OR Echo Hoodie Review, Women-Owned Ultralight Brands, Reasons Not to Go Backpacking, and Go-To Wedding Dance Moves

0:00I've been out walking so many of my time to go bonus segment I got another iem

1:28against my other sweaty clothes. So it really is hygienically disgusting. And marinated. Yeah. But today's Sun Hoody review is, I think this is a fairly popular one, not the most popular option for through hikers in the line, but this is the outdoor research, men's echo hoodie. Give the fast, fax, this one, the 100% polyester, the listed weight for a medium is 5.29 ounces. I was gonna weigh it and then I realized it's still wet. So that's not a fair, wing condition. The UPF rating on this one is 15 for the light color, which is mine, light gray, and 20 for the dark. Pros is I really enjoy the fabric on this one if you're dangerous, feeling dangerous enough. Okay. But it reminds me very much of the kettle mountain sun hoodie, which I love the fabric on that one, despite not liking the hoodie overall. It's very ultra light, very breathable. Yeah, it's soft on the skin. Like I like the fabric and whatever way they prepared this one is nice.

2:29I like the way that the hood actually stays on this thing. That was my biggest beef with the kettle mountain is because the fabric is so light that anytime you got a little bit of air flow into the hoodie, if it wasn't, no, even when it was cinched up all the way, it was like that one's a button down and even when I had the top button buttoned up, if I like jogged it all, it would just fly off my head immediately. I did not have this issue with this one. Why not? The hood comes up a little bit higher. The hood's a little bit on the tighter side, which is gonna make my con's list. But this did not come off my head a single time. So that's notable. You're shaking the hoodie and I'm getting the air flow. I'm getting the smell of it. I just wanted to prove to you that this isn't just me dunking it in water. This is true, hard and sweat. I can do the showcase on this side. No, just kidding, I won't. The other thing I'll do comparing it to the kettle is, I like the fit on this one much better. It's still slightly on the smaller side for what I'd like to see out of a large. I think the jolly sun hoodies are sized way more appropriately.

3:30But not a major concern with this one. Like I don't have an issue when I extend my arms of the sleeves coming up my wrist or anything like that, or if like I raise my arms overhead I don't have issues with the bottom of the torso coming up. Like it's suitable for a large, certainly. And yeah, good readability and moisture management despite the fact that it's still wet. My biggest con with this one is that it is UPF 15. Yeah, that's tough. Yeah. Like this is great for the purpose that I just had, which is a short run in hot conditions. But for the purpose of a through hike, which is the conditions I'm evaluating this under, I just I don't think I would choose any UPF 50 item. I think that doesn't do service to what you need from a sun hoody. There's no, I'm learning that I really like sun hoodies with some amount of versatility in the neck chest area. This one, there's just so there's nothing you can do to ventilate. I think that would be probably an honest starter for me.

4:30Though the fabric is light enough and breathable enough that I thought it was still usable. The hood is like I said, the thing that makes it a pro might also be a con because it is so tight, it doesn't allow any heat or breathability in the head part of the sun hoody, the hood, which might be the thing that allows it to stay on. But again, I think it probably just traps too much heat. Yeah, I think that's the overview. I think overall this is a really nice piece. If you have like a darker skin complexion and you're not terribly afraid of skin cancer, maybe UPF is suitable for someone like me, it's just it couldn't be a consideration for that reason. So I'm going to give it a 7.0, which I feel like is a high rating, despite the fact that I gave it to features that are non starters for me. I'd like the fabric of it so much like it actually is pretty cool to wear. But again, UPF 15 is not enough and I think the hood is too tight.

5:31They need to figure out something where either a snap or just a larger hood overall, whatever it might be. But yeah, I could see this one running too hot in the head. I also wanted to talk a bit about the difference between UPF 15 and 30, which the 15 blocks 93% of UV light and the 30 is 97, which like on the surface, might not see him like that much. But it's about twice as much UV exposure is getting through from a 15 to a 30, which makes sense. 15 is half of 30. And then that's a third as much that UPF 50 would be allowing through. So 98% UPF 50. That's right. I don't know. I don't there's not like science to say like what happens if you use UPF 15 for six months straight versus UPF 30 like the conditions to standardize that would be a study that's not realistic. So it's like heart, it's all speculation is to like what the actual

