Solo Hammock Camping & Bushcraft Cooking

My dog and I are solo in the mountains this weekend. We're going to be camping in a hammock, doing some bushcraft cooking, and making delicious food that I've never made before over a campfire. And overall, just existing in our favorite place and enjoying the wilderness. Well, this is my second attempt to adventure this week, and a few days ago when I was out, it was not t-shirt weather. As soon as I got onto this background, about one minute in, now I'm stuck. It was in the negatives last week, and this week it's plus eight. It's now the very beginning of March here in British Columbia. If I want to get anywhere away from people, I gotta do it by foot. The back roads are still filled with snow, and they probably will be for the next month minimum. I tried to do a solo ice fishing trip and camp on a frozen lake again, since we didn't catch any fish last time. But snowy roads are no joke, and I slid right into the ditch. I got stuck again, and this time it might be even worse. I was leaving for the record. I was reversing out, and this last reverse is a hill, and I just slid right into the ditch. It was the first time I had ever been stuck, and I was alone. So I knew I had my shovel. I just learned as I went. One of the lessons it taught me was to not put your foot all the way down on the gas. You want to putter, otherwise your tires will just spin. Similar to if you're sliding, you want to putter the brakes so that you don't slide as much. Well, when you're trying to get out of it, you want to putter the gas and just give it a little bit. You want to make sure your tires can get that traction before you just speed out of there. And I highly suggest watching some how-to videos before you go out on snowy roads, because I cannot give you guys advice. I'm the one who got stuck. I hear some gunshots in the background. It must be someone playing around in these forests. This warmth and this sunshine is so nice. It's been a long winter here in Canada. I learned recently that people who are exposed to cold very often, their body stores a lot of brown fat, and that keeps you warm when you're exposed to cold. So after many months of cold weather, when it finally hits those positive numbers, that is why you see people walking around in shorts and t-shirts, because their body is used to being in the cold. That brown fat is the first thing to burn off. It burns and it gives you energy, and eventually through the summer you have less brown fat. So if you're exposed to cold weather in the middle of summer, your body is going to feel a lot more cold compared to how you adapt in the wintertime in the colder months. And it's common sense, but it was really cool to hear it explained. Well, I'm busy getting the tent set up. I brought some dried fish for Kiro. He's gonna enjoy that. That's a lot better. Okay, I'm not sure what he's eating, but I think he likes it. Oh, he's eating roots. Temperatures are starting to drop and the sun's going down. The loft in this sleeping bag has been condensed for a few days, and it needs some time to fluff up to keep us warm. Oh, it's looking very condensed. Oh, there's something in there. Kiro, did you do this? I've just come across some moose poop. It is hard, so I don't think it's fresh. I don't think it's anything we have to worry about. And we've got a lot of deer poop, I think. It's much smaller than the moose poo. We're gonna build the fire a little ways away from the shelter because we're gonna be cooking over it, and the bears are coming out of hibernation. We are in mountain lion territory. There's a ton of wild cats around here. I'm no longer keeping food in my tent. I do that throughout the winter, but until next winter, I will not be doing that. Okay, you ready for a big one? Get it! So the tent's over there, and I was gonna build my fire right here, but the wind's starting to pick up, so I'm going to go a little bit more sheltered. I've got a secret weapon with me today. My mom got me a tiny little battery-operated saw, so we're gonna try it out on this dead standing wood. The reason I'm not using all of this other wood as our core fire starter is because all of these logs that have fallen over and died many years ago, those are all soaking wet and rotten. If it's a standing dead tree... Oh! Uh-oh, this one's gonna come right out of the roots, but we're still gonna... Should we knock it over? Alright, this one might be rotten, but we're gonna see. The inside wood is all really good, but the outside is rotten. I'm gonna try another one. This one's too rotten. This guy is dead, so we're gonna take him down. Oh, another rotten one! So we're definitely gonna have to get the inner of this tree because all the outside is rotten as well, but we gotta work with what we have. It just got really dark. This thing is awesome! It only has enough battery life for probably firewood. It wouldn't be any good for shelter building, but yeah, you just put a little bit of oil in it like you would a chainsaw and charge up your battery. Okay, so this small stuff is cutting and it's gonna be our fire starter. Always try and wear eye protection when you're doing this. I forgot my glasses. This is the wood chopping zone. Hi! I know, I'm working on it. I'm trying to start the fire. The prep is the most important part. Okay, I