ultralight solo backpacking | 30 miles along california's central coast

Howdy gang, it's your friend Pepper here and I am backpacking solo along the beautiful central coast of California. In this video I've got bushcraft projects, beautiful beaches, and we're chasing waterfalls. What more could you ask for? I'm so excited to take you along with me. Let's get to stepping. Good morning, it's 7 30 a.m and we are rearing to go. I like to get the first day done and over with on a backpacking trip as quickly as I can because, I don't know, I just get jitters and I love the feeling of having camp set up and having everything, you know, set. But yeah, it's pretty beautiful here and I'm really, really excited for this trip. It's my very first trip of 2025, so starting strong here. All right, I'm gonna get started. Check it out, it's called a goose pen. Well, it was a goose pen. So what happens with old growth trees is that if there's a fire in an area they are particularly resistant to fire due to a number of properties, including the resin being fire resistant. So they will smolder instead of bursting out into flames for months on end even. And what ends up happening is that the inner wood, the heartwood, will burn out. But as long as the cambium, which is the tree's living layer, is intact the tree can continue to live. That one unfortunately got too thin and it looks like it eventually fell down. But it probably lived for a while after that fire in spite of that damage, which is really fascinating. Check out this little guy. Well, he's not actually a little guy. Let me put my hand beside him for reference. That's a big slug. So the reason why you see banana slugs and redwoods together so often is because they have a really unique symbiotic relationship. Specifically, banana slugs are detritivores, which means that they eat dead organic material. And they are effectively clear-cutting the forest for redwood saplings. But in addition to that, they don't like eating redwood saplings. So the banana slugs are eliminating the competition for space that a redwood needs in its sapling stage when it is the most vulnerable. That's great for the redwood tree, but in exchange for that, the redwood tree provides the banana slug with a damp, moist environment that the slug needs to thrive. That's why you see redwood trees and banana slugs together like that. I'm only about three miles in, but I can already feel a hot spot coming, so I want to take care of that as soon as I can, even though I really don't want to stop or undo my pack. So a hot spot is just somewhere where you feel a blister coming, and the best remedy for that is leuco tape, which I wrap around my lip chap to save on space. And wait, that's all right. Stay. Leuco tape is super, super, super sticky, and it's better than band-aids. And it's pretty much the only first aid item, aside from a safety pin, that I bring with me on my backpacking trips. It's waterproof, sweatproof. I mean, this stuff stays on. Like, I won't need to change this for the entire trip. All better. I almost wish that I brought my gaiters with me. I'm picking up a lot more dirt, and it's falling into my shoes, which is not great. The best way to avoid any foot problems when you're out in the backcountry is to keep your feet clean and dry. So the dirt that's getting in there, combined with the sweat from just giving her, is less than ideal. But it's all right. We survive. We make do. That's two banana slugs. I wonder how many we're gonna see on this trip. Hey, that's three. Look at them. Check it out. This is coyote brush, and the dandelion-like seeds on the females of coyote brush are extremely, extremely flammable. Let's see if I can make that focus for you. Oh, they're blown away. Okay, well, hopefully you saw them. Anyway, they're super, super flammable, and you can collect them and keep them year-round, uh, because they only really do flower like this from late fall to early winter. So it's January, so this is kind of the only one that I've seen that actually has any flowers left on it. The entire plant itself, when it's dried out, is very, very flammable. Makes great fire starter. But if the plant leaves are still green, they smoke really, uh, quite a bit, which is great if you want to make a smoke signal. But the leaves are also really great because they have some antiseptic properties, so you can crush them up and make a poultice that's really good for poison oak, or if you have any wounds or scrapes or anything. Yeah, coyote brush. I made a wish. Well, I can tell that we're getting close to the ocean because the ground has changed to sand. That's nice. I'm really looking forward to checking out the beach. I think I'm gonna do a bit of a hike on the beach tomorrow because there's this supposedly very cool waterfall that I'd like to see, and I'd like to show you guys. So, but today we are going to be walking, I don't know, I think six or so miles along the coast. Hopefully it's not too windy, uh, because I didn't bring a microphone. So, uh, you know, audio might not be... Holy Toledo, that sun is something. I tell ya, being a Canadian, uh, the sun is something I will never, ever, ever, ever take for granted. And I swear, I change into a different human being when I don't have sunshine. I'm really, really grateful to be on the west coast. Well, I haven't seen a single person up until this point, except for just a few moments ago when