197.) Summit Sessions #72: Hike ADK with Jonathan Zaharek

This week Jonathan Zaharek is with me to chat all about his new endeavor, Hike ADK. An online platform for all things hiking in the Adirondacks.

Download the HikeADK app in the app store now or visit www.HikeADK.com and take advatange of this phenemonal new resource for hikers.




Join the next GREAT RANGE ATHLETE 6-week challenge and get in mountain-hiking shape in just 6 weeks from your local gym or your house. 
Learn more about the Great Range Athlete Team Program HERE



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Get my books:
1.) The Adirondack 46 in 18 Hikes: The Complete Guide to Hiking the High Peaks 

2.) Adirondack Campfire Stories: Tales and Folklore from Inside the Blue Line



Looking for custom help to improve your both your fitness for hiking, disicpline, and daily habits? Work with James 1-on-1 to become fit for the trail and llife.
 
Book a free strategy call with James to learn more about his 1-on-1 coaching program,
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you've ever felt like your physical fitness is what
holds you back from having the mountain adventures you want
to have, Listen up because I got something for you.
The next six week Great Range Athlete program kicks off
July sixth. During these six weeks, you're going to build
strength and fitness that translates to your ability climbing up mountains.
Hiking's hard, but it doesn't have to be as hard

(00:22):
as it's been. Join the next Great Range Athlete team
where you'll get the support, the coaching, the accountability, and
the camaraderie of a team of like minded people all
there to have better mountain adventures this summer. We kick
off July sixth for six weeks, and you can join
the team right now at Great rangeathlete dot com. Sign

(00:43):
up and I'll see you on the team. This is
the forty six of forty six podcast Summit session, where
we'll talk all things ad Aroondack backcountry and beyond. From
high peaks stories and adventures to trail tips and tricks.
We'll dive deep into the heart of these mountains and
people who passionately climb them, Adirondack maps and spruce traps

(01:04):
to BUSHWACKX and backpacks.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
It's all here the forty six of forty six Summit Sessions.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Hello everyone, and welcome back to the forty six of
forty six podcast. I am in sheadquarters, live and in
person with mister Jonathan Zaheric. You all love episodes when
Jonathan stops potting up. Today we are going to talk
all about his brand new endeavor, a platform dedicated solely
to hiking in and around the Adirondack Park. All the

(01:47):
information you're going to want to know. We got Jonathan
right here right now to talk all about the origin
of this platform, how he built it, what his vision
for it is, and how it's going to benefit an
imp act you as hikers in and around the Adirondack Park.
It is called hike ADK hikdk dot com and Jonathan

(02:08):
is here with me to talk all about it today.
Jonathan's a Heeric. Welcome back to the forty six to
forty six podcast for the probably like I don't know,
tenth time, yeah, something like that. And I mean.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
I feel like this is very relieving because now I
actually can tell people.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Hey, it's here.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
You can go to these websites and it's going to
actually be there. You can download the app and it's
going to be there. So for those of you who
have tuned into my own personal podcast now which is
on hi KDK the hi KDK Show, which James is
also a co host, I have touched on like the
first four episodes, like, hey, it's almost here.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
But in the meantime, here's a couple of things you
can do.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
But we're here and we're live, and I hope you're
not sick and tired of hearing about it, because I'm
going to share a lot of new things today about it.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
For those who are interested to know more about it, well,
I'd be willing to bet a lot of people have
no idea about it and to just launch, like officially
launched very recently other than you know, some promotion here,
promotion there via social media. But if you aren't aware,
hike adk, built by Jonathan Ziherk, tell us what this
hike adyk is, especially for those who are hearing about

(03:13):
this for the first time right now.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
I mean we'll get into like the birth of it
in a way, but hike adk currently is a hiker
community platform also encompassed by all the education and guides
and material that hopefully one might need. As of right now,
it's geared towards high peaks hiking, and I know that
only makes up five percent of the park, but the

(03:36):
long term objective is to have a park wide information
hub everything one stop shop for all the hikers, whether
you want to engage with hikers, you want to learn
about the Adirondack history, the trails, maybe see videos, listen
to the podcasts, and so many other little things that
are nowhere else, like you know, an SMS alert system

(04:00):
for hikers, and having a place where you can see
all the shops and businesses and eating places and stuff
that hikers love to go to after the hike, anything
that you might as a hiker want to do or
be a part of in the Adirondacks. And maybe you're
a lone person and you don't want to talk to people,
and you don't want to go and have good burritos

(04:21):
at White Sex Mesks.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
I don't know anyway, that's just kind of a brief rundown.
Great So it's one a one stop shop for all
things hiking in the Adirondacks. And if you don't know,
Jonathan wrote a guidebook, So the man is pretty educated
on the trails around the Adirondack Park, not just from
having like walked on so many of them, but actually

(04:43):
researched them enough to write a very extensive guidebook that
came out last.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
Year I believe, yeah, May twenty four, right, it's over
a year old. Yeah, good Hiking the Adirondack forty six
high Peaks. But it's published by Falcon Guides, so it
is you know, it's not my own bread and butter
in a way, but it's uh, it's it's a collaboration,
I guess.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Anyway, it's a work of art. Actually, the book is
really really well done, and the amount of information in
it is astounding. So you did a great job there.
So basically the website, like a lot of this knowledge
that's on the website is a I mean, now it's
like accessible very for free on the website. You just
go there and get all this information about the different mountains,

(05:25):
in the different trails and this and that. But you
have you've already done the work to have the understanding
and the knowledge of these mountains. So now, what what
prompted you? You know, besides you made you wrote the guidebook,
But what prompted you to build this on in an
internet form. So let me let me just preface the
legal side of things here.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
The website and the information on there is not a
carbon copy of the guidebook because I think I looked
at the my contract and stuff like that, and I
can't literally just copy and paste the guidebook onto this webraite.
So it's not for anyone here, maybe be my publisher.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
It is.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
It's it's completely redone and just in a way that
actually engages readers on an internet or a visual you know,
like a phone, because like you read differently and you
explore information differently on your phone and on a computer
than you would in a book.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
So I kind of tweaked it for that.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
But yeah, so we let's go back to October twenty
twenty three. I am definitely the type of person and
this is one of my biggest faults. As you know,
I don't call myself an entrepreneur if you want.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
One of my.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
Biggest faults is a thrive off of the little winds,
and when I don't see a lot of little wins,
and I just I feel like I can lose a
lot of wind in my sale. Although I might have
a good path in front of me. I have great
ideas and vision. I work off of that, like, oh
my gosh, this is so exciting, this is great, this
is driving me.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
And if even in the middle of that I just
kind of.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
Like lose wind because it might be a large length
the thing, then like halfway through it, I can slow down,
which is pretty much what happened because I was off
to a great start and for over a year I
kind of just sat with the concept and never really
moved on it. And I think that's just I think
the biggest takeaway from that, and again this is just context,

(07:21):
is that if you guys are interested in building something,
you have an idea, you have a vision, you feel
like you want to do something too, whether that's it's
an idea or you want to help other people, or
you just have something a passion project, whatever it is,
definitely like almost treat it like you know, not to

(07:42):
get extreme here, but treat it like a child.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
Right.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
You have to you have to nurture it, You have
to continue to do these things. If you just let
it go, then it's going to I don't know, it
won't grow well.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
You have to be putting it in.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
You have to put in the hours you have to
put in the time when you don't want to, especially
when you don't want to, because it's more than yourself.
It's about you don't create something like this because of
how it makes you feel.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
You create something like this because you.

