It's adventure headlines day on THE ROCK FIGHT (an outdoor podcast that aims for the head)! Today Colin & Justin Housman run through headlines to come out of the outdoor community over the past week.
Here's the rundown:
A dropped bag of Cheetos caused big problems at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico proving that wherever people go, litter follows. (02:58)
A pack of otters attacked a jogger who was out for her morning run in Malaysia. This story begs the question: what is the cutest animal that can royally f@%& you up? (13:21)
A lost hiker was found after being missing for 30 days in North Cascades National Park. How much do we know and how many questions should we actually ask? (21:00)
Lael Wilcox set a new record for biking around the world. How awesome is that?! (30:08)
And of course they wrap things up with their Parting Shots! (37:17)
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Episode Transcript
Colin (00:08):
Welcome to the Rock Fight where we speak our truth, slay sacred cows and sometimes agree to disagree. This is an outdoor podcast that aims for the head. I'm Colin Tru and joining me today, he's the leader of an elite force of Malaysian attack otters. It's Justin Housman.
Justin (00:25):
Did you know that there were otters in Malaysia? No, of course you didn't. Why did you ever think about that? I didn't know. We'll get to that in a minute, but I find the most shocking thing about the story to be that there are mean, I've never been to Malaysia. I'm picturing hot, humid, tropical. That's kind of hot, right? That sounds sounds right. Are there like river otters there and where? I live in the cooled redwoods. Are you sure they're not nutria? Okay. That is an animal. That sounds like a cracker, but it is an animal. You're right. Alright, whoever. Aren't they? It's an invasive
Producer Dave (00:59):
Type of otter. I think they're kind smallish. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we've got 'em up here and all I know is that you're not supposed to love them
Justin (01:05):
Up. Yeah. Why are they called
Producer Dave (01:05):
That? I mean, that is
Justin (01:06):
Definitely like a locale.
Producer Dave (01:10):
Oh, yogurt, right? Yeah, exactly. I was
Colin (01:13):
Going to say whoever, ed producer Dave in the what gets edited out first poll wins because Nutri, I don't think that's going to the final guy. I'm kidding.
Producer Dave (01:22):
This is a good bit. Don't let your ignorance blind you, Colin.
Colin (01:26):
It is a weird name that it's an animal, but listen, we are going to get into attack otters in Malaysia or attack Nutri in Portland. Might be both. But before we get to that, we got a few housekeeping items to get through. First of all, thank you for listening to the rock fight and we would really appreciate it if you would go follow and rate the show wherever you're listening on whatever podcast app. Leave us that five star rating and then go listen to our other podcast Gear and beer and you can follow and rate that show wherever you're listening to the Rock Fight. This past week, our pal Justin Hausman did a whole breakdown of fly fishing for the uninitiated. It
Justin (01:58):
Was a good one.
Colin (01:59):
It was good. It was a great episode. So go check that out. Listen to gear and beer. Listen to the rock fight and hey Justin, if our listeners would like to reach out to us, what should they
Justin (02:08):
Do? Well, first of all, they should email us at my rock fight@gmail.com. Pictures of pets are fine. We'll accept those. If you'd like to send some of those or of your children, that's fine. Or if you maybe have you tangled up in your new fly fishing gear, that'd be fun too. You can also read our newsletter and the best way to get that is add to rock fight.co and click on join the mailing list, just like that.
Colin (02:29):
And I'll make a public apology for putting a typo in this week's newsletter.
Justin (02:32):
Oh boy. Yeah,
Colin (02:34):
And it was a rough morning when that comes out and you're like, ah, I think I pointed one out. There was an AJ newsletter typo that I found I remember get very verbose. Oh shit. When came back
Justin (02:45):
Makes you it's human. What are you going to do?
Colin (02:49):
It also makes you want to kind of die a little bit too though,
Justin (02:52):
If you've done it. Yeah, sure. But I don't know. I'm trying not to grip so tightly into the things like that. Who cares?
Colin (02:58):
Let's get off with our lead story. This one came out this past week from the Yahoo News and they ran a story about a bag of Cheetos that was dropped inside a cave at Carlsbad Canyons National Park in New Mexico, which this misstep by a visitor caused the park. It caused a huge impact on the park and the cave's ecosystem where the corn for the Cheetos created the perfect environment for microbial life and bacteria, and then that attracts flies and spiders and mites, which disperses these nutrients elsewhere in the caves and creates mold and a public post. The Carlsbad cavern said contrary to pop your belief, the cave is not a big trash can and that the Rangers pick up trash from visitors every single day. I back out. Good for you. I love that they said
(03:38):
That.
(03:39):
I mean, it's kind of inevitable though. If people go, trash will be left behind though, right? It doesn't how it goes, it doesn't have to be.
Justin (03:47):
I wouldn't say that's inevitable. It does. I think it's very inevitable. Inevitable.
Colin (03:53):
But how irresponsible would you have to be to drop a bag of Cheetos?
Justin (03:55):
Well, that was clearly okay, so I also wrote a story about this for National Parks Traveler, although I didn't realize that we'd already posted about it days before, so I had to kill it. But I thought about this and at first I thought it was an empty bag of Cheetos, which makes sense, right? Yeah.
Colin (04:13):
Kid drops it or something.
Justin (04:14):
It fell out of my back, whatever. But a full bag, someone was obviously just snacking on it and it slipped out of their hand and they felt really guilty. Apparently there's a full orientation you have to go through before you go in that says nothing besides water can come in with you.
Colin (04:25):
Oh, so it's not even like they tell you.
