#227 | Brady Geilenfeldt on Hiking the Colorado Trail as a Deaf Person

In today’s episode of Backpacker Radio presented by The Trek, we are joined by Brady Geilenfeldt. Brady, known on trail as Undies, thru-hiked the Colorado Trail this year. What makes Undies story especially interesting is that he is deaf. We learn all about Brady’s inspiring story, the incredible technology that is cochlear implants, what challenges a deaf hiker has to overcome, Brady's highlights from the CT, some of the non-obvious benefits of being a deaf hiker, Brady’s future trail ambitions, and much more. Brady is an inspiring young man and we think you’ll really enjoy this chat. We wrap the show with things we're convinced people pretend to enjoy, a triple crown of things that are the new black, some new poop news, and we finally have the details for our Denver holiday hiker meetup, and you are invited. Vargo Outdoors: Use code “BACKPACKERRADIO” for 20% off at vargooutdoors.com. RTIC Outdoors: Shop at rticoutdoors.com. Darn Tough: Use code “DTLOVE-BACKPACKERRADIO” for 10% off plus free shipping at darntough.com. Katabatic Gear: Use code “BPR15” for 15% off at katabaticgear.com. [divider] Interview with Brady Geilenfeldt Brady's Instagram Time stamps & Questions 00:04:52 - Reminders: Join us at Improper City for the Hiker Meetup on December 1st! Apply to be a blogger or the Trek’s editorial intern. Check out our merch and support us on Patreon! 00:08:32 - Introducing Brady 00:12:40 - Tell us about your experience with deafness 00:15:10 - How did your mom get CMV? 00:16:50 - Were your parents on high alert knowing your mom had CMV? 00:17:55 - Would you trade being deaf for anything? 00:18:57 - How well does a cochlear implant approximate human hearing? 00:21:04 - How do the implants work? 00:24:10 - Did you ever learn American Sign Language? 00:26:00 - Are your other senses enhanced to make up for the loss of hearing? 00:27:10 - Does it help you sleep at night while backpacking? 00:28:14 - Are the implants comfortable to wear? 00:29:40 - Can you customize the volume based on different environments? 00:31:20 - Is it a satisfying feeling to take them off? 00:32:28 - Do the implants make hiking more interesting? 00:35:32 - What’s your hiking background and what made you decide to hike the CT? 00:37:18 - What was your longest backpacking trip prior to the Colorado Trail? 00:37:40 - What do you have to consider when planning for the CT? 00:40:28 - Is it disorienting to have only one implant in? 00:44:14 - Did you have any role models that inspired you beforehand? 00:46:20 - Do you have tips for making hiking more stimulating or being comfortable with yourself? 00:49:10 - Do you have to be concerned about the implants getting wet? 00:52:00 - Discussion about technological features or upgrades 00:53:40 - Do people ever use cochlear implants that aren’t deaf? 00:55:05 - Does the implant need to be replaced? 00:57:17 - Did deafness or CMV cause you to be immunocompromised? 00:58:30 - Discussion about losing balance and other impacts of deafness 01:01:18 - How did you handle the weather on the Colorado Trail? 01:04:38 - Did you have to be more careful when navigating while hiking? 01:07:00 - Do you want to do future hikes with a trail family? 01:08:03 - Do you have any standout stories from the CT? 01:10:09 - What’s the origin of your trail name? 01:14:54 - Would you do other things differently to prepare for a future hike? 01:17:50 - What ratio of rechargeable to disposable batteries did you use? 01:18:57 - How bad is it if you were to lose or break them? 01:21:22 - How did you handle health insurance? 01:23:55 - Have you had other people reach out since your hike? 01:25:00 - How does playing music interface with your deafness? 01:27:50 - Is there something to be done to make the outdoors more accessible for someone with implants? 01:30:41 - Are some insurance plans better than others? 01:32:33 - Is there an actionable step the listeners can take to improve the situation? 01:38:00 - Harvest General Store 01:40:15 - Brady’s parting words Segments Trek Propaganda: Broken on the AT: Gear That Breaks At 2,000 miles (And The Gear That Doesn’t) by Abby Evans QOTD: What are you convinced people are pretending to enjoy? Stupid Thing of the Week Triple Crown of things that are the new black Poop News Mail Bag 5 Star Review [divider] Check out our sound guy @paulyboyshallcross. Leave us a voicemail! Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes (and please leave us a review)!  Find us on Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play. Support us on Patreon to get bonus content. Advertise on Backpacker Radio Follow The Trek, Chaunce, Badger, and Trail Correspondents on Instagram. Follow Backpacker Radio, The Trek and Chaunce on YouTube. Follow Backpacker Radio on Tik Tok.  Our theme song is Walking Slow by Animal Years. A super big thank you to our Chuck Norris Award winner(s) from Patreon: Alex & Misty with Navigators Crafting, Andrew, Austen McDaniel, Austin Ford, Brad & Blair (Thirteen Adventures), Brent Stenberg, Bryan Alsop, Christopher Marshburn, Coach from Marion Outdoors, Dayne, Derek Koch, Eric Casper, Greg McDaniel may he bring honor to his name, Ironhike endurance productions, Liz Seger, Matt Soukup, Mike Poisel, Patrick Cianciolo, Sawyer Products, SPAM, Timothy Hahn, and Tracy “Trigger” Fawns. A big thank you to our Cinnamon Connection Champions from Patreon: 12 Trees Farms, Dcnerdlet, Emily Galusha, Jeanne Latshaw, Jeff LaFranier, Joann Menzer, Keith Dobie Jr, Peter, and Ruth S. [divider] Transcript: In today's episode of Backpacker Radio, presented by The Trek, we are joined by Brady Geilenfeld. Brady, known on trail as Undies, through-hiked the Colorado Trail this year. What makes Undies' story especially interesting is that he's deaf. We learn all about Brady's inspiring story, the incredible technology that his cochlear implants, what challenges a deaf hiker has to overcome, Brady's highlights from the CT, some of the non-obvious benefits of being a deaf hiker, including a great night of sleep, future trail ambitions, and much more. Brady is an inspiring young man, and we think you'll really enjoy this chat. We wrap the show with things we're convinced people pretend to enjoy, a triple crown of things that are the new black, some new hoop news, and we finally have the details for our Denver Holiday Hiker Meetup, and you are invited. But first, I am thrilled to introduce our next sponsor, which is a brand that has been a part of my pack and through hikes, dating back to 2017. Vargo creates lightweight titanium backpacking gear that is simple, innovative, and functional. The Vargo Bot 700 was with me every step of the way during my through hike of the PCT and every backpacking trip since. The Vargo Bot is extremely lightweight, weighing less than 5 ounces, and transfers heat quickly and evenly, making it the perfect pot for your cookware setup. But this just scratches the surface for why the Bot kicks so much eff… butt. Because the Bot features a screw top lid, it's the ideal option for the cold soakers of this world. Dump your dehydrated meal and the appropriate amount of water into the Bot, screw the lid closed, insert time, and voila, dinner is ready. Also, I can't count all the times I've benefited from having an additional 700ml of emergency water storage when encountering an unexpected dry spell. In other words, this piece is incredibly versatile and may very well be the last pot you ever buy. The Bot comes in a variety of sizes, including the brand new Bot XL, which is designed to perfectly fit a full-size canister inside with extra room for a stove. I'm also a user and fan of Vargo's utensils, titanium long-handle spoon for the win, and their titanium stakes. You simply can't beat titanium's combination of strength and being lightweight, and no one does it better than Vargo. Discount time, backpacker radio listeners, head to vargooutdoors.com and use coupon code backpackerradio at checkout to score a 20% discount. Again, the code is backpackerradio, all one word, at vargooutdoors.com. This is a limited time deal, so do not wait. Whether it's a car camping trip, a bout of trail magic, or the summer road trip, a quality cooler and drinkware is essential. That's why we're thrilled to introduce our next sponsor, Artic Outdoors. Artic Outdoors makes products engineered for two things, performance and durability. And unlike other coolers on the market, Artic's high-quality coolers and tumblers won't cost you an arm and a leg. Artic's 52-quart ultralight hard cooler made the trip from backpacker radio's headquarters in Golden, Colorado, to Trail A's in Damascus, Virginia, keeping our spin drifts, root beers, and blue ribbons perfectly chilled. As the name would imply, the ultralight cooler is 30% lighter compared to other premium hard-sided coolers, which means you can be the group's beverage hero without developing a hernia in the process. And compromising on weight doesn't mean you're compromising on insulation. With up to three inches of post-self-roam insulation, your ice will remain as ice for days. For more portable adventures, Artic Outdoors soft pack coolers are the ticket. These are lightweight, durable, and ready to travel with you, keeping your drinks cold for up to 24 hours while avoiding the mess thanks to two inches of closed-cell foam and puncture and tear-resistant lining. Lastly, Artic's drinkware keeps your blue ribbons cold or your morning coffee hot for the long haul, utilizing double-wall vacuum insulation. The BPR team rocked Artic tumblers throughout the muggy afternoons of southern Appalachia, enjoying refreshingly cold beverages along the way. Head to ArticOutdoors.com to get your premium coolers and insulated drinkware at a fraction of the price of the competition today. Welcome to Backpacker Radio, presented by The Trek. Today is November 13th, World Kindness Day. Aww, that's nice. I am your co-host Zach Badger-Davis, sitting to my right is... Hi, I'm Juliana Chauncey, aka Chauncey... Reminders, yes. We have the deets, finally, for our Hiker Holiday Meetup Extravaganza Palooza Supreme. A-thon. Yes. This will take place, whatever I said previously, disregard that because I think a lot of the details have changed. You guys don't care about the reasons why. But this is going down on December 1st at Improper City in Denver, in Denver, not Golden, from 530 to 8 p.m. This will be co-hosted by Backpacker Radio slash The Trek and the CDTC, which means it'll be a fundraiser for them. We're going to have some sweet raffles, or as they say, door prizes. I had to look that up. Apparently, that's the vernacular for raffle prizes nowadays. Good hangs, solid vibes, memes. What else? Carnival barking. Carnival barking, yes. Sounds like there will be some of that happening. Give at least four drinks a chance and she will stand on a chair and yell at you. I haven't stood on a chair and yelled at Improper City yet, which is something that I'm excited to do. Yeah, let's see if they welcome us back after December 1st at 530 p.m. A couple other things quickly. One is if you're through hiking in 2024 and you want your journey featured on The Trek, we are currently accepting blogger applications. I did a link in the show notes. Lastly, this is the time of the year where we will likely be adding a new editorial intern to the team. This is a highly coveted position. We get lots of people reaching out for this, so if you're listening to this and you've got some serious editorial chops and you like long distance backpacking, head to the link in the show notes. Oh, also we are still selling our awesome vintage backpacker radio tees. We've gotten some nice compliments on them. Yes, we have. They look like Saved by the Bell goes outdoors. Yeah, or if you're slightly older, Miami Vice, if you're my age, both are sufficient. Yeah, I also think if you saw the Barbie movie, this would be like that in the form of a shirt and blue. There is pink hints. There's flavors of pink in there, but it's it's I could see it being worn as like a Ken costume. Yeah, I saw a couple people recommend or ask for us to turn these into sun hoodies, which I got to figure out. Where do we find a manufacturer? That's a good question, but maybe someday. OK, well, if you manufacture sun hoodies and you're listening to this slide in our DMS. Yes. Last thing is if you want to support the show and you want some additional backpacker radio content, head on over to our Patreon page, patreon.com slash backpacker radio, where we release a new episode the first Wednesday of every month. This current month's episode was a gift guide. We went through big ticket and small ticket items that you can either gift or be gifted in the holiday season, things that we've loved having as hikers and regular humans and as well as things that we wouldn't want or like, you know, some things to avoid if you want to give that thoughtful gift to a hiker, but also don't want to give them something that they're going to smile and say thank you for and then actually never use. Yes. To the non-backpacking gift recommendations, I tried my hardest to not make it too dad-centric and I think I failed. This will be a great one for anyone who wants to gift something to a hiker or who really likes being in the kitchen. Yes. Leave it at that. Or is training to be the all-time dad. Yeah. OK, we'll leave it at that. No more beating around the bush. Let's get right to today's interview with Brady Gielenfeldt. We'll figure out how badly I butchered that pretty soon. We are joined by today's guest, Brady Gielenfeldt, which I nailed the first time, I'm pretty sure. I'm sure the tape will say otherwise, who hiked the Colorado Trail this year in part to inspire people who are deaf or hard of hearing, that they are not limited by their abilities. Brady, thank you so much for joining us here on Backpacker Radio. Hey, it's great to be here. Yeah. Can we swing the mic a little bit closer your way? There we go. About that far from your mouth. How does that sound? Good. That sounds awesome. The closer the better. You can't be too close. Yeah. I would move yourself closer rather than close. Yeah. Typically, we do all this stuff before we hit record, but we're winging it here today. He brought us food. We got distracted and we brought him food. Yeah. It was a food exchange. Let's start there. Let's give a plug to this is your folks place, the Harvest General Store in Iowa, right? Yes, in Iowa. Yeah, they just do trade shows and stuff right now and they have a Facebook page. But I mean, really, yeah, they just go around doing those trade shows. They love it. Yeah. So we're about to bust open. There was a wide variety of goodies in this box. Chonce went with her top option, currently stabbing it open with the edge of her glasses. What do we have here, Chonce? This seemed the most on-brand for us, and this is freeze-dried gummy worms. I personally have been getting a lot of algorithm on socials showing me people freeze-drying skittles, gummies, things like that. And so this is right up my current algorithm. Yeah. They look like Cheetos. It looks unique. And I was unaware of freeze-drying candy up until about 10 minutes ago. So very excited to learn about this wild world. I will say the best part about this is seeing people's reaction, eating this for the first time. ASMR. Flavors. It tastes like, texture aside, it tastes just like a gummy worm. Tastes like jello. This is very interesting. Push it against the top of your mouth. Like, I don't like chewing these things. I like pushing them against the top of my mouth and letting them melt. If you just push it with your tongue against the top of your mouth, it does taste a little bit like jello. This is requiring a lot of unlearning because I'm expecting candy, but. All right. Take the red and push it against the roof of your mouth. I still got this. It's red jello. This is fantastic. Let me try the blue side now. I think I'm liking it more with each bite. The first one was a little bit of an exploration for me. I will say out of all the options, the gummy worms are not my favorite. What's your go-to? My go-to is definitely the skittles. They do the wild berry skittles and those ones are really good. The smoothie ones are awesome. Maybe we'll bust those out halfway through. Yeah, we could do that. I don't hate this. I feel like this. Setting myself up here. I'll just follow through. It kind of reminds me of corn dogs. Corn dogs? This is important. When I take a bite of a corn dog, I don't know if I want to continue that journey, but then after it sits there for a moment, I'm like, I need another bite. After you've sat there and you're like, where's that taste? I want that taste back. I feel like I can get a lot of miles out of these. It's the perfect intersection between candy and chips. It has a hearty chip texture to it. Very crunchy, as you could hear through the mics, but still tastes exactly like the flavor is exactly what you'd expect from a gummy worm. It's very interesting. I've never even had anything approximate to what I just put in my mouth. That's what she said. I feel like these would be good in shots. Oh, sure. You want to get the party started? Me saying shots are out for the last segment. Cool. These are fun. Okay. Let's talk about some backpacking stuff. The intro is short because that is essentially what we know about your journey. I'm assuming the bulk of the conversation for today. Give us the background because we've been chatting here for the last 10, 15 minutes or so. The conversation has been very easy. I wouldn't expect that you were hard of hearing. Give us your level or introduce your level of deafness and maybe any tech that's involved. I guess just give us the full background. Yeah, I can give you the full rundown. I was born with CMV. That's a congenital men-something virus. It's a very long word. I always butcher it. I was born with that. That basically meant that I could have been deaf, could have been blind, could have been anything. It could have been missing a leg. It turns out that I was just deaf. My mom, they knew what to look for since they had tested for CMV when my mom was pregnant with me. She was a nurse and she got pregnant. Well, she didn't get pregnant by one of her patients. She got CMV from one of her patients. She just kept on doing what she was doing. They knew what to look for. I was born and I passed a newborn hearing screen. At the time, the newborn hearing screen was just you look at the baby and you scream at it and see if it reacts. Any baby's going to pass a newborn hearing screen. Is that because the volume is loud enough that even if they are hard of hearing, it's still reaching a decibel that they can perceive? Yeah, that they register it basically. That's what they were basing it off of at the time. I was born in 2000. It was not that long ago. I slept through my first fireworks and my parents were like, well, no newborn baby is going to sleep through fireworks. They brought me home and sat me down in the living room and banged a bunch of pots and pans in front of my face. I didn't do anything. Didn't react. They were like, yeah, we have a deaf baby. They brought me back. Were they that calm about it? No. Guaranteed not. I know my mom. They probably sprinted to the hospital. Sure. They did that and then I did a couple of hearing screens and I would pass them again, but then they finally did a sedated one where I was hooked up to a machine and then that showed that I was fully deaf. I got my first cochlear implant when I was 13 months old and my second one when I was five years old. Before you go too far, because I'm going to have questions, cover my questions. I just know it. How did your mom get CMV? How does it get transmitted? Just through contact. She was working on a patient. She's an ER nurse and yeah, I think it was just through contact of, I think it was bodily fluids. So