Speaker 3 (08:04):
Know it's who you are, and you know how it's
going to benefit other people. And you can look at
the greater the greater scale, like what's it going to be?
What is the purpose of it? And so if you
have a good foundation of what the purpose of something
is that you're trying to achieve, if it's a good purpose,
if it has a good end goal, then I think
that's the only thing you have to remember and always

(08:25):
bring yourself back to that original passionate idea. And so
there was a large gap of time between October twenty
twenty three and like October twenty twenty four where I
just sat on this and I had no idea what I.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Wanted to do.

Speaker 3 (08:38):
Anyway, October twenty twenty three, I was up here just now,
kind of moving back. For those who know that, I
left for about a year to go back to Ohio,
And it was in that time in Ohio where I
wrote the guide Book, which honestly was probably one of
my biggest saving graces to my desire to be here.

(09:02):
It just every single day, probably like ten hours a
day when I wasn't doing homework at the university that
I was studying at, I would just be writing this book,
like in the library there, and that just it just
kept stoking the fire every single day. It made my
longing for the mountains even greater and greater and greater.

(09:22):
And I got a visit the Adirondacks like twice while
I was gone for a year, and so it was
definitely a big break from it and taught me a
lot of things where like I was able to now
actually take time to think about these mountains rather than
just physically experience them, I got to mentally experience them,
kind of like writing letters to someone you love and

(09:43):
just really thinking about all the things that you've done
with them and what they really mean to you. And
so that guidebook really just fanned the flame for my
love for these mountains and my desire. It made me
realize that, Yep, I need to come back. I need
to do something bigger than myself, something that helps everyone
else here. How can I just embrace this community regardless

(10:08):
of the outcome, just just go full steam ahead. And
so I realized after I wrote the book that as
much as I love having this in a physical form,
I I wanted to create a digital version of it,
you know, not like a download of the guidebook, but
I wanted to take all this information that I now

(10:29):
realized that I had, and I want to be able
to create a platform where I know people want these guides,
they want to learn about the hiking in the Adirondecks
or in the High Peaks region specifically. I want to
create a website. And I was just brainstorming if I
could call it anything, what would it be called. Well,
I was thinking of many existing brands like Purity K

(10:51):
shout out to Evan, or Bike eighty K shout out
to Glenn. And you know there's other little not official brands,
but you people. You see people's bumperstick, there's like paddle ADYK,
Ski EIGHTYK. And it's like, I'm like, why do we
have a hike a DK? And It's like that just
seems so dumb, like it's such a simple thing. It's like, well,
I like hiking in the Addiron Decks, Okay, hike ADK.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
It just it just flows. Well, it sounds good. Dare
I say, hiking is more popular than any of those
other sports, but that's the reason why it doesn't exist.

Speaker 3 (11:22):
Yeah, no, I get it right, because that's not this
niche like these other things. I mean, biking is obviously
a very popular thing here. Yeah, it's smaller niche for sure.
So I just kind of sat there in the idea
and I was like, all right, well, let me do
some research and found out there is nothing like at all,
no entity, no website, there's nothing that's just hike ADK.
You know, there's t shirts that exist that just have

(11:44):
hike ADK on it or whatever. But nothing's trademarked, nothing's copyrighted.
There's no dot coms, there's you know, no official Instagram page.
And Iz was like, this is wild. So this is
the fun.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
Part of the story. I really like sharing right here.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
I was sitting on my laptop just up here while
was photographing the fall foliage in one evening and I
just typed in online the url hike ADK dot com
and this page came up that said, hey, this url
is taken. However, if you want it, email me here
at whatever and give me your idea and if I

(12:18):
like it, I'll transfer the domain to you. And I
was like, that's very strange. So it's very busy. Yeah,
So I emailed this guy who lived in California. He
did live out here, but he moved to California, and
within five minutes, I hitch you up. Within five minutes,
I got a response and he's like, Jonathan, I love this.
This is exactly what I was hoping the r would
go for. I had the same like vision myself, but

(12:38):
I was never I never did anything about it. But
I was like, in case someone comes along, you know,
call this divine if you want. So I looked it up,
sent the guy an email, and he gave me the
transfer code and I obtained it all within like ten minutes,
even stumbling upon the url. And then I got me
taking like, okay, let me see if hike aderondack stock

(13:00):
comments taken, and there was there was, it didn't exist.
So I also then claimed to that one for a
dollar twenty cents a month.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
There you go.

Speaker 3 (13:09):
So now I and I tied them together so when
you search each domain, they go to the same place.
And so that right there gave me a lot of
wind in my sale. So then I just started blueprinting
and thinking about it and came up with a pretty
good idea. And originally it did start out as a
nonprofit idea and a bunch of these concepts that I
don't even remember now, But what I originally wanted it

(13:30):
to be is not what it ended up being. And
I feel like that's a lot of projects, a lot
of things that you start sure because you know, like
when I started my YouTube, I was honestly inspired by
people who didn't hike. They were just vloggers on YouTube,
and my end goal was to have a large YouTube channel, when.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
In reality, I didn't even see that.

Speaker 3 (13:51):
I was just recording the like just the Adirondacks, Like
I wasn't even thinking about the Adirondack crowd. I was
just thinking about, like, oh, I want to be a
fam logger, eh. But and you know, I mean like
Casey Knys Dad, like Logan Paul stuff like I wanted
to be like a vlogger. But then like I never
got any when like I never had any like viral videos.

(14:13):
I never was able to like maintain that, so I
didn't become that sure, and things become what they become
naturally as long as you keep doing it like it is,
you know, I think I even look at like the
Lake Placid Niner compared to when I first started that
in like the very first I mean it's like six seven,
twenty eighteen.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
What year is when it started? What years right now?
Twenty twenty five? Yeah, so like basically seventeen years old now,
which is absolutely crazy older than that, honestly, but when
you when I think about like those early days and
then kind of like what it became both on social
media in terms of relevance, in terms of the benefit
that it created, like was definitely never on the radar
in any capacity. And then I even this podcast, Dude,

(14:55):
I wrote this. I started this podcast because I wanted
to tell a story. I came at it from like
storyteller documentary, the documentary angle with the first season of
like let Me Tell the forty six in an audio
form as a story, and then that has now merged,
like grown, it's grown into what it has become, which
is completely it's like related, of course from what it

(15:18):
started with, but it's it's evolved very naturally, And dude,
hi KDK is gonna evolve naturally as well, so everybody's
seen that, and it's amazing seeing Like from what I
remember we were talking about when we did dial Nippletop
Blake and Colvin, was that twenty twenty three? Was that
twenty twenty two? I don't remember one point twenty three,
so was yeah, around that time we started those brainstorming

(15:39):
lots of stuff. I mean, we talked about a million
things on that hike. But it's amazing that it's a
now a hike kdk is. It's out there, it exists,
and you've done an amazing job. But it's amazing to
see how things do progress and evolve very organically when
you just keep going and let it and give it
the give it the ability to like become what it's
going to become without forcing too much, right, because that

