Hiking 70 Miles Alone on the Sawtooth Loop Trail

Are those like reddish? They look like blueberries. Okay welcome back. I am still in the area camping outside at a free campground, BLM, near the Grand Jean Trailhead, near the campground. Now I just want to go through my experience with the hike, explain how you could do the hike yourself, and then also share a little bit of the behind the scenes of how I shot and edited this video. And first off, I just want to say thank you to the sponsor of the video, you guys. Subscribers who donate to my YouTube membership program, you're the best. You're helping me make more videos and go on more trips and just upload more. So thank you very much. If you want to become a member, go to the link in the description or my homepage and click join. Thank you so much. So the Sawtooth Wilderness Trail, I found it on AllTrails. I'd never been to Idaho before. It was a loop, so I could park my car and then go back to it, and you didn't really need reservations or permits, so I thought it was like an easy one to do. The map on AllTrails said 62 miles, but I actually tracked way more than that. I think I was over 70 miles by the end of it, just because the map wasn't as accurate for all the switchbacks. There were so many switchbacks on this trail that AllTrails didn't really detail. But I had a fun time. You know, the wildflowers were just amazing. In different patches of areas, you would have five different colors. Every morning, the petals would open up and you would just see entire meadows or hillsides with all these different colors. Calling this area Sawtooth makes so much sense because the tall peaks have such jagged tops and they look sharp. And man, I've never seen more lakes in my life. There were so many little, big lakes, all blue, different colors, turquoise, just all over, just passing lake after lake after lake. And I would say almost every single lake had one or a couple different campsites, so it was really easy to find a spot to set up a tent and sleep at night. COVID is happening right now, so travel isn't the same as it always has been. There were a couple people on trail, but not too many. This was a pretty isolated trail, except for the Sawtooth Lake area. I saw at least a dozen, dozen and a half people in that little spot right there. There's so many people fishing. Almost everyone out here hiking had a fishing pole, and I saw a bunch of people just casting by lakes or by rivers fishing. Only a couple water crossings, and to be honest, it was so hot, it was refreshing. And you know me, I like speed and efficiency, so I walk right through with my Cascadia 13 shoes. In this temperature and dryness, they dried in like 20 minutes, so it works out. The mosquitoes were definitely the worst part of this hike and made it a little difficult to shoot my normal camping and eating stuff in the evening or morning, just because as soon as you stop and you're by water, the mosquitoes just swarm you. And I'm in the camp of mosquito bug spray doesn't really do that much for you. You just have to cover up. And I had three days of just clear skies, bright sun, no chance of rain, so I could have cowboy camped just in a sleeping bag on a tarp or a mat, but the mosquitoes would have attacked my face, so I probably could have had a mosquito head mask and then slept like that. And this was actually the first time that I've camped with my Nemo tent without the rain tarp on the outside, so it was nice being able to see the colors of the sky dip down and then the light in the morning to know when to wake up. But one downside of clear skies is that you don't have any clouds to illuminate in the evening or morning for like sunset, sunrise colors, so I kind of missed out on that. But man, it got hot. This was probably one of my hottest hikes ever. From noon till 5pm, I think it was in the high 80s, and you just walk from shade to shade. I took way more water breaks, just like shadow breaks during this midday heat, and I went in the water and washed my face whenever I could, and I took a couple naps around 3pm just to cool down, get in the shade, and just power nap. Siesta. I pushed through this hike way faster than I probably should have. I did the whole 70 miles in three days, so that's over 20 miles per day, and the last day was just a huff just to get out because it was all downhill. It was almost entirely a tree tunnel. Wasn't that fun to shoot. I didn't capture too many clips on that last day, but the first two days were just up higher elevation with lakes and peaks and passes, so I recommend doing this in like four or five days just to take your time, not go at an insane speed. And I read that there are bears in the area. You aren't required to have a bear can, but it's recommended that you hang your food or hide it. I did bring bear spray, but I didn't have to use it, obviously, and I didn't see a single bear this entire time. To be honest, there wasn't that much wildlife at all, just the occasional woodchuck or squirrel. So difficulty. Who should do this trail? It wasn't bad at all. It's a long loop. To do 70 miles, you have to be a bit more experienced, but the elevation gains were not that extreme. There was no technical climbing or scrambling at any point. You go over three or four passes, but none of it is technical. You don't summit any peaks. You can optionally, but there's nothing really that difficult about this hike at all. If you are starting out and you're unsure about that length of time and carrying that amount of food, I would recommend just doing an overnight at Sawtooth Lake. Just hike up to the lake, find a camp spot, spend some time there, and then hike out the same way you came or a different way. There's multiple ways up to that lake. You just do a self-permit at the trailhead that you start at. So you just write your information, rip off the page, put it in the thing, and then carry your paper permit with you the whole time. Very easy. It was really fun to run into a couple different subscribers on the trail, especially this man who was super excited and told me his whole story. I watch your videos, yeah. It's good to see you. In fact, you know, you were one of my inspirations. My granddaughters and my wife made me get a vlogging camera, but not as nice as that one. And I'm having to vlog this thing, actually. So this is new to me. So that's your pack over there? That's my pack over there. Yeah, 67 miles, day eight, and I'm aiming at 100 miles. So we're knocking it out here. Yeah. We're knocking it out. Well, you're killing it, Daryl. Thank you so much. It's so nice to say hi to people on the trail. Isn't that crazy? I just recognize you off of YouTube. I mean, what a world we live in. Is it the hat? Is it the sun hoodie? No, it's your face. The camera? Man, your face looks like you. I guess that's how it works when you have a face. All right. Thank you so much. Good to see you, brother. So nice to see you. So that was really nice. And obviously, if