Haunted attractions to visit; Hiker killed by lightning; Climbing 13ers around Colorado; Seth's Oktoberfest victory; & More

[00:00:06] Welcome to another episode of the OutThere Colorado Podcast. I'm Spencer, here with Seth. Hello Spencer, welcome to game day. It's Monday morning. We got the America's team, Chicago Bears playing tonight. We do. Broncos last night. We got Tim in the booth as well. Doing a video in the audio for today. Yeah, a lot happened over the weekend, but I think we just kick it off with the most important news. Seth, some of the biggest news of his life. Yeah. Colorado Springs steinholding champion. World champion actually.

[00:00:38] Seth and I happened to bump into each other over the weekend at Bristol Brewing. He was doing their Oktoberfest celebrations. They had a whole tent outside. I was pretty excited about that. They had the steins. Seth felt bold enough to join the Colorado Springs men's steinholding competition where you have to hold up like 33 ounces of water for as long as you can. He ended up winning. Starts looking like this. Beat like 20 plus other people. Yeah, no problem.

[00:01:05] To win. Tell us about that experience, Seth. Well, you know, it's just what you do as a world champion steinholder. You just get up there and crush the competition. So that's what I did. It was funny. I'm a very humble champion. Proudly watching from the audience and slowly watching is all of a sudden people start to get the shakes in their hand. And you can really tell when they're about to drop that stein and you were not shaken. Is that right?

[00:01:25] I will say, yeah, yeah. No, no visible shaking. So I couldn't like, that's the thing you're up there. You can't see how they really, how the other guys are doing. Yeah. So it's kind of hard to tell in the moment. Like, am I a toast? You know, I should have had some cards to tell you how many people were left in the running.

[00:01:39] Yeah. I was stunned. I mean, like, I look over and I, and I realize I'm like one of the last three and I'm like, no way. These guys are like way more buff than me. At least one of the dudes. Yeah. Yeah. It was jack. And you what held it for what? Four minutes and 30 seconds. Four thirty nine. That sounds, that sounds about right.

[00:01:58] Yeah. So it was like the first wave. And I thought that was it. You know, I did a victory lap. Yeah. He took off running. I'm a very humble champion. So I did a victory lap and did a little dance. Such an idiot. And, uh, I thought that was it. And then there was that second wave. Yes. I'm like, oh, so it's going to depend on my time being better than the winner of that. Yeah. Next wave. And it was, it was better. It was better. You got a trophy. I know we were joking about me bringing my stein in and bringing this trophy in for our water.

[00:02:27] cups, but alas, I still have my plastic cup and you still have your fireball, uh, whiskey. I gotta stay hydrated. It's, you know, not fireball whiskey. Fireball was in water bottle. Right. There's a whole story about that one. Uh, it should have been a massive trophy, obviously, but it was a little trophy. It is a tiny trophy. It's all. I can't, I can't, I can't, I gotta stay hydrated. I can't drink out of this little trophy. Yeah. One of the smaller trophies I've seen to be honest, but one of the most important, to be honest, it wasn't that big of an accomplishment, but in my mind, I'm a legend anyway. Oh,

[00:02:58] I was, I was proud. I was, I was cheering from the audience. It was so good to have you there, man. I think you inspired me. I think I saw my podcast partner in the audience. I can't, I can't let him down. I saw the smile on my face. I can't let him down. Like a proud parent. When their kid scores a goal, I was like out there filming and everything like zooming in. Um, what's the, yeah, it's like the first trophy I've won. And since I was the soccer, what's the, what's the strategy? Uh, just win.

[00:03:27] Just win. What is, what is it? What's the, what's the, what am I thinking? The, uh, NASCAR Bobby, Ricky Bobby, Ricky Bobby. Just channeled my Ricky Bobby up there. Just win, baby. No, you know, like I was realizing like, like there were times where I was like tensing up and I just had this like thinking of like, just relax. It's like, that was kind of occurring to me. Yeah. You know, like where it's like, don't, don't flex, like just, just relax. Yeah. I've heard that. Just breathe. Really? Yeah. These were all things I was learning on the fly.

[00:03:56] Good move. Yeah. We got the lean back a little bit to kind of like counteract the, you have to like, people were getting in trouble for doing this. Yeah. But I think you, it seems like you got to have a slight bend. A slight bend. Yeah. They were allowing a slight bend. And you honestly looking at your arm, you didn't, it didn't look like there was too much for a bend there. Spencer's giving me a lot of credit. Hey, we'll put the video on here. More than myself. You guys, if you tune in to YouTube, you will have the video evidence of this happening. So far. And if Seth's sprint after he wins, just takes off across the stage.

[00:04:26] Like I said, I'm a very humble champion. So I made sure to rub it into everyone's face up there. What else we do this weekend? Ended up bumping into each other, get a goat patch. Yeah. We were kind of with our crews and there was Oktoberfest going on over there. Yeah. It's the season for Oktoberfest. It is. It is. Did the Breckenridge one come and go? I think it did, right? Let's see. That's always been one of my favorite ones. I've been to the Vail one. And I've always been meaning to go to the Breckenridge one. It was last weekend. Yeah. We missed it. That is one of my favorite ones for sure.

[00:04:55] Yeah. You've been. Yeah. They also have their custom steins every year, which I have a couple. They're like collectible Breckenridge steins. Yeah. Yeah. What else? I did pop over to Urban Animal. That's the hat that I've got on right now. It's sporting. It is their four year anniversary. I believe. Oh. Or something. The four year birthday. Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Good beer over there. Always good beer. And we watched football? Literally went to both their locations just trying to hunt down the hat.

[00:05:23] Like, they're chopped in. I'm like, do you have the hat? They're like, no. I'm like, okay, I guess I'm going to stay together with another one. You were committed. I was committed. I wanted the special anniversary hat so that I could wear it on the podcast and support my urban animal brewery here. Heck yeah, man. Yeah. What else? I went up to Denver for the Broncos game. Broncos coming back in what's becoming typical fashion for Bo Nix. That was a pretty epic game. Yeah. That was wild. And I was sitting at Pony Up in Denver. Pony Up.