6:34ramifications of that would be, but any time that you can block four additional percent of UV light, you got to go for it. Especially when the difference in the fabric is usually so minimal. I'm very surprised that the echo remains 15. Yeah. Yeah. I think if you're going to go through the trouble of wearing a long sleeve hooded thing, that you're going to wear something with a UPF that is more suitable. I do think sun hoodies are kind of inherently uncomfortable. And I wear them for the utility. So I want the utility of it. I agree. I think my takeaway from this series is that like it's made me even more entrenched in the Sun and Bralla camp. Really? Yeah. But Sun and Bralla is nice if you've got, if you're down a long distance backpacking trip and like you've got it fixed to your shoulder strap and that's going to work in some circumstances when it gets windy at all. Like it turns into a sale and it becomes a pain in the ass. But for like your day to day use, I'm not going to go on a day hike with the Sun and Bralla. I like how passive a hoodie is. Yeah, totally agreed. And it's nice to just like always have in your pack because they pack down really

7:37small. They're lights. They're super versatile and nice to have when there's a lot of exposure. But yeah, for something like the PC to your CVT, I still think I'm leaning Sun and Bralla all the way. Yeah. That's fair. I do both. I burn when anyone looks at me. We're aligned there. Hyperlite mountain gear is the maker of one of the most popular packs amongst through hikers and for very good reason. Their leaders in durability, weight and water resistance thanks to their deep expertise with dynamic composite fabric. Since 2009, at their bid for main headquarters, they've honed that balance between ultra light performance and long term durability. I recently used the Southwest D5 leader on my recent hike of the SD TCT and it was flawless. It carries very comfortably. The DCF got punched in the face by some angry brush and came out looking brand new. And the large Xerier pocket makes it easy to quickly snag your essentials without having to dig through the inside of your pack like a new.

8:39I know plenty of hikers who've put multiple through hikes on their HMG packs. These things really do last. Whether you're looking at the Southwest, the wind rider or any of their other popular DCF packs, you won't be disappointed. And good news backpacker radio listeners can score a 15% discount off their packs by using code BP radio 15 for 15% off at hyper light mountain gear. Com again, that's code BP radio 15, the number 15 at hyper light mountain gear. Com the steel is only good for limited time. So do not wait. Okay, back to the regular ass portion of today's show. We've got a couple of track propagandas. Yeah. So the first is 10 women owned ultra light gear brands. We love by who by Katie Jackson. Oh, AKA double up. This one is really fun to write. I was originally just trying to do a deep dive into some of my favorite backpacking gear

9:42brands. And then as I was looking to the list, I realized that so many of them are women owned. And then I wondered, okay, well, how many backpacking gear brands out there are women owned? And the answer is way more than you might think. So this one was super interesting. I'll call it just a few that I really love. Toaks, the pots, all the titanium accessories. And I think they have a pour over all of those just really awesome pots as a woman owned company. And I did not know that. That's owned by engineer Julie Shang. She co-founded it in 2011. And I don't think you will be able to go very long on a long distance trail before you see a toaks pot. Super cool. Symbiosis here. If you know me, that's probably no surprise. I used her pack on the CDT. She makes backpacking packs for women and smaller framed bodies. And some of the differences I noticed in mind that I really loved the straps attached closer back behind my neck for more narrow shoulders. So I've been having rotator cuff issues with some of my other packs.

10:46But I don't have any rotator cuff issues on that one because the straps just hit my shoulder in a different spot. The sternum strap can be heavily adjusted, which is very nice. And it rides a little bit higher on the back, which I think gives me a lot more mobility. I find it really helpful with scrambling. And then I'll do one more. I'll do go beat by beat. It's owned by Tina Tempest, who people might know. She also has a hostel on the AT. And she's made this really innovative necklace that either can be commemorative of a trail after you've hiked it. But it also can be bought before trail and used as gear. It is a map of the trail. So each beat corresponds to certain mileage on a trail. And she includes a little tracker that you can slide over the beads and mark your progress as you go. I think it's very fun. I have one of the CDT that I have on now. And I really like it. And I just think that's such an innovative idea that seems so obvious once you hear about it. But she was the first to think of it and do it. And she executed that really well.

11:46I'd never heard of it before. The first time I was on my radar was at trail days. No way. Yeah. And yeah, the necklaces are really cool. I think it is a very novel idea. And the beat arrangement probably doesn't mean anything to the average person, but to be on the inside loop with other directors. I think it's a really clever idea. And they're shockingly descriptive. Each necklace comes with a card that explains each beat. So not only is the CDT one broken out by state color, but there's also a section for the San Wands and notable Monument's or section of the trail also have different colored beads that are explained in the map. And it's just it's very neat. Yeah. I love that you also included the good to go chef. What's your name, Jennifer? Jennifer? Good to go. Good to go. Yeah. I had the fortune of beating the owners of good to go at like the outdoor festival, but outdoor retail and whatnot. And yeah, they're back stories really cool. She owns a popular restaurant in New York City before getting into this, I believe.

