2024 Year in Review, Octagon Behind the Scenes

With 2024 coming to a close we created a year in review and Octagon “Behind the Scenes” episode. 

We explore the highlights from the past three months in Stowe, including epic weather, a killer start to ski season, and some jaw-dropping local athletes.

 Our own Stowe stories—how we got here, what keeps us hooked, and what makes this community so special.

 Why we decided to start this podcast and what we’ve learned about sharing Stowe’s history, characters, and buzz.

Think of this as a chairlift chat with a couple of locals who love this town as much as you do. So grab your favorite holiday drink, tune in, and let’s talk Stowe!

Transcript

0:08

Welcome everyone to the Octagon podcast. this is your host, Mike Carey here with co host, Ted Thorndyke. We're doing a little bit different style this time on this podcast. We're gonna do a year end review and little insights into Ted and Mike. We've seen a bunch of people around town and a lot of folks either know me or know Ted or know both of us. They're interested in hearing a little bit more about ourselves, why we started the podcast, what our connections are to Stowe. it's been super cool to just be around town and gain feedback on the Octagon podcast and, the feedback's been great. as Mike mentioned, we're going to kick off this episode with a little. 2024 year in review. And then after that, we'll get into a little bit of info about, who we are as people and, just some of the roots of the podcast. And, with that said you're in review, I'm going to kick it off to Mike and he's going to get into some stats, some winter stats. How much you've been skiing, Mike? first of all, it's one of the best fall stretches for weather I think we've had. we had October and November hiking, biking up until November 15th. Great fall. Beautiful dry stretch. Then it went, quiet. Remember the mountain didn't open. There was some time there was some panic in there was a lot of panic around town So we had that two weeks of nothing and then the mountain opened and it immediately was good It was like december 2nd. So and just to backtrack we had that mid october We both got that mid October 15th, 16th, we both skied, skinned and skied. That was known as the Snowliage, Mike. That was the Snowliage. Pretty cool. And actually I owe it to you because I was sitting there at eight in the morning wondering if it was worth going up and you sent me a video and it was game on. And it was game on. So that was good. I went on Thanksgiving day and it was not good. I can tell you that We there was no snow yet. There was some no, maybe we did get maybe we did. It was not good It was at the end of november. Yes, exactly. It was the end of november. We did get a day So yeah, the 2nd I personally have 10 days of Lyft served already. I've got 10 skins. Yep. Long trail today. Correct. I did the long trail today because it's blackout this week for the local pass Ran into Noah dines who was doing some laps one of our guests on the long trail So yeah, I've got ten ten lifts serve ten skins eight days cross countering a trap so for me Unbelievable month great start to the winter. Yeah, what about you? I have some interesting stats. I have skinned 24 times. 24? Yeah, it's been a good uphill start. I have yet to have a lift serve day. Zero lift serve. So I'm building it up. I'm hoping for many, maybe some kind of ceremony up at the mountain. So you got 24 runs? 24 runs. 24 days. 24 runs. Yep. 24 runs. Zero lift serve. Zero lift serve. And three Nordic skis, up at traps. So yeah, great month. Great month. Great month so far. and Mike, maybe you could talk about it. I know we have a new GM here at Stowe. Yeah. I met him. Georgio. Okay. Maybe I went to the season pass party that was up at Spruce Peak Seems like a great guy. He's. An East Coast guy, spent time, pretty sure at Mount Snow, food and beverage manager that was in the Midwest in Michigan. Now he's back in Stowe and seemed pretty excited to be in Vermont. So I think. fingers crossed, yeah, somebody that really wants to be here versus a stopgap for Moving on to the bigger mountains out west that was my sense We do hope to have him on the podcast here in the new year Hopefully we can get him on here to introduce them introduce himself and the other big plug I did make with him is to get the Opry ski scene amped up here on the mountain, you know I feel like we need You One place that's just rocking. Yeah, I feel like that, the deck. At Midway, maybe underutilized to get that. Could that be a good location deck at Midway or even the deck at the sunrise left, imagine a family sitting out there and the kids riding the sunrise lift, hitting the park and the parents are out there having a beer and there's a DJ outside and a little more of that European feel. Yeah, totally. that's what I'm, that's my hope. Yeah. And just a couple other pieces. as Mike mentioned, he's been seeing Noah dines out on the long trail as have I, and, he has. He's hit 3. 5 million. Is that correct? Yeah. He's over 3. 5, over 3. 