Solo Camping Cold Autumn Nights - Cast Iron Cooking Over the Fire - Stunning Views

Good morning, ladies. Let's check the grocery store for eggs. Twenty five bucks. Ouch. I need the chickens to start laying steaks. Oh, here's our guy right here. Four dollars, 27 cents. Yep. Toby, are you going to be ready to hit the road, buddy? Let's go. These forest roads look like a painting. This is why I love camping in the fall. I think I'm going to put up the drone, scout out some of these spur trails, see if there's any open campsites. So far, I've only seen one other vehicle, probably a hunter, and then two side-by-sides. Other than that, the forest has been pretty empty. Hopefully I can find a spot to pull over. Sometimes I have to back out of these spots for like a mile or more if they don't pan out. That's why we're going to put up that drone. Oh, looks like I can pull over right there. Perfect. Well, let's see where this is going to take us. So far, I'm not seeing any downed trees along the trail, and it looks like it's going to be going to this lake. Oh, look at that. Someone got to it before us. Looks like we're going to have to find another spot. Not a bad day to be driving through this forest, though. We're back on the main forest trail, and now I'm starting to see some more vehicles. But I do know of a spot that's not too far from here. Every time I've gone there in the past, it's always been taken. So let's see if there's anybody there today. Thankfully, people are pulling over when they see me coming down the road. Oh, look at that. It's open. That doesn't happen with this spot too much. Picnic table, fire ring, and a bathroom. Let's check it out. This is a very nice spot. I'm a little torn on what to do, though. I know being off the main forest trail, there's probably going to be a lot of traffic going in and out of here, especially with the youth deer hunting this weekend. I can see why a lot of people stay here and why it's usually taken, but that just makes me think that there's going to be a lot of people rolling through. The parking lot here is definitely big enough to use as a staging area for a deer hunt. I just don't know if this is the right spot. I've said it before. If a spot doesn't feel right, sometimes the best thing to do is just move along. What do you think, Toby? Is this the spot? I'm not sure either. Well, here's something that don't happen often. We're going to stay at a state forest campground tonight. It doesn't happen often, but there's no one around, and this place just feels right. Let me show you what I found. We've got a shelter up there, firing picnic tables. I won't have to worry about anybody mistaking Toby for a deer, and it's later on Saturday afternoon already, and this group camp was open, so I grabbed it. This is going to be awesome for tonight. Oh, this is a great idea. I can hear the trumpeter swans right over in the lake. Buddy, you are going to look absolutely stylin' in this vest. Okay, come on out. It'll be a little bit of a walk up to the fire ring, but we'll probably just spend most of our time up there. There's some dry wood up here. I brought the chainsaw with. We'll probably cut that up. I imagine I'll have this fire going most of the time. We'll probably even make supper out here, and if it does rain, a shelter is going to come in handy. At least we didn't buy them steaks. Well, the forest has come alive with people this afternoon. People are definitely out enjoying this weather. Just going to drop the rear right airbag. That should get us pretty level. Yeah, that definitely feels better. I think that'll work. I'll get the fire going good and hot, and then we should be able to throw those rounds in with no problems at all. Come on, Toby. Those dark clouds came in quick. It's just a light sprinkle. I don't think it's going to stick around, but it's funny how things like this work out. That's a new noise. Really simple supper over the fire tonight. Pork steak with creamy mushroom soup. This is going to be simple. First up, melt 3 tablespoons of butter in the cast iron. Butter makes everything better. That's going to be good. It shouldn't take too long, just a couple minutes per side. That's looking perfect. We're going to move it off the direct heat, put a cover on it, let it sit for a couple minutes. We're going to get our steak out, and then next up, cream of mushroom soup, a little bit of water, garlic, some extra mushrooms. This part doesn't take too long. Just a little bit of garlic, the butter, and we're going to cover the mushrooms, let them sit for maybe a minute, and then we're going to add a cream of mushroom soup. I think that looks good right there. Dump this guy in, and we're going to add probably about 5 ounces of water. Now we keep stirring until all the lumps are gone. If you had a little Worcestershire sauce, now would be a good time to stick that in here. Now we're going to put our pork steak back in. The fire is just about perfect right now too, because we're just going to let this simmer for the next 15 minutes or so. I think we timed this out just right. Sun's going down. You can smell it coming up under the lid. It smells so good. I think it's done. Let's bring it over to the table and see what it looks like. This is one of my favorites. There's enough salt in the condensed soup and the butter. You really don't have to add a lot. Just let all the flavors stand out. Awesome. I think I'm going to eat right out of the cast iron tonight. Pork steaks and cream mushroom soup. It's definitely one of my favorite go-tos. Quick, easy, cheap. And pork steaks are great. Growing up, I never was a big fan of pork chops. And I didn't realize until I was older that pork steaks just have so much more flavor. Last bite, buddy. You want it? You're doing dishes. It is super dark out here. If I'm not sitting right in front of the fire, I can't see my hand two feet in front of my face. Super quiet, too. Every once in a while, you hear a trumpeter swan, that's it. Tomorrow I got something planned. I got an idea, a way to get us into the woods without having to worry about the hunters. I'll tell you more about that in the morning. Tonight, we're just going to enjoy the fire. Stayed pretty cool last night. I don't think it dropped down below freezing, though. This is in the middle 30s. We're able to stay nice and warm in the camper. I finally got my power situation figured out. But it might not be what you think. You may have seen that recently I won the whole Victron setup. I ended up donating all that back to the Red Button Ramble. Larry and Mike will be able to give it away again in the future. I ended up going a different route. After talking with those guys, I realized that I'm never going to have that big solar array up on the roof of the camper. It just wouldn't work for the type of trails that I go down. Same thing with pulling the trailer. Having a solar array on a trailer wouldn't work for me either. If you've seen those guys' videos, Work Less, Enjoy Life More, and Runaway Parents, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Massive rolling generators, they're awesome. But probably not for the forest roads here in Minnesota. What I need is a lot of battery, and I need heated batteries. The Victron system didn't come with the lithium batteries, so I went a different route. I am going to have a video on that. I think it's dropping tomorrow. If review videos ain't your thing, you can just skip that one. But I'm hoping that we have the power situation figured out in the camper for this winter. You want to go for a walk? Or at least should we get going? Probably. Let's go. Come on. You know what I just realized? I never showed you the bathroom at this place. All stocked up. Not too bad. I would love to stay here another night, but $100 is more than I've spent on camping fees in the last year. This place is very nice, though. This spot we're going to go check out, it's not too far from here. This little backseat garage has been working really nice for me. Come on, buddy. Ready to go on a walk, buddy? Let's go. This is a woods that's owned by the city of Lakeshore. They turned the whole thing into a park. There's miles of walking trails out here. This looks like it might have almost been an old train bed. The park is named after Fritz Levin, who settled the 80 acres in Lakeshore in 1932. He was a lifelong bachelor, known as the lovable hermit of Upper Gaul. Levin normally planted 400 trees by hand each year. He had no electricity, no running water, or telephone, gas, or a car. He traveled by foot, snowshoes, or a boat. In 1975, Levin died of a heart attack. His wish that the property go back to the city of Lakeshore came true in 1976 when his sister Ruthie offered the entire 80 acres back to the city for $18,000. Well, this is cool. They put a marker where his cabin would have been. There's just nothing like being out in nature. Now that this land is in a historic trust and the city's turned it into a park, hopefully it'll be around for years to come. Good boy. Well, I think that's going to do for this week's video. We'll do this again next Tuesday. Until then, be kind, be honest, and we'll see you down the road. Oh, you ready to go home?