(16:02):
allows it to be what it's supposed to be.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
Sure, So since we're you know, just get like, you know,
ten to fifteen minutes into this episode here, let me
just preface for the listener before I might lose you
because I can talk a lot.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Let me just say this.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
If you love anything about the atronic community, it does
not have to be the Facebook forms. Okay, if you
love engaging with hikers on whatever platform you're on, Instagram, Strava, Facebook,
All Trails, whatever, whatever you did you know and you
don't maybe you don't even like social media and you
just want to go hike.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
You don't like the social side of things.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
It doesn't matter regardless if you crave, if you crave
a desire to talk with like minded people or to
just learn more history of these mountains, this platform is
for you. I encourage you to just give it a chance.
Go check it out, Go to hike Adka dot com

(16:58):
or hike aarondex dot com. Look it up, download the app.
And my encouragement would be to, like I said, try
it out, give it a shot, embrace it because there's
a lot of little things in there, and what it
is now is not what it's going to be long
term from now. This is just like the beginning, like
there was the conception, but now it just got birthed, right,

(17:18):
it's going to.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
It's a baby, Oh yeah, just a little baby.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
What I have in my mind here, like if I
could stop my fingers and have this become what I
eventually wanted to become. I mean, I'm just so excited.
I'm just excited. I love that you need to have
that passion.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
I think it's anyone that knows you or has followed
you or has actually watched your journey knows that you
have that passion. Quite frankly, I know, you get a
lot of hate on the on the internet from the
world because those people don't know you, and they know
like one percent of your story.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
And the stuff that they do know is stuff that
maybe it was who I was seven or eight years ago, like,
oh my gosh, hey, is that that one guy who
camped on this and did this in the mountains? Oh?

Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah, that guy sucks.

Speaker 3 (17:58):
And it's like, oh, thank you for thinking about what
I did on my fifth high peak that I ever
did in twenty seventeen when you would have been what like.

Speaker 1 (18:05):
Seventeen years old and I lived. Yeah, Oh my gosh,
I don't even know. So that's a thing, you know, people,
And that's you know, that's what I'm saying, Like, so
many people give you crap, but ultimately, he they don't
know you, but b it's like they're they're literally judging
you from like when you were a.

Speaker 3 (18:21):
Kid in high school. There are people out there, which
is so bizarre. As adults. There are people. That's right.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
It feels like bullying. But there are people out there who.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
Think that I still live in Ohio, that I came
from lots of money, that my family owns tons of
property up here, and that I've never actually like lived here,
and that I'm just I don't know, trust fund, I
don't know why people have this idea of me. Like
what I'm saying, no one lives in sure, I know,
like my whole family, Like I'm the only bloodlined relative

(18:52):
who's ever lived in the state of New York, and
like I don't live in Ohio anymore. Now, I will
say this one thing that I am trying to transition.
And there's stuff like hi k ADK was birthed while
I still was, like I lived in Ohio for this year.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
Right and so cool.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
When I created this, I had no address in New
York for this nine month period. So that's why hike ADK.
As of right now, it appears to be an Ohio
business in the Adironecks, which does not have a good
perspective like oh's as an eyebrow. Yeah yeah, who's this
out of state guy trying to come up here? Oh,

(19:28):
and he's giving away an Airbnb. Oh, by the way,
that might transition me into the ultimate adironic giveaway that
we're launching right now. But before that, yeah, so I
am going to be transitioning the LLC so because I
want this to be in New York based everything, and
there are talks where eventually I might transition into a nonprofit.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
I can't promise that, but I am really trying to.

Speaker 3 (19:54):
I really do want to benefit the park and utilize
this love channel that in like a funnel and aim
at towards the correct place, not like for me, not
necessarily my gain, although that you know, there are obviously
benefits that come to you starting a business. But the

(20:14):
main thing here is I really want to do the
best job that I can from obviously my perspective on
how can I contribute, how can I help, what can
I do to give back? And so that's what my
ultimate goal here is. Now, this ad around a giveaway
tell us for until July twelfth. It's pretty simple. You

(20:39):
can go to hike kdkid do come and see it
on the giveaway tab. You can go to the Instagram
and see it. But we are giving away a nearly
all expenses paid here. The Adurondeck for a weekend in
this insane airbnb in Wilmington. We're giving away like three
hundred dollars in gear credit to high Peak Cyclery and
dinner on us.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
At the pub.

Speaker 3 (20:59):
That's all one person, all of those things, and you
could win it. You can bring up as many guests
as you want, you know that the airbnb allows, which
is like six or seven people. And then weird, there's
other winners, like you can still receive gift cards of
high peak cyclery and food and to the hike adk
merch shop and stuff like that. So that's there and

(21:22):
it's completely free to enter, no pretty necessary.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
That's a pretty awesome giveaway. I mean, look at what
you just said, free lodging for the weekend for potentially
you and many other people, three hundred dollars of geared
high peak cycler at dinner. Like that's as a pretty
awesome way to kick kick things off here at hike
k ADK. Now, speaking of kicking things off, how has
so you what was the official day that you launched
this where it went out into the world.

Speaker 3 (21:48):
Officially there would have been July twelfth, so like Toursday,
July twelfth, I was thinking about.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
Doing it Friday at the thirteenth.

Speaker 3 (21:54):
Oh, but I was just like, every single day, this
isn't out there. I was just like suffering because for
those who might not know, I was waiting for weeks
and weeks and weeks for the mobile app to get
approved by.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
Apple, and so I was just waiting on that. Yeah,
I got it. It makes sense. So it's all as of
recording this podcast, it is not even a week since
it's been out. Also, Friday the thirteenth was Friday the
thirteenth in March twenty twenty was when the Adirondack Campfire
Story at First Adroni Campfire Story episode was released. Was

(22:25):
also the day the world shut down from COVID. So
I think, actually the Campfire Stories is really what brought
the pain onto planet Earth on that Friday the thirteenth.
So I'm glad you didn't launch it on Friday thirtey.
We don't need that. Juju Hi, I'm jen.

Speaker 4 (22:39):
After years of feeling sorry for myself post injury and
frustrated by my limitations, I knew it was time to
make a change. I didn't know where to begin until
I heard about Great Range Athlete on forty six to
forty six podcast. Not only did I build strength, but
I gained confidence and mental toughness through the program while
making lifelong friends. But I knew there was more untapped

(23:02):
potential to unlock, and I have continued building on mental
and physical strength with Seek to Do More. I am
currently on day seventy of my journey. I have lost weight,
drop two pant sizes, and can rock with the best
of them. But the greatest accomplishment is that I have
learned I can do hard things.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
If you're like Jen and frustrated about your performance in
the mountains, whether it's following an injury or maybe just
getting a little bit out of shape, and you want
to rebuild that confidence and that ability on the trail,
the Great Range Athlete program might be exactly what you're
looking for to help build that fitness and build that
mental toughness so you can have the best adventures yet.
Sign up at Great Range aathlete dot com and I'll

(23:43):
see you on the team. How has the initial reaction
been from your perspective now that we're you know, past
the initial weekend here, a majority positive.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
You know, I think if I were to give myself
a rotten tomato score. Sure, I'd probably put it like
an eighty seven percent. It's pretty good on rotten tomatoes.
So definitely, like there was, you know, some pushback by
people who are probably like lesser informed on who I
am and what I'm actually trying to do.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
Sure, the same people we were probably just relying too,
who think that you're still It's okay, they're not my demographic.
You know, there's also, dude, there is also an element
you know, there's a protection for the adirund Neck Park
that people have, but there's also a lack of like
bigger picture understanding. I think a lot of people seem
to fail. But it all comes, in my opinion, even

(24:30):
the hate for that comes from a place that wants
things protected. But there is also a point where some
people I have found that those same people who come
at it from like protecting the place and making sure
it remains pure, are the same people who take that
vibe of like your footprints are a problem, but my
footprints aren't a problem, if that makes sense. Like I

(24:51):
see that they're typically the same people or they have
the same kind of vibe about them, So you're obviously
going to get the negative and people, But overall of
that was a good right.