basically, if you're pregnant and you get CMV, then it just goes directly to the child. So she was pregnant when she got it? Yeah. It's not like she could get it and then she goes deaf? Yeah. That can happen? No, no, no. Oh, it can? Okay. Thank God. Yeah, no, that would not be the case. So it just, it went directly to me basically and she didn't see any of the repercussions of CMV. And so I still have it and I still live with it, but I can't transmit it to anybody. And so it's dormant, I guess. How did she know at the time that she contracted CMV? She didn't know right away because the doctor came in and was like, hey, this patient has CMV. And my mom was like, well, I guarantee I already have it now since I've already been working with the patient. So. How could the patient give it to your mom, but you can't give it to someone else? That's a good question. I think it's because it really develops predominantly when you're in the womb versus like, you know, you get it in the womb and it's in that development stages. I'm not a doctor, so, but that's my interpretation of it, I guess. And so, yeah, it just, that means I'm, you know, immunocompromised. I, everything else that comes along with being deaf, I can get into that in a second. But yeah, that's about it with CMV. Were your parents on the lookout for, were they on high alert knowing that she had contracted CMV when she was pregnant, thinking that there was a high likelihood that something could have gone awry? Yeah. I mean, they, the doctors literally had like percentages of the different types of disabilities that I could have. And so they had no idea. And so when I was born and I was just, you know, looked normal, you know, they were like, wow, that's amazing. That's a miracle. And so that was a really cool experience for them to go through. And then also, you know, in a way, it was kind of one of the best of the worst situations. Let me know if this sounds insensitive, because for me, it's purely curious, but I could see how this might not come out how I want it to knowing the array of different things that could have happened. Are you, would you trade being deaf for a different option? Or do you think that like, it's a really manageable, like, I don't know, like, would you trade it? I don't think so. I actually don't think I would trade it for anything. Because for one, I take them out when I sleep, you know, like nothing wakes me up noise wise, you know, I mean, I guess I'm sensitive to vibrations. That's actually how I wake up every day is my bed shakes and it connects to my alarm. And yeah, when I have a headache, I can just take them out, don't have to deal with anything, don't have to listen to anything. So I mean, there are some perks of it. I wouldn't change it now. Have you ever taken them out in a relationship when someone's mad at you? That didn't go over very well. That's amazing. That's the ultimate talk to the hand. Notting along. Yeah. So you mentioned that you wake up to an alarm that vibrates. Is this like an alarm specifically for people, for deaf people? Yeah. Yeah. Actually there's, I've had friends buy it just because they're heavy sleepers. I am ahead. You caught my interest when you said the bed vibrates. Yeah. It's just like a little toggle thing. I don't know. It's probably like three and a half, four inches in diameter. And like, you just put it underneath your mattress and it's just like, it's a sonic vibrator. Yeah. It's like a good April Fool's joke for Garrett. I don't know how to phrase this question. So you got the, your first cochlear implant when you said when you were 13 months old. Yes. And then the second one when you were five. Yes. Do you know how well the implant approximates normal human hearing? Like are you functioning at a hundred percent of what the average person functions at? Is it 75%? Can you, like, what is that, what is it supposed to approximate? Yeah. I mean, they basically say that I hear 15,000 tones and you guys hear 30,000 tones. So I guess that's more on a tonal level, but I don't even know. What does that mean? Like just in terms of different arrays of frequencies. Yeah. If you're listening to music, are you hearing half as much of the range as somebody else? Kind of, it's more like along the lines of, you know, I can't hear like white noise or like the, I guess it's the range of frequencies that I can hear. Okay. So like if it's super deep or like a whale call, that's probably not in my range to be able to hear. Got it. Or if it's like a dog whistle, I know most people can't hear that, but something along those high frequencies, I can't hear. Got it. So there's like that specific range. We used to make that our cell phone ring tone in I would say ninth grade because there was a dog whistle. It was a high pitched frequency because the age that your teachers are, like you start to not be able to hear those high sounds, but when you're super young, you can. I thought you were going to say you knew that the phone was ringing because the dogs were barking. No, no, no. People would set their phones to it because the teachers couldn't hear it. That's funny. Yeah. Okay. So, okay. So you hear at half the frequencies of the average human hearing, but for like this conversation, are you hearing everything perfectly normal? I mean, as normal as I can tell. I was going to say, because like I said, I haven't missed a beat. The conversation hasn't missed a beat since you walked in here. And I didn't know what to expect. And to see that your hearing functions at such a high level is just such a pat on the back to what we're able to achieve with Western medicine and all the technology and everything. If you take out the implants, can you like not hear at all? Zip, nothing. How do they make that work? I know you're not a doctor. We've established this, but how do they make that work? Like how do they just create something where there's nothing? I know that people listening can't actually see this, but so, I mean, what I have here is it's a cochlear implant. So I took my left side off. And so right now I can't hear anything on my left side. And so this part that kind of twists off, that's the battery. And so there's a processor that basically takes sound and it's basically like a camera microphone. And so you know how, when you take a video and you like hear the wind, like it's like, and it's annoying, right? I hear that. And so it's basically kind of like just a camera mic, but then this processor basically transfers those sound waves into electrodes, which are just little electrical pulses. And that goes through a magnet that's actually inside my head. And that magnet has a coil that runs through the cochlea. And so since my deafness comes from like not being able to hear, right? So basically what I'm getting at is I don't have the actual like hairs in the cochlea that stimulate the auditory nerve like you guys do. And so that coil that runs through the cochlea like stimulates it with those electrodes, like it would for you guys with those hairs. Two part question. One, based on what you just said, if I were to put that on, it wouldn't, like I wouldn't hear anything crazy because I don't have the part inside, right? Yeah, nothing would happen. Do you watch Harry Potter? Oh, I love it. The second time I've done this, Zach's out of this conversation. Is this like Fred's like extendable ears? Like could you take the implant and put it under like a door somewhere and go away and it would still go to the part in your head and you could hear really good? Like, can you eavesdrop on people with it? Yeah, actually, if I click on my phone, it connects to my phone and I can turn on live listen and then it just like connects right to my CIs and whatever's going through the microphone on the phone goes directly to my CI. So I could set my phone on this table, go to the other room and I'd hear everything you guys are saying. I feel like this is a superpower. Like this is like CIA shit. Yeah, I do think that's a feature you could do with your phone as well. And that's not as cool. I'm not hearing it in my head. True. You have to use the air pod. So yeah, I guess being able to disguise it, but I am blown away by the tech of that. Just hearing your explanation of it and the fact that you're able to function totally normally with it is amazing. Like, do you feel very blessed that this technology? Because how long has this been around? I mean, there were people who were getting implanted, you know, in the 80s and 90s, but you know, the technology just wasn't there. You know, I was one of the youngest in Iowa to be implanted. And so this was it was basically right when the FDA approved it. Like my mom was on the gun. She went for it. Yeah. Well, she sounds like she's on top of her stuff based on the testing and everything alone. Yeah. And the dehydrated candy. And the dehydrated candy. Wow. So did you ever have to learn ASL or was it just, I'm good with these? Yeah, I did ASL for a little bit. I did it until, I don't know, probably I was roughly kindergarten age and I stopped because I did auditory verbal therapy. And they actually went to the level to where like my audiologist, my auditory verbal therapist, I guess, would make me sit on my hands so that like I wouldn't use my hands to talk. And I just wanted to talk anyway. Like I just stopped using sign language. And my parents were like, well, why are we going to invest the time in learning sign language when he just wants to talk? Yeah. You know, so. So the videos that everyone has seen via social media, always a tearjerker when deaf people get an operation where they can hear like their spouse or their parent or whatever it might be for the first time, is that the operation that they're getting the cochlear implant? Yeah, most of the time. Yeah. So cochlear implant is that like cochlear is a brand. There can be other brands that they do. So there's like Advanced Bionic and that's another popular one. A few other ones that aren't as popular, but cochlear is definitely like the main brand. If someone can't hear and they mainly communicate using ASL, are they someone who hasn't tried a cochlear implant yet or do they not work on certain types of deafness? Yeah, it depends on how you become deaf. That's kind of why I stuttered there for a second when I said, you know, my deafness comes from CMB because if you have damage of the auditory nerve, then the cochlear implant is not going to work at all because that auditory nerve has to be able to sense that there's stuff in the cochlea. And so there's, there are people who have damaged auditory nerves and they're just kind of out of luck. So I don't know, I assume this is true, but this is something that I'm citing as an internet fact that when somebody loses a sense or doesn't have a sense to start with, that the other senses are enhanced. Is that one, an accurate description and two, do you feel like that's true for you? Like, do you have a superior sense of smell or because that you've had the cochlear implant at such a young age, do you feel like you haven't missed out in that capacity? Yeah, that's a great question. I get that one a lot, actually. You know, I do have glasses. I never wear them, but, and I don't think my sense of smell is supersonic or anything. You know, yeah, I don't think my senses are really all that great, to be honest. But yeah, I think it has something to do with the fact that I had my cochlear implants at such a young age. And so I did mention earlier that I was like really sensitive to vibrations when I'm sleeping. So that might be part of the sense that I'm gaining from losing my deafness. Yeah. So, but other than that, yeah, I mean, I don't think I really do. Okay. Does it pivot into backpacking quick? We're going to probably go on a lot of side tracks here, but does it help you sleep at night when you're on trail to be able to take them out? Because then you can't hear like the eerie sounds of nature, or does it make it worse because then you can't hear the eerie sounds of nature? A little bit of both. What I mean by that is because, you know, sometimes, okay, I'll be camping by myself. I do a lot of that and I just take them out and, you know, it just makes me not even think about it because, you know, if there's a bear outside my tent, he just jumps on by. I'm not going to care unless he comes into my tent. That's the other thing that kind of scares me is, you know, I'm in my tent and then a bear comes on in. I'm not going to know until it's on top of me. So, yeah. I think at that point, you're just like, well, God wanted me to go. Yeah, I'd rather not know at that point, I think. Yeah. So I think I lean more on the side of like it helps because then I'm just not thinking about it. Yeah. I don't even like using earplugs because I'm so sensitive to having the feeling of something in my ears, especially when I'm laying down on something. Do you actually feel like, are the implants uncomfortable for you or have you been using them for so long that it just feels second nature? Yeah, it kind of feels second nature. You know, like when I don't wear them, I almost feel naked, to be honest. It's like it's kind of the same concept of glasses. Because I'd imagine it would be so nice to have the option to just turn off all, especially on a windy night. It's not even necessarily the animal sounds, just like the constant inconsistent, almost white noise. That's kept me up so many nights to have the option to opt out of that. It sounds actually pretty sweet. Well, when I camp, like a lot of the times at night, if I can't fall asleep, I'll put in my earplugs and I'll just put them on noise canceling. Like I'm not even listening to music. I just use the noise canceling to try to help with like the twig crack sounds. Yeah. You know, I had people tell me multiple times that they loved camping next to me because then they could just roll around all they wanted in their tent and didn't have to worry about waking anyone else up. That's a good point. Yeah. I will say I can't, on the AT, I hiked for about 600 miles with someone who was deaf and it was hilarious. Like we had a great time. A lot of times it was kind of that where it was like, I know I'm not bothering you, but some of it was just like funny. Like he had a really great sense of humor and I think it just added like an extra element for us. Do you ever like go to a concert and turn the volume up? Because I'm getting to the age now where concerts are too loud for me to be able to control that. You're taking the baby headphones off the twins. To be able to control the volume at a concert, to be like, yeah, turn this racket down a little bit. Is that something that you ever do? I imagine you're controlling the volume on a regular basis. Actually, there's a different settings I can use for different like actual environments. So like when I'm on at a concert, there's a music setting that I can set it to. Wow. And then like if I'm, is that just turning the volume down or what other changes? Yeah. It's just kind of like changing the EQ a little bit to like optimize for music, I guess. Yeah. My audiologist loves it, but I will say the most tragic thing to happen for me at a concert is they die. Oh no. Has that happened? Yeah. Multiple times. Yeah. What concerts? There was a Def Leppard concert I went to in high school. That's a bad one to have. And so you haven't gotten to like the best songs yet because they're not closing and you can see it happen. Oh no. Yeah. At that point you're just people watching, huh? Yeah. Just people watching and then like you're just standing there like, well, this is fun. Do you keep like a set of spare batteries? Like can you, is that a thing? Yeah. I typically bring a spare set, but those of course are the times that I forgot. Yeah. Oh my God. How does one charge get you? Typically it'll get me like 15 hours. Okay. So it's just like, you know, if it's just been a long day, it'll be towards the end of the day that they'll die. Yeah. Is it like, like, let's say you go home. Is it like taking your bra? I know you don't probably take your bra off when you get home, but is it like taking your bra off to take them off? And like, I would imagine probably speak ASL to the people like in your home life to be able to not have to use them for a while. Or is it not like that kind of like, feeling that I'm attributing to taking a bra off? I will say that is something that I would do a lot towards like the first two weeks of school. So like, because if you think about it throughout the summer, you're not really intently listening. You're kind of just doing your own thing. You're having fun, right? And so when you write, when you go back to school, you have to like spend eight hours a day, like really trying to listen. And like for me to actually listen to things and hear things, it takes a lot more effort because I have to like differentiate between different sounds because a lot of the stuff comes in at the same volume. So my brain is kind of adjusted to just kind of focusing in on what I wanted to focus in on. By that, you mean like every background noise. Like if somebody shuffles their chair or you can hear the wind or whatever, a fan blowing, like all that's coming in at the same volume. So it's, you have to be able to discern what you're actually paying attention to. Yeah, kind of. Yeah. I mean, more what I'm getting at is like, you know, fluorescent lights. If it's like above me and it's like buzzing, this one's fine. But, and like someone's trying to talk to me right here and they're both coming in at the same volume. It doesn't, my brain doesn't differentiate it. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. So does this make hiking like the Colorado trail or any trail, does this make just like what might be a mundane making miles part of the hike, like just super wild for you? Cause I imagine being able to hear the leaf cracks, the like tree breeze, like every little thing at the same volume. I just watched all the twilights this past weekend and when Bella got turned to a vampire, she was going through the woods and she was seeing everything super hyper-focused and that was wild. Would it be like that where you're just like hiking and you're just like, whoa, to everything? Cause it's all coming in louder. Or is that just in my head? You know, I think that is, when I was younger, that was a thing. Because then I was like experiencing things for the first time, you know, and being able to like hear different sounds of nature when I was a lot younger was, you know, it was an experience, you know, I wish I could do that again, you know, but yeah, I don't really think so anymore. Just because, you know, I've had these for so long and I've been accustomed to it. It's just, it's just my normal life now. Is there an auditory setting for something like being in the wilderness? Like you mentioned how there's like a music setting. Is there something for being outdoors? I could make a setting. Yeah, probably good. Just basically turn the, you know, higher frequencies down a little bit on my phone and yeah, basically I could. I never have, I usually typically just stay with my everyday setting just because I'm used to it and that's basically the only reason. If you know the first thing about hiking socks, then you are already aware of our next sponsor. Darn Tough is the most trusted sock in hiking and the number one hike sock in the USA. Family owned and made in Vermont, Darn Tough offers the most durable socks guaranteed. In fact, their warranty is famous with hikers because they're unconditionally guaranteed for life. 