318 We're Spraying ROUNDUP in our National Forests?

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:01]makers of performance first ultral light gear and Jeremiah I want to ask you a question.

[00:00:05]>> Yeah, ask away.

[00:00:06]>> Would you like to be treated like a professional athlete?

[00:00:10]>> NBA playoffs going on right now. I would love to.

[00:00:14]>> Here's the deal, man. A lot of players when they sign on with a new team, what is something that they all get besides just their salary? What do they get up front?

[00:00:23]>> Get you a little bonus. Little sign on bonus. That's >> right. A signing bonus. Well, guess what? Outdoor Vitals wants to treat you like an athlete because they have decided with the Live Ultralight membership during the month of May when you sign up for $10 that usually gives you $10 of store credit. Well, this month and this month only, that gives you $20 in store credit. So, it's double the money for half the price. It's a heck of a deal. And if you're looking to get signed up to the Live Ultralite membership there with Outdoor Vitals, this is the perfect time to do it. It basically works like a savings account.

[00:00:59]The more money you put in, the more money you've got, and you get to spend that on everything that they have in their catalog at an extra discount. So, go check that out over at Outdoor Vitals today. Jeremiah, let's talk a little bit about You got a trip coming up on Friday.

[00:01:15]>> Yeah, I'm actually I'm planning on taking the uh Carbon, their shadow light, the like the upgraded shadow light basically outdoor vitals. Uh, we'll put a link in the description if y'all want to check any of this out. Um, Outdoor Vinyls makes all kinds of backpacking gear. And I'm pretty sure the last trip I was going on, it was colder weather, but I still wanted to take a cooler.

[00:01:37]And dude, I brought my zero degree stuff. I just couldn't squeeze it all into the car. It's a big backpack. It's 60 liter. I think it's 49 internal and then you get the rest on the outside pockets and stuff. But, uh, [laughter] taking a cooler with you, backpacking. I don't know if I could really call it backpacking, but um, this trip I'm going with Mr. Backpacking with Jason, sir, and I'm planning on taking it out with me. And, uh, hopefully next week I can give you a full report.

[00:02:03]>> Oh, I can't wait to hear, man. I can't wait to hear. I'm actually planning a week of backpacking in June.

[00:02:10]>> So, >> all right.

[00:02:11]>> I'll be backpacking Sunday, Sunday night to Monday with uh with DMS Adventures.

[00:02:18]We're going to be backpacking in the Red River Gorge. Uh he's coming up and doing that part of his 10 states in 10 days and 10 miles in each state. That's going to be happening. Uh and I'm looking forward to doing that. And then coming home, getting everything cleaned up, getting the smell off of me, jumping back in the vehicle Tuesday morning, and a bunch of us are heading down to Tennessee and we're going to be backpacking for another four days down there. So, >> kind of excited. It's going to be a a good five day week for me for backpacking.

[00:02:45]>> That'll be awesome, dude. And I'm sure you'll have a lot of great stories to share from that.

[00:02:49]>> I am curious on the Tennessee situation.

[00:02:52]Are y'all hitting up some state park?

[00:02:53]You don't have to say exactly where you're going if you don't want to, but y'all hitting up some state parks? You going to wilderness area? Is it somewhere you've been before? We're going to hit a fairly popular trail.

[00:03:05]I don't know if we've actually talked about it here or not, but we're going to hit up a fairly popular trail, so it should be pretty cool. Hey, uh, real quick, I need to to say something. Uh, Derwin Off the Rails just said, "Hi, J&J. Here's your mic money. Hope all is well. $5 and and Jeremiah, we need to say a little something to uh our good friend Derwin Off the Rails, the uh the alter ego of Darwin on the Trail. Will you uh share with everybody the important occasion?

[00:03:30]>> Yes. I want to say a happy belated birthday to Derwin. I miss you, buddy.

[00:03:35]Thinking of you. Um his birthday was on Monday, so we didn't have a show that day. Of course, I didn't get a chance and didn't get to tell you last week.

[00:03:43]So, I hope you had a great time. got to spend some good time with the family and I can't wait to go backpacking with you again, my friend. Happy belated to you.

[00:03:51]>> Yeah, happy birthday, man. Can't wait to see you again in the future. I can't I think the last time I saw you was uh the uh backpacker meetup at the River Gorge a while back. So, >> it's been a hot minute and I do I feel a little bit guilty taking his money for his for his birthday. I feel like we're in a reverse here. But, uh I do appreciate it. We've almost recouped the loss from the uh the soundboard that John has, but uh it's given John some new toys to play with. He's having fun.

[00:04:20]We're doing well.

[00:04:25][laughter] Are we having a national emergency?

[00:04:27]What's going on here?

[00:04:28]>> I have I we just discovered this five minutes before this podcast came on, which is why we started about a minute late >> because I found out I have a sensor button now. [laughter] Yeah, you're going to be on there bleeping me.

[00:04:42]>> What was that, Jeremiah?

[00:04:44]>> You know who you need that for.

[00:04:46]>> Oh my gosh, I'm being censored. Double censored here. Kyle hates hiking.

[00:04:51]Remember the episode, the first episode that we done with?

[00:04:54]>> Yeah, because for those that are new to the show, we're pretty family friendly here. And uh Kyle, he's a loose cannon on his channel. He uh [laughter] he doesn't care. He's going all out. And we had a good time. But I did have to I didn't have a bleak button at the time, so I had to go back and take out some wordy derds. Uh so you can listen with your kids. But >> yeah, >> John's got the bleak button. I guess uh >> I'm sorry. What was that?

[00:05:20]>> We can invite Kyle back on now.

[00:05:22][laughter] >> If we could only have a 4 second delay like they do on like live broadcast, that would be great.

[00:05:28]>> Yeah. Yeah. Drop that. Somebody drop that. You got to drop it from the show, man. Got the delay. [laughter] [gasps] So, okay, Jeremiah, let's let's talk a little bit. There's a there's something you po you you sent to me >> and I want you to explain it.

[00:05:42]>> Um, I'm just going to read to everybody because well, people don't maybe people already know this, but >> every week Jeremiah sends me a list of stuff he wants to talk about >> and and so uh we go through the list. We decide what we're going to talk about.

[00:05:54]I'll add something, whatever. But uh today he he sends me this thing and it says forest service and timber companies spraying glyophate or glyphosate or Roundup. Um it says 10,000 10,000 acres in 2026 national forest crews hike burn areas with backpack sprayers. Target shrubs, broadleaf plants, spare conifer seeding, uh faster replanting and costefficient. But there's a problem with them using Roundup.

[00:06:28]>> Yeah, I I'll give you a little bit more insight here on the Roundup, John. Um, one of my buddies, I was using Roundup because we do landscaping outside the house. So, I redone all the landscaping and put down, you know, the black tarp material that you put down. So, you don't want weeds to grow up. So, it's supposed to block them out. And then after [clears throat] a while, it either stops working or there's enough plant material, I guess, that's dead that the weeds can grow in your rocks or whatever your landscaping is. So, what do you do?

[00:07:00]You spray Roundup on it. And one of my buddies is like, "Dude, are you using Roundup?" He's like, "That stuff, if it'll kill the weeds, it can kill you."

[00:07:08]And I was like, "Yeah, technically, I guess if I were to drink this Roundup, it probably would poison me." But, uh, I looked into it a little further and >> there's active lawsuits going on against Roundup right now, >> dude. It's So, the chemical is glyphosate and they call it Roundup is like the u, you know, just what you buy at Lowe's or whatever. And it is a weed killer, but it's my understanding that we've genetically modified food basically so that it doesn't die when you spray Roundup on it. And so after doing some digging, I was like, "Okay."

[00:07:43]So we're treating all of our crops, our monocrop agriculture that we're doing, thousands and thousands of acres in the US. We're spraying Roundup on it. And they've modified it where Roundup kills literally everything in these rows of corn except for the corn. And I I think they do it for soybeans. Um what's our other big crops here in the US? Corn, soybeans, wheat.

[00:08:05]>> Um I don't know if they do it. Y'all can Google it and let me know in the chat if you want. I don't know if they do it for weed as well, but I would assume so. I assume that um it's making our water really dirty, right? It's it's hurting the water tables. And so when I saw the headline of them using it in the national forest, I was like, >> "This is throwing up some red flags. I got to look a little further into this."

