Camping In Forest Solo Overnight Adventure

All right guys, supper is all finished and we've got the campfire going right now. That thing was too easy to light. Just took right off that birch bark and that fire steel. Boomer is loving it. He's getting really nice and warm. As she mentioned earlier, he took a little dunk in the lake. He slipped on a rock and fell in, so he's soaking wet. So he's nice and dry now. The lake is just right back there, probably about 100 feet. If you guys saw the episode with Rusty, you'll know what I'm talking about. Very close. We have a source of water here as well. And yeah, everything's pretty awesome out here. So it is a clear sky. There are no clouds rolling in, but the sun is setting right now. So I think the stars are going to be out later this evening, which is going to be awesome. Got a load of firewood here. We're surrounded by dead wood, deadfall. There's just so much options around here for firewood. He's getting a little warm there. So we're not going to bother cutting or processing any wood right now. Later on, if I do need more, I'll just drag long pieces out here, burn them in half and do like a long fire style. But right now that pine and spruce is burning really well. It's spitting ember, so I'm trying to sit back. So I don't want my stuff ruined or the tent burned. So I will switch over to the hardwood. It's drying out right now. And just kind of go half and half, you know, maybe one piece of hard, one piece of soft. See how that goes. If not, then we'll switch to two to one, two pieces of hardwood, one piece of softwood. The softwood is important because it really helps get the flames up there to catch the hardwood. And then it just kind of, you know, snaps and crackles. But as you guys can see, embers are landing on me. I am keeping a very close eye on the surrounding area as well because the leaves are dry. It is spring, but the ground is damp. So realistically the top burns really quick and then it goes out. I'm still going to keep a very close eye on it though. And Boomer's loving this. So we're going to chill out here and enjoy the campfire right up until nightfall guys. All right guys, I've gone ahead and did a little bit of a tidy up. It is getting dark out here rather quickly. So I've got the light inside of the tent turned on right now, and that's throwing a lot of light. I did a brief cleanup of my small items outside of the tent, moved them inside. Two reasons. One, I don't like them getting lost in all this foliage. And two, if there are any rodents out here, like mice or squirrels or whatever, they will go for the spoons with food scent on it or cooking and kind of make a mess of that area. So I want to keep that inside of the tent. That way if something's scratching on the wall, I can hear it and wake up and make some noise and get it out of here. Because I had mice in the past actually eat holes through my tent and squirrels and come into the tent while I've been in there. Never any bears, coyotes or anything like that. Just squirrels and mice. So keeping that stuff all inside. I should mention I wasn't in the tent when that happened. I was off getting firewood. So whenever I'm sleeping, I don't mind having it in the tent because then I can hit the side of the tent and they scurry off really quickly. That and having Boomer, I don't know where he went, but having Boomer inside of here, he's pretty alert. So he'll growl at anything outside of the tent and that usually gets them out of here. So everything over here is set and ready to go. I am very excited to crawl in my sleeping bag. I'm telling you, I am beat. I'm super tired. I also did inflate the little Near Zero pillow. So this was an item that I brought for myself and for Boomer because typically I don't use a pillow. I do have my big fleece that I'm going to use as a pillow, but Boomer loves curling up in a ball on top of this pillow. He loves it. So I usually put that right next to the bed. He'll curl up on that when he's not in the sleeping bag with me. Where it is getting a little bit warmer in the season, we're coming into spring, he likes to usually on my backpack, but I'm going to leave it outside for tonight to get him on that pillow. And yeah, he has a tent slippers here as well. So if you guys have missed any of those episodes where he's got his booties on, where I am using a very expensive pad, I do not like his nails on the pad because he punctured a pad a long time ago and it, yeah, it made me very sour. So he's got a little boots now. He's not allowed on the sleeping bag or the pad unless he has his boots. End of discussion on that. He knows better. So everything is now straightened up. That campfire is still ripping and roaring. We've got a load of firewood. It's getting dark. Kick back and enjoy it. And like I said, that sleeping bag is calling my name. I'm beat today after hiking and cutting wood, sweating. It's