Ep. 1166: Worst Trip Ever! Carl Mandrioli and Derek Somerville

You're listening to the Adventure Sports Podcast. Thanks for adventuring with us as we discover

what incredible athletes and outdoor enthusiasts are doing all over the world. Now here's your

host, Kurt Linville. Hello friends, welcome to the Adventure Sports Podcast. I am speaking

to you from the past. Again today, today is Wednesday, January the 14th. And I'm not here. I'm

in Tanzania. And today is the day when all of our crew is meeting somewhere near the steps of

Kilimanjaro. And tomorrow will be the first day that we actually begin ascending the tallest

mountain in Africa. So first of all, this episode is actually going to be guest hosted by the fine

gentleman from backpacking and blisters that's Carl Mandrioli and Derek Somerville. Now what I like

best about Derek thus far is that the last syllable of his last name and the last syllable of my last

name match up. And I don't know what that means if there's any significance at all. His name is

Somerville, but they misspelled it. So I don't even know what that means. My name is Lynnville. And I

like to joke that the Lynn actually means language. And that's just because I like to talk. I like

to write. I like to do all those things, but that's really a transliteration. So you've got me

introducing the otherville and Carl Mandrioli. I met Carl years ago with outdoor retailer. And we've

kind of been acquaintances and checked in with each other for a long, long time now. So I am very

thankful to Carl and Derek for stepping in while I am on the Kilimanjaro expedition and bringing

you some fresh content. Now they're going to try really hard to sell you on the idea of never

listening to the adventure sports podcast again and only listening to backpacking and blisters.

I know they will. I'm not even here to defend myself. So I'm just telling you in advance,

when they do that, well, it might be a good idea. You never really know, but we put out more content

than they do. So at least listen to us when they don't have a show live. And we really appreciate

you for listening to the adventure sports podcast. Carl and Derek, great guys. I thought that before

I handed this over to them, I would give you a couple of discoveries might be the way to say this

about preparing for expedition travel. Now I have done a lot of adventures. I have done travel

in lots of places around the world. This is the first trip where I'm traveling to a remote place

and everything that I might need while I'm gone, I have to make sure I take with me because

when we're on Mount Kilimanjaro, then we're not going to have access to go get the toothbrush

that we forgot. I used that example with my son when I was explaining to him how packing actually

is a more of a challenge than I expected. And he says, Daddy, you've already done that when you're

in Kenya. Remember, sure enough, I lost my toothbrush in Kenya. And my dear Kenyan friend Joseph

Kamani was driving us and all of a sudden he pulls over to the side of the road and he stops.

I look at him, I'm like, what's going on? Where are we stopping? And he points at a thorn

bush out in the field and he says toothbrush. I said, what? It was, yeah, yeah, toothbrush,

that thorn bush, toothbrush. And so I went out there to this thorn bush. I still don't know what

it was. And I cut off a twig. And if you chew the end of this twig, it makes bristles just like a

toothbrush, not only that, but the sap inside of it was really kind of freshening to your mouth,

although it wasn't mint, definitely not mint. But I used that stick toothbrush for, oh, I don't know,

maybe even weeks. And then I found my toothbrush buried somewhere in the bottom of my pack. But I

kind of like to stick better. Anyway, all of that to say this has been quite the experience just

packing for this trip. And all the people that I have interviewed over the years about expedition

travel, I never brought that up, never thought of it, never realized it. It takes a lot more effort

and careful planning to pack to a specific weight limit when you're going overseas and you're

going somewhere far away from all the services. And I'll be really transparent here. I have been

overthinking this. I really haven't overthinking this. It has been a long time since I've done a

expedition style trip. And I am so excited. And just a couple of updates, I'm going to put together

some episodes while we are climbing the mountain so that I can present those when we get back. It'll

be about climbing Africa's tallest peak, what it's really like to interact with the culture,

the people, the weather, the vegetation. I mean, everything that you might want to know about

Kilimanjaro, I'm going to try to encapsulate that down into episode length so that you can experience

it with us. I'm also going to take a lot of video while I'm there. I'll post it somewhere.

So if you want to see the video, I'll let you know about that as well. You know, we are doing this

trip. 15 guys are climbing Kilimanjaro to raise money for we see hope. And I've mentioned that

several times. I'm not stopping contributing to we see hope just because the climb is past.