5. So his goal was 3 million. He has shattered the world record. So very impressive. Yeah. And he's got one more day because he's a leap year, so he wants to give the next person a fair shake at it. So December 30th is his last day. He's doing a 4 PM Perry Merrill run. And then, another guest of ours is, Mishi LeMay and her goal for 2024 was to do 1 million human powered vertical between hiking, mountain biking, gravel biking, and skiing. And she has accomplished that goal. And just a couple of days ago, she hit 500, 000 vertical feet just in uphill skiing. Just on Mansfield. Yes. Just on Mansfield. So big congrats to, to one of our guests, Mishy Lemay. And bringing her positive vibes to the ski skin community. how about that? UVM soccer team, Mike, that's not so particular, but, did you watch the game? I did watch the game. My daughter goes to UVM. She watched it at the official watch party at Nectar's. That must've been, yeah. UVM. I'm amazed you didn't go. relive your college days. I was tempted to go, but I figured I'd let the college kids have their fun. So obviously I think a lot of people in Stowe got excited by it and watched it. It was the first team win by a UVM college sports team. I know the hockey team made the Frozen Four a couple of times. Never won. And the ski team's won, but that's not the same thing. So still impressive. We're not first. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, first, first team win. That was awesome to see around town. what about around town? openings and closings. I know a closing I've noticed on my many trips on the Mount road is. Dadalus. Dadalus. Dadalus. Dadalus. No, you're right. yeah, that's been closed for a couple of months. I only went in there a couple of times, wasn't. They stopped doing food. They, there's you could see the writing on the wall, I think, and I guess they all went out of business, all their locations. Oh, really? Burlington. They had one in out west of Boulder, I think. where do you think maybe they missed the mark as far as, what they're trying to sell and being in the still market? I don't know. We have plenty of wine shops, I think just another wine shop wasn't gonna make it. I think the food probably would have been the thing that could have kept them going. They have that wood fired oven. They could have done some interesting stuff there. I don't think there was enough food being pumped out. I just think it was expensive too, and it was expensive. It was expensive. I think too. I feel like a lot of people coming off the mountain, you know Maybe you're looking for that hearty meal And I remember going in there's yeah cheese and wine, but you couldn't get a big sandwich Yeah, and then you're eating in a store like, it's not the quite the vibe. the other one that we think is closed Nocturnal is it closed? you punch it into google to see you know hours of operation and it just said Closed. Just said closed. Temporarily. Said temporarily. And I saw some posts on Facebook about it. Nobody really knew. Yeah. I know the owner, I believe, made a statement that they would be open again. But. Huh. I'm not sure. Weird one there. Cause I thought the food was great. Same. I thought they had one of the best burgers in town. And their food was great. Great barbecue great. Yeah, just the atmosphere. I think maybe was lacking a little bit a little stark You say yeah, I don't know if that location isn't the best. I know when you're next to the alchemist Yeah, how do you not have a giant smoke or billowing smoke blowing it right at all the alchemist people? Yeah. Yeah a big Vermont white tailed deer hanging from the tree. And I know they had no TVs in there, so I think a lot of people went in there to watch sports and if you're by yourself, let's say you want to sit at the bar and just watch a game, yeah, that just, that didn't exist. And I think when the Sunset was there, that was such a institution in Stowe, people knew about it. To your point, a known sports bar. Known sports bar with reasonably priced food. Yep. That was, a place you could go and see locals. What about Starbucks? Starbucks opened this fall and I went in there once. I had been in there once and I was blown away. I don't know if you've been in there. It's sleek. It looks like you're in Boston or New York. The ordering is efficient. And I was impressed. Similar to my lift serve statistic, I have not been in Starbucks yet. There you go. I'm holding now. You should go in and at least look at it. the other one is commodities. Have you been in there yet? But I know, I remember I was over here and you had one of those rotisserie chickens. Yeah. Amazing. I shouldn't tell people that they only make 20 of them a day. And if you don't get there at 1130, they could easily be, how And that, that brings up the other kind of big. highlight this year is all the development that's been raising eyebrows around town. So you got that building You've got the field next to it. That's going to get built on a dozen condos You've got the golf course development under the review for 70 condos. There's that other one, up, Pass the Hobnob. Pass Hobnob. That's another, it looks like a dozen condos. So what's the balance? Yeah. We'll see. We'll see, if there's