[00:00:00] Welcome back to Just Ruck It. I'm your host, Lindsay, and today's episode is a special one because this time I didn't ruck alone. I had an incredible opportunity to join a group hike in the beautiful Catskills, tackling the winter trek up Giant's Ledge, and let me tell you, it was an adventure. Hiking in winter isn't about the challenge of the climb.

It's about the teamwork, the preparation, and sometimes facing fears of the unknown. Cold weather, icy trails, heavy packs, we had it all. But we also had an amazing group that made all the difference. In this episode, you're going to hear from some of my fellow hikers, what brought them to the trail, what surprised them, what they learned, and yes, even some unexpected snack mishaps.

So grab your ruck and [00:01:00] settle on in and let's dive into this incredible experience. All right, thank you all for joining our very first interview session of a group hike that we had the pleasure of doing down in the Catskills in New York State up to Giant's Ledge. And first up, I am talking to Lindsay, who in the little group that we have, we call her Gothic's Lindsay because she's just that cool.

How you doing, Linds? Hi, I'm doing good. Thank you. So I'm curious. Give us a little background about yourself, you know, where are you from? How did you get involved with going on this hike to Giant's Ledge? I am from the central New York area, right outside of Syracuse. I got to the This point of being on the hike because I am also part of the seek to do more women's group and before that I was in the great range athlete group and I had started hiking some [00:02:00] bigger mountains during the great range athlete program and then by the time I got to see to do more it was winter and getting into the winter hiking was very intimidating to me.

So I was a little nervous. leading up to it. But again, with this group is amazing. So the support that we have for each other and just cheering each other on nobody's competitive. It's just great. So it boosted my confidence for sure. And I could not say no to go on this hike. I was definitely in no matter what.

I remember I was kind of the same way when it got brought up and then we started working on dates. And it turned out to be the middle of January. I'm like, I don't think I've ever done winter hiking. Usually it's cold outside. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Treadmill. No big deal. Gym. Yeah. Okay. I got this. It's never occurred to me that you can do this mountain thing outside and cold, right?

I know one person we are missing tonight is our female coach, Sarah, who is the person who actually picked this mountain for us. and [00:03:00] got us going and, you know, help organize it and made sure that we were prepared for what was going on ahead. So what did your pack end up weighing that you carried? Did you get a chance to weigh that?

I did. So I weighed it the night before once I had everything in it and I weighed in at like 17 and a half, but I'm going to guess it was more like 20 because since we did not end up needing our snowshoes. I had that morning put the snowshoes on my pack as well. We didn't know if we were going to need them at any point.

So I'm gonna guess it was about 20. Yeah, that's I think I weighed in at 24 is when I got mine and that was mostly because I went psychotic on the water. I want to say I was carrying a good three liters of water on that trip. The other way drank hardly any of it. A liter of water is 2. right there just in water that I think I was carrying.

Winter hiking. I know I had a fun of learning how to use micro spikes. Did you have any [00:04:00] familiarity with that? Yes, I have hiked with those before. I would say the extent of my winter hiking prior to this is limited. I've, Considered myself in the past, definitely more of a fair weather hiker and really sort of a beginner hiker ish before, you know, the great range athlete program.

I was always intimidated by the bigger mountains and things like that, which is why I signed up for it in the first place, just to boost my confidence and get better at the, you know, longer hikes, higher hikes. So, yes, with my husband, we would Do some, you know, early winter or late spring or early spring where the micro spikes would be needed.

So I have had experience with them, but I wouldn't say I had been on like sheer ice like we were on this hike. So I've, I've used them, but I don't think I use them to the extent that we kind of needed them on this type of hike. So you brought up that you've been reserved on a couple of things. What was one thing on this hike that.

You were [00:05:00] concerned with going into it the weather. So again, because I was always It's not really into being a winter hiker. I'm a skier, so I do love winter. I love snow, but you know, going on a hike, like actually hiking a mountain in the winter was never on my bucket list by any means. I could just do without it and I'll see you at the end of May, you know, that's when I'll start hiking.

Sorry. I forgot the question. You're going to have to tell me the question again. That's okay. That's one thing that you were really concerned with, like what What was the one thing you're like, Oh my gosh, I don't know. Can I do this? The weather. I was really concerned about the weather taking, um, a turn for the worst.

We knew a storm was going to be coming in that, you know, afternoon slash evening. And yes, that's kind of why I think I've been more intimidated to winter hike in the past because what if you get to the top and, you know, There's just a huge storm comes in. Or what if I freeze to death out there? What if I, you know, lose my nose or my fingers, I could just, [00:06:00] I just always have been very scared of, of what the weather could do, like all the risks that you're taking and, and how, you know, when you start out at the base, it could be very different up at the top.

