Episode 232 - Stash Goes To Vermont

[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] Pantsy Mountain to Inside The Line, the Catskill Mountains Podcast. Always have a good time. Especially when we're talking about my stuff, man. This episode's all about me. That's weird. Yeah, you're all jacked up for this tonight.

[00:01:18] The big grin on your face must be something special. I don't know what you did, but I didn't see a lot of posting. Maybe it didn't go as well as you planned. It did, it did. Maybe the accommodations sucked and you wish you had just stayed home and did yard work, something like that. Like a Sean Iannucci vacation. I had hours. I had hours to kill. I was going to mow my lawn. That takes about 45 minutes to mow. I haven't mowed in two months.

[00:01:47] Well, yeah. I mean, turning with one hand, it's a little difficult. This is going to be another wide turn. No, I can turn with one hand. I just can't operate the zero turn. Oh, yeah. Just be going around the circle. Yeah. I'd have the most fucked up mow job in the neighborhood. Yeah. It'd be like tall grass, short grass, burned spots, you know, stock mower here. Yeah. What kind of pattern are you going for? What is this? It ain't a good pattern.

[00:02:15] Yeah. So, episode 231 tonight, we will be talking about my trip in Vermont that I recently had, that I celebrated my 44th birthday doing. I just wanted to go one day to have some fun on my 44th birthday. And I'll be chatting about how awesome Vermont is and how much very Catskill-ish it is and how they both are very, very awesome places that we should cherish and we should visit.

[00:02:44] And everybody should. So, that's, but yeah. Yeah. Today, I'd also like to point out, Ted, that today marks the five year anniversary of me starting to think about this podcast, to actually think about starting to do it when I was actually like getting the gear, getting everything ready and actually putting this in place.

[00:03:08] So, all right. So, if that's true, if that's true that you five years ago, you started envisioning, imagining the podcast, close your eyes and tell us what you imagined your co-host to be like. I had no thoughts of a co-host at that time. I was, I was just bullshitting around loving to talk about the Catskills.

[00:03:37] And then I come across this guy who cherished one of my episodes with a special dude that I, I, I love and stuff. And I figured out that this. Who the fuck was that? Not me. That was, that was Vertical Madness guy. Oh, oh yeah. Alex. Alex. Yeah. Yeah. You. Alex is cool. We need to bring Alex back on. We'd that'd have to be an in-person interview and that would be wild. Oh, okay.

[00:04:04] But yeah, I mean, but, but you contact me. I'm like, this guy knows a lot about the Catskills, like fucking a lot. Let's get him on the show and let's get him. That's my fucking, my co-host. You know, the one thing I don't know about the Catskills, how not to fall at the most inconspicuously non-technical and in the most safest, safest spot in the Catskills. I don't know.

[00:04:34] I don't know how to stand on my feet there. Technical spots on sketchy spots in the Catskills. I do okay with, but you give me a flat rock on a trail. I'm going to fall and bust my. That's very true. I, I fricking roll my ankles when I'm like, like a quarter of a mile from the fricking trailhead. I roll, yeah. I roll my ankles in my Jeep. What the fuck? I roll my last ankle roll I had was standing at the sign-in register on Giant's Ledge.

[00:05:04] Oh, wow. Triggered. Yeah, I wove two into that one. Now people are going to be triggered. Kind of like, you know, my now, but anyway, so. All right. I know you're anxious to move along. I get it. I get it. Oh, no. I just, I just, I'm just five year anniversary of, of me thinking about this and thinking that it could actually do something to make a difference.

[00:05:25] And it, to be honest, thank you all, everybody who has listened and stuff. Cause you know, it has made a difference and we've, I, I feel great about this 231 episodes. And, and I, I have no signs, no feelings of stopping. Like, I'm just like, this is fucking awesome. Let's, let's keep going. So thank you to everybody who's listening, whoever's contributing to the show. Um, whoever's talking about the show, you know, meeting us and stuff.

[00:05:51] It's, it's a great feeling. And I think we have something awesome going and let's keep, let's keep this fricking going. We're motivated solely by our listeners. Abso fricking lute. That is perfection. But I'm also motivated to talk about mountain lion attacks. So Ted two weeks ago, was it two weeks ago? It was a week ago, a week ago when we had David on the, yeah, it happened two weeks ago, but I think we brought it up last week.

[00:06:19] Yeah. I, we, we brought it up. I noticed, I wanted to see if it would get a little bit more background information about the mountain lion attack up on. I'm guessing it was Southwest Hunter, uh, that the person said they were attacked by a mountain lion and they needed a rescue. Um, now all of a sudden every goddamn news place is posting about this. And there's this one person who posted about it and truly believes that it was a mountain lion attack. And he's a very popular he's gained from the past year.

[00:06:48] The person has gained a lot of, uh, followers and stuff with his, I'm not going to name anything, but you can probably see my, my comments on there. But just his AI use bullshit that I'm sick and tired of, but he's 100%, you know, just always agreeing with everybody on the, on the post. You know, someone posted a picture of a cat, of a house cat perched on a little tiny rock. And it says, I saw this mountain lion off of my ring camera. Is that a refill from the missus?

[00:07:19] Me? No. Oh, damn. Okay. Okay. But although, although in all candor, my wife did volunteer tonight to bring in a refill for me. And that's because I, I asked her and one of my one armed moments of disability, I asked her if she could put my beer in my hiking sock. I don't know if you do this Stosh, but. Yes. Nice.

[00:07:44] Right. This, I mean, it, it tastes twice as good after you pull it out of the sock. So she made fun of that. She said, I could just bring you in. And then I, then I had to drop the fact that, well, Stosh's wife, you know, she's like standing right outside the door with a cold one for him. Just saying. You'd be like, God, I'm disabled woman. Yeah. So, yeah. And I'll get a cold one. Okay. Back to mountain lions. Yeah.

[00:08:12] So, so these people are, are, are once again, like saying that they've always seen mountain lions, but there's no evidence. Like there's just like, yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. They're, they're here. They always kill the deer. The deer population has gone down. But you know, if that deer population gone down, where's the evidence of the deer carcasses or stuff like that? And they stash them here. One person put like, I'm a lot of avid Catskill hiker and I know they're out there.

[00:08:36] And I'm just like, listen, like there are people who I should have probably been like, do you even know what the grid is, bro? Do you even know what the ultra is? The Insta poster. Yeah. Well, not even that, just the person that, that said, I'm an avid Catskill hiker and I know they're out there. I'm like, so that this person's never hiked in the winter because you would see the tracks in the winter. I, that's, that's the one thing that I would like.

[00:09:03] All these hunters claim that they've seen them had never taken a picture of their tracks. Like you cannot miss, to be honest, you cannot miss a mountain lion. Like they're fucking huge. Five feet long with three feet tails. That's eight feet long. And they're like, I remember posting that one, that one comparison that the guy does from a bobcat to a mountain lion to a bear.

[00:09:30] And like the mountain lion's massive. Like, it's just absolutely insane how big a mountain lion is. And people are like, oh yeah, this is a mountain lion. And it's a goddamn bobcat. Bobcats are not that big. They're beautiful though. I'm going to, I'm calling, I'm calling time out here. That was somewhat painful. Stosh, what you apparently don't know. Every, everyone else who hikes in the Catskills knows this. And you apparently don't know this.

[00:09:58] And I'm, I'm, I have a moral dilemma. Should I tell you or should I just let you continue in the dark? What do you think? Do you want to know? Do you want to know what everyone else knows? Do not know that. So the mountain lions in the Catskills are a particular breed of mountain lions. They're not just any ordinary mountain lion. They're Sicilian mountain lions. And you know how we can tell they're Sicilian mountain lions? Because they bury the evidence.

[00:10:28] They don't leave them the evidence of their crime. They're like mob, they're like mob mountain lions. If you know what I'm saying. I, I, I, I, yeah. Hey, hey, you didn't see nothing. Get the fuck out of here. Okay. So we've solved the mountain lion problem. And that's what we do here. We solve, uh, hiking and wilderness problems. Listen, I'm going to, I'm going to read you a comment from this, uh, from this person's

[00:10:55] thread that somebody said that I could not believe that this person said that. Hold on. Now I got to find it funny. This is this ultra I'm putting this person's name on here because you gotta get, you gotta go on this, this thread. I will. Uh, it's a lot of people follow it. It's by your side outfitters. There's this guy. He uses AI for everything. I don't think he knows his own research. He just say eyes, everything. So sorry to, to bash somebody.

[00:11:22] I'm sorry to, to be a dick, but I can't, I can't follow someone that agrees with everybody and just to get the likes, it's just fricking ridiculous. So this one person said, uh, funny because I literally know a guy who released one up by slide mountain a few years ago. Mm. Yeah. Oh yeah, definitely. I remember this. Yeah. I've, I've seen somebody release. I remember that I, I bumped into that guy and I told him that's what I was up there doing. And he says, I'm going to, I'm going to post that about it.

[00:11:51] And I said, don't, don't. Yeah. Yeah. Keep it concealed. The D don't let the DEC know about that. He outed me, you know? I mean, do you know how deer shanty brook got its name? Was that a deer shanty is named that because way back when, when there were very few deer in the Catskills, somebody actually started the deer farm there and they brought in deer

[00:12:17] and had a little farm where they raised deer and then killed them and sold the venison to people in the city and such. Interesting. Deer shanty brook. So if deer shanty brook was one of these places where deer were reintroduced into the Catskills for breeding and repopulating the area, don't you think that's where I would bring a mountain lion or two? 100%. And I have no trust me. And I have the Gaia tracks up deer shanty brook to prove it. Okay.

[00:12:46] I can pull those up right now. If you wanted me to fact check. Fact check. 100%. Cause that's what we do here. We fact check everything we say. Yeah. And then, you know, I said, I said, I responded saying it's funny because people will believe you about this. And then he said, believe a true story, but he found an injured cub and nursed it back to help and released it back into the woods on slide mountain. I was just like, Hmm. Yeah.

[00:13:15] I think it was, I think it was right next to where they keep the Catskill crown. Yeah. Right. Exactly. So once again, that it's just funny how, how we brought this up a week ago. There was like a, it gained a little traction, but all of a sudden everybody's talking about it. And I haven't even heard her DC release about this. Yeah. Everyone's talking about it because it was on the podcast. True. Okay. Up until then, only a few people had heard about it. Sure.

[00:13:41] We, we mentioned it and we debated whether we should or shouldn't, because there's a lot of things we don't mention that we don't want to scare people away from the Catskills with like the Bigfoot sightings. We haven't brought those up as an example. It's a Hudson Valley, not the Catskills. All right. Yeah. But because we are trying to raise money for, you know, uh, reintroducing mountain lions to the Catskills, but only Sicilian mountain lions. I want to be clear on that. So now you got to put it cats. Yeah, we did. With an extra S.

[00:14:11] But you mentioned that the sighting was at Southwest Hunter, but the story, the guy parked at Mink Hollow. So was it the Mink Hollow between Plateau and Sugarloaf or was it the Mink Hollow in Sprucedon? Ooh. So like, you're talking about the end? The Mink Hollow of, isn't Mink Hollow by-

[00:14:37] There's a little stub road that heads to the south called Mink Hollow. Off of North Dome, right? Well, you can either whack up, uh, West Kill or arguably North Dome from there, but probably the better whack is up West Kill. I think it would be the Plateau side because this person, if they said they saw a mountain lion, they don't know what the hell bushwhacking was. They don't even have a clue what that is. So we'll hopefully get more, more news on this. Yeah.

[00:15:07] But the time was also suspicious. The report came in at 11. Yeah. And the Rangers got out there at three in the morning. Was the guy doing like a full traverse of the Devil's Path? I don't know. There's a lot of holes in the story. But again, the fact that none of, they haven't been able to verify any of this, again, supports my factual claim. This was a Sicilian mountain lion that leaves no evidence.

[00:15:35] And I gotta, I gotta see, I timestamp all this stuff so I know when to put this on our fricking like little clips that I make. So I guess Sicilian mountain lion, I like that. So moving on, uh, so this is, this is actually gaining some big traction in the Catskills. So there is a proposed solar project in the Hudson Valley, uh, Sullivan County area. That's drawing concerns. Now everybody has marked this as the Catskills.

[00:16:02] I really don't see this area being as the Catskills. It is kind of like the never sink unique area, but this is outside of the Catskill park and such, but it is down in Sullivan County and we are looking below. Uh, I was looking this up. Hold on. Uh, looking below Monticello, right below Monticello is a massive proposed solar project.

[00:16:26] Now a 200 megawatt solar facility with a hundred megawatt battery energy storage system, more than 1200 of acres across Thompson and Forestburg, the towns, uh, located near existing the Marcy South transmission line. So this once again was proposed around here to make it easier for them to transport the electric. Now we all know being New York residents and stuff, if you're in New York residents, we have

[00:16:52] proposed in the past, you know, 10 years of being, uh, a little bit more climate friendly to get more solar power, to, to get more green energy and stuff like that. But, um, this is kind of going a little bit too fucking far. I mean, it has environmentalist versus environmentalist because we want green energy, but this is going to fricking rip it up as in the project says that it's in an area, very sensitive area of

[00:17:18] 133 wetlands, 83 stream segments, 27 virtual pools and nine ponds. Um, definitely people around the area were worried about impacts of water lice, you know, forest habitat, the look stuff like that protected lands. And every you think unique area is only like, I heard like 500 feet from where the proposed end of this is going to be. And if you look it up on the maps and stuff like that, there's one thing that stands out

[00:17:46] that is really, really odd. And this is a lot of people are questioning is that there's a guy named Walter Garry Galino. I think a Garry Galino who's coming out of Garry Galino. Oh, this is nice. Nice. Tad apparently knows about this. So have you, are you, you located in this area? You know about this, right? Well, I know the area. Okay.

[00:18:09] Okay, so he owns a lot of this that's going to be leased, and apparently he serves as the legal counsel for the Sullivan County Industrial Developmental Agency, IDA. And it's definitely raising concerns from the locals. Now, a lot of locals, once again, are against most of what's going on.

[00:18:27] And I got to admit, hearing around the social media chirping and stuff like that, everybody is against a lot of this stuff that's going on with these solar panels projects because we are taking out, once again, as we see with this, wetlands, forests, preserves, stuff like that. And it's just going, it's shit's hitting the fan, and people are proposing this. We're seeing about, you know, the whole, they're having town, like, meetings and discussions about it where the whole place is filled and there's people outside.