more coming or if that's the threshold and people say enough's enough. Yeah. I do know up at the mountain that Development has stopped up there as far as construction. Yeah, that's built out. That's built out They do have land down by the toll house. So i've always thought I at one time I heard there was plans for a hotel with a lift that came into the hotel So you can literally get on the lift inside the hotel Wow, I'd say it's been a pretty good year, just around Stowe. And for us in the octagon, it's yeah. As we look back on 2024. I think it's been a great three months. we've only been at this three months. We did our first episode in early October, so we're about three months in and we're close to 3000 downloads. Yep. Yeah, across our episodes. So I think people are enjoying it. It's fun. It's not politically charged. I think, after all the political stuff that went on this fall, people are excited just to have a fun podcast that is about Stowe. maybe we could give our listeners a feel. I've had people ask me, how did it all start? How did it, do you recall that first conversation, Mike? How when we decided to start the Octagon podcast, I remember the very beginnings. Me and you were playing tennis. Yep. and we were joking with our tennis group is called the Heavy Hitters. That's what the night at the tennis Club was called. So we were joking that a podcast all about. The heavy hitters the drama who was coming in better shape this year What the lineups who was going to play doubles with who we thought a podcast about that would be fun And we were more joking about it. So that's what's funny is we were 100 percent 100 percent joking and then At that point it got I don't want to say serious, at that point we thought, Hey, maybe we could start a podcast about tennis, sport of tennis. We both love it. We're passionate about it. Like inside the brain, what makes a good tennis player, psychology and the tennis culture in Stowe as well is very robust. That was our next thought that was, how could we start a podcast about tennis and integrate our passion? And so we thought that'd be cool, but we were just wondering if there would be enough content. Yeah. I think we realized pretty quickly we'd run out of things to talk about. And then I don't know how we turned it into, I think it was you, I think you had mentioned, we could do one about Stowe. I always felt there was a need for the stories, the personalities, the adventures, the pulse of Stowe, to get it out there and how would you do that? You could have a website, you could do an Instagram page or you could do a podcast and it seemed like a podcast was the best way. For that and we had been joking about it And then me and you got together once and we talked through it And I think we both were like This has legs and just to build off what you said It does illustrate and just the listeners I've talked to is that it appears there was an, not only a need, but a desire for this medium for people to listen to that there is so much going on in Stowe. There's so much history in Stowe that people wanted to be able to get their hands on it aside from just a weekly newspaper. Yeah. how could we, have a broader product that people could enjoy? Yeah, I just think there's so many people with a connection to Stout, right? we've been here, you've been here a very long time. I've been coming here for a long time. You've got people that live here as locals. You've got people with a second homes here. You have people that have come here for on vacation and love Stowe. You've got all these people with a connection to Stowe and they may not know all these stories. I, I didn't know all these stories when I moved here and you start to meet people and hear things and get involved in hockey and tennis and skinning, and there's a lot of interesting characters here. There's a lot of interesting stories and there's amazing history that needs to Get brought to life. it's, there's a lot of action and it's a very robust community for the population that is here. Yeah. And I think too, folks that, as you started, you came up here on weekends, right? Just go start. Yeah. so you think about someone like you back in the day to have something like this, that. You would come up and go skiing and go out to restaurants and then go home to give, maybe those tourists or travelers that come up here, a feel for the local community, I think is what an amazing place it is. And people ask us, what are your goals for this podcast? Are you trying to make money? Are you, so how do you answer that? I would say one of my goals is, Stowe is changing rapidly as we've touched on in this podcast. And Jed Lipski, one of our other guests, touched on it as well. first and foremost, how can we highlight all the very interesting, amazing people that really make this community unique, but most importantly, how can we preserve that? And not only preserve it, but grow it. when you have a town like Stowe, a tourist destination. It's constantly changing and growing. And when you have such a high level of development that can change the community, whether that's people are leaving, it, it just