Pacific Northwest Vanlife Camping, Hiking, & Cooking

Good morning guys. My name is Trent and I am currently living and traveling out of a camper van all over the world at this point. And I have found myself in the beautiful Pacific Northwestern region of the United States yet again. And if you saw my last episode of these adventures, you would know that I have been lended this really cool retro looking camper van for these next couple of days by a friend of mine named Jeremy. He's a really cool dude here in Washington that owns a van rental business as well as a dog sanctuary. But he lended me this really awesome van and I love how cozy it is. And you guys can rent this van for yourself if you decide to come up here and adventure around. And I'll leave a link to that in the description below. But I'm out here for a couple of days. I originally came out here for the twilight festival, but now I'm kind of out and about just exploring around. I'm thinking about doing a really cool hike in the ho rain forest today, which is this beautiful lush green rain forest right here on the Olympic peninsula of Washington. And I've got some friends who might be joining me on that hike. And other than that, we're going to be camping around, cozying up in the van with this cozy Pacific Northwest rainy day. It's going to be a good day and I hope you guys follow along. She. Good morning. What can I get for you? Uh, can you do an ice latte? Yeah. Okay, cool. Yeah. Yeah. 20 ounce ice latte. Awesome. Thank you. What's it like living in such a small town? Awesome. Yeah. Wow. I don't have to deal with traffic except for summertime. Yeah. It's peaceful. We don't have, well, we have crime, but not like the city. Right. Yeah. It's pretty minimal. Yeah, I bet. Do you ever get bored? Not really. So I'll be honest with you. I've lived here for 20 something years in Forbes and I've probably only seen 40% of the things around here. Whoa. But there is a lot of stuff to do around here. Yeah. We even go as far as like just driving in the woods. I mean, we go mushroom picking, blackberry picking. I mean, there's so many things to do. Yeah. I saw a ton of blackberries. I guess they're in season right now, right? It's everywhere. Are those blackberries right there? Okay. Do people, is it frowned upon to just like go pick them? Go grab some. Okay. I might do that. There's a lot over here. I highly recommend spending a winter over here before you kind of down it. Try it. Yeah. It's fun. No, I, I'd love to stay an extended time over here because I love this side of the country. I travel all over. So get ahold of me if you're here during the summer, I'll take you out fishing. Hey, that would be awesome. I love that. What's your name? Billy. Billy. I'm Trent. How you doing? Well, cool, man. It's been nice chatting with you. If I do come through, I'll come back over here and grab a coffee and hit you up again. All right. Have a good one, man. That was one of the nicest interactions I've ever had in my entire life. What a cool dude met him for like five minutes and he's already inviting me on his boat. Oh, I love people. Future Trent here coming to tell you guys about today's video sponsor anchor. They sent me their new anchor Solix C 2000 gin to power bank. And this thing is a great addition to your camper setup. Whether you're camping in a tent, camping in a van, because this can power just about anything you need. This lightweight and portable power bank weighs about 41.7 pounds and has a 2048 watt hour battery capacity that can be doubled with an additional battery bank plugged in. It's got plugs for just about any appliance. And it has a 4,000 watt peak output, meaning you can power something as big as an AC unit off of this thing. It's even got a 30 amp plug that you can power your camper with. And I've been using this for myself pretty consistently for the past couple of weeks, just to power miscellaneous things around the campsite. Sometimes I'll hook up an electric stove top or a light to this and having this inside the camper van has been so nice for that reason. And recharging this battery system is super easy because there's actually six ways to recharge it. You can charge it via solar power, AC power, a generator. You can charge it off your 12 volt car socket. It even has a way to plug it up to your vehicle's alternator to charge while you're driving. But the best way to recharge this is by charging it via AC power and solar power simultaneously, which will recharge this to a hundred percent in just 55 minutes. And you can get yours right now with the link in the description of this video, go check it out and shout out to anchor for sponsoring this video and being a sponsor of this channel for many years at this point. I appreciate you, but now let's get back to the rest of the adventures. Hi guys. You guys ready to hike in the most beautiful rainforest you've ever seen. By the way, guys, this is my friend, Liz. You saw our last episode and her friend, Ashley. They're hanging out here in the Pacific Northwest. So we decided to meet up and go on some adventures together and it's going to be a good day. Look at this guy. That's a big old boy. I can't even fit my arms around him. All right guys. First stop of the day. I've made it to Olympic national park here in Washington, specifically the whole rainforest, which believe it or not, is one of the wettest places in the lower 48 of the United States, averaging 138 inches of rainfall per year. However, they actually haven't gotten a lot of rainfall this year. So much that there is a burn ban. So we're probably not going to be making any cozy campfires in this video, which is a little unfortunate, but this place is freaking beautiful and I'm stoked to be here. So we're currently hiking on the hall of mosses trail, which is a very short little path here in