[00:18:57] And they have to basically somehow figure out how to broadcast that outside of the place so people can file up. So there is a office called, in New York State, called New York's Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmissors, which is called Transport into ORES, O-R-E-S. Now, if you look that up on the internet right now, they are not in good terms with the residents of New York State.

[00:19:27] Now, a lot, once again, we heard, I don't know, a couple weeks back, maybe more than that, that we talked about some of these forest lands in our areas being transported into renewable energy. You know, we're talking about solar panels, wind turbines, stuff like that. And it has not been good so far.

[00:19:50] So one thing that I looked it up, you know, I sat and I checked this out a lot on Google Maps and stuff to see, you know, where the project lies. What, like, is it state lands? Is it town lands? And it looks like I don't see much of state lands on here. I've seen much of town's lands.

[00:20:11] But if you look at it from a perspective of Google Maps, where this is proposed, it looks like all of a wetland, kind of like a marsh area that is going to be turned into, I don't know what, solar panels, sediment dropping stuff, building stuff. It's a huge, 1,200 acres. That's a lot. That's a lot, 1,200 acres. And as we know, this is shit is hitting the fan. People are opposed against this. The locals are opposed.

[00:20:40] So the question is, will it be put forward and will this happen? Or will we go out like we did back in the 1800s and stuff like the Calico Indians of freaking Andes and do a rent war, anti-rent war, come out with pitchforks, freaking torches, and, you know, light this place up when they try to do this. So I don't know. I'm ready to go with the residents. You know, I'm all for green energy.

[00:21:09] But this is a little bit excessive. There's better ways to do this. But, you know, it's like we've already, like, Tad, you know, the city areas, we've already lost trees and everywhere. Like, all these freaking places are becoming warmer and warmer because there's no trees left to have our shaded areas of our towns and stuff. And we're seeing it everywhere. So this is not a good idea. This is just stop New York State. Fucking stop. I'm sorry.

[00:21:39] So you understand this to be a solar farm. And what else is part of the project? What else? Like, I mean, the... BESS. B-E-S-S. Battery Energy Storage System. Okay. Comes with a huge lithium battery storage system.

[00:22:05] And in general, do you know what a fire department's instructed to do with one of those catches on fire? Let it burn. Let it burn. Yep. I mean, I own an electric vehicle, Tad. I mean, let it burn, brother. Yeah. So if the... And each component, and I forget how many megawatts are in a unit, which is generally a steel unit with a cooling system attached to it, yada, yada, yada.

[00:22:34] As long as the fire stays contained inside that particular unit, you know, it can burn out in 12 to 48 hours, depending on a number of factors. The problem is, is when more than one unit catches on fire. Right? Yeah. Because the emissions are highly toxic. And depending on the wind, they either disperse quite rapidly or not, or something in between.

[00:23:03] So that's another unique component with what is being proposed, is it's not only a 1,200 acre system, but it has this massive battery energy storage system, which presents its own set of unique risks and things of that nature.

[00:23:27] But stuff like this, I mean, this is all inevitable that you're going to have systems like this placed under or near PASNI, or what is more commonly known as the Marcy South power system, which generally brings power down from Canada to the New York metro area. Yeah. So you talk about the battery system and stuff like that.

[00:23:54] So my Tesla is a 72 kilowatt battery. So that transport, like you, you calculate that. And that is for a megawatt 72 megawatts is 72,000 kilowatts. So this will is, is that this three quarters of a hundred? So that is 72,000 Tesla cars that would catch on fire if it would happen. That's a little extreme.

[00:24:24] You know what we call that? 72,000 Tesla on fire. We call it a start. We call it a start. We call it 10,000 lorars at the bottom of the seat. A good start. That's what it is. You bastard. I knew that. I'm only, I'm only joking. I think, I think EVs play an essential role. Somewhat. And yeah, in the future. Well, obviously that technology is bound to get better. I mean, that's what I've seen in our lifetimes is just huge advances in technology.

[00:24:53] And we need to embrace that. We need to not only be consumers of this evolving technology, but we need to pump research and development money into it. And so in 10, 15 years from now, we'll look back and say, wow, we've really come a long way. Remember when cars used to have lithium batteries and now they have something else, which is presumably much better, much more easier to recycle, less toxic on the environment. And, you know, that's typically what happens.

[00:25:22] We look at what's, what's happened with diesel motors over time. We look at what's happened to gas motors over time. But now that we have AI and all this computing power, let's not direct it at slick images of mountain lions in the Catskills. Let's direct it at making EVs better. Let's direct it towards making battery storage better. And he's done like, like that.

[00:25:47] And let's also pour it into, you know, making a podcast host sound better with better questions. You know, things like that. So now, now, Ted, why not take, you know, parking lots and stuff like that and put EV panels over or, you know, building. You show me a 12,000 acre parking lot. True. I'll show you a 12,000 acre parking lot with battery panels over it.

[00:26:12] One of the other things that's going on in Orange County is Walmart, a company that you're somewhat familiar with, is proposing to build a 1.x million square foot distribution center. I think it's a last mile fulfillment center down here. And yeah, part of the project will entail significant solar power. We have another manufacturer down here in Orange County. They make corrugated box.

[00:26:42] Some people call it cardboard boxes, but people in the industry call it corrugated boxes. And they have a huge solar field around their building to draw power from. And part of the evolving technology is, like we talked last week with David and how they wanted to deface Storm King Mountain by making a hydro storage generation facility out.

[00:27:08] It like was proposed near Friday a couple of years ago, where the literally pump water uphill from the Hudson River, store it overnight. And then the next day they drain it going through, you know, hydro turbines to create electricity. It's a, you know, a primitive style battery storing the energy is with water and gravity.

[00:27:32] So now we have these battery energy storage systems that kind of like, you know, level out peak periods drawn on the grid during the day. That's the future, right? At least for now, because that's what the technology is leaning into. These things hopefully become more safer, less toxic. But David, David made a good point that, you know, once again, we rebelled against it, that the community rebelled against it and didn't get passed.

[00:28:00] So maybe let's, let's hope this happens and we can come up with better solutions. I'm sure there'll be lawsuits over this thing up in Forestburg in the town of Thompson. Oh yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's once again, the, the internet is a great thing with, you know, when we talk about like AI of like areas and the water and stuff, you know, what's going to happen with the water, with the solar panels and stuff.

[00:28:23] Like I see down near where I was, when I was driving towards Albany, I saw a huge place being put with concrete and I wondered what it was. And I finally found out that it was an Amazon distribution center. And I thought it was at first, the solar panel area. And I'm like, that's huge. So hopefully Amazon will be smart enough to put fucking solar panels on the top of their, their roof to have that energy. I mean, I, I know the, uh, the sun isn't, isn't that crazy as it is out in the out West and stuff.

[00:28:53] And we, we, we get it from time to time, but you know, so we, we just, uh, we'll hopefully see some progress in the future. Or, you know, if you're against this, stand up for it, you know, stand up for your, your town or not even the town in the shop for your towns. Let's work together to make better solutions of this and, and, you know, have a fucking better lifestyle for our environment, because I know you all care about the environment and I do.

[00:29:20] So, you know, I'm willing to, to stand up and to preach and teach. So we'll see. We will see, but wanted to bring everybody's attention. Let's go. But Ted, you brought this up to me. You know, I, I saw a couple of bears over the weekend. It's apparently a bear forces the closure of campsites in the St. Regis canoe area. So this is a pretty big deal because, you know, we don't see very many. We, we talked about that one bear attack with the dog, but, you know, once again, it's all

[00:29:48] this wild bear, but we don't see bear attacks like this in New York state a lot. So on July 23rd, officials said that campsites five through 11 were on the pond were currently closed due to a bear attacking a bunch of damaging, or tents, food storage containers, and minimal fear of humans that went, that went away. Um, the bear was resistance to repair spray and loud noises and that it was currently damaging

[00:30:18] those areas. So they closed that area of St. Regis canoe area, which is the biggest, uh, uh, canoeing area in the Northeastern U.S. 1,800, 18,400 acres featured in 50 lakes and ponds, uh, for remote cannot kayaking and canoeing. So, uh, the bear that is funny because the, the article that, uh, you showed me the North East explore explorer has a tag bear that looks like it's like sick, like 850 pounds.

[00:30:47] Like that's a massive bear that looks like it will not attack. It'll just walk through everything like a snowplow. Yeah. It looks like a bear that's become fond of Doritos. Like, like just sit there and be like, yeah, I like this stuff. Yeah. Sitting on its butt with its paw inside of a bag of Doritos. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I enjoyed Doritos. So, uh, once again, I picked it. Yeah. It's like central or more Northern Adirondacks, uh, the St. Regis area.

[00:31:16] We don't see this very often except down like, you know, once again, the Hudson Valley area with the bear, bears are more. Like used to like the garbage and stuff. And usually they just kind of like, like you said, you've seen it a couple of times on your biking trips where like the bear will just be like looking at you like a second guess back. Oh shit. That's a human. Like I got to get out of here. Most, most bear I see is, um, when I'm out riding my bike in the morning on garbage pickup day, when everybody have their garbage cans along the roadsides.

[00:31:45] And when you're coming down the road and you see a can that's been knocked over, sure enough, there's going to be a bear butt sticking out of it. And the bear's got his head buried in the garbage can rifling through it for food. Cause it's easy pickings for the bear. And I'm sure it's tasty for the bear. And now we see that bears up in the Adirondacks have learned that when you're hungry, you just go to the St. Regis, uh, area and you get, it's like a smorgasbord for them and all you

[00:32:14] can eat smorgasbord. And then you get, it doesn't take a lot, but you get a few campers who don't know how to protect and segregate their provisions. But this is what happens. The bears hunt around. They break into your tents or, you know, get into your tents, claw their way into this and that, you know, even cars, you know, there's videos of them getting into cars. So they're not, they're not stupid animals. They have evolved. Yeah. Consider that they're pretty smart.

[00:32:44] You know, they, they don't have to go out and get jobs. They don't pay taxes. They don't have to clean their houses. They get to spend their life outdoors. Frickin freeloaders. Yeah. Eating Stosh's Doritos. Man. Listen, if I was a bear and I'm like, like sniffing around, like, Oh, this one, eh, this is the freeze dried meal. Let me, let me go to the next one. Which would you rather have some huckleberries or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? I don't know.

[00:33:13] No, the Doritos would kind of an Oreos and stuff like that. Like once again, that picture of that bear looked like he was enjoying those Oreos thoroughly. Yeah. And then people, you know, people will start feeding them or it's like, Oh, that's cute. Let's throw him this, you know, and they'll throw the bear something to eat. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's crazy. The Torons that we have. So, but anyway, rolling along to the amazing people that support the show.

[00:33:42] Like Chris Garriott and Eric Rosario, Skana Nichols, John Comiskey, Mikey S, Desert City Radio, Henry Burmeister, Vicky Furrer, Jeff Jotz, David Oliver, Betsy A, Denise W, Vanessa, and Jim C. Thank you much for supporting the show. Love you guys. And once again, it just, it makes a whole difference. After, after five years of thinking about this, I'd never thought it would be this awesome.

[00:34:05] So the one thing I do want to point out that I guarantee that doesn't happen is David Oliver that supports the show does not listen to the show. That is a fact. And we will find that out after this. What? Why is that? It's because he's a friend of mine. He says he loves the show, but I know he doesn't listen to it. So we'll see after this episode if he listens to it. So it's a test. It really is a test.

[00:34:31] So anybody who knows David, tell him that he was a shining star on the show on this episode. But I mean, let's, let's point out the shining stars like our sponsors. Uh, outdoor Chronicles photography, Molly from outdoor Chronicles photography specializes in adventure elopement and in virtual couple photography in the Catskills, Adirondacks and the White Mountains. She's an officiant for getting married, a licensed guide, but most important, she's a story maker. Molly won't just give you photos. She'll give you memories that will last forever.

[00:35:01] Don't hesitate to get a hold of Molly on all platforms. We need to get Molly back on the show. We need to have her back on the show for this, for an interview about her stuff. So she's had amazing stories. So check her out on outdoor Chronicles photography. Also check out trail bomb project. You, have you ever wanted to learn more about hiking or backpacking, or even just brush up on some of your old skills in the back country? You need to check out trail bomb project, a hiking and backpacking school.

[00:35:29] Scott and Joe from the New Jersey search and rescue team have amazing backgrounds in wilderness first aid, wilderness first responder, and their mountain rescue association. And they're here to teach you all the new skills of hiking and backpacking. They teach anything from first aid map and compass, and many other skills that could help you and others out on the trail. Check them out on their website and social media platforms. Once again, saying after five years that we would have sponsors on this is just at the insane.

[00:35:57] I had Molly has, has almost been with me since the beginning. We used to have Sarah bacon from, uh, uh, Oh my God. Scenic outdoor guiding. She used to be a supporter of the show. I really think what happened. She canceled it. Yeah. That she went up with the, the, the four to six or guy and slasher. She's just like, you, you're nothing compared to those guys. So I'm just kidding stuff on Facebook. Sarah, I'm defollowing her. Sarah's awesome.

[00:36:25] So, um, check them out, check all our sponsors out. Doesn't matter previous or past or present. They've all been awesome. You've all been as great supporters of the show and really appreciate it. So speaking of that, Ted, do you got something to crack open? Yeah, I, so you need to, you need to cover me for a second because I have to, uh, one. One handed. Oh, do, do my, um, uh, turn off my sound. All right.

[00:36:55] So hold on. I'm going to crack it open. This is for, uh, thank you Katie for this and, uh, for a happy birthday. Really appreciate it. Here you go. Thank you, Katie. Totally legit. Okay. I'm going to try to do this. Holding it up near the microphone is the challenge. Ooh. Did I pull it off? You pulled it off perfectly. Nice. Good job. Tad's doing that with one, one arm.

[00:37:23] And it was, it was like a bartender, like, like, ha, look at what I got. Nice. But it's only a 12 ouncer. That's all I can do right now. Doctor's orders. I can only pull down a 12 ouncer. No pints for me. All right. Make sure your audio settings are, are back to normal. Oh yeah. I think they are. I think they're not, I don't think I need to send you a new, I'm sending you a new mic for our six year anniversary or whatever. Fifth year anniversary.