finally cooling off now to the point where I think I'm going to sleep really, really well. So let's get back over to that campfire. All right, guys, finally making our way inside of the tent right now. Super comfortable. The wood is still crackling and popping out there in the campfire. If you guys listen to the birds chirping, I don't know if that's picking up in camera, but all the birds are still chirping. It is total darkness out right now. Kind of has a summer vibe, but not quite summer. Boomer's got his tent slippers on. He actually likes them. It's funny because he won't go outside with them on. He knows now that they're only for indoors, but it's just hilarious when he walks in them. Hilarious. So it is still quite warm, at least I am, from coming away from that campfire. I've got the tent door and the vestibule open, so I can actually still see the campfire from inside of the tent. I'm not going to close the door until the fire's totally out. And at that point, yeah, we'll just zip it shut and enjoy tent life. Give you guys a rundown of what we've got going on inside of here. So I do have my winter Nemo sleeping bag. This is the Nemo Sonic, I believe. It's a negative 40 Celsius. So it is a very, very, very cold rated sleeping bag. It has these fins on here, these little thermal vents that I'm going to be unzipping tonight. They're not actual pass-throughs, but it thins out the material significantly on both sides. So that's how I mitigate the temperature while I'm in here on warmer temperatures such as tonight. I think tonight's probably going to get down to about five Celsius. So nothing very cold, but I do really like this sleeping bag. It just keeps me super warm and it's very comfortable. For the sleeping pad, we're rocking the Therm-a-Rest Neowear X-Therm. Again, this is very high R-value and a very lightweight and very packable pad. So that's why I don't want his feet, his little nails exposed, because it'll destroy everything. The tent is a 3FUL Tai Chi tent. I do have a review on this tent and I'll actually pop that in the description. I'll put the video link down in the description. If I forget, remind me in the comment section. But I do have a review on this tent. This is brown. I have it in green is when I reviewed it. I also destroyed it in Newfoundland when I was lighting a canister stove, if you guys caught that video. So that's why I replaced it with a brown one. Yeah, so this time I went with a four season. I went with this mesh material all the way up so no snow gets blown in here. Loads of ventilation in here. I love this tent. It's an exoskeleton. It's awesome for the rain and snow. So if this is going to be us for a little while, guys, Boomer's going to find a spot to get situated here. Usually right between my legs, he'll curl up in a ball or wander around for a little bit. But I am going to be jumping inside of the sleeping bag shortly. I do get it changed in my base layer pants. Get off these dirty, muddy pants and throw them aside here. He'll be more likely going to sleep right here. I don't think he'll be too warm inside of here. You coming up here? You look really weirded out right now. Come on. Come on. Your slippers are flopping around. So yeah, we're just going to laze around in the tent for this evening. I do have a video saved on my phone wherever I put my phone. I don't have any service out here. So it's been turned off. But yeah, we're basically going to crash in here. I've got some water. I've got a couple snacks in here. And yeah, we're going to keep an eye on the campfire and we will catch up with you guys first thing in the morning. So good night, everybody. Peace out. Catch you in the morning for coffee. Good morning, guys. It is a beautiful morning out here today. Nice and cool temperature. No rain. Unfortunately, I was actually kind of hoping it was going to rain, but the sky is nothing but gray clouds. So it may rain today. It may not. All I know is I got a full cup of hot coffee and I'm relaxing inside the tent right now. I was going to light a fire this morning and then I figured, nah, if it does rain, it's going to be useless. The fire's going to be way over there. I'm over here. It's not that cold. So realistically, I don't need it. Last night's sleep was really, really comfortable. That sleeping bag and pad combo is always a killer, no matter how warm it is. And those woodpeckers were my wake up call this morning. My wake up alarm, definitely tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. There's three or four of them over there just tapping away at that tree. And they don't seem to mind people because they've actually been landing on the trees right here next to me. So kind of a forest friend, kind of not. Boomer's around here playing somewhere. He's actually chasing after squirrels and birds. So doing his thing. This morning's going to be rather simple. Coffee, a