[00:08:26]>> You know, I'm already scared about buying the non-organic food, even though they're probably using glyphosate on it, too. Uh >> well, and for people who don't know, >> Jeremiah loves a rabbit trail.

[00:08:41]>> He loves him some good controversy. He may not be the controversial one talking on this podcast, but he loves him some controversy. And so, I'm not surprised that you had to look at more into this.

[00:08:51]>> Well, it's it's scary not only because of the food, like, [clears throat] excuse me, David Cooper's commenting in the chat that food modifi food modification is scary stuff. And it truly is. And I guess they've had to do it that way so that we can produce enough food to feed these cows, to feed these people. But um I just don't know about putting it in the national forest.

[00:09:14]So as I looked into it, here's what I found. Um they're using it. When I say they, I mean the national for the US Forest Service and I believe they're partnering with somebody else. Yeah.

[00:09:25]Timber companies. So, these burn areas that happen, these large areas of wildfires in our national forest, um they want them to be replanted, but for anybody that's taken like high school um science class, you know that plants need the sun to grow. They use photosynthesis.

[00:09:46]And whenever the sun is being blocked, those plants can't grow. So that's why you you know you might get a big tree that grows and it kills out smaller things under it because they're not getting the sunlight that they need to produce the uh the sugar or whatever their form of sugar is that the plants are consuming. So they're using the Roundup to kill stuff except for the coniferous seeding. So they're replanting the forest with uh coniferous plants. Hopefully I'm saying that right.

[00:10:17]stuff that grows cones and that's going to spring up and grow quickly and regrow the forest. My problem is is that I just don't know.

[00:10:27]I don't know about spraying weed killer through tens of thousands of acres of forest to kill out stuff so that your trees grow faster. I get that it blocks the sunlight when the other stuff's growing and they're competing, but I don't know. How do you feel about it? I know people in the comments are chatting about the glyphosate. Well, according to K. Fuller, glyphosate is a broadspectctrum systematic herbicide and crop desicant. It is an organis right compound specifically a phosphonate which acts by inhibiting the plant enzyme 5.

[00:11:01]I don't know what that means and part of me thinks he looked that up on chat but I don't know what that means. What I do know is what JFlow here said, which is uh glyophate Roundup has been proven to cause cancer and birth effects. Um so that is uh that is concerning. That that to me is more concerning than anything else because there's wildlife in those woods and if those wildlife if it doesn't kill the plant right away and wildlife eats from those plants, what's it going to do to wildlife?

[00:11:33]>> I think it's going to poison them.

[00:11:34]>> I think it is too. I think we're going to have some really weird things going on with animals and I think it's it's inherently dangerous. Um, as someone who likes to hunt, I don't want animals to die horrible, slow, painful deaths.

[00:11:50]Um, anybody who hunts knows when you hunt, you want the you want a good shot so the animal dies quickly so it doesn't suffer. Um, you don't want animals living miserable existences, dealing with disease or whatever because they've ate plants that had some form of Roundup on them.

[00:12:10]>> I think that we might have talked a little bit about this before, but um it's my understanding that they're big farm, not big farmer, but imagine similar, but farms. big farm, it's not in their best interest to keep using glyphosate and keep doing this monocrop agriculture. I mean, in the short term, it is because you're making good quarterly earnings, but in the long term, you're really depleting the soil of nitrogen. Um, and it needs it needs I I think that we're having to add extra just to fertilize the ground in order to grow these crops, but >> it's it's poisoning your water table. So what what some farms are trying to switch to is using technology instead.

[00:12:57]Instead of doing chemicals, they're doing a fleet of drones that zap the plants with a laser, and that's what kills them. So there's no chemicals involved.

[00:13:07]>> Interesting.

[00:13:08]>> Yeah. I don't know how powerful the laser has to be if we just want rogue uh [laughter] I mean, we don't want rogue rogue laser uh drones flying around out there in civilian life. So I don't know about that. Also, I Googled the coniferous plants.

[00:13:26]>> Yes.

[00:13:27]>> And I could be totally wrong, like I say, on here all the time. Um, I'm here for your entertaining pleasure, but >> you are entertaining.

[00:13:35]>> Well, thank you, John. Hopefully some people think so. Conniferous plants are woody conebearing trees and shrubs belonging to the vi the division pinoata.

[00:13:48]Maybe they're predominantly evergreen with needle-ike or scale scale-like leaves.

[00:13:54]>> Interesting.

[00:13:55]>> Yeah. So, I I think I'm speaking right on this on saying the the seeding that they're doing, you know, they're wanting it to grow quickly, but they don't want it to compete with uh the other plants around there. So, >> yeah, >> I don't know. I I still don't know how to feel about it, but I do think that there's got to be some negative side effects to spraying glyphosate in the national forest, just like there's negative side effects of spraying on your crops. So, >> yeah.

[00:14:24]>> Uh, give another prop. Give some more props out to Derwin Off the Rails. Math Whiz teacher laying down some science knowledge. Preach, teach. Love it.

[00:14:35]>> I dude, I love love love science, dude, because math is the language of science.

[00:14:40]So, >> um, last night I was laying in bed and I put my AirPod in. I can only do one cuz I'm a side sleeper. So, if I lay on top of the other one, it hurts my ear.

[00:14:51]>> So, I'm laying there and uh I was listening to this YouTube video of what happens whenever black holes collide.

[00:15:02]And he's talking for like an hour straight about space and time and the rips and the math involved and the physics. And I had to switch, dude. I had to switch. I couldn't fall asleep because you're going to find this surprising. Maybe not. I was so interested in the math. I was paying attention to the video. You know, you got to pay you got to play the perfect balance. We talked about this before. If you're trying to listen to something to fall asleep to, it's got to be interesting enough that you want to hear it, but boring enough that you'll fall asleep. Yeah. And uh it was out of balance last night. I got to say, John, I was slightly disappointed in myself that I was interesting in the math for this space-time rip and I couldn't fall asleep because I was falling along. Ah, self-d disappointment. Yeah. Well, I'm this whole thing we're talking about, I'm hearing phrases I've never heard before. I want to pull up something somebody mentioned just a second ago.

[00:15:52]Let me see if I can find it real quick.

[00:15:55]It was uh where was it?

[00:16:00]Oh, come on. Here it is right here. It says, uh, this is from, uh, go east hiking. Monoculture forests are not healthy. And I was like, what the heck is that? So, I looked it up and that's basically a plantation consisting of a single tree species, often planted in uniform rows and of the same age, primarily for efficient timber, pulp, or rubber production. While they can facilitate fast carbon sequestration, these green deserts are criticized for low biodiversity, high vulnerability to pests, diseases, and fires, and negative impacts on local soil and water resources.

[00:16:37]>> Well, that totally checks out. And that that adds a clue to the timber companies helping along. They're like, "Yeah, let's grow this as quick as possible so that we can cut it and make some money off of it." Yeah. Yeah. while killing the biodiversity and causing more pests and other problems in the forest. So, >> so great is >> you're saying that we're slowly figuring out probably what half of our audience maybe already knew putting the pieces together, but it takes me a minute to put the pieces together, John, so stay patient.

[00:17:09]>> Well, listen, I didn't even know we were using Roundup International Forest until you sent that to me. So, you know, there's there's that.

[00:17:15]>> Well, we're here to inform and entertain. Oh, by the way, my goldfish drowns poop.

[00:17:23]It's poop time. They are actively pooping right now while listening to it.

[00:17:27]Just wanted everybody to know.

[00:17:30]Everybody live trigger a movement in your life.

[00:17:34]>> Bringing up poop early in the show.

[00:17:36]Shout out goldfish.

[00:17:37]>> Yeah.

[00:17:40]>> Six to seven.

[00:17:41]>> That all that all checks out, John. Um, and I got to say, in the grand scheme of things, probably won't matter. In uh, according to these videos that I'm falling asleep to every night, the Earth is like 9 billion years old. And, uh, it doesn't really care what we do to it in a billion years. If the Earth still exists and hasn't been destroyed by something, um, it is going to, we'll probably all be dead.

[00:18:06]>> You believe it's nine billion years old?

[00:18:08]Yes, you're right.

[00:18:08]>> Yeah, I have no idea. I know it bores me to sleep. So, uh that's a good thing.

[00:18:13]>> Uh I just agree with Jay Flo. Bioddome movie with Poly Shore was very funny.

