Our FIRST van adventure! 🌲 We got a FREE Christmas Tree!

Guys, you can't just go out to the forest and chop down a tree. No going to Stanley Park and cutting down a tree. We really have no idea what we're doing. Welcome! If you're new around here I'm Mel and this is Jay and normally we travel south in the winter but this year we sold our travel trailer and bought a new Ram Promaster but it's a few months before we can take our van to our chosen van upfitter so in the meantime we're going to be taking some mini adventures with our van. Obviously we're not in the van right now but we're going to get to that. Right now we're on our way up the Coquihalla to find out where we can get a Christmas tree this year because we're going to be home for Christmas. We just got some brand new all-weather tires for the car so we're well suited for the snow but the van tires are not quite as good so this is why I wanted to come and scout with the car first. And yes there is a difference between all-weather and all-season tires. All-season tires are not going to get you anywhere in the snow but all-weather tires are actually good for mud, snow, and rain. They even have the little snowflake thing on them. All right so the actual forest service road has absolutely no plowing. I'm not sure how much further on this road we actually want to go even with the car. The snow might be hiding things that we maybe wouldn't normally drive over. I am so glad that I have a heated winter coat for this year. I've got heated gloves. So you might be wondering, guys you can't just go out to the forest and chop down a tree and you would be 100% right. Here in BC you can actually get a permit to cut down your own Christmas tree in certain regions. That is the key. So we will include the website in the description below. You can go and check out which regions are available. The Vancouver and Chilliwack kind of super lower mainland high density areas are not possible. No going to Stanley Park and cutting down a tree. But you can come out towards Merritt. You can go north. Now your permit does have to be specific to the region where you go. Go to that main page and then find the region that you're going to go to and print off the permit for that region. The permit only allows you to take one tree so definitely make sure you've got the tree that you want before you cut because as soon as you cut that's the one you're going with. So the first place we've come to is the Upper Coldwater Forest Service Road. It says on our permit that we need to get this tree from the right of way of either a power line or a forest service road. Which basically means within 10 feet of the edge of the road or the ditch. And I mean there are lots of trees. Some of these don't look like great Christmas trees but uh you know maybe we'll be able to find something. So for us we are looking for approximately five to six foot tree. Now the maximum height of Christmas tree that you can cut on this permit is five meters tall. That is massive. Like what is that like 15 or 20 feet? If you have a living room that can hold a five meter tall Christmas tree let us know in the comments because that's just wild. These ones look nice. What are these? Here how tall are they? Let me stand beside. They're too tall. It's like right next to the road and it looks so short but it's like 10 feet tall or eight. What about there's some short ones over here. Now is it a spruce though? Because we read that spruce lasts the longest. Spruce are supposed to have little needles that are flat and and cannot be like rolled in your fingers. I don't know it does roll. I can't tell. We need to be better tree identifiers. Oh wait maybe it's fir that we want. Is it fir or spruce? I think both are fine. Blue spruce is a good one. Fir like Douglas fir is like the creme de la creme apparently of Christmas trees. Now of course since we have the car we're not actually picking a tree today but I think we've established that this is a potential good spot for us to get a tree. This one looks really good from a distance but I think it's too tall. It can't really be taller than me. Feeling like Clark Griswold out here. This one is getting closer. We do have to keep in mind how much space we have. These trees probably look pretty small when we're standing out here but to put this in our living room that one's too sparse. Yeah this one's like a Charlie Brown tree. Well this place definitely looks promising but I think we want to try one more spot. Take the next left to stay on Juliet Creek Road then you will arrive at your destination. Is this a forest service road? It turns into one. It does not look like a road. All right this road is not great and we probably won't be getting the van up here. There's not a whole lot of small trees and we've already driven a fair ways back and I'm having to do like a 20 point turn to turn around. So yeah I think this is a no-go. I do have two more spots on the map to check out though. So this is the Mine Creek Forest Service Road and this actually looks like the best bet yet because it's very nicely cleared and groomed and the trees like you can see they're like right there. I liked that one. I was like I want that one I want that one oh I want that one. There's lots of small ones right over here. I mean it's like it's like a Christmas tree farm practically. Oh I can't wait to come back with the van. It pays to do your homework. And to try a couple spots because that the first one was pretty good but I think this is better. And look at this there's a perfect little roundabout at the end to turn around. Don't have to do a 50 point turn. Okay go back go back. Going back. I found one that I think is going to be perfect and I want Jay to stand next to it. Right here right here right here right here right here right here. That one that one there maybe. Can you guess which one? Yeah this dark green one. What do you think? It's probably about seven feet. That's pretty tall. But I mean if we trimmed it you know from the bottom a little bit there's some sparse areas and some dead but I mean it's not bad. It could be a contender. We'll have lots of time to figure out the perfect tree when we come back with the van. All right I