Welcome to the backpacking podcast brought to you by Outdoor Vitals, makers of Performance First Ultralight Gear.

I'm John Kelly.

That's Jeremiah Stringer.

We are so glad to be here today with you on Halloween, Jeremiah.

How are you doing, my friend?

I'm doing great, man.

I love your costume.

It's a it's a a Cleveland Browns jersey.

He's got a box on his head.

The head on the forehead just says why in big letters from the question mark and then the eyes cut out dude.

How's my life, man?

I had to cut a slip for the mouth so you could actually hear me through the microphone.

Yeah, how's the coffee taste through that thing?

Oh, it looks it.

Doesn't work.

It doesn't work.

I'm gonna have to take this thing off, but yeah, yeah.

Dude, we've had, I don't know how you could hear me.

I guess he's got his headphones on under.

The Oh yeah, the headphones are on under the box.

The headphones are definitely on under the box.

Unfortunately, whenever UK played Tennessee in football last week, I saw people wearing those kind of outfits.

Man, I saw a bag over the head.

It's embarrassing.

Oh, man, it's so bad right now.

Like it's just so, so bad.

Our our best player, Miles Garrett, had five sacks, broke a franchise record, and he couldn't even celebrate because we played so bad.

He slammed his helmet on the ground.

I was furious the whole game.

And he just broke a Cleveland Browns record.

He also became the fastest player in NFL history to hit.

He's got he's got more sacks than anybody under the age of 30.

Can you believe that stuff?

And we suck.

We're terrible.

I could see from your outfit there's always next season buddy.

You know, it's funny to say that in fantasy football, the name of my team is there's always next year.

It's so fitting.

It's fitting.

It's fitting.

OK, I'm gonna get this thing off so I can actually like, drink some coffee and chat for a little bit.

Yeah, people listen to this episode.

They're like, what?

The sound quality really went down since the last episode.

John's been talking through that.

Fox.

There we go.

There we go.

Now.

Now we're back to normal a little bit.

OK, there we go.

Let me say a quick word from Outdoor Vitals, and I'll tell you about my costume.

We'll look at a couple pictures, too.

Look at that.

Coffee makes me poop.

Yeah, I love the mug.

Love the mug.

I was going to say thank you outdoorvitals.com for sponsoring this episode and I'll tell you all they have some amazing deals coming up.

If you're looking for some gear, the backpacking season is upon us, so we have a a link you can click through and be the first one to know whenever these deals are on the way.

Huge Black Friday sale coming up.

Don't have the dates for you yet.

They haven't been released.

But if you want to be the first one to know, click through that link.

And also the Vantage Alpine jacket.

That thing has in the last week has been my go to jacket because the weather has turned here in Kentucky and it is freezing.

It's like 4043° yesterday.

It's.

Not quite freezing, but considering it was like 90° three weeks ago, it feels like freezing that's for sure.

Yeah, big turd.

So I've actually broken out that jacket, the vintage Alpine jacket.

And if you all want to save $50 on the jacket, we have an exclusive link, so check the description and you can click both or either of those linksoutdoorvitals.com.

Huge shout out to them.

Yeah, thank you, Outdoor Vitals.

Thank you for being a awesome sponsor, Jeremiah.

We got some folks in here just saying hi right now.

Suga Canada Denzis woot woot Goy's hiking says hey, Sean R is in here saying hello and when he saw the the the thing on my head he goes.

Is he from LFLMFAO?

Great band, great band.

Great band, great band.

Are they still together?

I don't know, I highly doubt it.

They had two songs.

Yeah, the old two hit wonder.

They they weren't a one hit wonder, they were a two hit wonder.

So yeah.

So anyways, we got to get a question real quick.

Any thoughts on the Pursuit fleece hoodie from Ovi?

Don't yet because I don't have it yet.

Yeah, my thoughts are I had, I've had COVID over well since last week.

I finally have and I was supposed to send over my preferences on sizes and colors.

A little secret here, I haven't told outdoor vitals yet that I've had COVID and that's why I've missed myself.

Induced deadline of sending over so I could try out that fleece.

But I'm excited to put it on and break it out for these winter months up to come because I try to get out every Black Friday to do a backpacking trip.

It's kind of like my little reward to to hack off all those calories after just engorging myself over Thanksgiving.

So I'm I'd love to give it by then so that I could break it out for that trip because you know, it's going to be cold.

End of November, man.

Oh yeah.

And we're not even when it really gets cold.

It's when we get the halfway through January and we get to that January, February into the first week of March kind of time.

That's that's when the stuff gets cold, man.

I'll tell you the biggest way that I know that that's when the coldest months are here is my electric bill.

It shows like the bar graph and it's like, oh, not too expensive, not too expensive.

And then like January and February it's like oh, double the price and you're like yeah, right, right.

That checks out.

That checks out.

Oh, I forgot to say my costume.

Dude.