[00:05:53] Fun little bar there. Cool. Yeah. Good food. Good atmosphere. Good vibes. Yeah. Yeah. Watching that game. That was wild, man. I don't know how Bo Nix does it. I thought Stafford was going to come and get it done. I did, too. I thought this cold Stafford was going to come and get it done. It was that interception they got that they ran back. That was the real kicker there, so to speak. But, hey, all we really care about is the Bears tonight. We're talking Monday morning here. It's a bigger game.

[00:06:22] I think we got Case Keenum rolling out there. Yeah. I believe you do. Justin Case Keenum, as I've been calling him. Yep. We'll see how that goes. Maybe we'll talk about it on Wednesday. Or not. Yeah. What else we got? What else we got from the weekend? You went to Sportsbook. We gave them a shout-out the other week. Shout-out. We got in Colorado Springs. New sports bar. I went to Rebel Rebel on Thursday. The nonprofit wrapped up its pedal party for the year, so we popped over to Rebel after that to celebrate.

[00:06:51] Nice little dive bar in Colorado Springs. Kind of one of those things that, yeah, hot dogs, $6 hot dogs. It's one of those things that Colorado Springs kind of needs, I think. With all the newer, hipper type of things going on, it is a place where you can get some cheaper drinks and hang out and chill. Look at the springs getting all hip, man. Yeah. On us. It is. What's the lineup looking like today, Spence? So we got... As much as people love us talking about our steinholding championships and our football. Hey, it's real advice.

[00:07:21] Guys, I was telling Seth, I want to see him tour the state and get all these Oktoberfests and these Steinhardt competitions. I'm open for endorsements, obviously. I wonder what the record Steinhardt is. Let's see. What's the world record for Steinhardt? I'm about to get embarrassed here. What's the record for Steinhardt? I said it. Four minutes and 39 seconds. I said it yesterday. All right. If you have to guess, which how many... Is it over a half hour? One second here. We got to compare because you were holding 33 ounces. Okay. So yeah. So this is the 33 ounce record.

[00:07:50] Is that a little bit over that? The sanctioned size? Yeah. That's the liter of beer, right? So yeah. What was your guess? I want to say 38 minutes. Ooh, close. 29 minutes and zero seconds. Wow. Okay. By Cody Bain at the 2025 US Stein Holding Association National Championship. Something to shoot for. Okay. So all I need is 25 more minutes up there, right? Yep. I cannot imagine that. Wow. They even filled yours up. That was pretty funny. Oh yeah. They kept filling them up. Yeah.

[00:08:19] They kept filling them up if any water dripped out. Yeah. Let's get into some actual Colorado stuff though. Yeah. We've got some haunted attractions we're going to be talking about today. Got some 13er stuff we're going to be talking about. Seth was pretty excited about this topic. Got some lightning myths that I want to get into. There was a... I want to hear about this. Yeah. There was an incident in Utah and wrote about it. Included some information from the National Weather Service. Start looking around and different people have different opinions on lightning.

[00:08:48] What to do and what not to do and that kind of thing. Yeah. So we'll get into that a little bit. Got a fall color recommendation as well. Yeah. I hear the fall colors are popping off up in Summit County right now. I've heard that. For the last week or so. Yeah. What do we want to talk about first? Do you want to dig into 13ers first? Sure. Why not? I mean the season for climbing these 13ers is winding down. But maybe you can look to getting more into the 13ers next year. Right? The 14ers get all the buzz. And my mind has always been curious about the 13ers. Right?

[00:09:18] These hundreds of peaks around the state. You know, Colorado 14ers. What do we officially say, Spence? I say 58. You say 58? Yeah. Yeah. And then I see lists that are like 54. Yeah. You know, like it's all about that ranked and prominence. Some people say 52. I think Colorado Mountain Club says 54. Okay. But then they also kind of break their rules in terms of prominence there a little bit with one of the maroon Bells peaks, I think, where it doesn't have that 250 feet of prominence, 300 feet of prominence, whatever it is that they use.

[00:09:47] Either way, there are hundreds of more 13ers. It's the aesthetic appeal. Yes. I think the official ranked list for 13ers right now is 582 or 583. That's wild. It should make you think about just the alpine beauty of this state and how packed it is with these amazing. Oh, there's websites listing up to 635. 635 that ranked, I think the official ranked, the prominence is looking at 582. Oh, yeah. That makes sense. But either way, the couple who runs this website, if you haven't come by this, you know,

[00:10:17] it's kind of been building over the past five years. Climb13ers.com. It's somewhat of an answer to 14ers.com, which I bet you a lot of our listeners know about 14ers.com. It is like the go-to source for everything 14ers.com. Big difference here at climb13ers.com is that a lot of these route descriptions spanning these 600 plus peaks. It's an amazing repository of information that this couple has built up in this website. But you're only just going to see their route description from this couple.

[00:10:46] The Coonies. The climbing Coonies of Colorado, they call themselves. A retired couple living in beautiful Grand Junction. And they kind of consider this their gift to the peak bagging community of Colorado after their shared lifetime. Decades. 50 years. Of checking off all these 13ers across the state. Pretty massive accomplishment. Like going back for them in the 70s and 80s when they were ticking off the 14ers. And then they're like, let's check off the 100 highest.

[00:11:15] And then at that point, they're like, yeah, let's check off the 200 highest. Then they're like, yeah, let's go ahead and do the 300 highest. And at that point, they're looking at hundreds of more 13ers. And they're like, well, we're halfway through the 13ers. Let's do this. And they finish all the 13ers in 2013, of course. And anyway, in the years after that, they decide, how can we give back? How can we give back to our fellow peak baggers? And they built up this website. This is wild. This is a lot of information. It's amazing information in here, right? Some of the peaks they're talking about, too.

[00:11:44] So the 14ers, right? They're all class one through four to the summit. And some of that class four stuff can get sketchy. But none of the standard summits have the class five route where you're technically rock climbing. The 13ers, that's not the case. So they are putting out information on some of these class five routes. They talk about their rating system here. It talks about the fear factor is one of the little cards it looks like.