[00:37:50] But any, anyway, uh, Katie, uh, Henderson hikes gave us a hard cider for my birthday for my 44th birthday. And I got a cider from upper Vermont called stove cider, a ginger hard cider. So thank you Katie for supporting the show. And I really appreciate it. And we'd love hearing your stories of your bounce back from that injury that you had up on dry book, rich. Ah, we love hearing about that. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:38:16] She's, she's out there hiking strong and it looks like she's got her mental toughness all built up when you see what she's out there doing. You know, a lot of rock scrambles, a lot of really, really steep inclines that she's going up. So it's good to see. I'm sure there's some unsettling moments for her. Um, but it looks like she's pushing through all that and having a great summer. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Yeah. And this is, and this is Stosh. This is where I point out.

[00:38:44] I just realized unintentionally, unintentionally, you have a cider from the state of Vermont and, and completely coincidentally, I have a beer from the state of Vermont. Oh shit. Okay. Well done. A zero gravity, uh, brewed in Burlington, Vermont.

[00:39:05] I'm drinking the cone head, which is advertised as their kind of traditional IPA, you know, low bitterness, highly drinkable, not a lot of bite to it. So the zero gravity cone head IPA from the home state of Bernie Sanders. Oh, Bernie Sanders. Yeah. Yeah. So now did you plan this or was this just,

[00:39:34] No, I told you it's just, you mentioned that you had this, uh, cider from Stowe and I'm like, wait, wait, I bought like a 12 pack of Vermont beers this past week. And yes, this is one of them, the cone head. It's got like the, on the side where it has the barcode. It's, um, like it's done in the state of Vermont. See the shape of that? Nice. Yeah. Yeah. Does yours have the, the maple leaf on it? I didn't realize that was like a big thing.

[00:40:02] And no, I don't know. Uh, it looks like, no, it looks like it has, um, Mount Mansfield in the background. So that's, that's legit. Well, that's Stowe. You don't get much more Stowe than Mount Mansfield. Correct. Correct. Uh, so awesome. Awesome. So now let's move on to, uh, are you really outdoors? So once again, mention the podcast and one of your posts, uh, one of your hikes through social media. And we'll chat about in the show tag us by typing at itl Catskill.

[00:40:32] Ooh, excuse me. MTM podcasts on your post. First and foremost, good old Tracy pink pony 18 was up in the Mary Glenn trail and joined Ashley falls and ledge falls. Uh, looked like beautiful times. They were both flowing. Do you call that ledge falls? No, you don't. Okay. I do. I was, it's a, it's a massive ledge with waterfalls. I call it, uh, Tracy falls. Tracy falls. That's good enough. I like it. Awesome.

[00:41:00] Chrissy G says she is still healing from the lost clove trail. And I got, what happened up there. She fall or just steepness, steepness, really vertical madness. You know, that lost clove is, is insane. You've been up there multiple times. Yeah. Yeah. It's the second. Yeah. It's good bushwhacking territory over there as well. Isn't that the, the steepest gain in the Catskills in the short amount of time on a trail? Yes.

[00:41:27] That to me, I'm not sure of that, but I know that there is a tremendous old growth forest over there. Nice. Nice. Yeah. It was actually one of these places that was never logged out, but the, all the ridges on either side of it had been, and this was like the guy was a holdout and then his descendants sold to, um, I forget if it was open space or straight to the DEC. Nice.

[00:41:54] But they, yeah, they, they gave the land back to the people as opposed to selling it off to be logged in that heritage kind of like destroyed it. Wow. It was a pretty good, pretty good slope to head uphill on or downhill. Yeah. True. True. Not that I do that anymore. You will be. Stop. Stop whining. You'll, you'll be back. I don't want to be like Chrissy G. I mean, Chrissy G looks like she's a hardcore athlete and if she's having a hard time over

[00:42:21] there, some old, some old disabled fart like me shouldn't be doing that stuff. Bullshit. You are, you are crazy about that stuff. You love that stuff. You love the vertical madness. I mean, you, you know that she was also down in Harriman. And Sterling Forest crossing off peaks for her downstate 28. And also Hogan camps and Indian Hill down there as well. And Harriman Sterling. So good for her. Yeah. Yeah. Good to see once again, downstate 28. We had Davis on last week talking about that.

[00:42:49] It was awesome to chat with him about that. Lisa chaotic. Quasotic was up enjoying the Dick's reigns through all sorts of weather. Rain, hail, wind, stuff like that. And then she used some wording that I was, I have to bring it up. Uh, she got blown on dicks. Very poor choice of words. Let's just say that. She'll know what I'm talking about. She got blown on dicks. I don't get it.

[00:43:19] Oh, okay. Okay. Tad, you're too, you're too, oh, you're too mature to, to get. Lisa will laugh at that. So boomer doesn't get it. So, uh, also Matt, uh, Mike, uh, Cats go mountain hiker did Mount frizzle on the Taconic 12, which is also the highest point in Connecticut as well. I am wanting to go to the Taconics sometime in my life. Yeah. They're neat.

[00:43:44] I went over there two summers ago and it was one of those days with the Canadian smoke in the air. And I didn't get any of the views, but it's, it's interesting terrain. Most of the, the way it was, uh, I'm going to call it double track. It looks like some people go through there with ATVs. Oh, wow. Yeah. Maybe illegally, but yeah, it was interesting hiking. Uh, it was kind of a fun excursion for me. I definitely do it again.

[00:44:09] It was, it was a long day for me, but you know, in the end I look back fond memories. Nice. I heard they're kind of like, they, they feel like the open summits and stuff like that. They have like, like, you know, more of. There's a couple that have. Open summits, but I can't really gauge what the view was because like I said, it was all smoked in. Okay. Okay. I mean, that's, that's a different, different, different experience, um, as we have in the Catskill.

[00:44:38] So, also James, John O'Boyle was in the Taconics doing Robinson hollow to Madison hollow. So cool, uh, to be clearing up the Taconic 12s. So that's pretty neat. Someone else, uh, Tony, I, uh, was up near me in Plymouth, Vermont and had a green state lager to celebrate. He was probably like not even 15, 20 minutes away from me when I was hiking Killington. So I was kinda, I was kinda, I kinda sucked that I was like leaving and I was on like three

[00:45:08] quarters of the way to where I was my second stay. And he was like, Hey, I, I, I missed you. I'm like, fuck. That would've been so cool. Yeah. And, uh, ironically you reposted his post of his can of, uh, green state lager, which is a beer also by zero gravity. Oh, nice. And yeah. And ironically I, at the very time was drinking a green state lager. No way.

[00:45:35] My multi pack that I just mentioned that I got from zero gravity. So pretty interesting. Wow. But it's not bad. It's not a bad beer. I enjoyed it. We are shifting. The only problem is it was like 4.0. Oh yeah. Which, yeah. Which really begs the question, right? Are the calories worth it? Are the calories worth the buzz? Yeah.

[00:46:02] I mean, if you're, if, if you're pulling down like a hundred and some calories at 4.0, uh, especially when you're like me, I'm like at the sedentary stage of my life where, you know, I barely get out to do anything. I'm going to drink 180 calories. I want it to be like 9. X. Nice. Well, some, some effect. Yeah. The calories need to be worth the buzz. Yeah. So, all right. All right.

[00:46:29] Well, so that's just people think I like, I have a drinking problem now that I, I only have one arm. Yeah. I don't think so. You use the double fist of beers. Now it's not, yeah. The IPA sir. They call that Irish handcuffs. Finish it. Um, so Brad Labrante, uh, said, had a great quote said, uh, don't know why good things happen or bad things. It's equally important that we experienced both.

[00:46:56] Just wish we knew why it was mountainous overgrown brush filled hiking all weekend with minimal summit views, but camping at Alder Lake made this triple special one. But he did balsam like fire tower, uh, from Alder Lake via Millbrook church bridge trail and then did Fern Indian lollipop the next morning. So once again, he had one of those probably secluded times of where you're thinking to yourself, man, this, this is good. This is, this is life place to camp out. Yeah, definitely.

[00:47:26] So thank you, Brad, for that quote. It was nice. Um, Josh, AKA the head bang and high peaker took a group out to Catterskill falls, then finish, uh, fished at North South Lake, then took them up to the former Catskill mountain top, uh, area to blow their mind away saying that they'd never seen any things like that. Uh, and, uh, it was great. Once again, Josh is starting to do his, his guiding company called Ursa's compass. So pretty cool stuff like that.

[00:47:53] Uh, congratulations, Josh, with your guiding and stuff like that. Hopefully you hit it off because you are definitely right for it. So take these people out and get them out in the nature, get them into the Catskills. So, um, with their leave no trace principles and stuff like that, that you teach. Also Shayna, Shay fit three 15 X did Haystack and closing in on their completion of the 46ers. And also with them, once again, thank you, Kate for the Stow cider was with Shayna doing

[00:48:23] Haystack as well. Both of them agreed that Haystack is a grueling hike, but one of their most favorite. So once again, I'll tell you about my Vermont stuff. Uh, listen, I do not want to do like fricking like they, they, they said three miles of just slogging back of nothing. I don't want to do that shit. Well, and they're not just whining because they're both pretty hardcore hikers. They what? Maybe I shouldn't say pretty. They're both real. Dice.

[00:48:52] So when, when they complain about something or make that comment, I won't even say it's complaining, but when they make that comment, you know, it's legit. Yeah. 100% legit once again. And that like they, a lot, everybody says that I'm just like, yeah, I'm going to stick to Vermont, New Hampshire. We're just instant gain and instant loss. It's nice. That's where the celebrities hike. Sure. Right. The slasher and stuff. Yeah. 46 or guy.

[00:49:16] Uh, Scott cats go mountain brood did the nine, uh, with, with foolish, uh, not stupid. That's that's the person's Instagram name. Not saying that this person is foolish, not stupid. Zorro and Freddie. So did the nine. He said it's his favorite hike. He loves doing the nine all the time. So that should be a new patch doing the nine all the time. Nice. Yeah. Well, we don't want to pop popularize. Although I think it has, it has become somewhat popular.

[00:49:46] It has. Yeah. When I, I, back when I did it in 2018, um, going from Friday over the dink to out towards Cornell took a while. Yeah. Miserable as fuck. Yeah. It was really tight. You kind of had to do that, like bushwhack boogie back and forth and side to side, you know, one step forward, two to the side, one step back. Yeah. Then forward again. And now it's just all blown out through there.

[00:50:16] I mean, you could just fly through there. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I, I wonder, we'll have to, we'll have to have people compare times of like their time of when doing the nine, you know, back, you know, once again, 2015, stuff like that. When it wasn't as popular, but compared to now. So that's 11 years. That's a huge difference. Well, back, you know, the one time I've only done it one time. And when I did it, there was a, you know, quite a bit of route.

[00:50:42] Wait, wait, one, one time you, you, you've done Cornell to Friday many times though. Yes. Okay. So you can say that, that, that you say it one time, but Cornell to Friday makes a big difference. So you've done that area significant amount of times. Yeah. I've been through there quite a bit. Yeah. So the difference between now and then is absolutely astronomical where we have to protect our eyes when we used to walk through there. Now it's just like, this is nothing. Yeah. You say that.

[00:51:11] I know a fellow who actually did take a balsam fir branch into his eye, had to break it off and walk out with a little twig sticking out of his eye. Oh yeah. That is not fun. Yeah. So look how easy you guys got it. Those are those, you know, the old days they highly recommended and you should take it to heart back in the old days. You were told to wear glasses going through there. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I do have them. Yeah. I did. Well, I did.

[00:51:41] You could take a stick into the eye and it still happens. Yeah. Crazy. So hiker Joe and why was up at the big field observing some beautiful flowers and then they called the Lake Arnold in the Adirondacks. So everybody's up in the Adirondacks. Joe gets around. Yeah, he does. He's, he's, he's always all over the place, whether he's in the Finger Lakes, the Catskills, Adirondacks, he's all over the place. And it's good to hear. It's good to hear. He's everywhere. Yeah.

[00:52:09] Um, Oskana Catskills ever after was up on Romer mountain enjoying the great seven mile hike and the views. Yeah. That's a great trail. Definitely. Definitely. Yeah. And there's, there's a lot of old unmarked trails, logging roads, park roads off of that trail. Definitely underrated. I will admit somebody has got to promote that a little bit more.

[00:52:32] And last but not least, uh, Kelsey hiker, Yogi had a misty morning on starting the nine. So she did the nine as well. Uh, you know, it's really crazy. And, uh, well, I mean, I don't know if it's crazy, but she did it solo. So that's impressive. Yeah. Yeah. That's what she's looked, man. Her Catskill hiking has come a long way.

[00:52:55] You can tell by the stuff she posts that she's a pretty adventuresome out there and you know, she has a pretty wide spectrum of hikes that she's doing in the Catskills these days. It's good to see. Definitely. Definitely. All right. Thank you everybody for tagging this show. Uh, let's see. Two, four, six, eight, 10, 12, 14 plus multiple point beyond the people. So that's, that's a hell of a mountain. So everybody's getting out. Thank you for tagging the show.

[00:53:24] Glad you're having a good time. Leave no trace. Teach and preach about everything, especially about supporting the show. Like Katie did, Henderson hikes got to be this awesome stow cider. So thank you very much. Buy me a coffee.com support the show if you want, and we'll go back in the Catskills. Previous hikes, Ted, I didn't have anything. I don't have anything. So you can go ahead and you can do your previous hikes better. Uh, all right.

[00:53:50] So, you know, we have to revisit then the concept of what distinguishes a walk from a hike. I know there's a bunch of listeners out there that are like yawning right now. We're hitting the fast forward button, but you know, last week I did mention it's, it's kind of hard for me to say that I'm hiking on the one hand or on the one foot. Maybe I should say because these hikes that I've been doing on the weekend or these walks

[00:54:14] I've been doing, um, have been over very domesticated terrain, uh, wearing very, uh, low level footwear. When I say low level, I mean like mall walking gear almost. They're like glorified slippers, if you will. So this weekend I decided I got to like make it more seem more like a hike. So I did, I got out a pair of hiking shoes. I managed to get some socks on and put the shoes on and tie the shoes.

[00:54:44] And Saturday I did in Mohonk. I did about eight and a half miles, maybe 600 feet of vert, not a lot of vert there. Um, but I did start high up and it was a long hike for me. You know, I really pushed it. It felt good. Uh, it was all over terrain that I've been through many, many times before. But then on Sunday I went back out this time.

[00:55:08] I only did about three and a half miles over cliff under cliff was the loop I was on, uh, which I had also done the day before and the weekend before it's kind of like my new standard now. So that's what I did. Um, it's interesting. You get out there really early as popular as that place is. You get out there early and I'll say when I did on Saturday, the 8.5 or six miles, whatever it was. Hell yeah. Yeah.