Justin (04:28):
Yeah, they just specifically do not bring any food in here, nothing but water. And so clearly somebody was like and then dropped it. It was like, oh shit. So I think that's probably what happened, but it is wild. What a difference it can make. It's pretty incredible. I was reading about it and it was within minutes. There's like foreign microbes somehow that don't exist in the cave system already. Maybe. I guess they're already on the Cheetos bag or the person's hands and they just go nuts in there and it's like a little,
Colin (04:54):
A science fiction movie. You see the veiny black lines creeping across the bottom of the cave.
Producer Dave (04:59):
I believe this is the premise of the XFiles movie,
Colin (05:02):
Is it?
Producer Dave (05:04):
Yes. Yeah, that's Cheetos. Were dropped into a cave, turns into a black sludge.
Justin (05:09):
Heard Nutria played heavily into this plot as well. People
Producer Dave (05:12):
Are snacks.
Justin (05:13):
That's absolutely Visit that movie. Absolutely. Yeah. Apparently there's also a cafe down there that is sealed off so they can kind of monitor things. So if you have to have a snack, you can go to the place where it's okay, but
Colin (05:27):
Well, that's kind of what I'm getting at. You're almost inviting catastrophe at that point, aren't you? You're saying as an orientation is saying you can't have any food in here, but hey, go ahead and have a treat at our little cafe, but don't take anything into the caves after you go there. I just like humans aren't built for this. We're totally going to take the food in the caves. This feels very much on brand for
Justin (05:42):
Us. So yesterday I went for, I'm demoing a new incredible mountain bike boys. It's right next to me. It's another e-bike, but from Marin. It hasn't been released yet, so I can't say what it is, but it's pretty sweet. And so yesterday I went for a ride all the way from my house to the top of Mount Tamal Pius and kind of around there and then back down pretty long ride, which I would not normally do, but e-bike makes it possible. Anyway. I bitch a lot about how Marin is kind of like a museum where you can't, it's like look, but don't touch. And
Colin (06:12):
You do live in Marin. Right?
Justin (06:14):
Okay, alright.
Colin (06:15):
Okay. Just making sure.
Justin (06:16):
And yesterday though, as I was writing back down, I was looking at some of the reservoirs and they're just fricking pristine and it did, as much as I would love to swim in them and use a boat on them and all these sorts of things, you're like, okay, I understand why we can't. And it is pretty magical when you get up there. Sometimes you can see San Francisco on one side and the other side is just pristine, like open space. Okay, I get why we've done this. There's hordes of people just over the hill and if these lakes were a free for all, it would be disgusting up here. So point of that is that maybe we just shouldn't be allowed anywhere anymore, is what I'm saying. Why are we letting people into the caves? Why are we doing that at all?
Colin (06:59):
It's a national
Justin (07:00):
Park. I mean I get that, but it's like maybe don't let people into the place that if you drop one bag of Cheetos, you disrupt entire ecosystems.
Colin (07:07):
Or are there repercussions if you're caught with your Cheetos? I don't know
Justin (07:10):
What that would be. Maybe that's it. Maybe we need to introduce caning like in Singapore or whatever. You litter, you get caned.
Producer Dave (07:18):
How about A TSA for national parks got to go through the That's right. The X-ray system, but it's going to recalibrate.
Colin (07:27):
Well, that's slippery slope. You start going down this rabbit hole of what you could do and it's like, okay, this is kind of ridiculous. We can't do any of that, right? I mean I guess we could, but it'd be,
Justin (07:38):
I just realized that minority report has a massive unexplored dimension, which is like why could we have precogs about littering? Somebody wakes up out of a milk bath and they're like Cheetos. They have to find somebody that's going to drop the Cheetos bag or someone just like cigarette butt out the car window.
Colin (08:03):
And the movies, the premonitions are always like these massive world economic events or political events. Why
Justin (08:08):
Can't be, someone's going to go 35 in a residential zone or so-and-so's going off trail. I can hear that'd be
Colin (08:16):
Like, oh, my car got dinged at the mall parking lot.
Justin (08:20):
You're like, I might poach and here's a ranger. You're like, oh fuck, they got me. Oh, we got you.
Producer Dave (08:25):
Look, if there's going to be a ground zero for a world claiming ecological disaster, the idea that it comes from a Dorito is probably not that.
Colin (08:34):
That's a very good point.
Producer Dave (08:36):
Cheto. Cheeto,
Justin (08:37):
Sorry, by the way, would you like to know what the price of one catastrophe or brother the price of a bag of, you want to know what the price of a bag of Doritos and is it BU in Alaska it's a very famous adventure town bu
Colin (08:50):
Okay. Oh, is that where they can only fly their stuff in?
Justin (08:52):
Yes. Would you like to know what a bag of Doritos costs 11 and 29 cents for a normal bag of Doritos,
Colin (08:57):
You better want those Doritos
Producer Dave (08:59):
Thanks
Justin (08:59):
To an Instagram reel. So it's
Producer Dave (09:00):
Only a couple bucks more than the seven 11. Actually, you know what, I actually have absolutely no idea what a bag of Doritos cost reference. I probably know it's 10
Justin (09:08):
Bucks where I live. I don't buy Doritos. Right, right.
Colin (09:11):
Also, I am curious if it was a full bag or someone toting around sounded like a giant
Justin (09:15):
Bag. No, it was a snacks size bag, but it was mostly full. And so apparently the corn's very nutritious and nice
Colin (09:27):
And moist and human in that cave.
