🌧️ Complete Whiteout - Camping in My Truck During Heavy Rain and Zero Visibility

Over here it's about a foot deep. Over here it's about seven inches. Luckily I have the clearance for it. My friends welcome to this episode of the Outdoor Gear Review. I hope you all are doing well. In last week's adventure I spoke about a cool down that was coming. Well everyone it's here. Coming in tonight we have that cool down and I figured because it's going to be so cool, so comfortable, we should head to the top of the mountain pass and camp out. As it stands right now it is incredibly foggy so travel has been very slow and I figure going to the top of this mountain to the pass it is certainly going to take us a while. This road from what I've heard is in pretty rough shape. A week ago this road was closed. As it stands right now it is 9 46. Let's see how long it takes to get to the top of this mountain. It looked like fog was going to clear there for a minute but nope it's back. So far so good as far as the road I told you that a week ago that this road was closed. It looks like they did the bare minimum to fill this in so that you can go through. Over here it's about a foot deep. Over here it's about seven inches. Luckily I have the clearance for it. I've got such good tires I don't even have to put this in four wheel drive. Visibility is really really low folks. Just going up to this pass is taking forever. It's not stressful though it's kind of fun actually. Big time washout. As I go higher and higher it is getting more and more foggy so I'm going to turn the camera off and focus on what I'm doing here. I will bring you all back when I have found us a place to stay tonight. It took us almost an hour to get up to the top of the pass. It's so foggy I can't go any further. Luckily I have found a place to pull off. It's not the best spot in the entire world but it's not the worst either. It's relatively flat and I consider that a win. It feels good to be done with the driving portion of this adventure because we've been on the road for quite a while. Already it's actually getting kind of late. Before we make dinner though let's talk about where I'm camping at tonight. Where I'm staying at. So this is a mountain pass right? It goes from North Carolina into another state. Oftentimes this road is not open because first off this is a very remote area. Two, the forest here is an old forest. This has not been logged in a really long time and because of that every time a storm comes through these old trees they fall down oftentimes making the road impassable. Next, this is not a popular area by any means and because of that if there's any reason why the road is closed no one's in a big hurry to open it up. With that being said luckily tonight it is open. Go back a week ago and it was closed. That's just how it goes. It's raining out there pretty good. Awesome. Hopefully it'll keep it up all night long. I love sleeping in the vehicle in the rain. When it comes to my setup here for this adventure it is super super basic. I have this small little table here. I have my sleeping pad right here and here. It's a two-piece component and everything else is inside of this backpack. I decided for this trip I was going to make it extremely minimal and easy and that's exactly what I've done. Dinner tonight is going to be amazing plus I have dessert. I do not remember the last time that I had dessert. This is something that Suzy makes. It is so good. I promise you, you will want the recipe once you see this. Buttered garlic mashed potatoes along with sliced brisket covered in crispy onions and it was heated up with a hickory barbecue sauce. This looks and smells so good. That is freaking amazing. Without a doubt brisket is my favorite. When it comes to barbecue nothing beats brisket. Look at it. Now respect it. This afternoon at the house I had just got done working and I looked out the window and it was pouring the rain. Super foggy. That's when an idea came to mind. I should grab a bag, pack it up, hit the road and go out for an overlanding trip. We'll camp out inside of the 4Runner and let's just see what happens. Anytime that you just hit the road and go on an adventure, interesting things take place. It might be the weather, it might be other people, it might be good food. You know what I mean? Initially I was thinking about going to Lone Wolf Mountain but ultimately changed my mind. I had heard that the pass had opened back up so I figured we should attempt it. And I am glad we did. It is so cool up here. I mean folks it is amazing. We're at the beginning of August and it's like 50 degrees outside right now. Still raining pretty good out there. I don't know if it's supposed to rain all night long or not. We finally got the cool down I was talking about in last week's episode and at least for the next two weeks it is here to stay. Highs in the 60s, low 50s, on the mountaintops, highs in the 50s, lows in the 30s. How awesome is that? I tell