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Again that code is dtlove-backpackerradioatdarntough.com to get 10% off plus free shipping. This deal is only good for a very limited time so do not wait. Okay let's talk hiking. Oh yeah. So when did the Colorado trail get put on your map? How long have you been hiking? Give us the full like outdoors background. Yeah I've just grown up being outdoors and my mom has taken me out on little day hikes when I was younger and growing up camping. My dad always took me camping a lot when I was growing up and yeah I've always enjoyed it and then I went to college and my buddies and I would go to the boundary waters every summer for a canoe fishing trip and that was always really fun. Did you go to school in Iowa, Minnesota? Yeah I went to school at Iowa State University. Go clones. They've had some good running backs and you weren't there during the Brice Hall years were you? Yes I was. Yeah he's killing it in the Jets. Yeah he's great. I'm watching the 49ers with Brock Purdy right now. Iowa State as well? Yeah. Oh I didn't know that. Yeah that's why. Yeah 49ers have a bad night yesterday or the day before. They've lost a couple games but they're still really good. Just making myself feel better. It was not a good game yesterday. Anyway sorry. Okay so boundary waters in college and then when did the CT get put on your map? Oh yeah so I had a buddy I was just work so I'll back up a second here so I was working in Iowa and I was just I was right after I had graduated college and I had a couple buddies who just went off and you know took like a gap year or I even what really inspired me was I had a buddy who did the PCT and I was like man yeah I really want to do something like that and that really is what inspired me and so I was just like I just googled places in Colorado to go hiking and that's literally all it was and then the Colorado trail came up. Colorado trails. Yeah so what was your longest backpacking trip prior to this? Actual backpacking trip prior to that one would have been like a week in the boundary waters but that was canoeing so I wouldn't even consider that backpacking. Sure. I'd say it was probably just a weekend trip. Okay. Like one or two weekend trips. So what considerations did you have to make for the Colorado trail that maybe someone who didn't have deafness wouldn't have to consider? Like what was it like for you to plan for this trip that set it apart from canoeing or anything different? Yeah I think it was really the battery situation. Trying to figure out how I'm going to keep these things charged because yeah because when I was in the boundary waters I had them dug out because it was so cold and like I forgot to sleep with them. That was a rookie mistake. Always sleep with your batteries. That's very important. Yeah. So is it like your phone where if you are in like my phone it'll do it when I'm at too high of an elevation and it's like exposed and there's cold the phone will just die even if it's fully charged. Yeah. Is it like that with your batteries because they're not really protected much from the elements in your ears. Yeah no that's totally that same thing. Yeah that same concept like I was talking more on like my disposable batteries. The ones I have on right now are my rechargeable batteries. Oh. And so I had a little fob that I could like connect to the portable battery charger and that's what I predominantly used but it broke on me and so I had to use the actual batteries and they dutted out in the boundary waters because it was so cold and that was one big thing that I was really worried about for planning and then yeah it actually happened to me again on the Colorado Trail and I just ended up having another resupply box that had extra batteries in it and so it worked out but I almost went a week without being able to hear on trail. So it gets so cold that the battery just breaks like it's not you can't warm it back up and recharge it. Yeah the so they're like zinc air batteries is what they're called and like when they're exposed to a certain temperature then it just like duds out. Hmm. Yeah it's super weird. When you're talking about disposable batteries are you talking about just like our standard AAAs or are there like how you just unclicked that battery from it? Is it that but you just toss it after each use? Yeah it's kind of like that so there's like a little sheath that comes out and then it holds you know those little like little little batteries. Yeah like the watch ones? Yeah kind of like those that's basically what they're used. So the disposable parts that little circle battery. Yeah. Got it. Yep. So what was it like you said it was a were you a week without proper battery for the? I almost was a week without it but then. It happened to happen at the your resupply. Yeah then I happened to find them at the bottom of my resupply box. Got it. Like thank you. Yeah so did you go imagine something like a half day from the time that it broke to get to town to actually get your resupply? Yeah actually one of them died and all the other so I had my right one which is my favorite one because I had it first and so I favor that side more and so I had that one working and then no more batteries left and then my left one was dead so I'm like well crap I know I have half a day before I can't hear at all. Is it really disorienting for it to only work in one ear because uh you know Apple AirPods sometimes the like the old ones like one of them just won't charge even if it's sitting in the dock so I've been at the gym before where I'm listening to music through one AirPod and for me it's really distracting like I feel like my workout sucks just because I'm so thrown off by having the inconsistent audio is that I imagine for you it's significantly worse. Is it pretty distracting for it only to be registering audio on one side? You know for like the first second it is and then it kind of just goes back to just all right well I know that that's the only side that sounds coming from so I got to tilt my head a little more that way and just kind of unconsciously adjust but yeah I mean other than that yeah I mean it's it just really does suck when that happens in inconvenient times like a concert. How do you handle that when it's on trail because there's a quote I was trying to look it up quick enough but there's a quote from a book I've mentioned on here countless times Spark the Revolutionary New Science Between Exercise and the Brain I highly recommend it still great book but they talk about people that are I think it was in this book they talked about it people that are left alone like to their own thoughts and how a percentage that's higher than I would have expected of these people would rather be like subjected to mild electric shocks than left alone with their own thoughts and like no other noise for you know a day longer you know it was 15 minutes I think is what the study was it was super small and it basically was just going to like back this evidence that like people aren't comfortable spending time with themselves like in their own thoughts that sort of thing to to lose hearing on a trail and to have to go like a day two days even when you were talking about the canoeing trip however long that was before getting it back how is your mental like overall wellness adjusting to I mean I assume in these settings where they're doing these studies they have the choice like I can quit the study I can leave the room I can go hear things and I've seen people on trail where they haven't talked to anyone in like five days and they look different how how do you see that happen and take something like that that happens to you on trail and a what does it do to you mentally and b how do you combat not being able to flip that back on yeah it's a really interesting thing because you know there's weekends that I'll go camping and I'll just not have messy eyes on and for me it's a place that I can really just think things through and be by myself and so I actually do enjoy that time and I you know I'm an introvert I'm an extrovert you know I guess I'm a little more of an introvert now just since COVID and everything else you know I do like being on my own now and just kind of taking them off and being in my own little world because that's really what it is I'm in my own little world and so I guess like on a trail sense you know it does get a little scary at first because then you're like when the first time that it happened where like they died on trail and I was just like almost a day without being able to hear outside I was just constantly like panning my surroundings just constantly because you know I don't know if there's another hiker coming along I don't know if there's you know I'm gonna run come up on something that might not be very friendly so yeah there's definitely times that it is a little scary but I've become accustomed to it. To that question did you have anyone that you could reach out to as a resource prior to the CT who was deaf that you could ask these questions to? I had nobody I just kind of figured it out figured out as I went nobody I knew who was deaf had ever done anything like this I guess and so I just I'm a big fan of just going for it. It's a good attitude. Is there any sort of community Facebook group whatever platform it might be where you have access to other people where you could ask this question and you're like hey has anyone done long-distance backpacking and everyone's just crickets? Yeah I mean there's actually a couple different Facebook groups where there's you know families who have cochlear implants they can like the parents can talk on there and I actually grew up attending a cochlear implant family camp and so I met a lot of people from all over the United States who also had cochlear implants because you know growing up in Iowa small town Iowa you're not going to have anybody in a 100 mile radius who's also deaf. You mentioned before we hit record that your graduating class was 23 people? 28. 28. No short you those five people yeah so you get a small town. What was the population of your town? Oh probably like a thousand people okay yeah it's small yeah it's pretty small I mean it was literally yeah like 30 minutes away from Des Moines. Are there any trail specific groups like Facebook groups that are long-distance focused for people that have like hearing disabilities? No not that I know of that's a good idea though I might do that tonight. Well I mean I hiked with Mr Perfect and he was deaf and then he had a friend that we spoke to several times that wasn't hiking but she came to trail day so I had met her too and I know there's a few others that have like come across the radar but I think that would be a great resource for like you guys to have with each other. Just before we move too far off the your your implants die while hiking how do you handle that topic? A lot of things that you'll hear when people aren't thriving at a long-distance hike like a lot of it comes down to all the alone time right like there's so much time with your own mind there's so much time where you're not stimulated by other things and I think when we're just constantly fed just like social feeds to scroll through content here and there a tv on in the background that's where like you start to see people like I mentioned the one who hadn't talked to someone for five days where they just seem unwell right like they're not doing good and I know that can bring a lot of people off trail as someone who will go weekends where you just take them out and actually enjoy it do you have tips for people for hiking without sounds to keep them stimulated while hiking or to make it seem less jarring for them like are there things they can do that make it better if they're not one that usually thrives in that setting? Yeah I mean I would say first off you gotta like your inner monologue you know you gotta be best friends with your inner monologue because otherwise it's gonna be a battle you know because if you aren't best friends with your inner monologue then you're gonna be just you know fighting each other and really what it comes down to is are you comfortable by yourself and if you're kind of uncomfortable in those settings and you know you just kind of gotta go back to you know why does it make you uncomfortable because there's probably a reason and there's probably something deeper that stems from that. How did you get comfortable with yourself? I assume based on my this is based on me but I assume not everyone's born comfortable with themselves I assume it takes effort assuming you're not just naturally comfortable with yourself how do you get there? Oh man that's a tough one. That's a deep question. That's very deep. Now you have to give us therapy. Making it easy for Zach's follow-up. I don't know it just seems like you're doing really well with it. Yeah well I appreciate it I appreciate it yeah I mean I um what I kind of did was I just you know took it step by step you know because I first day that happened to me and I just kind of you know I couldn't do anything about it you know I didn't have my garment yet and so you know that would happen a lot growing up you know I'd be at school and they would die and I wouldn't have batteries I have to go the rest of the day without being able to hear and so I guess just that those little moments of exposure of you know have being forced to be by yourself in your own little world that kind of culminated to an extended period of time that can happen. So like doing a shakedown hike but like a quiet yeah shakedown like a yeah like do do little shakedown hikes basically where you like maybe first day you go by yourself and then the second day you have a friend that comes out and meets you um that's that'd be a good way to do it or vice versa where you go out with two people and then you just you stay an extra day by yourself. I was thinking even smaller like just sitting on the couch without using my you know like before you even go outside just sit there and don't touch the phone for an hour you know yeah yeah yeah definitely don't touch the phone. Do you have to worry about them getting wet like is it a concern if it's raining outside? Oh yeah yeah yeah it's like they're more water resistant now but yeah back in the day like you had to take them off like it was super sensitive to water and one thing I'll say about that camp that I grew up going to is they had a pool party every year and if you imagine this scenario where you put a bunch of deaf people into a pool and they don't have waterproof stuff yet the lifeguards are gonna love you because they're blowing their whistles they're doing all that they can and you no one in the pool is even listening to you they can't hear you and so I mean like it's just crazy to see how technology has advanced because you know when you go to that camp now everyone has their waterproof stuff on and so like yeah now it's a little more waterproof or resistant than it was. What areas would you like to see improvement with the tech like you mentioned that it's advanced from like a waterproofness standpoint what areas do you see it could potentially still have room for improvement? Oh yeah I mean it's improving every year there's another upgrade that I could get and so basically what they're doing with their new upgrade now is you can go to an airport and it'll automatically connect to the bluetooth there and they'll tell you like when you're boarding and all that and you can connect to any bluetooth device basically. Can someone hack your mind then? I hope not. Can I just like how the airport would bluetooth to your sounds can I bluetooth to it and be like I'm in your head you know like is that a possibility? I'm not saying it's crazy I'm saying it's scary. I feel like that's very possible. Yeah yeah that's definitely possible I don't know I hope not but uh that'd be scary. Are you excited about those advancements or is that kind of like freaky because that kind of freaks me out a bit? Yeah I mean I'm excited because I mean they're doing it in the right mind I hope so. Yeah it seems out of kindness. Yeah I mean out of kindness I hope but yeah I mean other than that I mean I don't know because like it seems like each model that they make it gets smaller and smaller and they actually have one now where it's without the actual processor that goes on your head but the magnet and it's just the little magnet it's like that big. That's interesting because I'm thinking of this from the standpoint of like just getting you to the point where you can hear like the normal person the person with normal hearing but what you're describing are enhancements that are even beyond what somebody with that level of hearing has. I guess it opens up a whole train of ideas for ways that it could you could be enhanced beyond you mentioned being able to know when you're boarding but there's probably infinite possibilities in that standpoint. Yeah tons I mean like it would be really cool to just have like a little like basically you don't even have to wear your processor every day but it's like all internal then you like wear your processor to charge it kind of like air charge or like you know you have your little pod that you set your phone on and it automatically charges without having to plug in like that'd be kind of cool. Yeah because I remember for a while sorry to cut you off Jones but you're probably more relevant than mine. For a while the buzzword was augmented reality and we're seeing this now with like Google Glass and now Apple's got this too about like the way that you visually interface with the world and it giving you more context than you would otherwise have. From an auditory standpoint thinking of hiking like if you heard like a bird call and that's what I was saying about nature being wild. Yeah being able to have the implant be like oh that is the blue-footed booby. Oh that'd be so cool. That's that goes back to your Tony Stark stuff where you wanted the Iron Man suit. Totally. That's a feature the Iron Man suit. Well I was gonna ask on the same realm of wild like if there's any upgrades that have been made yet where it can hear different languages and it still transmits English to you. No there hasn't been one of those but there has been one I actually really don't like this setting. I currently have it but I don't have it turned on and what it does is it's called like zoom and so if there's like a crowd of people around me and I face this one person that I want to listen to it'll like zoom in on that person that I want to listen to and it'll kind of cut everyone else out but yeah it doesn't really work when you're like in a basement and like your mom or whoever screams from the first floor then because then it's like well it's listening to the air conditioner but then it doesn't quite know if that other sound coming from somewhere else. It doesn't know what to focus in on. Yeah then it just kind of screws it up. Right. This is going to be probably my dumbest question of the night. Yeah. I don't know it's hard to ever tell. The night is young. We got time. Do people ever use these that don't need them like if you're not hard of hearing is because I feel like some of the stuff you're saying sounds really like I'm kind of not like not jealous obviously I'm very grateful for the hearing I have but it sounds really cool to be able to zoom in on certain things and make things louder like I struggle when there's a lot of noises going on at once. Yeah. Are there people that use these things that don't need them because it's just like like really cool or strategic? I don't know. I just feel like that's it sounds like a superpower to me. It is you know I mean to an extent yeah it is a superpower. I mean with technology the way it is now if you told someone in the 1800s what I could do they'd be like what planet are you from? Yeah. So it's insane to think about but um no I haven't really known anyone just because the fact that insurance is such a battle um especially back in the day like when I first got them my mom was she's the rock star like she wrote letters on letters on letters just to get insurance approval. How much do they cost? I mean we were paying oh shoot I