[00:55:36] I, I don't think I even saw hikers or walkers more than 10 people. And of the, of those people, at least four of them were out there to go bouldering or, uh, rock climbing. And then I, you know, you see a few people riding gravel bikes and then you see a few trail runners.

[00:55:56] It's, you know, pretty diverse, uh, multi sport area, but it's fun to be able to get out there and get away from the local town park where I spend my mornings walking, um, getting out to, to Mohonk and, you know, doing my thing over there. So that's what I did and, uh, came home.

[00:56:17] Like I said, on Sunday or Saturday, every which I think was Sunday and had my, uh, green state blogger for my post hike brew. No bites. No, no bites. Oh, no bites. Oh, come on. So Stosh, you didn't, you haven't done any previous hikes. So I guess we'll just wrap it up with some Catskill news, the forecast, and we'll call it a show. All right. So that sounds great to me, man. I can, uh, just go to bed right now. Yeah. I'm wake up for good old work tomorrow.

[00:56:46] Like I do the rest of my fricking life. All right, folks. So that's a wrap for show number two 31 Stosh. Uh, he had so much fun on his birthday weekend. He doesn't want to tell us about it. No, true. I will tell you about it later. So, uh, stay tuned. Yes. Stay tuned.

[00:57:06] Uh, so once again, Catskill news volunteer 3,500 club Catskill trail crew, Catskill mountains club, visitor center, jelly rover trail crew, Brownlee mountain fire tower. And if you need stickers, get ahold of me. I will send them to you for free or stop at camp Catskill. Yes. I will send them to you for free. I also wanted to point out that the fire tower, the lighting of the fire tower event is happening on September 5th.

[00:57:35] Uh, of this year, of course. Uh, I think they have, I'm pretty sure it was like overlook and hunter are still available for volunteers to hike up and to put in like. Any sort of sort of illumination that you can get to get the fire tower lit up. And I got to admit last year when I went up to Bramley, uh, with Darren, my buddy, Darren, it was absolutely phenomenal to see. We could see balsam lake. We could see a Mount you.

[00:58:04] I think we could just barely see hunter. So you're saying you get to, you get to bring your own illumination to light up the fire tower. Correct. It's gotta be battery operated. Of course. Yeah. So you, with today's technology, you can bring up some truly hardcore equipment to light this thing up. You could probably almost melt the fire.

[00:58:26] Well, a lot of the, in the past experiences, I know that people have brought up like, uh, like Christmas tree lighting. Like they've solar, they've done the solar power before and they've wrapped the, the Christmas tree lighting in the fire tower. So it's been actually absolutely phenomenal. Oh, that's been true. Oh, and speaking of the fire towers, Ted, I got to talk to you about something, uh, in a little bit.

[00:58:50] So apparently, uh, the trace or, um, Lori Rankin is having a chat with the Catskill center in the DC about the cabin up on balsam lake mountain. And she does not know what's going to happen. She doesn't know, like they said, of the future recommendations of the fire tower, uh, cabin. They don't, she, she has a feeling that it might be destroyed and it might need brought back to life.

[00:59:15] So, uh, stay tuned next week because Lori is definitely giving me some inside information about this. And, uh, once again, we might need help hauling that stuff out that has been there for generations. Uh, you know, that they want to destroy or something. I don't, I don't know. It's, it's fucked up. Anyway, sorry to bring that up. But once again, September 5th lighting of the fire towers fence. It's a cool thing. It's cool. Uh, event.

[00:59:42] You know, I once was on giant ledge checking that out and, uh, saw overlook Mount Trumper and Hunter all at once. So you can see them at multiple areas. You just got to get the kind of right orientation with your directional findings. And it's, and it's fantastic. So, and, and keep the, uh, hard ciders and IPAs to a minimum. Correct. That's key. Okay. I would say correct. So yeah.

[01:00:05] So how about Ted, we break it into the inaccurate weather forecast. Here is your weekend weather forecast. This weekend looks to be an okay weekend, but just remember some serious flooding happened in the Catskills. So be prepared for erosion, mud, and pretty much a lot of different things because the flooding was pretty serious.

[01:00:32] On Friday, July 31st, expect clear skies in the morning with possible rain showers in the afternoon. A high of 66 at the summits, a low of 64 and a wind chill in the morning down to 50 degrees. On Saturday, August 1st, it's fricking August already. Ugh, disgusting. Expect clear skies in the morning to some clouds in the afternoon.

[01:00:57] A high of 68, a low of 63 and wind chills only dipping down to 61. Wind chills playing a crazy factor. There better be wind. Fricking love wind. On Sunday, August 2nd, expect some clouds in the morning with possible rain showers in the afternoon and night. A high of 64, a low of 61, and wind chills going down to 57. It looks like the wind is going to get high on Sunday. So once again, major flooding happened in the Catskills.

[01:01:27] So be prepared for any conditions possible besides snow and ice. And when you're out there, also be safe, be prepared, and don't become tomorrow's rescue story. All right. Have at it, boys. Thank you to whoever who did that inaccurate weather forecast. Hopefully people survive this stuff. This is not, I am not 100% responsible for that weather forecast.

[01:01:56] So, last set of sponsors, and then we'll get on to the guest of the night. How about it? Yeah. I don't think the guest has shown up yet, but we can move along. Well, we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens, honey. Yeah. So, if you have time for some new gear for hiking in the Catskills, definitely say no more. Camp Catskill in Tannersville has all your hiking needs. Footwear socks, moisture wicking shirts, freeze dried meals, Catskill merchandise, and more. They have all the essentials for your hiking needs.

[01:02:24] Located in Tannersville, and they have an online store. Check out Camp Catskill. If you want free stickers, definitely stop there. Also, check out another summit, a non-profit program that leads outdoor adventure activities for veterans and first responders for free. Outdoor adventures like walking, hiking, paddling, and even backpacking. We welcome guardians of all ages, ability levels, including those with accessibility needs.

[01:02:50] Our adventures are located throughout New York and the Northeast, and we organize transit accessible adventures throughout the Hudson Valley and the New York City area. Apply today at another summit.org. So, how about we get on to the guest of the night? Let's go! They're not even here yet. Where's the guest of the night? We gotta wait. Hold on. Hold on, Lemmy. You might have to stand in, Stosh. The pressure's on. Ah, shit. I'm gonna get in the wrong time.

[01:03:20] This is ridiculous. All right. So, we gotta shut this down. Next week, we'll be… No. All right. So, guess the night is me. Yeah. All right. So, why don't you start off with… Tell us a little about yourself, what your name is, your background, and rumor has it, you have a podcast. Why don't you tell us a little bit about the podcast? All right. So, my full name is Stanley Stosh Charles Russian Jr.

[01:03:50] Hmm. A junior? I am a junior. From upstate New York, Otigo. Otigo. A population of 400 people. No. That's how upstate I am. Like, people will say it's central New York, but I am upstate. Like, I seriously watched the shit spreader in our backyard spreading shit. It was phenomenal. Yeah. A good life. I have the same thing. Does that mean I'm not downstate then? Yeah, but you do not. You know…

[01:04:20] I live right next to a vineyard. What do you call it? The honeywake. A vineyard. Yeah, honeywake. Oh, yeah. All right. All right. So, you have a podcast. Tell us about the podcast. I heard your co-host is the best, but you don't have to mention him. I will agree with that. Five years in, I am having the time of my life talking about the Catskills with UTAD. And we are just making… It's what I wanted to do in the beginning is make a difference.

[01:04:47] And that's what we are doing with not just promoting our local areas and stuff, but also promoting Leave No Trace, New York, New Jersey Trail Comp, Catskills Center. We are doing what we're supposed to be doing, and that's… I don't want to make money. I don't want to fucking, you know, do this and do that. I just want to make a difference and make people smile of when they get in the Catskills and be like, God damn, I listen to this podcast and this is why I came to Giant's Ledges.

[01:05:18] Well, I'm going to have to call you out on that. But before I call you out on that, I am going to point out that we're like two years in a row voted the best by our hardcore listeners. But when you say you don't do it for the money, I think you've mentioned three times tonight that you're drinking a hard cider that Katie bought you. So, you are profiting by this podcast. And you do say… I'm going to call you out again.

[01:05:41] You do say you love the Catskills, but for your 44th birthday celebration, where did you go? First and foremost… Oh, we have an explanation coming. This was a four pack. So, Katie paid for one of these, not all four. So, once again, I paid for that. The rest of the money is going to be cut.

[01:06:07] But for my 44th birthday, I was seriously like, you know, for my 40th birthday, I can remember that I did Mount Marcy. And I was just like, I was so happy. I was like, for my 40th birthday, I'm actually doing something crazy. Going up to the highest peak of the New York State area and one of the highest peaks in the Northeast.

[01:06:31] And I was just like, you know, for my 44th, I want to go up and, you know, to Vermont and maybe do a couple of the high peaks up in Vermont that are above tree line. I love above tree line. I love getting that experience of 360 degree views. You know, you know me about views. I am all about the views. Like, I am not one to cross off the list and stuff like that. I just want views.

[01:07:00] So, I was like, yeah, why not? A couple of weeks before my birthday, I was like, you know, I want to go back up to Vermont. Like, like Jessica, like you want to go? And she was just like, well, you know, Dahlia, our dog has a torn ACL. So it's really tough. It's not tough to take care of her. But like, I don't want to barricade her downstairs and not have her go upstairs. Like we carry her upstairs.

[01:07:28] Cause like at, at 13 years old, a torn ACL is huge. Like what doesn't matter if you're human or, or if you're a dog, like that's big. So I was just like, do you mind if I go up to Vermont and, you know, do a couple more high peaks and, you know, get up on tree line and stuff. And she's just like, not at all. So, you know, I did it. And then I was just like, you know, what would you feel if I, you know, went up there and car camped? And she's like, excuse me.

[01:07:57] I'm just like, I'm going to live in my car for three days. You know, does that be bad? And she contemplated it and was questioning me. And then, you know, it was, it was a good idea. We went with it. So I was like, yeah, why not? Why not? Why not go? I know I've been to the Catskills thoroughly. And I was just like, why don't I go back to Vermont? Vermont is very, very, very, very, very similar to the Catskills.

[01:08:26] I would say in terms of remoteness hills, I would say the Vermont peaks are a little bit sharper. Let's just say that a little bit. I mean, Tad, you've, you've, you've skied up there many times, right? Yeah. Yeah. They're sharper, right? Well, skiing in Vermont is only enjoyable if the sharp stuff is covered by snow. I'm just saying, you know, technicality there on the one hand.

[01:08:52] So, but what, you know, you, you opted to go someplace with views. Why not New Hampshire? Why Vermont over New Hampshire? I think New Hampshire, I would need a buddy. I would need someone. Why is that? Longer hike? I would say yes. And that, I would, I don't have longer hikes. I don't know. Good. It's a longer drive. So adds a couple more hours.

[01:09:22] And, you know, it's like two more hours with a drive from where I live. Not just, not just with the Tesla, but just in general. Yeah. And, you know, Vermont for four and a half hours is where I could get to four hours when I get to Killington. So four and a half hours to get into the middle of the state, which is great. It's a fantastic drive, you know, and remoteness as heck, you know, I love, I love the remoteness of Vermont.

[01:09:51] It's just, we, we, I drove through like areas. I took a video of it. I'll have to send you a, of, uh, I would say a Catterskill falls place. It was called Warren falls and it says no parking all over the place. What do you think they did? Yeah. So that's, is that in Warren? Is that in Warren, Vermont? Right out, right outside of Warren and probably like five miles south of Warren. Yeah. Is that, is that on route 100? Correct. Yeah. Okay.

[01:10:22] I mean, you gotta admit skiing is, is, is the most popular up there. Like we, I, I stayed at the sugarbush resort, uh, somewhat well part of it. And like down the road from that mad river Glen. Yeah. It's just, dude, I can't believe how many runs they have and how the, the parking isn't that popular? Sugarbush. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.

[01:10:50] Like there's, there's like, I would, I wouldn't even say like, I would say over 500, like maybe a thousand parking spots for that area. Yeah. It wouldn't surprise me. It's a very popular area. Um, but sugarbush was one of these ski areas that there was a period of time in the eighties, maybe early, not now I'm going to say in the late seventies, eighties, that it was on the brink because they didn't have access to water. Wow. Yeah.

[01:11:17] And so they were struggling and I forget when or about it was that they acquired access to water. And then that was what gave them the capacity to blow a lot of snow on the mountain and survive that way. Whereas Mad River doesn't have that capacity. And that's why you're true. True. I wouldn't say true, but the, the connoisseur of Vermont skiing loves Mad River because it's

[01:11:46] got all that natural snow and that varied terrain. And they don't have at Mad River, tremendous uphill capacity. The best skiing at Mad River's on the chairlift is just one person per chair. Mad River is more north of a, of a sugarbush, correct? Yeah. Geographically. I don't remember offhand. It's been, it's been so long since I skied there, but it brings back some memories.

[01:12:12] I got some crazy Mad River stories and sugarbush stories, but all right, this is, I'm not the guest. I'm asking the questions. So, uh, let me get a pen and paper. So I don't ask too many times. Uh, how many nights did you spend car camping? Zero. What? I thought, I thought she told your wife that you were quitting your job and you were going to live, you're having a mid lifer and you were going to live out of the back of the Tesla. So how many, how, well, where'd you camp then?

[01:12:42] It's not in the car. The plan, the plan was to car camp for three years. Three nights. Mm-hmm. Um, at the sugarbush resort. So there, they have, uh, like plugins like for these. And I was just like, you know, like who's going to stop me? Like it says overnight, no overnight camping. But I, I guarantee no employees would give a shit. Oh, so this was at the ski area itself. You were going to camp car camp. Correct.

[01:13:11] They're they, they, the sugarbush has two resorts, one north and one south. And I, I pro my first place was, it was south. Uh, I could plug in my car. And once again, like, like with, without gas cars, like if you idle, they probably will call the police and stuff like that. That's car camping. But if I'm plugged into an EV, I'm actually paying to stay there. So it's kind of like, like I'm, I'm camping actually there to pay.

[01:13:40] So I was like, why not do that? I could use air conditioning heat and I could just sleep in the back of the Tesla, which I've seen so many times of just folding the seats down and there's significant amount of room. Yeah. So were you actually set up to do that when you. Absolutely. I had everything. I set everything up. The only one thing that's, that's going wrong with the Tesla right now is that I have a leak in my fricking trunk and it's been a water leak. Correct.