you folks, getting out on trips like this is so easy and at the same time it is so much fun. It doesn't take much, right? All you need is just enough space for you to do what you want to do to kick back and relax. That's it. An inexpensive stove, right? Inexpensive sleeping bag, pillow, sleeping pad and all that stuff. A few weeks back, maybe even a month back, I was talking about Lone Wolf Mountain and how some flooding had messed up the road. The road itself is pretty messed up. It's going to take a couple thousand dollars worth of gravel to fix it. Hopefully by fall, I'll have that taken care of but as it stands right now with the rebuilding efforts taking place here in western North Carolina due to Hurricane Helene, finding people who are available, it's difficult. There is so much work being done right now. So many roads being rebuilt, people's property being put back together and so on. I understand why everybody's so busy but still, I want to get that road fixed. I want to get it fixed before hurricane season starts up. We're getting very very close to that time and the odds are we will be hit by tropical storms if not another hurricane. When I was in high school, my favorite thing to do on the weekends if we had the money was to pick up a buddy. Most of the time, it was this guy named Josh. We would hit the road and go down to Myrtle Beach. We had enough money for gas, a little bit of food and that's about it. We never had enough money for like a hotel room or anything but we would go down. At that time, I had a Tacoma, a Toyota Tacoma. I love that truck. Anyways, we would drive down, sleep in the back of the truck. The adventures that we had down there at the beach at Myrtle Beach, I can't even talk about it. It was a lot of fun though. Him and I were really good friends up until an event took place. So we were down in Myrtle Beach. We had gotten down there really really late or early in the morning, however you want to look at it. He wanted to go into Walmart and pick up some things. I was tired so I just stayed in the truck. He came back with a sleeping bag. He unzipped it and started pulling out all the stuff that he stole. Right then and there, that friendship ended. I was so... that he stole that crap. That worthless junk. Not only because it's wrong but also because I was with him. You know, I mean if he would have gotten caught just by us being together, being associated, that makes me an accomplice of sorts. And I didn't like that one bit. I thought that was really and disrespectful. Anyways, once we got back, that was it. I was no longer his friend. I do not know what happened to him after that point. That's where the friendship ended. The thing is folks, you have to surround yourself with good people. Oftentimes you will be judged by the company you keep. Plus you need to rely on people of good character, right? If there's something off about someone, I don't recommend that you continue that friendship. If someone's going to bring you down, you need to walk away. That's just a life lesson that hopefully you can take my advice and not have to learn it yourself. Learn it the hard way. To give you an idea of what this is, think of a pineapple upside down cake. But think of the bottom, right? The bottom of the cake that has the pineapple, the cherries, the brown sugar, the butter, and all of that good stuff, right? That's what this is. They call it a pudding. I call it incredible. It is so good, everyone. Growing up, my mom and my dad would make us pineapple upside down cakes for our birthdays. And since then, it's been my favorite dessert. And it still is. I just, I love it. This is actually a little bit better because you don't have to worry about all that cake nonsense, right? You get the best of the best right here. If you want the recipe, feel free to email me, Now, I'm getting tired. And that's because it's getting late. Already, it's after midnight. It is time to get our bed ready for the night so that we can turn in. Hey, everybody. It feels good to lay down. It's definitely getting late. I'm definitely getting tired. This evening has been a ton of fun. Like, the thrill of coming up this mountain pass. It's so foggy. Can't see anything. It's super windy. Then we had a good meal, an awesome dessert. Oh, yeah. My plan is to turn in for the night. It is time to get some shut eye. Five o'clock is going to come early. Everyone, see you all in the morning for coffee. Good night for up. I slept great last night in the 4Runner. It rained all night long. At the same time, I stayed comfortable, which I'm not right now. Let's get back in the car. I really did sleep good last night, folks. With the wind, the rain, it was a good night. I'm surprised, though. Nobody went over the pass last night. I mean, not one car. It was super foggy, though. Only we would attempt such a drive, you know? It was totally worth it. It's a chilly morning, but it's not especially cold. I would say mid-50s, lower 