I saw maybe 12 girls. The one in the front saw me, and then they were all, like, perfectly to the side of the trail like that, which is, I just find that so sweet. But then also, it makes me, uh, I suddenly am very conscious of the way that I'm walking because I have an audience, but, you know, that's usually just in my head. But, uh, no, I literally did have an audience. One of you guys recognized me, which is just crazy. I forget that that's a thing, you know? Uh, and I'm not used to it. I'm not used to it at all because I'm just a girl who likes to walk. Yeah, that was really interesting. Uh, really cool. Um, I didn't catch your name if you're watching. Hello. Uh, please reach out to me. I gotta figure out which way I'm going now. There's no trail markers. There's a trail marker. Okay. This is really quite stunning. Sorry. Sorry. I'm having a hard time holding this. It's far away, but I want to show you the view. What do you build me up? Buttercup, baby, when you let me down and mess me around. Worst of all, you never call, baby, when you say you will, but I love you still. Look how freaking pretty this is. Yeah. I think this will do nicely. I think we might be quite all right. I do. I reckon. Okay. Now I have about 1.75 miles left and I want to stop, but out of spite, I, unfortunately I cannot stop. I must trek onward. So trek onward. I shall then set up camp and eat some food because I am hungry. Yeah. Looks like I made it. Not bad. I am starving. We got a tortilla and good old fashioned peanut butter. It's a staple in my backpacking diet. And you know what? As I'm sitting here, I'm realizing that it would be really nice to take off my shoes and put on those camp sandals that I made. Yeah. It would be nice to put those on. Too bad I don't have them with me, but that's all right. Oh, this is really liquidy. Okay. Oh, okay. Adapt. Adapt. Delish. I'm so mad. I forgot my camp sandals. There are worse things to forget. That was good. I got some dessert, almonds, pistachios, M&Ms, peanuts, and then these little caramel cluster things. No raisins though, so it's not technically gorp, which is good old fashioned raisins and peanuts. But honestly, I can always do without the raisins. You know, you really just want the peanuts and the M&Ms. No, this will do fine. I'm pooped. Yep. Alrighty, time to set up camp. I gotta show you guys this tent. There are a lot of backpacking tents out there, and there are a lot of ultralight backpacking tents, but there's nothing quite like a Durston tent. This is the Durston X-Mid Pro 1. It's a one-person tent, weighing in at 15.7 ounces. Mine is anyway. And it's my favorite tent in the universe. Why? Well, I could, you know, bore you to death with all of the fantabulous specs about this tent, but I think it would be more useful to use an analogy. So bear with me. Let's say you're making a soup. And in this scenario, the tent is the soup. And you make the soup, and then you try some of it, and it's too salty. So you add in some stock. And now it's too watered down, so you need to add in some more meat. And then you add in the meat, and now the ratio of the meat to the vegetables is off. And by this point, it would be way too hard to replicate that recipe again. You're better off just starting fresh. And so that's basically what Durston did. So other ultralight tents have been building upon a design that is just inherently flawed from the get-go. A lot of these tents have, this is a freestanding tent, which means that it is supported by trekking poles. And a lot of ultralight tents will have that freestanding design, but the trekking pole will be like literally in the middle of the doorway, and it makes no sense. And so they'll add different, you know, things to remedy these minor grievances. And what you're left with is a mess. And so Durston is run by Dan Durston, and he listens to the ultralight community very avidly. And this is what he came up with. And it's a patented design, I think. But here, let me show you, because it's really, really cool. So hold on. Okay. Okay, so what we have here is there's one tent pole here, and then there's one on the other side. This tent has two openings to it. But my favorite part is the size of the vestibule. The general shape of this tent is a rectangle inside of a parallelogram, kind of. So what you're left with is this massive, I guess, right triangle? Isosceles triangle? I don't do geometry. Anyway, that you can put all of your stuff in. Like, I'm not even in the tent. I'm just in the vestibule, which is wild. And there's another one on the other side. And then you don't have to bring your stinky boots or, you know, anything gross into your tent if you don't want to. It's just, it's just, it's just right. You know, it's just, it's just the right soup. And it's a good soup. So thank you, Durston. Oh, I love her. Alrighty, since I've got a little bit time before the sun sets and I call it a night, I'm going to get started on a little project. A wittle project. A wittle, wittle project. Because it's... Please, Brian, sign up again very easily, Fendi. Which he thought not want to touch the pie. And held them waiting to see what would happen. Which did not help the thirst. Water of the lake, candles. He balanced on the log, holding himself ham. And there it is, he thought. Alrighty, time for dinner. So for dinner tonight, we have some beautiful Genoa salami, as well as Parmigiano Reggiano. I