Our goal was $20,000. We're not there yet. I want to keep going. I'm not going to pester you guys

for money. I want you to know that in advance. I'm not going to pester you for money. But the $20,000

remains a goal for the Adventure Sports Podcast. So I've been thinking, what's the best way to

continue to move toward that goal over time without pestering you, the audience. And here,

I'm going to ask you because I don't know what the best way to do it is. It's something I want to

be very, very careful with. I want to be sensitive not to wear you out and bug you about giving

to save children in Africa. You know, we've heard that meme so many times, but this is for real.

We see hope rescues homeless children orphans orphaned often by parents who died of AIDS,

living on the streets. Maybe they're just impoverished, but regardless, they get food,

they get clothing, they get shelter, they get education, they get entrepreneurial skills,

they get a crack at having a successful life. And like I said once before, I believe this will be

generational. If you save a kid, then that kid has a more successful existence. That means that his

or her children has a much better chance at thriving in life. And this could go on generation to

generation to generation. So you help one kid now, you might be helping hundreds later down the,

you know, down the road. It's just such a beautiful opportunity. So the Adventure Sports Podcast

is going to continue supporting we see hope. And we want to reach the $20,000 goal. The question

I have is and I want you to answer this email us at info at adventure sports podcast.com.

Put ideas in the comments. Do that. Put ideas in the comments or join our discord server. And we

can just have a chat back and forth and brainstorm. Whatever I'm looking for ideas, the best way for

the Adventure Sports Podcast to raise more money for we see hope for the kids in Africa without

bugging you about it all the time. One thought that I had is people could join our Patreon and they

could earmark the money that they give to Patreon. And we'll just pass it straight on to we see hope.

Or maybe if you come to Patreon and you give to the Adventure Sports Podcast,

we'll automatically give a percentage of that to we see hope just as because it's it's our

mission to help we see hope as well as to help everyone that hears about the Adventure Sports Podcast

to get out and to be outdoors, connect with nature, get healthy, have fun, you know, build community,

build richer, better families, all that kind of stuff. So our mission includes helping people and

that means these kids in Africa too. Anyway, I'm looking for your ideas. Please show notes, discord,

info at Adventure Sports Podcast.com. Patreon, you can reach us in so many different ways.

Now I'm going to be even more transparent. I started packing for this trip a couple of weeks ago

because I wanted to be ahead of the game. It is now Saturday. I leave tomorrow. I haven't yet gotten

everything in a suitcase. It's not even done yet. And it's been a very strange dynamic. I'm just

going to confess, you know, I don't really know what to expect. And the people we're climbing with,

the guiding service has provided us with a great list of a checklist of things to bring.

But I keep thinking about all the what ifs. And what's really funny about that is I've been adapting

to challenging situations in the wilderness my whole life going into the woods with far less than

maybe I needed, but being just fine. But for some reason, this one is kind of creating an itch

that I'm not sure that I know how to scratch. It's very, very strange. But that's what I've been

going through. And I have been packing and repacking and unpacking and going down the checklist and

then weighing the weight of the bag and then thinking, what can I leave? What should I take? What did

I forget? I've been going through all of this stuff over and over and over again. And then

finding out, oh, I don't know if I can take this on the plane. I don't know if this is allowed

through customs, all the things. It has taken me so much longer. I mean, I'm accustomed to a change

of clothes and a toothbrush. I'm good to go, right? Not so in this case. And part of me thinks that,

you know, in my subconscious somewhere, I am overthinking it quite a lot. And I don't know what

that means. But here's something that's going to be very interesting. And maybe I'll share some of

this when we get back. But I'm traveling with this group of guys. They are from all over the world.

They're from different places around the United States. Some of them are from the valley where I

live here in the Colorado Rockies, some are from Texas, some are from I think Oklahoma, some are from

the UK, United Kingdom. Every one of the guys that I've met thus far and I've not met them all

clearly. But everyone that I've met thus far has just been superb. Fantastic human being.

I am super excited to get to know these people. But at the same time, I also recognize

these guys are kind of all alpha males. I might be wrong about that. But it's going to be so

interesting to get people together on a trip to the highest point in the African continent.

Some of them who are not mountaineers who have never climbed before maybe, no experience, a very

little experience. And when you have that many chiefs in the group, what is the group dynamic going

to be like when things get tough? And they will get tough. You don't get to 19,000 feet without

things getting tough. It's just very, very curious what the group dynamic, the social dynamic will be.