mean they're probably I probably have like I don't know half a million dollars in my head. Shut up. No. Just the part that's inside? Oh all of it like external internal surgery everything yeah. Wow. Does the implant itself I'm thinking like fake joints they have a lifespan of 20 years is this something that has to be refreshed on a on a bait on a consistent basis? Yeah the they gave the internal stuff like 18 years okay and I'm well past that I'm 23 um and so it's kind of like any day now I asked my audiologist like what she thought would be kind of when I'd need to be re-implanted um and she's just like you know it could be 10 years from now could be you know five years from now it could be next year. Is the only consideration that the sound part stops is it not like the the stuff that makes it like deteriorates the grades gets absorbed by brain goo? Yeah. I don't know how I don't know how a lot of things work. Oh it's all good it's all good yeah I mean it's just really like the lifespan of the technology if it is able to last that long um internally um because those internal devices don't get touched you know because you have surgery to get them put it in and then that's it. When you switch to a new one is it going to be like getting the same thing like you leave the same person as you entered or is it like upgrading like your you know 97 Toyota Camry to the newest Range Rover? It'll be like upgrading kind of like to a Range Rover because it'll be different technology there'll be because nowadays it's just an outpatient there like procedure when I got them like I had to stay in the hospital for a couple days and I had this big old bandage around me and like it was it did not look pretty I had like these big scars and now you know it's just a little slit behind the ear and then they slide the little magnet in and they're able to do everything with the cochlea all within an outpatient procedure. Can you feel it? Yeah I mean can I touch it? Yeah. So is that where the cochlea is like that far above the actual ear or is it I thought the cochlea was inside the ear? I don't feel it because it's right there yeah so it's it's it's like a slight little bump there but um yeah so that's how it's held on to my head is a magnet. Wow. Yeah you mentioned at the top of the interview that there were other um ramifications I'm not sure of being deaf or you say CMV was the yeah can you look that up yeah yeah it's bothering me so much. Cytomegalovirus? Yes that's it yes. Okay okay you mentioned that like um that your immune system is compromised because of is that because of the deafness or because of the virus itself? I'd say that one was because of the virus itself okay um and so like growing up like I would brush my teeth twice a day like every other kid right but I would get cavities on cavities yes I had to convince people growing up that I brushed my teeth twice a day and floss every day because I would just keep getting cavities and you know it just yeah so they think that has something to do with CMV like a weak um enamel basically um and then like the part that comes with the deafness is I don't have balance so I don't have the liquid in the semicircular canals that give people balance and so like how does that play out I'm very clumsy well there's some like steep I mean there's not like I don't like steep things there's not scary stuff on the Colorado trail but there's some there are some ridges yeah does that like screw you up well definitely um there was actually when we got to the high point of the Colorado trail we did an alpine start um and that was actually my first 30 mile day that was that was awesome my trail family is awesome for pushing me to do that but anyway so we woke up at like 2 30 in the morning and started hiking and it was complete darkness you know but the stars were out and that was kind of helpful but I had to have my headlamp on like the brightest it could go and even with that I was using my trekking poles side to side basically holding myself up walking on basically four legs just to stay up with the rest of the trail family yeah are there other so you mentioned the battery's dying you mentioned uh balance being a challenge are there other things that are not obvious that would be make something like this more challenging um yeah I think it would just be really the clumsiness um that's a really big thing and another one that a lot of people don't think about is swimming so when I'm swimming like and I can't see which way is up or down I don't like that idea where where to go yeah so like when I was younger I got pushed into the lake we were boating and I think it was my friend's dad like who pushes a deaf kid into the water yeah like a young kid makes sense because yeah they're dumb but like someone's dad is that I would be mad about that yeah so anyway besides that um I like get into the water and I don't have my life jacket on and so I'm swimming and I open my eyes and I quickly realize I can't see where the sun is no because that's exactly what I look for is where's the sun because that tells me where to go and so I just picked a direction started swimming I eventually hit the bottom of the lake no could kicked myself up and do you feel your ears popping like you get that like I'm going too deep ear poppy feeling yeah kind of so I kind of could tell that I'm getting towards the bottom um and so yeah I do get that only in my left ear though because I don't have an eardrum in my right side whoa okay so like if you go to the bottom of a pool your ears don't always pop no not always no or like even when I go on a plane they sometimes won't sometimes my left one will but other than that not normally did your mom have some choice words for your friend's dad I didn't tell her she's gonna find out I think she's gonna write a sternly worded letter is she gonna know who it is yeah um okay so Colorado Trail it's the Colorado Trail surprised me because I live in Colorado I think I know Colorado like I've been here and then there's so much of it that's above tree line for so long and the one thing I took note of when I left the Colorado Trail is how much your day revolves around weather and doing other trails first you think you understand that until you get even people that do the con on the by trail from what I've talked to people that I've done it about say that when they get to Colorado it's a different beast and I think just the weather and the lightning and the unpredictability of the storms really impacts your day how does that impact having the implants in with the water and the wetness and the waterproof and then also like do you hike with them out at times and then does that impact your ability to hear thunder or anything like that I mean obviously you can see when it's getting stormy but what is that like going through um terrain like that yeah no you hit the nail on the yeah you hit the nail on the head there with that because I mean when you're up at tree line and you start seeing these you know storms come in and it's starts pelting rain you know I have to take them off you know I'm not going to keep them on and so yeah it does become kind of tough I have never been in a situation like that where I was by myself and had that happen to me but I was hiking with people on the Colorado trail pretty consistently I started it by myself but then ended up meeting a pretty cool trail family and we kind of stuck together and there was a girl yeah she was like a backpacking guide and knew all the stuff that you need to know and so that was super helpful to be a part of that and so I would yeah in that one situation it was just pelting rain we were basically above tree line I took them off and you know just followed her are there any tips that you gathered after like now that's in the back of the memory bank we're here is there anything you learned from it that you would give as advice to someone who's also deaf who might have the Colorado trail or any other trail with weather on their like to-do list that would help them yeah I would say have a ziplock bag at your side like just in your little you know hip belt pocket because then you can quickly just put them in there and then you're good and then also make sure you have a rain jacket that can cinch down at the top because sometimes you don't always want to take them off and you know if it's raining pretty hard you can you know put your hood up and cinch it down and you're pretty well covered what do you use for rain jacket I just have an REI rain jacket that I got on sale yeah nice I've got a patent yeah you know how a lot of places Katabatic especially because I just memorized their ad read but places will do down hoods and you can just get the hood that's down I feel like it'd be helpful for places to do just down they're not down but rain jacket hoods like not the rain jacket but just the hood yeah because then you can just have sure or making a hood that is completely waterproof because there's always the trade-off between having the breathability and something that actually keeps the rain out yeah like the Buzz Lightyear hat yeah but yeah for Brady's standpoint having something where no moisture is getting in that seems like a feature that would be paramount for you yeah that'd be awesome yeah that'd be awesome I mean it can handle some moisture but I'm just kind of iffy about it yeah I feel like that's not something you want to test yeah so you mentioned the balance in the context of navigating like alpine terrain when it's dark out and that being challenging but so much with backpacking requires good balance like even like when you're navigating roots and rocks and all that were you having to be more careful than other people in your trail family just going on normal terrain and like is this something that you had to communicate with them like hey guys I might be lagging behind a little bit so don't wait up for me or do wait up or whatever it might be I'm just curious to know if like this is a conversation that you had to have with your trail family yeah I mean I don't know if I explicitly had that conversation but you know we'd be hiking along and I'd trip and I'm like ah jeez why does this keep happening I'm like well I know why this keeps happening I have zero balance you know and then that'd spark a conversation but so they were aware of it and they would just you know we'd always have that conversation of hey we're camping around this area and so if I lost them then no big deal but yeah I mean in the case of like really rocky terrain like I go a lot slower than most people just because of that exact same thing like I'm gonna if I really hurt myself out here like which I'm really prone to doing I hurt myself a lot then that would not be good you also mentioned that you got a Garmin at some point during the hike is that now something that you'll just be backpacking with forever yeah forever I mean a couple weekends ago I did the Aspen to Crespid Butte and back like that was really fun but I just had my Garmin on me it was just a day hike yeah and so I do that every time now I got my Garmin before the CT I actually got it basically like a couple months right beforehand just so that I could you just Aspen and Crespid Butte and back in a day yeah that's a big day yeah is that the four pass loop yeah it was yeah it wasn't the full four pass loop okay you could go one direction with it uh I mean that is a big day it's a very big day 21 miles yeah nonchalant yeah but I heard those miles are harder than regular miles well did you do the the um West Maroon Pass yes portion of that okay yeah West Maroon Pass yeah it was just I had a buddy come up from Texas he came from Texas you made him do that in a day he wanted me to do it and he did it no problem yeah yeah it was that same buddy who did the PCT yeah his name is Travis he's a cool guy he's gonna be listening to this but so now that you've got the Colorado Trail under your belt would you feel comfortable going out and doing solo backpacking or where are you gonna feel are you gonna try to arrange a situation where you've got a trail family with you at all times I actually went into the Colorado Trail kind of knowing that I would be by myself for most of the time I didn't expect to have such a big trail family like I did um like by the time we ended you know we called ourselves the dirty bubble uh because we were like the bubble of the Colorado Trail and like we had like 18 people 18 damn yeah and like we had this uh lady in our trail family who had a house in Durango and so we had like this big old like ending party and like you know I my trail experience feels a little different than most people because like they don't a lot of people say that the Colorado Trail is something that they don't really like deem as a social trail right I feel like it's getting there it's getting there it really is yeah this summer was there was a lot of people what was your start date uh July 1st and when'd you finish August 2nd yeah August 2nd yeah do you have any standout like I'm big on stories I like being able to not in a lazy way but I like being able to sit back and listen to you tell me a nice story that I can kind of just like get into yeah do you have any standout stories from the Colorado Trail that are like noteworthy to share um you know I guess yeah I do I have a couple so there's one where uh I think you guys would like this for your shit book well it's not a shit book I love that no it's a shit book it's a shit book about absolutely a shit book about the turds and go back to our segments that the listeners haven't heard yet right um yeah I mean this isn't my poop story but I met this guy named shitfoot love it I mean already right there it was just the way he told it it was just hilarious um he was hiking the at um and he was like running to a bathroom like a pit toilet and it was like pouring rain and he had just gotten back from town and he like stepped in shit but this was like someone had like gone like running to the pit toilet but then couldn't make it all the way and so then they dug a hole in the trail did their business like right in the middle of the trail yeah did their business and then didn't even cover it up yeah and so he built a shit trench yeah fully stepped in it like in the shoe everything it was yeah it got in his shoe yeah and yeah so he went to the toilet did his thing then went back to his girlfriend he's like hey we're going back to town right circling back to what the listener has not yet heard yeah this will make sense when you've gotten to the end of the episode we're coming to you from the future here this is another reason for no to shoeys right it depends on the shoe but yeah I guess most people have probably stepped in shit unknowingly over 2650 although I would think most of them didn't get shit in their shoe you never know yeah yeah I've got a note here that your trail name is undies yes what's the story oh that's a fun story yeah I was staying at this hostel in Breckenridge and they had a hot tub and so you know naturally I asked hey can I just wear my underwear in the hot tub you didn't say undies no I didn't say undies that's not the reason why I'm called undies either and so I am sitting in the hot tub that goes as normally as it could go with one sitting in a hot tub with their underwear anyway so fast forward and I hang my underwear on the bunk because I have to leave the next morning and I wanted them to be dry so I can get hiking in the morning and I'm like two or three miles in and I realize I don't have my underwear I have my shit pair of underwear I didn't actually shit in them but they're just like they're just not my good pair of underwear is what I'm getting at yeah they're not my good pair of underwear yeah but my nice pair of underwear is like the marina wool like super nice right and what's the not nice pair for some amazon brand spiderman yeah they're my true undies and so I used my garment I texted my mom because there's nobody else I knew that would actually do anything about like if I were to text my buddy be like hey I left my underwear in the hostel he's gonna be like okay so my mom she calls the hostel and leave and the guy at the hostel puts my mom on speakerphone in front of all these hikers who know you that I had met the previous day and so these hikers are just like well okay um they're just cracking up I mean I wasn't actually there what was she saying she was like hey my son forgot his underwear on the bunk um and so yeah and so these hikers are just like we'll get him his underwear we'll burn it to him and so they like change their entire plan and they grab my underwear and start hiking and I like kind of had a sense that somebody was going to burn them to me but I didn't know how so they cleaned yeah they were clean okay how uncomfortable are you with someone else just like bringing you your own underwear I feel like I'd rather them burn them I was like I can just find some in Twin Lakes right it's my nice pair yeah but um yeah so they I was a couple days later like over this was over a couple days like they were hiking extra miles to catch up with me and so I kind of knew that someone was trying to catch up so I just like slowed down a little bit and I was eating lunch on top of zero pass and there were like a bunch of other random hikers and I just hear these people like screaming Brady they're like waving my underwear running up the mountain how they know it was you well I think it was because of my sun shirt is what they said okay because I have I had like a really like tan like not tan but like a blue sun shirt and I always wore the hood up because the wind was super bad with my ci's and so yeah and other people were just looking around like they gave me my underwear they said that uh my trail name was now undies that's a good way to get a trail name yeah so you already know that Zach and I are massive fans of Katabatic's quilts which we've collectively used for many thousands of miles but did you know that Katabatic also makes incredible ultra light down jackets as well they offer two models the lighter tarn and the warmer tin cup in both men's and women's sizing options both models feature 850 plus fill power hyper dry down which means that these jackets are incredibly warm lightweight and will shed moisture much more effectively than untreated down I've been rocking the Katabatic tin cup in recent weeks and let me tell you this is my new favorite down jacket this thing weighs less than 10 ounces has kept me toasty on these late season camping trips looks great and is super comfortable much like their quilts Katabatic's jackets use high end per tex fabrics the highest quality responsible down standard down feathers and a high fill to weight ratio all of this at a very fair price compared to other high end down jackets backpacker radio listeners can score a very limited time 15 discount by using code bpr15 at checkout at katabaticgear.com again that's bpr the number 15 at checkout at katabaticgear.com don't wait on this discount it's only good for a very limited time so you mentioned keeping the batteries at above a certain temperature you mentioned having a ziplock bag in the scenario that things are getting wet are there other things that you would do differently to prepare for your next backpacking trip knowing what you know now um i would say i would honestly um do what i did when i was on the colorado trail i think i hammered it out pretty well um you know the ziplock bags um and then i would say another thing would be to be more communicative with the people i'm hiking with about like hey like if i'm not up at this time like you should probably wake me up yeah because you mentioned your alarm that vibrates you awake i assume you didn't bring that with no i just had my phone yeah does the phone vibrate enough to actually get you up half the time okay so you're good at sleeping in yeah i'm good at sleeping