Speaker 3 (25:01):
We want to discredit some of their perspectives. And I
don't mean a hike DK, I just mean on the
addiron next, because they do have a right sort of
mad at like the Airbnb community.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
Well, they're coming out from a place, They're coming at
it from a great place. But sometimes it's sometimes these
opinions fail to lack bigger picture understanding ultimately.

Speaker 3 (25:22):
So that's why I'm not going to just like wallow
in those things. You know. Obviously, criticism and stuff like
that can always not feel good, no matter whether it's
positive or negative, sure and whatever way, and you know
some people will just say, oh, well all feedback is positive.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
It's like, well, I mean, okay, well there's some feedback
you get that you know, to ignore said feedback.

Speaker 3 (25:44):
So yeah, overall, so the overall launch was pretty good,
and I will say I want to see lots of
app engagement.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
I really do.

Speaker 3 (25:50):
Because one of the primary reasons for the app, okay,
the Hike eighty k app, I realized in the process
of creating this because the website came first, and then
I realized I could doubt I could create this app,
And what ended up happening is turning into this turned
into almost like an atoronic social media where I could

(26:13):
now create my own threads, my own forms, in my
own space for the hiking community, where now you don't
just have, for example, a basic Facebook profile. And I'm
not trying to take away like that around ic Jail's
condition page on Facebook, I actually think is pretty decent.
Like when you compared that to like the back Country
Hiker's page, I don't even visit that anymore.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah, I don't. I feel like the I also would
add the aspiring at around a forty six ers. I
don't look at either of them. That one has a
much better vibe than the backcountry page. The back Country
page has such a negative and also yeah feel to it.

Speaker 3 (26:47):
I think that's just because seventy percent of the people
in there are bots or people that aren't actually active
on social media.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
It's very possible, but ultimately ultimately having you know, obviously
Facebook is what it is, and most people are on
Facebook personally. Find what I like about what you did
with the hike eighty k app and the fact that
there is an app is compared to Facebook. So let's
say you have Facebook, everyone goes on Facebook a million
times a day. I mean I don't, but many people do.
But ultimately, if you have an app, like your app,

(27:16):
when you click into it and go into it, I
feel like you want people to feel like they're now
entering the Adirondack Park, like you're trying to capture that
same feeling that people from Buffalo, from New York, from Massachusetts,
from Ohio, like all these people when they when they
cross that now entering Adirondack Park sign like having your
own app, that is that is really is That's what

(27:39):
you're capturing.

Speaker 3 (27:40):
When you see that that you enter the Atonic Parks,
And I want that to be on the touch, like
right at the tips of your hand, And that's what
you want people to feel, right like people like you know,
we go back to what we were just talking about,
how people have this feeling, this need to protect this
place and so many people call the Adroonic.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
They think of the Adironic Park is like this feeling
of home even though they've never lived here, and they
can't quite explain why they feel that way. It's because
they have such a connection to it, which is again
where the you know, we're talking about the hating where
this that stems from that, So it comes from a
good place. It's not always like you know, explained in
a good way in my opinion, but ultimately you want

(28:16):
people to feel that connection with when they go into it,
and no Facebook group will ever ever capture that, like
something like what you've built any sort of app where
it's like, this is only about hiking in the Adirondack Park.
I want to trans not transform, But what's the word
I'm looking for. I want you to I want to

(28:38):
like move you to the Adironic Park mentally, when you
click in this app, even if for just a minute
you're at work, you know, when you're in New York
City in your higher eyse and you click into that
and like for a minute, you feel like you're, you know,
surrounded by the trees. And I think that's what you.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
Can The more people that get on the app, that's
the thing is like it it can kind of seem
a little boring when it's just like, you know, there's
only maybe a one hundred people on it because they're
not all hiking, right, and they're not It's like maybe
only two of those people will come up for the weekend.
But that's why I encourage you guys to download the
app if you are a Weekend Warrior or you use

(29:12):
the trail conditions page. Again, not trying to replace it,
because I think the more stuff that's out there, the
more information that's accessible, is great. But I want to
create this place that's a dedicated space for the Aurondot hikers.
Like you can customize your portfolio. You can tell people
about yourself. You know, where you love to hike, how
much you've hiked, your favorite trail snacks, and where you're

(29:34):
from and yeah, or you could keep your information private.
But on Hiking Kate you can also do a hiking
partner outreach. You can share stuff about various challenges. Even
I have an Adirondock Photography Police in there for the
people who well, they like to hike here, but they're
not trying the peak bag.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
That's fine.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
This this app isn't just for you know, quote unquote peakbackers.
It's for anyone that likes to recreate in the Adirondacks
on their foot.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
There's not going to be a pabble forum or for
sure on there you know now yet, not until it
grows in a couple of years and you just take
over all outdoor recreation in the ADK Park.

Speaker 3 (30:08):
Yeah, you know, and there's there's a lot of fun
things that are only on the app that will only
be there. So again it's completely free. Just try it out,
check it out, and if you don't like it, then
you don't have to like it, and you didn't lose anything.
If you don't lose anybody know.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
The information there, the website, the way that you've put
it together, I'm very impressed by. And I've obviously seen
it from the start here and I remember the one
that when you showed when you showed me like the
first obviously it wasn't done yet, but the first when
I went from like zero to sixty in terms of
like what you had done, I was. I remember being floored, like,
holy crap, this is absolutely incredible. Look at all this

(30:42):
information you have on here, and this is just there
in one place. And I think that's really what lacks.
I think that. I mean, that's a big reason I,
like I wrote my last book, they had around forty
six and eighteen hikes, Like I wanted all this information
in one single place so then people don't have to,
you know, get a little information here, a little information oh,
then they heard this on this Facebook form, then they
heard that they read this on this blog. No, like,

(31:04):
let's get all the information they want in one single place,
and high KDK is doing that, and you have so
much room to grow with it, because yeah, you started
in the High Peaks because you're a one man band
doing this, and you're going to grow into different sections
of the park and eventually, I mean you'll have every
area of the park pretty logged on.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
That, right, So actually, here's a good a good transition.
So I've created this all on my own, which means
anything that's in my mind is what this will be
a culmination of.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
And so since my.