[01:14:10] And it's become a problem. Like today I had to throw a fricking big sheet of, of, uh, plastic over there because we've had significant amount of rainstorms and it actually got a couple inches in my trunk. There's, there's a place below the trunk that had a couple inches of water where the battery is. Okay. And it's static electricity. Don't I'll be done electric. But, um, so like I, I did that like research and you know, people have just have done that,

[01:14:38] you know, plugged into RV outlets and stuff like that. And it lived off of a month of just being in there, their Tesla and stuff. So crazy. So, so what happened to derail the car camping plan, the three nights of, you know, hanging out in the Tesla, uh, what's, you know, streaming on Netflix and chilling to the AC. And that was, that was the plan. Like once again, you said, I can watch Netflix. I think Stasha's idea of roughing it. Okay.

[01:15:05] I could, I could watch Netflix for my, the, the, the car and stuff like that. But somehow I think we mentioned it in the last episode. Okay. And it got out to a family, a family member's like cousin. And they said they had a condo available in New Hampshire that they rent out. That wasn't rented out for like the past couple of weekends. And I was just like, I I'm, I'm sort of interested, but I really like my whole itinerary was not

[01:15:34] to pay and they're like, we won't charge you. And I'm like, okay, cool. So I w I was, I was actually excited for a place to shower, a place to set up my food and stuff. So I didn't look like I was homeless outside of sugar bus resort, which is a bunch of prolific ski area, you know, people. And, you know, they're, they're dining in at this area of, of sugar bush.

[01:15:58] And I essentially like started off and I was just like, okay, like I will, I'll take it. And what's, what's that? What's the catch in there? The catch is this was built in the 1980s and it has no air conditioning. Hmm. And the windows all are in that kind of way of where you can't fit a fan in it. So good luck with getting any sort of air movement in there whatsoever. So the windows are tall.

[01:16:29] The windows are positioned in a certain way that you cannot put a fan in there to where if it, the fan were to blow wind in there, the cold air, it would hit up against the wall and just bounce right back out. So I'm like, that's, that's fine. I'll take that. I really don't give a shit. Like, and that was, that was the, the, the area was it's called. The, no, what was it called? The bear. Oh God. The bear Springs. Jesus. I was just there.

[01:16:59] Or the bear spray. Yeah. The bear pond, the bear, the bear pen. No, no, no, no. I'm just kidding. But, but overall it was a nice place, right? Oh dude, dude. It was, it was fantastic. Hold on, hold on, hold on. I got it. Was it that warm inside at night? It was. Oh really? So unfortunately I had no air movement whatsoever during those couple of days.

[01:17:23] Uh, and that was, uh, it was called the bridges, Vermont tennis club. Once again, uh, the, the really funny thing down the road I see in the same area was called the place that they were renting out was called the horny badger. Mm-hmm. The horny badger. The horny badger. The horny badger. I was just like, all right, this is going to be a little messed up kind of place. But the horny badger was over on the Dick's range that weekend. Right. And that's just like, wow. All right. All right. This is going to be a mess up.

[01:17:53] I'm connecting the dots now. Yeah. All right. But the, the, the funny thing is, it's like, like it was very, uh, when I arrived, there's a lot of dogs there. There's a lot of kids. There was a lot, there was a swimming place, you know, they have an outdoor pool and indoor pool, stuff like that. So it was a lot of tennis courts and stuff. So it was like very new Hampshire ish. Mm-hmm. And you had a place to like hang outside at night. Was it cool outside at night? It was not cool. No muggy. Wow. Very muggy.

[01:18:22] No, once again, no wind. I had no wind at all that, that whole weekend. And it kinda, it kinda threw me off a lot. And that's a buzzkill. Once again, it's like the windows. Like if I were to show you the windows, like it is this old eighties style of where they're like, they're narrow and tall, narrow, very tall. Can't fit shit worth in there. Yeah. And if I, like once again, I'll show you, I should send you the way I had this rigged

[01:18:49] is I had a box fan put in the walkway out to the deck. And then I had a piece of cardboard angling the wind come inside the house. And it was just, so you, so you, so you MacGyver did. I did. It was, it was actually pretty good. I was just like, wow. Why'd you bring a box fan? Uh, they had a box fan there. Oh, okay. All right. That explains it. All right.

[01:19:18] So what, what night did you arrive or afternoon? Did you arrive? So, uh, my first day was to travel from, uh, or the onto up to Killington and to hike Killington peak. Cause that was another one on my list. I, you know, I kind of did this for the Vermont or cares. Okay. How many are there on the list? Five.

[01:19:40] So there's, uh, Mansfield, Killington, uh, Camel's hump, uh, Ellen and then, uh, Abraham. So all above 4,000 feet, uh, all, you know, once again, I'm not a lister, but I'm a viewpoint person. So Killington, uh, was my first step. So you get up there. What Friday? Is that when you went up Friday? I left Saturday morning at eight.

[01:20:11] 30, I believe. Eight o'clock. Eight o'clock. So you're at Killington around one. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And you, would you take a ski trail up to the summit of Killington? You take like a hiking trail up. How do you get to the top of Killington? You ride up the chairlift? You know, I thought about it. The gondola, they have a gondola at Killington. They do. So like Killington is, is, I mean, as you know, is huge. Yeah. The skier is massive.

[01:20:35] A big, massive resort full of just everything, you know, restaurants, just stuff. Uh, trails are just absolutely insane, but they have dedicated hiking trails. They have, I'm pretty sure it goes to the F trail. So a, B, C, D, E, F six trails. So, um, I took the E trail going up, which is, they call it sophisticated, but not sophisticated.

[01:21:04] So great. I parked once again, I parked down at the end of the lot where there was EV chargers. So I had to try, I got to charge. Uh, and once again, it's not for free. I had to pay and then I just hiked up and the E trail took me like weave me back and forth. Very awesome. Well-built trail of like, kind of like switchbacks through and in and out of these ski runs to where you would be in an awesome forest.

[01:21:31] And then you'd open up to a screw room with a beautiful view, wildflowers all over the place. And then you would go through a forest again with a ski run and then, uh, back into the forest again. And there was this one time of where it led through, uh, a forest of just, uh, hardwoods and the balsam, uh, conifers. Like I know you're, you're more of a, uh, prolific kind of person with the trees and stuff like that. I don't know if there were conifers.

[01:22:01] I saw a balsam for, for, on one of the things on one of the, the trees that they had, but it just, uh, there was so much of a kind of like intertwined. Mm-hmm. Dimension of them that it was just, it was, it was so nice. Like you, and then once you hit above like 3000 feet, it was just awesome. Balsam first. And it was just that smell. Yeah. And what was the mud? Like there was no mud. Very, very well-drained trail, well-drained soil.

[01:22:30] You're not like slogging through the mud at any stage to get up there. Not at all. Not all the Vermont mud is, it doesn't exist at this time of, of the year. Okay. So I'm, I'm going to load up this question. Listeners lean in and you'll see where I'm going. Um, you're hiking in a ski area. There's, you know, all sorts of like, uh, electrical power there for the ski area.

[01:22:56] There's roads, access roads, their ski trails to get up and down easily. Yada, yada, yada. Are you carrying with you your 85 pound backpack? Or did you, or did you like stash some gear in the car to lighten the load? Cause you, you have like all this, you know, civilization surrounding you as you went up. So you went hardcore. You had your regular, uh, Catskill hiking kit on the way.

[01:23:26] I had everything. Right. So if you, so if you twisted your ankle, you had like a splint to put your ankle in, you know, you have all that stuff. Okay. I, I seriously had everything. I, and I felt once again, like I felt weird because well, did you see other people? Did you see other hikers? Absolutely. Like, were they all geared up like you? No, like they, they had like a water bottle. Yeah. Cause they had a Poland spring water bottle.

[01:23:55] They had all their flip flops and a trail map. Right. And like, it's like on the way down, on the way up, I, I, uh, intertwined with these ladies that were just like, like you're killing it. Well, I don't want to hear anymore. Your wife might listen, intertwining with ladies. Oh, not that, not that way. We've heard about the Dick's range in the horny hiker. I mean, the horny. Yeah. But they were, they were like, you're almost there. I'm like, listen, I know where I am. I'm halfway there. Yeah.

[01:24:25] And they're just like, they like dead stare. I'm like, you're, you're right. Actually. I'm like, I know I'm not half. I'm, I'm, I know of where I am. They took you for a new Yorker. Yeah. And they seriously, and they were, were like two of them had a backpack and there was six of them. So what was the summit? Like get up there. So once you get towards the summit, there's one more, there's two ski runs that you, you hit or ski lifts. There's one that is not operating.

[01:24:52] And there's one that is operating at the summit. The one that is not operating. You have to take these awesome steps up that are actually like steel steps that you can walk up and you get a cool view here and there. And it takes you through the balsam forest. And then you get up to the last ski lift that everybody's taken up. And then all of a sudden you're, I was, I didn't know that this operated top, but there was a restaurant at the top. I'm like, what the fuck? I brought my own fricking sandwich up here.

[01:25:22] What the fuck Doritos and a sandwich and everybody else is having a panini or whatever the fuck they call it. I'm like, ah, this sucks. At least did you buy a cold beverage when you were up there? Nope. I, I refilled my water bottle at the refill station. And then I left. So I went up to the top. There was tourist people up there, people who are taking their sweet ass time walking down a 15 foot area. Um, I, I took a picture of a family that there is this was their first time in Vermont and

[01:25:52] the, the mother cried because of how great the picture was. And she's just like, we'll never get this, this opportunity again. I thank you so much. I'm like, no problem. You know? And this is the first time I got to use my, uh, sun sweater, like my 50 years ago. I got a 50 F P up some sweater that I got it from Amazon because every other place that I tried to order from would take three weeks to fucking send it. So I wanted to get, did it have a hoodie? It did. Yep. Okay. Was it like a cooling sun sweater? It was.

[01:26:22] Yeah. It was nice. I was the only one at the summit with, with something like this. Cause I didn't want to get sunburn. Yeah. Everybody else is like tanning stuff like that. Like the summit is, they say it's a 360 degree. It's not really because I don't believe that. I wouldn't believe that at Killington. They have a, they have a fire tower that's inaccessible, which kind of sucks.

[01:26:44] But, um, you have probably, I would say like over 280 degree of kind of like the north going all the way southeast. So, but then after that, there's some pines growing and stuff like that. Um, a lot of, a lot of people on Instagram gave me shit for taking up to one of the ski trails, one of the e trails and not taking the south, southern route, uh, up Killington, which it'll

[01:27:14] offer. It's a little bit more vertical ascent and, uh, a little bit more fun, a little bit more challenging. Is that something that you like cognitively ruled out because it was a longer, more challenging hike or you just said, okay. And I will do it again. Yeah. If there's a view, once again, I will do it again. I don't really give a shit. Well, is hiking Killington worth it doing it again? Oh, dude. Like to be honest, this trail was 100% what I wanted.

[01:27:43] Once again, you're, you're kind of battling the scent the whole way up, but then you get that view of the, the ski run and then you get the wildflowers that are sitting there and like butterflies all over the place. You're like, oh shit. And then you go back in the balsam forest. You get that smells that deep smells. They, but this trail was well built like switchbacks going through the dirt, going through the, the mud that could have been there. And then sometimes you battle up the ski run.

[01:28:11] That's pretty good vertical ascent, but it had everything that you would want in a hike. Um, especially the views. It was once again, the views I could see everywhere. And a lot of people, you know, were up there as tourists and they were questioning everything. And I had no clue, like not saying that I had no clue about Vermont, but I kind of know the orientation of north, south, east, west. I was just like, well, you're not looking north.

[01:28:37] You're looking more south and you're looking towards like this, or you're looking east. And this is Pico. That's the resort over there. You're looking camel's hump and stuff. So they, they considered me a local, but I'm not known yet, but yeah. Yeah. Well, all right. So, and the hike down was uneventful. You get back to the car. Oh yeah. Fly down. Yeah. You fire up the vehicle. I fired up. Yeah. Actually I had service, so I kind of cooled it down before.

[01:29:07] Oh, yeah. So I got to do that. So this was six. Uh, the, the, each rail was 6.25 miles with 1700 feet of gain. Up and down 6.25. Yep. Okay. That's still a good amount, right? Yeah. I hiked more than you. I hiked more distance on Saturday. I'm just saying. I know you did. Like, I mean. And I, yeah. And thankfully I did have hiking shoes on because if I did it in those little flat bottom treadless

[01:29:33] slip on things that I could wear to bed, if I wanted to as slippers, then that would really shame you. What was your elevation gain though? Yeah, it was in the sixes. That's all I'm saying. Okay. It was in the sixes could be 6,000 could be 600 feet. Yeah. Maybe 60. It was 6,000. I will allow it. Yeah. So, all right. So you hop in the Tesla where you go right up to the condo. Yes. So that's, that was an hour and 10 minute drive.

[01:30:02] And like you said, route 100 phenomenal, beautiful route. Yeah. Like it reminded me a lot of the Catskills remote as fuck little tiny towns, little then. Yeah. And, and to be honest, Vermont promotes a lot of like summer recreation. Like there's big signs saying like big flashing lights. I say summer recreation ahead, waterfalls or swimming holes and stuff. And I'm just like, holy shit. Wow. That's. Yeah.

[01:30:30] Well, if it wasn't for maple syrup and recreation, what else does the state have? Correct. Right. I'm not putting down. Yeah. They got, it's got a lot going on, but yeah, it's a great place to go recreate. And I'll say both Vermont and New Hampshire are states that are well preserved given the development in other areas. So, all right. So you get, you get to the condo, you set up your box fan. Yes. Sweat it out through the night. What, what are you doing the next day? Sunday.

[01:31:00] We're on the Sunday. So Sunday is I, my itinerary, my itinerary is, uh, Abraham and Ellen, another two 4,000 footers on the, the list, which Abraham is an open summit, which is what I adore. And Ellen is like, kind of like off of the sugarbush ski resort. So they have sort of a viewpoint. So I'm looking forward to it. What do you hike?

[01:31:29] You hike from Abraham to Ellen or is it Abraham's and up and down and then you have to head over to Ellen? So it's, uh, you hike from Lincoln gap over to Ellen in the back. So you go up, go up and over Abraham to Ellen and then you reverse your track if you only have one car. So I only have no car. So tell us about the hike. You get, you get to the trailhead for Ellen in Lincoln gap. Yep. And you, you sat out on foot with all 85 pounds of your Catskill gear.