50s, possibly even 40. I don't have a thermometer with me this time, so I'm just having to base it on feel, but it's really not that bad. Not cold enough for the heater, but folks, we're getting there. Fall is coming on. Already, the leaves are changing colors. Temps are in the lower 50s, 40s. That's awesome. With all of the humidity that we've had this year, taking care of Lone Wolf Mountain and all of that, it was tough. Really, really tough. When you're mowing in 95-degree heat, and that's what it's been like for most of the summer with the heat index. For some reason this year, we've had so much, like, coastal humidity. Luckily, the weather system has changed, and things have begun to cool off, and the humidity has begun to go down. Thank God. Instead of the temperature being 84 degrees today, plus the humidity, the high today where I live, 60 degrees. Up here, like 50. A couple of weeks ago, I was talking about a serial killer who preyed upon people in national forests and national parks and whatnot. I received some questions about that. Why those areas? I should have elaborated in that video, but he did that because oftentimes when people go missing in those areas, nobody suspects that they were murdered. The serial killer that I'm talking about is a man named Israel Keyes. He left kill kits all across the country and never fully admitted to how many he killed. He told the FBI about four. They linked him to 11. Some believe he could have killed as many as 40. As far as people going missing in national forests, national parks, most of the time, your mind goes to, well, they had an accident. They got lost, something like that. Not that they were harmed by another human being. I personally do most of my camping in national forests and in national parks, and in the area that I live, I have never seen a park ranger or anything like that. Zero law enforcement. And I'm talking about ever. I've never seen one. Ever. That's how it is in my area with the national forests and whatnot that I camp at. You do tend to have more law enforcement with national parks than national forests, but still, unfortunately, there's a lot of opportunity for people to do bad things. Two weeks ago, I was talking about how national forests, national parks can be dangerous. Now, of course, I'm not saying anything's going to happen to you if you go to the park or whatever. All that I was saying was that it's a good idea to be prepared to be able to take care of yourself. You don't have to carry a firearm, bear spray, mace, carry a knife with you, whatever you want to. I did mention in that video that you should leave your nunchucks at home. I stand by that. In all seriousness, it is a good idea to at least have some way to protect yourself if you're going to head out into a national forest, a national park, if you're going to be out in a remote area, or even semi-remote. And I'm talking about backpacking. I'm talking about hiking and so on. It's just a good idea, you know? You take your rain jacket with you just in case it rains. See what I'm saying there? So that was roughly two weeks ago when I was talking about this. A week after that trip where I was talking about Israel Keys and all that stuff, I broke the story about the couple from Arkansas. They were out on a hiking trail and somebody murdered them. Now, a week later, I have more information about that case and I'm sure you all know all the details already. But apparently, the guy who killed that couple was a teacher and he had moved school systems, something like that. And that's because there were all sorts of claims that he was being inappropriate with the children. And apparently, he killed that couple to get to those kids. But luckily, the mother, she took off with the kids, got them to a safe location, went back to try to help her husband. Unfortunately, they both lost their lives. What a terrible story. Just sickening. Thank goodness, I think for the most part, most people are good-natured, right? They will help you out. Just do your best, try to take care of yourselves, be safe out there, keep a wary eye on people while trying to be kind at the same time. Everyone, it is time to go. It is time to drive off of this mountain. We can go either way, but it makes more sense to go back the way we came. Let's hit the road. Thank you all so much for joining me for this trip. I hope you all have had a great time with me. This was a simple one, but it was a lot of fun, at least for me. It was really nice sleeping on top of this mountain. Sometimes, folks, the simplest adventures are the best. If you did enjoy this trip, hit the thumbs up. I do appreciate it. That's a great way to support this channel. Make sure to check out my second YouTube channel, A Quiet Place Adventures. There's brand new adventure there every single week. Until next time, everyone, take care, be well, strength and honor, be safe. I think it's just as foggy today as it was last night. Visibility is very, very limited.