in yeah i've gotten better over the years but um on the trail i actually i just ended up putting it inside my like little pillow um i have those like the nemo inflatable pillow and so it has that little like case around it and so then when i put that in that little case on the bottom side then it wakes me up the question that fits between whatever question before came before zacks and zacks i think this is a pre-zac question because he was saying what would you do for next hikes my question is did you like this hike and would you do another one oh yeah i want to do the pct what would be different scaling this up to six months for you it would be assuming it would take that long yeah yeah no i mean it would probably take me six months um i i think the biggest challenge would be the resupplies because like getting extra batteries because one thing that i noticed was i was carrying a lot of extra batteries just out of fear and like when they die i can't just throw them away like i'm stuck with that weight you know and so like when i throw them away it has to be you know because it's not environmentally friendly just to throw batteries into the woods so i guess that would be one thing i would look into more is probably have more frequent resupplies so i didn't have to carry as many batteries um and so that would be the challenge for the pct i think how much do they weigh um i didn't weigh them out but they're not terribly heavy they're like when a pack of them comes with those like little watch batteries of like six of them like nine of them actually yeah it's nine batteries and so what's really bad about them is since they're zinc air batteries they can't touch each other and so what i tried doing before that i went on the ct was i tried putting them all in like a baggie so it was just like a bag full of batteries but i can't do that with them because apparently something with them coming in contact with each other duds them out oh that's a hard lesson to learn yeah yeah that was a really hard lesson did you learn that on trail i was doing like a weekend trip yeah yeah and i went the last day without being able to use testing battery after battery and like slowly it's realizing yeah oh yeah what ratio or maybe you could do absolute number would you do of rechargeable versus non-rechargeable batteries if you're just going to start fresh with a new backpacking trip yeah i would probably do like say if i were going to be out there for a week i would do probably like three days worth of disposable batteries and then the rest would be just be the rechargeables or i can use the ones that are on my head and there's like a little fob that i can plug that's like a little usb charger basically and that plugs into any portable charger and so i can use that as my predominant source but what sucks about it is when i was doing that i would only have one extra rechargeable battery and so then i'd have like a rotation of the three but then at a certain point i ended up just because i'd be lazy and i'd be like oh it died and so i wouldn't do it for a little bit and i'd just have one that was not dead for a little bit and then i'd end up with two that were dead and then that would be tragic and so and then i just ended up being in a cycle where i would constantly have one dead battery this might actually be my dumbest question of the episode now that i'm thinking it through yeah you mentioned that it connects to your phone if you're listening to music or a podcast while hiking do you this seems like i'm answering my own question you don't need headphones you don't need to put in air pods it just goes through those no i have the og air pods yeah yeah i've i've only just like i i understood it was dumb as i asked it but i've only just put that together that well i guess you save weight on not needing regular headphones then like that's kind of a trade-off yeah i suppose with half a milli worth of gear on your head how bad is it if you were to lose and or break one uh pretty bad like is it like like is it like a major stressor or is it just like it's chill i mean right now it's kind of chill i have a couple other um cochlear implants just throughout the years i've kind of collected them like my pretty my old ones that still work so and i'm pretty good friends with my audiologist and so she actually gave me an extra pair of ci's to bring with me on the trip um and so that was super clutch that was really nice um because those are not cheap um and yeah it kind of is a little bit of a crisis mode when one of them does die i mean when one of them does break or get lost um because you could be you know a week or you know two weeks without it depending on how long it takes for cochlear to get a new one out to you and you know the cost of them and insurance and warranties like it's a whole different world um and like dealing with insurance is not fun um i will say that insurance does not want people to hear i don't i don't understand it they want to make as much money as possible and the health care they provide be damned yeah yeah exactly it's does that affect like okay so when a lot of people go hiking me for example when i did pct i might have barely been on my parents health insurance at i definitely wasn't on my parents health insurance that one now that we're four years removed i can comfortably without getting scolded say i did not have health insurance for um i quit my job on a friday i started hiking on a sunday i yoloed the whole thing nice and i know a lot of travelers insurance or anything nope i said let's see what happens jewels yeah well listen it's been almost five years we can skim past that now but i know for a lot of people that hike i'm not the only one that does that a i will put my foot down on that but b i know there's a lot of people that struggle to figure out how to get insurance for something like taking time off to do a hike is that something that you can work with where it's like travelers insurance or other things with your hearing aids or is that something where you need to like have a job that has this like corporate insurance type thing to be able to make sure that you have the coverage for should anything go wrong with these in the future like is this like binding you to like the corporate world kind of is yeah and that's kind of the sad part about it is yeah i do need insurance if i don't and something happens to them that's going to be not great um and so thank god i'm 23 and not 26 yeah yeah so i'm kind of i'm actually in talks right now because i just started a new job um and we're kind of thinking about do i just go on my own insurance now or i'm trying to lean towards convince my mom be like hey can i just stay on like all my older older brothers got to why can't i yeah if anything you have more of a need right exactly so we'll see could you get sponsorships for it at some point like is it like if i if i hike a bunch right now and i can kind of get the word out then implant people that make this brand like would sponsor me to be able to keep doing further things like this or are you like is this like a road that you can ride until you're 26 and then you have to put health first um i think i could get sponsors yeah i definitely could um it would be more along the lines of sponsorship um to get insurance like they would give me the the money to be able to have insurance kind of thing because like they wouldn't be like oh we're gonna take you because we're the company that has cochlear implants and like that would be cochlear because you know there's other medical expenses that could happen you know um and so like meaning just my stomach hurts i need some medicine you know um and so i couldn't just predominantly be under like cochlears um sponsorship for that um it would be more along the lines of yeah hey here's health insurance um and so yeah that's another thought process that i have for doing the pct sooner so that i can do it without having an actual job yeah um and so that makes sense i know part of the inspiration for doing the ct was to inspire others who are deaf or hard of hearing to pursue their dreams have you had other people reach out to you since you've completed the ct asking your asking you questions and just saying that they were motivated by your journey yeah i've had a couple people actually it was more like parents of kids um and so actually um last weekend i did a fundraiser with the listen foundation um and so what the listen foundation does is basically they help families who are deaf and hard of hearing and their their kids have um an implantable device helps them get auditory verbal therapy all the resources that they need to help pay for stuff and it's a really great organization and it helps that camp that i grew up attending and now volunteer for um and so when i was at that event i had a couple parents like come up to me and be like hey my kid wants to go backpacking now because you've done this my kid wants to start playing guitar and because you you play guitar you know and all this stuff i was playing guitar for the event basically let's talk about that because i've got a note here about your guitar playing as well how does that interface with being hard of hearing or does it like the fact that you're a good guitar player is that independent of the fact that you have this deafness or um do you think how does it interface i guess it's a simple way of asking the question i actually started playing guitar around the same time i got my second implant um and that was probably around yeah five or six years old and i guess i i like challenges not just guess i took it as a challenge and just went for it and it also got stems from the fact that you know my grandpa he's really into the blues and i grew up going to a lot of concerts and that kind of bred me into being a guitar player um but to answer your question um no i don't think it really interfaces much it's just really um becomes more challenging i guess um and i've gotten to the point with my guitar playing that it it's a stress reliever more than anything and i really enjoy it what style guitar do you play um electric acoustic mostly blues though i really like the blues do you play solo or in a band and is it difficult playing with a band because you mentioned previously being able to like discern different uh audio inputs can be a challenge yeah it is i i mostly play by myself but i am looking for a band right now i played in a band for i think a year and a half in college my last yeah senior year of college um and what i learned a lot through that is the bass and the drums help a lot so i kind of have to like position myself to where i can like be right next to the drummer and kind of also next to the bassist and kind of like be able to actually feel their um their tempo and their rhythm have you ever tried playing without the implants in like just going off of muscle memory yeah what's that experience like yeah i mean it's i don't know i don't i don't hear what i'm playing yes you know it's um more along the lines of you know i am more attentive to where my fingers are being placed on the fretboard um and so actually i do that as a practice sometimes where i'll just play without being able to hear just so that i know that like i can feel every little note that my fingers are hitting um and just feel the vibration of the guitar because when i know when there's a certain amount of vibration on the guitar that i actually hit that note and so when i focus on that then i realize that i'm a more precise player that's interesting yeah i play to a lesser extent and yeah you know when you're in the wrong part of the frets like it feels wrong right you know when you hit a bad note yeah you play guitar we've talked about this in a previous episode but what six years ago it's been a long i don't play regularly anymore but i can confidently handle a guitar and the drums just validating his point that you know when you don't get it right that just wants to be able to relate that's right yeah okay with what you were talking about with the insurance and the cost of these and all the ways that they can get fucked on the trail it doesn't seem like the outdoors is the most accessible place for someone with a hearing issue and is that like is there something that the outdoors i'm saying the outdoors in like a broader scene like the broader scheme of the outdoors is there something the outdoors in general can do to make the outdoors more accessible to people with hearing issues or is this strictly like a insurance side of things where the outdoors is accessible enough but it's the like hoops that you have to jump through on that end that are causing the headaches like what where's the middle ground what can be done to make this something where people who have implants for hearing can more comfortably get outside and enjoy it yeah i mean i'm actually really trying to think of ways this is that reason because right now i'm a junior board member of the listen foundation and i'm hoping through that i can kind of come up with a way to be able to bridge that gap because there are a lot of families who it seems like it's more the hoops that you have to jump through and insurance just consumes too much of the time and then too much of the time to be able to actually you know get your kid outdoors and be able to you know show them the true bliss of nature you know and so really i think what it comes down to is just the awareness and the ability to actually spend the time like taking your kids from a younger age early intervention is what they call it for getting your coconut implants earlier on when you're young and so basically getting them outdoors and making that mindset switch from oh i can't do this because of this i feel like that's got to be hard for the parents because like you look at kids outside and i feel like when i think of a kid outdoors if i think about myself in my neighbor's stream when i was growing up like it's chaos like i just want to slap everything and mush the mud and like splash and i feel like if i just dropped bank on these implants for my kid and i take them outside and i see them being a kid outside like i'm having a panic attack inside about what if these things break fall out get lost anything um how do you even approach making that better because i feel like there's got to be just anxiety and stress all around that yeah i think it's got to come down to the insurance because there's got to be more leeway of like oh i lost an implant and he's replaced you know there's got to be more um yeah i think it starts at the insurance because then if you don't have that actual backing or that mental backing of like oh we're covered we're good if something happens um then i think that's where you'll start seeing that shift are there insurance policies that do it better than others like i know insurance through what my company provides for me like i know the brand that i have but are there companies that do this better than others or are more accommodating you know give more or less whoopee yeah i don't quite know um specific insurance companies that are better than others but i do know that like some families um actually get medicare um just based on like their you know age and like the disability that they have and all that like i was on or what is it medicaid or medicare which one's for the older people um medicare i believe is for the plus 65 because medicaid would be the one that i had then uh hold on hold on they could give them more medicare medicare is the federal health insurance for anyone age 65 and older and some people under 65 with certain disabilities or conditions medicaid is a joint federal and state program that gives health coverage to some people with limited income and resources okay so i i qualified for medicare because of my disability um and then there's a certain point that they say oh he doesn't qualify anymore because he can talk and he can hear and so then i'm not eligible for that anymore so they give you the hearing implant so that you can hear and then they're like he can hear now he doesn't qualify yeah basically that's very fucked up yeah so fucked up that's very fun and so we had to go on to our own insurance you know and so that that's what i'm saying like it's a really big deal because a lot of these companies that are what they're doing is if your kid needs a cochlear implant these insurance companies are like talking to the hospital and seeing how much business that this insurance company does with the hospital and then they decide on how much profit that they want to make based on how much business that insurance company does with that specific hospital is there a way like let's talk about we're that we're the listener we're listening to this episode you know it's come into a close is there an actionable way for us to do anything about it or is this just one of those like thank you sir may i have another's where like we're just getting like shit fed to us and we just got to eat it like what can you actually do about it to improve the situation at all yeah it's tough because i mean without having to like go i mean i could go to washington maybe and maybe get some bills passed or something to actually drive forward the change that needs to happen with our insurance policies um then i don't quite know um because i mean going back to just getting people outdoors who maybe have been limiting themselves who otherwise should not be limiting themselves because there was a switch that was flipped in my head that like said i'm not going to let this control what i want and don't want to do what was that um that was in middle school actually at the cochlear implant family camp i was uh rock climbing and i was like man like what was stopping me from doing this before um and from then on i just kind of had that same mindset of you know i'm not going to let my disability you know affect what i want to do with my life it's uh really more of the ability to not hear when i choose because that's how i think about it it also sounds like your mom is an awesome advocate in this because she's in the medical care system like she knows the levers that need to be pulled um to that point i recently maybe this is an actionable tip for somebody listening to this but insurance will shoot down a lot of the things that you try to do to benefit your own health and i use chat gpt to because they said that one of like the blood tests that i was getting was not covered on my insurance plan and i legitimately input that test and i forget the name of the uh official form that you're supposed to file to protest it but i put that into chat gpt and it spit out like a long letter and like it had me insert specific things that were true to my specific case um but i was and it ended up working it ended up working what they say just like sorry they just ended up so i what i gather with health insurance at least in my personal case i can't speak to the broad spectrum or certainly brady's case but it seems like a lot of times if you put effort into fighting the stuff there are enough instances where they will back down and accommodate you i think they're used to people not fighting and just being bulldozed by the terrible system but if you do show some resistance there is a fighting chance i have this is money with katie again a great podcast if anyone's interested in that sort of thing but the money with katie stuff she had posted um just like one of the weeks when she was doing a deep dive on something was like the different codes that they use for health insurance and how a lot of the times if you go to the doctor and you end up with a big bill if you look up the different codes that they plug certain things in for a lot of them are oftentimes like and egregiously so marked incorrectly and like getting those fixed like they're apparently apparently this is like a thing where you can i never knew you could push back