Could you put the .5 image that the funny looking one that I sent you up?

Look at that.

It's a little bit hard to see, but I have a black wig on my red beard.

Big red beard.

Still didn't spray yet.

I've done that in the past.

I got to tell you, I cannot endorse it.

What is what?

Is the bar with the with the?

What is that?

That is my barbell dude.

You can't see the other side.

You'll be able to see it.

It's a balloon on the end.

Hey, man, people, people are listening to this episode.

They wouldn't have known that it's a balloon.

That's a barbell.

Yeah.

Can you show the other?

Picture I'm telling you that's that's one heck of a barbell.

Yeah, let me get these off of here so they can see it.

So these are my work friends.

That's a few people that are in the department that I work with, math department at my school and I am the the like the strong weightlifting bodybuilder guy in the circus.

Like a stereotypical 1.

I got a white belt, I got my barbell, my shorts, my tank top and this big flowing black wig.

And can I tell you what I thought you were?

Oh, no, because I had no clue that was a barbell.

I had no clue that was a barbell.

You know what it looked like to me?

It looked like somebody was getting ready to try out for American Gladiators, and that was like the bugle stick where they knock each other off of the the thing.

Yeah, I.

You're like, you have a big black Q-tip.

It's a guy who's got really dirty ears.

Man, I had no clue what that was.

A barbell.

I apologize.

I didn't pick up on that one so my bad.

Has has your has your kids been saying 6-7 all the time?

Are they old enough for that?

6-7, yeah.

Yeah, OK.

Well, that's what's on.

It's 67 kilograms.

I put 6.

OK, so we're doing math.

We're doing math the other day and my daughter, she's counting.

She has 12345678910.

I was like, are you kidding me?

Are you kidding me right now?

Well I think the parents are single handedly killing the old 6-7 meme and by the time Halloween's over that'll be the final nail in the coffin I'm pretty sure.

You're getting some love here, man.

Noise hiking says 40°F.

That's T-shirt weather.

My goldfish, Drown says math teachers are dorks.

Well, you didn't see the other departments how they did the office.

Was.

That's probably.

There were spices and condiments.

It's yeah.

The special Ed team last year were all the Toy Story figures.

It's we go all out, man, all the kids.

Rest up.

We had a good day.

You were also called.

Oh, wait a second.

That wasn't it.

It switched on me here.

A really masculine Jesse Murph.

Jesse Murph.

Who's Jesse Murph?

I don't know, I want to find out.

Yeah, let me give him a quick do.

It's probably probably one of the most handsome people to ever live if I had to guess.

American singer and songwriter.

It's a chick.

What the heck?

What the heck?

One year old chick.

Oh, thank you.

Chicken Little tricks, man, We needed that.

That was great.

Yeah.

This is.

This is Jesse Murph right here.

This is Jesse.

Yeah.

And if you're listening, you can watch on YouTube or on Spotify if you want to see the video version of any of these episodes, you can get a real taste A.

Really masculine, Jessie Murray.

It's the black hair.

It's the black hair.

Yeah, that's what it is.

Yeah.

And the red beard, That's yeah.

Well, she definitely has a red beard, that's for sure.

We got this.

The wild.

One song that's a good.

Yeah, it is.

So, OK, we got, we got some something to talk about today because it is Halloween.

So I think I think we should stick with the theme of Halloween just at least here for a little bit.

I know we'll get off it because we're never good at staying on topic.

But but you sent this article and I want to throw this up on the screen because I think this is fantastic.

It's 11 Halloween costumes hikers will actually find scary.

And so when you sent this to me, I was like, oh, I've got to read this.

I've got to read this.

And yeah, it did not disappoint.

Real quick.

We got a couple.

It was definitely the black hair.

According to a Chicken Little Trex and Rachel Jean, the Gypsy Queen, she goes, I thought you were a Powerpuff Girl.

Oh my gosh.

Well, actually that checks out too.

I remember The Powerpuff Girls.

Oh.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

All right, so let let's go through these.

The very first.

I'm going to read the definitions too, because this is from a backpacker magazine.

The first one is the heel blister.

That's the costume.

All blisters are bad, but a full width heel blister, angry, throbbing and rub against the back of your shoe with every step is the hiking God's way of punishing backpackers for the hubris of believing we can ignore a hotspot and get away with it.

Dress up in a foot costume and type a large red balloon to the bottom.

You want a You want a long trail?

A quick long trail story about the old heel blister.

It wouldn't be the backpacking podcast if we didn't have one.

Man, I'm still riding on this long trail.

Here, here we.

Go here we go.

Take a seat.

Everybody We had this guy named Birdie and his real name's Nick.

But Birdie's way cooler.

He'd get up early.

He's he was the early bird.

And so for short, we start calling him Birdie and he had no idea anything about backpacking.

Actually Caveman the year prior had done the Appalachian Trail, the whole thing.

