Episode 222 - Stash goes to California!

[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] It's been to Inside The Line, the Catskill Mountains Podcast. We're back. We're back after a week, a long two weeks of drought.

[00:01:15] You're back. I didn't ever leave. I've been sitting here by the microphone for the last two weeks waiting for you to return. True. Did you do an episode without me? I did, yeah. To like six. Yeah, I got a couple of the fellas that hate the show on and we talk trash. I mean, you gotta let off the steam once in a while, man.

[00:01:41] Yeah, you know, I mean, when the boss leaves, the employees, you know, they screw around and that's what we did. So this is really episode 223. Nice. 222 came out on the dark web last week. Those of you who didn't find it, you know, hit AI, Google, and it'll lead you to it and it's worthwhile. It's a good listen. Nice, nice. I will check it out, definitely. So welcome everyone to episode 222.

[00:02:11] I think that has like a 222 significance with something, I don't know. But we're gonna talk about my trip to Cali, California, where I went up to the Sierra Nevada, Sequoia National Forest, and Kings Canyon National Park, and Yosemite. So it's gonna be a blast. I had a blast.

[00:02:30] So it's good to be back in the Catskills. I got out in the Catskills today and I was gonna be like, man, is this gonna suck? Am I gonna feel like I need to get back out west? No. I love the Catskills. Oh, it felt so good. Well, that's good to hear. Whole different feeling. Whole different feeling.

[00:02:49] And before we move on, Room 222 was a TV show in the early 70s, Room 222. Oh. So episode 222 sounds familiar to us old timers. It might be because of that TV show. Reach out to me and let me know if you know about that. And reach out to me if you don't know about that. That'd be pretty funny to hear how many people don't know about it. Because I don't.

[00:03:18] So, I do want to make a big apology for not letting everybody know that we were going dry that one week. Because I did not let anybody know and it's just blank all the whole time. And I was just posting stuff about me going out in California. So I felt bad. I felt like an asshole. I was like, oh shit, I didn't post anything. Yeah. Well, maybe that explains why it rained all last weekend. Oh, good point. Good point.

[00:03:48] Yep. So there you go. I mean, talk about, you know, having a bad time. So apparently some New York City man got stuck in a cave. Tad, you sent me this and I saw a little couple things when I was out in California. This doesn't look like a fun time. No. Yeah. Yeah. So this guy was from Brooklyn and he went to a cave that was in Canaan. Is that how you say it? Canaan? Canaan?

[00:04:15] I didn't look into the details that close enough to catch that. Yeah.

[00:04:21] So Merlin's cave at around 6.30 PM. The DEC said that he was stuck with his lower foot was stuck until, well, 9 PM that a rescue team was able to get to the site. And the temperature dropped to 50 degrees with 100% humidity. And forest ranger Gullen said there was three of his buddies who were still with him and trying to get him out. At this point, they have been in the cave for many hours and they were all hypothermic.

[00:04:50] So once again, like, I mean, I hear what you're doing, but we, we had a discussion about, you know, once again, you got us, you can't, you know, it's one of those times of when you think like, should I save myself or shave the, save this guy. It's like a 50, 50, right? Yeah. Um, that's a tough decision. Kudos to the, uh, New York DEC Rangers for sticking it out and saving this guy's life.

[00:05:19] Yeah. So 20 minutes to crawl 400 feet into the cramped cave to get to the trap man who is not identified other than a brick of nursing. Um, he was, the Gullen said he was really jammed in there more than he expected. Like his full body was stuck in a crevice that was basically, basically designed in the exact shape of him.

[00:05:39] Um, so, uh, they were telling jokes to each other. They couldn't budge the man. Uh, they retrieved, they had to retrieve a rock drill and they kept telling jokes, uh, to keep the man from panicking over the, uh, ordeal of 140 miles from his home.

[00:05:56] And once they armed the drill, Gullen said it took less than a half an hour to free the man who was not injured. I remember reading somewhere that this was a battery powered drill. That was no different than something you have at home. So it's not like they went out and got this special drill that specifically used for these types of situation. I'm guessing somebody on the outside just went and, uh, you know, retrieved a drone there, either their house or their truck or something like that. And they started drilling to break apart the pieces of rock to get this guy out.

[00:06:25] And, uh, from the pictures, I'll have it in the show notes. Uh, that looks terrifying to get your lower half of your body stuck and, uh, not, I, not being able to move. Ted, I told you this, that is like a fear. Like, I think it's like the number one or two fear. I would say drowning is the number one. Second fear is this like, uh, the 127 hours guy, you know, just not being able to move in a rock crevice and be like, Hey,

[00:06:54] need some help here. Yeah. That's, you know, that's an interesting activity. These, uh, cave explorers and all of the inherent risks associated with that. Probably a much more risky activity than hiking. Hiking, climbing, stuff like that. Bouldering. Is Sophie going to get into this?

[00:07:20] Caving. Uh, yeah. You know, we've talked about it before, but right now she's consumed by rock, rock climbing. Nice. Nice. So, I mean, this is one of their fear of yours because you never know where she's going to go with her, uh, her hobbies or her interest to go. Yeah. Well, you could say that. Yeah. Um, so also you talk about, uh, Sophie doing rock climbing and stuff like that.

[00:07:47] So when I was in, uh, Yosemite park, apparently I was looking up at El Capitan when I was checking it out. We took the bus over there and at the time I didn't even know this, but a seven year old kid was climbing El Capitan. And it was going to be the youngest kid to summit El Capitan. So, um, amazing accomplishment.

[00:08:10] Uh, apparently his brother did it at eight years old, uh, a couple of years ago and they celebrated his birthday when he summited the day of, on top of El Capitan. So, uh, his name is Joey Evermore and he completed the climb alongside his older brothers, Sam and Sylvan and his father, Joe. And now they're going to, they had a documentary crew with them as well. So pretty amazing accomplishment. Um, Jessica and I were down there and we had no clue.

[00:08:40] Apparently nobody else did cause we had like, they had telephoto lens and stuff like that on the climber. So we could see them from a distance and it was super cool, but nobody had a clue that this kid was going to be the one to summit El Capitan on his birthday and be the youngest climber. That's, that's a little scary. Uh, that's not a little scary, but it's also disappointing. Why is that disappointing? Because I didn't get to see him and I was standing right there looking up at El Capitan. They were showing me other people. It was pretty cool.

[00:09:09] Like, you know, seeing all their bags and stuff like that, you know, uh, like what they climb with and also where they have to poop. You were, you were like at a, a watch station that they had set up with telephoto lenses and tourists walking by could look through the, the telephoto lenses and see people making their ascent of El Capitan. Correct. Yeah. There was, they said there were 22 people doing it at that day, which was Thursday. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:09:38] And just seeing like from the naked eye, you could see like weird stuff, like maybe like a white shirt or some neon bags. Uh, and then some tents, uh, actually on one of the cliffs, they had tents, but, um, to, to not see this kid that, uh, on this, uh, Joey Evermore, uh, with his awesome, like helmet that has a mohawk on it and stuff. I was just like, I think we are, we came back from, from California and I saw this and I was just like,

[00:10:09] damn it. Like nobody in nobody said anything. And then apparently some woman posted, uh, something about it. She's just like, I'm here with my husband and we're watching this kid summit. And she zoomed in with her iPhone and there the kid is. And I was like, ah, damn it. So, so he turned seven that day. Obviously then he started climbing when, when he was very young.

[00:10:32] If seven is not young and was a very proficient climber during his, you know, being age six. It's kind of a, an interesting thing. And did they, do you know whether or not they did that in a single day or did they have to camp overnight to do the ascent? Three days. Three days. Yeah. Once again, once again, you know, I was, I was, it was cool because they had stewards at the bottom.

[00:10:59] So like giving you information and a climber actually that I met, I talked to that he was like, oh, I'm from New York. I used to, you know, climb in New Paltz up in the gunks. That's where I started. And I was like, oh no shit. It was pretty cool. So he was giving me some inside information about all that stuff. And like, I was unaware once again, like, I know I always come back to this. This might be TMI where on the, on the fucking mountain on the, on the goddamn 3000 foot rock face. That's vertical.

[00:11:28] Do you shit? Oh, they have, they have a whole means and method for, yeah, they have a bucket. Yeah. Oh my God. I was just like, why would, that's just, that's crazy. But, and Ted's just like, I might do this. I suppose so. Are you going to do this, Ted? Are we going to see you? No, I wouldn't do something like that. What if, what if Sophie took you?

[00:11:54] Well, if she took me, obviously, then I would have been climbing for some period of time before I got there. True. I'd be into it. At this point in my life, I don't envision taking up rock climbing. You know, people think about the strength it takes to do that. And they think about, you know, arm strength and upper back strength. But what really, really, really needs to be strong are your fingers. Okay. Okay.

[00:12:21] Because you do a lot of, I mean, a lot of it is just gripping with the tip of your fingers. So you really, really need to build up to that level. And part of the problem with climbing a big wall like Al Capitan and other big walls is you, you just start to cramp up, you know, because it's a lot of work to get up there. So you build up to it.

[00:12:44] And I've seen in my daughter over the course of the four years that she's been rock climbing, her transformation from, you know, somebody who was physically fit and in shape and had some level of muscle tone and definition to now she's, I mean, she has this stark appearance to her arms, her back, her whole physique. Wow. Kind of incredible. Yeah.

[00:13:09] I mean, you know, so I just, I have, you know, interesting thoughts about a six-year-old becoming seven-year-old having this type of strength and stamina and maybe, you know, it's something inherent in youth to be able to work up to this and do it. Yeah. Pretty interesting. Yeah. It's, I find it fascinating that once again, and the kid, you know, on the little snippets that I saw was really into it. He loved it and he was having a good time.

[00:13:38] And, you know, that's, that's what it's all about. Instead of forcing your kids to do that stuff, like, like I, I took up rock climbing, you're going to take it up as well. And then just force him. This kid was just like messing around with his brother on the rock ledge. And his dad was just like, Hey, no pushing. I was like, Jesus. I'm like, no pushing above a thousand feet. Yeah. It's really interesting. Yeah.

[00:14:02] And, you know, the one thing when I was at El Capitan is I didn't know that they go up with those, like, not the pylons. What did they push into the rock? And then it expands that, that can, they use as their anchor. Cams. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:14:20] So I thought that there were some routes that had the, uh, the anchors already set up and they said there are no routes up there that they have set up that it's all, it's not free climbing, but it's somewhat is you, you have to take all your gear up. You have to do what the, the work. So the, the terminology is there traditional or trad climbing El Capitan because there's no bolting or gear in place. You have to bring your gear, place your gear and then clean it up.

[00:14:50] Um, as you, you go up the mountain, the, there's the lead climber who's up there placing the gear is the lead goes up the mountain. And then the last person up that line takes the gear out as they go up, what my daughter has been doing for over, I'm going to say almost going on two years now, she's been doing what they call sport climbing and all the routes are pre bolted. Um, and so for sport climbing, it's more of a, like an endurance or sprinting sport compared to trad.

[00:15:20] You gear placement slows down the pace of the climb itself, but they're, you know, they both entail, uh, risk. They both entail adventure and a certain sense of, you know, becoming one with the mountain. Yeah. Early. I would say that's a whole different thing than hiking. You know, that's. Hey man, you know, you, you could take, I don't know how long it takes to get to the summit of El Capitan and how many miles it is up, or you could just

[00:15:50] do like these rock climbers do and go straight up. They had that. Yeah. Looking over your shoulder. It's a, it's an incredible view. I know my daughter, she's in France right now, and she's been sending us some pictures of, uh, what she's been climbing in the Alps and it's just, you know, breathtaking. Wow. Wow. Sweet. Do we have to get her on again? Yeah. You know, if you want to, I mean, I don't know when she's coming back. She, her visa ran out in Spain.

[00:16:15] Now she's hanging out in France until that visa runs out and who knows what's next on the list as far as she's concerned. Yeah. There's no point in coming back to the States for a while. So she's out having a good time. How old is she? She is 26 right now. And yeah, she's, uh, in France, she's, she's been tent camping when she was in Spain. She was living in a little farming community in a farmhouse. Wow. Doing farm chores. Yeah.

[00:16:45] She's having a good time. Wow. I, I, that's, that's awesome too. I, I, you know, I couldn't imagine what you, you hear from her and stuff like that. When you get the pictures, you're just like, where the hell are you now? Yeah. We're going to, we're going to hear from you later on how you had such a grand time taking a week off. And my daughter's been on vacation. Now she's going on year three, traveling on the road, living out of her car, living in a tent, living in hostels. Sometimes they'll rent a house for a month, someplace. It's a whole different lifestyle.

[00:17:15] She's having a good time. Wow. Amazing. Yeah. I mean, she, you know, she went to France with a friend of hers. They got there by train. They had two friends that were living there, picked them up and they went to this little outpost for rock climbers and that's where they've been based out of. And she's meeting all these people there, these rock climbers that, you know, they go out and climb every day and hang out and have a good time. Wow. Unbelievable. That is the life. I'll say this, man.

[00:17:43] The nicest thing about the, the climbing, like a friend of mine was telling me that he went golfing last weekend at a place in Westchester County and to play 18 holes of golf, guess how much money he spent for greens fees? 18 holes. Uh, I would have to say like, where was this? Uh, some snooty golf club, country club in Westchester. Oh, that's gotta be over like $200. It was $375, right? Yikes. Yeah.

[00:18:13] And you, you know, you're out there and you're, you're looking for that little white ball and yada, yada, yada, 375 for the day. And here's my daughter. She's over in France and I don't know what she's spending a night to stay at the camp, but it can't be a lot. And every day the climbing's free. Yeah. Right. Oh man, man. That's a horrible course, man. I got golf courses up here in upstate that are decent and you get like, like 30 bucks. Well, with a, with a six pack. Well, there you go.

[00:18:43] It's not frisbee golf. It's golf golf. Man, you can't tell me that you didn't play disc golf when you were in college. Yeah. But it wasn't as, um, I guess, well, not that it was competitive or not. I mean, we played disc golf around college campus, but we didn't have, you know, made, made up holes. I mean, you might try to hit a trash can. Nice.

[00:19:08] Or something else, you know, a doorway or, or whatnot, or put it in somebody's window. But you hippies. Yeah, we were. That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, great. Great. Glad to hear everybody's having a good time. Glad to hear that guy lived in the, uh, the cave. Cause that would have been pretty crazy to hear about that later on. So one big thing that I want to say is a big thank you to the awesome monthly supporters of the show.

[00:19:36] Chris Garabian, Eric Rosario, Jeff Jotz, Vicky Ferrer, Mikey S, Henry Burmeister, John Comiskey, Summit Seekers, Desert City Radio, Betsy A, Denise W, Vanessa, and Jim C. Thank you guys so much for supporting the show. Greatly appreciate it. And once again, your money just doesn't go into the show. It goes back into the Catskills. I got to probably make a donation soon. We're probably getting to that point of where we should make a donation. Send in your suggestions. Yeah, right. That's a great idea.

[00:20:06] So once again, send in your suggestions of where we should donate to. So that's, I know we've donated to the Friends of the Frederick and Furry, uh, Delaware Humane Society or the Catskill, uh, Heart of the Catskills. Um, we have also donated to Forest Ranger Foundation many times because they definitely need it. And I talked to a forest ranger today. So, um, but send us your, your thoughts. So thank you, Ted, for bringing that up. Awesome.

[00:20:32] I understand soon, um, cats, the Catamount Adoption and Training Stewards Program, Catamount Adoption and Training Stewards Program will be coming a non-for-profit and accepting donations shortly to repopulate Mount Lyons and the Catskills. It's our new PET, PET, PET project here at Inside the Line. I like that.