[00:12:10] The one I'm looking at right now, Teakettle Mountain, fear factor, exposure, severe, not for the faint hearted. So they get into it. This is really cool. Yeah, I know. I've kind of just started digging into it, man. I find it to be a really just amazing resource that they've built up here. And next season, they're anticipating ahead of the climbing season next season to have an app ready to roll. Very cool.

[00:12:35] So they're continuing this gift, as they put it, for peak baggers to kind of look around and see if some of this stuff is for them. Like you said, if you talk about what's the difference between, as I asked them, what's the difference between the 13ers and 14ers? And, you know, you ask a lot of people that, and some of the first thing they're going to say is fewer people. You know, fewer people, more wildlife, more solitude. Less of a trail often. That's what my next point was going to be. It can get much more sketchy.

[00:13:04] You've got to have some skills in a lot of cases for these 13ers. You know, over the years, really over the generations, we talk about Colorado 14ers initiative quite a bit on the show. That's one group that's really led this charge to build defined paths up these 14ers that people love. And many of the 14ers now have these somewhat varying degrees of friendly trails, right? But for the 13ers, the hundreds of 13ers out there, it's mostly a lot of navigation.

[00:13:35] You really got to know what you're doing. Like 13ers are generally for like the more mountaineer type people, you know? Yeah, for sure. And, I mean, you can find some information about 13ers on 14ers.com. I mean, it's Bill Middlebrook that runs that, right? Does an absolutely amazing job with that website and maintaining that and everything. Yeah, we'll say that, like, this is a great website on climb13ers.com. Just like there's a lot of information on these.

[00:14:06] With some of the 13ers, because I've tried to climb some of them in the past, and the information is a little bit more limited. That's the other big difference. Viewer photos of the routes and, like, the options that you tend to come across. Yep. Yeah, no, this is awesome. I wish I had this. That's another big difference with the 13ers, right? Just the amount of information out there. And that's what this couple, the Coonies, recognize, too. It's like, maybe we can help fill that gap a little bit. You know, they don't make any, you know, they're pretty upfront and clear about

[00:14:36] these are the routes that we like to do, that we prefer doing. You know, there's other ways in a lot of cases to reach these 13ers, but they simply lay out just their firsthand information. And that is kind of what makes this site different from 14ers. 14ers, you know, it stacks up with some of those trip reports. Yes. Yeah. They're really just focused on this is what we did. This is what we've got. Take it or leave it kind of thing. You know what I mean? But, yeah, I mean, there's never really been a source like this for the 13ers.

[00:15:05] And, like I said, they kind of keep building it. And it's kind of a cool thing that they put together. This is, yeah, this is honestly making me want to get out and get after it, just seeing how much information this is. Yeah. This is great. This is something we've needed for a while. And, like I said, no insult to Bill and his work with 14ers.com by any means because that's a great site. There is information about some 13ers on there. But, yeah, this is great. I asked them, of course, what their favorite climb is.

[00:15:34] And what came to mind for them is Jagged Mountain. Jagged? It looks like I hear a lot about Jagged. Yeah, that's over by Arrow. Or is it over by Arrow and Vestal? In the Wemini? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's in that neighborhood. One of the most remote sectors of Colorado out there in the Wemini. Manucci Wilderness. They rank it as a class five, I want to say, on their website. Yeah, I'm looking at it right now. So not to be trifled with. For sure. Steepness. Don't look down. Yeah.

[00:16:01] Yeah, they describe it as, in terms of the fear factor, says, because of long backpack ice, as in difficult scent, up Sunlight Creek to Sunlight Lake, this climb, this would be a climb only for mature and strong teenagers with older and older with peak bagging and backpacking experience. Jagged Mountain is a technical climb, therefore only those with technical rock climbing experience should attempt. Yeah. It looks beautiful. Yeah. They go on their website, I think they say, one of the finest alpine ascents Colorado has to offer.

[00:16:31] But yeah, not for everyone, for sure. Another ones they list as favorites on there is Juerfano Peak. They rank that as class two, and it's kind of off the Lindsay route. You know, if you're going up Lindsay, my understanding is it kind of veers off in that neck of the woods. So maybe that's a little more gentler one to consider. But anyway, I mean. You have your options. You've got options. I like how it's organized, too, because it does show like the 13ers by ranking in terms of their height, elevation.

[00:17:00] It has them all split up by difficulty. It has them all split up by location. Very cool. It's amazing. Like when I was talking to them, like I thought I was going to hear some pretty crazy stories about things that they've experienced. I mean, when you have that amount of experience, you expect some stories, right? They have been pretty dang fortunate from the sound of it. I mean, they recount some pretty wacky storms that they've been in. When they first met, they tell this amazing story. The way Tim Cooney puts it is his wife in 1976 really fell for him.

[00:17:30] And he means it literally. They were going to St. Mary's Glacier. He's going up with ice axes and crampons in the winter. Christmas Eve of 76, I want to say. And she goes up after him. And without that equipment, it takes a pretty bad fall. And results in a bunch of stitches across the scalp. And anyway, it was the rest is history. He was like, I found out she's really into the stuff that I'm into. And they've spent the next 50 years in good.

[00:17:58] Like I said, that's about the worst thing that's really happened to him from when I was here in front of him. Pretty amazing that they've, you know, knock on wood. Yeah. I think it's interesting to talk about too, man, if we're on the topic of 13ers, like the almost 14ers. I don't know if people are aware that this list of 14ers could be bigger by a matter of a dozen feet in a lot of cases. You know, starting with Grizzly Peak, which LIDAR, I think the latest LIDAR has it at 13,997 feet.

[00:18:28] A few feet off. Could we see Grizzly Peak as the next 14er one day? Okay, so is that Grizzly Peak the same one that's up on Loveland Pass or is that a different one? Because there are a few Grizzly Peaks in Colorado. This is in the Sawatch. Okay. So I would think that is not a similar one. Yeah, that's not a similar one. You got Stewart Peak in the San Juans, which is listed at 13,988 feet.

[00:18:54] And then you got Columbia Point in the Sangres, 13,986. So, you know, it's amazing. Which not to be confused with Challenger Point, right? Right. So Columbia is off kind of the other side of Kit Carson there. It's just amazing. Just a few feet away from 14er fame. But we're talking about Grizzly Peak. Like, where is Grizzly Peak, right? Like, I think a lot of people are. Yeah. Well, there are a couple of them. Right. Which is funny because we no longer have grizzlies in the States.

