's pretty far drive for you. So that's it. That's it. It's a, it's a nice spot. So that's a, that's a really good, easy hike. So, all right, Ted back to you, buddy. Oh, all right. So for, for those of our listeners who don't get out to the Western cats, what would you recommend
[01:32:28] to them is one of the best trails to hike out there for them to what their appetite with? I would say the trout pond area is good. A lot of people start on the, uh, touch me, not trail. Uh, they'll, they'll start up from Barker Boone road and, uh, do the touch me, not trail. Yeah. I just like those are two good ones.
[01:32:50] Just that name Barker boom gets me, but, uh, yeah, you, you don't put the, the Kelly hollow loop on that list. Uh, well, I really wouldn't consider that part of the Western cats skills. No, that's a nice little spot though. Mm-hmm. Definitely. Okay. Yeah. I think that that's a, that's an excellent spot. And then once again, the Western cats skills offers just, uh, this secluded forest. Yeah. That's what it has to offer.
[01:33:20] Another spot to split rock. Oh yeah. Yeah. I was there this fall. Yeah. A lot of people go there too. Why am I drawing a blank? Split rock. Yeah. That's that's, I, I would say it's just west of the Barker boom area. It's okay. Yeah. So off of a holiday Brook road. That's all right. You can access it. Mary Smith trail. Yeah. Oh, there you go. Okay. Okay. The Mary Smith there. So Al, I w I had on my list of questions, uh, where are the worst nettles?
[01:33:50] But we know that you don't hike in nettle season. I know, right? Yeah. I really don't do summer hikes. So yeah. What about bear sightings? Where, where, where would you send us if we want to run into a few bears and the cats skills, where do you think the most populated area of bears is? Uh, high point trail. One point. Yep. Wow. High point.
[01:34:14] Uh, in the old, uh, long path going up, uh, from Palinville. Mom. Yeah. Good point. Uh, that's the, uh, what is it called? Oh my God. Tad, we just talked, we just went near there. Uh, post ledge. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was, we were talking about that, how I've seen, that's where I've seen the most bear two bears up on post ledge. Why do you think that is Al, that there's a lot of bear activity over there? I don't know.
[01:34:42] I mean, there's, it's, it's quiet, but usually it seems like bears go where the food is and they, you know, where there's people is usually more bears. Yeah. But it's just probably cause it's quiet. Not many people, uh, use that section of that trail. So yeah, I would think it's because they can get to a lot of dumpsters and garbage cans pretty easily and then get back to a place that people don't go. Cause it's pretty rugged terrain in there as well. So that's way above the village.
[01:35:12] Yeah. It's, it's hardcore up there. And it's, it's, but Poets ledge is one of those awesome viewpoints that not a lot of people visit unless they're doing, like you said, all trails, challenge, long path, stuff like that. Yeah. What about waterfalls? You run into any hidden or secluded waterfalls and your treks around the Catskills? Do you want to share with us? Uh, no, I, I really, I mean, most of them are right on the trail.
[01:35:40] I, uh, I came across one a few years ago and it turned out to be on, uh, it was on private property, like right off one of the trails. So yeah, I wouldn't want to tell people that I'll go visit that. Speaking, speaking about going to visit that where, where else other than the Catskills, Mohonk, Minnewasca, do you do any hiking? Uh, I used to do the, uh, Hudson Highlands a lot. Mm-hmm. You know, back in the day, I've been to the Adirondacks, but I haven't really done a lot
[01:36:10] up there. How, how would you, how would you compare your Hudson Highlands hiking to what you come into or experience in the Catskills? Compare and contrast. Well, the trails are usually shorter. Technically, I mean, breakneck, hiking up breakneck's like one of the most difficult trails I've ever done. Mm-hmm . I mean, that's, that's a total rock scramble. Yeah. Uh, nice. And if you go on a weekend, it's also probably one of the most populated trails you've ever done.
[01:36:39] Well, when I, uh, when I was hiking there, probably, uh, by the late nineties, you know, when I was going to school on a weekend, you just go down there, you park on 9 D, whatever, and go for a hike. It's like, now forget about it. I mean, it's worse than the Adirondacks. Yeah. Yeah. The train stops there. Yeah. Yeah. There's a couple of train stops. Uh, I'm fortunate. My, uh, my mother lives right at the foot of the Wilkinson trail and, uh, people aren't
[01:37:09] allowed to park there. So if I want to do Hudson Highlands, that's the way I go about it. But as far as the weekend, I wouldn't go there. You know, not now. No, no. So we, we have a little, you know, we keep on the, the all trails challenge. So we talk about the, the Western Catskills a lot. What about like towards the, the Southern part of the Catskills now where we're talking
[01:37:33] about like, uh, uh, I'm not familiar with this area, but like, uh, we go past beyond the Red Hill fire tower with all the, the waterfalls and stuff. Hold on. Sorry. This is, uh, the Vornoi kill and stuff like that. Like, what do you, what are your experience with that? For no kill. Yeah. I like it. I usually do it as a, as a loop.