[00:21:01] And when it becomes a 501c3, let me know and we will donate it to, to, to that organization because, you know, I hear they're doing great things already over on Graham and Double Top. Yeah. Our, our attorneys, uh, Dewey, Hikemore and Howe are working on the non-for-profit papers. I can't wait to hear. I can't wait to get on it. So, uh, once again, uh, amazing thank yous to our sponsors like, uh, Outdoor Chronicles Photography. So, if you want to capture your love story against breathtaking backdrops, you need to

[00:21:31] get a hold of Outdoor Chronicles Photography. Molly specializes in adventure couple photography and she'll immortalize your moments amidst stunning landscapes of the Catskills, Adirondack, and White Mountains. She'll craft timeless images that reflect unique bond in nature's grandeur. Embark on an unforgettable photographic journey with Outdoor Chronicles Photography. Don't hesitate to get a hold of Molly on all platforms. Also, if you want to discover the wilderness, you need to get a hold of Trailbound Project.

[00:22:00] Our expert-led hiking and backpacking education program offer unparalleled outdoor experiences. Whether you're a beginner or seasoned adventurer, join us to learn essential skills, explore stunning trails, and connect with nature. Start your journey today with Trailbound Project and unlock the wonders of the great outdoors. Trailbound Project has a lot of amazing stuff going on. So, they're starting off with their spring season and their summer season. So, check out their stuff if you want to get your wilderness first day address or stuff like that.

[00:22:29] Or even just go on a hike with them. Learn new skills. Check them out. So, the big question was in these past two weeks, were you really outdoors? I have a lot going on. If you mention the podcast on one of your hikes through social media, we'll chat about it in the show. And you tag us by typing at ITL Catskill MTM Podcast on your post. And I got to say this. Sorry if I missed your tag. Once again, I was out in California.

[00:22:59] So, we're three hours behind. Three, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Three hours behind. So, once again, get out at five o'clock of the park and it's eight o'clock here. So, sorry. So, if I missed your tag. Tad, if you know anybody that tagged the show and you want to call them out, let me know. All right. I won't remember offhand. Okay. Hey, that's good.

[00:23:24] Don't count on me for anything other than a lighthearted comment from time to time. Yeah. So, Jeff Jotz was with Orla up on Raccoon Ridge enjoying the beautiful sunshine and then went swimming at that same day. And then also spent a rainy day in some New Jersey woods. Didn't specify where, but he got a fantastic photo of him and Orla out in the ledge. And that was just beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely appreciate Jeff.

[00:23:51] Also, Scott, aka Catskill Mountain Brew, did Southwest Hunter, Hunter and Russ, and then did a finish on Balsam Lake Mountain of the four single seasons in a row. So. Yeah. Kudos to Scott, man. That's quite an effort, four in a row. So, how many of that is like he crossing off the grid for that? Four in a row. Yeah. So, if he's doing 35 for his single season, then that's 140. Wow. So, he's quarter of the way there. Yeah.

[00:24:22] Crazy. He's banging out some mountains. Yeah. And then also off in the woods, Sean did the same thing with Scott and enjoyed Scott's finish up on Balsam Lake Mountain too. So, is Scott going after the grid? Probably. We got another gridder. Got these. Well, yeah. Eventually, if you keep track, eventually you're either going to check off all the boxes or there's some mountains that you just don't care about revisiting.

[00:24:47] And then you don't finish the grid, but you still hike a lot, which is a good thing. Now, were you starting out to do the grid as well? Or did you just realize that you started checking off all these boxes and you might as well go for it? Well, which time? The first time or the second time? The first time. Yeah.

[00:25:06] So, the first time there did come a point where I realized that I might as well put my notes together, fill out a grid, see where I was on the grid, and then set out to do it. And that's what I did. And the first grid, Grid 1.0, was a lot of fun.

[00:25:28] And there did become a point in time where it kind of seemed somewhat monotonous because you were almost doing like production hikes every weekend that you need to hike this, you need to hike that, you need to hike so many peaks. Because I wanted to finish at a certain point and to meet that deadline, you had to become relatively organized to do it. And then Grid 2.0 was almost the same thing where I was doing all this hiking.

[00:25:52] And it occurred to me that the decision-making process in terms of what to hike next would be facilitated by doing a grid and seeing when's the last time I was there. How often have I hiked this mountain? And let's spread it around. And there's kind of like an ebb and flow in terms of why to do a second grid, why not? I mean, Danny Davis never did a second grid, but he probably did enough Catskill hiking to do maybe three or four grids. True.

[00:26:21] Yeah. And so right now my thought process on Grid 2.0 is do I put the hammer down and finish it within the next year or do I take two or three years and just make it really fun and interesting by doing some pretty avant-garde approaches to these different mountains and I'm kind of migrating towards that second position. Nice. Nice. So who knows? Who knows is going after it, you know? Yeah.

[00:26:47] Well, you, you, on Hikers Anonymous, you can see who's posting their grid progress and, you know, there's a lot of people out there doing it. Some people don't finish the grid. One thing I'll say is when you do finish your first grid, there is a certain sense of accomplishment, but it just seems to kind of like pass pretty quickly because then you ask yourself what's next. Sure. Now that you did this, what do I do?

[00:27:16] Do I do a red 2.0, 3.0? Do I go for all these single seasons? You know, do I work on a project? Do I need to work on a project to make hiking fun and enjoyable? So that's, that's when you finish, you know, when you finish your first round, when you finish your winner, when you finish your all seasons, sometimes you're like, okay, where do I go next? And it all depends. What makes you happy? Do what makes you happy? Like my daughter, if it's rock climbing, go rock climbing.

[00:27:45] Yeah. If it's getting stuck in a cave for six hours, well, go get stuck in a cave for six hours. Jesus. No, we don't recommend that, but no, no, this is not, we're inside the line. We're not under the ground. Correct. Correct. Also, Aaron Thomas, AKA AT hikes did Cheryl and North dome and enjoyed the beautiful crisp day of spring before it all the bloom basically happened.

[00:28:11] Also, a Skana, AKA Catskill ever after was somewhere near Graham mountain, teaching people about the mountain lion habitat. So I, very interesting. Like there you go. Maybe we should get her as like a, uh, an assistant chief to the cats foundation. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure she'd be down for that. And yeah, she's had some really interesting posts on her Instagram feed and yeah.

[00:28:38] Indoctrinating people to what will be a more and more frequent occurrence encountering mountain lions. It's probably good. We get a start on that now. So she's thinking ahead. We like to see that. Jeez. And I, what did we start? What did we start here? But you never know. You never know. I heard calls today, but yeah. Didn't record it. Sorry. Um, also Danny mildly mischievous was up on Friday, but it looked like what he took a picture and he sent me with central park.

[00:29:07] There was like 20 people up there. That was crazy mountain. Yeah. That was the week. Yeah. That was the week before. And yeah. Uh, I think two big groups did the six on that day. Yeah. It was crazy. Yeah. And I don't know if you have it, uh, below and maybe he didn't tag us and maybe it's no longer.

[00:29:27] Well, it won't be on his Instagram feed anymore when you, you listen to this, but he did post, and this is why it's a good reason to follow, uh, mildly mischievous because he did post on a story. A video of a rather large mountain rattlesnake. Did you see that? I did. Where was that? Do you know? I think it was over at Harriman or one of the Hudson area hiking areas where there are snakes like that. So yeah.

[00:29:56] I was going to say, don't tell me that they're starting to progress over to fricking Friday. Like, no, I don't want that shit. Yeah. I've run into plenty of snakes on Friday myself. The rattlesnakes. No, not rattlesnakes. Okay. Okay. Like that's, that's the one thing. Snakes do like it because there is a lot of sun exposure on the one side of, of Friday. Where the slide came down. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The, uh, Northern side, Northwest Eastern. Yes. Yes. Yeah.

[00:30:26] Crazy. And he was also with, uh, Joanne beyond blazes. Uh, she was up on Friday as well. Uh, the picture is amazing. It's just amazing. It was again, like, uh, two weeks ago was like the greenery was coming up with, was approaching up the mountains. Yeah. And today it was a whole different story. It's all green now. It's crazy. Um, amazing. Uh, Catskill mountain hiker was with one of the groups and he did the six as well. So everybody was up on Friday and did the six on that one day.

[00:30:56] Apparently, I mean, it was a good day to do it. Right. Yeah. I was actually up there myself. Jesus. What, what did you do? Like the 18? No, I, I just did the six from Denning. It was a great day. It was a fantastic, fantastic day to do the six. It wasn't too warm. It wasn't cold. Um, did you see anybody or no? I, I, well, yeah, now that you remind me.

[00:31:20] So I, um, is I was heading from balsam cap towards Rocky. I'm going to say it was somewhere around noonish. I ran into coming in the other direction that fellow Brian, I think it's Brian hikes all day. Yeah. He's the one that posts those really crazy videos, uh, hiking the slides up in the Adirondacks. So it was him. Um, his, I understand it to be his girlfriend. Um, this other woman seized to summit.

[00:31:50] I forget her first name offhand. Um, this fellow, Jeff, uh, Sonia and Jeff, I see his posts all the time. I never have met him before. Really cool person. Thomas first. I don't know if you know him. Thomas first did the like 115 highest in the Northeast or whatever that list is. The guy hikes all over the place. If you like photos of birds, he's got a lot of bird shots on his Instagram feed. Cool guy. Again, I'd never met him before.

[00:32:19] So there's three people that I had never met before. Four people that I had never met before all in the same group. And then at the tail end was cool. Sarah, who I forget. How many so far, but she like every month for the past 50 to 60 months is like the Catskill nine. Sarah's saying. Yes. Yes. So she was bringing up the rear of that group. So yeah, all very accomplished hikers.

[00:32:47] Then I guess if you want me to talk about that hike, I want it because you're reminding you. I didn't write it down in my notes, but I also saw as I was coming up Lone Mountain, I ran into this guy named Anthony from Brooklyn. Younger guy. I'm going to say he was in his twenties. It was his first time hiking in the backwoods. His first time then hiking in the Catskills.

[00:33:10] He went out to, yes, Lone was on his way to Rocky and he was wearing, this is why it sticks out in memory. He was wearing blue jeans, authentic blue jeans, a couple of gold chains. Yeah. I'm not sure if he was hiking or like going to the club, but yeah, Anthony out there. So I ran into a bunch of cool people, uh, hike the sex.

[00:33:36] I haven't done it every month for the past 60 months or, but I've liked that. The sex quite a bit. I enjoy that hike. And so did all of those people you've mentioned so far. Yeah. So that's part of my recent hikes is the sex two weeks ago. That's how long it's been. I even forgot. I did that two weeks ago. So you don't have it here on the, uh, the show notes. I want to bring it up later. So remember that, uh, also Mike at red handed adventure, red hand adventure guides, uh, is

[00:34:03] a steward at balsam Lake and hopes to meet people up there. And he was up there, out there on a very windy day, Ted. I'm pretty sure you were up there at the same day. So very windy day. But Mike, if you go up to balsam Lake mountain, he's a steward up there. Tall guy has a hat on, check him out, say hi, shake his hand, tell him that, uh, the podcast is the most horrible thing you've ever listened to in your life. And let's see the look on his face. I want to see the look. You got to take it video recorded. It'll be great.

[00:34:31] So, uh, also Lisa, Lisa hikes mountains, enjoyed the burrows range on a spectacular day and also did lone Rocky and table and peekamoose. So everybody was over on the bushwhack areas, uh, over there in the six region. Uh, Nicholas golden money cat convinced his wife to do hunter. And that's a good one to do, but it's also, that's a long, that's a long one to, to convince somebody to do. Yeah. Let's go to a fire tower.

[00:34:57] You can also, you can do balsam Lake mountain with the six miles, or you can do hunter mountain, which is seven to eight miles with a little bit more gain. So Hunter's got a great view. So, so Sonia and Jeff, uh, AKA S and J high call day met tad somewhere. So that sounded like the previous story that you were talking about. Yeah. I didn't see that. Cool. Cool. Yeah. Again, Jeff, super, super cool guy. His wife wasn't with him.

[00:35:25] Um, but it was fun running into him and all those other people on the trail or off the trail, off the, off the trail, off the, on the herd path. Yeah. Uh, no, what is it called again? What do they call it? Uh, they call them herd paths, social trails, social media trails. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Unmarked trails. Crazy. Uh, Jason, AKA Jacob plow did a snake Hill Newberg to work on his New York's downstater list.

[00:35:55] And he also, I forgot to add this. He did like black rock and something else down with his New York state doubt 28 or list. I'm pretty, I'm sorry, uh, Joe, that I got this wrong, but I'm trying to, once again, I'm trying everybody, please stop yelling at me. Yeah. We're still amateurs. And some, and sometimes when I try to add their stories, it doesn't oiled out works. Of course, black rock forest.

[00:36:21] Uh, like I used to Eagle cliff. He did Eagle cliff. I, I could, sometimes I go to add their stories to my story and it doesn't work. Like it just says, sorry, this doesn't work. So, but maybe, maybe it's cause they have a restricted account. Ah, they're, they're too cool for school, I guess. But also hiker Joey and why went on a six for moon hall to Peekamoose road and, uh, making

[00:36:49] a good stat saying that 65% of the initial vertical is done and doing Friday. So very good statistic right there, Joe. That's awesome. I gotta admit that it pretty much is when you're going for that, up that area, fricking going up 29, what is it? 2,800 feet of vertical gain. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what the gain is offhand, but you, you definitely buy a lot of that right from the parking area on moon hall road. Yeah.

[00:37:15] Just you cross over the road and you, you start up that old hall road and it's, um, it's just inclined all the way up to that first terrace. Yep. Yep. So that's a great stat. And then he went on and did red hill saying that, uh, zero days are not needed. You just need chill days. Uh, so that's a hiker Joe and why he's a machine and he's out there doing it all over the state. Definitely is. Definitely is also doing all over state.

[00:37:43] Uh, Serena Marie 46 or, uh, Serena did a rab Coney and buck overlook and a beautiful sunrise, a poke moon shine. And then did clear pond and grandpa Pete mountain up in the Adirondacks all over the place. Yeah. It sounds like a lot of hiking. Yeah. And we have a lot of them, you know, we have also Todd T-Bold outdoors was up in the Adirondacks doing J peak and also did black rock forest as well. So I, once again, he didn't reveal his secret of why he gets to hike so much. Hmm.

[00:38:14] So he said, he told me he was away on a work vacation when he was out West. And when he was up in the ADK, that was a, a planned week off. Nice. He's trying not to make us feel so bad that he gets to take all his time to go hiking and we have to sit here and do more mundane things like work and pay taxes. Correct. Uh, Tony, AKA TJ, uh, underscore 72 without fishing somewhere in Sullivan County.

[00:38:43] Uh, Tony always loves to post his stuff about like being near water. He's a big water guy. Like he loves the ponds. He loves the rivers and stuff like that. Well, I guess fishing has something to do with water, you know, go figure. Go figure. Tad's like slapping me in the head right now. He's like, God damn. If I, if we had this in person. No, it's, it's, you know, it's obvious you had a week off. Cause you know, you're just not, you're not. There's no water out there. Well, there is water out there.

[00:39:12] Actually, there's no ponds. We're in Sullivan County or out West? Out West. There was, there was a lot of water actually. Uh, Tracy Pink Pony 18 went from Long Hill Road to Canopus Lake Overlook. So awesome to see you out. Uh, Tracy, uh, Cam 1863 was doing trail maintenance on a rainy day. Thank you very much for volunteering. Cam. She volunteers for the Woodstock Land Conservancy. Uh, so awesome. Thank you for volunteering.

[00:39:41] Uh, Katie Henderson Hikes was up in the Adirondacks and summited Jay Mountain, saw Todd and Tom Hoos, I guess as well. So they were up there having some good times. Do they just bump into them? That's kind of crazy. I don't know. You know, what's funny? I always think of this and I, I, I love this. Uh, and I just like all these people know each other now from the podcast. Like a lot of it know each other. Like they'll run into each other and they'll be like, Danny, Joanne, you're like, you're Janio, Joanne.