against this stuff i never knew you could be like i don't like this and you're just always told to just like this is what it is yeah suck it up and take it yeah that's exactly what it was yeah my mom just kept on pushing pushing pushing and finally got it that's awesome you know i'm i am where i am now because of my mom yeah you know that's that's fantastic it's good to have somebody who's in the health care world who understands this stuff because it can be so disheartening to just know that you're at the mercy of someone who's not connected to the health care portion of it at all saying that like no you don't actually need this like motherfucker my doctor tells me i would be mad and jaded i think like i don't think i could handle like you're very happy and from what i can tell just like you know positive but i feel like i if i were to face those road blocks i would get very jaded and mad and not happy about things you know i think that comes up to like how i was growing up how i was brought up because you know i had all those hurdles that i had to jump you know and i guess that kind of attributes to my personality now it's just like all right cool let's go let's see how we're going to handle this situation um and so having to be like bred into constantly having to go over hurdle over hurdle over hurdle just to listen or just to hear you know i think that's bred me into looking at it in a positive aspect because otherwise what is life like yeah does that give you a leg up on things like through hiking where like hurdles that would get other people down and considering getting off trail is just like another day in the life for you yeah yeah totally yeah i mean it's i don't like to say oh i can't do that or because of this reason you know i i like to think things through and be like oh yeah i can do it because well maybe this will happen but okay let's see let's go for it you know and it's just that mindset okay so to wrap the interview here uh we're gonna dive back into this box i don't know what you're doing your favorite item from your favorite favorite freeze-dried candy slash on their rate for the listeners um brady's stepdad freeze dries um candies and other things there's some ranch green beans in here so i can't exclusively say candies but these all look fire don't give me bananas i like bananas just they look like they look like the dehydrated bananas and those are a no for me um they are better than the dehydrated all right if you say they're better i'll try them there's a lot of interesting things in this box i don't know i will say shout out to my mom um for she literally overnighted this box so that was insane you said it was harvest general store right yes okay harvest general store they just do like trade shows and stuff in iowa right now but um my favorite is the uh smoothie frittles is what they call them they're just these are skittles bust them open yeah let's have a couple yeah i'm like happy i didn't even ask myself to clap i just started clapping there you said the red ones are the best no i just said like the smoothie ones are my favorite i think all skittles taste the same to be honest isn't that wow it's a pet peeve for listeners to hear us chewing so apologies this is fun this feels different yeah wow that's the right reaction i feel it under my chin i'm gonna go ahead and say i actually like that way better than a regular skittle that's damn good that's what's all over my tiktok is people are making these in their microwave yeah it's like a skittle that exploded and became i don't even know how to describe it i don't even know how to describe the texture that is delicious i have another oh i got two and i grabbed a yellow which is usually my least favorite flavor orange is good because it tastes like orange tic tacs and orange is the new black oh yeah there you go oh yeah these are all yours these are awesome wow it's really good oh yeah well another shout out to harvest general store will include the it was can you can people order this on the facebook page or is it even are they even delivering of right now they're in the process of setting up a website okay you can't even buy right now i mean right now you can message them on facebook and maybe they'll send you something okay cool um yeah in the process of setting up a website brady is there anything that we haven't asked you that you'd like to relay to the listeners of backpacker radio not really i mean i think we pretty much covered it but i will say um just because you have a disability doesn't mean that should limit what you want to do with your life um and you know just being able to talk here right now and you know i never would have thought that i would be talking on a podcast or having a conversation on a you know media that is predominantly listening um and that's just amazing technology it's amazing for you know my audiologist it's amazing for my auditory verbal therapist it's everyone in my life that's culminated to this moment um and so really thank everyone in my life and in my family and for where i'm at now here here i'm so impressed by the technology of this like uh honestly blown away and even talking about like the enhancements above what you can get above just typical hearing is honestly pretty exciting and like this isn't even for me like it's pretty it's it's mind-boggling it's very cool and what's really nice is you know as i get older i'll be the only one in the nursing home who can actually hear whoa wait do these not work for people when you lose your hearing like if i were to listen to headphones on too loud and then my hearing slowly goes these wouldn't work for me i mean they could it's just it's like an old or nothing thing so if you get the cochlear implants you're not gonna have any hearing actual hearing yeah damn well these are superpowers shout out to this technology but also you brady like your your testament you're an inspiration uh really grateful that you could come on to the podcast and share your story for listeners whether they have a disability or not i think it's a really interesting story to share so thank you for your time and sharing your journey with us yeah i appreciate it thanks for having me on to the trek propaganda portion of today's show you're gonna like this one we're not doing question of the day we're gonna do that afterward okay i'm just going off of the show notes here uh trek propaganda this is oh i thought you said triple crown ignore me yeah guys it's my first i don't know maybe i just heard that it's my first episode yes uh this one is titled broken on the at gear that breaks at 2000 miles and gear that doesn't the thing that you're gonna like about this is the author this is written by no none other than abby evans queen fire salamanders right uh shit i forget she had like shit water yep they had water queen of the salamanders yeah no shit water fireball queen of the salamanders shit water fireball queen of this hell yes i'm such a good friend that is actually very impressive um you helped me by saying shit yeah well i always do this obviously is just one person's perspective on the subject but if you're curious to know which of abby's gear broke toward the end of her hike and which end of their hike and which did not which stood the test of time head to the link in the show notes this one was really well done uh the reason we're bringing this up is we had a chance to hang out with abby at trail days abby was a trail correspondent she they volunteered at the booth and was just genuinely generally a very good hang in good times participated in all of our pizza parties yeah that's right um i have a couple of other posts here but we've got a stacked segment lineup for today so let's get right to that uh transitioning to today's question of the day i don't like that rachel included the examples because one of the examples was something that i was going to include but oh okay i thought you're gonna say one of the examples was something that you like because i also really would have included ipa's yeah okay well we're spoiling it but okay question of the day is what are you convinced people are pretending to enjoy yes i will say i do i do occasionally like an ipa i like some ipa's but the ipa culture in the last like 15 years has gotten completely out of hand it went from being this like really rare specialty beer that existed well at a few breweries now it's like you go to a brewery and it's 80 of what they make they have slight variations whether you want it hazy or slightly fruity or whatever notes of hops etc and this is coming from somebody that generally pretty much likes ipa's but it's just totally out of hand nobody likes ipa's that much yeah i think it just seems cool they're good if it's in a flight like if i'm getting a flight of beers and you're giving me like four shooters of different kinds of beers i'll absolutely have one because i don't have to deal with it for 16 ounces a full glass of ipa that's too much ipa after a long day hike you get back to the car you've got an ipa sitting on ice and you're cooler that's i could easily deal with a 12 to 16 ounce ipa in that circumstance but thinking about like going to the brewery and downing three or four ipa's shoot me in the head that's too much ipa i mean i would drink anything cold after a long hike like i would drink cold pee after a hike would you no but i mean it depends on how long the hike was and how much i needed to hydrate what is the mileage that would what's your threshold you know i considered it on the colorado trail when i ran out of water yeah same java had to talk me i've gone i did eight miles on the pct up by moraine lake um without water that that when i was close um the colorado trail when i ended up eight miles without water yeah um and then that's a lot it was a lot it felt a lot the colorado trail i ended up calling a taxi to pick me up and take me into solida and i drank the river water and slept next to a trailer in a trailer park and got yelled at in the morning like i was that level of desperation i suppose if you're that desperate just do it and because it takes a while for giardia to take hold anyways so i'd rather deal with the ramifications of giardia in three days and not die of dehydration or even just suffer for being that level of thirsty because then you can go to the hospital you get all the iv bags yada yada yada that's a later problem i mean if anyone has to choose between giardia and dying of yeah or any other reason i i doubt it'd have to be pretty severe to i don't think i've heard of anyone dying of dehydration in the context of thru-hiking are you sure if the desert and the pct we've had it's possible that people who've gone missing have died that way but i don't think i guess those are heat stroke too yeah anyways anyways so i would have an ipa if it was cold yeah um but only in but it's somewhere in the same power ranking as piss if i have other no no because let's say like i'm at a event where everyone's having some drinks and all they have are ipa's i'm not gonna just like not partake this should be a triple crown at some point maybe we've done it but give me your top two beer varieties okay i like light and fruity is usually what i'll say if i'm going to someone to order and i don't know the menu like a whip beer wheat i like wheat beers i like hefeweizens um i like i actually like like some stout importers but it has to either be cold and snowy or again the um flight scenario i also like fruity beers i'll go for a goze or sour whichever one that is but i don't i can't do a whole blind to that either just like it's sour yeah i'm a i like just classic beer i like mexican lager i like ambers ambers can be really good the few places where i've had cream ales that tends to be good steve chauncey is a cream out man yeah he um genesee cream ale okay it is all all of these carried in the house growing up what's the um the gold can shit i'm blanking on the brewery it's the every liquor store in colorado sells this it's a popular never mind i think we use banquets no uh it's mostly silver with like a gold accent i think it's a cream beer but i could be wrong anyways i'm sounding like a fucking idiot right now so the question of the day yeah question uh things that you're convinced of what are you convinced people are pretending to enjoy ipa's is a good one but we're neither of us are drafting that because that was the example given in your show notes i'm gonna go with you go first okay i've got options um oh where to start i'm gonna go with anything cold in regards to backpacking just to keep it relevant to the podcast sure for example cold soaking yeah no one likes that no one likes that you could say you like that you don't like that you could say oh my diet i don't care you don't actually like it yeah i think you're a liar yeah um cold camping for example like people that like backpack in shoulder seasons when it's really really cold and it's freezing when you get out of your tent and it's freezing when you get in your tent or you're going through snow no one actually likes that depends on the level of cold for me the the threshold is if it's painful to grab the tent poles and i guess if you're using a trekking pole tent that's less likely to be an issue because you know like cork handles or some other fabric uh material um once it's uncomfortable to grab the tent poles i guess you could just have gloves to solve that problem but that's about my threshold as long as it's not like stinging my hands to grab something whatever like the carbon fiber pole then i'm doing okay i just i can't ever enjoy getting out of a warm sleeping bag into like a freezing temperature and pretend that i'm having a good time yeah but you can just start off by wearing this is what i do is i just wear all of my clothes like i've got my down jacket on usually like rain pants or wind pants the leggings and then like i'll slowly strip as i get throughout the day so it's i do that too um i still don't like it okay fair that's fair uh because you can't cover everything like when i started the at i wore my buff around my nose because my nose was the part those are really cold mornings yeah that's like sub freezing i would agree with you that's a that's a struggle bus sort of like job of doing the winter at hike you can't pretend you're enjoying that yeah that's not fun that's not three season that's the depths of the fourth season yeah i can poke right off so that's one of mine okay uh one of mine is ipa would have been my first choice so good good job to rachel um this is coming as somebody who consumes a mass quantity of this on a daily basis coffee no that's on my list uh yeah i drink i'm up to like a half pot of coffee right now it's bad it's really bad like the first cup of coffee is just laying the foundation for the next cup of coffee doesn't actually do anything for me right but without adding like sugar and cream drinking coffee black um i've convinced myself that i like it because i am chasing the effect that it gives me but i would never drink decaf yeah i mean i would never drink black coffee um but even with the milk and sugar no one can tell you that that tastes good it's strange because i like coffee flavored things like coffee flavored ice cream is good espresso martinis are good sure i've never actually had one but sure oh my god but yeah just like straight black coffee the people that go and spend like six bucks on a really nice cup of coffee apparently starbucks certain starbucks have something called a clover machine which is like a it's a machine i think it's worth in the five figures it's very expensive and not all starbucks have this the ones that do it takes a while for this cup of coffee to be made it's more expensive than their standard cup of coffee and it's supposed to be like an exquisite cup of coffee i've had that before and it was like this is a slightly less bad thing i enjoy the effect it makes me productive puts me in a good mood wakes me up but the taste itself sucks shit i just i think there is a venn diagram to be made of the ipa enthusiasts and the black coffee enthusiasts here's question there's gonna be a lot of overlap in that venn diagram assuming calories weren't part of the equation would you be more likely to drink a non-alcoholic ipa or a decaf cup of black coffee no you had to pick let's say wait what you're you're we're in our pct hiking scenario and remove the uh temperature of the liquid that you're consuming just going purely off of a taste basis your only options are decaf coffee or alcohol free and this is black coffee yeah i yeah no i'd rather drink dirt you wouldn't do either if you're like dying i would do the ipa absolutely yeah i just black coffee i'm not doing yeah i agree with you by the way i only started drinking coffee when i started the sales job because it's just that's how you have to adapt yeah um i have a friend who works finance very owns a house owns dogs like very adult on a lot of levels but he's also viciously addicted to caffeine but doesn't drink any coffee products he just drinks like those uh what's like the trendy uh energy drink right now celsius yeah he'll drink like two of those to start the day well i'll do english breakfast tea i like english breakfast tea with cream and sugar uh milk and sugar i think that has just as much just as much caffeine yeah i was probably banging their heads on the wall i was tempted to pull out the ted lasso line and then the alarm bell went off that we had had this conversation like recently i apologize um but yeah coffee i'll have coffee in places where it's just easier to have coffee or sure like yeah i went to the mechanic today there's free cough there's free coffee in most places indoors or like at work like they'll have coffee and i don't i'm very particular about the tea like i don't want those little like peel top hazelnut vanilla french vanilla coffee creamers that you put in so if a place only has those and there's no like milk option that i can put in my tea then i'll go for the coffee because i'm not gonna have a bad cup of tea yeah yeah i'm this is coming from somebody that i even drink black coffee on a fairly regular basis because by cup two or three like i just don't want the additional cream or sugar i'm just trying to get the caffeine in my body in the least painful way possible and i don't like pills and all that stuff uh so i drink black coffee but it's gross and people like nerd out on this stuff saying that they love it and i just i don't i think they're lying i've like i could go so far as to say i've tasted black coffee i know what it tastes like i've tasted it i've had like a taste of it yeah never in my life have i ever just sat down and drank some no amount of desperation has ever gotten me there yeah uh i have a good friend who taught himself to like black coffee because he thought there would be enough circumstances in life where coffee was available but the all the accoutrements wouldn't be available so like he just wanted to be prepared prepared for such a scenario and now he only drinks black coffee but i think he's lying too yeah i think he taught himself how to lie yeah okay um what else you got on your list uh my last one because this is we're not even on the triple crown yet my last one is this will probably be less controversial quinoa why does the word sound like a word i know quinoa yes i know quinoa it's like shitty couscous yeah yeah yeah i don't know why but for some reason like the word was there and my brain wasn't connecting yeah to it i know it's supposed to be healthy like i i like quinoa do you really like kind of like pops in your mouth a bit it's kind of like bubbles yeah that's to me i like the idea of it i like it up with a fork uh i think that's part of it like when you make rice you're supposed to fluff it i don't know i've never actually made quinoa i've only had it like at the deli stand okay or when other people make it