WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Off the Trails: Spring Break Recap!

Episode Date: March 29, 2025

Join Nicole Sighiartau and Storm Drexler as they discuss their wildest experiences in the great outdoors! This week they shared some adventures from their respective East and West coast spring breaks! 

You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Welcome to Off the Trails. What is to the Out? I'm Storm Drexler. And I'm Nicole Siguritow and we'll be your adventure buddies every week as we discuss some of our wildest stories from our outdoor endeavors. Well, not every week. Well, not every week. This week we're going to be talking about our spring breaks, which do include some outdoor adventures, at least for me.

But I don't know about Storm. Spring break recap episode. Yeah. How was your spring break just as a whole? Oh, it was break. It was break. It was phenomenal, yeah. Mine was really good.

So we're not going to do a trail marker because the spring break was our trail marker. My trail marker is that I didn't record an episode last week. Oh, really? Did you record a room without me? No, because I, first of all, I couldn't do that. Second of all, trail markers have to be out. You couldn't do that? Second of all, trail markers have to be outside.

And we're inside right now. So I don't know how that could be your trail marker. Wait, we're indoors? Yeah. Nicole, we weren't supposed to tell the people that they're gonna think we're frauds. They thought we were like recording on a campfire Yes or at least like up on a mountain trail next to some lake somewhere look at the logo Yeah, yeah to be fair. That's probably where we should be recording. Yeah, well anyway we have to like pretend now. Okay, add in sound effects of wind blowing aggressively Oh gosh look about hotter balloon up in the air hot balloon up in the air. That's where we should record in a hot air balloon. Yeah, that would be awesome. That would be pretty cool.

All right. Spring break. Spring break. Okay. My spring break was fantastic. I went home to California and I actually left a day early from school, which I totally do not regret in the slightest. But anyway, I get home. The first couple of days are kind of just doing some housework, I guess, running some errands. I saw a good friend. I hadn't seen in a year. So that was really fun. But one of my little highlights from the first Saturday back was, my run. So I had a long run on Saturday, and I've ran in Huntington Beach, which I've never ran there before, but there is this really nice bike path, also walking path, just right along the beach. And unicycle path. Don't leave them out. And unicycle path. So I ran 11 miles. It was a shorter long run. But it was the most wholesome running environment I've ever been in. And Californians can be known to be kind of rude, but I'm not just.

joking, like every person I ran by if they were running, they would say, hey, good job, keep it up, have a great morning. Like some sort of interaction of beautiful day out there. It was so sweet. And so I started doing that. I would see someone running. I was like, you got this man. Keep it up.

Hey, see, kindness spreads. Positiveity spreads. It totally spreads. And actually, this one man, I was at, I didn't feel great on this run. I was going pretty quick. I don't know why I wanted to go fast. but I was like, I'm going to go fast. And so towards the end of my run, I was feeling a little fatigued.

And there's this one man that had like a mile left. And he ran by who's like, you've got this. You're doing great things this morning. I was like, you know what I am doing great things this morning? I'm out for a run. What are you doing? Laying in bed? Lame.

I was probably at the time laying in bed. What time of day was this? When I finished my run is probably around like 10.30 Pacific standard time. Yes, so I'm sleeping. Sleeping? Yep. How lame of you. Because not only did I run, but after my run.

run, I went into the water, even though it was really cold. It was cold when I was home for spring break. Do you run all the way into the water? For Californians, no, because I wasn't going to get my running shoes wet. But we had snow on our local mountain hill thing, which normally doesn't get a ton of snow, but Sallback Mountain had snow on it and Mount Baldy had a ton of snow. So I ran into the water. Mount Baldy, yeah. Have you climbed that one? I have when I was five. That's the next story. Anyway, But I ran into the water with snowy mountains in the background. It was probably like 64 degrees, so the air was pretty cool still for California. Five degrees too cold.