[00:40:11] Holy shit. Holy shit. You're Tom and Todd. Like, like Katie was probably just like, oh, you're Tom. And, and you're Todd. Like, holy shit. Like it's, it's super cool. The community, the hiking community. The Catskill hiking community is fucking tight. Yeah. So it's awesome. And we have to, because it's such a small area and we have so few peaks. We, we need to get along. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Both off trail and on trail. Yeah.

[00:40:39] So no matter what the DEC says. So, uh, the sloth tramps, uh, spent four days in Lake Lila in the Adirondacks. Uh, cool video. I shared that as well on my story. So check that out. And last but not least, actually, there was some other person that attacked me. So make sure, uh, I didn't get that. Amy, uh, Ameskla, Ameskla did, uh, from the running client kind was up on Wittenberg and Cornell. So awesome.

[00:41:09] Once again, uh, Jay, he did, I think Joe Jacob Plow did something as well. So he tagged me just last second. Uh, no, no. So sorry, sorry, but I'm all out of order. So thank you everyone. It's two weeks of, uh, everybody hiking. So thanks for bearing that. And I thank you for tagging the show. Really appreciate it. Uh, once again, if you think we are doing a good job or if you just, you know, just want

[00:41:36] us to crack open a hard cider here, uh, buy us a coffee, hard cider and buy me coffee dot.com. It's in the show notes. It's also on my links tree page and stuff like that. Also, you can rate the show, do it five stars usually is the best is actually the only one that is really acceptable. So I think we're, I think Tad, we're doing pretty good. We have five stars. Rumor has it that they're going to actually up the ratings to six stars because there's been such a demand to rate this podcast.

[00:42:06] Six stars. Yeah. Even Joe Rogan doesn't get that type of recognition. I just wanted to point that out. Hell yeah. I, I, I like that. Uh, also. So Ted, you know, we, we popped open your last time being here, uh, was your, uh, two year anniversary. So I, it was really cool to get all the people to, to notice what we do and stuff like that. So I'm guessing you're going to pop open a cold one. Right. I have to take it out of the sock first.

[00:42:36] Oh, over here in a sock. Is it, is it, what is it? Uh, oh, you just sniffed the socks, making sure that it wasn't used. You don't need to drink the beer. You just have to sniff the snock. So is it used? Was it? Oh damn. Aged. It's like aged IPA. What kind of sock is it? It's a devil's path sock. Obviously. Nice. I wouldn't be caught dead wearing anything else. Ted, make sure you change your settings because I hear you good. Yeah. Okay.

[00:43:05] You can want to go first while I, I take care of the, uh, administrative work over here. Absolutely. All right. Nice. Good old Hudson North vanilla chai. I'm back. That's a surprise. Ah. Beautiful. Beautiful. And you have a, a devil's path IPA, correct? Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful all the time.

[00:43:31] I'm telling you this, this beer is so good. Devil's path IPA by Catskill Brewing out of Livingston Manor, New York. And one of the best parts about it is the bitterness that comes at the end, the finish. It's just so good. Every time you finish a sip, that bitterness leaves you with that, I want another sip. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice.

[00:44:00] Uh, I had, uh, uh, what's his name on the show previously that he's, he's also was the, like, uh, uh, uh, of the Catskill mountain club. He's like the top guy over there. Uh, uh, Catskill brewery. Yeah. Hmm. He also does Catskill brewery shit. Yeah. Well, let's get them back. I think we need an official sponsorship so I can have a, like a endless, a soapous Creek

[00:44:26] flow of devil's path, Indian pale ale with that signature bitterness at the end. You know, I, I could, I, I can't see you with a keg right there. And just like, instead of cracking one, you're pouring one. I mean, I had the Tad's making the face basically like, I don't know about that. If, if you give it to me, I shall drink.

[00:44:51] My, my struggle this weekend kind of going into the previous hikes was setting out to go over in part two of my double header was why and bear pen. And I was so tempted along the way to stop and pick up a can of beer for a summit brew over there. I don't know how I resisted the urge to do that, but I did. I can't see you doing that. No shit. Well, it's better. There's nothing better than a brew at the top of a mountain, man. God damn. Tad's transforming into another person.

[00:45:21] I love it. Into an alcoholic. Oh no, not at all. Not you. Not you. Not you. So speaking about previous hikes, what were you up to? My friend, I, I have heard. You had some interesting days in the Catskills. Yeah. So as I said, two weeks ago, I went out and did the six, uh, the six is probably one of my favorite hikes, uh, in the Catskills. You can start it in a variety of different ways. And so I started this one in Denning early in the morning.

[00:45:47] That walk up the fisherman's path is delightful with the sun, you know, uh, rising in front of you and, and shining through the, the hemlock groves as you go upstream. And then you get to the, the Beaver Dam area and just keep going, going, going to where there's the, the fork in the East branch of the Never Sink. And then you just head up to what I'll call the backside of Friday and did the loop.

[00:46:13] Um, as I said, I, the first group of people I ran into was the, the group with Jeff and Thomas and Brian and Sarah, and I think Kate at all. Uh, so that was a great hike, uh, perfect weather for it. And then, um, this past weekend, I, uh, you know, all week long, they were forecasting for three days or rain Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

[00:46:42] And I couldn't hike on Saturday because Mrs. And I had a wedding to go to turned out to be a great wedding, had a lot of fun there. Um, but I wasn't, you know, got home late, wasn't planning on hiking on Saturday. I woke up early at 5. AM and next thing, you know, I'm checking the color radar, although it's rating outside, I'm looking at color radar and you're looking at the path, the storm heading to the Northeast. And you can see that the color radar, the way it's tracking is somewhere between eight

[00:47:12] and nine o'clock. It looks like it's no longer going to be raining in the Catskills. So I decided to put together a hike. I looked at my, uh, grid list and picked a couple mountains to go up and do jumped in the Jeep around seven 30 at rained, rained, rained all the way up there, driving down frost valley road. You know, the wipers were still on rain was still coming down, got to the hairpin turn and I pulled into the lot. There was four other cars there. They all turned out to be campers.

[00:47:42] Um, that had camped up there overnight and it rained a lot overnight up there. So, but I banged out giant ledge. I know Stash and I have previously talked about this. Is it giant ledge or giant sledge? Giant sledge. Giants. Cause there's more than one giant. There's giant sledge. No, but so as I'm signing into the register, which I almost always do, it says right on the

[00:48:09] register log giants with an S not. No way. Yeah. Yeah. I got a photo. I'm going to send it to you. Cause I know you would find that interesting. Dude, it has like giant ledge parking, giant ledge, uh, panther, like, and then it says on the registry giants ledge. Yeah. But I was also, as I'm walking up to the register, I I'm looking at the, the, what do you call it? The kiosk, the bulletin board. The one that got knocked down that we were going to rebuild. Yeah. Cause it took them so long to put it back up.

[00:48:37] And I thought to myself as I'm walking towards that and it's just like moderately raining, just a really, really light rain. But I had my rain jacket on that. If it took them so long to just prop that thing back up again, what business does the DEC have putting gates around cat or skill falls? Right? Because when something like when a tree falls on one of them, which will happen, we're going to take a year to fix it. So, all right.

[00:49:08] So moving along. That's a trend. Yeah. So before I reached the trail junction, going over to giant's ledge or down to Woodland Valley, I ran into a hiking couple or not a hiking, a backpacking couple on their way down. And you could tell from the look on their face that it was a long wet night for them. And I had a brief chat with them, but they were so gung ho to head over to the Phoenicia diner and get a hot breakfast. So I let them go on their way.

[00:49:35] Then I ran into a solo hiker further up the trail, made my way over towards climbing up giant's ledge. And that's when the wind really started to kick in and blowing the rain off the trees. But I went the whole way out. Was it at the call that it started blowing like crazy? It was before the call. This is before I did my ascent. Oh, yes. You did that video. Giant ledge. I didn't make it quite over to giant's ledge.

[00:50:04] That's apparently further on someplace. But yeah. So then once you get up to the kind of almost like the plateau or terrace summit of giant ledge, yeah, the wind was really whipping through. You were definitely at the lower elevation of the cloud cover because there was no view to be seen along the way. But the trees were whipping. It was kind of fun and interesting. Made it out to Panther. Got to Panther.

[00:50:31] Went beyond the official summit a little bit to the other side because it's very cool the further you go out on that trail. Then I doubled back. I guess one of the things I'll point out while I'm remembering it is on my drive over, the whole way over, I was contemplating whether or not I should bring like earphones to listen to music on this hike because I've never done that before. And I see people do it.

[00:50:59] And it's kind of like intriguing to me to do or not do that. And I decided against it in large part because I think it just confines your perceptions and you become less in tune with your surroundings. And it just sets up a barrier to your interfacing with the totality of the environment around you. And it was the right call to make because throughout the day, including when I went over to Bear

[00:51:27] Pen and then Vli and the wind started to subside, you went from just hearing that wind gusting and ripping around the mountains too, is the storm had passed over and the wind settles down. Then the birds come out and they start singing, right? Because they've been held up all morning in their nests and not going out. And then when the rain goes through, they come out and they all start singing. And I think that was part of one of the cool things of not wearing headphones up there.

[00:51:56] So at any rate, one of my observations on Giant Ledge and Panther is given all the trail traffic we've seen, probably seen over there so far this year, I literally stopped picking up trail trash because I just had so much. Really? Yeah, I'm on the way down and I have like, you know, my capacity to pick up more trail trash is now full. There's no more vacancy in my trail trash bag.

[00:52:25] But I did come across, I didn't see this on the way up, but I did come across a men's large white shirt on the side of the trail. I don't know why I didn't see it on my way up, but I saw it on the way down. So I decided I'm picking this thing up and hiking it out, which I did. But again, there's a lot of trail trash over there. So everybody, you know, pitch in, do your part, take five at least when you can.

[00:52:51] And so after I did the Giant Ledge and Panther, as I said, I headed over to Bear Pen and Vli as part of Grid 2.0 duty. I considered getting a beer or not getting a beer on the way over. I'm not sure exactly why I didn't because it frankly would have been fun just to hang out on the summit of Bear Pen and drink a beer. And maybe it's because I did Bear Pen first that it opted to not bring the beer because

[00:53:19] I'm not sure how much fun drinking a beer on top of Vli would have been. So I ripped out those two. I will say the last three times I've done Vli and Bear Pen, I've run into people using those side-by-sides. Really? Road, yeah. This time I saw three different side-by-sides going up or down. What I'm going to say is the freshly graded, I think they call it Road 3 or Road something. Yeah, Road 3. Yeah.

[00:53:49] Yeah. But you know, Bear Pen and Vli were the same as they ever were, just a little wet. One of my takeaways from Bear, or rather from Vli, which I thought was interesting, of all the forests that you walk through in the Catskills on what I'm going to call as a trail, it's a pretty cool forest, man. There's not a lot of low ground cover or growth. The trees are all relatively healthy going through there.

[00:54:14] So it's a decent forest going through there, and I enjoyed it tremendously, even though it's my one zillionth time of the fly. It's a quick and easy hike, man. I banged it out so fast, I forget how long it took me. For whatever reason, my Garmin stopped recording. It's illegal. No, it wasn't completed. Yeah, nah. Yeah, yeah. I have photographic evidence, so.

[00:54:44] And with that trail report, I'm having a little devil's pet. Nice. No, I mean, you talk about Vli. Vli has a different forest than most others, because it doesn't have the pygmy forest like Graham does, but it has a smaller forest, so it gets a little bit more sun. And so the ground covers a lot of ferns, a lot of other stuff like that. And it's nice. I gotta admit, it's a different forest than the other ones.

[00:55:15] Yeah. Well, they're all... I mean, Mike Kudish will tell you that there's a lot of variation in these Catskill mountaintops. And my sense of Vli is the summit of Vli is characterized by more earth than rock. And so you get more hardwood growth with that, because the hardwoods need more water and more root depth.

[00:55:43] So I think that's why Vli is the way it is at the top. And you also see that on Bearpen as well. It's got a lot of soil on top and you have a lot of hardwoods on top. Yeah. It's got a definitely nice forest. I like the forest on Bearpen. Yeah. I was actually up there one time, a couple years ago with Mike Kudish mapping out old growth. And he was, I think, 80 at the time, 81 at the time, man. What a hardy person, man, to hike up there bushwhacking. Yeah, definitely.

[00:56:12] Very cool experience. Cool. Cool. Nice. Nice. So you were out and about. So what about you? Any recent Catskill hikes? Yes. So today I actually got, I was able to get out. Unfortunately, my buddy Alex Vertical Madness had a cold, so I couldn't work with him today. So we were going to go out disc golfing. So I decided that I was just going to do some easy hike going up Wyndham High Peak.

[00:56:39] And I haven't been up Wyndham High Peak in a while. Like it's, it's been, I mean, I went up there, I bushwhacked up there and then did the trail mostly near the summit and then exited off of the call over there. Okay. By the, no, no, that was, that was previously. But I haven't done the trail from Peck Road up there in a very long time. Last time I did it a while ago was with Jessica in the winter.

[00:57:06] So, um, and then before that, uh, I forgot when I did that, I broke trail and three feet of snow, which was horrible. I got it to the lean to and back. So it's the first time in a very long time that I've gotten to do Wyndham High Peak in the spring summertime. And, you know, the beginning of the hike is no, this, eh, you know, you're going up kind of like a old woods road and stuff. Do you stay on the old woods road? Because the trail actually goes off to the left. It goes off the left.

[00:57:36] No, somewhat, you know, I saw that. It goes, this is all mountain biking territory over there. So I saw that and I second guessed myself. I walked like a hundred feet on that trail. I'm like, wait a minute. This doesn't feel right. The last time I was on this trail, I went up the woods road. So I doubled back and I did go up the woods road and there still are yellow, yellow markers that say foot trail. The other one just say trail. So I'm not on the maps. It shows both.

[00:58:04] So I'm just like, I guess do whatever you want. The other, the other trail looks nicer. I mean, it offers, I think less elevation gain at the end. It does. So, so when you go up the old woods road, is it been maintained or there blow down across the trail? No blow down, but it's, it's just mud and rock and slippery rock.

[00:58:24] So the other trail, I suggest taking a left, like you said, on that bike trail and just going along the nice trail that is actually hiker friendly other than slippery rock. I'm going to roll my ankle. Yeah. Truth be told, I've only done that trail one time, the kind of biker trail. Most of the times when I stay on trail, going up from Peck Road, I go up the old logging trail. And I will, I will agree. Those rocks are always wet and they're slippery.

[00:58:54] So be careful if you go up the, I'll call it the Peck Road extension. There you go. There you go. Nice. Nice. Nice. On the way up, I stopped at the lean to, I met some people, a family that was doing a hike going up to Wyndham High Peak. They opted out going down to New York city for a, like to check out a battleship or something. And they would come up here and, and the girls were actually excited that they didn't have to.

[00:59:20] The guys, the dad, the dads were not, they wanted to go out and check the battleship. But it was pretty cool to see that the young ladies were, were more into hiking than seeing weapons of destruction. Correct. Correct. And then, you know, started up the mountain, a beautiful canopy. Everything's dark, like turning green. There's some light green and golden here and there.

[00:59:44] But the one thing I noticed that, uh, I don't know if this has happened, been happening, but I haven't been up there in a while. It seems that the, the, what I call the enchanted forest is, is going to be gone soon. It doesn't feel like there's a lot of light coming in there. It doesn't feel like those trees are alive anymore. They're dead and they're going to probably harvest them soon. Yeah. But those, those are all spruce trees. If I remember correctly. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:00:12] They're, they were planted there, right? By the CCC. Yeah. Yeah. So I, so I've, I've hiked into that area from the, um, just from the road side of, uh, the Elm Ridge. Lean to area. And so I've cut through that whole forest, uh, before. It's a pretty cool forested area. I'm sorry to hear that it's not doing well. Yeah.