think he's telling me he's hungry. Oh, buck up, buck up, buck up. Let's get this fire started. Oh, there's a crow right above us. Okay, before we get this fire started, the sunset is about to... Oh, it looks so beautiful! Okay, let's go see the sunset. Oh my gosh, let's go! Oh my gosh, it's so beautiful! Okay, I am starving, so as beautiful as this is, I have to go back on the other side of this hill and get our dinner going. I love this forest, but there is a highway that comes around the mountain and you can really hear the cars when, especially when you get closer to that side. I know hearing anything but nature is not ideal when you're camping, but if you do want to try solo camping and you're scared, this type of trail is great. It's well established, it's not busy, and you are close enough to civilization. It just kind of makes you feel a little bit more safe, so this is very much a beginner's camping site. Although this is just crown land, which means anyone can camp on it. It's the equivalent to BLM land in the States, and it's for everyone to enjoy. Okay, so we've got the tin can with cotton and petroleum jelly, and we're lighting with a ferro rod. There we go. For anyone wondering, the ground is super wet. The soil is very wet, so I had to lay the bed of grass on the ground to give it a dry surface, but now I have the bark of this rotten wood blocking the fire, so it's, it's, we're not gonna make too big of a fire here, and it's not gonna go outside of this border. Kira's sleeping over there by the hammock. We finally have a good fire going, so we're going to be making calzones for dinner. This is homemade dough. It's just flour and yeast, and you leave it for a few hours, and I'm just gonna flatten it out, and it's gonna be the dough for, oh it's gonna be so good. We've fully stopped buying dominoes or any type of fast food pizza, because these are so much better. Just stretch it out. A rolling pin would be better, but I'm just gonna cut some butter. We're gonna put that on that side. Try not to get it to stick. Pizza sauce, and some cheese. Now, I forgot pepperoni, and that would be really good on it, but I like plain pizza anyways. Okay, cheese tucks. And then we're just gonna fold it over and pinch the sides together. Basically, we're just making a pizza pocket, but it's gonna be so much better. Move the fire over a little bit. Keep that going, because we're gonna boil some water for our bedtime drink, and we just want to get all the coals over here. It's getting dark. To be honest, sleeping outside while camping is not always the easiest task. I struggle with sleep in general, falling asleep, and then staying asleep. I always wake up around 3am, and I feel it the next day. I recently discovered Beam Dream, and it has been a game changer. It's a blend of five natural ingredients that is designed to help you fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up feeling refreshed without that grogginess. Plus, it's so good. It comes in a bunch of different flavors. This one's my favorite, cinnamon cocoa flavored. It's basically like a hot chocolate. It really helps my sweet tooth at the end of the night too. There's no added sugar, and it's only 15 calories for a cup. Dream has become one of my favorite parts of my night routine, so I'm gonna make a cup right now and get it ready so after we eat, it's ready to take to the tent and fall asleep. With ingredients such as magnesium, reishi mushroom, and l-theanine, it really helps me wind down from a long day. Plus, I don't have to worry about waking up in the middle of the night anymore, or if I do, I'm able to fall right back asleep. And it's not just about sleep. Better rest means that the next day, I'm gonna have more energy, I'm going to be more recovered, and it's going to help your immune system. I've seen an increase in my productivity during the day. Big thanks to Beam Dream for helping with that. I try to go to bed at 10 30 because I have to wake up pretty early, so this allows me to get a full quality hours of sleep. I wear my watch to bed, and this is my sleep score when I'm drinking Beam before bed, and this is my sleep score before that. It's a huge difference. I don't wake up throughout the night. If you want to try it, you can use my code Madison for up to 35% off Dream. The link is in my description, or you can just scan the QR code on the screen. All right, now let's check on this calzone. See how this is doing. Okay, I need to All right, let's see how it turned out. Oh, she's cooked. She is burnt on both sides. You know what, that's my fault for not being patient. Oh, oh my gosh. Okay, well, this is my only dinner, so I have to eat it. That is so sad. The crispy cheese is so good, and the middle portion, I'm just scooping it out. That's not burnt. So good. So what I'll do next time, legitimately get a bed of coals. It can't be next to the fire because it cannot sustain heat that high. Be on the coals for about 20 minutes. Flip it halfway. Check on it frequently. You guys, you don't tune into here to see the best meals. It was a good idea. Bad execution. Oh my gosh. I'm gonna try making this at home. So I have cut a hole down the middle, and I am hollowing it. Don't worry, tomorrow's meal, I'm going to redeem myself. All right, I'm putting this in the food bag, and we're going to the