[00:18:20]>> You know, I do like seeing the uh the little diagrams that show the biodiversity. Like I was looking at Facebook the other day and it's like a tree that falls in the forest. You know, six months from now, these are the stuff living in it. But it goes stage by stage and then 5 years later it's rotting into the ground and there's all kinds of plants and animals that are utilizing as a resource. So nature knows best. Who are we to uh intervene? But >> yeah, >> we're gonna have >> idea of spraying chemicals like that in the forest just kind of sits really poorly with me.

[00:18:55]>> I agree. I agree. All right, what else we got, John? Well, Garmin just released the brand new InReach Mini3, or else they released it a while back and we're just behind. Um, same messaging system, SOS, GPS, better battery life, uh, improved ease of use with the app, satellite acquisition interface, and they're coming in at uh $4.99 3 plus, which includes voice and pick messages, >> and the regular is only $4.49.

[00:19:27]Did you know about the picture? I mean, we are a little bit behind on them releasing this. It was like at the end of last year, I think, but or maybe January of this year. But did you know about um being able to send and receive picture messages?

[00:19:44]>> No, this is the first I I honestly I use the uh Zolio and I've been using it now for seven years and it still works just as well as it did day one. So, I've had no reason to switch anything. So, >> well, Elon Musk has been claiming for the past 10 years that we are six months away from having Starlink all over the world and I can send messages anytime I want and get on the internet. I guess we're still six months away from that.

[00:20:11]But, uh, I don't think it's worth me. It's not worth it to me since I already have an InReach Mini. Not even the InReach Mini 2, I don't think. I think it's just the old regular mini in Reach. I'll tell you, I do like the touchscreen though.

[00:20:27]>> Yeah, I read on there that it is the user interface is better and the touchcreen that is an upgrade because those little buttons on the side that's like you remember remember whenever you had the old phones and you had to click like if you wanted to put C you had to click two multiple times.

[00:20:42]>> Yeah. So, uh that is an upgrade and I'd love to be able to send and receive the picture messages.

[00:20:48]>> I'm afraid honestly if I change anything my price is going to go up. I think I'm grandfathered in under their old contract that uh this is how much it cost until I change it. Yeah. So, I pay 25 a month and uh it gets you whatever whatever package that is or whatever it was five years ago whenever I started paying it. Um so, I don't know. I'm a little bit afraid that if I change it, it's kind of like what when you have um a certain TV or internet provider or phone provider and you're like, "Yeah, let me change this." And you're like, "Well, actually, you had a promotion and if you change it, we're going to triple the price, so you're going to have to use this technology from 2007." And you're just like, "Uh, yes, thanks. I'll I'll just keep this old technology."

[00:21:38]>> Yeah. I mean, if it works well, why why change it? Okay, let's look at their subscription plan since we're sitting here talking about it.

[00:21:44]>> Yeah, why not? Let's tell everybody how much it cost. It's $400 or $500 if you want the device. I know iPhone's gotten better at the satellite, you know, being able to text while you're in the woods.

[00:21:55]Um I never do use it. I always take my Garmin.

[00:21:58]>> So now, uh is it the InReach Flex team plans? Is that what it is? Or is it InReach consumer plans? That's what it is.

[00:22:07]>> All right. Inreach pres uh the InReach consumer plans. The first one is $7.99 a month.

[00:22:14]that is enabled which means uh >> what do you get this uh you activate your inreach subscription to stay in touch with friends and family beyond the limits of cellular networks in an emergency you can trigger an interactive SOS um all plans include SOS messaging other accessible features will vary by device um let's see here we go the uh the different plans you okay you've got your enabled plan which is $799 your essential plan which is $14.99 the standard which is 30 and the premium which is uh $49.99. And the difference is here's the differences with all the plans except for the enabled plan which is the cheapest. You have unlimited satellite check-in messages and reactions.

[00:22:56]>> Is that like the pre-programmed messages? You click on the device, you're like, "Hey, I've reached camp."

[00:23:00]Or whatever you have it programmed ahead of time.

[00:23:02]>> Yeah. Just so people know you're alive.

[00:23:03]>> So, those are freebies.

[00:23:05]>> Those are freebies. Uh satellite texts, you get 50 with the essential plan, 150 with the standard plan. Unlimited with the premium, and enabled gives you uh it cost you 50 cents each.

[00:23:18]>> Yeah, that's the good old days when you had to pay 10 cent a text message.

[00:23:21]>> Yeah. Yeah. And then you've got photo and voice messages. Uh you get 10 photo and voice messages a month with the essential plan, 25 with the standard, 50 with the premium, and then you pay a dollar a message with the enabled.

[00:23:36]Man, Garmin has it such figured out because I would just deactivate it and then like let's say that you go on two trips a year, right? And you don't really use the Garmin. I I had the unlimited because I was taking it on motorcycle rides and then I was going backpack especially in like summer break. I was going twice a week. So I was like I'm using this thing all the time. I was travel I was flying to different places backpacking and then I found out it cost 40 bucks to reactivate it if you like cancel the plan because >> if you're only going a couple times a year it might be more economical to literally just be like well the week before I go I'm going to pay the activation and the monthly fee and then I'll cancel it when I get back. But I don't seem too economical now.

[00:24:20]>> Yeah. Well, they're saying uh the activation fee is $39.99 like you said.

[00:24:26]Uh then you've got overage charges.

[00:24:30]>> What do you mean?

[00:24:31]>> So messages and weather requests. If you go over your allotment, it's 50 cents each >> on all of them except for the unlimited because there is no overage there.

[00:24:40]>> They get you on that.

[00:24:42]>> Yeah. And then you've got the satellite photo and voice messages. Um a dollar each until Yeah, it's a dollar each for all of them because none of them are unlimited on that one.

[00:24:53]Um, and then LTE is is uh on every single one of them. So if you happen to have LTE, I guess you can use that instead. It's un if you use LTE and you can pick up LTE service. Everything's free.

[00:25:09]>> Says text messages, voice messages, voice calling, and live track location sharing. All four of those are free.

[00:25:14]>> Yeah, but it says only >> it's only for their watches.

[00:25:20]>> Oh, yeah, it is. You're right. And I'm still mad about the watch, dude. That the the sapphire that I had, I think it lasted me two and a half years, which sounds like a long time, too. You're like, "It's a $700 watch."

[00:25:32]>> Yeah.

[00:25:33]>> Let me see how much they are.

[00:25:34]>> Hey, I want to say something real quick.

[00:25:35]Uh go uh My Goldfish drown asked, "Are we going to start a GoFundMe for Suge? I feel like we're we should help him."

[00:25:40]There is a GoFundMe for Suge. Um I am not sure what the link is off the top of my head, but his daughter had already started one. So, there is one. If you go out there and look for it, you should be able to find it. I think actually when he announced that he had cancer, uh, he put a link to it in his video. So, if you guys want to go find that, you can get that link and, uh, you can help Suge out. Just wanted to throw that out there because I saw the message.

[00:26:04]For those who don't know who Suge is, by the way, if you're listening, you're going, "Who the heck is Suge?" Uh, Suge Emory uh is a legend in backpacking when it comes to hammock backpacking. And, uh, he's just the man. Uh he's done everything in in this life. He was a professional clown, traveled with Ringling Brothers and Barnaman Bailey Circus. Uh grew up overseas. Uh incredible man. And this past year he has he has cancer and uh it's a blood cancer. It's pretty pretty rare and pretty brutal. Um he's got high hopes that he's going to be fine and we're praying that he is. But, uh, if you want to help him out, definitely go over and, uh, check out his channel and and do that. So, he's awesome.

[00:26:48]>> Yeah. Legendary hammocker.

[00:26:50]>> Absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:26:52]>> Um, okay. To wrap up on this Garmin situation here, John, I did look up the watch. They're now 800 for the I think I had the six and it was like 650 I paid for it, >> plus tax, of course. And if you want to get the uh ammo ammo LED, they're 1,200. Or if you want the 51 millimeter, 1300.

[00:27:18]Or if you want the micro LED, $1,700, bro. Dude, they've got something that's more expensive than Apple.

[00:27:27]>> Isn't that insane?

[00:27:28]>> Think about that. It's more expensive than Apple. Well, if that's if you're really deep in it, then I get it. Like if you're using that as a dive watch or something, but >> 51 millimeters, dude, what size watch do you wear? Are you a daily watch wearer?

[00:27:42]Are you an Apple Watch guy?