[01:00:40] It just seems like there's a lot of light coming through that. It still feels kind of like that enchanted forest. Like it's a little bit dark and you're, you're kind of going through mortar or something like. Yeah. So what's growing underneath? Is there anything popping up in the understory? Is it other spruce trees that are, you know, taking gold or is it beach whips or something? Beach whips. Really? That's sad. Yeah. And, uh, up, up, up a little bit further, you know, you get up further and there was with

[01:01:08] those old pastures that Michael might talk about in his, in his books books that is just flat out green, beautiful green grass growing, probably full of fucking ticks. Um, but I saw a little bit. I, I, once again, I looked off trail and I wanted to go off trail to see kind of what the forest was down there. So I went off trail a little bit and there's some nice pines growing some short pines, probably like chest height that are going out there.

[01:01:37] So that's pretty, that's pretty interesting to see. When you say you went off trail to see what was growing down there, I'm really hearing you went to look for that plane wreck. On, on Wyndham? Yeah. Like two or three years ago, that fellow that was transporting two adopted dogs or three adopted dogs. Yeah. Now I didn't, I didn't, I didn't go off trail for that. I was just interested. So like, like I said, the, just everything looks so like fresh and brand new.

[01:02:06] I was just like, oh, these look like, yeah, it's just so nice. The trilliums are dying down, um, and stuff, but about three quarters of the way up. I read, I met Ranger Fox. Oh, really? Yeah. That's a nice surprise. What was she doing up there? She's just patrolling. Basically, she wanted to check out the blow down and stuff like that. And there was, there was one tree that overtook the trail, like massive pine that was like fresh.

[01:02:34] It looked like it was young too, that just overtook the trail. So of course, every, I mean, you couldn't, you couldn't hop over it because just all the tree of the limbs were still on. So you had to go around it. So she was, uh, like examining it down lower. She's like, I have to, you know, I have to probably bring up the big saw for this. So, um, she was doing some other trail maintenance. And at the time I caught her taking a picture of some plant and she was checking out the plant and, uh, trying to identify what it was.

[01:03:04] And she was explaining all this plant stuff to me. I'm like, I look at her up. Like I have no fucking clue what you're talking about right now. Well, did she think it was an invasive up there? No, no. She just thought it was, it was a little like, oh, it's a little tiny white flower plant. That was probably about like, maybe like six inches tall and stuff. It was interesting. So I seriously had no clue what she was talking about. I'm like, listen, I know like a tree here and there. I know what a beach is or something like that. I don't know.

[01:03:33] And then like three quarters of the way in the conversation, I was like, do you know who I am? And she's just like, I have no clue. I don't remember. And I'm like, Stosh. She's like, oh my God, Stosh. I'm so sorry. And she apologized like 50 times. I was like, it's good to see you again, Ranger Fox. I only maintain a part of your area for the past 16 years. So sorry about that. But great to see her and went on my way up the mountain.

[01:03:59] You know, I forgot that, you know, Wyndham offers some great steepness here and there and some great trails here and there that like, once again, it's like after the fire towers, that is a great initiation to the Catskill mountains. Like it has the roots in the enchanted forest that you could trip on and roll your ankle on. And then it has like a little tiny, tiny pitches here and there with rocks. And then it has beautiful like back and forth trails.

[01:04:27] And then you get to the summit and it's beautiful views of the Hudson Valley and the Blackheads. So that's a great initiation. I've always suggested that to people. I'm like, have you done the fire towers? And they're like, yeah. I'm like, then go to Wyndham High Peak because that is a great one. You're talking of Wyndham High Peak. I haven't hiked Wyndham High Peak literally since last summer. And on my grid 2.0, it is the mountain that has been neglected the most by me.

[01:04:57] I need to get over there and start hiking it. And now that I think about that, maybe it is because the last time I hiked it, do you remember what I saw? The naked hiker. Oh, yikes. All right. All right. That's acceptable. Oh, acceptable to hike naked. Is that what you're saying? Acceptable that you've neglected it. Obviously, you've been out in California. You have that liberated. Oh, God. Naked hiking. We'll talk about what I saw. But yeah, beautiful.

[01:05:26] Once again, it was warm. I'm sorry to say the bugs and the flies are at it. You cannot stand still. Ranger Fox and I were trying to talk to each other while standing still, and it sucked. No head nets? No, not yet. I didn't need a head net. And I had it with me, and I was just like, all right. I sat at the summit overlooking the blackheads, and I finished my sandwich in about three minutes.

[01:05:56] And I just started down the mountain because it was just no wind at all. They somewhat were biting. I think they were. I had to slap them a couple times, but the bugs are out, and it's only going to get worse within the next week or so. We'll see. Then it'll be over soon. Yeah. With the airborne bugs. I have to say, the last two hikes I was on, when I did the six, and then this past weekend, there was no bugs at all.

[01:06:24] Which I found remarkable about the six, because it was definitely bug weather on the one hand, maybe because it was off trail. There weren't that many bugs around. I don't know. The week before, though, yeah, it was head net three weeks ago. But thankfully, the past two weekends, no head net. Yeah. Well, that's good. Yeah, same here. And I enjoyed it. The greenery, you know, once again, I was on my way, and I'm just like, is this going to be depressing?

[01:06:53] Because, you know, I don't have open summits. I don't have massive 2,000-foot waterfalls. So why is it then that you found that you still have this fondness and being out west didn't tarnish your enthusiasm for the Catskills? It's just the life, the getting out and seeing the green and just being so potent. And then there was a smell.

[01:07:22] I can't say that it was. It smelled like ferns. Like the ferns were growing, and there's that smell. And then about halfway up, I got my first of the season of the Bicknell, or not the Bicknell Thrush, but the Thrush, like was doing its little song. And that's my first that I've heard it this year because they're back. They've migrated. And that just once again struck me as just like I'm back in New York, and it's phenomenal.

[01:07:48] Like just the life, the life that we have when going up these trails. There's grass. There's trees. There's, you know, green trees. There's the green is different colors. Like looking up Blackhead, there's part of it that's still like gold. I think it's like kind of like migrating towards green. It was so cool. So cool. I still love it. I'm still in love with New York. Bugs and all. Bugs and all. Yes, correct. So it's a good time to get out.

[01:08:15] But yeah, that's not the big thing. So the big thing is what we're going to talk about next. Well, I don't know, man. We spent too much time on previous hikes. I don't think we have time to do the California trip. I think that's a wrap. I think we'll just go over the last couple sponsors and call it up a show. Hey, I'm okay with that. Not really. No, no. I want to brag about this. This is fun. All right. Let's do it. All right.

[01:08:41] So once again, Catskill News, Volunteer, New York, New Jersey Trail Conference, 3500 Club, Catskill Mountain Crew, Catskill Trail Crew, Catskill Mountain Club, Visitor Center, Jolly Rovers Trail Crew, Plarembly Mountain Fire Tower. And also, if you need stickers, get a hold of me or go to Camp Catskill in Tannersville. All right. So how about we break it into the weather forecast? Here is your weekend weather forecast sponsored by...

[01:09:12] I ain't got anybody. I ain't got anybody. Sorry. This weekend looks to be a great weekend to get out and hike. So, get out there and bag those peaks. On Friday, May 29th, expect some clouds in the morning to cloudy skies in the afternoon. Winds reaching up to 45 miles per hour at night. A high of 50, a low of 43, and wind chills reaching down to 32 degrees and down to 12 degrees at nighttime.

[01:09:40] On Saturday, May 30th, expect some clouds in the morning to partly cloudy skies in the afternoon. A high of 43, a low of 32, and wind chills reaching down to 16 degrees. On Sunday, expect clear skies in the morning to partly cloudy skies in the afternoon. A high of 50, a low of 43, and wind chills going down to 34 degrees. Once again, it's a great weekend to get out and hike and bag those peaks.

[01:10:10] So don't forget to be safe, be prepared, and don't become tomorrow's rescue story. Back to you, fellas. Thank you for that weather forecast. That was amazing. Phenomenal. Good job. Also, last set of sponsors, and then we'll get into the Cali trip that I had. So, discover Camp Catskill in Tannersville, your ultimate hiking store. Find top quality gear, apparel, and accessories for all your outdoor adventures.

[01:10:38] Our expert staff is here to help every hiker from beginners to seasoned pros. We also carry a variety of unique Catskill souvenirs and gifts. Visit us online at campcatskill.co or in the store to gear up for your next journey. Adventure starts at Camp Catskill. Also, embark on a transformative journey with another summit. Another summit is dedicated to serving veterans and first responders with free outdoor activities.

[01:11:05] Activities like walks in nature, paddling, hiking, and even backpacking. Join our supportive community to rejuvenate in nature's embrace. Experience commodity adventure and healing at no cost. Take your next step with another summit and ascend to new heights of resilience and joy. Apply today on anothersummit.org. All right. So, how about – wait a minute, Tad, you got to say that. You got to say this. What's that? Oh, I got to open up the computer here. Are we recording? How about we get on to the guest of the night?

[01:11:35] So, how about it, folks? We get on to the guest of the night. Let's go! Introducing for you, one time only, Stosh Russin. Thank you. Thank you. Glad to be here. Phenomenal. So, Stosh, this is your first time on the podcast. Why don't you tell the listeners a little about yourself? All right. So, at the age of one, I climbed out El Capitan. In a diaper.

[01:12:05] In a diaper. No, no. Were you using – what are they called when they – the thing you suck on as a kid? Were those called? I forget. It's been so long. Pacifier. Were you using a pacifier? I don't think so. Okay, moving along. Why don't you bring us up to the present time? Okay. You found yourself married and planning a trip to California. Let's start the story there. How did this trip come about?

[01:12:31] So, my cousin Ashley invited us to her wedding. Now, nine years before that, we went to her sister's wedding in Cali, and then we drove across to Sedona and camped in Sedona for four days. So, we were like, okay, so we're going out to Cali. Let's make this an adventure. And, like, I mean, I think it's just me and Jessica that say this.

[01:12:59] Instead of vacation, it's adventure. Because vacation is more of, like, chilling, doing stuff on the beach, you know, having a low-key time. This wasn't it. This wasn't chilling at all. By all means, I will tell you this later. It was not chilling at all. This was just straight out fucking hitting point by point, time by time. Got to wake up early, stuff like that. So, she invited us, and we went out because it was Ashley and Alberto's wedding.

[01:13:29] It was great, phenomenal time. This was out in Temecula. We flew from Albany to Charlotte to San Diego, rented a car, and then went to a beach. We had to get to the Pacific Coast. It's always, you got to do that. So, it's one of those beach weddings, or this was just, we want to go to the coast? Oh, we just want to touch the coast. We just want to. They have some killer waves. And we saw some, we saw a guy walking by me. He's like, those waves. Like, seriously, this is how I see Cali.

[01:13:58] Those waves are rad, man. And I'm just like, yeah, we don't have these waves over in the East Coast. We have, like, three-foot waves. And he's wearing a wetsuit. So, a lot of people, like, don't understand that the West Coast water is always cold. It's seriously just always below, like, 65 degrees, I believe. Like, and we get up to, like, 80s down in the East Coast. And you know why that is? Because we don't have the Baltic Sea, right?

[01:14:27] Well, we have the Gulf Stream. That's what we have. That's what it is? Okay. Yeah. And that's where we have the hurricanes. Yeah, yeah. True. Okay. Because it warms up and stuff. Like, yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. I used to basically live on a sailboat. So, all right. Moving along to you. Yeah, that's true. You're on the West Coast. You're hanging out. You got your rental car. Some guy goes by on a wetsuit. What happens next? Where do you guys go from there?

[01:14:51] So, we have to go, like, an hour and a half away to Temecula, which is, like, in between Anaheim and San Diego. So, city, it's a city. What sucks is that an hour and a half away, but in travel time, it was two hours and 45 minutes because of traffic. It sucked. You know, fucking, I hate to say, Cali drivers never use their fucking blinkers, number one. And number two, they don't know how to merge.

[01:15:19] Like, every goddamn slow part was just because of merging traffic. And I'm like, I have, we had a Mitsubishi Mirage, I think it was, a Mitsubishi Mirage. So, it's like a little high-end, low-end SUV, smaller SUV. And I'm just, like, getting all pissed off. And I'm kind of like- Was that like the dual turbo? Did it have a lot to pick up? Did it have a go? Dude, the amount of Teslas out there, I was just like, ah, I really wish I could just punch

[01:15:49] this and freaking go past all these people. But it takes, like, 10 seconds for that thing to engage into actual speed. It was hilarious. Frustrating. That and the different driving culture, the lack of acceleration. Dude, there's six lanes. Wow. Six fucking lanes. And their low speed is 70 miles an hour. Like, how are people doing fucking 14 miles an hour when, like, you could just- That's painful. It was horrible.

[01:16:17] So, two hours and 30 minutes, Jessica and I get to the hotel. And we always- We went to this hotel before. It was Holiday Inn Express. And it's nice. The Holiday Inn Express, they had just- Everything was comfortable. So, we went there again. And then my whole family goes there. So, we have the whole family goes there. And the one thing that I tell the family is- It's funny because I saw this as a meme. And I say, we do not go to the same places to eat.

[01:16:47] As we have where we stay. Like, where we live. And they didn't understand that. They were like, oh, so how about we go to Texas Roadhouse? And I'm like, no. Like, we're going to local places. So, I found a Mexican restaurant. And they're like, no, no. We're going to go to Applebee's. I'm like, fuck this. Like, Applebee's? Yeah. You're basically in Southern California. And you want to go to a local, non-national brand Mexican restaurant. What's wrong with that?

[01:17:18] Oh, dude. It was so good. It was so good. Hole in the wall place on a plaza sitting on thing. How did you come up with the name of the joint? Just Googling? Or was it a recommendation? Googling? Cool. Mexican restaurants. And then I see- Was it just you and Jessica? Or did you convince other family members to join in? No. My other family members. How were the margaritas? We didn't have one. Really? Wow.

[01:17:42] So, to be honest, since the wedding, which was Friday, this is my first drink since last Friday. Dry. Dry spell. So, we eat Mexican. We sleep. And the next day is the wedding. The wedding was phenomenal. So much fun. So, I don't know. I don't know if I sent you that thing, but there's champagne hour. And you went up and you rang a bell. And there was this big wall of green. And they stuck their hand out and gave you a champagne.

[01:18:12] It's so weird. Is that like a California or West Coast thing? I seriously was just like, what the hell is this? So, how many glasses of champagne did you have? Three. Really? It wasn't bad. It wasn't bad. But then, the wedding kind of started. And the lady at the bar says, it's an open bar. And I'm like, oh, here we go. So, there was drinking before the wedding started? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's interesting. Okay. That's what I said.

[01:18:41] And I was just like, and I don't know. Was there any hooting and hollering during the wedding then? No, no. Not really. Not really. Okay. All right. So, they say their vows. Yes. It was a great, beautiful wedding. This was in a winery, of course, over in California. Beautiful place. Kind of like in a notch area with an overview of a mountain that I'm just eyeballing every fucking five seconds. Because it has all these awesome boulders on it.

[01:19:11] It's open. I see trails up it. And I'm just like, every time I look around, I'm just like, hmm. I'm like, I wonder if I can hike that tomorrow. It's like, Jessica's like, stop. And I'm just like, sorry. It is what it is. Let me go. But then we go back. And it's happy hour or whatever they call it. And I'm not saying I pounded down a lot of drinks. I did. So, she was a smart bartender.