but uh pretty much every time i've had it suck shit okay um i just i think that's something salt could fix but to each their own yeah my last one is a classic for me and that's people that like working in the office prefer working in the office to working remotely i think that anyone who genuinely enjoys working in an office um might not um have other avenues of socializing outside of office like you know the people in the office where like work is life my co-workers are my family like live breathe eat office i came from startup culture which is very much that um i think they like office because without office they just like don't have connections yeah and get bored because they don't know what to do can i play devil's advocate sure i have many social options not to brag or anything uh but sometimes the path of least resistance takes over and i just don't ever utilize them where if i were forced into a social situation oftentimes i feel better it's like working out like you don't want to work out but you do you have the option to go into office when you choose to go into the office that's you free will choosing to do it that's fun i'm talking about the people that are proponents for return to office like cut work from home cut the option everyone come back in i think those are people that have been wildly lonely and haven't really done much to find a hobby there's a couple things happening here one is i think the people that run businesses uh would argue that people are more productive when i'm not talking about them they've got ulterior motives i'm talking about your co-workers okay so okay um yeah for me i think there's a ratio there's some sort of golden ratio like i think like one day in the office is the ideal thing yeah i think every day at home is bad i think every day in the office is worse i could do a tuesday and every other thursday sure one and a half days per week yeah that makes sense that would be good that's 30 work from the office right yeah and like the option to not should i get to tuesday morning and it's cold yeah uh yeah i could be on board with that anyway i think the people that are all let's go back to the office all of us come on together now i think they um maybe don't have the most fun outside of work and that's what they get jazzed about yeah i will say aside from you the only person i work with is billy we've done the show previously the trucks developer um and i like billy so this is not like a commentary on anything like that but the days that we work together which is rare probably once every other week sometimes a little bit more frequently i come home in a much better mood than me just like sitting hunched over my laptop by myself not talking to anybody for eight hours like that feels like the antithesis to what our organism needs yeah but i do think we should also put the caveat like you're the boss it's different you can wear whatever you want you don't report to anyone i'm cracking the whip i mean but billy uh works the tech for the trek as a kindness yeah he he does not need the job whatsoever his nine to five pays him handsomely um anyway um that's mine cool i like it uh let's put a loop uh a segment buffer between that and the triple crown because that was a little bit beefier than probably it was expecting i think we do that when we do early segments yeah because i think we have so much time we're not like watching the clock for seven p.m yeah right you're right about that uh i have a stupid thing of the week if you want to improv anything my stupid thing of the week is so we're potty training leo right now and to do this properly to my understanding is you want to do positive reinforcements or anytime that he goes in the potty you want to make it really exciting in addition to like screaming and clapping and dancing and like getting him really riled up uh i want to get him a treat so what do i default to other than oreos i got oreos within 24 hours i ate a third of the entire container like double stuffed like the family size thing of oreos i probably had 12 in the first 24 hours of me trying to get this as a reward for leo just my ultimate fat boy took over i i have decent self-control with a lot of things oreo might be my biggest grip tonight yeah those are hard i don't keep them in the house don't yeah i leo might never learn to go to the potty because i've eaten all of his incentive i mean i don't know if you should should you reward them with oreos when they use the bathroom i think anything this is not like i'm not going to give him oreos every time he goes to the bathroom for the rest of his life he's gonna be used to it though you're gonna be punishing him no there's a it's the most rewarding schedule for this is called an intermittent reward you've got something to say about that i but it's not yet yeah uh so the it's not effective if you give somebody a reward each time because they have diminishing uh psychological returns on that if when you do an intermittent reward schedule that's when they actually when you get the most positive affect from that tactic interesting yeah um i saw a video on social media i can't remember which social media but it was someone who made a book that came with like stickers it was like a sticker book for kids learning how to use the potty and it was like different adventures they could go on and they put a sticker every time they use the potty to like accomplish certain things sure and there was like a bunch of different tracks right it looked fun i watched this video from start to finish i know how to use the potty yeah but i was like this would be cool sounds a little bit like an advent calendar is that what it's called yeah it's like an advent calendar for shitting yeah um i thought it looked fun you should get it for him get it for him or put one in the bathroom over there sounds like i know what to get trance for christmas yeah i just want to feel rewarded i did it zaddy zaddy come see all right uh triple crown yeah we do have too much energy for the segments right now uh this is the triple crown of things that are the new black i think i pitched this as a joke not thinking that it would actually rachel hears everything yeah she does hear everything she'll read anything in the prompter um so things that are the new black the famous netflix show orange is the new black once by the time black was the black uh so things that are trendy i guess is the easy way of saying it yes where do you want to go on this because i got a lot i don't have any that i i'm pretty confident that mine are unique so if you want to go first that's good with me okay um i had to struggle to not have these all be like fashion um our prompt from rachel is a prompt from zach to rachel to prompt him first it was black then orange now it's day drinking so the day drinking means we can really go rogue here yeah so i'll skip over the drinking margaritas at 3 40 yeah well um i'll skip over the aesthetic ones to try to give some more interest um i think poop's back did poop ever leave poop had i mean if you're a girl poop leaves yeah for a while because you go through the phase of boys where they're like girls don't poop um i farted on garret's leg the other day and he panicked i was like we're still we're still no but like i was sitting on like his leg um so that part he wasn't thrilled about and i was just like we care still um but yeah you're not you're not married and doing we had we had the whole delta thing then we had the delta skit on snl the delta thing yeah the delta poop thing you're obsessed with the delta poop thing what you're not googling this you literally played the audio on the podcast delta airlines yeah i don't know why delta do you know i mean it is a greek letter of the alphabet that's if someone says delta you immediately think of the greek alphabet i was thinking like military operations like there's a lot of things that's weird um then i've been watching bachelor in paradise that was just something that came on the other day i went i got out of my bachelor phase but you're back it plays after golden bachelor so it just is this something that's also the new black or no golden bachelor could be the new the new black but in bachelor in paradise there's a girl who hasn't pooped in nine days and they give her a poop timer like a countdown she has to sunrise to poop or she has to get out and go deliver a poop baby at the hospital oh damn apparently is it just because she's not eating because the producers are pumping her full no i think something in mexico like blocked her up she's eating a lot they gave her a poo poo platter to like make a joke of it yeah um but she's all stuffed up we had they had a doctor come on to talk about like the size of poop babies they've delivered in these scenarios yeah can they just give x lax why are they making they did like it still doesn't come out they've exhausted all options anyway so that was a major plot point yeah um our book plug yeah um poop the moose poop story i sent you the other day of the girl who makes art out of moose poop don't you're spoiling a segment never all i'm saying is poop's back yeah poop is back if poop ever left it's back yeah uh so you could say that brown is the new black brown is the new black nice okay i like that very much for me poop never left but if other people are on board with it being in sign me up uh my first one is i don't even know what this is like i know what it is but i don't know anything about it i just have seen it everywhere of late that's dutch brothers yeah dutch bros i had a rep who was obsessed with them i feel like i've went my entire life without seeing one and then within the span of two weeks i saw a dozen or more they're overrated is this a new chain no there's um i think it's like a mid a southern midwest thing is my guess not upper midwest i can tell you that much well the girl that was obsessed with them was from texas okay but there was one that was in grants pass oregon there was one that was literally around the corner like i could see it from my apartment for my old place never in a million years did i think to go yeah and she googled the ones that were within like a 30 mile radius of me so that i could try it and saw that it was that close and got like offended yeah um is this better or worse than dunkin donuts and them because i know dunkin donuts obviously has like it's cult following people from the east love dunkin donuts i only had it once that was to just like make her happy um how was it what'd you get so it's a drive-through or a walk up okay it's like a little like it's a little shoe box yeah no it's a shoe box and you either walk up to it or you drive through it so the drive-through is really long and they have a lot of options is it just food or is it just drinks or do they have food i don't remember um i just remember they had a lot of options i was really overwhelmed with the choices because that made it hard for me and i panic picked something and it was absolutely fine okay um and like i don't go to dunkin donuts and think like this is great you know like i also leave dunkin donuts and i think this is absolutely fine yeah if that yeah that's a good way sometimes less than but it's a reliable donut i'll give it that i've never gone back that was like three years ago okay um yeah i think it's just one of those things that so many things touch you in your childhood it just becomes ingrained as having sentimental value don't don't don't don't that look that look okay uh nostalgia nostalgia is the new black apparently and nostalgia has always been the black but uh there's a lot of things that we could talk about uh so i'm just curious if the fascination with this place are people that grew up around it and it just reminds them of their childhood i think it's the same tim hortons crowd from a different demographic not demographic but like area right does area fall under demographic uh geography is that part of demographic yeah geography is okay yeah from a different demographic yeah it's usually not what people mean when they say demographic but tim hortons slaps let me tell you that is it good yeah tim hortons rocks they have the best do they exist outside of canada yes northern new york okay we actually couldn't have a starbucks in my college town because we had a tim hortons um apparently they have like i could not compete yeah at least that's that's like the old wives tale yeah um by tim hortons so tim hortons gets the one town in new york and starbucks gets every other corner in the world well they get all of canada right yeah yeah all 12 canadians eh um do i do too yeah i do too okay so dutch brothers is the new black because it's everywhere dutch brothers is my first one my second one is this will be kind of a um extension of our patreon conversation but this is very true for me in my world right now smash burgers not to be confused with the restaurant smash burger which is fine very fine oh you talked about smash burgers on the patreon yeah uh the the fast food restaurant smash burger is i would say good and nothing more nothing less uh but the genre of meal that is smash burgers one i feel like has skyrocketed in recent years and two i'm fully on board i'm fully on board with smash burgers it is the superior form of cheeseburg unless you're going to like a nice restaurant where you can get like a really fancy like wagyu beef all the fixings on it that sort of burger is will always have its place but just like your run-of-the-mill quick burger or even at like a decent sit-down restaurant smash burgers are the jam and i can't see myself growing tired of a smash burger i think it's here to say stay i don't i'm kind of on the fence about a burger in general then i would say you're not qualified to speak on the subject you're not a big burger person that's kind of crazy i love chick chicken burgers chick-fil-a um is good something i i like a burger i like a burger i can't finish one that's fair okay yeah i don't know how else to say it it's just a lot of a lot of that taste i think i'm speaking to burger fans i'm not trying to evangelize that people should like burgers but the people that do like burgers i implore you to give smash burgers a shot if you haven't already because they are good they're damn good you am i interrupting your tech session right now i'm texting sarah about clips she can pull from this for social before i forget yeah good um so you're on your last one yes no i've you've given you get to your last turn is what i might say um this is gonna be a left field one for me just because i'm i could do the triple crown of like aesthetic clothes clothing things i don't think this is our audience yeah um keep them in honorable mentions because i'm sure i have very important thoughts on the subject okay um my second one is going to be red zone red zone is the new black reason why is because tonight for the first time if anyone's not listening on the actual date and wants to search when we actually watched this or recorded this tonight they are doing red zone for hockey first time they've ever done it ever it's kind of a genius idea hockey fans are going wild um and by hockey fans i mean my boyfriend isn't 80 of the game by the net i don't understand no there's a lot of like i mean yeah there's no there's no red zone there's no red i don't actually know if they're calling it red zone i feel like that would it make sense um but they're doing the red zone thing where they like show split screens they show yeah like all that for hockey i'll give the context for people who are not football fans red zone is a channel which um i think it's playing off the fact that fantasy football has become so popular seven hours of commercial free football yes that and it also as the name implies when an offense is in the red zone with in the 20 yard line uh the game cuts to that and i think it just prioritizes whichever game is closest to a scoring situation yeah that's what gets precedence the way you explained it i feel like applies to the people that would already know what it is because you're using football words yeah i'm just saying the people that don't know what red zone is but they won't know like 20 yards that you know um the teams that are close to scoring points the the channel will switch to that game because yes many games are being played simultaneously a lot of a football game is going to be not scoring just setting up to get to the scoring situation this is just just airing the gate the part of the game where somebody is likely to score soon yeah it cuts the fat it cuts the downtime um it shows you when everyone's about to score there can be like four screens in one sometimes more um but hockey's never done it and so hockey today starts at four last game starts at 8 30 from what i've timed they usually run about three hours my boyfriend keeps telling me they run two hours i've learned that's not true so i from my understanding it goes from when you go 4 p.m well last time we went to a high last time we went to an abs game i got in trouble because he caught me listening to an audiobook my hair was down so he couldn't see my headphones in and then he was talking to me and i couldn't hear him he was like he pushed my hair he's like are you listening to something he picked up my phone he's like should be like i'm listening to the game honey he was like you're listening to an audiobook um i couldn't imagine a worse environment to listen to an audiobook it's a low scoring sport yeah that is true but it's high action not always not always confused yeah anyway yeah so they're doing red zone hockey for the first time tonight it's four to 11 and it's all these games that are happening overlapped split screen whatever you want to call it and it is like enough of an affair where they have been talking about it all week like garret's friends coming over they are making sloppy joes they went grocery shopping for this they first off kind of offensive get really really excited when i have the podcast because it's boy's night um usually they use the time it's been a minute since you've recorded a podcast are you sure you're not falling behind schedule well you know what's funny is when his friend like really enthusiastically tells me to have a nice time when i go like i know why you're happy he's always really in a good mood have a great time or i'll come back and you'll be like so what'd you guys talk about like this is the friend and i'm like you had a good time yeah um yeah so they're having a boy's night tonight they're absolutely thrilled they've gone grocery shopping they've been talking about it for weeks and i can only imagine they're gonna do more of these like hockey's not just gonna be like let's try this one fun christmas special let's move on right um so i see i see red zone being the new black sure as it branches into other sports my last one we're all kind of aesthetic here but i'll go for the one that makes me um happiest which is gingers i think gingers are back um not back but the new black yeah um another orange is the new black yes a different kind because first in makeup people started drawing on like little freckles over the bridge of their nose that was a trend for a while um and then there's like a strawberry type of look that people do on tiktok and that's just like a blush that goes over your nose like instead of the sides of your face goes fully over and that's just like imitating our natural complexion like there's been a lot of gingers posting like this new trend is just me waking up cultural appropriation um and i also had a friend from college post a new facebook photo um like a profile photo yesterday and she is now my hair color which i think is lovely so i think gingers are back i think they're in they're the new black people want to be us i accept sweet i wish i had any sort of evidence to say to the contrary but it sounds right yeah sounds good to me yeah it's the times of south park