Speaker 3 (31:36):
Greatest quote unquote knowledge base is in the High Peaks region,
that's why it's starting out that way. Now, that's obviously
a lot of people here.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
Yeah, but I do you've hiked all over It's true.
It's like give yourself a little more. Well, you still
have more experience in all over the park than most
people do period, let alone the High Peaks. I get
sure I have.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
I mean I started out in the southern region hiking,
but all the guides and everything eventually will the way
they're laid out, the way you can surf and explore.
The park is going to it's going to change. It's
not just going to be tabs. Click on the mountain
you want and there's a look at a full guide
because that's there are fifteen hundred mountains in the park.
I'm not here about to sit down and create fifteen

(32:20):
hundred manual guides when there's a lot of stuff that
you can do and pull from other places. And that's
why hiker DK is a community resource.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
I want.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
This is about the atorono hiker. So the more you participate,
the more data that you put in, the more photos
that you share, the more opportunity there is to grow
this platform and to bring more information and education to
other people. And I want them to create this. I
want them to evolve this platform because I just wanted
to put it out there, and now I want the

(32:50):
hikers to engage with it, give their feedback, and just
help it become what you guys ultimately need. Now my
bigger picture for Hike eighty K, I don't know the
current limitations at this moment. Okay, now you could say
disguy's the limit. However, there are there are future integrations

(33:10):
that I am not educated on. With how they will
work or interface with the website or with the app.
But I am working with a team of people who
do know those answers. I mentioned this in my most
recent podcast episode, which was actually it's a private one,
and one thing I mentioned is this top secret thing

(33:34):
that I'm working on, and it's not totally secret, like
I can tell you guys what my grand scope is.
But I want to be able to have an interactive
map that just is just like WHOA, this is obviously
where I'm going to go to get my information and
to look. It's going to be unlike anything else it's
going to have it's hard to explain. Like there's a
currently existing map out there that I really love called

(33:56):
Natural Atlas, and it's very similar to that, Like you
can hover over the trails and actually just like see
that hiking trail section. You can click on the mountain
and see all this information on the mountain and pictures
from the mountain.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
And I want to.

Speaker 3 (34:07):
Have all the geo space stuff that you could possibly
imagine on this map, Like you can even see where
the floating logs are, the bogs are, the ladders, and
actually see like, oh, here's these obstacles and people can
even like let's say the water levels are high. Someone
can then go to the map, click on the map
and say how like hey, is there something you want

(34:28):
to inform other people about? They can click on that
and it will automatically generate like a temporary warning notification.
So you can look at the map and you know,
click a table layer that says like warnings or cautions
and it's like, hey, a hiker said Indian passbrook was
too high or in person said bridges out, sure, these

(34:48):
things so you can actually see this interaction of the hikers, right.
So the more people that use it, then the better
it becomes.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
Yeah, they're helping one another understand. You know, it's like
what you're doing on trail conditions, who's been here, but
it's a more real time like hey, I was just
at this river crossing. It's really high FYI. You know
that's absolutely incredible, and that helps people to again help
one another have a good adventure out in the ironic part.

Speaker 3 (35:14):
And then I want to be able to have layerings
on the maps that show beyond what you can currently
look at, because there's it's very complex to know what
snow depth looks like. If you want to go and
look at a snow depth map, and even the good
ones that you can find, they're not terribly accurate. Like
what I use right now is the Weather Channel and
they show the previous twenty four hour precipitation, which I

(35:35):
think is actually pretty accurate. It does a really good
job to show me where did it hammer last night
without realizing it, because it could snow sixteen inches up
on Redfield, but down by Marcy Dam there was no precipitation.
And I want to be able to create a highly
advanced snowmap, snow depth map that can also there's a
lot of algorithms that goes into this, but it's not impossible.

(35:58):
But I even wanted to be able to show so
lingering snow depth in the mud season. There's a lot
of geospatial engineering there required for that, such as solar radiation,
understanding the actual topography and the sole radiation, by the way,
is where like what percentage of a certain side of
that mountain actually gets sunlight? What percentage of the day,

(36:19):
and then knowing the temperature and all these things, and
based off of hey, what's the theory, how much snow
does that actually think is there right now? And then
it has a hypothetical projection. So it's a weird thing,
but I want that because imagine being able to open
up a map and be like, okay, where do where
I still need snow shoes?

Speaker 1 (36:37):
People are still going to be hiking in this pretty toutely.
And to be able to avoid bringing snow shoes for
an entire hike when you definitely didn't need them, or
the opposite, you didn't bring them and you definitely did
need them. That's a massive piece of information that you
can't really get granted, Like some of this would would
what's the word, some of us would lose the unknownstra

(37:02):
element a little bit, but at the same time pros
and cons.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
But it's that unknown that actually causes a majority of
the rescue. Sure, Like that's how I want and I
get you looked at. I'm not trying to prevent rescuesier,
but like, I think you're giving information if a lot
of people find it annoying having to just spend so
much time trying to research stuff, when if there was
a much simpler way to be able to access that
information at the touch of a button and be like, Okay,

(37:26):
this where I'm going. What do I need to know
and you just somehow if I'm able to somehow create
that where it's so easy to just know everything you
are curious about for your height, no matter where you
are level wise. But this also brings me into weather.
I don't want just a map. I don't want just
a map, but I also want to have my own

(37:47):
weather page where kind of like mountain forecast right, But
this doesn't have to be in a map version. It
could be, it might get tied to it. But I
also want to just have hi KDK the weather and
these people a constently going to mountain forecasts like hey,
what's the summit conditions like? But I want to generate
and or like completely from the ground up through the
people that I'm partnering with to create a all new weather

(38:11):
source that provides weather data for these mountains.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
And again, this is something I can't do with myself.

Speaker 3 (38:18):
I'm going to be possibly if I'm not a nonprofit
at the time of when this, like these large projects commence,
I'm going to hopefully and all this stuff is, like
I say, right now, this is what I want it
to become. I can't guarantee any of this because I'm
going down a path that I have no experience with.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (38:36):
This is just a vision that I have and I
don't know what it will turn into or what will
come of it.

Speaker 1 (38:40):
So this is kind of like a vision that's solving
problems though that puture have who are out in the
mountains here.

Speaker 3 (38:47):
And what it might take is an overwhelming amount of
support from the outside community. Sure, and what that means
is in order to you know, for example, if I
need donations, Okay, I am not a nonprofit and one
of the things that I realize launching is I can't
ask people to donate this And I at first I

(39:07):
was like, oh, it's you know, like to me, this
is an Adirondack thing that people are giving back to it.
It's actually helping and where there is some truth to that,
I realized, Okay, I can't do that. So I would
want to be a nonprofit if I were to ever
do that. However, if I'm not, what I can do
is I can use an existing nonprofit that has an
arm that can do that gives money that was given

(39:31):
to them to someone else who's not right. So, for example,
the forty six Ers nonprofit, they have a giving extension
where they could get money and then they can give
it to the Tahawiest Land trail builders who aren't nonprofit.
I think I could be wrong that they're not nonprofit,
but let's just say the trail building crew is a

(39:52):
nonprofit is a for profit business, then they can donate
to them, right Because the idea here is I if
people are going to be donating to something, then a
I wanted to be a complete atronic based on profit
where they are also benefiting through a commission base. But
then also you know, tax right off and all these

(40:13):
other things. So that's the idea, and it will require
a lot of funding. So keep an eye out for
that in the future, and that will happen this year.
That at some point in time this year that project
will be blueprinted, the talks will have been talked, and
if it's able to happen, if I get the go ahead,
because there's going to be a lot of a lot

(40:33):
of pieces of the puzzle that I have to put together,
But just keep an eye out, embrace the community, share
it with someone I You know, there's probably a lot
of things here that I'm not explaining well, but for
whatever it is, just go to hikit k dot com
or download the app and just see for yourself.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
You're going into uncharted terry axiaries both as an individual
and as a platform. But you're ultimately doing it, obviously
to solve a whole lot of problems because people like yourself,
people like myself, like we get asked the same same
ten questions I feel like on Instagram before every weekend,
especially in the winter. So you're clearly, you clearly know

(41:18):
what problems people have and what problems people need solve,
need to be solved. Yeah, and you're trying to solve that.
So nothing but nothing but respect and kudos to you.
They are going after this sort of thing that's difficult.
Now you've said a lot of the vision for what
you are looking to grow into hike ADK, So tell
me right now. Let's talk about right now in terms

(41:38):
of the app. What can I expect on the app?
I know you can download it in the app store,
take me through and take the listeners through what is
actually on there as we speak. Yeah, so I want
hike e dkch.