[01:31:58] Did you bring extra water? I brought a shitload of water. And what does that mean? You, are you over three liters? Do you have six liters of water? That's five. Five. Okay. Well, I have five. Sorry. Sorry. So five in my bladder and then a liter of a water bottle. If you have five in your bladder, it's time to go. I know. Right. Um, a liter, uh, a smart water bottle that's full of electrolytes and then a power aid that has on the side. So, yeah.

[01:32:28] And carrying a lot of weight. I'm 100%. And then I have my summit sweater, which is just in case, you know, and then my heli Hansen just in case it rains because. Yeah. Well, the heli Hansen's like your, it's like your security blanket, right? I understand. 100%. When it gets tough and rough out there, you just grab your, you just grab your, you heli Hansen and put it on, stick your thumb in your mouth and everything's going to be okay.

[01:32:52] And that's, that's the whole idea is also has, I also have my, my, my kit, which I always carry. And then my, my rain gear stuff, which is like the backpack cover and an extra, uh, kind of like a emergency blanket. So I don't know why. Wise decisions. Well, cause you never know. I mean, what, what if you were out there and you fell unexpectedly and you tore up your rotator cuff, then what the fuck would you do? Right. I would walk that out.

[01:33:22] That's, that's easy. That's a walking out easy. You think so. But still like, I, I do that, like do this hike and I see everybody like is not carrying, it's carrying the bare minimal. Mm-hmm. Like, like we have runners. I have runner out there that I, I engage to have those two water bottles in their side pockets. I'm like, what the fuck is this shit? I hate those people. I'm like, how do they not get injured? Well, they're going four times faster than you. Right.

[01:33:51] Using four times, if not more energy than you are yet, they've got like one 10th of the water that you bring. Yeah. Ed, I hate it. Ed, I love you, but I hate you. Ed, Ed, Ed, Ed's like a human sponge out there for swaggering. So these are great shots. Like that's, that's the thing is I see all these people with, like I have a 44 liter backpack and it's full. Yeah.

[01:34:15] So also, also I want to know is did anybody ask you on Ellen and Abraham if you were camping overnight out there? I've had two, I had two people that asked me if I was doing the long trail. Gotcha. And I said, no, I was like, sorry, I'm not doing it. No, you just said, no, I stole somebody else's gear stuffed into my backpack. I'm getting out of here. Yep. And I was just like, you know what? I'm just, I'm, I'm a prolific hiker. I like to prepare for the absolute worst.

[01:34:43] And, you know, up on these open summits, you never know. Like there could be a rainstorm that comes in and it changed degrees of like 40 degrees. Like who knows? And some people are like, oh, you really? Like, I guess. So tell us, yeah. Tell us about the weather that the hike up, what it was like. Give us the, like the, what the hikers want to hear about your Ellen and Abraham excursion. What was the trail like? Rocky muddy. Rocky. What'd you go through?

[01:35:12] No muddy, but Rocky as fuck. So in the beginning, once again, there's a, through this hike, you deal with a lot of pudds. Do you know what pudds mean? Pointless up and downs. Absolutely. Fucking pointless. It's like, it's like my investments. Pointless up and downs. Just saying. Okay. That's what it was. And I hated it. I, as you do it, you're like, I gotta fucking redo this when I come back. This sucks.

[01:35:40] But like a lot of it was like, it felt like, like kind of like Creek beds where like, you know, I mean, Tad, you're, you're, you know, it's like limestone and what else is up in the, uh, granite. Granite. So, this stuff is grippy as fuck. So you can trust like every rock you step on and stuff like that. Like it has been well worn down to where you can kind of like fly and it's good. It's good. It's pretty cool.

[01:36:09] Like I love it and you can, but once again, with the Northeast and stuff, you're always looking down. You have to look down to where your next step is going to be because you might roll your ankle. You, you might not, you know, there's roots, there's rocks, there's dirt, but it's, it's beautiful. It's a lot of limestone and is it, is it calcium also as well? Not calcium deposits.

[01:36:34] You know, I looked this up because I was, I was, they have the, uh, the shiny stones. What are those shiny ones? Maybe it's marble. Um, shit. I looked this up, but, uh, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was really cool. And as you gain higher, you are more on like, kind of like the flat rock beds to where you get more grip, but it gets steeper.

[01:36:59] So as I'm flying up this, because I know my, my shoes can handle this. I'm flying up these areas that are steeper, but more flat because you can deal with the rock. And there are people that are sketchy as heck that are using all fours, like, like not trusting this. And I'm just like, yeah, this is. Yeah. But so you're not, you're not on large slabs or at times.

[01:37:25] So you're on, you're, you're climbing up slat slabs, uh, rock slides here and there. Yeah. Okay. And the higher elevation, there's less angularity to the rock and it's more flatter surfaces. You're on the higher up actually was a little bit more angular and towards, towards the top of Abraham. I got a little bit to my, to, to our Catskill stuff is a little bit more sketchy, but for

[01:37:54] you and me, it would be for fun. Like I was just like, fuck yeah, this is, this is a shit. It's, and people were like, like second guessing. They're like, Oh, maybe I'm, I'm going up with my just two feet and they're holding on with all fours. And again, like it's, it's, it's phenomenal. I love that stuff. So the, the trails well maintained. Absolutely. Beautiful. Any trail trash?

[01:38:20] No, no, I didn't see any trail trash until I was over towards the, the resort sugar bush resort area, which was, so you, you summit on Ellen and as I, Abraham was first. Sorry. Oh, Abraham was first and Abraham was the open summit. Yeah. Absolutely. Phenomenal 360, 360 degree views. And is it like a, like a rock pile summit with a lot of talus rock on the top or is it just a big slab and knob?

[01:38:48] Um, it had an open like summit, but then it had those areas that were closed off due to the Alpine vegetation. Okay. So, uh, you could travel certain areas, but stay on the rock, I guess. Yeah. Um, so it was really cool. It was, it was once again, ah, good question. I could see all the way to Killington.

[01:39:13] So where I was previously before, I think I was like 60 miles, but I could not see the Adirondacks across, uh, the way, which is usually everybody like claims they, they love seeing Lake Champlain and then the Adirondacks, but I couldn't see that. I couldn't see any of the whites. So I don't, it was just way too hazy. And dude, it was warm.

[01:39:36] Like I, at the sugarbush resort, I noticed that the temperature gauge said like 73 degrees. And that was at the summit over 4,000 feet. Mm-hmm. And is that a, is that a humid 73 degree? Humid as fuck. Yeah. I was drenching and sweating. Yeah. Well, that's sad. It became a problem later on. On, on this day, on Sunday. On this day. Yep. Okay.

[01:40:04] So you're, you're on Abraham. It's an open summit with the alpine zones that you have to stay off of. And what time did you hit the summit up there? Ooh, that took me around an hour and 20 minutes. Okay. That's not fair. What was the elevation game? 1,700 feet of gain, 2.8 miles. Okay. Typical Catskill hike, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's right. That's legit. So what's the hike like from Abraham over to Ellen?

[01:40:32] Abraham to Ellen is another three miles. Okay. With. You descend, right? Up and on. Point. Yeah. You descend and you go to pods. Okay. So you do probably like two pods. And it goes up and down.

[01:40:55] I think you've got to go from 4,000, like 91 feet up to 4,100 feet, which is, it's not bad. Once again, you have a lot of pointless up and downs within three miles. Are you like an Alpine zone, balsam fir zone? Balsam fir. 100%. Yeah. And it's absolutely phenomenal trails of where you are hitting, like you can't even, you're

[01:41:21] tucking in your shoulders with the trees that are hitting you. It's so nice. It's so good. It's a narrow trail. Yep. And you're going to tell us that it has the feel of Indian head? I would say even more narrow than that. Mm-hmm. We're talking about like the pines that are hitting you and you have to tuck in your shoulders.

[01:41:48] So it's less well-traveled than Indian head getting over there. But I don't think they have the restrictions that we have over here. I don't know how they can cut them. Like it feels like they, they very, they don't trim them at like at all. Yeah. Like it was the volunteer organization over there. The green mountain club. I think green mountain hiking club. Okay. Yeah.

[01:42:16] So you make it over to Ellen. What's it like? It's taller. It is taller, but there's no summit, no summit. There's no summit. Well, there's a summit. Yeah. But there's, okay, so there's no view. So it's like hiking over to North Dome. Correct. You made, you made it over. There's no, is there people hanging out? What's what goes on over at the top of Ellen? No people hanging out whatsoever. So I go down, I descend a little bit further to the resort, the other sugarbush resort.

[01:42:45] Mm-hmm. And there's views, there's beautiful views looking off the north and to the east or the west. But like I, there it's, it's, it's so warm. At this time I go down to the, there's kind of like a, a facility that has where the search and rescue people are located. And I sat, I sat down there outside of the sun and I look at the thermometer and read 78 degrees.

[01:43:13] And I was like, holy shit above 4,000 feet at 78 degrees at in the shade. Yeah. That's pretty significant. So are you sweating a lot? Dude, I am. I took my shirt off. I, I didn't take my pants off. I took my shirt off. I put it over like the rail and I'm, I'm eating. But at this time I just don't want to eat. I'm just like, I'm so into the, like the hike.

[01:43:41] I want to get done with this hike and I'm just, you know, I thought about what's his name, Alex that did his hike and he wouldn't pee. And I'm like, shit, I haven't peed for a long time now. I'm like, wow, this is, this is actually pretty significant. Like I should maybe increase my, my, my water intake or, you know, get some electrolytes in me. You know, I have my food. I have some of my chips, but then I'm not hungry.

[01:44:10] Like, I'm like, man, something's wrong. Like I need to get the fuck out of here. So I, I, I eat my, my sandwich, whatever that I can eat. And I drink my electrolytes and then I head on my way back and I'm just like slugging like, holy crap, it sucks. It was just, it was one of those days. I know you've been through one of those days. Yeah. So I'm, I, am I hearing that you reached a point where you started to become concerned about your wellbeing? Correct.

[01:44:40] And how much further did you have to go? Was this when you were at the, the rescue station that you're like, you're the furthest away from your car and you're like, okay, I'm kind of entering a critical, a critical, physical state of wellbeing or lack of. Is that what I'm hearing here? I wouldn't say critical. I knew I could get myself out of this situation. Oh. I had to preserve water.

[01:45:06] Um, I had to keep doing calorie intake and I could get off of here. But like, I was seriously like far away. I was five something miles away from my car. And plus you had to retrace a lot of elevation. To get some pudge. You had to go back up over, uh, Abraham. Right. Yeah. So, you know, you had, I'm, I'm guessing you had at least a thousand further, maybe 800 vertical to make up. To get back. Okay.

[01:45:33] Total day was third, the third or 12.3 miles with 3,133, three feet of vertical gain. And that was Sunday. That was Sunday. That's about what I did on Sunday too. Yeah. Fuck off. Yeah. And sling. Um, okay. So what, what was it mentally going through your head on the way back? You're like, are you rationing water? Was it one of those days you're like, fuck man. You know, I was, so what was, what was, how many leaders did you have to get back?

[01:46:03] You're roughly 6.x miles back. I, I did well. I once again ration off the leaders and then I got it back on Abraham and I did consume a little bit more calories and had some more of my power aid, but like the trip down is 2.8 miles and you have 1700 feet of loss. Yeah. And it's just like a slog. Not sure. So did you, did you pull a tad trick along the way? What's that?

[01:46:33] You mooch water off of somebody. No, no, I didn't. There was dude. I very, I, I, I met people once again, that looked like they needed water off of me. Yeah. Like, like. I've done that. I've given away water on a hike. I gave away almost all my water, uh, except for what was in my, my Nelgin and then what I was drinking out of, but I gave all my water to a couple on for one spring when there was like super thin canopy.

[01:47:00] So it was very warm up there unexpectedly for these people. And they were heading over to big Indian from fur and I'm like, here, I'll give you my water. Cause I'm going to go down and I'll get, just get some out of biscuit brook and hike out. And that's what I did. So you didn't, what about, do you have like any anti bonk food? This is what a cyclist would have with them. Do you have like any quick energy carbs? I do. Okay. So what were you using them? I do. I used it.

[01:47:28] It's, it's, it's called pure Vermont maple syrup. Like it was a bunch of calories and stuff like that. And then I had a bunch of a. That's like the original anti bonk food. Yeah. Um, and then I had like, like power chews, like that gave you calories and stuff like that. Okay. And then I have bell Vita bars that I chomped on us. Bell Vita. Huh? I don't think I've heard of those. Yeah.

[01:47:54] So maybe in Vermont, maybe the thing to do is you bring like a little maple syrup tap with you and you just tap a tree and suck syrup out of it. Yeah. You know, that could be a Vermont thing. Maybe that's why you don't see people with a lot of gear up there. They just have like maple taps and you know, instead of filtering water, they just filter syrup out of the tree. They shrug the syrup before they go. So yeah, they might have a couple of pancakes in their backpack, you know, for the maple syrup. Okay. That's interesting.

[01:48:24] So this is, this is on Sunday, the 26th of July. My birthday. That was your birthday. So were you somewhere along this journey where you turned 44, but you're wondering about surviving the day? I mean, I think my mom said that I was born like 827 AM. How would she know? Oh, all right. Your mother. Okay. 827 AM.

[01:48:54] So were you already on, you're already on trail at 827? I think I wasn't even on trail at that time. I think like I hit like nine or something. And so like, once again, the trails through Vermont are absolutely phenomenal. Like limestone deposits like calcium deposit or something like that. I'm trying to think of the term, but it was just, they're great. So you can fly up them.

[01:49:23] Like a lot of people would have a great time. But once again, what's is that you got to pay attention because they're like any Northeast thing. You got to pay attention to the roots, the rocks and stuff. So with the beautiful forest, like Tad, I was flowing through some hardwood florists of like yellow birch, white birch, and then balsams together. Like they were mixing. And then you get into this pristine forest above 3000 feet of just balsam firs and conifers.

[01:49:53] I mean, I'm not, I'm not prolific in that category like you are, but pristine shit. But then going from Abraham to Ellen was a dip between both. Like there'd be massive fern glades, moss covered like areas. But I barely like, to be honest, that three miles in between Ellen and Abraham, I didn't hit that many people, like maybe two or three people. I met some people from, from Montreal that I,

[01:50:22] Did they speak English? They did. They, they actually remembered me on Killington. I saw them in Killington the fucking day before, which is crazy. And they were like, Oh, there's the guy with the 85 pound backpack. Correct. They were like, look at this overprepared piece of shit. And he's just like, like I, I, and I hit them before I, I hit Ellington, but then I caught up to them back before Abraham.