And then he asked Birdie if he wanted to go on it.

And Birdie, just to paint a picture.

Big mustache, right?

He's a a stereotypical Stoner type.

He's got the long hair, he's got a big mustache.

He carries a guitar with him everywhere, just sits and plays.

He he roams from here to there.

He's he's I think he's got a little more purpose now.

He's starting to grow up a little bit more.

But you know, he's floating here to there and he all he cares about his music and he's really, really good at playing guitar and singing too, but very alternative.

Well, he bought these just, you know, hiking boots to take with him on the long trail with caveman borrowed some gear.

Here he is out there.

No under quilt.

He was in a hammock.

He got a sleeping pad and he's sleeping on the sleeping pad.

But for the hill blister, dude, when I ran into him, he had the nastiest hill blister I've ever seen.

It's the kind where it's like layers deep into the back of your heel and it's like literally starting to eat away.

And luckily we had Nurse with us and all of our group kind of formed our little trail family.

And Nurse Ratchet is what she went by.

Her real name's Nancy.

But of course, Nurse Ratchet's way cooler from one flu and she ended up cleaning it up, putting her magic salve on there.

Magic Salve.

Salve.

No salve, you must be from somewhere else.

Is this more linguistic races?

This is, I think, do you call it salmon, Salmonella.

No salmon like the fish.

Do you call it salmon or salmon?

Oh, I'll call it salmon.

OK, so it's salmon?

Oh, it's salve, I think is.

Yeah, I know.

I'm just giving a hard time in.

I know, I know.

It's good.

It's good.

But yeah, dude, luckily she was with us and then every day we were sleeping at the same shelters together.

So he, he'll, this would have taken him off the trail.

Dude, We were only a week or so in, actually only probably like four or five days in and she cleaned it up for him and checked on it every day and would rebandage it every morning for him and she saved him from leaving the trail because he'll blisters.

Dude, that's just not any blister.

Those are nasty, nasty, nasty.

I can definitely see why they put it on the list there.

Well, I, I'm, I'm going to, this is going to grow some people out.

So I'm just going to go ahead and warn you in advance.

This may gross you out, but I'm going to show you something here.

This was see if I can if I can get this blister so you can see these were my feet on the shell toe Y That was a huge blister just under my front toes.

There's the heel blister.

Oh, that's.

Nasty dad.

We should have told everybody skip ahead like 5 minutes in the episode if they.

Don't see this, that right there that that was that was a very, that was very real.

Yeah, let's see that.

Let me see that big old nasty heel.

Let.

Me.

Let me.

OK, It's coming back.

Are you ready for this?

If we can make somebody throw up in the comments here, that's it right there.

Yeah, dude, that is disgusting.

And it's really it's to to the right side.

You must have a lot of rubbing over there on the right side.

You know, honestly man, I'm going to be honest with you, I that was the last time I ever wore ultras hiking.

They're the only hiking shoes I've ever used that have blistered my feet like that.

And they just the way they fit my feet, the way they fit my feet.

I can't get them to tighten up enough not to rub.

It was it was pretty good.

Oh look at this Chicken Little tracks I'm taking screenshots for selling.

Oh no, people are going to sell our what is it with us and these foot photography we got going on.

I'll tell you what, if anybody wants to buy that one, they got a problem backpacking with Buckley's on here.

What's up, Buckley?

It's good to see you, buddy.

So.

Yeah, man.

So.

So you were.

You had a story to tell about.

I'll just show you.

It was nasty.

I'm glad I didn't have.

Pictures, dude.

Disgusting.

Starting to get infected.

Yeah, it's bad.

All right, got the next one.

Are you ready for this next one?

So we talked about the heel blister.

We talked about the heel blister.

Well, now we've got the Appalachian Trail shelter rodent.

Few hikers will have their food bags swiped by bears, but many more will experience the lesser horror of waking up in a shelter to find a hole in their pack and their trail mix scattered across the floor like confetti alongside a heaping helping of mouse or chipmunk poop.

Pay homage to the trails true great, true greatest menace by putting on a rodent costume of your choice, waiting until your roommates or children are asleep, and then eating any candy they left within your reach.

That's my play of the night, man.

Our son's 15 months old.

He.

Can't eat any of it.

You're one of those parents that you're taking your kid trick or treating because you think they'll look cute in a costume and you want all the candy.

Bro, you nailed.

I could not have said it better than I.

Smell.

Trust me, we've all done it.

We have all done it.

Well, I'm not going to get very many of very many of these.

You can steal all your kids candy.

I've already gotten one.

I got lucky.

He's born in July.

So this is this is the second Halloween and now, you know, next year he's probably going to want to eat all that candy.

Oh yeah, he'll be two.

He's going to want it, and he'll let you know it.

Give me.

What's the strategy, John?

How do I trick him into as a, as a, as a experienced father of two who's already lived through multiple Halloweens with each of their kids, not only individually with the first one, but also together?