I know that everyone is starting with the intention of being a team, supporting each other,

carrying each other to the top. And I imagine there will be some of that going on. But there's

going to be, well, I suspect some very interesting stories about how this turns out. So that's

something that I've been kind of percolating in the back of my mind. Super excited to go through

this adventure with these guys. But usually when you choose a team to go on an expedition like this,

usually you hand-picked the people that you know already, that you know their strengths and

their weaknesses and you try to get a group of people that complement each other in those strengths.

So, you know, where I'm weak, someone else could be strong and how we could succeed as a team

together and all that sort of thing. This group isn't really like that. This is a group of guys who

said, yes, I would like to do something huge and I would like to support we see hope. I'd like

to get together with a group of guys and do our best. But many of us don't even know each other.

So it's going to be a lot of fun. Enough of me blabbing about it. I am starting the climb

your time now. I'm starting the climb your tomorrow. And I appreciate your thoughts. I'm going to

let Carl and Derek take over from the backpacking and blisters podcast.

Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Adventuresports podcast. I am Derek Somerville. And with me

today is my partner from our podcast, Backpacking and Blisters. Carol Mandrioli. I mean, Carl Mandrioli.

I have no joke prepared. As you can tell, let's see what you can do. Go for it.

Yeah, welcome to the Adventuresports podcast. It's an honor to be here as co-host. Derek Somerville is

my co-host and he was actually planning on getting a brain transplant, but then he changed his mind.

I love how you carry the bad jokes from our podcast over to this one seamlessly. So good. I was

really, I was really bad. It was so good. This is going to be fun. I'm excited. Yeah. We're on the

Adventure Sports podcast. My friend, this is awesome. It's like you've never had an adventure before.

You sound a little too excited. Is that safe to say? We're going to talk about Adventure.

We're going to get the worst backpacking trip of all time, which is a trip, both of us went on

a couple of years ago. So we're going to get to that. And a bit about us is our podcast, Backpacked

Blisters is tips and tails with a sense of humor. So if you don't have a sense of humor, then you're

in the wrong place. Yeah. Don't listen. It's fine. Don't listen. That's right. So we've been buddies

for years, and we'd like to play off each other, poke fun each other, but it's all in good spirit,

or at least most of the time, is that correct? Carl may be bald, guys, but I still style his hair

as best I can. And that's why we still manage to have great conversation and hang out, right? I mean,

I'm the only guy. All right. So you will not believe the series of unfortunate events decisions that

all happen on this one trip. That's what we're going to get to. But we got to give you a little bit

of backstory first. So, so what's the backstory of like this type of trip we go on there?

The back story. Okay. This is like an annual trip. We do every July. We get a group of guys.

Usually get buddies. We know and we go on this adventure. It's supposed to be some epic journey.

And this particular trip and this year was just, I won't keep it away. Don't get away.

In a nutshell, it's just disaster after disaster. And we had all kinds of

ridiculous. A couple of things you have to know about our crew is that we've been doing this

for years, for decades. We've been going with these guys pretty much the same guys. And so you

would think that people that go backpacking for so long would be very experienced, would be very

wise, would be very good decision makers. And really none of that is the case. Is that fair to say?

I mean, yeah. I mean, should we give them like a little quick highlight thing before we do this

or no? Should we give them nothing? What does that mean? I was going to say, you know,

the story has got broken friendships, wrestling, old men with bags on their feet,

lightning and bat and swords. And we got nothing. So the other thing that you have to know is,

we kind of up the ante a few years back where we thought it was fun to do something ridiculous

and crazy on the backpacking trip. And so I actually got a trophy. I got one at a flea market

that we called the Strider Award named after Strider from Lord of the Rings. So whoever brought

or did the most ridiculous thing on our July trip was awarded the Strider Award for the year.

So that kind of plays into what weird things we have. So without giving anything away, Derek,

can you give some examples of things people have done or brought over the years?

One example of the Strider Award was a buddy of ours brought some inflatable

rafts that you could like, use his boats, use his loungers at camp, just pretty ridiculous,

heavy, but he brought it. One year, the same guy built a boat and floated around using those.

And so he sailed across the whole lake. So I mean, stuff like that. Will you do something

awesome or something outlandish? You're going to probably get the Strider Award.