changes the whole feel of it. So the more that we can highlight all these amazing people, all the cool history, And really preserve it and however, having a podcast can help achieve that. I'm still not sure yet, but I feel the first step is getting that message out, getting the cool stories out to really remember, Hey, there is this thriving local community that it's really sacred. Yeah. And my goal is to continue to unearth that, get people excited about it. That's probably the biggest thing is get excited about it because some people can get down. Oh, it's easy to get grumpy. It's easy to get grumpy, right? it's Christmas week, it's fall foliage, it's easy to get grumpy and worry about the town. It's expensive, yes. And all the problems that exist in Stowe. I agree with kind of your goals, it's I tell people, right now, we're just having fun with it. our goal right now is to have fun with it and try and capture some of these stories. And, with all the new people in Stowe, all the new development, all the increased tourism, the underbelly of Stowe is still there. Yeah. The people that love this mountain, that love this town, that do interesting things, they're still here. So they haven't left, but we have to bring that to the forefront, right? It's like when I first moved here, I met so many interesting characters. back then I feel like it was a weirder place. Quirky. Quirkier, right? to live in Stowe, even 15 years ago was a hard place. you had to really want to be in the mountains. Now it's easier, right? You've got Amazon, you get stuff shipped to your house. You have a Starbucks, you can remote work is much more accepted. So I feel like it was a much quirkier place then. And I appreciated all that quirkiness. So for me, it's also bringing out that quirkiness, the things that make Stowe great. It's not just any place USA. Yeah. No. And I think the goal too, with the podcast is talk about all of the unique, amazing things about Stowe, the people, and also highlight some of the challenges. Yeah. Which bring those to the table that, that maybe a lot of people talk about, they talk about at the grocery store, they talk about skiing up on the mountain, how can we maybe reach a broader audience to explore some of these issues to make Stowe a great place for everyone, locals and tourists alike. Yeah. I personally have gotten a ton of. Joy from meeting everybody, there's people I know maybe a little bit better than others But you know someone like noah dines. I see him skinning and I say hi That's the extent of the conversation i've ever had with him and to sit down and get to know him and hear his story rusty deweese for me. i'm loving that Yeah. Selfishly, me too. I think when I see Noah or Mishy or Simba, Rusty, Brian Linder has become a friend. Neil Van Dyke. I would only see Brian at the mound. I'd never even talked to him and he's become a friend. Yeah, exactly. Like just an awesome guy. So I think for us, that's been really. Joyful, yeah and rewarding for sure And I think we've got tons of runway left we've got a list of people that we're gonna get lined up here for next year There's plenty of runway left a lot of for this And so who's, who knows what 2025 brings, I think, just like you said before, we've got some ideas for doing new topics, new channels. We'll see where it goes. but for now we're having a lot of fun, having a lot of fun with that. So just, switching gears a little bit, we're going to get into, who is Mike Carey? Who is Ted Thorndike? What is their connection to Stowe? And, starting off with Mike. You've touched on it briefly in other episodes, but how did you end up in Stowe? Yeah. So I never skied in my life. My family, we grew up in Massachusetts. We had a house in Cape Cod, spent my summers going to Cape Cod, never went to the mountains. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. we're on the Cape West Dennis. Okay. Yeah. Swan pond river road. Beautiful. Yeah. great spot. I get a little bored. Yeah. Yeah. In retrospect, I was a lot bored as a wiffle ball, cooking out and fish and chips and going to the beach. Yeah. Maybe a big night would be cornhole. the cornhole didn't exist. Oh damn. It's going way back. Wiffle ball. Wiffle ball was the sport. So in those days, were you, what would you do in the winter? Just be down in mass, not coming up to stow? As a kid, my parents didn't do any outdoor activities like that whatsoever. So winter was winter. Yeah. maybe, hopefully it snowed and you can make a snow fort and have a snowball fight. but no, so that wasn't on your radar. Skiing was just not even a thought. Really? Nothing ever. Not even not even a Warren Miller video on in the background. Just not even part of my world. Ignorance is bliss. So then I went to UMass and, a bunch of my friends were into hiking. So we would go hiking in the summer, in the winter. so I started to fall in love with the outdoors and and nature. And then our last year in college. I started to ski a little bit. I went a few times, and then I graduated college, and a friend of mine had rented a place at Sunday River. I went up a few times. I hated skiing. Three or four