Surviving a Night in the Wildnerness with the WRONG pack & the WRONG tent!

How's it going, everybody? I'm Nikki Delventhal, and these are my dogs, Rodney and Camper Delventhal. For over three years, we lived in a Toyota Prius, but now we're in a 4x4 Sprinter. And we're here to take you along on the wild ride. So fasten up your seatbelts and let's have some fun. Don't forget, if you like what you see, like, subscribe, comment, share with your friends, and turn on notifications. We would be so thankful. A few weeks ago, I went on my first solo backpacking trip, and despite not having the best gear and making a few mistakes, I got hooked. Now, the weather forecast for today is not optimal, with freezing temperatures at night and 35 mile an hour wind gusts. But how many smiles per hour? This is probably a good time to tell you guys that we have my buddy Josh joining us. He is one of my favorite people, but also he is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to what we're doing and of the area. So, we are so lucky because we've got Josh Cripps in the house. What's up, Delvin dorks? That is so accurate. All right, let's get packed up. And let's get snacked up. So I got some stuff here. Gonna empty this out and then repack it. I keep my backpacking stuff in this protective case in my garage at all times with some other gear, but let's hope we have everything. So the first thing we're doing here is my sleeping bag is rated 37 and it has wings, but it's good for summer camping. So I am borrowing one of Josh's 15 degree bags to really just test it out and see if this is the one for me or what is gonna work, so. Let's get all this into that. Ready to go. One, two, three, use your legs. I think I swiped off a pound or two from the last trip, which is nice. It's a really nice way to put on your backpack. Use your counter. Ready to go. How heavy do you think your pack is? If I can lift it with one arm, it's a good weight. 28 pounds. Are you kidding me? I feel like I have nothing and I'm still 10 pounds heavier than you. Let's go. Look at that, this hike's already starting off. Gorgeous. Today's hike starts at the beautiful Saddlebag Lake and we're doing about maybe three to four miles in to go camp for the night. Maybe about 1,000 feet in elevation gain. Should be pretty amazing. Oh, I'm gonna have to carry the dogs for this one. Greats equal bad paws. Oh my God, it's so windy. I got you, camp. We got rad, bud. Good boy. Good work, buddy, you made it. You guys ready for some of the most beautiful views you've ever seen? I'm ready. Cue the music. Hey! That was incredible. And away we go. Okay, now cue it. This is when Nikki takes a tumble. That's when Camper takes a tumble. How are we feeling? Feeling great. It's hard to feel bad out here. Actually, that's not true. It's really easy to feel bad out here, but if you don't let it get to you. That's cute. You can take mother nature, just conquer her, then you feel great. And that's why I come out here, is to exert my will over nature, to prove that I'm the superior being. Not to be a part of anything, not to feel connected to the universe, but to show this bitch who's boss. We're going to look for a spot to set up camp right over here. That right there, that is the lake we're going to camp at. Hoping that this lake being up close to the mountains, it'll be a little bit less windy with a little more protection. So we're going to go look for a secluded, protected area. So we're going to try to get tucked to the left side of the mountain here and just cross our fingers. It's not just about views. It's also about if you can find a good spot where you're protected from the wind, all this stuff. What else? Easy access to water. You also don't want a ton of people around you. Ideally, none. Bingo. Two tent spots right next to each other. This is it. Home for the night. It felt really good. Oh, I feel so light. Oh, that's nice. Snack and set up tent. Let's do it. Oh yeah. Snacks, baby. We just realized that there's a bear canister right there. So one of the rules of camping, you really don't want to be on top of someone else. So we are just kind of going to look for another spot and not be in this guy's privacy. There's a spot over there that's equally as well protected as this, but it is a bit more secluded. It's going to be away from that other tent. So I think we should sack up, walk up there. All right, let's hit it. Here we go again. But for time's sake, what do you say we just hurry up and get over there? Look, those are the people that are camped there. We just met them. All right, let's switch. One, two, three. Home for the night. I just got almost 40 pounds lighter without a weight loss program. It's going to be a little tough because I don't have a freestanding tent, but as you can see, there's plenty of rocks here that we can tie ropes around. So we should be fine. First things first, set up the tent. Well, I think we're going to need bigger rocks. Building camp in 35 mile an hour winds is very fun. I do want to see your pack a little bit, but one thing I definitely know I'm going to upgrade is although this tent is so cute and I love the colors, it is not freestanding, which means you need ropes to have it hold up versus it stands up on its own. And yeah, it's a pain in the butt. You can do this, you can do anything. Look at that thing. Oh man, we learned a lot today. Backpacking