the Olympic national park, but it's absolutely stunning. Look at this. Look at these trees, but I'm actually really excited to be here because I don't get to go to a lot of national parks. I often just sort of pass right by them because as you guys know, I have a dog Millie and here in the States, they don't allow dogs on a lot of the trails of the national parks. So I don't often get to explore little trails like this. So I'm kind of embracing it today. However, I am missing Millie. As you guys know, she's back with my brother right now while I'm off traveling and stuff. And Brandon is both watching Millie for me and finishing up my new van behind the scenes, which I'm very, very grateful for. That's a really, really tall dead tree right there. It's just leaning over. That's going to collapse at any point now, but that thing is so big. And apparently a lot of these like really thick trees are over about 200 feet tall. And that guy is definitely over 200 feet. I love all these leaves down here, like red and yellow tone. I don't know if that's because of the fall season or not, but it's really pretty add some nice contrast to this very, very green forest. All right. That was a fun little adventure. This place is so, so beautiful. And it's such a cool contrast after being in Iceland, which is a place that has no trees. Well, just about. So going from that to the Pacific Northwest and seeing the two extremes on both sides of the spectrum is just really neat. And this place just has a magical, magical vibe to it. It's a, it's quite the experience walking through these forests. That's for sure. But even though that was just a short little walk, we're getting kind of hungry. So we're going to go try and find lunch for the day. And I believe we passed a cute little cafe on the way up here. Could I get the Bigfoot burger? Does it come with fries or anything? Okay. I'll add fries to that. And let's do ranch. Awesome. Thank you. Oh my gosh. Thank you. All right, here we go. That's incredible. Oh, it also has huckleberry barbecue sauce on it, which if you never had huckleberries, delicious. Are y'all ready? Y'all ready to rock? Let's do it. Man, that was delicious. My belly is full. So there's this little trail right here. It's called Riverwalk and apparently you can see Mount Olympus on the trail at some point. So we're going to go check this out before heading off to the next dusty. Look how beautiful it is right now. The sun is out. We can see some blue sky. Oh, check it out. Blackberries. Whoa. Look at that. Whoa. These are all blackberries. This is crazy. Little dessert. Those are good. I feel like dude, there's so many right here. We can't not make something with these. Look at how many there are. That's a big guy right there. It's at the end of the season for the blackberries here. So they're really, really sweet. Some of them are just like falling apart, but yeah, I could make it look a little crumble. Maybe we should try to figure that out. That would be great. After the hike, we'll come back and do some gathering. Check it out guys. Came across a banana slug. I just learned about these today. Fun fact about these guys. Not only are they cute, but they also love to eat poop. I don't know why, but they do. The more you know. So there it is folks. The Ho River. Hot spot for salmon fishing, bear activity and good views. It's turning out to be a really beautiful day. Oh no. This is going to tear my jacket. Yikes. That's the problem with these blackberry bushes. They are covered in thorns and it's ripping up my jacket. Worth it. That's a lot of blackberries. You know, we could sit here and gather all day, but I think that's decent for what we want to do with it. You know, that would be like $16 at the grocery store and we just got it for free. Man, I love nature. All right. Fresh blackberries are picked ready for tonight's dessert, which will probably whip up whenever we get to camp for the night, which by the way, from here, we're going to go check out this beach that I've actually been to before. It's called Ruby beach. It's this really beautiful beach, just South of Forks. And I wanted to take them there because it's just awesome. And the last time I was there, it was super cloudy. So I couldn't see much, but considering it's such a beautiful day now, I wanted to go back and visit it. But on the way there, we're going to stop at a potential place to camp for the night. And this place is kind of unique. Uh, one of my viewers actually told me about it. They met me while I was walking around Forks during the twilight festival. Um, I don't know if they want me to say their name, but they had a cute dog named Cashew shout out to you guys. Um, but this campsite is apparently right on the Ho river and it is private property, but as long as you pay, you're allowed to camp there. So we're going to check it out and see if it's a good contender for tonight's camp. And then if it is, I think we're going to leave one of the vans there, pile in the other van and go off to Ruby beach to watch the sunset. Oh, this place is awesome. Dude, this is so freaking cool. It seems like you can just park wherever you want to. There's a guy way down this way and tons of RVs just parked right here. And you could park right up to this river if you really wanted to. What a cool freaking spot. Shout out to the awesome couple that told me about this team cashew for sure. You guys rock. All right, now that camp is locked in, we're all going to pile in my van and make a short little, I think 15 minute drive down to Ruby beach. What a beautiful freaking beach. This is amazing. I've been here before, as I said, but it was foggy and it was magical then. So seeing the sun out right now, it's like 20 times more magical. This is crazy. So the last time I was here, I wanted to cross over this side of the beach, but