[00:19:24] But we do have Grizzly Peak. And we have Black Bear Peak. We do. Well, Little Bear, right? That's right. Yeah. Little Bear Peak. Yeah. Yeah. Columbia Peak got a Columbia Point got brought up recently because if I remember correctly, it was a backpacker who had used, I want to say used AI to like come up with a plan or was maybe just looking at Google Maps to form a route.

[00:19:49] But it ended up falling down a Coler there that's typically like a winter only route. Don't quote me on this. This is several months ago. So I've slept at least a few times since then. But yeah, so that was digging into that peak and what it was like. Kit Carson's a fun peak to climb. Beautiful. Some good views of the Creststones. Anytime you're looking at the Creststones. Willow Lake on the way up there. Yes. I camped out around there some years ago. That was gorgeous. It was beautiful.

[00:20:19] Big waterfall going into the lake. Yeah. Very cool stuff. So you were talking about some sketchy storms, right? So good segue into me talking about some sketchy storms. I'm all about teeing you up, man. Yeah. So there was this recent incident in Utah, kind of by Provo, 28 to 30 miles southeast of Salt Lake City on Mount Timpanogos.

[00:20:46] It's 11,752 feet. So pretty high. You're above treeline. It's a rocky ridge to the summit. So pretty extended time where you're in exposed terrain. Apparently this group of, or two groups of hikers, seen a couple different accounts here, but the main point is the same. But I believe two groups of hikers got caught in a storm up there. This was on September 18th. The call for a search and rescue mission came in related to the storm at 6 a.m.

[00:21:15] And basically this group of hikers were huddling in a shelter, a metal shelter known as the Tin Shack. The shelter was struck by lightning. One person died and multiple other injuries occurred. Potentially all nine people have seen that reported. I've seen maybe four or five people were injured, but it sounds like New York Times reported that it was the nine other individuals had minor injuries.

[00:21:41] Immediately, right, the questions were raised about, okay, you're in a metal shack during a storm, right? Like probably not a great place to be. So I started kind of looking into like, okay, like what are the risks of being in a shelter? Opposed to like what should they have done if they're caught up in this storm? So do you think that metal increases the chances of lightning being attracted to a certain spot? That's what I've always, that's always been my understanding. Mm-hmm.

[00:22:10] And so I think everyone would say that, right? The direct quote from the National Weather Service on this is, the presence of metal makes absolutely no difference on where lightning strikes. Generally, whenever metal gets struck, it's because it's more prominent is essentially what they're saying about this. That said, when lightning does hit, metal conducts electricity, right? So that becomes a bigger factor once that hits.

[00:22:37] But in terms of whether you're in like stone shelter or like under a tree or, you know, under a metal shack, a steel shack, as was the case with this lightning death, apparently the height of whatever you're by is the biggest factor. A pointy shape of a building, right? A lot of buildings do have like pointy shapes. And I mean, when you start looking at like antennas getting struck, it's like, right, they're pointy. It's whether they're wood or metal or whatever.

[00:23:06] If it's that shape, it apparently, according to the National Weather Service, that's the dominant factor in where lightning strikes. So I had no clue about that at all whatsoever. And I mean, you can even go over to other expert sources, right? Like even like National Weather Service or the National Park Service page, looking at a Rocky Mountain National Park safety information. And I mean, even on their page, they say that metal tent bowls can attract lightning strikes.

[00:23:35] So it's kind of interesting where there is some conflicting information there. But if you are just going off what the National Weather Service says, metal apparently does not attract lightning. Attract lightning. And then also, so another big myth, and they have a whole page dedicated to lightning myths and misconceptions on the National Weather Service website. But this myth is if you're caught outside during a thunderstorm, you should crouch down to reduce your risk of being struck. That is always the information that you hear.

[00:24:04] You know, like crouch down, get on the balls of your feet, never lay on the ground, try to limit how much of your body is touching the ground, right? But they say crouching down doesn't make you any safer. And that ultimately, you're better off trying to find a substantial building, right? So like not a little shack, but a substantial building, one with plumbing and electricity. And if you're too far to run to one of those options and you have no other good, you have no other good alternative, essentially.

[00:24:34] And that crouching down, I mean, maybe it helps in the sense of like, you're not the tallest object on the peak. But in terms of actual safety, they say that you're better off continuing to move to try to find shelter, get below a tree line, things like that. So that was another one where like, you hear that all the time and not the case. And also, same thing, like if you're stuck outside in a thunderstorm, there's a common misconception that you should try to get under a tree to stay dry.

[00:25:02] You know, does water impact the effect of a lightning strike? And they say, no, you should not be under a tree or seeking shelter under something like a rock outcropping or something that still has a chance of getting hit. Instead, you should be wet. It says, better to get wet than fried is the direct quote that they have. Whoa. I would agree with that. Yeah, and they said being underneath the tree is the second leading cause of lightning casualties. See, and I think I've always known that.

[00:25:32] Yeah. Always. Because I remember, yeah, like running by a couple that were huddled under a tree once. And I was like, I think you guys might want to think about keep moving. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I have that in the back of my head somewhere. But yeah, we're always learning about lightning safety and what to do and what not to do. And we're talking about it because people who have been listening long enough have probably heard us talk about it. Yeah. Here and there because this is a deadly state for lightning. One of the deadliest. One hundred percent. And I mean, you look at different sources and this information kind of varies.

[00:26:01] We basically had a reader that reached out and they were like, okay, I see the National Weather Service saying this, but the National Park Service is saying this. And et cetera, right? And it's like, okay, so I guess there is a little bit of variance there in terms of like what that advice is. The biggest one, I think, one being this maybe slight discrepancy over whether or not metal attracts lightning. The way I take it when people are saying like watch out for metal temples, it could attract lightning.

[00:26:29] Maybe they're referring to more so like the connectivity of that or referring to how metal temples are higher up in the ground. So maybe there is a level of attraction there. But the big one is, yeah, the crouching on your crouching on the balls of your heels. That one's interesting where apparently National Weather Service saying that is you're better off moving.