How do you just like, you know, as a parent, you're like, I know they don't like these, so let's just sort that out.

What's the strategy?

Well, we found out that if our kids eat too much candy, they get sick.

Like they really do.

Like it's sick of the stomach, it's bad.

But if we limit them to one or two pieces a day, oh wait, my son's telling me something.

Bye, buddy.

They're going to the friend's house.

I told him to wave at me and let me know when they were leaving.

So anyways, so I, I kind of have a thing where I, they get one or two pieces of candy a day after Halloween.

And I have a dad tax and it's a very well established, well known dad tax.

And the kids, my son will actually go, here's your dad tax and hand me a piece of candy.

So yeah.

I love it.

It's it's.

They each get 2 and I get one from each of them, which means I get 2 and my wife gets one from each of them.

So she everybody gets 2.

It's just a, it's just a good trade off.

We all just share that way, you know.

OK, so I got to ingrain it in early, this dad tax.

Oh, dad tax is important.

Dad tax is important.

Yeah, Don't, don't, don't void the dad tax.

It's very important.

Like the chicken Little tricks right here.

My kids are 6 and 8 and I still get a dad tax.

Yeah, y'all got it figured out on that one.

I think it's a good idea.

Yeah, I love It's necessary.

Right now tonight I'm going to charge 100% dad tax and I think I may give you, I might give him just a little nibble.

By the way, on the the shelter going back to the Halloween costumes here.

The rodents in the shelter, dude, if they're I guess you get desensitized to it a little bit if you stay in the shelters and you get mice crawling on you and waking you up.

But it still gives me the icky feeling because you're thinking these mice are living here around the shelter because there's food, because there's people coming in and out.

So they like crawl across you.

And I can't remember, it might have been a guest that we had on here actually not too long ago was telling us, oh, I.

Remember now they leave space on their pad for to crawl behind them.

Yeah, Metro's the one saying this.

A little pro hack brought to you by Metro on the Move and Chris Oconee, They both done the Appalachian Trail this year.

Can't remember what episode we interviewed them, but if you Google backpacking podcast Metro on the Move, it'll pop up.

Yeah, they said leave a little gap between your pad and the shelter wall so that the mice have a route to run because you, you got to think they're leaving poop and pee everywhere that they're going.

So if they're crawling across your pad, you.

Really don't want to face.

Or your face.

You don't want that stuff getting in your mouth, right?

So leave a little space in between.

That's a good idea.

And and also a scary costume.

Disgusting.

I think it's disgusting.

All right, next one, the lazy bear hang.

While it's not as secure as a canister and not allowed everywhere, a good bear hang 10 feet from the trunk and 15 feet from the ground can go a long way toward keeping your smellables out of reach of hungry Bruins.

This is not that.

Dress up in brown pants and a green fuzzy top.

Tie a length of paracord around the top of your trick or treat bag or purse.

Sling it over your shoulder and lower it until it's just above your knees.

For extra effect, pin a stuffed bare to your pant leg.

This is a ridiculous thing down bad.

I was going to ask you actually, I don't I don't know if you've seen it yet or not.

Mr.

Backpack, when Jason Sir brought it to the the YouTube meet up earlier this month.

He has this new bear sack.

That's not a nurse sack.

It's a different.

Brain it, yeah.

So I told him I I don't think I can buy stock in this bro.

I was like, if I'm hanging this up and even though a bear is not getting through it, I'm pretty sure it's going to smash every bit of food I have in there.

So what good is it going to do if I'm two days deep, you know, in the woods and I got to hike out and the whole time I'm eating smashed food just to get out of there?

That doesn't sound like a great experience.

I get that it's claw proof, bot proof and everything but it's going to ruin my food.

Oh, and you're going to have nasty, smelly bear saliva all over it.

And I mean, think about it, It's really not.

I hear, I hear that bears eat salmon.

So you.

Don't want?

You don't want.

That raw salmon we'll.

Rub.

We'll rub some salve on it.

Yeah, yeah.

All right.

The next one.

This one is.

This one's for you, Jeremiah.

This one's all for you.

Are you ready for this?

Yeah, hit me with it.

Guy blasting music on Bluetooth speaker playing music out loud on the trail instead of using headphones as a controversial practice.

And like many controversies, one side is right and the other is wrong.

From the moments the first notes of whatever SoundCloud rapper or jam band bootleg Bluetooth speaker guys listening to washes over them, to the second it disappears into the distance.

He is any reasonable hikers arch nemesis.

Dress up as one of history's greatest villains by putting on a pair of basketball shorts, knock off Ray Bans, taking off your shirt and parading around the neighborhood blasting the worst tunes you can think of right out of your JBL.

Hold on a second, who wrote this article?

Let me.

The The writer was actually somebody we had on the show with us, so.

Yeah, the editor in chief.