[00:27:45]>> Apple.

[00:27:45]>> I got my Apple Watch Ultra. Yeah.

[00:27:47]>> Yeah. So, what size is that?

[00:27:48]>> I have No, I have a um Apple Watch that I use for when I'm backpacking and stuff, but this is my my everyday.

[00:27:56]>> Okay. Is that a 38?

[00:27:58]>> No, no, no, no.

[00:27:59]>> 42. It's bigger than that. The ultras are a little bit bigger. I think it's 46 or 48 or something like that.

[00:28:05]>> Okay. I do a like a 42 and I feel like like I have big hands, you know, I can grip a basketball. I'm a tall guy. I'm 6'4.

[00:28:14]>> But a 51 millimeter. I don't know if that is a flex or if that would just look really large on my Maybe I have just little wimpy wimpy illy little wimpy wrist. Maybe that's my issue.

[00:28:27]>> You're a big boy. I wouldn't say you have wimpy wrists. Little the Phoenix 8 Pro is like $2,100 according to Chicken Little Trex. Although he lives in Canada, so like a Isn't a like a loaf of bread like 2,600 bucks?

[00:28:40]>> No, he doesn't live in Canada. He lives in >> Was it? No, that's right. He lives That's right.

[00:28:45]>> I don't care.

[00:28:45]>> Salmon Outdoors. That's who. Salmon's from from Canada. Chicken Little's from down here in the States.

[00:28:51]>> Yeah, I think he Tennessee. I have to text him. I can't remember.

[00:28:55]Yeah, he drove up and met us at um well, whenever I had the the stomach bug and all the diarrhea and stuff I got to spend, but that's who surprised me with the coffee that you chastised me for drinking with the uh the bubble guts.

[00:29:09]You're like McDonald's coffee with a McDonald's um biscuits and gravy. That was those were the worst combo choices you could have had for terrible, man.

[00:29:19]Oh, and Chicken Little TX is from Alabama, by the way.

[00:29:21]>> Alabama. Okay, >> Alabama. Somebody was somebody's making a comment about uh stuff that you hear Suge say. These are the two things that Suge is known for.

[00:29:30]>> Buddy and >> it's all secure in sector 7.

[00:29:34]>> He has been a part of our podcast for a very very long time. We love Suge.

[00:29:38]>> Yeah, we do love Suge. You want to talk about this uh bear attack?

[00:29:43]>> Yeah, man. Uh apparently um May 4th, 2026, there was a uh a grizzly bear attack on the Mystic Falls trail. near Old Faithful and two hikers. It was a non they were non-fatal inj injuries. Um and the last fatality was in 2015.

[00:30:00]Um Jeremiah, how likely are you to have a grizzly bear attack in Yellowstone?

[00:30:06]>> Well, the like you said, the last one being in 2015, the chances are low. And actually, we haven't confirmed that this is a grizzly.

[00:30:14]>> Okay.

[00:30:14]>> Um and by the way, how dare that grizzly attack on Star Wars day.

[00:30:19]>> I know, man. If anything, they should be like making Chewbacca noises or something.

[00:30:25]>> Yeah, the the gall on this Grizzly.

[00:30:29]>> David Cooper. David Cooper, you're going to get on the you're gonna get on the red list, dude. They must have been in a hammock. They were hiking.

[00:30:37]>> David Cooper, they were hiking. And this is actually a sad story, not to bring down the mood. Um, I am making light of it by making jokes, but honestly, it was like um it was a grown man and I saw I looked into it more and watched some news clips and stuff and um there was like a local news network that covered it and they interviewed the guy that found the victims and one of the victims was a grown man and this guy that found him followed the bear tracks. They showed a video of the tracks and it was giant grizzly bear pop prince or allegedly grizzly and he followed the tracks and found a bloody hat.

[00:31:19]>> I'm reading it right now. Yeah.

[00:31:21]>> And then he he kept going and he could hear the guy screaming for help and the guy's face is like half torn off. Um I can't believe he didn't die and he he was all messed up and had his 14year-old brother is what the news channel said. I don't know how true that is, but 14year-old brother with him that also got attacked. I don't know how bad the injuries were for the kid, but uh that's rough, man. Uh chances are low. And I I don't know. Some people are saying that it's because the bears were hibernating and they're hungry and they're waking up. I don't know how much stock I put into that. I I thought it was kind of an urban myth that bears really like crawl into a cave for six months and hibernate. It's more of like uh we don't eat as much during this period of time.

[00:32:05]>> Yeah. Um there's something I've learned though about uh about bears in general.

[00:32:14]>> Typically, if you're in groups of three or more, they tend to just stay away.

[00:32:19]>> That is one of the number one things you can do to like avoid bear attacks is to travel in a group. But this guy went by himself. I mean, he had he had another person, but like you said, that's not a group of three.

[00:32:29]>> Yeah. and and it just seems like when you're in groups of three, um they just stay away because they hear all the different voices and it it doesn't sound like something they want to have to deal with.

[00:32:42]Did you read um specifically anything about the trail? Well, I know it's a it's a semi- busy trail, Mystic Falls, but I don't I wonder how much foot traffic there would be on there because you'd think that uh if there's a lot of people using that trail, wouldn't be a whole lot of bear activity.

[00:33:03]Yeah. I don't know, man. I don't know.

[00:33:06]Says 4 million visitors a year in Yellowstone.

[00:33:10]Yeah. So, I mean, you would think with all that traffic that wouldn't happen, which makes me wonder. I guess he said he saw bare tracks, though, didn't he?

[00:33:18]>> The the guy that found the victim said he saw the bear tracks, but not the actual victims. I think it just run up on them. Just caught them out of nowhere.

[00:33:26]>> One or more bears, so there's probably a chance that they walked up on some babies and mama freaked out.

[00:33:33]>> That could be. Um you let me give you the four things that you can do to try to help protect yourself from a bear attack. So you you really want to be preventative like John said um and travel in a group um three or more people but also make noise like I remember I first started getting into the YouTube hiking and we talked to Dixie last week. Great episode by the way. If you haven't checked it out, go back and check out last week's episode.

[00:34:03]Um, but I remember her like clacking her trekking poles together and like literally yelling, "Hey Bear," as she was hiking along the AT by herself. Um, so making noise loud, calling out whenever you're going around corners and that kind of thing.

[00:34:18]Um, here's another thing you can do.

[00:34:20]Bear spray.

[00:34:22]I remember one of my buddies when I first started hiking loan me a tent and he was telling me about a trip that he took out west and uh he didn't have a firearm with him and they could not believe the whenever he was getting his uh his permits and all that he had flown out there didn't want to fly with a a handgun so they had basically lent him one they were like you leave your driver's license with us and we'll give you this gun and then you bring it back to us. So, and he did it and they said you could get attacked by a mountain line out here.

[00:34:53]>> Yeah. So, >> I thought you can't talk to Dixie. She saw a mountain line out west.

[00:34:59]>> Yes. And this, you know, Yellowstone it bear spray is where I would go to. But my main issue with that is you have to buy it when you get there. You, you know, like I assume that a lot of people that use bear spray, they have the same bear spray and you just keep it at your house until it expires. It's like you take it on a trip and you bring it back home. Like you almost never use it.

[00:35:20]>> Well, the hope is you never use it.

[00:35:22]>> Yes. And by the way, I I found mine um it was over here in my storage stuff and I checked and it had expired and so I went out and tried to spray it and it it was like when I say wimpy, there's a reason why it's expired. I don't know if there's O-rings in there that wear out or something that causes it to lose pressure or what, but bear spray. And then the last thing, situational awareness is better than your gear. And nothing's going to protect you fully.

[00:35:49]Even like if you had a handgun, you know, a bear, I'd say you can empty a full clip into its belly and it's going to still come at you.

[00:35:57]>> If it wanted to, you know, a grizzly >> that wants to eat you.

[00:36:01]>> Just always remember that animals in the woods are wild.

[00:36:06]>> Yeah.

[00:36:06]>> They don't have any love for you. They don't trust you. Um, it drives me nuts when you go down to uh you go down to Tennessee and you see people trying to get as close to bears as they can and take pictures of them. And it's just it's just absolutely the dumbest thing you can do. These these are wild animals. They don't trust you. Some of them see you as potential food. Just stay away from them, you know? Just stay away. Uh, UQ Outdoors in here. What's up, Chad? Good to see you, buddy. Also, Killquest was in here. I saw just a little bit ago. Wood All Trails has gotten into the game. Uh Brian Windburn just showed up. We got Man, there's a lot of people in here today. It's good to see everybody. Um Jeremiah, um I'm going to give some homework for everybody for next week. All right, I don't want to talk about it today, but Backpacker Magazine came up with a very controversial article, and it's called, "It's time to face it.