12:49So. Well, they're kale and white beans too. It's so good. Yeah. Is that your go-to? That's my go-to. Nice. I have a carrot ginger power bowl that doesn't need hot water. I'm not I've I've realized it now. These are two vegetarian options. But that's just so delicious. They're always high protein. And one of my biggest gripes on that country dehydrated meals is eyes sometimes don't want to heat water, especially for lunch, but sometimes I'll just get a handful of the carrot ginger power bowls to do for lunch, because I can cold soak them. Yeah. Nice. Love that. Get the full list of all 10 women owned ultra light gear brands. We love through the link in the show notes. Thank you Katie. That was a really good idea for an article. Yeah. She wanted to do the fitness app one as well. Yeah. So this one is by Kelly Floreau. And it is this fitness app lets you bet cash on your own steps. Are we all about to be rich? You have to read the article to get the answer. Yes or no? But she gives a breakdown of a new app called steppa where you pay a fee to join a step

13:51challenge. And then everyone who succeeds in the step challenge will split the prize pool. And if you don't meet the set challenge, then you forfeit that entrance fee and you don't get a payout. So it's an interesting thing, especially thinking about it in the through hiker context when I can't really imagine any step goal that is not going to be met by a through hiker on a trail. Yeah. I would like to see this get popular enough for people who are funding their through hikes by just they said goals of 8,000 steps a day and they're blowing that out of the water by like 30,000 steps. Yeah. Or even I mean go ambitious go the 40,000 steps. If you know you're going to hit it. Sure. I bet not many other people are going to hit that. Yeah. Have you ever done a step challenge with friends? No. I've done some through work, but they've always weirdly coincided with times of injury. So I've never been a competitive player in step contest. Yeah. I buddy Chris, you met we would do consecutive 10,000 day step challenges. So like the only thing was you had to hit 10,000 steps per day. And I was surprised at how motivating that was, especially we do it in the winter.

14:54And there were so many nights like 7, 8, 9 pm where I'm taking Sierra around the block through the snow to get for my 7 to 10,000 steps on the day. Were you allowed to use a walking pad? Or did they have to be outside? No, could be on a treadmill, it could be inside. Just when you've got 3,000 steps remaining, it becomes like a like you're living in a insane asylum trying to get 3,000 steps just walking around your living room. I've done it before. I've done a ridiculous amount of steps inside my house for that reason. Or sometimes I'm so OCD that I'll be like at 9,500 steps on the day. Even without a challenge, I just want to get to the round number of 10,000 steps and I'll just spend whatever 5 to 10 minutes walking around my house. I do feel like a crazy person, like checking my watch for the updated step count every 15 seconds to see. I do think with this and my 9 to 5, I have such a huge discrepancy where it lets you right now. I have taken 800 steps, which is not great, it's 4 p.m. But then on the weekends, I will usually hit 40,000 steps a day.

15:56I feel like you're probably going to still climb 2, 14 hours a day knowing you. I'm running out of ones to do. Are you going to move down to the 13 hours next? Yeah. Is that the next challenge? I've started chipping away at some of the centenials. You said that there were some of the 14 hours that you're just not going to touch. There's three that I just don't think. Is capital one of them? No, I'll do capital. Every photo from that makes my about a whole clench very hard. Yeah, but that one feels very controllable. It's a long day, it's a hard day, it's a technical day. But then if you look at Little Bear, the issue is rockfall where you can be as skilled as you want and still just get hit by a rock. I don't like things that I can't prepare for. Or control, yeah. Or control. That makes perfect sense. So where are the three Little Bear? North Maroon, or maybe it's Maroon Pea, I forget which one. One of the Maroon Bells is just really loose. And it's, I guess, a similar thing. I just can't control for that and same with the other one. Is that the one that kills the most people each year? So Longspeak is the deadliest mountain in Colorado by just number of deaths.

17:00But then I believe it is capital that is the deadliest one you standardize for the amount of attempts. Oh, interesting. Deaths per attempt. Yeah, I thought Maroon took one of those. Does it vary at all year to year? It might vary. I mean, there's so few deaths on some of these. I would totally believe it. I mean, Maroon, everything in the Elk range is so loose. You're also way more hip with the 14 or stats. So I might just be repeating here, say, at this point. I also, I might be out of date. That could be an old thing. Yeah. But then Pyramid Peak is also in the Elks and it just seems really loose. Yeah. 13 or 13 or all the jam. Are the 13 or as technical as the 14 or is it? Many or more technical. Yeah. They're also a lot less crowded, which is really nice. Yeah. I've heard that consistently. Very good. Let's go to today's question of the day. What is your go-to open bar? Art is important. Open bar, wedding dance move. Well, I've been to a hot three weddings in my life. Seriously?