[00:26:51] And so they also on that same note, too, they address if you should lie flat on the ground, right? They say that obviously that does decrease your height, but it increases your chance of being affected by potentially deadly ground current. So, yeah, direct quote from the National Weather Service. If you're caught outside in a thunderstorm, you keep moving towards safe shelter. Also something to note with the shelters, too.

[00:27:18] Another one of those like major rules, if you are moving through a lightning storm with a group, is to make sure that you're spread out, right? So that multiple people aren't getting hit at the same time. And you think of any shelter scenario where a lot of the time these shelters are going to be more prominent than other things on a mountain. At first I was maybe thinking about the one on Long's Peak, right? The Agnes Vale shelter there. That one is kind of tucked in the rocks. A better example might even be the one in the boulder field. The vault toilet there.

[00:27:48] Where that is just like a very prominent spot in the boulder field. But you think about getting in one of these shelters to stay out of the rain, the other elements. And you're essentially huddling as close as you can with other people. Like the opposite of spreading out. So it sounds like the best bet in a lightning storm is to not stop, keep moving, spread out, and just try to get to, you know, ideally like below tree line or shelter as fast as you can. You know what my expert advice is? What is your expert advice? Hope for the best, man. When it comes to light, man.

[00:28:18] When we are in the backcountry, we are very often at the mercy of Mother Nature. And we are taking chances when we go out there. And the best thing I think we can do is know the weather forecast. In the summer especially. Get down before the afternoon rolls around. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a... Yeah. The forecast. Checking the forecast is the big thing. Don't put yourself in the situation, right? Yeah. And just even...

[00:28:44] I mean, I've mentioned it many times, but mountainforecast.com is always my favorite 14er forecasting service, really. Because it's really specific in terms of like what elevation should see different storms coming through. And like I've been on mountains before and I've seen the forecast for one peak. And then pick another peak in the area because the forecast was better for the second peak. And then I've like looked over at that initial peak that I was thinking about climbing, remembering the forecast.

[00:29:11] And exactly when mountainforecast.com is like, here's when the storm's going by. You can watch that storm go by. But I like that website a lot. But even still, though, I mean, something you tend to see a lot in Colorado is the storms end up rolling in a little bit earlier than they say. Like, and that's across any weather source, really, that I've found at least. So, gotta be safe. You know, had that scary incident.

[00:29:40] Another big misconception, I think, when it comes to weather and lightning is that if there's no storm overhead, you're safe. Yeah. Whereas like even just earlier this year, there was a fatality that occurred on Mount Blue Sky. Right. Where I think the storm was, you know, 10 miles away or so. They weren't getting rained on yet as far as I understood. And then all of a sudden one of these kind of surprise lightning strikes just and then hit. It just struck and then it hit.

[00:30:07] I think five people were injured in that case. One of whom tragically did pass away. And then the storm rolled in a few minutes after that, you know, where it's like then all of a sudden like the rescue crews were responding in rain rainfall. But yeah. So something to really keep in mind is that you can see a storm in the distance. Even if you haven't heard lightning and thunder yet or you haven't heard thunder yet, they'll gotta be aware. Good to know, man.

[00:30:37] Yeah. Yeah. Let's switch off of this, though. And I am curious. This is something I will say that I'm not an expert on this, right? Like I'm just regurgitating what the National Weather Service has on their website, looking at what the National Park Service has. So it does seem like there's a little bit of variance here with some of the advice. Ultimately, the best advice is just get to safety as fast as you can, it seems like. So and if you can't, then that's when you maybe start looking at things like how can you get as low as possible.

[00:31:06] But yeah. So to move on from that, though, you want to. Before we give a fall recommendation here, you want to chat some haunted attractions. Yes. October is rolling around, man. Yes. Yes. We are a few days away here. Yeah. Shout out to one of the Out There Colorado writers, Piper Russell. She pulled together a list of 10 haunted tourist attractions that you can visit. So pretty good list.

[00:31:33] I think between all of these, I think we both of us have probably covered each of these in different ways throughout the years. So I'll go through them and we'll dedicate the time where we need to, because we have talked about a few of these here in recent history. You like spooky stuff? You like going to these haunted houses? I mean, I don't think I've ever really gone out of the way to be like, this is a spooky haunted thing, so I'm going to go do it.

[00:32:00] But that being said, there's a lot of history with all these spooky haunted things, and I think that's often more the appeal for me is the historical relevance of some of these spots. See, I'm a scaredy cat man. I'm a wuss. Yeah. I can't take a lot of this stuff. Yeah. See, I don't really have a desire to go and sit in a haunted hallway overnight trying to wait for ghosts or whatever. I'm the kind of guy where my wife says, let's watch a scary movie tonight. What do you want to pull up? And I said the other night, Coraline. You know Coraline? Yeah, I know Coraline.

[00:32:30] Animated. Yeah. Not exactly scary. It's like Nightmare Before Christmas. I love Nightmare Before Christmas. Anyway. Yeah. Yeah. So, 10 spooky attractions that you can visit around Colorado, courtesy of Piper Russell. Number one, Stanley Hotel. Ah, of course. Historic, right? They say that you can see some ghosts in the mirrors there. And some of those hallways get a bit spooky at night. I bet on those tours.

[00:33:00] That would be actually one that I would want to go to. And I think next year, if some of my travel plans come out here, I am going to try to book a hotel in there and actually stay there and see how spooky it feels. Yeah. The inspiration for Stephen King's The Shining. Yeah. People know that. And the door is well marked for the room where Stephen King was inspired by the premise of the book. Yeah. Some wacky story about him having a nightmare, waking up to, oh, dude, double check me, man.

[00:33:30] Is it like fire hoses or something? Like wrapping around his son? Tim knows? Yeah. Some crazy thing. Yeah. It is a... Oh, that's right. They also have a prop axe, says Tim. Yeah. So. Yeah. And the Frozen Dead guy is there now. Yes. Of the Frozen Dead guy. Talked about that last week. Yeah, here we go. From Google.

