Solo Camping at a Remote Mountain Lake (I Had to Bail).

I'm alone in grizzly country. I run into sudden thunderstorms. Uh-oh. My hands are freezing. Wildfire smoke. My heart is kind of pounding out of my chest. And I'm trying to camp beside one of the most beautiful, remote mountain lakes I've ever seen. Let's see what happens. It's gonna be a fun one. I might have to bail. And up the mountain I go. I'd say my bag is probably about 37 pounds with dog food and camera gear in it. This is fireweed. You can make tea out of it. And we've got thimble berries, which are basically like a raspberry, but there's a bug on that one, so I'm not gonna eat it. No bugs, we're good. Just like a raspberry, but more fragile. We're not off to a great start today. I went down the wrong trailhead and drove about an hour down a forest service road that wasn't to the right trail. So I had to go back down, drive a few minutes down the road and go up the correct forest service road. But I'm glad because I almost got scared out of the last hike thinking that that was the trailhead, because there was a bunch of signs saying that that is a grizzly route. It's like, what? I didn't see that in the research. All that to say, we're still in the same mountain range as that last trailhead. So there's definitely grizzlies here. Bunch of shale here falling off the cliff. That would make for some great flagstone. A pathway out of that at the cabin, maybe even some siding. You can suckle the sugar out of the bottom of those and it's very sweet. The wildfire smoke is very bad right now. I'm actually coughing a lot more than I thought I would. With the weight on my back and the uphill, you really breathe it in. So this must be a decommissioned road. There's a bridge over this creek. Looks like there's a ladder. Kiro, can you get up this? Ready? Okay. Good job. Yeah, you can. Looks like you can go that way. I'm gonna try the ladder. Oy, Kiro. My heart is kind of pounding out of my chest and I haven't even started the highest elevation yet. This is going straight up. Wow. If I had to guess, I think we have to hike up and around there. The lake's probably over there. I'm looking for signs of bears, so that would be footprints, bear scat, maybe scratches on trees, but I'm not seeing anything so far, so that's a good sign. There's no one else here. I'm gonna be camping alone tonight, that's for sure. Just Kiro and I. One thing that I hardly talk about is the moose. Those are probably more dangerous than the bears. This is one of the most beautiful hikes ever, even with the smoke. I don't know what that cable is, but I'm assuming it's an old mining cart. Yeah, it's not hydro lines all the way up here. Is that a good water break? It's a fresh creek running down from an alpine lake, so it's ice cold. These look delicious, but they're definitely not edible. Hey, bear! It is thick brush in here. Hey, bear, I don't wanna spook you. Hey, bear, don't want you to spook me. Hey, bear. I got my bear spray and a knife. Good boy. Let's go. Oh, this is thick brush. By gosh, I'm out of shape. This bag is heavy. Now we gotta climb up over that mountain where the waterfall was. It's looking really dark and stormy all of a sudden. Oh, it's angry. Starting to spit a little bit, but honestly, I welcome the rain to cool off. I don't think it's gonna downpour. I'm just playing a podcast out of my phone loud, so that is a constant stream of noise. Wow, I can't believe it. There's a patch of snow. It's mid-August right now. Wow. Hiking from all the way down there, and we're still only halfway up this mountain. It's about four o'clock. We do have long daylight hours in the summer, but we are cutting it close. I will not be cooking in the dark. If I don't get up there before dark, I'm not eating dinner tonight. I hear thunder. I think we're about to get caught in a lightning storm. It's really coming down. I was excited to jump in the lake to cool off, but I'm getting cold now. Ow. It's actually hailing now. I'm closer to camp than I am home. If I start hiking down now, which I'm starting to think about, because it's just getting windier, I'll be hiking down in the dark, which I don't want to do. The birds come out at dusk. Oh my gosh. It's super windy, but I think I'm coming across the bend to the lake. I have a rain jacket, but I don't want to get the inside of it wet now. There's the lake. Snow. I see something that kind of looks like a bear. Hey, bear! I need to find camp out of the wind, like right now. Eat some snack. As much as I want to hike over there, I have to scale those rocks. My hands are freezing. I need to get into dry clothes and eat something. Oh my gosh. I'm wondering if I should hike out. I might have to bail. Oh my gosh. I have a sandwich and dessert. But this shirt, even though it's quick dry, it's not going to dry out here. Is it crazy if I were to hike out? I could be back at my car by 8.39. Just so cold and I'm worried about Kiro. He's shivering. My tent has puddles in it. So I'm going to hike back down and I'm going to come back in a couple of days. You strong enough to hike out tonight? What are you looking at? I just heard something. Whoa. That's a bat. Nighttime is upon us. I can't believe a bat just dive-bombed me. It's been hours yet. Well, it's a few days later. It's not raining and I'm hiking back up. Found some huckleberries. That is so good. I made it back. Now that I'm not in a huge rush from the rain to set up camp, I'm going to eat dinner really quick before I pick a spot for my tent. I am starving. The marmots are loud on this hike. All that squeaking is from the marmots. They live in the rocks. They're like a really big squirrel, but cuter. Cheese has a lot of