So that's always scared me. That was my biggest concern. The weather, what are we getting ourselves into? I don't know about you. So a couple of us actually managed to. been the night in a cabin at the base before we went out to hike the next morning and we did unpack repack and I found that amazingly valuable because while rucking is just carrying weight when you're rucking for a purpose what you have in your pack means something what are you know like what's one item that you're glad you brought on this trip hmm I would say Ooh.

Oh, I got you hard on that one. Well, besides water, obviously. I think that's the [00:07:00] only thing I actually touched inside my pack. So yes, we were over prepared, but better to be over prepared, you know, than under. I would say my Nutella Uncrustable was the most important thing in my pack. Oh my gosh, could not have lived without it.

I got two more questions for you before we move on and get some viewpoints from some other folks is what's one takeaway that you had from this trip? That was your wow. What did you really enjoy about it? I enjoyed it so much. I thought it was the best day ever. I mean, I'm still just. On cloud nine about it.

I just think about it all the time. And honestly, my biggest takeaway was the fact that we can all do this together. You know, there's definitely some of us in that group that thought we cannot do that. We can't either can't winter hike or it's just gonna be too difficult for them or whatever it was. But as a group, we all support each other.

No one is competitive. We want to get up there [00:08:00] together for seeing the other people You know, realize that they can do that too. You know, it's not just for ourselves. So coming out of that, I just, you know, gained a whole bunch of new girlfriends and support and just friends that we always, we want to hike together forever, you know?

I mean, this is, this is just a great group of women and I. always want to hike with them. So I, I just loved the community that we've built and just that we all have the love and joy for hiking. I mean, we just really want to do better. We want every one of us to do better and enjoy it together. And to wrap things up for you, I like to pride myself that we're a newbie podcast in the sense that, you know, we give folks that are just starting out some motivation.

What is one piece of advice you would give somebody who is thinking about starting rucking or even rucking in the winter? That you absolutely can do it because you can do hard things. We can all do hard things. So just because it's a little [00:09:00] bit hard or difficult at first, practice, it gets better, you can do it.

Anyone can do it. I love it. Thank you so much. Thank you, Lindsay. Thank you. Next up, because I'm going in the lovely little clockwise I have on my screen up here, is Deanna. How you doing, Deanna? I'm doing good. How are you? Fantastic. Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from and what got you motivated into trying a winter ruck?

Yeah, so I'm also proud to be from the central Syracuse, New York vicinity. So we do have the Adirondacks right in our backyard and it's always this mantra that nobody ever does what's in their backyard. So I am an outdoors enthusiast and getting back into it. So, I also am part of the same program, uh, that Lindsay had mentioned in terms of Seek to Do More, and I love [00:10:00] the winter.

I just, I don't like being sweaty and overheating, and I love to find things to do in the winter. I like the cool, the crisp, the quiet, the forest is completely different. So, I was very excited to do this. Did you have the opportunity to weigh your pack before you started out? Yes, I did. I think I might have weighed in at the heaviest pack potentially.

It was, it was over 25 pounds. So I think I was on the 27 pounds to 28 depending on. So you were part of our group that did the pack unpack the night before, was there anything that you took out or added to your pack when we did all that? Yes, and part of that is, you know, being in risk management, having done some winter camping and climbing, you don't know what you need, and then you wish you had it.[00:11:00] 

And so we originally had planned to do a much longer hike. So I was prepping for the duration when we shortened that. I dumped a whole liter of water, did not need that extra weight. Cause that's one of the heaviest things possible.

So, we were talking earlier before we started recording, and it appears you are our queen of data, if you have that book still available. Uh, maybe you can let us in on some metrics on, you know, how long our hike was. And for those that don't know, we climbed Giant's Ledge in the Catskills with the plan to go on to Panther Peak, which is one of the Catskill 35.

But as Lindsay mentioned before, we had a storm, a pretty good one rolling in. So we made the safe decision on cutting our, our hike short and that's okay. Plans change. So it's somewhere it's all right. Don't [00:12:00] panic, readjust, and make sure you follow safety first. Yeah, those mountains aren't going anywhere.

They don't, as James says, they don't care about you, and it's true. Like, it's gonna eat you alive. It's better to play it safe and make sure you can enjoy another day. So, how far did we end up going? What was our plan, and what is, what was our actual route? Our plan was actually to go beyond Giant's Ledge and summit at Panther Mountain.