little bit of a cleanup here. So this trip was very simple. Just a bottle of methyl hydrate that is not water. It's no label on it. That's my methyl hydrate that I use for the alcohol stove. So I went through maybe almost half, not quite. I've got two bottles of water that I brought with me. I got the lake right next to me, but I did not bring my filter. I could always boil to purify, but two bottles of water, I knew I was going to need no problem. And I wasn't going to exceed that amount. I've got my near zero pillow, my sleeping pad, my Nemo sleeping bag, the tent, and Trangia. That's basically it. Super simple on this trip, guys. Nothing elaborate. And often these trips are really, really enjoyable because it's more about enjoying rather than setting up and doing this and doing that. So yeah, really enjoying this one. So cheers, guys. Morning coffee. Let's kick back and relax for a few minutes. All right, everybody. A couple of things that I want to point out while I'm packing up. So I like to give these little tips and tricks along the way because a lot of the stuff to me is common sense. I've been doing it for so many years. Other people might not think about it and you make a mistake that I made years ago. So my Therm-a-Rest NeoAir X Therm. This is a very expensive pad. It is very fragile. It's very lightweight, very compact, standalone pad for winter. Hands down, this gets me to minus 20 Celsius on a frozen lake with just this pad and a sleeping bag, of course, but just one pad. The thing with this pad is it's very, very fragile. So as you guys will notice, I wrapped the pad in the inflation sack. So I wrapped the pad up and then put it inside the inflation sack and then I put it inside of the stuff sack. The reason I do that is because often when I'm out, let's say I'm camping in wet, heavy snow and I pack my tent up, I don't usually take the time to roll my tent up nice and neatly because when I get home, I have to set it up anyways because it's wet. It needs to dry out. So what often happens is this goes in the very bottom of my backpack like so. I just jam it all the way down there this way. That's usually the first item and then pillow and little ends and odds here and there. But what happens is the tent poles, I end up taking and jamming them down inside of the backpack. I don't bother putting the tent in its stuff sack. But usually I'll take the tent, ball it up, jam it in here or jam the tent in a big old ball inside its stuff sack to contain the wetness and then jam the poles down in there or any other pieces of gear. And if that's left in the open outside, I mean it's only got one layer of fabric protecting it, it may puncture that pad. And that's a really bad thing to happen if you're on a multi-day trip, which I found out a few years ago when I went to go set it up the second night after hiking all day and it was about 7pm in the winter so it was well past dark. And I went to inflate my pad, not this particular pad but a different one and there was a big tear in it that I couldn't patch. Now luckily I'm not, I haven't been brought into the outdoor world as a backpacker or a hiker with all this gear. I grew up on Vancouver Island as a young boy and all I had was my hands, a knife, an axe and a saw. So that's how I got into the outdoors was bushcraft. So I went out and basically grabbed a few logs, made an elevated bed and a fire, took my sleeping bag out of my tent and slept on an elevated bed essentially and stayed warm all night no problem. But if you lack those skills and you rely on your gear solely, you would have had to hike out or you would have had a very, very, very, very cold night and probably didn't have enough energy or won't have enough energy to hike out the next day. There's all kinds of things that can happen. But yeah, just to touch on that, sleeping pad inside of two bags, so on and so forth. I know a lot of people are screaming at the TV now going, just pack the poles and the bags. Yeah, well, sometimes when you're freezing cold and you prioritize the camera over everything else, including my own health and safety, that kind of evades the thought process every now and then. And let's face it, when it's time to go, it's time to go sometimes. So just jam in the bag, get out of there. And yeah, anyways, little things like that. So I also want to touch on this Near Zero Camp Chair. Let's talk about how small this is. Super simple, super fast to pack away. I love this thing. Everyone was always telling me, get a chair, get a Helinox, get this, get that. I just sit on the ground most of the time. I do have a Helinox. I do have a whole bunch of pack chairs, but this, it's super small. It's super fast. And you guys will notice that last night or the video before this, part one of this video, I used it as a table with my cutting board. Pretty awesome. It supports a lot of weight. I mean, I'm pushing 160, 165 