[00:33:56] While sleeping in room 217, King dreamt that his three-year-old son was running frantically down the long corridors, screaming and being chased by a predatory living fire hose. Yeah. He woke up in a sweat, stepped out onto the balcony to smoke a cigarette and realized he had the entire narrative framework and bones for The Shining. There you go. The Shining, not filmed there. The TV show was, but the movie, not filmed there. Right. I think that was like Timberline Lodge in like Oregon or something when they actually filmed there. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

[00:34:26] So there's a good one though. Stanley Hotel, definitely worth checking out. Whether you like ghosts or not, check it out. Cool history there. Number two, Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave. It is a grave site. So perhaps that's where the haunting aspect comes in. Yeah. Area is supposedly haunted by Buffalo Bill himself. Hmm. I've never heard that. Yeah. So that's something worth checking out. I've heard good things about that too. We've been up there. Have you? Yeah.

[00:34:52] So we were covering the most overrated attractions in Colorado last week. And two of them got essentially like outed or whatever on this like national list as being overrated based on reviews. I don't think that's the case necessarily. One was Four Corners. We've talked about that. It is just a monument where you go and you see where Four Corners meet. But the adventure in that part of the state is worth checking out. The other one was Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave. Really?

[00:35:20] And you look at the reviews for it and it's like people are like the museum was so cool. Like I love it. Like it's like yeah maybe if you go and just look at the grave site unless you have some sort of like mass appreciation for Buffalo Bill. Maybe it is a little bit of a lot. I mean the drive is beautiful though. Yeah. Lookout Mountain there. Yeah. And the museum is like American West, right? Like isn't it like so I think I would want to go check it out. But yeah, you're right. Lookout Mountain. Is the museum open? Wasn't there something in Denver Parks closing? I don't know.

[00:35:48] You checked me on that one. But if the museum is open maybe that is more of a letdown. When I was looking this up last week. Looks like it's open. Yeah. I was going to say it looked like it was fully going. Maybe there was some COVID funkiness. All right. Number three on the list. Cheeseman Park. Denver. Oh. One of the biggest parks. I know about this one. Yeah. We've talked about it before. But for those of you who don't remember, a man, E.P.

[00:36:14] McGovern was contracted to remove bodies from this because it used to be a cemetery before it was a park. Ultimately, there was a little bit of shadiness going on where he, I think the thought, if I remember correctly, and as reported, I believe by Denver Post at the time, was he could get more money per casket. So he was like splitting people up into different caskets and not really like paying attention

[00:36:43] to how he was doing any of this. The great caretaker. So he ultimately was, that contract was canceled, I believe. And then instead of hiring someone else, they just left some of the remaining bodies there. So you'll hear stories about like they'll be doing construction or something and then they'll find some graves. So Cheeseman Park. There are ghost tours there too that you can do around this time of the year. So look for a company if you're interested in that. All right. Number four, Cave of the Winds.

[00:37:14] Oh. Yeah. They do offer a Honda cave tours. That's right. There are some creepy stories here and there about things that have happened in the caves and people getting lost. I don't recall anywhere someone's actually died in the cave, but like people getting lost for a couple days at a time or whatever in the darkness. And, you know, for a lot of people, I think caves in general are kind of creepy, right? I mean, they're so otherworldly for us. Yeah.

[00:37:41] I mean, in kind of that like inherent fear of you got to think like the first humans were probably seeking shelter in caves and what else is seeking shelter in dark caves, right? Like any predator. So whenever you hear those stories about, you know, like little kids being scared of the monsters, I always think I'm like, that's got to be like genetic memory of like the human race, just like being scared of like the tiger that's like in the dark waiting for them.

[00:38:07] Um, cause when you go to parts of the world where there are still tigers, those are still, that is still a very scary threat. And if someone dressed up as Pennywise and met me at Cave of the Winds, I wouldn't be sleeping for a long time. I wonder if they would even let you in. If you just show up for the tour. Yeah. This is like, it'd be like, no, no face paint allowed in the, in the cave. Yeah. That would send me dude. Yeah. Well, that would be creepy.

[00:38:35] Um, yeah, I've been in a couple of wild caves and that is still something that you think about. Like there was, there was one where we were going in this cave and there were some, uh, mountain lion tracks that were like going up to the cave. Whoa. Yeah. And, uh, they were fresh. Like it rained recently. So we were like, Ooh, that's, uh, that's a little sketchy, but tangle with that cat in the cave. Yeah. All is well that ends well. So nothing, nothing bad happened. Um, all right.

[00:39:01] Number five, the gold camp road tunnels in Colorado Springs, um, up there by, uh, North Cheyenne Canyon, uh, which is a very popular outdoor recreation spot. There are these tunnels you drive through all sorts of creepy stories, you know, like if you park your tunnel or park in the tunnel at night, uh, you'll get little handprints in the dust on your windows from children, child ghosts. Um, there's a, there's a story about a, uh, a bus crash that happened where a bus went

[00:39:30] off the road with children, uh, in it. And obviously people did not survive that, but I don't think that story is true out of it, out of all the research I've done on that topic over the years. And even Piper's talking about it here. Um, or it doesn't seem like it's a, an actual thing that happened. I've never been able to find like an actual news story on it. A tale told. Yeah. So those are a little creepy though. Those tunnels. Yeah. Yeah. There are, uh, yeah. What was it? Did the tunnel collapse on the bus? Is that maybe what happened? I think. I'm not familiar.

[00:39:59] I think that's the rumor, but there are a bunch of tunnels. And, uh, if you take that, um, take that route on a hike, you know, you, you drive up there, you can go through some of them. You can hike up and look into a couple of them. Um, you can also just, I mean, what I would do is just go up on, uh, go up on old stage there and take it over into Cripple Creek and Victor. Yeah. But it's kind of in the same area. So, um, which brings us to our next one, Cripple Creek. Yeah. One of the most haunted towns in America.