Justin (09:29):
Had it just been just been an empty bag, I don't think it would've mattered. Also, it's just a reminder that it feels like if you're a ranger, like 90% of your job is just shaking your head at the visitors just like God damnit. That's got to be,
Colin (09:42):
I vacate. So being in a somewhat, I mean I'm in the outskirts of San Diego, but it's still kind of a bit urban in terms of use. And the hill I go up every day. There's usually lots of trash and there's sometimes, so you can tell someone has come and cleaned it up and I go through phases. I'm like, oh, actually it's not this dirty up here as it could be. Then there's other times I'm like, oh my God, this place is disgusting. How could people treat it this way? And I, I guess I'm just starting to accept it's just the way we are. I mean, Dave, you've been the sort of leading voice against Portland landers leaving poop bags on the trail lately. I mean, I kind of think that that's another example of just, I think this is somewhat inevitable because I think there's an instinct to be like, well, I put that poop bag down, I'm meant to pick it back up, but God, is that really what I'm just going to breeze right by it on the way back to my car. I don't need to get that. Someone else will pick that up after me. Right? I mean, I think that's just kind of the way we're wired,
Producer Dave (10:31):
Not me. I think you might be right, but I don't think it needs to be inevitable. I mean you sound a little bit like JD Vance there and gun control dare. We're going to shoot each other anyway. Fuck me as well. What is that? Yeah, that's right. Different
Colin (10:44):
Stakes. But I get your point, way different state. You
Justin (10:47):
Probably probably inappropriate, you probably right that people are like, I know I left that poop bag there, but I don't give a shit. I mean,
Colin (10:53):
They totally feel that way. I'm sure they're legit forgotten about poop bags, but I think there are a fair share of them, or no, not today. Someone else. To
Producer Dave (11:01):
Be fair, if you're leaving a
Justin (11:03):
Poop bag, you do give a shit. Shit. Why don't they? So I don't own a dog. Is it just you don't want to be walking around swinging a bag of poop? I don't understand why people leave them is That's the idea. That's totally what it is.
Colin (11:11):
Yep.
Justin (11:12):
How is that not on you? That's your decision to, I'm sorry, but you have to carry the poop.
Colin (11:18):
Yes.
Justin (11:18):
So when I bring poop bags, when I go dispersed camping
Colin (11:23):
For yourself,
Justin (11:24):
Yeah, I used to call 'em wag bags, not realizing that that's a brand name. And I don't use wag bags, I use duty something or reliable bags anyway. And I don't even leave those behind the, if I'm going to be camped for three or four days, I put them in the bed of my truck and drive them around with me and hopefully I'm going to find a garbage can, but maybe I don't that day.
Colin (11:46):
Are you sure that doesn't have more to do with your scat fetish
Justin (11:48):
Though? Mean? Well, that's a little bit, but that stash goes into the glove compartment. That's different. Okay.
(11:53):
And it's other people's, I don't even want to leave that behind where I don't know why. It just feels like this is a bridge too far to leave this behind the campsite. So it just goes in the back of my, it's like I can't even fathom just every time I see a little poop bag on a bike ride or something, I'm just baffled and I don't want to recreate the scene of the crime because that dog, that Cheetos bag thing is probably a straight up mistake. It's got leaving a poop. It was probably a kid and they were like, oh no. And they felt really bad.
Colin (12:23):
Yeah,
Justin (12:24):
The dog poop thing though. That's right to jail that that's the Portlandia meme of what's his name, right to jail. What was the right to jail episode? I dunno if I know that one. I don't even know. I mean, I think it's from Portlandia. It might not be. I'm pretty sure it is though. Got to be. How come? I'm blanking on. Oh, Fred Armerson. You've seen the meme though, right? Where he is dressed like a South American dictator. He just right
Colin (12:44):
To jail. Oh, it's from Parks and Rec. Oh it is. That's from Parks and Rec. Yeah. Yeah, it's Parks and Rec. Yeah.
Justin (12:48):
Alright.
Colin (12:48):
But yes, I know exactly what you mean. Alright, before we get to the rest of this week's headlines, we need to mention our teammates over at Darby Communications because if you run an outdoor endurance or active lifestyle brand, there's no better PR or digital marketing belay partner or beer drinking buddy than our pals at Darby. They can help your business reach new heights and they might just keep you from falling on your ass. Look guys, I don't know how many times we have to tell you this, but if they can help us and they do help us quite a bit, the rock fight has benefited quite a bit from having Mc Darby in our corner. They can truly help anybody. Which brings us to our intro headline. So this article comes from Canadian Running magazine. A Malaysian woman was out for her early morning jog last week when she was surrounded by eight Otters who were aggressively looking for food. At first she dismissed the otters, thought they were cats, but then the otters demanded recognition and attacked her, leaving behind wounds on her legs, arms and head. Did you watch the video? Did you see the pictures and the article?
Justin (13:45):
Yeah, a little. Yeah.
Colin (13:46):
It's fucking brutal, man. She was banged up.
Justin (13:50):
This has happened before with River Otters. Wait, were these river otters? They have to be. I don't know. They just said they were. They were. Yeah, I've seen this before with Otters River otters are apparently super nasty and I don't know what the deal is there. Maybe not super nasty, but they're way more aggressive than ocean otters would be,
Colin (14:09):
Which is kind of hilarious. Even wrote in here, I think of them as cute stuffed animals. I guarantee you all of our kids at one point had a stuffed otter. They see,
Justin (14:16):
Well, they probably have stuffed sea otters because river otters are a little different. They're a little bit, I mean, if you're not super familiar, look up a river der. You'll kind of be like, okay, I can sort of see how this could be a potentially fearsome animal. They can walk, they can run on land. I dunno how well sea otters do at that. And they're bigger and longer and they look a little bit more like weasels. But we have 'em all over the place around here. And when you see 'em, they're so rad. They're just swimming and having a great time. But yeah, I wouldn't want to necessarily get surrounded by then together with their buddies and they fuck you up. But also, I don't, don't know, we probably talked about it on the show before, but when I see these stories, it reminds me of my all time favorite nonfiction essay.