pounds. It supports me kind of like plopping my butt into it. So I'm not sure the actual weight, but you have to check the specs on nearzero.com or nearzero.co. But check this out. Separates, and then you just twist. That's the form factor, guys. I mean, can't beat that. So for me packing this, I'll pack that all day because it's a multi-use item. I can use it as a little table. I can use it as a stool for sitting. I can use it as a footrest if I bring my chair. Whole bunch of things. So that is an awesome item. And the last piece of gear I want to touch on is the tent. So this being an exoskeleton tent, I'm going to pack it up and show you guys why I love these style of tents. Not just this particular tent, but these style of tents that are exoskeleton, a true exoskeleton where the poles do not go in sleeves at all. They're just clipped in the bottom and then clipped all the way up. When I get to the tent pack up, I'll show you guys that. But just a little bit of information out of my brain there for you guys. So what I'm going to do is jam the chair down to my hydration sleeve along with my cutting board. I never use a hydration bladder, guys. I find them garbage. They puncture. They get nasty, smelly. They're dirty, disgusting. If I need to take a drink, I'll just stop and take a drink. And they're heavy. The silicone packs are heavy. The silicone hose, if you take that whole system, it's got some weight to it. This has no weight to it and it cost me three dollars. Hydration bladder, some of them are like 50, 60, 70 bucks. To me, it's garbage. So I'm going to get all this packed up and then start on the tent. All right, guys. I've got everything packed in the backpack other than the tent. So this being a freestanding tent, I can go around and pull all the pegs out of it, which I'm going to do in just a moment. But the thing I want to share with you guys is if it were to rain or snow right now and everything out here is soaked, I don't want the inside of the tent to get wet. Or if I'm doing a second night and my gear is still in there right now and I'm getting packed up in the tent, getting everything in there, I want to tear this down, jam it in the backpack, go hike off to another location, get to location, pin the tent out flat on the ground. It can get rained on. It's a rain fly, right? So pin it out flat on the ground and then leisurely come over, put the poles in, click it in, throw the backpack in, set up. Again, the tent would be totally dry inside. So it's this simple. Super fast. Exoskeleton tent, guys. So the fly is attached to the inner tent and the ground sheet clicks on to the bottom, making this extremely easy to set up and extremely easy to tear down. This tent does have one cross pole, which comes off by itself. So a short pole. It does have a central hub here, which helps keep those poles together and it just simply snaps out. This is rather new, so this top piece is locked in there pretty tight. But moving over to this side, just disconnecting this and that's it. The poles are basically disconnected. It's just standing from its own tension. The guy lines on this tent are on the actual poles, not the fly, which is also interesting because you can pull this really tight, pulling the skeleton of the tent, which means it's not going to tear the fabric. A lot of other tents, such as my Nord tents, they have a piece of fabric that comes off the tent and wraps around the pole to pull on the pole so it's not pulling the fabric, ripping the stitches. This tent has little tabs built into the poles that pull it out. So very simple. So the poles just fall down like that, disconnect, pack it up, ready to go. Everything will be dry inside the tent if it were to rain. All right, guys. So hopefully that information was useful to you guys. This tent is very, very simple to pack up and all exoskeleton tents. I do not mind taking a freestanding tent out with this particular setup because it's very simple to pack away. I know it's very frustrating sometimes you're out there by yourself snaking these poles through tent sleeves and it's just, it's not the funnest, to be honest, depending on the weather conditions and whatnot. So everything is in there. We've got to cram that all down in there. Just got to roll the top. The camera has to go in here as well. And my coffee, I still need to finish because I've been sipping on it while I'm filming and Boomer is taking a nap in a tree trunk. So that's good. About to wake him up and we'll have to get out of here. But I hope that was useful to you guys. Everything will be packed away here in probably five, ten minutes. Do a once-over, make sure I got all my tent pegs out of here, finish the coffee and get home, basically, and edit this and get it out to you guys. So let me know what you guys think in the comment section. I thank you all for enjoying as usual and I'll catch you in the next video.