Meet Moose! Our new puppy joins three pack goats and my dog Ursa for a fall wilderness camping adventure filled with golden aspens, mountain lakes, and delicious Firebox camp cooking.
Bill, Hector, Ricky, Ursa, Moose, and I head across the backside of the mountain, winding through brilliant fall colors before hiking into the wilderness. Everyone wears a pack, but the goat kids and Moose carry no added weight—their empty packs are just for training.
Along the trail, we meet some cattle, including a very large bull who gives us a long look before moving on. At the first lake, I remember an earlier visit when a bull elk was bugling across the meadow. With weeds limiting the fishing and a possible storm approaching, we continue to a second lake to find camp and get our shelters ready.
I set up separate tarps for the goats and for me and the dogs, then try my luck fishing. Back at camp, little Moose stays cozy bundled in my down coat while I get dinner going.
On the menu: • Steak grilled on the Firebox Octagon Fire Pit Stove. • Potatoes, onions, garlic, and mushrooms sautéed in the Firebox Fry Pan. • A Dolly Parton cake baked golden brown in the Firebox Reflector Oven Kit, topped with chocolate frosting and raspberries. • Morning coffee, bacon, and eggs, followed by jumbo cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting and raspberries.
The fish don’t cooperate this time, but the fall scenery, good food, and time with the animals make this a special trip.
A traveler embarks on a scenic autumn mountain trip accompanied by two dogs, Moose and Ursa, and two goats. The journey involves navigating beautiful fall landscapes, fishing at alpine lakes, and setting up a wilderness camp to prepare gourmet meals and desserts.
These panniers are very lightweight, only 10 pounds each. Introducing Puppy Moose.
Ah, he's so cute. I have a little pack for him too. This pack is completely empty. It just has
crumpled up paper in it just to keep it full, but it doesn't weigh anything and it does have
a camera mount. So Moose will be our camera pup. Good boy. Get over the action, okay?
All right boys, let's go. Ursa, Moosey, come on, let's go. I had to take Moose's pack off of him
because he's really nervous about the goats. I want him to be able to move quickly and freely.
Wow, look at these fall colors. The ride up here was beautiful. I started up this mountain
on the far north end and drove across the back side of it. It was like a two-hour drive, but it
was all through the mountains with these beautiful fall colors. It was just magnificent. There's
something I never thought I'd have to deal with and that's a bull. So hopefully he'll stay over
there and not bother us. I've got my bear spray handy if I have to use it. Oh, it looks like he's
going to mind his own business. Leave it, Ursa. This is good for Ursa to see all those cattle and
not chase them. I think we're coming up on our first lake. Beautiful little stream here. Now
there are some fishing restrictions. Oh my goodness, this is beautiful. Look at that hill.
Oh yeah, here we go. So there are some fishing restrictions. I can't keep anything with cut
throat markings and I have to use artificial lures or flies. Wow, what a spot. Once when I was here
there was a herd of elk on the far end in that meadow and there was a bull elk that was actually
bugling. It was really fun, really beautiful, and it took them a while before they noticed me
and then when they did see me that you know they kind of moved off but it was it was really quite
an experience. I'm going to try to walk through the trees over to that little point. Oh yeah,
this is beautiful. The puppy's still back here. Hey puppy, come on Moosey. Ursa, showing the way.
Come on. He's trying to go straight through. The water gets too deep. I don't know if he'll be
able to see him because there's so much reflection. It's like really beautiful reflection, huh?
But there's a lot of weeds way out there so I'm gonna have a hard time casting. There's another
point right here. Let's see if I show you. I'll try to make it to that. See if I can get past
all the weeds. Do some fishing. Otherwise I'll go to that other lake. Ursa made it.
Ursa and Moose made it. Wow, this would be a cool place to camp right here.
But there's still just so many weeds. Ursa, don't go in there. You'll get your dog food wet.
Yeah, it's very pretty but the lake is just so weedy. It's supposed to rain at four o'clock so
I want to get to wherever I'm going to camp so that I can set up some shelter.
Okay, let's go to that other lake. I don't think we have time to mess around.
We are coming up on our second lake. It looks beautiful. All right, now it's a matter of
finding a place to camp. I think I've camped at this lake before but I can't see anywhere
that looks familiar. This water looks a lot more fishable. This lake is definitely more fishable.