18:01All I'm just at the point. Is this a generational thing? Is that all of the kids are not getting married because of all of the just like the status of the world? I think all of my friends are about to get married. I have so many engaged friends. I only have three people that have actually, I'm next year. I will have many, many, many weddings. Okay. I do remember there was a wave like fresh out of college where the friends who linked up in college got there. They were ready to have kids and got hitched. And then now they think about it. Yeah, I think like late 20s or early 30s was the next massive wave. Yeah. And obviously you're in that camp. Yeah. Yours is 2027, right? We're 2028. We have it on, we're booking a venue this week and I think just depending on the dates of the venue. Got it. I'll know next week when my wedding is. We never gave the story on how that happened. I know that was supposed to be like with the update of the week, but I don't know if story is the right way to frame it, but do you want to tell us the rundown on your engagement? Yeah. So my now fiance and I have been together for, I hope he's not listening to us.

19:04It is either seven or eight years. Our anniversary is this week. And it is either our seventh or our eighth anniversary. I will I will circle back on that one. We met in college and when we graduated college, we started doing long distance. He was getting a PhD in Cambridge and I moved to Denver. And so every time I would go up to Cambridge to visit, we would go to the White Mountains and we were starting to chip away at the NH 48, the 48 mountains and New Hampshire over 4,000 feet. It's Cambridge MIT. Yes. You should just say I know you're trying to be humble. But it's not your humble brag. It's his humble brag. That's true. I'll brag on him. He's a genius. Yeah. So he got his PhD. Double PhD, right? Double PhD. He would hate this. Theoretical biophysics from MIT and then a like applied math, statistics and data science. I'm so intimidated by a Dan. He's so smart. Yeah. And unfortunately incredibly humble. He'd hate that we're having this conversation.

20:04I can picture him now being like, it's one PhD. And it's not that impressive. But he's not much of a hiker backpacker or at least he wasn't when we first started dating. So the NH 48, I think that he's only been on one backpacking trip that wasn't in New Hampshire, which is crazy. Because that's kind of an unpleasant place to be a lot of the time. But he was very nice. I told him it was important to me to do all 48 and he said, fine. So chipping away at all of them and a few weeks ago, we were going out to do our last one, which is Mount Isolation and the presidential range. It gets really good views of Mount Washington and Madison Adams, all of the presidential range mountains. And the proposal, the fact that it was happening had been ruined for me the week prior. But I had a week to get excited about it. And then the thing that surprised me is when I showed up, he had invited a bunch of my friends from college to come do the hike with us. One of them had never been backpacking before. So it was really meaningful that she was willing to go do this kind of objectively unpleasant

21:05experience in the white mountains. For me, and it was her and her boyfriend who I hiked the JMT in the long trail with. And then this is raising red flags for you. Well, I, at this point I knew. Now, it was very obvious. And I knew there was a ring and I knew it was coming at some point. And then it was one of our other very good friends from college. And so we went at Mount Isolation the whole time Dan kept pretending like nothing was happening. We were all explicitly talking about the proposal. And he'd be like, I don't know what you're talking about. Since you know it's coming, are you like trying to like blot down all your sweat? Like are you trying to prepare for the photo? Every time he would stop and linger, because I bring my camera on these. So I'm usually hanging back to try to get pictures of people. And he would stop and linger. And I'd be like, what's happening right now? And it didn't. So we get up and we set up camp and we're going to go up to the summit for sunset. And we're about to head out of camp. And I looked like I just hiked up a mountain and I asked him if I should fix my hair. And he said, you always look beautiful. And I said, OK, but should I fix my hair?

22:05And then he got kind of quiet. And he said, whatever you want to do, you should do it now. That's funny. So we hiked up. The summit of Isolation has this little shelf with a much better view. And then maybe 10 feet above that is the actual summit, which is a little bit more wooded. So we were hanging out with some friends, like the friends from college, on that shelf for a bit. And then as the sun started to set, he asked if you could pull me for a chat, because he'd been watching too much love Island. And so we went up to the actual summit. And then he started whispering. He said, I'm really worried that people can hear us feeling very self-conscious. So I'm going to say nice things now, but I'm going to whisper. So then he whispered a lot of very nice things. Then it got to the point where you could tell he was supposed to get down on one knee. And he looked at me and he suddenly looked really worried. And he said, I actually haven't been scared about this at all until right now. And right now I'm really worried. And I think I said something really comforting, like just do it. I can do it. I said, yeah, I'm going to go down, get down. So he got down on one knee. He opened the ring box.