don't know how to say it. We got Parmesan. And it smells really good. We got the cheese, we got the meat, we need crackers. Well, we got 20 grams. So we keep it real. Keep it real tough around here. That's good. That's good, too. I forgot that I left the casing on, so I ate it a little bit. That's okay. Listen up. I will be damned if I let that much salami go to waste, okay? Absolutely not. Oh god, I almost dropped it again. I mean, I just ate one with wax on it. Like, fine. That's totally what I get for trying to look all cool with my new knife. I'm just really excited about having a nice knife. A knife knife. Well, I tell you what, gang. It's starting to get a little bit chilly out here, so I'm gonna head in the tent, listen to my audiobook, and have dessert, which is only red Sour Patch Kids. So it says that the water is drinkable, and I planned for it to be drinkable, but look at the difference in color. That looks like urine. I'm still gonna drink it, but it looks like urine. Anyway, uh, I'm gonna go brush my teeth now. Can you see me? Home sweet home. Good morning. It's about 7 a.m, and I slept pretty well. Aside from the fact that it was really cold last night, I gotta get up, and I really don't want to, but breakfast calls, and we have a waterfall to chase, so I'm gonna get up. Beautiful. Plan today is to immediately go check out that waterfall, which I'm really excited to do, especially now that I'm starting to warm up. I literally don't think this could be any louder. For breakfast, we have granola on the All righty. Let's go. Are you coming? Just kidding. I know I'm supposed to take you. I had a dream last night that felt so real. From outside my tent, this man in a really, really deep voice was like, the coyotes are here now, and they weren't just like regular coyotes. They were, um, I think it's because I was watching some gameplay of the Resident Evil where there's werewolves and vampires, so they were like the werewolves. They weren't regular coyotes, and I was able, fortunately, to take refuge in this old-timey saloon-looking thing. Yeah, it was a weird dream. You know, I know this is the Pacific Ocean, but growing up in Nova Scotia on the Atlantic Ocean and always being, you know, 20-30 minutes away from the ocean has given me a special connection to it that, I mean, I'm sure everybody feels that way when they see the ocean, but I don't know. I just get, like, a comfort from it that I can't really even describe, and it makes me emotional, which is, you know, what nature does sometimes. Yeah, this is a good morning. Oh, to be a deer having this kind of morning. Unfortunately, the tide looks like it's coming in big time, so I don't think I'm gonna be able to make it a mile and a way down to the waterfall today, which is kind of a bummer, but I'm gonna see how far I can go without getting wet, but I gotta get my jacket on because it is chilly. Sorry, I'm saying that is some serious wind. Oh, my phone's all covered in sand. Holy moly, would you look at those waves, though. That's my exit, so I gotta make sure that I don't stay out here too long. That's my sign. All right, time to head back. So, I sat and waited for a little bit to watch the tide just to kind of get a feel of how quickly it's coming in, and it's 10 after 10 right now, and by my guess, that tide probably won't hit low tide until 4 or 4.30, so there's no point in sitting around and waiting for the tide to start going out, so I'm taking a coastal route to the waterfall in hopes that maybe there's a way down to see it, but we'll see because I have no idea. I want to see that waterfall, keep you updated. Got a good amount of sand in my shoe. It's really cozy in here. We're gonna get on here and see if this is the right way. Of course, being careful, being aware, being mindful. Oh, yeah. Easy peasy. All right, this isn't half bad at all, and I gotta say, having this place to yourself is pretty spectacular. Well, I was getting a bit chilly up there by the waterfall with all the mist gently kissing my face, so I pulled out the sun here, and I think it's time for lunch. My knife is covered in sand. We got more salami and some parmesan. I'm not gonna eat the casing this time, though. I don't know which angle to film at because this beautiful waterfall here and a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean. That was good, but I think it's time that we get heading back. Well, we're about seven-ish miles in, and I've got about three and a half to go until I reach my rendezvous point, and for the last little while, I haven't really been filming because I've just been bookinger up the hill, and by hill, I mean went from sea level to about 1400 feet in about three miles, so that gives you an idea of what my afternoon has been like, early afternoon. Overall, you know, this has been a really fantastic little trek, and I would definitely do it again. That's for a top. I've got just a swig of water left, but that's okay because we are almost done, and you know what? This is type two fun, if I've ever heard of it. We don't do it because it's easy. We do it because it's fun to brag to our friends after we've done it. Well, gang, it's been fun, but I'm at the trailhead, and it's time for me to go home. If you like this video, make sure to make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and check out my other backpacking videos. I'll see you next time. Until then, happy stepping!