This is one of the designated campsites. You can see there's a bear box up there. This right here
is big enough for me to get comfortable but it looks like the water runs
probably right in that direction. I'm looking for somewhere I can tie my tarp out.
Oh, where are you going now? Stay here. I think I'm going to go do some fishing and just see if
I can find a better place to camp. I got down to the water's edge and it started sprinkling
so I'm going to have to go back and set up that shelter.
Come here buddy. I promised Emma I would keep you warm. Let's get you warmed up.
I have shelter set up for myself and the dogs as well as over there for the goats. I'm going to
grab my water filter, my rain jacket, and my fishing stuff and see if I can catch some dinner.
I'm going to start with a black marabou jig. This is by far my favorite lure and I fish with it
90 percent of the time. Not getting any bites. I'm going to try a different spot.
Goats came up here. I'm going to knock my camera down. I didn't think you guys could get up here.
Here you are, both of you. I don't want you knocking my camera into the lake.
Trout really like stuff like this log jam. I'm really surprised I'm not getting any bites.
You know this lure works best in the fall. I may not be having any luck finding my dinner
but these goats sure are enjoying this grass down here by the shore.
One more cast. I have Ursa back at camp babysitting the puppy.
There's a bald eagle. Watch out Bill. So I guess I'll go back to camp. Let's see how good of a
job Ursa did babysitting the puppy. Good girl Ursa. Good girl. Thank you for staying so nice.
Good boy Moosey. Good boy. Okay I'm coming. These dogs are hungry. Let's get them fed.
You're not really tangled up. You're just... there you go. There you go. Now it's just your foot.
Step up. There you go. Get a drink Moosey. That's what we're here for. Good girl Ursa.
Emma was worried that Moose would get cold so she made him this little sweater.
Show us the back. It's got little flowers on it. So cute. Good girl. You stay. Sit. Good girl.
Emma was right about the puppy getting cold. He's shivering. Good dogs.
I'm going to set up my folding fire grate in a higher position so it's not as low in the stove.
Next adjustment position. Put it in there. Put those on top and we'll let that get started and
we'll put some bigger stuff on. Those red pine needles rarely disappoint. Let's see if they'll
go. Yeah maybe I don't have them quite dense enough. Oh no they're gonna go. So I better
move my kit pack a little further back. This fire is getting ready to rip. Go on some bigger sticks.
Maybe set the bigger sticks off to the side so they don't cool the fire down too much.
Yeah that should get going. Set my windscreen up as a table so if you just kind of
spiral this thing around and it actually makes a pretty decent little
little table. You just set your plate on top. I can cut my potato here.
Now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna dice this potato. Make nice little squares. A couple of
things that I learned about cooking potatoes at camp is you want them to cook a little bit faster.
So my first tip don't get a russet potato. Russet potatoes take a lot longer to cook so if you get
a yellow potato or even a red potato anything but a russet. And then what I'm gonna do is I'm
gonna cook it with a little bit of water at first. I just patted dry my steak. Now I just want to put
some salt on it. So I'm just gonna use some of this kosher salt. Salt both sides and I think my
fires about down to hot coals. The amount of water that I had in those spuds ended up working
out about right. Let me just break those loose and then we will add some beef tallow. So I'm
actually going to set this aside for just a second so that I can get my beef going. I'm
those bigger sticks on a little too early. I'm going to use the handle. You can put spices in
here but you can also use it as a bellows. So I'm just going to try that for a second.
There we go. It's a bellows that tastes like Hakata spice. I thought I was recording but I
wasn't. I just added the beef tallow and the onions into my pan. I don't know if the microphone will
pick it up or not but there is an elk bugling in the background. I thought I was going to be
cooking all this with trout. Darn it. I think what I'll do is go ahead and use this plate
to cover it up. About 140. Starting to sprinkle a little bit. Let's see how this is looking.
The flame has gone out now. Oh yeah. That's looking really good. A little pepper. A little salt.
I'm going to move this over onto the heat. I'm just going to spread it out so I can get some
Hakata spice on everything. I'm actually going to take a piece off of it so I can give the dogs
before I spice it up. We'll hit our beef with a little bit of this Hakata spice.
Garlic, onions, potatoes, mushrooms. How good does that look? Before I eat I'm going to go ahead and
take care of the peanut gallery. As in Ursa and the puppy. Good girl Ursa. Good girl. Hey puppy.