[00:40:28] Um, according to this, this piece by Piper. So, uh, yeah, I mean, any, anywhere where you have all these like mining disasters happening, tragedies, wild west murders. And yeah. Yeah. I was just ladies of the night. I was just looking at, uh, uh, the deadliest mining disaster in Colorado, uh, last week. And, um, it was at Hastings mine, uh, to just put it, put it in perspective, like what would

[00:40:56] happen during these mine disasters, uh, that were occurring during the like late 1800s in Colorado, early 1900s, before you had a lot of labor laws in place that kept people safe, uh, with, you know, the love, the massacre famously leading to some of these labor laws being put in place, uh, that, that many Americans enjoy today. Um, but this, this Hastings, um, mine disaster, uh, took place near Trinidad in Los Animas County, 121 deaths. Yeah.

[00:41:23] Uh, essentially a, um, they believe it was the mine inspector. So like the guy who's in charge of safety, uh, I think they, they say that his, uh, his lantern set off something that caused an explosion. Um, and then it trapped all these people in there, like 3000 something feet in the mine. Um, people did not survive. And then a few years later, another deadly mining disaster happened there too. So, um, yeah. So, I mean, pretty, uh, pretty scary stuff.

[00:41:50] Anytime you're in one of these mining towns, like the spirits alert. Yeah. People, people romanticize the wild west era. And I think ultimately it's, you don't want to live in that. Yeah. You don't want to live in the wild west era. Like, uh, one of those like no rules periods of time where everything's, you know, pretty dirty and unsanitary. Yeah. Dude, I stayed at a boarding house in Victor. Yeah. And, uh, I was hearing stuff all night, man. Were you? And it's like one of those things you don't know if your mind is telling you you're hearing things or if you actually are. I'm just saying, man.

[00:42:20] Yeah. The floors were creaking. There was something to keep in mind. Something was afoot in my mind or otherwise. Something to keep in mind. I was there for the Black Monarch Hotel. Is that on that list here? Uh, it is not. But that is, that's what I'm mentioning. Yeah. That's a bonus. Yeah. Yeah. The Black Monarch Hotel in Victor, Colorado. Similarly haunted to, uh, uh, neighbor Cripple Creek that we were just talking about. Amazing mining history.

[00:42:50] I mean, in Victor, if you haven't been to Victor, folks, like it looks like it should be a ghost town, but it's not, you know, uh, like the old mining structures are everywhere you look in town. You can see the old shafts and the old A-frames. They're just right there in front of you. And it's amazing that they're there. It's a credit to that town for preserving. Yeah. Um, but also there is these historic buildings and one of which is now home to the Black Monarch Hotel. It's a great place to go around this time of year. Halloween. If you're into that, that Gothic vibe, this hotel has been transformed.

[00:43:20] It kind of, every room celebrates like, uh, uh, uh, infamous characters of the past. H.H. Holmes. Real or not. Jack the Ripper. Dracula. Uh, Lizzie Bourdain. Is there a Nikola Tesla one? That seems a little. There is. Yeah. That's for if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're wanting to be a little on the safer side. Yeah. Very spooky and, uh, Nikola Tesla. It's a really cool made for Instagram hotel. Very cool. Yeah. Um, yeah.

[00:43:50] So there you go. And a way to see Victor bonus tip there. Yep. Um, all right. Number seven on this list, the Molly Brown house museum in, um, in Denver. In Denver. Uh, said to be, uh, and Molly Brown famous, famously a survivor of the Titanic. Right. Uh, became an American socialite and philanthropist. Yep. Right. Um, and has this museum for a really, really cool story. Um, of her life, you know, uh, that you can, I've never been there. That you can see. Yeah.

[00:44:17] It's supposed to, I mean, it's, it's, you know, like on the, on the surface, not on, like not a spooky story. Like just learning about her is fascinating itself. Beautiful. Victorian building. Yes. Yeah. And, uh, but yeah, tourists have reportedly felt cold spots in Molly's room, um, or have smelled the, uh, the, the smoking of the pipe, I believe, or from her husband in there. Yeah. Um, I don't know if I ever mentioned that in this piece, but that is a thing as well.

[00:44:43] Uh, number eight, the Brown Palace Hotel, another historic hotel where, uh, stayed there. Yeah. A lot of, a lot of history there. A lot of, a lot of things have happened. Yeah. Downtown Denver. Um, any of these old buildings, you know, maybe they're hanging on to something from the past. Maybe some things never left. Oh, who knows? Some ones. Um, can I guess the last one? Oh, here we go. Here we go. There's, well, there's two more, but here's the, here's the story from the Brown Palace. Mm-hmm. Uh, when the ninth floor is being renovated, the phone lines were taken out of room 904,

[00:45:13] but calls still come to the room from the lobby switchboard or on the lobby switchboard. So. Not haunted at all, but similarly fascinating, the Beatles history there. Mm-hmm. When the Beatles swung through Denver and played at Red Rocks, they stayed at the Brown Palace. And that room is still marked. You can check out booking that room where they stayed. That's cool. I bet you it's hard to get that room. Oh, I bet. Yeah. But like, to, to the hallway leading to the room, you see these two holes in the ground leading to the room. Mm-hmm.

[00:45:42] And that's where they had to drill in a gate to keep people from getting to the room. Oh, that's wild. If I'm recalling that right. That's wild. It sounded like that, yeah. That's cool. Yeah, I actually got a tour of that. That was pretty cool. The footsteps of the Beatles, who didn't leave any haunting spirits in there, but still interesting. Still interesting. Number nine. Yeah. Phantom Canyon Road. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:46:06] Apparently, drivers will see the ghost of a uniformed 1890s prison inmate who was seen wandering along the railroad. So. And there's no shortage of tragedy on that road. Yeah. I wrote about that road not too long ago. Yeah. Some mudslides and stuff, right? Yeah. That's beautiful. Yeah, like derailments, train derailments, flooding that wiped away some souls living along that road in the mining days and the railroading days. Was a train hit by a rock slide in there? Yep. Yeah. Yeah. I think there were multiple derailments like that.

[00:46:37] You go through a few ghost towns when you're on that road. It is absolutely beautiful. You are right. It is. So minus the spookiness, maybe go during the day. Well, especially this time of year when the Aspens are going. Mm-hmm. Yeah, between Cripple Creek and Canyon City. Yeah, you probably want to have a four-wheel drive for that, I would say. Yeah. I know. Yeah. Yeah. And then it gets a little scary toward the Canyon City side going along the shelf there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There are some drop-offs that you will encounter.