What the heck, bro?

You, you don't like people blaring Bluetooth speaker music as they're walking down the trail Now I get it, dude.

I, I have seen so many people now they got the tiny little Bluetooth speaker and they like, put it right here in a clip.

He's talking about something else.

You know, he's talking.

He's a bit being a bit hyperbolic.

I get it.

Those people are annoying that are just blaring the music, but I'm perfectly fine if you want the the tiny little speaker and that's I get it.

There is an argument for it.

My argument for it is you don't want headphones in and other people are like, well, buy those.

Have you tried those?

They call them bone conduction.

Yeah, I haven't tried them, but I know what you're talking about.

I've tried them and I got to say not my favorites.

And also, people can still hear from those headphones.

I mean, not as good, but it's not like a JBL speaker.

But Oh yeah, you're standing next to somebody and they got one of those cranked.

You can still hear it.

It's not like there's no sound pollution.

But I get it.

I get it.

I'm with him there on the JBL and all that.

Well, an Adam, Adam Roy is the is the editor in chief for a backpacker magazine and he's just a good writer, man.

He just he's a very good, good writer.

So OK, let's go to the next one.

This one.

I think we can all agree we would hate tremendously.

And that is the pop up thunderstorm.

Everyone who's hiked in the mountains for long enough knows the dread of hearing Thunder rumble off in the distance when you're above tree line.

Put on a Gray sweatshirt over black pants and stuff it full of rags or pillows, then wield a lightning bolt threateningly at anyone who isn't paying attention.

These are actually scary bro.

We were in Colorado at like 11,012 thousand foot and it's noon and one of those storms roll in and you're like oh gosh, help me set up his tarp before we get held on.

You literally have hell falling as you're setting this up and you see the clouds rolling in.

The lightning is starting to strike and you're like I got nowhere to go.

That right there is a legit scary.

I remember, I remember on Kilimanjaro, 16,000 feet, there is no like quick get out.

There is no tree line near you anywhere.

There is no tree line.

Just don't die.

But you would see from a distance, you could see the rain off in the distance.

We were lucky enough and, and fortunate enough that that it never actually hit us, but we saw rain like massive storms going away from us.

We, we got rained on a lot while we were up on the mountain, but we never had to worry about storms.

Thank the Lord, because it would have been bad, really bad.

Stone Dave Adventures is in here, by the way.

Oh what up?

Hey Yens, you seem to have a like a knack for avoiding these thunderstorms.

I know you told a few weeks ago story on here that you all literally made it back to the car as is about the downpour.

I want to know how you do.

I only have a knack for it because my we're bringing up our old hikes, but Sheltoie Trace, first four days on the South end of the Sheltoie Trace, all thunderstorms the whole time.

It never stopped for four straight days.

We had to take high water routes because we couldn't hike over certain sections of the trail.

We had like my entire my tent the first night, everything inside was wet because we had hiked and it was hot and it started raining.

And so the condensation on the inside was so warm and it was so cold with the rain that every time the rain hit the tent, the condensation would drip down and it would rain on me inside the tent.

So I, I, there was nothing.

I was just, it was those first four days made me so weather aware.

It's ridiculous.

So yeah, yeah, I, I'm hardcore about like, I don't want to be out in thunderstorms.

Now I've that doesn't mean I haven't been out in them since, but I got a pretty good record for avoiding them as much as possible, so.

Isn't that crazy?

Like the trail christening you is You got baptism by fire, by rain.

Like it was baptism by water, that's for sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

OK.

What you got some good comments.

You will go to the next.

One I'm I'm looking over here, not right now, not yet.

I'm sure we're going to get some here in a second because the next one is a great one.

This is the Widowmaker.

This is the rare costume that's both scary and educational.

Hikers have close calls with the Widowmakers.

Dead trees that drop branches are just straight up topple over.

Tents, camp chairs and sometimes unlucky backpackers every year save a life by putting on a tree costume and looming menacingly over anyone who stands close to you.

Scary stuff man.

What we've told on here before about having Rue Mackendrick on and he shared with us he had a widowmaker fall and knock him unconscious for like 16 hours and he woke up and he's literally just like wrapped up in his hammock laying on the ground.

You could.

With a tree on top of him.

Tree on top of him and if it was cold out hypothermia could kill you.

Oh yeah.

They're not waking up, dude.

I mean, he got lucky on that one.

Widowmakers, dude.

Yeah, I'll be honest, I remember hiking in the Smokies with my buddy Josh and it had rained all day and we were up on this like really cool campsite.

But we hear crack, crack.

And probably 50 feet from us on the other side of the Creek, we see this massive tree just fall.

And I mean, it took out everything in its wake.

Like everything it within 50 feet of it was taken out.

It was wild watching it because normally you you see trees where trees have fallen, but rarely are you actually in the woods when those massive trees fall.

And we were there and watched one of them go down and it scared the ever loving crap out of us.