[01:50:48] So like I, they saw you, they saw you at your best state and then your worst state. Correct. But I think I was pushing myself too, too, too hard. Yeah. And that's what I think is the problem with me hiking by myself. You don't pace yourself. I don't. I don't have the, the leisurely talks like with someone and I do stop. And you know, I'm like, God damn, this is difficult. But then I'm like, yeah, I can do this. Let me keep going.

[01:51:16] Or, you know, once again, we don't have the leisurely pace that, you know, I would have with someone talking, you know? So, but what was the rush then? I don't know. Yeah. I really don't know. I, I shouldn't have rushed it with that, the, the, the, with the temperature too. The temperature was hot. There was no wind. Like you got on the summit of a, of a peak that has no trees, but the wind was bare minimal. Yeah. So what time did you get back to the car? You started around nine. What time you back to the car?

[01:51:46] I think I was around three o'clock. So it was like a six hour hike. Oh, okay. You got back early peak heat of the day, right? You get back to the car. What do you do? I, I, well, I, I go back to the car and I immediately take off basically all my clothes, except for my pants. Like my shirt is drenching in sweat.

[01:52:15] And I'm just like, I have no other shirt to switch into. Like I'm not riding to my car and fricking put in all this sweat. So I had my son shirt, unfortunately, and the helly Hanson. I put the helly Hanson over that. So it looked like I looked ridiculous. But a lot of the people were just finishing, uh, Abraham just alone. So like, I kind of felt good. I was like, Oh, I completed those two hikes, which was two times the length of what they

[01:52:43] did in the same amount of time. But then I'm like, why? Why did you have to, I was, and then, and at the time I'm just like, why not just do one of those hikes and enjoy it thoroughly? Like I should have just done Abraham and enjoyed the open summit. Yeah. Or just gone, gone slower. You know what? But really the, the game changer in the summer is the type of day you had where you're depleting

[01:53:13] your, uh, fluids and your electrolytes faster than you're replenishing them. Maybe your mix of calories and complex and simple carbs was off a little bit. So you like were on the verge of bonking, uh, at various times during the day. And so you just, in terms of chemical balance, you were not in the right equilibrium throughout the day. And that's, you know, I mean, that's just, uh, it, it happens, you know, shit like that happens.

[01:53:41] And then the thing is you got to anticipate it coming and then you need to like dose yourself with stuff aggressively to get ahead of the curves. But you get back to your car, you, you wear your sun shirt and your heli Hanson over it. You probably got the AC cranked up windows down driving back to what you went back to sugar, Bush mad river. Yep. Sugar, Bush. And what'd you do? You go hang out at the condo, have a couple of cold drinks. Would you do the rest of the night? You go out to dinner.

[01:54:11] I fricking had a, it's your birthday. Exactly. So I had a nice cold, very cold shower. Okay. Um, and then luckily that area that I say that with the condo had a hot tub. Then I went and sat in the hot tub because they, you know, 44 years old, your knees don't feel this the way they did, you know, at 22 years old and my knees were okay.

[01:54:39] But on the way down, like I was just like, man, this is what they're taking up pounding. That's why I have that, the hiking poles. I think the hiking poles save a lot of my energy and stuff like that with, uh, you know, the impact and stuff where like either I'm going up or coming down, I can balance myself. And like, I know it shouldn't be saying this at 44, but you know, and I don't know. It, it helped a lot.

[01:55:07] And the, the hot tub, I was like, oh, hell yeah. And I sat in there as a single looking like a single man, just laying back and passing out. I was like, oh, it was hilarious. All right. So tell, tell us about mad taco. Oh dude. That was phenomenal. The quesadillas huge carnitas quesadillas. I had a, a rum and Coke.

[01:55:35] And then the guy that sat next to me, Joey, who worked up in Warren, uh, Vermont, uh, at a restaurant gave me a tequila shot for my birthday. Oh, man. We had a good conversation about metal bands. And, uh, just like the local life in Vermont is very, very, very, very, very similar to the local life in Catskills to where, you know, you're struggling for rent. You're struggling for a place to stay.

[01:56:03] You're struggling for a job and stuff. So, uh, he, he, he knows the life and it was just a great conversation to have, you know, with a local guy that, uh, was absolutely phenomenal. That is working his life off, you know, living in a state that, uh, is beautiful, but also, you know, tough times to live in. Yeah.

[01:56:25] Well, in terms of the, uh, economics of, you know, your, uh, rural American wage earner, it's tough, but the trade off is you get the sunsets, you get the open spaces. You, you're typically at a place that you appreciate or enjoy. So before we move on to Sunday morning, uh, I want to just hit the rewind and go back to

[01:56:53] what you put down for Saturday. You had dinner at two different places on Saturday. Oh yeah. So I go to, but no, but no, no, you're not moving on. You, you had dinner at two different places on Saturday, but less than 12 hours later, you're like bonking on the trail. What happened? What, what happened to dinner that you're not fully charged up?

[01:57:17] So Saturday I go to a place called afterthoughts that, um, has like drinks and like it says burgers and stuff like that. So I go there and I'm looking to get something. I'm like, can I have a, you know, I'll get a rum and Coke and then I'll have, uh, can I get the, the, the menu for the food? And they're like, oh, we stopped that like three weeks ago. Like what the food. And they're just like, yeah, we stopped.

[01:57:44] I'm like, so you're only drinks and she's already like poured by my drink and stuff. I'm like, well, I guess I'll fucking drink this, but like, like really you don't have food. And they're like, yeah, we forgot to update that. I'm like, well, that, that shit to me. Why'd they stop carrying food? I did. She didn't explain business. Apparently they are more of a, the Friday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday business of drinks and live music.

[01:58:13] So I was like, well, what am I missing? This was Saturday night. Exactly. So there should have been live music and food, no bar food. They had no bar food for you to get. Nothing at all. Oh wow. So I was just like, all right, I guess I'll go across the street to mad moose. And they had a great, the mad moose. There you go. Great. Uh, uh, hamburger. I had a smash burger, the jalapeno smash burger. Very delicious.

[01:58:42] The guy, uh, at the desk was very nice. Very phenomenal bartender. And then the, the, the, the, once again, two places places, I was a little disappointed with the afterthoughts because they didn't update their stuff. So yeah. Sounds like food for them was an afterthought. Okay. Couldn't pass that up. All right. So you head back on Sunday, you have your mad taco quesadilla. You go back to the place. Do you spend the night in the hot tub? I spent partially some of it. Oh yeah. Yeah.

[01:59:11] But then I also contemplated of my, my thoughts of next day. Thoughts of next day. So your next day you were planning. So you did, uh, Ellen and Abraham, you did Killington. So the next day was planned to be camels hump. Is that correct? Yep. Are you familiar with it? Yeah. I'm familiar with camels hump.

[01:59:37] I've never hiked it because back, back in the day, if it didn't have ski runs on it, I'm not saying it necessarily a chairlift, but back in the day I was tethered to skiing, ski runs. True. And so what do you got? So what do you got? You get, you get back to the place. You got, you're tired out, you're whooped and you're thinking about what you're going to do on Monday. Yeah. And I can't like, I can't go through that.

[02:00:06] I'm like, I should have once again, just enjoyed Abraham because I liked the open summits. I should have enjoyed that open summit and enjoy that hike a little bit more instead of pushing myself. And with camels hump, camels hump is only like six miles with 3000 feet of gain. So half of that with the same amount of gain. Um, but I heard that those scrambles up through there going up to camels hump are phenomenal.

[02:00:36] Our fun are just interchanging and stuff that it's just a whole different experience. And I'm like, listen, I want to really enjoy this. Like I'm not doing this to cross off another off my list. I want to enjoy camels hump like thoroughly. So I'm like, I'm not going to do this. Um, especially when a day would, it's supposed to be hotter than the previous day. And you know, like the views aren't going to be substantial.

[02:01:04] So it's just like, I'm just gonna, you know, pack things up and head home. Like I just, I just don't have it in me to once again, I'm not out there for the list. If I was, I would have done it, but no, I just, I wanted to, I've heard this hike is, is something else. Is one of the best in the East coast that once again, the scrambles, the viewpoint and stuff is something to take in that.

[02:01:33] You can't just cross it off the list and say, I did it. And so in retrospect, was that the right decision? Absolutely. No regrets. I'll go back up there. The camels. Once again, it's four and a half hours away. That's not that bad. No, no. And it's, you know, I mean, it's a, it's an accessible area, not in terms, both in terms of. You know, time to get there. And then once you get there, if you want to rough it and camp out, there's places to do that.

[02:01:58] And then it's, you know, Vermont is very well built up, uh, because of the skiing. Yeah. This is still area. Yeah. Especially that corridor. Okay. So here, let's, let's ask some, uh, just like, you know, general questions. What about your, your gear? You, you originally were planning to go up there, do the car camping, but. You, you switch gears and you stay in the condo without the AC.

[02:02:28] What gear did you bring with you? That was completely. Unessential that you didn't need, didn't use, but you lugged around with you. Anything. I mean, I didn't lug it around. It was in the car, but like the sleeping pad and the sleeping bag, like we're still in the car. I still had the intention of, of maybe doing that just, just because I could. Yeah. And once again, I, I got, I, on the last, somebody must've listened to the podcast, uh,

[02:02:58] uh, on my family side of, of the tree, because my mom reached out to me saying that my cousin had a condo up in New Hampshire that they would give to me for free. And I was just like, no way. And then I reached out and they were just like, yeah, it doesn't have air conditioning, but, uh, you could definitely take it for the weekend. I was like, why not? Yeah. Like, yeah. Well, maybe that this is a testament or evidence of climate change.

[02:03:25] Cause that when this was built, nobody felt ADC was essential. Of course. Like, that's what I thought. I was like, these, these windows seriously, no, how, like there's no way. Yeah. Who would do this now? So what about, um, uh, the missing essential? Is there anything that you wish you had with you for the trip that you didn't bring? I can't say that I, I did. I did.

[02:03:53] I did not bring anything that I, I didn't need like, or I needed as well. Like I, I'm pretty sure I brought everything. Like I always do. I mean, I, Jessica is there to kind of help me bring out everything. So she doesn't get all anxiety driven and stuff like that. Like, I mean, I had everything that I needed. Yeah. Oh wait, the bacon. I didn't have to pick again to pre cook bacon. You, you, you meant to bring pre cooked bacon with you.

[02:04:23] Yeah. I cooked it the day before, so I can, I could have an easier day to cook, uh, especially in a place that had no air conditioning, air movement. That would have been a little crazy. Yeah. So is this for breakfast? You wanted bacon for breakfast. Wow. I brought everything. Like dude, I brought like, like Bob lunch meat, uh, lettuce, uh, cheese, uh, beers, like all water.

[02:04:50] Like I was fully prepared. Beers. You brought beers with you. I did. I had, I, well, so you were fully prepared. You, you felt you had all the essential equipment other than the bacon, um, which is not on my essential equipment list by the way. Uh, but so you're, you're up there. We, we hear of the, uh, I'm going to call them extreme conditions on Saturday doing, uh,

[02:05:18] Ellen and Abram, uh, not doing camel's hump on Monday. What was the biggest disappointment of the weekend? I seriously, the biggest disappointment was not injure, uh, uh, enjoying Abraham as much as I should have like that open summit. I really should have enjoyed that more instead of once again, tagging off Ellen off of my high

[02:05:47] peaks list and thinking about that. Like, Oh, I gotta do this and blah, blah, blah. And how much of a hassle it was to cross it off a list. I should have just been like, I'm good. Let me do this another day or a different way. Uh, you know, Darren, my buddy, Darren from the, the show that has been following me since the beginning said that he did Abraham and then skipped Ellen because he didn't have a

[02:06:17] viewpoint and stuff. So he was willing to go back to Ellen as well. And also had camel's hump, did the camel's hump without a viewpoint and then, uh, would willing me to be willing to do that again. So it's just like, Oh shit. I mean, I would love to do camel's hump and I wouldn't mind doing Ellen again from a different approach. So I should have just stopped at Abraham and enjoyed the viewpoint a little bit more than I had.

[02:06:45] Then I just like, okay, I'm here. I had this amount of time. Let's go. Yeah. Well, you still did whether you, you did, um, the extra mountain that day or didn't do the extra mountain. You still did the same number of mountains, whether you did camel's hump or not. True. Right. So this way you can on a totally fresh set of legs and attitude, you can go out and tackles camel's hump and, you know, enjoy it.

[02:07:14] So let's, this is going to bring me to, cause we had, um, that fellow on a few weeks, weeks ago. What was it? Midlife like this. Yeah. Okay. So you're, you're, you turn 44 on Saturday. It's not a symbolic number. Like some people would say 40 and 50 and 60 are, but still, I mean, you're now legit in your mid forties. You're married.

[02:07:42] You drive this poshier or bougie electric car, right? You drive up to the mountains. What is the, what is the midlife point of view that you have on Saturday as you're hiking? What are you thinking? What's going through your head as you hit that milestone? Life is good. Life is good. Yeah. Life is fucking excellent. Yeah. Even though you're struggling on your way back. Struggling. Yes.

[02:08:11] But to be, to think that I can do this at 44 years old. And you know, I passed a guy that was probably in his seventies. That was chatting with me and, and to see that he was doing this. And like, I, I want to be that guy. I want to be that guy. I mean, even though. Not to be an ass, but he was kind of annoying. He would just keep talking with me.

[02:08:40] I'm just like, listen, I got another. Was he the Canadian? No, no. He was just, it was just another guy that was just like, listen, my wife dropped me off here and she's picking me up here. I need to be here at this time. I'm like, listen, you're not going to make it. Like, do you have a headlamp? Like you are seriously like not going to make it. But then to think of this guy, he, he had one of those shirts that said, uh, what is it? Uh, out of breath hiking society.

[02:09:10] And I was just like, okay. And then he said, you know what? When I was going fast. Yeah. I was going faster. He was just like, you know, the tortoise always beats the hair. And I look back, I go, not this time, buddy. And I seriously passed him like halfway. And then you bonked. I bonked, but I made it. And you, um, but to think once again, at, at, at 44 years old, to be doing this in my life.

[02:09:37] So to pick for your 44th birthday, given the spectrum of things that a lot of people pick to do, you know, a lot of people, a lot of people pick the, you know, total relaxation. I'm, I'm going to go veg out on the beach or I'm going to go hang out at some, uh, retreat place and, you know, eat fancy stuff and just like, you know, uh, hang around, get a massage, get a, this, get a, that.