[00:37:04]There's privilege in thru-hiking."

[00:37:07]>> Okay.

[00:37:09]I want everybody who's listening or watching right now, go read this article. And I'm really interested to see the comments next week on this one because I think there's already one backpacker on Facebook who has given his opinion on it and it was it was pretty impressive. Um, so just everybody go read this article.

[00:37:31]You can go to backpacker.com and and it's it's on there, but it's literally called it's time to face it. There's privilege in throughhiking and uh I'm just curious what everybody thinks.

[00:37:44]I'm just gonna leave it at that.

[00:37:45]Jeremiah, >> I haven't read it yet. I'm excited to read it. Uh definitely my opinion. I've got one, but I'm not going to give it right now.

[00:37:52]>> Whoever was the editor that came up with that uh title that >> uh it looks like Maggie Slepian is the one who uh who wrote it. Well, shout out Maggie because uh that was very that's very clickable if I do say so myself.

[00:38:06]>> Yep. Yeah, I'm excited.

[00:38:08]>> I'm really I'm really interested to uh to hear people's thoughts and opinions on that one. So, okay, Jeremiah, >> can I ask you about the coyote real quick?

[00:38:18]>> I was actually going there just now. You you sent me something about a coyote swimming two miles to Alcatraz.

[00:38:24]>> Yeah, dude. So, Alcatraz, it's this island prison, right? San Francisco, they built this island prison >> and uh they done it so that if you tried to escape, there's nowhere to go. I think there's like allegedly one guy that may have escaped and swam the channel to get back over to the mainland. But if you've seen any of the documentaries about this place, that water does not look swimmable. Like it's super cold.

[00:38:54]>> Oh yeah.

[00:38:55]>> You think about um that'd be Pacific Ocean, right? So the way that the >> think of just think of San Francisco right now.

[00:39:03]>> Yeah. Imagine what's in that water.

[00:39:05]>> Yeah. Not good. Come on now.

[00:39:08]>> And you think about the ocean currents.

[00:39:10]So that the the way that they're coming, they're going up the Asian coast and then coming in the northern hemisphere and then coming up through around the Arctic area and then going down the west coast of the US. So you get cold water, right? That's why you got to wear a wet suit to, you know, to swim or uh surf up there, >> right?

[00:39:30]>> So, San Francisco, cold, water's rushing. Apparently, there's a coyote that swam the two miles over to the island. Now, nobody can say for sure, uh, but the people that study coyotes, they think that the most logical reason why the coyote swam there was it was competition for territory. and the coyote wasn't cutting it on the mainland. I don't know how it would have even known that there was an island out there. I guess maybe their eyesight's good enough that they could see it, but I would assume not. I didn't think dogs could see that well. I thought it was more of a nose thing >> and swam all the way over there. Here's the kicker.

[00:40:12]>> They were surprised uh and then it left and they did not see it anywhere else.

[00:40:17]So, what do you think? Did it uh sadly not be able to make the swim back or do you live in the the happy land?

[00:40:26]>> I think it just stayed over at Alcatra was like, I'm not doing that again.

[00:40:29][laughter] >> Well, I think the island's small enough that they know it's not there anymore, >> man.

[00:40:34]>> It had to go somewhere.

[00:40:36]>> I've got a buddy, uh Darren Wendle's his name. He actually does Wendle fishing and he's got a really big channel. He's he's he's a great guy, but uh he swam Lake Michigan and it put him in the hospital.

[00:40:50]>> Like I he swam from Michigan to Illinois. Like >> just FYI, I went to Lake Michigan in July, mid July. Water temperature 52.

[00:41:01]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:41:02]>> July.

[00:41:03]>> Yeah. But he swam that um did all kinds of damage to his body like the waves and the push the the rubbing up against him and um not to sound gross but one of his nipples was almost completely rubbed off.

[00:41:17]>> Oh.

[00:41:18]>> Um >> so yeah that was you know now that's a little further than Alcatraz but I mean that's a long swim and he swam that whole thing and it put him in the hospital. I can't imagine what it did to that dog. Dogs are not the world's best swimmers.

[00:41:33]>> Yeah. and two miles for a dog.

[00:41:36]>> That's a lot.

[00:41:37]>> Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of the nipple thing, >> I don't like coyotes.

[00:41:42]So, big dumb dog. You deserved it. Um Yeah. Not a coyote fan.

[00:41:48]>> Not in the cities. I feel like they've penetrated pretty much all the large cities now. And they'll they'll eat your dog or cat. Like your house dog house.

[00:41:57]>> Terrible in Kentucky. They're terrible here.

[00:41:59]>> Yeah. You can you can hear them. You can hear them like just backpacking, hanging out in the wood, even here at the house.

[00:42:05]>> There are very few animals that you are allowed to hunt year round with no limit and coyotes are one of them.

[00:42:11]>> Yeah, we used to, >> this might ruffle some feathers, but we used to sit up um like there was a cow a horse trailer or a cow trailer. You sit up on top and you can put like a call and it sounds like uh like a dying hair or a a dying baby deer or something like that and the coyotes hear it and they It's a terrible sound by the way. Have you ever heard this?

[00:42:37]>> No, but I have to post this. Derwin Off the Rails asked me a question. He says, "Do you call one nip now?" [laughter] >> You say, "No, we don't call him that."

[00:42:47]But that's really funny. I have to let him know you said that. That's funny.

[00:42:50][gasps] Uh, but you put the call out in the field and then you sit up away from it and you wait for the coyotes to come in and boom. And the reason why we're doing it, this was on a farm. So, you don't want them getting into your baby cows or your lambs or anything like that. They will literally, >> you know, a baby cow, you're looking at losing hundreds, potentially thousands of dollars down the line, but you've invested a lot of money into having that cow. Like months and months of work and energy and money into producing one cow.

[00:43:19]Yep.

[00:43:20]>> And then it's just gone just like that.

[00:43:23]But anyway, back to the nipple. So, John, I don't know. [laughter] >> I don't think that's ever been said in a podcast in the United States. Now, back to the nipple.

[00:43:32]>> Now, back to the n Oh, one nip.

[00:43:34]>> Oh, one nip.

[00:43:35]>> So, on the nipple.

[00:43:37]>> And in all seriousness though, if you're into if you're into kayak fishing, you got to check out Darren's channel, Wendle Fishing. Fantastic. Wendell L fishing. Fantastic.

[00:43:47]>> I love it. Um, you know, when I was cutting all this weight, um, try to have a healthier lifestyle and stuff, I tell you the worst part of it is probably that I absolutely love playing basketball and that was the perfect form of cardio for me because you're exercising, but it's not boring. I hate just running on a treadmill or something. So, the problem with that is playing basketball five days a week and you're a heavy set guy and some of that fat is sitting up here around the nipples and so I mean I didn't wear a sports bra or anything but you get a lot of rubbing.

[00:44:25]You've seen the guys running the marathons. Even the skinny guys get the rubbing on the shirt and they'll put like band-aids over their nipples. I had to do that sometimes playing basketball because if you do five days a week, you'll literally get rubbed to the point where you are actively bleeding and ain't nobody wanting to like imagine you're playing basketball and you're trying to back a guy down in the post and you're bumping up against him, but he's literally got blood running from his nipples. Nobody wants to play with that guy. So, I did not want to be that guy. And so, sometimes you got to tape him up and just be an athlete. Although, I wasn't an athlete at the time. I was uh >> I was trying to cut the weight and become an athlete. So, >> you were a heavy athlete.

[00:45:03]>> Yeah, I was heavyweight.

[00:45:04]>> You were a heavyweight. That's okay.

[00:45:05]Heavy I mean there are heavyweight boxers, heavyweight wrestlers. And I'm not talking pro wrestling. I'm talking wrestling wrestling. There's heavy weights in the UFC.

[00:45:13]>> Yeah. Offensive linemen in the NFL, defensive linemen in the NFL. They're heavyweights.

[00:45:18]>> Well, they have it the best because you know these guys fighting at like a weight class of 145 or something.