(14:59):
I guess it's an essay, I'm not even really sure. In a book called Pulp Head by John Jeremiah Sullivan, who, great name. He wrote one or two books and that was it. He an editor at the Paris Review. But honestly, I imagine he works at a grocery store or something. I don't think he really does much. But he brought this incredible story about how he was going on interviewing all these biologists who were talking about all these animal attacks like this one, these really bizarre animal attacks. And they got progressively weirder and weirder. And a lot of the scientists were talking about how there's these theories about the earth will at a certain point not tolerate humans anymore. And it's like this animal apocalypse and it's evolutionary and they've seen this in the evolutionary record, all these sorts of things. And then he gets, she flipped the pages. I made all that up. None of that actually happened. It's such a great, it was like an article in a big time magazine, but it was, yeah, you're like, holy shit. Holy shit. He's like, yeah, you should know I made all of this up.
Colin (15:53):
That totally makes sense. I'm hanging on every word you're saying right there as you're describing it to me. He read the
Justin (15:59):
Story about OTs attacking somebody. He just went off with it. But I will say the other day, some people around here were talking about, oh, my wife, she said she saw a bobcat on this trail. She likes to run on. And that's not that big of a deal. Bobcat's not going to attack you. But some of the other parents around were kind of like, oh no, that's kind of freaky. And I tend to dismiss that sort of thing. But shit, dude, Bobcat could take her kid. No problem.
Colin (16:26):
Bobcat's an interesting one because they're not very big. And when you see one and I mean they're really cool to look at, but also, yeah, they're just like, I think you could really do some damage. No, I wouldn't want to fuck
Justin (16:35):
With it.
Colin (16:36):
Well, so that made me want to ask, and I'm really curious, your opinion on this. What are the cutest animals that we could encounter and the bobcat may be the winner that could really fuck us up? Good question. If it decided to, it decided.
Justin (16:46):
Well, it sounds like Otter, honestly. I mean, because Otters have, I don't know of any Bobcat
Colin (16:49):
Attacks judging by the images of this woman. I think probably so they're number one on the list.
Producer Dave (16:54):
There's a meme for this, Colin. It's called If Friend Shaped Why? Dangerous Seen
Justin (16:57):
That. I've also seen, I've also, I saw footage the other day of a koala running at a kid. That's perfect.
Colin (17:06):
That's a perfect, okay, we'll put Koala at number two. I think you think Koala, you think, oh, you're holding it and like, oh, maybe it'll give me chlamydia. That's the worst thing a koala's going to do to me. But it's, I'm sorry. How would that happen, Colin? You know about, well,
Justin (17:20):
Come on. It comes from Koalas.
Colin (17:23):
There's a high, yeah, chlamydia is a big deal in koala populations.
Justin (17:27):
No, I don't keep up on the sexually transmitted diseases amongst Australian marsupials. Dr. True.
Colin (17:33):
Listen man, when you're into the shit that I'm into, you got to know your stuff brother. Alright.
Justin (17:40):
Oh yeah. There's also, I've seen footage of a panda bear trying to kill someone through the bars before.
Colin (17:45):
That's a good one. Another just cuddly. Every kid has a stuffed animal.
Justin (17:50):
They're big. You can see when you're like, ah.
Colin (17:51):
Also Bear Bear is in the name.
Justin (17:53):
Yeah, that's a bear. It's cute, but it's still a bear. I think I'm going with Otter on this one.
Colin (17:59):
Well, solo Otter, but this is a pack of otters. Right?
Justin (18:02):
Okay. One at a time. Maybe a large, yeah, maybe a big buffer.
Colin (18:05):
I feel like I could fend off one, but eight otters, you're kind of clearly,
Justin (18:08):
Well, how many house cats could you take on? I bet I could take on at least 20 cats. Right?
Colin (18:13):
You get one in your hands, it's over. Do you ever get scratched by a cat? I mean, their claws are sharp,
Justin (18:17):
Man. Yeah, but I mean, you'd be so pumped with adrenaline. You wouldn't feel that. I feel like if you get one cat as soon as you get the cat in your hands, that cat's done well. What's the always saying,
Colin (18:24):
Kill us or just really mess us up? I feel like you'd be pretty messed
Justin (18:27):
Up in front of Cat. What's the difference? I mean at, I'm in the fight for my life here, man. That's a point. I'm getting attacked by Eight River Otters. They're sing on them. It's me or them. They're not like they're trying to take
Producer Dave (18:35):
My phone. Are you putting seals in the otter kind of camp too? I think? Yeah. Harbor Seals are super cute though
Colin (18:43):
In the water. They're pretty useless on land though.
Justin (18:45):
Yeah. But if you're swimming and the Harbors seal comes up and decides it wants a piece of U, you're done.
Colin (18:49):
I was surfing not that long ago and a seal kind of poked its head up, I dunno, 15 feet away. And it was awesome. But it was also like, you're a little too close man, because you come charging at me, I got nothing. You're going to win.
Justin (19:00):
Yeah, I I've, I've been chased out of the water by sea lions and they're huge big, and they're 10 feet long big. And me and a friend once were literally chased out of the water by one. We were kind of wonder if it was either being territorial or there was a shark around. I don't
Colin (19:12):
Know. It didn't like that. You're trying to put a saddle on it and ride it around.
Justin (19:15):
Yeah. What the fuck? Hey, this is our ocean bud.
Colin (19:18):
I'm I'm the apex predator here.
Justin (19:21):
I just still amazed that there's freaking otters in Malaysia. Man, this animal has really gotten around. Maybe they escaped from a zoo or something. Eight
Colin (19:28):
Of them little gangs.