23:06It was upside down. So then the pictures we have, my family says that I look really surprised, but I'm not surprised. I was just laughing at him because the ring was upside down. Flip the box over. I said, yes. Ring went on. It was great. We had hiked up some champagne. We just had champagne at the top. Yeah. It was very sweet. That's so romantic. And we crossed the Danburg Park. We had to hitch then from, we went down to different trails. We had to hitch back to our car. And they all sent me to go do it because they don't like hitchhiking. And I hadn't had service. And I got in the car. And I was telling the women I was hitchhiking with, like, I just got engaged. And they were like, does anyone know yet? And I'm like, no, you're the first ones to know. That's funny. Cool. Well, thank you for sharing that. I think it's very, and yeah, props to Dan again. And congratulations to you, too. Thank you. OK, back to the question of the day. What is your go-to open bar wedding dance move? I know you're not much of a drinker, but I'm sure that means it doesn't take that much of the all to get you to your prime dancing mode. I also like a dance.

24:07I would do the stone pool to go. OK. I can do the worm. I think you have to. So I would do the worm. I think you have to right now. OK. Hold on. I got to adjust the camera because I didn't say I could do the worm well, but I can do the worm. I'm going to button my shirt. We're now both off my class. OK, this is a plug for the YouTube. A plug for the YouTube. And then not in the worm. This is really not the most confusing stuff. Yeah. Good shit. Good shit. I was worried I was going to knock the lights over. I'm going to do the worm. That's massive plug for the YouTube right there. Although I do now hate that I made you do the worm because now whatever I say, I'm going

25:08to have to demonstrate. That's true. You know what's funny is I can also do the worm, but it's only we're only going to do one of those. You can't do double worm on a podcast. That's podcasting. My go to. And this is actually a self invented thing. It makes Jenna laugh. I didn't know it was funny, but I call it stir in the pot. OK. All right. Headphone has come off. Yeah. OK. Make sure I'm in frame here. But you guys, you're holding something here. I'm not sure what you're holding in behind you. You're stirring the fire. What? Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Just like one time when I was drunk that came out. And then. I think Jenna pointed out she's like, that's your go to dance move. And I never realized I was even doing it. But somehow I'm stirring the pot. And in order for her to have said that you must have done it. She's seen me drink. Five plus times. Yeah, certainly. Yeah. No, I'm not creative enough to have like a whole arsenal of dance moves.

26:08I must be just stirring the pot. It's like in four year old Virgin where they make fun of them because yelling has one move, which is just rolling the dice. That's my roll in the dice is I stir the pot. It's a good. I was a couple of plugs for the YouTube. Yeah, love it. Yours was way more impressive. Maybe one day on a drinking episode. Yes. I will also demonstrate my worm because the space is too confined to. We need a yeah, you made the you made the best of a bad situation. This is not the most wormable room that I've ever been in. Okay, dilemma thing of the week. Should I get bangs? Like real bangs. Oh, I'm going to. Jess. Oh, we're calling Jess and. Bring it in the reserves on this one. You're needed immediately. And that I think the answer then is going to be yes because Jess has bangs if I'm picturing her face. I usually give you some of this correctly. We have a question. We're currently recording the podcast. We're on the segment. Which is. Uh, dilemma thing of the week. It's okay. Other way.

27:08That's good enough. Ask you a question. Should I get bangs? Like real bangs? Oh, yeah, absolutely. But I'm super biased. I have bangs. I think everybody should have bangs. I think everybody down with me. I feel like it's time. I agree. I agree. Yeah. I think I have a long face. The care. And I've never had bangs. I don't think you have a long face. I do think you have the care. And I think you look at it matter what you do. Oh, very kind. I worry it's going to go real south. Okay. So I hear that. I feel like everybody is going to be. I'm going to be. I'm going to be. I'm going to be. I'm going to be. I'm going to be. I'm going to be. I'm going to be. Okay. Okay. So I hear that. I feel like everybody's bangs go south. At least for like the first few weeks you have bangs. You're like. You're fired. I feel like you're. They never look good for the first few weeks you have them. And then you kind of figure it out. And yeah, but you're always going to say. I made a huge mistake when you first got bangs. Okay. Yeah. I've always thought the trifecta of things I want to do with my hair. I want to bleach it blonde. Like really, really bleach it. Have you done it before? Yes. Nice.

