Can We Survive Our First Empty Nest Road Trip?

You did it! You did it! Welcome to another episode of... The Epic Family Road Trip! I don't know if that's going to work. The Empty Nest Edition. So as you know, we dropped off the kids at the ferry terminal. Because they have a really exciting couple of months ahead of them. He's like, what's going on? Have fun guys. You going to be able to carry your bag? We're here and headed down to Montana to be with Clay and Rochelle and the awesome team at X Overland. Everybody knows who X Overland is, but if you don't, go check them out. They are legendary in the overland field. And they've done some incredible expeditions. And so the kids feel extremely privileged and honored to be able to go down there and work with them. It's a bit of an internship and learn from the pros. They're down there now doing that. And once we dropped them off, we headed across the island back to the ocean to spend some quality days together. Getting used to this whole thing of being alone. It's been a blast. We spent some time walking on the beach, holding hands like we just got married or something. Hey, you having fun? We have a beautiful sunset to end a perfect day. Carol and I have been working on our camera skills. So if this is overexposed, that's because we're just learning how to use all the big cameras. So we realized how much work the kids have been doing. Most of the camera work, Caroline and the boys are doing all the droning and all that stuff. And the next one is editing. Caroline's given me some tutorials on basic editing. But, you know, we don't expect our first video to be in the same quality as what you're used to, but we'll do our very best. And to begin with, we'll just bring this gorgeous scene from the West Coast. Very peaceful, beautiful and overexposed. As much fun as we're having, we're also, of course, missing the kids. And that's where FaceTime comes in. We've had the opportunity to really have some fun times catching up. They are so pumped. We can just sit there for an hour based on listening to everything they're learning and how excited they are. Seeing just another perspective of overlanding and editing. Playing as a team, they are very, very organized and professional. And, yeah, the kids are mind-blown and they've only been there for a week. We're super excited. We're having fun. So what we're going to do in this episode is take the two jeeps, combine them into one, and head out together. Sometimes I'll be driving, sometimes Carol will be driving, while I'm maybe trying to fly the drone. We're just going to have a lot of fun and we're going to bring the adventure to you. We're on a mission to find the biggest trees that some of the local folks have told us about. The biggest trees in Canada that are old growth. Some of the stuff we've looked at, people have told us are second growth. And even that's big enough, but these are first growth trees, so we can't wait to find them their way out somewhere in the wilderness. But first we did some shopping, and that was interesting. I went out of the store holding two grocery bags. It was kind of unreal. Normally our cart is just bag after bag after bag, so this is going to be fun, like trying to figure out how to cook for two now. And it'll be interesting for me because I know Manny. I could cook with my eyes closed. I know where everything is. And then this one is a whole different configuration. And so I think the next few trips we'll be figuring out. We'll be telling you what we need and what we don't need. That kind of thing. So it'll be fun. I'm just going to find a quiet spot to pull over and set up camp. Hopefully by a creek or a river. But so far so good. Very quiet back here. And Lando finally got a chance to stretch his legs. Alright, so we went in. There's a lot of these washed out gullies. There might have been bridges before but the bridges have been pulled. And they're definitely doable but because we're alone we came up against one that was really deep and we thought, you know what, we'll come back with the kids and finish that trail. So we turned around. This is going to look familiar. We're going under a tree. This time we're not going to have to notch it out or anything. Our tires are still aired down. We should be alright to get under it. We came this way so it should be okay going back. Except for remembering that the tall side was on the opposite. So now the tall is going to be on the short. So you're going to have to rub against that tree. Okay. Yeah. That was close. Scraping. All the way but now let's go find camp. I'm getting hungry. Yeah. Well this little tiny little collection has been heating up. We're at 478 feet so we don't really get snow. Hopefully below a thousand feet because we haven't seen any. So I think this will do, no? It's kind of small. It is small. It's very small. I'd imagine you could park right on the road because this is a deep mission road. Yeah let's get out and see if it's it looks like some standing water but it might be alright. Muddy. Well, I don't know, we're going to figure out if this spot will do. It is, I mean nice surroundings. I think we could just pull up here. We're not going to have an issue on the road. At least like, if we put the tent here, the jeep's here, and then we have that. Awesome. It doesn't look like anyone's been down this road in a while. No. Didn't really see any other spots coming in. Not unless it was actual clearing. Oh yeah. I guess that's ok if it's just one night. We'll get up early, make coffee, make some breakfast and head out to where we're supposed to go. Alright. Sounds like a plan to me. A little bit different without the boys. All day I've been