Justin (19:29):
That's so gnarly. Yeah. Oh, I do remember once seeing, I remember Golden Gate Park has a giant population of raccoons and bobcats and coyotes. It's a very wild place. But my wife were once on a little hike around, a really pretty pond there called Sto Lake. And there was this family and they were trying to get their kid like a 2-year-old kid to take a picture with this. I dunno, you call a group of raccoons, 15 raccoons and they're all standing up in these rocks and they get their little girl stand right next to 'em. And we're like, are you insane? I mean one, these are wild animals. These are wild animals. They're obviously covered in all kinds of horrifying things and they could easily just grab her and run in the bushes. You'd never see her again.
Producer Dave (20:11):
And just to chime in there, a group of raccoons is called a gaze or a nursery. Holy,
Justin (20:17):
I'm going to go gaze. Real gaze is great.
Colin (20:19):
I think you know who the winner here is. We haven't mentioned, I think they're cute animals, but they win every single time and it's the skunk.
Justin (20:26):
Oh wow.
Colin (20:26):
No matter what, they don't even have to touch you and yeah, you're right. You're having a bad day after that encounter.
Justin (20:32):
Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't say, I guess they're cute. I dunno if I like things was cute. It can
Colin (20:37):
Be become lumbering on the trail if you didn't know what it was. Look at that black whale. Oh, he's
Justin (20:40):
Got the big tail. Right. True. And they have that kind of weird waddle. Turns out all animals can fuck you up because all animals for the most part have to defend themselves from predators or each other. And they have evolved ways to deal with that. Cute or not. You and me we're just trying to watch some stuff on the internet and drink some coffee and maybe go to bed early. We don't know how to defend ourselves.
Colin (21:01):
Alright, moving on. So the next article comes from a national parks traveler and some journalist named Justin Cabin Boy, a hiker in
Justin (21:09):
Washington. Beautiful last name.
Colin (21:10):
Well
Justin (21:11):
Gorgeous name.
Colin (21:12):
There's all sorts of ways we can spin it. So a hiker in Washington has been found after spending a month lost in North Cascades National Park. Robert Shock was reported missing on August 5th after a two week search turned up. Nothing. The search was called off. But he was then discovered by a trail crew on August 30th. It was noted that he was in pretty rough shape and likely would not have survived much longer. So obviously Justin, you wrote this, but do we know much more than what, I saw the story in a couple of different places, but was this kind an experience hiker? Do we know anything more than just sort of the basics of the story?
Justin (21:42):
We do not. And I have a Facebook request out to his mom in a couple of the stories.
Colin (21:49):
Oh yeah.
Justin (21:49):
So I have a Facebook request out to her to see if she could possibly put me in connection with him. I don't expect much to come of that, but no, we don't know anything more than that. I mean, it's a really interesting story. He, he apparently knew this area and he knew this hike. He claimed that the hike had recently been, or the trail had been changed after a river crossing and the chill Chillowak River chill.
Colin (22:13):
Yeah.
Justin (22:14):
That there's a point where the trail crosses the river and then becomes the trail kind of forks. And I guess he said there's been a change since last time he was there. And so he got off on the wrong fork or something like that. But he was found eight miles from his truck, or his dog was found eight miles from where he parked. I think it was
Colin (22:32):
Truck. It wasn't No the dog. It was just up the trail. It was not that far away. It felt like relative.
Justin (22:35):
Yeah, maybe they found him eight miles from the trailhead. But it seemed like, I know that his wallet and stuff was in the truck. It seemed like the kind of thing where he just went for a walk with his dog on the creek. And I guess people saw him or reported had seen him, or maybe it was what they found with him. He just had day hiking supplies. But there's definitely something a little bit weird about the way that it was reported just in the sense that the Sheriff's department said they found him alive and well. So basically what happened is someone found his, or Rangers found his dog and he had a tag and they were able to call his mom and his mom was like, what? And okay, he's missing. So she declared him missing. And so they started doing a big search. But I mean the Ranger said they found him alive and well, which is really weird if it's been 30 days, there's no chance of that. But then the group that actually found him, this trail crew that was working in the area, not looking for him, they were just, and they
Colin (23:30):
Heard him. Right?
Justin (23:31):
They heard him, which is also kind of surprising. They weren't right next to him. And they heard him calling for help and went and found him. And then the guy who was in charge of that trail crew was just basically just alludes to the fact that the shock was in horrible shape. He wouldn't even get into it and no one should have to see what they saw. So you're like, well, did he get stuck? Is this, was he injured? Couldn't
Producer Dave (23:53):
Move. Yeah.
Justin (23:55):
Did you find a magic bus and decide to hole up for the winter? Yeah, maybe it was into the wild and whatever, 27 hours or whatever that movie's called wrapped into one. I don't know. It is really interesting and it's really hard to believe that he could live that long in that situation. In 30 days you need to have eaten. Maybe you don't, but that seems like 30 days is a long time ago without having eaten. And maybe that's why he was in such bad shape. But it
Colin (24:19):
Reminded me the Santa Cruz hiker a few months ago that they found it wasn't quite as long that he was missing, but it was a similar thing, not that far from civilization, a little kind of bizarre. Someone from Gear Junk, he actually tried to go out or Ford Gear Key to Go was and recreate that guy's experience to see could you really get lost in this area because those mountains and trails in Santa Cruz or close that
Justin (24:39):
Civilization. I mean this dude was by a river. So the regression of the river's flowing, it's pretty hard to get lost. So it makes you think he got hurt. The thing is, we're not entitled to this information. It's entirely possible that shock himself is like, I don't want anyone to know. I don't know. Maybe he's super embarrassed. I don't know anything about him. I don't know anything. And we get so impatient for details. But these sorts of stories are just so interesting though because part of you wonders, okay, is there a learning experience here? Did he do something that kept him alive for 30 days? Did he make a huge mistake that other people could profit from knowing about so they don't do it? I don't know. I think it's justification. I think we really just want to to know.