Hey moosey. Want some of this? Good boy. That's yummy huh? Here you go buddy. Okay that's all.
Eating like a king tonight. Now that everything's nice and warm I'm going to take it over here and
sit on this log. I probably shouldn't have given it to you first because then you know what you're
missing. Wow that's what I'm talking about.
Yep those potatoes are perfect.
All right I'm gonna get some more Hakata. You stay here buddy. Dolly pardon day is tomorrow
but I decided I would celebrate tonight. So I'm going to set up the oven. I've got a coal tray
here and I've got the air bake pan. Hangover sticks in there. The coals are almost ready.
I have oiled and floured my pan and I've mixed up my dolly pardon cake mix. We happen to have a box
at home. Put our cake mix in and we are calling for thunderstorms at eight o'clock. So I moved
the goats under the cover. They started making a bunch of noise which made me think that it was
going to start raining because they seemed to know. Put our air bake pan on. Go with our four panels.
Follow that up with our six panels. I'm using our smaller loaf pan which is small enough that it
actually fits with just using overhang sticks. Put our lid on. Let's see if that lid will cover it.
Yep I moved the goats under their shelter for the night because I am expecting it to rain tonight.
It smells like it's making fast progress. Oh look at that it's even browning on top a little bit.
Let's rotate this around. It's not done. 15 more minutes. Check it again. I'll bet it's really
close by then. The sun is basically down. Man what a beautiful night huh? Look at that glassy lake.
Who knows maybe they're biting down. So far no bites. Stay. Sit. Stay. I think we came out here
at the perfect time. Look it's just getting all pink. Oh there goes my timer. This is the big moment.
See if it's done. Oh it kind of fell a little bit. I don't know why. Looks like it's done though.
In loving memory of a very wonderful person, Dolly Pardon. Look at that beautiful golden brown cake.
That turned out so nice. I have some chocolate frosting for it. That's a pretty decent sized
cake. I'm going to be lucky if I can get through half of it. I'm going to set half of it aside.
But look at that. Oh my goodness. It turned out perfect. Chocolate frosting.
It's a little bit stiff. I hope I can get it to come out.
I made that frosting too thick. Let's hit it with some raspberries. Lots of raspberries.
Let's try it. Dolly Pardon cake in celebration of Dolly Pardon day which is tomorrow.
That puppy's a noisy one. I'll eat the other half tomorrow.
That's good.
Good morning. It is 7 a.m. I think we'll go see what the lake looks like this morning.
There is a bull elk really quite close. It just bugled just a second ago. I'm thinking that elk.
Oh you can hear it. It's just over this hill. There it goes. You can see the sun just pushing
through those trees. I'm going to try tying on a white jig.
I put a little fly on. I'm going to go back to camp and cook up some bacon and eggs.
Sounds like my water is about to boil.
These hog coals were just way too hot but they've come down to the point to where
I think I'll be able to cook my eggs right here and be just fine.
Okay let's see. Got it. That looks pretty good. Put it on just for a second longer.
It's time for that lid to come off. Just in the nick of time. A little bit of salt and pepper.
Get our fork out of our tong set up. Let's break open one of those yolks. There we go.
Much better. That's good. Man that's good.
Coffee time. Oh that's good. Nice and strong. A little bit of salt. Put some cream in.
I still have some hog coals. I'm going to see if I can make some cinnamon rolls.
Not that I really need more sweets because I do have that dolly cake. It just sounds kind of fun.
Push our air bank pan back. These are the big ones. Barely fit. I've got the octagon working hard
baking cinnamon rolls. There's still enough heat to keep my breakfast warm. Come on Billy. I'm
really starting to smell those cinnamon rolls. Smelling good. Let's take a look at these cinnamon
rolls. Oh they are so hot. I think they're done. Golden brown on the bottom. Oh man they're hot.
I'm gonna let those cool down just a little bit. Let's go in with our raspberries. Get them all
stuck into that wonderful cream cheese frosting. Well I think that's mostly frosting.
Yeah the bottom is nice and crunchy. Here we go.
We are all loaded up and we're hitting the trail. So I'm going to say thank you everyone. I really
appreciate you watching and please share this video with your friends and subscribe.
I really appreciate it. It really helps out a lot. Thank you everyone.