the tide was coming in and this little lagoon gets full of water and there's a big river right here. So you can't cross, but the tide is going out right now, which makes it easier to cross this area, but there's still a good bit of water flowing. So these guys are building a wooden bridge. There you go. That's smart. All right. I got too much camera equipment crossover, a wet, slippery log. So I'm going the no shoe route. There we go. That wasn't too bad. Nice dude. The way the sun is hitting these rocks is so freaking beautiful. The layers of mist in between them just adds so much texture. I love it. Goes goodbye son. See you tomorrow. West coast sunsets just hit different y'all. Chili dogs. Sounds good. This is for me. Oh my gosh. You're so nice. Liz. Thank you so much. All right. After a long day of adventuring around it's dinner time folks. However, I don't want to whip up a massive meal, so I am going to make something that I have been itching to make while I was in Iceland. I went to the grocery store, got a bunch of stuff and I got this ramen that you can get in the States too, but I found it in Iceland and I told myself I would eat it while I was there, but I never had a chance to. And it's this stuff right here. Bulldog hot chicken flavored ramen, cheese flavored. And if you guys watched my trip up to Alaska last year, I had bulldog ramen for the first time and it was a wild experience because it was so spicy. So we're going to have a rematch tonight. Last time y'all warned me, told me not to do the whole pack of hot sauce. Guess what? I'm not listening. I'm doing the whole pack of hot sauce. Oh, that smells spicy. My body's going to hate me, but my brain is going to love me, baby. Smelling good in here. It's bulldog ramen. You guys ever had it? Oh, it's very spicy. It almost ruined my day last time. All right. It's taste test time on this spicy mother freaking ramen. Okay. That's really, that's really spicy. Oh my gosh. Can I smell it? Oh, Oh my gosh. The flavor is so good though, but boy. Oh yeah. It's hurting. I feel a hiccup coming on. Oh no. Oh no. Help. Oh no. That's a real hiccup. This was a bad idea. Can I have a hot dog instead? I'm just kidding. I'm good. It's not even hot. It's not hot. I've never seen this in my life. Dude, that's spicy freaking ramen. It's the capsaicin. You got milk? It sucks cause it really does taste good. It's so good. Like this ramen is the best ramen I've ever had. Truthfully. Your face is so red. It's hot. Are you sweating? Yeah, it's hot. Bulldog ramen. She's in stores now. Go get yours today. What's your game plan here? So we washed the blackberries and we're going to add some like lemon juice stuff and sugar and a little bit of flour and then make like a little crumble crisp topping out of oats, flour, butter, brown sugar. It sounds pretty freaking delicious to me. Okay guys, you're not going to believe this. Don't freak out, but check this out. See that green hue over there? Yup. That's the Northern lights. It's kind of going away because these clouds are getting in the way here, but that's them. That little green hue. Check out the stars right now, man. I actually did get a notification on my Aurora app saying that the activity is kind of crazy tonight, but I did not expect to actually see them. But here we are. What a cool treat. Let's check on this dessert. Oh yeah. That looks great. There it is folks. Little blueberry crumble. Sorry. Little blackberry crumble. I'm tired. Little blackberry crumbles. Cheers. Cheers. Liz, that's good. That's really good. Look at that. I'm really impressed. You did a good job. Yeah. I think it's so cool that we do like, we handpicked these. We just stumbled upon it too. We were just like, Oh, blackberries. Well, I love nature. All right guys, I'm going to bed. Good night. All right guys. It's been a really, really good day adventuring around the beautiful Pacific Northwest, but my belly is full and I'm tired. So I'm going to get some sleep and I will see you guys early in the morning. Good night. Good morning everyone. It is a beautiful chilly fall morning. It's actually really cold today, but I love it. Kind of wish I had some hot coffee to brew or something like that. Wow. This is an amazing campsite. The fog resting on the top of these trees right next to these mountains. It's such a pretty view, especially with that golden sunlight raking these trees behind me. I love this place. And it was so quiet last night. Everyone here is super respectful. There's no trash, no loud music. And I love to see that. It's nice, but I am up pretty early this morning. It's about 6 30 AM and there's my van and Liz's van is gone. And that's because they also had to wake up early because Liz had to take Ashley to the airport. She had an early flight this morning to go back home. So we've kind of gone our separate ways. And I'm up early this morning because today is actually my last day here in the Pacific Northwest before I fly back to my new van and start those adventures. And as much as I have been loving this adventure this past month, really, I'm actually ready to get back. I'm ready to see the new van, start that next chapter, but mostly I'm so ready to see my girl Millie again. It's been a way too long and this is the longest I've ever been away from her. So I'm so excited to see how she reacts and maybe I'll film that reunion and show that at the end of this video. So stick around for that. So, yeah, I am going to start packing up here, which I really don't have much to do. And I'm going to start heading back towards Seattle today. So I think it's time to get back to the van and start packing up and hitting the road. All right. I'm back to my van and I'm about to walk into the house and greet Millie after being away for a whole month. I'm excited. Oh my gosh. Did you miss me? I missed you too.