times. I was terrible at it. My friends would take me to the very top. You're cold and they'd push me down Yeah the mountain and I would just tumble my way down, but I love to operate ski That's I like everything about I liked everything else about amazing except the actual sport I think that's like actually a lot of people. Exactly. you see it here this week. They want the hot chocolate picture. The family comes out. They don't really love to ski, but they want the picture. They want to be around it. So that was me. The next year went back to Sunday river and started to ski more. And now it was starting to actually enjoy it and get into it. For reasons we were banned from Sunday River. one of my friends got banned from Sunday River. I cannot wait to hear that story. For making a fake ski pass. Oh, okay. He made a fake ski pass. Wow. He lost it. They found it. They went to contact him and looked in their records. And they saw this person doesn't exist. Wow. And then they looked at the pass a little closer and they said oh That's a fake ski pass. Wow, and they put his picture up around the mountain and he made himself another one and Went back out skiing and got caught. Wow. So any anyway, we couldn't go back to sunday river. So I was now in graduate school so I had heard of the big pass stone sugarbush had a joint pass called the big pass. If you're in college, it was 300 and something bucks. You can ski both mountains. Where in grad school? Boston university. Yeah. So big pass. Wow. That's a big pass. So me and a friend drove up. We looked at sugarbush, looked at a bunch of homes to rent and sugarbush. We were going to rent a house for the winter and come up every weekend. Group of 15 ski house classic ski house come up Friday go home Sunday And we're gonna do Sugarbush or Stowe We looked at Sugarbush looked at six or seven homes and then we came to Stowe Looked at six or seven homes and we couldn't decide both look fine to us and we asked the realtor Bob Lansing I don't know if you remember Bob Lansing all seasons rentals. Okay, he looked at us and he said You guys are kidding. Stowe is the Cadillac of mountains. And we look at each other alright, we're doing Stowe. And I'll pray ski and you were like, I'm in he just he basically belittled the thought and he just said stows the Cadillac of mountains How could you even think about going to sugarbush? So just for that one comment, yeah, we ended up in the show changed the course of your life We had a foxhill condo. We had a you know, half shares full shares people would come up every weekend And now I was hooked. Wow. so that conversation changed the course of your life. Yeah. And that conversation is my friend getting caught with a fake ski pass, got us kicked out of Sunday river. we did ski houses for years and then, Lisa and I got married and we were getting ready to buy a condo or a house in Boston. Couldn't afford one, but Stowe was still, Cheap. So we're like, let's buy a condo in Stowe and rent it to our friends. So we bought a little condo at Northern Lights. And rented it to five friends, for the winter. So I helped pay the mortgage and all that. so we had this little condo and had that for years, now we had kids in 2001, our first daughter was born. We started coming up when they were little. And where were you living at this time? We're in Massachusetts. Yeah, we're in the North Shore, Massachusetts in a town called Wenham. And yeah, so we started coming up more and our kids got into stowbusters, which was every weekend and you know Coming up all the time now we're coming up in the summer using it and put our kids in the stow camp, the rec camp one summer and At that time, we had always talked about maybe living in stow one day, but never really taking it seriously. We liked our life in mass. We, there's no real reason. Lisa, my wife, came down with breast cancer. Got sick, and Spent a couple years in mass dealing with that and getting her healthy at the same time I was now working remote. I do software sales So I always commuted into an office all of a sudden i'm working from home and i've got time to wake up and do something in the morning Sneak out on lunch. So all these things came together. Lisa comes out is healthy I'm working remote and we look at each other. what wow life is short sure as anything can happen at any time You Let's go try to move to Stowe. And we have this condo. We can easily move in our condo and see if we like it. If we hate it, we can always come back. And we moved here and a month in when I was mountain biking. On Kimmers and Hardy's hall and had my first heady topper and that was it. And then when ski season hit, we were doing ski bump racing. I skied 72 days, waking up in the morning, hitting the 8 AM. To 9 30 shift with everybody met some great people who now I'm working remote. I can now do stuff with them. There's people that do stuff with, there's people that take it seriously. They're not just working all the time. nobody asked me what I did for work. They all wanted to know, what do you do for fun? And that was such a refreshing change for me from, the Boston style. So anyway, we