Is This The End Of Winter Van Life? The SNOW Keeps Me From Getting Any Access OUT HERE

I've been living on the west coast of British Columbia every single winter since I started living in my van because normally we have lots of backcountry access out here all winter. I spent tons of time on this island and that was the best part of it is that no matter what the rest of Canada was doing, how cold it was or how snowy it was, it was usually raining out here with no snow and full backcountry access. I loved it so much that I rented a shop out here and last season when I was out here I had no backcountry access. It snowed last year, it got cold and then it stayed out here and we had no access to any of these roads whatsoever. So I thought I was going to go crazy last year and now this year things feel like they're back to normal. We get one good week of winter and now we got full backcountry access again. So welcome deep in the woods here on Vancouver Island. We're just outside Campbell River BC. A nice little spot and it looks like we got ourselves a nice big fancy outhouse all to ourselves. The door is open so it smells okay. Awesome. Let me shut the door keep the bears out. Hey what's up you guys. So we are just outside of Campbell River BC. The area on the island that I've been avoiding because I thought there was piles of snow out here and apparently there's less snow in the backcountry up here than there is down there. I don't know why I was hanging around where the snow was. This is awesome. Can you guys tell I'm super excited that we we finally have some backcountry access. We have our own little little lake front spot. Welcome to Vancouver Island. Oh you know you're in the backcountry when when your DJ controller's on the ground your cupboard that still doesn't have a latch on it is open everything's falling out. This pretty thing just lying on the floor. My gosh it's time to do something about securing these things properly. I don't want to damage this thing. So on here the option is to take these end assemblies off and assemble it so they tip backwards slightly so the controller goes in and slightly tips backwards a little bit without taking up too much of my foot room while I'm sleeping. Or some kind of a latch system to latch in all this stuff so it doesn't come out again. It is doing so good for years but I think just over time it's worn itself a groove and found it's found a way out. And I need that latch is getting fixed when this one does. Probably take my city boy shoes off now that I'm not in city boy zone. Now let's go for the dirty dirty dirty ones. That's more backcountry style. Hey pants with the fuzzy lining. Yes please. Come on come on. Fuzzy right through to the bottom. It's kind of like wearing a teddy bear. You approve? It's an okay little spot. I am man I made fire. What's in the magic box? We got a love seat which I'm sorry to say Cruz is probably going to steal your seat. And uh we're not cooking on the fire tonight so that can be moved over. That's my new cooktop. I'm gonna take this out of here too. Hey the MC ranch overland fire thing. You got it? There we go. Oh Cruzy you can have this Cruzy K. A little puppy bed. That is actually Cruz's love seat and he knows it. As soon as we get in front of the fire he's gonna jump right up on half of that. You know I was gonna sit there bro. Got it. This is a product from a subscriber of ours named Mike. I don't know if Mike ever made an appearance on the channel or not. I don't remember. Reflect some of this heat back at us. So when you're standing around the fire here you can feel heat on your leg. That will bounce the heat that goes that way back at us this way keeping us kind of you know nice and warm instead of the heat just having a way to dissipate all over the place. Now uh me and Cruz are gonna sit here. Hey buddy. You got smoke in your face buddy? You got a free dinner break. So this random dude just drives up. He's like yo you want some firewood? I'm like I'll take some firewood. He had a whole back here full of firewood. Just full. Apparently this dude's a subscriber. Thank you dude. What was your name? Connor. Thanks Connor. I appreciate it. Thanks for the views. Absolutely. Thanks for the firewood. I feel like I'm doing nothing but take take take from you. He said I should have brought from the shop. Oh. And it would have been a good day for it. A real funny story about that vehicle right there. That was the most insane thing. That was just crazy cool. Um he just told me he goes yeah so I I built this vehicle right now that I'm driving in your shop. You built what in my shop? He's like yeah dude. He goes my ex girlfriend's parents used to own that house where your shop is at and I built my jeep inside of your shop many years ago. How cool is that? What a small island this is. It's a giant island but it kind of that's a that's a that was a rad story. He seemed to always phone everybody that you know Connor I really appreciate it was really nice meeting you and uh yeah thanks for all the firewood. He brought us a way for you to keep warm cruisy bear. Can you help us chop wood? That one's not good enough. Can you take another one? What do you mean mugging everybody? You just staring everybody in the face? What's your problem? What's going through your head? He's mad. Are you mad? I seriously think that shield is working wonders. I dig it. How about you Cruz? What do you think? I don't know. I'm sitting outside of it. You can come sit with us. She's a cow. She's sitting in my seat. That smells bad. I'm sorry. Yeah be careful. I didn't tell you my real age. Apparently not. She's been hiding a dirty secret. So the sign here says attention campers do not hold campsites. Sites must be occupied for the purpose of camping. Vehicles trailers tents and other personal property left behind will be removed at owner's expense. This is a free British Columbia rec site and we have tons of these free camping sites all over the island. You need to be quiet. Where are you buddy? It's actually quite nice to have you here bro. Your fur seems to be soaking in all the heat. I have a lot of options on where I could stay at during the winter season. I could choose to drive down south and go to Arizona and stay in the nice warm winter weather with the rest of the nomads. But I myself at this point in time in my life I would rather be out here in the mountains in the rain. The rain doesn't bother me one bit. On a rainy day I just jump into the front seat of my home and I go splash through some puddles have a little fun out here in the mountains. So as long as we keep getting winters like this here I will stay on the west coast. The second it snows all winter I'm coming to the states. It's starting to rain outside crazy. You don't care you're right beside the heater you're all good. I see your little horsey's nice and dry. What are you doing buddy? He's like you open up the freezer I know you got food. No this is for tomorrow bro. You just that's it you're just craving