We made it. Almost exactly halfway at the 3. 2 mile mark, and that mileage is out and back. So, had we done the full hike all the way up to Panther, we would have done a 6. 1 mile round trip trek. So, that, that's the distance with respect to the, uh, elevation. The elevation change that we did do was approximately a little over a thousand.

It was a thousand thirty two feet, and we would have doubled that elevation, if not [00:13:00] slightly more, had we summited Panther. So the time it took us to get there, we were rewarded, right? We had been expecting snow, gray skies, and someone intervened, and we had a beautiful break in the clouds. And had a beautiful view for Giant's Ledge.

It took us about two hours, nine minutes to do the whole thing out and back. And we took a fair amount of breaks. We had a group of seven. All different varying skills. And our pace was about 50 feet. Um. Per per minute. Oh, my gosh. You've calculated everything. It does it for me. I love it. I absolutely love it.

So what was what was your motivation for doing a winter hike? And what was the one thing that you were like, can I do it? Did you have any reservations [00:14:00] about this one? I know we were mentioned the weather before. Yeah, you're getting my story here. But. The whole reason I, I got into this, I've had a few, too many surgeries, two major back surgeries, but I really just love being outside and I'm tired of that being a limiting factor.

Uh, we were lucky enough to have a foreign exchange student and instead of sitting around, we did our first two high peaks in the Adirondacks in June of 2024. And then when I, when you finally find your tribe, Oh yeah, you're through. It is a game changer and to be able to build those lifelong relationships where you have not only like minded people, but people who are willing to prioritize getting out in the forest, on the mountains, and getting it done.

So, essentially that's, that's where I was at. [00:15:00] That's awesome. So what's one thing about this hike that you took away where you're like, oh, that is my wow. That was my one thing. This is the one moment that I'm just going to cherish and wants me to bring back. Hiking when you're out of shape sucks. Okay. It does.

Talk to me last June. It was bad weather, etc. So the two biggest takeaways for me was my biggest concern going into this was I was going to be holding up others. I don't like to be a burden. I don't want to hold others back. And so I have been training since October, but this was the first hike that I got to really, you know, try out my new legs.

Try out what, what am I capable of now that I've been working out? For the past three, four months, you know, we made the right decision. Let me just say that we made the right decision. The storm was moving, [00:16:00] but I felt phenomenal coming off of that mountain where I thought I was going to hold everybody back, I think.

We could have summative and I could have been fine. Like, there are times where I used to hike. That was my workout for the day. I'm done. And this time, I came home and I did a workout after we hiked. That is amazing. Great job. I love that story. Thank you so much. It really does pay off when you sit there and put the effort in, put the work in up front.

So that when you do go on an adventure that you realize you can enjoy it. It wasn't that we all went out there and went, Oh man, I'm really worried. Am I going to make this? Am I going to feel it later and actually get to the summit and felt great. I don't know about you. I felt. Really good getting up there going down.

That's a whole nother neat thing for me. But I [00:17:00] just add that she ended up Diana ended up being in the lead the whole time. So she was worried about holding people up and she was one of the front people the entire hike. And last up that I have is Jenny. How you doing, Jenny? I'm great, Lindsey. How are you?

I, you know, I'm very happy that I get to end the session with you because you and I, we brought up the end of the trail coming back down the mountain. We did. We both have knees. We both have knees that don't like us too much. Yeah. But we did it. We did it. And that's, that's the fun part of this. So did you have the ability to weigh your pack in when you first got started?

I did. I weighed in at about 26 pounds and that was largely like you because of water. I carried, I started out with three liters and I probably shed, I left a liter in my car cause I, cause we shortened the height. So maybe it was a little bit, maybe it was 24 pounds when I, when I took off cause it's about two pounds per liter.

But I [00:18:00] had, I felt like I had really overpacked. There was a lot of stuff in that pack that I never. Like, you never know if you're going to need it, but I have a lot in there. I also had a container, uh, a thermos of chili that I thought I would eat it with. And I thought it, actually Deanna's, um, white bean chicken and white bean chili.

And I thought it weighs a lot. I was like, I'm going to have this warm chili when we get to where we're going. And I didn't, I had, you know, other things. But anyway, I, I did not have the chili, but I was carrying a lot of weight and yeah, 26, 24 to 26 pounds. So I did, I did forget to ask you for a start out.

Where are you from and what was your travel like to get to where we were? So I'm from Brookfield, Connecticut. I probably had one of the shortest trips of everyone. I am about two, two hours and 20 minutes from where we took off. Two hours and 15 minutes. I ended up spending the night in [00:19:00] Kingston, New York, not far, so that I only had 50 minutes to go the next day.