So yeah, you.

You don't realize how much force is behind those things until you witness it with your own eyes.

Well, a tree that weighs a few 1000 lbs falling can do some damage.

Just wipe out everything's path taking out other trees, it'll kill you.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

Well, funny story, not funny story.

That's actually the wrong way to put this.

I actually had a cousin who was a lumberjack and he died in a in an accident with logging where a tree literally fell and killed him.

So wow, it's it's very real.

It's it's, it's not to mess around with.

So don't be a widow maker.

Don't dress up like that this year.

That's not nice.

OK, this is a good one.

This is a good one because I think this could be every backpacker who's gone, who's been out a lot.

We'll put it that way.

The tent stake you forgot at home.

Not everyone likes going out on Halloween, and you know what?

That's just fine.

Introverts can get into the holiday spirit by buying or making a pencil costume, painting it entirely red, and laying on their couch the entire night while every else when everyone else wonders where they are.

Yeah, the, you know, I'm not too worried about the tent stakes, though, because I've forgotten all of them before.

Oh, yeah, I have now come up with a system where it's a lot harder to forget them just the way that I packed my gear and what I put with like what I pair together.

So I try to be strategic.

But if you forget your tent stakes and you got a knife, especially if it's not one of those little wimpy knives, you know how like if you're going really ultralight, some people bring like a 3D printed little, how long is a razor blade?

Like a couple inches, right.

So they'll, they'll bring the 3D printed razor blade holder and so you can pop it out and flip it around and then you only have the razor blade and the 3D printed thing and you're like, how do I cut anything with this?

If you got one of those little wimpy knives that don't work.

But if you have like an actual knife, even just a regular pocket knife, you can make yourself depending on the terrain of course, but where I live, there's freeze everywhere.

So you can make yourself as many steaks as you want.

It's not a, it's not a huge.

Deal to me, yeah, it's it's not hard to find some some down sticks and stuff, make steak or make steaks.

And for that matter, you can find some rocks and you could create a way to keep your tent down.

And also with that, I mean there's there's multiple ways or you could just get a hammock and if it doesn't rain, who cares?

So you don't need any steaks.

That's true.

That's.

Very true.

So all right, here's the next one.

Poison Ivy.

You're never too old for a group costume.

Recruit 2 friends, make leaf costumes out of foam board and wear them over a brown shirt and a pair of leggings.

Wherever you and your squad go, make sure you stick together in a tight group.

Yeah, Poison Ivy, dude, I thought that I was immune to Poison Ivy.

And then over the last few years doing more landscaping work outside, which is stupid.

I hate landscaping work.

So I'm trying to make no landscaping around my house, basically.

Yeah, it's getting me.

I don't really get it in the woods that often though.

I don't know that I've ever gotten it backpacking.

I've got it when I've done yard work or when I've done work at a friend's farm or something, but I've never, I don't think I've ever gotten Poison Ivy hiking.

Now that I've said that, I probably will this year, but you know, I've never gotten it.

Let me ask you about this and let us know in the comments if you have any experience with this or if you think it's a good idea.

Yeah, look at that, Suga says.

Hammock for the wind, baby.

For the wind.

Tell me if y'all have had any experience with this and John, I want your opinion on it too.

Back when I was doing like a weekly YouTube video, you get a bunch of random stuff, right?

Like there's always people contacting you, hey, will you make a video about this blah blah blah.

And sometimes they just send you random stuff.

So one person reached out.

It's like, hey, I'm starting this company or I have this company, and what we do is make this is almost like soap, but it's for Poison Ivy or poison oak, and it neutralizes whatever.

I guess the chemical agent is that it produces.

Yeah, whatever it is in the oil that irritates your skin and causes a reaction and neutralizes that.

But I read the instructions and I never used it because my problem with it is you have to use it like within 1520 minutes of contact with the Poison Ivy.

And usually I'm like out working in the yard and I don't even know I got into Poison Ivy.

I realize that's my fault but but then it's too late and I find out a couple days later I got into Poison Ivy and at that point the damage is done.

So besides me like just I guess being more vigilant which would prevent the whole thing in the 1st place right?

What can I do or what uses this stuff?

And y'all in the comments what?

What's the defense for it?

I mean, I don't know.

I know I've got some different things that I use, like if I know I've been working, I was in it.

When I get home, I'll take a shower and I use this stuff specifically that gets rid of that oil.

I looked it up.

It's called urushiol.

I think I'm, I hope I'm pronouncing that right.

But it's an oil that's found in the stems and roots of the plant.

And but you can, you can wash that off, but you have to have certain things to do it.

Like you can't just use soap.

Soap a lot of times just moves it around.

It doesn't always get it cleaned off.

Yeah, you'll, you'll sometimes, like, try to wash it off and then touch your face.

And then now you got it like over here under your eye.

Like, what was I wiping sweat off?