[01:19:41] She had like margaritas, spicy margaritas, and Jack and Dr. Peppers lined up. Like, didn't have them. Like, she didn't have to make them. Like, they were just sitting there. So, I wouldn't say one after the other, but they were watered down. So, it didn't really have that. I take it you were drinking the Jack? Yeah. Oh, yeah. It was good. I don't like Dr. Pepper. You're not a margarita guy? I am at times.

[01:20:09] But I'm more like a soda kind of guy. But it was great. You know, just like you. Like you said, you went to that wedding. We had a fantastic time. It was beautiful. I was dancing my ass off. Like, I was sweating. Stand up and prove it. I want to see if you have an ass. Because if you don't, then I'll believe you. That's true, actually. Don't have an ass. But it was a fantastic wedding.

[01:20:34] And during that wedding, you know, at the times, I was seriously looking up places to hike. Like, it was so bad. Like, I was just like, God damn, I feel bad. But Ashley and Alberto was a great wedding. Fantastic family. Like, everybody was happy. Everybody was enjoying their time. My nephew, Shane, was his first flight out. Like, his flight ever. And he came out to Cali.

[01:21:02] And it was just great to hang out with him. And just fantastic time. And then after the wedding, our next day was kind of like family time. They had a little close family members were over at their house. Just enjoying each other, you know, talking, chatting, and stuff like that. So, they also had like a taco stand over there. So, they rented like people to cook some tacos and stuff like that. And a great time.

[01:21:32] And then that was like family time. And then Jessica and I had to pack up to go to Sequoia and Kings. So, our plan was, what was it? Fly out. And then the next day was the wedding. Then the next day was family day. And then the next day was to go out to Three Rivers, which is right outside of Sequoia and Kings Canyon. We rented an Airbnb out there. No. So, I've never heard of this place, Three Rivers.

[01:22:01] What's the deal with Three Rivers? Why would anybody go there? It's just a small little place right outside of the Sequoia and Kings. It's like the last town sitting right out of Sequoia. So, it's a nice little town. Small town has, prices are pretty high. Like, Jessica and I spent a good amount of money on groceries for three days. Because they can do that. Because they're the last town within probably 30, 40 miles of a city.

[01:22:29] Are you saying that when and if I ever go to Three Rivers to buy my groceries before I get there? I would say yes. Okay. Yes. I mean, this is the same stuff. But yes, I would say so. And then you spend two or three nights at the Airbnb? Yeah. Dude. So, Jessica and I are not fancy. So, this was, I wouldn't say a low-end Airbnb, but it was typical. We were going to sleep there.

[01:22:59] That's it. Yeah. You're talking to a guy whose daughter lives in the back of her car. Okay. True. So, for the most part. All right. And you did that as well out in California, right? You kind of… I had a tent, you know. That's psych. My idea of roughing it was a little camping tent. So, you guys are in the Airbnb. Was it up to your standards? Absolutely. Yeah. Beautiful view of some mountains in the background. Not high mountains, but sunset was right there. Yeah.

[01:23:29] Just absolutely phenomenal. So, and you pick Three Rivers because of its proximity to the Sequoias and Kings Canyon. Correct. And… Okay. And you're just… So, just to let you know, the proximity isn't really proximity, I would say.

[01:23:50] So, going up to the Sequoia, Kings Canyon from Three Rivers still takes an hour and a half to get up. So, the reason why is because it is a massive, like, twisty, turny road that goes from, I'm pretty sure, like, 3,000 feet to 7,000 feet. But it's paved. It's paved. Two-lane paved road. Correct. And do you have the traffic?

[01:24:20] Is it like when you're heading out from Three Rivers in the morning to go see the Sequoias, is it a lot of traffic? Is it light traffic? What's the traffic like? Well, so we, once again, it's 24 miles. That takes an hour and 15 minutes to get up. 24 miles. Well, is that because of the traffic or because you're obeying the speed limit? You're obeying the speed limit and everything is twisty, turny. Sorry, something fell. Twisty, turny, uppity up.

[01:24:50] So, it's never straight away. It's seriously just twisty, turny. If you get behind the guy in the loaded up camper with, like, towing a vehicle behind it, who's going up this incline 10 miles an hour, you're stuck behind him the whole way? There are many, very many signs that say if you are slower, pull over. And there's very many little pullouts that you can do. Okay.

[01:25:19] It's usually like five car lengths. So, it's like Route 23 coming up through the cove.

[01:25:55] Yes. We're always under seven o'clock. We're always under seven o'clock.

[01:26:23] And enjoy every second as you could in the sequoias. And was Jessica just, like, you know, dilly-dallying around and double-checking this and that? And you're like, come on. Somewhat. She was really good. Jessica was really good at getting out early. Yes, she was. And she understood because she knew that these places, once again, that we were going were popular. We had very limited time. So, to go to the sequoias, did you need, like, a permit or reservation?

[01:26:53] Or is it just first come, first served? It's first come, first served. Which is- And so you get there- I think that's always been like that, though. Yeah. So, when you get there, you park in a parking lot, a big parking lot? Semi-big, yeah. Okay. I mean, our first day, we went up to Moral Rock, which is, I forgot, like a mile long with 300 feet of elevation gain.

[01:27:17] And you come out on top of- you go in between different rocks, and you come out on top on this big, giant rock that has 2,000 foot drops on both sides with a railing. And it's just stunning views of the eastern or southern Sierra Nevadas, and then overlooking the valley of- I forgot what valley that is, but- Yeah. But you're on the west side of the Sierra Nevadas. Eastern. Well, southern, sorry. Southern, southern, sorry. Okay.

[01:27:47] But you're looking generally to the east, to the Sierra Nevadas. You didn't cross through them. Okay. No. So, how's Jessica with being, you know, the hike in and being on this big Moral Rock and the 1,000 plus foot drop off? She okay with that? Not at all. She did like a quarter of it, and then was just like, have fun. Really? And she let you go on? She did. She did a lot. And she did a lot of Let Me Go On. Yeah.

[01:28:15] Spouse of the Year awards going out to Jessica. Okay. Jessica is a very social person, and she talked with a lot of people. Like, when I came back down from Moral Rock, she was already chatting with like a woman who had let her husband go up the top as well, an older lady. And she was just chatting away and just, you know, she's a very good social person, and she's very nice. And Jessica just loves, I don't know why, but she loves to, like, offering pictures of other people.

[01:28:45] Like, when we're at a viewpoint, and she's like, you want me to take your picture? And they're like, oh, please. She's just very, very loving person. And then she plugs in her pirate car into the phone and steals her data. That's very cool. Okay. I told her that. I'm like, you should probably charge people for these pictures. I tell people all the time, I'm charging you 25 bucks for this if you want your data back. So you get to Moral Rock. What's it like up there? Is there a lot of people up there? There's a railing, so there's an improved area.

[01:29:15] So what's your sense when you get up there? Is it worth the effort? Is it worth the hype? Tell us about it. Over to the left on Moral Rock is the high Sierra Peaks. Like, there's Mount Silliman, which is like 12,000 feet. They're all covered in snow. And it's just, it's absolutely stunning. Off to the right is the valley. And it leads to like, like 6,000 to 3,000 foot peaks. And it's just absolutely stunning. And I suggest, it's seriously easy.

[01:29:42] It's like a mile total long with 350 feet of gain. So it's a short hike, big payoff. Get there early. Well, that's what I want to ask is, so you get up there. It's a short hike, big payoff. Is it overcrowded up there? Nope. No? So what you're up there early in the day, how many people are already up there when you get up there? There was two people at the top. Really? Oh, that's great. So you almost had it to yourself.

[01:30:09] The parking area has probably like 15 parking spots. 15? Yeah. Wow. Have you ever seen those videos? Like everybody does the videos on this. Like, it's insane. I've never heard of it until now. Moro rock. It's super cool. So now that you said it's probably going to be on your phone, you're going to see it on Instagram. So, yeah. And then, you know, it's a funny. Did you get a t-shirt? Did you get a t-shirt? No, not at all. I don't, I don't do that crap. Okay.

[01:30:36] The funny thing is, is we, we bypassed the favorite or the, the famous tunnel log that where you can drive through the Sequoia. To get tomorrow rock. You passed that. Yes. Okay. And it's like off to your left and somebody like, or not somebody said it, but Jessica said it like, is there a tunnel log? Like we can drive through. I'm like, oh shit. I'm like, we totally missed that. So. And you didn't, you didn't double back on the way down and do that?

[01:31:06] No, we, we turned around. We reversed course and went up to the general chairman jury. Okay. So tell us about that. So the parking was actually like, once again, we got there early and it was a Wednesday. Pretty sure. Yeah. Wednesday. So, uh, no, wait, it was a Monday, Monday. So once again, like parking is very good. It was, uh, that's still limited. Like you only have, there's three tiers of parking and one of them is RV parking.

[01:31:35] So they take up a lot of spots. So we got in the second tier and we like sprinted down and we're thankful. This is a national park. They have, I mean, once again, there's a lot of volts all over the place. Like a lot of places to poop and pee. So that's good. So there's no shit left on the trail and stuff like that. It's actually very well kept trails. And, uh, we make our way down to the general Sherman. It's the general Sherman. It's gated off.

[01:32:04] It's awesome. It's cool. But you know, yeah. So, so do you know where the name comes from? Uh, what's, uh, isn't it like William Tecumseh Sherman from the civil war? Is that who it's named after? Tecumseh as in like, there's a peak up in, uh, New Hampshire named Tecumseh, right? Oh, wow. What war was that? Civil war.

[01:32:29] Uh, William Tecumseh Sherman, a famous, famous general during the civil war. Do you know what he's famous for? No. Blowing up everything in his path through the South. Okay. Check it out. That's who the guy is. All right. Well, that's it's good way or bad way. It's kind of a way of rubbing it into the Southerns, you know, the salt into the wounds, you know, here we, we, so what, what's the tree like?

[01:32:57] I mean, so this is your first time to see these sequoias. Oh, so even. So I'll, let me just get this out there. Yeah. I have absolutely zero ambition in my lifetime to go to any one of these. I'm going to call them terresti. Why? National parks, because you're just not out there enough for me. Okay. Dude, it's, it's. You're talking to a guy. A guy who spent eight days in Death Valley with his daughter.

[01:33:26] And during the course of eight days and almost 900 miles, I don't think we saw a half dozen people. Okay. That's my idea of going away. Um, but the only thing I would go to do and see is the sequoias. That's the only thing. Right. So when you hit. What's it like when, what's it like to walk up to these trees? Well, that's, that's not even the beginning of it. When you're driving up, you start hitting the sequoias. Like. Yeah.

[01:33:53] We're not talking about like the massive ones, but you start seeing them and they're, they're only in a certain. But they're bigger than the trees and the catskills. Oh yeah. Yeah. So what's that? What's, what's that like? Are you just like, are you like trying to keep your eyes on the road, but looking to your left and right? Is Jessica like telling you, watch where you're going as you're driving up this windy, twisty road, is she looking one way you're looking the other and next thing, you know, you, you feel your rental car hitting the guardrail. There's no guardrails, no guardrails at all.

[01:34:22] So like once, once you hit a certain elevation, sequoias can only grow. I think it's like 5,500 to 7,000 feet. And you hit this elevation and they, they're, they're start appearing on the side of the road and you are mesmerized by this. Like you're looking up through the car, like the, the windshield and you're just like, holy shit, this is real.

[01:34:48] And like, I know this, this sounds weird, but there was some sort of emotion that I was just like, wow, these things really do exist. Yeah. Well, that's my next question. What's, what's like the atmosphere like as you're walking amongst these trees? What's it feel like? Cause we all know what it's like when you get to like the, the toothpick forest and the catskills and the little balsams, or when you're going through a, a big majestic hemlock

[01:35:12] grove or an old forest area, they all have like this different feel and sense of like serenity, if you will. What's it like going through the sequoias? So different. Brent. Oh yeah. So when you get past the general Sherman tree, there's a Congress drill and it leads you on a bunch of the big sequoias where you can get off of the, not in Sutton, it's a path,

[01:35:38] it's paid, but you get off the beaten path of all the tourists. And then you meet the Congress, you meet the, the chief sequoia, you meet, uh, Oh God, it has a house tree of where you can go inside of the tree and just being alone with them, with the Congress. Like there's a Congress part. There's the house. There's like eight sequoias. When you say being alone, were you guys actually alone? Jessica's with you. And is it just the two of you?

[01:36:07] There's no, just the two of us hikers. Wow. That's awesome, man. And like, once again, there's a, like, there's an emotional feeling, like a deep feeling of, wow, this exists and I am looking at this. Like there's no other thing like this in the world. And I'm here and just like, like you can actually touch the trees and they feel different. They're not hard. Did you like carve your and Jessica's initials? Dude, people did that.

[01:36:37] Like it's fucking ridiculous. Like, and there's like one of the trees, like I, I've since, I, I had several pictures of when I like hugged the tree, the feeling it's like soft. It's, and it's like, yeah, you knock on it. You can't hear anything. It's like, it's just, it's a whole nother world. Like, so you're, you're on a paved trail. You, you're walking amongst these huge trees.

[01:37:06] What's the sound like? Do you hear birds in the background? Do you hear the wind? What's the other sensory, sensory perceptions? Is it a strong wind? Uh, there's a little wind. Like, uh, we had to, of course, throw on the Hallie Hansens. Like there was, it was a little bit colder because we're up at 7,000 feet. Um, once again, that's really crazy to think that you're up 7,000 feet from 3,000 feet. It's just crazy.

[01:37:32] Um, but just kind of like the stillness, like the, it's not the remoteness, but still like you feel, you just feel something. And I don't know what it was. And like, it's just the emotion. Like I, you know, once again, like I had a deep emotion. Like I was almost like, did you, did you cry? I almost did. Like, what about Jessica? Was she like overtaken by this? She was overtaken.

[01:38:02] This is like a lifelong fantasy of hers. Mm-hmm. And like to see the general Sherman, she's like, eh. And then we walk, you go further and you can actually like touch the trees. You can walk around them. And there was this one part of where the pavement stopped. And I'm like, listen, I'm, I'm a professional bushwhacker. Let's go check this out. And we get them beyond this, this paved area. And there's these trees that are still labeled that are like, ah, God, I forgot what one of

[01:38:32] them is called the house tree. So you can go underneath and go up in it and you look up and it was once take overtaken by a fire, but it's still living. Like these 2000, like to say that 2000 year old trees, 2000. Like I know that we stand on glacier, like, like former glacier areas of 17,000 years. We stand on a rock that's older than that. But this rock, this tree is living. Mm-hmm.

[01:39:01] That's almost when you say 2000 years, I think of my kudish, he's, it's almost as old as my kudish. Right? It's a bad joke. I'm sorry. Right? No, no. It's, and then, you know, once again, we go around, we meet, we, we see a bunch of different trees. We meet a lot of people. Oh, Jessica takes a lot of pictures of people like, like she offers. It's so, it's so nice. These people love it. And she's very good at, at, at taking pictures. She doesn't take. What are the reactions you see from, well, first of all, these other people are, are there any foreigners?

[01:39:31] Is this, yeah, a lot of foreigners up there? Oh man. Like, so the amount of, I'm, I'm sorry to say the amount of Asian people was insane. And I, we tried to like connect with them and talk, but they had no, English was not their first language at all. Yeah. And at this one spot, we met these Czech people, which were really great because Jessica took

[01:39:56] their picture and they, they like, they gave us a big hug, which I was just like, I love that. I mean, like the sense of love, the thankfulness was, was great. And we chatted with the guy who is their guide. And we're just like, you know, you go down like a little bit more, you can meet chief Sequoia and the McKinley tree. Uh, and they're just like, ah, that's a little bit too much for these. They were, they were older people, but once again, they're older people, 70, 80 years old. Wow.

[01:40:26] Like getting to see this because it's paved and like the elevation we did, Jessica and I did four miles kind of exploring up and back. Yeah. Well, it's kind of like a loop. And then we went off trail a bunch of times to see some different trees. And it was only like four miles with like 350 feet of gain and loss. And we met a lot of people, but it was well worth it.