eventually. Moved out of the condo, bought a house, and kids went to school here. They started in 5th and 3rd grade, and graduated Stowe High School, and it's been 14 years, full time. So the house we're sitting in now, is that the house? That was the house we bought, yeah. So we lived in the condo for years. Fox Hill condo? No, it wasn't Fox Hill, Northern Lights. That's right. Northern Lights. Three bedroom one bathroom for four of us So we joined top notch and basically turned that into our own private bathroom, which was right across the street I think between the four of us we showered there 98 percent of the time amazing What a cool story. How do you feel you have changed as a person since moving to stow? I know that's a big question, but you know that's a big lifestyle change. Yeah, the I always say Now it's just part of me all these things. just we talked about this right skinning skiing Cross country skiing mountain biking hiking. These are just things that are part of my life. They're not something I do On the weekends. Yeah Every day, it's like it's going to like other people go to the gym. Yep. I go do these things So that's just part of my life. There's people that do it with here It's accessible so all those things have made incredible 14 years. I can't even imagine living anywhere else. I feel like once you get a taste of it, you just can't imagine the other life. Yeah. I always think about winter, people can suffer from seasonal depression from lack of sunlight. Today was blue sky up on the mountain. And I'm not suffering at all, so it's amazing. Cool. I'm going to jump in a few rapid fire questions. What is your favorite run on the mountain? Star. Nice. Go to local restaurant. Doc Ponds. What do you get there? What's your order? I'm putting you on the spot. it could be the burger. Could be the fried chicken sandwich. That's good too. Could be the chicken, the half chicken if you're really hungry. Make a great whiskey sour there. Yeah. It's a good spot. Yeah. Lift serve skiing or skinning? Oh boy. That's a tough one. You're probably afraid to answer in front of me. I know. I'm going to say, ah, skiing. Yeah. It's really close. This is a judgment. It's really close. This is a judgment free zone. If there's zero lift serve days. This is a judgment free zone, except when it comes to e bikes. on that note, e bike or mountain bike? Mountain bike. Yeah. Summer or winter as your favorite seasons. That's another tough one. I'm going to say winter. Yep. Singles or doubles tennis? I'm pretty sure I know the answer. Singles, even though you're my doubles partner. I don't know how I feel about that. favorite Vermont beer. Focal banger, hands down, not the heady topper. Nope. Focal banger. Really? Oh yeah. Why is that? I'm not a beer connoisseur, but what is that? easier drinking, not as crushing, just delicious to me. The perfect beer. Nice. Cool. thanks for the backstory there. That's a cool story. Yeah. Let's move over to you. you've got a different story. I do. You're. You're a Stowe native. What's, when you left and what brought you back? Yeah, no, I grew up in Stowe all the way through Stowe High. A little historical piece, which we still struggle with school funding, but Act 60. Came into play when I was in middle school. My parents panicked a little bit just about school funding and what would be the state of Vermont schools in Stowe in particular. And I looked at some prep schools, looked at Holderness and St. Paul's. We thought about doing that, but I just didn't want to leave Stowe. Didn't want to leave my friends. And I was a big athlete. I was playing tennis and soccer and ice hockey. I was enjoying that. I'd like to say I was enjoying academics, but. But I was doing that so I could play sports, but I loved being in Stowe. I loved being in the mountains with all my buddies and, yeah, I just, I loved Stowe High. So I decided to stay and I graduated in 2000 and went to St. Lawrence University in upstate New York. And, that was an interesting experience. I did play on the tennis team there for two years and then, playing tennis my whole life. And then. Essentially year round in college. I got a little burnt out and decided to stop that and join the fraternity scene. that, that was what it was, but, yeah, so I was in college in upstate New York and then I had always traveled out west with my family. We went to Jackson hole for a couple of summers, did some ski trips in Aspen. And, yeah, I just had just spent. a summer in Montana during college, did a NOLS course, National Outdoor Leadership School course in Wyoming, month long. So I'd always been in love with the big mountains out west and I'd always told myself, Once I graduated college, I'm going to be a ski bum out West. Yeah. And I remember sitting around my fraternity house. And a lot of those guys were going into investment banking and finance, and they were all psyched about it. And they said, I don't care what I do. I just want to make a shitload of money. Yeah. And I looked at them and I say, I don't care how much money I make. I just want to be, doing something I love. So yeah, totally. I moved to Lake Tahoe for a year