is fun. It is fun. Yeah, when you have a good tent. Wow, I can't believe we're saying this again. The wind is so intense. So Josh went on another little walk a little further than the last time. And what did we find? We found a beautiful copse of trees to protect us with dirt floors and little chipmunks to bring us our evening tea. So we're going to go ahead and move up there. That took like an hour. All right, let's just do them for the sake of time. Here we go. Home sweet home. All right, let's get this baby going. So the mechanics of Josh's tent are super cool. How light do you think it is? It's just over a pound. Wow. Well, the thing that's great about this tent in addition to how light it is, is that it pitches entirely with your trekking poles. So you don't need any extra equipment to set it up. It's got a lot of room for two people. It's got two big vestibules and it's fairly bomb proof. And those are the good things about this tent. What are the bad things? The bad things about this tent are, one, it's very expensive. For what feels like a little piece of fabric, it's a lot of money. Two, the material is so thin that it's basically see-through. And so A, you don't have very much privacy. And B, it's even thin enough that you can see stars and the moon at nighttime. So as soon as any light's on it, it wakes you up. It makes a lot of noise and it's very slippery. So even if you're on a small angle like that, by the end of the night, you'll slide down and be at the bottom of the tent. Damn. So. Well, I guess that's what you get for ultralight gear, right? Although the slippery part, I'd be a little like. It's very annoying. It's kind of like when you have two dogs and they just keep pushing you into the corner. Camber, do you have anything to tell us? Yeah, I love camping, mostly because it's my name. And is this a treat? Are you guys ready for some camping ASMR? Honestly, that's a cool looking tent. It's about three pounds lighter than this thing. Maybe two pounds. Yeah, I feel like if I got a new tent that was ultralight, that would save at least two pounds right there. Yeah, I think with a new tent and a new pack, you could easily save five or six pounds. You know what the best part of finally getting the tents done? We get to have dinner. And getting into warm clothes. Here you go, Camp. Good boy. Why yes, I have two puffy jackets on. All right, I'm so excited for dinner. On tonight's menu, chicken fajita. For one, this is bear country. So you do not wanna cook where you're sleeping to attract them. So we're gonna come a little bit this way to not only store our food, but to do our cooking. We're gonna take this thing, which is a bag, fill it up with water, squeeze it through this, which filters it, takes out all of the stuff that could potentially contaminate the water and make us sick. Then we'll fill this thing up with water, boil it. Once we have a fair amount of boiling water, pour it in this bag, shake it up, stir it around, wait five minutes, and then serve ourselves a steaming hot pile of chicken fajitas. Bear canisters also work as great seats. All right. And we can start a drum circle. Yeah. Ready for the final moment? Yeah, dig in. Cheers. I need to get an extra long spoon. Still a little hard. Too hot. How's the fried rice? It actually tastes hot. No, it's got a good flavor that I will never be able to taste again because I have burned my tongue. I would say like on a scale of one to 10, the chicken fajita is an 8.5. And I'm not even just talking backpacking food. I'm talking like real food. Just straight up eat it. You ready? Give the people what they want, man. Okay. All right. That was good. We have, for our dessert course tonight, we have peanut M&M's, which pair very well with the Trader Joe's peanut butter filled pretzels, and Starburst flavored jelly bellies. Little of all, little of everything. We're gonna go with peanut M&M's before bed. Okay. Thank you. M&M's. That looks great. What do you want? Kidding me right now? No backpacking evening is complete without some snacks. Agreed. You know, people talk about the big three being your tent, your sleeping bag, and your pack. But I think the big four includes chocolate. Yep. That's an incredible combo. Last thing, fill up water. Just make sure you don't fall in the water while you're filling your water. Stay hydrated. Don't forget your water. Bedtime. I'm so excited for bed. Good night. Sleep well. Hello, boys. Excuse me. It's actually crazy how much of a temperature difference there is in here versus outside with all the wind. Oh, wow. I don't even know if we're gonna need a jacket. So first here, I brought an insulated pad for the boys so there's a barrier between the cold floor and it keeps them warm. Now we need to blow up ours. Let's go. Before I set myself up, let's get camper. That's camper. Rodney, you're on your brother, silly. Good night, camper. We love you. Oh, man, you don't have one of those cool hoods I could tuck my thing into. Or did I put this on upside down? Oh, I'm upside down. Shoot. Maybe we can shift like this. Caterpillar over and... Good night, Rodney. We are going to send a message by a satellite to our loved ones so they know we're safe and it's time for bed. Night, everybody. Good morning, boys. Good morning, camper. You guys wanna go outside? All right, go ahead. Wrong way, Rodney, over here. All right, I'm coming, I'm