[01:40:55] And, um, Oh, excuse me. Um, was that channel Sherman moral rock? And I, once again, like Tati, you know, I know you don't like the tourist spots, but to see these Sequoias, not even just driving into it made me feel different. Mm-hmm like just, I don't know. You see that I love the trees and the Catskills, but these have a whole nother feeling.

[01:41:23] So my, my daughter, the outdoorsy one, we were hiking a slide mountain one time in the winter and the wind was blowing. And she had, as of that point in time, she had been living and going to college out on the West coast and been all over out on the West coast. And she made this remark that the trees on the West coast, particularly the Sequoias and the other big trees are very majestic.

[01:41:50] And then the, the smaller trees on the East coast and the Catskills are mischievous because they move around and dance in the wind. I thought there was, I thought there was an interesting comparison. Do you get that sense that these trees are just, just majestic Kings of the forest? Yeah. Like, like you said, Kings, like it just, it's, it's just crazy to think that they exist, especially in like United States.

[01:42:18] Of all these trees were any blown over? Oh yeah. Wow. That must be quite a sight to see one of those fallen over in the forest. Yeah. I mean, this, this area was, uh, if you look it up, had like fires going into it. And what they did was put like, you know, that, uh, that foil wrap that we have for emergency purposes, they put that all around the Sequoias.

[01:42:44] So just imagine the McKinley tree is 91 feet in circumference. Yeah. So just imagine wrapping that six foot thing around 91 feet. Like it's up. They can only reach like, like, like 12 feet up and stuff. But what's there to burn in between their trees? There's like no beach whips or hobble bushes or any ground cover in between them. There's smaller trees that could catch, ignite like probably like some pines or something.

[01:43:14] Well, are they the same type of trees as the Sequoias? Not the Sequoias. No, they don't grow anymore. I think, I think the, the, the other trees are, are younger, of course, but they're not, once again, as big and as kind of, I'd say hardy. Like, like, it seems like these Sequoias have like a, like a thickness to be like, fuck you fire. I'm going to battle this. I would suppose so if they've survived, you know, more than a thousand years.

[01:43:43] Two thousand years. Yeah. Right. Yeah. How many, how many fucking forest fires is that, has that been like, you know? And then, you know, after that, I went, I wanted to do the sunset. There's a call, the sunset rock. That's part of the same area. Yeah. You go a little bit further down. And there's a called the, hold on. Let me look it up. Sentinel tree, which is right off of the, the road.

[01:44:12] That is like the fifth biggest tree in the world. And it's just, it's just sitting there. And then I'm like, let's go over to the sunset rock. It's two mile hike with like 200 feet of gain. And it's pretty cool. You go through some giant Sequoias and then you get to the area that was hit by a wildfire. In 2021. Massive destruction. Everything's gone. Just these trees are burnt to a crisp.

[01:44:40] And there's open areas everywhere. And, but, but there are enormous amount of beautiful wildflowers growing. There is undergrowth that is just absolutely phenomenal. And Jessica is taking pictures of every wildflower that there is out there. And I'm just like, there's these patches of beautiful blue areas, pink areas of wildflowers from this destruction. Five years ago.

[01:45:09] Like it's crazy. Beautiful overlook. It's just a big, big rock, big, huge grid rock that overlooks the, the Southern part of Cali. It's, it's, it's very nice. Is there a lot of other people in this area? We met two people. Really? In that whole area? Is this like the off season for seeing the Sequoias? Oh no, this is, this is, this is season. Well, it's fricking Memorial Day. We didn't even know about that. It was Memorial Day weekend. It was the Memorial Day week.

[01:45:38] Like we had no clue. And it was just, it was a, it wasn't a shit show. But after that, we met two people on that, on that trail because everybody was going to the Sentinel tree. Like, and then the visitor sent in the museum and nobody was just like. The Sentinel tree, is that the one that you walked around? It takes like, you know. No, no, that was McKinley tree. Oh, okay. 24 seconds to walk around that tree. 91 feet in circumference. Yeah. Unbelievable. Okay. Like what's the biggest out here?

[01:46:09] Like. I don't know. 30 feet. Yeah. Mike Kudish would know. I have no idea. Yeah. So. Yeah. I know, I know that Mo Lemire talks about the hemlock tree that he and Kudish believe is the largest in the Catskills. Dude, I am taking way too long about talking about this. I'm sorry. That's all right. You had a good time. You're talking it up. Okay. So. So you finish, you finish in the sequoias, right? How many days did you spend there? We spent three days. Three days.

[01:46:38] You did all of this. Well, no, no. That was, that was the first day. Okay. So the second day we did a Tocapa Falls, the Lodgepole Market, which is right next door. And then Little Baldi. Yeah. What's the deal with the Lodgepole Market? What is it like? A grocery store? What's the deal with that? Correct. It's basically a place right in the middle of the sequoias that you can buy like sandwiches, like to be honest, gear.

[01:47:06] It's like a Camp Catskills of the sequoias. But with food. With groceries. Yeah. Yeah. So how long has it been there? It's got to have been there a long time. Oh yeah. It's right in the nook. It's like right in the nook be like in between Sequoia and Kings Canyon, like in right in the middle. And everything's cheap, right? It's dirt cheap prices. Cheap. What? Dirt cheap. God damn. Not at all. So tell us about the waterfall. What's, what's the deal with the waterfall? Is it like super tall?

[01:47:33] Is it one, is it one fall, two falls cascading? So my research, I look at the picture and I'm just like, oh, this is a nice, cool 50 foot waterfall. It's beautiful hike in. It's only 4.2 miles with like 600 feet of gain. Okay. So that's 8, 8.4 round trip. No, no, no. The round trip. Sorry. 4.2 miles round trip. Is it, is it a technical? Not at all. Is it, is it, is it been manicured? Is it paved? No, no. Stops in.

[01:48:03] Is it paved the whole way in? No, not paved at all. Oh, okay. Unpaved. Beautiful hike. Um, not really any technical. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. She, she loves waterfalls. So, uh, get to the end of the waterfall, but close beginning, you see that it's not just a like 50 foot waterfall. It's a 1200 foot cascading waterfall. Wow.

[01:48:28] So like from the distance, from like probably like a quarter of a mile away, you can hear it. Yeah. Just thriving, thrushing down the mountain. Do you feel the, when do you feel the, the ions from the waterfall? Like that. I took a picture of it and it was like through the trees, you can see like the wind blowing. Mm-hmm. And it was just phenomenal. There's a lot of, there's a good amount of people there. Probably like 20 amount of, 20 people there. So. 20 people? Yeah. That's a lot.

[01:48:58] So that's, well, you say that's a lot, but that's not as many as the DEC claims. It's a matter of skills falls, right? Yeah. Okay. So you get to the falls, a lot of people, is there any trash along the way or is it very well kept? Un, at all. Wow. That's great. Beautiful. Why do you think that is? Do they come in and clean it up or is just people more? Because I, like I said, Giant Ledge and Panther, so much trail trash. There's vaults right at the beginning of the trail.

[01:49:28] There's places to, to dispose. To empty your pockets or you can carry it home in your car. Yeah. Like. The Catskills, but that's okay. I seriously, like, I'm just like, wow, this is like, even just having like a porter job. Yeah. It's a pain in the ass, but it makes a huge difference. It's like, like everybody at the beginning to the end, you know, would go in there and do their thing and then come out. Like, it's just, and then the one thing on the way, on the way back, we saw this blue

[01:49:58] Jay dark up top and blue down below. And I was like, what the fuck is this? Like, it's like the, the brother of the blue Jay we have out here, which is like bright up top and then blue down below. Like, it's just, it was really cool to see. It's just, it was, it was pretty neat. I was like, what the hell is that kind of bird? And it's a, God, I forgot what it's called. Like, I think it's called a cosmic blue Jay. It was really cool. Yeah. So. So you do the falls.

[01:50:28] How long did it take you to do the fall hike? 4.2 miles. Just, just goes a little slower. Not to say that, but she takes her time, which I don't mind. Hike your own hike, you know, uh, took us around like two and a half hours, three hours. Mm-hmm. Which is, it's not bad. Uh, we, we stuck at the falls for a little bit and listened to the, the cascading parts and stuff. Uh, and along the way, you're just following the Creek. Uh, what is the Creek?

[01:50:57] Not the Merced. Um, but you follow that all the way up. So it's just the sound of the water all the way up. It's fantastic. So, yeah. So that was, that was great. Did you hit the market for lunch? Yes. And then, and then I was just like, you know, we got to hit little Baldy. It's like 15 minutes away. Little Baldy is a round trip of four miles and you hit the summit of a massive 360 foot, not massive.

[01:51:25] So it's little, little 360 degree view of the Sierra Nevada is the different parts of the Sequoias. Um, Jessica wasn't feeling well, so she only did half, but she stayed down and like had a good lunch with the marmots. They had marmots on the trail. Oh, really? Yeah. So what's it, are they friendly or they, are they beggars? They come up and beg you for food and the way. The squirrels were beggars.

[01:51:53] The marmots weren't, they just sat there and just stared at you. They were cool. They were cool. But on the way up, like I heard some like dark, I would say dark, dark owls. Like it was a low hoot and I was wondering what the hell it was. And then what near the top, I started to hear it from one end and from the other. I'm like, Oh, these are owls hooting at each other. So it was really cool. Uh, got to the summit.

[01:52:18] There's a, I think it's like a geocache, but there was like a, uh, an area with a, uh, a solar panel up there. So I don't know if the weather and stuff, but in the distance, like all these, these couple of days that we grew up there, all we did, all we heard was like F-16 flying over and I'm just, I'm a crazy like guy of that. And I'm always looking up and Jessica's like, what's wrong with you? And I'm just like, these are fucking X-16. We don't see these in New York.

[01:52:48] And then all of a sudden. But could you feel them? No, but you could, dude, you could tell the difference between an airplane and a fighter jet, like the, the sound, the roar of them. And I'm just like, I'm just like, and how fast it moves along. Oh, Jesus. Those things were fly. I got a picture, which is crazy. And they were F-35s. They weren't F-16s. So they were the newer, newer version. And that was like, Jessica's like, why are you obsessed?

[01:53:18] I'm like, we don't have these in New York. So did you guys get, did you get buzzed by one? Uh, they were still up. They were, they were up high. But all day long, all day long, the, they were flying. I don't know if they, some guy said they come out of Fresno, which is lower than us, which was weird. I found weird, but they do like a lot of testing there. Yeah. That's what my, my daughter and I got buzzed by that one. Nice. Yeah.

[01:53:45] I mean, when I, we, he was, I can't tell you how many hundred feet, but he was close enough that you could see the guy's goggles. Oh no. This, these guys were up to where you can barely see the planes. Like we didn't get buzzed like that. I had no way. He was, yeah, he was, he did like the, um, you know, the, uh, what was that? Top gun. Top gun barrel roll fly over. Shit. That must've been something else.

[01:54:11] Cause you heard of, we were, we were, um, in a, in a Canyon, um, parked on a road, sitting on our chairs, eating our lunch, drinking a beer, and you could hear him coming up through the Canyon. And I think it's because they have like infrared. They could tell that there was a vehicle up there, you know, with the hot motor. And, uh, so the guy deliberately decide to just snake through the cannon comes around a corner, sees us.

[01:54:36] And, uh, you know, just does a three 60 barrel roll right over us flies. He's completely upside down when he goes over. And my, sadly, my phone was in the car. Otherwise I would have caught it on video. Wow. Man. That, that, that. But that's all you hear when, yeah. When we were in death Valley national park and the, particularly the further West you go, the more common it is to hear these guys out there doing their, their training and practice. But isn't it incredible though? Like, you're just like, this is, this is horrible for sound pollution.

[01:55:05] Like I want to hear nature, but then you're like, once again, like these F 35s, these fricking planes are flying at Mach two above you. And you're just like, wow. Yeah. Yeah. It is. It, it certainly is inspirational to, to see those guys going by doing their things. It's like, it's serious business. Yeah. And then, and then when I was at the summit, I, it's funny.

[01:55:33] Cause I heard like some, like, I don't know how to say it like, like helicopter rotator. Like, so I'm like looking around, I'm like looking, looking all of a sudden in the distance, I see a helicopter coming in and I'm just like, oh God, is there a rescue? I'm like, that's crazy. Nope. It's a goddamn Chinook. You know what a Chinook is? Mm-hmm. Two rotators, massive helicopter flying through. Yeah. And I take a picture of it and it doesn't look military.

[01:56:00] It looks kind of like it had like red and black. And I was just like, this is weird, like coast guard, like no way coast guard would be up here. I never found out what it was, but it was definitely cool to see flying through the Sierra Nevada's and it like dove down a little bit. So I was guessing I was doing like some operation or something like that, some testing. And it was just super cool. I had, once again, that, that summit was one of the highlights of the trip.

[01:56:27] So little baldy, what's the peak elevation? 8,044 peak. Was it windy up there? Very little. Yeah. Cold? No. It's very hot. Like as we progressed during the week, it got hotter and hotter. So when you say hot, was it seventies, eighties? Seventies, low seventies. Okay. And then. Are you bringing the full, are you bringing the full stosh Russian backpack with you all 100 pounds of it?

[01:56:56] Or you got the abbreviated West coast version? The West coast version. So I have my med kit. Once again, there's, there's limitations to the plane ride. So you have to get under 50 pounds. So we had, we had to bring the, uh, the below the Osprey, which is, I forgot what it is. It's by my 60 liter version, which is lighter than my 44, which is insane.

[01:57:23] And I brought my Heli Hansen and my, my, uh, headlamps and that's about it. So water, a lot of water, a lot of water. We had a lot of water, a lot of Gatorades, a lot of food just as a replenishment for once again, the sun, there's a lot of sun and stuff. So awesome time. I actually ran down the trail once again, dude, the West coast trails are pristine.

[01:57:53] There's no rocks. There's no roots. You can fly down that shit. Like Jessica took a video of me running down the trail to the entrance of it. And I'll have to show you like a little baldy. Yeah. Switchbacks clore. Like just, there's gotta be at least six switchbacks. Are they, are these marked trails? Marked? Oh, no, no, no, no, they're not actually. You're right. They just have, they just have the path as absolutely.

[01:58:21] You can tell it's, it's, it's so well defined the path. They don't mark the trails. Correct. Correct. Just once again, follow my itinerary. It's, it's, it's absolutely phenomenal. So let's go to the next, next point. What would you do the next day? So we try to go to sleep. Once again, we try to sleep, but you gotta wake up early. So, uh, the next day was kind of like a finish the Sequoia and the Kings Canyon area and then travel to our next area, which is Mariposa, which is Yosemite.

[01:58:50] So our first stop is one of these, the peak, which is basically just like Mount Baldy switchbacks, beautiful galore. And then you get up to this V like this stunning 360 degree view. Uh, and it's just, ah, man, I can't, these switchbacks. I'm, I'm once again, hiking Wyndham high peak today. I, I must've rolled my ankle like three times and tripped five, 15 times.

[01:59:18] And then going up these areas, you know, once again, this was like two and a half mile hike to get up to an open summit. And it's just absolutely phenomenal. Yeah. So what's the elevation gain? That was 600 feet. Yeah. So that's not even devil's path caliber. That's not even, yeah, that's not even fricking Wyndham high peak caliber. That's not even a giant ledge caliber. These West coast people are such lightweights. Like, right.

[01:59:46] They couldn't even do the, the Cornell crack. Okay. Yeah. Jessica did this and she loved it. And she was. So that was her, that was her first, uh, like 360 view of the, the trip. Right. Correct. Yeah. Was that her first time in her lifetime above tree line and with the 360 view? Correct. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Now that think of it. Yeah. So what did she think? She had a great time and she thought it was phenomenal trip.