[00:47:06] Scary in sort of different ways that we're talking about. And that cool bridge, right? Yeah. Is it Adelaide Bridge? Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Pretty cool stuff. Kind of a hidden gem, right? All right. Number 10 here. And remember, these are not just haunted places. They're haunted places you can't explore or like that you can go to, right? Because there are some other ones that are said to be haunted, but they're private homes now or something like that. Hotel Colorado? Colorado? So, no. But we can talk about that here in the second. But it's big. The Museum of Colorado Prisons. Oh. Speaking of Canyon City, right? Yep.

[00:47:36] Speaking of Canyon City. Tim's laughing. You got it? Yeah. Tim's saying it's for sure haunted. Tim can say so. I was talking to this mom not too long ago and she was like, yeah, I took my kid there thinking it would be like a cool kid thing to do. And I sort of regretted it. Yeah. I don't know. Is it not all that family kind of an old gas chamber? And here, kids, is where people were exterminated.

[00:48:05] Yeah. 140 years of prison history here. Formerly, I think it was a women's correctional facility, I want to say. But yeah. Honestly, it looks pretty interesting from a historical standpoint. They do some haunted tours around this time of the year typically, I think, too. Yeah. I can hear this museum saying already, Seth, we welcome kids. I'm sure that's, I bet that's the case. This is just from one woman I was talking to and one opinion.

[00:48:35] But hey, parents, look for yourself if your kid is good for this, maybe. It's like scared straight in real life. Yeah. You mentioned a hotel in Colorado out in Glenwood Springs. Another historic spot. Yeah. An amazing history of treating naval personnel during the epidemic. I don't know. That sounds familiar. I'm vaguely recalling something there.

[00:49:03] I just remember walking through the, being shown through the basement and people just casually talked about this ghost is often here and this ghost is often here. It's like, oh, interesting. Yeah. Sometimes you can smell this one's perfume. There you go. Just very casually talking about this one. What's another, uh, St. Elmo ghost town too. Ooh. That's one where you're supposed to be able to sometimes see a former caretaker of the area after everyone moved out. I think like you can see her up in a window looking down on the streets.

[00:49:32] Also a great spot for fall. Perfect time of the year as long as there's not snow on that road. Yep. Uh, but, uh, yeah, if you, if you plan it correctly, good fall colors up in that part of the state and it's spooky, a little spooky and educational. I love spooky and education when those, when those combined gets the senses, when those combine, all the senses come together. You're paying attention. You know, that's the thing. Some people, I don't understand these people, how they can get bored by history, but, uh, they can all get excited by some spookiness.

[00:50:01] And I think the spookiness makes you pay attention to the history a little bit. Yeah. Very cool stuff. So yeah. Shout out Piper for that list. I, that's a good list. I enjoy it. Um, all right. Yeah. Let's, let's end the show with your fall color recommendation because it's about to be popping over there. Yeah. I was just hanging out, uh, over the weekend. I always go there this time of year and I always like talking about it cause I don't know how, how, how, how many people talk about Mueller state park, especially folks in Denver. Like I think that's worth the day trip for people in Denver, um, to come over to this

[00:50:31] side of Colorado in Teller County there. Uh, Mueller is just stocked with Aspens. That's what we're talking about here. I mean, the fall color viewing on foot there is just, tremendous. I think it's like 40, 50 miles, 44 miles of trail through there. So the, that should tell you a little bit about the options back there. Um, it, it gets popular. Don't get me wrong. Especially when it's leaf peeping season. Like I always like driving to the end of the road to the grouse mountain trailhead and doing that long loop, the Cheeseman ranch loop.

[00:51:00] And that will fill up, uh, after nine if the leaves are going, but nonetheless, I was there this past weekend and I got there when I thought was too late and I was able to park. So who knows? Um, and just, yeah, cool, cool place that with big Pikes Peak views, again, bunch of color and kind of a lesser traveled part of the state, I think for Denverites specifically, where maybe consider coming out, um, to Teller County and great destination brewery as you and I call Paradox. Yes, Paradox.

[00:51:30] That is about as great, that is a cool, wide open view right out their back door of Pikes Peak. Very good for fall. Wayward beers, I think is what they call them. Yeah, probably this time of year you're going to, you're going to want to bring a sweatshirt, sit outside, look at the mountain. It's just a cool fall by. Get that chill in the air. Also, you can send it to Cripple Creek too, which there's a lot of really good ball colors in Cripple Creek, which I believe that, uh, I believe the Molly Kathleen Goldmine is still shut down, but in that area, like right when you come into town, um, that is where you can find some really good fall colors. Good call.

[00:51:59] We'd be remiss not to talk about the drive toward Mueller and onto Cripple Creek. Highway 67 is a pretty premier drive for fall colors. Close to the front range there. Yeah. And getting into Victor and Cripple Creek. Beautiful stuff. Yeah. Beautiful stuff. Shout out to Mueller. Yeah. Do the loop. Go, go up. We've mentioned it already, but go up, uh, old stage road, go out to Victor, hit Cripple Creek and then cut back and come all the way through, uh, through, uh, divide and Woodland Park and eat bass.

[00:52:29] It's a good, good little drive. Yeah. Or do it in the opposite direction. Hit Mueller first, you know, but, uh, cool. I think that's about all we got for today. Quick tip. Quick tip. No, that was, oh, that was the tip. I was, I was hanging on the edge of my seat there. I'm like, oh yeah, what's it? Fire away. Yeah. Give us some more tips. You got more tips on a Stein holding? Yeah. Yeah. No, I got none. You got it. You're going to have to defend your, uh, your title next year. People are coming after me now. Are they? I put myself on the map. Don't you think? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's some, I'm a little too public about it.

[00:52:57] Once he was doing his victory dance on the stage, there were definitely some glares being said. Who is this guy? Who is some nerd? Yeah. Maybe we just do one of those on the show one of these times. So just full stand here with our Steins. Uh, all right, cool. Yeah. I think that's all we got for today. So, uh, until next time, I'm Spencer. I'm Seth. And we will see you out there.