And the water was also chilly because our Pacific waters are cold. But it was a lovely morning. And so, yeah, that was my Saturday. And then spring break just got better because on Sunday, my dad and I went up to Mammoth, and we went skiing. and life really just peaks when you're on skis, at least for me. It peaks? It peaks.

So funny. But we had the most perfect conditions. It was supposed to be blizzarding and snowing when we were looking at the forecast like a week, a week and a half out. But the weather changed Sunday was a bluebird, sunshine day, no wind, very minimal crowds for a Sunday, I add. And everything was just going my way. I got new boots last May. I demoed them. I used them for a day and then we bought them. And then my first time using them was in December. And I had some issues with like my calves being really tight. So we expanded my boots in December and that kind of fixed it. And I thought, you know, this is fine. Everything's great and dandy. And then we went to

steamboat. And I didn't have calf problems, but I had toe problems. What you're going to do? I know. So before I went to Steamboat, actually, we had the right side of my boot by the big toe punched out and that fixed my right foot. They punched your toe out? No, they punched that you can punch the shell of the ski boot. You can, like, heat it up really hot and then you can kind of punch it and then like grind part of it away so it doesn't hit your toe. So we did that to the right side because my right foot is bigger.

We didn't do this to the left side. And unfortunately while I was in Steamboat, I got a black toe. You have two right feet? Did I say right foot? No, I'm kidding. I just, I think it's a fun fact. People should know that I have two left feet. Really?

Yeah. Okay. Anyway. So when we were in steamboat, I got a black toe, and this has happened in the past before, so I took the last day off in Steamboat off. I didn't ski that day. But I was a little afraid for my toe, but my dad fixed my left boot. And on Sunday, no boot problems.

I had them dialed in nice and tight. They're a lot stiffer than my old boot. so I just have better control over my skis. And I felt so fast. Like I don't, I wasn't, okay, I did not get anywhere close to my top speed, but I just felt clean on my skis. And I felt like I was skiing really well, which is something I haven't felt in a long time.

And it's such a good feeling when you're carving and you're like, yes. It's just, it's so fun. You don't understand. So Sunday was beautiful. Monday was a little windier. but the snow was great. It softened up, again, probably around 40 degrees. Literally no one was there on Monday.

I'm not joking. Any lift we went to, we pulled up to the lift. Immediately got on. Immediately got on. That's the best. Yeah. So that was great. And then Tuesday was our final day.

It was a little windy. We left a bit earlier for the drive back home. But overall, one of the best, better, not best, but one of the better ski experience. One of the top seven and a half skiing experience is. Yeah. I mean, probably. probably the best I've had in the last couple of years. Was it podium?

Oh. No. No, it's not because I know my top three skiing experiences. And this was like maybe top. I think top seven is actually a fair place to put it. I like, you understood my slang. Because I said that the other day, I was like, was it podium? And someone was like, what?

You know, top three. Yeah. I thought that was pretty common. I think that's, I don't know, who were you talking to? Some dude. I was like, that was podium, bro. Women are smarter. You already here first.

But it was more a casual conversation. I was like, dude, that was podium, bro. Like that was just top three of that thing ever. I mean, I've never really heard that used before, but I knew what you meant when you said it. Yeah, exactly. I was like, yeah, top three. So not top three, but it was really great. And then went home again, very, very rainy.

However, there was like a break in the rain. Shout out, Dr. Rainy. Sorry. There was a break in the rain one of the days. And so I went sailing and I haven't sailed since May. And it was so fun. It was really, it was pretty windy. It wasn't really, really windy.

But I was on my toes. And I was like, okay, I actually need to be focused here. I can't just let my brain go off. When you were sailing, you're in a lake? Yeah, I sailed at our local lake where I grew up. And then is it just you on the boat? Like you're the only one? Yeah, I was single.

The boat I was in was a single-headed boat. Wow. So how big is the boat? This one is a Bubboa 13, so 13 feet. Whoa. Oh, no, it's actually, sorry. Our lake has a limit on how long the boat can be. But the limit's like 18 or 19 feet.