28:08Um, get like real blank bangs and then shave my head at some point. Mm. And it's at some point before I go out, I want to do all three of those things. How about you do bangs and shape tags? Oh my god. Yes, that's the plan. That way nobody will know. They'll be like, I can't tell which I like better. I'd like your shape to like the bangs better. It all looks good. Party in the front. Party in the back. Also party all over. Just bring the drapes. That's all I've been doing. The drapes match the drapes. Very good. You had to be called in for that one because you asked me about bangs. You asked way better questions than I did. I have no thoughts about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm. Yes, big yes. Okay. Yes. Good to know. Congrats on your new bangs. Thank you. You got this. I got this. I got this. Uh, I'm going to kick off our triple crown. Triple crown of. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. It's going to be a backup product. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. Oh,

29:08So, Thank you so much. I got this. I was like, I have a. This is bag. That's awesome. What do you guys think of this. It was the last time you went to my town of conditions, you would opt out of backpacking. Brought to you by OnEx. Use the code Trex70 for 70% off or go to the URL in our show notes. Do you have a three month trial. Oh, yeah, thank you for that. 70% off is a scream and deal. By the way, Yeah, yeah, I mean far out is amazing if you're doing like a dedicated through hike, but what happens is after you do one of those through hikes, you just want to go romper on trails in your backyard and you need an app like this definitely get on the back country and use our code, trek 70 for 70% off, or go to the URL in the show and it's okay. Conditions you did all that plugging for how awesome backpacking is. We're going to talk about the reasons you shouldn't go back packing. Do you want to start? In my list. Okay, this is the basic answer, but it's also true. Anything with a ton of thunderstorms, rain, fine, thunderstorms scare me,

30:08especially if I'm anywhere close to a ridge line or above tree line. Yeah, I think the one of the only times I will truly cancel a back country backpacking trip is if I look at the forecast and so ton of thunderstorms. Yeah, agreed. I think especially if you're above tree line, it just becomes like it's a safety issue. It's guaranteed to not be fun. Yeah, though that combination of things is just not good. My first pick is the thing that was used as the example for this. So this will come as zero surprise to you, but in like thick mosquito clouds, especially if it's like a short backpacking trip. If like doing something like the PCT or longer through like like you're going to encounter thick bug country at some point, that's not a reason to not do one of those trails. But like if you are planning a weekend trip and it's the height of bugs season and you're around a lot of standing water, I just can't enjoy it. Like even with the bug net, even with I don't like wearing full pants and long sleeves.

31:12So maybe that's the hesitation, but like to the extent that you have to cover your body to actually be protected from mosquitoes is just not enjoyable for me, especially if there's a lot of climbing and it's typically the bed of summer. I just hate mosquitoes. Yeah, I feel like I never get my sanity. When I'm in my tent, I'm constantly like, like, it's just, I don't ever feel the sense of peace that I'm after with backpacking when it's like true thick cloud of mosquito hell. I think the way you feel about mosquitoes is how I feel about those flies that will bite you through your clothes and draw blood. Yeah. Black flies. Married black flies. Any fly that bites, I've mosquitoes don't tend to go for me, but those like coached up a valley on the CT. I had active blood spots on my son, honey. Yeah. And yeah, it does hurt. The biting flies do suck, but I've experienced way more days of backpacking where the mosquitoes have ruined my time as it was the black flies. That's probably true. Next one is I'm going to go with the combination of cold and rain.

32:17Yeah. One or the other is certainly not a reason to cancel a trip, but it is like 40 and a 50% chance percent of like substantial rain. That's just where like not only is it not fun back to the thunder's one thing, it is a safety thing. Yeah, I would way rather be in snowy conditions. I mean, I guess with some context, I wouldn't want to be like in the middle of the sand wands or something like that. I would rather it be 31 and snowing than 34 and raining. Totally agreed. Totally agreed. Yeah, it just soaks you down to your bones and like anytime that you're not actively climbing, I feel like you're cold no matter what. Yeah, it's just it's not fun. The few times where it's been both in the 30s or even low 40s and like raining hard has just been like get me through the day. Yeah. I'll take super smokey. I that's on my list. Not only do I hike reviews and if it's smoky enough, I don't think the views are very good, but I don't think backpacking trips are worth the health risk of all the smoke.

33:19There have been maybe a handful of times where I'll check a trip report. I guess I used on X for it recently to see the smoke layer and I've changed my plans to go somewhere that's not smoky. That smart and very adult of you. Yeah, I think I've talked on this podcast too many times at this point. Like how badly the smoke on the PCT fucked me up for a long period of time. It took me a long time to even like connect the dots on that too. But yeah, I think that's smart. I think it's a drum that we have to continually beat because I'm sure there's so many people out there that are so determined to complete their thruiking goal that they'll look past the AQI and at least want you to consider the alternative. And even outside of the health risk of it, I just hate when I go on a hike and I go up to the viewpoint and it's super smoky. Yeah. It's just kind of, I don't know, I don't like that view. It looks like everything's faded and smudgy and I don't think the views are good. Yeah. No, I distinctly remember from the PCT just for second of weeks. When you see the sun, it's through the vantage point of smoke and it's,