Speaker 3 (41:50):
You also be its own engaging, have its own engaging content,
so I obviously put out like my YouTube videos. However,
even though I'm like the founder quote unquote of this,
I want hig KDK to also be putting out their
own things where it doesn't have to be tied to me.
So the first thing that you see when you get
on the app are all of the blogs and reports that.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
Hig kdk might be putting out.

Speaker 3 (42:13):
It might be a hiker like a story, a history
story on a blog, or it could be the high
Peaks weekly report for those who are subscribed to me
on YouTube. I have in the past put out high
Peak reports on my YouTube channel, but I realized the
amount of work and the inconsistency. It's just it's not
good for me. And so it's so much easier for
me to take all of the current existing trail reports

(42:36):
from dozens and dozens of other hikers and then curate
that into an actual, like hiker based report system. So
it's not just my perspective in my opinion, but this
is really what's happening, and here's the ultimate projection of
what might come in the future. So a fourteen day like, hey,
here's what's happened in the past couple days, and here's what's
going to happen the next week or whatever, and so

(42:58):
hi DK. If you hike here every single weekend, this
is for you. So that's the first thing that you
see when you get on there. Then you have the
forum where you have shared, you know, share your hike,
the trail conditions, Adirondack photography, and we're going to be
putting various forums as time goes on for other hiking regions,
maybe other challenges, and you can engage with people who
are focusing on that specific thing. And then you have

(43:20):
the Explore page, which you just right now is the
high Peaks, and so what you can do on there
is click on the adiron Deck map and explore all
of the comprehensive guides on all forty six high peaks.
Some of them are just individually, some of them are grouped,
but it's like my guidebook, as we said, incarnate there.
And then there is the public podcast, the Hike ADK Show,

(43:44):
which you can listen right there on the app, but
unless you have another platform that you listen to podcasts on,
it's also there.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
And then there's a bunch of other little things.

Speaker 3 (43:52):
We have a massive prep and planning section where you
can go in there and learn everything about the weather
and seasons, safety gear, and preparation, just the planning, rescues
and emergencies, all the rules and regulations, other websites and resources,
and even a hiking checklist. But there's going to be
a lot more things to come that we're going to
want to integrate in there. And then something that was

(44:12):
an original thought for me is a completely free subscription system,
a SMS subscription system where it's not like you're just
getting bombarded with marketing, but it's specifically designed as someone
who like myself, who lives here and who's out in
the peaks. Often I am consistently focused on what are
the weather conditions like out there, and so if there's

(44:34):
like trail flooding, or a bridge is out, or there's
something that hikers need to be aware about within twenty
four hours of them going out, I have this alert
system where I can then send the text message to
people who signed up. So like if I'm watching the
snow map and I see that although it was clear
today and it's clear tomorrow, but overnight snowclouds rolled into

(44:57):
the high peaks and they're just rolling over those mouths.
I've seen it over and over again where they just
get hammered. But no one's reporting that because no one's
going up there. So if I'm able to actually see
this and say, oh, shoot, it's a Thursday, hikers are
going to be coming out on Friday or Saturday, and
there's going to be some new trail breaking, I can
send out this text system and say, hey, alert, twelve

(45:18):
to sixteen inches just fell above four thousand feet in
the Central High Peaks region. Prepare come prepared for trail
breaking or whatever, right, So I can.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
Put that out there.

Speaker 3 (45:27):
And that's obviously if only I recognize or see something,
so I might not catch everything. So you can totally
sign up for that. Then there's going to be the
Hiker Hotline, which right now is it kind of exists,
but it kind of doesn't exist. But ultimately I want
to integrate the ability for hikers to converse with people

(45:49):
who actually are here, hikers like you, James and like me,
and other people who have been accredited as experts, almost
like the what is it the out of have the
forty six ers have the correspondent program? Sure right, so
not like that, but it's like, hey, like any other
social media messaging, you can just go there, ask a question.

(46:10):
You want some beta for this hike you want to
plan out your trip, it's there another thing. You know,
you got little things like the white Face webcam. I
can just open the app, click on it and be like, oh,
what's it like on the top of a high peak
right now?

Speaker 1 (46:23):
Oh wow, look at that.

Speaker 3 (46:24):
It's sixty two degrees in broken clouds on the somewhat
of white Face.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
Which I thought was an absolutely amazing little touch to it. So,
you know, talk about worth downloading the app literally just
to quit really quickly look at the white Face trail
camera and just right there on your phone, you're sitting
at your desk at work, you just open the app,
leave the white Face trail camera on, and it's like
you're just staring at the top of white Face while

(46:47):
you're working. That alone, was it? That was a nice touch?
Nice touch.

Speaker 3 (46:50):
Over the years they had issues with their webcam. Yeah,
I know, but now I think they figured it out,
which is good timing. HU And then there is you know,
and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna like, I guess
I'll shamelessly plug this year. There is a high KDK
Pro membership, but a membership is not required to access
any of the major features and information like, you don't

(47:13):
need it for the forums, you don't need it for
the guides or information or education. It's very small things
that I've tried to be like, hey, listen, the membership
is only going to apply for people who want certain things. Sure,
so it's only it only applies to wants, not needs,
if that makes sense. So things that you don't need,
like you don't uh, things that you might bonuses, bonus

(47:35):
stuff that does not like actually revolve around what the
purpose of the platform is. So we have like the
high KK Show exclusive episodes, right, so you can get
the exclusive episodes there, bonus podcast episodes. Okay, yeah, you
also this is like some of these are obviously like
little quirky things, but there are people who get like
excited about these ideas. There's an Adirondack themed verification badge

(47:58):
that you can get on the forum. For being a
pro member, you get a free sticker patch, you get
access to the Hiker Hotline in the little format that
it is right now, but then obviously ultimately what it becomes.
You get those exclusive podcast episodes. There is a members
only forum, which people would be like, well, what are
people going to be posting on that? Well, there's a
lot of things that I don't do. Are they sorry.