So, yeah, no, it is 13 feet. Okay. That's super sick. Yeah. So it was really... Do you just, like, run around and, like, do different things with ropes? No, I'm standing at the back of the boat. The Boboa 13s are very tippy.

They're actually built by Balboa Yacht Club. They're, like, dip a lot. Yeah, they're very tippy boats. So they're built by Boboah Yacht Club. which is in Newport Beach. And these boats were not seaworthy. They were meant to be sailed on flat water because they take on water very easily if you dip a rail in. So perfect for our little lake.

And I started sailing them during COVID. And I absolutely loved it. So it was really fun to be out on the water again with some good wind. So that was Wednesday, beautiful. Thursday, again, another slight break in the rain. So I took Marley on a nice four-mile walk. However, our walk was... Is Marley your boat?

Marley's my dog. No. Marley's my dog. And so I took Marley on a walk and we're two miles away from home and all of a sudden it starts downpouring. Like my hair was soaked within minutes. My hair was soaked. Marley does not like water. She's not a water dog.

My dog is a water dog and she hates water too. Well, anyway, Marley, Marley got me. all soaked. And so there's no trees for us to stand under where we were at. So she's just looking at me ears back, shivering. She's like, Nicole, this isn't fun. I signed up for a walk, not to get

soaked. But literally two minutes later, the sun was out again. So it was great. But yeah, that was my spring break. Sounds like a lot of fun. Yeah. Oh, actually, one more quick thing. I had a long run for the final Saturday. I was home. That was 16 miles

and let me tell you, it was rough. It was bad long run. It was not good. It was way too hot, even though it wasn't, but I just overheated and struggled severely. However, today, I had an 18 mile long run and that went really well. So I'm feeling rejuvenated in regards to that. Sounds good. You're listening to Off the Trails on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Let's hear about Storm Spring Break. Guys, I went on spring break. I did I did the thing. But I did the more classic thing, and I went to the beach because I like the beach. If you don't know this about me, I'm a huge ocean guy.

I'm the happiest when there's an ocean within sight of me. And I think so was the person I went with. If you guys know Nate, Nate Gallagher, shout out. To Forbes podcast. Yeah, shout out. My other podcast with Nate, we have a podcast called Boys Only. That's why I'm not a part of it. Yeah, unfortunately.

We would get Nicole on as well, but it's Boys Only. It's also on Radio Free Hills, go check it out. But we went down. I took Nate, who's a stinking northerner. He's from Long Island, New York. Yeah, he's from New York. I took him down south to where I'm from. And we went down past that to Florida near Pensacola, that area, on the newly named Gulf of America.

I had to see it for myself. That's crazy. I can't believe that you actually saw it. Yeah, I've seen, I had seen the Gulf of Mexico before. But I got to check off my ocean's bucket list. So I had to go see the Gulf of America as well. Now, I've never been to either the Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf of America. I've been to the other side of Florida, bordering Atlantic.

They're the same Gulf. But no, if it's the other side of Florida, it's bordering the Atlantic. That's just the Atlantic Ocean. I realize that. I'm saying I've never been to the Gulf. Okay, okay, okay. You've only been to the Pacific Ocean? Pacific, Atlantic.

Oh, you've been to the Atlantic? Of course I have. Okay. The Gulf is great because I don't know about the Pacific Ocean, because I don't remember, I think I've swam in it or been in it, but I don't remember how cold or warm it is. I don't know what kind of currency you all have. We get the northern current from Alaska.

So cold. It's cold. That's the same thing with the Atlantic Ocean. We get stuff that comes down from like newfoundland. I don't know. Whatever's North was. I'm sorry. Your ocean is not cold.