34:21yes, like, I don't know if it's like Gotham City or something. Yeah. Kind of they've removed the saturation from the world and it's a little uglier. Yeah. For sure. Um, and I will round it out with just if it's super hot. Yeah. I would so much rather be cold than hot. I can dress for cold. I can prepare for cold. If it's 105 degrees, I'm not going. Yeah. I totally agree. I have hot, specifically hot and humid. I think is the one that fucks me up the worst, which is not an issue so much out here, but like 80, that's, that's a thing. Yeah. You'll encounter it. But you're aiming for an early start. I found out recently that I had the date of my sister's wedding wrong, which has made the decision for me. I have to go south, which I'm okay with it. Yeah. I thought she was getting married in June. She's getting married in May. And there's no way I could finish a nobo hike by May and her wedding, since it'll be the, um, Hindu ceremony, I will be required to be there for about a

35:22week. So it's, I can't just pop off trail and come back. I mean, you could. For, I mean, 10 days in the grand scheme of things is not terrible. Yeah. I don't think I'd want to help you workshop. But yeah, no, hot and humid, just hot in general, but yeah, humid stinks. My last one, because I think we took all of the obvious weather related events, I'm going to go with if there's an important football game. Oh, if the bears are playing in the NFC championship game and I'm on a weekend backpacking trip, sorry guys, I'm sick. I can't make the backpacking trip. Like, I know how that ends and that ends with me bailing on a backpacking trip where like I'm guaranteed to have a good time in favor of a game where my team is probably going to lose and I'll have a terrible time. That's just how it works out. But I can't not watch one knock on Dan's proposal, which if he's listening, it was perfect. But, um, we were on isolation with no service when the next one, um,

36:24championship. Yeah. And I had told myself I'm not going to look at the outcome of the game. I'm going to get back to the car. I'm just going to watch it on the way home and I won't, I won't know what it is. Of course, as soon as you get service, everyone's texting it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so that was spoiled and that you that was actually a very compelling reason where it was, it was tough to miss the championship. Yeah. Katie's a big basketball hide, which is cool. Uh, how do you feel about tomorrow to Rosen? Um, I'm just feeling so negative about the season in general for the nuggets. I'm excited that something came out of all of these trades. I think all of my, um, not the best players on the nuggets, but a lot of my favorite players have left Bruce Brown. Um, obviously Peyton Watson was a hard one to lose. Um, I'm for you. His name right now. Russell was broke. Oh, yeah. That was two years ago, but that I loved him. I'm sad that he's retiring. I would have loved to just get him back on the nuggets for a year. For you, his name right now is, it's a junior, Tim Hardaway, Jr. I really liked him.

37:24Hardaway, Jr. I think he was the best addition off the bench to the nuggets last year, um, compared to how much we were paying him. So I was sad to see him go. I feel like we just lost a lot of players and haven't gotten anything. I'm super stoked on. I think I'm really worried about Aaron Gordon's health holding up through the season. I don't know. I'm just feeling very negative about the nuggets this year in general. I hope I can come back in six months and I call you didn't believe and they did so well. But as a bulls fan, uh, tomorrow, Rosen played for us for three seasons, two and a half, something like that. Uh, he's super fun to watch. So that's good. Nothing else. Yeah, at least it'll be fun. His mid range game is what as the kids are saying. No one is saying that. Uh, yeah, as backpack and talk, be sure to either go trek 70 for Sony Prasov at Onyxback Country. Oh, shoot. I didn't get the bits and bobs in place to do the voicemail. Uh, what did you do? The old fashioned way. Usually I'm smart enough to link this up directly to the zoom.

38:27I didn't know it could be a voicemail. Hey, Zach, uh, this is Isabelle. Eastern. Well, no, I'm Isabelle height. Uh, my trail name was Rucker. I was one of your badger sponsored hikers back in 2016. So it's my 10 year anniversary. And I just found this, um, little voice note thing. I thought it'd be cool to share with you that I was able to celebrate the 10 years with my oldest son, Torin, uh, who is now six. By through hiking the Shenandoahs together. So that was 105 miles and he crushed it. It was so cool to share the gear that I got through your sponsorship with him that it's like still working. I mean, some of it's pretty, pretty bad. But it is just such a beautiful, uh, right of passage for our family and just what a honor it was to have the opportunity to share that with him.