[00:45:24]They're having to cut weight. Those guys are walking around at 160 and having to dehydrate so much that they're losing 15 pounds for a fight.

[00:45:32]>> Yeah. Not the heavyweights. We're going to eat before we weigh in. We're heavy.

[00:45:39]Yeah. Yeah.

[00:45:41][laughter] Oh, during off the he made a little mistake there. This is really funny. He um let me see if I can find it. He goes uh he goes, "Not if you play shorts and skins." Oh gosh. And then he goes, "Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait." He [laughter] goes, "No, shirts, shirts."

[00:46:02]>> I gotta be honest with you, I don't do shorts and skins. That's definitely [clears throat] not what I do.

[00:46:06]>> I also do not participate. [laughter] Yeah. I don't want to be I don't want to play that guy either. You don't want him backing you down to the post either.

[00:46:15]>> No. No. I think I will confuse people if they just if they're tuning in halfway through and they're they're hearing us talk about nibbles and and playing without shorts on.

[00:46:23]>> Yeah. Last week it was breast milk. This week it's shorts and skids.

[00:46:29][laughter] >> Very family friendly. I will tell you, John, um there's five things that I did in my life that helped create balance and I still try to practice them today.

[00:46:38]Um and so if anybody's trying to go through the same things that I went through with the weight loss and making sure your life is in balance and all that. Um I think I've mentioned these in the past, so I'm going to be brief here.

[00:46:49]Light. You want 30 minutes of sunlight a day and nothing bright at night. That means like stop looking at your phone at 11 p.m.

[00:46:56]>> Um, at least that's what I do. Movement, that means cardio and resistance training. Everything from running to weightlifting, all of it. Nutrition, balancing your macro and your micronutrients. Don't have time on today's show to go deep into that. Uh, sleep. I try to do eight plus hours a night since we had the baby. It's drastically reduced.

[00:47:15]>> Dude, I I can't remember the last time I got eight plus hours a night. That's a That's just a goal. Yeah. Well, okay.

[00:47:25]>> You gota you got to aim for something [laughter] or you'll miss everything.

[00:47:29]And then lastly, connection. Uh that means you're not isolated. You have some type of social connection, whether it's a group of friends or whatever situation you're in. But um >> well and I just read when you talk about that one specifically, I actually studied up on this a few weeks ago and the the the development of paranoia >> almost always comes from isolation.

[00:47:52]>> Tell me more.

[00:47:53]>> Uh basically when you are by yourself, what ends up happening is there are since there's no other people in your life, you become the most important person in your world.

[00:48:03]>> And in the process of that, you become the only person in your world. So other people don't really matter. And in the process of that, you just assume that everybody around you is against you >> because you're the best in the world and everybody wants to be you and they they're jealous and uh it turns into a really crazy situation. Uh there's been a lot of psychological studies on it and uh yeah, isolation is not a good thing.

[00:48:28]We need people, that's for sure.

[00:48:29]>> Yeah. You start getting that main character energy going.

[00:48:32]>> Yeah.

[00:48:33]>> Yeah. That's where it comes from. Um, I don't think that we have time to do all these and honestly [clears throat] I only wrote down 13 of them. [laughter] I I missed the other two and I was too lazy to like do a deep dive to find them. But, uh, John, I was wondering if we could wrap with some things that are cheap and would help you improve your life.

[00:48:57]>> And you you let me know if this is terrible or uh if you are going to do some of these things. So, like I said, I don't know if we have time to do them all, but um one of them is throw out all your socks and replace them with 20 pairs of the exact same size and color, shape, cut, everything. So then every time you wash socks, you don't have to worry about matching them. And if one gets a hole, you can just throw it away and keep using the other 19. So, what do you think? Are you headed to the store?

[00:49:25]Are you getting on Amazon and ordering new socks right now?

[00:49:28]>> No. Oh, you're just going to keep uh you're just going to keep using the same old socks.

[00:49:36]>> I mean, yeah.

[00:49:38]>> Yeah, me too, dude. I thought this was a bad one. I thought >> a lot of money. I can't afford that.

[00:49:42]>> Whoever wrote this one, I was like, [laughter] what? They're wearing like uh like Nike elite socks in a suit. Like, what's going on? I got suit socks. I got no show socks. I got crew cuts. I got ankle cuts. I mean you a man needs more than one style of sock. What if you wear shorts? You don't want to be wearing the same like socks with your shorts as you are with your suit.

[00:50:08]>> Yeah, it's ridiculous. Hey, I do want to say something though. Um Jay Flo, uh there's a difference between alone and isolating.

[00:50:16]>> Like he says that isn't true for every person that is alone. I didn't say alone. I said people who isolate themselves from everybody. That's a huge difference. People who avoid being around people at all costs. Um, big difference there. So, yeah, I don't I don't agree that that every person that's alone does that. That's we're talking about isolation. A little bit different. So, just want to make sure we we confirm that. I don't want there to be any confusion on that one.

[00:50:40]>> What about the library card? Do you have one?

[00:50:43]>> No.

[00:50:44]>> No, not yet. You mean you mean not yet?

[00:50:47]You don't have a library card?

[00:50:49]>> Sure.

[00:50:51]He's like, no, I meant no. you know, you get like the audio books for free.

[00:50:56]There's a Hoopla app for my public library and I love that.

[00:50:59]>> Yeah, my wife my wife and my kids all have library cards and they use them. Um I I don't have one. Um I've got so many books right now that I have not gotten through that having a library card would just be something that sits on a shelf and never gets used because I don't have time to read all those books and the ones I already have. So, >> yeah. And honestly, every time I go to my public library, they never ask me for the card. They always want my name. They They give you two cards. They give you the little keychain one, you know, that you put on the circle thing on your keys and then they give you like an actual physical one, which doesn't fit my wallet cuz I have one of those slim ones. So, uh I guess it's more of a momento.

[00:51:37]>> Did you see what All Trails just posted?

[00:51:39]>> No. What did he say? I >> I don't know what this means. He says, "If you have kids." Wait, so that's not that's not it. That skipped on me. It's this one. Um I haven't had a library card since I had a bicycle card. Is that the card that you put in the spoke of your box? So it sounds like a motorcycle.

[00:51:54]>> Is that what he's talking about?

[00:51:57]>> Did he use his library card as that card? [laughter] >> Probably. That's probably the last.

[00:52:02]>> That's what I'm trying to That's what I'm saying. I'm trying to figure out what he's talking about. So So >> Wood All Trails, buddy, >> tell us uh >> tell Come on, Jonathan. Tell tell us what you did with that card because Are you saying you used your library card to make noise on your bike?

[00:52:18]>> Those were the good old days, man. Can you close pin it or uh tie it to your bike?

[00:52:22]>> Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

[00:52:22]>> Um >> what about outdoor walks? That's cheap and easy and adds value to your life.

[00:52:28]>> Yes.

[00:52:29]>> Yeah. I totally agree with that.

[00:52:31]>> How about agree with that?

[00:52:33]>> How about a new shower head or bedet?

[00:52:39]>> Oh, he's not on board.

[00:52:40]>> Shower head's a shower head for me, man.

[00:52:41]Like does the water get on and clean me off? I'm not in the shower long enough to care about the shower head that much.

[00:52:47]>> Fair. Fair. Okay. What about No, my wife may be different.

[00:52:52]>> You think that she wants to install the bet?

[00:52:55]>> I mean, I think everybody wants to install a bedet.

[00:52:58]>> I totally agree. Oh, sad sad news, John.

[00:53:01]Breaking news. I don't think I've told you. The bedet at the Stringer uh household has finally given it up. I am bedless.

[00:53:10]>> Um my wife actually, it was broken, but it wasn't broken as in like it's broken apart. uh some of the internal parts uh failed, but it didn't work for like a month straight. And my wife was finally like, "Are you going to take this thing off the toilet or are we going to keep having to deal with this broken bedet?"

[00:53:28]So, over the weekend, unfortunately, had to take it out in the yard and bury it under the old oak tree. RIP the bedet. [laughter] >> Did you have a nice memorial service?

[00:53:39]>> Yes. Yes.

[00:53:41]>> Now, here's the question. Did you get on Amazon?

[00:53:43]>> It's poop time.

[00:53:44]>> That's right. Did you get on Amazon and uh order a new one?

[00:53:50]>> No, I just been uh I've been using the kids baby wipes.

[00:53:54]>> What?