Atlantic? No, because I was in Rhode Island two summers ago and you guys had the warmest water ever. Rhode Island. Rhode Island. Okay, well, you're just comparing it to your frigid iceberg waters. Yeah, it's really cold. It's still cold. If you think the Atlantic Ocean is warm, the Gulf is like.

disgusting then. No, no, no, no. The Gulf is like, like, wonderful. It's like the best ocean. Maybe you'll ever swim in, which is like the Caribbean islands and all that said down there. I like a nice bite to my ocean. What do you mean? You know, that was bite to your ocean. I want it to refresh me, not to feel like I'm stepping into bath water. It's not bath water. It's still. It was colder than your body, but it wasn't like. I've been to Miami. And that water was disgustingly hot. It was June. And I walked into the water and I was like, what rip off is this? I came here to cool off in the water. And it's, I was hot as the outside air. We were on the panhandle of Florida, which is the northernmost Gulf. And the water was still cold enough that it was like, ah, nice. But it wasn't cold enough that it was like, yeah, go, go, go. Or whatever something Mario makes when he, like, freezes to death in Super Mario Brothers. But, yeah, it was super-duper nice. The beach was great.

It was warm at long last. There was sunlight. Vitamin D streamed into my veins. And it was glorious. Vitamin D is the sun one, right? Yes, it is. It was amazing. And so, yeah, we went down there.

We met with some people from home, some of my friends from home and some of their friends from their colleges and universities that they went to. And spent the week with the boys on the beach. It was lit. It was a great time. But there was a lot to see down there. There was, we went one day, and here's my story, to a old fort, an old civil war fort that had been, like, destroyed or whatever. Or at least, like, over time had been dilapidated. It was a union civil, a union civil war fort.

there was a Confederate one across the, like the little bay area. But the Confederate one was just gone because it had been like canoned into oblivion. And they still had some of the original cannons there. And they were really cool. They were big enough that I could put my head inside the cannon, which was a lot of fun. I do a picture of that. And the cannons were just ginormous. They had these like really cool like swivel mechanisms that they could like turn the cannons on.

That was really, really neat. Like you get a bunch of guys behind it to push this like lever and then it would like turn the cannon to re-hame them. Apparently there was some, there was like some plaques there that said that some of the cannons could fire like 18 miles. 18 miles. And this is a canon in the 1860s. As someone who has ran 18 miles today, let me tell you 18 miles is a far distance. Yes. And it could shoot a massive iron pound ball that distance in like, you know, under a minute.

How does the ball maintain its momentum? That's what I want to know. Like how did that stay up in the air for over a minute? It's got to be, I don't know if it's over a minute. I don't know the time exactly, but it's got to be like something due to the weight. It's just like it's momentum. How heavy are they? The cannon balls?

Because, okay, by the time you've traveled 18 miles, think of how much power you've lost. Probably like 10 pound balls, if not more. Oh my gosh. We need to look up the physics behind that. I think I've heard of like 40 pounder balls before, but I don't know. That might be totally wrong. I have not done canon research. I'm not a good pirate.

But the cannons were really awesome. They were cool. And then there was also a like World Wars bunker nearby that we got to stop death on the way back. And it was really neat. It was like buried. They had basically built a bunker in preparation for any mainland invasions that might happen. Fortunately, they never had to use it. But it had this massive like artillery thing to peek out and shoot out over the Gulf in case anybody came this way.

And then they covered it in like dirt foliage and like trees and stuff. To disguise it. To disguise it from planes flying above. And it was like almost totally disguised. It's still covered in stuff. can like barely make out this like entrance way and concrete and metal door and this is in florida this is in florida as well on the gulf it was it was only a few miles from the civil war ford um and built later of course and uh we went down there and we were marveling about how

apparently they had like in like a week covered the entire you know whatever like 400 foot radius bunker in just like absolute foliage and sand and trees and stuff and the front like area is obviously like this like bolted or something from inside, but we went around back and there was like a rear entrance hidden in all this like foliage and like thornage that we like climbed through. And it was like a singular padlock. And we were like, ooh. And like four, like 10 boys look around each other and they're like, hmm. A singular padlock?

A singular lock. A challenge accepted. One of our, one of the guys was with us, he was like a super chemist or something. And he. Did he say you could blow it up? Well, he said that he said that if we went to a gas station, he would be able to purchase the necessary items to craft thermite. And we were like, oh, maybe not that, which would have been funny. But it was just a funny experience.