thinking, man, the kids always help with the tent. Caroline does a lot of things too. But just with everything we're doing, we have become accustomed to having three really good helpers with us. Time to pull our weight. That looks pretty soaked. We'll get the heater going up there. Yeah, I think you've got to do that. This sounds like it might be the kids. Yeah. All you need is some glasses. One sec. By yourself? Question mark. That's awesome. We are way back on the logging trail somewhere in the middle of nowhere, but it's really nice and we're setting up camp now. We use the Garmin inReach and there's an app which is really handy. It's called Earthmate. If you have one of these, just hook up the Earthmate app and you can just, basically it's like texting. That's really cool. There's no cell service anywhere near here, but we're via satellite, we're communicating with the kids down at the X-Hanger in Montana. We were planning on cooking a meal tonight, but we got into camp really quite late and I'm not that hungry. Carol's hungry, but I think we have, she's very smart, she had mixed up from yesterday some tuna salad. So some of that on lettuce wraps. I think we're good. Just a quick quick bite to eat and then to bed. We're drying out the tent right now. That's just the way of the world here on Vancouver Island. It rains. And it rains a lot. We moved the stove over from, or the cooktop from Vandy and it slides perfectly into this goose gear fridge and stove slide up thing. So we're in good shape. It's our first night, so things are a little bit disorganized, but we're figuring out the system and by tomorrow, the weather's supposed to improve and we'll cook the meal that we had planned. It's kind of quiet. Silence. We miss you guys so I tell you what, you guys are awesome. Sometimes someone has to be away before you really notice how much you enjoy their company, but thankfully we've I think enjoyed your company all along and expressed that, but man we miss you guys. Even though we are having a great time and man, you should be proud of your parents. They're doing pretty good. Talking about the kids, that would be a satellite message. Yep, that's a Alright, well, goodnight guys. We'll see you later. Night everyone. Nice pair of rain pants on top of your pants is what you need out here because it's raining. We just woke up this morning and it's raining. We're in this spot we found last night basically just on the logging trail and we saw that little jut out there and pulled in and set up camp and Lando wants to go running. I can hear him in the background if I can let him out, but we slept while it was quiet. Just the sound of rain on the tent and you can hear water running all over the place little creeks and waterfalls. But today we're just going to carry on down the trail and keep exploring. It's going to be a good day, but first time to get some coffee. How do the kids get up there? You know what might help? I think they stand on the back tire. Even that's hard. Okay. There you go. And get one foot under the hinge. You have to do a hop to switch feet. Yep. Good. And then I get up here. Apparently that's what they do. I think you should stand on my shoulder. Or just start putting it up and go half way. We're just going to jump around and do the same thing. Yeah. If only we had the straps on the side of the tent that holds everything together. I know. We lost those probably the first month we were camping. We've got to get those. If we had those, we wouldn't have this issue. You did it. And that is how it's done. Watch your fingers. Just gently put it back on the tent and you're laughing. So Carol ended up going up the way the boys and girls do. She did it. How did you get up there? I just walked in there and then up on the top. Just on the back side of the hood and then up. If we keep on doing this, we better buy one of those racks on the front. Yeah. For short people like we. You did it. We're all strapped up and ready to roll. Took us a bit longer than when it's the five of us but we got her done. One more sip of coffee and we'll go looking for some new trails. We'll warm up the fingers. Well it's without logging and this whole area has been cleared off. Looks like maybe even this year and they'll probably start replanting. So they have quite an active logging industry on the island here and they clear cut sections and then replant them so you'll see all different years of growth. Sorry, just checking my map. Some will be 30 year old trees or 100 year old trees or 10 year old trees and then what we're looking for what we're hoping to find and take you guys to is the old original growth never been touched. Every once in a while in these clearings you see big old stumps and they must have been cleared in the 1800s and they're still sitting there. They're huge stumps as big as this Jeep. The remnants of those forests is what we're after. We were just talking about those big stumps and I can see one or two in the distance there so we're gonna end it up. We'll just walk out and show you how big they are. That'll give you a perspective of how big the old originals were in this area. But they've probably been grown and cut down several times since that era. It'll be thrilling to find these guys standing. It's only looks like a couple hours drive from here so let's go. We're just gonna drive in out of curiosity but the West Coast Trail goes right up the length of Vancouver Island and it's one of the most remote and wild wilderness trails you could ever do and it's on our bucket list. We're not supposed to do it this time of year because the storms can be crazy but in the summer I don't know how long it takes, probably a couple