[02:00:12] Uh, once again, this, this area was scarred by the wildfires. So Jessica's a redhead and natural redhead. So once again, we had to like hike to different spots, uh, under trees to keep her out of the sun. We, we used a lot of sunscreen and stuff. No hatch. You didn't bring a wide brim hat. No, we should have. We were going to bring our, uh, our Utah hats, you know, she should have, but she had her regular, regular hat.

[02:00:40] Like, uh, you know, you and I wear a most of the time. A baseball cap. Yeah. Yeah. In the, in the summer I do wear a wide brim cause it does make a difference. Nice. Yeah. So, all right. So you do that peak and then you go what? General Grant tree. That's another civil war reference. Correct. So tell us about general Grant tree. Is that a Sequoia? It is. It's the fifth largest and it's just the tourist trap. We wanted to see it.

[02:01:10] Yeah. Um, I had a lot of, of like destinations to go to within the Sequoia and King's Canyon, but, uh, we didn't have the time. There's the bush tree. There's the old boil tree, which is one of the top like five and, uh, just didn't have the time. And so, so having been out there, um, if you were to do this again, or if you were talking to somebody who's planning to spend some time, uh, amongst the Sequoias and in King's Canyon,

[02:01:38] how many days would you recommend? 25. 25. There is two. There's like the road we went up is like one of like eight. Like you can reach different destinations, different Sequoia groves, different just meadows that it's, it's, I had like my map was full of stuff to do and we didn't even do like 5% of it.

[02:02:07] So you, you're telling us that you had other, uh, targets listed on your map that you didn't get to because of time constraints. Absolutely. And I didn't want to miss out on Yosemite. Like I was just like, okay, Yosemite is right there. It's like, let's talk to talk about it. Was that your first time to Yosemite? Absolutely. Yosemite. Yeah. Yosemite. Um, I think that's, I think it's getting renamed to Yosemite as we speak. So did you have to get permits or make reservations to go to Yosemite?

[02:02:37] So the permits, uh, got stopped in 2026. So no permits, which is basically, uh, what I call fucking free for all. It was. How does that work out now with, with unrestricted access? What's it like? It's like Caterhicle Falls first come first serve. Yeah. But Caterhicle Falls is, is nothing compared to this. Well, yeah. But I mean, do they put a limit on it? Do they like close the gate at some point or just, is it like a ski area where they just keep letting people come in?

[02:03:07] So I wouldn't say they close the gate, but they kind of restrict people from, from entering. They're like, there's no parking areas. You got to turn around, go find a different area to, to park, which is. Is there shuttle service? Yes. So that's a cool thing. Once you go down, if you, once again, you get, we, Jessica and I got there at 718. We didn't have to pay. Yeah. Yeah.

[02:03:35] So we didn't have to pay the, that we, we did still buy a national park service was like 90 bucks for a year, just in case we did have to use it once in the Sequoias. But in Yosemite, we didn't have to use it because we always arrived before eight and we got a parking spot. I would say on the last quarter edge of the village area, which is the big, big area that is in the middle of Yosemite.

[02:04:04] So, um, the funny thing is the cool thing is, is we, we park and there's these people that park right next to us. And this kid keeps looking at me and I'm just like, the fuck is this kid doing? And he's like, Hey, did we see you on the Topeka Falls in the Sequoia? And I'm like, no shit. I'm like, yeah, you probably did. And it's just like, can you, we met Isaiah and Jordan and we hiked up the mist trail with

[02:04:28] them, but they have in the middle of Yosemite, there is a purple bus that goes around kind of like the popular small areas. And then there's a green bus that goes around the wider part. And so we went on the mist trail, which is a massive waterfall with Vernal falls in Nevada falls. We only did Vernal and Tad, if you think Catterskill falls is crazy.

[02:04:57] This is fucking insane. Like people wise, how big is it? The falls is only like probably like 90 feet, but I'm not talking about just the falls. I'm talking about the capacity of people. Oh, really? Oh, it was insane. Like Jessica. Was it, was it annoyingly insane?

[02:05:19] No, because like the, the nature kind of blocked that I was wowed so much that I just totally blocked out the people. But like I, so when you go up to the mist falls, there's once again, it's awesome. It's like halfway up. There's a vault. There's, there's poop places, poop pee, which people can do their business and then go. Did Jessica use one of them? She did. Of course I had to use a woman's bathroom.

[02:05:49] The men's bathroom was closed. So I walked in. That's permitted now. We're like in a gender neutral society. So true. True. It should be. So we did that. And then we started to go up the mist trail. And once you start going up, it gains pretty significantly in elevation. Like, and they're all, they're all steps, but they're crazy different steps. It's not like every step is the same.

[02:06:18] There's one that's like, the rise in pitch is different. Absolutely. Like, it's just crazy. Like funny to see people like struggling with this. And I'm just like, I'm flying up it. And Jessica joined me on half of the trip. Uh, and then like, once again, like the mist is coming down from these vernal falls. It just splashing up against you. We had our Holly Hansen's on and there were people up there.

[02:06:45] There was kids up there with their sandals, socks, and sweatpants. No, I should have taken a picture. I was just like, you've got to be fucking kidding me. And was it cold out? Uh, probably low sixties. I mean, what's wrong with that? Sandals, socks, and sweatpants. I mean, that's, you're going to get fucking soaked. Yeah. Like, I mean, true. But if it's warm enough out on the way down, you know, you'll dry out, you'll be okay.

[02:07:15] And you're riding on the bus. What do you care? It's not your rental car. You got me thinking, God damn it, Tad. And you're defending these, these, these kids. So, but what I want to go back to is you said that there's so many people there, but you didn't feel like it was overcrowded. Do you think that's what the DEC can do at Catterskill Falls? Just let as many people as want to go there? Because you don't feel overcrowded? I mean, you're a guy who's into solitude.

[02:07:42] You did a solo hike up Wyndham High Peak today. I mean, so with, with the sound of the waterfalls and the mist and the like kind of majestic feel, it kind of like blocked out all the other people. And that was a little different, but then like I, I went up and I, I got to the top of the falls by myself. And then I went back down to Jessica.

[02:08:09] And then as we were coming back down, all of a sudden, like the surge of people increased by like 20. Like there was. This is like a 10 o'clock now. Yeah. 11 o'clock. Yeah. Yeah. So we're talking about like buses of kids, like buses of different, like people that we're talking about, like 50 kids on a, on a trip. 70 trips. Oh God.

[02:08:39] It was insane. And we hit it like at the right time. And I, I do understand why there's such a hype about it because it's so awesome. So huge. So why it's like, I would say it's like Niagara falls compacted into maybe like a 90 foot width. But like, you just have that feeling of the mist coming on you. You're just like, it's like, it's a wild. I said, it's wild so many times.

[02:09:06] But then when you're coming back down, you kind of realize how fucking crazy this place is. Like it's times square times two. It was beyond that. Like. So hiking up to it and the anticipation of getting there and seeing this and all the sensory stimuli that you're getting it really cognitively, you're not aware of all the people that are there.

[02:09:31] And then it's when you're, when you're done with the freshness of that experience and you're returning, all of a sudden you're like, wow, look at all of these people. Right. Yeah. So, but with, with all these people coming and going to this attraction, does it degrade the feel of the natural environment around it?

[02:09:56] Do you see like evidence of people going off the beaten path or the trail, trail trash? Does it just look like the, the, the, the trail capacity is being exceeded by all this foot traffic? No, no, no, I, and the diversity of people, the young people, and then there's old people. And then there were disabled people that could see this like that.

[02:10:25] What made me feel like fantastic. Like every single person could enjoy this, could feel this, could see this. And like, once again, the trail trash, very, very minimal at the beginning of the hike. They have once again, bins for trash and recyclables middle hike. They had that as well. Top of the hike. I don't think they had that.

[02:10:49] Of course, that's a little crazy, but all in all, like, I mean, even if you're not a people person, I would do it just because you could say you did it. And that there, there, it was just like, I was with, I don't say I hate people, but the crowds are crazy, but it was just something else. It was that feeling. Would you go back there? Absolutely. Yeah. Okay.

[02:11:17] And then I could go above that and go to Nevada falls. We didn't go to Nevada falls, which is a bigger waterfall. And it's kind of like a, uh, like a, a platform waterfall. It looks like almost like a, like a jump, like it goes up. So we didn't go to that, but we had once again, two days in fucking Yosemite. No way. Yeah. I, I don't know. But so you went to other waterfalls the first day or was that, was that the falls that you went to on the first day?

[02:11:46] So we went to the mystery, which was a Vernal falls. And then we went back, got something to eat at the, uh, the Curry village area. There's, they have restaurants and stuff, which is fantastic. Trust me. It's worth it. Um, and then we went and caught the bus to Yosemite falls, the lower part of Yosemite falls, which is like a half a mile long, but you can see the whole 2,500 feet of Yosemite falls.

[02:12:12] It was, once again, like there might be a lot of people there, but it's, it's majestic to see it. Once again, you, I only had two days. So what else are you going to do, but jam pack anything and everything you can do and then get a feeling of it and then come back again to do the other stuff. That's crazy.

[02:12:33] So, and then after Yosemite falls, we can, we went to El Capitan and just looked at the goddamn face of 3000 feet of just rock face, vertical madness. As Alex says. Yeah. And I'm just like, I'm, I'm, I'm hoping Sophie one day like can do that. And like you, me, Jessica and your wife can go out there and watch her climb up that shit. Yeah. I don't know if I'd go watch my daughter climb then.

[02:13:02] Oh dude. It's, it was so like, we, we only had a limited amount of time to look at that. Cause we had to catch the bus. Uh, but like, once again, like just seeing that, like, like seeing some person's tent on a ledge. Yeah. It's just like fucking crazy. Like, I don't know. It was just something else. And then like the bus, the bus was cool.

[02:13:26] Like once again, that helped out with the parking and stuff like Yosemite is absolutely insane. And to be, we were riding on the bus back from El Capitan and the guy's just like, yeah, it's pretty busy for Memorial day. And we're like, what? And he's just like, it's a Memorial day weekend. And we're like, Jesus Christ. And we're like, holy shit. Now we know why it's crazy. And there's a certain thing because of how popular it is.

[02:13:55] You can get text messages of when like places are full. And we got a text messages message at like a 15 saying Curry village is full. Lower Yosemite is full. El Capitan is full. All of the, uh, lower Yosemite is full. And we're like, Jesus Christ. We got, we got lucky. And you have no place to go after that. Right. Cause they're all full. Yeah. You have to layer. There was people like, so Jessica and I came back from the mist trail and we like kind of

[02:14:25] rejuvenated and repacked ourselves with water and stuff like that. And then like people were sitting there, like four or five people looking at us, like putting their blanket around. I'm like, dude, we're not leaving. We're not going anywhere. And they're like, ah, so they would circle around again. I'm like, oh, but does that make the case for reservations? Could you imagine driving all the way to get there and there's no place for you to park and you have to turn around and go?

[02:14:51] And, and like, I heard like nine, like, I think it was like 85% of the people that go to Yosemite before this had no clue of reservation systems. So like they would go to the park and they're like, can you see your reservation? They'd be like, I don't have a reservation. And they would have to turn around. You need a reservation to go outdoors. Yeah. Isn't that, I, it's. That doesn't sound too cool, but it kind of makes sense.

[02:15:21] Dude, I would, with the two days that we were there and then with the day that, you know, I would say that over a hundred thousand people visited the lower Yosemite Valley. In those two days? In those two to three days. That's insane. Like. Okay. Let's talk about day two. So I'm sorry. So yeah. No, that's all right. So here you are to date. So you finish up day number one, you get, so you get like a gist of the place on day number, number one.

[02:15:49] Did you change any of your plans for day number two after you learned? Absolutely not. No. So like, once again, you get out of the parking lot of Curry village, which is downtown lower, like lower Yosemite. And these walls are all about you. So you're just mesmerized by these walls and they're lit up by the sun and stuff like that. So day two, I was just like, well, we're going to go out of Yosemite Valley and go up to the

[02:16:15] higher points and check out Glacier Point, which is like the far end of like, I wouldn't say the far end of like Yosemite, but it's just a different place where you can see like half dome, Yosemite Falls, Nevada Falls, Vernal Falls. You can see almost everything. So I'm very glad we did that because that was like, it's, it's very out of the way. And the people where we were staying with, it was our friends.

[02:16:44] And they're like, I'm like, well, if we leave, if we arrive some way and we leave one way, we can't get the tunnel view. You've ever heard of the tunnel view of where you like come out of Yosemite. And there's just El Capitan to the right, half dome to the middle. And then Brideville Falls to the right. It's, it's something else. Jessica and I were like, you know, we won't be able to see that because we're arriving through the tunnel. So we won't be able to come back.

[02:17:12] And she's just like, well, just hang a Yui, like just do a Yui and then go back through the tunnel. And we're like, really? You can do that? And there, she's like, who the fuck's telling you not to? I'm just like, good point. Good point. So you're in a rental car and you're from New York. So go ahead, send, send me a traffic ticket. Make my day. Yeah. Right. And that's, that's what we did. And to be honest at, because of how early we had to arrive there, tunnel view wasn't that

[02:17:40] great because of the lighting. Yes. Like it was ahead of us. The sun was ahead of us. So it wasn't lighting anything up. Everybody does it when it's behind you and you come in and it's lighten the whole valley up. So we were like, eh, all right, let's go up to glacier point, go up to glacier point. And it's phenomenal. Very minimal people about, um, out there. Once again, we get a parking spot right up front. We're there at like seven 30.

[02:18:10] Jessica's is just dying because she's has to get up this early four o'clock. But I don't understand that you it's seven 30 West coast time. So it's really her biological clock. It should be like 10 30. I'm not, I'm not trashing Jessica. In fact, bring her in, call her in. Let's see how she should have joined. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my daughter came on board when you went over our trip. I mean, Jessica should be here. I told her she should have joined. Yeah.

[02:18:39] So it, well, this will do part two with Jessica. Right. So here you are. I mean, you get up early, but you kind of have like the, the advantage of coming from the East coast. You get there at seven 30, you find a parking spot and glacier point is uncrowded and overwhelming. Do you have to hike in to get to it? Or is it just like right there at the parking lot? It's like, like a quarter of a mile off. Okay.

[02:19:04] Once again, this is, it's, it's great to see this all paved for people to enjoy. Like disabled people could like be pushed up here. So you're saying that a Catterskill falls, they can put paving in. That's okay. Okay. I mean, they did. Right. Oh, no, wait, to the platform. I don't know. It's like great stuff. I've only been there one time. Although I can't count how many times I've been up slide mountain, but okay.

[02:19:32] I mean like glacier point, like it's something that'll stick in your mind forever. And I was, I was like, yeah, this is pretty cool. Like, eh, I'm like, let's go to another place. So we went after glacier point, we went to what they call a Sentinel dome. So are you getting updates now on terms of what the crowd levels are at different places?

[02:19:58] The lower Yosemite was a full by like seven 59. And I, I get one, when we're up at like part of a glacier dome or Sentinel dome, there was like a alert that glacial point was full. So is this, is this creating kind of a competitive environment up there for people to get to spots before they fill up?

[02:20:22] So it's really not this laid back, uh, low intensity, relaxing vibe. It's like, I got to get the fuck there in the next five minutes before they fill up and I got to go to plan B and then plan B fills up. So I got to go to plan C. Well, that sounds relaxing. Jesus. It's like being on the Jersey turnpike. Um, it's, it's, it's just crazy. It is crazy.

[02:20:47] Like we at the Sentinel dome trailhead, we got like a parking spot right up front. I don't know. Shuttle service from glacier point to Sentinel dome. No, there's a shuttle service from like fricking like down in the valley up there. So it's just, it's, I wouldn't say it's chaos, but once again, like Jessica and I, we were like getting ready for the hike and there's people already looking to take our spot. And we're like, we're leaving for all the hike.