Your storytelling is amazing. I think people are imagining somebody like packing in a full size canoe

or something into the backcountry. That is not what happened. It basically happened.

Now, have you gotten the Strider Award? Did you do anything awesome?

You did. You did. You did actually. I think the year you got it, I'm going to mention quick

because it was pretty hot. This guy right here with no hair brought repelling gear in his backpack.

That's one reason. You took us repelling down a mountain. It was pretty rad.

I got the Strider Award because we did a trip in Roombles in Colorado where

it's like the four pass loop. It's a tough trip and I carried a patio chair strapped my backpack

over the entire four passes. That was absurd. Some site, the Strider Award you got might be,

your wife told me it was the highlight of your life. Is that possible?

Is that one of them? Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, that's just the backstory. Let's get to this, my friend.

So we went to Yosemite a few years back. We've gone to Yosemite a number of times,

it's kind of like our stopping grounds. This trip could not have gotten worse. And so we're going to

start with events leading up to the trip to the trip itself. And so folks, if you have done

backpacking trips or planned to do a backpacking trip in the future, hopefully this is some sort of

an encouragement because people that have gone before making all these mistakes, like it can't get

anywhere from this, right? I mean, you think up to years and years over over a decade of doing

whatever. Like we would have had a dial, but this trip just proved like it doesn't matter.

Like stuff can just still go wrong no matter how long you've been doing this. So

correct. Here we go. So we're going to go chronological order. Do you know what chronological means?

It means your hair is slowly going like that. Oh, that's receding. That's my bad.

Chronicle. Yeah. In order from the beginning. Here we go. Okay. I think you hit on the hair

thing enough. I think you're good there, dude. I have a couple more. I might break out later. Just

buckle up. Okay. So this all started before the trip. A guy who was relatively new to our trip

and to our group was super excited to go. He gone the previous year. He crushed it. He was a lot

of fun to have, but he calls me up and he says, just so you know, I have a little bit of a back injury.

And I think I'll be good for the trip. I just wanted to give you a heads up because I just wanted to

be fair and just let you know like I might have to bail. And I'm like, he lives in other states. I was

like, I don't know what that means. Like I don't know how your back feels. So I was like, if you think

you can go, you can go. Like how do I know? Right? Yeah. What is what do you say to that? Like what's

a little bit of a back injury? I don't really know what that means. Give us sore back. Yeah.

Could be a seat. Did he say he might bail? He said he might bail. He really wanted to go. He

didn't want to bail. He's been, he says he's been doing exercise and stretches to make sure he's

good to go for the trip. How about an MRI? How about that? No? How about that? We're a lot younger

than I don't know that we're like thrown around MRIs like we are as we get older, right?

I'm just saying you're going to hear what happens. And then you're going to be like, yeah,

maybe you should have got a, maybe you should have got the MRI. Yeah. In retrospect, I don't know.

So if you're a trip leader, yeah, I think what we're going to do is we're going to hit on what we

should have done, obviously. And so if you're a trip leader and somebody's like, I have a back injury

and we're doing a hard trip, which is partially off trail involving navigation and clamoring

up and over rocks and down canes and things. I don't know. Would you say no to that guy?

Again, it's so, it's so subjective. Like I, we saw him the year before. He was amazing. He kept

up no problem. Super fun guy to be around. And then he's like, and then he's like, I got a little

bit of a back injury. What I don't know what that means. I've had a little bit of a back injury,

but I'm still doing a lot of my normal stuff. Are you bragging right now? Is this like a humble

bragging? I'm kind of bragging. Yeah. It's a big deal. Like I can, I can lift up like a two-pound

bag of trash. So what can you do? I can still go to the mailbox. I got a back injury.

Wow. That's, I mean, if you can get up and down from the toilet, you can come on the trip. That's

my, you know what I mean? That's a test. Okay. So folks, if you're trying to figure this out in

the future, that's the lipist test is, can you easily get up and down from the toilet? So there you

go. Yeah. There you go. That's the bar. So that's, that's the first thing. All right. So that's

kind of like setting the stage. Second thing will happen. Just setting the stage. We were, we're maybe

two miles in, right? We're just crested over a little hill. We went around the lake blah, blah, blah.

I think I heard him scream or yell at one point. And, and we all kind of go like, hey, what's the deal?