[00:53:56]>> Hey, hey, uh Wood all got back to us here.

[00:53:59]>> Let's see if I can find him on here. Um he said >> Oh gosh, everybody keeps It's kind of funny. Um he says, "Nope." Oh, there it goes again. It's on the wrong one. Hold up.

[00:54:15]This is hard sometimes to get these all figured out. He says, "Nope. They had a bicycle card you could get from the license office way back when.

[00:54:23]I never heard of that before."

[00:54:25]>> Me either. Yeah. The same town he grew up in.

[00:54:28]>> Well, I think he's more of uh county. I was in the Wayne County.

[00:54:34]>> Yeah.

[00:54:35]>> Bordering counties.

[00:54:37]Um what about uh journaling? Do you do a little journaling? That's almost free.

[00:54:43]>> Yeah. Not a I tried once.

[00:54:46]>> Let me I tried too and I epically failed. John, I literally like I've tried doing just a regular journal. I've tried doing a journal like directed at certain things like a prayer journal or something like that that you can look back upon. It's just too much work for me, dude. I cannot It's another thing. I feel like it's an obligation and I don't need more obligations. I need more woods time. I just don't care.

[00:55:10]So, like I'm not worried about getting connected with my feelings. Like I I don't care. So, I'm probably not gonna do it.

[00:55:16]>> Before we go to the next one, let me tell you real quick, John, of how I've how I've modified it. And it works for me really well now. And I would suggest you trying it as well, even though you probably won't because you've already signed off on it. But let me just hear me out. Okay. What are we talking about right now?

[00:55:33]>> We're talking about the journal. Hear just hear me out. No, let I don't know if I'd call it journaling. Okay, it's adjacent to journaling.

[00:55:41]>> Okay, >> so I pick three or four things that I want to track through the month. Like for example, my weight or how much I'm sleeping or just you get to pick, right? Whatever statistic that you want to analyze over a month. You can record any data you want.

[00:56:00]>> I put that as a column. So I had to pick one page. this same book that I sent you a picture of with the show notes for today. I pick a page in it and that's my page for the month.

[00:56:09]>> So, okay, May 2026. Wait, whatever. And then I also do the date. So, 1 through 30 this month. And right next to it, I put the day of the week, MTW, and so on.

[00:56:23]>> Okay.

[00:56:24]>> Okay. You get one line, like this much space, and you write whatever you want for that day. So it could be my kid said his first word or it could be I taught my kid to ride a bike or it could be I went on a date with my wife to hear or whatever. And so at the end of every month sometimes we get a little behind which makes it even better. I I go through and my wife and I sit down and have a cup of coffee or we sit at breakfast or maybe at dinner or something and I put the notebook in front of us and we go through and read through that month's highlights together and we get a little five minute session of nostalgia and then I've been doing this now for like two and a half years. So, I have multiple books now filled up with not just those papers of the uh the recorded data and the daily highlight, but also um you know the other things you're working on, house projects, payments, whatever is on your mind, writing it down in there. So, if anybody's wanting to try journaling, I don't think John's going to do it, but if you want to try it, but you don't want to commit to the point where like I'm gonna write a page every day because I just couldn't do that. one highlight every day worked really, really well. And even if you forget to do it for a few days, like I'll look back on the photos on my phone or my calendar and I'll be like, "Oh yeah, that was a good day. I done this, this, and this." And then I'll put that in my journal. So don't worry if you fall behind, >> man. All right.

[00:57:49]>> I think that's I think that's great for you.

[00:57:53]>> You're not gonna do it, are you?

[00:57:55]>> Bro, I'm not even thinking about that, just to be honest with you. Hey, somebody [laughter] >> What do you got? K Fuller just gave us a $20 uh super chat. [clears throat] Here's the start of the new stringer bedet fund.

[00:58:08]>> WHOA.

[00:58:10]LET'S GO.

[00:58:11]>> Hold up. Hold up. Hold up. Hold up.

[00:58:12]Since neither one of us have one, I think we should split that so we can both get one.

[00:58:17]>> Oh, I think it has my name on it. Back me up here. No, I'm just joking. John, >> I think we need to split I think we both I think I've never had a bet in my home.

[00:58:24]I think we need to get one for my house.

[00:58:27]>> I think that's a great idea, John. I think I think if if I could maybe maybe getting a bedet would actually make me journal. I'll tell you what, I'll do you one better. [laughter] If next time I come to your house, yeah, if you will have a bedet, I'll install it for you. Now, you got to clean the toilet before I touch the toilet, but I'm happy to install it for you. And I'll do you another one better. I will christen it for you. You let me be the first person in the Kelly household. I can't do that. You can't be the first person that uses my bedet.

[00:59:00]>> Well, I guess you're going to have to install it, John. What What can I say here?

[00:59:03]>> You know, probably I'll just install it the day I get it. But you know what?

[00:59:07]I'll still have you over and I'll let you use it.

[00:59:11]>> Well, will you make it one of the heated ones? Cuz mine wasn't heated and water [laughter] [gasps] the water comes out at the same temperature. It's coming out like your your cold water line coming into the house.

[00:59:25]>> Yeah. I appreciate Right. I want to see what we're talking about here. What What is my financial commitment to this?

[00:59:30]>> Well, I would try to keep it under hundred. I don't know what what you're looking at. The cheapy from Walmart that Bridget had bought me like two Christmases ago was only like 10 bucks.

[00:59:41]I looked on there, they went up to $30 in the last couple years. If you want a really good one, you're looking at like 1,200 bucks. Well, the uh Forbes voted best overall for 2026 is called the Bio Bedet, and it's $460.

[00:59:56]Wow. That's pretty cheap.

[00:59:58]>> That doesn't look cheap to me.

[01:00:00]>> John, this is >> I see an electric I see an electric bedet toilet seat with remote heated toilet seat. The seat is heated.

[01:00:08]>> Yeah.

[01:00:09]>> Instant warm heater, instant warm air dryer, rear and feminine oscillating cleansing something.

[01:00:16]>> Oh, your wife60. It's 160.

[01:00:20]>> Yeah. But here's the problem that you run into, John. I don't know about your bathroom, but mine has one outlet.

[01:00:27]So, not the master bath. This was in this actually the bathroom across from my >> master bath. I'm not let my kids touch this thing.

[01:00:34]>> Well, this was in the bathroom across from my son's room. So, it wasn't in the master bath. It was in his bathroom technically. And so, the only plug in there is like up by the sink. You know, it's a it's a little bathroom sink, toilet shower.

[01:00:48]>> So, you can't like how you supposed to plug it in? Well, I actually have an outlet like right by my toilet.

[01:00:56]>> Somebody's thinking ahead in the Kelly household. Whenever they built that house, I don't know who built this one, but whoever built yours was thinking ahead. They were have bedday on the brain.

[01:01:03]>> Okay, someone said I need to get the Toto K300. [laughter] >> No, I tell you.

[01:01:08]>> Hold on. I want to look this up because I want to know what the Toto K300 is.

[01:01:13]>> No, the Toto is one of the best brands you can get.

[01:01:16]>> Holy mother of mercy. $756.

[01:01:20]I I'm I'm sorry. I can't get that one.

[01:01:23]>> Let me see if I can be quick here. I don't want to look on my phone.

[01:01:27]>> The K300. The K300 $756.

[01:01:32]>> So, Mr. Backpacking with Jason, sir, one of his buddies. He's now my buddy, too.

[01:01:37]I've known him for, you know, five or six years now. But he sent me the Toto that he has. Toto Washlet. Toto Washlet A100.

[01:01:47]Um, that's the one you want. He has that installed in his house. It's got the remote. It's got the heated seats. And it's a name brand. Um, but that was in 2024 that he sent that to me. So, they're probably double now.

[01:02:01]>> Well, I was I say the washlet S is $410.

[01:02:04]The washlet S7A $1,140.

[01:02:09]>> Well, you don't want the S. S is much further down the alphabet. You want the A.

[01:02:13]>> Old Union's telling us it's $756 of warm hygiene. [laughter] I love [clears throat] it. It is. Yeah.

[01:02:22]I'm serious though. If you have a place to plug them in, um, or you can run hot water to it, then I don't even know if they make them with hot water that you can run hot water to it. I assume it's got an internal heater that heats the water before it sprays. It >> Well, he also said there's probably a GEX K300.

[01:02:36]>> There you go. That'll be $12, John.