you see me on the trail, say hi. I would love to talk to someone, especially when I'm hiking by myself alone. So getting to the trailhead is pretty easy. I flew into Boise, Idaho, rented a car at the airport, and then drove, I believe, 2.5 miles into the mountains to a campground called Grand Jean. There are a lot of different areas that you can get into the Sawtooth Wilderness Mountains from, but I recommend Grand Jean. It's like a great little campground. Right now, I'm at a free campground that's close to that area, but there's a backpacker's parking lot, and you don't have to pay anything to park there. So technically, this hike didn't really cost me anything other than the food that I bought at Walmart before I came into the mountains. For food, I got about 5 days worth because I didn't know how long I would be out there. I knew it would be 3 or 4 days, so 5 days is good. And then if I wanted to camp out here in my car, you know, I wouldn't have to go to a grocery store to get more supplies. I've been thinking more about nutrition and efficiency of, like, what the food that I bring on a hike is. Is it actually giving me good energy or bad energy? How much do I need to eat compared to how much I drink? And ironically enough, the show Alone, I forget, Discovery or History, I can't remember. The show where people have to, like, survive on their own in the winter taught me a lot about, like, fat and calories and carbohydrates and body weight and how you can survive just off of fat on your body. It's kind of crazy. So I recommend watching Alone. I think season 6 on Netflix is what I watched, and it was really good. I brought my Jetboil for this, and I do enjoy having a hot meal at least once a day, whether it's a backpacker meal, a rice side, or Idaho potatoes in this instance. I had to do something Idaho-related. But I'm starting to think about just efficiency and time. Like, I don't want to have to take out my Jetboil to boil water every time I eat, especially in the morning for breakfast. I just want to pack up and go. So for this trip, almost every morning, I would just have a nut butter and then some granola, some meal to go, and that was just better. I might be getting away from coffee and tea because you have to boil that, and it just takes time. Like, I'd rather just keep walking and drink water because it's free, abundant, delicious, and if I need that extra caffeine boost, a squirt of Mio. So production, how did I shoot and edit this video? The best way for you to see the gear that I used to shoot, the camera that I'm on right now, the microphone that I'm using, and this tripod, you can look in the description where there's a list of all of the items. I love doing silent films because I can just focus on showing and not telling. Obviously, the second half part of the video is more of a guide and I'm explaining the experience, but I want the hiking part to just be silent and relaxing and immersive, and I hope it was. All of my shots are locked down on the tripod. I set it up, I walk past, I come back, and then I grab my tripod and then carry on. A lot of people say that that's extra miles, but it's not too bad. Like, you have to think about all of the miles that I'm hiking that I'm actually not filming. For me to be out there for three days and to only show you 15 minutes of footage, you know, that's a tiny sliver of my experience out there hiking. So in perspective, I'm not walking past the camera that much. I've been really loving this camera, the a6600 with a 10-18, so like a 16-30 equivalent on a full frame. My new favorite thing to do with color temperature is to lock the camera at 5600 Kelvin, daylight equivalent, and then just keep it that for the entire trip. So you can tell when it gets dark, when it's morning, when it's night, compared to like what the eye thinks it should be at day. I shoot everything in camera with the Sony default picture profile, the standard one. I don't do any color grading just because it doesn't need to. I think it looks great in 4K without that. For the first time with this hike, I shot in 30 frames per second. So that's a new experiment and I am curious to know what you think. Does it add? Does it take away? I kind of like it, so there's a good possibility that all of my hiking films might be 30 frames per second in the future, but we'll see what y'all think. But I'll tell you, I love it out here. Especially free campgrounds, I feel like I'm getting away with something. Just finding a good spot, building a fire, cooking some hot dogs. I made sure to get some hot dog stuff. Just sleeping in my tent in such good weather. I'm really grateful to just be out here in nature and relax. And I can take some time to shoot this out here as a nice background, and then go into like the small towns that I find. Find a coffee shop, charge my things, find some wi-fi, do some editing, do some email work. Right now I am living the nomad life. So I'm living out of a backpack. I have my hyperlite and then I have a duffel bag right in the car over here. And that's everything I own. I don't have an apartment. I'm just traveling non-stop. You know, camping and hiking, making videos as much as I can. But then when I need the occasional hotel, I'll do that and be bougie. But I'm just trying to make as many friends as possible. When I'm in town, reaching out to subscribers. So if you see me posting on Instagram that I'm in a city and you're nearby, I would love to meet up for coffee or hang out. You know, show me some of the local things that you do. And it's been really fun to connect with new friends. This area is cool though. They keep calling them hot springs, but I guess they're just rocks in a river where hot water is able to sit. So I've been going in that and trying to make friends and talking to people. There's the Sawtooth Lodge that is kind of closed because of COVID right now. But I can get a beer and drink that. So I'm definitely doing that. You can pay, I think, $16 per campsite per night at the Grand Jean Campground. But like I said, I love BLM. I love feeling like I got away with something and just parking for free out here. It's much more chill, to be honest. And everyone in Boise keeps telling me that like rafting and going down the river, floating on a tube is like what people do. So I might have to try to find a place or a tour guide to help me do that. But of course, if you have any other questions, I'm happy to answer them in the comments below. Make sure to check the gear links for information about the tools that I used to shoot this and to hike. There were a couple new things. And I think the next video that I make will be my yearly gear video. So look forward to that. And once again, thank you so much for donating. If you're a YouTube member, let me know. I'd love to chat with you all. Yeah, you're helping me get out here and do this thing. So thank you. Take care. It's beautiful. The trip was good. Felt great. Switchbacks. That was fun. Dry. I'm tired.