Colin (25:18):
I think we do because especially when it's things we're passionate about, we put ourselves in the position of what would I have done then? When you do have experience in the outdoors and you think, wow, a month, what happened? Were you hurt? Are you stuck? Or you just completely lost and were you too afraid and paralyzed by fear to try
Justin (25:40):
Find your way out? Lord knows I've gone through some pretty weird mental places over the last six months. Maybe I could see someone having just a total freak out and they just lose touch with the reality. I'm not saying that's what happened, but I can see all kinds of weird things. I mean, I don't know that you and I have actually talked about this on the show, Dave, maybe you'd remember, but I've never hurt myself in the back country. I've never had an experience where I couldn't get myself out even, or that it became harder to get myself out because I'd injured myself. So I don't really know what that's like. I have no idea what happens at that point.
Colin (26:14):
Broke and ankle.
Justin (26:15):
What? I was with a buddy and we had phones and they called the search and rescue. But if you're by yourself, and this is a fairly remote ish area, it sounds like. I mean it's a national park, but it's still kind of remote.
Colin (26:30):
No, it's a good point. I mean I've been hurt, but never to the point where you were sprained your ankle or something like that.
Justin (26:36):
Right. But if you fell and broke your leg or something like that and you don't have any way to contact anyone. I don't.
Colin (26:42):
Especially if you're by yourself
Justin (26:43):
And maybe he'd crawled for a week to get to that point. I don't know. That's the stuff that would be kind of, it'd be nice to know, but really just because your brain is like, what the hell? How'd that happen?
Colin (26:53):
Well, that's it. You're kind of trying to wrap your head around it.
Justin (26:55):
But this happens a lot. I mean, people go missing for a long time at National Parks all the time. This is a particularly long one. Usually at this point you're not alive
Colin (27:03):
Anymore. They gave up the search on him, they gave him
Justin (27:06):
Two. That's the other interesting stuff, right? It's like, okay, so they called in the, oddly enough, Canadian border patrol was flying the rescue. So I guess it's close enough to Canada to where they were. They gave it a shot too. But yeah, I mean, I dunno. It's a fascinating story and hopefully, I dunno, it'd be great to talk to him. I'd love to talk to him. I don't want to judge him or anything. I'm just curious what happened. So I'm
Colin (27:30):
Trying to like to have a word with the aliens who put him back in the wrong place, which is obviously what
Justin (27:34):
Happened happened here.
Colin (27:34):
Yeah.
Justin (27:35):
Meant to get a cow when they got him instead. Like, oh shit,
Colin (27:38):
The trail poop
Justin (27:38):
Is right over there. Pick bags. Pick up your poop bags. Aliens. This is just their version of a poop bag. It's like the discarded,
Colin (27:45):
They're strained. Aliens are
Justin (27:46):
Strangely a trail
Colin (27:47):
Looking as well. So it's,
Justin (27:50):
Yeah, there's a connection here where they also found a Malaysian river Otter nearby those river rots and you're
Colin (27:55):
Wondering why they're Malaysia aliens sex money for everything.
Producer Dave (28:00):
I know what I would do in that situation. I basely speculate. That's what I would do. Right. Well,
Justin (28:07):
That's what we're here to do, right? I wouldn't mind, I'll be honest with you, I guess Fox News and stuff exists, but it would be pretty fun to just write for a news and I'm putting that in air quotes organization where you can just basically speculate. You already do. Yeah, good point. Good point. Welcome to the rock fire. Yeah, that's a good point.
Colin (28:24):
But the intent matters because I think that's the thing. I mean, we're just genuinely curious. No one's judging this poor guy. I mean, I'm glad he was found. I'm glad he is. Okay if his mother never, never responds to you, that's totally her prerogative. Good for her. But I also like, wow, very curious about what actually went down out there. Alright, one more quick break and then when we come back, we're going to do our last story and our parting shots. This episode of the Rock Fight is brought to you by the great Malden Outdoors and outdoor enablement campaign in the city of Malden, Massachusetts. And the brains behind this initiative, Darren Josie. He's here with me right now. Darren, first of all, what is an outdoor enablement campaign?
Chris DeMakes (29:00):
An outdoor enablement campaign provides four things, advertising, resources, programming and youth development. These are the four things that I believe are really important to getting more people outside.
Colin (29:10):
So why is this campaign important to DEI efforts in the outdoor industry?
Chris DeMakes (29:14):
We have to start by getting more people outside and that can start their journey from one, becoming someone who just enjoys outdoor recreation as a lifestyle, but two, a path for a job. No one told me that going outside and rock climbing could lead to a job one day or fishing or bike riding. Didn't know that was a thing until I got into the industry and I want to change that and start that journey a lot earlier for way more people in our society.
Colin (29:41):
Hey man. And lastly, how can outdoor brands and retailers help or participate?
Chris DeMakes (29:44):
Go to the great malden outdoors.com, click on the contact button and reach out. We are always looking for donations for gear, funds and expertise. You can lend your existing staff to lead an online course. Or if you're in the New England area, come on down and lead a class. We're looking for more programming.
Colin (30:02):
Head to the great malden outdoors.com and click contact to build a partnership today. Alright, lastly, today, 38-year-old Alaskan cyclist, Lao Wilcox set a new women's record for cycling around the world. According to Gear junkie.com. Wilcox, sit out from Chicago in May, biked 18,125 miles and then was back in Chicago last Wednesday. Her route took her from Chicago to New York where she then flew to Portugal, biked across Europe, ending in Georgia, and then she biked across Australia and New Zealand with the final leg being from Alaska back to Chicago, finishing in 108 days
Justin (30:38):
Via Marin. She rode through here.