39:27And hopefully in the future, I'll do something similar with my two other children. But my husband and I, we are regenerative farmers in Virginia now. Check us out. We are, um, Solstice beef company. Um, maybe we should send you some meat sticks. Um, but yeah, anyway, I hope you well. I love all of your social media and yeah, have a great day. Hope to hear from you. That's so nice. That's, I love that. I love that so much. Um, yeah, so pre Katie back in the day, the bad sponsorship used to be a very different format where people would have to submit like a video why they should receive the bad sponsorship. Um, and yeah, actually remember as well. This was back back. Honestly, it was so much fun for me every year. I would bring in every trek contributor at the time. It was Appalachian trials and like have them help me vote on who was the most deserving on it. It got to the point where, um, I just, I hated picking favorites. Also, I felt like the beneficiary of it should be more skewed toward the trails as opposed

40:28to the hikers. Maybe I'll revise that or we'll add another giveaway at some point. But yeah, it used to be so fun to go back and look at the bad like XX wants to win uh, the bad sponsorship videos because the videos were so creative and fun. And like everyone had really endearing and inspirational stories. Uh, and yeah, specifically to Isabel. That's awesome. Celebrating your 10 year through hike anniversary backfacking with your son is that's, that touches my heart, especially as a dad. Uh, thank you Isabel so much for that message that made my day. And I just looked at her beef company and I wish I lived nearby. They do. You can pick up a quarter, 16th, eight quarter or half cow. For pretty cheap, I mean, I haven't immediately done the math. But if I live nearby, I was already like, how can I buy this 16th of a cow? Oh, yeah, that's how we get our beef. We do a fractional cow at one of the nearby farms. So yeah, definitely check out what was the name of the farm? Uh, Solstice Beef. Solstice Beef. If you are in the, which area was it Virginia?

41:30Virginia. I just immediately closed out of this. But I saw I was not in the in the radius to go pick it up. And I was like, well done. I can make some recommendations for you locally. Um, and yeah, if you want to send some beef steaks, fuck yeah, we'll take that. Uh, uh, Louisa Virginia. Louisa Virginia. Very cool. If you guys want to have your voicemail left in this podcast, uh, the link to do so will be in the show notes. You can also check out the backpacker radio, Instagram, the link that bio has all of the ways to get in touch with us. So thank you again to Isabelle for that note. That was great. Five star review. This one made me laugh. No, take it. Sure. Um, I'm at Zach. In Seattle this summer and asked him about any cold soak recipes he would recommend. This was at the meetup by the. He proceeded to describe cold soaked meals as slop and to urge me to change my lifestyle. Thanks to a the bystander who witnessed this act of violence and shared a buffalo pasta salad

42:32recipe. I will never stop enjoying my slop haters be gone. And that is from a walk. Cahin. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, and no in hindsight, I probably shouldn't have been as dismissive as it was, but I gave you my honest feedback and I will always give you my honest feedback. You never cold soak. I have. I don't like it. It's cold slop. It's yucky. It's almost as bad as wasteers. No, it's not almost as bad as wasteers. It's way better at noisers. Uh, but in the context where most people are cold soaking where they just do it for dinner out of convenience, where the inconvenience, I guess is heating water for two minutes. So which sucks? I hate eating water. Yeah. The out trade the two mean two minutes of heating up water versus one just carrying extra water that you don't need to carry. So the time that you're cold soaking is your care obviously carrying all the water to re-hate, hydrate the food. Whereas you wouldn't have to carry that extra water and then most of the time you're camping out of water. So we're supposed to just pull it from there. And to like, especially when it's cold at night, eating what body temperature, room

43:35temperature or colder. Slop is not, does not lift your spears at all. I agree with dinner. I cold soak on my lunches lunch. I can get behind, but usually for lunch, I'm just a series of bars and, uh, I'm just throw shit and tortilla. That being said, I could easily be swayed into a cold soaking lunch. It's the people that are doing it for dinner that I just firmly disagree with. That's fair. Yeah. I do think sometimes the only thing that keeps me going is the idea that I'm about to have a hot pasta dinner. Totally. I can. Even if it's not good, just when you're cold, getting something hot in your body is a morale boost, no matter what. For sure. Yeah. Uh, yeah. Maybe I should give cold soaking for lunch specifically more of a shot because yikes for dinner. Uh, thank you very much for the five to review. That may be laugh. I sent that one to the group and we all got a good touch on that. So thank you for that. Uh, if you guys want to hear your review right on this podcast, head on over to Apple podcast, leave us any number of stars. It's not one to three or four.

44:36And we will read it here on this podcast, uh, screenshot your review, email us, podcast at the track.co and I'll send you a backpacker radio sticker. Thank you so much for listening and happy hiking. Bye. I was hoping you'd say a gator than that. Bye. Yeah. Guys, let's do shots and get crazy. No, we're going to be on you snail. Go get out of here. Yeah. Right. How is she not getting? She's still mulling us. It is a classic snail technique. Classic. Yeah. Get out of here. Get out of here. Go, go, go. Yeah. Go, go, go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've been walking so many of my

45:39I've yet to go. I've never been one that's been to Jews. But every time I do, I find I lose. I guess I'm a loser. Stop and ground. Oh, welcome man. For the love and crowd.