(48:21):
There's a lot of things that I don't share about
just publicly. For example, maybe when I hike at a
time that might be more controversial, or if I go
up a bushwhack, or I go and do something. Since
I already know that the pro Membership Forum is going
to have a much smaller demographic, And when you think
about who that demographic is, it's not the people that
are like, oh man, we're all going to go do

(48:43):
that now. It's more about the people who who like
those exciting nuances. They want, you know, they're like, oh,
that's that's really cool.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
You know, stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (48:54):
So I want to share my you know, my more
personal stuff. So it's like if you did something or
you had an experience. The member for the Membership Forum
is more or less just for the people who have
something that they just want to want more.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
Yeah, I guess you don't need Also, the amount of
work that you've put into this website and the amount
of information that's on the website, don't you don't need
to shy away from the fact that you have a
membership place. That's one of the things that just drives
me nuts about people's vibe with the Adirondack Park. They'll
have no problem giving twenty dollars to park their car

(49:31):
at the Adirondack Mountain Club, They'll have no problem spending
money here, spending money there. But for some reason, anything
involving the Adirondacks, if someone is making money off of it,
which is literally every business, every every airbnb, every hotel,
every restaurant everywhere in town, you're making money off the
Adroonic Park. Like, the amount of things you've given to

(49:52):
people for literally zero dollars on this website is astounding.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
So from me to you, you don't need to you
don't need to shy away from the fact that you
have a pro membership where you're giving them even more
stuff that again they don't need. They're just bonuses. And
what is it like, was it five bucks a month?

Speaker 1 (50:10):
For now?

Speaker 3 (50:10):
It's five bucks a month nothing eventual it's gonna go
up to six ninety nine.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
Consider oh discount five dollars a month. People to support
the man who has given you unbelievable amounts of information
on this website and just fun, Like the forums are
fun and I already see that they're going to grow
and have be an awesome spot all the stuff you've done.
So anyways, don't don't feel like you need to shy
away from that because nobody has a problem dropping twenty

(50:33):
bucks to park the Adironnack Mountain Club. Yeah, that's all
I'm gonna say.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
Yeah, So there's a little bit more like nuances, like
you get access to overward programs, you get entry into
members only giveaways, which could be more discounts or not discounts,
but like gift cards and free stuff.

Speaker 1 (50:49):
Yeah, and there's gonna be more stuff in members in
the members section. Like that's it, and that's that's the point.
If you want more support, sure.

Speaker 3 (50:58):
And then one thing that I'm really stoked for it
is the hiker hot spot. Hiker hotspots, Well, I mean
that's pretty self explanatory, but it's like I want to
be able. I don't want to just partner with anyone
who wants it. I want to actually like put real
recommended places for you to shop, gear for you to eat,
for you to stay, and not just like in the

(51:19):
Lake Placid region. This could be you know, by region
and you can see like, hey, here are the places
that we recommend you stay that's been really great for hikers.
Places to eat. You know, you want pizza, you want burgers.
These are the places we recommend the hotspot for hikers,
and they're vetted by hikers, not just my own personal opinion.

(51:39):
You know, I'm not going to tell you you want pizza,
go to maple Fields because maple Fields actually has the
best pizza. I learned last night. Okay, I'm not kidding.
If you want to, if you want a whole pie
and you don't want to break the bank for fifteen
ninety nine for cheese pizza, okay, fifteen ninety nine, maple
Fields and Raybrook order it well done because for some reason,
a majority of pizza places undercook their pizza because it

(52:00):
kind of gets floppy. But like, they are the closest
thing to New York style pizza up here.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
Pizza's pizza.

Speaker 3 (52:07):
I'll take any slice of pizza, but yes, pizza is pza.
Is pizza pizza better than zero pizza? If you try
a slice of maple Fields and then you compare it
to Stuart's, Stuarts is great pizza pie.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
Stuart's is a fantastic count most most most of the
pizza in Lay Placid isn't what I would call the
fantastic by any stretch. But at the same time, you
give anyone a slice of pizza, they're going to eat
the slice of pizza I will say, or who you are,
what you say?

Speaker 3 (52:33):
My ultimate like long term, like if I I have
I do have a dream, a retirement dream here and
I'm just going to share this because no one's going
to take the idea because no one's going to do
it like I'm going to do it.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
But I would.

Speaker 3 (52:45):
Love to own a pizzaia up in Lake Lacid. I
know what I would call it all meeting, I know,
but like not to spark hate here, but like, it
doesn't take a lot to make a pizza better than
most of the pizza that's up here. People will say, yeah,
it's good pizza, But if you seriously, guys, if you've
been to New Haven, Connecticut, if you've been to the city,

(53:07):
if you've been to anywhere outside of the Adirondacks to
get pizza, it is.

Speaker 1 (53:13):
Pizza can get so much better than what's up here.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
And again, not the big to give hate to the
people that have been working here hard making pizzas for
twenty thirty years.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
Okay, like it is. It's there.

Speaker 3 (53:24):
I'm here for it. I eat there because I mean
it's all I have what's around. But you know, everyone
has their favorite place to get pizza, right, Maybe that's Stuart's,
Maybe that's Bozzis, Maybe it's for Telly's. Maybe it's Maplefields. Well,
Stuart's is like Maplefield.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
The gas station pizzas are really like in a pinch,
you're obviously going to go to an actual pizzaia, for sure.

Speaker 3 (53:44):
You know who I think actually has the best gas
station pizza though, Stuarts. It's not Maplefields. It's not Stuart's.
I think the best in the Adirondacks, not in the
Trilat's area. But the best Adirondack gas station pizza comes
from the Pottersville Mini Mart. Okay, not familiar there, and
it switched hands quite a bit, but the pizza stayed
the same. Go there and order a chicken bacon ranch.

(54:06):
Oh my goodness, I'm ever going to order that flavor.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
I was going to ever go into that is. Oh
it is so good. Here's a here's another gas station gym.
If the biggest sandwich in the Adirondack Park is in
Wilmington at the little gap, the little real like the
gas station, the little supermarket. Yeah, it's the gas station
in Wilmington. It is the biggest sandwich, the most amount

(54:32):
of meat, the largest size that you like talking dag
would I don't know what what does that mean? Okay,
it's fine. Is that a side that's cartoon comic extra character? Yeah,
not familiar. And then there's a sandwich that was named
after him, gotcha, Yeah, the little supermarket in Wilmington. I
also used to be in the sandwich industry. I worked
at Subway for two years when I was in high school.
So like I was, I'm kind of an expert. I

(54:53):
was a professional. I'm retired on the bottom. Now you're here.
That's it, dude, I retired. You know, I want to
spend more time with my family, so I left the industry.
But ultimately, yeah, it's that's the biggest sandwich in the
Anoroic park. You could have been you could have been
running the subway and you know what I just I
could have gotten like free parking. No, no, I still
would have called made sure you got towed. There's signs

(55:14):
everywhere up there. If you're not a customer, you will
be toad but anyway, I've ever seen anyone get tod
though nobody actually gets towed. Yeah, Jay's ticket. Jay's town
busy for that well, although every time I yeah, anyways,
Jay is always out towing cars or mostly towing broken
down cars. But I've been I don't think you'll ever
actually get toad in the town of Lake Placid.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
You will get tickets though, real freaking fast. With shout
out to Mike Wheeler. She's the best parking contended operator.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
Don't get in the fight with him, all right, shout
out to shout out to him, so I know he's
back to hike ADK and he ran on a sandwich
and a pizza tangent. They're important topics to discuss, though,
a very important topics to discuss. So, hike ADK it
is launched. It is out there in the world. It
is available to be used. What do you want to
tell people?

Speaker 3 (56:01):
I find myself just randomly opening the app hoping that
people are posting to the forum. You know, I'm obviously
craving activity on it, but like I feel like, well,
people are posting it, yeah, posts and.

Speaker 1 (56:17):
That giveaway big thing.