Colin (30:40):
Did she?
Justin (30:41):
Yeah.
Colin (30:42):
Were you around? Did you see her go by?
Justin (30:43):
I had no idea this was happening until a day after.
Colin (30:46):
Well, the rules here are interesting, right? So to be eligible for the world record, you have to start and end in the same place. You have to travel continuously in one direction and cover more than 18,000 miles on a bicycle. The total distance, including flights must amount to 24,854 miles, which is roughly the circumference of the equator. And once the clock starts, it doesn't stop during the attempt. So firstly congrats to Lale, but this is I think pretty cool. But I was curious, back to our conversation about killing Jne last week and kind of big outdoor accomplishments. Where does something like this rank for you in both sort of the impressiveness of the accomplishment, but how interested you are in something like this?
Justin (31:23):
Impressiveness very high interested. Not a whole lot. I mean, again, I don't want to rehash that story, but it's like I've written stories about dudes who, and women people that just did this when there was no recognition involved. They just wanted to see what it was like. And back when this was a much bigger challenge, not coordinated just, and they weren't professional cyclists, they're just like, I am just going to try this. A guy
Colin (31:47):
You just got on your bike right now and just why out the front door?
Justin (31:51):
And that's an adventure story. That's an adventure story. I guess this to me isn't really an adventure. It's a sporting challenge to be sure, but I wouldn't necessarily, I don't know. I mean I'm not trying to dismiss it, but I mean it just feels like it's a calculated sporting feat. Not as much. Yeah, there was a gold year, like a grand
Colin (32:11):
Grand. They were trying to do this.
Justin (32:12):
Yeah, yeah. I mean I couldn't do it. Lord knows I couldn't do it. I wouldn't even try. And what a cool thing to have done. No doubt about it. But I guess again, if it was Mars, yeah, it'd be super interesting. But I mean people have done this. I'm curious about the rules of this. I was also surprised about that, but I mean obviously there's a governing body of this kind of thing.
Colin (32:36):
Yeah, well then I saw that she's like, oh, and she ended it in Georgia and then I just jumped to Australia. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait, what do you mean? What's happen? I thought you were biking. I figured you'd go all around so then you kind of see. But no, but I understand. Okay, so they're basically taking, they're calculating, okay, for this to be official, you have to accomplish X, Y, and Z and it makes a lot of sense. I'm just curious, how were these things established?
Justin (32:56):
It would be cool if they added in the ocean distance that you flew, but you have to go in the same direction. That's the thing. Sure. And then you're like, okay, so flew while you were doing this, you flew over 12,000 miles of ocean to get from one. As you jumped continents, you have to then ride 12,000 miles on land again. So you could officially have written of say, I've written the
Colin (33:16):
Distance,
Justin (33:17):
Or you had to ride back forth book entire, basically you need to ride the
Colin (33:19):
24,854 miles is really what you need to do.
Justin (33:23):
I feel bad. This is an incredible accomplishment. I can't even, Wilcox is obviously, I mean a superhuman athlete and she's always, by the way, go through her Instagram account. She has one face and smiling, it's closed eyes, giant open mouth smile. There's no other photos of Lele Wilcox unless she's riding the bike, in which case she often looks like she's in intense pain. But every photo when she's not on the bike, it's wild. It almost looks like, it almost looks like she's doing it on purpose.
Colin (33:52):
This acts up against the stuff you, Tara Ma and stuff like that and how they can just run a hundred miles at a clip and it's not a big deal. And most of it, they attribute to the fact that they're like, Hey man, we're just out here running, having a good time. Yeah,
Justin (34:02):
Totally. She obviously enjoys this. I mean, yeah, it's also when I see these things, I'm also just fascinated by someone's life where they can do that. Right. I mean, I realize that she's like an athlete and I guess she gets paid to do this, which is weird though. I mean by who. I don't know who her sponsors are. She can't be rolling in sponsor money. So how long was she gone?
Colin (34:25):
108 days,
Justin (34:26):
108 days, three months.
Colin (34:28):
I mean, I'm more interested in this story than the killing and the Killian thing. Not to just make it about that in the comparison, but since I asked at the beginning, I think if they made a documentary about this, given the mode of transportation and what went through along the way, and you think about it and you look and they have in the Gear Junkie article, there's a picture of the map was sort of her route mapped out and you're like, wow, look at that. Starting in far western Europe and then where you end up in Georgia on what she covers in that section, she must have some interesting stories. Same thing like going across New Zealand and Australia. So I think that would be, I hope someone documented this. I'd be curious what that would look like if that's the case.
Justin (35:06):
Also, the fact that she went around the entire world versus just a bunch of peaks in one mountain range is way more compelling. I mean, one thing, I don't think I'll do it, but I would love to ride a bike across the us.
Colin (35:19):
I
Justin (35:19):
Mean, I think that would be so freaking, I'd almost rather walk. Obviously that would take a really long time. But I mean, I love the idea of a nice slow thing across the country and that feels doable. I mean people do that.
Colin (35:31):
Producer Dave, I think taking note, we need to go pitch a new iteration of Kung fu starring Justin Hausman and be,
Justin (35:37):
Is that what Kungfu is that what it's about?
Colin (35:38):
Yeah, you just go town to town having adventures, solving problems.
Justin (35:42):
Either
Producer Dave (35:42):
That or Forrest Gump.
Justin (35:45):
I don't know that this ever really happened, but I do suspect it did. And I guess you could make the argument that with remote work, you totally can do this now, but God, I want to live in a world where you can just go town to town and just get an odd job and you'll find somewhere to rent and then you just move on to the next time.