[01:37:56] I'll park at the, uh, upper Cherry town road, uh, hike to the falls, uh, bare right on the long path, Spencer road. Then there's another paved road. I take down to the, uh, newer red trail and you come back out to the falls. Yeah. And that part's part of all part of the long path, right? Yeah. Yup. Uh, yeah. Yeah. It'll take you all the way out to peak moose road. Cool.
[01:38:26] And you're, that's another place too, where you're, you're out in the middle of nowhere. Uh, you know, like Bengal Hill area. Yeah. Oh yeah. That's definitely secluded stuff. I mean, recently you had the forest fires and stuff like that out there. And once you go down in the crossover Bengal Hill, and then you're going more south, then you'll get more secluded. But once you go down the big hill down the sundown, you start getting into the, the peak moose valley area where it's got the permits and stuff like that. So yeah.
[01:38:56] Yeah. We get out to Spencer's ledge. No, never. No. I'm not familiar with that either. Yeah. It's, uh, east of Samson mountain. Oh, it's off trail. Oh yeah. Yeah. I've never been out there. Hmm. Interesting. So Ted, you want to go on to the hiking gears and then hiking gear. Sure. So let's, let's get nerdy with Al. Um, so why don't you, uh, you've done for all trails.
[01:39:25] Uh, you've done your Catskill list. You hike around a lot. What's the advice that you can share with our listeners that you learn the hard way stuff that you would not want to learn the way you learned it before, but you now realize this is how you get it done. Well, safety wise, always tell somebody your plans. If it's a new place, you know, allow a lot of time. Try to think gear wise.
[01:39:51] Uh, God, I've had a lot of the same stuff for years. Uh, same. Yeah. I'm not, I'm really not much of a gear guy. I mean, that red jacket you see me wearing the pictures. I've had that for over 20 years. Wow. Yeah. Is it like a shell? So, uh, try climate Jack. Okay. North face. I had it for over 20 years. It's held up. Did it come with a lifetime? Have, did it come with a lifetime warranty?
[01:40:19] You know, like send it back someday, ask them to replace it. I don't know. They'd be pretty surprised if I did that now. Yeah. You should be their spokesperson. That's right. Well, so what, what other than your, uh, North face jacket, what, what other favorite gear is part of your arsenal stuff that like, cause I have that, this type of stuff where, you know, they don't make it anymore. And you're just like the day it doesn't work, it breaks, it rips or whatever. You're almost going to cry. Cause it's like, you know, just part of your hiking kit for quite a while.
[01:40:50] No, I can't think of anything right off hand. I mean, I've no, I, uh, like with shoes, I go with Solomon. I've had three pairs of those. I've had three different, uh, pairs of snow shoes. Three, uh, like totally different pairs. Like, like what, what was your favorite? Believe it or not. I had a pair of tubs mountaineering and there were great, great floaters. Like if you're open area, you know, with a lot of snow, they're great.
[01:41:20] The only problem is that they didn't hold up the, uh, heel strap, the binding, uh, uh, actually a broke rate, right in the middle of one of my, uh, hikes, the, uh, MSRs. I got a new pair of those. They're great for traction. I mean that I could say, uh, they're probably more suited for the high peaks. Correct. Yeah. It's different, different terrain, different, uh, like that devices and stuff like that.
[01:41:48] It's definitely, uh, a mix of match kind of deal and such. Yeah. What about hiking poles, trekking poles? What do you use? Uh, black diamond. Uh, they, I really like those a lot. They kind of lock in place. There's no twist in or anything. Just, you know, just flip a little switch and they, they totally lock in place. Yeah. So are you using metal poles, carbon poles or something else? Uh, I'm not sure. I think they are carbon though. Yeah. Yeah. They're pretty lightweight.
[01:42:18] I know one of the three of us needs a new set of trekking poles and I don't know if they picked, I don't know if they picked out their poles yet, but you have any recommendations, Al? Do you prefer carbon over metal or does it not matter to you? Uh, it don't matter to me. It's just, like I say, I like something that'll lock in place. I don't like twisting or. Yeah. I've seen them collapse on people. Yeah. Yeah.