are long gone dark days are over gingers no more day walkers you hear that guys uh sweet that's great did i do three i don't know no you have one more you have one more which means we went out of turn that's okay no i did one you did two i did two now you get one you're right okay i'm used to going first anyways no joke there i'm gonna end this with a backpacking specific thing and i do think this is trendy might be too strong of a word but something that i've only seen recently um tell me if you've seen this tell me if you just heard this one the term the terminus photo everyone's got one right how do you celebrate when you finish it through hike i've seen a lot of terminus shoeys i did too this year yeah and i've vomited in my mouth every time guys that's that's not it is it is never not gross in any context especially long-distance backpacking but sometimes you just got to go i mean we've talked about things that i think are gross or let me say this in my thoughts as someone who got norovirus in millinocket after summoning katahdin you've still got to travel home yeah it's not it's actually i would argue one of the worst times to get sick as someone who was a dragging their hiking partner by the collar through bus depots while they were puking to only think that they got home safe and like like me getting home safe like i didn't get it i've eluded it yeah to then start like i got my flight changed from a non-major airline back to denver at no additional cost to me which never happens and it's because how sick you were i started throwing up on the phone call they were telling me they had to charge me and i was like accepting it but i couldn't push mute fast enough they felt bad enough that they waved it off like don't do a shoey at the terminus yeah sounds like a ferris bueler thing where you need like the keyboard with the sound effects next to you just to get out of something um yeah no that's really gross i hope that's not the new black though i know this is thrown around as a joke often and i don't know the validity behind it maybe it's true but does the alcohol kill any sort of bad things i think for footstuff it's more fungal versus i don't know what's happening with norovirus it's a virus obviously i the to narrow down the amount of things that you're ingesting out of that shoe is just too hard there's something to it though because like you're done you're so ecstatic i celebrated my pct through hike by jumping off of the terminus and then uh fast forward a few weeks and i tore my acl like that can't be connected i mean i'm like not the advocate for someone who doesn't do stupid shit you know like i do dumb things it just seems like after something that monumental you're willing to bite the bullet on whatever sort of ramifications come from it if i were at the terminus and everyone in my hiking party were doing a shoei i would also do are we gonna do a shoei at palooza now i fucking hope not sorry for the aggressive curse to the listener shows up with brand new shoes no this is this goes down in my like same thing i'm not eating eggs yeah um i'm not gonna do a shoei now we have to make a bet where that's part of the table for the shoei for the eggs or the shoei no i'm not and this is the eggs part again where it's like i will drink the entire shoe are you more likely to do a shoei than a raw egg i drank the whole das boot different kind of shoei but that was for the egg yeah that was to make sure that no one gave me the egg would you rather drink an entire das boot or do a shoei i dad das boot every day we're gonna go back there anyway um yeah we got it a shoei for anyone who's not familiar is where i believe you dump a full beer i don't know the quantity of alcohol yeah into your used shoe and then drinks a beer out of the shoe should that be what we do das boot for this year out of our own shoes like a shoei out of our own no no no no we do das boot as normal at that place oh but for a shoei but the person who loses das boot does a shoei now that um the meetup is in denver does open up a whole world of possibilities mara's sitting to my left hahaha drink eggs bitch i'll never forget that uh do you have any i have one honorable mention several um first one being the 90s slash 2000s aesthetic i think that's back in more than just clothing um skinny jeans are out like bell bottomy pants are back in the wide flare gene is back in i saw you wearing a wide flare pant leg skinny jeans are out i'm not gonna look like a loser um the last time i bought trendy jeans was in high school when i or maybe middle school even jinkos when your weight fluctuates you get to buy more jeans more often oh my weight fluctuates it doesn't fluctuate it would have to go in two directions for it to fluctuate but it's just going um like just everything about the 90s 2000s aesthetic is back like you get those videos of things they're posting in stores and it's just like stuff you thought would never come back but also i think this goes full circle with what i was saying before is i think it's just nostalgia no but also i think like the whole scene is coming back because think about i guess to your point a lot of people rocking the 90s stuff were not alive in the 90s or were barely alive in the 90s but for the 2000s britney's book came out today yeah in sync has not been on a major wear back thing since they had that song in the trolls movie um like everyone's waiting for them to release a concert date britney just slammed justin in her book that came out that's all over the news is there any credibility to anything that britney does nowadays yes um wasn't she just like flailing knives around her young kid yeah but as she said they were they were trick knives um kids aren't young anymore but she said a lot of stuff in this book like that she had an abortion with justin like all these things and then justin was putting out cry me a river and all this stuff i mean it's just all over my news feed right now and it's mixed with all these other things the 90s are back the 2000s are back the clothes the people we're talking about yeah all of it it's back my honorable mention is uh specifically semi corny 90s music just 90s music in general it's back yeah like spin doctors i think spin doctors is like the prototypical semi corny 90s song should we keep up with our past episodes and play a clip sure do you know spin doctors i do can you sing me a song before i play it no because i remember it being the name of something but i don't remember the song until you play it i want to hear it i want to know it when you play it yeah sure i'll sing it when you play it i know this song sing it i'm not gonna sing it i know this song i believe you what year were you born 92 let's come out what year were you born 85 yeah that's actually right uh yeah so 90s music to your point all of the 90s bands and 2000s are doing the reunion tours it doesn't really qualify for 90s but i know blinker night 2 is like a big hot ticket item yeah i saw them back when they were in their heyday they played with green day they were co-headlining a concert and green day was so much better it was it was especially bad because green day played before them and to go from green day to blinker day 2 i'm surprised that half the audience didn't leave well i was going to get myself blink tickets as a like make myself feel better for not shelling out for taylor tickets and i asked garrett if he wanted to go and he was like they suck live yeah um travis is really good travis is like one of the best drummers of all time but yeah the cohesion of the whole thing is i think let's give it cool uh nice one more segment before we get to the standards this is i actually got this from a few places but i'll give credit to awesome mcdaniel you've heard that name a lot from our patreon supporters um and should i introduce it or should i just play the audio no i think well say what the segment is called okay this is well actually before i do that so start spreading the news start spreading the news i didn't know what they said the first time you played that i just thought it was that song so now it makes sense who's saying poop there great question probably poly i have no idea yeah probably poly but i have no idea poop is back yeah so this is the second installment of poop news uh this again this is this was sent to me by a few people which means that it was it made quite the splash but here it is see this is a poo poo clock and what we did see is we took them turds and we crammed them in between the number there so that's 132 33 30 now over here we make fecal people and depending upon the shape of their middle turds right there we can do them with big boobs or guts or butts or long legs or short legs see because there's no two turds that are ever like you ever seen a turd the two turds alike no get five bucks a turd for these things so i get jumping right up and down i get excited when i see a turd instead of a cuckoo clock okay so um i i recommended this person as a guest before i yeah remember i sent it to you i was like potential guest yeah i don't know if i could get through that with the way yeah and she just says turd really aggressively yeah so we'll include the link in the show notes here but uh what she's displaying is art that she's made out of literal moose turds yes yeah so she's got a clock she's got some sort of uh this is re when i said poop is back yeah yeah poop is very much back um i won't butcher the video clip by trying to explain it other than you should watch it but yeah there are people out there with ideas and time can you just play a second of that again that was really like that was see this is a poo poo clock and what we did see is we took them turds and we crammed them in between the number there so that's 132 33 30 now over here we make fecal people i don't like it depending upon the shape of their middle turds right there we can do with big boobs or guts or butts or long legs or short legs see because there's no two turds that are ever like you ever seen a turd the two turds alike no poor guy i don't like that trapped in that lady's i feel like she's already sold me something and i haven't given her my credit card yet but she's just gonna take it yeah yeah yeah that that's somebody that that's a that's a strong pitch uh but she's making these things which makes me think that people are buying them so poop is back i mean brown is the new black you could see those going as gag gifts for people with large budgets yeah i sure hope that nobody gives me literal poop don't you this isn't us no one fucking sent us one of these for the studio i'm like you're like i have no no one give me this i'm looking around at all the things people have gotten us fortunately none of these are gag gifts like everything that we have are legitimate actual kindness yeah but uh yeah definitely don't get trance a poop gift guys i'm not gonna display a poo poo clock anywhere i've got my i've got my bird clock definitely don't send poop to trance's house okay we're all on the same page oh that would be an april fools joke if i gave your address and people just mailed you shit yeah the issue is then i gave your address i am being doxed you are a buyer not a renter though i think you could get away with it for me with minimal damage fair not that you should uh mailbag i'll do this you did the review okay dear the trek i was surprised almost astonished to learn today that zack hadn't already known about trinidad colorado trinidad colorado is the sign to all texas hikers that you finally made it out of flatland hell rattan new mexico is also an important city there are legal ramifications in every area and texas travelers who enjoy cannabis have to deal with it every single time the cops there are also apparently well aware it's time for you guys to have an episode about texans coming to colorado for our day hiking or backpacking adventures peace dr nate jones um i can't speak to zack's lack of knowledge about our country that we live in yeah but what i can speak to is us going to texas um we've tried it a couple times we want to do a road trip there if you know any texas-owned brands i was waiting for you to have fun facts about trinidad colorado oh no um this is a pitch this is absolutely a pitch you know anyone in texas who wants to send us on a road trip and send them our way yeah uh also i want to get back on the lone star trail i think that would be a fun section i've been on the lone star no i know i want to bring you back kicking and screaming our trail of the new black i think that would be a fun trail with like the normal water carry you'd have in the desert but alcohol like some water still yeah but some lone star beers i think that could be like one where you have fun with the games yeah the problem is the hiking is so boring yeah well that's where the company yeah the company makes up for it yeah it was java was too dull for that hike for sure oh the underwear that's true there was nothing too dull about that sir i want you to just clip that no let me read you one of my dms from when we last because we've got time to spare because we're doing segments early yeah um also let us know if you like these early segments better or worse um definitely clearly tell we have more time to go off the rails here um this is remember the conversation we had about the guy that wanted to be me sugar daddy yeah okay this is what he sent when we mentioned that underwear photo of me wearing that if you what was it if you like big tits what was the name of what was the underwear uh who needs an ass when you got no who needs big tits when you got an ass like this yeah exactly something like that yeah um i got a dm from him in august um hi trance i'm eternally behind on bpr but i just finished number 165 and you confirmed the existence of a photo of your post 80 dump truck ass this is relevant to my interests how much and i never did you realize you are just pouring gasoline on the fire so the next thing he said there has to be a price now the best part is this is already on the internet you gotta pull it down and then charge for it they're some of the best uh but you can't tell me that like boring hikes aren't better with games because i like that that's how we ended up back there years later and that was one game yeah uh more importantly you should drain that guy for every penny that he's worth should i send him a price yeah should i save x amount for the dump truck ass how much should i say um go 10 grand why not oh no one's gonna pay 10 grand for a photo of my ass that's on the internet covered in underwear no one's gonna pay that you gotta shoot your shot trance no i'm not saying 10 grams don't sell yourself short trance this guy seems pretty horny can you reply to a reply 10k 10k sent uh trance with the margarita is a good time let's go we just got a lot of time here my truth hurts it's time it's time and do we have 22 minutes before i guess i gotta go pick up a pizza oh yeah okay best podcast ever this is by ngtuj i love the show it's actually the only podcast i can listen to i'm not a thru hiker more of a weekend warrior but i find a lot of the information valuable and of course the show is very entertaining i mostly hike in the adirondacks new york i'm hoping maybe someday i'll have time to hike the northville placid trail until then i get to live vicariously through everyone on backpacker radio um like radical hand emoji um squiggly line the diabetic hiker 46 i like that you get very precise with the punctuation i didn't know how to describe those uh thank you to the diabetic hiker 46 we are hopeful to make it to chance's old stomping grounds sometime in 2024 i'll just leave it at that yeah read the texas part earlier but northville placid trail um we're trying our darndest yeah uh if you know anyone in the area who wants to send us there um i think it's gonna happen this year i got good vibes too it's a big year for the northville placid trail they're celebrating an anniversary yeah a milestone um and and orange is the new black so how could they not bring i think the northville placid trail could be the new black of short trails there you go there you go we're hearing it more and more yeah we didn't even know it existed three years ago i have to go to our patreon account to make sure that i'm getting everyone's name everyone's name because i learned in the most recent patreon episode that we weren't including the current list so somebody's fired okay can't be me i'll dm rachel and say hey is zach crazy yeah she'll respond with of course thank you to our chuck norris award winners on patreon that is alex admisty with navigators crafting andrew austin mcdaniel austin ford bradden blair from 13 adventures brent stemberg brian allsopp fables christopher marshburn coach for marrying outdoors dane ish derrick cook eric casper the friendly ghost erica hoffman greg mcdaniel iron hike endurance productions i think that was the one that we missed last time uh our previous time unless you said it on the patreon i think they're new yeah i'm my concern is that i don't know when he started supporting us if anyone's nick lindyming us on these mentions no i think that's what's happening is he's been supporting us for a long time and we haven't been including his name so now we have to say something very nice okay wait say it again say it three times like it's um iron hike endurance productions beetle juice beetle juice yeah juice iron hike endurance productions iron hike endurance productions wow i wonder what they what they do at iron hike endurance production what are they producing what are they producing pretty cool stuff probably go look into it a little bit i bet they produce really cool stuff let's yeah iron hike endurance productions okay what do we got here iron hike dot com uh a little google google snippet is the iron hike endurance series at mohawk mountain i hope that i'm shouting out the right thing is a single or multi-day event that is part hike part trail run part group camping trip part one of the hardest damn things you've ever done and full-on badass mountain footslog i don't know if we've ever heard footslog before uh so i hope that is relevant to it wait now we've got an iron hike endurance productions on youtube now we get to actually confirm um iron hike endurance series is that what i just shout out i don't know yeah i think we're good so shout out to iron hike endurance productions thank you for your support and sorry for the negligence liz seager matt sukup mike poiselle patrick cnciolo soir products spam timothy han so tracy trigger for some reason i don't know why i thought this but for some reason when you said liz seagull i almost said barely know her liz seagull yeah i don't know it doesn't even rhyme yeah is there a joke no i was just trying to remember all my things and for some reason there i just almost said barely know her i think now we have to incorporate liz seager you can follow us at backpacker radio on instagram and tiktok at backpacker pod on x facebook.com slash backpacker radio you can follow jaunce hi i'm on instagram at juliana underscore jaunce if you can get my book i gave her one more longest like ever family and friends on amazon yikes uh appalachian trials and pacific cross trials if you are prepping for either them trails also would be great greatly appreciative of a review okay we're not we still have a whole interview to go follow us on youtube we're doing videos subscribe and follow us on apple podcast spotify or wherever you consume podcasts and that is it for today's show thank you so much for listening and iron hiking during this podcast that's it for today's show happy hiking there's that chirping again how are you not hearing that news flash asshole i've been hearing it the entire goddamn time i've never been one that's had to choose but every time i do i find i lose i guess i'm a loser stomping ground a welcome man for the loving crowd