coming. So pretty. You guys know what time it is? Yeah, you're looking at it. It's on my get-along. Living large at 10,400 feet. Ready for the hardest part of our day? Opening the bear canister. It's so hard to open this thing. Bear-proof and Nicky-proof. Oh, thank you, sir. Watch this. I think I got it. Here you go, my king. Good morning, Josh Meister. How was your sleep? Actually, I slept pretty well. Yeah, considering how cold and windy it was, I had a great night's sleep. Enjoyed just laying there until the sun came up and warmed up the landscape and woke me up. Went out for a little stroll. It's a stunning, beautiful morning. I had two little toaster ovens. Although Rodney was, like, sucker-punching me in the chest all night. Camper, you slept so good. God, I would kill for somebody to make me a latte right now. I don't know how to make a latte, but I sure as hell know how to boil water. Hey, my man. Shall we go make some coffee and tea? Let's go. Pour me up. I did it. How much? Tell me when. Teabag coffee. We're making a mocha. It's gonna be so good. It's so appetizing. Cheers! Wow, that's all I was missing in life. Just a little bit of chocolate powder in my coffee. This is my first decent backpacking coffee ever. I'm going for the oatmeal. Little sneak. You little ninja. Coffee's done. Oatmeal time. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Cooking with Nikki. Today, Nikki's gonna show you how to make the world's finest backcountry oats. Let's get to it. But now the challenge, am I gonna be able to start my own fire? Hang on, let's see if it's even. Booga booga. Nikki, start fire. How do you spark it? You have to turn it on first. Oh. Really? Hang on. Oh, I got a little spark. Don't waste all the gas. Just keep doing that. A few moments later. I did it! I'm a mountain woman. After you take everything you can find and put it in a bag, you then put it inside your cup. Wow, in the cup. I never would have thought of that. Now, folks, here's the tricky part. You gotta get the water into the cup. But just the right amount. That feels like the right amount. And you stir it on up. Man, oh man. This is absolutely delicious. Oh, there's cacao in there, too. And coconut. You're so healthy. Welcome to Nikki D's Cribs. Today we're gonna take you on a tour of Josh's hyper-light tent. Yo, Nikki D, welcome to my crib. Come on in, let me show you around. So, here we have the bedroom, the living room, the kitchen, the dining room, and the toilet. If you have a pee jacket. The salon, the sunroom, the garden, the observatory, and the library. This is where the magic happens. All right, sir, what are your main components for your hyper-light pack? I cannot believe it's like 25 pounds. All right, so here we got a Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Xtherm sleeping pad. It's really, really warm, really lightweight. I have a quilt from Enlightened Equipment that's also very warm and very lightweight. And those are the things that let me sleep well at night here in that country. So Josh has been backpacking for 20 years and this is the equipment he has ended up with which I think says a lot and I'm really interested to try this stuff. This is very cool. Well, like, I'll show you my beginner pack and then maybe we can compare and see what maybe other people would do. I'm really serious about learning how to get my pack lighter so I just want to do a little comparison here. Wow, this is a very large difference. Feel that. Not massively but that's like a pound, right? That's probably three pounds heavier, four pounds heavier I'd say. Wow. I guess maybe my next upgrade would be another backpack. Yeah, it's worth getting out here and exploring these amazing places but the lighter your setup is the more energy you're going to have, the better you're going to feel on the trail, the better you're going to feel when you get to camp, the more you're going to be able to explore and the richer your experience is going to be. So the one thing that I did get is the Nemo Quasar. What do you think? I could say this is very likely the most comfortable camping pad I've ever laid upon. Right. Alright, as we do more backpacking we'll do more updates but for now we're going to get packed up. It usually takes about like 30 minutes I feel like. It's a slow process because you have to be super organized. So we're going to fit all this into this. And before we go we're taking a cold plunge. Got our bathing suit and a little dry bag because honestly I am feeling a little tired from carrying all that weight yesterday and the wind. Alright camp, find a good cold plunge spot for us. The idea is finding a spot that's a little shallow so maybe it's not freezing and it's like you know right above freezing. Taste tester. Oh shut up. That's like 49. Alright here goes nothing. You ready? Woo! Ah! Oh. Camper you coming? Oh that's a good boy. Oh he's out of it. He's not into it. It's the slow roll into the cold water. Two minutes. Two minutes later. I'm going to take a little hippie shower while we're at it. That feels good. You're not going to shower? What? This is what we call a hippie shower. Man, that was amazing. You guys, I love you all. Thanks for watching. Again, don't forget check out Josh here. He has some amazing photography and workshops. I'll put everything in the description. We love you all. We'll see you on an episode next Friday.