We all kind of like gather around him. He's like, he tells us he's tweaked his back. It hurts

really bad. But he wants to push on. He wants to push on. So we, I think, isn't that, isn't

this the point where we, I remember taking some of his gear at this point and putting it in my back.

Yeah. So we decide to push on with him because at this point, we don't really have a plan B for

like, how do we evacuate somebody from a trail? This is before like all the garment and reaches and

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We we've talked about this wisdom would suggest just send the guy back to the trail and

give me the keys to your car and like go figure out buddy. It's your fault. But one of my faults

as a leader is I'm a people pleaser and so I just want to make sure everybody can go everybody

is a good time. So about so we hit this lake and at that point we're going off trail and that's

when we yeah what did you say we start diving up the gear. We well we I think we all decided

like let's take some way off of his gear. I remember putting stuff in my backpack pots or clothes

or something and and by the way too many clothes. Let's let's talk about that for a second.

Too many clothes. We have four outfits four outfits. So it was just you know what's just fine like

it's I've been in his shoes. I know how he feels. I think we've talked about this since and we

should have been like you know what yeah I think this isn't going to work up like if you're screaming

and you have a back injury and you're basically giving us all your gear and it's going to get harder

we probably should have just sent it back. That was the easy part. That was definitely our mistake

for sure. Yeah I think yeah if you're two to three miles into the trip and you're dividing up

somebody's gear that you get a little bit of a problem on your hands. This is just a problem with

like you got a bunch of dudes we're all like what are we are we in our 40s out we're in our 30s

I don't know like 30s let's say and it's just like that ego thing it's like no dude we got it

we can keep going like there's no I'm not dead if I'm not dead I'm going basically so that was

that got us in the butt right there for sure but okay so we we kept going though we kept going

his pack must have weighed like five pounds at that point and I think only three of the dudes

actually took weight out of his pack it was Derek and I did so we're gonna we're gonna wear that

badge proudly like we carried his weight but really it's it's kind of I took it it's kind of like a

foolish badge because we shouldn't done that at all so okay so anyway adding more tension to the

trip I decided I want to make a documentary I don't want to film this trip and I had I known

ahead of time about the disaster nature like that would have been the storyline but I was just

trying to film but I was also in charge of the trip and so I was also trying to navigate as we

go off trail we go in search of a lake and so we were climbing up to this ridge and I'm trying to

get these epic shots of like the lake we just left in the backdrop I'm getting shots of us

literally putting gear in each other's pack from like you know sharing the load there and I'm

trying to film and I'm trying to navigate horrible idea I should have had I don't know why you

didn't set up Derek why didn't you navigate well I probably I should have I think I was dealing

with his his weight his gear and I had some tech stuff on my own I think that was part of the

mentality was like oh we'll just you know we'll just push through this off road section and we

configured out we've glanced at the map a few times like we know we're going there were like three

or four people on the trip qualified to navigate off trail and somehow none of them shipped in so

I was trying to navigate and film the same time nobody we never found the lake we never found it

we ended up just camping in some podunk like cruddy spot and awful I mean I don't even think Derek

remembers where he camped it was that bad I don't I don't I thought we camped somewhere else I

thought day two was day one you're telling me day two whatever I got all confused but I didn't even

we all failed like I should have got the map out me like with somebody else because you're

fiddling with all this other junk and we should have been like this is where we're going let's

let's just go here but we didn't do that we didn't do that so we never found the lake and so at

said as a result on day two we had to figure out where the heck we were and then figure our way

kind of across this open area back to the trail so so day two Derek what goes down towards the

beginning so we gather we're going down this uh kind of like a rock granite face with a river

going through it and I hear another yelp I hear another yelp from another back issue and I think

that's when we all kind of gather it around and we're like what are we going to do what are we

what are we going to do we had two two competing ideas which was your idea was like we need to stay

on the trail or get back to the trail and kind of follow this out and maybe there's an escape hatch

out here or we just keep going or whatever right and then we had this other theory that was like well

we're trying to go over there on the map and I bet if we just go up and over this this ridge that we

really don't know where it's going to end up we have an idea then that'd be a lot quicker but

also a lot more challenging because you're you know the the grade was just pretty steep so

what do we do do we just take all of his weight and just let him climb up by himself or do we just like