Speaker 3 (56:18):
There's like ten different ways you can enter it, so
you actually do can give yourself an advantage of winning.
And yeah, I'm just really excited. And my my overarching
statement is give it a shot, embrace it and use it.
Please use it, like, get on it. Like if you
share a hike, like even if it's just a little
walk around the Peninsula Trails here in Lake Placid, or

(56:41):
you know something super super small that like down in Speculator,
I don't know, whatever it is, go on there, share
about it because people. I don't think people are going
to think you're just flooding their your feeds with boring hikes.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
It's a community driven platform, so the point of it
is for everyone to take ownership over it in a
sense the same way people take ownership over the trails themselves,
the same way someone will pick up someone else's piece
of trash out there. Because you're taking ownership over the
mountains in like a pure way. In this platform that
you've built is embodying that exact spirit.

Speaker 3 (57:17):
Yeah, and there are things that I'm working on because
there's definitely tweaks within the app I'm trying to figure out,
like push notifications and stuff like that. But again, if
you have any critiques or comments, message me. Directly wherever
you want. Just let me know your thoughts. If you're
a hater, let me know your hate and let me
know they hate too. Read that, yeah, yeah, and send

(57:39):
it to me is I won't take your hate to heart.
I'll take it to the trash. But you know, any
obviously positive or not, you know any up not positive feedback,
but like any what's it called critical constructive criticism? Yes,
constructive criticism. I'm here for it, absolutely, And I tell

(57:59):
people this.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
Again and again. And I do not want to get
in the way of this.

Speaker 3 (58:02):
I do not want to get in the way of
the concept of this is built by hikers for hikers,
because although I built it, hikers is plural. I started it.
But I want this to be built by you. I
want this to be I want you to help grow
this because it's a community driven platform. And I really
mean that wholeheartedly. I do not want to be the

(58:24):
center of this. But right now I'm nurturing it. Right well,
you built it, you created it. You're the leader, the
leader of the pack, and you've done an amazing job.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
Let me ask you this. So you started this vision,
as you said earlier in the episode, was a fall
twenty twenty three. It's now out, it exists. You built it,
you put the work in, you created it, You did
unbelievable amount of hours creating it, and it is out,
people are using it. How does that feel? Seriously? Aw

(58:56):
some peel?

Speaker 3 (58:57):
Well, I will say it definitely if Okay, obviously it
feels it feels good. There's one thing though, that comes
to my mind. Tell me my biggest critique of myself
is that it could have been out sooner because I
did a lot of time just in not not shooting
on the idea and just kind of like, I don't
really know, but that's you know. I think it's because

(59:18):
you just got to start, right, You just got to
start Because the evolution of the website when I started
building it the mobile app. When I got like seventy
percent done with the website, mobile app wasn't even an idea.
I just realized I was like, wait, second, how many
people are going to go to a website consistently? It's
like when you get on Facebook, you get it on
your phone, right, It's like if you just had it

(59:39):
on your phone, is happening to type in a URL?
How much better would that be? So I was like
that's going to keep my traffic up, that's going to
keep the engagement up. And I was like, that would
it's a dumb like a like, it's just dumb like
like that. That's like a no brainer, is what I'm saying.
But anyway, the I could have started sooner, And but
I would also say I needed to trust the process.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
Uh yeah, So that's that's how I feel. And I'm
really excited to see where it goes when it becomes
could have, should have, would but it's out and ultimately
right how many times I tell you done is better
than perfect, Like it's out there and it's time for it. Now,
it can grow. Now, it can become what it's supposed
to become. To circle back to what we started its

(01:00:20):
conversation with, it is going to organically grow into something
that it's supposed to be.

Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
I've seen a lot of comments, not a lot. I've
seen a few comments where people are like, oh, this
will never be this or this will never be that,
and yay, you know what, maybe not, maybe not, maybe
it'll be something different so better. I would love to
prove them wrong. Sure, I'd love it to become the
only thing I bet not for my benefit, but for
the benefit of this community. I love the energy because
the motto is forever exploring, the forever wild. And I

(01:00:49):
know there's controversy of all, you know, driving more people
and all this like geotagging and everything is removing the
forever wild aspect.

Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
But the thing is.

Speaker 3 (01:00:59):
These mountains can and everything, despite the population here absolutely
can remain forever wild. Absolutely, And I think it starts
with a heart because if you love something, you want
to protect something.

Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
That's been one of my biggest driving factors.

Speaker 3 (01:01:11):
And I do want to protect this place, but I
also want people to have complete freedom to enjoy this place.

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
I do not want a gatekeep.

Speaker 3 (01:01:19):
I do not want to restrict you, but I want
you to recreate responsibly with love, because if you love something,
you want to protect it. And that's why it's like
the hiker that's coming up from New York City that
wants to go hiker Marci in jeans and sneakers. It's like,
we love them and we want to help them, right.
We want them to understand how precious this is, not

(01:01:40):
just to come here, do it and go home. Because
the hardest part, and Paul Jamison the biggest quote, the
best quote of any forty six or really, and this
is kind of paraphrasing it, but the hardest part about.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
The hardest part about.

Speaker 3 (01:01:55):
Being a forty six er isn't becoming one, but it's
what to do thereafter, keeping the flame in the stoke alive.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
And that's the biggest thing.

Speaker 3 (01:02:01):
And it's like, hey, maybe you're you'll never be a
forty sixer because you don't want to hike in a
forty six.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
You want to go hike in the Five Punds Wilderness
the rest of your life.

Speaker 3 (01:02:09):
That's great, because the Forever wild is not the Forever
High Peaks, It's the whole park, all six point one
six million acres, and I want to embrace that myself.
I have some hikes and stuff that I'm going to
be doing in the Five Punds Wilderness here later in
the year that I'm so excited for. I am so
excited to be over my grade forty six because I
feel like it's going to unlock this mentality for me

(01:02:31):
where now I can go to so many other places
because that's where my focus is right now, and I'm
going to spend the rest longly after I'm going to
spend the rest of my life exploring this park and
probably have only touched five percent of it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:41):
Absolutely, and careful when you go out the five Pounds Wilderness.
You know that's big foot country out there, So just
be aware. Oh I hope I stumble upon it. Be
aware out there. Even as I look around shed quarters
there is four bigfoot somethings literally in view of us
right now. Hilarious? All right, John, Where can people find
you and this online? You can just type in hike eightyk.

Speaker 3 (01:03:02):
Hopefully SEO search engine optimization will eventually populate it to
be the top of the webpage eventually. But if you
just type in hike eightyk dot com, hike outronex dot com,
or go to your app store, Google Play or Apple
and type in hike eightyk, you'll find it. Same thing
on Instagram. It's pretty easy to find. All right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
Very good. So that's going to wrap up this episode
of the forty six of forty six podcast. Head over
to hikeadk dot com check out everything he has to
offer for you as a hiker here in the Adirondack Park.
If you feel the desire to support and become a
part of the community, I highly encourage you to do so.
The amount of work that the man has put into

(01:03:44):
this website is astounding and the amount of information on
there for free, let alone the fun stuff he's got
behind the scenes for those who support is awesome. Check
it out hike adk dot com and if you want
help getting in shape this summer for hiking, head over
to forty six outdoors dot com. We have a great
range athlete team launching soon. Will help you get in
shape so you can actually enjoy your mountain adventures this summer.

(01:04:07):
But that will do it. Remember it always leave no trace,
do the rock walk and if you carry it in,
carry it out. See you on the trails. Everybody