[01:42:44] My, my first pair were those, uh, ones that would twist. You kept turning it until it wouldn't turn anymore. And I think they lasted about 30 miles, a couple of heights, total trashed. So yeah, I've got, I've got a couple pair of black diamonds that I've been using these ones that I, I found in the middle of nowhere on a bushwhack turned out to be pretty good. So you told us you like, uh, your Solomon shoes. What about you don't do hiking in summer, but one of my, one of the things I like to
[01:43:13] ask people that do hike a lot is what do you use for bug spray? I don't. Nothing. Cause you're not out in the summer. Yeah. Even when I am like, if I'm out in may or June, I don't use anything. Well, I wear, I'll wear a pair of safety glasses. They don't go in my eyes and I'll wear a ball cap. Right. Is that because of the beard? Is there something about the beard? You don't wash your beard. It keeps them away. What's what do you think the secret is?
[01:43:43] The bugs don't bother you. Well, yeah, they're, they're in my face. I mean, I just, I try not to pay any attention to, uh, even, even when they're flying away, with a piece of your flesh, that doesn't bother you. Well, that hasn't happened yet. No. Well, that's, that's wild. What about, uh, tracking? What do you use anything for GPS tracking your phone? What app you use? Nothing. Nope. Just. Yeah. I follow the map and, uh, yeah. I know the trails.
[01:44:13] You don't like track yourself and then like noted, like, like note down what you did previously. Is this is all by hand that you highlight something? No, no, I never use tracking. Right. I think just, uh, impressive. That is a first. Yeah. Is there a reason why you don't? Al? Uh, I just, just never have. I know like the blue trails go north to south, you know, red ones are east to west. So I kind of have a basic idea in my direction. Go by landmarks.
[01:44:42] You have a compass with you. I tried to learn it. I never picked it up. I never used it. I'll send it. I'll send you a link that I use to my map and compass. That is so easy. Like, it's just so easy. And this, this guy is as a hunter and just the way he uses it. It's just like, it's. It's dumbfounded. Like, I'm just like, wow, this is, it's this easy when like other people teach it like beyond what it should be taught.
[01:45:10] And, uh, I'll have to send you a link on YouTube. It's so crazy how I use it, but interesting. How about. Yeah. So what I got, I got one question about gear, your backpack. What do you like? How big is your backpack and what do you use? Do you prepare for anything and everything? Yeah. Yeah. Like I got a 50, 50 liter backpack. I, uh, I carry in winter. That's, uh, the off spree. Nice. I like you. Yeah.
[01:45:40] You're like me, Al. You carry anything and everything to fricking prepare for something disastrous. Yeah. If something happens in the cold, you got to figure a way to get yourself off the ground. And, uh, you know, give yourself shelter from wind. Yeah. So I'll carry a tarp. I mean, I can fit, uh, you know, sleeping bag in it. Uh, yeah, the mat. I carry that once in a while. Yeah. And now with, uh, with you leading all these hikes and stuff like that, I'm guessing you
[01:46:09] are kind of like a, like an influencer as, as well. You know, like if somebody's doesn't have the proper equipment, you're, you're teaching them how to, how to use it and be like, oh, maybe you should, you know, get this and stuff like that on your, with your gear, the experience within the last 20 years and stuff. Yeah. I mean, if, uh, a lot of people I hike with already have experience, but the ones that don't, I mean, I'll give them my opinion. Uh, yeah, I'll tell them what I use.
[01:46:37] And, uh, you know, I just, like I said, I'll give my opinion and suggest that they go to REI or like maybe Kenco or something. And, uh, you know, talk to people. You are more experienced with the gear. Good place to go is camp Catskill. They have a lot of stuff too. Yes. Yeah. And Tanner's all, they have some good stuff now. So, so Ted, what is this a question on? They didn't stop making like.
[01:47:05] Oh, well that was about hiking in the summer with bugs. Yeah. L smarter than you and I, he doesn't go hiking in the woods and he rides on a mountain bike going faster than the bugs can go. So it doesn't have to worry about bugs. Speaking of mountain bikes and we're gonna talk about mountains. What about mountain lions? I mean, everybody claims that they've seen a mountain lion with all your thousands of miles in the Catskills.
[01:47:33] And have you ever seen a mountain lion track? That you're willing to admit to. I can understand if you don't want to tell us, Al, but will you admit to seeing mountain lion tracks in the Catskills? No. Yes. See? Suck it. There we go, folks. There you go. Again. Isn't it so funny how people like are like, oh yeah, yeah.
