A Bikepacking Adventure to Whitney Reservoir: Uinta Mountains, Utah - Part 1

There's a moose There's a moose up here Yeah, Brian said this route was flat. Yeah. Yeah you did Yeah There was a moose right there he's up in the trees We just we just made it to the top of the hill Brian. What are we doing right now? We're bikepacking in Whitney Reservoir area new into mountains And what about this route? How far are we going? It's only 24 miles, but it's 3,000 feet of climbing. So it's a lot of Climbing, but it's a nice overnighter cool How you feel after that one Oh Feel fine now it's downhill Yeah I think there are three hard climbs and this was one of them. Yeah. Okay. So one down two to go. Oh dear We just missed it but there are three deer up on the road up here see if I can get them There he goes see the deer up there it's way up there looking right at me Brian's coming up to the top of the pass Check out that view over here Oh comes John up to the top of the pass We made it So We have a creek down there it's a bit of a steep, but it's right there got a good camping spot Even got a little fire ring here So we should collect some firewood I know because we're under extreme fire danger right now. It's more than high. It's extreme. Yeah What kind of tent do you have Quarter dome one the REI quarter dome. Yeah. Well, I worked at REI for 10 years and when I quit I Never put in for their retirement because I already had mine, but They paid a thousand dollars a year basically into my retirement fund. So when I quit I had $10,000 So I bought a lot of equipment I Still got stuff downstairs with tags on it that I haven't even got to yet. I haven't worn out the other stuff I had On the middle floor to the salmon years ago, I got my poles for my tent Were you carrying that brick the whole time just sir? Yeah, yeah look at John over he's got a chair on him Fancy That is nice So while I've got you up What kind of bike and tent and everything do you have here I have a salsa bear grease bike The SRAM NX Eagle gear system on it that I put on it cool and it's carbon fiber carbon fiber How long have you had it This is my fourth year with it. Oh nice and the tent and everything what's Just an REI quarter dome one cool And you've got a big Agnes sleep system inside there sleep system I'm gonna peek in this is one of these sleeping bags where the the mat Goes kind of like in the bottom of the sleeping bag, right? So you say when you roll over in the sleeping pad You don't earth in the sleeping bag. You don't lose the pad cool And you got a chair Whoo, do you know what kind of chair that is? Oh, that's REI Yeah, flex air. What's it say flex light air air, okay And it weighs one pound 16 ounces. Nice Yeah, I didn't even know you had that on you. So it must fold up small Yeah, it goes on that front bag. It just straps on the outside of it. That's cool This is the MSR hubba Yeah, I know that's intent what I know that tent well Has two pockets for holding stuff, yeah, it only has one entrance but Simple it has one of these fasteners for rolling up tent The rain fly what kind of sleeping bag and pad do you have? You don't know Okay, you don't know yeah, how did you get into bike packing? well, I was playing a video game with my good friend Taylor and It was what's World of Warcraft and We were gonna duel each other we're gonna fight each other in a game and I said that if I won that he had to climb a very scary fire tower and if he won In real life, you mean I told him yeah in real life an actual fire tower in the woods. He is a scare He's a afraid of heights. No, and If he won I said that I would bike across the country He thought I was joking about it because at the time I was overweight. No physical act. No, I did nothing outside. Yeah, and He beat me I almost beat him but he ended up beating me so, you know, he said don't worry it's a joke You don't actually have to bike across the country, but then I got interested I started looking up YouTube videos. I actually found your channel and I just got into it slowly a really bad bike and then slightly better and then slightly better and then better gear and then One day I find myself just bike packing and one day I took a bike tour and I actually did go across the country Yeah made it all the way to Colorado before I had to stop but one day I intend to finish. That's awesome That's my story. Yeah. Yeah, so your friend challenged you in a game of World of Warcraft yes, he beat you in the game the World of Warcraft and you're you're The consequence of that was you had to ride across America exactly and that's how you got in the bike train was like a bet That you lost if I never had that bet I would may have never got into this sport at all It's kind of how the world works. Sometimes it's cool. Yeah. All right Here we are There's a steep trail here Filming you in case the something exciting happens I'll race you to the top Okay, Brian and I are gonna race to the top. Here we go Are you ready? Oh, yeah Look at all this shit. Okay. Hey, he's cheating This is hard He's over there It's a tie, it's a tie. Okay, I'm tired now. Yeah. Yeah My arms are tired the altitude 10,000 feet up here. Oh Nap time There are bats flying over our campsite right now