What?

And in actuality, you're spreading it on yourself.

I think it's so bad.

This is interesting.

I heard Dawn's Oh Dawn dish soap will get rid of the oil.

Wow, that might be propaganda.

CLT have they?

I see them advertised with ducks.

Does it, does it really take the oil off those little ducks from the oil spills?

I mean, it's what they used.

It's actually what they used.

OK, I didn't know if that's Dawn propaganda or not.

No, I mean, they actually like that was a big deal for like 20 years after that happened.

It was the big oil spill that was up in Alaska, right?

The Keystone.

Is that it?

I don't know, 20 years ago I was in middle school and didn't care about these little ducks.

Yeah, 20 years ago I was still an adult and had been for a long time.

Anyways, OK, let's go to the next one of the false summit all of us have had.

This is awful.

All of us have had the experience of trudging up the final agonizing steps to the top of a mountain, only to look up and realize with growing horror that there's more to go.

Bring that horror to Halloween by making a paper mache mountain costume and shouting surprise, I'm a false summit.

Keep on walking buddy, and anyone unlucky enough to ask what you are.

That's hilarious bro.

Can you imagine what a great costume idea if you were like through hiking?

Oh yeah.

That is fantastic and it'd be really funny if people are asking you get to yell it at them.

Now, how many false summits have you dealt with?

Oh my God, can you even count them?

My goodness, all of them.

Probably it was, but it wasn't as bad on the Camino.

Honestly wasn't a ton of fall summits.

It seems like the East Coast hiking is where I I get it the most man, you're like, I mean it's all in the name, right?

It's fall summit.

You get up there and you're like.

It can't keep going up.

Well, you look up and you think, oh, I've got to get to there and you think you've gotten there, but you don't realize now you've still got more to go.

And I remember even in Alabama, which isn't like super high elevation by any stretch of the imagination, I remember up on Cheaha Mountain in Alabama, going up that mountain and looking up going, wait, there's more.

It's like you get to a certain point and you just kind of, and it can be, it can be a real bummer like on your hike if you're if you're not feeling it that day.

It'll.

Defeat you, man.

Oh yeah.

It chew you up and speak.

Yeah.

And you're like, I mean it in all actuality, it's only sometimes like another couple 100 feet up, but it just defeats you, dude, because.

Sometimes it's like 50 feet, sometimes it's not even 200, sometimes it's just like 50 feet up.

But it's like, man, I thought I was there already.

Yeah, yeah, your expectation meeting reality, it's sometimes will jar you.

Yeah, Oh yeah, yeah.

Oh, so Rachel Jean said I'm definitely going to be the lazy bear hang next year.

That's funny.

All right, we got one more of these, one more of these and this is the best one of them all.

And this is the one that I think if you haven't experienced this, just if you tent camp at all, you are going to experience it at some point.

It's going to happen.

And that is the leaking sleeping pad.

If there's anything that backpackers lose sleep over, it's leaking sleeping pads.

These This costume is both easy and, as an up cycling project, good for the earth.

Grab a busted inflatable pad, dress in matching colors and pin the defunct mattress to your clothing for extra effects.

Slouch more and more as the night goes on A.

Slouch more and more, he is a good rider.

Yeah, he is.

He is.

He's a good rider, man.

Have you have you ever had a leaking pad before?

I've had a Lincoln pad, yes, the cheapy pads, some of them like it doesn't come with a patch kit until you get out there and you're like, I gotta blow this up every hour and a half.

That's if you're luck, if you're unlucky head don't rig inflate or you got to blow it up every 20-30 minutes.

You're just like worst night asleep ever.

Yeah.

Well, so I back in 2018, bought a Big Agnes pad that was like this.

It was like the new big pad that everybody wanted.

I think it was the axle or something like that.

But this pad only weighed like 10 oz.

It was a 10 oz pad.

And I remember I got it, took a couple little short trips on it, then got on an actual trail with it and it leaked in three spots, three different spots.

What's that?

Was it on the seams?

Yeah, it was, it was a it was a quilted style pad and in a bunch of the little quilts it leaked.

And so I found out we we had to go to a hotel.

It was during a very four days of raining constantly that we talked about earlier.

We talked about earlier, We were at a hotel and I just stuck it in the bathtub and three different spots, bubbles sort of coming out of it.

Couldn't believe it.

Couldn't believe it.

I ended up that's when I went to the Nemo Tensor.

It was back in 2018.

Well, the more seams in there.

You know, if it's not done well or if it needs to be recalled, that is a terrible leak spot because it's it's tough to pass, especially on the side, you know, like the same coming apart and you're just like, well, I'm going to have to send this pad back and get a new one.

You know, the regular leaks.

Let me ask you this.

How much would you use a pad or would you want to like send it back or get a new one?

If you had a couple of patches on it that were just traditional patches, we're talking something's poked a hole in it.