[01:02:39]>> 99.

[01:02:41]>> $12. Doesn't come with all the screws that you'll need to install it, but it's only $12.

[01:02:45]>> That's so funny. Yeah. I I'm gonna I'm gonna bring this up to my wife and just see what she says. She's probably like, "We're not buying everything.

[01:02:53]>> Just [laughter] just stop. It's not happening."

[01:02:55]>> All right, I'm going to do one last one for you. Good toilet paper.

[01:03:00]>> Oh, now I have to agree with that one.

[01:03:03]>> Yeah, that should have been agree with that one. There's absolutely no way you don't get good toilet paper.

[01:03:09]>> Yeah. You go to somebody's house and it's unfortunate enough that you have to do the do and uh they have crappy toilet paper. They have that one ply. They have like the free toilet paper that you steal when you're through hiking.

[01:03:21]>> Yeah.

[01:03:21]>> You know, you put like around your hand and just wrap it a bunch because you know you need four times as much because it's one ply.

[01:03:27]>> You got to upgrade the toilet paper game.

[01:03:30]>> You do. It shows how much you care about your guests, John.

[01:03:33]>> Yeah. Well, and I'm gonna I'm going to add in one of the ones that's on here you didn't mention. Uhu.

[01:03:37]>> It says buy good sheets and pillows.

[01:03:40]>> Oh, yeah. What I'm going to say is instead of buying good sheets and pillows, just make sure you wash them more often.

[01:03:46]How often is there nothing? There is nothing better than getting in bed right after the sheets have been washed and they're nice and fluffy and comfortable. It's just awesome.

[01:03:57]>> What do you do like every two weeks?

[01:04:00]Every week?

[01:04:01]>> Every week? Every two weeks? Something like that. But the I we washed ours this past week like we normally would. And I'm telling you, man, when I got in the sheets out last night, I I was like, man, this is heaven.

[01:04:12]>> Are you a daily pillow fluffer?

[01:04:14]>> No. You're just just like, "Oh, this is how it was. I just put my pillow here and I'm gonna sleep on it again."

[01:04:20]>> My pillow is a is like one of those ones that's got a specific place the way it's for people with bad necks.

[01:04:26]>> Uhhuh.

[01:04:26]>> Because I mean, if there's an injury, I've had it. Um, and so it's it's made so that my head always lays the exact same way every night.

[01:04:34]>> Wow. I didn't even know they've seen the advertisements for the ones that's got like a arm hole, so you can like It's got two different holes. Like you can either lay your arm under or you can like turn it the other way.

[01:04:45]>> No, it's not like that. But um let me see. Let me find a picture of this thing.

[01:04:49]>> He's high flutin. John is. He's going to have a heated bedet, a $1,200 bedet at his house. He's got one of those my pillows that hold your neck the same way every night.

[01:04:58]>> Well, I'm going to tell you, I didn't ask I didn't buy this pillow for myself.

[01:05:02]My wife bought it for me um because she knew I was having neck issues >> and she actually likes me. So, um, >> so when you're backpacking, you don't have like neck problems. I know you do the hammock. So, >> not in the hammock because of the way I I know how to lay the pillow.

[01:05:18]>> So, okay. So, here we go. Now, I don't think mine was this expensive, but this is the kind of pillow. Let me see if I pull this up so the people can see it.

[01:05:24]>> It was that expensive, John. Your wife bought it. She just she just didn't tell you.

[01:05:28]>> You're probably right about that. Um, here we go. Check this out.

[01:05:32]>> No royalties off >> neck pillow.

[01:05:36]So, it looks like this. So, it's >> $514.

[01:05:40]>> Yeah. Minus about 350. Um, [laughter] but it's kind of like this. So, like there's a spot where my shoulder sits here and my neck I can lay sideways really comfortably >> and uh yeah, man. It's it's really helped me out with my neck issues. So, >> cozy rest memory foam neck pillow.

[01:06:02]>> How John spell awesome?

[01:06:06]75 bucks and it can be yours. Yeah, that that's honestly not bad if it lasts that long.

[01:06:11]>> Yeah, it's I I really like it. It's uh I've had it for well since we move since before we moved into the new house. So, we've had at least three three and a half years.

[01:06:19]>> Yeah, because you buy the crappy pillows, you're going to have to get another one in like six months.

[01:06:24]>> Oh, yeah.

[01:06:24]>> They just die on you.

[01:06:26]>> Somebody asked the question, how would I spell awesome? It would be st i n g er.

[01:06:33]>> Oh, thank you. Yeah, that's how I would spell awesome.

[01:06:38]>> Um, real quick before we hop off here, [clears throat] >> I thought it would be a good uh saving tactic. We have a guest room for now.

[01:06:48]>> We'll see. If we have another child, then I think that we're going to lose the guest room and it's going to become my office. But, uh, we have a guest room and every guest that spends the night, I say, "What could we improve in this room?" And one of them said, "We need you need more furniture." So, we went to a yard sale and bought like a used dresser set and end tables and all that kind of stuff. You know, 50 bucks and you're good to go.

[01:07:13]Well, the biggest complaint I had was the pillows. And I said, "What do you mean?" Because my cost-saving tactic was once my pillows wear out, I'm going to get new pillows and I'll just put those in the guest room and they can sleep on them. Turns out your guests do not like that. Who would have ever thought that your guests wanted nice, fluffy, clean, great smelling, unused pillows? And so, you know, I went to Walmart and I got us all new pillows. A whole household of new pillows. Um, I should have got the $75 ones because they're starting to all wear out at the same time now.

[01:07:48][laughter] >> I'm needing a round two, but I'm learning. You know, we, you know, to take it back to backpacking as we get ready to close this thing out.

[01:07:58]I did a pillow video years ago and I got crucified because my favorite pillow was the Climate Pillow X.

[01:08:06]>> Is that a air up?

[01:08:08]>> Yeah, it's it's a blowup pillow. Uh let me see here. I'm going to pull this up so you can see it. Um and I'm not going to lie, I love the pillow. Um and the reason I love it is because I'm a side sleeper and it allows my neck to be up just a little higher than my head. And this pillow, as weird looking as it is, I love the thing. And I'm sure there are people that hate it. Um, but I love these things. Right now, there's one here at this place, Gear Trade, for like 12 bucks. Um, >> I never heard of that website, by the way.

[01:08:37]>> Yeah, neither have I. So, >> one in stock, almost gone. I don't know if I'd use that. Maybe try Amazon.

[01:08:42]>> Well, and if you get Let's see here. Let Let me see if I can pull up one. Here's one from backcountry.com. We'll switch we'll switch screens to this so you can see. Uh, here we go. Okay.

[01:08:56]And they've got it in here for $32.99 at Backount. So, um, yeah, this pillow right here, I love that pillow. And, and I think the reason I like it is because it's like my pillow at home where my head sits down further and my neck sits up higher.

[01:09:13]>> Yeah. Once you get used to it, your body's craving it.

[01:09:16]>> Yeah. Yeah. But, I mean, I've had people that told me I was absolutely out of my mind and crazy for liking that pillow.

[01:09:21]But, hey, man, to each their own.

[01:09:24]>> I agree. I've been wading up my uh puffy jacket and laying on top of it. So, to each their own.

[01:09:30]>> Yeah. Well, I mean, I don't use that in uh the hammock. That was my tent one. Um and so many of everybody [laughter] comment because wow, Pillowex is awful.

[01:09:41]I love it. [laughter] >> That's true feedback there.

[01:09:44]>> Yeah. But that just goes to show you, man, like especially with backpacking, just because you like it doesn't mean somebody else is going to. And just because somebody else likes it doesn't mean you're going to. Um, everything is very personal. So, >> h you're on >> Jeremiah. This has been fun.

[01:10:00]>> I agree, man. Pleasure. It's >> been fun. It has been It's been a lot of fun and I hope you all have enjoyed yourselves. We're going to be back next week with another episode. And like I said, check out that article. Um, it's time to face it. There's privilege and throughhiking. Look that up on Backpacker Magazine and let's talk about it next week. Let's get uncomfortable.

[01:10:19]Let's get controversial and let's talk about it. So, for myself and Jeremiah, I almost pointed the wrong way and not have to point weird. We'll catch you guys on the next one.

[01:10:33]You know what's funny, Jeremiah? What?

[01:10:37]My button switched.

[01:10:42]>> [music]