tent. It's only dropping to about five degrees tonight, so I do have my negative 18 degree sleeping bag, but Kira, leave it. Oh, whenever Kira wanders off, it always creeps me out, but we're going to share the sleeping bag today. Oh god. Hello? Oh my god. I definitely just heard a coyote. It sounded really close. That scared me. I have my weapons. I have my bear spray and my knife. Kira is super alert, but that's also just because we're in the woods. I don't know why. I'm really creeped out right now. Good morning. Good morning. How'd you sleep, buddy? Oh. Morning. You want out? Okay. There's a very unique time that I get to use my hammock tent. If you don't have a dog, this hammock tent is great all year round, but Kira was just a little bit too big. He doesn't really like the bug net zipped up. It feels a little claustrophobic in here, so we just had the rain fly on one side to block the wind, which worked really great. All the wind was coming from that side, so there was none coming at us here, so we just left the rain fly off, and then I left his part of the fly unzipped, and that means there can't be any bugs, so this end of winter season is perfect on a really nice, warm day. Yeah, we stayed super warm last night. I didn't even need my puffy jacket. I just had the sleeping bag. I'll give you a tour of the hammock. So it comes with these two straps, and you can adjust it, of course. Inside is a extra wide insulated sleeping pad. I didn't blow it up all the way so that Kira's nails wouldn't pop it. I've got enough pockets for my bear spray, my weapons. Yeah, it's not gonna fit two people, but it did fit me and Kira for an okay night. There's pockets everywhere. The planes, they're so loud. I swear I can hear a woman chanting in the distance. Maybe she's just walking her dog and singing to scare the animals like I do. Oh my gosh, I think it's just the wind in the trees. That's creepy. All right, I'm actually freezing now that I'm out of my sleeping bag. This is the only water that I have left, so we're gonna go try and find some. I'm putting this on before we go anywhere. A little bit of ice. Okay, I just put my fingers in this water now, but there is some ice that formed and it's melted a bit. Okay, I'm 90% sure it's the wind howling through that valley. Could collect snow and melt that down for water. Wait a second, a coconut from a pine in British Columbia. Who would have thought? Kiro, do you like coconut? Do you want to try it? I think there's water in here. Let's see if I can figure out how to open one of these better than I can cook a calzone. Oh, it's warming up. Wow, I can't believe it's winter and it's this warm. My dream video is to be stranded on a desert island and do a survival course, so we're taking matters into our own hands until the funds are in place. The coconut has three eyes and this obviously isn't a new ripe one, it's brown, but one of the eyes is weak, so we can puncture a hole. Oh yeah, you can just cut right into it. Nope. Okay, I'm hearing a pressure release. The first cut got through the skin, this one got through the coconut meat. Tastes like sunscreen to be honest. Very interesting. So that one coconut yielded eight ounces or about 250 milliliters, so that's exactly how much we need. I'm going to save that juice for later for our meal. No rumor has it, we've got to smack the diameter. I can't believe we found a wild coconut, but now I know how to open one. I never just ate coconut. Nope, he doesn't like it. Not bad. We're cheating this morning and using some fire starter. So this is a titanium steel little lunch box. We've got some rice. We're gonna add a little bit of the coconut water to the rice. Once we build a fire, we can put that right on there. And we have brown sugar, cinnamon, and honey. You don't want to put the rubber handles over the fire, but I've just set it on some coals and titanium steel is one of the lightest steel products you can get. While that's slow cooking, I think I'm gonna pack up camp, but first I want to have a little nap. Kiro's 10 years old and I will be 29 this year, and we're really excited to move on to the next chapter. It's something I've always wanted to give Kiro. He's never had his own backyard, so I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna end the hints there. Oh, you're drooling everywhere. Got chicken, pineapple, and rice. The chicken and rice was already cooked, so I just put it in this, and it's basically just for heating it up. Do you wanna go on a hike? Do you want to hike out of here? One of the coolest things, if it's raining or the ground is really muddy, you can put the entire thing away without it touching the ground. Oh, this one's still heavy. Carrying that coconut still. So cooking over campfire coals is harder than I thought. You guys are with me at the very beginning stages. A lot of these things I do on my trips, I'm attempting for the first time, so it can only get better from here, right? This was a really relaxing camping trip. I hope that you know you can push yourself out of your comfort zone. You can learn to be prepared for whatever life throws at you, and sometimes you just need a night in the wilderness in a hammock with your dog. Thank you guys so much for watching, and we will see you in the next one, which is going to be a really exciting video. Okay, bye!