Colin (36:01):
Well that was the incredible Hulk too. So you're just,
Justin (36:03):
You're playing it. That was just the world before the eighties. Did people even ask what your social security
Colin (36:08):
Number was? No. You could what you do because fake, you could honestly do most of your job on your phone. You could write on your phone, you can do
Justin (36:13):
Emails. No, you could. I mean theoretically I could, but it's different because I'd be tied to the same. But it'd just be so amazing to just show up into town and be like, is someone hiring at the bar? Oh, they are perfect. And you'd rent in a room in somebody's house and you're just living there for a while and they're like, well, I'm tired of this place and you just go somewhere else. I mean, I don't think you can do that anymore.
Colin (36:29):
Not unless you're Dalton from
Justin (36:30):
Roadhouse and you're a cooler. That's not real. I know. Isn't that it is. To me's disappointing. It's not real. I mean, the Van Life thing isn't the same because you're still tethered to your job at the North Face or whatever. And you can describe all the
Colin (36:43):
Walmart parking lots that you've slept in.
Justin (36:46):
I mean, I'd want it to be more romantic than that. I just love the idea of going and washing dishes somewhere and rent in some shitty apartment and just being like, yeah, this is cool, this cool town. Listen. And then now I'm on to the next one.
Colin (36:55):
Breaking
Justin (36:56):
Hearts,
Colin (36:56):
15 to 17 years away from being untethered from your children, then that's when this is going to happen for you.
Justin (37:02):
That's when I just sleep all day
Colin (37:04):
In random towns after just
Justin (37:05):
Turning into a dog. You close the bar
Colin (37:07):
And get, that's when you'll get a dog. So when you get your nutri, you start raising them in your backyard.
Justin (37:14):
Oh, I thought you meant because I need more fiber in my diet. So my nutria yogurt.
Colin (37:17):
Alright, let's get into our parting shots. I went first last week, so Justin, you have the floor.
Justin (37:22):
Okay, this is a tough one for me. I really want to go with two, but I'm going to go with the less obvious one. So I was at Trader Joe's yesterday and I know that for some reason Trader Joe's, I'm sure this is part of their brand strategy or whatever, it's like cram as much stuff as you possibly can to the stores. The aisles are really tight. They say, everyone I've ever been to is like this. And I just like, and when I'm in there, I'm making such a thoughtful decision about where I'm going to park my cart while I go grab these five things. So I don't get in people's way and I'm just watching people just walk by the yogurt and just let the cart go in the middle of the aisle and just go over to dig through the peach yogurt. So now everyone is behind them going, trying to navigate around. It's like knocking over
Colin (38:03):
Toddlers.
Justin (38:05):
You, okay, here's where I need to go dig through this salami section. So I'm going to park my cart here out of the way by the crackers, no one wants, and I'm not blocking anybody's traffic, I'm just asking people out there at the store to just think about where you think about. Just have some special awareness. Just please. It's not like we're, I mean I'm not in a hurry. I just don't want to have to stop and start and stop and start because you're fucking around with your cart. Just park your cart, go get your shit and just leave it out of my way. Please. We can't carts in the middle of the aisles anymore. We can't do it folks.
Colin (38:37):
And to yes and that. Also, don't leave it in the middle of the parking lot if there's no
Justin (38:40):
Cart. Well, that was my other one. That was my other one combo. That's kind of
Colin (38:43):
Obvious. Walk it back,
Justin (38:45):
Walk it back, drives me nuts. Nuts. It's nice, but just spatial awareness generally speaking, but especially at a grocery
Colin (38:51):
Store, please. That's all. That's a good one. That's a good party shot. Mine is about spoiler alerts on podcasts. I listen to a lot of movie podcasts and I am kind of tired of people who are talking about a 17-year-old movie and be like, oh, spoilers for this. And spoiler culture has gotten to the point where if you are engaging in some sort of media on something that you're interested in that you don't want to know about, you have made that bargain and you have gone into it. And if it gets spoiled for you, that's because you chose to click play. Now, if something gets a movie that just came out this past weekend or something like that, fine. But if it's been out for, I'd even say a few weeks, alien Romulus right now to me is on the table. That movie's been out for a month. If you haven't seen it yet, I don't know when you're going to see it. I don't feel like I need to censor myself talking about it without having to feel bad about it. If you're like, oh man, you spoiled that movie for me, so I'm just kind of tired about, that's no more spoiler alerts for a movie, podcast, or music or sports or anything else. That's my partying shot.
Justin (39:47):
I get it. I love it. I also want to just say, nevermind. I was going to try to make a joke about that, but it didn't come to my head. I just thought it would that you might talk your way into it. Something like, oh, something's going to click, but it didn't happen.
Producer Dave (39:59):
Not I got nothing. You know what that means? You're putting your rhetorical shopping card off to the side.
Justin (40:05):
That's right.
Producer Dave (40:06):
I think before I speak Well played. Yeah, well played.
Colin (40:09):
Alright, we can wrap it up there then. The Rock Fights of Production of Rock Fight LLC. Our producer today was David Stead. Art Direction provided by Sarah Genser or Justin Hausman. I'm Colin True. Thanks for listening and here to take us out. It's Our Boy Krista Makes going to sing the Rock Fight Fight song will see you next time. Rock fighters. Rock, rockside,
(40:32):
Rockside. We go into the rock bike where we speak our truth, stay sacred cows and sometimes hungry to disagree. We talk about human power, outdoor activities and big bikes about topics that we find interesting like my culture, music, the latest movie reviews, ideas in for the, this is where we speak our truth. This is where we speak our truth. Rat to the rat. Welcome to the.