I just felt it would be easier than getting up super early. And as it was, I was really glad because. The, you know, it was, it was 50 minutes it back roads in the, you know, morning was perfect for me. So yeah. So I was probably the closest of everyone to the camp. Oh, that makes it a much easier start in the morning where you could just stay fresh.

Yeah, absolutely. So you met us at the Trailhead. Yes. And what is your experience with winter hiking? Because a lot of us were unexperienced, but I have a feeling you are not. Well, I had done one other big winter hike. A few years ago, I did Mount Tecumseh, which is in New Hampshire. I had done that with my husband.

It is one of the. easier, I guess, quote unquote, 4, 000 footers in New Hampshire. And we did it all in micro spikes. We didn't need snowshoes, but we did the whole thing. We summited. Uh, it was [00:20:00] beautiful. I loved it. And it didn't take us as long as I thought it would. My husband said we We did it before checkout.

So clearly we got up and back before we had to check out. So it was not a six hour tour, which I've done six hour tours, but I really liked it and it was fun and I wanted to do more winter hiking. Well, that's I, I've watched what you've done after this hike, and I got to say, I am impressed with your abilities.

So, being the fact that you have a lot of experience doing mountains, and especially those in the winters, what is one concern that you may have had on this hike or one takeaway from this hike that you would you would have had where you're like, you know, it's a big group. It's a group. I don't know, or there was something about this place that you may or may not have known.

And, you know, I'm the oldest in the group. So, and like Deanna, I was very worried about holding people back. And I was worried about [00:21:00] not being able to keep up. And I felt. That I was able to keep up and like I was bringing up the rear at the end You know, I haven't I have a ACL reconstruction It it tweaks going downhills and you know while I've been working out a lot and I feel so much stronger with the seek to do More program what I did learn on this hike was that I need to really work to strengthen Those knee muscles so that I can continue to hike and so that going downhills Is not as painful and actually the second hike that I've done since was not as painful as this last one for a couple reasons I didn't we didn't have the ice That, that we just had and, and the cat skills, uh, and it was more snow.

So it was, you know, give me visuals, no one could see. So yeah, I just learned that I really need to work on building those muscles around the knee just so that I can come down hills a little bit easier and less painful. Well, you know, I'll tell you for as much as you were saying that you had any problems, [00:22:00] I was behind you and you were pulling away from me.

So you. You had no problems. That was definitely the biggest concern I had. I like going up as a little slow. Cause I, I don't know about you. It's me pushing off my toe is where I, you know, have the lack of strength then obviously coming down as a whole new ball game and downs harder than up. I wish I was a kid again, where it didn't matter.

Pick a direction. It was fun. Both ways. Now I really look forward to the up and I was like, Oh gosh, down. No, I know the up, the up seemed fine. It was the down. It's the harder part for me. So one thing I remember about this hike is when we were all enjoying our little summit view. We had some other hikers pass us along the way and we had one lady with a gigantic, and when I say gigantic, what?

Easily, like a two foot by two foot sign that said Catskill 35. [00:23:00] And yeah, she came around that corner and I think all of us just threw an absolute party. Um, for, and it's one thing I highly, highly enjoy about. Being out with a group and just the camaraderie and the support that we had for not only our own folks, but somebody like her, who's going and finishing her cat skill 35 on that mountain.

The same day. We were there, right? That was awesome. And every, you know, they're taking pictures of us. We're taking pictures of them. It was like, you know, they were excited that, you know, we weren't all together doing this and we were excited for them that they were finishing up. And as her husband whispered to me, I've got a bottle of champagne in my backpack.

He doesn't know about it. So, you know, they were very celebratory. So that was really nice. Nice to see, you know, having a little summit party. I think the Nutella Uncrustables were a big hit because I didn't even know I needed these in my life. [00:24:00] And the one person we're missing tonight is Annie, who brought up some bourbon and maple syrup for bourbon maple syrup shots at the, at the summit.

Sure, it'll warm you up. Definitely. What, alright, so we heard it on Crustables, what was your summit snack, Jenny? Well, I had M& M's. No, no, no. Tell us about these M& M's. You had M& M's. Well, I had some M& M's because James gave me permission to eat M& M's. And peanut M& M's, peanut butter M& M's. Because, you know, they freeze.

You know, if they get frozen, they still taste good and they're fine. But it got caught on the zipper. In my little pouchy thing, and I went to get them out and they flew all over the snow and I was in a total panic mode and I had to pick them up because a, leave no trace, that's one thing, but the other thing was that my M& M's were on the snow and we were not going [00:25:00] to get that.