battle and go to the trail and go around and it became this it became this like I don't know

mutinous argument mutinous yeah you're you're making this really interesting story very boring

so I don't need to jump in just oh okay great one the the crux is that we had two dudes one

of them by the back guy the least experienced guys in our trip they are like we're not going to

keep going down this river the river was kind of like our way to figure out where we're on the map

instead we're going to climb over a treacherous ridge with the back guy we're going to lead the way

going into spot where the ranger specifically said not to go just so we can get to our campsite

faster and we're going to basically shortcut it off trail over a very exposed dangerous area

that could get us killed who's with us these are the two loud type a guys lead the chart right

yeah that was interesting because you had a lot of melee go going on there and it was like

and then if you think about it too let's let's let's think about some other side like if we

went up the crazy pass and did that we didn't do that obviously but if we went up into the

then the trip's just like a lot shorter for everybody else right unless we decide to do something

else but yeah let's let's alter the entire trip no it's not I think it's I think it's a lot longer

I think I think somebody dies if we go to college probably you actually I wouldn't even put the

back guy in the yeah yeah but I yeah I just kind of was hanging back I was like letting people

kind of hash it out and argue and the guys that you know put the least effort into the trip

like try to decide for everybody how does your spot where you like you know what we should listen

to wisdom on this or are you kind of like I'm with you guys I think we should go for whatever

reason I think I just like compounded the melee go issue that trip I don't know why there was

something in the air maybe it was a full moon I don't know and I was like you know what I think

we could do that rich I think we can do it we can make the ridge it sounds like a war movie part

of me wanted the challenge part of me wanted the challenge but in hindsight I'm like that was a

terrible idea yeah I mean with if the ranger like this area's off limits this is where you're

gonna die like I feel like that's good advice right I mean it's probably the best advice we've

gotten from a ranger in a while so we had like a like a powwow and finally convinced them to keep

going down to the trail which happened to be like epic scenery along the way all right but just

having guys that were the least qualified try to usurp the trip plan was really crazy so okay so

then this this is where it gets like even worse so we have a full day of hiking not as much goes

on the rest of the day until that night so that that night we made camp we have a good time hanging

out at camp and Derek and I decided to crash a little bit early oh yes so everybody's kind of

hanging around the campfire and I was like all right Derek and I had to crash the 10 you guys good

to kind of you know take care of everything and they're like oh yeah yeah we're good because of

course their experience backpackers so we go to sleep we fall asleep and I wake up in the middle

of night and everybody's you know it's like probably two two three am and I hear a sound outside

the tent crackling the campfire is still going and I was like but it's like full blown campfire I'm like

are they still hanging out like what's going on I look around I'm like everybody's in their tents

and so there's like this ghost campfire nobody's sitting around it's just going as if they never

stink and put the campfire out like we could have started a forest fire on that trip did you see flames

or embers like what were you looking at when they don't know no full fire full fire borderline

bonfire oh wow that is yeah that is one oh so I get up and yeah Derek's like Carl you take

care of it so I got out of the tent and and got another buddy and we're we're not too far from

the lake so we started kind of you know gathering water and we eventually put it out next more

than the guys like oh no we put it out but I guess we didn't like separate the wood out and

so it kind of had reheated and like reignited somehow which is possible if you do a terrible

job putting it out right I mean I mean they didn't pee on it they didn't do any water balls on it

like nothing no I think they put it out they said they put it out they just didn't separate the

wood a gee I literally just explain this re-relisting all I'm saying is like I don't think they know

what what puts out a fire and I think maybe we need to go over that I mean throw dirt on it I think

they do now throw some dirt I don't I mean anything all right yeah okay yeah we could have been

in the news for a bad reason from that trip but uh okay so that's day two day three what's going on