[01:47:55] I've seen them on my trail cams or I've seen paw prints in my backyard, but not one of these people can produce a viable information or evidence that they exist. Yeah. And Al's hike thousands of miles here on back country trails in the middle of absolute hell nowhere. And he's like, I don't see any. Yeah. Well, Stash, if you saw a mountain lion print out in the Catskills, would you be telling everyone about it?
[01:48:25] Hell yeah, I would. Really? Yeah, that would be fantastic. I think they're back. It's either a wolf or a mountain lion that I'd love to see out here. No one's going to believe you. That's very true. Yeah. So when you think about it, the minute you start, oh, I saw a mountain lion. I saw a mountain lion. Everybody's going to look at like, well, Stash, he's as crazy as Tad is now. He hung out with Tad too long, went downhill when he started hiking with Tad, just like when you went down round top this weekend on your butt. That was nice. That was nice.
[01:48:55] I enjoyed that. So Al, how was the hike over to Huckleberry? How was it? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's nice. Yeah. It was about four miles for the view there. It's great. Just use spikes? Yeah. There's no snow. I mean, there's like maybe a few inches. I think there's five of us. Yeah. We're all good without snow shoes. Nice. Yeah. Those, all those guys seem pretty cool.
[01:49:24] So, so, uh, I mean, we're not, you don't really hike in the summer, but you do hike in the, in the later parts of the summer. Do you any, have any like details, like details of how you avoid Lyme's disease, like ticks and stuff like that? Do you use anything? Uh, no, I, uh, I mean, most, most of the ticks I have on me that I do get on me or like the upper part of your body.
[01:49:50] So I, I think most of the ticks are like falling from higher places, like higher weeds. So, I mean, I just, I just wouldn't bushwhack in the summer or, you know, stay on the main trail. Yeah. This guy is smart. He's smart. Most of the, all us East coasters who love hiking out in the, uh, in the summer and the fall. Yeah. I mean, I do hike in the summer occasionally, but yeah, I, I, I just wouldn't like bushwhacking like thick weeds in summer. Yeah.
[01:50:20] We got it all wrong, Ted. We're done. Well, yeah, I know. I, I cut back on my bushwhacking in the summer. I, you know, I think bushwhacking season starts when fall is over and you're waiting really for the onset of winter and it bushwhacking season continues until. You know, things start to come to life again out in the woods. And then, then you gotta reassess what you're doing and where you're going.
[01:50:46] And, and that's frankly, when I've done most of my all trails mileage is during the summer when I can just, you know, like douse myself and bug spray and net gear and whatnot and go out there. Like I'm a beekeeper and walk those trails in the Western Catskills. Um, when Al's not around. Yeah. Right. You know, but I also, I also enjoy putting in some mileage on my bike. Yeah, that's right. That's a hell of a way to do it.
[01:51:17] So, so Al, any like tips to, to anybody who's pursuing their all trails challenge for the first, second, third or fourth time. Yeah. Just like I say, study your maps and, uh, you know, if you have a friend that can go with you, that'll help. But yeah, I mean, once you, if you plan on doing it multiple times, it gets easier as you do it. I mean, you know, you'll find ways. Yeah.
[01:51:43] I can tell you that, that, you know, I mean, I've done some of those spots out in the Western Catskills. Having two people is definitely the way to go. Or like what Tad said, having a bike and the car, you know, he'd like, you could have a seven mile hike. Like I said, turn it into a 14 mile hike. Cause you got to do it there and back, or you can have a seven mile hike turn into a bike ride that, you know, is five miles. That's a beautiful, nice and coast bike ride down the, the beaver kill or something.
[01:52:12] So yeah, I've done the bike thing before. It definitely works. Yeah. So, so Al, here's my last question for those folks out there that are looking to do the all trails challenge. Um, but don't have a buddy to do it with. Is there a group on Facebook or somewhere else that would, you know, if they plugged into it, that would hook them up with other candidates that are out there doing the all trails? Well, we do it with the Catskill mountain club.
[01:52:38] I mean, if somebody has, uh, you know, I'll help people doing it. If they ever request a trail, you need help with, I'll take them there. Yeah. So they should link up with the Catskill mountain club and get involved in those hikes, meet you and others in that club. And that'll segue them into the all trails challenge. That's what I'm going to. Yeah. Just look at our schedule. Um, you know, I, I have something almost every, every week, uh, until the summer.