balls tonight just balls. Listen to that nice quiet sound of nature. One diesel heater my diesel heater. Yeah these things are definitely uh definitely take away that calmness and quietness of a I'm glad nobody's camped beside us because these our vans may be warm but they're making one heck of a ruckus out here. You warm in there? Yeah. It's not so silent out there. I know. How's the broccoli buddy? You ate most of it though. Look how gross this is buddy you got broccoli over the bed. You don't like broccoli buddy? You're not good cook I think. You didn't cook one this year. It's still coming out. Any more broccoli in their mouth? Any more in there? All righty have some dinner. Put a little sit down a little doggie plate. Give you a little baby doggie plate. So hold on. Here you go a little dinner on their little doggie plate. He's like I smell it but I can't reach it. Koozie's not dumb. Hey Koozie's not dumb. Bring it down here dad. Pick me up just pour it down the floor pour it on the floor. There you go buddy. Broccoli for me. Emmy just wants balls so that's all she's getting is balls. She's like you addicted to balls bro. When the company comes over we got to pull out the extra seating. That's my poo bucket that is now my seat for the dinner table. You know if you sat on it this way then you'd be ready. Action calls right after you have dinner. Company would never know. No problem. She's like I like balls too. Did you not see my video where I confessed that I was addicted to balls? Give me some balls. All right swallow it make sure you swallow it. You don't swallow it I'll eat the rest. Try a piece of cooked broccoli bro. Oh cooked not raw. Like I seriously I have a problem. Like does your home get this dirty this fast? No because I don't want to enter there and I leave my shoes in the front and I go inside. Oh that would make sense because I enter here. It's only dirty when you come in from the side door. That would make sense. I'm not entering through the front door to solve that problem. I'm the kind of person that lives out of my van instead of living in my van. Do you know so I'm in and out of this thing all the time going in to grab something coming back out to hang out outside going back in to grab something else. So going through a great big process of putting a mat outside in the rain and taking your shoes off and then I'm I'm out here living my life. That's why I bought that Dyson vacuum just so I could make this cleanup job a little bit faster. But dirt. Dirt it just gets everywhere. And now you're gonna be sweet. If they all seen the crazy maniac boy that you were just like 10 minutes ago for half an hour you were a giant dick weren't you? Soon as Emmy leaves now you got all the attention now you don't want the attention. But the second somebody else is here you do everything you can to make sure you get all the attention. You deserve it buddy. Yes you do. A pretty big plus side about the ambulance build is naturally the ambulance has a huge step way on the side enough that I could probably put four full pairs of shoes in maybe maybe a fifth pair. It's a giant step so when I come in and stand up in that area I could kick my shoes off in my little baby coat room before I step into the vehicle keeping the ambulance just that much more cleaner. I fight with dirt in my van and I just I get in when I get in these are on my feet and when it's like raining outside I'm not taking my shoes off outside and putting them in a bag it just seems like a pain in the butt. If I'm outside I'm getting in. I'm getting in I'm just gonna face the dirt and deal with the dirt. Doing all those extra steps seems like a pain in the butt for me. But the ambulance on the other hand will actually have a full-blown. Are we running a propane? A full-blown coat room. Are you serious? That's the end of that one. Just about boiled. And he was running around and exploring all around the camp and then when he was sitting on the camp chair with me and Emmy he was all perked up kind of like he was keeping an eye on everybody and making sure that we're safe. He's the first bulldog I ever had who's a bit of protector you know. I know my last bulldog Disco he just lied he just did this all day he didn't do anything else but eat sleep and fart and that was about it. Cruz on the other hand he's got a bit of a protector side to him. I don't know if it's because we've spent so much time in the back country and you know my last bulldog never had that opportunity when he was younger but this guy likes to sit on a really high perch around camp and just kind of keep an eye on things don't you It felt so good to get back here today. I as we were driving past Campbell River even towards Campbell River I just knew I was setting myself up for disappointment thinking well let's go try and I'm glad we did because there's snow still in the mountain areas just up behind my shop but way over here where the snow would ideally in my mind be worse there's nothing. Like when I was talking to Connor today Connor's like he's been driving around these backwoods for three days before he ran into us and didn't run into any snow at all and that completely changes how we're gonna make videos on this channel for the rest of this winter. I've been avoiding going out and doing any nature stuff because even if I have two or three days away from the shop where am I gonna go there I'm gonna drive one hour from my shop to this very area here and we're gonna go have some fun so that makes me extremely happy. Thanks for riding along in this video today. Thank you to Connor for making a pit stop here and saying hi and supplying me with multiple days worth of firewood. That was pretty awesome of you. Alright you guys thanks for watching and I know earlier in the video I don't know if you caught it or if you even made it into an edit I said ah this is the kind of moment that I wish I would have brought all the shirts from my shop. Well I got a stack maybe about a dozen shirts in my shop from sizes from small to double extra large and I was going to toss them in my van here to give them out to a few people and with the amount of people that I met today I would have probably given out three shirts so when I get back to the shop I'm going to remember to throw those things in the van and maybe you'd be one of the lucky ones if you run into me shortly because those shirts won't last long because every subscriber I meet I'm like are you a medium here's a medium are you a large so I think we've got uh one small like four mediums five mediums um a couple of larges and about five double x's there's no extra large there's double x's though yeah anyway guys thanks for watching I'll see you guys I want to say a big thank you to everybody that supports us on patreon and on youtube memberships if you want to support the madness and kind of toss some fuel in our gas tank hit the join button down below in this video or hit the patreon links right there on the screen thanks guys I'll see you guys tomorrow