of months of hiking. It'll be fun. The sinking of the SS Valencia in 1906 and it broke up out here somewhere over three days and left 136 dead and only 37 survivors and had no way to rescue them and there was no way for them to get out of here, this was all wilderness, so they got prompted to create what they call the West Coast Trail that I was just talking about and that's used if you, if a ship went down somewhere on the coast, they'd use that trail to get back to safety of all the survivors anyway, so it's kind of a neat little West Coast Trail. It's this place in the summer when things open back up. We're not going into town, we're just we just wanted to come up and at least say we've been here but we have plenty of food and fuel and water so we're just going to turn around and head back into the wilderness but this looks like an amazing place to go whale watching. In a few weeks actually the whales will be coming back, the grey whales and humpbacks and there's orcas. It's kind of far away but... That's a dream come true. Carol, that's your favorite animal. I guess I know what you're going to be doing tonight. Walking around with Lando looking for antlers. Pretty weird. There's no more here on soft gravel. Those babies, that's the first I've seen the whole time we've been in B.C. but I've heard about them and they take the entire road. Flora Lake Recreation Spot. The recs, what do they call them, recreation sites, they're not quite parks but they are just free dispersed camping and sometimes they have picnic tables and little things like this, fire pit. But they almost always have a great view. And this one is no exception. So there's five sites along the lake, five camp spots and they're all absolutely beautiful. We just marked the first one but they're all just down the same trail so you can't get lost. They all have a good view of the lake and there's some hiking trails all around here. We are headed for the big trees but we've got to keep moving otherwise we've definitely camped here tonight. It's a beautiful spot. Alright, we've made it to our camp spot. We went a long distance today just pushing and pushing through the log roads to the provincial park. This is kind of the end of the road and we're going to camp here. It looks beautiful. The big trees are here. Somewhere in this forest there's all kinds of backcountry camping here. We're not going to do that this time but we're going to go hiking in there tomorrow probably. Tonight we're going to set up and make some food. So I got the tent set up. We're going to do almost everything that without that heater we'd be sleeping pretty damp. So one of the first things we do when we get to camp is get the heater out there. Once the tent's open get the heater on. So I got the tent set up. Now let me go make dinner. We didn't want to stop to get our water so we're going to chug a few gallons of it. Isn't that the same water Daniel collected on the river? Aww, Daniel. Thanks, Daniel. And kids, we miss you guys so much. So this valley here from this point on is hiking so depending on the weather tomorrow we're going to venture on into the valley and see if we can find those trees. Do you think the rain is actually going to stop us? Stop us? No. Hey, we're having leftovers. I think we had this last night or yesterday afternoon. But we had leftovers. It's delicious. We didn't feel like cooking. It's funny. When the kids are here, Carol is making a meal every night. But just the two of us, I was saying, hey, I'm not that hungry. A couple of cucumbers with some dips. It's fun. It's fancy. Then we don't have to do a whole meal. It's kind of rainy and cold. I'm happy. Today is beautiful. It's not rainy. Yeah, take a look at it. Let me show you something special. See that color? Hey guys, we're in Parmena Provincial Park right here on the map. This is the west coast of the island and farther down south. You've seen us. We spent time up in the Tofino area. But now we've gone across. We had to go all the way around through Port Alberni and then just head into these back trails. Unbelievable area here. And very forested. And then you've got some, you can see the dark green, these protected areas. First of all, all along the coast, the Pacific Rim trail goes there. And then we're now right here. So in this provincial park, there's some big, huge old-growth cedar trees that we're going to go try to find today, at least some of them. And we're really excited about finding those. If you're coming out here, you've got to get yourself one of these maps. The company is called Backroads Map Books. They have all the back roads, all the trails, all the parks, just so much information. But this one is called Parmena, so right up here. And it is a 16,450 hectare or 40,650 acre wilderness park. And it's famous for its old-growth forest, so we're really excited to be here, and we've got ourselves a clear day. It's not raining for the first time in many days, so this is a perfect opportunity to go hunt those big old giants. And in the meantime, we'll see you down the road. Whew, had my first lost drone incident. I'm just not used to the return to home thing, but it just started taking off on me. And it landed, thankfully, right in the road. I had, uh, the last scene I saw, it looked like it was hitting some trees, and I thought, oh, we're never going to find it. But there it is, and it's filming us. I turned on find my drone, so it starts beeping and flashing. Hey, baby. Glad to see you. And most importantly, all the footage that we filmed. All right, now how do you turn it off? Oh, wow, that's epic. All right. Whew, that was a scary moment, but all's well that ends well. And I'm learning. Whew.