[01:53:07] What, one of the things that I find too often is somebody is a little intimidated signing up with the hiking group because they think that they're a slow hiker. Should they be worried about that? No, I get that all the time. I mean, people ask me, what's your pace? I tell them, I don't know. Yeah. We just take it as it comes. I mean, you know, as fast as the, uh, slowest person in the group. Mm. Right. There's always something to look at.
[01:53:36] If somebody is like lagging behind, you know, a couple of paces, you always got something to check out or look at while you're waiting for them to catch up. So, yeah, just, just slow down. I mean, that's all that's not a, you know, you want to enjoy your hike. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. My, my first goal is to, you know, leave with the, leave the woods, the same people I entered it with. Or more. That's a little, that's a little crazy, but yeah. Or more.
[01:54:05] Why not? Why not? I mean, that's kind of a better aspect. Yeah. Nobody gets left behind. Go out and do a group hike or two with Al and the Catskill mountain club. Yeah. It's always a sweep. I'm not going to leave anybody behind. Yeah. Yeah. So, well, Al, uh, kind of one question left. One last big question that we ask everybody. It's the same thing. Post hike, bruising bites. When you go out there and you're coming back, maybe it doesn't matter where you're at.
[01:54:33] What is your favorites place to stop and get something to eat or drink? There's quite a few actually. The, uh, Oakley's. Oh, nice. Yeah. I haven't been there for a year or so, but I used to like going there. Uh, the last chance. Oh, yeah, definitely Tannisville. And, uh, if you're on route 209, Benny's pizza. Benny's pizza. That's a new one. Benny's. Yeah. Benny's.
[01:55:00] If you're out on a route 209, head to like the Southern Catskills of Illinois, that's a good place to stop. Nice. There's a Steve's pizza. What about, what about picnic pizza? Is that on your list? Uh, that's not far from my house. Uh, yeah. If you like thin crust pizza, they used to be really good. Nice. But it's not on your list anymore. Is that what I'm hearing? You're not a picnic pizza guy anymore or are you? Well, they're good, but I like Benny's better. Benny's.
[01:55:30] Okay. I'm going to check Benny's out next time I'm coming through and I'm picking up a pie for the missus. And I were going to Benny's on 209. Buffalo chicken pizza. Oh yeah. Okay. That's good stuff. What about Snyder's? No, I've never been there. Okay. Never, never. How'd you get on the show? How'd he get on the show? He's never been to Snyder's. What is this? A lot of people have anybody on the show. Next guy that's on the show is probably going to be like a golfer.
[01:55:59] He's never been hiking before. Never been to Snyder's. I can't. It doesn't make any sense. It does. It does. People gotta, people gotta experience it sometimes. That's okay. Talk about bushwhacking. That's a bushwhack getting into Snyder's. Let me tell you. Yeah. There's no, there's not even parking in there. So. I thought it was an abandoned building when I first seen it, but. Yeah. Same. That's why you always have the place to yourself when you get there. Just you and the bartender.
[01:56:29] That and of the eight locals that are there enjoying their seventh beer. And their, the venison platter. Yes. Yes. All right. Also, thank you for joining us on the show. I really appreciate it. Hope you had a good time. And, and once again, thank you for influencing people to, to go out there and enjoy the different trails other than, you know, the 3,500 peaks, the viewpoints and such like that.
[01:56:54] You know, you're, you're a big influencer on getting people out to the, the other parts of the cat skills that we need more visitation and more. Uh, usage on just to show them that they're actually being used and to be the maintenance, you know, really appreciate it. Yep. So thank you. Yeah. Thank you to the monthly supporters and sponsors really appreciate you guys. And, uh, thank you to everyone who has donated to the show. Thank you to everyone who is still listening.
[01:57:20] 158 episodes with Al here tonight, representing the Catskill mountain club and the Catskill all trails challenge as the superior person in this just kicking ass and. And bringing your experiences here is, is absolutely phenomenal. So thanks for joining us out. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for having me. All right. Have a good night, Al. And, uh, hopefully we'll see you back on the trail again. Sounds good. Thank you. All right. Have a good night. You too.
[01:57:50] Hi everyone. I just want to thank you for listening to the show. If you enjoyed the show, subscribe and throw down a smooth review on Spotify, Apple podcasts, or any podcast platform. You can also check daily updates of the podcast, hikes, hiking news, and local news on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and the official website of the show. Remember this.
[01:58:19] You gotta just keep on living in the Catskills man. L I V I N. Wicked. Wicked. Wicked. Wicked. Wicked.