think our scouting mission is complete. Yeah this looks like the perfect spot. We'll be back here again in a moment. All right today is the day we are going to get our Christmas tree with the van. Our first van venture. So exciting. It's a little frosty this morning. All right let's do it honey. Rock and roll. Well I'll tell you we picked an absolutely beautiful day for this. I can barely see clouds in the sky and this is like really rare for this time of year. We're kicking off our fun old-fashioned family Christmas by heading out into the country in our old front wheel drive sleigh to embrace the frosty majesty of the winter landscape and select that most important of Christmas symbols. So right now we're going up a hill on the Coquihalla Highway called the Smasher and you can maybe hear the engine is working a little bit. Our truck had real trouble when we were pulling the trailer up this hill. It's a very steep hill very long but so far the van is doing well. The temperature indicator is right in the middle right where it should be so I'm going to keep an eye on that and see if it actually goes up by the time we get to the top of this hill. While the Smasher was easy peasy the temperature indicator didn't even budge so at least with the weight that we have now which is no weight no problem getting up the Smasher. All right we're back to Mine Creek Road and I noticed there's a lot more snow around than last time. I'm really hoping that this Forest Service Road is going to be well cleared like the last time it was. All right Mel is at the wheel now because I was doing a little bit of droning and now we are searching for our perfect Christmas tree. Okay so we are looking for a tree that is somewhere around five to six feet tall. We want something that's full, that's got nice shape, not too many bare patches, preferably not a pine tree. So what I've seen is a few kind of bluey green ones that I think might either be a spruce or some kind of fir and those are the two ideal species of trees that we would like to get because they tend to last the longest from what I've read. All right it's time to bundle. All right I think I found two. But we can only take one with our permit so we'll pick the best one. So the first one I saw actually is this one. It's pretty sparse on the bottom. It's not very good. But the other one is this. I think that's a bit on the tall side. It could be trimmable. Right because I can use the lower branches for garland. Should we google lens it to see what kind of tree it is? Sure. It suggests it might be a white fir. Looks pretty nice. Down here is a bit dead though. Also why are there two trees? Oh no it's a double. Maybe we should keep looking. This has like two trunks. Yeah that's not gonna work. Yeah it's well it's suggesting either a pine, a fir, or a spruce. That's helpful. Yeah I think it's pine. Yeah this one would be nice but yeah it's a little bit weird going around this right? It would have been perfect. What do you think? Too tall? You want to stand next to it so we can see for size? Yeah so for reference Jay's about six feet. But it's so pretty. It's beautifully shaped. It's nice and bushy near the top at least. What type of tree is this? Based on the image the tree appears to be a spruce tree. Well there you go. I think it thinks it's a spruce. We got evidence that we're not the only ones here cutting down Christmas trees. This is the one I wanted you to measure against the other day. Oh yeah. They're still here. Yeah this one's pretty good. Oh it's pretty. Let's snow it a bit here. Could be the one huh? I like it. It's got some body. Yeah and it's tall but not too tall. I like this one. And this is the one that we saw when we were scouting the other day. High five! Without falling in the snow. All right honey. I think we should go get the van. Let's do it. Our beautiful new white van is a little bit gray and brown now. It's gonna need a good wash. And as we fold it up, put the rope around I think. We really have no idea what we're doing. We don't. I've never tied a tree. Yeah this is this is our very first live Christmas tree ever. Together. Together. My parents got one once. It was a 10-foot tree. We got it from a tree farm or something. So they just bundled it up for us. I'm gonna try and put that over the top. Sure. Anyways I think we just kind of want to put it up like that. You go around. Oh. Good good. Okay. Yeah it won't stop. All right. So one thing we forgot was a scissors. So we're just going to use this to cut the rope. Right? That makes sense. That's safe. Safety first everybody. We're gonna get this thing home and we're not gonna be able to unwrap it. Yeah all right. Hold it really taut. Not near my hand. On both sides. You're gonna be fine. Famous last words. Pull it really see. Yeah. Good sharp axe. Sheesh. We want to be able to fit presents under the tree. Yeah just chop everything that we haven't bundled. Got it? Yeah I think so. We're good. We're clear. All right. All right. It'll just go. All right. Wait wait wait. Where am I standing? There. Here. Yes. Cool. Yep. I think we're ready. All right. Wasting all our batteries showing off. Please don't. Okay. Are you ready? It didn't even timber. It didn't even fall. Look at that. I like it. Perfect. I was like holding it and it just like came close to me. Now I feel like maybe we didn't get a big enough one. But it's cut so it's ours. You got it? What do I have? All right. I think I'm kidnapping him. All right. We're clear. Okay. All right. We got our tree all ratcheted down. Now we just got to bring it home. And that wraps up our very first van adventure. Yeah I totally love this tree. It smells so good in here right now. So you have a very merry Christmas and a happy holidays and we will see you next time. Bye. Right now we are on our way up the coca-cola. That was kind of bad. I'm gonna do that again. Right now we are in the car on our way up the coca-cola. Up the coca-cola. Up the coca-cola. So this is going to be well clear. That was bumpy. Because we have much... Running into the sunset. Make sure you don't miss the next video by liking, subscribing, and turning on notifications. 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