and a half, two winters, moved out to Squaw Valley. And that was great. And then, yeah, after a year and a half out there, I just missed being on the East coast. I miss Stowe, miss seeing my family. so I made my way back in 2006 and yeah, just came back to Stowe and was having a hard time settling in. My first go around, was struggling. To find a job. I was passionate about the job market was tough. Yeah And I wasn't particularly maybe focused at that time my first big job back here I was selling life insurance in colchester. I never knew that. Yeah. Yeah doing the suit and tie to work and I was studying for all those exams and then one day I just I walked into my boss's office and He might have said it before I did. I said i'm sorry sir. this just isn't for me And he's like I could tell and then I think That afternoon I came back and went skiing. and then I worked advertising sales for a year for a small newspaper. That was really before digital advertising had taken off. So I was selling ad space for a small newspaper in Shelburne and, I still haven't gotten my fix yet of time out west. I moved to Park City for a winter in 2008, 2009, and that really changed the course of my life. I did some adaptive ski instructing, taught skiing to folks, that otherwise wouldn't be able to get up on the mountain. and just fell in love with the work. It called to me more than, you Life insurance sales. No, no diss on anybody that does that for work. Just wasn't for me. and then, yeah, did a winter there. And at that point I was ready to come back to stow. I was like, I'm ready. I got a little more feel of maybe what I want to do for work. And I was ready to come back. came back in 2009 and got a job at True North Wilderness program in Waitsfield. And then after that worked at the Leroy school in Johnson for three and a half years. So I'd cemented into a career, working in the mental health field, found that very rewarding. And a lot of my best friends that I have today, I met in those jobs. And, and at that point I was ready to be back in stow. I loved being back in stow. I started playing ice hockey again. Was playing with the stow slugs. and at that point I got into ski touring. back in probably 2010, before it really take off, I'd pull into the parking lot, there'd be three cars on a Saturday. You could go up any trail, but, I think slowly for me, piece by piece, I started to fall in love again. With the Stow community. It took me a little time. I needed a break. just living out west and just doing some other stuff and, And to appreciate Stow for what it was. You grew up here, so Yep. To come back and I was renting for a couple years and then I was able to buy a house in 2012 Kept working in the mental health field. Worked with, Rick Barnett in his private practice for a little bit. and then have now since pivoted to. Higher ed online education, at Johnson state college, which is now Vermont state university and Champlain college. And, Just love the people here. I love being in the mountains. I can get up to the mountain in 15 minutes playing hockey again, Nordic skiing, and putting a big plug into both my parents who had me doing all this stuff when I was. Three years old right hiked in the chin with my dad when I was probably 10. Yeah, that's awesome. So it's in my blood but you got a taste about West a lot of people would say oh boy. It's out West is better Yes, and it is Potentially better not always But you're missing a lot of the other aspects the community I had a lot of friends I grew up with that still live out west. I had a really good relationship with my family and buddies back here. And I think the difference for me too is I met a lot of people, not just that I grew up with, I met people on the ski patrol. I met people like yourself who had moved up here At the tennis club. and that really solidified my time here and really allowed me to fall in love with STO again. And want to stay. Yeah. Exactly. That's cool. that's a good story. we ask all our guests, what their hope is for Stowe. You've seen a lot. You've been here. if you were to answer that question yourself? Yeah, I think for Stowe, I'd like to see a more sustainable future for the local population. people talk about, housing a lot, but I would love to somehow, some way see a situation in Stowe where more people could, live and work in Stowe. the folks that are working up at the mountain or working in local restaurants, how could they have the same lifestyle I have? where they could get up and, go skiing and go to work and really just be immersed in it. housing is one piece to that, I think my hope is to just be able to strike a nice, healthy balance between development and preserving the natural resources we have in Stowe and allow there to not only just continue to keep that solid. Local community feel, but to have it thrive into the future. I think there is a lot of conserved land and stow, which makes me feel good, to a certain point, knowing that those natural resources will stay, I just love, people that could, move up to stow and be a ski instructor and find a way to live in store, at least close nearby. So