So I picked up my M& M's and then I put them in the bag with the snow and I realized they're melt. So I had to eat them quickly because, you know, I was going to have slush. So it was a stuffing of the things, of M& M's from the slushy snow. And those were my snack and I was very happy with them. Summit snow is pristine, so you're fine.

Yes, there's no yellow in that snow. It is very pristine, clean, white snow. And I'll add, we are such good friends. That instead of helping you pick up your M& M's, no, no, we were just taking photographic evidence. I missed having the bourbon maple syrup because I was so busy picking up M& M's. I gotta tell ya, it made the snow look so pretty.

It did. I believe I have a photo of you picking up M& M's out of the snow somewhere. There's a photo, there's definitely a photo, but I had to So [00:26:00] it's very excited. They did taste good. And I have to tell you, a similar accident happened with my husband and his turned into mush this past hike, so. Oh, so you learned from his mistakes.

There's like, yes. Snow makes M& Ms turn into mush if you don't attack, attack them. Well, I'm, I'm sure that is one takeaway that our listeners are really thankful for at this point. So question for Jenny, and I think I still got to ask it of you, Deanna is what is one piece of advice that you would like to give a person who is just starting out and looking to get into rucking for either fitness, adventure, or anything Something along those lines.

Well, in a, in a particular hike like this one, you know, if you're rucking and you've got a big backpack and you're going on a winter hike, I think that the importance of layering is really, really important. You know, I found that on this hike, I have quite a few layers and I had to shed layers and then I put on layers [00:27:00] because you're carrying a lot of weight and you, and you're climbing and you need to regulate your temperature because the last thing you want is to be.

Sweaty and cold. So I think it's really important to make sure you've got enough layers that you can shed when you're getting too hot and put back on when you're getting too cold. So you're not, you know, sweaty and freezing. Great advice. Cause one thing I love to sit there and say is you're rucking. You have the ability to carry what you need.

So just make sure you know exactly what that is prepared for everything. So it's perfect. I believe we had 400 medkits, too, on this trip. We did. We definitely did. If people start cold, is what my husband always says, so. Yes. And Deanna, what would you, what's a little takeaway that you would like to give somebody, you know, that's just starting out?

I think there's, there's no such thing as bad weather. Bad choices are bad [00:28:00] gear and you can choose one day or day one, right? Rocking is for everybody. Like even if you don't have a hiking backpack, you have canned goods, you have a normal pack backpack somewhere and it's walking, so I don't know if anybody that's ever said, Oh, I wish I hadn't spent that time in the fresh air and the sun and outdoors.

And so. It's just a moment of joy that just gets started. Everything new is intimidating. You don't need the fancy equipment. You don't need to go winter hiking, but just start. And then you have your journey and figure it out from there and find your tribe. Because it's so much more fun. And I don't remember who in our group said it.

I didn't even feel the elevation because we were talking the whole time and distracting each other and you didn't even realize [00:29:00] that you had been climbing straight up, essentially. Um, I remember the first hike I went on with another member and I was really concerned because I had just started and we got up to the top of the hill, had a little conversation, went down the other side, had some lunch, came back up and when we started back down the original ascent and realized how steep it was, I remember the two of us stopped midway through, looked at each other, goes, Oh, Do you remember climbing this conversation is great find something, find somebody to talk to find good music.

Music is a great one. If you're by yourself to keep that beat, keep that motivation because it passes the time for you. It's amazing. What will get you going? I love it. All right, ladies, thank you so much. I really appreciate the time that you took with me tonight to relive [00:30:00] this little winter excursion that we went on and I cannot wait to go and figure out what our next adventure is going to be.

Thank you all and you have a great night. Lindsay, thanks for having us. Thanks, Lindsay. What an incredible experience this hike was. Pushing through the cold, tackling the climbs, and most importantly, doing it together. Winter hiking, and really any challenge, is so much more rewarding when you've got a strong community to support you.

One of the best parts of this adventure was sharing it with an amazing group from the Seek to Do More program, led by coach James Appleton. It's all about pushing the limits, building the resilience, and stepping outside your comfort zone. Whether it's on the mountain or in everyday life. If you would like to learn more about the Seek to Do More program and how it's helped so many of us level up mentally and physically, I got a link in the show notes for you.

[00:31:00] Thank you so much for tuning in to Just Rucking. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to share it, leave a five star review, and connect with me on social media. And as always, remember, life is rucking wonderful. I hope to see you on the next adventure.