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day three we make it to the exposed plateau I like to call this this is where we had a

a glorious thunderstorm lightning storm what to but to make it worse it was like it was raining

it was like hailing I think at one point which is torrential you know we're all just like fully

exposed but then one of our guys has a don't ask me why we have a we have a huge camera slider

because Carl wanted to document this whole thing which was like the film the trip we talked about

that super obnoxious weight and long piece of metal it's basically like a large metal pole large

metal pole not only that he this particular character in our group he loved carry a ginormous metal

sword five pounds just cuz just cuz just cuz so one army's got a sword hasn't got a strider or

we explain this are we at the shred but he's got the sword in one hand he's got a football in the

other hand he's got the metal pole in the backpack exposed lightning totally totally ridiculous so

we are then running for cover essentially did we tell him to just drop all the metal stuff and

just run for cover yeah yeah we made run for it we had one other guy who was so yeah and we have

one guy who's so cold he's like I'm gonna quit and turn around but I'm like there's really

nowhere to go dude like where you gonna go right so we we all just try to hunker down and get

out of the storm yeah so we had one person who almost got struck by lightning because he's like

asking for it and then another guy who just didn't bring he brought like a water resistant jacket

not a waterproof jacket even the gear listed waterproof I guess I could have gone around

and like tested all of the waterproof coatings I thought he had a poncho I don't know either way

it soaked through because we got the downpour was so strong so I guess in the bright side like had

that forest fire rage out of control like it would have been put out the next day oh yeah that's

true that's true so we wouldn't have been charged with anything probably that's right yeah we've

got away that was so that's pretty well so after that lighting storm I think I believe it right

after we we pressed it over that that hill we the sun came out a little bit and then we met

old man trail I guess I called him he had the plastic bags on the feet he had been going over a 100

miles old man and he was giving us some stories about where he's coming from some different state

or something just like just like full on like Lewis and Clark kind of guy I'm like dude this guy

is a baller and it kind of inspired me to keep going so we were all wiped we inspired you to keep

going like like you're gonna quit too now what's going on here no I'm not gonna quit but it was

like it was that little like extra like push you needed to get through the day you know it's like

this guy can do it and he's got 150 with bags on his feet I'm gonna I'm gonna make it to camp I'm

gonna be okay okay all right well maybe you need to use that guys inspiration for the other

guys who I wanted to quit so I as far so that that was day three we had some other stuff go down

as well that wasn't super positive might get to that later but moving on to the last day all we

had to do is we got to descend we actually head down the other side of semity we hit the

John your trail kind of like head out through a spot called 12 and so it's like downhill to like a

relatively flat portion pretty easy and this is like you think it'd be easy right so we encounter

on the last day somebody who's become a notorious character on our podcast legendary legendary a

woman named Ranger Annie and she is a feisty Ranger who's gonna take no nonsense from any of you

folks out there if you come across her and so she stopped to check our permit which is what they're

supposed to do and then she checked to see how many bear canisters we have because they're required

in your 70 for your food storage and bear canisters are probably the number one most annoying

piece of gear in the world so yes because the 70s are stomping grounds we bring bear canister

but we strategically camp where the bears aren't coming and we haven't had an issue in decades

in her defense like yeah we were trying to uh push the rules push the limits yeah push the limits

a little bit so we have enough bear canisters some of the guys were trying to like mislead her

about this I just came right on like look here's how many we have it's not enough for the size of

our group I think we had eight guys with us and so what happens so then she's like she she started

she was not intimidated by all eight of us or however many we have she just like laid it at or

with the sword the sword or with the sword or with the metal pole in the football like she just

came out and laid it out and she's like well this is uh not something you can do and I need

you guys something to write you love that's not how she taught she she got she went full like

anger rage voice you guys are killing bears because you refused to bring up bear canisters I think

you took it as angry she made accusations I was like well it's the last day of our trip and we

haven't seen a bear yet are are we still bear killers and I was trying to like ask politely with

with my soft kind voice that didn't work that just set her off that's not what happened here's

what happened is like she laid down the smack right in front of Carl in front of all of his buddies

and Carl hated it he hated a woman just like dropping the facts and emasculating him in front of his

friends and and I will say when she got out that little pad of paper to start right you should what

your name can I get your name what's your name and we were all kind of like oh dude he's getting

he's gonna get blacklisted from you somebody right what's happening right now yeah it was serious

and kind of funny it was kind of funny so as a result I have not been back to you somebody since

just kidding I don't I think that there has to be some sort of due process involved to get black

listen but at the time we thought we were getting blacklisted from you somebody we did I tried

in on a good note I yeah but that didn't work so basically we got reprimanded on our way out

and then we had just like a couple miles to go and of course there's a forest fire somewhere else like

on the eastern side of the Sierra's and we get smoked in the last couple miles of trails so we're

just inhaling this yeah deep smoke just to clarify not from our campfire not from our campfire not