We have some funny pictures from there. There's like some old like World War's text about like, nunchel break our weapons or barriers or something. That was really cool. And it was like moss covered. Always discovering those. And it wasn't like this, the Civil War Fort had a bunch of like signs and like tourist stuff. Like you go walk around. There were some areas that were like marked off.

But this bunker, we just spotted it like way off the trail. And we just went over there. And there was like one sign that was like really old. It was like, oh, this is what this was. Which is how I know was from the World Wars and that they built it in that long. But other than that, it was like not meant for people to go over there. So as for a bunch of dudes running around through like, I don't know, tropical ruins. It was really, really awesome.

That sounds like a great time. It was a good time. Was there any like downer during your break? Was there any downer? Any homework assignment weighing on you? Okay, well, yes, actually. So I had the entire time over spring break, I was like, you know what? Or at the beginning, I was like, I'm not going to bring any homework home.

Because, you know, realistically, if you're listening to this right now, look at yourself and ask yourself this question. Do you do work over break? Yes. I'm not asking you. I'm not asking the audience. Okay. If the answer is yes, that's lame. You should be doing stuff.

Okay. But Storm, listen. I didn't do very much over spring break. I did the bare minimum. If the answer is no, you're being honest with yourself and you're and you're embracing true freedom that breaks off. You know, I really did do very little homework. Yeah. But I know, at least for me, I won't give anything none.

Like I have actually brought books home before. You don't read a word of those. It's spring break. There's stuff to do all week long. I didn't do reading. I worked on an essay. Okay, that's fair. Yeah, the same essay that I had.

Yeah. We had a Constitution essay. We had an essay due the Monday back. We got back. Curse you, Dr. Post. And Storm texts me over break and was like, what's the prompt? I just wanted to start thinking about it because the way I work a lot differently from people that I've talked to about papers. I will, if I think about it for a while, then it won't take me long to write it.

But if I sit down with no idea, then I'll have to like sit there for a few hours and then I can write it. That's fair. But I just want to start thunking, you know. So when did you write it? That's what I'm getting at. I'm curious. When did you get the time? So it was due Monday at noon.

Yeah. I asked him at that time if I could not if I could have a few more hours and he was like yeah I'll make it do Monday at midnight for you. So when I talked to you in class you hadn't written it yet? No. I literally asked you as like, how's your paper going? You're like, great. You just said he didn't print it. I hadn't started.

I wrote it all on Monday and then turn it down. You know, it wasn't a hard essay. Yeah, it took me like an hour and a half. Well, that's impressive. It took me longer than that. Also, I think it was pretty good. We'll see. Okay, actually, because I'm saying this on the podcast, I think I'll live portray my reaction.

I'll live portray my unopened paper. Whenever I get it back to the whatever episode and I will react on the podcast. To your grade. But I'm realizing now, saying on air, I'm confident it's going to come back to bite me in the rear. I'm sure it'll be fine. He's a very nice professor. He is. Great class.

Shout out U.S. Constitution. Dr. Postel. Yes. What a king. Yeah, it's great. How'd the last exam go? Good. Is this what we're talking about now?

Well, we've got like a minute a lot. I'm sorry. It's just, I haven't chip. Anyway, academically. Yeah, that's true. It would get. It went all right. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, we just got it back. We just got back. I was thinking about how I thought I did. I did great, actually. Oh, okay, you did great. Yeah, it did fine. That's nice. Yeah.

This week, though, I'm going to endeavor to get a really funny trail marker for next week because I um well I don't want to spoil next week but we have two guests coming on so I don't know how much we're at the same time yes we have two guests at the same time because they've got a joint story oh my gosh guys you're not going to want to miss next week's episode you will not want to miss it anyway thank you for listening to off the trails on radio free hillsdale 101.7 fome we hope you have a great week and make time to go outside and enjoy the great outdoors. We'll see you out there. Happy trails. Four people next week. Bye guys.