[02:10:03] Um, but you go out, you push the limit, you hike Killington, you hike, uh, Ellen and Abraham, you know, the pods you're on the verge of bonking. You get back to the car, you're drenched, right? You, uh, don't hike camel's hump the next day. Was it really a refreshing weekend? Did it really recharge you? Did it like give you a fresh start on like life going into age 44? Fuck yeah.

[02:10:31] I thoroughly enjoyed it. Something as, why as basic as hiking, your rationing, uh, your water. Um, why is that something that you find rejuvenating? Is it because it's real? Like speaking of bonking out, I think you're, you're, you're. Cause you, you learn who you are. Yeah.

[02:10:58] And you're like, your, your internet is slowing down a little bit. So is it? Yeah. But, but that's okay. That's okay. No, no, no. Um, yeah. So, uh, it just, like you said, it recharged my batteries. Like it just, it makes me feel real that I'm alive. That, uh, you know, there's a summit marker on the top that says potato hill, 1973 on the

[02:11:23] top of, of Mount Abraham and to think that people did that in 1973 with jeans. And I don't even know what fucking backpacks they had. I can't say Jan sports cause Jan sport was the eighties. Like what the beer? Like it's just insane. Yeah. It's 73. We had Kelty. It was a big, was it? Yeah. Wow.

[02:11:46] I mean, it's just, it's just to think like, I, I, I can do this at 44 years old and, and then just feel rejuvenated to be able to feel that there's more in life than just fucking work. Fuck work. Like, like once again, that's why I did this is because like, I have sick time and you know, fuck fuck work. Like I need to recharge. I need to do what I want.

[02:12:16] I need to do what I can. And to have a, a life that I enjoy instead of a life that I will look back on and be like, man, I should have done this. Like it's, it's, it's like that Jack Kerouac quote that I, I pulled out the last show with a midlife hike this, you know, it's not about the time you spend in the office. It's about the time you spend climbing the mountain. Right.

[02:12:45] Which bring, which brings me to one of my more favorite quotes from Muhammad Ali. Do you know who Muhammad Ali is? Yeah. Famous boxer. Heavyweight champion. I think three times he had a, win, win the championship. Uh, the most famous, one of the most famous photos worldwide of when he's like looking down on the guy saying like, I don't even know what he's saying. Like, fuck you. I did this. Yeah. He's just being Muhammad Ali bad-ass. Yeah.

[02:13:14] Um, but Muhammad was, uh, you know, pretty intellectual introspective guy. Um, you know, uh, was I think ahead of his times in a lot of ways, but one of the things he, he's famous for saying is the man who views the world at 50, the same as he did at 20 is wasted 30 years of his life. Okay.

[02:13:40] So, um, I like that quote is something I mentioned to my daughters many times and I bring it up for you, not that you're, you didn't turn 50, right? Uh, so we can ask you how your 50 year old self would view this and respond to this. But let's look at this from a different perspective. Your 20 year old self, right?

[02:14:04] If your 20 year old self were to see you getting into your car, sat after that, right? Uh, um, but getting back car, what is your 20 year old self say about 44, 44 year old Stosh? Crazy. You're crazy, man. Yeah.

[02:14:28] Does he, does he recognize this 44 year old guy hopping into the Tesla all sweaty? No, not at all. Who, yeah. Who, who did, who did the, who does the 20 year old Stosh see? What did, what did the 20 year old Stosh envision the ideal 44 year birthday as being? A freaking punk rocker, like rock and roll person, maybe trying to make a living off

[02:14:58] of, uh, bands and stuff like that, that he had no talent in. Selling bootleg tapes. Correct. Were those the thing back when you were 20? Correct. CDs, handing out free CDs, hoping that they, they downloaded on freaking, uh, my space. So what's changed in terms of your view of the world? My view of, uh, my view of corporate America.

[02:15:24] Well, your view of the world in general, whether it's corporate America or social systems, government, interpersonal relationships, you know, what is it that from your 20 year old self to the present, what's been the transformation, the guy who would want to hang out at a metal concert and be in a band or follow a band, work with the band and, and be kind of as far removed

[02:15:49] from nature in the tranquility of the wilderness as possible to a guy who is going to hike to the furthest point away from his car as he can on a hot day, climbing up over a few mountains. When he turns 44 and not turning around when the tough gets going, he keeps pushing it. He makes it out there. It goes a little bit further. He hangs out, recharges, hikes back. How's, how's your view of the world changed?

[02:16:19] Why'd you want plug from the band stuff and segue eventually over to the wilderness? What does it give you that you didn't get when you were 20? Hmm. What don't, what don't you need anymore that you get now outdoors? That's a good question. Holy shit.

[02:16:41] Um, I think the simplicity of being outdoors, that it requires minimal to do somewhat, except for like the, or your physical activity. But as in terms of like life and work and stuff, you have to contemplate when you got to go to work, when you got to leave work, what you got to do for lunch, what you got to clock back in. We got to bring for lunch.

[02:17:08] We got to bring for breakfast, but you gotta make for dinner and stuff like that. When out in the woods, let's just go. You'll eat what you have. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you meet some people that you'll never see again in life. Um, hopefully you'll meet someone that you might meet again in life that has the same value as if you do, you know, it's, I dunno, that, that whole perspective of when I was 20 years old to 44 years old.

[02:17:36] Like once again, I was, I thought I would make a living and fricking music. And then I realized that shit, shit wasn't there. And I'm like, well, I gotta make a living somehow. So let me work hard. And then, uh, all of a sudden, you know, uh, nature came into place and that kind of offset

[02:17:59] my need to work hard to, uh, kind of balance my life with the way working hard, making money money to just living a life that would comfortable. And like, I could go out once a week and hike and kind of reset myself for corporate America. That's stealing my money and shit. And you know, whatever. I'm I'm I only live to be so, so old.

[02:18:28] So I gotta live it while I can. Yeah. Well, that makes sense. Yeah, it does. You know, I mean, I resonate with that. I resonate with it in a lot of different ways and perspectives. And let's go back to Muhammad Muhammad Ali, who said, you know, the man who views the world at 50, the same as he did when he was 20 is wasted the last 30 years of his life. So you're 44. You got six to go till you turn 50, which is in a number of ways, a big milestone.

[02:18:56] And in my opinion, because I've transitioned through age 50, it was a, I was still very athletic at the time. Uh, and when I say athletic, I was athletic in a very plugged in way because I was still competitively racing a bicycle. Uh, so I was collecting all of this data in terms of fitness and performance. And, you know, I noticed, you know, my performance started to go down following that, you know,

[02:19:25] as your body ages and doesn't respond as well. So you got six years to go, right? And when you turn 50, you're going to look back and hopefully say you haven't wasted the last 30 years of your life. But sitting here today, what is it that you feel that you need to either accomplish or set in motion over the next six years?

[02:19:53] So when you turn 50, you can say, damn it. I haven't wasted the last 30 years of my life. What's on that agenda? I don't know. Uh, giving a big middle finger to corporate America and, uh, living my life on the road. Somewhat. I mean, that's the, that's the RV dream. Yes, it's, it's a dream.

[02:20:19] But once again, we want to be here with our parents as much as we can. Sure. Love our parents. So, um, but then our parents are like, why don't you just live your dreams? And that's tough decision. Like, do you be with your, it's, it's tough, isn't it? Well, yes and no. Cause I've had that conversation with both my kids and is most of our listeners, if not

[02:20:47] all of them know, uh, my oldest daughter, uh, who's 26 does. And my wife hates it when I say this, but she does live out of her car. You know, she'll camp in a tent. Uh, she'll still rent houses from time to time. You know, she in Spain was staying in a farmhouse as an example, but most of the time she's in her tent traveling, sleeping in her car from place to place. Um, right now she's in Wyoming.

[02:21:15] She's been there for a while, uh, living out of a tent and she is living her dream. And this goes back to, I remember when she was home on a college break, she was sitting in the recliner in the living room. My wife and I were on the couch and we were talking about what she was going to do when she graduated. And she just said, I'm not willing to give up on my dreams.

[02:21:46] So she started at age 22 doing this stuff. And is her parent. Yeah. I miss her. Right. On the one hand, on the other hand, my kids out there living her dream. Right. She's happy. You see these pictures of her. You can tell that's a such a, that's a smile. So genuine. It's like that visa commercial. You can't buy that. Right. Yeah. You can't go to a spa and put that smile on your face.

[02:22:16] You, you talk about somebody whose life is simple. You know, a watch is not important to them. Sun's up. You're up. Sun's down. You're going to bed. So what is your, your, your parents? I mean, you can always come back and visit your parents. You can always fly back, you know, in, in time of a crisis. My mother, um, you know, I, she was able to stay in the family farmhouse, you know, up until about two years before she passed away.

[02:22:42] And I had all sorts of different means and methods of checking in on her, providing for her, keeping tabs on her and whatnot. You know, um, I even had friends with airplanes, you know, right? Little private planes that could get me up there. So do you think in the next six years while mom and dad are still alive, you're going to unplug from the corporate America that you're going to give, you want to give the middle finger to, and you and Jessica are going to get out there.

[02:23:12] I level. Yeah. Well, I mean, there's, there's practical constraints on that, but I think the important thing, um, is for people really to sit down like my younger daughter who does work part time goes to, she's a little bit of a job. She's a master's program full time. It's one of these, you know, year round programs, no summer break, no winter break. It's just, you know, one class at a time back to back.

[02:23:39] Uh, but she does carve out a lot of time to take time off. Right. So she might not be out for four weeks in a row traveling, but she'll be out for a week or two every two months. That's a lot. That's a lot more than most Americans do. Definitely. So I think, I think that's an important thing to, to, to get.

[02:23:59] The pen and pencil or pen and paper out and try to figure out, map out, you know, how you can maximize time off and to get away. Cause your job will be there for another job when you come back. Mm-hmm . And I, that's one of my life lessons is to try to live a, they talk, everybody talks about the, the work life balance. Yeah. And they don't mean an equal parts.

[02:24:26] And for most people it's five parts work, two parts life, right? Monday through Friday work, Saturday, Sunday life. That's how most Americans live at five on two off. And the younger you are, the better able you are to charter a course where you can flip that and maybe get four days off three days on. If you can. That's my daughter, Sydney.

[02:24:51] That's generally her schedule is to work three days in a row. And sometimes she'll, she'll do six days in a row and get eight days off. Right. Which is great. Cause you then can go away for a week, but hopefully you and Jessica can configure something out where you guys can get in sync to get away. Do some excursions like your Florida trip. You can get up to Vermont, New Hampshire, the Adirondacks and do some of these long weekends.

[02:25:16] Maybe hook up with somebody who doesn't have a shoulder injury to go with you and help pace you on these trips. You'll be out of it soon. Yeah. Well, you know, but my, my thing is, you know, at the ripe old age of 63 is I look at a lot of younger people who are either they're focused on a career or they have a level of debt. That chains them to a job. Correct.

[02:25:43] And because of the, the debt or because they want to build some career. Next thing you know, they wake up with their 50 years old and they got Muhammad Ali's voice in the back of their head. Did you waste the last 30 years of your life? Cause the next 30 years of your life from age 50 to 80, those aren't the best 30 years of your life. Right.

[02:26:06] You, you, you're approaching the tail end, you know, from age 44 to 45, maybe 44 to 60. Right. Those are really the best years after age 60. I don't care what anybody says starts to go downhill. Right. Right. Look at me. I'm all banged up now. I'm just 63. So you'll be fine, buddy. Yeah. Whatever. As long as I have my microphone in a, a cold year.

[02:26:35] I'm a okay. It's not about the mountains. It's about the podcast. Okay. So anything else you want to throw in? I just want to throw in that, that Vermont is so much fun and you know, it's not a crazy trip. Uh, as far as the New Hampshire and stuff and that everybody should enjoy it. Check out the local towns and purchase from your local challenge towns and stuff like that up there, because it's just, once again, it's, it's just like the cats.

[02:27:05] It's goes just a little bit more pointier mountains, I would say. And it's just the trails are the very, very similar. It's just uppity up, beautiful stuff, uh, open summits, beautiful views and it's green, green, green, green, green. It's I love it. So that's it. That's it. It's four hours away for you. Yeah. Right. Yeah. It's good in a Tesla in a fricking electric vehicle. Yeah. Some people drive over three hours just to get to the cat skills. Right. Right. I mean, yeah.

[02:27:35] All right. Well, I'm glad you had a good time. I'm glad you, you hit the limit more or less at age 44 to know where you are in life and that you're looking forward to the next one. Well, thank you. Happy birthday. Well, thank you. And I thank you for, for breaking this down for me and stuff like that. So once again, I didn't have to do this alone and would, uh, hopefully people inspire people to get out at, at whatever age they are. Yeah.

[02:28:01] And they're fucking just kick ass and just do what they want instead of following. Yeah. I'm just saying, following the rules or racking up those vacation times and just leaving it all to nothing. Because use those vacation times, get out and do what you want to do because that's what it's all about. The vacation time is not there for you. The company to take back. It's for there for you to use and for you to fucking abolish and do whatever you want. Yeah. That's yeah. Rage in the machine.

[02:28:30] Rage against the machine. Motherfuckers. Yeah. All right. You go. So last but not least, thank you, Tad, for, for joining me tonight and for interviewing me tonight. I really appreciate it. I had a good time. You're welcome, buddy. And thank you to also the monthly supporters and monthly sponsor of the show. You guys are phenomenal. And thank you to everybody who's donated to the show and everyone who is still listening, once again, 231 episodes in.

[02:28:58] Thought about this episode, this podcast five years ago, and it's blossomed into this that I cannot even imagine. So yeah. Well, Tad has joined me. It's just, it's phenomenal. Who's on next week? Who is on next week? Andrew Kolzowski, guy who is a geologist.

[02:29:17] He's talking about a new study that has formed in up the upper Catskills area, the Skahari area, about the Galboa Lake, Glacial Lake, new studies that they have wanted to preach and teach about. And we'll talk about geology in the Catskills. So it's going to be good. Yeah. We're going to feed your head with Catskill geomorphology. Correct. Correct. And that's, and you'll say that it's because I don't know how to fucking say that. So geomorphology.

[02:29:47] So there you go. Thank you, Tad. Once again, have a good night. Enjoy. Go to the bathroom. 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.

[02:30:11] 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 gotta just keep on living in the Catskills, man. L-I-V-I-N Wicked. Wicked. Wicked. Wicked. Wicked. Wicked.