from our camera as far as we know as far as you know yeah so so anyway so that's how the trip ended

we had some other stuff go down that was not preferable but those were the the low lights of the

worst backpackings for all time where we somehow still made it to the end nobody died I guess

that's good right nobody died we could have died yeah could have been blacklisted friendships with

friendships were ruined you know we had wrestling there you got a wrestling match I mean it was it

was memorable you want more to that story you can check out our podcast that's been referenced

a number of times and yeah I think that if you're gonna plan a backpacking trip in the future or

if you're already a backpacker like this should give you confidence that you can definitely plan

a better trip than we did I would agree I would agree you got me you get you get some trivia a part

of our show that we'd like to introduce you to is we get we always have a trivia section or we

typically do and I've got national parks trivia coming up right after this all right so national

parks trivia has been kind of like a fun part of our show over the years we actually had the most

recent national parks director on our show last season and we actually asked him some questions

and I was able to stump him with some of the some of the national parks questions so I think that

does that make you feel better about always failing this trivia for sure for sure did you

wait remind me did you give him the the big sir yeah so the one that we stumped him on was like

it was a trick question I asked him like what what's your favorite thing about big sir national park

which is a state park California and he he fell victim to that so yeah this is well worded well

well worded any I don't have any trick questions this time though I just got straight questions

our rules you got to get two out of three getting the correct please play along as we go

are you ready Derek I don't know probably not but go let's go there we go number one

what is the biggest national park by land size is it A Denali B Yellowstone C Wrangles St.

Elias or D death Valley okay we got oh geez that's a good one um let me think I don't think

I've asked this before it's get well I don't remember okay okay go through one more time you

have wrangle you had death Valley you had you had Denali Yellowstone Death Valley you know so I

want to say Denali and then the wrangle wrangle I'm gonna I'm gonna go wrangle the wrangle

wrangle is correct it's like bigger than like a couple of these national parks plus Switzerland

combined oh okay okay yeah it's in southeastern Alaska okay it's okay it's on our list okay

that's good yeah I've heard of that I don't know where it was number two wish of these is not a national

park my favorite questions is it A Black Canyon of the Gunnison B Dead Horse Point or C White Sands

these are all so Rin oh they're not two of the reaction national parks I'll say the park I'm

gonna say the gun one thank god is that what you said gun so Black Canyon of the Gunnison I just

like he called the gun one the gun one they'll know all right Black Canyon of the Gunnison is in

Colorado and it is a national park no it's actually not on my list it's just like a really small

I don't know what's a national park like it's beautiful there but it's just so small so

dead horse point is a state park in Utah oh dead horse dead horse it comes down to a true

false question number three pressures on I'm so bad at true false here we go on the list of

proposed national parks is a place called craters of the moon oh wow is this new is this

he just made this up didn't you no there's there's actually like there's a pretty extensive list of

proposed national parks I did not realize how many national park but proposals there are there's

like one in like Western Colorado which it's nice out there but I wouldn't put a national park

there so I don't know craters of the moon I mean it sounds so good it sounds so like legit for a

park it was right that's like I I think you know that I want to say true which is why I think it's

false but I I want to say false but I feel like if I say false I got it wrong no princess bride

you just pick one I'm gonna say true all right true is correct yes yes so it's not actually on

the moon just to clarify it's I think since South Dakota and it's got some craters there like

like the moon craters the moon like the moon but not of the moon for sure that's a cool name though

so Derek and I put some pretty serious things on the line for trivia so you want to you

you want to track that with us on our show feel free to join us we'd love to have you part of

the family if you're loyal to the adventure sports podcast we really appreciate you sticking with

things here and sticking with us and hearing our ridiculous story and hopefully not judging us

or reporting us any authorities for anything that we might have made up done so yeah you got

anything else I had a great time thanks for having us hopefully we'll be back to see you guys again

and hopefully you guys can check out backpacking blisters it's a lot of fun and a lot of laughs we

will see you hopefully again and and while Kurt's off in Africa climbing Mount Kilimanjaro I think

we're we're gonna give you one of our top episodes from last season next week so please check

that out that's all I got my friend check us out yeah that's good check us out on on the social

media handles backpacking blisters.com app for tips funny funny stories ridiculous trivia all

kinds of fun stuff we will see you again hopefully gets have a great one stay safe on the trail