You put the patch on it that comes with it and it feels solid and you sleep on it and it doesn't deflate.

How much are you trusting that?

Would you do a whole AT through hot?

No, you do OK.

How fast is so?

I'm one of these people.

Here's here's the thing about me.

I'm quick to trust you at 1st, but once you once you lose my trust, it's really hard to get it back.

And that goes for sleeping pads.

I, I didn't even wait because the next day we went into town because both of our phones had been destroyed by all the rain.

We had a bunch of gear that was just malfunctioned.

We had just had issues.

It was one of those like every possible thing it could have gone wrong had gone wrong.

I also ended up getting Giardia like 2 days after that.

I mean, it was, I'm telling you, this was, and that was my first big backpacking trip.

So if you can imagine me still doing it after that.

But yeah, so we, we ended up going to Lexington and hitting up J&H, which is a like an outfitter up here.

And sure enough, the guy, I'm talking to him and he goes, listen, I said, I asked him.

I said, do you have any Thermo arrests?

He goes, I'm I'm going to save you.

So what are you going to save me for him?

He goes, the guys who are out there right now, this is what they're all starting to turn to.

And he pulled out a a Nemo tensor, and he goes, trust me, take this, keep it.

It's still behind me right now.

That thing is now 8 years old, six years old, seven years old, whatever it is, and seven years old, and it's still in fantastic shape.

I would let anybody borrow it and use it and not worry about it one bit.

Yeah, that Big Agnes was awful.

It's funny I said that about the Big Agnes And Chicken Little, Trek says.

Rumor has it Big Agnes hasn't built anything ultralight since.

Yeah, probably not.

And you know that Nemo Tensor, that's what I took to the meet up for not one of tent camping with my wife.

Yeah, that's a good pad.

I wonder what the latest and greatest is like if you got your finger on the pulse of sleeping pads because some people are super plugged into that, you know, especially like Youtubers that try all kinds of tenting gear.

They're always out tinting, you know, they have a million sleeping pads.

I wonder what the latest and greatest, what the main?

I'm probably a year or two behind and all that stuff so I don't I don't know if I'd be the guy for that one.

I will say this though, Suga Canada Denzis brings up a good point.

My hammock under quilt doesn't leak, just saying.

He's got the right idea.

Just saying I know ever since I do have one tent that I love.

I've got my Durst and X mid pro Love that thing.

That thing is fantastic.

And I'm I don't even look at other tents now, like that's just that's the ten I use all the time.

Big fan of it, honestly.

I also really like the outdoor vitals tents.

I'm not saying that because they're a sponsor.

I'm saying because I, I believe the Fortius like as much as I love the Durstin, if I know there's going to be high winds and I have to be in a tent, I'm probably going to take the Fortius instead.

That that outdoor vitals, that thing, that thing is stout and it's a trekking.

Portent.

Yeah, it really is.

It really is.

It's awesome.

It's awesome.

So well, folks, that those are the 11 Halloween costumes hikers will actually find scary.

I think it's a great article.

Give it up for Adam Roy on that one, because that was good.

That was really good.

Jeremiah, what you got going on in the next few weeks?

Well, I was going to tell you, for anybody that missed last week, couple of awesome things that you're going to want to hear about.

John and I talked a lot about the Red River Gorge meet up and I got to share some funny stories and we also set a poll out that we're planning on maybe revisiting on the upcoming episode.

Something to look forward to next week.

We're going to hit on a hot topic.

Back on a hot topic issue.

We've had this federal government shutdown and it may no longer be a thing by next week, but people been going into these national parks and not needing a pass and people been furloughed and some things are maintained, some are not.

So we put out a poll.

If you haven't answered that poll, we're asking is it fair or not of these national parks charging these high fees to enter?

And I've been reading the comments, man, I can't wait to talk about it because some people think we are way under qualified to talk about these things.

And I got to tell you, we are, we are very under.

Qualified.

Who's qualified?

Like what makes you qualified to talk about it?

I, I don't know it I would, I would assume if you're a park Ranger and worked there and knew the insurance and outs, there's a million things that we're leaving, you know, we're leaving all these stones unturned because I don't even know what the stones are.

But you know what?

We're here to entertain.

We're here for you.

We're not.

It's not exactly the most educational.

Remember, facts are optional on this show, so.

That's right.

That's right.

Hope to see everybody next week so we could knock that out.

And then yeah dude, I got this Black Friday trip coming up.

I can't wait.

It's X backpacking trip I have planned so I'm excited.

Very cool, man.

Well, this has been fun.

I hope you guys have enjoyed yourselves.

The comments have been great.

I'll tell you what, if you want to leave a comment on this video or this podcast, let us know some more scary costumes that maybe we didn't think of or Adam Roy thought of during this and post those in the comments because we'd love to hear from you.

And for myself and Jeremiah Stringer, we'll catch you guys on the next one.

I love the box.