calories in it. So I was here about three or four days ago. And since that time, Barker and I went on a 10-hour road trip to do a different hike to a glacier on one of the prettiest lakes I've ever seen, not including this one. I didn't make a YouTube video out of that because we were just enjoying being unplugged. And he surprised me with skydiving. Not gonna lie, I thought I was gonna look a little cooler doing this. No, I was terrified. It was a fun experience and I've always said that I wanted to try it, but I'm happy to be back out here in grizzly country. I've never tried this before, but this is a thermosel. It's supposed to create a bubble over you and keep the bugs away. Slide that packet in. So since this is my last solo trip, as a 20-year-old, I turn 30 this year on August 14th. I brought some brownies. I wish that Kira and I don't get eaten by a bear tonight, or ever. Okay, I'm barefoot because I'm gonna try and do the creek crossing. I wanna try and get to that last lake. I think getting my feet cold for a few minutes. I have a change of socks. I couldn't put this back in my bag because it needs to cool down. But the sun's setting in an hour and a half, so yep, that's glacier water. These are having no trouble. Oh, slippery, okay. Oh, this hurts my feet. Is this hot still? Ow, oh, foot cramp. Ow, ah, what's wrong? Oh, oh, sorry. That was dramatic. This pathway actually feels very nice on my bare feet. Wow, this water is so blue. Just incredible. For some reason, the second time doing this hike was harder. I think because it was hot. So this is our next campsite option. Nice flat spot here. So that's where I had my tent set up last time in the rain. This is the second lake, which is incredibly blue. There is zero people backpacking or camping up here. An eagle. Wind's blowing that way. I'm gonna, if I camp here, I don't wanna put my food on this side because the wind will blow the smell of the food into my camp. I'm taking my toiletries out and I didn't put on deodorant for this because I didn't wanna smell like a flowery tea, a cup of tea for the bears. But I'm gonna put this in my food bag. I usually always use an earth sack bag. It's designed so that if you tie it to a tree properly, it's rodent resistant, which there are a lot of rodents here. And I've watched a video of someone testing it with a can of sardines and having a bear try and rip it off and it can't. Okay, Kira, we're almost done hiking for today. Been going for like three or four hours. My food is all the way over there. There is eggshells in this pit, so I'm not gonna camp here. Since we've had a fire ban for a few weeks, I'm assuming those eggshells aren't new, but round two, setting up the tent. The tent didn't even fully dry out, but it's good enough. Besides bear spray and my knife, I also have a bear banger. This is the first time I've brought one of these. It can also shoot flares, but I don't have that. It says danger explosives. Basically you take the safety off and then at the bear. This is for emergencies. Obviously I would never wanna hurt a bear. It makes a loud noise and it also shoots something at it. It's not gonna kill it, but it's gonna scare it. There are not a ton of places in the world that have to worry about grizzly bears. There's obviously Alaska and they've almost become extinct in the US. There are obviously places that have them like Wyoming and Montana, but there is a strip in the interior of British Columbia. There's a ton of grizzlies here. We have to learn to coexist. It's not a reason to not get out there, so hopefully this shows you that if you take the right precautions and if you don't have to worry about bears, lucky you. I set up a trail cam on that tree. So I'll be able to live view. If I hear a noise, I can open up the trail cam. There's night vision and I can be like, okay, there's nothing around me, just in my head. The sun is setting and it's so beautiful. I'm just alone out here. I can't believe it. I've had my little thermosol next to me and there's been no bugs and I turned it off to cool off because I'm about to go in the tent. This is not sponsored. Booker actually bought this for me for my birthday a year ago and I just never really used it and I don't know why because all of a sudden the bugs are coming back now that it's turned off. This is a backpacking version. I think they have bigger versions, but highly recommend. I put my jacket on Kiro and he's just laying on my microfiber towel. I've got my sleeping pad and sleeping bag. It's about 15 degrees, but it's probably going to drop down to five degrees. So it's going to be a chilly one. It's five in the morning. Kiro woke me up to go to the bathroom, but I'm not quite ready to get up yet. The sun rises in about 45 minutes. Hey buddy, you have so much energy right now. How'd you sleep? Oh, I had a hard time falling asleep. I'm going to go get my food. I'm going to try and walk around there. These big trees just got swept away in the snow, I guess. It's totally broken off. I want to try and get as close to that waterfall as I can. It's a little dangerous. The ice is concaving. So the waterfall goes underneath all this snow. I almost forgot my trail camera in the tree. Oh, I would've had to hike back up here a third time. We're having opposite conditions today. The sun is blasting on us as we hike out. Kiro's an old dog. He's had to take a break. He was busy running around the mountainside all morning and didn't save his energy. And now he's found himself a little creek. He just needs a minute. Nice shady spot. This is all exposed. Take your time, buddy. There's only one path down. Today, the Upper Tambopata is among the most pristine forest in the world.