[02:21:16] So this hike was a little bit on the cooler side once again, because it was a big dome that overlooked the area that kind of was like half dome, but like easier way easier. It's like 2.4 miles with 400 feet of gain. Just the whole thing. Absolutely. She loved it for her and she was like overwhelmed by how much awesomeness it was.

[02:21:44] Did she get more adventures soon as the trip went on? Correct. Yep. Gotcha. Okay. Yep. And, and she got more sassy. So on this, this hike. Was that the, the spicy margaritas or something else? I should have fed her some spicy margaritas. It's a great way to start the day. So she was like a, a, a trail queen, I would say like there was kids going off trail and like trampling over shit.

[02:22:10] And she's just like, stay off the goddamn trail or stay on the goddamn trail and stay off the vegetation. I'm like, easy. You know, calm down. Like, I don't want to create a scene right here. And then I saw like kids going up the mountain off the trail and they were like pulling the trees. And I'm like, all right, fucking stop it. And these, like the parents were like, Hey, stop doing that. You shouldn't be doing that. And I'm just like, listen, man, they're like, this stuff is like tram, this vegetation is

[02:22:40] fragile. Like you cannot be having these kids go over this shit. And they're like, they'll learn. And I'm like, they're going to learn right now. They'll learn. But then the next group of kids comes along and then the next after it. Yeah. You know, and it takes a while for the environment to rebound. Yeah. And get this and get this. When we were at the top of Sentinel Dome and we were on our way down, there's a kid throwing rocks over the side of Sentinel Dome.

[02:23:11] So this goes into the Yosemite Valley, like 4,000, three, 4,000 feet into the valley. Is there like a hiking area below? Is there the possibility that people are right? Oh yeah. Yeah. And I was. Yeah. Years ago, I think it was in Wyoming that some people did that when guys were rock climbing a face and it killed one of the guys. Yeah. Some kids were kids, you know, teenagers were throwing stones over the kicking stones over

[02:23:41] the edge. Yep. And I seriously yelled out, are you fucking kidding me? And Jessica's like, stop throwing stones. I'm like, you could kill somebody below. Like that could hit a car. You're being the trail police up there. Yeah. And I was like, and Jessica was like livid and she was like, let's take a step back. Like, but we were both livid. Like we were like, how could like number one, the parents be oblivious to this? Yeah.

[02:24:10] And then the kids were just like, let me throw a stone over this fucking 3,000 foot mountain and they'll see if it hits something below. Like what the fuck? Like that's what killed me the most. But, but once again, the views up there were absolutely phenomenal. 360 degree views of the like John Muir trail, the higher Sierra Nevada, stuff like that. Uh, half dome, Yosemite falls, the Nevada and Viral falls are absolutely phenomenal. So what about bride veil falls? Did you go there? We did.

[02:24:39] We stopped when we did tunnel view. We came back down and turned around at Viral falls. Okay. So you did that before glacier point and Sentinel dome. Correct. That was your first stop of the day. Other than the U turn. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was nice. It was nice. Is that it? Is that all you can say about bride veil falls? Yeah. Because we didn't do anything other than like, like walk to, to where we can see the full length of it. And then, so you, you spend two days there.

[02:25:09] What's your recommendation to somebody who's planning a trip out there? What would you advise them? How many days should they spend? Fucking two weeks, two weeks. There's so many different places. Like hikers like you and I, like there's so many different things to do. Like long distance hikes, uh, waterfall hikes, like, like four mile hikes that have like 3000 feet of gain.

[02:25:36] Like there's a lot for stuff like you and I to do. There's still a lot of stuff for people with, you know, that don't have crazy amount of hiking, like adaptation and stuff like that, that like experience and stuff that could do. There's so much out there, like insane. So let's see, are you ready for the rapid fire around? I got some, some quick questions. Sure. You have anything else to say about the trip?

[02:26:05] I just, uh, the only thing that I have to say is that on our way back to, uh, Albany, we, uh, barely missed. We just, we just made a flight by like two minutes. Why is that? Because there was, we were taxiing into an area and then there was emergency in one other flight. So we couldn't taxi into that area. So we notified the, the steward who was like, I'll call somebody and say that there's like

[02:26:33] a bunch of people from this area, uh, upon that. And there are flight from Albany to what's a cult was delayed by five winds because of us. So we just got there just in time. It was great. Yeah. So that's about it. I've had those experiences. So, um, what was the best side quest of the trip? Something that you ended up doing that you really didn't plan on doing when you went out there. Best side quest.

[02:26:59] I'd have to say those, that off trail of the Sequoias and to go see, like it wasn't paved, but you could see there was a trail and it led to the house, the Senate and stuff like that. Just other bunch of just magical Sequoias and stuff like, just kind of like going off trail and seeing what else is out there. Yeah. The spontaneity of that is what it sounds like.

[02:27:27] Like you got to the end of the beaten path or the paved path and you just kept going. Yeah. What about, what, what was it that you had planned to see that you didn't get to see? What was the, like the big, you know, ooh, strike and miss. You know, there was, there was a bunch of different places in the Sequoias that I wanted to see. There was the O'Boyle tree where it was like two miles of kind of like, I wouldn't say off-roading, but off-roading stuff.

[02:27:56] One, one car lanes that you could go up and see this giant Sequoia. I think it's like the seventh biggest in the world and we didn't get to see it. So, I mean, it's, it was pretty far out of the way. I got to admit, it was the furthest away from where we were going to see. Okay. What was the parking and shuttle experience like? Parking was insane. Annoying. It was like just annoying. Is that what I'm hearing?

[02:28:26] It, it wasn't that. Like once again. Well, but you had, you had people that were like pushing you to get out of your spot. Correct. And the, once again, the, the amount of foreign people there, like they didn't have a clue of what we were saying and they would just sit there with their blinker on. And I'm like, we're not leaving. Like we're not going. And they're just like waving to me. What about the middle finger? Did you give the middle finger? Never. Be honest. Come on. Come on.

[02:28:55] He's nodding his head up and down people. The one. He's got his finger up. Yep. The one most annoying thing was the, the amount of influencers there. Hmm. Like the, uh, selfie sticks, like, Holy shit. We saw like 60 year olds with a fricking nine foot selfie stick. And I was just like, God damn. And there was a woman just thought there'll be a young woman like going out to these places. And then you would see her do her pose.

[02:29:24] And I was like, fucking Christ. Just the joy. What you have in front of you instead of like, I love to photograph. Like Jessica and I will take selfies and stuff, but we will not go to our like extreme ascent to get that shot. That's just like, uh, like that was the most annoying thing, but it still didn't, didn't drive me away. So are those comments going to generate more than five negative comments about this episode? Not at all. No, you don't think so. All right.

[02:29:53] Well then that says our listeners are relatively cool. Okay. What was the experience riding around in the shuttle bus when you're out there? Was it like you're checking out the sites as you go along or was it like the bus was so crowded? It was annoying. Like, was it like being in a New York subway? New York subway. Really? But not annoying. It was tight. Like it was, especially with my backpack, which we had, like, I only carried the backpack, which had both of our like, like waters, our food and stuff like that.

[02:30:23] Uh, like, but it was just, it was odd. It was really odd to be that person with the big backpack. And then everybody else has these small like purses and stuff. Like it just felt really weird. But you didn't feel over prepared. I was definitely over prepared. Yeah. A lot of water, a lot of Gatorade, a lot of food. Yeah. So you, you say you're, we're over prepared, but did you along the way stop carrying as much

[02:30:53] as you did on the first day? Did you like back away? You see, you just kept full on East coast backwoods carries. Okay. Yeah. So here you are, it's like abundantly crowded. People are, you know, looking for parking spaces. Areas are full. Are you now in favor of reservations and permits or do you say come one, come all?

[02:31:22] It's a tough one. Yeah. Well, that's why I'm asking it. You think you've been there. I mean, this is the, the Catterscale Falls. Should there be a limit? I mean, you saw the kids, you know, going off trail, degrading the, the natural environment. And eventually over time, that's all going to, you know, be trampled on and yada, yada, yada, taking away from the vegetation. So what's your answer? Permits?

[02:31:46] My answer is not permits is more stewardship and more education and more personnel out there to teach and preach. All of which costs money. Isn't it just easier to say, you know, 10 people at a time? Or it's easier to say, let's get our, our, our doge checks. You know, the fuck let's cut the national park service. Like we, we did. And I saw out there and shit like that.

[02:32:13] Sorry to break everybody's political fucking standpoint, but I saw it firsthand. So. Yeah. I, I agree with that. All right. So gear questions. What did you forget to bring or wish you had with you? Snowshoes. Yeah. No, uh, to be honest, I'm pretty sure we brought as much as we needed. We had our nail jeans bottles. We had Gatorades.

[02:32:41] We had food with the hikes that I prepared and that we had, uh, you know, not too long distance and stuff. I think we, we packed what we needed and what we had, you know? You needed wide brim hats. That's what you left out. That's true. We had a lot of sunscreen. We did sunscreen every time we got out of the car. Yeah. That's, I remember when my daughter and I did our trip last year, that was like the, the one thing I did have with me that wide brim hat that my, my daughter took from me on day

[02:33:11] one and I had to buy my, my substitution. But that was like, yeah. So, uh, so nice to have a hat on it with a 360 wide brim on it to keep the sun off of you. Um, what, what, what gear did you have with you that turned out to be more useful than you expected? Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. I think my, my bladder. Your bladder. I brought the bladder along. Like your hydration bladder. Yeah. Okay.

[02:33:41] I filled that up with like two gallons or two liters of water. And, you know, at the end of every hike or in the middle of every hike, we pour that into our Nalgie bottles and be, you know, ready to go instead of, you know, dehydrated. And so I'm, I'm getting the sense that you guys were, were going through more water than you would have expected on the East coast. It was, it was warm. It was very warm. Like we, on the second day in Yosemite, it was like 87 degrees.

[02:34:10] That's a dry heat. It's not. It is. Yeah. It is. But when you're on the open summits, like that's, it's a lot of heat. It's like 360 degree, no trees. There's no relief. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, what gear did you have with you that was totally unnecessary that next time you want to bring with you? Extra t-shirts for afterwards. You never changed it. You never changed into the extra t-shirt. Nope.

[02:34:40] No post hike or post day gear change. I was hiker trash the whole week. Same shorts, same shirts. Oh, that's so gross. Hate to say it. Same underwear. Yeah. No wonder. Oh, no wonder why Jessica didn't want to go all the way to the top of the mountain with you. Jesus. Right. Hiker trash, man. So if, uh, you, if one of our listeners contacted you and was planning one of these trips,

[02:35:06] what's the best advice you could give them in terms of planning? Don't try to pack too much into one day, get a super early start, have plenty of plan B and C options. What would you tell them to do? The first two. Definitely do not, do not plot plan too much into one day. Like these two places were majestic as fuck.

[02:35:31] Like I would spend a week out in Sequoian Kings and then spend a week out in Yosemite. Like it was just too short of a time, three days in Sequoian Kings and then two days in Yosemite. Two days in Yosemite is nothing. Like I do not know how we did that. Yeah. So which of the two, if you could only go back to one of them would be the place you would go back to? Ah, that's a tough one.

[02:35:58] I really, really enjoyed Sequoia. Yeah. That would be my, my choice. The trees, man. Like once again, the feeling I had with those, those trees is just something else. You get off the beaten path. There's nobody there and you can look up 240 feet. And be like, I am with this tree. That's 2000 years old. I'm, I can see this. Like, I don't know.

[02:36:28] There's something else. I, you know, I hate to say this. I can't wait to move out West and then live the van life and live the RV life. That's, that's my kid. She's out there. Not right now, but that's where she spends most of her time. And I could, after doing that one trip with her, I can see why. You'll be out there with, with us, Tad. You'll be out there with us. Yeah. So got a couple of questions to go. This could be the most important though, of all questions that Jessica have fun.

[02:36:59] She enjoyed it thoroughly. Yeah. Is she still looking for the forward to the RV life? She wants to get out of this life as fast as she can. Okay. It's crazy. Like we've already talked about different things of what we could do to work while we're out there, you know, during the evenings, maybe being a waiter or waitress, you know, doing different types of, I wouldn't say photography, but stuff.

[02:37:27] We've, we've, we've thought about it. No, my, my daughter last summer, probably for almost two months was working as a hostess at a, like a poshie tourist day restaurant out in Western Colorado. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. She'll tell you when she was done climbing for the day, they were, their campsite was along a river and she would just hike down the river and bathe, change into her work clothes.

[02:37:53] And she says the people that she was working for, this restaurant didn't have a clue that she was like a dirt bag rock climber and would show up there and, you know, and would do her thing. And she, she said she would look at all these people sitting there and eating and like having, you know, talking about how much they love the place and how they would love to relocate here and spend all this time here. But then they would, after their week was up, they would head back to their, their day jobs and, you know, live this kind of manufactured lifestyle. Okay. Okay.

[02:38:23] So, uh, next to last question. What's the most tourist day thing you bought? A t-shirt, sticker. Did you get anything like that? Any, any tourist swag? So what would you get? What was your like prize purchase? We're going to see a new sticker on your, uh, Nalgene or something else. On my car. Oh, on your car? Sequoia sticker. And then I got a Sequoia t-shirt.

[02:38:51] And then we always get an ornament of the place. We've like a tree on it. Very cool. Yeah. So, so. All right. Last question. What was the best post hike ruined bite on the trip? Oh, God. I should have looked this up, but hold on. Jesus. Is this like, if you ever listened to the show before? What was your name again? Yeah. Uh, slash.

[02:39:21] Stosh. What is that? Hard to see. Something Russin. Right. So there was this place, this Mexican place in, uh, three rivers that was absolutely phenomenal. Hold on. Hold on. Blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah. Uh, um, once again, with Jessica and I, uh, it was called. Taco Bell. Yeah. 100%. Uh, Casa Mendoza. Yes.

[02:39:50] Casa Mendoza. Delicious. Oh yeah. It was a wet burrito. So it had like the, uh, the green sauce on it and stuff with a bunch of sour cream on the top. Oh, it's delicious. Huge. Like after a post hike, like, like normal people, if they didn't hike, they would be like, I can only do half of this. I was like, I'm going to finish this shit. Yeah. Cool. It was good. Good. Okay. Did I leave anything out? Anything else you want to throw in? Yeah.

[02:40:18] You know, I, I just want to say anybody who is. Thinking about doing this fucking do it. It's just, even with the crowds is something else that you will never forget in your life. And it's something that Ted and I are going to do with Jessica and his wife and we're going to fucking do it. And I'm going to fall Ted out there. I'm like, you're going on the Torah shit with me. I would do all those places all over again. I don't care.

[02:40:48] So. All right. Cool. Well, thanks for sharing it with us. Yeah. Who's, who's on next week? So next week is Ryan from the Catskill Forest Association, I believe. Okay. Sounds cool. Let me make, let me make sure of that. We got a, we got a great list coming up. So a bunch of diverse area or like, yes, Ryan T from the Catskill Forest Association. So, and we'll, we'll kick it off from there. So.

[02:41:19] All right. All right. So once again, thank you for everybody who has joined us. Appreciate you listening to me on my ramble about going out West and stuff. And big thanks to Ted for joining me tonight and to talk about my ramble about California. Really appreciate it. All right, buddy. Well, yeah, I finished it up his drink. Nice. Yeah. Glad to have you back. My, my Coke. Yeah. I'm going to a Coke zero. Nice. My addiction in life. Nice.

[02:41:49] All right. So everybody have a great night. Thank you for listening and we'll catch you next week. Yeah. Hey 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 that you use.

[02:42:12] 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. You got to just keep on living in the Catskills, man. L-I-V-I-N. Wicked. Wicked. Wicked. Wicked.