yeah, sustainable growth for stow. I totally agree. like I was saying before, when I moved here, it was a quirkier place. It was a place that a young person could move to and do their thing and live. So my hope is the same affordability so that we get youthful vibrant into this town. There's something great that comes from youthful energy not just, people that are here either as tourists or people with a lot of money. yeah, I think when. The bulk of, the housing and real estate is simply second homes. It can really eat away at the Community. People just coming and going. And at times it can almost be like a ghost town. and you see it in places you might go to, when you travel, you might go to a place and it's just a tourist place and it doesn't feel good. it feels like everything's there just catering to, business and it's not really a place that you want to make your home. Yeah. Yeah. There's some areas that I'll gravel bike through. Maybe when it's not, even when it is peak season, I don't see anybody out in the lawn. I don't see anybody barbecuing. I don't see kids playing out in the yard. what's going on there. Is it simply just a rental or do people only come up two weeks out of the year and then it just sits there. when you have so many of those, it just has a different feel. So no, I think that youthful energy and vibrance to get young people to be able to live here and afford her, when I moved here, I was a remote worker and it was hard back then. this isn't going back that far as 14 years ago. Yeah. I had no internet. I had no cell service at my condo. I would drive down to Edelweiss. Yeah. That was where cell service started. There was no service from Edelweiss up to the mountain. Wow. Yeah. So I made it work, how are you working You weren't constantly on. Yeah. you weren't expected to be slack chat constantly on. So it was more forgiving back then, that you weren't constantly on. and I traveled more, I traveled out of Burlington and five places. yeah, I made it work, but it was challenging. I didn't tell anybody. I didn't tell anybody I lived in Stowe, Vermont, because I was terrified. I told my company, that I was moving, and they were fine with it. but I didn't tell customers, I didn't tell my colleagues, I did not want that broadcast that I lived in Stowe, Vermont. Yeah, my brother, probably 10 years ago, he got on the remote, he was ahead of the game like you. And he was always very cautious. I don't think he told many of his coworkers. No. that he was pulling it off. The people that knew were like, how do you can't do that. You can't live in Stouffville, Vermont. You need to live in Boston. You need to live in New York. And so I just immediately was I'm not broadcasting this. But now as a place you can remote work here. Yeah, so much easier place to do that. All right. So we got rapid fire questions for you. All right. I'm ready Favorite ski run on the mountain. Hey ride Best place to take the dog for a walk Right behind your house. Actually, I like going to the polo fields go to local restaurant the bench Skiing or skinning? I think I can answer this. I'll let you answer that for me. Mr. Zero lift serve days. How about skiing or cross country skiing? You mean lift serve? Lift served or cross country? Cross country. Nordic. But, New Year's Day. is my inaugural lift serve day, New Year's day. We'll see it. We'll see if it happens. Right twice. gravel riding or hiking gravel riding. Barely, What's your favorite hiking trail? I think I know this. I love the big spruce. I was going to say that it's wide open. It's in the sun. It dries out. And there's not many people there. summer or winter. So I like winter if given those two, if given the option, I love the gap seasons. I love spring, fall and spring. Spring is a great time. I know we didn't ask that question, but spring, April into early May, the skinning is the best. That's really when I skinned. Skinning and biking on the same day. Yeah. That's the dream and golf. If you're a golfer. Singles or doubles tennis? Singles. Neither one of us are hurt by that as doubles tennis partners. It's nothing like singles. Good workout. Thank you listeners for listening to our 2024 year in review, as well as a little background on Mike and I and behind the scenes and the Octagon podcast. we just want to thank all of our listeners for an awesome 2024. We really appreciate all the time that everybody's putting into not only listening to our podcasts, but also giving us feedback, giving us ideas. It's super appreciated. And we really feel honored to be able to interview all the people and talk about. all the cool history and stories that make so great. And, we're more motivated than ever to keep pushing out content and episodes and, stay tuned. we're hoping to continuing to grow the Octagon and, a couple other ideas that we have out there to, to give to our listeners. Yeah. And thanks to all of the guests that we've had on, we've had amazing guests that have carved out time to be on the podcast and get to know them. And it's been a lot of fun. So thanks to all of our guests for sure. Yeah. we'll see you out on the Hill. See you out there.